Beach Cupcakes

by penji1

Here are the finished cupcakes decorated in the camp’s beach theme.  I frosted them with my homemade Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.  For the sand, I crushed graham crackers in my food processor and then poured them on a plate and dipped the freshly frosted cupcakes in them, rolling around gently as needed to cover the tops.  For the ocean, I used Wilton Blue Sparkling Sugar, poured it in a bowl and dipped the tops of the cupcakes in to cover.  For half ocean, half beach, just carefully dip one half of the cupcake in one and the other half of the cupcake in the other.  After the dipping, I topped them with either a paper drink umbrella, a plastic flower pick, a plastic palm tree pick or an accordion palm tree pick all of which I bought at either Zurchers or Partyland.  Yesterday I made all the shells and sea creatures using a candy mold and Wilton candy melts.  One bag of white melts made about 80 candies which was perfect because that’s about how many cupcakes I made.  So there are my beach themed cupcakes and now I need a nap!  🙂

Here are a couple of closer pictures:

Cookies and Cream Dream Cupcakes

by penji1

And cupcake recipe #3 for the girls from “101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes”.  As you can see from the picture, I had some Oreos peeking through my cupcakes so learn from my mistakes and make sure that your batter is smoothed over the cookies so that they don’t poke through.  I thought the batter would spread and cover the cookies while baking but it was pretty thick so on some of them it didn’t quite make it.  Frosting will take care of that and there will still be a little surprise waiting when they bite into them.

1 box chocolate cake mix (I already had 2 kinds of chocolate cupcakes so I used a white cake mix here for some variety)

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

18 – 24 whole chocolate sandwich cookies

12 chocolate sandwich cookies, crumbled

1 recipe vanilla buttercream frosting

1  Mix together cake mix, sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Place a spoonful of batter on the bottom of each paper liner.  Place a whole cookie on the bottom lying flat.  Cover with remaining batter until 3/4 full.

2  Bake at 350 (325 for dark pans) for 15 – 18 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to cool on a rack completely.

3  Add crumbled cookies to buttercream frosting.  Be generous and frost cupcakes nice and high.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

by penji1

Cupcake recipe #2 for the girls at camp from “101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes”.  These have a pleasant surprise at the bottom, a mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, yum!

1 box chocolate cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 bag mini chocolate peanut butter cups

1  Mix together cake mix, eggs and milk.  Pour 2 tablespoons batter into paper liners and place a peanut butter cup on top.  Fill paper liners 3/4 full.

2  Bake at 350 (325 for dark pans) for 15 – 18 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on wire rack.  When completely cooled, frost.

Makes about 20 cupcakes.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

by penji1

I spent this morning making about 80 cupcakes for the girls in my neighborhood who are up at Girls Camp right now.  I made 4 different kinds of cupcakes which I will post except for the “Chocolate Chip Mint Cupcakes” which are already on the blog.  The pictures for them will be without frosting because I am decorating them to match their theme for camp which is a beach theme so I’ll post the decorated cupcakes later.  All the cupcake recipes come from Wendy Paul’s “101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes” cookbook which I highly recommend, it is awesome!  I’ve made quite a few of the recipes which are all very easy to make and so far not a dud in the bunch!

1 box white cake mix

1/3 cup pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 eggs

2 – 3 drops red food coloring

1  Mix together all ingredients until smooth.

2  Pour batter into paper liners, filling 3/4 full.

3  Bake 15 – 18 minutes at 350 (325 if your muffin pans are dark in color) or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

4  Cool completely before frosting.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Blueberry Tart

by penji1

Another dessert for the family 4th of July dinner.  This one is from http://www.realsimple.com.  I doubled the filling ingredients so that there would be enough to cover the pastry and I used both strawberries and blueberries to top the tart.

1 (8 oz) sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon sugar

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 cups blueberries

1  Heat oven to 375.  On a lightly floured surface, unfold the sheet of pastry and roll it into a 10 x 12″ rectangle.  Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.

2  Using the tip of a knife, score a 1″ border around the pastry without cutting all the way through.  Brush the border with the egg and sprinkle with the sugar.  Bake until golden and puffed, 18 – 22 minutes.

3  Using the tip of a knife, rescore the border of the cooked pastry without cutting all the way through.  Gently press down on the center of the pastry sheet to flatten it.  Let cool to room temperature, 15 – 20 minutes.

4  Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add cream, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and beat until smooth.  Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly within the borders of the pastry.

5  Arrange the blueberries in a single layer over the filling and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of powdered sugar.

PS  My new blog friend Lisa at http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/ is hosting a “sweet treat link party” on her blog and this recipe is featured there!   Go check it out, there are a ton of sweet recipes to look at and drool over!

Brownie ‘n Berries Dessert Pizza

by penji1

This recipe is from http://www.bettycrocker.com.  I deviated from it a bit so I’ll give you the original recipe and then my adaptations.  For 4th of July dessert tonight at the family dinner.

1 (1 pd, 2.4 oz) box Betty Crocker Original Supreme Premium brownie mix plus ingredients to make brownies

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sliced strawberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup fresh raspberries  (I didn’t use any raspberries on my flag)

1/2 cup apple jelly  (I left this out)

1  Heat oven to 350 (325 for dark or nonstick pans).  Grease bottom only of 12″ pizza pan with cooking spray.  (I used a 9 x 13″ pan.)

2  Make batter as directed on box.  Spread in pan.

3  Bake 26 – 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2″ from side of pan comes out almost clean.  Cool completely, about 1 hour.

4  In small bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla on medium until smooth.  (It didn’t look like enough to cover the brownies so I added about 1/2 tub of Cool Whip, if I’d had more cream cheese I would have just doubled everything.)  Carefully spread mixture over brownie base.  Arrange berries over cream cheese mixture either in circular pattern or flag pattern.  Stir jelly until smooth then brush over berries.  (I didn’t use the jelly.)  Refrigerate 1 hour or until chilled.  Cut into wedges.  Store covered in refrigerator.

Apricot and Banana Muffins

by penji1

This is #24 in Susanna Tee’s cookbook, “1 Mix, 100 Muffins”.  My sister in law Mary and her family are here visiting this week and I had a bunch of bananas in the freezer so I thought I’d make these for everyone to snack on.  I didn’t have any dried apricots so I did walnuts instead so mine are really Walnut and Banana Muffins.

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

heaping 1/2 cup superfine sugar (I just used regular sugar)

1/3 cup plumped dried apricots, finely chopped (I used 1/2 cup walnuts instead)

2 bananas

about 2/3 cup milk

2 eggs

6 tablespoons sunflower oil or melted cooled butter (I used vegetable oil this time)

1  Preheat oven to 400.  (I did mine at 375 since my muffin pans are dark.)  Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in sugar and apricots (or walnuts).

2  Mash bananas and put in measuring cup.  Add milk to the bananas until you reach 1 cup.  (My bananas were 1 cup without the milk but I added the 2/3 cup milk anyway because it was looking pretty dry.)

3  Lightly beat eggs  then beat in banana/milk mixture and oil.   (I had to use a whisk to get it to mix together.)  Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in liquid ingredients.  Stir gently until just combined, do not overmix.

4  Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.

5  Let muffins cool in pan 5 minutes before removing.

Hello Kitty Fondant Birthday Cake/Darn Good Chocolate Cake Recipe

by penji1

This was a birthday cake for Courtney’s friend Romina who loves Hello Kitty just like Courtney.  Courtney saw this cake pan in Michaels and really wanted it so we got it to experiment with and see how fondant works on a cake made in one of these shaped pans and, as it turns out, it works pretty good.  I tried a new cake recipe, “Darn Good Chocolate Cake”, from the cookbook “Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor” (see below for recipe), frosted it with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and covered it in white buttercream fondant from Funfinity.  Happy Birthday Romina!

1 (18.25 oz) plain devil’s food or dark chocolate fudge cake mix

1 (3.9 oz) package chocolate instant pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I left these out for the fondant cake)

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray (I used the kind for baking).

2  Blend cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, and eggs on low for 1 minute.  Scrape down bowl.  Increase speed to medium and beat 2 – 3 minutes.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing after pouring.

3  Bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed with finger and is just starting to pull away from sides of pan, about 58 – 62 minutes.  Let cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.  Run knife around edge of pan and invert onto rack.

Green, Pink and Yellow Topsy Turvy Fondant Cake

by penji1

This is the 2nd cake for Kristy’s family reunion, this one representing the grandparent’s anniversary and the little girl’s birthday.  Kristy wanted green, pink and yellow dots and daisies so here it is.  It came out pretty cute!  This is a 6″, 8″ and 10″ Chocolate Sour Cream (see “White Almond Sour Cream cake”) topsy turvy cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and covered in White Buttercream Fondant from Funfinity.  Cort colored some white fondant to get the yellow, green and pink and then we used cutters for the circles and daisies.  So Happy Birthday and remembered Happy Anniversary to the members of the Judd Family.  Hope you have a great reunion!

Family Tree Family Reunion Fondant Cake

by penji1

I met Kristy at the Women In Business luncheon where I made the same offer to those ladies that Courtney and I made on Facebook which is that we would love to make a cake for any of them for just the cost of ingredients so that we can keep on practicing.  Kristy talked to me after the luncheon and asked if we could make a cake for her family reunion that she had coming up and of course I said we would love to.  She needed a cake for the reunion but there were a couple of other events that would be happening at that same time as well.  One of the attendees of the reunion, a little girl, would be celebrating a birthday during the reunion and the reunion was being held at the same time as a set of grandparent’s anniversary would fall, both grandparents have passed away but the family wanted to pay tribute to them at the reunion.  Kristy wanted all those elements represented on the cake.  After talking for awhile we decided that all 3 of those events probably wouldn’t go together well on 1 cake so we decided to do 2.  This is the first to represent the reunion itself.  Kristy wanted to have a tree to represent a family tree so Courtney made this awesome tree!  This is a 10″ square White Almond Sour Cream cake covered with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and then covered in White Buttercream Fondant from Funfinity.  Cort made the tree trunk freehand and then used a mold for the branches and leaves (mold from Michaels) and I used little cutters for the letters and numbers and then finished with a yellow ribbon around the bottom.  It came out much cuter than I expected (I seem to always be underestimating our abilities which isn’t bad because then I’m always pleasantly surprised!).  Happy Reunion to the Judd family!