Chocolate Chip Quinoa Trail Mix Balls

OK so this is really healthy compared to my other posts. Well, the chocolate chips help. Anyway I've been going to a Body Works class at LA Fitness for over a year. I look forward to going to this class. If you are a gym rat, then you know the instructor is awesome if you actually look forward to the class. My friends in the class suggested we should make CDs for our instructor's birthday (as a gift for her but so we can hear new music in class = win win). I saw this recipe at Eat, Live, Run and brought it to class for a "healthy Birthday treat".  I knew cupcakes would result in our instructor making us do more squats and lunges - she really cares about our butts. Her saying about our butts is "if you don't care about your butt then no one else will." Too funny!

The recipe was really easy and I was able to double it with no problem. The smell of honey and vanilla on the stove was invigorating! Skip this recipe if you don't like getting your hands dirty and buy packaged trail mix bars.  If you have never heard of quinoa then this is a good way to give it a try and click on the link to learn more about it. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and I had a few requests for the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Trail Mix Balls
by Jenna at Eat, Live, Run
makes about 14 bite-sized balls
Ingredients:
1 cup old fashioned or quick-cooking oats, dry
1/4 cup quinoa, dry + 3/4 cup water
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup dried cherries, raisins or cranberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
Directions:
Combine the quinoa and water in a small saucepot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 12 minutes, until quinoa has absorbed all the liquid. Fluff and scoop quinoa into a large mixing bowl.
Add sunflower seeds, oats, dried cherries and coconut to quinoa and mix well. Bring honey to a simmer on the stove then stir in the vanilla extract and pour on top of nuts and seeds. Mix until well combined.
Let mixture cool before adding the chocolate chips, peanut butter and sea salt. Mix well with your hands so the peanut butter is evenly dispersed but be careful not to melt the chocolate chips!
Using wet hands, gently roll mixture into golf ball-sized balls. Place balls on a plate and chill for at least two hours until firm.
Time:
2 1/2 hours (includes time to chill)

Brownie Cupcakes

Last week I went to the Food Truck Festival in Athens, GA and finally checked out the Yum Yum Cupcakes and More truck. I sampled the Betty cupcake which was a brownie cupcake with ducle de leche buttercream. It was amazing! My dad didn't try it but requested that I make brownie cupcakes for Easter.

I found a Chocolate Brownie Cupcake recipe at food.com. Then I apparently left my brain some where because when I got to my parents house I realized that I left the shortening and meringue powder at my house. Luckily I found this wonderful buttercream recipe at allrecipes.com and halved the recipe because the cupcake recipe only yielded 12 cupcakes. Also, I added caramel sauce to the buttercream. On a few cupcakes I drizzled more caramel which was a mistake because it was too much caramel that affected the flavor of the chocolate chips in the cupcake - may just be personal taste or the fact that Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips were baked inside the cupcake. Cake Art is a store down the street from me and that is where I found the adorable flowers you see sticking up in the middle of the cupcakes. The cupcake liners are from Target. Thanks mom for providing the Easter decorations. So cute!

All in all these cupcakes are delicious. I would suggest making them at  your next gathering!

Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients

1. 3/4 cup flour
2. 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3. 1 teaspoon baking powder
4. 1/4 teaspoon salt
5. 2/3 cup granulated sugar
6. 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
7. 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
8. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9. 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
10. 3 eggs
11. 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F and use muffin pan lined with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together granulated and brown sugars and butter until smooth. Whisk in vanilla and almond extract. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture, beating until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 28 minutes or until a tester inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached and a little melted chocolate. The tops of cupcakes will not spring back when touched.
5. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.
6. Top cooled cupcakes with favorite frosting.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered until ready to decorate.



Betty Cupcake





Happy Easter!

Rainbow Cupcakes

I started thinking about what cupcakes I wanted to bake for St. Patrick's Day. My freezer contained lots of different colors of icing from my projects over the past few months. So I thought it would be great to frost vanilla cupcakes with all of these wonderful, vibrant colors. Many people have said that buttercream icing will last in the freezer for months and I was not quite sure how long that would be but I got my answer on Saturday. I began icing my cupcakes and you know if you have done this before that icing always lands on the outside of your hand. Well I did not resist the urge to lick it off. And I'm glad that I did because the orange icing tasted like the inside of a freezer! I asked Mom to taste some of the other icing we were about to use and she agreed that it tasted strange. Luckily the green icing that was already on two of the cupcakes tasted normal. I scraped off the orange and was like now what????

During the Christmas holiday I learned a new trick on the Our Best Bites blog. They baked peppermint cupcakes and made a red swirl in the icing by painting red stripes with food coloring inside the pastry bag. I completely forgot about this technique until I saw it again on the Tracey's Culinary Adventures blog. Tracey made rainbow icing by painting all the colors of the rainbow inside a pastry bag. I planned to try this out with some white icing I made earlier in the week. Needless to say this solved my icing dilemma. Of course the peanut gallery (aka Dad) piped up and said "Just go to Ingles and buy some in a can. That works for me." Ugh Dad that does not work for me! Anyway I was not sure how this was going to turn out because it was a little challenging to paint the food coloring inside the bag. It didn't seem like enough. But I was pleased with the end result. My parents said they liked my rainbow icing better than Tracey's. Mom said "it looks like a rainbow inside puffs of clouds." Maybe Mom and Dad are biased. Sorry Tracey, I like your icing and thanks for the idea.

I baked vanilla cupcakes from my go to recipe. A friend suggested that I chop up Andes mints and add it to the batter. This was an awesome suggestion because I could not find creme de mint Hershey's kisses when I was at Publix. Well it was great until I went to eat one and all the chocolate was at the bottom. I guess chopped up Andes mints are not the same as chocolate chips. It is interesting how the whole cupcake tastes minty even though the chocolate is at the bottom. We live and learn. Next time I will have to research another method for adding mints.

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Strawberry Cupcakes

My coworker is having a baby girl next month so I decided to bring in some cupcakes to celebrate on Friday. And yes any reason to celebrate with cupcakes will do for me. We ordered lunch from Kitsch'n 155 because the mom to be was craving a burger and fries (I had a wonderful egg salad sandwich).

Any who, I was on the baking isle of the grocery store and noticed that Duncan Hines makes a Strawberry Supreme mix. Pink cupcakes for a baby girl sounded good to me. I topped the cupcakes with PINK vanilla buttercream and added "elegance" with white sugar pearls. When you are in a pinch for time then rely on Duncan Hines for a moist cupcake. Yum!

Silver Lining Cupcake Co.

Saturday afternoon my mom and I checked out Silver Lining Cupcake Co. in Athens, GA. I've been following this shop for a while on Facebook after finding them online when I was searching for UGA cupcake ideas. Side note: I found a silicone "super G" chocolate mold on Saturday at University Spirit but didn't purchase it because it was $16.99. At least I know where I can buy one now.

Anyway back to these amazing cupcakes! The store is located in an industrial type "shopping center" and is decorated with adorable cupcake art on the walls and cupcake containers on the tables. I own one of the same containers myself (yay Gardenridge). I picked out the Rise and Shine cupcake which is a cinnamon cupcake with maple buttercream and topped with your choice of bacon or a raspberry. I chose a raspberry because I just have not been able to embrace bacon on top of cupcakes yet. I know it is all the rage...whatever. It was French Toast in the afternoon - a nice breakfast delight. Mom selected Raspberry Lemonade - raspberry cake with a raspberry center topped with lemon buttercream and a raspberry drizzle. Mom said "it is like summer time in your mouth". Of course we sampled each cupcake and left with a smile. Both cupcakes had just the right amount of icing and the cake was moist. The ingredients seemed really fresh. They bake these yummy things on site as we saw their KitchenAid stand mixers in the back. My only regret is not getting a cup of coffee because it would have been a fabulous pairing with my cupcake. But it was in the afternoon and we were headed to the Gym Dogs meet. And yes the Dawgs beat LSU!! Go Dawgs!

We both strongly encourage you to check out this cute cupcake shop the next time you are in Dawg country. Luckily I live far enough a way and cannot frequent this place often.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes

Surprisingly I'm growing tired of baking cupcakes. Not sure if I lost my inspiration or what. Maybe it is because I've baked cupcakes for the past three Saturdays. Either way I wanted to make cupcakes for the Alpha Gam alumni game night I hosted at my house tonight. I first was thinking I would make a cupcake out of inspiration from my favorite childhood game - Candyland. But then I decided ice cream cone cupcakes are a little childish. I think I was fascinated with baking a cupcake inside an ice cream cone. I remembered I saved a simple yet delicious recipe from the How About Orange blog.

This is my first time baking cupcakes without frosting. With the gooey cream cheese and chocolate chip center, I really did not miss the frosting. Shocking, I know.The recipe was simple but the chocolate batter was runny which was challenging when filling the muffin wells. I was unaware that Reese's makes peanut butter chips and oh man they are yummy. So glad I decided to use chocolate and peanut butter chips instead of just chocolate. Now I need to find another purpose for the rest of the Reese's chips...hmm.

All of the girls enjoyed the cupcake and one said it was moist which I have to agree. And if you are not a frosting fan then you will love these cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes
Filling:1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips (or just use more chocolate if you want)

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

In a bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar, egg, salt. Mix well. Fold in chips. Set aside. For cupcakes, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Top each with 2 Tbs. of cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Makes 18.

One of my friends recently purchased his first home so a few of us decided to check it out after church on Sunday and then play some board games. Apples to Apples is a fav of ours! I asked my friend what his favorite cake is and of course he said snickers cheesecake. Well I knew right a way that cheesecake was out because the cupcakes would be in my car until we got to his house. I searched the world wide web and found a great recipe on the My Baking Addiction blog.

Surprisingly this is the second week of doctored cake mixes. I'm really coming around to this idea because you really cannot tell. This was my first time adding instant pudding to the mix. It was really gooey and a bit messy. Adding the frozen mini snickers was fun and for the most part it came out well. The recipe says it may make more than 24 cupcakes. With the extra batter I made a little cake in a ramekin. Apparently I should have made several extra cakes because some of the cupcakes came out with muffin tops. There was a hole where the cupcake fell in around the snickers on some of them. Nothing a little frosting couldn't fix though.

Instead of the frosting recipe that Jamie, My Baking Addiction author, used I decided to add caramel topping to the Wilton butter cream recipe. I'm not a fan of butter because it requires refrigeration and piping may be challenging. I ended up not piping these anyway due to time and wondering how the caramel would pipe. Also, I knew the cupcake was rich and did not want the frosting to be overwhelming.

The end result was a hit! I heard a lot of "these are good, thank you". You are welcome friends! And yes my small group will get to sample this recipe because the other dozen cupcakes and frosting are in the freezer.

Snickers Cupcakes

Makes 24-30 cupcakes
For the cake:
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line (2) 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, vanilla and water.
4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.
5. Gently push a frozen Snickers Miniature bar into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy bar with batter.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.
For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.
Garnish with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel of caramel syrup.
Notes:
Not a fan of Snickers? Sub in your favorite candy bar, just make sure you freeze them first.
Not a fan of vegetable shortening? No worries, simply sub in butter for the shortening.