Candy Cane Kisses Cupcakes

I apologize for the lack of new posts! I have had a sinus infection for months. I finally went to an ENT and will be having sinus surgery on Wednesday. Long story-I've dealt with allergy and sinus problems my whole life and this will be my second surgery. Okay, for comic relief I'll tell part of the story. I had sinus/deviated septum surgery about 5 years ago, and soon after, my husband's weird sleep habits led to another deviation in my septum! Early one morning I was coming back from the bathroom, and as I was getting into bed, my husband woke up in a startle, and threw his head up-right into my septum. An ENT pushed it back into place (it was awful!), but it was still deviated. Then soon after THAT, my husband was having a dream that Carrot top was attacking him and he punched me in his sleep. Yep, right on my nose.

So, now that my husband is dying of embarrassment, on to the cupcake recipe!! I had to get at least one Christmas post in before my surgery.

Last year my friend/neighbor Shellbi brought Christmas cookies over-chocolate cookies with Candy Cane Kisses in them! I was in heaven. I made some of my own, and was going to make them again this year. However, as you well know by now, I can't make anything if it isn't in a cupcake tin, so I made Candy Cane Kisses Cupcakes!

Cupcakes-makes 24

Betty Crocker Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix (don't add ingredients on box)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup buttermilk (or 4 T Saco Buttermilk Blend and 1 cup water)
35 chopped Candy Cane Kisses



Add all ingredients except kisses to a large bowl. Blend for two minutes. Stir in candy cane kisses pieces. Add baking cups to cupcake pan and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake on 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few tiny crumbs attached.




Candy Cane Vanilla Buttercream Frosting- adapted from a recipe from mom, www.potsandpins.com

2 cups butter, softened (do not substitute)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar (approximately 4 to 6 cups)

1 package Peppermint Candy Cane cocoa mix (I bought it at Wal-Mart)

Beat butter until fluffy. Add other ingredients except the cocoa mix and 4 cups powdered sugar. Add more powdered sugar to desired thickness. Stir in candy cane cocoa mix.

Top the cupcake with frosting and a kiss!


Note to readers: You may think I'm a fraud always using a cake mix, but who ever said I was a baker? I want to make the recipes as easy as possible, and really, during the holidays, who has time to bake from scratch? Okay, so a lot of people do, but I'm not one of them! hehe.

Pumpkin. Need I say more?

Okay, I'll tell you a little more. I've had this jar of Libby's pumpkin puree in my cupboard a long time, saving it for the perfect recipe. (Don't worry, it hasn't expired yet!) I decided the perfect recipe for it would include cupcakes. And something that tasted like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies-my favorite! So I planned my recipe and today I discovered a bonus! Libby's is having a contest through Bakespace, and the winner gets a Kitchen-Aid mixer...and gets to choose the color! YES! Since I haven't heard anything more from Ellen's peeps, I figured I'd try to win the contest. I REALLY need a new mixer.

So the pumpkin spice chocolate chip cupcake turkey with pumpkin spice mousse was born!

To decorate, I used circus peanuts, mini chocolate chips, and orange slices candy. These would make an awesome Thanksgiving dessert for the kidlets.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - by the doughdough herself

1 Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix

2 cups Libby's Pure Pumpkin

4 medium eggs (all I had was med., you could substitute 3 large eggs)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Pinch nutmeg

Pinch cinnamon

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup Nestle mini chocolate chips

Add everything to a mixing bowl except the chocolate chips. Beat for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Makes 24 mouth-watering, moist, eat-so-many-you-will-gain-1o-pounds cupcakes!

Seriously. I do have a sinus infection, but these are the best things I've ever tasted. Can you see the steam rising from these warm cuppies? They are the best hot out of the oven, so feast away if you are too lazy to make frosting!

Pumpkin Mousse Frosting

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 package Jello Instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups Libby's Pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipped cream

This may be a weird way to make mousse because I made it up and have no idea how to make mousse! But it's delish, so that's all that matters, right?!

Whip 2 cups heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add 1 package vanilla pudding and beat in. (On second thought, you may want to fold it in, but I beated it in, which is probably why it started to look weird. But it comes out yummy, I promise!) Add pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and gradually beat in powdered sugar. Fold in 1 cup whipped cream.

Okay, so I was a little worried about not having the best sense of taste and smell today, so I went outside and recruited the neighborhood sixth graders to be my taste testers (none of my friends were home, sorry guys). I told them I was bringing these to a get-together and I needed their opinion. They said, "If they don't like them, they're crazy!" Score! Of course, kids like anything with sugar and whipping cream and chocolate chips...

Note to self: Blogging the recipe is SO much easier if I do it while I'm throwing it together! No more lost recipes! Speaking of lost recipes, I found my Halloween Oreo cupcake recipe scribbled on a piece of paper mixed in with my baking cups. So next year I'll improve it and post it in time for Halloween. ;)

What's this? Cookies?

So I wanted to make cupcakes tonight, but was too lazy to make frosting, so I decided to make cookies instead. Like a true doughdough, I couldn't find my favorite cookie recipe so I had to check online to see what was in Ranger Cookies and throw something together from memory. They weren't the same, but they were yummy. Really sugary...I'm thinking my recipe didn't have brown sugar, or as much. Maybe just do 1 cup, not packed. Come to think of it, that may have been my mistake, so I'll put 1 c. brown sugar, not packed. The smart thing to do would be to put my recipe on, but I'll have to wait until it turns up!

White Chocolate Ranger Cookies

1 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar, not packed
2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 c. flour
2 c. oatmeal
2 c. Rice Krispies
2 c. coconut

1 c. white chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, salt, baking soda, baking powder and beat. Add flour and beat. Add rest of ingredients and stir into the mixture. (If you're lazy like me, you'll just beat it in, but that may be another reason the cookies aren't as perfect as they could have been, but they are really good!) Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Made approx. 4 cookie sheets worth (I'm so technical, I know!).

Note to Self: So awhile ago I was talking to my friends about kitchen doughdough and my photography business and they asked, "What if down the line you had to choose?" I said definitely photography, since that is my real passion, this blog just gave me the courage to start a business! Who knew I'd have to choose so soon! I've been so busy with my photography business that poor kitchen doughdough has been ignored! (Well, trust me, the doughdough is still here, always doing silly things in the kitchen, just haven't had time to blog!) I'm hoping with the holidays here, I'll be baking more again and when I do, I'll be sure to share my creations. I still have a long list of cupcake ideas that I'll get to eventually, I'm sure.

Halloween Oreo Cupcakes

Here's part 1 of my post with the pictures...now I need to find the recipe! These cupcakes were SO good! I used Halloween Oreo orange filling for the frosting and it was AMAZING!! I'll try to post the rest today...




Ellen! Look at my pitiful blender! Don't you think I need a kitchen-aid?!!

So now it's after Halloween, and I still can't find the recipe I wrote down! I basically just used a chocolate cake mix and threw in blended Halloween Oreos. The frosting was made with whipped cream and I whipped in the middles of Halloween Oreos so the frosting was orange. As I'm cleaning my office over the next couple weeks, hopefully I'll come across the recipe!

Egg Nog Spice Cupcakes

If any of you live in Utah County, check out my feature in the Daily Herald tomorrow (Saturday)! I made these cuppies while they photographed me for the paper. I was pretty happy with how my creation turned out...although I would make some changes and I'll tell you what they are!

Egg Nog Spice Cupcakes - by me!

1 package Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix (just the mix, don't add anything)

1 stick unsalted softened/melted butter (hmm...did I just make up a new term-mefted butter?? sof-elted?? I'm a nerd. Really, I just didn't melt the butter all the way, so it was half softened, half melted.)

3 eggs

Pinch cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

1/2 cup egg nog

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup applesauce

1 1/3 cup water

All I did was combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a beater for 2 minutes. Then add them to your cupcake pan, 2/3 full. FYI, they didn't rise a ton, so you can fill them that far...I put less because I never know if the recipe will rise too much! Makes 24+ cupcakes. Oh, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I thought they were delish-but I did want them to be more egg nog-y (I LOVE egg nog!), so next time I would try adding more egg nog, like 1 cup, and less water, like 3/4 cup. But they were great as they were-really moist! My mom of Pots and Pins approved!

Cinnamon Cider Cream Cheese Frosting - by Pots and Pins

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 T. apple cider

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (or to taste)

pinch of salt

Mix cream cheese and butter till fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in powdered sugar, cider, cinnamon, and salt. Beat well. Frost. Keep in refrigerator.

The frosting was really yummy! Thanks, mom!

Trophy Cupcakes...where it all started!

This was the first gourmet cupcake spot I ever visited...well, the location in Seattle anyway! I've been in Washington on vacay and I had to go to Trophy where my cupcake obsession began! They have a chic new spot in the Bravern in Bellevue. (By the new Nieman Marcus...which was fab, but I felt very out of place!) I love their colors (they are the colors I decorated my bedroom with!) and I LOVE their cupcakes! The frosting is so stinkin' delish (in a good smelling way)! Seriously, I don't like ANYTHING chocolate, and I was devouring their chocolate frosting. My favorite is of course their lemon-it made me forget ANY cupcake I'd ever had. It is the best cake- the moistest, yummiest cake ever. To the question cake or frosting, I would usually choose frosting, but this was a toss-up. Of course, I still need to try Cupcake Royale while I'm here...

My favorite cupcake

I've said a lot of cupcakes are my favorite, but this one still is. My husband brought it home from Mini's the other day! What a guy. I'm so glad they opened a store near his office! What really makes me buy a cupcake is fillings. This lemon mirengue pie cupcake is perfect. Mmmm. I want one now!

I have lots of fun cupcakes that I am ready to bake-I just need to find the time! I've been so busy with my photography biz. I still plan on learning to cook...so far, not much progress. I'm excited to go to Seattle this week and learn from my mom ! (You'd think I'd have learned growing up, but no, I was too busy socializing!)

Scrumptious Starburst Cake

I must admit, this is my favorite recipe so far...it was so delicious! I've had this idea in my mind for awhile, so I was thrilled when my husband signed me up to bring dessert to his work party a few months ago.

Since it was awhile ago, the doughdough is having a hard time remembering the recipes. Oops. I did figure it out though. Trust me, this cake is so good. And easy!

Lemon Cake

1 box Pillsbury Golden Butter Recipe Yellow Cake Mix

1 cup water

1/3 cup softened butter

3 eggs

1 small box lemon instant pudding

1/2 cup applesauce

Make the cake with the instructions on the box. (Or make any yellow cake.) Add 1 box of lemon instant pudding and 1/2 cup applesauce. The applesauce makes the cake super moist! Bake the cake in 2 8x8x2 square pans. I bought the pan at Orson Gygi; I only have one, I baked the cakes separately. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached.

Raspberry whipped cream frosting

Fresh raspberries

Junket Danish Dessert Raspberry Pudding/Pie Filling/Glaze (use the recipe on the box for fruit sauce. Any type of raspberry sauce would work great.)

Whipped Cream: 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 T sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix ingredients on low until sugar dissolved. Beat on high until soft peaks form. I use this recipe from America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

All I did was combine the ingredients to make a raspberry whipped cream filling to go in between the two square cakes. Make the fruit filling first, add the fresh raspberries and add extra sugar to taste. Then mix with whipped cream.

Lemon Whipped Cream Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup heavy whipped cream

1 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Rind from 1 lemon

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Beat the butter until smooth in a separate bowl. Add the whipped cream and vanilla to the butter. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and lemon rind. You've got yourself some delicious frosting! It tastes like frosting with an aftertaste of whipped cream. Or vice versa. I can't remember which, but it was awesome! Some of my husband's friends kept sticking their fingers in the bowl after I frosted the cake at his work party!

Decorating: Frost the cake with the lemon whipped cream buttercream frosting. Then decorate the top with Starburst! It took awhile, but it was worth it! It was the talk of the party! I had originally planned on covering the whole cake, but I didn't have enough Starburst. I think it turned out super cute just having the top covered!

Note to Self: Blog about recipes right after I make them...it will make things easier on me and my readers!

Beef Cupcakes...It's What's for Dinner!

I truly did not wake up this morning and think, "I'm going to make a meatloaf cupcake today!" It was totally a whim.

I'm not a huge meatloaf fan, but my aunt Joni gave me a recipe a long time ago that I actually liked and remembered when attempting to plan meals this week. I really don't like onions in meatloaf or burgers, though, so I thought I'd change up the recipe. As I was getting out my broiler pan for the meatloaf, I saw the cupcake pan, and that was that, we were having cupcakes for dinner. Then inspiration struck as I remembered the IronCupcake: Earth July challenge was herbs! And so my basil meatloaf "cupcake" was born!

I'm a little unclear as to whether my "cupcake" will pass for IronCupcake, but it has oats and eggs in it, it looks like a cupcake, it has "frosting," and it has herbs, so why not?! I guess it isn't really cake based, it's meat based. That sounds gross...they really were delicious though! I'l admit when I think of a delicious cupcake and then think of a meatcake, it makes my stomach turn a little...

Oh, and a WARNING! You need to refrigerate these cupcakes! haha.

I now look at my pictures and laugh...I guess beefcakes are a little crazy...but hey, I get points for creativity! I should have made my french fry cupcakes for dessert!

The meatloaf cupcake is made with ground beef, oats, eggs, ketchup, and basil, plus a couple other things. The "frosting" is SO good! You glaze it on and bake it. It's made of ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar! The fam loved it.

P.S. If you think I'm crazy now, wait until you see Monday's post!!!

Meatloaf or Beefcakes... Makes 2 loaves or approx. 24 meatcakes

2 lbs. ground chuck

3/4 c uncooked quick cooking oats

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

4-5 basil leaves finely sliced into small pieces

1/2 c ketchup

1/4 c milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Topping/ "Frosting"

1/2 c ketchup

3 T brown sugar

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Shape into 2 (7 1/2 x 4 in.) loaves or balls that will fit in a cupcake pan. Place loaves on a lightly greased rack in broiler pan, or in a cupcake pan. Bake loaves at 350 for 40 minutes. Bake meatcakes 25 minutes. Take them out and put in a broiler pan to cook the rest of the 40 minutes.

For either type: Combine topping ingredients and spoon over meatloaf; bake 15 more minutes or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees.

Okay, so this picture is TOTALLY a buzzkill on your appetite! But remember, you can still use the recipe for regular meatloaf, and it's a good one! I guess there is a reason you are supposed to cook meatloaf in a broiler pan! And okay, the picture below doesn't make you say, "give me a meatcake with fat baked around the edges!" But am I at least getting some laughs?

So Cupcake

If you haven't tried So Cupcake yet, you've got to go! 3939 South Highland Drive in Salt Lake City. It is such a cute store with tons of tasty flavors to try! I bought the one below for my aunt's birthday...and forgot to drop it off. It ended up a huge melted mess in my car and I'm just realizing now I never brought anything for her birthday. Oh my. What a terrible waste of an awesome cupcake!

Below are some of the colorful selections! Visit their website at www.socupcake.com!
They also have really cute cupcake things for sale...I loved these cards!
They have a fun board with polaroids and "SO..." written on them. And a great pic of their cute daughter meeting Emeril! She's an example to me of following your dreams!
LOVE their open sign! SO clever. haha.

DJ Par-tay

It's about time I post about my husband's birthday, considering it was 2 months ago! So I threw a surprise party for him since he is the funniest person to scare. I pretty much pulled it off, although he said thinking back on it he had some hints. He used to "DJ" in college...as a matter of fact, the first time I met him he had on headphones and he couldn't hear me say hello to him. Little did he know I'd be after him. haha. So above is the turntable cake I made for him. I used a Costco cake, lots of black frosting (that looks purple-gray...does anyone know how to get frosting really black?), a twizzler rope, a black plate for the record with my husband's picture on it, and a round cake underneath the record. The other pieces are fondant covered in frosting.

Here's some of the decor that I threw together...I decided for sure like 2 days before that I was going to do the party.

Of course a party wouldn't be a party without cupcakes! I created a cupcake tower to go with the turntable cake. I used two black trays and plastic "champagne" glasses. I found the disco balls at a party store...they were keychains, I just took the keychain part off. The other cupcakes are headphones and records.

Couple of doughdough moments...I really wanted to make a disco ball cupcake. I'd seen some examples online and here's what mine turned out like. Lovely. Don't use marshmallow creme as frosting...it drips right off! And obviously the foil covered party mints did not stay close to each other. What was I thinking?!I have the hardest time in the kitchen because I don't do things in an orderly fashion! As I was making my record cupcakes, I ran out of cakesters when I knew I had lots left! I spent so much time looking through the pantry and through the mess in my kitchen over and over again. I finally gave up thinking I'd just make more of another kind. Well, the next time I threw something away, guess what I found?

Above is the headphone cupcake made from tootsie rolls.
I made the records from smashed sides of Oreo cakesters and mini marshmallows. Later I discovered something easier to make record cupcakes with-Oreo makes a new cookie and as usual, I can't remember what they are called. But you can see below I turned it upside down and plopped it on white frosting.

Lion House Lemon Bars

Before I talk about the lemon bars, I have some FUN news to share!!! Actually, one piece of news deserves its own post, so I'll save it. The other news is that my Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes were selected as one of the winners of Martha Stewart's Cutest Cupcakes 2009 contest!! They also told me that they may feature more than just that entry in the gallery of best! I'll let you know when they post the results!

I love the Lion House rolls that they sell in Utah...so I was thrilled to see a Lion House Desserts Cookbook in my gramma's kitchen! I took it (with permission, of course!), along with a book that I can't even look at because I get the craziest cravings and drool on the page. I'll be making something from that one soon...I'm drawing a blank on what it's called at the moment.

Anyway, back to the Lion House...as you've probably gathered, I love anything lemon, so my first choice was the lemon bars. They were really easy and I had all of the ingredients handy!

So, my review. Well, I have two reviews. I had in my mind what I thought they would taste like, so when I first tasted them, I wasn't crazy about them as lemon bars (but remember I am a doughdough and could easily have messed up the recipe!). I didn't think they were lemony enough and I thought there was too much crust and too little filling. If I made them again, I'd try not using all of the crust mixture. However, my guests loved them.

So the next morning, I thought I'd give them another shot and I wolfed down pretty much the whole pan of them! They really were delicious, they just weren't what I expected at first.

Lion House Lemon Bars - from the Lion House Desserts cookbook

1 1/4 cups butter
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
6 T lemon juice (I used freshly squeezed)
4 T all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

To make crust: Preheat oven to 350. Put butter in mixer bowl and beat until softened. Add flour and powdered sugar and mix on low speed until just combined. Spread dough evenly in a 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until the corners are light golden brown. Remove from oven and pour filling on top of crust.

To make filling: In a small mixing bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, lemon juice, flour, and baking powder with a wire whisk or on low speed of a mixer for just a few minutes. (It is important not to mix a lot of air into the filling.) Pour on top of partially baked crust and bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and dust with powdered sugar. Cut into small bars. Makes 18-24.

SLC Farmer's Market open on Tuesday evenings

It was so fun to go to the farmer's market on a Tuesday evening! It is open from 4 to 8pm. There aren't nearly as many vendors, but we were thrilled to not have to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the market. (We don't live close to it.) The highlight for us was Bear Lake raspberries.

Beyond Glaze Doughnuts

My fam and I had some delicious doughnuts the other day from Beyond Glaze. It is located in Draper and has some awesome doughnut choices. See a full list on their website, www.beyondglaze.com. The Smores was yummy, the white chocolate mint was REALLY good and the key lime crumble was AMAZING (shown below)! I can't wait to go back and try more! I was intrigued by how the frosting glaze tasted just like a filling...I may have to start making doughnuts and figure it out! Prices are great too, only $1.49.

This post is way overdue...I'm always saying I'll post something and then forget about it! I told some of the audience of Good Things Utah that I'd post this picture I took, so here ya go!

I also wanted to post some cupcakes I made for that day and I didn't get around to taking pictures of them until after...and by then most had been eaten! I improved upon my big bird cupcake for the show and am so sad I don't have a good picture! Above you can see it, but it's a little fuzzy. I worked really hard on the fondant legs to go under the cupcake-it was so CUTE! Here's cookie modeling big bird's legs...
I also made a more user-friendly sock monkake...I didn't use all of the pieces of cake this time, I just used a cupcake! Here sock monkey is opening his lunchbox and finds a cupcake! haha.
The eyes are black frosting, the ears are brown m&m's, the mouth is cut from a raspberry fig newton, the white part of the mouth is built up with frosting, the "fur" is clear sanding sugar and brown sprinkles, and the hat is made from twizzler pull and peels! It was so much easier than the last one, and I think it still looks a lot like a sock monkey!
I set up a quick photo shoot with the monster cupcakes...they are posing with my son's 1st birthday present, the Max bobblehead (my son's name is Max)....which finally arrived: about a month and a half late! Oh well, he can make his debut at my next Wild Things party...maybe for the movie opening in Oct!

Last but not least, I told the cute girl featured in this pic that I wanted to show off her hair accessory on my blog-isn't it cute? She said her friend makes them, and now I forget her friend's name!