Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake

The combination of those three things: chocolate, caramel and salt just can't be beat! They are delicious - and ever since I tasted the best cupcake from a little cupcake shop in Arkansas called Fat-Bottomed Cupcake Girls, I have been craving this cupcake. So when the kids and I got up on our first day off this week and sat and watched two Cupcake Wars back to back it was inevitable. We had to bake some!

I got so many comments over my cupcake on Facebook that I had to post the recipe and of course I figure if I have to post it why not here on my blog?! So here it is. Now the only thing I will say is I am actually not a huge chocolate fan so I use a homemade chocolate cake recipe for the cake part so if you are a die-hard chocolate fan go ahead and just use the box mix. However, substitute the water with buttermilk and add an extra egg - you will never do it the box way again!

If you do want to try this recipe though here it is:

Chocolate Cupcakes
(Adapted from "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack)

1 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 TBLS) unsalted butter, softened (I used regular butter & it worked fine)
1 Cup of brown sugar
3-4 Tbls. sugar
2 large eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I actually used mini chocolate chips)
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffly, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the melted chocolate. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until belended. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Fill the paper liners 2/3 full with the batter and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pan, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool compltely.


Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 stick (8 tbls.) unsalted butter, softened (again I used real butter)
1 box (16 oz, more or less as desired) powdered sugar
2-3 Tbls. Milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Heavy Whipping Cream
Pretzels
Caramel Sauce

1. Combine the cream cheese and the butter in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until luight and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and 2 tbls of the milk and beat until smooth. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and the remaining 1 tbls. milk if the mixture is too thick.

3. Pour about a cup or two (I made this part up so sorry I didn't measure) of heavy whipping cream into a seperate medium bowl. (Depending on how your frosting came out decide upon amount of whipped cream you would like to add, mine came out very runny and not stiff like frosting so I added quite a bit of whipped cream. However if yours is already fairly stiff and holding form you may only want to add a little.) Beat cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar to desired sweetness and beat until stiff peaks form. Add in vanilla extract and beat just until combined. then pour the whipping cream into cream cheese mixture and gently fold it in.

4. Spoon frosting into a ziploc bag and seal. Cut 1/4 hole at corner of bag and begin piping frosting onto cupcakes.

5. Then gently chop pretzels and sprinkle pieces on top of each cupcake. Drizzle caramel sauce over entire cupcake and finish with a dash of sea salt on top - just a little! And indulge!

Candy Ice-Cream Pops

So because it's Labor Day Weekend and the kids feel like they already need a break from school because they are SO not used to the rigid schedule anymore...I think you should make these super yummy Ice-Cream Candy Pops! You can find the original recipe right HERE at Pioneer Woman.

 

 

You need candy. And then go get more. I started with M & M's - crushed them up a bit.

 

Moved on to bigger and better Oreo cookies.

 

And saved the best for last - my FAVORITE - Reese's!! Chop Chop.

 

Toss a good spoonful into 5 oz kitchen Dixie cups.

 

Then take remaining candy and blend it with your ice cream. Yes you are making your own little blizzards! Fill the cups up to the top and add a Popsicle stick. Stick in the freezer and try to keep your patience!

 

Delicious and the entire recipe is kid friendly!! I made these with my kids as summer came to a close but these are screaming to be featured at a Labor Day Bash! Have a safe and fun holiday weekend!

Cute Easter Ideas: Goodies & a Craft

You know what is alright - a cupcake paper. And a cute one too! If you are looking for a cute Easter treat idea OR a beautiful homemade card you can make for family and friends then look no further!

First select a cute Easter cupcake paper or a bright green color would work good too for this cupcake creation. Here is the ingredients you'll need:

Cake Mix

Eggs

Vegetable Oil

Buttermilk

Robin Eggs Candy

Chocolate Frosting

Vanilla Frosting

Green & Yellow Food coloring

4 Black Jelly Beans (small ones, like Jelly Belly's)

White Circus Peanuts (or just cover the orange ones with white melting chocolate)

24 Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds

Oreo Cookies

Small Flower Sprinkles

Mini Marshmallows (4)

Light Corn Syrup

White NonPareils (sprinkles)

Ziploc Bags - a good sturdy kind like freezer bags

Mix up the cake mix using the same amount of vegetable oil, 1 Cup of buttermilk and 4 eggs. Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake for about 25 minutes if using a dark pan like stoneware. If not just follow box directions for cooking. While they are baking spoon 2 TBLS of chocolate frosting into the corner of a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air and seal and set it aside.

And then if you are like me and can't find white circus peanuts go ahead and cover them with some white chocolate melting wafers!

Next take a handful of Oreo cookies and crush them completely down to crumbs. Call your little boy or girl into the room to pour the bag of crumbs and take the opportunity to use both hands to take a photo! hehe.

When the cupcakes are cooled completely - take four of them and cover with chocolate frosting. Next roll the tops in the crushed cookie crumbs until covered. These are your "holes" for your cute bunnies!

Next split the vanilla frosting in half and color one a dark green color while mixing green and yellow food coloring in the other half to make a brighter green (or cheat and buy the neon pastel food colors like I did).

I have to pause to apologize because at this point I got so into it and was just a truckin' through these that I forgot to keep taking pictures. However I will do you the honors of still walking you through it all! Aren't I nice?

Once you have both colors carefully place one color on one half and the other green on the other side so when you pipe it from the corner of the bag both colors come out at the same time. Once it's ready cut a small tip from the piping corner side of your Ziploc bag and then use a squeeze and pull technique to form grass on the remaining cupcakes. Squeeze and pull technique: simply placing the tip of the bag against the cupcake, giving a slight squeeze and then pulling the bag straight up and away to form a stiff peak with the frosting.

Then add small patches of flower sprinkles and robin's eggs candies around the grass cupcakes.

To make the bunnies feet take your circus peanut and cut them in half lengthwise - you just need the smooth side. For the pads of the feet cut your jelly beans in half also and pipe a small dot of chocolate frosting (from the frosting you earlier set aside) and place one half of your jelly bean on each foot. Then add three more dots at the top end of your feet and place the sunflower seeds with the pointy side pointing inward.

Last step is to roll your 4 mini marshmallows in the light corn syrup and then cover them with the white nonpareils. It worked easily for me to put both into small bowls.

Then you just place your feet together in their pairs on your dirt holes and give them each a fluffy tail! And I know no pictures to go by - but I DID at least take pictures of the finished product so in case you got lost on the last few steps just take a gander at the photos and hopefully you can figure it out!

WARNING: Undertaking this project may result in undesirable kitchen conditions.

HOMEMADE EASTER CARDS

These are super easy and quick! Just start out with some blank cards that you can find at Hobby Lobby. Draw three rounded rectangles on the top half of the paper, off set a bit. Have your kids finger paint dots (using their pointer finger) to fill the rectangles completely, even covering your light pencil lines too!

Next have them paint a straight stem down from each flower using a thin brush. Finally using a thicker brush have them make small leaves at the bottom of the stem by doing a quick short stroke starting at the very bottom and brushing diagonally up in both directions.

And voila! Just like that you have yourself some Texas bluebonnets! My kids are 4 and 5 and they did these ALL by themselves! The above picture is a card we did together (I painted most of this one to show them an example) and I added our initials at the bottom of the one we finger painted. However here is one they did all on their own:

There you go - a fun cupcake creation to do for a class party or perhaps a family Easter Egg Hunt and some pretty Bluebonnet cards to send to family this spring holiday and the day of Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!