Mini Black Raspberry Cobblers

We have a huge and I do mean HUGE black raspberry patch in our backyard.  It's really one of the only good things about our yard from it's previous owners.  I don't mean to sound harsh, but most people don't plant four plants within a foot cube space in the middle of the grass.  It just doesn't work well.  And it's ugly.  We've pulled a ton of the crazy plant lady's plants out and have even thought about tearing out the berry patch because like everything else, it's just there in the middle of the grass. 

This is the second summer we've been in our house and though we have fewer berries this year than last summer, they taste so much better than I remember. We had a colder spring than normal and the berries ripened much later than last year so today was the first day of berry picking this summer. I picked 3-4 cups of berries and decided I would make The Pioneer Woman's berry cobbler with some of them.  It's a bit of an unconventional cobbler recipe but so delicious. 

Here's where you can get the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/the_great_cobbl/

Instead of one large cobbler, I made them into 24 mini (miniature cupcakes size) cobblers and 4 somewhat mini cobblers (regular cupcake size because I ran out of room). 

I added about five berries to each cobbler and a small handful to the regular cupcake size cobblers.  I sprinkled sugar on top of all of them with a spoon and baked at 350 for about 18-23 minutes. 

You can use frozen berries, but wow, the fresh ones are so much better!

These will NOT last long in our house because they are so dang good.  Good thing we have our own berry source!  Enjoy!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Hello Long Lost Blogger World,

Wow, do I stink at blogging or what.  Obviously I have much to improve upon.  Now to the important things: cupcakes. 

Pink cupcakes!

So pretty and delicious.

My mom's birthday was in May.  She moved across the country last summer and now lives a mere 10 minutes away from me.  It's epic.  And pretty awesome that we get to see her multiple times a week now instead of just a couple times a year.  I was excited to spend my mom's birthday with her this year.  My brother (who also recently moved across the country and now lives in town) and I made a big combined Mother's Day/Mom's birthday dinner to celebrate the two special days which are always just a couple days apart.  My brother grilled some steaks and veggie kabobs, plus we had salad and pineapple.  And we ended the evening with these pink champagne cupcakes.  They were pretty AND delicious.  It turned out to be a pretty good celebration. 

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

Pink Champagne Cupcakes
http://reneequeen.blogspot.com/2012/01/pink-champagne-cupcakes.html

1 box white cake mix

3 egg whites

1 1/4 cup pink champagne

1/3 cup oil

3 or 4 drops red food coloring

 

Mix together and bake according to the directions on the box.

 

It's true, I cheated a little and went with an easy semi-homemade recipe.  But I've got a toddler and need all the help I can get, so give me a break.

 

 

 

The frosting was a strawberry pink champagne frosting and oh-so-good.  Here's that recipe:

 

Strawberry Pink Champagne Frosting

http://dailydishrecipes.com/pink-champagne-cupcakes-with-strawberry-champagne-frosting/

 

3 1/4 c. confectioners sugar

1 c butter, softened

3 T pink champagne

1/4-1/2 tsp. strawberry extract (to taste)

1/4 tsp. pink food coloring

 

Beat the butter for the icing until it’s creamy.

On low speed, use your mixer to slowly add the sifted confectioners’ sugar until well blended. Add the champagne and strawberry extract.

Switch your mixer to high and blend for 3 or 4 minutes. Fill a pastry bag with your icing and pipe onto cupcakes.

 

I had to alter this recipe for my cupcakes because I could not find strawberry extract anywhere.  I had a package (probably about 8-12 ounces) of frozen strawberries in my freezer I decided to use.  I puréed them and added them to the frosting instead of using the extract.  Because of the extra liquid I then had to add quite a bit more sugar to thicken the frosting up.  I probably used more like 5 or 6 cups total. 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes I made for the humans at Luna's first birthday party.  Not only did we need cupcakes for the wieners, but also for the humans.  I decided on cookies and cream because it was something I hadn't tried before.  I was pleased with how they turned out.  My only mistake was I didn't crush the Oreos small enough for the frosting so I kept getting larger pieces of Oreo clogging my piping tip. Here's the recipes I used.  Enjoy!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
(Adapted from: Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor)
1 package plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
18 Oreos
Preheat oven to 350.  Line 24 cupcake cups with liners and set aside.
Place the Oreos in a large Ziploc bag and crush them by rolling over them with a rolling pin.  Set crumbs aside.
Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer until well incorporated.  Add crushed Oreos just until incorporated. 
Fill cupcake cups with liners 2/3 of the way full. 
Bake until they are lightly golden, about 18-20 mins. 

Cookies and Cream Frosting
(Source: Big Book of Cupcakes)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 16 oz package powdered sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/8 t. salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
15 Oreo cookies, finely crushed

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar, alternately with cream, beating at low speed until blended.  Add salt and vanilla, beating until blended.  Stir in crushed cookies until combined.  Beat at high speed for 2 minutes or until creamy.  Makes 4 cups. 

Luna's First Birthday Party

Several months ago, I saw a recipe for a dog cake (as in a cake for dogs)  and I've been wanting to make it ever since so I decided a dog birthday party was in order for our Luna's first birthday. Have you seen our Luna? Here she was as a puppy:

Here she is now:

The first thing we needed for a wiener dog party was wiener food for the dogs:

Next, we needed wiener food for the humans. We enjoyed hot dogs, little smokies, and smoked sausage.

A party isn't complete without cake! We had dog cupcakes for the wieners and cookies and cream cupcakes for the humans.

The dog cupcakes turned out awesome and were a lot of fun to make. I gave one to Luna to try the day before the party. She devoured it in 30 seconds and them spent 5 minutes licking her bowl. I would definitely recommend them.

Carrot Peanut Butter Dog Cake
http://andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com/2010/12/charlies-1st-birthday.html

1 cup white flour
1 top baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
Mix flour and baking soda together and then add all other ingredients.
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Frost with wiped non-fat cream cheese.
I doubled the recipe and made cupcakes out of the batter which made about 13 cupcakes. I baked them for about 20-25 mins. I only had enough whipped cream cheese for 9 of them with one package of cream cheese.
Here are the wieners eating their cupcakes:

Luna

Noodles

Axle

Luna helped Axle eat his cupcake

And of course, we had party treats for the wieners:

Next up, cookies and cream cupcakes!

Dr. Seuss Cake Pops

Our nephew turned one in November and had a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party, which included Dr Seuss cake pops that I made.  These were by far the most involved cake pops I've made.  As I was eight months pregnant when I made them, I started the process a week before the party so I could do a little each day and not wear myself out.  The first thing I did was make the cake (out of a box for ease), mix in the frosting, and shape the pops into the necessary shapes.  My next step was to make fondant, something I had never done before.  I used a basic marshmallow fondant recipe, made a massive mess, and ended up with successful fondant! 

I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut the fondant for the front of my 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' cake pops. 

I bought a tube of blue frosting (which was easier than making it) and squeezed it into my own piping bag.  I used a tip I had on hand to make the blue hair for 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2'

Next I made the ham from 'Green Eggs and Ham'.  The white is a small fondant circle and the black is frosting I drew on with a very small tip and piping bag.  Boy, did my hand hurt from drawing those tiny lines on!

Last was the hat from 'Cat in the Hat'.  I thought this cake pop would be the simplest to make but it proved to be the most challenging.  The white disk on the bottom is fondant cut with a cookie cutter.  The red stripes are a fruit roll up.  Ha!  I tried many things here for the stripes but nothing worked very well and looked messy.  The fruit roll up worked great and was pretty quick to do, though it wasn't the greatest tasting thing. 

I think made three or four trips to Micheal's and Hobby Lobby for these pops.  I bought several items as back up items in case some of my ideas didn't work and ended up being able to return several of them.  These cake pops ended up being very labor intensive but where also a lot of fun to make!  I will say, the next time I make cake pops that take this much time, it will be for my own kid!!

The finished product at the birthday party!

Whoa!

Since my last post was in September, let me update you on what's been going on in my life.

1: I had a baby! Holy moly, I still can't believe it myself! Her name is Matilda (or Millie as we like to call her) and is just about the cutest little thing I've ever seen. Here she is:

She was born December 28th which means that she is almost a month old.  Tomorrow actually marks four weeks since she was born.  These past four weeks have been the fastest of my life.  In a way, it feels like Millie was just born while at the same time, feels like we've found our rhythm and have been going at this whole "we have a baby" thing for a long time.  While I miss having my freedom to run a few errends, stay up until 3am watching Netflix, or sleep in uninterrupted until 11am, I wouldn't change having this sweet little girl in my life for anything.  I am sure there will be many more posts about our little one in the future!

2: We bought a house!  We moved into our house in the middle of October.  The house is older, built in 1950 and in great shape for it's age.  It even includes an authentic (and totally creepy) fallout shelter in the basement!  Since moving in, we have slowly been hard at work changing things and making them our own.  I hope to post pictures and updates on some of the work we've been doing.

3: I made some pretty awesome (if I may say so!) Dr Seuss cake pops in November for our nephew's first birthday party.  I'll post about them soon!

4: Speaking of baking, I've made three batches of cookies since Millie's been born.  That's almost as much baking as I did the entire time I was pregnant.  Pathetic.  That being said, I felt like superwoman having the energy to bake while caring for a newborn.  Hopefully, more baking will follow soon.  I have a lot of recipes I've been wanting to try. 

5: I think I need a new blog name as I know this blog will now include ramblings about being a new mom, babies, our house updates, as well as whatever baking I am able to do.  So, does anybody have any suggestions?!

A Few Random Tidbits

I've obviously have been slacking on this blog.  Honestly, I have mostly forgotten about it, except for the occasional feeling of guilt for being such a slacker and never updating it.  So, here are a few of my thoughts on life, baking and creating. 

1) Since my last post was about our bun in the oven, I should tell you that bun is a girl!  I am now 23 weeks and thankfully feeling much better than I was early in the pregnancy.  Not a day goes by that I'm not very aware that I am growing a very tiny person inside of me, which is both awesome and totally weird.  I am getting very excited to meet this tiny person in several months.

Baby Girl at 19 Weeks

2) I honestly haven't baked a single thing since April.  It's crazy, I know!  For a while it was because I was feeling so horrible with the pregnancy.  But now, it's more because of a lack of motivation.  Part of that is because I don't have my own kitchen.  We are still living with my husband's family and though I am extremely grateful for the rent free living situation, things are just different for me when I don't have my own space.  I love baking but it's just not as much fun in a kitchen that's not my own.  My lack of baking will change soon as my husband has asked for key lime cake for his birthday in a couple of weeks!

3) With all that being said, the reason we are still living with my husband's family is because we have been saving and hoping to buy a house.  The good news is that we found a house we like and are now under contract on that house!  Hopefully all goes as planned and we will be in our own house mid-October which means there is still time to do some fall baking in my own kitchen!!  I can't tell you how excited I am!

4) I always like having a creative outlet in my life.  Baking has been that outlet but since I haven't been baking I've been feeling the need to create.  So instead I've been knitting a lot.  In the past few years, the only thing that I've knitted are dishcloths here and there to keep my mom and I supplied with the kind we like.  With the baby coming, I thought it might be fun to try to knit a little hat.  I found an awesome book with patterns at Michaels and have been knitting up a storm.  So far I've made two hats and have slowed down a little with the third (mostly because I have now had to start over twice!). 

Baby Beanie #1

Baby Beanie #2

And those are my thoughts at the moment.  Maybe next time I won't wait months before the next post... but don't hold your breath.