Category Archives: Recipes

Feb 14 2012

Chocolate-Dipped Brownie Bars

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These are so easy to make and turned out very tasty. I went the easy way out and used Betty Crocker’s Dark Chocolate Premium Brownie Mix for this because I was too lazy to find a recipe. Sue me.

All you need for these are brownies (either from mix or your favorite recipe), melted chocolate (I used Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate), and Valentine sprinkles. That’s it!

Cool surprise: My pink sanding sugar looked like iridescent sparkles on the chocolate!

Make the brownies according to the box or your recipe, let them cool completely, and then cut them into bar shapes. Melt some chocolate in a mug so that you don’t have to melt too much but still have enough depth to dip the bars in. Then dip them and place the brownies on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Add sprinkles and colored sugars to the chocolate and chill in the fridge until the chocolate sets up.

Now they are ready to be scarfed down!

What are your favorite Valentine desserts? Do you like easy recipes or ones you have to put a lot of effort into?

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Feb 12 2012

Valentine Pancakes {Recipe}

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This pancake recipe has been passed down in my family since my great grandmother, Bubba, and over time has changed a little bit. This weekend my Mom and I decided to try modifying them for Valentine’s Day by coloring them pink and red and shaping them into hearts on the griddle. They turned out ok, but I’d probably just keep them regular next time, you’ll see why.

After making the batter, my first attempt to heart shaping was using heart cookie cutters. I sprayed them with cooking spray and put the batter in. Even still, the pancakes stuck to the cookie cutters a bit and so I scrapped that idea, even though the pancakes themselves didn’t look too bad.

Then I tried to shape them myself by pouring the batter out in heart shapes. They started to look a little wonky, but I liked their unusual character. Eventually, I just gave up on odd shapes and made round pancakes. As you can see, I like chocolate chips in my pancakes. It’s a requirement when I eat them but this is just an option.

The end result was pretty cute. Of course they got a little darker after being cooked but the colors on the inside were still pretty vibrant. Here are the directions for the pancakes. To make them regular, don’t add the food coloring.

{Recipe}

Bubba’s Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 lrg. egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tbs. sugar
  • 2 tbs. vegetable oil
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • just shy of a 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

(Optional)

  • 2 tbs. wheat bran
  • 1 tbs. wheat germ
  • chocolate chips
  • powdered sugar
  • butter
  • (For Valentine Pancakes: pink and red food coloring)

DIRECTIONS:

  1. I’m not sure what to tell you to turn your griddle or stove top to for heating the pancakes. On our griddle we set it to med.-high heat and that seems to work, but it’s up to you to figure out the right temperature for your personal stove and skillet or griddle.
  2. Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sugar, and oil in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Then sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you want heartier pancakes sprinkle the bran and wheat germ on top of everything at this point.
  4. Stir the batter gently until all ingredients are combined but make sure the batter is still lumpy. If it becomes too thin, the pancakes will not rise when they cook. For the pink and red pancakes, I split the batter into two bowls and put a few drops of coloring in each. If you’re going to color them, make sure not to stir them too much before you put the food coloring in because you will have to stir them more to get the color you want. It’s a little tricky. For simplicity, just make them regular and skip the coloring on your first try at these.
  5. Once the batter is mixed but still lumpy, let it sit for about 5 minutes.
  6. Pour 1/3 cup of the batter onto your griddle or skillet for each pancake. If you like chocolate like I do, drop a few chocolate chips on to the pancake before you flip it over. You can also add other things at this point, such at nuts or apple slices, for example.
  7. When the batter starts to have little bubbles start popping up in it, it’s about time to flip it. The pancake is done cooking if you poke the middle and it bounces back fairly quickly.
  8. Butter the pancakes as soon as they are done and sift some powdered sugar on top. Or instead put some syrup on top. The garnishes and toppings are up to you.

Makes about 10-12 pancakes.

 

Come join #DairyBreakfastClub recipe party at TidyMom along with The California Milk Advisory Board and RealCaliforniaMilk.com

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Feb 6 2012

Pac-Man Cake {Guest Post}

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Recently I asked my friend and blogging buddy, Amber Seree, to write a guest post for Shane’s Killer Cupcakes. She came up with a great tutorial for making a Pac-man Cake! If you’d like to be a guest poster for SKC read the Guest Post Guidelines and contact me to pitch me your idea. Enjoy!

Hey there, guest blogger Amber here. I thought I’d share this with you all, because this cake is an easy, fun way to create something for your child’s birthday, or for a gaming enthusiast. My step son and I baked and decorated this together for his birthday. It turned out delicious and it was fun too!

You will need:

  • 1 Box Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake Mix ( or other chocolate cake mix. Use ingredients on the box accordingly)
  • 1 1/3 Cups Water (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 3 Large Eggs (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1 Bag Dark Chocolate Chips (substitute with semi-sweet or milk chocolate, or mix if you’d like)
  • 1 Can White Frosting
  • 1 Can of Chocolate Frosting (the large can is not needed, the regular size will do)
  • Yellow Food Coloring
  • Butter (to grease the pans)
  • 2 8” x 1 1/2” Round Baking Pans
  • Flour (for cake pans)
  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • Whipped Cream (optional)

Other:

  • A spatula would be nice
  • An electric mixer or whisk (though you can use a fork!)
  • Something to spread the frosting evenly, you can use a butter knife, but there are specialty tools

Directions

Baking:

  1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, or 325° F for dark coated pans. Butter the insides of the pans lightly. You can flour the inside of the pan as well, though we skipped that step and it came out fine.
  2. Blend the cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until completely mixed. With an electric mixer this will be around 2 minutes, if you are mixing with hand, this will take longer.
  3. Pour the batter into cake pans. Add chocolate chips as desired. My stepson chose to sprinkle them liberally on one layer, and concentrate them in the middle on the other. However you want to do it should work fine. If you will use chocolate chips for the eyes, be sure to save at least 10 to accomplish this.
  4. Bake for 33-36 minutes for metal or glass pans. Add a few extra minutes for dark coated pans. Trick: carefully stick a toothpick into the center of your cake, if it comes out clean, it’s ready. Just be aware of your chocolate chips!

Frosting:

  1. Put white frosting into bowl. Add up to 10 drops of yellow food coloring at first, and mix it well. You may need to mix in more to get the vibrant yellow you are looking for. I added 24 yellow drops and one green drop, but the green addition almost became a disaster. If you are going to try to add 1 green drop for a richer, deeper yellow, I’d recommend having an extra can of white frosting on hand just in case. I also highly recommend starting with only 10 yellow drops and working your way up. The type of food coloring and frosting you use may make results vary. Once you have the yellow color you are looking for, set it aside.
  2. Once cake layers COOL COMPLETELY, flip the first one out onto a plate. Be careful of breaking it. The best way I have found is to set plate or platter on top of the cake pan and flip them both upside down together. I’d recommend flipping it back over so that the flat edge is on the bottom. To do this, simply repeat the steps above but without the cake pan. Make sure you use the final serving plate or platter the second time.
  3. Frost the top of the first cake layer thickly with chocolate frosting.
  4. CAREFULLY flip the second cake layer on top of the first. For this top layer, you want to be sure you get the bottom (flat edge) on top, and the rounded (top) facing down. This way you get a smooth surface for your pac man.
  5. Once your top layer is in place, carefully frost the entire cake in the yellow frosting. Be sure to leave an empty triangle for the mouth! Pay extra care to the sides, especially when you get close to the chocolate frosting in between the two layers. Leave the triangle empty all the way down the side of the cake.
  6. Fill in our mouth area with left over chocolate frosting. You may want speciality tools for this, but I used a butter knife and a steady hand and it came out fine.
  1. Lastly, make an eye with chocolate chips. Though you could probably use a chocolate candy melt, a reeses peanut butter cup or other various chocolate candy.
  2. To add extra flair (& possibly cover up the bottom edge of the frosting, as in my case) add whipped cream flourishes around the base of the cake, and voila! You’ve got yourself a Pac Man cake.

{About the Author: Amber Seree}

 Amber Seree is a graphic/web designer, as well as a writer, and a sometimes-baker with a passion for reading and watching good things.  You can find her art at {infinitefathoms.com} or her writing over at {hellcatchitchat.com}, where she is currently blogging about TV and movies. If you like to watch good things too, then check it out.
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Jan 30 2012

Butter Pecan Cupcakes

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My mom asked me to make her some cupcakes for her birthday recently and loved the sound of a the Butter Pecan Cake from Taste of Home. So, as any daughter would do, I set out to turn the cake recipe into cupcakes! The recipe was easy to put together, but be careful when toasting the pecans. I got sidetracked making the batter and almost burnt the pecans in the oven! So keep an eye on those and stir them regularly.

The above recipe is for a three layered cake and it ended up making about 32 cupcakes. Don’t over cook them either. I wouldn’t cook them any longer than 15 minutes if you’re going to make them into cupcakes. It might even be better to check them at 12 minutes. The cake consistency is almost of a muffin and they aren’t very sweet, which I liked, because they tasted great with the super sweet buttercream frosting I made for them.

The Butter Pecan Cake has a frosting recipe included, but I wasn’t sure if I liked the proportions in it so I opted to use one of my favorite, and easy, buttercream recipes from Savory Sweet Life. Her Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting is very good and added a good sweetness factor to the muffin-like cupcakes. I chose not to stir the leftover pecans into the frosting and instead sprinkled some on the top of each one as garnish.

Tip Junkie handmade projects

Jan 25 2012

The Best Chocolate Cake With Mocha Frosting {Recipe}

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I can’t take a lot of credit for the awesome cake that was made at my house this past weekend. That all goes to my mom, a woman who’s taught me pretty much everything I know about baking.

She was looking for a dessert to make for a football party we had last weekend, and her eye caught a picture of a delicious looking cake on the back of an old Cuisine at Home magazine we had lying around.

The cake recipe itself didn’t interest her much, but the recipe for the Glossy Chocolate Frosting sounded interesting. It had a rich dark chocolate taste with a hint of coffee. It’s probably one of the best chocolate frostings I have ever tasted.

For the cake, Mom combined two recipes. One was from a Taste of Home cookbook and the other was from the back of her Hershey’s cocoa powder box. She took the best parts of both recipes and mingled the flavors and amounts effortlessly. She was especially drawn to the use of cinnamon and buttermilk in the Taste of Home recipe but chose to use butter instead of shortening.

The consistency of the cake was amazing. It was moist and dense. Similar to the delicious chocolate bundt cake she makes that I shared with you last year. With the denseness of the cake and the richness of the frosting, it could seriously be a meal on its own. In fact I had a piece of this cake for lunch yesterday, but I wouldn’t recommend that on a regular basis.

The recipes and instructions are below with a few pointers about making it from my mom.

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The Best Chocolate Cake With Mocha Frosting {Recipe}

Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup baking cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
    • For the frosting:
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter (8 tbsp.)
  • 1-1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1-1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1-1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup of sour cream
  • 1 tsp. instant coffee granules
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

    For the cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease and flour two 9 in. round pans (if you’re going to make a layered cake). Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  2. In a small sauce pan bring water, butter, and cocoa to boil, stirring constantly, and remove from heat. Add this to the dry mixture and mix.
  3. In a small mixing bowl beat eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.
  4. Pour into prepared pans and bake 30-35 mins, until a toothpick at the center comes out clean.
  5. Cool for 10 mins. in pans, then run a small knife around the edges of the pan and turn out onto wire cooling racks. Cool completely, tops down.
  6. Invert one layer onto a cake plate and frost the top with the icing (instructions below). Stack the other layer on top of the icing and ice the top and sides.
    7. For the frosting:
  7. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  8. Stir in sugar, cocoa, and salt. The mixture should be thick and grainy.
  9. Combine the heavy cream, sour cream, and instant coffee granules in a bowl and mix until smooth. If you want, you can ground up the instant coffee in a mortar and pestle first so it will mix in smoothly. This is not required though.
  10. Gradually add the cream mixture to the chocolate mixture until it is blended and smooth.
  11. Cook on the stove until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth and hot to the touch, about 6-8 minutes. Do not let it boil.
  12. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla. Cool the icing at room temperature until is it spreadable, about 2-3 hours. If the frosting is too runny, put it in the fridge for a bit. If you choose to chill it and it gets too hard, warm it in the microwave on high for 20-second intervals or leave it at room temperature for a while to soften it.
https://shaneskillercupcakes.com/2012/01/the-best-chocolate-cake-with-mocha-frosting-recipe/

I’m linked up with the sites below. Please check them out for many other great ideas!

Cajun Sugar Pie

 

Jan 13 2012

5-Minute Valentine Mug Cake {Recipe}

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I’ve been intrigued by all of the mug cake recipes I’ve been coming across on Pintrest. And decided to give one a shot today. I know it’s not even February yet, but I wanted to dress this cake up for Valentines Day anyway. Think of it as getting a head start on a romantic dessert for you and your special someone!

A lot of the recipes I came across ultimately had bad reviews in the comments. So I wasn’t sure I wanted to waste my time on those. Then I came to this recipe on Instructables. It had good reviews for once! And solved a problem that a lot of the other recipes couldn’t. How, for such a small portion, do you get the egg amount right? People complained on those other recipes that one egg was too much and the cake tasted eggy; however, his recipe has you whisk the egg first and then only use a portion of the egg mixture! Brilliant.

So without further ado:

{Recipe}

5-Min. Valentine Mug Cake

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 tablespoons whisked egg
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
  • splash of vanilla
  • cooking spray for mug
Optional
  • powdered sugar for garnish

EQUIPMENT

  • a regular sized mug
  • a bowl
  • spatula
  • a whisk

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the flour, sugar, and cocoa in a bowl and then add the whisked egg, milk, oil, and vanilla.

2. Combine ingredients with a spatula until everything is thoroughly mixed together. I stirred in my chocolate chips at this point but they floated to the bottom while it cooked and got a little crispy, so maybe putting the chocolate chips on top of the batter after you pour it into the mug without stirring them in is a better idea.

3. Spray the mug with cooking spray and then pour the batter into the mug. It should only fill it a little more than halfway.

4. Stick the mug in the microwave for about 2 minutes and 15 seconds on high. The recipe I followed said to do it for 3 minutes but I could smell the chocolate starting to cook too much so I took it out early. It’s better to check it early before you over cook the cake. If you stick a toothpick in and it’s still runny or uncooked after 2 minutes and 15 seconds throw it back into the microwave for a few more seconds. Use your best judgement.

Also, the batter should rise up out of the mug a little while it cooks. This is normal. Even if the batter falls over the side, it might be a little messy, but the cake should still be good.

5. Let it cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar or dollop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

The trick to making this cake taste good comes down to using chocolate chips. I can’t say it’s the best cake I’ve ever made, but it didn’t taste terrible and the chocolate chips definitely upped the richness and chocolaty taste.

The top of the cake was almost a little overcooked but the middle was great, especially when the chocolate chips were still melted. Unfortunately the chocolate chips settled on the bottom while it cooked and the very bottom of the cake was a little crunchy because the chips started to overcook. I don’t know if there is a way to make this cake cook more evenly but for a quick and simple, single serving cake it wasn’t bad.

If you didn’t want so much cake to yourself, you could split the batter between two mugs and make smaller portions. You might not want to cook the cake as long though. If you do it this way, I’d suggest cooking it only for a minute and checking it before you heated it any longer.

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