Candy Stuffed Cupcakes

The idea of putting a little surprise inside a cupcake gets me giddy. Cupcakes are awesome on their own. Throw in something extra in the center, and you have my full and undivided attention. I think that’s why I gravitate towards bakeshops like Crumbs, where most of their cupcakes have some type of delicious filling. Since I don’t [yet] have the proper tools to stuff my cupcakes with ganache, buttercream, or things of that nature, I decided to take it the easier route – shove some Halloween candy into cupcakes!

For whatever reason the trick-or-treaters were sparse this year, especially at our new place. We actually only had two sets of vistors. We did go out to dinner between about 6p and 8p, so I’m assuming we missed some others, but the overall feeling in the office the next day was that there just weren’t a lot of trick-or-treaters out and about. Fiance and I had spent quite some time in the candy asile at Target earlier that week, trying to pick out the perfect combination of candy – we wanted to make sure as the new neighbors the kids were impressed. Now, though, we just have two bowls full of leftovers. We’ve been taking a few pieces to work every day (to have 2-3 each), but at this rate, we’ll have candy until the new year. That’s when I realized I needed to bake with them!

I had found a recipe for deep-fried candy, but unfortunately I just don’t have the proper tools. Since hot oil is seriously dangerous, I figured it’d be best to wait until I have things like a deep fryer [hello wedding registry!] and other important and safety related items. I haven’t baked in awhile because of packing and moving, so I thought that would be a nice treat. Initially I wasn’t sure as to what flavor cake to go with, or even what type of frosting. Since I was using chocolate candy, I decided to go with a simple vanilla cake, and let the candy do the rest of the work. As for the frosting, I still battle with buttercream, and am still slightly afraid of cream cheese frosting. So, sour cream chocolate it was! The cake recipe came from Ming Makes Cupcakes and the frosting recipe came from AllRecipes.

The frosting was okay – It wasn’t nearly as thick as I had hoped the first time around. After eating a cupcake each I put the rest of the frosting in the fridge. When I went back for number two, I added a little more confectioner’s sugar, and since it was cold, the consistency was much better. The cake was delicious, I really enjoyed the surprise center. I would suggest popping any leftovers you have in the microwave for a few seconds to warm up the center, since the melty chocolate was one of the best parts. I stuffed my cupcakes with pieces of Kit-Kat, Twix, Almond Joy, Take 5, and Snickers.

Candy Stuffed Cupcakes
– Makes 12 – 15 cupcakes –

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
5 of your favorite “fun-sized” chocolate candy bars, broken into pieces

Cake Directions:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat in butter gradually. Beat in sugar and mix thoroughly. Beat in eggs, then vanilla and milk. Beat till mixed.
2. Pour into lined cupcake pan. Place a piece of the broken candy into the middle of each cupcake, placing it mid-way down in the pan.
3. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean.

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Frosting Directions:
1. Melt chocolate and the butter together. Let cool and blend in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt.
2. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar until the frosting is of spreading consistency, beat well.

Blogiversary!

I totally missed the one year anniversary of my blog! I’m so embarrassed! Here I was thinking the anniversary was some time in October, but oh I was wrong – my first official post was on August 27th, 2009!

I’ve always been in love with writing; when I was younger I used to play with different programs that would let you make mock news papers. I kept journal after journal, and you could always find me writing notes to friends. I’m still the ring leader when it comes to group e-mails, and you can ask my fiancé – I’m a big proponent of hand written notes. I’m a word nerd and proud of it. I may not always follow the proper MLA or APA writing styles, but I do try my best to write fluidly and in a way that anyone reading would enjoy.

I don’t think I have a huge following, but that’s okay. I’m writing because I love it. Sure, it’d be a great job either full time or on the side to rake in some extra moolah, but that’s not the point. I’m here to share with you my love for cooking and eating through writing! So what’s gone on this past year? I don’t even know where to begin.

Since starting the blog I created a Twitter account that was used pretty sparingly at first, as I already had a personal account as well. Since then, though, after finding so many great reads when it came to cooking, eating, blogging, and running (and some virtual friends, too!), I’ve almost completely abandoned my personal Twitter and stuck to good ‘ole FoodosaurusRex. I’ve also had the opportunity for three giveaways (one is going on right now – so go enter!). I’ve become a runner and completed my first half marathon and am training for two more. I took a trip to Chicago and fell in love with the city. I started school again this past Spring. And most importantly, on an amazing trip to Disney World, I got engaged!

There has been a lot of deliciousness consumed in the past year, and a lot of miles run. I have no intention of slowing down any time soon, so keep reading! And thanks for everyone that does read – it’s nice to see my blog stats and know that there are people out there reading what I’ve got to say, even if it is just about food (nomz).

Pelican Bay Key Lime Cupcake Mix: Refreshingly Delicious

One of my birthday gifts from a co-worker included a box of Pelican Bay’s key lime cupcake mix. Since I was going to a barbecue at her place on the 3rd, I figured it’d be nice to bring the cupcakes along with me, so she could enjoy some of my present. I was also able to transport them in my cupcake carrier, which was so convenient!

The mix itself was super easy – there were just two bags inside the box, one for the cake, and one for the frosting. Aside from the mix, I only needed some eggs, milk, oil, cream cheese, and butter. After combining all the ingredients I was able to sit back and relax; something that was more than welcomed in Saturday’s heat! I decided to add a little pizzaz to the cupcakes by adding some sprinkles I had left over.

Everyone really enjoyed the cupcakes, and it was nice to have minimal work in the kitchen. I love baking, don’t get me wrong, but I always feel like I make a mess; so many bowls, spoons, and measuring cups, followed by the waiting (I’m very impatient). I haven’t been a fan of cream cheese based frostings since I got sick from a red velvet cupcake at Phoebe’s in Chicago, so I’m wary about making them. However, these had just the right amount of cheese and sweet ratio, and the lime was potent but not over the top, leaving the cupcakes on the lighter-side which was nice since Saturday was so warm.

I’m interested to see what other mixes they have, and not just cupcakes but cakes and cookies, too! Unfortunately I have a few left over that I was forced to bring home because they still had so much food at the barbecue, and I then on Sunday after our four mile race, I started on some rum and coke brownies for the next barbecue (post coming soon!). Oh, and I still have birthday cake left over. Looks like I’ve got some serious eating to do!

I’ll take you to the Candy Shop

Yes, those are in fact lyrics from a 50 Cent song, that I listened to many a times in a crowded Scranton basement in college. Candy Shop also happens to be the sub-brand of the Duncan Hines brownies I made tonight. I know, you’re thinking I’m a total cop-out for using a brownie mix instead of making my own while having a food blog. Well while wandering down the baking aisle at Target today, I stumbled upon a peanut butter brownie box and had to have it. Sometimes making mix out of the box is just as fun as making them from scratch? And by fun, I really just mean easy.

My fiancé has a seriously delicious salmon recipe that he got from his dad. It’s super easy, and I beg him every now and again to make it. So, after some coaxing this past week, he gave in and made it for me tonight, after letting it marinate overnight. We paired it with rice, and boy did it hit the spot! While I’m forbidden for sharing the recipe (so unfair, I know) I can at least show you how delicious it looked!

Back to the reasoning behind the post, the peanut butter brownies! I always find it interesting that brownie mixes provide you two options; one for fudgey brownies, and one for cake-like brownies. I always think to myself, “who wants cake-like brownies?! Fudge is where it’s at!” I suppose there are some people that would disagree, but I always go for the ultimate fudge-factor. That’s why I’m a huge fan of Ghiradelli’s mixes. For something that only required me to combine the brownie mix, a little bit of oil, water, and an egg and throw it in the oven for about 30 minutes, I’m impressed. Sure, I probably could have made better brownies myself, but it also would have taken me a lot longer. Sometimes a little sacrifice in authenticity is allowed for a quick treat on a weeknight. These badboys will be an excellent afternoon snack tomorrow during my 2:30pm “I really still have 3 more hours of work?” wallowing.

So I thought I’d end the post with a question: what’s your favorite straight-from-the-box dessert mix?

Happy nomzing!

A Perfect Foodie Gift for Dad!

Late last week, I was contacted by Snubbr.com who offered to write up a guest post on some sweet cookbooks available to get for your dad for Father’s Day. My dad is a seriously awesome cook – you name it, he can make it, and it’s always delicious! So, since I’m still totally clueless as to what I should get my dad, I figured what the heck. Maybe I’ll purchase one of their suggestions!

You can expect a give-away some time in June from them, so stay tuned for that, too!

Baking Cookbook Gift Ideas For Father’s Day
by Shannon Clark, a Snubbr expert

Would you easily describe your dad (or husband) as a world class baker? If so, consider getting him a brand new baking cookbook this coming Father’s day. There’s always new techniques or recipes that he can try out as he indulges in this passion of his and best of all, if you’re lucky he may just share the end result.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the top rated baking cookbook options available so you can find the perfect pick for your father this coming father’s day.

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The Complete Baking Cookbook: 350 Recipes From Cookies And Cakes To Muffins And Pies

If your dad likes baking a variety, this cookbook is sure to please him. With many different varieties of baked goods that he can prepare when he uses this cookbook, you can ensure he never gets bored. This book really outdoes itself when it comes to cookies especially with so many different varieties to choose from that span across all sorts of ingredients.

If he’s a pie fan as well, rest assured there will be plenty of different ideas to keep him occupied. The book even comes with troubleshooting tips and techniques so there’s a good chance he’ll improve his cooking skills while he bakes up the various recipes that are found in it.

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The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks’ Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets

If you have a father who’s a vegan, one of the most difficult types of dishes for him to prepare will be dessert since he’s not to eat any eggs or dairy. That’s where this cookbook comes in handy.

With 150 different recipes that span across cakes, pudding, cookies, crepes, and pies, there will be something that’s sure to please him. Since all are prepared without any animal products at all, you can also be confident that they’re going to be far healthier varieties to be adding to his diet helping him maintain his ideal weight range.

Whether he is rather new to the process of baking or is a seasoned pro with the oven, this cookbook will provide more than enough recipes to keep him busy for the coming months.

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The Smart Baking Cookbook: Muffins, Cookies, Biscuits, and Breads

Has your father recently undergone a total health make-over? If so, this is the cookbook you should get for him. It contains 180 different dishes that are all low in fat, high in fiber, and contain no added sugar. All are made up of natural ingredients such as fruit, nuts, honey, cinnamon, or other herbs and flavorings so he gets a healthy dessert that’s still high on taste.

Written by the editor of Prevention magazine, which is a magazine filled with top-notch health information, you can be sure there’s nothing but high quality here.

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Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Perhaps no other name is as famous in the household of a baking enthusiast than Martha Stewart. Known for her delicious desserts and world-class presentation, you know your father will appreciate every single one of the recipes that comes in this book.

She begins the book by providing you with a wide variety of general baking tips, which your dad can then use to improve his own techniques in the kitchen. The book includes a complete illustrated guide to the various types of baking equipment from that New Restaurant Equipment Wholesaler that will be utilized in the recipes so he’ll never feel lost in the dark about what’s going on.

Also included in the book are plenty of recipe substitutions that can be used so if something happens and your dad doesn’t happen to have the stated ingredient at home, he’ll quickly be able to find a swap for it that won’t wreck his afternoon of baking.

Various recipes include din this guide are cakes, pies, tarts, coffee cakes, scones, biscuits, muffins, crackers, breads, as well as fine pastries. You know he’ll never get bored when using this cookbook.

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The Low-Carb Baking and Dessert Cookbook

Has your dad recently adopted a low carb diet? If so, this is the book for him. It’s filled with a variety of different recipes from breads, pastries, to confections, all of which will be low carb in nature. Do take note that the ingredients called for in this book will be slightly atypical as they do have to be lower in carbs, so he’ll have to shop around when preparing these recipes.

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If he has a serious sweet tooth however and is very committed to sticking to his diet, you know that this cookbook will definitely make achieving his goals easier.

So keep all of these cookbooks in mind as you shop for a gift for your father this coming Father’s Day. Any one of these will definitely make his holiday.

If you need more unique gift ideas, check out snubbr.com. They’re a Q&A site for shopping advice, backed by thousands of experts. You simply ask a question, and they search for experts to answer it for you.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

Since our half marathon training is coming to an end, we only had to run once this weekend, and it thankfully fell on Saturday. So, this left me with lots of options for my Sunday. I haven’t made cupcakes in awhile, so I figured I’d give them a whirl.

I got the 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly for Christmas, but hadn’t actually made any recipes from the book until today. The book itself is really cute and displays nicely in my kitchen, but I found myself shying away from it and going to the internet to find recipes instead. Well, last night I buckled down and decided on a recipe from the book; Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

The recipe is pretty straight forward – eggs, peanut butter, sugar, butter and flour. I didn’t have any self rising flour, so I added a teaspoon of baking soda. I also snuck a taste of the batter before putting it in the cups, and it seemed to be missing something. So, I also threw in a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Look at me, getting all inventive with my recipes! I decided to use my hand mixer this time, and it was much easier. I still want a stand mixer, though!

The batter itself was really thick. I had trouble getting out of the bowl and into the cupcake wrappers. I wound up using two spoons – one to grab the batter from the bowl, and another to then scrape it off of the first spoon. They looked like messy blobs when they went in the oven, and I was sure they were going to come out looking equally messy. After 20 minutes, I was surprised at how cupcake-like they looked!

The recipe came with a peanut butter inspired icing, but I decided to go chocolate. I mean, what goes better with peanut butter than chocolate? Just ask the people at Reese’s. There was a chocolate buttercream recipe in the book, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was low on butter, didn’t have any milk, and I didn’t think it was worth a trek to the store, when I have to go later for my weekly grocery shopping anyway. I had some left-over frosting, so I iced one with chocolate, and one with vanilla. Then I remembered I had some semi-sweet chocolate chips. So, I decided to melt them! The cupcakes have a really glossy sheen on them, and they look as delicious as they taste! Though, as you can tell, I need to work on my icing skills.

Here’s the recipe for the Peanut Butter Cupcakes. If you’re in the market for a cupcake cookbook, I definitely suggest this one. There are TONS of variations for each of the recipes, and clearly if you stray a bit, they still work out well!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
4 eggs
1 cup crunchy peanut butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans.
2. Combine butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in the peanut butter until well combined.
4. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake 20 minutes. remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack. Frost & enjoy!

Happy nomzing!

Holiday Cookie Exchange

Yesterday I went to my first ever cookie exchange party! I actually hadn’t heard of them until recently, but they’re a pretty neat idea. Almost like a Tupperware party, but with baked goods you get to take home, with recipes to try them yourself!

One of my good friends at work invited me to her sister’s cookie exchange, which immediately made me nervous; what type of cookie was I going to bring?! What if they didn’t turn out good? What if I picked something someone was allergic to or didn’t like? All that aside, I was looking online earlier in the week for some inspiration, and found one of Betty Crocker’s Holiday cookie recipes. This particular recipe was actually from a contest, so I figured they would be good.

The cookies were Choco-Hazelnut Latte Cookies. And let me tell you, you can taste the chocolate, the hazelnut and the latte without a doubt! Since I’m an absolute chocolate and coffee fanatic, I knew these would definitely be delicious. To top off the appeal, they used sugar cookie mix, which cut down about half of my prep time, making it much easier to make Sunday morning for the party later that afternoon.

After getting all of the ingredients, I set to work. I think the hardest part was mixing all of the ingredients together, and then getting them onto the pan without breaking. They were super soft and mushy, which for me is a favorite quality of cookies. After the mixing, I really just had to wait… and wait. It was worth it though! They are so rich and delicious, that I definitely think more than one or two would be way too much. But I recommend them to everyone! You can find the recipe below 🙂

As for everyone else’s treats, there were some really interesting and delicious cookies. There were lemon zest sugar cookies, lemon bars (made with tofu!), cream cheese cookies, Snickers cookies, peanut butter blossoms, Chinese chews, peanut butter chocolate balls, and more! The best part was that I got to bring a sampling of each home in cute little goodie bags. My boyfriend definitely liked that part!

Below you’ll find some pictures, as well as my recipe and some of my favorites from the event!

Choco-Hazelnut Latte Cookies (courtesy of Betty Crocker):

Ingredients:

1      pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/3   cup unsweetened baking cocoa
3      tablespoons instant coffee granules or crystals
1/2   cup butter or margarine, softened
3      tablespoons hazelnut-flavored syrup for beverages (from 12.7-oz bottle)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups toasted hazelnuts, chopped*
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
2/3   cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy chocolate frosting (from 1-lb container)
4 1/2 teaspoons hazelnut-flavored syrup for beverages (from 12.7-oz bottle)

Directions:
1.     Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix, cocoa and instant coffee. Add butter, 3 tablespoons syrup and the egg; stir until soft dough forms. Stir in 1 cup of the nuts and the chocolate chips.
2.     On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough with rounded 1 1/2 tablespoon-size cookie scoop or by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart. Press each mound to flatten slightly.
3.     Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
4.     In small bowl, stir frosting and 4 1/2 teaspoons syrup. Spread about 1 teaspoon frosting on each cookie. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup nuts.

*To toast hazelnuts, heat oven to 350°F. Spread nuts in ungreased shallow pan. Bake uncovered 6 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until light brown

The results:

My other two favorite super simple cookie recipes (though they were all good!) are below:

Chinese Chews:

Ingredients:
2 cups Butterscotch bits
1 cup chocolate bits
1 can Chinese noodles

Directions:
In double boiler, combine the butterscotch & chocolate bits till melted. Remove from heat & add Chinese noodles. Drop 1/2 teaspoon of mixture onto waxed paper, cool 2 hours.

Cream Cheese Cookies:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of butter
8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/4 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 egg
1 package of cake mix (yellow)

Directions:
Cream together cream cheese and butter, followed by all other ingredients
Bake at 375 for 8-1 minutes

Happy Holiday baking everyone!