Monday Menu ~ Death by Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Jackie

In following through with my cupcake theme around here this week I have something that just about everyone will love and if you don’t then …. well, we’ll have to talk later.

Chocolate. That is the theme this week.

Lots and lots of delicious chocolate.

I’ve been watching the Food Network and Cooking Channel for a while now and they both seem to feature bakeries and and more specifically ones that feature cupcakes. I’ve never seen so many amazing desserts and I’ve been inspired to create some of my own tasty treats.

Death by Chocolate! This recipe was one that I came up with after thinking what could I combine together to make the best ever cupcake. Well, cupcakes and truffles. Pure genius, right?

The recipe is really simple but is a bit more time consuming than your regular cupcake, but it’s really worth it. So lets get to it.

Ingredients

Truffles

10 oz bag of Toll House dark chocolate chips
5 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp heavy cream

Melt the chocolate chips and the butter together until smooth and then stir in the heavy cream. Let cool for about an hour in the fridge.

Cake

Chocolate cake mix – any flavor you like is fine
Ingredients for the cake
Instant chocolate pudding mix

Make the cake per the recipe on the box and then stir in the pudding mix.

Frosting

1/2 cup shortening – I used Crisco
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cocoa powder – I used Hershey’s Special Dark
4 cups of powdered sugar
3 – 4 tbsp heavy cream – I used close to half of a pint

Whip the butter & shortening together and then add in the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix till combined. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well then add in the cream until it’s light and fluffy.

Method

Once the truffle mixture is ready prepare your cupcake pan with papers or cooking spray.

Fill the cupcake paper about halfway and make a little dent in the middle.

Scoop up a truffle and place it in the middle of the cupcake and then fill the remainder with batter, making sure that it’s fully covered.

I made mine using a large cupcake pan (ignore how yucky it looks) and they took about 30 minutes to bake. But I think that if you used a regular pan then it’d take closer to 20 minutes. Just a note… using the toothpick method to test these won’t work because of the truffle in the middle.

Once they’re cool you are ready to frost them!

I have to say that these were pretty good, but not exactly perfect. I was expecting the truffle filling to be softer than it was, but it still tasted really good! Next time I will add more heavy cream to the mixture so it’s softer.

They do require a tall glass of milk and a fork to eat! But it’s worth every single bite!

Hope you enjoy the cupcakes!

Do you have suggestions for a flavor of cupcakes to be features here? I’d love your suggestions.

Monday Menu ~ Layers of Love Brownies

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Jackie

It’s Monday and that means it’s time again for the Monday Menu! This week I have another blogger from Michigan! Angela from Tiaras and Trucks is here sharing an amazing recipe that is full of chocolate! I think that everyone should drop what they’re doing and make this one!

Years ago, my mom had family members send her their favorite
recipes and put together a cookbook for me.
All the way from Texas, courtesy of my cousin Jenny, these brownies
immediately became one of my favorite recipes.

I bring them to barbeques and potlucks and anywhere I think
someone might need to gain a few pounds.
These aren’t low-fat or low-carb or low-anything. The only way I can imagine making them
healthier is to cut them into smaller pieces!

Abbey and Dylan love helping in the kitchen, but I generally
make these after bedtime. It’s not that
they’re difficult, but there are a few different steps. It’s a recipe that deserves a read-through
before dumping all of the ingredients together and turning on your mixer.

Wait? Not everyone
bakes like that?

Dry Ingredients

¾ c flour * ¾ c baking cocoa * ¼ tsp salt * ½ c. white sugar
* ½ c. brown sugar

Wet Ingredients

½ c butter * 3 large eggs * 2 tsp vanilla

Super Delicious Additional Ingredients

¾ c white chocolate chips * ½ c caramel topping * ¾ c
chocolate chips

A little helper

Act One

Preheat oven to 350 degrees & grease/spray an 8 x 8
square pan

Combine cocoa, flour, salt

Beat butter, white & brown sugar, 2 (not all 3) eggs,
vanilla

Add in flour mixture gradually

Act Two

Set aside ¾ c mixed batter

Act Three

Pour remaining batter into pan

Sprinkle white chocolate chips over batter

Drizzle caramel topping over batter & chips

Act Four

Beat the ¾ c batter with remaining egg & chocolate chips

Spread over caramel topping

Bake for 30-35 minutes

Let cool before cutting into squares and ignoring the
calories in each amazing bite.

You can find Angela over at her place, Tiaras and Trucks, every day as well as on Twitter.

The best fall treat ever ~ pumpkin s’more bars

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Jackie

I am doing something that I don’t normally do…. posting on a Sunday and mid day. I always take the weekends off and make sure that when I do post that it’s ready to go at 6am.

But today I am sharing a recipe that I shared in Instagram yesterday. And there was an outcry for the recipe…people falling over to get it…… drooling on their phones and computers when they saw it. Alright, so maybe that’s an exaggeration.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter
1 can of pumpkin puree (150z)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (the small one)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of Graham cracker crumbs (about 12 squares
45 graham crackers (approximately)
9 cups of mini-marshmallows (entire bag)
2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (add more if you want!)

Instructions

Preheat over to 450F.
In a small saucepan on medium heat, combine the butter, pumpkin mix, milk, cinnamon and bring to a boil.
Remove saucepan from heat and stir in Graham cracker crumbs. Place aside.
Spray a 13×9 baking pan with cooking spray or line with waxed paper.
Line the pan with graham crackers – I had to cut a couple for the last row.
Pour 1/3 of the pumpkin mix over crackers and spread.
Top the pumpkin mix with approximately 2 – 3 cups of marshmallows.
Sprinkle evenly 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips.
Repeat steps 5,6,7, 8 twice giving you 3 layers.
Bake for 4 minutes.
Let it cool and set for 3-4 hours to firm up otherwise it will not cut well into squares. I placed mine in the fridge for a little bit.