A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

This past week, I went to the wonderful land of Disney World! I hadn't been since I was about 6, so everything was pretty new to me. It was so, so exhausting (no idea how I did that when I was so little), but so, so fun. Some of my friends are just plain experts on Disney, so we definitely did it the right way- fast passed the most popular rides, packed our own lunches, used park hoppers to hit all the parks, and developed some serious strategy to fit ALL of the rides in during the two days we were there :) I even rode some roller coasters AND Tower of Terror. It was a successful trip for me. 

Early tomorrow morning, I'm off to my second vacation of the summer- Gulf Shores! I'm so excited about this. If you know me at all, you know that the beach is one of my absolute favorite places in the whole world. Plus, I'm going with my very best friends. What could be better?

Before I leave, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the cupcakes I made during my vacay break. 

First, we have some Reeses Cupcakes. These are available for order anytime! $18 per dozen! This cupcake is a homemade chocolate cake with a Reeses PB Cup baked inside. The cupcake is frosted with peanut butter frosting and decorated with chopped Reeses (or a decoration of your choice). Visit my website, www.kristens-cupcakery.com, for more details on this and many, many other cupcakes. 

Second are Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. These are also available for order at $18 per dozen. They have a cookies and cream cake (so delicious) with an Oreo on bottom. They're then frosted with cream cheese frosting and decorated with chopped Oreos (or a decoration of your choice). 

Lastly are some Luau cupcakes very similar to ones I made a couple of weeks ago. These are just vanilla with vanilla frosting and some beachy fondant decorations. 

And on that note...Gulf Shores, here I come!

Peanut Buttery Goodness

Agave. Ever been there? You should say yes. If you can't say yes, you should go ASAP so you can say yes after that.

My family went to Agave last night, and it was seriously so delicious. I can't remember the last time I was so full and my appetite completely satisfied. I got the Red Pepper Salmon Filet. Straight from the Agave menu, it was a "pan seared fresh Chilean salmon with sauteed julienne zucchini, squash, and carrots, served over a roasted red pepper sauce with grilled asparagus."

I promise Agave's not paying me to advertise :) We are friends with one of the owners, but that's not the reason for my praise, either. It truly deserves the honor. Anyway, here's my salmon...

Now for the dessert. Not the Agave dessert...just my homemade dessert for the week.

I've probably mentioned this in a post before, but peanut butter is one of my absolute FAVORITE foods. One of my addictions. One of my guilty pleasures (yes, it's a guilty pleasure when you find a way to eat it with every meal). I love it in any form on anything. And don't even get me started on peanut butter desserts. In a nutshell, I. Love. Peanut Butter.

So if you can't tell, the dessert for today involves peanut butter. They are (drumroll please) Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes. The drizzle of the top of them is hot fudge. And though a Reeses cup obviously would have made more sense on top, I didn't have Reeses cups, so a mini Hershey's sufficed.

Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes 

Makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes

1 1/8 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder 

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoon sour cream

1/4 cup homemade fudge sauce (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter, and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth, then swirl in fudge sauce. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to each cup. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting. 

Peanut Butter Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup peanut butter

3-4 cups of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons of milk

pinch of salt 

Cream butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar with mixer on low speed and gradually add milk and vanilla extract. Mix until frosting is smooth. If too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more sugar. Frost cupcakes as desired. 

Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark cocoa powder

2 tablespoons flour

pinch of salt

1 cup boiling water or milk

1 tablespoon of butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, salt, and flour in a bowl or pot over a double boiler. Bring water or milk to a boil. Gradually add hot liquid to sugar mixture. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. 

Once it has reached the desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Drizzle over cupcakes and store the rest of the sauce in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. 

Reeses Galore

Well, here's my final post before I leave for Athens (I said it's great to be a Georgia Bulldog!). I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. Because my dorm only has what they call a "kitchen" (meaning a stove and sink) on every other floor, it goes without saying that I won't be baking many cheesecakes, milky way cupcakes, or veggie pizzas for a while :) However, when I do come home, I'm sure I'll be baking like crazy. I'm going to have kitchen withdrawals! Anyway, here are a couple of Reeses projects I've worked on over the past couple of weeks.

First, this is a Reeses CAKE-- special chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream and Reeses sprinkled on top.

Second, this is a Reeses CHEESECAKE. The batter even had crushed up Reeses in it. Mmm. If I had to pick one, the cheesecake would beat the cake. There's a sour cream and chocolate chip concoction on top of the cheesecake, so you can't exactly see its true colors. I'll just have to give you some insight. It was very pretty and peanut-buttery on the inside. Anyone who's as big of a peanut butter fan as I am knows what I mean!

Sadly, that's all I have for now. I'm really going to miss doing what I love for so long. Luckily the holidays will be an awesome opportunity for me to bake all the live long day. Ah, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Please get here faster. Until next month, happy baking!

Decadent Desserts

Okay, i found a new blog that I'm LOVING. Each time I look through the blog, I find a million new recipes I want to try. They were all piling up, so I figured I ought to test a couple of them out :) Anyway, one of the recipes was for Red Velvet Cake Balls. These things are AMAZING. And poppable...which is dangerous when something tastes this good.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Red Velvet Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13x9 cake

1 can cream cheese frosting (16oz)

1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)

Directions: After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. It should make 45-50. Chill for several hours (or speed this up by putting them in the freezer). Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package. Roll balls in chocolate and la on wax paper until firm. 

NOTES: 

-White chocolate tastes MUCH better than regular chocolate on these...although it doesn't look quite as pretty since red velvet crumbs can be seen.

-Only melt a few squares of chocolate bark at a time. Not only does it harden quickly, but it is much easier to work with when it's hot. 

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The other recipe was for Peanut Butter Cake Cups. Basically, these are GIANT Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. These were great, too. And I mean great. We have to get these things out of the house!

Peanut Butter Cake Cups

Peanut Butter Cake Cups
1 box white cake mix
Oil, eggs, and water as called for in cake mix
1 cup peanut butter
4 (12 oz) bags milk chocolate chips
24 foil cupcake liners

Bake cake according to package instructions in a 9x13 inch cake pan. Allow to cool about 15 minutes; crumble cake with hands. Add peanut butter to cake crumbs and mix until completely blended. Form peanut butter cake mixture into 1 and 1/2 inch balls; set balls onto parchment paper. Lightly press each ball to flatten slightly. Microwave chocolate chips in microwave-safe bowl one bag at a time, about 1 minute, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Pour about 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate into bottom of each foil cupcake liner. Use a spoon or small rubber spatula to spread and smooth chocolate. Place one peanut butter cake ball into each cup, on top of chocolate. Lightly press cake into chocolate. Pour chocolate over cake until completely covered (this should be flat). Allow cups to set about 2 hours at room temperature.

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Who knows when I'll have time to make the next recipe on my list, but I should probably go run a few hundred miles to work off all the calories from these two desserts before I make a new one :)