Reindeer Games Cupcakes

I typed in "christmas cupcakes" into Google because I needed a cute design and something much simpler than what I had originally planned to do. I was supposed to make cupcakes for a work party. So I came across these adorable little cupcakes that are soooooo very easy to make. I used my "cheat" recipe which I got from My Baking Addiction. You should really check out her sight!!!!

What you need:

1 box of Duncan Hines devil's food cake mix
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of instant espresso
1/2 cup of warm water
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 pkg. of instant chocolate pudding (5.9 oz)
4 large eggs
1 cup (8 oz) of sour cream (not pictured because I'm an idiot)


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners (I used red and white polkadot ones for   Christmas).
3. Place cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, vanilla, oil, eggs, and oil in a medium bowl.
4. Mix espresso and warm water and add the mixture to the mixing bowl.
5. Mix until all ingredients are blended together.
6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the liners. The texture of the batter at this point should be thick and creamy. This is because of the pudding mix. The pudding mix and sour cream allows for a very smooth and moist cake.
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes




















Tips:
- I find it easiest to use an ice cream scoop (or large cookie scoop) with a lever latch thing. I makes it easier to get a thick batter out and into the pan. I spent about $5 for one at Target and I love it. It is also easier to accurately measure how much should go into each liner that way.
- It is best to fill the liners only to about 3/4 of the way full. This makes it so the cake doesn't spring a muffin top which can make frosting difficult, especially when you are going to be decorating it.
- When the cupcakes are done, they might look a bit underdone but they shouldn't be. They just look like that because of how moist they are.
- DON'T use the tin liners. They keep cooking the bottom of the cake once they are out of the oven.

Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, place them on a cooking rack and allow them to cool for about one hour. Prep the frosting. I used store bought frosting for these because I was in a rush but home made frosting can also be used for these. It is important to use a round piping tip because other tips will texture the frosting too much. Unfortunately, in the pictures below you will see a textured tip because I couldn't find my round tip. To pipe, you may use a baggie or a piping bag. I like the piping bags myself. I used milk chocolate frosting for these cupcakes.

To pipe: 

1. Cut the tip of the bag (my tip is too big to use the coupler) and place the large round tip in the bag until it tip of the tip pops out of the bag.

2. Use a spatula to place frosting into the bag.

3. Frost the cupcakes with not too much frosting. It is not important to make the frosting look perfect because it will be mostly covered up by the decorations. 

What you will need to decorate:

- Christmas M&Ms (I used the mint ones. They come in red, white, and green. You will need red and white ones).

-Vanilla wafers

-Mini pretzels

-Black icing

-small round piping tip

-piping bag

-coupler

1. Place vanilla wafer on the cupcake towards the edge.

2. Place 2 pretzels on the top.

3. Place 2 white M&Ms between the pretzels and wafers. (I ran out of white so I used brown regular M&Ms)

4. Place black dots on eyes using piping bag and tip.

5. Place black icing dot on center of wafer. Add red or brown M&M. The icing allows the M&M to stick to the wafer.

Back at it

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!! After months of non stop school and work I am finally back to blogging. I'm excited because I have so many recipes to catch you all up on. Here's an update on my life even though this has nothing to do with my blog. It should shine a little light on why I have been MIA for the past few months. For starters, I was in summer school and worked full time. Done. Fall semester started and that was uh, how do I put this...honestly the only word to describe it was crazy because I worked a lot, went to school every day (compared to when I only had school two days a week), started applying to nursing schools, and began volunteering at a county hospital emergency room! So yeah the next few days I will catch you up on mostly baking stuff dating back all the way from summer! Hope all is well!


Emma <3

Funky Monkey Cupcakes

So this cupcake is fun and different in a good way. It's so simple yet so tasty! I'll post the specific recipes that I used a little later but for now...

Take your favorite chocolate cake/cupcake recipe and add three mashed bananas. Mix extremely well and bake according to cupcake recipe. Top with peanut butter frosting and you're done!

Be lazy:
- 1 box Devil's Food cake mix
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp instant coffee
- 1 cup hot water
- 8 oz. sour cream
- 1 5.9 oz pkg chocolate instant jello
(courtesy of My Baking Addiction)
- 1 container of buttercream frosting
- 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky- depends on the texture you want)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cupcake pans with liners (24 cupcakes).
- Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, vanilla, sour cream, and jello together.
- Mix coffee and water together and then pour in batter.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Let cupcakes cool on baking rack for 1 hour.
- Mix buttercream and peanut butter together. Frost cupcakes, serve, and enjoy!

Baby shower Cupcakes

Hello all. I know it's been a while since my last post but between work and school (that's my excuse for everything) I barely have time to cook yummy meals to even write about.

This post is all about an upcoming baby shower that I have been hired to bake cupcakes for. I'm trying to get a little extra money on the side and baking is a therapeutic way of doing that for me :) I need some ideas people! So far all I have come up with is a lemon poppy seed cupcake with blueberry compote (because blueberries are blue and the baby shower is for a family expecting a boy!) and then a potato chip cupcake (weird pregnancy craving is the idea here) which would be a chocolate cupcake with crushed potato chip pieces and a salted caramel filling. It would be topped with a chocolate fudge ganache and topped with a salty potato chip.

Please let me know if you have any more fun ideas for cupcakes for a baby shower!!!!!

RJ's giant taco

Sounds dirty? It's not. Just delicious. It's really a burrito but RJ got lazy when folding his up. This is a really quick (15 minute) delicious and healthy burrito that everyone will love!

1 lb of lean ground turkey (this fed 4)

1 shallot chopped

1 clove of garlic chopped

1 tbsp ground pepper

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 container of grape tomatoes (quartered)

2 tbsp Chalula (optional)

Flour or whole wheat tortillas

1 avocado

1. pkg of Soyrizo

2 cups of mexican cheese

1. Heat a large pan and add the olive oil. Once heated, add the chopped garlic and shallot.

2. Add ground turkey to heated pan and brown. Make sure it is cooked through. Add the salt and pepper. Once the turkey is mostly cooked, add the quartered tomatoes.

3. Once turkey is completely cooked, add 1/2 of the Soyrizo pkg to the meat. Stir until it is all combined. Add the Chalula.

4. Once the meat is done, turn off the stove and place it to the side. Cut up an avocado. Turn on burner on the stove again and put a tortilla on it. Warm the rest of the tortillas like that.

5. Once the tortilla is warmed, add the meat and avocado and cheese and fold up into a burrito!

Optional: sour cream, refried beans

Serve the burritos with some mexican or spanish rice and maybe a salad with a chipotle ranch dressing!!!!

"Get your kids to eat veggies" pasta

So I'll admit that I channel my inner kindergartener when it comes to food. I'm pretty picky and I'm not a big fan of those colorful things called veggies. I will admit that I try though to hide veggies in dishes so that I'll get the nutrients my body needs without the taste of unappetizing vegetables (so sad that I'm almost 21 and I have to hid veggies in food. please don't judge me!). So here is my quick fix to that!

1 pound of whole wheat/whole grain/ healthy spaghetti (I like the omega 3 noodles)
1 pound of ground turkey
1/2 cup white onion chopped
1/2 cup carrots chopped
1/2 cup celery chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I used garlic basil)
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 container of fresh basil (optional)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper

***I shop at fresh and easy and i got the "stew" veggies. It's this super convenient little plastic container with the chopped onion, carrot, and celery all together.

1. Heat a large pan. Once it is heated add the olive oil and make sure it coats the entire pan. Add all the veggies. Let them soften (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil. once the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook 9 minutes.
3. Once the veggies have softened, add the ground turkey. Add salt, pepper, and garlic.
4. Brown the turkey (about 5 minutes). Once the turkey has browned, add the sauce.
5. Drain the pasta and set in a bowl.
6. Serve the noodles on a plate and spoon the sauce over it.
7. Chop the basil and sprinkle over the pasta and sauce. Add parmesan cheese if you feel crazy!

Down that and some garlic bread :)

I like this meal because it's light but so full of flavor. You can swap out the turkey for chicken or beef. Feel free to play around with this and add your favorite veggies. You can even add diced zucchini instead of meat.

Parm chicken :)

Parmesan crusted chicken! Eassssssssssssssy! I hate long complicated recipes so every week I try to think of something quick, easy, and most importantly...delicious! Walking through the grocery store on Sunday I was like what can I make with stuff I already have. I hate getting a really good recipe and having to buy a ton of ingredients for it that I know I won't use again or at least not for a really long time. So this is what I came up with for this week's home cooked meal...

1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast. I prefer thinner breast filets

1 tbsp of kosher salt

2 tbsp coarse black pepper

1 cup of Bisquick

1 1/2 cups of shredded parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Crack the eggs in a small bowl, whisk them, and place them off to the side. Put the cheese, Bisquick, salt and pepper in a bowl and toss them together with your hands.

2. Place a piece of chicken in the egg and coat the chicken. Once it's covered sufficiently, place the piece of chicken in the cheese and Bisquick mixture. Make sure the piece is covered on both sides. Place the chicken on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with Pam.

3. Do step 2 with the rest of the chicken breast.

4. Place the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes.

5. Take it out of the oven and enjoy!

How easy was that!!!!!!! Tonight I had it with mac n' cheese and caesar salad.