Fluffernutter Cupcakes

So when I saw these on How Sweet it is, I knew I had to make them.  Peanut butter is my favorite and I could probably eat a jar of Fluff with a spoon in a sitting - probably with a spoon of peanut butter in the other hand.  Who really needs the bread? Especially when you can replace it with cake!  

Fluffernutter Cupcake


Ingredients 
for about 12 cupcakes - I think I made 15


1/4 cup butter - softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup of marshmallow fluff


Bake them


Preheat over to 350 degrees
Cream together the PB and regular butter
Then add eggs and sugar until incorporated - then the vanilla
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients - add half to the PB mixture, then the milk, then the other half of the dry
Then fold in the Fluff
Pour into lined cupcake tray and make for 15-18 minutes 
Then let cool.

MEANWHILE


Make Frostings 


Peanut Butter Frosting


2 tablespoons of softened butter
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons of milk, if needed 


Beat together the PB and butter, until creamy - then add the vanilla
Slowly add in the powdered sugar until completely combined 
Add milk if the frosting is too thick.


Marshmallow Buttercream


2 sticks of butter - softened 
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of marshmallow fluff 
3 cups of powdered sugar 


Beat butter until creamy then add in Fluff and beat
Then add in vanilla 
Add sugar one cup at a time 
If too thick add milk, if too thin add more sugar 


With a piping bag or spoon or whatever you have, stuff the cupcakes with the PB frosting then spoon on globs of Marshmallow buttercream on top of your cake.  Drizzle with melted peanut butter.

Eat. 

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

I really love Fall.  Fall makes me wish I lived in a picturesque suburb or something, where I have leaves all over my backyard.  Fall makes me count down to every holiday till New Year's.  Fall makes me want to be with family or lets me think of when I'm old enough to have my own. Fall makes want a Hallmark card style life.  Fall makes me bake with cinnamon and pumpkin...

Iced Pumpkin Cookies adapted from allrecipes.com

makes about 3 dozen Perfect Puffy Pumpkin Pillows


Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half AP and half whole wheat AP, no one notices that way)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin 
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  
• Glaze:
• I used about three cups of confectioner's sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk 

Do this: 

Preheat the over to 350 degrees

Combine all the dry stuff, so ingredients 1-6

Then cream together the butter and sugar, add pumpkin&egg&vanilla and beat until creamy

Slowly add the dry stuff 

Drop of cookie sheet in tablespoon fulls, the batter/dough is quite sticky and the amount of flour in this recipe lets these goodies be really cake-y and still very moist 

Bake for 15 minutes. 

Let cool then drizzle glaze on top.

then find lots of friends to come over and eat them because they are very addictive! (though not too bad for you, at 2 WW points each). 

These cookies were made in a last minute plan not to leave my house and to make my friends come to me instead - can't leave when the oven is on! 

I was never expecting them to be so darn delicious. 

My mother is the only one who takes it seriously when I ask for criticism on my cooking, I believe these are her new favorite cookies. 

My sister is ten years old, the next morning I just woke up and was coming down the stairs and I see her with two of these cookies on her place, microwaving them till they were warm for her morning snack.  I thought it was the funniest thing, girl has good taste. 

Pumpkin Chip Bread with a Strudel Topping and Spiced Glaze

I made this bread a week ago, I needed to get a start on Fall baking.  I had some competition in the kitchen with this Yankee Candle Spice Cake candle, you probably didn't even notice the delicious smell from the oven over the delicious smell on the window sill.  Well, this Pumpkin bread was yummy (though I think I baked it a bit too long and it could have been sweeter according to my Mother).

Pumpkin Chip Bread with a Strudel Topping and Spiced Glaze

Makes 1 8x4 loaf 

Pumpkin Bread adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1 1/2 + 1/6 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 + 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (15 ounces) canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Strudel Topping adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 
  
• Pretty much combine all the ingredients in a small bowl

Spiced Glaze adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1 heaping cup of powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

Pretty much whisk all these together in another bowl

Bake the bread!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease the loaf pan

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg)

Meanwhile beat together the wet

First beat together the sugar and oil, then add eggs, water, and vanilla

Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet until completely combined

then fold in the chocolate chips

Pour into loaf pan and top with the strudel mixture 

Bake for about an hour

Let cool and top with Spiced Glaze

Enjoy

p.s. have I ever mentioned that I HATE nutmeg, I got over it and used it here though.

p.p.s. I have the worst lighting ever in my kitchen, the food never looks as good in the picture. 

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These cookies are an adaptation from the m&m Cookies but are more mature,
I added about a cup of toasted sweetened coconut and some chocolate chunks instead of the m&m's (which I much prefer), but still have the best cookie dough base.

very delicious

M&M Cookies

I made some cookies, I made some "adult" cookies and I made some "kid" cookies.  These are filled with m&m's in the best cookie dough I've ever had. 

adapted from How Sweet it is and Brown Eyed Baker and therefore CooksIllustrated

2 cups + 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of salted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup m&m’s (or whatever else)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl 

Mix together the sugars and butter in another then add vanilla and egg + egg yolk

Mix dry in (I don't know why this isn't letting me type correctly)

I really love this dough because the mix-ins are like mixed in and falling out and its just so I don't know, sweet.

Bake for like 10 minutes 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm back at school but I made these goodies before I was forced back into my oven-less dormitory.  I've spent a lot of time figuring out what I want to do - not to sound conceited but I'm rather smart and always wanted to be known that way and not becoming a lawyer or having a ph.d in psychology (my other plans) didn't seem like the way to become a genius. However I now figure that it's much "smarter" to do what you love and I much rather dedicate my life to food.  Even though I have two more years at TCNJ, I'm going to spend them working towards culinary school and a nutrition program - I'm looking into Johnson & Wales and it sounds amazing; and just speaking to them, I'm so excited (hopefully excited enough to get me through two more years).  Now I just have the break the news to my professors here that I've been working so closely with in the academic world. I'll promise them free cupcakes if or rather, WHEN I open my bakery one day. 
For now, have a cookie.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies  
from how Sweet it is

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

8 tablespoons of salted butter, melted and cooled

6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat over to 325 degrees.

Melt butter and peanut butter together in microwave then set to cool

Mix together flour and baking soda in separate bowl

Mix sugars with the butters mix till combined

then add eggs and vanilla 

and finally the dry stuff

fold in the chips - I used mini cause thats what I had, there were so many of them so I cut it down to 1 cup and they were everywhere making every bite delicious.

Form decent size balls, like a small golf ball and place on ungreased cookie sheet and into the oven for 12ish minutes. 

attempt to let cool and then eat. 

 

they were incredible. maybe if I bring them to class, everyone will agree that culinary school is for me.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 

From Annie's Eats

OMG, my mother decided these little cakes were the best I've ever baked, they had to be made twice.  I made them for a BBQ and again for my sister's play date - I was told that the mom's loved them even more than the kids. I say awesome to that, hopefully mommies will be my future clientele.

First I made the egg-less cookie dough filling so It could be refrigerated:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter and brown sugar before adding the flour, milk, and extract; then fold in the chips.

Next, comes the brown sugar cake batter

First time around, I halved the original recipe and I thought there was too much butter so the second time I made the whole recipe minus 1 stick of butter.  I think I'm going to go back to 3 sticks next time to compare, and who's to argue with Annie's Eats.

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt*
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

Make sure the butter and sugar is creamed well before adding one egg at a time. Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl then alternating-ly add the dry and the milk + vanilla; making sure to start and end with the dry stuff. then fold in the chips.

Then bake for 18-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Now, FROSTING, brown sugar frosting to be exact

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt*
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

I WISH I HAD A STAND MIXER, it's supposed to be my Christmas present so fingers crossed for a pretty color.  So with a stand mixer or a hand mixer (like I use)

Cream the butter and brown sugar, then mix in the powdered sugar until smooth, then the flour, then the milk and vanilla.

*I always use salted butter and leave out the salt, so feel free to do that too.

Once the delicious cakes are cooled enough and your patience has run out, fill with a bit of the filling, I actually used a piping tip to core the cupcake (I couldn't find anything better) and then filled the hole with the egg-less mixture

and filled an actual piping bag with the frosting and frosted the yummy cupcake. 

I don't advise eating these right out of the refrigerator, make sure they're room temperature for melty buttery bliss.

top with mini chips. enjoy.

 

 

 

Muffin Basket

I'm really terrible at keeping this updated; however, since no one really reads it - who cares? Well then again, maybe if I kept this blog updated thennnn I would have more followers. anyway...

My best friend had her son about three weeks ago so I channeled my inner Martha for a welcome home basket of freshly baked, homemade muffins.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins from allrecipes.com
Apple Strudel Muffins from allrecipes.com
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins from Nigella Lawson

 

 

Ice Cream Sandwiches!

Memorial Day ice cream dessert - what to make on a hot American holiday (when you're obsessed with your ice cream maker) and have a bunch of kids to serve? I think Ice Cream Sandwiches fit the bill.
Super simple, super yummy, with endless possibities

 

Ingredients
Ice cream - Strawberry & Lemon (homemade)
Cookies - Chocolate & Sugar (store bought)
Sprinkles  - American

Make ice cream according to recipe - I used:

The Perfect No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream and Lemon Ice Cream from Epicurious 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Ice Cream is soft, sandwich it between two cookies (I bought the cookies to make my life easier but I really wanted to make my own - but these from the supermarket bakery turned out so perfect) 

I used Chocolate cookies for the Strawberry and Sugar cookies for the Lemon

Roll the cookie sandwiches in sprinkles or whatever other toppings you'd like 

Let harden in the freezer and serve - the cookies I used didn't get mushy, they got soft and the chocolate ones, almost brownie like. These were frozen and soft and delicious and oh so cute.