Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been trying to find a great red velvet recipe since about last May, when we had some wonderful red velvet cake at Claim Jumper for Jared's birthday. I probably tried 2 or 3 recipes last Fall and each one was a bigger flop than the next. I was seriously depressed and felt like a major failure for a couple weeks. Dacia was here last week and we decided to attempt them one last time for Valentine's. We each tried a different recipe... I tried another new recipe from scratch, and Dacia tried a kicked up box mix recipe that we found on Picky Palate.
The verdict: although mine finally turned out and tasted good enough, we both preferred the box mix. So there you have it. We apparently have completely uncultured taste. But after struggling so hard to even find a red velvet recipe that works, I'll stick with this box mix from here on out. At least you know you can't foul them up.

We topped these with the best cream cheese frosting I've ever made and these little cupcakes were seriously delicious. We wanted to make them extra fancy for Valentine's and Dacia had a stroke of genius to make cute little chocolate hearts to go on top and I think they may be the cutest cupcakes I have ever made. The little hearts on top were seriously easy and I can't wait to try different pictures for cupcake toppers. They were just so cute!

Anyways, here's a great little cupcake for Valentine's!

Cupcakes:
1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
8 oz. sour cream (I was out and substituted plain yogurt with no problem)
1 small box instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1-2 Tbsp. red food coloring, optional (without it, you won't get a very deep red for your cupcakes, which may or may not be a big deal to you)

This frosting is seriously yummy. And I'm not a frosting kind of girl. But a word of warning... this makes a TON. If you're only planning on using it to frost these cupcakes, you can easily halve it. And looking at the ingredients list is seriously scary... these aren't for the health conscious!

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, slightly softened (2 1/2, 8 oz. packages)
1 lb. butter (the entire 4 sticks, my friends...)
2 lb. powdered sugar, sifted (yes, that's an entire large bag...)
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Mix the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add the sugar and mix until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and a pinch of salt.

For Chocolate Hearts:

Candy Melts in desired colors (we used red and chocolate-- you can find them at Jo-Ann's, Michaels, Wal-Mart, even party supply stores)
wax paper
Piping bag or ziploc bag

Melt candy hearts either in microwave, stovetop, or I always melt them in the oven. I put them in an oven proof bowl, set the oven to very low (either the warm setting or 200) and let them melt slowly. I find that they stay the right texture longer when I melt them slowly.

Fill a piping bag, or sturdy ziploc bag with melted chocolate. Snip the bottom corner of your ziploc bag and trace heart shapes onto waxed paper. Dacia drew hearts on her paper first with a pen, and then flipped it over, to use as a template. But once she got about halfway through, she realized she could draw a heart free-handed just fine. Allow your outlines to set.

Fill another piping bag or ziploc bag with your other color and fill in your heart shapes. I used the tip of a baby spoon and toothpick to fill in all the corners. Again let that set, and then remove. Voila! You have adorable, perfect little heart toppers.

Cookie Dough Topped Brownies

Yeah. You read that right. Cookie dough. And brownies. Can you imagine anything better? OK, maybe cheesecake... but that's about it. We're talking gooey fudgey brownies, topped with chocolate chip cookie dough. Good stuff. I found this recipe at My Kitchen Cafe. Dacia and I made them while she was here and we both agreed this recipe was a winner. It definitely gets better after sitting in the fridge for a little while, though. The cookie dough firms up and then the bars are just perfect.

Brownie Layer:

1 12 oz. bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and chocolate chips, either in a medium saucepan over low heat or in the microwave. I did it in the microwave because I'm lazy like that.

2. Once the chocolate chips are fully melted, remove from heat, and blend in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, fully blending before each new egg is added.

3. Add flour and salt and beat until air bubbles form in the batter.

4. Pour in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 325 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes.

5. Cool completely and then top with cookie dough layer.

Cookie Dough Layer:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

pinch of salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. In a small bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Drop by tablespoons over fully cooled brownies. Carefully spread over the top. (This can be tricky and the best way to do it to slightly wet your hands and pat the dough down so it doesn't pull up the brownies. Or if you didn't let your brownies cool enough, it'll get super runny and spread easily... not the best way to do it! ;)

Store finished brownies in the fridge. They get better once the dough has had a chance to chill.

Lemon Encrusted Blueberry Muffins

Oh. My. Goodness.

Little muffins... how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is it your soft, moist, tender center? Is it the huge, luscious, juicy blueberries? Is it the fact that I finally got to use my new fancy microplane zester? Or is the perfect lemon crunch on top?

OK, so it's a little bit of everything that have made these my most favorite muffin ever. These are so good, I wanted to eat 4 with my dinner. And Caden scarfed down one in about 3 minutes flat. They are sooooo good. You MUST make them. I have never made a "from scratch" muffin that tasted this good. They would KO any Mimi's muffin or Lehi Roller Mills muffin.

I did think they could use just a bit more hint of lemon, so I did adjust the recipe for that. I guess I just wanted just a touch of lemon in the actual muffin. Other than that, these are so fabulous, I can't wait to eat some more for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Recipe from mykitchencafe.blogspot.com

Makes 12 muffins (although when I doubled the recipe, I got 36)

Lemon Sugar Topping:

1/3 cup sugar

zest from one lemon

Muffins:

2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

1 1/8 cup (8 oz.) plus 1 tsp. sugar

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz.) flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

4 Tbsp. butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 - 1 tsp. lemon extract or zest from one lemon (optional)

1. For the topping, stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.

2. For the muffins, adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a standard muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners. (OK... so after having made these several times and getting really frustrated, I would recommend spraying your pans, even if you use paper liners.  When the top bakes over, it sticks terribly, making it a pain to remove the muffins.  Insert your liners, and then spray the top of your muffin pan with cooking spray.)

3. Rinse one cup frozen berries under cold water and spread on paper towels to dry.

4. Bring remaining cup of berries and 1 tsp. sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down, the mixture is thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

5. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the berries that have dried on the paper towels with the flour mixture.

6. Whisk remaining sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until thick, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil, until combined. Add buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon extract and stir until combined.

7. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture into flour mixture, just until moistened. The batter will be lumpy with a few dry spots of flour. Do Not Overmix! This is key to moist and tender muffins.

8. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide the batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Batter should completely fill the cups. Spoon a teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into the center of each muffin cup. Using a skewer or chopstick, or something long and pokey, gently swirl the reserved berry filling into the batter. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

9. Bake until top of the muffins are lightly browned, and just firm, about 17-18 minutes. Cool muffins in muffin tin and transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Then gorge yourself on them.

Caramel Crunch Bars

I wasn't originally going to post this recipe because after eating them the first night, I was a bit underwhelmed. Not that they weren't good. They were good and my kids loved them, but they were just "good," not "awesome."

But today, as I polished off my third piece in as little as 20 minutes, I realized I was not giving them enough credit. Turns out they get much better after chilling in the fridge for a long time and they are seriously addictive (as I munch on my 4th one...)

Add their addictive nature to the fact that they're easy, cheap, and fast to whip up, and you have a winner after all. These were especially nice in that Gavin and Caden could help me make them. Next time you need something quick and easy for a potluck, try these. Just be careful, because you won't be able to stop after just one...

I found the recipe here, but it's originally a Paula Deen recipe, entitled "Home-made Kit Kat bars." They taste absolutely nothing like a kit kat bar, though, so I'm sticking with the title from My Kitchen Cafe. Also, I'm not usually a fan of butterscotch and rarely have butterscotch chips on hand. Although it didn't actually bother me in this recipe, I think I may try the recipe, replacing the butterscotch morsels with semi-sweet next time, just to see how it tastes. But these bars are fabulous as is, too.

Makes a 9x13 pan
Recipe from Mykitchencafe.blogspot.com

Bars:
About 80 Club crackers
1 cup butter
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar

Topping:
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch morsels

1. Line an ungreased 9x13 pan with foil, leaving some foil sticking out the ends. Place 1 layer of club crackers along the bottom of your pan, cutting to fit if necessary, so that the entire bottom is covered. (This is where Gavin and Caden were my helpers... they were great at laying out the crackers!)

2. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Once it's melted, add graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, white sugar, and milk, stirring to combine. Stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil, and boil for five minutes. (Begin timing once first bubbles form.)

3. Remove butter mixture from heat and layer 1/2 of the mixture over your crackers, spreading evenly. Top that with another layer of club crackers and spread your remaining butter mixture over that. Top with one more layer of club crackers.

4. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch morsels. Microwave 20-30 seconds at a time, until the morsels are completely melted. Spread this chocolate mixture evenly over your remaining layer of club crackers. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The longer they chill, the better they are, in my opinion.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken Stacks

This was our crock pot dinner a couple Sundays ago. The pictures are kind of scary again... the shorter days are killing any decent food pictures. There's just no decent light. But it was delicious! All my boys devoured it. It's more of a dip sort of thing, but we're big dip fans. Although you could easily use it to fill tortillas, too. It's super easy and you can easily customize it to suit your preferences. Add a bag of chips or tortillas and some toppings, and we were all appropriately stuffed. Perfect Sunday night fare for us.

I found it here and just added a couple of the things we liked in it. We don't like canned salsa at all so I always add a little taco seasoning to offset the acidic flavor that canned salsa gives. Be sure to look at the original recipe to see a more appetizing picture. Mine just don't do this justice. It was sooo good and could not be easier.

2 cups frozen corn

1-2 cans black beans, rinsed (We personally like more beans, so use as many beans as you like. And feel free to substitute pinto)

2 large frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 lb.)

1 1/2 cups salsa

1 can olives, sliced (optional)

1-2 tsp. taco seasoning (this is my addition... I definitely think it needed a little extra)

splash of lime juice

Additional toppings:

cilantro (not really optional, if you ask me)

tomato

avocado or guacamole

cheese

sour cream

lime wedges

lettuce

1. Lightly grease bottom and sides of your crock pot. Pour frozen corn into the bottom of the slow cooker and place frozen chicken breasts on top. Cover with beans and salsa, and olives and taco seasoning if you're using them. Cover an cook at low for 6 hours. Remove chicken and shred with forks. Return to slow cooker and stir until everything is combined, and add your splash of lime juice and any more taco seasoning if you desire.

2. Serve with tortilla chips or as a burrito filling, topped with additional garnishes.

Reindeer Cupcakes

Jaxon wanted to bring some cupcakes to school for Christmas and his birthday, and of course Gavin then wanted to bring some to preschool, too. There are some pretty cute ones in "Hello Cupcake," but they were more work than I was willing to put in for their school classes. So I went searching the internet and found these cute reindeer cupcakes that were easy enough the boys could help. I'd like to say they were super easy, but it was really hard to break the stupid pretzels into the right shape for antlers! Seriously, it was really hard and we went through half the bag of pretzels trying to get enough that were good enough. Other than that, though, they really were super easy to make and the boys had a blast.

Unfortunately, they're boys. So instead of wanting to make perfect, cute little reindeer, that LOOKED like reindeer, they insisted of giving them retarded antlers, that were going backwards and forwards, and sideways, and such. He kept telling me that had to point in the direction the reindeer were fighting. Plus, I had to beg Jaxon not to give them red eyes. He kept telling me that they were "his" reindeer and he should have creative control. I tried to tell him that if I was in his class, I wouldn't want those funny looking ones... I would want a perfectly cute little reindeer. But maybe the boys in his class really do want the funny looking ones? I did think it was cute that he threw a couple "doe" in without antlers. And he gave all the girls blue eyes.... good boy. And luckily he can't pipe mouths on, so I could give them all cute smiles. Except for the one that he made me give a moustache. And the surprised face. Such BOYS!

Quick note: I ran out of mini M&M's for the eyes, so we had to improvise. I piped white blobs for the eyes and then added a mini chocolate chip for the pupil. It worked alright, but the marshmallows and mini M&M's were much cuter. But it works in a pinch.

Materials needed:

Chocolate cupcakes, baked in brown wrappers (or not... seeing as how we used green striped ones)

Chocolate frosting

Nilla Wafers (for snout)

Red M&M's (for nose... you could use brown, too, if you don't want Rudolph)

Mini M&M's (for pupils)

Mini Marshmallows, cut in half (for eyes... make sure to put them sticky side up, so the pupils will stick)

Large pretzels, broken just so, for antlers

Dark frosting to pipe mouths (I used melted chocolate... those black icing tubes would also work great)

Beef and Broccoli

Not sure if this recipe is similar to Emily's, but oh well. This was Joe's favorite of the night and turned out pretty good so I thought I'd post it. Sorry the picture isn't too appetizing, but it was good!

Ingredients:
3/4 lb. lean beef, sliced into thin strips
broccoli florets, sliced small
sliced carrots
1 c. cooking oil
2 1/2 T oyster sauce
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. sugar
a few drops of sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. beef broth
2 T. corn starch

Marinade:
1 egg
1/3 t. salt
1 T. cooking wine (I used beef broth)
1 T. cornstarch
1 1/2 T. oil
2 T. water

Directions:
Slice beef and mix with the marinade. Add 1 1/2 T. oil to beef and mix thoroughly. Set aside for 30 minutes.

While beef is marinading, chop up your veggies.

Heat your wok and stir fry the beef until nearly cooked. Remove beef and set aside. Clean out your wok add enough water to cover your veggies. Cover and let simmer until almost cooked. Drain wok.

Heat wok and add a few T oil. Add the garlic, veggies and beef back in. Make a well in the middle and add the sauce ingredients.

Cook until thickened and eat hot over rice. Yum!