Happy Valentine's Day to me...

So this Valentines Day my oh so wonderful bf surprised me with a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer!!!

Yeah...it's like that

I've been wanting one of these things forever...but even more so recently with all the cupcakery (is that even a word?) I've been doing. I got it on Friday and have been itching to use it, BUT I only tend to bake on Sundays. This is because I don't actually eat anything I bake. Hahaha....I take it all to work. I like the baking part, but not the fatness that tends to come with eating what you make. Really, as my bf has pointed out many times, it's all part of my diabolical plan to make everyone around me fat. Haha...but ya know, they enjoy it. I've already been told my food needs to come with a diabetes warning label...yet people still mow through it like they haven't seen baked goods in years. Co-workers have even gotten upset when they come down to my office and all the cupcakes are gone. It reminds me of Woody Harrelson in Zombieland looking for the ever elusive twinkies. No lie.

But I digress...since there isn't going to be any baking in my kitchen until tomorrow, yet I can't wait any longer to use this damn mixer...I decided to make whipped cream. I've never made whipped cream from scratch before. I always thought it would be a pain in the ass. Alas, it was SO super simple with this mixer. It took less than 5 minutes and I only needed 2 ingredients. I'm sure most people know how to make whipped cream, but I know I was unsure of the ratio of cream to sugar...so I'm gonna go ahead and post this "recipe" anyway.

Whipped Cream

1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
3 T sugar

1) Pour the cream into the mixing bowl and stick it in the fridge for a few minutes (to make sure both the bowl and the liquid are chilled). Once chilled, place bowl back on the mixer and use the wire whisk attachment. Start on a lower setting and slowly work up to a medium/high setting. Once soft peaks start to form, add sugar slowly, one tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form. Done.

See how easy? And it's mighty tasty...

Electric Cupcakes

So you can call these whatever you like...I've seen them called inside out cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes, fireworks cupcakes, etc...I called these Electric because...well...the colors were. They are really simple to make, but look AMAZING! I suggest using a white paper liner so you can see the cupcake's colors through it. That's my plan for next time.


ELECTRIC CUPCAKES

1 vanilla box cake mix (I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla)
1 c sour cream
1/3 c oil
1/2 c milk (I used Vanilla Almond Milk)
2 eggs
Food coloring of your choice (I suggest gel coloring. I used Duff Electric Gel colors - hence the name)
Small bowl of water

1) Preheat oven to 325° or 350° depending on your box directions. Prepare box cake mix with all ingredients except food coloring and water. Once the mix is blended well, separate the batter into however many colors you plan on using (I used 4 colors, so I separated the batter into 4 bowls) - NOTE: This is going to be a thick batter.

2) Drop in food coloring until you reach desired color (do this with all bowls - duh)

This is the only tricky part...finding out how much of each color batter you need to fill the cupcake pan. What I did was experiment with the first cupcake. I tested out how much of each batter I would need to fill the cup 2/3 - 3/4 full. For four colors I needed a little over 2 t of each color batter.

NOTE: Another good trick is to use water see how many teaspoons or tablespoons it takes to fill your liner. Then use that measurement for your batter.

3) Using a measuring spoon, scoop desired color batter and using a WET finger (that's what the bowl of water is for) slide the batter into the cupcake liner. Using the same wet finger, spread the batter to the edges of the liner. Repeat with all other colors.

4) Bake until done. Mine took about 18-20 minutes. Let them sit in the pan about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

THEY ARE AMAZING!

_{Nutrition content based on cake portion only - NO frosting. I used the LIVESTRONG recipe calculator.
Idea courtesy of Our Best Bites}

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Mmmm...caramel apples. A tasty fair treat made even better by replacing the healthy apple with a sugar laden cupcake...haha. These are actually made in a mini cupcake pan, so the batter produces somewhere around 48 mini cupcakes. Whether or not you make ALL of those into "caramel apples" is up to you. You would just have to double the amount of caramel and crushed peanuts that the recipe calls for. Honestly, these things are a total pain in the ass to make...but they're worth it...at least occasionally. You could even use the batter to make your 24 mini cupcakes and then use whatever is left to make some regular sized muffins. (Yes, I said muffins...the only real difference between the two is whether or not there's frosting right?) Those would be pretty good for breakfast.

_{From the book Fun Stuff Cupcakes - Taffy Apple Cupcakes}

CARAMEL APPLE CUPCAKES
_{Makes 24, maybe up to 48 if you so please}

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour (I actually used 3/4 c whole wheat all-purpose flour and 1 c regular all-purpose flour)
1 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c applesauce
3/4 sugar (I used raw turbinado sugar)
1/2 canola oil
1 egg
1 1/2 c chopped roasted peanuts (I actually threw these bad boys in my food processor cause I'm lazy like that)
20 wooden craft sticks (I got these at Michael's. I suggest using the flat ones as opposed to the round ones I used. My cupcakes had a tendency to rotate when I tried to coat them with the caramel)
2 packages (14 oz each) of caramels - unwrapped (now you see why this is already starting out as a pain in the ass?)
5 T milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

1) Preheat oven to 350°. Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray (I like Baker's Joy). Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, stir together applesauce, sugar, oil, and egg until well blended. Add flour mixture a little at a time; stir until blended. Don't use a hand mixer for this...you want to be gentle. Spoon into prepared cupcake pan, filling about 3/4 full.

2)Bake about 16 minutes. Do the toothpick or the finger test for doneness. Cool in pan about 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

3) Line baking sheet with waxed paper; spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place peanuts in a shallow dish. Insert craft sticks into the 24 mini cupcakes.

4) Place unwrapped caramels and milk in a large microwaveable bowl and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring after each minute. Now comes the pain in the ass part: Working with one cupcake at a time, hold over bowl and spoon caramel over the cupcake, rotating the stick until the cupcake is completely coated. Immediately roll in peanuts to coat the cupcake, pressing nuts lightly with your fingertips (so to speak) to adhere them to the caramel. Stand cupcake (stick side up obviously) on prepared baking sheet. Repeat. Caramel may need to be reheated a few times if it becomes to thick. Let stand at least 20 minutes until caramel is set.

I then moved these to mini cupcake liners. I will forewarn you that the caramel and peanuts will probably slide down the cupcake a bit, pooling at the bottom. If you see this happening, press the caramel up the cupcake a little. You'll still have the pool of caramel at the bottom of the cupcake, but eh...it still looks pretty good and tastes even better.

See that sneaky little hand...he only thought he was gonna steal one

Mt Dew Cupcakes

Yep...you read that right. Mt Dew cupcakes. I've seen a TON of recipes for Mt Dew cupcakes...but most don't really cut it for that authentic Mt Dewey flavor. I found one on food.com that looked promising and tweaked it a bit. The result was pretty damn good...the cupcake itself wasn't very sweet at all, but the frosting - wow..it was the sugary "I feel like my teeth are going to rot out of my mouth this instant" goodness that you expect from regular Mt Dew. So they complement each other well. I wouldn't suggest eating one or the other strictly by itself...but together...deliciousness.

MT DEW CUPCAKES
_{Makes 12 cupcakes}

For the cupcakes

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 c sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1/4 c Mt Dew soda
2 T Mt Dew syrup (I'll explain in a minute)
2 T frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
Zest from half a lemon and half a lime
1 1/4 c + 2 T all-purpose flour
3/4 t baking powder
1/8 t salt

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Pour about 2 1/2 cups of Mt Dew into a pot and place on the stove. Bring to a boil and then turn to low and let it condense/evaporate. It took me about 20-30 minutes to get a syrup. Please note that it won't be sticky like maple syrup, but it will be thicker than the non-condensed soda. You'll need this for both the cupcake and the frosting.

1) Preheat oven to 325° and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

2) In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3) Combine Mt. Dew and orange juice concentrate in a cup and set aside.

4) In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer and cream butter and sugar. Scrape sides and add zest, blend. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg and then scraping sides of bowl.

5) Add dry mixture to sugar/butter bowl, alternating with Mt Dew mixture. So add flour, blend on low, scrape sides, add Mt Dew, blend, scrape sides, add flour, blend, scrape sides...blah, blah, blah...try to add dry ingredients in three batches and liquid in two.

6) Pour the batter in the lined cupcake pan (about 2/3 full) and bake for 16-18 minutes. You can do the toothpick test or just touch the tops of the cupcakes. If the cake bounces back, it's done. Let them sit in the pan about 5 minutes and then cool them on wire racks.

For the frosting

1/4 c Mt Dew syrup
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temp
2 1/4 c powdered sugar
2 T Heavy cream
2 t frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
Zest of half a lemon and half a lime
Food coloring (Optional of course. I used both yellow and green)

1) Using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar in a bowl. Add heavy cream and Mt Dew syrup. Beat until fluffy. Add OJ and zest and blend again. At this point you can either use the frosting as is OR add the food coloring. I divided the frosting into 2 bowls and colored one with yellow and one with green. Just add a few drops of food coloring at a time and beat with the mixer until combined.

To use two colors, take a piping bag and fill one side with one color and the other side with the other color. Squeeze the bag until both colors start coming out of the tip. I used a Wilton 1M Star tip with these (it's my new favorite). Enjoy!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Okay...so I know it's been years or something...but I just haven't found the time to write...or really, I just didn't feel like writing. It happens I spose. Anyway...as of recently I've been baking up a storm. Generally one new type of cupcake every weekend (during the week is almost impossible seeing as I have kids and all). BUT, while I will post all the other recipes for the deliciousness I've been baking up...I wanna start with the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes I just made. Who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate? Anyway...here it is - serve with a nice tall glass of your dairy or non-dairy beverage of choice:

REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUP CUPCAKES
_{Makes 24 cupcakes}

For the cake

1 Box chocolate cake mix (I used Devil's Food)
1 c sour cream
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
2 eggs
24 Reese's Peanut butter cup miniatures - unwrapped

1) Preheat oven to 325° and prepare cupcake pans with liners.

2) Combine all cake ingredients except candies. Spray a measuring tablespoon with cooking spray (the batter will be thick and will stick if you don't) and plop 1 T of batter in each cupcake liner. Wet your finger with some water and spread batter to edges of cup. Place a Reese's miniature in the center of all the liners (upside down works best). Next spoon approx 2 more tablespoons of batter over each candy, making sure it covers it completely.

3) Bake in oven for approx 25 minutes. So, the toothpick test won't work with this cupcake because of the PB cup in the middle...so the easiest way to know if they're done is to touch the top of the cupcake. If it springs back up, it's done.

For the frosting

1 1/4 cup + 2 T peanut butter (for me that was about an entire 16 oz jar)
3/4 stick butter, about 6 T (room temp)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Heavy cream (about 3 - 5 T depending on what consistency you'd like. I used 4 T)

1) In a bowl use a hand mixer, or fancy stand mixer, and cream sugar and butter. Scrape down the sides and then add peanut butter and 1 T of cream. Blend everything together. Add more cream as you're blending until you reach desired consistency.

2) Frost as desired! I used a 1M tip from Wilton and a pastry bag. I also topped each cupcake with chocolate sprinkles and a Reese's mini...no, not miniature...mini. They come unwrapped in the bag and are about the size of a dime...PERFECT for topping cupcakes! You could also cut the miniatures in half or chop them up and sprinkle them on top.

_{NOTE: You may have a lot of frosting left depending on how much you use for the cupcakes}

I used LIVESTRONG to compute nutrition info

The surprise inside

Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread

So...after a lot of talking about getting a breadmaker my loving bf bought me one as a surprise. I must say that I love it. I've used it to make both bread and pizza dough (with vegan cinnamon rolls next on the list.) Now generally speaking, a lot of people don't actually BAKE their bread in the bread maker. They use it to make the dough and then bake the bread in the oven...creating a much fluffier texture. Yeah, I didn't know that the first time I made bread and holy crap that shit was DENSE!!

WELL - I happened upon a bread recipe, which of course I had to tweak based on what I've read over the internet and what I had in my kitchen. The original recipe calls for sugar, molasses, dry milk powder, and a little less wheat gluten. I don't use regular sugar, I didn't have molasses, and well, I don't drink/use regular milk (I also read that wheat gluten makes bread fluffy...so I added a little extra for good measure.) So anyway, I planned on taking out the dough and baking it in the oven. That ended up not happening - hahaha. I guess I didn't hear the beep before it started to bake. All I smelled was fresh baking bread. I thought to myself "shit, that's gonna be a waste." Well, when I took it out I decided I would cut into it anyway to see how it turned out taste wise...and wow. It was actually REALLY light and fluffy...not something you would expect from a breadmaker. I've made it a few times now to make sure it wasn't a fluke...and since it's been great everytime I decided to post the recipe. Enjoy:

Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread

The settings for this bread was a large loaf (1.5 pounds) with a medium crust, on the whole wheat cycle.

1 1/2 c + 2T water (make sure it's the temp it needs to be for your yeast. Mine is 100º - 110º)
2 T almond milk
3 T honey
2 T canola oil
1 1/2 t salt
3 3/4 c whole wheat flour
2 T wheat gluten
3 t active yeast

1) Add first 5 ingredients to your breadmaker (water through salt)

2) Add whole wheat flour evenly to pan, then add wheat gluten. Tap pan to make sure water is covered (push flour around to all corners if you have to, you don't want any water showing). Then make a small well in the center of the flour (make sure it is shallow enough that the yeast won't touch the water.) Add yeast to the well.

3) Turn on breadmaker to the aforementioned settings, sit back, relax, and enjoy fresh baked whole wheat bread in a few short hours...okay - so maybe four hours if you go by my breadmaker.

My latest loaf

Another loaf that I made - so you could see the middle

My sister and I enjoyed this with homemade blueberry jam my mom sent me...and it was TASTY!!

Easy Shepard's Pie

Mmmm...Shepard's pie...I haven't had Shepard's pie in a loooong time, so I decided tonight would be a great night to make it since I got home a little early. This is one of those classic recipes that you generally need to call your mother for, as you can only remember kind of what's in it. Well...I did that and in typical mom fashion I got "oh, you use a little of this, a little of that, a splash of this...taste it and see how you like it." My mom, while a fantastic cook, has the habit of not measuring anything...which I can understand to a point. But really, I once needed to know how to make cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving and the advice I received was "add sage until you smell it." Really? I never knew 'smell' was a form of measuring...but apparently it is. Funny thing about that is...it worked! hahaha...and it turned out great. So while I used my mom's 'some of this, some of that' tactic, I also measured it out a little at a time so I could get an accurate recipe. I can ensure that someone would be able to recreate a dish using actual measurements, especially if they aren't as, um...creative (sure, we can use that word) in the kitchen as my mom.

Easy Shepard's Pie

10 golden potatoes
Sour cream, butter (or the like), & milk (or milk substitute) - to make your mashed potatoes
1/2 T oil
1 pkg Quorn Beef Style Grounds (I like Quorn because it's soy free and mighty tasty)
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 T each basil & oregano
1 15oz can of tomato sauce
1/4 t Whatsthishere sauce (also known as Worcestershire sauce)
1/2 t each garlic & onion powder
Handful of cheddar cheese

1) Start by boiling water and preheating oven to 350º. Quarter potatoes and throw in boiling water. In the meantime put oil in pan and heat it up. Throw in Quorn and start to heat, add basil & oregano and mix. Then add tomato sauce and mix. Let that mixture heat through then add Worcestershire, garlic & onion powder, and mixed veggies. Let that simmer.


2) While 'beef' mix is simmering, check your potatoes as they should be done by now. (If they're easy to pierce with a fork, you're good to go). Drain water from the potatoes and add sour cream, buttery spread, and I used almond milk to make your mashed potatoes. I won't give you exact measurements because it's all to taste (ha, I sound like my mom now huh?) Set aside

3) Grease a 9x13 pan, add 'beef' mixture and layer potatoes on top. Sprinkle cheese over the top and place in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until cheese is all melty.

TA DA! Shepard's Pie...

Looks good right? And deliciously meat free

On a side note: I really like most of Quorn's products. Their 'Naked Chik'n Cutlet', 'Chik'n Tenders', 'Chik'n Nuggets', 'Meatless Meatballs', and 'Beef Style Grounds' are all delicious and taste surprisingly close to the real thing. I actually prefer their taste to Boca or Morningstar. They also have a 'Turk'y Roast' that I want to try but can't find. I think it would be great for Thanksgiving.