Valentine's Day Cupcakes

I've been having fun with Valentine's Day goodies! 

These babies are chocolate cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese buttercream frosting--a perfect combination for Valentine's Day!

The sweet raspberry frosting pairs well with the rich chocolatey cupcake.

For the frosting, I made my normal frosting recipe, but added about 5 tablespoons of raspberry puree plus additional powdered sugar to thicken up the frosting for piping. 

I made 24 mini-cupcakes with this cake plus one large 9 inch round cake for cake pops, which I will post next!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies are the new cupcakes!  What's a whoopie pie, you ask?  It's two cakey cookies with frosting in between them, kind of like a moon pie.  They are yummy, easy to pop into a lunch bag, and pretty easy to make.  These would be perfect for a Valentine's day treat!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
Source: Bakerella
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
Cookies:
1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 (1 ounce) red food color
1 tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa
Cream Cheese Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray cookie sheets generously with cooking spray (or use parchment paper).
In medium bowl, beat all cookie ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until blended.  Onto cookie sheet, drop batter by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart.
Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until set.  Cool 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack; cool completely.
In medium bowl, beat butter, the cream cheese and vanilla with electric mixer until blended.  Gradually, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed until smooth.  For each sandwich cookie, spread 1 generous tablespoon of filling on bottom of 1 cookie.  Top with second cookie, bottom side down; gently press together.  Store covered in refrigerator.

Amy's Notes:
The last (and only) time I made whoopie pies, they were quite....fluffy.  This time I sprayed a little non-stick spray on the back of a spoon and pressed down the batter before putting them into the oven.  They baked out very nicely into a good consistent shape, thanks to my cookie scoop.  I also used a piping bag to dispense the frosting evenly, but you definitely could just use a knife to spread it.  I think these are perfect for Valentine's day--I've seen mixes being sold in stores!  And you could even cut them into heart shapes!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I stumbled upon the recipe several years ago while looking for a new cookie recipe to make for a work Christmas party.  That year, I made several batches but haven't made them for at least two years.  I whipped up a batch of these to take along when we went to visit my parents over Christmas.  There is nothing particularly 'Christmas-y' about these cookies, yet I always seem to need them during Christmas time.  Trust me, this recipe is a keeper!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Source: allrecipes.com
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped (Reese's)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside
Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk.  Add the flour mixture, mix well.
Shape into 40 balls, either by hand or with a cookie scoop, and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
Bake for about 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball.  Cool and carefully remove from pan. 

Amy's Notes:
These are a little tricky to make, but totally worth the effort.  Here are the things I've learned.  Always make sure to unwrap the peanut butter cups before the time come to put them into the cookies.  I say this because the first time I made them I thought I could just unwrap them as I went, but trust me, you just can't unwrap them fast enough when you need to.  Also, after the peanut butter cups are in the cookies, I usually pop the whole pan into the freezer for a few minutes to solidify the melted peanut butter cup.  It also helps to get the cookies out of the mini-muffin tin without mangling them. 

Enchilada Grande Casserole

I love Mexican food--both authentic and American.  This is definately not authentic but still good.  It's a very easy recipe to make and pretty quick also.  It's not the most glamerous of meals, but casseroles never are!

Enchilada Grande Casserole
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 16 ounce can refried beans
1 15 ounce can no-salt added tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 envelope enchilada sauce mix
8 7-8 inch flour tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large skillet, cook ground beef until brown.  Drain off fat.  Stir in beans, tomato sauce, water and enchilada mix.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, and let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
Arrange half of the tortillas in bottom of a greased 3 quart rectangular baking dish, trimming and overlapping as necessary to fit.  Top with half of the meat mixture and half of the cheddar cheese.  Repeat with remaining tortillas and remaining meat mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake about 10 minutes more until heated through.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Serve with sour cream or guacamole.

Amy's Notes:
From beginning to end, this recipe take me about 1 hour to make--including baking time.  I serve it with corn, because I like to mix it in when I eat it, tortilla chips, and any combination of salsa, guacamole and sour cream. 

Three Cupcakes for the New Year!

It's a new year!!!  Thank God.  Good riddance 2010, welcome 2011, full of possibilities and hope!  I also just turned 27 at the end of December.  I think about where I thought my life would be when I was 27 and this is not it.  I am unemployed (as is my husband), I am living in my in-laws attic, and besides our cars and the objects in our rented storage unit, I have little to my name.  Despite how depressing these things can be, I have hope for better things and happiness to come in this new year. 

One of the beneficial things of the past year has been my new found baking obsession.  It is a coping mechanism, a creative outlet, and a happy place for me to be when things aren't going my way.  I've found I love making cupcakes!  Cupcakes bring a smile to my face as well as to the faces of those who eat them.  My husband and I were recently visiting my family is Washington state and because we don't live close to them, I wanted to make a few cupcakes for them to enjoy while I was home.  So I made cupcakes to end 2010 and to begin 2011. 

First was a new red velvet cupcake recipe.  It turned out to be a great recipe.  And because of that, I have to keep the recipe to myself.  Sorry friends, a baker has to keep some secrets to herself sometimes!  I made 28 of these cupcakes and my brother at 15 of them himself, all in about 30 hours.  I guess that meant he liked them!

Red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon frosting

Next, for New Years Eve, my good friend and I made chocolate cupcakes, half with peanut butter frosting and half with espresso frosting.  The peanut butter frosting recipe is already posted here: Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes and sadly, the espresso frosting wasn't as good as I had hoped.  So the search is on for a good coffee/espresso frosting recipe!

Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting

Chocolate cupcake with espresso frosting

So Happy New Year to each one of you!  May your year be filled with joy, love and lots of cupcakes!

Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and

peace there will be no end.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Merry Christmas!  May your Christmas be full of love, joy, peace and tasty treats!

Decorated Sugar Cookies

It's almost midnight.  I'm laying on a futon mattress on top of an air mattress (my genius idea to make an air mattress more comfortable) in the attic room of my in-laws house, watching tv and typing this post.  Why are we staying on an air mattress at the in-laws?  Well, more on that in the next blog post. 

Since we have been busy packing and moving, I've hardly baked.  So the second day here in Kingsport, I got out my KitchenAid and made sugar cookies.  I had hoped to decorate the sugar cookies with royal icing and try some new icing techniques, but my icing didn't turn out very well so I scrapped that and went back to the icing recipe I normally use, which is just a basic buttercream.  In the end, it was much more fun for me to have my husband and his siblings help decorate the cookies that it would have been to decorate them all on my own. 

Sugar Cookies
Source: Betty Crocker Cookbook
Recipe: Here

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:
Beat powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease cookie sheet with shortening or spray with cooking spray.
Divide dough in half.  Roll each half 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface.  Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.  Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are light brown.  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Source: Betty Crocker

Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed.  Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk.
Gradually beat in just enough milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.  If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time.  If frosting becomes too thin, beat in small amount of powdered sugar.

Amy's Notes:
I love these sugar cookies.  Because sugar cookies are so much work, I really only make them about once a year, but I always use this recipe.  I find that in order for them to be nice and soft you have to bake them for a little shorter time than the recipe calls for--I believe I baked most of mine between 6 1/2-7 minutes.  This particular time, I made two batches: one regular batch and one with a little cinnamon and nutmeg added.  Both were good.