Baby Shower Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my sweet friend, Susan, who was helping host a baby shower at her school.   The mom-to-be loved white cupcakes, so we went with half white cupcakes and then half of the BEST chocolate cupcakes, which I made earlier this weekend.  I am STILL searching for the ultimate white cupcake recipe, I've got two I still want to try so until then these from my Aunt Betty's recipe box will have to do.  *wink*wink*

The BEST Chocolate Cupcake

So, I asked on facebook how to get moist cupcakes...

My AMAZING fans delivered!

I got LOTS of advice and even a recipe suggestion from 

She's {kinda} Crafty 

which I decided I MUST try...I mean it does say it's the BEST in the recipe!

 I'm not exactly a chocolate cake fan...

Don't get me wrong, I'll eat it, but I'm not sure it'd be my first choice.

But these cupcakes...YUM.

Taking suggestions from Allyson Jane, an AMAZING cookie artist, and my friend Christie, who is super creative and throws beautiful parties, like this ONE, I decided to do a little experiment.  After baking my cupcakes, I took one pan and stuck them directly in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  The other pan, I just left out on the cooling rack.  I had my taste tester hubby try both of them.  First up, the non-freezer ones.  Verdict...YUM.  Then he tried the ones that went straight to the freezer.  When frosting them, I immediately noticed they felt quite a bit heavier than the other cupcakes.  Verdict...SUPER YUM.  They were both moist, YIPEEEE... but the freezer ones were even more moist!  I actually tried a non-freezer one and thought they were delicious.  Topped with yummy buttercream frosting and mini chocolate chips swirled inside, these are sinful chocolate cupcakes.

I wanted to get a shot of the inside, so you can see that it WAS moist, but since I had already eaten one, I just used Jillian's.  All she likes is the frosting anyways, so excuse the licked off frosting and just admire the MOIST center.  It made a very delicious supper.  

Hold on...someone's calling me...

Oh, it's just my treadmill.

Thank you Kevin & Amanda for sharing an AMAZING recipe!!!

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix *I used devil's food pudding
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.
*Mine baked for 20 minutes and were good.

Basic Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
   
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition, about 5 minutes. (After every 2 additions, increase speed to high, and beat for 10 seconds, then reduce speed to medium-high). Add vanilla, and beat until buttercream is smooth. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)
   

Reese's PB Chocolate Cupcakes

My mother-in-law requested cupcakes for one of her co-workers turning the Big 4-0 so I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes, but then for a little twist I plopped a Reese's peanut butter cup in the batter right before baking.  {Not the regular size Reese's and not the NEW super mini size, but a medium size Reese's.}  Then I topped it off with my yummy peanut butter cream cheese frosting and they turned out pretty yummy.  Since I had enough batter leftover to make another dozen, I tried folding in some Reese's peanut butter chips instead of the peanut butter cup, and dang if they didn't all sink to the bottom.  Even after I tossed them in flour.  Oh, well, they still got eaten.  :)

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = ♥

{Reese's Pieces Chocolate Cupcake}

So, after our New Orleans trip, I've been dying to make this Reese's Pieces cupcake that I had at the Kupcake Factory. It's sooooooooooooo good! It's a chocolate cupcake topped with a peanut butter buttercream frosting, and rolled in crushed Reese's Pieces. Oh.My.Goodness. YuM! I just used Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe and topped it with peanut butter frosting, which is basically vanilla buttercream, minus the vanilla, add 3/4 C. - 1 C. of creamy peanut butter and mix it up. So good! I tried Martha's peanut butter frosting first, which had cream cheese in it..... NOT a hit. Quite disappointing actually, a tad salty for my taste. {I like my frosting SWEET!} Then you just grind up some Reese's Pieces and you have a very dangerous cupcake on your hands.

{Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcake}

I'm pretty sure these are at the top of TJ's favorite cupcake list. And they couldn't be easier to make! So simple. I got the recipe here. All it takes is a Reese's peanut butter cup and a bag mix of peanut butter cookies. Drop a Reese's PB cup in the cupcake liner, top with about 2 Tbsp. of cookie dough mix, bake at 325* for 15-20 minutes and wah-lah. Then I topped it with a white chocolate buttercream and it is DE-LISH.

Thanksgiving Treats News Segment

{Oreo Turkeys}

I first started making Oreo Turkeys when I taught 2nd grade at South Euless Elementary School down in Texas, so I know they are kid friendly. My BFF, Jennifer, taught me how to make them. These are modified just a little bit from my teaching days, but they are pretty easy to whip up. They do take a little bit of time because you have to let the oreos set up so they won't topple over, but if you go here, they'll give you a tutorial on how to make ones very similar to these ones. A BIG thank you to my sweet friend, Kristen, for making these for me during our bake fest trying to get all of these goodies together for the segment!!! She did an AWESOME job!

{ Sugar Cookie Pumpkin Pie}

I got these adorable printable cupcake toppers from Amanda Parker over at Shindig Parties. I got them for being a Facebook fan. Go check out her blog, her stuff is AMAZING and UBBER CUTE!!!

These Fudge Stripe Cookies topped with a chocolate dipped marshmallow are also from the same site as the Oreo Turkeys. SUPER EASY!

And here are my Martha Stewart Turkey cupcakes I demonstrated on the news. SO cute. I used Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and they turned out VERY YUMMY! To make the turkeys, here's a link to Martha's recipe HERE. Some advice... the recipe says to cut a gummy fish in half and insert it into the marshmallow for the beak. What they don't tell you is that you can't just "stick" a fish into a marshmallow and expect it to stick. I used my kitchen scissors and made a little snip and then inserted the gummy fish. Well, then they started falling out after a few minutes, so I stuck a toothpick up and through it to hold it in place and that worked much better. You need to do the same thing running a toothpick up and through the fish for the feathers or else they'll fall out, too, and completely ruin one side of your cupcake breaking apart your cupcake. So, toothpicks will save the day on these cupcakes! (Just make sure to warn your guests!) Toasting the coconut was really easy, too. Just bake at 350* for about 1o minutes, and it's brown and toasty. These will make a cute addition to all of your Thanksgiving goodies this week!

***For those of you not in my viewing area, here's the link to my news segment I did tonight!***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sLxdARNUNg