More icecream cone cupcakes!

This weekend, we ventured into flavors for the icecream cone cupcakes. The first go (see previous post) was white cake with buttercream icing. This time, I tried Rocky-Road and Mint-Chocolate-Chip. I even got some sprinkles and jimmies to make them extra exciting!

Mint-Chocolate Chip

  

• 1 box white cake mix
• ingredients called for on box (be sure to use only egg whites with white cake) My box recipe called for 1-1/3 cups water... I used 1 cup water + 1/3 cup green creme de menthe. Yes, you can get white creme de menthe... but then you need to add food coloring too. If you would prefer, you can use 2 tsp mint extract and green food coloring.
• mini chocolate chips (how ever many you want to make it look like the icecream - I think I used about 1/2 - 2/3 of the bag)
• 24 icecream cones
• use mixer or whisk to combine cake batter
• fold in the mini chocolate chips
• fill cupcake pans about 2/3 full with batter (I use cupcake papers to make cleanup easier)
• gently press an inverted cone onto batter
• bake as directed for cupcakes
• when completely cool, ice cupcakes (dipping in sprinkles/jimmies is optional - seemed like a fun idea!)

Rocky-Road Cupcakes 

• 1 box chocolate cake mix or chocolate cake from scratch


• ingredients called for on box/recipe  


• almond pieces and mini-marshmallows 


• 24 icecream cones


• use mixer or whisk to combine cake batter


• fold in the almond pieces and marshmallows 


• fill cupcake pans about 2/3 full with batter (again, I use cupcake papers to make cleanup easier)


• gently press an inverted cone onto batter


• bake as directed for cupcakes


• when completely cool, ice cupcakes (at the time, adding almonds and marshmallow pieces to the icing seemed like a good idea.  These "chunks" made icing the cupcakes incredibly difficult!) 

What to do with more bananas...

Make cookies of course...

I just wasn't feeling banana bread. But the 6 dark bananas on the counter were begging to be used. So, I made two batches of oatmeal cookies. These cookies are great for several reasons: 1 - there is no egg in the batter, so you can feel free to eat the dough (although you need to let it sit for a while so that the oats have a chance to absorb some moisture), 2 - they don't have any added sugar... just the sugar in the bananas! 3 - they smell awesome while they're baking!!

We couldn't reach a consensus on what version to make so I made both the chocolate chip and the peanut butter versions. They turned out to be very moist cakey-cookies... mmmmmm.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

3 bananas
2 cups oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil (I used 1/3 cup applesauce instead of the oil)

chocolate chips (I used about 3/4 cup)

Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

3 bananas
2 cups oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup peanut butter

Mix ingredients; form into cookies. These cookies will not flatten or spread when baking so you need to make them "cookie shaped" when you put them on the pan. I made dough balls and then flattened them between my palms to make cookie patties.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Fully cool on a cooling rack before storing as the cookies are very moist.

Conclusion - my sister can leave bananas to spoil on my counter any time!

Boston Cream Pie Cuppycakes

Today's baking adventure added a whole new step in cupcake making... cutting off the tops!

I got this recipe from KraftFoods. I like the way this recipe works better than the Boston Cream Pie which ended up having too much filling that the top slid off and the icing ran all over the place. The changes in the recipe to the minis seemed to solve both of these problems!

Really, the only change I'd make to this recipe is the quantity of icing. I ran out of icing and still had 6 cuppycakes left naked!
My remedy:
- Instead of using 4 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate with 1 cup of Cool Whip, use 5 squares of baking chocolate with 1-1/4 cups of Cool Whip.

I wouldn't recommend trying this recipe if you're looking to whip up a quick batch of cupcakes. Cutting the cupcakes proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated... but went ok once I got the hang of it.

Ducky Cake for a Baby Shower

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

So it's not that I haven't been up to anything in the kitchen, it just seems that time has escaped me as far as blog postings go! I have a bunch of recipes to post and I even remembered to take pictures of some of the baked goods... the dinners often get gobbled before the pictures happen.

I expanded the icecream cone cupcake line-up to include rocky road and mint chocolate chip... mmmm, mmmm, tasty!
Channeling my inner west philly black self, I made some fried chicken and waffles.
I made a baby shower cake that looks like a ducky (the baby is now several months old and cute as a button!).
I made a batch of apple dumplings.
I made the baked oatmeal featured in this post again with cherries... I still need to post that recipe.
My sis got a batch of mini candy-corn cuppycakes delivered to her office for her birthday... thanks to some delivery help from C.C.
I made thumbprint cookies, snickerdoodles, hot chocolate cookies, macaroons, and merengue kisses.
I made kahlua mudslide cupcakes with Bailey's cream cheese frosting.
I got a new apron, a cupcake stand, and a decorating pen which I am very excited to use.
I made tiramisu cupcakes that had a lady finger cake base... from scratch!

As you can see, I have some catching up to do around here!

Perhaps I'll get some of these posts up soon... stay tuned!

No-drip Ice Cream Cones

Check out these no-drip icecream cones I made for my cousin's housewarming/kids birthday party...

How are they no drip, you ask?

The secret is that they're not icecream. Awwww!

But, they're still quite delicious if I may say so myself. These are cucakes!!

I'll update this post with the icing recipe when I have a chance. But here's the rest of the deal:

- mix a box of cake mix by recipe on box... whatever flavor you choose (I picked a white cake)

- place cupcake papers in cupcake pan

- pour batter into cupcake papers

- place an inverted icecream cone on batter in cupcake pan (press enough that it doesn't fall over when you release)

- bake as instructed for cupcakes

- make icing

- cool

- remove papers from cupcakes

- ice cupcakes to look like icecream (sprinkles optional)

- ENJOY!!

Birthday Treats... grade-school style

I decided to make a birthday treat to take to work to share on my birthday. While contemplating the contents of my kitchen, I arrived at the decision to make Mojito Cuppy-Cakes!


Since I apparently don't have two cupcake pans, I made a batch of regular sized cupcakes and a batch of mini-cupcakes. Conveniently I had the right size papers for each. Once they were baked and cooled, I pulled them out of the pan (I baked them without the papers) and set them upside-down on cupcake papers which I had semi-flattened. Each one was topped... or bottomed if you will, with glaze and then finished with a swirl of frosting. They seemed to go over well at the office as I only brought a few of my 24 mini, 10 full size cuppycakes home with me.

For those of you who asked for the recipe, here it is. I'll note which options I used as there are a few alternatives (and one recipe reading error in my version).

Mojito Cake
1 box white cake mix
1 cup club soda
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rum
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tsp grated lime zest
3 egg whites

Mix together. Bake as instructed on box for pan size.

GLAZE:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup rum

Heat to boiling, stir for 3 minutes.

ALTERNATE GLAZE: (I used this one, but next time I'd probably try the other)
3 tbsp rum
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp chopped mint

GARNISH:
1 cup whipped cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
lime zest & mint leaves to finish

ALTERNATE GARNISH (frosting): (I used this one, but read the wrong recipe)
3 tbsp butter
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar
shot of rum
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp lime zest
chopped mint as desired
(I used 3 tbsp of rum... then realized the error (that was from the last glaze recipe). So to compensate, I left out the lime juice, doubled the butter and powdered sugar. This yielded much more frosting than I actually needed.)

Make sure cuppycakes are cool before topping with frosting or it will become a melted runny mess! I used a pastry bag with a star tip to put the frosting on the "bottoms" of the cuppycakes. I used the remaining mint leaves to decorate the tray by sticking individual leaves between the cuppycakes and the papers.