White Chip Chocolate Cookies

Posted in Cookies, Dessert by Cavities & Cravings

One of my all time favorite things to do is explore new cities. I love wondering aimlessly and exploring all the nooks of a city. Although I hate change, making the move from Columbus to Cincinnati has really given me the opportunity to explore an entirely new city in Ohio. I am loving it; Cincinnati is yet to disappoint.

Kentucky is right across the river from Cincinnati, so one of the neat things to do is walk over the “Purple People Bridge” that crosses from Cincinnati to Newport, KY. Husband and I explored Newport on the Levee this weekend and it was great! There were plenty of restaurants, bars, and shops. We ate at Tom + Chee, which by the way is known for the grilled cheese donuts (I know your mouth just watered, its ok…admit it), followed by aimless wondering. It was wonderful.

Tomorrow is my first day of orientation for my residency! Eeee! I’m bundle of excited nerves… which is probably why I baked multiple times this week. Today I baked my all time favorite cupcake: Buckeye Cupcakes for the cookout all the residents are having tomorrow night. My other new co-residents aren’t from Ohio, so I figure this will be a good way to explain the Buckeye craze here in Ohio. Earlier this week I also made these fabulous cookies! I was in the mood to bake, so I used what I had in my pantry. They turned out extra fluffy and moist.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups white chocolate morsels

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Set aside

3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels.

5. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

6.. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I suppose its time for bed, early day tomorrow. Night friends.

3Mar2013

Snickers Cupcakes

Posted in Dessert by Cavities & Cravings

How is it March already? I can’t believe how fast my third year of dental school is flying by. I wouldn’t mind slowing things down just a bit and hovering here for just a moment in time. The closer fourth year creeps, the more I can sense the stress that will come along with it.

You know whats strange.. When I was overwhelmed and constantly stressed during my second year, I blogged regularly and now that things are a little more relaxed, I’m not blogging as much. How backwards is that? I’m still cooking delicious new recipes, I just haven’t gotten around to posting them. I need to get back in to the swing of things!

For all you Snickers lovers out there, brace yourselves. I got this brilliant idea from the blog My Baking Addiction (check out this blog, its super cute!). These cupcakes turned out phenomenal! Everyone raved about them and I cannot wait to make them again.

Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures

For the frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line 24 cup muffin tins with paper liners.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla and water.

4. Evenly divide the batter in to the muffin tins.

5. Gently push a frozen Snickers bar into the center of the batter.

6. Smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy bar with batter.

7. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

8. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.

For the frosting:

1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.

2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing well.Once all the sugar has been added, taste the frosting and determine if you want to add more syrup or more sugar. For thicker frosting, add more sugar and for thinner frosting add a tablespoon of water.

Now its time to ice your cupcakes and garnish them with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel syrup. Delicious!

4Jul2012

Brownie Cupcakes

Posted in Dessert by Cavities & Cravings

Happy 4th of July! What’s everyone up to today? We are going out to celebrate a friends birthday (Happy Birthday Andrew!!) at a new Brazilian Steakhouse, here in Columbus. I’m pretty excited to check this restaurant out, I’ve never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse before. From what I hear, I need to be ready to chow down.

In other news, I passed boards part I! Oh my goodness, what a relief. Thank you to everyone who supported and believed in me 🙂 It was a rough road! I think little Leo was my lucky charm. Check out Leo and Diesel napping together, so cute right?

I made these cupcakes for Andrews birthday and he told me to dye the icing blue, so I went full force patriotic! Two birds, with one stone. This is a great recipe, they turned out so delicious. I topped the cupcakes with a buttercream frosting and add a chocolate/caramel drizzle to half of them, just to switch it up a little.

Enjoy!

Ingredients for Brownie Cupcakes:

3/4 stick of butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions for Brownie Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In pot, melt butter and two types of chocolate tougher. Stir until smooth and lump free! Remove from heat and whisk both types of sugars in to chocolate mixture. Add eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla, flour, and salt.

3. Line 10 muffin pans and divide batter in to muffin tins. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Ingredients for Buttercream Icing:

1 cup solid vegetable shortening*
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1 teaspoon clear butter flavoring
2 tablespoons water (or milk)
1 tablespoon merengue powder (optional)
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

Instructions for Buttercream Icing:

1. With an electric mixer, soften shortening. Add vanilla, butter flavoring, water (or milk), and merengue powder. Mix well.

2. Start adding powdered sugar, one cup at a time until well blended. I like my buttercream frosting to be really sweet, so taste as you go and add more or less depending on your sweet tooth

3. Once cupcakes are completely cool, its time for the best part – decorating! Decorate as you wish 🙂 I added blue dye to the icing and used a piping bag to decorate the cupcakes.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

18May2012

Rolo Cupcakes

Posted in Dessert by Cavities & Cravings

Brace yourselves for an incredible cupcake recipe.

Husband asked me to bake something for a bake sale they were having at work for breast cancer. So naturally, I decided to bake a cupcake. Everyone loves cupcakes and I love baking new, fun things inside of cupcakes. So why not a Rolo, right? A friend from school had never even heard of rolo’s before. Whats that about? If you’ve never tried one, please go buy some and try one, and then bake these cupcakes because they turned out phenomenal!

The cake recipe was from Cake Mix Doctor, so it was super easy to throw together and the cake turned out very moist! I toped each cupcake with a caramel buttercream frosting. Worth. Every. Calorie.

Enjoy 🙂

For the Cupcake:

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) package Devil’s Food Cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24 frozen Rolos (freeze for at least 2 hours)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line muffin pan with paper liners (24) or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, water and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.

5. Gently push a frozen Rolo into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy with batter.

6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch. A small divot may appear in the center of the cupcake, no worries though because you’ll cover that with frosting.

7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.

They balloon up! So be sure not to overfill…

For the Frosting

Ingredients:

2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
2/3 cup caramel icing toping
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
4 cups (~1lb) confectionaries sugar
2 teaspoons milk or water

Instructions:

1. Cream shortening, caramel ice cream topping, vanilla, and butter flavoring.

2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk or water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. (add more or less milk to get to the consistency you want.

3. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use.

Now all you that have left to do is frost your cupcakes!

(Every one always asks how I make my icing look so pretty, I use a pipping bag and pipping tip! You can find them in cake decorating isle at Walmart or online at Wilton’s. I promise it’s easy to use! 🙂 )

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

4Mar2012

Buckeye Brownies with a Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

Posted in Dessert by Cavities & Cravings

Where to begin with these…hmm. Well for starters, my chocolate – peanut butter craving was beyond satisfied with this recipe! The moist chocolateyness (I now dub this a real word) of the brownie combined with peanut butter gooeyness was perfection. I promise you, the peanut butter filling of this brownie tasted identical to the inside of a reese’s peanut butter cup. Seriously At one point I caught myself making a peanut butter ball and eating the next peanut butter ball, I was like a child who just couldn’t stop.

I was a little concerned about putting a peanut butter frosting on these – I thought it might be overkill. Thankfully, I was so WRONG! This frosting turned out fluffy and light – it completed the perfection of the brownie.

If you are a peanut butter and/or chocolate lover of any sorts – then try this recipe, right now. I promise they will not disappoint. Yum. I think I’ll go eat another one right now… make it stop!

Ingredients

For the filling:

1 cup powdered sugar
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
4 tablespoons. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla extract

For the cupcakes:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. milk
 1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 tablespoons, unsalted butter, at room temperature !
½ cups sugar
 2 large eggs

For the frosting:

1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extra
1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24).

To make the filling:

1. Combine the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract in a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined

2. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls (at least 24) and set aside on a baking sheet.

To make the batter:

1. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk together and set aside

2.   In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract

3. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.   Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated

4. Spoon a tablespoon or two of batter into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Place a ball of the peanut butter filling in each cupcake well and top with the remaining batter so that all the cups are filled

5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

1 .Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla.

2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.

3. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Frost cooled brownie cupcakes as desired.

Modified from: The Kitchen Door

Boston Cream Cupcakes

Happy Valentines Day! ❤

Husband’s all-time favorite donut is a boston cream donut. So for valentines day I decided to try to make his favorite donut, into a cupcake. It’s a little bit trickier than I imagined. This recipe turned out great… the only problem I seem to have run into, is that the vanilla pudding stuffing got soaked in to the cupcake for the most part. I mean don’t get me wrong – it still tastes delicious! But if you’ve ever head a boston cream donut you know that reaching the vanilla pudding center is the best part!

Even though the center of the cupcake was a tiny bit disappointing, it still tasted like the donut. Delicious!

Enjoy!

Ps : Any bakers out there know if there’s a way to stuff a cupcake with pudding without having the cake soak it all up? I wonder what I did wrong… hmmmm.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon each baking powder and salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Filling

1 package (3 oz) cook & serve vanilla pudding
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup each sugar
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until blended.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in vanilla extract.

4. With mixer on low speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until just blended.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Prepare pudding as package directs, using 1 1/4 cups milk. Add vanilla. Cover and place in refrigerator until cold.

7. Place chocolate, sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until melted and smooth, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter until it melts and mixture is smooth. Let cool.

8. Cut circle out of the center of cupcake and remove carefully. Spoon out some of the inside of the cake, making room for the filling.

9. Fill cupcake with tablespoon of vanilla pudding. Replace cut out circle from top of cupcake. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of chocolate glaze on top of each cupcake.

Modified from A Bit of Knees