birthday treats for brett

Brett's birthday was this past Saturday, Sept. 10. To celebrate I made him a few special treats... a sausage and egg breakfast casserole for brunch, followed by chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes for our KU tailgate.

I had never made a breakfast casserole before, so I found a quick and easy recipe on AllRecipes.com... it was nice because I made it the night before, and then popped it in the oven the next morning. I didn't take a picture until after we had already cut into it (we were hungry!), so it's not very pretty. But, it sure tasted good!

Not sure if you can tell in the picture, but half of the casserole has corn flakes on top. I wanted something crispy, so I added cornflakes when there was about 10 minutes of baking time left.

The chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes were pretty easy also... since I was short on time I doctored up a box mix. In my opinion, doctored up box mixes are just as good as homemade mixes, and they're so much easier... plus, they're practically no fail. I get so frustrated when I spend an hour on a homemade mix and then my cupcakes don't rise, or they're too dense, etc. So, save yourself some time and frustration and try doctoring up a box mix. I typically use four eggs rather than what's called for on the box, and use a cup of buttermilk instead of the amount of water called for on the box. For this recipe I used a cup of oil, 4 eggs, a cup of sour cream and half a cup of water. No buttermilk... also I used the box mix that has a box of pudding in the mix. Makes the cupcakes nice and moist!

I also cheated and used Pillsbury cookie dough. Even though my homemade cookie dough is the BEST, I just didn't have time. I dropped a tsp of cookie dough in the middle of each cupcake and also baked a dozen cookies to cut in half and place on top of the cupcakes for decoration.

I used my staple buttercream icing and added mini chocolate chips to it. Overall, I think the cupcakes turned out great! The birthday boy loved them, and they were a hit at the tailgate.

Cupcakes and Boulevard Wheat - yum! :)

festive treats fit for a holiday party

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know that I'm a day late, but it was a busy holiday! And, considering all the snow we got over the last few days, it still feels like Christmas! In fact, it's snowing again...

Last weekend we hosted a Holiday Party, so leading up to the party I was in the kitchen, busy making cupcakes, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate party mix, along with all the salty snacks I made. Since I had lots to do in a limited amount of time, I used the same Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcake recipe that I wrote about in my last entry. This time I used a white cake mix rather than devil's food and changed up the decorating. The design on the cupcakes are holly leaves with berries. I used jelly belly sour cherries for the berries and spearmint gummies for the leaves. Spearmint wasn't the ideal flavor, but it was the only candy shaped like a leaf that I found.







For the Holly Berry Cupcakes I used the same frosting recipe that I used for the Christmas Cupcakes and the Thanksgiving Cupcakes. For the Christmas Cupcakes I used peppermint flavoring in the recipe (rather than almond), and for the Holly Berry Cupcakes I used the almond flavoring. You can also use creme bouquet flavoring rather than almond.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe:
2 lb bag of powdered sugar, sift for decorating
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, not margarine, room temperature
1/2 cup hi-ratio or icing shortening - not Crisco
1/2 cup milk (minus 2 Tbsp in the summer)
1 teaspoon clear vanilla
1/4 teaspoon creme bouquet or almond flavoring
1/8 teaspoon salt
*Cocoa for chocolate

Cream butter and shortening together until fluffy, with mixer on low, add the milk (-2 Tbsp), 1/2 the bag of sugar slowly, the flavorings and the salt. Mix until creamy, slowly add the remaining sugar. If the icing is too stiff, add remaining milk. In the summer leave out the extra 2 Tbsp.

Scrape the sides of the bowl. Turn mixer on high and beat for 6-10 min. until icing has doubled in volume. Keep covered while working. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks or freeze for 6 months. Thaw to room temperature and re-whip.

To make Chocolate Buttercream, make the regular buttercream as above. Add cocoa (start with 1/2-3/4 cup or more) and milk (1 Tbsp at a time) to thin. Add a pinch o salt to help bring out the flavor. This icing will thicken as it sits. It should be made ahead and rewhipped to the right consistency. More cocoa to make darker and richer and milk to keep from being too thick.

You can't find hi-ratio/icing shortening at a typical grocery store. I bought my shortening at The Baker's Rack in downtown Lenexa, KS, which is where this icing recipe came from. The reason for using hi-ratio/icing shortening rather than Crisco is because Crisco is heavy and is made for frying, so it will be greasy on the tongue. Hi-ratio/icing shortening is digestible and made for eating, and will whip up fluffy.

Buttercream Frosting in the making...



One thing to note is that this recipe makes a LOT of frosting... more than enough to frost two dozen cupcakes. It would likely be the perfect amount to frost a cake with. The next time I make this frosting, I'm going to try cutting the recipe in half... I'll let you know how that goes.

Just for fun, here are a few shots of my sugar cookies: