Mia's Banana Split Cupcakes

This morning I made some cupcakes that I hope resemble a banana split for Mia, since she wanted a banana flavored cake. As I was assembling the ingredients I noticed the bananas were gone... so just pretend there's a slice of banana next to the cherry in the final picture, ok?

Here's the ingredients. Sprinkles, whipped cream, cherries, cupcake mix, banana extract, strawberry ice cream topping and chocolate icing.

I baked the cupcakes according to the directions on the package, except I added a liberal dose of the banana extract to the batter.

When they were finished, I used a baby spoon to dig out the center of the cupcakes.

Then using the same spoon, I filled the hole with the strawberry ice cream topping.

Next, I sealed in the topping with a layer of chocolate frosting.

Finally, I topped them with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry (and an invisible banana slice). What do you think?

Cake Pop Fail

I had the bright idea that I'd make cake pops for Mia to bring to school today for her birthday... I used Funfetti cake mix, and bought some Wilton candy melts that I thought would look so very cute...

These melts right here:

Only they didn't melt. Well OK, they did, but not thin enough to dip properly. I thought perhaps it was because I was using the microwave method, so I tried putting them on the stovetop, but it didn't help. Then I read online in one of the cake pop tutorials that you can add a spoonful of shortening to thin it out, but we only had butter flavored... and it ruined it.

Then there was the fact that I used the Funfetti cake mix- because I wanted the colors of the cake to show, I used cream cheese icing... and well it ended up looking less like cake and more like Thanksgiving stuffing. So for future reference, use chocolate icing and cake. At least then they look like round brownies.

Half of the cake pops wouldn't dip properly- the chocolate was thick and it made them heavy and they'd fall off the stick. It was cake pop carnage. Several fell off the sticks completely and landed in my dipping chocolate. The ones above are the rejects that didn't completely commit suicide via drowning.

A handful came out OK, but definitely not enough to send to school with Mia. It's sad really, because I even covered a little box and put Styrofoam inside to make a cute little birthday bouquet display for them. These are the best, before I ran out of dipping chocolate and realized there wouldn't be enough left after all the failed attempts to go around even if I had more chocolate to melt.

I'd even bought this cute glitter icing to decorate them with- can you imagine how adorable these would have looked if the white sparkly melts worked properly? Sigh. I guess we have to stop at Food Lion for boring old store bought cupcakes on the way in to school this morning.

I'm not even sure why I tagged these photos- it's not like someone is going to snag them and claim them as their own LOL

I Have a Problem

While frosting some cupcakes tonight, I've come to the realization that I have a slight sprinkle problem...

Cream Cheese Frosting

I decided to make cupcakes to bring to the barbecue yesterday- and thought I'd use some food coloring and make them red, white and blue. But because I made a butter cake and not a white cake, the white was kind of yellow. And because I didn't put a ton of food coloring in, the red was more pink and the blue was more turquoise.

I baked a dozen cupcakes, and with the rest of the batter, I made a half cake. Despite the color being off, it all tasted great. I think the best part was the icing. Want my secret recipe?

Cream Cheese Frosting

(What is the difference between frosting and icing anyway? I always use the terms interchangeably.)

1- 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
½ stick butter, softened
1- 1lb box powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract

Mix it all up and you'll be in heaven. Dip strawberries directly into it. Frost your cupcakes, cakes, muffins and pumpkin bread with it. You won't regret it. And you'll never go back to the canned stuff.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Have you ever had Black Bottom Cupcakes? I haven't had these in years- I don't think I've ever made them for Aaron. They are amazing. I am not sure what made me think about them, but once I started, I couldn't get them out of my head. I dug through my box of recipes and finally found it written on the back of a receipt dated 1996. I sent Aaron to the store for the one ingredient we needed- cream cheese- and got to work.

It's a really simple recipe. You just throw all the cake ingredients in the mixer, and then spoon into the muffin tin. Then you don't even need to clean the mixer before you put the filling stuff in. Aaron showed up with my block of cream cheese right as I was about ready for it- perfect timing. I always add way more chocolate chips than the recipe says too. I mean, how can you have too much chocolate?

Right now I'm impatiently waiting the 20 minutes they take to bake. My house is starting to smell chocolaty. It's delightful. There's nothing better than the smell of something delicious baking in your house, don't you agree?

After you get the filling made, you just spoon big blobs of it on top of the cake batter. I think I may have overfilled these, I guess we'll see when they come out of the oven. The only downfall to this recipe is it doesn't make nearly enough cupcakes. I should probably double it when I make it.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Cake:
1 ½ c flour
1 c sugar
¼ c cocoa powder
½ t salt
1 t baking soda
1 c water
½ c oil
1 t vanilla
1 Tb vinegar

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
½ c sugar
1 egg
6 oz chocolate chips

Bake for 20 mins at 350°

And this is what it looks like when you try to take it out of the paper before it's even remotely cool enough to eat. The chocolate chips are all melty and good... yum.


Let me edit this to add a picture of what they look like if you wait until they cool off to eat them- it's much more appetizing LOL

Rainbow Cake

My take on this cake:
(Except I didn't use two boxes, followed the directions instead of the soda thing... and only used four colors LOL
Oh and put it in a bundt pan and used canned frosting)

I used a bundt pan and strawberry frosting

I also didn't do a whole rainbow, just pink, purple, green and orange.

Apple Pie a la Easy

Apples (10), brown sugar (I don't know how much exactly, about two hand fulls, I suppose), a half a cup of flour, some cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice.
Peel and core the apples, throw is all that other stuff mentioned above and mix it all up well. We used a pie crust from Wal-Mart. Cook it at 425 degrees for 50 minutes and presto!! You've got an apple pie.

Valentine's Day Care Package for Aaron

The girls and I baked these treats to send to him!

Cookie Thief!

Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?

So I made my husband a lovely batch of holiday cookies for his package...


Only... someone named Mia sampled one when I wasn't looking: