Margarita Cupcakes

It's been a few months since I posted on here, I know. I just haven't felt like it. It was a busy end of winter/start of spring, and when I had some free time, I didn't want to spend it blogging. But, I have had this photo and recipe in my "to-blog" file since I started this thing, with the intention of saving it until Cinco de Mayo came around. Well, Cinco de Mayo is a week from today, so I couldn't be lazy any longer. If you're having a Cinco de Mayo party this weekend, or just feel like making delicious cupcakes, look no further. I've made these cupcakes a number of times over the years, and they're a hit every time.

As much as I love baking, I can be pretty lazy about it. So recipes like this, that start with a cake mix and save me from measuring flour, sugar, baking powder, etc. are my favorite. Preservatives be damned. This is a recipe with alcohol in it, so I'm not about being healthy at this moment! Though there is alcohol in the cake batter, the alcohol bakes out and the frosting is nonalcoholic, so these are safe for kids to eat. But, do you really want to share them?

Margarita Cupcakes
Recipe from Recipe Girl
 

Cake Ingredients
9 oz. bottled margarita mix
3 oz. tequila
3/4 oz. Grand Marnier (or Triple Sec if you're on a budget)
1 (18.25 oz.) box white cake mix
3 large egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp lime zest

Lime Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
1 cup butter, at room temperature
5 to 6 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp lime zest
green food coloring, if desired

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350° and line two 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners.

Whisk together the margarita mix, tequila and Grand Marnier in a small bowl. Measure out 1 1/4 cups for the recipe; the rest can be poured over ice to drink while you bake!

In a large bowl, blend cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, lime zest and the reserved 1 1/4 cups of the margarita. Blend on low for about 30 seconds and then increase speed to medium and blend for two additional minutes. Batter may be slightly lumpy.

Spoon the batter into cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 min, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pans, then remove them to a rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:
Place the butter in a large bowl and beat with electric mixer until butter is fluffy. Add 5 cups of powdered sugar, salt, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix until thick and creamy. If necessary, add more powdered sugar until the frosting is at the desired consistency for spreading or piping. Mix in a tiny amount of green food coloring - just a couple of drops will do it - you want it to be a pale green, not St. Patrick's Day green! Once cupcakes are completely cooled, spread or pipe the frosting on and serve.

 

No-Bake Energy Bites

Well, we've reached the point in the year when people's New Year's resolutions to eat better have started to waver. Right? No? Hmm. Maybe that's just me then. That's why these energy bites are the perfect snack. They're sweet and will serve as a dessert, but without completely blowing your diet. They have good-for-you ingredients in them, including chia seeds, which appear to be the super food of 2014. I'll admit, I've fallen for it and I add chia seeds to my smoothies every morning and have pinned a whole bunch of recipes with chia seeds on Pinterest. I have no idea if they're doing anything for me, but I like to think they are.

I made these bites pretty small, because I like to be able to have a couple of them without feeling guilty. I got about 30 bites out of the batch with them being at or just under an inch each. I kept them in the refrigerator because that's what the recipe I worked off of said to do, but just a warning, I think that makes them a little crumbly. With almost every one, they started to crumble a bit after the first bite. This could be solved by popping the whole thing in your mouth, but I annoyingly nibbled on them to make them last longer!

Important note here - when I say use ground flax seed, do what I say. Don't be like me and figure that to save money, you'll grind your own flax seeds that you already have at home. Do you know how long it takes to grind flax seeds into 1/2 cup of ground seeds? I do. It takes one hour. I started grinding them in the kitchen standing over the counter and quickly realized how long it was going to take. So I moved into the living room and watched an entire episode of Chopped while grinding the seeds. Granted, I did have to take a few very short breaks because my hands were cramping up (sad, I know) but it took a really long time. Don't be like me. Buy your flax seed already ground!

No-Bake Energy Bites
Recipe from Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients
1 cup old-fashioned oats (quick cooking oats would work fine too)
2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes*
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup maple syrup (you could also use honey)
1 Tbsp. chia seeds
1 tsp. vanilla extract

*To toast the coconut, spread the flakes in a single layer in a skillet and cook, stirring frequently, over medium-low heat until the flakes begin to turn golden brown.

Directions 

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to a week.

Chocolate Cherry Promises

 

If you're looking for a perfect treat for Valentine's Day next week, look no further. I made these back in December, so the Dove Promises available at that time had snowflakes on them, but in stores now, you can get heart-shaped Dove Promises. The hearts, coupled with the pink and red colors in these cookies, would scream Valentine's Day, whether you need something for your own loved one, to send into the classroom with your child, or to drown your own sorrows in. I don't judge.

These are basically a shortbread-like base, trashed up with chopped up maraschino cherries and cherry juice. The chocolates (I prefer milk chocolate here) are the perfect finishing touch. You could certainly use Hershey's Kisses too, which is actually what the original recipe called for, but I like the seasonal touch, plus these are easier to stack if you need to take them somewhere. And, I just really adore Dove chocolate more than any other brand! If you need to take these somewhere shortly after making them, you might want to stick them in the fridge to cool. The heat from the cookies makes the chocolate very soft and while it will hold its shape if left alone and allowed to harden up again, if you touch or try to stack them too soon, the chocolate will completely melt and blob all over.

Chocolate Cherry Promises
Recipe from The Curvy Carrot

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, softened, but still slightly cool
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp maraschino cherry juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling the cookies (optional)
36 Dove Promises (or other chocolate candies), unwrapped

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to the lowest setting and slowly add the powdered sugar and salt. Add the cherry juice and the almond extract until combined. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Increase the mixer speed to medium and add the cherries.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and place the balls on a baking sheet, approximately 2 inches apart. If you'd like a little extra sweetness you can either sprinkle sugar on top of the balls or roll them in sugar. Bake the cookies until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 14 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, press a chocolate candy into each cookie’s center. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
 

Nana's Crescent Cookies

Today is my dad's birthday. I'm not sure he's ever read this blog, but I'll give him a shout-out anyway. Happy Birthday, Dad! Five or six years ago, I found out that his favorite cookies are these crescents that my grandmother used to make many years ago. So I got the recipe from my aunt and have made these cookies and mailed them to him for his birthday every year since. He's not one to ever want gifts, so this is a nice, somewhat sentimental way to let him know I'm thinking of him.

These cookies are very similar to what you might know as Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes or any number of other names, but in my family, they're simply called Nana's Crescent Cookies. Of course she had to be difficult and make the cookies into a crescent shape rather than a much easier ball/circle. Even after all these years, I still have not perfected the crescent shape all that well, but I don't think my dad minds too much!

The tricky part about these cookies is getting them at the right temperature before rolling them in the powdered sugar. If they're completely cool, the sugar doesn't always stick as well. If they're too warm, the sugar sort of melts into the cookie, almost disappearing and making them a bit sticky. This is nearly always the trap I fall into, and I find myself having to roll them in the sugar a second time, after they've cooled a little more, to coat them and cut down the stickiness. One of these years, I'll get it right. But until then, my dad's worth the extra work!

Nana's Crescent Cookies

2 sticks butter, softened
5 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp water
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 cups pecans, finely chopped
Powdered sugar, for rolling (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter in a mixing bowl until fluffy and then add sugar and mix until combined. Add vanilla and water and mix well. On low speed, add salt and flour and mix until it's all incorporated. Stir in chopped pecan pieces.

Form into crescents (or balls if you don't have tradition standing in your way!) and bake for about 20 minutes until the bottoms and edges are starting to brown. I scooped about a one inch ball of dough to make each of my crescents and got almost 50 cookies out of the batch.

Allow cookies to cool a bit and while still slightly warm but easy to handle, roll in powdered sugar and move to a rack to finish cooling completely. If necessary, roll them in the powdered sugar again once totally cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

Chocolate chip cookies that you don't even have to scoop or shape into individual balls? And that contain no egg, so you can safely eat the raw dough? Doesn't get much better than that! I'd be willing to bet that at this moment, you likely have all the ingredients you need to make this, which is equal parts awesome and dangerous. That's how I settled on making these. I had pinned the recipe a couple of years ago, but never got around to making it until this past New Year's Eve. I needed to bring a dessert to a party I was going to, but I was in the midst of my do-nothing-but-watch-Sons-of-Anarchy multi-day stretch and I really really really didn't want to go to the grocery store. So as I was skimming my Pinterest boards for inspiration, this looked like the best option that would allow me to avoid leaving my house until it was time to go to the party. Sometimes my laziness works out, because these were so good and I'm glad I finally made them!

A word of warning to you - you might want to use a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with sides. All of my cookie sheets have perfectly flat edges and while, without eggs or leavening ingredients, the dough didn't spread TOO much, it spread just enough for a little bit of it to drop over the side and burn onto the bottom of my oven. So I am now greeted with a burning smell and a bit of smoke every time I use my oven. Yes, I should clean it. But please see the above paragraph about my extreme laziness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Recipe adapted only slightly from Piece of Cake

1 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit2 tsp pure vanilla extract1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the melted butter into a large bowl, and stir in the vanilla. Add the sugar, salt and flour and mix to combine - no electric mixer needed! The mixture might be a little crumbly, but that's ok. Stir in the chocolate chips. Press the dough into a thin, even layer onto a large ungreased cookie sheet. You don't have to fill the entire sheet - use the chocolate chips as your guide and try to get them into a single layer, then you'll know you made the dough thin enough.

Bake for 20 - 24 minutes, until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center). Let cool completely before breaking into pieces. I used a pizza wheel to cut it up and it just sort of cracked naturally into different size pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Hershey Kiss Pies

 

I kind of screwed up with this one, because I forgot to take a few neater, more presentable photos of the finished product. I made these in the middle of a three-day Christmas baking spree, on a very snowy Saturday when my friends and I were trying to decide the wisdom of venturing out in the bad weather to go to our favorite Christmas party of the season. So I wasn't quite focused and have to apologize that the above picture is all I have to show you!

These are really simple (only TWO real ingredients!) and pretty delicious, though they do take a bit of practice and care to avoid exploding pies like you see a few of in the photo above. It's really important to properly pinch together and seal all of the dough, or they won't stay together once the crust begins to expand as it bakes. It's fine if they open a little (they likely will) but you want to avoid them completely opening up like that one at the top. Here's what they look like before they bake:

You can use any flavor of Hershey Kisses that you'd like. I went with the Mint Truffle Kisses since I was bringing them to a Christmas party, but any other variety, or the good old originals, would be delicious. I got 13 or 14 pies out of each crust, so I used both crusts that came in the package to make enough to bring to the party. Good thing I did too, after some of them were too much of a mess to bring anywhere!

Hershey Kiss Pies
Recipe from Picky Palate

2 refrigerated pie crusts, thawed
28 Hershey Kisses, any flavor
1 egg white
Granulated sugar for sprinkling before baking

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unroll pie dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass to cut circles around the pie crust. The circles should be about 3 inches in diameter. Place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each circle. Fold half of the pie dough around the top of the Kiss and pinch the edges together. Bring the remaining sides up to the top of the Kiss as well, and pinch all sides together to make little pouches like in the second photo above.  Reroll the scraps of pie crust to get a few more pies out of the first crust, and repeat with the second crust.

Whisk the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush all of the pies with the egg white wash, then sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Bake for 20 - 24 minutes or until the pies are golden.  Remove and let cool.

Cake Batter Blondies with Marshmallow Buttercream

For anyone who knows me, it's no secret that I love frosting. Love it. I can't get enough. So when I saw these on Cookies and Cups, with a new kind of buttercream (marshmallow!) I knew I had to try them. I actually made these a long time ago, well over a year I think, but I remember well how good they were. And with the gorgeous Tiffany-blue frosting, they look as great as they taste.

Cake Batter Blondies with Marshmallow Buttercream
Recipe from Cookies and Cups

Ingredients:
Blondies: 
1 box vanilla cake mix (I used Funfetti)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini marshmallows 

Frosting: 
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup Marshmallow Fluff
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk 
Food coloring, if desired

Directions:
Blondies: 
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a 9×9 pan with baking spray. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, vegetable oil, egg and milk until just combined. Batter will be dense. Stir in the white chocolate chips and marshmallows until distributed evenly. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes until center is just set. Cool completely.

Frosting: 
Mix butter and Fluff on medium speed until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar with mixer on low. Add in milk and turn speed up to medium and mix until all combined and smooth. Add food coloring, if desired, just a few drops at a time until the intended shade is reached. Spread the frosting over the cooled blondies, and top with sprinkles.


 

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie

You might have noticed I've been MIA on this blog for the last week or so. I was in Boston for work all of last weekend and it was such an exhausting trip that I think it broke me a little bit. I have been SO tired all week, and when I've been able to just come home after work, I've done nothing but lay on the couch and catch up on TV. I just haven't had the energy for blogging. But I'm back, and with a really yummy dessert to make up for it!

For my friend Maria's birthday, I knew I wanted to make something with chocolate and peanut butter. It also needed to be something relatively easy, because my schedule the week that I made it only allowed me a little bit of time late one night after a work dinner in New York City to make it. I scoured the internet and the resulting dessert is a combination of a number of different recipes from which I took some ideas here and there. I ended up with a very rich (seriously, make sure you have milk on hand) and very delicious treat, if I do say so myself.

A few items to note:
1. On top of the crust and drizzled over the top, I actually used Pampered Chef's chocolate peanut butter sauce. However I realize not everyone may be able to get their hands on that when needed (unless you want to order it from me!), so I wrote the recipe with hot fudge and I think that would be just as delicious.
2. Make sure you crush up your pretzel pieces really well. It was late and I was lazy and I had a few chunks in there that were really too big, and I think made the crust harder to cut.
3. I made this in a springform pan, so that's how I wrote the recipe, but I think it would work equally well in a pie plate or square baking dish. It just might be a little harder to slice and remove from the dish.
4. I made this as a frozen dessert because that seemed to be the direction a lot of people take with their peanut butter pies. However, I think it could easily be stored in the fridge rather than the freezer, and it would be a lot easier to slice than this was!
5. I used whipped cream from a can to make the decorations on top because, as I said, I needed a quick solution. However, after sitting at room temperature for just a short time, the fancy flourishes sort of melted and lost their shape a bit. I might recommend making homemade whipped cream, which can be a little more stable.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 stick butter, very soft
2 cups crushed pretzels
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Pie:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup Cool Whip, thawed
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp hot fudge
Whipped cream, for decorating
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis (the kind that come unwrapped), for decorating (I used 22)

Directions:
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix the softened butter, crushed pretzels, and brown sugar together until well combined. Press the mixture onto the bottom and about an inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan.  Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then put in refrigerator or freezer to harden and  finish setting up.

Pie:
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix well. Gently fold in the Cool Whip until fully combined and no white streaks remain.

Spread 1/3 cup of hot fudge (you might want to soften it slightly in the microwave to make it easier to spread) onto the pretzel crust. If you have time, you could put this in the refrigerator for a few minutes to set up slightly. If not, just carefully add the peanut butter/cream cheese mixture over the hot fudge and spread gently to even out the top. Put in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 4 hours. If you do freeze the pie, let it sit out for about 15 - 20 minutes before serving to make it easier to cut.

Just before serving, slightly melt the remaining 2 Tbsp of hot fudge in the microwave. Add it to a small sandwich bag and cut a small piece off the corner of the bag. Drizzle the hot fudge over the top of the pie, creating any pattern you choose. Add whipped cream flourishes around the edge, and top with mini Reese's peanut butter cups.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Sometimes the things I cook or bake are just meant to be. On the day after I made my Slow Cooker Pumpkin Oatmeal, I felt like baking something and thought a pumpkin cookie of some sort would be just the thing. I searched a number of recipes and finally found one that called for one cup of pumpkin puree, the exact amount I had left after the oatmeal. It was pumpkin destiny. Even more perfect was that I still had some Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting left in the fridge from my Apple Spice Cupcakes. I had a feeling that frosting would go very well with these pumpkin cookies.

So I scooped out a dozen balls of cookie dough just as is, with the intention of frosting them once cool. I then added some chocolate chips, about half a cup or so, to the rest of the dough to make some chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Two different cookies, one base recipe. So quick and easy, and so delicious. The pumpkin makes the cookies very soft and moist. I hate the word "moist" but it's really the best word to describe these cookies! If kept in an airtight container, the cookies stay very soft and in fact get even softer over time. If you prefer a more dense cookie, I would probably just keep them on a plate wrapped in foil.

These cookies (and the frosting) freeze very well. I made the cookies over two weeks ago, and I am eating a frosted one as I type this. I let it sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes to thaw and it's just as delicious as it was the first night I made them.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients 
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or use 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate chips, optional (I would use a cup of chips if adding chocolate to the whole batch)

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside. 

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips, if using. Portion out onto cookie sheets. I used a two tablespoon cookie scoop and got about 30 cookies out of the recipe.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, then allow to cool completely. If adding frosting, wait until cookies are cool to do so.


Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting
Recipe from My Kitchen Addiction

Ingredients

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf1 cup (two sticks) brown butter*

2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla 
6 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk (I needed slightly more to get it to the right consistency)

*To make brown butter, add two sticks of butter to a saucepan over low to medium-low heat. Allow butter to melt and cook, stirring frequently, until it turns an amber color and develops an almost-nutty fragrance. Keep a close eye on it - it can go from brown to burnt very quickly! Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Directions:
Pour the brown butter into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add cinnamon and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar until it is incorporated. Add the milk in as needed to allow the frosting to come to a smooth consistency suitable for spreading or piping. 

S'more Cake

This cake was far more awesome than you might think based on the photo alone. What you don't see is the warm, rich chocolate cake underneath, or how melty and gorgeous the toasted marshmallows were after coming out from under the broiler. It's a S'more Cake, which was one of two cakes I made for my friend Colleen's 30th birthday celebrations. She loves s'mores just as much as (maybe more than?) she loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, so they were the perfect two cakes to make. In case you missed it, check out the other cake here.

Now, I have no intention of turning this blog into a constant plug for my Pampered Chef business, but when I encounter a product that I love or that changes my cooking life, I need to rave about it, no matter who makes it. This cake was made in my new Pampered Chef Rockcrok, which is an amazing product that can be used in the microwave, on the stove, on the grill, in the oven, and under the broiler. You'll see below that this cake, made in this pot alone, started in the microwave and finished under the broiler. I don't know of many cooking vessels that can handle that, and that's why I'm so excited about this! Clean up was a breeze too, which is always a bonus!

S'more Cake
Recipe from Pampered Chef

Ingredients: 
3 milk chocolate Hershey bars (1.55 oz each), broken into squares
1 small package (9 oz) devil’s food cake or 1 and 2/3 cups from a regular-size package
1 egg
8 oz. sour cream
1 bag regular-size marshmallows or 4 cups mini marshmallows
3 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces

Directions: 
Place oven rack in middle of oven; preheat broiler.  

Combine cake mix, egg and sour cream in large bowl; mix until blended. Pour batter into Rockcrok™  Everyday Pan or Rockcrok™ Dutch Oven. Microwave, covered, on HIGH 4-5 minutes or until center of cake is firm and springs back when pressed. (It took 5 minutes in my microwave.) Remove pan from microwave; arrange marshmallows in an even layer over cake. Broil 30-60 seconds or until marshmallows are golden brown.  

Meanwhile, microwave chocolate in small bowl on HIGH 30-60 seconds or until mostly melted. Stir until smooth.

Remove cake from under broiler; sprinkle with graham crackers and drizzle with melted chocolate. Serve warm.

The cake seriously taste like a ginormous s'more, just as I hoped. And I can't hate a cake that comes together from start to finish in less than 10 minutes!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake

I sort of feel like I'm cheating by sharing this cake. It can barely count as a recipe considering the actual cake part was made with a box mix! But it was delicious, and a really easy option for a birthday cake that's not hard to make but still looks pretty cool.

I made this for my good friend Colleen's birthday. She turned 30, not 8, but loves, I mean LOVES, the Minions from Despicable Me. So when I saw those plates and napkins and tablecloth in Party City a few months ago, I had to buy them in preparation for her big day. 

Even if I use a cake mix for a recipe, I usually like to doctor it up a bit with sour cream, or pudding mix, or vanilla (usually all three!) but this cake needed to be done in a pinch after a very busy weekend with a family wedding and a family birthday party three hours and two states away from each other! So this time I just mixed up the cake mix per the box instructions and baked them as directed for two 8-inch rounds. I'm not ashamed to say that I LOVE box mix baked goods, so it tasted delicious to me!

Once the cakes were cooled enough to be removed from the pans, I moved them to a wire rack and then lined one of the pans with plastic wrap. I then packed softened mint chocolate chip ice cream into the pan, all the way to the rim, and smoothed it over. I covered the top with plastic wrap and put it back in the freezer to harden up.

Then I made a ganache to go on top:

Mint Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
20 Andes candies
1/4 cup half & half

Directions:
Combine candies and half & half in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until candies are melted and no white streaks from the half & half or mint centers remain. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

When I was ready to assemble the cake, I stacked the cake layers with the ice cream in between, using the plastic wrap to carefully remove the ice cream from the pan. If your cake layers domed up a bit while baking, you might want to level out the tops by carefully slicing the domed parts off with a large serrated knife to allow the layers to stack more evenly.

I carefully spooned the cooled ganache over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. I stuck the cake in the freezer for about 15 minutes to let it harden up, and then garnished the cake with some more Andes candies, cut in half diagonally to form long triangles. I tried sticking the candies on top right away, but until the ganache hardened a bit, the candies wouldn't stay upright.

If you're not ready to serve the cake right away, store it in the freezer until about 10 minutes before you're ready to eat it. Let it sit out for a little bit to soften up and make it easier to cut, then enjoy!

As an extra fun little tidbit to go with the Despicable Me theme (I LOVE a good theme!), I asked my friend Colleen (not the birthday girl; a different Colleen!) to make a special Minion card I had seen in her Etsy shop, Glitter Ink. She is a seriously talented card maker - check her out if you're looking to send someone a more personal touch!

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting

I love cake. Specifically, I love cake as a vehicle for frosting. And this frosting, in my opinion, is in the Top 5 most delicious creations to ever come out of my kitchen. It. is. phenomenal. I am fairly obsessed with brown butter and have used it in pasta sauces, cookie icings, and even Thanksgiving stuffing before, but never in frosting. I don't know what on earth I was waiting for.

In case the little football picks didn't give it away, this was my other contribution to my tailgating outing this past weekend. People had already signed up for cookies and brownies, so I wanted to come up with something different. Something fall-like that would fit the lovely almost-fall day. I decided on apple and did a Google search for an apple spice cupcake. I found this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and it sounded like a winner. Then I needed a frosting. Normally I would have jumped on the salted caramel pairing she had, but I wanted something a little more in the cinnamon family to play up the apples. A lot of cinnamon frosting recipes I found used cream cheese, but because these would be unrefrigerated for hours, and I'm kind of a freak about that kind of thing, cream cheese was a no-go. Finally I came upon this cinnamon brown butter frosting from My Kitchen Addiction and I was sold. 

The best part is, I had a good bit of frosting left after decorating all of the cupcakes. I may or may not have dipped into the frosting container with a spoon multiple times over the past few days. It's just SO good.

Apple Spice Cupcakes
Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction
Makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk 
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 small apples, chopped into fine pieces, about 1.5 cups (I used Granny Smith)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with baking cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, sugars, milk, and vanilla until completely combined. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Gradually add in the wet ingredients and stir until just combined, being careful not to over-mix. Slowly stir in the apples.

Fill each baking cup about 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.


Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting
Recipe from My Kitchen Addiction

Ingredients: 

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf

1 cup (two sticks) brown butter*
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla 
6 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk (I needed slightly more to get it to the right consistency)

*To make brown butter, add two sticks of butter to a saucepan over low to medium-low heat. Allow butter to melt and cook, stirring frequently, until it turns an amber color and develops an almost-nutty fragrance. Keep a close eye on it - it can go from brown to burnt very quickly! Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Directions:
Pour the brown butter into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add cinnamon and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar until it is incorporated. Add the milk in as needed to allow the frosting to come to a smooth consistency suitable for spreading or piping. 

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf