Christmas Fudge Brownie Cake Pops

These delicious fudge brownie cake pops are decorated for Christmas!

Ingredients:
1 box fudge brownie mix (about 3 cups)
3 eggs
6 tbsps unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsps water
3 tsps flavor extract (I recommend Mint or Raspberry, both are delicious!)
    (You can scale the recipe down to 1 cup brownie mix, 1 egg, etc. Which will make about 14 cake pops.)
Materials:
1-2 bags Chocolate wafers for melting (I used dark chocolate, red and green)
 ~42 paper treat sticks
Sprinkles for decorating.

There are several molds and cake pop makers, I used the Baby Cakes multi-treat maker pictured below:

In a medium bowl stir all the ingredients together until well mixed.  If using the treat maker plug the unit in and allow to preheat.  Spray cake pop wells with non-stick cooking spray, then fill each well with about 1 tbsp of batter; the wells should be full, but not overflowing.  A disposable pastry or ziploc bags work well to fill the mold.  Close treat pop maker and cook for 4-6 minutes.  When done transfer the cake balls to a wire rack or baking sheet to cool.  This recipe will make ~42 cake pops.

Now to make the cake pops and decorate them!

Melt the chocolate in the microwave on medium power in ~30sec increments until smooth.  After cake pops are cool dip a treat stick into the melted chocolate and insert into the cake ball.

Then set aside allow the chocolate to harden and repeat for all the cake balls.  If needed, pop them into the fridge or freezer to speed up the process.

Once the chocolate is harden and the stick secured it is time to dip the cake pops into the chocolate.  If needed, melt the chocolate in the microwave again so that it is smooth enough to coat the cake pops.  One at a time dip the cake pops int he chocolate to coat.  You can use a spoon to smooth out the chocolate and to remove the excess.

Now, before letting the chocolate harden dip the cake pop into the sprinkles you are using to decorate them.  Place in a cake pop stand (I just use a cardboard carton with holes poked into it) and allow to dry.

Here are the cake pops I made with red and green chocolate:

Try different colored chocolates and sprinkles for different occasions!

To check out another way to make cake pops and find out how I made my styrofoam stand that fits in my cupcake carrier see my Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake Pop post.  [No treat maker or mold required!]

Your friends and family will love these little treats for the holidays!  Merry Christmas and happy New year!

Spider Web Cupcakes

These fudgy spider web cupcakes are perfect for Halloween!

 

I followed my Fudge cream cheese filled "Hostess" cupcake recipe, except the webs will work better if you don't melt the icing and just frost the cupcakes normally.  Click here to get the Recipe. 

After filling the cupcakes with the cream cheese filling and frosting cupcakes use the rest of the cream cheese filling to make the spider webs.

Step 1: Draw 4 circles on the top of the cupcake; starting with smallest in the middle and getting larger.  No need to be perfect since we will be making these into webs.

Step 2: Drag a tooth pick through the circles starting in the middle to the edge of the cupcake.  Do this 6-7 times.

Step 3: Pipe more cream cream cheese icing over the lines to complete the spider web.

 

Now repeat steps 1-3 for the remaining cupcakes.

Happy Halloween!!

Blue Moon Cupcakes

A cold refreshing beer to go with your hamburgers and Hotdogs?   Try these Blue Moon Cupcakes for dessert!

Recipe adapted from:  http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/01/blue-moon-and-corona-cupcakes.html

Cupcake ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 cup Blue Moon, plus more for brushing on tops (And some to sip!)
1/4 cup milk
Orange wedges for garnish

Cream Cheese Frosting ingredient:
12 oz cream cheese
 6 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Next add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Then add the vanilla and zest and mix.  Combine the liquid ingredients(milk and beer) and alternatively add this mixture and the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture with the mixer on low speed, starting and ending with the flour mixture. 

Fill two muffin tins lined with cupcake liners and bake for approximately 18 min, until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean.  While still warm use a tooth pick to poke holes in the top of the cupcakes and brush on some of the remaining Blue Moon beer.

For the frosting cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.  Add the orange juice and zest, then gradually add the powdered sugar until well-combined, beat until smooth.   I will caution that the frosting was not very stiff (if desired add more powdered sugar), so I chose not to use a star tip and just piped the frosting with a wide mouth round tip, which ended up making it look more like a frosty cold beer!!

HIMYM's Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Caramel Sumbitch Cookies

I have been a How I Met Your Mother fan from the beginning and to celebrate the series finale I made the "Sumbitches"  from the season 9 premiere.  These cookies have chocolate chips, Reese's cups and Rolo's!

Here is a clip from the season premiere:

My recipe was adapted from: http://www.yumsugar.com/

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup Rolos, halved
1 cup dark chocolate minature Reese's, quartered

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl cream together the sugars and butter.  Next beat in vanilla and eggs.  On low speed  add in the flour mixture.  Fold in the chocolate chips, Rolo's and Reese's.  Drop by rounded table spoon or a 1 in scooper.  Bake for approximately 11 minutes.  This recipe makes over 40 cookies.

Some of these cookies oozed chocolate-peanut butter-caramel goodness!  The cookies that had large pieces of Rolo's near the bottom oozed the most.  To prevent this you can push the Rolo's into the dough after placing on the cookie sheet.

 Here are some of the best ones:

These sumbitches are delicious!  Enjoy these while you watch the Legen-wait for it-dary series finale of How I Met Your Mother.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake Pops

After my first attempt at Cake Pops I learned two things:  1. They take a lot of work and 2. They are delicious!

Cake Pop Pictorial

The following recipe makes 42 cake pops.

Raspberry Buttercream:
1 cup Unsalted Butter
2.5-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp Raspberry extract
Red food coloring, optional

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Then combine the heavy cream, the raspberry extract and food coloring, gradually pour into butter mixture until combined.  If needed add more powdered sugar for desired consistency.

Cake:
Make your favorite chocolate cake or use a box mix
9 cups cake + 1.5 cups frosting

Bake the cake and allow to cool completely. Then crumble cake into a large bowl, this should be about 9 cups of cake.

Decorations:
Lollipop sticks
2 bags dark chocolate melts
1/2 bag pink white chocolte melts
sprinkles: Pink, Gold, Chocolate

To melt chocolate place in microwave proof bowl.   Heat for 15-30s at a time on a low power setting or defrost.  Stir well.  If chocolate hardens, remelt.

Directions:
Mix 9 cups of crumbled cake and 1.5 cups of the raspberry buttercream, it is easiest to mix them by hand.  To make uniform sized balls I used my 1 in cookie scoop then rolled them in my hands to make them round.  Dip the sticks in the melted dark chocolate and stick in to the balls.  Lay on a  cookie sheet and place in the freezer to allow the cake balls to harden and the chocolate to cool.

Next dip them in the melted dark chocolate.  Then dip into the sprinkles, or if dipping into the pink melts allow the dark chocolate layer to cool a bit first.

There are several cake pop holders now available, but I decided to make my own which I knew would be sturdy.  To hold the cake pops I used styrofoam covered in card board and aluminum foil.

 

I cut the holes into the cardboard first then placed it on top of the styrofoam.  Then covered the whole thing in aluminum foil.  Next I punched all the holes using a lollipop stick.  The holder was very useful while making them and for transporting them!  I used my cupcake carrier to carry them.