Freebie Cupcake Wrappers for Easter and Art Party

Spring is almost here, so I've made an Easter set of cupcake wrappers for you!  Enjoy! Just right click to print and cut out.  Below I've also made a set for your art and painting party needs.  I love going to paint nights at our local art shop and thought it would be fun to take cupcakes for my class mates.  

I made THIS yummy Death by Chocolate cupcake for my guys today.  OMG... it is so yummy.  This was my son's request, but next time I think I would make a pretty white cupcake to go with the pastel colors on the Easter papers.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins with A Trefoil Girlscout Cookie and Heath Crumble Topping

These muffins turned out so well.  I love the crunch of the topping and the light, airiness of the cake.  Perfect for brunch or an after school snack!  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

Crumble Topping

1/2 cup cookies crumbled (I used GirlScout Cookies: Trefoils but you can use any cookie)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Heath English Toffee Bits O Brickle Toffee Bits (sold with chocolate chips)
2 Tbsp flour
6 oz chocolate chips
2 Tbsp milk (if needed)

Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup ripe mashed banana
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and Oil the top of the muffin pan so the muffin tops release more easily.  Then line  the muffin cups with paper liners or grease them well.  
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together.
In a mixer bowl, use the paddle attachment to mash the bananas until no lumps exist.  Add the eggs and then mix in the remaining ingredients one by one, including the chocolate chips
Add the dry ingredients but do no over mix.  Only mix for approximately 1-2 minutes. Use your spatula to scrape the bowl and give a final mix before filling the cups.
Fill muffin cups to completely full. They will rise to spill over the top and create a muffin top. .
Bake for 8 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350 and add the crumble (recipe above) and continue baking for another 6-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let the muffins sit in the pans for a few minutes before removing them to wire racks to cool.

Greek Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

On Monday I decided frozen yogurt is something we always buy at the store, but that I should try to make at home. I found a nice basic recipe in Cook's Magazine that I really liked the looks of. The boys wanted me to make strawberry. I hate strawberries that are frozen in ice cream. I know. Sorry. But I don't like them all icy like that. I decided to be a little selfish and tell them that we could try the chocolate because we didn't have any strawberries. We'd get strawberries to try next.

Now, I'm a big fan of Greek yogurt, so I had that in the fridge and I figured it would be the same. Especially since the first step of the recipe had you strain the 8-oz of plain yogurt. I had 6 oz of Greek yogurt which is already strained, so I used it instead.

Let me just say... The chocolate and the bitterness of the Greek yogurt really complimented each other. It turned out tasting a lot like dark chocolate which is my FAVORITE! YUM! Too bad it is my husband's favorite too because he has eaten most of the frozen yogurt and I've only had a spoonful. That's okay though. My backside doesn't need it.

Without further ado, here is the recipe as I made it. I've made a few substitutions and it turned out wonderfully. I wish I had had the camera time marker on so you could see that the BEFORE and AFTER pictures were taken about 2 minutes apart!

Greek Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

2 6oz containters of 0% Greek Yogurt
2 tsp unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. 2% milk
1/2 c. whipping cream
1 c. 2% milk
1 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons dutch-process cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 c. milk in a small bowl. Let stand, stirring frequently until gelatin swells about 10 minutes.

2. Heat remaining milk, cream and sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Do no boil. Remove pan from heat and add swelled gelatin, stirring until completely dissolved.

3. Cool milk to room temp. Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and mix in yogurt. Refrigerate mixture until cool to at least 40 degrees. Pour chilled gelatinous mixture into canister of ice cream machine. Churn until frozen. Can be served as soft frozen yogurt at this point, or can be stored in a sealed plastic container for two days before it becomes icy.

And this is the picture taken two minutes later. YUM!

How to Make a Perfect Chocolate Butterfly

I had to make cupcakes for a bake sale, so I created these little cuppies. In order to make the perfect butterflies, I did the following:

What you will need:

Cupcakes

Buttercream icing

Melting Chocolate Disks in your fav. colors (I used Wilton's)

Optional: Wilton Large Confetti (I got mine at Michaels)

A gallon-sized Ziplock freezer bag

Make your cupcakes as usual and pile your icing nice and high so that the butterflies have something to land on. I also added some sprinkles to mine.

Next, right click on this image and print it out. You can print it on low resolution if you'd like. It is just a pattern.Next, place the image under a large piece of waxed paper.

Put your chocolate melting disks into the freezer bag and zip. Place in your microwave for about 20 seconds. Check to see how melted they are. Keep doing this until you melt the disks completely. Once you know how long your microwave takes, you can do it all at once. Mine takes about 1 minute for about 40 disks but all microwaves differ. Also, I do mine on high, but you can do it on medium if you'd like.

Tip: Depending on the type of melting chocolate, you may have to add about 1/2 tsp-1 tsp. of shortening to the disks to get them to be runny enough to squeeze out of the bag.

After the chocolate melts, mush it into one of the corners and twist the bag so that you have a make-shift pastry bag. Of course, if you have a pastry bag and know how to use it, you can do it in with that, but you can't put the tips in the microwave so you have to put the tip on later. Also, the problem with pastry bags is that most of them are solid so you can't see through them to see if your chocolate is melted.

Now you can cut a hole in the tip of the bag and start tracing your butterflies. I did the wings first and let them dry a bit. Then I did the bodies so they would be more 3D.   While the chocolate is still wet, add the confetti for dots. If you forget, you can use the melted chocolate as glue and put them on with it.

Another fun thing to do is this. Put a pretzel rod in the melted butterfly and pipe some chocolate over it to hold it on. Makes a cute lollipop, don't you think?

You can refrigerate your butterflies if you'd like, or just let them get hard on the counter. Once they are dry, remove from the paper carefully and sit them on top of your cupcakes. How SPRINGY are those?

Please send me pictures if you make these. I'd love to see how they turned out.

BTW... you can use any graphic you have and make any topping you'd like!

Tami

Want to Come Over for Coffee?

Oh... I just love sweets. I wish I was one of those naturally thin people. I'd have sweets every day. My home would smell like chocolate & coffee all day long.

So, my little one is home from school sick today, so I have decided to do something productive... the laundry. Only... I have to go upstairs to do that.

It is cold up there.

Maybe I should just warm the house up a bit more by baking something first. There is a brownie recipe I'd like to try. Before I knew it, I was busy making brownies and haven't looked back. Of course, if I make something, I have to blog about it. SOOOOO..... I'm sitting on my butt with a big pile of laundry wondering where my intentions went.

Don't you want to come have some coffee and brownies???? Help me procrastinate!

I'm going to dig right in!

BEST COCOA BROWNIES (from Epicurious.com)

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)
Special equipment: An 8-inch square baking pan (I used a round, springform pan)

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. (I just sprayed PAM in the pan)

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. (I skipped this... I put the first four ingredients in the microwave for about a minute). Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula.

(ha! Are you kidding? I mixed it with my Kitchen Aid). Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan. (Didn't use nuts)

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack. (I cooked mine 26 minutes)

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Chocolate note: Any unsweetened natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder works well here. Natural cocoa produces brownies with more flavor complexity and lots of tart, fruity notes. I think it's more exciting. Dutch-process cocoa results in a darker brownie with a mellower, old-fashioned chocolate pudding flavor, pleasantly reminiscent of childhood.

I'll let you know later if they stand up to their name!