The Parent Trap

Okay so have you seen the movie "The Parent Trap" but the one with Lindsay Lohan? Of course you have! Who hasn't? But I doubt you remember when she first meets her twin and they are at that camp and they go in the cabin and pull out an outrageous sounding snack that they both just so happen to love! Well... I remember that part. And that outrageous sounding snack is super delicious! That outrageous sounding snack is oreo cookies dipped in peanut butter. So... I made oreo cookie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. A-mazing! The cupcakes are super moist, they aren't the chocolatey-est thing in the world but they are just chocolatey enough, not too sweet but sweet enough. Super soft. PERFECT.  The frosting is pretty heavenly as well!
(Makes like a ba-zillion* cupcakes! so you might want to cut the recipe in half if you don't need a ba-zillion!) *ba-zillion= 36 regular cupcakes AND 36 mini cupcakes!

Cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups canola oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed, extra-strong hot coffee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups crushed oreo cookies. I used the mini's and saved some for garnishing.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners.
2. Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low to combine. Keeping the mixer on low , add oil, buttermilk, then eggs one at a time. Add hot coffee in a thin stream, pouring down the side of the bowl.  Batter will be very thin. Add vanilla and mix until batter is smooth. Stir in oreo cookies. Divide batter into pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool in pans for at least 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 package (8oz) cream cheese
2 sticks butter
6 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter

Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add Vanilla. Add powdered sugar, cup by cup, beating well between each cup. Add peanut butter and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Tahitian Vanilla

For this recipe, I used the same vanilla cupcake recipe I posted previously but instead of Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract I used Tahitian vanilla extract as well as the paste like I did before. I actually made a double batch of these because we had a farewell pot luck party to go to and I had an order for vanilla cupcakes for a dr. suess themed party. For the dr. suess cupcakes I used a vanilla buttercream and for the farewell party I used a lemon cream cheese frosting. And this frosting was lick-the-bowl good. In fact it was lick-the-bowl-the-spatula-and-the-pastry-bag good!! I'm pretty sure the recipe I gave is what I threw in there. Try it! and enjoy!

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8oz.) Package cream cheese
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 to 1 1/2 pounds confectioners sugar
wiltons pink food color gel (optional of course)

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add extracts and zest and beat until incorporated. Slowly add confectioners sugar until consistency desired is achieved then continue to beat for about 5 more minutes or until light and fluffy.

Enjoy!

LOVE CAKE

These cupcakes are extra moist and decadent, easy to make and easy to eat! I had the hardest time deciding what to bake yesterday, there are so many recipes I want to try! I am super glad I made these. They also got me major brownie (or should I say cupcake) points with the hubby! There is a cake at Haleiwa Joe's called the "Love Cake' that we literally order every. time. we. go. and it is really similar to this but has a raspberry sauce instead of frosting. I am glad I can recreate it when we are on a budget! And I might even venture to say that mine is better! I might. Their sauce is pretty damn good though!
Recipe adapted from joy of baking.

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) water
1/3 cup (80 ml) corn or canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream Cheese Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until creamy and smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Set aside while you make the Chocolate Cupcake batter.

Chocolate Cupcakes: In a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until nice and smooth. Evenly divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Then spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the center of each cupcake.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until the cream cheese filling is a little brown and the cupcakes feel springy to the touch (a toothpick inserted into the chocolate part of the cupcake will come out clean). Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

The cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 - 4 days.

Makes 12 large cupcakes (I doubled the recipe to make 24 because 12 is just not enough. so the frosting recipe will frost 24)

Raspberry buttercream frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 stick vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons red raspberry preserves
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 pound confectioners sugar

With your mixer beat butter and shortening until very smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add raspberry preserves until incorporated. Add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your preferred consistency. Beat until fluffy about 3 more minutes.

ENJOY!

To Die For Chocolate Brownies

FUDGE HEAVEN! These brownies are the chocolate-iest brownies ever!! They are super rich and fudgey! I used ghirardelli baking chocolate for mine... OH SNAP! DELISH!

Recipe is adapted from a food network recipe.

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 2 tablespoons canola or other neutral tasting oil
* 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
* 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
* 2 large eggs, cold
* 1/4 cup cocoa powder
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Directions

Position rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Use an 8 by 8-inch baking pan. Spray the prepared pan.

Put the butter, oil and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat at 75 percent power for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave again until completely melted, about 2 minutes more. (Alternatively put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, not touching, the water, and stir occasionally until melted and smooth.)

Stir the brown and white sugars, vanilla and salt into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and beat vigorously until fully incorporated and the batter is thick and glossy. Add the cocoa, flour and baking soda and stir just until it disappears. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake until the top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with a few crumbs, about 35 minutes.

Cool the brownies in the pan on the counter. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the brownies after completely cooled. Store extra brownies in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

I'm usually not much of a vanilla cupcake kind of girl, I'm more of a get a coma from too much chocolate kind of girl but lately I've been wanting some vanilla cupcakes. It could be because I just bought some vanilla bean paste that I've been dying to use or it could be because I might have overdosed on chocolate in the recent days but either way I made me some vanilla cupcakes. My usual go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes is magnolia bakery's vanilla but I wanted to try something new. So this recipe is Billy's Bakery's Vanilla vanilla cupcakes via 52 cupcakes. I don't know if I like it better than Magnolia's, they are pretty much equal in my book. I do however know that I added double the vanilla (1 tsp. vanilla extract PLUS 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste) in both the cupcake recipe and the frosting recipe.

Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes about 30 cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (plus the vanilla bean paste if you have it, or you might want to just put 2 tsp extract)

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Billy's Vanilla Buttercream

Colored sprinkles, for decorating (optional)
Makes enough for 30 cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Enjoy!

RAINBOW CAKE!!!

I made this cake for my mother for mothers day! It was pretty awesome I'm not going to lie. She is totally obsessed with rainbows, like totally!! So what better than to make her a rainbow cake! I got the idea from a couple of different blogs, whisk kid and I am baker and put their two ideas together just changing a couple of things and it turned out great! For this cake I made a double batch of white cake then added the following:
-Red- 1/2 cup pureed strawberries
-Orange- Two tablespoons of freshly grated orange zest and 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
-Yellow- Two tablespoons of freshly grated lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
-Green- 1/2 cup of diced kiwi
-Blue-1/2 cup of blueberries, plus a few pureed for color
-Purple- 1/2 cup of finely diced purple grapes, 1 tablespoon orange zest and 1 teaspoon orange juice
Then I added food coloring to make each color really pop!
Each cake was about 1 1/2 cups of white cake batter plus the fruit. I baked them three at a time for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I frosted the cake and between layers with a lemon cream cheese frosting:
-8 ounces cream cheese
-3 sticks butter
-1 1/2 to 2 pounds powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon lemon extract
-1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Beat butter until smooth, add cream cheese and beat about 3 minutes. Add lemon and vanilla extracts. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

All in all it took a while to blend and zest each fruit and mix in the colors to get the right color but it was so worth it!!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

So I got this recipe from just cook already, All I added was mini semi sweet chocolate chips, which I think was a necessary addition. They were super easy and quick to make. Try them!

ingredients:

1 c. soft shortening
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c. peanut butter
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. uncooked oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

directions:

Beat shortening and sugars together. Add eggs and peanut butter. Beat well. Add flour, soda, and salt. Mix well. Stir in oats. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press with fork tines. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
Enjoy!

For the Chocolate Lover!

Guittard and Ghirardelli Chocolate cupcakes and ganache with cream cheese frosting
These cupcakes are amazing!! SERIOUSLY! They are super moist! The cake itself is not too rich, surprisingly. The ganache dip makes them super chocolatey though, you can obviously skip that if you wanted but I wouldn't recommend it. And the cream cheese frosting is super vanilla-ey and makes them just right. They are to die for! In fact my husband just popped FIVE in his mouth in one sitting! The cupcake recipe is a Magnolia Bakery recipe and I just changed it a bit.

• CUPCAKES:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 7 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (see Note)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped Guittard milk chocolate

Note: To melt the chocolate, place in a double boiler over simmering water on low heat for approximately 5–10 minutes. Stir occasionally until completely smooth and no pieces of chocolate remain. Remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm 5–10 minutes. And I actually used 4 ounces unsweetened and 3 ounces semi-sweet both ghirardelli.

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.
3.In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
4.In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
5.Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Ganache:
• 1 cup chocolate (I used about 3 ounces Ghirardelli bittersweet and the rest Guittard milk chocolate)
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
In a double broiler melt the chocolate and butter together then wait about 10 minutes to cool. Dip tops of cupcakes in the ganache and let sit until hardened a bit before topping with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
Beat butter until smooth, add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Enjoy!