The Perfect Pair

As I started my last post, I absolutely love any and all things that are chocolate and peanut butter.
The best peanut butter frosting I have ever made was found on Sprinkle Bake's blog for a Coca-Cola cupcake with a salted peanut butter frosting.  I've made slight adaptations to the frosting, which I have made a few times. I have only baked the cupcakes once.

I made these last night because I hadn't baked anything all week and my girlfriends were coming over.
They were a hit.  One of my friends commented that she could eat the frosting by the spoonful- It is THAT good!

This is a frosting recipe that you definitely want to try. It will become your go-to peanut butter frosting!

Here is a recipe for my Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bliss Cupcakes:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bliss Cupcakes

Yields 2 1/2 dozen cupcakes

Cake: adapted from Hershey's

Frosting: adapted from Sprinkle Bakes Blog

Filling: Adapted from Kraft

Combination: Original

Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients: 2 eggs, 1 C. milk, 1/2 C. vegetable oil, 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract, 2 C. sugar, 1 3/4 C flour, 3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder,   

1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 3/4 C. hot water combined with 1 Tbsp. of instant coffee

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line 30 cupcake tins. 

2. Combine ingredients in the order listed, adding one ingredient at a time.  Be sure to mix slowly when adding the coffee- the batter becomes very runny.

3. Fill cupcake tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Peanut Butter Cookie Truffle Filling:

Ingredients: 18 peanut butter and chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreos), 6 oz. softened cream cheese

1. Using a food processor, crush the cookies to fine crumbs.

2. Reserve about 2 Tbsp. of the crumbs.

3. Mix the remaining crumbs with the softened cream cheese until well blended.

4. Once the cupcakes are cooled, add about 2 tsp. of the filling into the center of the cupcake (I use a cupcake corer).

Salted Peanut Butter Frosting:

Ingredients: 4 C. powdered sugar, 1 C. softened, salted butter, 1 C. creamy peanut butter, 2 Tbl. heavy cream

1. Beat the softened butter in the mixer, until it becomes almost whipped. 

2. Add 1 C. of the sugar at a time, until well blended.

3. Add in the peanut butter and beat on high for about 10 minutes.

4. Whip in the heavy cream.

5. After adding the filling to the cupcakes, pipe on the frosting.

5. Enjoy!

Favorite Cake

What is your favorite cake?  Chocolate? Red Velvet? The options are endless.  I always go for chocolate and peanut butter as my go to cake/ cupcake flavor.  Each year for my birthday I request the family recipe for Angel Food Cake with a Maple Cream Frosting.  My husband's favorite- carrot cake.  I love carrot cake too, maybe because I have never found a cake I don't like.  However, I don't think I would ever say carrot cake is my favorite.

That being said- MyRecipes.com's Best Carrot Cake, simply is that- the best carrot cake.
The cake is so moist and full of flavor! (The recipe is originally from Southern Living October 1997).

I follow the recipe pretty closely.  My changes: I used 1/2 C of sweetened coconut flakes from a bag.  I also add a little extra cinnamon.  My final change, is to reserve about 1 tsp of the pineapple juice to mix into the batter.  The cake is AMAZING.

When I made it this week for my husband's birthday, everyone said it was the best carrot cake they have ever eaten and the best one I have ever made.  I have tried other carrot cake recipes, but this has been my go to carrot cake since discovering it.

I do following this Cream Cheese frosting recipe that is linked to the cake.  I even use this cream cheese frosting for red velvet cake.

UPDATE: A version of my carrot cake was a finalist in the Herald Mail's Cupcake Contest.  You can view my complete recipe here and see the other finalists' recipes.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

You bake with them!

Yellow is such a happy color!  My mom always had a yellow and blue kitchen and I knew that when I was a homeowner I wanted the same colored kitchen.  Yellow and blue are such a perfect color pair.

Enough about yellow and blue, sort of....I was lucky enough to be offered to trade my 4 qt. Kitchenaid for a Professional 6 qt one. I was very sad to see my old, white one go, but I really needed a bigger one. I love the size of my new one, but it was matte gray- not the prettiest.  On Pinterest, I found subway art for your KitchenAid.  My mom bought me this one- in yellow, of course, for my birthday.

Waking up on this beautiful sunny, Saturday, I decided to put on the vinyl for my mixer.

I absolutely love it! My mixer looks prettier and it adds an extra pop of yellow!

To continue you with the color of happy, I decided to make a Lemon  Cream Scone recipe I pinned recently.  My husband loves lemon things and had commented how it had been awhile since I made anything lemony.

I followed the recipe exactly and was quite please with the outcome! They were by far the easiest scones I have ever made.

Honestly, start to finish (yes, including baking time) they took 20 minutes.  The most time consuming part was zesting and juicing the lemons.

The recipe tells you to toss in chunks of cold butter on low in the mixer until it becomes pea sized.  I had never done this before.  I have always cut the butter in with two knives because I have never had a pastry cutter.  This was not only easily accomplished in the mixer, but worked very well and saved me a lot of hassle!

Mmm, see the freshly poured glaze on top? I devoured this long before the scones ever cooled.  I will certainly make this recipe again.  I will continue to use the mixer to cut the butter into my scone dough. As On Sugar Mountain blogged, I think I try this again with blueberries to make a very springy scone.

French Baguette

Whenever I discuss my bakery and all of the scrumptious things it would have, my husband always informs that I need to bake bread.  Our town could use a place with really good bread.  My husband is from New Jersey so he has very high expectations for bread, especially bagels.

Anyway...about two years ago I decided I better attempt to bake bread.  We have a bread machine that my husband would even use in his college dorm to make honey wheat bread.  Aside from that, I'd never baked bread before. After a quick Google search, I decided I would go for Allrecipe's posting for French Baguette. This recipe was quite easy and quick that it has become my go-to recipe for baguettes.  

My mom invited us for dinner tonight and requested this bread.  I was more than happy to comply. An hour and a half later I had two great tasting, fluffy, warm, and fresh baguettes.  

My Adaptions to the Recipe:

Instead of using the bread machine, I let the water and yeast sit for about 5 minutes, until it becomes foamy in the bowl for my mixer. Then I add all of the other ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes using my KitchenAid dough hook. 

I follow the remaining directions, but I substitute the egg wash by brushing milk on top of the dough before it bakes.  Then I sprinkle it with sea salt.

I know I have much to do in the way of bread making, but this recipe was a good place to start!