Banana Split Cupcakes

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Seriously. These might have beaten the PB&J. Pat seems to be stuck deciding which one is better, and so far he has ALWAYS gone with PB&J as being far superior to any cupcake/treat. I am actually just going

to link to the site I found them on for the recipe, because it was such an amazing recipe that I didn't tweak it and make it my own( I even decorated them almost the same because they were perfect!). Normally if I don't already have the recipe for something, I google a few recipes, and kind of merge them into what I think would be the best tasting to me. I didn't do that with this one. And I have to warn ya'll, this recipe IS NOT EASY. If you are a new baker, beware. It is not easy, and it is a longggg one. I actually made the cakes and the custard filling the night before, then in the morning hollowed the cakes out, filled em', iced and dipped em. The custard in the middle is spectacular.

There are a few notes I can add about this recipe that may help if this the original seems too scary.

1. You can use your standard american buttercream frosting instead of the "classic" on that blog. I am 100% certain it would be just as delicious and way easier for you too.

2. If the chocolate dip is intimidating (I understand!), you can just use chocolate wafer melts. It will be just as delicious and not scary. PLUS, if you have never made this sort of thing, and go through the entire process with the cakes, and the custard, etc, and mess up on the chocolate dip that would totally suck!
3. DON'T cheat on the custard. Just don't even think about it.
Recipe:
BANANA SPLIT HEAVEN
So there are some tips for those of you that are either afraid of this recipe, or just don't have the time or patience to make these, because you really do need to make them, they are AMAZING.
(And if you have the time and patience or just want to brag about how you slaved for 2 days making them, then don't change the recipe one bit! I didn't and I have no regrets! ha)

Banana was so stoked!

GOOD LUCK!

Our new favorite salad.

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 We like salad in this house. A lot. I am always searching for delicious new salads to try. This one is a keeper, we have seriously eaten this salad almost everyday this week and if I weren't going away for a few days, I am pretty confident we would be eating it EVERY day of this week. It's THAT good. Try it, if you have good taste you'll love it too ;)

Ingredients:
- Mixed greens
- 3-4 pears (I used d'Anjou the first three nights, ran out and then just used Bartlett)
- 5 oz Gorgonzola cheese
- Walnuts (toasted are better, but un-toasted are just as good)
- 2 avocados
- dried cranberries

Vinaigrette:
- 3 TBL red wine vinegar
- 1 TBL Dijon mustard (I used a lil' more)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use a little less)
- Salt and pepper to taste

- I will add that on umm, the third night in a row that we ate this salad, I was feeling a little zany and I added Morning Star "chicken" to it and, yep, still amazing.

And as far as the directions, I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you how to throw a salad together!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

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 Well apparently I have outdone myself. These seem to unanimously be the best cupcake ever. (says the guys Pat works with). I mean they are pretty badass. I have made the ones in the Martha Stewart cupcake book before and they were good, but not THIS good! I found a few different recipes online and merged them together to make what I believe is the best version. I highly recommend making these, you can't go wrong. I mean, who doesn't like PB&J??? You would have to be INSANE!

It's like the delicious sandwich you grew up with, without the soggy bread!

For the cake:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 LG eggs
- 1 TBL vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1 TBL baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- whatever jelly/jam you prefer ( I used strawberry)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees
2. Cream butter, peanut butter and brown sugar
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time
4. mix dry ingredients separately
5. Add dry ingredients and alternate with milk
6. Beat for a few minutes and bake! (about 19-21 minutes)
7. After baking, let cool completely
8. Once cool, hollow out inside of cake, fill with jelly, and replace the top of the cake
9. Makes 24 cupcakes.

For the icing:

- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening

- 1/3 cup butter

- 3/4 cup peanut butter

- 4 cups confectioners sugar

- 4-8 TBL milk 

1. I add 1-3 first, then add all confectioners sugar.
2.  Add milk as needed, I used about 7.

I also doubled the icing and I had a ton left..I didn't think just this recipe would be enough, but doubling is too much...you could either just make this recipe, and pipe sparingly or double it and use the left over for another treat you wanna make!!

Enjoy!

Fun times.

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 So I haven't been updating with super awesome treats as much the past 2 weeks!! ( I will resume after this week, promise!). Me, Pat and AnnaBella took a trip back to Philly for a week, and then went to Boston for the weekend..the weekend was AnnaBella free! It was really nice to have time to ourselves!! Although a weekend seems to be enough because by day two we are complaining about how much we miss her!! One of the days I went on an adventure by myself (which was fantastic because I LOVE being by myself and never am anymore!!), I put my iphone on and just explored..one of the guys from the shop Pat was working at recommended an awesome used book store (I for the life of me can't remember the name), but I DID score like 7 or 8 books for $40, amazing.

And I FINALLY got my leg tattoos started!! I CAN'T WAIT for them to be finished!!

We stopped by a cupcake shop! I love to visit cupcake/dessert shops! We stopped by Sweet Cupcakes on Newbury Street, they were pretty good! I liked the simple design of the shop and they had a pretty good selection of cupcakes too!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

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  Yumm Yumm Yumm. I can't think of a better sounding cookie, to be honest with you. If there are two cookies that should form together into one super cookie, it SHOULD be oreo's and chocolate chip cookies! They were quick, easy and delicious!! They were such a hit, it will definitely be making them again! (which is pretty rare for me to make things multiple times) One thing I would HIGHLY recommend, is when they are still warm, breaking a few up and adding it to vanilla ice cream, I did that for Pat and he was lovin' it!

Ingredients:
- 2 sticks softened butter
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 TBL vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp bkg soda
- 10oz chocolate chips
- Double stuff Oreos

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-In separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda
-Slowly add wet ingredients and chocolate chips
-Take ball of dough and put on the top of the cookie, do the same with the bottom, seal edges together by pressing in hand until the oreo is enclosed
-Place on parchment paper and bake 10-13 minutes
-Let cool for at least 5 minutes and enjoy!

Where did you find the leopard cupcake liners?

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I think I bought those from AC Moore? I get a lot of my baking stuff from craft stores and a few online stores, one of my favorites it bakeitpretty.com

I'll answer anything. . .except vulgar questions, not gonna happen.

Salty Caramel Cupcakes.

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 These were absolutely fantastic. FANTASTIC! The combination of the cake, caramel and salt was magnificent! Seriously. The actual cake is the perfect texture as well. I am for sure going to make the cake with other things because it was just perfect! At the last minute I decided to fill the cupcakes with a little caramel too, I enjoyed it. The one thing that was a bit "off" was the icing, for some reason, mine was a little grainy, but I didn't personally mind it, I actually thought it tasted amazing.
 I did cheat and used store bought caramel ;) I wasn't in the mood to make my own...I WAS in the mood to try spun sugar because I was going to put spun sugar balls on top of the cupcakes..umm, yeah. IT WAS A DISASTER. Horrible. I am not sure if I am ever even going to try it again, I have no clue what I did wrong, but my kitchen is still a sticky hot mess! I wish I would have taken pictures of my kitchen! Instead, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, oh my.

I let AnnaBella play and pretend like she was making them in her pink oven. Too cute.

Cake:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 4 large egg whites, room temp
- 2 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
- 3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 F. 

In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup of the milk with the egg whites and vanilla extract. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, quickly mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of milk. Beat at a low speed until blended, then beat at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg white mixture in 3 additions, beating the batter on medium-speed for 20 seconds after each addition. 

In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the batter, then fold in the rest with a spatula. Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon out the batter evenly amongst the cupcake tins. Do note that the batter does rise a little, so don’t overfill. Bake for 20-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centers come s out clean.

Icing:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
- 1 stick salted butter, room temp
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
- hot water, to thin out, if needed
- sea salt
- caramel (homemade or purchased)

In a saucepan, melt butter and add brown sugar, whisk. Bring to a boil and lower heat to low. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and add heavy cream..cool until lukewarm, gradually add confectioners sugar and add water to thin, if needed.
Frost and sprinkle with sea salt, add caramel drizzle too!

*the recipe is delicious alone, but like I said, I filled my cupcakes a little bit with caramel as well!

Vegetarian Meatloaf Cupcakes.

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 I LOVE MEATLOAF. I have not had it in a long time though :( I also have been running out of veggie things to cook lately. I think I need to invest in a few more vegetarian cookbooks! It's hard sometimes, and I don't want to keep making the same stuff over and over again! I found this vegetarian meatloaf recipe a while ago but just kept forgetting to try it...until the other day. I was nervous about the recipe because it is also for a loaf, not a cupcake, but it still turned out well! The one thing I will say about this recipe, is that once you put it all together, if it looks too dry, that's okay. Mine looked dry, so of course, I started adding more oil, more mustard, etc and it was a tiny bit too runny..not bad, just a lil' ;)

Ingredients:

• -1/2 (14 ounce) package vegetarian ground beef (e.g., Gimme Lean TM)
• -1 (12 ounce) package vegetarian burger crumbles
• -1 onion, chopped
• -2 eggs, beaten
• -2 tablespoons vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
• -1 teaspoon salt
• -1/3 teaspoon pepper
• -1 teaspoon ground sage
• -1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• -2 teaspoons prepared mustard
• -1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• -3 1/2 slices bread, cubed
• -1/3 cup milk
• -1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 
  

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Line tin with liners

- Combine all ingredients

- Scoop mixture into liners, fill to top

- Pour tomato sauce on top of each "cupcake"

- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (i did 25)

- Let cool for a few minutes and pipe with your favorite mashed potato recipe!

So easy!

Adding to my collection!!

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