Cupcake Cake Pops

Cake pops, cake pops, cake pops. If I'm being completely honest, every time I'd think about all the cute cake pops I'd see pop up on the internet, the thought of trying to make them myself intimidated me. I have a cake-pop/doughnut hole maker so making the pops itself would be simple enough, but the whole dipping and decorating part completely scared me so I stayed away. 

But more and more I'd see such cute creations and I decided there must be a way to do it without having the cake balls fall off the sticks or getting the chocolate to coat and dry smoothly. Thankfully I came across a great post by Homemaker Chic and it had all the answers I was looking for. Check it out, her tips made all the difference for me.

A few days ago I got a text from a friend asking if I could help her out by making some cupcakes or cake pops for her sons birthday less then a week away. I took this as a sign that I should face my fears and attempt to make some cute cake pops worthy of any birthday boy. 

The only requirements were that they'd be blue and chocolate. Dots and swirls on a cake pop would be simple, but I really wanted to push myself. So, I thought why not include everything she asked for in one! So here they are, chocolate cake balls covered in chocolate, made to look like cupcakes with blue frosting and sprinkles.

To make these I used brown and blue chocolate melts, some sprinkles, and modeling chocolate for the cherries. Prep your cake balls and chocolate melts as suggested by Homemaker Chic and your ready to decorate as follows.

Step by step pictorial:

1) Dip in chocolate and allow to dry.

2) Dip the top third in candy melts in your choice of frosting color and allow to dry as well.

3) Re dip top third in frosting and SLOWLY swirl as you lift it out.

4) Quickly add some sprinkles before it can dry.

5) Top with a modeling chocolate ball or pearl for the cherry on the top before the chocolate dries as well.

6) Step back and admire your cute little cake pop cupcake!

 Me thinks I like to make cake pops now and will be looking for excuses to make many more! I foresee some Christmas cake pops to gift in my near future.

Baked Donuts Recipe and Review

Well, I still don't know if I would consider them as a healthy breakfast, but a baked donut is better than a fried one right? This Christmas my grandma got me one of those Smart Planet Original Donut Factory mini donut making gadgets. I don't have very many kitchen gadgets but after finally pulling it out and giving it a test run, I am so glad she got this for me! It's not too big, so it doesn't take up too much space and it speeds up baking time and actually makes really cute little donuts too! 

You can't tell from the picture but the donuts really are mini, about 2 inches in diameter. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though because it makes me feel like I can eat more of them without feeling guilty about all the calories I'm eating, but than again that's why exercise was invented. 

It took me about 20 minutes total to cook up about 35 of these little guys! It was so simple and kind of fun to tell you the truth.

Because my husband doesn't care for cinnamon I also made half of them chocolate glazed donuts too! I'm not too sure which ones I preferred. The donuts themselves were so nice and airy. I actually don't like regular donuts, but these are great. 

Here is the recipe that came in the box:

Baked French Breakfast Donuts

Ingredients:
5 Tbs. butter (softened)
1/2 C sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1 1/2 C flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 C milk

2 Tbs. melted butter
1/2 C sugar mixed with 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
1) Mix butter and sugar thoroughly. Add egg and mix well.
2) Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
3) Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to the mixture.
4)Fill pre-heated oiled Donut Maker with batter (I like to fill a gallon sized Ziploc bag and pipe it in) and bake for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown.
5) Once done, take out of pan.Next (once it's cool enough to handle with your fingers), dip tops into melted butter and then sugar and cinnamon mixture.

I had to come up with a chocolate glaze recipe myself. If you prefer to use this to top your donuts, just dip the tops into the chocolate instead of the butter and cinnamon sugar mixture.

Chocolate glaze

Ingredients:
1/8 C heavy cream
1/8 C powdered sugar
1/2 T Nutella
15 chocolate chips

Directions:
1) Mix together everything but the chocolate chips.
2) Microwave for 20 seconds.
3) Stir in chocolate chips until smooth.
*between batches be sure to remix the glaze before each dipping. The chocolate will start to crust and won't easily stick to your donuts if you forget this step. And the glaze just won't look as smooth and pretty as you can see in the picture below (I'm sure you can tell which donut I'm talking about).

Great product and yummy donuts! Of course now that I've tried it out I'm going to be trying to figure out some other things that I could make with my new gadget. ☺

 

Nutella Chocolate Glaze Recipe

I'm back! I promise I haven't given up on baking, I just somehow managed to gain about 5 pounds over the holidays and wouldn't allow myself to bake anything until I got them off. Happy to report mission accomplished! Now back to the baking and blogging. Every year at church  we have a ward dinner where the men have a dessert challenge. They compete for bragging rights to see who can come up with the best dessert. The only qualification is that they have to make it (not their wives). It's a lot of fun and they end up coming up with some pretty awesome desserts too! Sione doesn't really care if he wins but when it comes to sharing an awesome dessert I have a hard time passing up the opportunity.

Since he knows how to make cream puffs and I've been craving them, I told him he should make cream puffs. "Sione knows how to make cream puffs?" you may be asking yourself if you know him, but we'll go more into that story in my next post....Now back to the Nutella Chocolate Glaze. When we make cream puffs we usually dust them with powdered sugar, but there are bragging rights at stake here. I was brainstorming ways he could kick the dessert up a notch. And there it was staring me right in the face, a nice bottle of Nutella. How about we drizzle those delectable little puffs of yumminess with some Nutella Chocolate Glaze! So off I went to figure out how to make a drizzle worthy of marrying its tastiness to the scrumptiousness that is a cream puff made at home. Here's what I came up with:

Nutella Chocolate Glaze Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C.  heavy cream
• 1/4 C.  confectioner's sugar
• 1 T. Nutella

Directions:

Just combine and whisk the ingredients together until it is silky and smooth. Then pour drizzle it onto what ever your Nutella loving heart desires.

My next mission will be discovering new things to pour drizzle this glaze onto...perhaps bananas, pumpkin bread, my fingers...(don't deny it, I know you were thinking it too)!

 

Chocolate covered Pretzels

For Christmas this year we made and packaged a bunch of chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles to hand out. It is really simple, but it can be quite time consuming. Luckily I have an awesome pretzel bagging husband! 

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Tutorial

What you need:

• chocolate melts
• pretzels
• a microwave safe bowl
• a fork
• wax paper
• sprinkles

What you do:

1) Melt your chocolate melts according to the directions on the package in a microwave safe bowl.

2) Drop a pretzel in the bowl. Use a fork to make sure it get completely covered in chocolate.

3) Use the fork to lift pretzel out of the chocolate and gently tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.

4)Put pretzels on a sheet of wax paper.

5) Sprinkle with sprinkles and let it dry.

6) Eat the simplest combo of sweet and salty deliciousness.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies: Recipe

My new favorite Christmas cookie...for the moment anyways. I love soft peanut butter cookies and then you add some chocolate and then the sweet and saltiness of the chocolate covered pretzels, heavenly!

Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cup your favorite peanut butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1) Cream together butters and sugar. Beat in the eggs

2) In a separate bowl, sift together remaining ingredients.

3) Add flour mixture to butter and eggs.

4) Once combined cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

5) Roll chilled dough into 1 inch balls and place onto a baking sheet.

*For plain peanut butter cookies flatten each ball with a fork making a criss cross pattern.

*For reindeer cookies  roll one 1 inch ball and one 1 1/2 inch ball per reindeer. Use the bottom of a glass to flatten the cookies and place the smaller circle onto the larger one (don't center).

6) Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 375 degree preheated oven, just until the edges begin to brown. Be careful not to overbake. 

*For reindeer cookies add M&M nose, Keebler Fudge Dipped Pretzels, and mini chocolate chips for eyes immediately after taking it out of the oven. Then move to cool.

7)Move to foil or cooling rack to cool. 

Chocolate Covered Oreos (tutorial)

So this month I tried my hand at making these chocolate dipped Oreos. At first I had a hard time with it and than I realized it was just because I was over-complicating it (I blame it on being a perfectionist). Once I realized that, this project became very simple!

To make chocolate covered Oreos all you need is:

• Oreos
• Chocolate melts
• shortening
• fork
• wax paper/foil

Directions:

1) Melt your chocolate melts and about 2 tbs of shortening per bag (directions on bag)

2) put your Oreo into the melted chocolate, use your fork to make sure the entire cookie is covered (I usually need to scoop some extra chocolate to cover the top and sides)

3) Using your fork lift the cookie out of the chocolate and tap the fork gently on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. As you do this the chocolate will also naturally smooth itself out.

4) Place your covered cookie on some wax paper or foil to dry.

*if you wish to add sprinkles, add them before the chocolate dries

*if you want to drizzle a different color chocolate on your cookie to fancy it up wait until the chocolate dries before drizzling.

  

Simple right?! So you are probably wondering how I seemed to over complicate such a simple process. Well as you see in the photo above, the white chocolate on the top two cookies isn't very smooth, here's why. During my first attempt at making these cookies here are all the things I did wrong: dipping the cookies with my fingers, using a toothpick instead of a fork, shaking the dipped cookies instead of tapping, not tapping gently, dipping half of the cookie at a time, and using a knife to spread on the chocolate.

To make a long story short, none of those methods worked and I made a mess.

If you want to make these cute reindeer chocolate covered Oreos just add two Keebler Fudge Dipped Pretzels for antlers, a red M&M for a nose, and two dots of brown chocolate for eyes.

*Eyeball variations: roll tootsie rolls into balls or mini chocolate chips 

Melting Snowman Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Christmas is right around the corner, and nothing says Christmas like snowmen and cookies. But here in Hawaii  since I don't live up in Mauna Kea a snowman sadly would not survive. So these "I'm melting!" Snowmen Cookies are a great tribute to Christmas here in the islands. I've seen similar cookies done before on Pinterest and figured I'd give it a decorating go myself. They are quite cute and tasty if I do say so myself! 
It was also an awesome opportunity to test out a Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe and to once again use my new favorite royal icing recipe (I actually feel like I'm a professional decorator every time I use it). I'm not that huge a fan of sugar cookies, but these chocolate sugar cookies are absolutely amazing!!!

CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIES:
      Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dark chocolate cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. (3 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp. vanilla extract

 Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend and set aside. In another bowl combine the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated and no streaks remain.  Form the dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness.  Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place cut outs on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes, just until set.  Let cool on the baking sheet about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Decorate as desired.

Yield: will make 30 1 1/2 inch round cookies, but amount will vary depending on the size of the cookie cutter(s) you use.

*P.S. I made one batch and then 3 more because they taste that good!

I'm working on a few other Christmas craft projects so I'm sorry I've been missing in action for a while. I should be posting up a few more recipes by the end of the year (fingers crossed).

Happy Baking!

Devil's Food Cupcakes

These are so moist they practically melt in your mouth!! They are now one of my new favorites. I've been playing around with some recipes, trying to make a really nice and moist cupcake from scratch, and these are the winners!! Here's what you need:

Oreo inspired Cupcake

Now who doesn't love some Oreos and milk? Well, I do! So I thought why not make a cupcake that could appease my Oreo cravings. Devil's Food cupcakes with 12-15 crushed Oreo's added to the batter before baking and covered with a Oreo cream frosting. Now this is a cupcake that goes great with a tall glass of milk!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

So, if you are anything like me, you'd agree that chocolate and peanut butter are just one of those combinations that is just too good to pass up. These cupcakes are mouth-watering good! In fact my mouth is watering right now just thinking about them! Made with the moistest Devil's Food cupcake recipes ever and topped with a light and buttery peanut butter frosting, these cupcakes practically melt in your mouth!

Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting

  Now doesn't just the name of this frosting alone make your mouth water? Think strawberries dipped in whipped cream; that is exactly what this frosting taste like. In fact that is pretty much exactly what this frosting is!

A tip to be sure that your frosting it at a nice firm consistency is to just put that hand mixer to work! Just be patient and keep beating the frosting until it gets nice and stiff. If you stop too soon, when you pipe the frosting you will end up with a frosting blob that can't hold it's shape.

What would you eat this frosting with?

Chocolate Overload Cupcakes with Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting

  These were a hit before they were even made. I mentioned the idea on facebook and the "yes please" , "do you deliver", and "yums" came pouring in! And let me tell you the name itself just can't articulate just how yummy these little creations were. The frosting alone can be eaten by the spoonfuls, just think strawberries and whipped cream without the hassle of dipping and chewing. It was the first time I made the strawberry whipped cream frosting and it has definitely become an instant favorite. I'm just trying to decide what other combinations I can make using it! The chocolate overload cupcakes are great on it's own, but the frosting just put it over the top. I'm thinking of doing some strawberry cupcakes with a chocolate whipped cream frosting next...chocolate covered strawberries...why does that sound so familiar? Happy Baking everybody!

Chocolate Overload Cupcakes

These cupcakes are super moist and my go to chocolate cupcake/cake recipe. It is a doctored up box cake recipe that tastes great! I don't actually measure the chocolate chips, I just add as much as my mood desires☺

For standard sized cupcakes bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

The recipe makes exactly 30 cupcakes.