Twinkie Flavored Cupcakes

So my book club has made bringing cupcakes for your birthday a tradition so at the beginning of March I started looking for unique but not disgusting sounding cupcakes. These won. 

 

Twinkie Cupcakes 

1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients on back of box
1 small box sugar free/fat free instant French vanilla pudding mix
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 teaspoons very hot water
Marshmallow Buttercream (recipe & ingredients follow)

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin tins with about 20 paper liners. Set aside.
2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, stirring the box of pudding mix into the cake batter to blend. Portion batter evenly among muffin cups, about 2/3 full, and bake for approx. 15-18 mins or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely, the core out the cupcake’s middles with a sharp, small paring knife, careful not to cut through the entire cupcake. Eat or discard centers.
3. First, dissolve the salt into the hot water and allow to cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the marshmallow cream, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy. Beat in the salt water. Mixture should be light but not as stiff as frosting.
4. Scoop filling into a resealable plastic bag, seal tight, and snip off a corner of the bag. Pipe the filling into each cored cupcake, filling just to the top. Refrigerate cupcakes while you prepare the frosting.

 

Marshmallow Buttercream

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow fluff

2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 1 bag (32 oz) powdered sugar

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the fluff, butter and vanilla until combined & creamy, about 2 mins. Gradually begin adding powdered sugar in, about one cup at a time, until frosting is light and fluffy.
2. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes, careful to cover the filled center with frosting.

 

Store frosted cupcakes airtight, preferably in the fridge. They’re super good cold!

 

I messed up the filling and made them too salty. I ended up making some of the cupcakes without filling because the filling and the frosting was too rich. But I didn’t take any home…though I should have for Aunt Paula and Bethany but I forgot…. 😥 but they were taaaaaasty.

Stupid wordpress

I haven’t been posting because WordPress has been having troubles posting and saving drafts so I hope they’ve fixed it by now…

So, the 14th of March I made Twinkie flavored cupcakes. A couple days later or so I made snickerdoodles. And a few days ago I made apple raisin cookies. And tonight I’m making frascerelli (Birthday Pasta) again.

Birthday pasta

I made homemade pasta on Wednesday! I made frascerelli, a rice like pasta, but since Mama and I had to pay to go to the class and got the recipe because we went to the class I’m not sure if I can post the recipe……but I can post the Alfredo sauce recipe I used!

Doesn’t it look yummy?

1/4 cup butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups finely shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup parsley

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add cream and simmer for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through. Stir in parsley and serve.

I omitted the parsley and it wasn’t cheesy enough for my family’s standards so I added about a 1/4 cup more cheese, which made it really gloopy 😥 so I added about 1-2 tablespoons of milk, which made it perfect. Tada!

Sarah demonstrating the deliciousness

Bacon wrapped shrimp again!

Today I made the bacon wrapped shrimp again for dinner and like last time was awesome!

Yeah, super short post….

Sunday…as in nearly a week ago…

I MADE DINNER! This is normally a big to do for me to make dinner without help. But I made a cheesey-sausage-potato casserole thing which I don’t currently have the recipe for…but I made it by myself 🙂

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

Right after we got a bazzillion boxes of girl scout cookies, my cousin gave me the food mission of sugar cookies. And I said a week after the girl scout cookies were gone. Well….Valentine’s Day was coming up and I already had cheesy Hobbit valentines but I wanted to do something that was more “crazy me” than “random 3rd grader” so I looked on pinterest for a good recipe and found an AMAZING one.

From the Ginger Snap Girl

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
adapted from Hugs & Cookies XOXO

Cookies:
2 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze:
2 tablespoons milk
left over vanilla bean pod from the cookies plus another 1/2 vanilla bean with the seeds scraped out
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract (optional)
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy about 2 minutes.  Add egg and beat until combined.  Add vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract and beat until just combined.  

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  

Turn mixer to low and slowly and dry ingredients into the butter sugar mixture until fully combined and a dough forms.  Turn dough out onto plastic wrap and divide in two equal pieces.  Flatten each piece into a round about 1 inch thick.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.  

Roll out dough between two large sheets of parchment paper to just under 1/4 inch thick.  Flour the parchment and dough well as the dough tends to be sticky.  Use your favorite shaped cookie cutter to cut out cookies.  Carefully remove each shape and place on the parchment lined baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart.  To help coax the cut out cookies off the parchment, place your hand under the bottom sheet of parchment and pull the parchment away from the dough so you can gently remove the cookie.  Place baking sheet in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes to chill the cut out cookies.  Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until bottom edges appear lightly golden brown.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for about 15 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack.

While cookies are baking start on the glaze.  Place the milk, vanilla bean pods and seeds in a medium bowl.  The idea is to get all the vanilla goodness infused in the milk.  Set aside.

While cookies are cooling remove vanilla bean pods from the milk and add vanilla extract and orange extract if using.  Whisk in powdered sugar.  Glaze will be loose and pourable.  Set aside until cookies are completely cooled.  

Set up a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (you can use the same sheet the cookies baked on).  Place a wire rack on top of the baking sheet.  Dip the face of each cookie so it is completely covered in glaze.  Place cookie face up on the wire rack allowing any excess glaze to drip off on to the parchment paper below.  Allow glaze to dry completely, about 90 minutes.

Makes about 4 dozen 3 inch cookies.

The pound cake and it’s near disaster

A couple nights ago pound cake came up in our conversation and tonight I remembered I have three pound cake recipes. So I decided to make Southern Living’s Two Step Pound Cake from the May 2012 issue…and everything was going fine until twenty minutes into the baking process. I smelled something burning. And in our house, smelling something burning  means possible oven fire. Not fun. Even worse, the dog barks and gets skittish. So I check to make sure he’s not in the living room before racing to the kitchen to check on the cake….and guess what! The pan leaks out the bottom! And I had cake batter on the bottom of the oven. Pulled out the cake, turned off the oven, and called my aunt in to assess the damage. We waited a few minutes, had a rescue mission to Walmart for ingredients planned but we didn’t have to, we (meaning my aunt) cleaned out the oven, tried to get at the stuff the had gone between the door and the body of the oven but we could only get at it with the drawer open. Pulled that out and batter had fallen into the drawer but missed all of the pans inside. We called it clean enough to try baking the cake again.

I just put the cake back in the oven, going to have to check it in a few moments. Maybe it’ll work?

Anyway, here’s the recipe.

Two-Step Pound Cake

• 4 cups of flour

• 3 cups of sugar

• 2 cups butter, softened

• 3/4 cup milk

• 6 eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325°. Place flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla (in that order) in a mixer. Beat at low speed for one minute, stopping to scrape down the sides. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour into a greased and floured pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.

Way too many posts to write!

Soooo…..my plan to post while what I’m baking bakes has backfired. So in the last month (February) I have made the bacon wrapped shrimp, vanilla bean sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day (and my bestie/”sister”‘s birthday), and tonight I’m making pound cake. So there will be more posts this is really just me catching up.

(Not so)Crispy Garlic-Parmesan Chicken

So I made dinner tonight and it was kinda easy, if icky (I despise raw chicken). The recipe is off of those free recipe cards you find in grocery stores…I think it’s from Progresso since all of the brand name items are “Progresso…..”.

It was supposed to be crispy but something went awry and made it soggy. But we ate it anyway with broccoli and fettuccine and it was tasty.

INGREDIENTS 

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 can (18 oz) Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ creamy Parmesan basil cooking sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2/3 cup Progresso® Italian style panko crispy bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup finely shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese
• Hot cooked pasta or mashed potatoes, if desired

Garnishes, If Desired

• Additional shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese
• Chopped fresh basil or parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray. Between pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper, place each chicken breast smooth side down; gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper to taste.
2. In shallow dish, mix butter, 3 tablespoons of the cooking sauce and the garlic powder. In another shallow dish, mix bread crumbs and cheese. Dip chicken into butter mixture, then dip into bread crumb mixture to coat. Place on cookie sheet.
3. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (at least 165°F) and coating is golden brown. Meanwhile, heat remaining sauce until hot. Serve chicken with pasta and sauce. Sprinkle with additional cheese and basil.

So yeah….not much else to say…

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp!!!!!!!

Sorry about the lack of posts…but I’m back with tasty bacon wrapped shrimp! I even have pictures!!

Tasty shrimps!

Anyways….I got the recipe from Southern Living’s December 2012 issue and on Monday my mom and I made it for dinner for my mom, my aunt, and me, since the other two don’t eat fish. They had sloppy joe nachos but that’s another post.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 24 unpeeled, large raw shrimp
• 1/4 cup canola oil 
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt 
• 12 bacon slices, cut in half crosswise 
• 24 wooden picks

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails on. Combine canola oil and next 7 ingredients in a zip-top plastic freezer bag. Add shrimp; seal and chill 30 minutes, turning once.
2. Meanwhile, arrange bacon in a single layer in a 15- x-10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 450° for 6 to 8 minutes or just until bacon begins to brown. (Bacon will be partially cooked, not crisp.) Remove from pan, and drain on paper towels. Reduce oven temperature to 400°.
3. Place a lightly greased wire rack in an aluminum foil-lined 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Remove shrimp from marinade; discard marinade. Wrap 1 bacon piece around each shrimp, and secure with a wooden pick threaded through both ends of shrimp. Arrange shrimp in a single layer on wire rack.
4. Bake at 400° for 8 to 10 minutes or until bacon is crisp and shrimp turn pink. Serve immediately.

They were super tasty. We had to cut the bacon into halves so we’d have enough. Mama said she would serve them to guests. Aunt Paula told me on Tuesday that they were all she could talk about. The only thing I had to say was more bacon per shrimp. But that’s not a whole lot. Super super super tasty! If you couldn’t tell I really loved.