Lucky Charms Cupcakes

Why not have a little green cupcake with your green beer?

St. Patty's Day came and went, and I finally got to bake those Lucky Charm cupcakes that have been sitting on my Pinterest board for months.

Cereal has been the crazed mix-in recently for cupcakes. Cereal and liquor. I kept the cupcakes to cereal last weekend, and experimented with liquor in other ways.

I am happy to write that there were no fires, smoke, or burning of any kind during this adventure. A nice feat that happens once in a double rainbow.

I did get a little excited and frosted the last batch before they were cool, making them a heaping goop of marshmallow madness. Those were the ones I kept at home. Rule: Friends and co-workers always get the prettier ones.





Kelly green food coloring

So, what does cereal in a cupcake taste like? Obviously, magically delicious. The Lucky Charms cupcake tastes like a bowl of Lucky Charms, but not as crunchy. Biting into the cupcake, you get a cakey taste of cereal. The marshmallow frosting definitely makes you think of Lucky Charms. Have a shot of milk after and you'll think you just ate a bowl of cereal. Magic.

 

Eat these fast! They don't keep for more than a couple days.

 

 

 

Lucky Charms Cupcakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

¾ cup sour cream

¾ cup milk

1/3 vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla extract

½ cup finely crushed Lucky Charms (cereal pieces only, no marshmallows)

~25 drops green food coloring

 

Marshmallow Buttercream

4 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter

1 (13 oz) container marshmallow fluff

Optional: Green sprinkles

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl blend cake mix, eggs, sour cream, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
3. Mix in drops of green food coloring until desired color is achieved.
4. Mix in finely crushed Lucky Charms crumbs until combined.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter and bake 18-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Take cupcakes out and let cool completely.
7. In a medium bowl beat room temperature butter with an electric mixer.
8. Add two cups of the powdered sugar, the vanilla, and the marshmallow fluff and mix until smooth. Continue to add the powdered sugar, a half cup at a time, mixing between each addition.
9. Pipe onto each cooled cupcake. Top with green sprinkles and a Lucky Charms marshmallow (do not top with Lucky Charm marshmallow until ready to eat*).

Tip: Marshmallow buttercream may become difficult to mix. If it becomes too stiff, stop adding powdered sugar and finish mixing by hand. *The Lucky Charms will get mushy and loose their crispness if they remain on top of the frosting too long before eating.

(from justcallmemaria.com)

Sunday Scotcharoos

I had intended to restock my baking supplies this weekend so I'd be prepared for any cravings that hit during the week. But after an hour of walking around Target, I left with one bag of chocolate chips, an abundance of Easter candy, and Cosmo.

So, on Sunday I had to work with the remnants of the cupboard, the ingredients that always get looked over.

Butterscotch chips. Peanut butter. Honey. Cereal. What?

I'm not just picking these ingredients out. We have a shelf full of eight different cereals, three jars of peanut butter, and at least three jars of honey, thanks O'Connells.

These were the perfect ingredients for...

wait for it...

Scotcharoos! Who doesn't love scotcharoos? I mean, really. Take your basic rice krispie treat and add ten times of awesomeness to it, and you've got the best dessert at the lunch table. Not to mention, I'm checking one of the 480 pins off the list.
My first introduction to these heavenly bars was at a club volleyball tournament in my early high school days. My coach made them for us, and my life of sweets was changed forever. Much of the reason I loved volleyball so much through high school and college has to go back to that moment when I first bit into a scotcharoo.

As in awe as I am of these treats, I have never made them myself. It's the stove work that scares me away every time. After last week's brownie experience, my stove confidence was up and ready to tackle the scotcharoo.

Then I let the sugar and honey overflow and burnt Mom's new glass-top stove, again.

But, she forgot about it after a couple of scotcharoos.

By the way, I used Special K cereal for these. No, not to make "healthy" Scotcharoos. There is no such thing. My old roommate, Ashley, used to make these for us and she swore by using Special K instead of Rice Krispie's, and for good reason.  The Special K flakes are bigger and crunchier than Rice Krispie's cereal and more flavorful. There's a small hint of cinnamon in there, too, for a scotcharoo curve ball.

You can use whichever cereal you prefer on these. Experiment! There's got to be a lot of interesting combinations for this recipe.

The love, of course, is in the melted chocolate and butterscotch across the top.

 

 

Peanut Butterscotch Chocolaty Crispy Bars

(they're effing Scotcharoos!)

 

Makes 30-36 bars

 

Ingredients:

6 c. puffed rice cereal

1 c. honey

1 c. sugar

1 c. peanut butter

12 oz. chocolate chips

12 oz. butterscotch chips

 

Directions:

Combine cereal and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl (don't mix yet). Set aside. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

 

Combine the sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally just until boiling. Immediately remove from the heat and pour the hot mixture over the peanut butter and cereal. Mix well with a spoon or spatula until the peanut butter is completely melted and all ingredients are evenly combined.

 

Press the mixture in an even layer in the baking pan. Combine the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a heatproof bowl set over a bowl of simmering water (or heat it up in the microwave like normal people do). Heat, stirring occasionally until completely melted through. Pour over the cereal layer and smooth with a spatula. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until the top layer is set before slicing into bars, or eating the pan whole.

 

Enjoy!

 

recipe from Annie's Eats



 

The Baked Brownie beats the Boxed Brownie

Since Grandma got her cupcakes, I offered to bake something extra for my brother, whose birthday was yesterday. Tommy wanted brownies.

Since my brother is skeptical of my baking, it was best to keep it to a simple recipe and make him think the brownies were from a box mix. I did have frosted brownie mix sitting in the cupboard waiting for Tommy's birthday to arrive, but for blog's sake, and Pinterest's sake, why not try a new recipe! Even if it meant driving to Kroger in the crazy snow for ingredients that haven't yet learned to magically replenish themselves in my kitchen. 

I am just not a "box mix" person. I am a princess who likes to wondrously bake things from scratch, even though that usually gets me into a chaotic and stressful mess. Too often I forget to check if I have all the ingredients, get half-way into the recipe, then realize we're out of flour. Then I cry a little, and resolve to using the boxed version.

The most normal looking recipe on my Pinterest board claimed to be one of the best brownies in America. It is the "baked" brownie from BakedNYC. Apparently, it has been named one of Oprah's Favorite Things.

I tweaked the recipe so that it might be one of Tommy's Favorite Things, by substituting milk chocolate for dark chocolate and nixing the espresso powder. My brother is surprisingly picky, but he is turning 29. So, what brother wants brother gets.

My poor Kitchen-Aid did not get any use for these brownies. I could almost hear it from behind the cupboard, "What about me?" Nope, this was all stove work.

Stove work to me means there will be a mess, scary noises, maybe even a small fire. The possible tragedies are endless.

I am proud to say I only encountered two of these tragedies while completing this task. Which two, I will not say.

I baked these for 33 minutes, forgetting to turn them half-way through. What should have been a nice flat sheet of brownies was lop-sided, (some day I'll learn). The toothpick came out clean, but after having cooled, it seemed like they probably could have been cooked longer. They were pretty squishy when I cut them. A squishy brownie is still a yummy brownie. Most of the time.



You can't just leave that half that got ruined!


Those baking pans that come with a lid are really handy for brownies. Brownies tend to get ruined when slicing and transporting. (Transporting: using a spatula to move your brownie from the pan to a container, a difficult task.) My pan does have a lid, but I transported them anyways so I could catch the leftover crumbs of each brownie. Don't act like you don't do that, too.

 



 

I put some in a box for my brother, and noticed that almost half of them were gone by morning. I also hid a small box in my room.

Taste Test

My take: I'm intrigued to see what the original recipe with dark chocolate and espresso powder tastes like. However, this version was very fudgy and gooey, which is nothing to complain about. It was hard to stop after eating just one. I used leftover frosting from the Brownie Batter cupcakes, which made them even more irresistable. The stove work was scary and a pain, but the end result was worth it.

My personal victory is that I didn't have to resolve to using the boxed version.

Brother's take: I am pretty sure he thought they were out of a box, but the frosting didn't fool him. This is the best chocolate frosting I have ever come across. Tommy liked the brownie, but not the frosting. How we share the same blood, I have no idea. He is a chocoholic though, and I know his brownies will be gone in a day. I don't think he tastes his food most of the time anyway.

And he still had a Dairy Queen cake to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

The Baked Brownie

Ingredients:

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.
7. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

Grandma Turns 80, Demands Chocolate

Grandma Barb turned 80 this year, a pretty big deal for the sweetest lady in the world. Every year we celebrate Grandma's and my brother's birthday in one weekend. Usually a Dairy Queen cake is ordered to satisfy everyone, but Grandma is 80 now, and Grandma deserves more than one cake. That, and I need an excuse to bake things.

When I asked Grandma what kind of cupcakes she was in the mood for, she didn't hesitate to say "chocolate." Chocolate she would have.

My pinterest board has just about every concoction of chocolate cupcakes, but hardly any simply plain chocolate recipes. After several minutes of scrolling to the very bottom of my never-ending baking board, the brownie batter chocolate fudge recipe appeared. They may as well have been screaming "Happy birthday Grandma Barb," for how perfect they were.

For such an intense cupcake, this recipe was pretty easy. Well, maybe I only think that because Mom helped me out with the first part. Any cupcake that has more than two "parts" to it is quite intimidating. I recommend splitting them up over a couple days or letting someone help out. Cupcakes are meant to be anything but stressed over.

Mom pressed out the brownie batter bites on Friday and let them chill overnight. I mixed the chocolate cupcake batter on Saturday and placed the bites on top. Note: press the brownie bites into the cupcake. I put them on top and they looked funny. Tasted awesome, but looked funny. You'd probably get more amazement out of it if the brownie bites are fully inside the cupcake.

I made 12 huge cupcakes with this recipe. I can't seem to get timing standards right with our new oven, however. I'll bake a batch for 25 minutes and the tops look cooked, but they sink in the middle instead of standing upright. Maybe they needed longer for being bigger cupcakes. Maybe the oven needs to be at a higher temperature. Any suggestions?

The frosting for this cupcake is insane. The melted chocolate chips make it so rich and creamy.

So the time came to indulge, and this cupcake is the definition of indulgence. Holy crap. While it is very, very good, the cupcake is quite rich and should definitely be accompanied by a cold glass of milk. The chocolate chips in the cupcake give it a simple crunch of awesomeness.

I gave some to the waiters at my grandma's and brother's birthday dinner. Both waiters came back from the kitchen with one-word adjectives. "Outrageous." "Sinful." Both were quite accurate. They did not say they were "good." Good is too simple a word to describe this cupcake if you do like chocolate. If you don't like chocolate, this cupcake is definitely not "good."

This is no everyday cupcake. This is Grandma Barb's 80th Birthday Cupcake. Chocolate inside of chocolate on top of chocolate. The ultimate triple threat.

Nevertheless, Grandma thought the cupcakes were "to die for," which is what she says about almost any food she eats. I'm happy to have met her standards.

One pin down on my baking board, 479 to go. :-/



I divided this recipe in half to make 18 cupcakes, then got even more lazy and made 12 extra-large cupcakes. Note: add more baking time if making jumbo cupcakes. If they do sink in the middle, add more frosting!

Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes
with Outrageously Rich Chocolate Indulgence Frosting

Seriously, look at that frosting!

 BROWNIE BATTER
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup milk
1 (18.25 oz) box devil’s food cake mix
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 mins until well combined. Using a small scoop (about 1.5 tbsp) drop batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze overnight.
CUPCAKES
1 (18.25 oz) box devil’s food cake mix
1 (3.9 oz) pkg Jello instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and line with cupcake liners. Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips into a very large bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 mins until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a large scoop (about 3 tbsp) drop batter into the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3rds full. Remove brownie batter from freezer and press into the cupcake batter. Bake for 22-28 mins. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
FROSTING
5 sticks butter, softened
8 oz powdered sugar
1.5 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa)
a pinch of table salt
1.5 cups light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
16 oz milk chocolate chips
Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring well every 30 seconds. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins. Combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, about 5-10 seconds. Scrape the bowl again, then add the melted chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, about 10-15 seconds. You can use a mixer for this too, if you don’t have a food processor, just don’t whip the butter too much! :) Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
Makes & frosts 36 cupcakes.
Recipe from www.kevinandamanda.com