Tag Archives: baking

Flip Flop Cookies~ a Recipe Revisited!

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Ruthanne

I’m excited to be back for day #2 of our walk down memory lane! Today’s treat just had to make the list of fun and colorful recipes to revisit. It’s not only fun and colorful, but the perfect summer treat…

This recipe was originally published during my first summer of blogging, on June 11, 2011. It is particularly memorable for me because it was my first photo published on Foodgawker. If you even knew how hard I was trying at the time to get a photo accepted on that site….oh my. I’m very competitive and I had about 60 photos rejected before this one. I was jumping up and down for joy! I took this photo at my friends Tom and Tina’s house at the lake. I knew the lighting was perfect that day and I pulled my little point and shoot out to snap some photos. Tom suggested I try his higher-end camera and Tina popped that pretty orange flower in the background and I learned two things: 1.Staging food is a must in photography and 2. I needed a better camera.

Since that date I’ve had 55 photos accepted on Foodgawker and SO many rejected. It has been so good for me to have outside judgement on my photography though. It is making me better. Will today’s photo be accepted? I think not. I’m not happy with the exposure in any of the pictures, but we will see!

These are white chocolate dipped Nutter Butter cookies (in case you were wondering!) Originally dipped in rainbow colors, these are dipped in patriotic red, white and blue and garnished with a little star sprinkle. Serving them on brown sugar gives them a beach feel. These are a perfect summer treat and really easy to make.

To see the original recipe (along with photos showing how to dip them) click here.

To print the original recipe and instructions click here.

Enjoy! ~r

We dip lots of things into candy melts and chocolate here at easybaked. Here are a few of our favorite candy melt treats:

1 Comment

Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged baking, cookies, desserts, flip flop cookies, fourth of July, fun, Labor day, Memorial day, nutter butter cookies, Nutter Butters, rainbow colors, recipe, summer cookies, Wilton candy melts. Bookmark the permalink.

Tie Dye Cake~ a recipe revisited!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Ruthanne

I miss my recipes sometimes…I didn’t realize when I started this blog that it would launch me into a world of constantly new and changing recipes. If I’m asked to bring a dessert to something I rarely return to my favorites. Instead I create something new that I can share with all of you! This week I am revisiting some of my favorites in honor of the Fourth of July. I chose some of my most colorful and fun recipes to recreate in Red White and Blue. Each of these recipes can be tweaked to fit any color theme, but this week we are celebrating the USA with each recipe. Here we go…..!

The original Tie Dye cake recipe was created October 10, 2012 in honor of my nephew Marshal. It has gotten rave reviews for how easy it is to make. It’s been the star dessert at birthday parties, Easter celebrations and even a Luau! It was featured in the Huffington Post in an article celebrating all things tie dye.

Visit the original recipe to see how it was put together by clicking here.

Print the original recipe and try it for yourself by clicking here.

Stay tuned…I will be back tomorrow with another revisited recipe!

Enjoy!! ~r

Modifications to the original recipe:

Instead of rainbow colors, I used red and blue. USE COLOR GELS if you want bright and vibrant color. Liquid colors will not give you the deep colors you want. I actually ran out of red and ended up a little more pink than I wanted! I love my color gels– I use them a lot!

I used the buttercream from the original recipe but added vanilla instead of the raspberry flavoring, and I left it white with a few sprinkles.

Ruthanne’s top four favorite easybaked recipes:

4 Comments

Posted in Cakes and tagged baking, buttercream frosting, cake, dessert, food color gels, fourth of July, fun cake recipes, Labor day, Memorial day, patriotic cake, red white and blue cake, tie-dye cake, white cake. Bookmark the permalink.

Coconut Caramel Cupcakes

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Ruthanne

Half-n-half coconut and caramel cupcakes topped with coconut buttercream and melted caramel sauce…yum…!

I was in the baking aisle of my grocery store the other day (of course!) and I saw these:

I was understandably intrigued….two flavors in one cupcake….? This has to be better than just one lonely flavor…..? Plus they weren’t very expensive. I had to try them! So I stood in front of the cake mixes pondering the possibilities… caramel sounded good…but with what? Coconut!!! Like those yummy Girl Scout cookies….

I grabbed two cake mixes, some caramels and some coconut. Ready to go. Note the two cake mixes. If you want two flavors you need two mixes, which means that this recipe makes a TON of cupcakes. 48 to be exact. I made 24 full size cupcakes and then used the rest of the batter making minis for a different recipe idea. You could make the full 48 and freeze half without the toppings too- just thaw and frost when you need them!

Here’s the recipe. Makes and frosts 48 cupcakes. (printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 boxed caramel cake mix (with water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
1 boxed white cake mix (with water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
1 cup shredded coconut (divided)
4 teaspoons of coconut flavoring (divided)
32 Kraft caramel candies (unwrapped)
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) salted butter (divided)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Make both cake mixes according to box instructions
Add 3/4 cup of shredded coconut to the white cake mix along with 2 teaspoons of the coconut flavoring. Mix well.
Place the rest of the shredded coconut on a small cookie sheet in oven for 10-12 minutes until toasted and browned. Set aside to cool and use for topping at the end.
Place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan and set batter dividers into center of cups. (get 12….I got 6 and it took longer than I wanted it to!!)
Gently spoon batter on each side of divider and tap pan to settle batter into bottom of cup.

Once batter is evenly spooned in on both sides, just pull divider straight up and out, leaving a half caramel/ half coconut cupcake! (so fun!!!)
Bake at 350F degrees according to times on boxed mix, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

While cupcakes are baking, make your caramel sauce:

Place 32 Kraft caramels, sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) of salted butter into a saucepan and heat it on high, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth (takes about 5-6 minutes). Set aside.
Make buttercream frosting by adding 2 sticks of salted butter, 2 sticks of unsalted butter, powdered sugar and remaining 2 teaspoons of coconut flavoring to a large mixing bowl and beating it until it is light and fluffy.
Cool cupcakes completely.
Mix caramel sauce (reheat a bit if it has started to harden) and dip the tops of each cupcake in the sauce.

Allow caramel sauce to harden and cool completely (or it will melt your buttercream!)
Place coconut buttercream in a large zip top bag that has been fitted with a piping tip in one corner.
Pipe frosting over top of each cupcake.
Sprinkle toasted coconut on top.
Drizzle with any remaining caramel sauce you have left….and enjoy!!!

My thoughts: Loved these cupcakes…so flavorful and fun! The two-flavor center got lots of “wow”s and that caramel topping…yum….! I would get 12 of the batter dividers. It was just inconvenient to need to wash and dry them half way through. I’m excited to try other color and flavor combinations now. Super fun for school colors or sports team cupcakes (go Packers!!). Hope you are inspired to try these. I think you will really love them! Enjoy!!!! ~r

Lemonade Cookies…with a twist!

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Ruthanne

Chewy lemonade cookies made with bits of strawberry licorice…a fun treat that every kid (or kid at heart) in your life will love!

Months ago I received a baking challenge from an 8 year old boy named Zao. His mom Erika works with me and he asked her, “Do you think Ruthanne could make cookies with red licorice in them?” Well, of course we can!

Now, as a little warning to you: the bits of licorice are yummy, but they are very chewy and you end up eating licorice after the cookie is all gone in your mouth. Remember bubble gum ice cream? It’s a little like that sort of dilemma. The taste combination is wonderful though and if you can get past the consistency you will love these!

For those of you not-so-brave folks out there….the cookies are soooooo yummy without the licorice too! I made two batches– one with and one without the licorice. I loved both varieties (and it gave me an excuse to eat TWO cookies instead of one!)

Here’s how to make them: (printer- friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 packet (0.23oz.) Kool Aid Lemonade
Yellow food coloring gel
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of chopped Twizzler Strawberry Licorice. (I just chopped them into chocolate chip-size bits using a sharp knife)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Add Lemonade powder and coloring gel (if needed) to create a nice yellow color. Mix well.
Blend in the dry ingredients, using clean hands to knead the dough together at the end.
Add chopped strawberry licorice bits at the very end and blend well (this step can be skipped if you aren’t feeling wild and crazy– you’ll just have yummy lemonade cookies!)
Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and place on baking sheets that have been covered in parchment paper.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are set.
Slide parchment paper (with the cookies still on top) onto a cool counter and allow cookies to cool right on paper.

My thoughts: With or without the strawberry bits, these are great cookies. I think they balance perfectly between sweet and tart. I was surprised at how many people loved the idea of putting licorice bits into cookies. I think they would be great with a strawberry or raspberry icing on top. Yum….! Enjoy!

Enjoying his cookies– thanks for the recipe idea Zeo!

You might also enjoy:

11 Comments

Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged baking, candy, cookies, cookies for kids, crazy cookie ideas, fun cookies, lemonade, lemonade cookies, recipe, red licorice, strawberry, strawberry lemonade cookies, strwaberry licorice, taste combination, Twizzler licorice, unique cookies. Bookmark the permalink.

Mocha Cupcakes (in edible coffee cups!)

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Ruthanne

Rich chocolate cupcakes and mocha buttercream nestled in an edible marshmallow mug…how much fun is that??

The past two posts have been full of my adventures with my friend Megan from Happily Ever After Cakes. We made chocolate cut-out cookie pops decorated with royal icing and fondant-covered cupcakes decorated with fun ladybugs and caterpillars. This is the third and final project from that weekend and I just love how it turned out!

This project starts with easy mini mocha cupcakes with mocha buttercream frosting. You can stop there and they are just wonderfully yummy –even without the mug!

The mug uses my new-found love of marshmallow fondant to add a little “wow” factor to the cupcakes.

Let’s start with the cupcakes: (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes and frosts 48 mini cupcakes)

One box of chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil and water to make according to box)
3 Tablespoons of instant coffee granules (divided)
2 sticks (1 cup) of salted butter- softened to room temperature
2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter- softened to room temperature
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
Make cake according to box, but add 2 Tablespoons of coffee granules to the water required by cake mix first.
Allow granules to dissolve and then add to cake mix with eggs and oil according to box.
Place mini cupcake liners into mini cupcake pan and spoon batter into liners.
Bake for about 12 minutes until centers are firm.
Cool completely
Make buttercream by placing vanilla and remaining 1 Tablespoon of instant coffee into a small bowl to dissolve.
Add butters and powdered sugar to a large bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy.
Remove a small bit of this vanilla-free icing to garnish the tops of cupcakes and set aside.
Add vanilla/coffee mixture and beat again until well- combined.
To make plain cupcakes, just pipe coffee frosting on top of cooled mini cupcakes and then pipe a tiny bit of the white frosting at the tip of the cupcake.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder if desired.

Yum.

To make the cupcakes into little edible mugs, you will need to make fondant and a thick buttercream ahead of time. My previous post goes into great detail on making fondant and buttercream icing. Click here to see the entire process.

If you’d like to print the recipes for these two things:

Printer friendly recipe for thick buttercream icing

Printer friendly recipe for marshmallow fondant

Once you’ve made both of these items, assembling the little mugs is fairly easy:

Unwrap the mini cupcakes you wish to use in mugs.
Spread thick buttercream icing around the sides of each cupcake.
Roll fondant out fairly thick and trim into rectangles that wrap around mini cupcake and touch without overlapping. (You’ll need to grab a cupcake and experiment until you know how long and high to make these)
Also cut small strips of fondant to use as mug handles.
Wrap sides of mug around the frosted edge of each mini cupcake and seal the edges by brushing with a bit of water and holding together.
Attach the handle over the sealed edge with a bit of water.

Set mugs on a plate or dish with a lipped edge to hold the handle in place until it sets.
Once handle is dried in place, pipe mocha frosting on top of cupcake to fill mug in.
Spread frosting flat and pipe a tiny bit of the white frosting on top.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder if desired.

Megan (more artistic than I!) decorated some mugs to personalize them for us. She used decorating brushes with gel food coloring to paint the cups….aren’t they cute????

My thoughts: These are really yummy cupcakes- even without the mugs. The mugs are a little time consuming, but if you want something REALLY unique and fun they are both! The marshmallow fondant got rave reviews from our friends– they loved it and ate the entire mug with the cupcake.

When you bite in, it is quite the surprise….so fun!!!! Enjoy!!!

You might also enjoy:

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Posted in Cupcakes, Fondant and tagged baking, chocolate, coffee, cupcake in a cup, cupcake in a mug, cupcakes, dessert, dessert photo, edible coffee cups, edible mugs, fondant, fun cupcakes, marshmallow fondant, mocha, mocha buttercream, mocha cupcake, unique cupcakes, unique dessert. Bookmark the permalink.

Fondant…how to make it, use it and eat it!

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Ruthanne

Homemade fondant that is easy AND tasty? Here you go!!!

Every time I see cute cupcakes or cakes decorated in fondant I love them…and then I dismiss the possibility of making them for two reasons:

1. Fondant is really hard to make and use.

2. Fondant tastes bad and everyone just peels it off to get to the real frosting and cake underneath.

My good friend Megan from Happily Ever After Cakes set out to prove me wrong on both counts….and she did!

If you follow the comings and goings of easybaked, you know that I recently had a visit from my dear friend Megan for a weekend long baking extravaganza. This is project #2 from that weekend.

Before Megan came, I knew we would be tackling fondant cupcakes and we both went on an internet hunt for fun and easy ideas to try. We saw these cute garden themed cupcakes on a Flickr site called Hello Naomi and decided to try them out!

The cupcakes are just plain white cupcakes (use your favorite flavor/recipe!) What’s amazing is, of course, what’s on top. There are two recipes involved~ a thick buttercream that acts like a glue on the top of each cupcake and the actual fondant recipe.

Let’s start with those two recipes and then I can tell you how we pulled it all together.

Thick Buttercream Frosting: (makes about 4 cups of frosting)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (softened)
1/2 cup Crisco
1 tsp clear vanilla (or any flavoring you might want!)
4 c. powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon of half-and half cream.

DIRECTIONS:

Beat together butter, Crisco and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.
Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until combined and a little crumbly.
Add half and half cream and mix on low. You might need to add a little more until frosting is a thick but smooth consistency.
Don’t beat frosting on high speed or for too long to prevent air bubbles that will keep it from spreading smoothly.
This frosting can be used to frost cupcakes or cakes that will have fondant laid over the top. It has a sticky consistency that acts as a glue to attach the fondant. It can be kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Marshmallow Fondant (recipe from about.com site)- they have a great video tutorial too!! (makes about 1 1/2 lbs of fondant.)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups mini marshmallows (half of a 16 oz. bag)
4 cups powdered sugar- plus a little for dusting.
2 tsp water
1/2 teaspoon of clear vanilla
gel colors to color fondant as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Place your mini marshmallows and water into a large mixing bowl and microwave on high for about one minute- until they are puffy and melted.
Stir them together with a rubber spatula until they are completely smooth (if not melted completely, put them back in the microwave on high for 5-10 seconds).
Add clear vanilla and mix well.
Add about 1/4 of the powdered sugar, stir until smooth, add another 1/4 and stir. It will become difficult to stir and very sticky.
Pour the rest of the powdered sugar onto a clean counter or cutting board.
Scrape the sticky fondant mixture out of the bowl and onto the powdered sugar and begin to knead it together with clean (powder sugar coated!) hands. It will gradually become like a smooth clay consistency. Use a metal scraper to keep it from sticking to the counter/ board.
This can now be colored with gel, rolled out and cut, or stored (tightly wrapped) in the fridge for about one week. Megan recommended refrigerating it overnight before use, so we did.

Now comes the fun part….

Have your cupcakes or cake or cookies all made and cooled.
Make enough fondant to cover your item(s). Here is a great chart by Wilton to help you determine how much you’ll need for various projects.
Make up some of that thick buttercream icing and you are ready to go!

We needed to cut circles to cover each cupcake and we used a circle cutter set, which was nice because we could choose the perfect size to cover our cupcake tops. We simply powdered a cutting board and rolled out the fondant using a fondant rolling pin. We cut out the cupcake tops in white (we saved the red tops for later when we colored fondant).

Roll fondant out into a fairly thin layer and cut round pieces out to fit the tops of your cupcakes.

To place the fondant circles on top of the cupcakes just spread some of that sticky buttercream icing on top of a cupcake, smooth it as much as you can and place fondant circle on top.
Gently press the edges down to touch the top of the cupcake liner and smooth it with your fingers.
We made daisies to go on top of the caterpillar cupcakes, so we cut out the white flowers before we colored anything. Megan got me two cute daisy fondant cutters and they were SO fun to use!
Roll your fondant out, cut out daisies and lie them on a powdered sugared curved edge to harden a bit. I used a plate with a lip on it.

Time to color a little fondant for those yellow centers:

To color just add a little gel color to the center of a bit of fondant and mix it with your hands.
Use a little powdered sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking to your hands.

Tips: keep fondant under a glass to keep it moist until you need it. If it gets too dry you can add a little bit of Crisco to soften it up. If it gets too sticky and the powdered sugar isn’t helping, you can use a little cornstarch to dry it up.

Roll a bit of yellow fondant into a small ball, press it flat and brush a tiny bit (just make it damp!) of water on it. Press into center of white daisy—–so cute!

Water acts like glue with fondant…..something to remember as you start to decorate.

Next, we colored some fondant green and rolled out little caterpillar body parts. We let them set awhile and cut leaves out of the green as well– you can use that wonderful circle cutter set to make them– we “glued” them on white cupcake tops using water (just a little!).

The last colors we made were the red and black for the lady bugs and mushroom caps. Both of these dark colors get ALL over your light colors if you aren’t careful about washing your hands– so make them up after you’ve already cut and shaped the lighter colored parts! We just cut circles out for the mushroom caps and shaped ladybugs by hand….

All of the shapes– the bugs and daisies and mushroom spots were “glued” on with a little water and the last step was to paint on little faces and ladybug spots. We dipped right in to our black gel food color to do this– Megan got us a fine-tipped decorating brush that made short work of painting.

Aren’t they fun?

My thoughts: I realize this entire post is a far stretch from the “EASY” in “Easybaked”…but it was honestly not as difficult as I thought it would be. I can see myself making fun embellishments for topping off regular cupcakes in the future now that I know how simple fondant is to make.

The best part? It is honestly SO yummy. The fondant isn’t rubbery or hard- you bite into the cupcake and the fondant is soft and tastes like marshmallow-y frosting. I wasn’t tempted to peel it off at ALL! (promise!) I even enjoyed snacking on the little critters and flowers on top. Yum….!

Other fun and yummy cupcake ideas:

48 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes, Fondant and tagged baking, buttercream frosting, caterpillar cupcakes, cute cupcakes, dessert, fondant, fondant recipe, fondant tutorial, fun cupcakes, kids party ideas, ladybug cupcakes, marshmallow, marshmallow fondant, mushroom cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolate Fudge Cut-Out Cookies!!

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Ruthanne

The rich dark cocoa flavor of these cut-out cookies sets them apart as one of the yummiest cookies I’ve ever had!!

This weekend was a special treat — my good friend (and fellow baker/blogger) Megan came to visit me from Pennsylvania. We met in 2010 on a mission trip to Russia and we have been best of friends ever since.

Megan and her mom and sisters create the most beautiful and unique cakes I’ve ever seen, and they blog about life and caking on their blog Happily Ever Cakes. Megan has such great decorating ideas and she promised to share some of her recipes and techniques with me this weekend.

We spent hours in the kitchen (often accompanied with friends who wanted to help and learn too!) It was so much fun, and I’m so excited to share with you all the things I learned!!

Holding our personalized mug cupcakes–technique coming soon to Easybaked!
Such a fun weekend!

I wasn’t sure which project to tell you about first, so I decided to begin by dedicating this post to some truly yummy chocolate cut-out cookies.

Megan wanted to prove to me that royal icing isn’t always a tedious mess…. but honestly, royal icing is a tedious mess no matter what your technique or recipe (in my humble opinion!)

They are cute. Super super cute cookies. But 24 cookies took three of us about 3 hours….which means if I’d done them alone they would have taken me 9 hours….yeah.

So there are a lot of pictures because this will likely never happen again.

We even put some of them on lollipop sticks which was a really fun way to display them.

When Megan suggested a royal icing project I immediately thought of this great family recipe. I’d never made them as a cut-out cookie or attempted to bake them with sticks inserted, but I thought it would be worth experimenting with since they taste SO good. The verdict?? These dense chocolate cookies are easy to cut into shapes and worked great with or without lollipop sticks. The dark cookie really made all the fun colors in our frosting stand out too!

Ready for the recipe? (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 large cookies)

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Add butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa together in large mixing bowl.
Blend on medium speed with a mixer until smooth.
Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until smooth (use clean hands at the end, to knead into a soft ball of dough)
Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
Allow cookie dough to soften a little at room temperature
Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. If you are adding sticks, you will want to roll the cookies out thick (about 1/3″)
Cut into desired shapes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Insert lollipop sticks, if desired, by gently pushing stick into cookie about 1- 1 1/2 inches. You will need to arrange cookies to fit with sticks on top of cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 to 11 minutes until the edges are firm.
Gently slide parchment paper off of cookie sheet and onto a flat surface. Cool completely before moving- this allows the cookie to “set” around the stick. Even when it is cooled, handle it with care. It takes a little time for the cookie to harden around the stick.
Frost as desired. A simple powdered sugar glaze will be delicious on these, or if you want to get fancy (and have a nice hard surface on your cookie) click here for Megan’s royal icing recipe and instructions for use.

Fun chocolate cookie cut-outs My thoughts: These cookies are SO yummy. I’m not usually a huge fan of cut-out cookies, but these are truly worth the effort of rolling out and cutting! I like them thick- even if you don’t add sticks to make them into pops. They are so much fun all set up in a vase~ what a perfect way to serve cookies at a party! You could wrap these in cello bags and tie them with cute ribbons too- a perfect favor for a wedding or shower! Hope you have fun with these treats!!! Enjoy!! ~r

Other fun cut-out cookies to try:

17 Comments

Posted in Cookies and tagged baking, chocolate, chocolate cookies, chocolate cut-out cookies, cocoa, cookie pops, cut-out cookies, dark cocoa, fun cookies, icing gels, lollipop sticks, party favors, recipe, royal icing, sugar. Bookmark the permalink.

Cookie Dough Whoopie Pies

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Ruthanne

Rich cocoa whoopie pies filled with a creamy cookie dough frosting. Yum.

One of the benefits of being a food blogger is that all of your friends see cool kitchen stuff and get it for you! My sweet friend Danielle gave me a Whoopie Pie Pan for my birthday and I had to google what a whoopie pie was because I’d never had one. Now, I am obsessed with this incredible dessert. Oh. My. Word.

A few months ago I made a cupcake that is my FAVORITE recipe on this blog (yes, I have a favorite!) It’s a cookie dough cupcake and I so wanted an excuse to make that frosting again, so I made it for these! Perfect! Everyone loves them….and I am eating the leftover frosting out of a bowl while I write this post…really– right out of the bowl {sigh of pure joy}

You know you want to try these….here’s how: (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 16-18 whoopie pies)

Whoopie Pie:

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cookie Dough Filling:

2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter(softened)
2 sticks (8 oz.) salted butter(softened)
2 cups powered sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
3 Tablespoons vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1 12 oz bag of mini chocolate chips.

Directions:

Whoopie Pie:

This recipe can be made on a cookie sheet, but to get that perfectly shaped, every-one-is-the-same-size look you really should invest in a Whoopie Pie Pan. They aren’t terribly expensive and these turn out SO much better if you use one!

Preheat oven to 400F degrees
Spray a whoopie pie pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugar.
Add milk, eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add dry ingredients (add flour last and gradually) and beat until smooth. (My mixer had a hard time with this, as it is a thick cookie-like mixture. My mixer is 15 years old though and died the next day….so …? I finished mixing by hand…)
Use a large Cookie Scoop (2-3 Tablespoons) to drop dough into each whoopie pie cavity. Gently press dough into cavity.

Bake for 8-10 minutes- don’t overbake- cake should be springy to the touch, not hard like a cookie.
Cool on a wire rack.

Filling:

Place all filling ingredients except mini chips into a large mixing bowl and beat with mixer on low until combined and then high until light and fluffy.
Add half of mini chips and blend in well.
Scoop about 2 Tablespoons of filling onto one half of a whoopie pie.
Press the other half on top very gently until filling spreads to edges.
Pour remaining mini chips into a bowl and roll edges of filling in them to coat the sides.

My thoughts: These are just exactly right, in my book. I love the deep cocoa flavor in the cake and that FROSTING….!

If you want to reduce the amount of filling you can certainly cut the recipe for it in half. I was very generous with the filling and had just a little left at the end. I hope you get a chance to try these– and if you want a similar flavor in smaller bites hop over to the cookie dough cupcake recipe and give them a try. Happy baking, friends!!!

Key Lime Cupcakes

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ruthanne

These cupcakes are filled with a sweet key lime filling and topped with key lime buttercream…what could be better than that? Oh, how about a graham cracker crust on the bottom of the cupcake? This dessert is as close to key lime pie as you can get…without it being a pie! (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 cupcakes)

Filling:

1 cup key lime juice (a labor of love….!)
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 egg

Cupcakes:

2 cups of graham crackers (finely crushed)
3 Tablespoons of butter (melted)
1 boxed yellow cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)

Frosting:

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (at room temp)
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter (at room temp)
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 Tablespoons of key lime juice

DIRECTIONS:

Filling:

Mix together key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg and pour into a small casserole.
Bake at 325F degrees for 15-20 minutes (until center is set)
Cool completely.

Cupcakes:

Mix crushed graham crackers with melted butter.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of this mixture into 24 cupcake liners in muffin tins (you’ll have a little left to garnish with at the end)
Press crumbs firmly into bottom of cup (I find my Mini Tart Shaper to be very useful for this)
Make cake mix according to box, and divide batter equally between the 24 cupcake liners.
Bake according to directions on box
Remove from oven and cool completely.
Core cupcakes (I love my Cupcake Plunger– it is so quick to use and saves the core to place back on top of the filling- to see a picture of how it works, click here).
Spoon cooled filling into a zip top bag and clip a corner off.

Pipe filling evenly into each cupcake, saving about 1/4 of a cup of filling to drizzle on the top at the end.
Place top of core back in place (you can trim some of the bottom off to make room for the filling if you need to)

Frosting:

Place butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 Tablespoons of key lime juice into a large bowl.
Using a mixer, beat on high until light and fluffy.
Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and drizzle remaining filling on top.
Sprinkle with remaining graham crust crumbs and ENJOY!!!!

My thoughts: I created these for a graduation party. The challenge was to create a key lime cupcake for someone who LOVES key lime pie. Key lime pie is one of my favorite desserts, so it was a fun task. These were a big hit. I love the balance between the tart center and the sweet cupcake and frosting.

It’s spring~ you NEED a key lime cupcake!!!

Alfajores (Peruvian Caramel Cookies)

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Ruthanne

These shortbread-like cookies are sandwiched around caramel and topped with chocolate and sugar…yum!

Machu Picchu!

I’m back! For those of you who follow the comings and goings of Easybaked you know that I spent about 10 days in Peru. It was a wonderful trip. I visited my childhood friend Deb in Lima and then the two of us toured Machu Picchu and spent a few days in the Amazon jungle. The foods were incredible, especially the fresh fruits! I will add some pictures of our trip at the end….

One of the treats we had in Peru was a cookie called an Alfajore. The cookie is very subtle- not too sweet- and very dense. It is served with a caramel filling called Manjarblanco. I had this filling in a variety of desserts and kept thinking that it tasted like Dulce de Leche. When I returned home and looked it up I found that it is Dulce de Leche- in a convenient little pouch and ready to eat.

Here is my version of this yummy cookie. If you like things that aren’t overwhelmingly sweet, this is your dessert!

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies (makes about 24 sandwich cookies)

1/2stick (2 oz) butter (softened)
1/4c. sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
a few drops of rum (optional)
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Dulce de Leche:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (or Manjarblanco if you live in an area that offers this!)

DIRECTIONS:

{If you can’t purchase ready-made manjarblanco (dulce de leche), you will need to make your own. Do this before making your cookies as it takes some time and will need to cool. My favorite method of making dulce de leche involves boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk, and I have detailed instructions if you click here.}

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Cream together sugar and butter.
Add eggs, corn syrup, vanilla and rum.
Add flour and baking soda last, and knead dough together with clean hands. (The dough will be dry- a little like play-dough in consistency. You can add a little water to soften it up if necessary.)
Roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thick and cut using a 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch cookie cutter.
Place on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until just turning brown on top.
Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack.
Spread cookies with cooled caramel and sprinkle with powdered sugar/ drizzle with a little chocolate if you like.

My thoughts: I love international recipes. One of my favorite parts of travel is trying new foods and hearing stories about how those foods fit in with the lives of the people I meet. These cookies are really good, and available all over in Peru. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!!!