Oh my!

photo credit: Ina Mae Unga Taea

photo credit: Ina Mae Unga Taea

photo credit: Ina Mae Unga Taea

Oh my... I'm in love... With these cupcakes! A friend of mine, who is a fellow cupcake-aholic, found some red velvet cupcakes with chocolate chips baked in them. What a good idea I thought! Then that same friend found some red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese swirl baked in them, wow! That's also a great idea! So my genius idea was to combine the two! So here we have red velvet cupcakes with a baked in cream cheese and chocolate chip center topped off with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.
For the red velvet cake I used this recipe. That was my first ever blog post! Haha. It's a slight adaption from Paula Deen's recipe.

For the filling:
1 8ounce package of cream cheese
1 egg
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 heaping cup semisweet chocolate chips

Beat cream cheese till smooth, add egg then powdered sugar and beat till smooth again then add chocolate chips.

Preparation:
Fill cupcake liners about 1/4 full with red velvet batter then add about a tablespoon full of cream cheese chocolate chip mixture to each cupcake and top with more red velvet batter to make each cupcake liner about 3/4 full or a little more. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

1 8 ounce package cream cheese
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-6 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth, add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar, beating well, until desired consistency is reached. Continue to feat until fluffy about 2-3 minutes.

S'mores Bars

A bunch of my friends have been having bon fires and making S'mores all summer long which made me really really jealous! I've been dying to have a bon fire, pretty much for s'mores alone but it didn't happen and I couldn't wait any longer! I have had this recipe bookmarked for quite some time now from "the girl who ate everything" and I've been dying to try it! Definitely a success!! I can't wait to make them again! The graham cracker crust is so good, like a soft warm cookie and then obviously the filling is great! I actually used semi sweet chocolate chips instead of the chocolate bars just because it was what I had on hand. Anyways you should try these! super easy and de-lish!

Smores Bars

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized Hershey's milk chocolate bars
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (7 1/2 oz jar)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. This part can be tricky. I made little disks with the dough and formed them into a sheet on some parchment paper then transferred it over. Spread it around gently.

4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.