Oh, the shame...

So, I totally suck at blogging lately.  Time eludes me, children take up my every waking moment, my home business is picking up steam at a rapid rate.

I'm so very lucky, and so very sorry all at the same time.  I promise to do better.

In the mean time, here are a few of the treats I've made lately.

Thanks for reading.  :)

Waiting and Weddings and Water, Oh My...

I feel like I've gone on hiatus again and I have no real reason other than Summer hit and we've been spending so much time outside in the yard with two tiny nudists!  The splash pad is out, the pool's going up, and the sunscreen's aplenty!

I've also booked myself silly for a couple of months with weddings and teacher's presents and birthdays. 

In celebration of my procrastination in posting and my crazy schedule, enjoy this chocolate orange crepe cake. 

I made it for Big Daddy for Father's Day,  He wanted a cake that tasted like a Terry's Chocolate Orange, and this is what I came up with.   After two unsuccessful "crepes", I got the hang of things. 

Chocolate Orange Crepe Cake

1 Box French Vanilla Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 Large Orange
1 t. Orange Oil (I used LorAnn's)


Prepare cake mix according to directions, only substituting the oil for melted butter.  Add the zest of your orange, as well as all of its juice.  Stir to incorporate.

Add orange oil and stir again to blend. 

Heat a medium sized skillet or frying pan that has been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray. 

Once heated, measure out approximately 1/2 cup of batter and pour into pan.  Tilt pan back and forth until the base is fully coated and let set until the top of your 'crepe' appears dry.  Using a long spatula, flip the cake over and cook for another 15-20 seconds. 

Place on a wire rack and once cool, place a sheet of wax paper on the top.

Continue with remaining batter until it's all gone.

I filled and topped mine with a chocolate buttercream and a few squares of a Lindt chocolate orange bar to round out the flavor combo.

Chocolate Buttercream

1 Cup Butter, softened
1/2 C Cocoa, sifted
1/2 t. Vanilla
6-8 C Icing Sugar

Beat butter until light and fluffy.  Scrape down bowl and add cocoa, vanilla, and icing sugar.  Beat until desired consistency is reached. 

Place one crepe on a serving platter, cake round, plate, etc, and frost generously.  Keep alternating crepes and frosting until you place the top one.  Here's where I added the chocolate squares. 

You could, in theory, frost the whole outside of the cake as well, but I liked looking at the layers.  So there.

Cut, enjoy, and try not to think about how different it feels to be eating tiny thin layers of cake rather than a large chunk. 

Totally different, totally awesome!

WW: Teef...

WW: WindowBow...

After the rain...

Makin' Whoopie(s)...

Recently, a friend of mine asked if I could make 150 cupcakes for his upcoming wedding. 

Heck, yeah!

After a little Facebook back and forth, he and his bride-to-be decided they wanted a low key dessert and asked if I'd make some whoopie pies.

Double heck yeah! 

I'd never made them before but have been bookmarking recipes to try for ages.

All he gave me to work with were their wedding colors and the flavors they wanted. 

Blue and white, and straight up chocolate and vanilla.

This first batch is the classic chocolate whoopie cake with a vanilla bean buttercream icing that I split in half and tinted blue. 

I rolled some whoopies in blue sugar pearls, some in sugar crystals, left some plain, and rolled the rest in white sugar crystals. 

I've got a batch of vanilla whoopies cooling that I'll fill with the same icing, some chocolate ganache, and I'll tint a vanilla batch blue tomorrow.

These are as most recipes promise, moist, decadent, and addictive. 

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Slightly adapted from Whoopie Pies


1 C All-Purpose Flour
2/3 C Cake and Pastry Flour
2/3 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Salted Butter, Room Temperature
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Shortening
1 Cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Cup Milk

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together your flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat butter, shortening and sugar on low speed until just combined.  Increase your speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.  It will be light and fluffy.

Add in the egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until well incorporated.

Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.

Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet about two inches apart.  The batter will spread so you don't want them touching.  

Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when gently pressed.

Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes on parchment lined sheets before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

After they've cooled, you can fill them with whatever you'd like; buttercream, ganache, marshmallow creme, cream cheese icing. 

I used my standard buttercream recipe and piped the filling on one half of the pie, sandwiching it with another, pressing down gently until the frosting reaches the edge.

I then rolled the edges in the sprinkles and pearls.

Buttercream

1 Cup Butter, Softened (I use salted to cut some of the sweetness.)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste (Or vanilla, I'm still hooked on my paste..)
1/3 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream (Optional.)
6-8 Cups Icing Sugar
Food Coloring (Optional, I use Wilton Gels.)

Beat butter in your stand mixer (Or by hand, work with what you've got...) until light and fluffy. 

Add vanilla and whipping cream and beat about 1 more minute.

Slowly add your icing sugar until you've reached desired icing consistency; nobody likes inhaling that stuff or covering your floor with it. 

It's at this point that you can add your color, mixing until combined.

I shared this trial wedding batch with the neighborhood.  Good thing too or we would have eaten them all here. 

I'm pretty sure my boys will have permanent chocolate and icing mustaches. 

Long live the whoopie!

M.I.A

Ug.  Sorry I've been absent!  I feel like a piece of me is missing. 

I'm still reading everyone, I just haven't been able to catch a moment to write or post anything.

Big Daddy hurt his leg pretty badly last week and I've been doing EVERYTHING..  It's almost like I've got three babes in the house and the big one needed more attention than the two little ones. 

I've got cookies to post, cupcakes to talk about, ME business.  You know?

I promise to get one off in the next day or so. 

Don't leave. 

I'll make it worth your while to come back.

Thanks for sticking with me. 

x

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes...

Who doesn't need a sugar fix every now and then?  (Or constantly..)

These cupcakes will cover all of your necessary needs.  Be prepared, though, for sugar withdrawl once the days nears its end. 

I discovered the original recipe while stalking doing my daily reading over at Kristan's blog, Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  She's a riot.  If you think it, she says it.  It's a beautiful thing.  Like these cupcakes.   

She got her cupcake recipe from Tidy Mom, and I altered it ever so slightly to use what I had on hand.  (I basically just used a different cake mix..)

I made them for Oliver's first birthday party and there was nary a cupcake left when it was over.

So, splash a little cold water on your face, take a deep breath, and go big or go home. 

Cupcakes
1 box Betty Crocker Confetti Cake Mix
1/2 Cup Butter, melted
1 cup water
3 eggs
24 whole Oreos (I used 12 Original and 12 Golden)

Preheat oven to 350 and line your muffin tins with papers.  Place an Oreo in the bottom of each one. 

In your mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, melted butter, and water. Blend on low speed for about one minute. Increase speed to high and beat for another minute.  Top the Oreos with batter, filling your liners about 2/3 full. 

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cupcake tops spring back when touched lightly. 

While your cupcakes are cooling, you can make your filling.  Yes, filling!

Filling

3/4 of a 16 Oz. Jar of Fluff (Marshmallow Creme)
1/2 Cup Softened Butter (I used salted to cut some of the sweetness.)
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla
4 Tablespoons Whipping Cream
1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar

In your mixer bowl, beat Fluff, butter, cream, and vanilla on medium until smooth.

Slowly add the icing sugar and increase speed to medium-high.  Beat for about a minute.

Refrigerate filling until cupcakes are done cooling.

Once your cupcakes are cooled, you can fill them with the marshmallow filling.  I used a long skinny piping tip to inject the filling, but if I were to make these again, I'd use the cone method to get more in there. 

Icing

2 Cups Butter, Softened (Again, I use salted to cut some of the sweetness..)
1/4 Cup Whipping Cream
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
7-8 Cups Icing Sugar

Again, in your mixer, beat your butter, whipping cream, and vanilla until smooth and well blended. 

Slowly add in your icing sugar (so you don't have a mushroom cloud of sugar) and mix on low for a few seconds.  Once almost blended, turn up to medium and whip until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Once blended, fold in about 10-15 finely crushed oreos.  (Folding ensures the cookies don't just turn your icing grey, and finely crushing them ensures that everything will pipe smoothly with no clumping.)

Pipe (Or slather) the icing on your cupcakes.  I drizzled the tops of mine with more marshmallow filling before serving.

Keep any uneaten cupcakes in the refrigerator to keep them fresh.