Happy Valentine's Day cupcakes.

Happy Valentine's Day! How do you celebrate the Valentine's Day? When I think of holidays, I think of sweets. So it's only natural that when I think of Valentine's Day, I think of cupcakes. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to have cupcakes. 

Cupcakes pretty much sum up the holiday. They make a statement, especially if you made them yourself. Everyone loves cupcakes. So, if you don't know what to give your sweetheart for Valentine's Day then make them cupcakes. Doing so shows that you care enough about the person to share the cupcakes with them. Even if you don't have a sweetheart to share cupcakes with make them anyway, I did. I promise you won't regret it. 

When I made Valentine's Day cupcake, I made chocolate cupcakes ,  my favorite buttercream frosting, and various decorations I found that was Valentine's Day themed. I used these adorable tiny heart shaped sprinkles and these hard candy heart decorations. Both were Wilton. 

I used my favorite piping tip: the Wilton 1M tip. I colored my frosting light pink to go with the theme, of course. 

I hope you draw inspiration from these scrumptious desserts. I shared these Valentine's Day cupcakes with my friends. They all ooohhhed  and ahhhed over them. Let me tell you a secret. I think decorating cupcakes is easy and fun. It just takes a little patience, love, and time that's all. 

 All you that need to make these is a little heart and extra love. 

All it takes is a little heart. 

Have a very, very happy Valentine's Day. Make the most of it. Tell the one's you cherish that you love and appreciate them. Because all it takes three little words to sometimes make a difference. 

As always,

Peace, love, bake on. 

                                                 Andrea 

Pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese cinnamon frosting.

My favorite season is fall. The leaves are changing beautiful bright colors, and as they fall and drift through the wind, everything seems magical. I, more than normal, took great notice in the colors of the leaves this year. There were these trees that I passed everyday on my way to school that were this beautiful, bright red. You couldn't help but notice them when you went by. During this time of the year to express the magical qualities that I find in fall, I think of pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin, pumpkin pumpkin. Pumpkin just screams autumn. Above I mentioned pumpkin cupcakes, these little cakes are just scrumptious. Pumpkin cupcakes are fall, all wrapped up into one little delight. So if that wasn't enough to get you to make them, I don't know what will.

Another reason to love these is that this recipe is so super easy to make. If you have a cake mix and pumpkin then you can probably make these. Not a lot of work involved since it uses a cake mix. BONUS! You of course don't have to use the cream cheese cinnamon frosting recipe that I provided but I would highly recommend because it is awesome.  

The cream cheese cinnamon frosting as mentioned above that accompanies these pumpkin cupcakes is absolutely amazing. Cream cheese frosting is amazing with out cinnamon, but you add the cinnamon and it is even more amazing. I could probably just eat it right out the bowl all day long. Pair that with the pumpkin cupcakes, and you have one delicious dessert. So go ahead and make them for Thanksgiving or for just the heck of it. You won't be disappointed. 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

1 yellow cake mix

1 can (14-15 oz.) pumpkin puree 

1 cup milk

2 Tbs. oil

5 Tbs. butter, melted

4 eggs

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

For cinnamon cream cheese frosting:

1-  8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

7 Tbs. butter, at room temperature

1 lb. powder sugar (or about 7 cups powder sugar)

1 tsp.vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon 

Directions:

For cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake holder with liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pumpkin pie spice. Add pumpkin, milk, oil, butter, and eggs to the bowl and mix well until smooth.
3. Fill each lined cupcake holder with batter 2/3 full. 
4. Bake in oven for 10-16 minutes or until when a inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack or towel. 

For Frosting:

1. Using electric mixer, in a large bowl beat cream cheese until fluffy and smooth. Next add the butter and mix with mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla and mix. Combine in powder sugar 1 cup at time, so that it doesn't make a huge mess. Mix until smooth.
3. After adding all the powder sugar, add the cinnamon. Mix until well blended.
4. Frost cupcakes or pipe frosting on with piping bag and tip. I used the Wilton 1M tip. 

Enjoy! Everyone in my family loved these cupcakes, They each came back wanting another one. I plan on serving these at Thanksgiving dinner. They will easily fit in with any Thanksgiving meal. Or eat them anytime like I am sure my family and I will. 

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Peace, love, bake on.

                                             Andrea 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

So everyone loves chocolate chip cookies and everyone loves cake, so why not combine to make something everyone will extremely love? You can with this amazing recipe. And why stop with just the cookie dough cupcake, when you can also have an amazing cookie dough frosting to pair with it. 

I was recently looking for some fun cupcake recipes for my sister's birthday and my birthday. And instantly thought of cookie dough cupcakes. I had made them once but I didn't really like the concept of the recipe, so I looked for a new one and I found one that I like. I found this recipe, courtesy of the Tidy Mom. From that recipe though I conjured up my own version of this recipe. 

Okay, so here is how you make them.

For the Cookie dough cake batter you will need:

• 3 sticks of butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups  brown sugar, packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp.  baking powder
• 1 tsp.  baking soda 
• 1/4 tsp.  salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips ( semisweet or bittersweet)

For the cookie dough frosting you will need:

• 3 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3 1/2 cup powdered or confectioners sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3 tbs. heavy cream
• 2  tsp. vanilla extract

For the cookie dough filling, you will need:

• Refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough from store, rolled into balls.
• Or your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe rolled into balled ( after they are rolled into balls, put them in freezer for 2-3 hours so that it is firm)

Instructions for the cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the sugar and butter, using a mixer cream them together until it's light and fluffy ( about 3 minutes). Add eggs, one at time, beating well after each addition and scraping the the sides after each one as well. 
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
4. Alternating add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the milk on low speed, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until it is incorporated.
5. Blend in the vanilla extract.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
7. Divide batter into 24 cupcake liners. 
8. Drop one rolled cookie dough into each cupcake liner filled with the cake batter. Do not push the cookie dough down.
9. Bake in oven for 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean when inserted into cake portion of cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans, after transfer to wire rack to cool.

Instructions for frosting:

1. Beat butter and brown sugar with a mixer on high speed until creamy and fluffy.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth. 
3. Beat in the flour and the salt.
4. Mix in the cream and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. 

I used a 1M tip to pipe frosting onto cupcakes. You can further decorate by sprinkling cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and with a small cookie. 

These were the cupcakes I made for my sister's birthday. She took them to school to share with her class. I sprinkled the cupcakes with blue icing sugar and a little decoration that was the theme for her cookie dough cupcakes. These cupcakes were a hit for everyone who ate them and I am sure they will be hit with you too!

As usual good luck and have a great day! And if it's your birthday, I hope it's a good one!

Peace, love, bake on.

 Andrea

Fun Fact about me: I share my birthday with my younger sister and we are 7 years apart. 

Boxed cakes in a pinch.

If your are like me, you are always in a hurry and need a cake in a pinch. I sometimes have to use boxed cake mixes. And as you know, boxed cakes mixes just don't taste as good as cakes made from scratch. So if you are in a pinch and need a cake in a hurry, use a boxed cake mix with these minor but amazing adjustments.

So, all you have to do to make a box cake taste bettter is to follow these few simple steps.

If your cake mix asks you to use oil, use butter instead and double the amount. So if it asks for a 1/2 cup of oil, use 1 cup of butter instead.Next, when the mix asks for eggs add 1 or 2 extra eggs. Lasltly, the mix will asks for water, use milk instead.Even with these few adjustment, you still bake the cake at the same temperature and time that it says.

If you follow these few simple steps, you won't be able to tell that you even used abox cake.

Good luck and have fun baking.

Thanks,

               Andrea