cupcakes Archives - Page 6 of 6

Recipe of the Week: Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

April 12, 2008 3 Comments

This week I’m on a new recipe “kick” so to speak, and I’ve found a bunch of new, tasty things to try over the next few weeks, including this lovely cupcake recipe from Kraft. I’m an absoulte cheesecake fanatic and I love lemon pies and cakes too, so I think the combination of these two flavors into a cupcake is just awesome.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 Tbsp. oil
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick.) Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined 2-1/2-inch muffin cups.
BAKE 21 to 24 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
MEANWHILE, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter and juice with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes.

Filed Under: cupcakes, Recipe of the Week

Sweet Thursday: Fun Easter Sweets

March 13, 2008 3 Comments

Welcome to a special Easter edition of Sweet Thursday. If you’re looking for something to serve at your child’s Easter party or a special homemade treat for your child’s Easter basket, look no farther! These recipes are fun and easy to make, and they are filled with vibrant spring colors that your kids are sure to love.

Brownie Pops

1 package brownie mix (with chocolate syrup pouch)
Water, oil and eggs called for on brownie mix package
24 wooden sticks with rounded ends
1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
2 teaspoons shortening
candies or sprinkles

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch pan with foil so foil extends about 2 inches over sides of pan. Spray foil with cooking spray. Make brownies as directed on package for 13×9-inch pan; cool completely, about 1 hour.

2. Place brownies in freezer 30 minutes. Remove brownies from pan by lifting foil; peel foil from sides of brownies. Cut brownies into 24 rectangular bars, 6 strips lengthwise and 4 rows across, each about 1 1/2 by 3 1/4 inches. Gently insert stick into end of each bar, peeling foil from bars.

3. In microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and shortening uncovered on High about 1 minute; stir until smooth. If necessary, microwave additional 5 seconds at a time. Dip top third to half of each brownie into chocolate; sprinkle with decors. Lay flat to dry.

Easter Egg Candies

1 package (10 to 12 ounces) vanilla or white chips
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, cubed
1 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Colored sprinkles, colored sugar and/or jimmies
Directions: In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chips at 50% power. Add the cream cheese, water and vanilla; stir until blended. Chill for 1 hour or until easy to handle. Quickly shape into 1-1/4-in. eggs. Roll in sprinkles, colored sugar or jimmies. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Yield: About 4 dozen (1-1/2 pounds).

Easter Basket Cupcakes
Cupcakes like these are easy to create. Simply bake up a batch of your favorite cupcakes, and cover them with the icing of our choice. I recommend using white icing w/ green food coloring, though any spring color would work just as good. Then decorate the cupcakes with your favorite candies. For the basket handle, use Twizzlers, Airheads, or Fruit Roll Ups. For the “eggs” use jelly beans, mints, chocolate footballs/eggs, Whopper eggs, or whatever you like. These are colorful, fun treat for kids!

Easter Bunny Pudding Cups

2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
8 CAMEO Creme Sandwich Cookies
8 each jelly beans and gumdrops
8 pieces red string licorice, cut into thirds
decorating icings and gels
POUR milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix; beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.
SPOON evenly into 4 dessert dishes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
INSERT 2 cookies into 1 side of each dish to make the “bunny’s ears, then decorate with candies, licorice and decorating icings and gels as desired for the faces.

Filed Under: cookies and candy, cupcakes, desserts, Easter, recipes

Recipe of the Week: Lovin’ Sweetcakes

February 16, 2008 2 Comments

This week’s recipe comes from Kraft. This is another very cute and tasty, yet very easy dessert to make. The recipe calls for strawberry flavored jello and uses pink and red sprinkles for a Valentine’s Day kind of feel. If you made Valentine cookies or some other dessert with sprinkles, then this recipe could be the perfect opportunity to use up the leftover sprinkles & stuff. And of course you can always use other flavors of jello or other colors of sprinkles to make cupcakes for all occasions. In fact this is the perfect light and fluffy recipe for spring time and great for St. Patrick’s Day or Easter. Enjoy!

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Brand Strawberry Flavor Gelatin, or any other flavor
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
1/4 cup seasonal colored sprinkles

PREPARE cake batter as directed on package. Stir in dry powered gelatin until well blended.
LINE 24 medium muffin cups with paper liners. Pour batter evenly into cups, filling each cup 1/2 full. Place a small marble or 1/2-inch ball of foil between each liner and one side of the cup, pushing the paper in to form a heart shape. Bake as directed on package for cupcakes. Cool completely; remove marble or foil.
SPREAD 2 Tbsp. whipped topping onto top of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles as desired. Store cupcakes in refrigerator.

Filed Under: cupcakes, desserts, Recipe of the Week, Valentine's Day

Sweet Thursday: Valentine Treats That Say, "I Love You!"

February 7, 2008 1 Comment

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I wanted to throw in an extra Sweet Thursday Post. I meant to post this hours ago, but I got busy with some paper work & housework, and the time just totally got away from me, but at least I got a lot of important things done. Well, for this post I’ve chosen 2 very sweet Valentine treats: cupcakes and cookies. I truly love both of these desserts. These would be great to take to a school party or give to friends and coworkers or to that special someone in your life. And you could use these ideas for other occasions as well. With desserts like these, who needs those little candy hearts?

Conversation Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) white cake mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon butter flavoring, optional
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 to 2 drops red food coloring, optional
1 to 2 drops yellow food coloring, optional
1 to 2 drops blue food coloring, optional

Directions: Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Place paper or foil liners in a heart-shaped or standard muffin tin. Fill cups half full of batter. Bake according to package directions for cupcakes. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter and shortening in a small mixing bowl. Add vanilla and butter flavoring if desired. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in milk until light and fluffy. Divide frosting into fourths; place in flour separate bowls. Leave one bowl untinted. Add food coloring to the other three bowls; stir until well blended. Frost cupcakes. Pipe untinted frosting around edges and decorate tops with Valentine phrases. Yield: 28 cupcakes.

Valentine Cookies

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Dash salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 drops oil of cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup hard cinnamon candies, finely crushed

Directions
1. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl beat sugar and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and oil of cinnamon, if desired; beat well. Add flour mixture; beat well. Cover and chill in the refrigerator about 2 hours or until firm.
2. Cut a 10×8-inch heart pattern from paper. Halve dough. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil. Place half of the dough on each cookie sheet; roll into 10×8-inch rectangles. With pattern, cut dough into heart shapes. Reserve scraps. (If dough seems too soft, freeze 30 minutes or until firm.) Use alphabet- and heart-shaped cutters to cut out a message from each cookie. Remove dough from cutters.
3. Spoon candy into cutouts to fill holes to level of the dough. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until candy is melted and cookies are done. Cool on cookie sheets. Peel foil from cookies. Reroll dough scraps; cut with 3-inch cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in the 375 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until done. Cool on pan. Makes 2 large and 6 small cookies (18 servings).

Filed Under: cookies and candy, cupcakes, desserts, recipes, Sweet Thursday, Valentine's Day

Sweet Thursday: Snowman Cupcakes

January 10, 2008 3 Comments

Introducing Sweet Thursday! I’ve received a lot of positive feedback on recipes and other food related posts. For this reason, some of the new features I’m planning on trying are about food. Sweet Thursday would/will specifically feature desserts and sweets. Why Sweet Thursday? When thinking about the new features, I wanted to come up with catchy titles, perhaps using words from the title of the blog. When thinking of desserts, what better word to use than Sweet? Then the phrase “Sweet Thursday” entered my head, as in the book by John Steinbeck. Since I’m a big fan of Steinbeck’s writing, I fell in love with the idea of borrowing his title for my blog feature.

The feature will include anything from pictures of baked items from the web(as in this first example), a featured recipe, featured links, featured websites, featured desserts from resturants, product reviews, and basically anything having to do with desserts & sweets.

For this first installment of Sweet Thursday, I decided to feature some snowman cupcake photos. All of the pictured cupcakes were found on flickr, and the link beside each pic will take you to the profile of the person who created the cupcake. If you’re a cupcake fan, you’ll love these! Enjoy!

Filed Under: cupcakes, Sweet Thursday

Recipe of the Week: Rudolph Cupcakes

December 22, 2007 8 Comments

Here’s another favorite from Taste of Home. These cupcakes will be loved by kids of all ages, and they are very easy to make and decorate! In fact, this would be a great last minute dessert item for you to prepare, and it’s something fun that your kids could help with.

Ingredients:
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) cake mix of your choice
1 can (16 ounces) chocolate frosting
48 animal crackers
24 miniature marshmallows, halved
48 miniature chocolate chips or raisins
24 red jelly beans

Directions: Prepare and bake cake according to package directions for cupcakes, using foil or paper-lined muffin cups. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Frost cupcake tops. Insert two animal crackers into each cupcake for antlers. For the eyes, place two marshmallow halves, cut side up, with a chocolate chip in the center of each. Add a jelly bean for nose. Yield: 2 dozen.

My Suggestions – If you’re a fan of the Rudolph movie, you could make cupcakes of Rudolph’s girlfriend Clairice by use white frosting, and add a piece of red twizzlers to make a bow.

Pretzels could also be used for ears, and you could use a number of candies for the nose including M&Ms, Skittles, and Red Hots.

Filed Under: Christmas, cupcakes, desserts, Recipe of the Week

Holiday Poke Cupcakes

December 17, 2007 2 Comments

Here’s a cute and simple, easy to decorate, cupcake recipe from kraft.com. I make a similar recipe to this in a sheetcake, and now that I’ve seen this recipe, I’m ready to make the cupcakes. The recipe calls for red jello, but I think green would be good as well. This would also be a good recipe for Valentine’s Day, or any holiday really….just change up the colors.

This is also a great recipe because you can do anything you want with it, making it as simple or as elaborate as you like. Personally I’m thinking of leaving the marshmallows off, but I think I will try the sprinkles. But either way, I’m sure you’ll like it!

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 cup boiling water
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Brand Gelatin, any red flavor
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Red or green food coloring
suggested decorations: colored sugar, colored sprinkles, crushed candy canes and/or JET-PUFFED HOLIDAY MALLOWS Marshmallows

PREPARE batter and bake as directed for cupcakes. Cool in pans 10 min. Pierce tops with fork.
STIR boiling water into dry gelatin mix until dissolved; spoon over cupcakes. Refrigerate 30 min. Remove from pans.
TINT whipped topping with food coloring; spread over cupcakes. Decorate as desired. Store in refrigerator.

Filed Under: Christmas, cupcakes, desserts, recipes

Christmas Cupcake Designs

December 12, 2007 3 Comments

I’m new at cupcake decorating myself, and I am absolutely amazed at some of the cupcake designs that I find on the internet. Here are a few Christmas cupcakes for you. Even if you’re no cupcake artist, you may be able to make something similar to these, or at least ge an idea, and if nothing else, they’re very pretty to look at.