Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Milky Way Frosting

I know they're a mouthful to say

But they're also a mouthful of enjoyment!

They are yellow cake with a cookie dough ball inside!! Topped with melt in

your mouth milky way frosting.

You can find the cupcake recipe here and the frosting recipe here.

Check out this You Tube video for a great tutorial on Milky Way Frosting.

To keep the cookie dough from baking along with the cupcake

you first freeze the cookie dough balls. The cookie dough recipe

does call for eggs. I'm not sure that's the best idea since the cookie

dough doesn't get cooked through... so I omitted the eggs and used a little milk

to get the right dough texture.

When you bake them the cake batter rises right up around the

frozen cookie dough.

Then the frosting... oh my, I could eat it all by itself!

It is very rich and decadent so I only piped on a small amount.

Perfect!

Polar Bear and Monkey Cupcakes

I want to apologize right from the beginning about my photo quality here. Sorry!

These were taken with my phone, and well, it's not the greatest.

These little polar bears were for a boss' birthday bash.

And the monkeys, oh how I LOVE little monkeys!

They were guests at a baby shower.

Their zombie friends weren't invited...

HA! j/k...

To Blog or not to blog...

I have wrestled with that question since... well it looks like
since April Fools Day!! I'm sorry for abandoning this little
blog. If ya'll don't mind, I think I would like to keep sharing!

MANY of you fabulous and supportive readers have asked for these
two recipes...soooooooooo... I'm gonna give em' to ya. Enjoy!

Berry Cheesecake

and

The Kitchen Sink

Berry Cheesecake Cupcakes:

Cupcakes:

1 white cake mix
1 cube butter (melted)
1 C whole milk
3 eggs

Combine all ingredients and mix for 2 minutes. Batter should be light and fluffy.

Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes. Let cool completely.

While cooling prepare filling:

1 box raspberry danish dessert (junket brand, I get it at Winco...if there isn't a Winco near you I have also been able to find it at Albertson's)
1 bag frozen raspberries, (I often use the tri berry blend from Costco, about
2 1/2 C)

Prepare danish dessert according to the pie filling directions on the box. Add frozen berries to danish dessert, do not thaw. Let sit until cooled.

Prepare Cheesecake Mousse:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 small boxes cheesecake pudding
1 C water
1 C whipping cream or pastry pride (I buy pastry pride at Smart and Final or Cash and Carry)

Combine sweetened condensed milk, water, and pudding. Beat for 2 minutes, set aside. Whip the whipping cream or pastry pride. Fold into pudding mixture. Place in piping bag fitted with extra large round tip, or use a ziploc brand, ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.


Assembly:

Using a melon baller scoop out center of cupcake. Fill with berry filling until it is even with the top of the cupcake, but don't over fill. Pipe cheesecake mousse around the berry filled hole. Don't cover it up. I go around twice. Add another teaspoon of berry filling to center of cheesecake mousse.

That's it!





Now for my absolute FAVORITE concoction ever:




The Kitchen Sink


1 chocolate or vanilla cake mix
1 cube butter melted
1 C whole milk
3 eggs

Combine all ingredients, beat for 2 minutes. Bakeat 350 for 13-15 minutes.

Caramel filling:

This should be done ahead of time because it is quite time consuming.

Place an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk (with the label removed) in a pot of boiling water. Cover with a lid, reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Check water every once in a while to make sure it's not evaporated and still gently bubbling.
Remove from heat and let cool. If you do this step the day before just let it cool in the unopened can. If you are in a little bit of a rush open the can and poor the contents into a pie pan.

Scoop out center of cupcakes with a melon baller. Place caramel filling in a ziploc bag and snip off a corner. Pipe into each cupcake.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache layer:

I also do this ahead of time so it can properly cool.

In microwave safe bowl place 1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips (use the best kind) and 2 C whipping cream (not whipped). Heat in microwave at 50% power for one minute, stir, repeat, until chocolate is completely melted. Use a whisk to thouroughly combine the melted chocolate and cream until it is smooth and shiney. Let cool completely. (If you leave it at room temperature this can take a couple hours, I usually put it in the fridge for about and hour.) When cooled whip with an electric hand mixer. (It should look like slightly runny chocolate whipped cream) If it overwhips it will be grainy. According to Martha Stewart you can re-melt it, cool it again and re-whip it. I've never done that so I don't really know. Just don't over whip it.

Place whipped ganache in a gallon size ziploc bag, snip a corner and pipe a single layer (once around the cupcake) covering up the caramel filling.

Whip some Pastry Pride (from Smart and Final or Cash and Carry). You'll probably need about 2 cups of the liquid pastry pride. (I never measure, I just dump it in)

I pipe the cream on with a huge star tip.

Toast some pecans and coconut with your broiler, sprinkle them on top, nuts first then coconut.

Grab a glass of milk and one of these babies, relax and enjoy! If you worked this hard to make a Kitchen sink cupcake you deserve the break!

And every bite is just. so. worth.it.

Enjoy!

April Fools!

Dinner's Ready!

What!! We're having cupcakes for dinner?!?!

The comments as my family gathered around the table tonight were priceless!! Honestly I didn't think anyone would think they really were cupcakes, but I did have them going for a few minutes!

April Fools!! Meatloaf with pink mashed potatoes.

EWE!! Really?!?

Seriously!?

Cool! (He's a 10 year old boy, and the only one, besides me, who thought it was totally hilarious)

There's no way mom, you can't make me!!

You'd think I served her slugs for dinner.

Okay, one little taste... "This is the worst cupcake you've ever made!'

My 8 year old was not excited about this. Her diva-ness definitely came out!

But she gave it a taste...

And decided she didn't hate it as much as she thought she would!

So in for the kill. "This is the BEST cupcake you've ever made!"

No problems here, best dinner he ever ate!

My poor little one, never got past the idea of a savory cupcake.

But in the end we demolished them.

Accept this lonely guy.

Cupcake anyone?

A Few Weekend Projects

It's been a little busy around here lately! Just thought I'd share what we've been up to.

I Love these colors! But ya'll already knew that...

These were for a baby boy shower.

Yellow cake with chocolate mousse frosting filled with sweet cream cheese... the turquoise ones are dark chocolate fudge cake with whipped mascarpone cheese frosting and raspberry filling.

Baby girl shower.

Vanilla cake, raspberry filling with a whipped cream cheese and mascarpone cheese frosting.

The sweet little flowers are made from marshmallow fondant.

I gave in... I finally tried royal icing on sugar cookies. I LOVE the look of royal icing, so smooth and crisp. But honestly it's like fondant vs buttercream. One just tastes SOOO much better. I even put lemon flavoring in it! Royal icing wins cute, buttercream wins taste.

Sorry. It's. Just. The. Way. It. Is.

Easter Egg Cupcakes.
Vanilla cake, dulce de leche filling, whipped chocolate ganache, buttercream Easter grass and chocolate eggs.

Easter Sugar cookies with buttercream frosting for preschool!

Inspiration From a Baby Tee

While shopping with my cousin at Kohls we happened onto this sweet little baby tee. Which we bought, of course, for her little girl. We got to thinking that all those cute little doodles would make the sweetest sugar cookies.

After some playing around this is what we ended up with

Each cookie was placed on a cupcake smothered in chocolate buttercream.

And sold at a school bake sale.

What inspires you?

Cupcake Party

This week I taught a cupcake class for the ladies at our church.

We had a B-L-A-S-T!

Over 60 ladies showed up to make cupcakes!!

This was my tasters table. Every single one of these puppies were gone by the end of the night.

Each of the ladies made 6 cupcakes to take home. 2 chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter frosting and adorned with a heart shaped Oreo truffle, 2 Berry Cheesecakes, and 2 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
I'm hoping to acquire some more photos of the fun event soon. Stay tuned!

Pretty In Pink

I always love a new challenge. In fact I crave them. This project hit the spot!

This creation was made to celebrate the most vibrant and lively 90 year old woman's birthday.

She loves pink, lace and roses. If you look closely you can see that her dining room wall is even pink! (I love it!)

After some negotiating we settled on a cupcake tower crowned with a small cake, all laced up and topped with gum paste roses.
I loved every minute of this project!
(Sorry for the yellow glow, I forgot to turn off the flash...sigh)
Each cupcake has it's own gum paste rose. So sweet!
Thank you for the opportunity!