Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I have a bit of a weakness for chocolate chip cookie dough.Not the healthiest thing to eat, but amazing nonetheless. Guilty pleasure admission: I will on occasion buy a tube of Pilsbury Cookie dough and just sit there with a spoon.

I was thinking to myself, why can't this amazing thing be in cupcake form. You can imagine my delight when I googled it and came across tons of recipes. Who knew? The one I used was found here at http://www.lovintheoven.com/. Fabulous site! The minute I saw the pictures I was hooked. They had to be made. And can I just say, adding cookie dough to icing? Genius!I did however use my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for the frozen ball of cookie dough in the middle of the cupcake to add a little of my own flair to the recipe.

These cupcakes were amazing! I feel the need to make them every day. I won't because I really don't need to gain a million pounds, but oh my gosh! There have been some recipes that look good and I get incredibly excited for and then they are a let down. This is NOT one of those recipes.

So YUMMY!

And, here is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe;

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Crisco® Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening (Golden Shortening)

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 (6 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)

1.HEAT oven to 375ºF.

2.COMBINE shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

3.DROP by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

4.BAKE 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Just look at that icing.... If you start licking your screen, I promise I won't judge. : )

Photos by Chelsea Belle Photography



Happy Birthday!

February is the month for Birthdays! I have multiple friends with February birthdays, and my sister has a February birthday, and then there's me. Now, I did not make this cake to celebrate my birthday. (I refuse to make my own birthday cake, which is why after moving to a new city last year and not knowing anyone I didn't have a birthday cake, this was remedied this year as my parents moved closer. Mom always looks out for me!) Now one of the perks of being a friend of mine (and living close to me), is that I like to bake something special for your birthday. At least I feel it's a perk. : ) However the day I make something incredibly disgusting I promise I will no longer refer to it as a perk. My dear friend Chelsea celebrates her birthday 3 days prior to mine, and a cake was definitely in order. It also gave me a chance to practice more with the Cricut!

Cute huh? The party hats around the edge kind of look like sailboats to me, but I'm still happy with it. I did learn that fondant is a little stubborn in the Cricut. After making this cake I looked up some tips and discovered that adding some gum-tex to the fondant will help, so that is some good knowledge for the next cake! I also used Duff Cake Tattoos, which is how I got the cute pattern on the party hats, and the perfect yellow polka-dot circle on top. They are really easy to use, and next time I use them I may use them the correct way to cover the edge of the cake instead of cutting them, but we shall see. Also, I really wanted to have a nice smooth icing, but lack of time, kind of didn't allow for that. I got it pretty good though, so I'm not too upset with it.

Now, this is my personal favorite picture. I had taken the cake over quite late, so it was not consumed the day of the actual birthday but set aside for the next day. This is how the cake was discovered. Chelsea's 4 year old helped himself to the breakfast of champions!

Pictures by Chelsea Belle Photography

Resolutions

It was my new years resolution to make a new cupcake flavor every month.... I know, maybe not the best resolution when most people resolve to lose weight (which I did as well). But, isn't this what friends and family are for? To pawn off your creations onto? So here is the list of the flavors I hope to try this year. So far, I've been 2 for 2, so I just need to keep it up for 10 more months! I can do this!

January: Angel Food

February: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

March: Banana Split

April: Cadbury Cream Egg

May: Cookies and Cream

June: Root Beer Float

July: Pina Colada

August: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup 

September: Strawberry Shortcake

October: Caramel Apple

November: Peppermint

December: Eggnog

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is....

p.s. any special cupcake flavors you'd like to see? cuz I'm always up for adding a few more flavors!

S.A.D.

So, I'm not the biggest fan of Valentines Day. Maybe it's because I've never had a 'Valentine'. Or maybe it's because it's too close to my birthday and I want all the focus to be on me! (just kidding) But really, maybe it's because I received far too many valentines themed birthday gifts. (You can only love red and pink heart shaped things for so long) But despite all this, I do enjoy making treats. Not to celebrate Valentines Day, but S.A.D. That's right Happy S.A.D everyone! Hopefully you understand that this clever acronym is for Singles Awareness Day.

Making these treats was fun, and educational. That's right educational. Did you know that there are things called Whoopie Pies? Now, to look at them you think, aren't those just the homemade oreos you made before with a red velvet cake mix rather than devils food? That's what I would think, but apparently Whoopie Pies are different. They have less butter and sugar than the homemade oreos. Huh. I found this particular recipe here. The only thing I changed was the size of drops I put on the cookie sheet. I tried doing the 2 Tbsps, only to have the biggest cookies I've ever seen, so I made them with 2 tsps. which still made huge cookies. I also had to reduce the cook time to 6 minutes. But they did end up turning out cute. And I have to say, I was a little worried about the icing, but something about the marshmallow just made it all work, and it was delicious! Add some sprinkles to the edges, and voila!

And of course, I had to make them all cute and packaged.... I am my mothers' daughter and my aunts' niece afterall...... (see Ruthanne, I used Fru! Just for you!)

Happy Singles Awareness Day Everyone!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It is nice and snowy in Alberta right now. Not so much down here in southern Alberta. Apparently up north is a winter wonderland! In honor of the snow, here are some cute cupcakes that I made! Plus I used my cricut for the first time. YAY! I decided to start simple. We'll work up to some more intricate designs that have more levels eventually.

The first cut! Seriously, so exciting. I used the frosting sheets that you can buy specifically designed for the cricut. Not 100% sure how I feel about them, but I'll have to try out gum paste and fondant to find which I prefer. They did work though, and that is all that matters!

Aren't they cute?

(Please note my attempt to be artsy by actually placing the cupcakes in the snowbank outside...)

I made an Angel Food Cupcake. I had no idea you could make Angel Food in cupcake form. They were quite tasty! Here is the recipe;

Angel Food Cupcakes

1 1/4 C. All purpose flour

1 1/2 C. sugar

12 egg whites from large eggs (enough for 1 1/2 C.)

1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl and beat at high speed until frothy (approx. 1 min. - I did 2). Add cream of tartar, salt and vanilla. Mix at high speed until almost till almost stiff (approx. 4 min.). Add 1 C. sugar gradually while mixing on low speed. Scrape bowl. Mix flour and the remaining sugar together in a separate bowl. Spoon 1/4 of the mixture over the egg whites, and fold gently between each addition. Pour batter into cupcake liners until they are 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and cracks are very dry. Cool completely prior to removing from pan.

Now I also used a vanilla buttercream icing (a Martha Stewart recipe) which in my opinion was way too sweet. I even left out 2 cups of the powdered sugar the recipe called for. Can we say sugar coma??? But you can use any icing on top of these cupcakes.

Yum. Angel Food...... : )

My family loves me.

Look what I got!

Ok. so this isn't exactly the one I got, but it is the exact same thing! AND I'M SO EXCITED! For those who do not know, this is a Cricut Cake. It allows you to cut shapes of all sorts into fondant, gumpaste, frosting sheets! Intricate or simple, it does it all! And it works with all the cricut cartridges (well except for the imagine, but that's fine) I have ideas a flowing. Will post when follow through occurs!

Christmas Time is....Over?! WHAT THE???

So Christmas has come and gone, and I did not bake a single thing! Not one! How did this happen.... I think it was my overly ambitious idea to sew an apron for every member of my family coming for Christmas. (10) Yep. I made 10 aprons. I am by no means a professional sewer. I can't cut a straight line to save my life, and I can't sew one either! But needless to say, they turned out pretty cute. My family may hate me for this but I have to show off my blood, sweat and tears!

On another note, I guess I'm not entirely truthful in saying I didn't do any baking. Both of my parents have December birthdays, so that makes the already busy month busier! I made a cake for both of my parents this year as they have moved closer to me and I'm actually able to do it!
For my Dad, he's Mr. Handyman, so a tool box it is! And despite my lack of sewing abilities (however, I am working on them) my Mom can sew, and quite well, so a spool of thread seems to be in order. I know I'm a little biased but I think they both turned out kinda cute. : )