Mocha Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

15 Years ago, on July 22nd, I gave birth to my second and last son. All I can say is.....time flies!! So for all you moms out there....take advantage of every moment you have with your babies, because before you know it they are gonna be all grown up!! I know this because my oldest just graduated from high school this year too!!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone!! It feels so weird. Who am I? I am a mom and a wife. Though, no matter what, I will always be a mom, even when they move out. I cant imagine life without taking kids here and there, and having their friends over and cooking large meals for our family. I'm not quite ready (even though my youngest is only 15 and I have 3 more fantabulous years with him at home) for this family and kids at home thing to be over.

But.....I can't stop time....so I have to just accept what it is!! The best advice I can give as a parent love your children, give your self to your children, but don't forget discipline. They need that too. Teach your children morals and values, if you tell them not to do something.....tell them why!! Teach them to be responsible, caring, and compassionate human beings.

Ok.....mushiness......done!! Now for the sweet part!! My son LOVES CHOCOLATE!!! He would have double chocolate cake with fudgey chocolate frosting and double chocolate brownie ice cream. But this year I made his step out of his comfort zone a little and I threw some peanut butter in the chocolate frosting!!

Unfortunately I can't share my cake recipe, but I would love to give you my frosting recipe!! And you can drool while you look at the picture of how the cupcakes turned out!!

1 stick of butter, room temp
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
3 T heavy cream
4 T cocoa powder

Put all ingredients in the bowl of a kitchen aid mixer or a large bowl. Beat on med-high until creamy and smooth. Spread on cake or cupcakes.

Tres Leches Cake

Oh man do I LOVE this cake!!! It is sooooooooooooo moist and delicious!! I get tons of compliments when I make this cake!! You will be overwhelmed with the ease of making it too!! Then pleasantly surprised at how good it is!!

Don't ever pay $40 to buy one again!! Make it yourself!!

1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar, divided
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla, divided
1 cup milk
1/2 can evaporated milk
1/2 can condensed milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 baking dish and set aside. Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside. Cream butter and 1 cup of sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time then 1 tsp of vanilla. Beat well. Add flour mixture slowly beating until light fluffy mixture. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Mix together milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk and pour over cooled cake. The three milks will soak into the cake.

Using heavy cream and remaining remaining sugar and vanilla, place into a large bowl or kitchen aide mixer and beat until stiff peaks form. Frost cake with whipped cream. Top with berries if you want or eat without!! :)

Blueberry Pie

Blueberry pie......mmmmmm.....blueberry pie........I <3 blueberry pie!! I didn't know I liked it....until I made it for the very first time........oh how I love blueberry pie! Sooooooo easy to make and I have a yummy pie crust recipe that I'm gonna share with you too!!

If you remember in the peach crisp post, I mentioned how I loved to decide what I'm making by the fresh ingredients I buy at the store. Well....this was one of those situations. I new I wanted to make a pie and I had the freshest sweetest blueberries......so the choice was easy!!

For the crust:
12 oz Ap flour
5 oz very cold unsalted butter cut into very small pieces no bigger than ¼ inch- making them very small is SUPER important.
3 oz very cold lard crumbled into tiny pieces
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
7 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar


Dissolve sea salt in the ice-water and add the apple cider vinegar to the mix. Scatter butter and lard pieces evenly across the flour and begin gently working the butter and the flour together with your fingertips. This should be a gentle and easy process.
Once most of the butter is broken down into pieces, you can start working in a short rocking motion with the pastry cutter around the bowl- for maybe 10 or so strokes
The final product will look like coarse corn meal.

 Add five tablespoons of the liquid being very careful not to get any chunks of ice in the dough. Also, make sure it is distributed very equally over the surface of the dough. Begin gently working the water into the dough with your hands. You should be able to tell quickly if there is enough liquid for the dough to stick together. If not, add more, and work that in. If the 8 tablespoons of ice-water/vinegar is not enough, add more cold water to the ice I prefer to have a slightly moist dough to a dry one. Your dough will be kind of a shaggy mess- not pretty and completely smooth. It should just stick together.

 Work your dough into a rough ball and turn out onto a well-floured rolling surface. Cut into two equal halves and form each into a ball. Form each ball into a 5 inch disc. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour (two hours is even better) to rest. This allows the gluten to relax so that you’ll have a tender crust. You can leave the dough up to five days, but if you’re leaving it overnight or longer, place the plastic-wrapped discs inside of a ziptop bag to prevent moisture loss.

Pull dough from frig and place on a well floured surface. Roll out the size or your pie dish. Bake according to your pie directions.

Blueberry Pie:
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 T lemon juice
5 cups fresh blueberries

*Now if you want to do a double crusted pie you can....I didnt I just put the crust on the top cuz that's how I roll....

Place one crust in the bottom of the pie dish (If you doing that) In a large bowl mix blueberries with lemon juice, flour and sugar. Pour blueberries into pie dish. Top with pie crust and shape and make it pretty. Cut an x in the center of the top pie crust. If you like to brush it with milk and sprinkle with sugar you can.

To prevent overbrowning cover edge of the pie with foil. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 20-25 more minutes or until top is golden. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 8 servings.

Peach Crisp

Do you wanna know what I love most about cooking......well besides the pure adventure of it all........that what I make depends on what I buy that is great and fresh at the store!! That's what I LOVE!!

I mean come on let's face it.....would I make peach crisp in the middle of winter......no probably not....because I wouldn't walk into Trader Joes and see the most gorgeous box of fresh organic peaches!! But that is what happened and that is why I made peach crisp!!

Ahhh.....and it was heavenly!!

Ingredients:

• 4 -5 cups fresh peaches, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour, divided
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup butter, cold
• Optional: Whipped or ice cream

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Mix peaches, cinnamon, sugar and 3 tablespoons flour. Add to dish.

Mix rest of flour, oats and brown sugar. Cut in butter. Sprinkle butter mixture over peaches. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

Best served warm with homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cookies

Oh my.....what can I say about these cookies....except.....super fabulously delicious!! They are kind of a strange variety of ingredients, but work so well together. AND.....if chocolate and cherries don't go together...than I don't know what does!!

I think these would make great Valentine cookies because of their colors!! I thought about just mixing chocolate chips in the dough to make a more even flow of chocolate throughout the cookie, but the kisses just look sooooo cute on them. Tattoo man and teen #2 both LOVE maraschino cherries so I made these special for them. If I let them they would eat a whole jar in one sitting.

1 c. butter or margarine, softened
1 c. confectioners' sugar
2 tsp. maraschino cherry juice
1/2 tsp. almond extract
A few drops of red food coloring (I actually didn't use any, I like the color they were naturally)

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. maraschino cherries, well drained and chopped
48 milk chocolate Hershey kisses, unwrapped

Combine the first 5 ingredients; blend well. Stir in flour and salt; add cherries and mix well. Form dough into 1" balls (you can refrigerate the dough if it seems to sticky to roll) and place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake @ 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and immediately top each cookie with a Hershey kiss, pressing lightly. Remove from cookie sheets to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 4 dozen.

The Most Wonderful Healthy Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

I found a recipe for healthy chocolate chip cookies and then I made them even healthier!! I cant even begin to tell you how tasty they were.....my teenagers couldn't even tell they were healthy for you!!!!! Since the beginning of Jan the hubs and I have been following a no sugar diet......but sometimes you just need something sweet!! So......why not be creative and tweak recipes to work for you!!

1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c. unbleached AP flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (finely ground)
1/2 c. pecans (finely ground)
1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted
1 c. Xylitol (or regular sugar if you are not watching your sugar intake)
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c sugar free chocolate chips (all I had was sf hersheys mini's so I chopped them up, again if you want you can use fully leaded chips ;) )

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In your food processor put oats and nuts and process until ground. In a small bowl combine all dry ingredients, then add nut and oat mixture. Stir until all combined. In another bowl combine butter, sugar, and vanilla and add to dry ingredients. Mix until combined then stir in chocolate. I made large cookies so I put golf ball sized dough balls on my baking sheet, but you could definitely make smaller ones and get more cookies. Bake for 10 minutes and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Pecan Crunch

Well I definitely don't want to offend anyone........but.......I think this is better than pumpkin pie. *ducking* Don't throw things at me....until you try it....you can't say I'm wrong!! There is something about they pumpkin on the bottom then the buttery, nutty cake topping.......can you excuse me.....I need to go get more.......

K......I'm back.....thanks for your patience!!! I got this recipe on a recipe exchange website that I have, my friend Amy posted it!! I appreciate her posting this more than she knows!! :) BTW.....you can use yellow cake mix, butter cake mix, white cake mix, or I've even tried spice cake mix!!

Pumpkin Pecan Crunch
1 large can pumpkin
1-12oz can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 package cake mix such as yellow, white, butter or spice
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
3/4 cup butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 13 x 9 baking dish with non-stick spray.

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice until smooth
Pour into baking dish
Sprinkle cake mix (dry) over pumpkin mixture.
Sprinkle pecans over cake mix
Pour melted butter over top.
Bake uncovered 50 to 60 min. until knife inserted in center comes out
clean.
Serve with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.

Pizza for dessert...........Um......yes!!!!

 

Sugar cookies + marshmallow fluff and cream cheese + strawberries and chocolate = A good thing!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sugar cookie dough (packaged, refrigerated or homemade if you have like a zillion years to wait for a delicious dessert!!)

1/2 pkg cream cheese

equal amount marshmallow fluff

approx 15 strawberries sliced in half

1/2 cup milk chocolate, white chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips....or all three or a combo of 2....whatever floats your boat!!

Now....spread cookie dough out on cookie sheet to form as close to a circle as possible. Or whatever shape you want....heck if you feel like shaping like your dog Spot...go for it!! Bake according to package directions....well kinda....I had to bake mine longer cause it was like a giant cookie. While that is baking, mix marshmallow fluff and cream cheese in a separate bowl. Now cut the green leafy thingy off the strawberry and cut it in half. (After you wash them of course!!) By this time your ginormous master piece of a cookie should be done. Let it cool for a couple of minutes......if you can stand the wait!!

Spread the fluff mixture over the entire surface of the cookie, strategically place strawberries forming a circle, being careful to measure with a ruler........NO WAY....JUST KIDDING....just put the strawberries on the cookie!! If your feeling adventurous form a pattern!! Lastly stick the chocolate chips in a ziploc baggie in the micro for like 30 seconds. Take bag out of micro and massage it to mix chocolate. Snip a small corner off the bag and drizzle chocolate all over cookie and strawberries.

Cut using a pizza cutter and serve. Now enjoy the silence while the kids are quietly eating!!

I cant even tell you how good this was!! Big hit with the kids!! They think I'm some sort of super mom.....but it's only cause they don't know how easy it was!! ;o)

Peanut Butter Squares

As far as Im concerned.....if it has peanut butter in it.....Im down. Peanut Butter ROCKS!!!! Then add no baking and ready super fast.....well.....it's a no brainer!! I love these!!  Bring these somewhere and people will think you are a magician in the kitchen and they wont even know how easy it was to make them!!

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 c peanut butter

1 c butter melted

2 cups peanut butter chips

2 3/4 c powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, peanut butter and melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom of the 9x13 inch pan. Melt peanut butter chips over a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Spread melted peanut butter chips over the crumb crust. Chill for about 15 minutes, then cut into bars before completely set, then chill until set.

Chocolate Cobbler

Ummmm........need I say more??? Chocolate and cobbler....who knew they went so well together!!! I got this recipe from a one of the nicest ladies I know. She mentioned on her facebook page that she was eating chocolate cobbler and I messaged her and told her....I MUST HAVE THIS RECIPE!!! I just had to try it....I'd never even heard of this until a week ago......now.....I'm addicted!!! Thank you Diana!!!!

1 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
7 T cocoa powder
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/3 c melted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 c hot tap water

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, 3/4 c of the sugar and 3 T of cocoa. Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla to flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour mixture into ungreased 8 inch baking dish. In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining sugar (1/2 cup) 4 T cocoa powder and brown sugar. Sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all of it. DO NOT STIR.
Bake for 40 minutes or until center is set.
Let stand for a few minutes and serve with vanilla ice cream!!