Smore's Cupcakes

 
Nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is really important to me. It really is, I promise! I know you don't believe me because of all of the heavenly goodness that I am making all the time but I guess that's why I share it with you, because we don't eat it at home. And I must get this creative passion out some where! Anyway, I have been really good. Just "trying" the food that I make and not having one, two or three servings of it. Then we went on vacation! A nice, long, lovely, relaxing vacation. When we went out to eat and I ordered figure friendly items, we went out for ice cream and everyone else was shoveling large dishes of cold creamy goodness with mixed candy pieces into their mouths, I drank ice cold lemon water. I was so good...until we ran across the cutest little cupcake shop! Locally owned...always my favorite choice! I can easily pass up chain restaurants and desserts, but not the homemade stuff! I HAD to enter!!! So, I stood there for probably 15 minutes trying to decide which "ONE" I would get...ok, so I settled on two...but I did share every other bite. Sometimes every third bite, the princess and the warrior were like little baby chicks squawking for more. I had the mama Mia - tiramisu cupcake and the Marshmallow Fondue - a s'mores cupcake. They were both really good, but I honestly think my cupcakes are better! That's the thing about most cupcakes places that I've found. Sure they look cute and the frosting is good? But the cake is bland.
I'm a s'mores girl. Last summer I made s'mores brownies...they looked delightful but I didn't have one, my self control was a little better a year ago. I needed a reason to make my version of the s'mores cupcake. The brownies I had made had a Graham cracker crust...these cupcakes needed one too. On top I knew I had to make this frosting my mom had made for angel food cake when I was a little girl...I didn't remember if it tasted like marshmallow but I remember it being light and fluffy like Marshmallow Creme. And it was a given that I would make MY chocolate cake, I haven't found a better one out there yet!
Anyway, There you have it! Oh, and to top it off I added a chocolate covered Graham cracker to the fluffy white frosting. Mmmmm.... You're dreaming about it now aren't you! I know!

Smore's Cupcakes
Ingredients

4 Graham crackers, crushed
4Tb butter, melted
2 tsp sugar
pinch of Salt

any Chocolate Cake batter, prepared but not baked yet (24 cupcakes)

1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 dash salt
2 egg whites, unbeaten
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Heat over to 350. Mix together the graham crackers, butter, sugar and salt. Divided evenly between cupcake liners. Press down gently and then bake for 5 minutes. Pour prepared cake batter on top of

graham cracker crust. I use an ice cream scoop to measure out the batter...perfectly sized cupcakes each time! Bake according to the directions for the cupcakes. Cool, of if you're like me...just toss then (gently) in the freezer for faster cooling! 

Now let's make the frosting! Combine sugar, water, cream of tartar and salt in saucepan. Bring to boiling, stirring until sugar dissolves. Very slowly add sugar syrup to unbeaten egg whites in mixing bowl, beating constantly with electric mixer until stiff peaks form (about 7 minutes). Beat in the vanilla.
Once the cupcakes are cool it's time to frost the them. Spoon, pipe or spread fluffy goodness on the cupcakes. Top with chocolate covered graham cracker cookie or make your own. To make your own just separate graham crackers at perforations. Melt about 1 cup chocolate chips or other chocolate in a microwavable bowl for 1 minute. Add 1 Tbl vegetable oil and stir until smooth and shiny. Lay the dipped graham cracker on a peice of waxed paper to set. 

Enjoy my friends!

Warmly, 
Mary

Peanut-Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

You have to try these absolutely wonderfully peanut-buttery chocolatey....

...Oh man, do you ever think of something perfectly witty to say, but get distracted and forget what it was? I do that all the time! Last week I had the most luxurious manicure and pedicure. Yep, I sure did! I was awesome! A four year old little warrior painted my toes (yes, most of the polish was on the toes themselves and not the nails) and a three year old princess painted my finger nails (she did manage to get most of it on the nails, it’s a girl thing!). Oh yes, the warrior had picked out a purple glitter polish for the princess’s birthday gift and after he painted her fingernails and toenails, it of course was mommy’s turn!

So anyway, I totally forgot what I was going to tell you about these totally yummy Peanut-Butter Filled  Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache  because I was distracted by the idea of removing evidence of what was left of my week old manicure. By the time I returned to my computer with my fresh glass of ice tea and bowl full of strawberries to snack on, I was lost. Sorry!

Anyway, reading my ramblings will be totally worth it once you make these heavenly treats! I made these for my birthday (along with the White chocolate cream cheese frosting with 4berry filling - I feel like people need options in life!) Since they were such a hit I just HAD to share them with a whole new audience! All I have to say about them is OH MY!! I have been getting phone calls, emails and texts from the friends who were among the privileged to enjoy!

I know, Horrible picture, but you get the point...I hope!

Peanut-Butter Filled  Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Choose your favorite Chocolate Cake recipe. I use my own that you can find here  The Very Best Chocolate Cake

 

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese, room temp

1 1/4 c peanut butter

1/3 c butter, room temp
3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbl brown sugar

In a large bowl use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and butter together until creamy. Add the vanilla and brown sugar then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you have the desired consistency (3 cups is perfect to me), using the mixer to incorporate it in. Set aside. 

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients
6 ounces milk chocolate chips
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
½ c heavy cream

2 TBL butter, cut into pieces

Add choc chips and cream to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 sec intervals. Stirring in between. Usually takes me 1 min 30 sec. Make sure to stir occasionally until fully melted. Once melted, add in the butter pieces. Whisk until it is very well incorporated and your chocolate ganache is smooth and shiny! (assembly instructions below)

See the manicure?

I do not have giant hands, these are the mini-cupcakes! ;)

Now Put It All Together

Now that you have made your cupcakes, the filling, and the ganache, it's time for the fun part! I just use a sharp knife and cut a cone shape out of each cupcake and fill that baby up with the Peanut Butter Filling. Pack it in there, don't be shy! You can set aside the cake scraps to make cake balls if you want...that's what I do! Anyway, fill up all your cupcakes then you can top them one of two ways. Take a spoon and spoon the ganache on top or you can do what I do and grab the cupcake by the base and dip and twist it in the gananche. Once again, don't be shy, the chocolate may get on your fingers, but oh well...it's just chocolate. Then voila perfect cupcakes every time!

can you see them there, between the ladybug cupcakes and strawberry cheesecakes

Make these. Make a bunch of them. Give them to the people you love. They will be happy!

Warmly, 

Mary

The Birthday Cake

Happy weekend, Friends!

This recipe is definitely a gift to you for the weekend. I hope you have a chance to make it sometime. Oh, these cupcakes were the cutest and yummiest things ever. Ok, the mini chocolate peanut butter ones are really good too. But the little lady bug truffles were so adorable and yummy and the strawberry frosting had some serious goodness going on too. The truffle centers were cookie dough. Yep, now you have a perfectly good excuse for eating raw cookie dough. You should have seen the princess and warrior and their little friends hanging around while I made the little lady bugs the day before the party. They were all over some cookie dough action! I used a chocolate cake recipe that I found on another food blog. It was tasty, but not my recipe. If you want a good chocolate cake recipe, try The Very Best Chocolate Cake here, it really is the very best that I have found...so far! The Frosting is my recipe and so are the lady bugs. I am so pleased with how the little lady bugs turned out, I'm so glad that I made them, I feel like they were practically guests at the party! And you know you can't go wrong with a chocolate and strawberry combo. And have I mentioned how adorable the little ladybugs were, they seriously made me smile every time I looked at them! Ok, enough rambling...my weekend gift to you!

Lady Bug Cupcakes

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 8oz pkg strawberry cream cheese, room temp

6 Tbl butter, room temp

1/2 c strawberry preserves

4 c powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add the strawberry preserves and mix until well combined. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you have the desired consistency. There you go! Super simple and better than anything you're going to get out of a can!

Cookie Dough Lady Bug Truffles

Ingredients

1/4 c butter, room temp

1/3 c brown sugar

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 1/4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 c mini chocolate chips

1 lb Red vanilla candy coating

2 pkg Hershey's Drops Candy

Candy eyes (from Michaels)

more mini chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the milk and flour and beat well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Roll the dough into little balls and place on the waxed paper. Set in the freezer for about 15 minutes, for easier dipping.

In a zip-lock baggie, melt about 1/4 cup chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds. Snip a tiny corner off the end with scissors. Lay the Hershey's Drops out on the working surface. Squeeze two small drops of melted chocolate on the round candy Drops and place a candy eye on each drop to make the head with eyes. Prepare all these ahead of time because the candy coating hardens quickly and you won't have time to do it as you are dipping.

Melt the chocolate or candy coating according to package directions. Take a few balls out of freezer at a time and dip into the coating, remove as much excess coating as you can and set on a sheet of waxed paper. Place a head with eyes on one end of the ball and hold it in place for a few seconds then place mini chips, flat side up, on the back of the lady bug for black dots. There you go!

Perfect little Lady Bugs!

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Mary

The Very Best Chocolate Cake

For my birthday week (yes, I said "week". I am spoiled like that), I choose to make the most amazing chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever had! They were moist, very chocolaty and rich. They are so good that the day after I made them I had to start giving them away to friends so that I wouldn't eat every single cupcake! Had I known that Superman planned a surprise get-together with our closest friends for my birthday, maybe I would have kept some around! Thanks Superman for the party! And for the DQ Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard Ice Cream Cake!

Anyway, I had an idea for a recipe for the cake and had decided that it must have a white chocolate cream cheese frosting for the top but I wanted it to have more…certainly NOT because it needed it though. Then I remembered that I have this amazing 4 berry jam that my sweet friend Rebecca had canned. That was going inside! I also did another version of the same chocolate cake but with peanut butter filling and chocolate ganache on top…but you will have to wait for that post. So, for today…

The Very Best Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 pkg instant chocolate pudding

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup cocoa

1/2 cup butter, room temp

1 cup oil

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup sour cream

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. In large bowl with an electric mixer cream butter for about a minute or until smooth and kinda fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix for another minute. Continue to mix and add oil, milk, and sour cream and pudding mix. Now the eggs, one at at time, mixing very well with each addition.
 
In another mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Now slowly add it to the wet mixture.  Mix for a good 2 minutes then fold in the mini chocolate chips.

I usually make cupcakes (makes 36) but I suppose you could make a couple 9” cakes or a 9X13 cake. Grease or spray the muffin tins. I use an ice cream scoop to measure the batter for the muffin tins and they come out perfect.  Bake for 25 - 30 minutes for cupcakes.  Or until the toothpick comes out clean. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN BEFORE 25 MINUTES!
Let them cool completely.

For the filling I just took a paring knife and cut a small cone shape out of each cupcake and filled it with a tablespoon of my friend Rebecca’s 4 berry Jam. You can use any strawberry or raspberry jam.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

3 ounces of white chocolate

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 Tbl heavy cream

In a small microwaveable bowl, melt chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. You shouldn’t need to exceed 1 min but if you need I definitely wouldn’t go longer than 1 min 30 seconds. Stir until smooth and then set aside to cool.

In a bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in the white chocolate, heavy cream and vanilla. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is fluffy and creamy.

Spread or pipe over the cupcakes.

Eat one right away and then give the rest to people you love, so that you won’t eat the whole batch! 

PS. Sorry, I warned you about the pictures...I know they are not the best! 

Warmly,
Mary