Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes

Did I mention once that I love books, espcially cookbooks? I love them! If I had the space I would own as many as I could and have my kitchen surrounded by bookshelves filled with them.

This cupcake funnily enough starts at our Public Library. They always have a bunch of books out front for sale and I usually just lightly browse through them without much thought. But last week my eyes ran across something that got me really excited....

Best of the Best from the editors of Food & Wine Magazine (one of my favorites)
the best recipes from the 25 best cookbooks of the year

How could I resist? It has recipes from all kinds of well loved chefs like Ina Garten, Jamie Oliver, Giada De Laurentiis and .... John Scharffenberger (you know, like the chocolate). And guess what? I only paid $3.00 for it. What a bargain!

Here is a quick peek at the finished product.

The actual cake part is deliciously moist and flavorful. It's topped with a simple vanilla buttercream, hot fudge, sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top of course! Doesn't it look amazing!

The original idea for the hot fudge part came from here: Crazy Little Projects Blog.

However she uses a box mix in her recipe and since I had just purchased my new wonderful cookbook with a recipe in it called That Chocolate Cake, you see I had no choice but to work from scratch. Who wouldn't want to try a recipe with that title?

I mean, look at all that chocolatey goodness baking up in the oven. I wish you could smell my kitchen through this picture. It was very hard to wait for them to bake and cool before digging in.

My book says the original cookbook it came from was called The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger & Robert Steinberg with Ann Krueger Spivack and Susie Heller. If I happen to see that one lying around at the library, I'm definitely picking it up.

It says this is one of those recipes that have been handed down and handed down and so forth. And I can see why. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it uses cocoa powder instead melting chocolate. I don't always have chocolate on hand to melt, but I always have cocoa powder. My other favorite thing is it doesn't ask for coffee to be included. Most scratch recipes use coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor in the cake. I'm not a huge fan.

I always have to package up and share my new creations with others. This time it happened to be some of my church family as you can see below. I hope they enjoyed them as much I did making them.

They were a little messy to eat but delicious and look like a party. These are simple to make and a lot of fun to share with others. Enjoy the recipe below.

*Note* The recipe below is for a 9in round cake. I did cupcakes. Prepare it the same for whatever pan  you use and simply adjust your cooking time.

Blessings.
Pamela

That Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 c. granulated sugar
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. canola oil
1 c. whole milk
1 c. boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your pan by covering bottom with parchment paper or lightly butter and flour bottom.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, mixing on low speed. Mix in the eggs, oil and milk.

Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the water. The batter will be soupy.

Divide the batter evenly between your pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven cool on rack for 10 minutes and then turn out onto rack to cool completely.

When cake has cooled completely, frost as desired.

**For the Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes you see above, top with a vanilla frosting and stick into freezer while you melt some hot fudge. If you don't stick them in the freezer, the frosting will melt when you top it with the fudge. Drizzle a small amount of fudge on top, and sprinkle with some colorful sprinkles. Spray a small amount of whipped cream on top and place a cherry on top. Enjoy!

ALL THINGS OLD ARE NEW AGAIN

Hey all!

It's been busy, busy, busy around here. My girls are keeping me on my toes. Things should slow down here soon and I'll be able to play around more frequently with new recipes.

Remember the bake sale I posted about a while back? The Youth Choir finally did the musical Godspell this past weekend and they were great. I can't wait to go on tour with them this summer and do some mission work while we're there.

                                                    Check out these talented kiddos!

                                                   And this was just during rehearsal.

If only this photo had sound... you'd know what a blessing they were to those who watched.

Time to raise some money again for our trip this summer. Our church is having a Children/Teen Consignment Sale this weekend and the Godspell Youth get to raise money by running the café and selling hotdogs and baked treats. Baked treats you say? That would be my specialty.

1 Peter 4:10 says "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good steward's of God's varied grace". 

So of course I signed up to donate treats for the sale. I don't have a lot money to donate but I do have time and talent to use instead. Serving others with my gift always makes me feel warm inside.

Now the question is, what do I make? There are so many choices out there. What do I choose? Normally, I would head to Pinterest and find something fun and new to make. I decided to go with an old standard instead, my vintage Better Homes and Gardens "New" Cookbook, copyrighted in 1976. It's almost as old as I am. I have one from each of grandmothers. I love the feel of having a cookbook they used time and time again.

I didn't want to have to run to the store to purchase supplies and I wanted to make something that everyone loves. I chose Oatmeal Cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies, you know, the classics. These are cookies that make you feel loved.

                                         Here is the original recipe for the Oatmeal Cookies.

I know, kind of hard to see. Don't worry. I'll give you the real thing below. Now, I didn't have raisins or the chopped walnuts that it calls for but I did have some dried cranberries. I love oatmeal and cranberries with cinnamon. Yum! So warm and cozy. Also, the original called for shortening, which I don't usually have in my pantry. I substituted unsalted butter instead.

 

                                 I use a small ice cream scooper to portion my cookie dough.

And here is a picture of some of the finished product. We are supposed to bag them individually, as you can see there to the side, in snack size baggies. I sure hope we sell a lot of them.

And here is a picture of some of my finished peanut butter cookies. I just love peanut butter. I'll post the recipe for those below also. I made mine just like the original recipe. I think it would be delicious to stick a mini reese's cup in the middle of the cookie when they come out instead of flattening them with a fork. Another day maybe.... I didn't have any of those on hand today.

Here are your recipes. Baked them with love and share with someone special!

OATMEAL COOKIES:

1 c. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
3 c. quick-cooking rolled oats (I used old fashioned steel cut.)
1 c. craisins

Cream butter, sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Add in dry ingredients and stir together. Stir in oats and craisins. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 in. apart on cookie sheet. Bake in 375 degree oven for about 8 minutes or sides are golden and middle is set. Cool slightly and remove from pan to continue cooling.

(Or eat while still warm! That's what I would do if these weren't for the café sale.)

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE:

1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Thoroughly cream together butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla. Add in dry ingredients and combine. Shape into 1 in balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press top with fork to flatten some. (If you're going to do the pb cup thing, don't flatten it.) Bake at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes or until golden and set on top. (If you're adding the pb cup, push it down on top when you pull them out of the oven.) Cool slightly and remove from pan.

I hope y'all enjoy these oldies but goodies. Many blessings.
Pamela

THE Best White Cupcake and Real Buttercream

So..... how is everyone? Sorry it's been a bit since my last post. This one will completely make up for it though. I promise. It's the best recipe I've found for a white cupcake/cake.

But first, how about a little intro:

Our church does a ministry called Room In the Inn. I don't know if yours does this but I suggest looking into it. During the winter months, once a week we bring in some men from the homeless shelter, feed them a delicious home cooked meal, help them with clothing and other resources, and share God's love with them by serving them. It's such an overwhelming experience to have dinner with and talk to these men, most of whom are just down on their luck. They stay overnight at our church and we feed them breakfast and do a devotion time with them. I wish it was something we could do more often and the rest of the world would do too. I know we're not the only church to do this but wouldn't it be great if we could help all those living on the streets?

My Sunday School class was signed up to volunteer and I jumped right on it. My husband had to work but the girls and I love to do stuff like this. I helped in the kitchen while my girls helped with setting up the dining tables to look just like a restaurant. The other part I signed up for was bringing a dessert. I figured everyone likes white cake so I went with my favorite recipe.
 It can be found  HERE with Recipe Girl. I know it's not from scratch but I can tell you I've tried many different recipes, scratch and box, and this one is THE best one I've found.

I chose to make them into minis and pair them with my favorite frostings, vanilla and chocolate buttercream. I don't want to take any credit from Recipe Girl so I'm not going to post her delicious recipe on here. You'll have to click on this LINK to try her recipe. I don't want to be bossy but if I were you, I'd go make these today. They're moist and have the perfect doming on top.

But I will share the recipe for my favorite frosting. Everything is good with real butter and the heavy cream gives it that extra little richness. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it.

REAL Buttercream:

• two sticks of no salt butter, softened
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• approx. 2-5 tbsp. heavy cream

First, you want to cream your butter for about 3-5 minutes. You'll see that the color starts to lighten. Then, turn off your mixer and add your powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 tbsp. heavy cream. Start  your mixer on low until it starts to combine or you're going to have white powder everywhere. Let it mix and add more heavy cream as needed for the consistency you want. Remember you can always add more so do a little at a time.

Now if you want to make it chocolate buttercream, just add 1/4 c. cocoa powder and a little more cream to it. I tend to like mine extra chocolaty so sometimes I'll even do a 1/2 c. cocoa. Yum!

One more tip before I go: If you need to transport your cupcakes somewhere and don't want to buy a bunch of those boxes with the inserts, put your cupcakes in like a honeycomb. See below.

They stay all compact and don't let each other move around much in your box. This can be very helpful when you have a bunch of minis to take to a party or to school or something.

Since I missed Valentine's Day, I'm going to end with one of my favorite scriptures about love.

1 John 4:7 "Dear friends, let us love one another; for love comes from God."

Blessings.
Pamela

Grain Free Chewy Brownies

Have you heard of the Daniel Plan? It's a faith based lifestyle change that I started recently. I got the book from the library and read it through in about a week. The basic principles are Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus and Friends. It's suggested that you start with the Daniel Detox, which says to go gluten free and dairy free from ten to 40 days. I went a little bit further and decided to do grain free, which means no quinoa, brown rice, etc. It's been a pretty great experience so far except I do miss my baking. I decided to do some research and it says I can eat coconut flour and almond flour. Yippee! I looked into it and coconut flour is cheaper than almond flour so there's where we begin.

I couldn't find a coconut flour recipe that I really liked for brownies so I decided to make my own.  I started with one of my favorite recipes that I've had for quite some time. It comes from Fine Cooking magazine 2010 edition.

 

 

This magazine has all kinds of delicious chocolate goodies in it. If you can get your hands on it, I would highly suggest it. I've made about half of the recipes in there and they're all good.

 

It took a few tries but I think I figured it out. Put on your favorite Pandora station. Mine is the Contemporary Christian radio or one I've made myself with some of my favorite artists like Ellie Holcomb, Mandisa, Britt Nicole and Jamie Grace. There's nothing like listening to your favorite uplifting tunes and baking something for someone you love. It really lifts my spirits!

 

Here is our finished product.

 

These brownies are made with cocoa powder, which is even better because everyone has that in their cupboards, right? No having to go out and buy chocolate to melt down. They are surprisingly rich and deeply flavored. They are moist and chewy and oh so yummy. I could finish that plate off all by my lonesome if I let myself. I had some self control; I only ate four. Hahaha!

 

 

Here is a pic of what it should look like just before the eggs are mixed in to give you a little idea of what you're aiming for.

 

Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Coconut Flour Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. coconut oil, or you could use whatever oil you have on hand.
• 3/4 c. applesauce
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 c. cocoa powder
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 c. coconut flour
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1. Position rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 in pan or cover with parchment paper.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk together coconut oil that has been melted and measured out with the cocoa powder.
3. Then add the water, applesauce, sugar, salt and vanilla.
4. Add in the eggs all at once and whisk again to combine.
5. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour just until incorporated. Fold in nuts, if using.
6. Spread batter in the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out moist and gooey but not wet, 18 to 20 minutes. Be careful not to overbake the brownies, as they'll toughen. Let them cool completely before cutting.

Blessings.
Pamela



 





Chocolate Bliss Cake

So my oldest daughter, Caitlyn, is in the Youth Choir at our church and they will be putting on the musical Godspell soon and then taking it on tour in July to hopefully be a blessing to many others. Tour=$$ and that means fundraising time. They decided to sell stew and have a Bake Sale, which I got to coordinate. It was such a blessing for me to be a part of this and see all the love and support for our Youth. It went better than I had even imagined. Here is a picture of our tables while still setting up.

See those mini cupcakes at the bottom right corner, those were part of my donation. Yum! Again, I ask, who doesn't love chocolate! And they're the perfect little bite.

I think the greatest ingredient anyone can put into their food is love. And that is what I saw on the table over the weekend. Along with my mini triple chocolates, I also baked some smore mini cupcakes, a banana cake with vanilla frosting and a Chocolate Bliss Cake. Here are a couple pictures of the items I took for your viewing pleasure.

                                                             SMORE MINIS

                                                               BANANA CAKE                                                    

But those aren't what this post is about. On to the chocolate...This Chocolate Bliss Cake recipe I've had for about 13 years. I couldn't tell you where I got it either. You know how sometimes you see a recipe and you know it's going to be good; so you write it down(because this was before I had a computer or a cell phone) and stick it in one of your many recipe books. This cake is full of chocolate and is dense and moist.  I knew this would be one of the things I wanted to donate because it tastes like homemade food baked with love.

Here is the recipe. I hope you print it off, write it down or pin it to your board to save for later just like I did. It's an oldy but a goody. And here's a quick little tip: when greasing your pans to bake for something chocolate, use cocoa powder instead of flour to bump up that chocolatiness. (Is that even a word? If not, it should be.) Enjoy!

Chocolate Bliss Cake

Ingredients:

1 package chocolate cake mix

1 package instant chocolate pudding mix (4 serving size)

1 cup sour cream

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

 

For the Ganache: 

3 cups thawed Cool Whip

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray bundt pan with cooking spray or oil and flour it. Combine cake mix, pudding, sour cream, oil, water and eggs with mixer till combined. Beat for an additional 2 minutes on medium speed.
2. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
3. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before flipping onto a plate.
4. Let cake cool completely.
5. For the chocolate topping. Microwave Cool Whip and chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl on high for 1-2 minutes until melted and creamy, blend well with spatula.
6.Pour Ganache pour over cake.

I garnished with a few raspberries but you could certainly use any fruit that pairs well with chocolate or leave it as is.

Many blessings.
Pamela

Black and White Brownies

Sunday night was our Youth Parent/Teen Night dinner. I have a small group of girls, whom I adore, that I lead and my oldest is in Youth also, in another small group. It was great fun. We played Name That Tune, sang along as the Praise Band led us, and ate some delicious food. My husband was going as our daughter's "parent" since I  needed to be with my group of ladies. This inspired my dish for the evening. He LOVES brownies. And one of my all time favorite brownie recipes is Black and White Brownies.

I can't remember where I originally got the recipe but it calls for a brownie mix. And that's okay if you want to go that route. Sometimes simple and quick are the best way option. However my family really enjoys when I use the classic recipe from Nestle Toll House. It's usually on the side of the cocoa powder container. They make for a delicious, fudgy brownie. So good! Here is a picture of my finished product.

 

 

I'm sorry for the quality of the photo. It looks like I'm going to need a new camera if I continue with this blog idea. Ha! My current camera is a Vivitar ViviCam F332 and is being held together by duct tape. By I digress... Of course the brownies were gone by the time my table finally got our turn to go through the food lines. But that's okay because I always keep some to share with my family at home. That's one of the perks of living with the baker I guess.

 

 

 

So here is the recipe for these ooey, gooey bites of goodness. I hope you enjoy and share some with your family. And I have to share one more photo with you.

 

Look at all those chips, semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate chips! There's almost more chips than batter. And is that a bad thing? I think not. If you wanted, you could even make it a triple chocolate chip brownie by adding dark chocolate. Doesn't that sound divine? I love dark chocolate. It's so creamy and dark. It's definitely  my favorite. Now I need to make a run to the store and make another batch. Enjoy!

• 1 2/3 c. granulated sugar
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. water
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 c. baking cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 in baking pan. Combine sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture.

• 10-12 oz. pkg. white baking pieces
• 1 c. semisweet chocolate pieces
• 1/4 c. butter, melted
• 3 tbsp. hot water
• 2 c. sifted powdered sugar
• 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Stir in half of the white baking pieces and all of the semisweet. Spread the batter in the prepared baking pan. This will be a thick batter. It won't seem like it's going to be enough but it will. Use your spatula or spoon to spread it out. Bake about 30 minutes or until center is set. You can use a toothpick to check if the middle is done. Sprinkle with the remaining white baking pieces; bake for 1 minute more. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

For frosting, in a small bowl combine melted butter and hot water; stir in powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. Beat by hand until smooth. Spoon over to of brownies. Cool about 1 1/2 hours or until frosting is set. Cut into bars. Makes about 36 brownies.

Many blessings from my home to yours.
Pamela





 



  

Monkeying Around (or my first post)

So here it goes, my first official post. It's not scary at all. (Note the sarcasm.)

My littles told me this morning that they would like something a little different to take for their school snack. You know, other than the boring old cheese stick or granola bar... That and a few yummy ripe bananas led to me looking for a wheat flour banana muffin.

After much debate and about 20 minutes on Pinterest (my favorite website these days), I finally came across this recipe from 100daysofrealfood.com.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2014/04/30/recipe-whole-wheat-banana-nut-muffins/

I like a lot of her recipes so I thought I would give it a try. I don't usually have pure maple syrup in my pantry though so I substituted out honey instead. And then I added 3/4 tsp. cinnamon to it for a little extra flavor. Here is a pic of my ingredients.

 

 

Patience isn't my greatest virtue sometimes and I am not the biggest fan of doing dishes. Therefore I mixed mine a little differently than she did. I melted my butter in the bowl and then mixed in the bananas and eggs. By then, the butter had cooled enough I could add in the honey and not lose any of the health benefits. If you're not aware, heat kills the honey nutrients and we don't want that. I then sifted my dry ingredients in the bowl and mixed it all together. Finally I folded in my nuts, which are definitely optional.

 

My girls love tiny food so I portioned my batter out with my small ice cream scooper into mini muffin tins and then baked for about 9 minutes. The baking times will vary from the difference in ovens so be sure to check yours. I don't like stabbing my food so I can usually tell by the springiness of the top of the muffin when they're done. But if you're not really sure that will work for you and don't want underdone muffins, just test with a toothpick.

 

Presto, magico, here is the finished product:

 

Look at how creative I got with it. It was fun to play with my food. And of course, you have to do quality control. They're delicious. If you decide to make them in a regular size muffin tin, I would suggest splitting them in half and spreading some yummy peanut butter on them. Or if you're not really too concerned about the healthiness of it, add a few peanut butter chips to the batter before you bake. Delicious! I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

I hope you try these and find out for yourself how easy and delicious they are. Here is the recipe with my changes in it.

1½ cups whole-wheat flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

⅓ cup honey

 3/4 tsp. cinnamon

2 very ripe bananas, peeled (the riper they are the sweeter they'll be)

½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray your tins or line with cupcake liners.
2. Melt butter in bowl.
3. Mix in other wet ingredients, adding honey last so the butter has time to cool.
4. Add in dry ingredients.
5. Stir in walnuts, if wanted.
6. Portion out to approximately 12 oversized muffin tins or 36 minis.
7. Bake until about to brown on top, about 20-22 min for regular and 9-12 for minis.

Let cool and enjoy.

My next baking adventure will be coming soon. Our Youth Group is having Parent/Teen Night this Sunday and I still need to figure out what to bring as my covered dish. Decisions, decisions. What am I to do when everything sounds so good.

Well, it was fun spending time with you. I hope you decide to come back and see what I have in store next time.

Many blessings to you and yours.
Pamela