Miniature Devil's Food Cupcakes

As promised last week, here's the recipe from the cupcakes pictured with the chocolate buttercream frosting. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from the Chocolate Bliss recipe collection pictured at the right. You can purchase it on Barnes & Noble online or Amazon.

One funny thing about the recipe is that the directions start off with "This one-bowl batter makes dark, moist, cupcakes." The recipe then proceeds to give directions to use small, medium, and large bowls! Ha! So much for "one-bowl batter."

The cupcakes were pretty tasty, but to be honest, I'd just as soon use a Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix.

Nonetheless, here's the recipe.

Miniature Devil's Food Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons buttermilk*
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-1/3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*If you don't have buttermilk, add one teaspoon lemon juice to 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk. Stir and let sit five minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini-muffin pan with baking cups.

In medium bowl, stir the cocoa and hot water together. Add buttermilk and stir until blended. 

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in cocoa mixture and flour mixture. (See what I mean about three bowls?)

Using a small cookie scooper, scoop batter in mini muffin cups. Bake 10-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for two minutes. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting.

Homemade Fudge

I think this is the last of the Christmas cookies my friends and I made that I'll be blogging about. We needed something chocolate, and homemade fudge certainly fit the bill. The recipe originally came from allrecipes.com and was called "Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge."

Homemade Fudge

Ingredients:
7 oz. marshmallow creme
1-1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

The original directions called for an 8x8 pan, but we found a 9x9 pan actually worked better. Line your pan with aluminum foil.

In a large saucepan, combine the marshmallow creme, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt. Bring to a full boil over medium heat and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and pour in both kinds of chocolate chips. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Chill in refrigerator for two hours or until firm. Cut into bite-size pieces.

Black Forest Pudding Pie

I made two of these for a family potluck dinner. They were easy to make, didn't bother anyone's egg or nut allergies, and tasted pretty yummy. However, they were a little soft and sloppy when they were cut. If I made them again, I might try a little less milk so that the pudding becomes even thicker. 

Black Forest Pudding Pie

 
Ingredients:

Oreo pie crust (8-inch)
3 oz. chocolate instant pudding
1-3/4 cup cold milk
1/2 tub of Cool Whip
1/2 can of cherry pie filling

You can either make your own Oreo cookie pie crust or buy the prepared kind. If you make your own in a 9-inch pie plate, I'd recommend doubling the remaining ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and the cold milk for two minutes. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate at least one hour.

While the pudding is setting, be sure to put the Cool Whip into the fridge to thaw it. Spread the Cool Whip on top of the chocolate pudding.

Spoon the cherry pie filling on top of the Cool Whip.

Yummy! You really can't go wrong with cherry and chocolate, can you?

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

On New Year's Eve, I wanted to make a small batch of cookies to take to a party. I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe that said it made 30 cookies. Because I didn't really want leftovers, I cut the recipe in half. I figured if I did a half recipe with a small cookie scooper, I'd still get a decent number of cookies but not the 30 large cookies that the original recipe said I'd get.

So I made the necessary changes to the recipe and then started scooping the cookies with my small cookie scooper. Sixty-four cookies later, I was done! That's right. Sixty-four cookies. So much for not having leftovers.
  

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecan chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars. Then beat in egg and vanilla. Add as much flour mixture as possible. You made need to use a wooden spoon to finish the combining.

Stir in the chocolate and pecan chips.


With a small cookie scooper, drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are light brown. Cool one minute before removing to cooling rack.

Yields: about 60 small cookies

Rugelach

This will surprise some of my friends, but I had never heard of rugelach until they made some a couple years ago. I did a little history search on it and found out it's a Jewish pastry. So when did my friends and I make some rugelach? For Christmas, of course. When else do you make Jewish pastries? :)

 Rugelach 

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 cup Solo brand raspberry cake & pastry filling

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Gradually add flour. Divide dough into four portions. Pat into 1-inch thick circle with flour hands and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with foil or parchment paper.  

Mix walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into 11-inch circle. Dough should be very thin by now. Spread each circle with a tablespoon of raspberry filling. Sprinkle with 1/4 of nut mixture. Using a pizza wheel, cut circle in 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting from wide end. 

Place point side down on prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake 25 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to wire rack for cooling.   

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

A friend saw another friend post a picture of these on Facebook, so off I went in search of a recipe online. There are several similar ones.

My friends and I decided to follow this recipe on food.com, but we used cherry cake and pastry filling as well as lemon curd instead of the prescribed raspberry jam. 

A couple weeks later, I made these cookies again. This time I used seedless black raspberry jam. All three variations were yummy.

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup fruit filling*
1 cup powdered sugar
3 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract     
 *you can use Solo brand cake & pastry filling, lemon curd, or seedless jelly or jam

In a mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the almond extract. Gradually add flour until dough forms a ball.

Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll into small balls. We discovered small (less than 1-inch) balls worked better than bigger ones. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet. With the front knuckle of your forefinger, make an indentation in the cookie. 

Fill this indentation with a small amount of fruit filling. (I found it easiest to use a pastry bag fitted with a large round opening to fit the jam into the indentation.)

Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Remove and place on wire rack for cooling.

When the cookies are cool, combine the last three ingredients to make a glaze. Drizzle glaze over cookies in a zig-zag fashion.

Chocolate-Cherry Bonbons

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. A good number of cookies have been baked in the last two weeks, so I should have some good blog content for the next month or so. 

I'll start off my Christmas cookie wrap-up with a cookie I made in early December. It's a variation of Rachel Ray's Chocolate-Orange Bonbons. Since I had no candied orange peel around, I used dried cherries instead. Yummy! 

Chocolate-Cherry Bonbons 

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 egg 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg white 
1/2 cup cocoa powder 
1-1/4 cups flour 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries 
1/3 cup white chocolate chips 
1/4 cup powdered sugar 
4 ounces semisweet chocolate 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In mixer, cream sugar, butter, and salt until well blended. Add egg, vanilla, and egg white. Beat for one minute. 

Add cocoa powder and blend at medium speed. Add flour and baking powder. Blend until thoroughly combined. Stir in half of chopped dried cherries (save other half for topping) and white chocolate chips. 

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on prepared pans. Bake one pan at a time. If you have a second pan ready, place it in the refrigerator until first pan is finished in oven. Bake 15 minutes. Cool two minutes before removing to wire rack. 

Melt semisweet chocolate in microwave-safe bowl, stirring occasionally until chocolate is smooth. Top cookies with melted chocolate and chopped dried cherries. Let set (about 1 hour) before storing.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

I know that it's rather late in the season for pumpkin, but here's one more recipe. Maybe you can save it for next year. :)

The original recipe came from the Kraft web site. I adapted it slightly so that it would fit in a regular pie plate instead of a springform pan.

(P.S. Don't my friends have very elegant dinnerware? You can tell this classy photo wasn't taken at my house!)
 

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1-1/3 cup finely crushed ginger snap cookies
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 can pumpkin
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix ginger snap crumbs, chopped pecans, and melted butter. Press into bottom and up sides of pie plate.

In large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar. Mix in pumpkin, spice, and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix on low speed until blended. Pour into crust.

Bake 35-40 minutes. If cheesecake starts to crack, take it out right away. Cool. Refrigerate about 3-4 hours before serving.

Cookies of Christmas Past

I don't have a new recipe for this week yet, so I thought I'd post links to some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes from past Christmases. Imagine you're Ebenezer Scrooge, and you've just been visited by . . .

Cookies of Christmas Past!

First up is Melting Snowman Oreo Balls.

Next is a recipe I've made several times in different variations: Candy Cane Snowballs.


The slightly difficult but definitely yummy Egg Nog Cups.


If you're Italian, you might enjoy some Cucidati.



Want something easy and simple? How about some Holiday Rice Krispie Treats?

And who could forget Mom's famous rum balls!

Stay tuned to see what I'm baking up this year!

Pumpkin Bars

I know it's getting toward the end of pumpkin season, but I'm going to have at least two more pumpkin recipes for you. This week I'm bringing you Pumpkin Bars. My version is a mixture of several online recipes I found.

Basically, it's just a pumpkin cake that you smother in cream cheese icing and cut into bars. I made it for a Thanksgiving pot luck lunch at work. Yummy! 

Pumpkin Bars

Ingredients for bars:

4 eggs

1-2/3 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

15 oz can pumpkin

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or use 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, and ¼ teaspoon ground clove)

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

(1 cup raisins, optional)

Ingredients for icing:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 13x9 pan with cooking spray.

In a mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until light and fluffy. 

In a different bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Hand mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. (Stir in raisins if desired.)

Spread into prepared 13x9 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

When cake is cool, make the icing by beating the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, vanilla, and milk. Add more milk if the icing is too thick. Spread over cooled pumpkin bars.
 

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

Warning! These turned out super rich. Consume in small quantities.

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

Ingredients:

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, divided

1/2 cup butter

1-1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs

2/3 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup flour

1 can raspberry cake and pastry filling

4 oz. semisweet chocolate

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 9x9 pan with foil, leaving enough to hang over the sides. Lightly coat the foil with cooking spray.

Microwave three ounces of the unsweetened chocolate with the butter about two minutes. Stir until smooth. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour into mixture and pour into prepared pan.

Bake 30 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Spread a thin layer of the raspberry cake and pastry filling over the cooled brownies.

Chop the remaining unsweetened chocolate and semisweet chocolate. In a small bowl, microwave the whipping cream until it boils. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Spread over raspberry layer.

Refrigerate one hour. Place a few tablespoons of the remaining raspberry cake and pastry filling in a decorating bake with a small piping tip. Drizzle raspberry filling over brownies. Cut into small pieces.

Lemon Coconut Cake

I made this for a work party, and it turned out really yummy. Two of my coworkers said they dreamed about it afterwards. Definitely on the "keep this recipe" list.

Lemon Coconut Cake

Ingredients for cake:

one Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix

1-1/3 cups water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

Ingredients for lemon filling:

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1-1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

6 tablespoons butter

shredded coconut (optional)

Ingredients for icing:

1/2 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon zest

5 tablespoons lemon juice

about two cups shredded coconut

Bake the cake according to package directions. However, if you want to torte it into three layers as I did, you can either bake it in three eight-inch cake pans or use one 8x3-inch cake pan. I used an 8x3-inch cake pan that Wilton makes. The cake took about 55 minutes to bake, and then I used my cake leveler to split it into three layers.

As your cake cools, make the lemon filling. In a small bowl, blend two tablespoons cornstarch with 1/4 cup water until the cornstarch is dissolved. Whisk in 2 eggs until blended. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1-1/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, and 6 tablespoons butter. Bring to a boil. Whisk in the egg and cornstarch mixture and return to a boil. Continue whisking and boiling until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap.

At this point, your cake should be cool enough to cut into layers if you chose to use the 8x3-inch pan instead of three separate eight-inch pans. When the filling has cooled, spread half of it onto the bottom layer. Sprinkle with some shredded coconut, if desired. 

 Place the middle layer on top, and spread it with the second half of the filling and more coconut. Add the final layer of cake on top.

To make the icing, beat 1/2 cup butter until smooth. Add two cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest and 5 tablespoons lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Ice the cake and cover with a layer of shredded coconut.

Homemade Twix Bars

This recipe comes from the Kraft website. They called them Chocolate-Caramel Cookie Bars, but basically they are homemade Twix bars. Pretty simple and definitely yummy.

Homemade Twix Bars

Ingredients:

1 box of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies

1 package of caramels (the kind you use for making caramel apples)

1 tablespoon milk

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

3 oz. white chocolate

Line 9x13 pan with foil, leaving enough to hang over the sides for a handle later. Use the Reynolds non-stick foil if possible. If not, give the foil a light dusting of cooking spray.

Create a single layer of shortbread cookies on the foil. I had to break some cookies in half to make them fit.

Melt the caramel and the milk in the microwave for two minutes, stirring every thirty seconds. Pour over shortbread cookies and spread until even.

Microwave both types of chocolate in a small bowl for two minutes, again stirring every thirty seconds. When chocolate is smooth, pour it over the caramel layer.

Refrigerate for two hours. Before serving, take it out of the refrigerator and let it soften for fifteen minutes before cutting into bars.

Super Easy Fruit Dip

You can find this recipe on many blogs, including on the Kraft food website. It's super easy and really delicious.

Super Easy Fruit Dip

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

7 oz. marshmallow creme (a.k.a. marshmallow fluff)

1/2 teaspoon orange or lemon zest

Mix the ingredients until well bended. Serve with fruit.

That's it. Done. End of story.

Feel free to substitute flavored cream cheese for regular cream cheese. Or skip the orange or lemon zest. Or add other flavorings. You get the idea.

Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

A couple weeks ago, I had some extra blueberries to use up, so I used part of my mom's blueberry cream pie recipe and part of a cheesecake recipe to create these little desserts.
 

 Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

1 cup blueberries, divided

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons water

3/4 cup crushed graham crackers

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 teaspoon sugar

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan, stir the cornstarch and sugar together. Add 2/3 cup blueberries, the lemon zest, and the lemon juice. Cook over low heat, mashing and stirring until mixture thickens and clears. Turn off heat and add the last 1/3 cup of blueberries.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
 
While the blueberry mixture cools, melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the crushed graham crackers and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir. Press the mixture into the bottom of muffin cup liners. I used the bottom of a glass dish to press the mixture down.

Top with a tablespoon of the blueberry mixture.

With a mixer, beat together the cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, egg, and vanilla. Spoon over blueberry mixture. Bake about 20 minutes or until slightly puffed.

When ready to serve, top with some Cool Whip and a couple extra blueberries.

Yields: about 10 mini cheesecakes

Brownie Bites

I used this recipe while making the Olympic cupcakes. They were pretty tasty, but I'd recommend eating them pretty quickly as they tend to dry out after a few days.

Brownie Bites

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place packing cups in mini cupcake pans. Melt butter in large bowl in microwave-safe bowl. Stir in cocoa until smooth. Add sugar and brown sugar. Mix well.

 
Beat eggs with a fork in a small dish. Add beaten eggs and vanilla to chocolate mixture. Blend well. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yields: about 50 mini brownie bites