Sprinkle Cupcakes

This week was a very busy one, but there is always time to bake! With that said, I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting covered in crystal sprinkles. I found this particular recipe on Allrecipes.com, where I find many useful and easy recipes from meals to baking. This recipe calls for the following:
1 Cup of white sugar
1/2 Cup of butter
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups of all purpose flour
1 3/4 Teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 Cup of milk

First you will need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a muffin try with paper liners. Then in a medium sized bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Then add in flour and baking powder to the creamed mixture, and lastly pour in milk. After the mix is all blended together, evenly pour into the muffin try. Then bake for 20-25 minutes.

As for the frosting, use any vanilla frosting recipe. Many call for a few simple ingredients such as powdered sugar, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost them and decorate with your favourite coloured frostings. I decided to use coloured crystal sprinkles, in a variety of colours. Enjoy!


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-white-cake/

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

This week I have been eating a lot of peanut butter and thought to try out peanut butter frosting. With this I first baked some chocolate cupcakes, the recipe for these can be found in my earlier blog post entitled "Valentine's Day Chocolate Cupcake" from Monday February 13th. After baking the cupcakes, allow them to fully cool down. As for the frosting, you will need:
1/2 Cup of softened butter
1 Cup peanut butter (I used 1/2 Cup and it was peanuty enough)
3 Teaspoons of milk
2 Cups icing sugar

Combine all ingredients together and spread onto cupcakes.
p.s These are best enjoyed with a glass of milk!!

Easter Sugar Cookies

    Seeing as Easter is this weekend and quickly approaching, I figured making something festive seemed most appropriate. With that, I decided to make sugar cookies. I usually do not enjoy making sugar cookies as they never seem to turn out exactly how I want them too, or the shaping never stays, etc. I had been looking for a new recipe for awhile and finally stumbled upon what seemed to be a winner. The ingredients are as follows:
1 1/2 Cups of butter
2 Cups of white sugar
4 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
5 Cups all purpose flour
2 Teaspoons of baking powder
1 Teaspoon of salt

Directions:
-In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight). 
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 
-Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. 

After the cookies are cooled, decorate with your favourite frosting and goodies! 

 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/

 

Quickest Cookie Recipe

This week I have been swamped with assignments and tests and therefore needed to come up with something quick and easy. After browsing through a couple cookie recipe books I had, I then found the perfect one. This particular recipe comes from a cookie jar classics book, the recipe is titled 'friendship cookies', I'm not exactly sure why seeing as there is little to no effort that goes into these but that is besides the point. Back to the cookies... They require a simple 4 ingredients which are as follows:
One large egg
1/2 Cup of cooking oil
1 Box of cake mix
1/4 Cup of water

As for the cake mix, I used confetti cake (vanilla cake with rainbow bits). Basically all you do is combine all the ingredients together, mix and bake. It is best to bake at 350 degrees F for roughly 10-12 minutes. I dropped out large portions or the mix then once they were baked cut them into heart shapes and ate the side pieces. All in all, I highly suggest for everyone to try this recipe out as it is by far the easiest cookie recipe. Enjoy. <3

Chocolate Macaroons

   This week I wanted to make something easy and tasty, therefore I decided I'd go with chocolate macaroons. This is a very simple recipe which only requires a few ingredients and takes little time to make. These can be baked and enjoyed at any occasion whether that be a family event or no real event at all. In terms of ingredients you will need:
4 Ounces of semi-sweet or bitter sweet chocolate
3 Large eggs whites
1/4 Cup of cocoa powder
3/4 Cup of white sugar
1/4 Teaspoon of salt
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cups of sweetened coconut

Directions:
In a stainless steel bowl, place in chocolate over top of boiling water to melt, once melted set aside.
In another large bowl whisk together egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla extract.
Then stir in coconut and melted chocolate ensuring that coconut is well coated.
Cover and refrigerate until firm.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Place large teaspoons of the batter onto baking sheet and place in oven, bake for roughly 15 minutes.
Cool and enjoy!

Test it out and comment below, I'd love to see some other macaroon recipes as well! 

Banana Chocolate Chip

    This week I had a serious craving for banana bread but more specifically, banana bread with lots of chocolate chips in them. Therefore I decided to make a traditional banana bread mix, add chocolate chips and then bake into a muffin tray and top with chocolate frosting. Yum yum. To start off you will need to create a banana bread mixture, many online baking sites offer them but I have also posted one below in which I found online. The ingredients and directions are as follows:

Ingredients:
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into mashed bananas, then mix in sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add in the flour and chocolate chips and pour mixture into individual muffin cups. Bake until toothpick comes out clean.

Once it has cooled down, top with your favourite chocolate frosting and enjoy!! For an added flavour, add in banana extract to the chocolate frosting. ENJOY!

Saucy Apple Cake

     This week I helped my mom with making a saucy apple cake to go with Sunday dinner. This is a rather quick dessert to make and can be made earlier in the day and then served later. This recipe has two parts, the cake and the sauce. The ingredients for the cake is as follows:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
2 peeled and chopped apples
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Sauce:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup 18% cream

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the cake ingredients in the above order, then place in a greased 9 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean. For the sauce, bring all ingredients to a gentle boil in a sauce pan. Serve cake with warm sauce.

This dessert is also very good when topped with whipped cream or a side of vanilla ice cream. Try it out and let me know what you think, like it or love it?!