Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

I don't know about you, but I dream in cupcakes, chocolate and caramel. Maybe it's just a teenage girl thing. I know I have all those hormones rushing around, including the ones that make me crave junk food like there's no tomorrow. Today I was able to make all of my dreams come true, and I topped it all off with a pretzel.

Like most of my baking expeditions, this one stemmed from three things: boredom, an empty stomach, and internet access. I found this recipe on a blog that could become my new favorite, Sally's Baking Addiction. That girl speaks to my own baking addiction, and my cravings. Today Sally taught me how to make boxed cake into something special and amazing. She may have given me a new excuse to be lazy and never make cupcakes from scratch again. These tasted just as good, if not better.


What you'll need (for the cake):

• 1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines, because it's what I saw on her blog)
• 1 small box of instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup milk

To make:

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tin with liners (I ended up only making about 20 cupcakes, but you can always shoot for the full 24)!

- Using a mixer, mix together cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs, milk, and sour cream until well combined.

- Scoop batter into cupcake liners. I typically use 1/4 of a cup to scoop to make them as even as possible, even though it doesn't always work out.

-Bake 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool then top with frosting and pretzels.

What you'll need (for frosting)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar

To make:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
- Once melted, add sugar and cream and constantly mix until dissolved.
- Add salt then let bubble for about another minute, then remove from heat and let mixture cool.
- If desired, remove some of the caramel and set aside to top cupcakes with later.
- Slowly beat in powdered sugar one cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Top cupcakes with frosting. WARNING: The frosting hardens rather quickly, so if you do decide to pipe it get to work fast! I made that mistake. Most of them turned out pretty in the end.

It was all really as simple as that. My dad gave the thumbs up on these, so they must be good. As always, enjoy!

Strawberries and Cream Pie

These babies are in season. That means that there was no way I could pass them up and not use them in my baking. So I found this to make on a hot Friday afternoon. No bake, sweet, rich, yet somehow light. It was the perfect summery dessert.

What you'll need:
-1 graham cracker pie crust
- 2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 cups heavy cream + 1 tablespoon
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 carton of strawberries, sliced
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

To Make:

- In a mixer, beat cream until it peaks.
- In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla
- Fold in about 1/3 of the cream into the cream cheese mixture to mix, then fold in the rest.


I would recommend you taste this mixture. Only because it's delicious and you might not be able to stop eating it. Noah and I had issues when we made this. Just look at it. Doesn't it look yummy?

-Okay, now that you've hopefully tested this, pour the mixture into the pie crust, then top with strawberries.

One could stop right there. You would have a delicious strawberry pie and have no regrets. But since I'm a chocoholic, I had to melt chocolate chips and top the pie. The only issue was that they didn't get liquidy enough to really drizzle over the pie, so it would be smart to melt them with a tablespoon of cream.

The final product may have not been beautiful, but it was delicious. The Couets enjoyed it, and Noah and I had fun making it. We even had time for a pie fight.

Happy summer and enjoy!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes and... Oh Yeah, Cupcakes

So as of late, I haven't exactly been trying out new recipes to share on here. I've been baking lots and lots of simple cupcakes. First I had my cousin's wedding party, and I made her more of those seashell cupcakes*. Then Noah had a grad party... Then my friend Erin had a beginning of the summer party. You'd think I'd be all cupcaked out. You're wrong. I'm just looking forward to spending the summer trying out different kinds of cupcakes. I'm ready to experiment and I'd love suggestions!

So here are some pictures of cupcakes I've made or helped make recently.

Noah's grad party

Erin's party. 

*Not pictured, seashell cupcakes.

S'mores Pizza

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I don't think that I need to say anything more after showing you that. Seriously. If you don't think that looks delicious, then there's something wrong with you.

So this little experiment happened almost a month ago, but I decided to finally blog about it now, because it's crappy out and I need something to do before I stuff my face with pizza. I wish I was stuffing my face with this pizza.

What you'll need:

• One tube of Pillsbury pizza dough, or whatever brand you prefer
• 1 bag of chocolate chips
• Mini marshmallows
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/4 cup flour

To make:

- Prepare the pizza dough according to directions on tube.

-Dump the entire bag of chocolate chips on top of prepared crust, following with as many marshmallows as you'd like.

-In a bowl combine the brown sugar, oats, butter and flour. Sprinkle mixture on top of pizza.

- Bake for ten minutes, then enjoy!

Before...

After. With a bite taken.

Seashell Cupcakes

So... Last week was a long week. School is stressful on a whole multitude of levels. The only thing that got me through Friday was the prospect of these.

Aren't they adorable?! Come on, tell me they're adorable... I came home on Friday and decided to get baking. I made these for my cousin Cecilia's wedding shower that was the next day, Saturday. She's getting married next month in Iowa, but the wedding shower was beach themed, so it was time to be a little creative!

Of course, I had help with this project. Morgan took care of most of the seashells which were made with Wilton Candy Melts in a Wilton Candy Seashell mold. Those candy molds are fun to play with and they're available at almost ever craft store. I also had help from my awesome boyfriend, Noah. Look at us, rocking some aprons.

Since I had to make forty eight cupcakes, and I wanted to make they were tasty, I simply used boxed cake mix for the cupcakes. My new favorite method is to put all the batter in a large Ziploc bag then cut off the bottom corner to pipe the batter into the cupcake liners. It's so much neater than spooning batter into the liners, and I'm a messy baker as is.

Noah really likes his cupcake batter.

For the frosting, I simply used my favorite butter cream frosting recipe, found here. I dyed the frosting light blue and piped the frosting to kinda look like waves. The project was really easy and the results were phenomenal. I received many wonderful comments at the shower and I appreciated every single one of them. I'm glad my baking addiction can benefit others in some way.

As always, enjoy!