Look at these beauties!!

I had the recipe for these a few weeks ago however, the whole Boston bombing thing was a little too much and honestly I didn’t want to mention Boston when telling my kids why these cupcakes looked the way they did.  So rather than make them and call them something else, I figured I would wait a few weeks until Boston is out of the news.  As it’s still fresh in our memories, thank goodness the kids have moved past the experience on to something new.

Then I can bake and explain to my kids how a Boston Cream Pie is really a cake, and how it’s filled with custard and more importantly how great it all tastes!!

For this recipe you have a choice you can make things really easy by buying chocolate syrup and Vanilla pudding or you can make your own chocolate Ganache glaze and custard from scratch. For me it depends on how much time I have, the mood and who is getting the cupcakes.

Fight night means a bunch of out of shape men yelling at a bunch of in shape rich men and me running around making sure that everyone is happy. I noticed that we had an abundance of Chocolate based snacks but I still wanted to make some cupcakes. Removing chocolate out of the ingredient list left me with very few offerings so I hit the internet to come up with an alternative.

Voila! By way of a site called “Just Putzing.com” I found exactly what I was looking for, a Cheese cake, apple cupcake.

This recipe is of the variety that I like. It looks difficult but really isn’t. The apple topping is made from scratch and I recommend sticking to that strategy because unlike the store brought apple topping, you can tune this in to your liking. I guess you can tune the store brought stuff in to but there is much more satisfaction in cutting, coring and cooking the apples in a saucepan. Don’t be afraid to add a little “KICK” to the lemon juice and cinnamon for the apples. A touch of whiskey goes a long way with the fellas.

Hit the recipe button and start baking!! Or as we say on fight night, Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!!!

To go for the pretty appearance I though a pink buttercream frosting would be nice.  For the cupcakes themselves, any chocolate cupcake recipe should be fine.  Dare I say if short on time pick up a simple box mix.  Shhh…..

After you make he frosting, top with a cherry and drizzle with chocolate.   Here is the Recipe:

WATCH OUTS:

1. Dipping the entire cupcakes in chocolate takes a lot of practice. I did 8 and only 5 were presentable. Not sure what happened to the other three. Hee hee
2. Vanilla cupcakes are recommended and should be used first. I thought about using chocolate for a triple threat but there is a snickers bar and a caramel inside so the Vanilla is the perfect accent. Once you taste the Vanilla you can decide next time around if you want to switch up.
3. Take notes and write down tips, so next time you make these you won’t run into the same hurdles.

OK – hit the RECIPE button and BAKE.

When it was all over, and everyone had gone home and the dishes were wash and put away, I looked over at my daughter and said,

“Guess what Mommy forgot – to put OUT THE CUPCAKES!”

That’s right, in all the drama, I forgot to put out my dessert!  I poured my daughter a tall glass of milk and we plowed through one and a half of these cupcakes each.  Life never tasted so good.

I then told her that when she gets older if she eats like this she will have thighs like a pregnant Kim Kardashian.  Hopefully that will teach her to not do what mommy does.

WATCH-OUTS

The watch out here is to read the recipe closely.  The Cookbook Queen is a beast.  She has marshmallows and frosting in the center of these babies.  I actually almost missed that.  Who knew?  The same will go for eating. No one will suspect the marshmallow and frosting goodness in the center when they bite into it.  You are expecting chocolate cupcake, but end up with much s’more.  (Get it?)

Also, a few of the cupcakes will look like a sunken mess.   Just like spackle on the wall, cover it up with frosting.  Easy work.  Click the Recipe button and get ready for some chocolate goodness.

WATCHOUTS:

My only watchout here is that all the Jelly Beans are not the same size.  The best solution here is to use Jelly Belly’s.  The other benefit with Jelly Belly’s is that they have flavors that you can possibly match up with the frosting.

This is definitely a recipe your ids can help with.  They can do color sorting and flower making….or if they are like mine, they can play on the Ipad and just do cupcake eating.

Click the Recipe Button below for the details and more Photos!!

With St. Patty’s Day les then 24 hours a way I figured something green with alcohol is in order.  The unique part about this recipe is the Vanilla ice cream mixed with Irish Cream Creamers.  You actually have to mix the creamers with vanilla ice cream and sprinkle in bits of toffee.  If that sounds good, it is.  That in itself is just a great tasting treat.  Haagen Dazs also makes a great Baily’s ice cream. The issue with using the Haagen Dazs is the color is brown which doesn’t look good on the cupcake, but tastes amazing.  You have to balance out what matters more to you.

Remember to keep everything in the muffin tin until ready to be served. I recommend freezing them overnight.  The more frozen the ice cream is, the more pronounced the ridges in the ice cream will show when  you are ready to serve them.

Use your favorite decorating tip for the whipped cream frosting.  It goes on just like any other frosting.  I recommend applying it just before serving these up.  Click the RECIPE button to go to the detailed recipe.  Happy Baking!

• The cupcakes
• The Stout Reduction
• The Stout Buttercream
• The Stout Caramel Corn

I suggest breaking the recipe up because the reduction alone can take as much as 45 minutes.   That’s 45 minutes of monitoring everything closely.  The good part is that after you make the reduction, you can store that in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.

When it’s said and done the finished product will look great.  I’m all four anything that I don’t have to pull out the decorating tips for.  Just stick the popcorn to the top and you have caramel, salty, crunchy with a hint of a stout after taste.  Oddly Delish!!  Hit the Recipe button and BAKE!!

REWIND: My daughter was having a bake sale, an event where I am hands down usually the star of the show.  My little table is always swarmed; my little tin box of money is usually overflowing with bills.  I can’t keep the cupcake platter stocked.  I’m in my element!  I’ m in my world baby!!  UNTIL TODAY…….

What’s going on over there?  There is a table across the room that is getting all the attention.  From my seat, I can see that they are not even selling cupcakes.  Who’s trying to outdo me?

Irritated, I get up and March across the room to see what’s going on.  Low and behold, it appears to be a thick-ass chocolate chip cookie.  So what!  What’s the big deal here?  Mrs. Lucy who is manning the table, tells me to try one.  Frustrated by all the hub-bub over what appears to be just a chocolate chip cookie, I grab one and shove it in my mouth.

OH MY!  OH MY WORD.  There is a freakin’ OREO inside this cookie!!!  I was going to divorce my husband and leave my kids and runaway with the cookie platter.  Not giving Mrs. Lucy the satisfaction of knowing she had just given me my first “Big O”reo aka a Mouth-gasim, I had to find this recipe and create it for myself.  Of course as soon as I tracked down the recipe I had to share it with my fans.

Here a picture is worth a thousand words – could it really be that easy?  Yes.

That’s really the key to the cookie but for all the delicious details, hit the Recipe button below and you will get a play by play complete with pictures.  You can thank me later.

I think I look like this

But I really look like this:

This recipe puts an end to all that madness.  My issue here was dealing with the caramel.

THE CARAMEL SAUCE!!

In the recipe there are two warnings about working with the caramel.

The first says not to heat it up too hot because then it would be really hard when it cools.  The second advice is to serve the cupcakes the same day that you bake them.

Well after making some super sticky, super hard caramel like mess, I decided to use my own recipe for caramel.  It’s called, Trader Joes Caramel Sauce!

This way if I want to wait a day, I can warm the cupcakes, warm the caramel sauce and Voila!  I’m not saying it tastes better then making the caramel yourself, I’m just saying it was a lot easier and tasted pretty dang good.  Click the Recipe button and get to baking!