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Snickers Cupcakes

Easily one of the best cupcake recipes I've come across, these chocolate cupcakes have middles that are filled with bits of snickers covered in homemade caramel sauce. What, did your teeth just tell you to stay away from these? You may want to make a dentist appointment after eating them, but they're amazing and will charm the pants off of your everyone at your party when you bring them out!

Chocolate Dump Cake

It may not have the prettiest title, but this chocolate cake is so easy that you'll actually volunteer to bring it to family functions. No kidding! With a shockingly low amount of ingredients, this chocolate cake spans seasons. Need a quick dessert for dinner? Dump cake. Need to bring a cake into work when you don't care enough to bake something for people you don't even like? Dump cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes + Cream Cheese Icing

You only turn 26 once, and when you do you should celebrate with Red Velvet! These cupcakes come with a long line of recommendations and will not disappoint. Scouts honor.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

On the Road with YIBT: Apple Pie Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

You did it! You made it through Thanksgiving! With any luck your body has starting working against the tryptophan and the cranberry sauce that's coursing through your veins, and you can finally sit down and read something without falling asleep. I'm so proud of you.

This post is a special one because it's our first (say it in the Oprah voice) travel edition post! Yeah, I'd Bake That packed up (which is an understatement I will explain later) and hit the road to a bigger and better kitchen!

Last week I committed to making these apple pie cupcakes, and hit the grocery store to pick up some supplies. I thought I was being responsible, picking everything up ahead of time so I wouldn't have to run out when we got to Jersey. I was even going to measure out everything I was bringing from home, pack my icing gun and the new cupcake corer I had yet to use. It was a nice thought.

We were 5 traffic miles and 45 minutes away from the house when I realized that I forgot everything. EVERYTHING. Not only did I forget to bring all of the supplies, I had completely neglected to pack any of it. So when we got to Jersey I called myself an idiot the appropriate amount of times and went back to the grocery store.

These cupcakes were fun to make because I actually had counter space to work with. Real counter space. When I'm in my own kitchen I use the top of my dog's crate as part of my work space (which enables me to act like I'm a guest on a talk show, pulling out the ingredients or finished product from down below) but it's not ideal. In the Jersey kitchen (which I'll so fondly refer to it) I could move around and actually do things. So much room for activities!


This recipe is extremely easy. The actual cupcake parts tastes more like an apple bread than a sweet cupcake. The insides are filled with apple pie filling, and the icing is a light whipped creme icing that makes the whole cupcake taste like a real apple pie. I would HIGHLY suggest them, and they're perfect for the upcoming holidays.

Apple Pie Cupcakes with Caramel Icing

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup of milk
1 stick of butter
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch of ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling: 2 cups of apple pie filling

Frosting:
2 cups heavy cream
3 to 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup caramel sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350. Put your cupcake liners in
2. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan or in microwave until butter melts
3. In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder cinnamon and salt together
4. In separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar until really thick for about 5 minutes. Add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated
5. Add the milk and vanilla mixture and mix until blended
6. Put batter in cupcake tins about 1/4 full
7. Bake 16-18 minutes. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then move cupcakes to racks to cool.
8. When cool, use corer or knife to scoop out a hole in the center of the cupcake. Fill the hole with apple pie filling.



For the icing: Beat whipping creme and powdered sugar until thick.  




 Then you just have to drizzle caramel sauce over them!


Final products:


At the end of the day, I had a full batch of Apple Pie Cupcakes and a full batch of Red Velvet. I hadn't intended on making the red velvet ones, but I figured since I had the room and I was already buying the ingredients again I might as well. Red velvet is a post for another day!

If you were at the party and tried the cupcakes, leave a comment here and let me know what you thought! 


Source: Just Putzing Around the Kitchen

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Leftover Halloween Cookies Part 2: Lost in New York

Ahh, it’s almost that time again. Turkey, turkey sandwiches, apple pie, stuffing... Halloween candy. The anticipated follow-up to the leftover Halloween candy blog is here, and it’s intense so get ready.

I mean, it’s no turkey sandwich, but it’ll do.

Last night I finally had the opportunity to make these bad boys. They are an excellent alternative to throwing your leftover candy away and/or peddling it to people in your office who live in high rise buildings or out in areas where no one dares to walk from door to door.

I threw around some language in my last post, I think I called them “bars” once, “cookies” a few times. These baked goods are definitely bars, and they won’t yield a lot of return. HOWEVER, they are delicious and the EIGHT people you get to share them with will love you forever. Trust me, I’m beloved by some just because I know my way around a spatula. I’m not proud of it, but whatever.

Below are some shots from my before and after. For the candy I used chopped up leftover plain Hershey bars tossed with pecans. There’s also chocolate chunks and other pecans in the cookie dough. If I had the chance I’d definitely use snickers, kitkats, whatever I could get my hands on because these bars are awesome. The recipe, posted again below, warns you that you’ll just get 12 very large bars and they weren’t kidding. I actually only came away with 8.


For the inside of the cookies, the finer the the chocolate the better.
For the TOPS, keep the pieces big! 



Be sure to space the cookies far apart, because they'll spread. 

The final products up close and personal.

And because you’re all such beautiful people and you left comments on the last blog, I’m giving away Yeah, I’d Bake That Magnets! They look great on refrigerators, filing cabinets, cars…and they’re free! Seriously, I’ve been thinking about it and I just can’t think of a better present for your loved one than a Yeah, I’d Bake That Magnet. Don’t wuss out and get them a bathrobe like last year Brad, step your game up! [I apologize to all Brads whose wives love bathrobes]


If you too want a magnet, leave a comment on this blog and I’ll hook you up!



Source: Best Ways to Use Halloween Candy 79
Author: Lela Davidson
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Topical: Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies

If you're anything like us, you now have a mountain of Halloween candy on your dining room table that may or may not cause your friend Ben to catch diabetes. Every year on Halloween our block of row homes gets assaulted with little pirates, Michael Jacksons and regular teenagers who dressed up and went trick-or-treating as regular teenagers. But for some reason, this year we over prepared (I think it was the freak snow storm and the stock piling mentality) and now we have a table full of candy that's got to go. I mean, it's got to go.

So today when I was supposed to be writing lesson plans I was scouring the internet for ways to use these leftovers. I came away from the search with two ideas: 1. I'm not sure I want to use too many collaborative writing assignments in my classroom and 2. The following Pampered Chef recipe is an amazing way to pile up all that candy, throw it in a bowl and eat it all at once so you don't have to bother with the wrappers. Obviously, my thoughts on collaborative writing do not apply here.

The website I got the recipe from says you'll make a killing if you sell these at some kind of bake sale, so if you're looking for some extra cash you're welcome:

Coffee House Cookies
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, divided
2 bars (1.5-2 ounces each, or the equivalent of mini bars) of your leftover chocolate goods*

*I haven't made this recipe yet, but I would think adding more to the recipe can't do a lot of harm. Just don't load up on too much caramel or rice products.

*This recipe makes 2 batches of 6 big cookies


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. In another bowl or mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

2. Stir 2/3 cup of the nuts and 2/3 cup of the chocolate chucks into dough. Cut candy bards into small pieces and set aside for later.

3. Scoop 1/4 cup of dough onto cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Leave plenty of space (about 3 inches) because cookies will spread as they bake. Press nuts and candy into cookies.

4. Bake 14-16 minutes or until cookies are almost set. Don't over bake. (Like you would on purpose?) Centers should be slightly soft. Cool on baking sheet for 7 minutes before putting on a cooling rack.



I'm going to be making these some time this week, so check back for pictures! And leave a comment below if you have any other ways to get rid of halloween candy!


This is our friend Ben. He loves candy corn.



Source: Best Ways to Use Halloween Candy 78
Author: Lela Davidson
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy