Caramel Cake Cupcakes

For my mom's birthday last week I wanted to try a new fabulous cupcake, and this was the one I found. It tasted just as divine as I imagined :)

BUT, do not make this when you are in a rush for time...the caramel icing takes time and patience!!

Caramel Cake Cupcakes

Source: The Cupcake Project

Ingredients:

1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature

1 C flour

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (The Cupcake Project states you can substitute 2% milk instead of sweetened condensed milk.  The cupcakes will just be a lot denser. I felt they were plenty dense as is)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

caramel icing (see below)

Directions:

Cream Butter and sugar, beat in eggs. Add flour and sweetened condensed milk, alternating between the two. Add the vanilla.

Fill the cupcake liner 3/4 full

Bake at 350F for 20-24 minutes, or until cupcakes bounce back when touched lightly. They will be slightly browned on top.

Serves: 10-12 cupcakes

Nutrition: 209 - unfrosted
 315 with caramel icing.

Caramel Icing
Source: adapted from The Cupcake Project

Ingredients:

2 C sugar

1/2 C unsalted butter

3/4 C evaporated milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, mix butter, evaporated milk and two cups of sugar. Heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Do not allow to come to a boil. Once sugar dissolves, reduce heat to low.

Stir regularly until the liquid reaches the soft ball stage. It's easiest to check for the soft ball stage with a candy thermometer (the caramel should be about 235 F).

If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can test by dropping a small amount of caramel into water to see if it forms a soft ball.

It may take up to thirty minutes to reach the soft ball stage.  Do NOT turn up the heat because the caramel can easily burn.

Mix in Vanilla. Let Cool - but keep an eye on it.

This is the 2nd spot where I swayed from the original recipe. After it cools about 30 minutes, stire for 10 minutes to get it nice and thick like an icing, so that it is creamy and ready to spread

Serves: 24cupcakes

Nutrition: 109 (for 24 servings)

Brownies

Have you been in search of that brownie that just melts in your mouth? These are them. Delicious. I'd rather have a vanilla cupcake, but my middle child had a half birthday (pretty big deal when you're a preschooler!) and her favorite is brownies. She requested brownies to take to school (with a summer birthday they celebrate half  birthdays instead...) And so I found this recipe, fabulous. Melts in your mouth perfection. After eating one of these you will never buy a box mix again (except for those lazy days, ha!)

Best Basic Brownie
Source: Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter

2 cups White Sugar

4 whole Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

⅔ cups Cocoa Powder

1 cup Flour

½ teaspoons Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan.

Melt butter. Add ingredients in the order listed, mix just until mixed.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake.

Serves: 24

Nutrition: 168 calories, unfrosted
233 calories each when lightly frosted (half batch of my Chocolate Buttercream Frosting)

While they are delicious plain, to add to the chocolatey dreaminess of the basic brownie, add chocolate frosting :) For my daughters class I used a half batch of my Chocolate Buttercream Frosting so that the preschoolers wouldn't be on too big of a sugar high!

You could even dazzle them up with sprinkles :)

Delicious!

Chocolate Buttercream

If you remember my Vanilla Buttercream, this is just a derivitive of that. I am not typically a full on chocolate person, but this frosting I ate by the spoonful :)

Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients:

1 c butter, room temperature

3 c powdered sugar

1/2 c cocoa powder

2 tsp pure vanilla extract ( or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (add more to taste)

2 Tbsp milk (use more if it isn't getting as fluffy as you'd like, adding slowly 1 Tbsp at a time)

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar and butter until they are blended and creamy. Add Cocoa Powder.
2. Add vanilla extract and milk and continue to beat for another minute.
3. If desired, add more milk if the frosting isn't as fluffly as you'd like

Additional Notes:
**If you want a stiffer frosting that will hold its shape a little better when warm, substitue 1/4 c of the butter with 1/4 c of trans fat-free vegetable shortening.

Serves: about 2 cups, will frost 12 cupcakes or a 9x13 pan of brownies.

Freezer: store in the fridge 2-3 weeks or freezer up to 3 months. To use, bring to room temperature and re-whip prior to applying to cake or cupcake

Nutrition: 263 calories per serving (when divided into 12 servings)

Sweet N Spicy Beef w/Noodles

Anyone ever eat at Hu Hot? It's a favorite in my house, and sorely missed since we moved! Even my kids loved it there and beg to go back! You create your own Asian stir fry and watch as it's cooked on our grill.  Delicious Mongolian stir fry! This meal was compared to our experience there by my munchkins.

Sweet N Spicy Beef w/Noodles
Source: adapted from OAMM

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean flank steak, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 medium jalapeno pepper, diced
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 cup baby carrots
8 oz. pasta noodles
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
4 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

(All veggies are optional and can be changed out to any of your liking!)

Directions:

Boil water for pasta, and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat to saute onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, and peas just until they start to get brown and tender. Remove veggies from heat and set aside. Season steak with salt and pepper, then cook in same skillet until meat has reached desired doneness. (Veggies and steak can be cooked together if you would like to save on time).

Add soy sauce, honey, and red pepper flakes to skillet, and saute to cover meat. Turn heat down to medium, and add in veggies and cooked pasta noodles. Stir to saute another 4-5 minutes.

Serves: 4

Freezer:
Package the cooked pasta in a quart-size freezer bag and seal. Pour sauce ingredients, uncooked veggies, and uncooked chopped steak into a gallon-size freezer bag and seal. Place both bags inside another gallon-size freezer bag; label and freeze. To serve, thaw in refrigerator, then cook meat and veggie portion, adding noodles just before serving.
Calories: 439

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

A staple for any baked good, from here so many other flavors are possible. Simple and delicious!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 c butter, room temperature
• 3-4 c powdered sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract ( or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (add more to taste)
• 5 Tbsp milk (if doubling, you can use 1/3 cup milk)

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar and butter until they are blended and creamy. 
2. Add vanilla extract and milk and continue to beat for another minute. 
3. If desired, add more vanilla to taste, or more confectioners' sugar to make it stiffer.

Additional Notes:
**If you want a stiffer frosting that will hold its shape a little better when warm, substitue 1/4 c of the butter with 1/4 c of trans fat-free vegetable shortening.

Serves: Will frost 12 cupcakes

Freezer: store in the fridge 2-3 weeks or freezer up to 3 months. To use, bring to room temperature and re-whip prior to applying to cake or cupcake

Calories: 258 calories per serving

2012

Welcome to 2012! Time for a new year, new resolutions, and a lot more fun!

2011 was a big year for us, after 3 years of talking about it, we moved back to our hometown! Our son started kindergarten, our 1st daughter started a new preschool, and the baby turned 1. While I miss my perfect house and my fabulous friends, it was the right choice for us at this point in our lives. It is wonderful to be in a smaller community surrounded by our parents, who can now participate in their grandkids lives and have a relationship with them they otherwise never would have been able to have! Perfect :)

1. Freezer Cooking. I have on and off always {since having baby #1} filled my freezer with meals for "a rainy day". 2011 I started to take that to a whole new level after discovering the blog OAMM. I don't use all the recipes, but it's a great start for ideas! I love planning my monthly menu ONCE, spending a day feeling like I can actually cook, and then for the rest of the month enjoying the easy life of just pulling out the meal and baking it. done.

2. Cupcakes. yum, I love cupcakes. Last year I got hooked. This year I want to perfect. My sister graduates in May and she has asked me to make mini cupcakes for her party. Now to find my favorites, perfect them, and create for her party!

3. Pretend to like cooking. While with Once a Month Cooking I spend one day a month pretending to like cooking, I'd like to try to expand on it...and exploring new recipes to get our family out of the same old boring routine...wish me luck

4. Non Kitchen Fun. To sit down and play with my kids more. The laundry can wait, as the kids grow too fast! To have fun sewing, love it. To organize my life/home. To turn our new {6 months living here} house into our home, even if we do only plan to live here for a few {2-5} years.

Bring on 2012!

*Sorry for the poor quality phone picture, but this is my new toy :)