Cupcake Order (Black & White)

So this week, I had another cupcake "order" or barter is more appropriate.   Friends of ours own a auto repair shop and that is the only place that we will take our vehicles to.  So they were having a meeting and needed a few dozen cupcakes.  So I ran to Hobby Lobby and picked up the black and white checked cupcake liners and my assistant found Wilton Cake Sparkles.  Never used them before and they didn't run and melt like regular sanding sugar.

I ended up making two double batches of buttercream.  Below is a double batch which is good for two dozen cupcakes.

6 Cups Powdered Sugar
4 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
A little milk

Whisk butter in your stand mixer until smooth.  Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix to combine, repeat until all the sugar is incorporated.  Add the vanilla and a dash of milk.  Whisk on high for approximately three minutes until light and fluffy.

I did use some Americolor Bright White for the white part of the frosting.  For the black, I did use some cocoa powder to help tint it.  Then used two small bottles of Americolor Super Black.  When it was done, it looked more dark gray, but after a couple hours of chilling in the fridge, it did get darker.

Mini Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches with Fries

Guess where I found this recipe?  If you guessed Pinterest you would be correct.  You can find the original recipe at High Heels & Grills.

1 Tbsp. butter

1/2 white onion, cut into thin slices

1 clove garlic, minced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 lb thinly sliced roast beef 

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 Tbsp. oil

6 french hard-rolls, cut in half

6 provolone cheese slices

Melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat and add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper, stirring occasionally. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Take the roast beef and slice it into strips.

In another skillet, heat it to medium high heat and add oil.  Toss in the roast beef and stir it so that it gets hot.

Assemble your cheese-steaks by adding the hot meat to your french rolls, putting the provolone slices right on top of the meat, and the hot veggies on top of the cheese.

Serve with your favorite french fry.

These came out really well and the fries were great.  I have not tried them before.

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

Yep...another great dinner courtesy of Pinterest.  You can find the original recipe at Two Peas & Their Pod.

I did tweak it a bit and added more stock and didn't have fresh basil.  So my "tweaks" are below

1 lb. Italian Sausage, rolled into tablespoon size balls
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 red bell peppers, diced
1 bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
12 cups chicken stock
2 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups baby Kale
2 cups cheese tortellini (fresh or frozen)
1 tbs dried basil
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 400.  Put the sausage balls in a glass baking dish and bake until no longer pink.  Drain on a paper towel.

In a very large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until tender.  Stir in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the red peppers, bay leaf, basil and red pepper flakes. Cook until peppers are soft.

Stir in the broth, tomatoes, and baby kale. Add the cheese tortellini and cook until tortellini is tender. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the mini sausage balls and heat until warm. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

I did sprinkle some shredded Parmesan cheese on top.  This was a really good soup and would definitely make it again.

Spinach Ricotta Calzone

I pinned this recipe recently and made it the other day.  You can find the original recipe at King Arthur Flour.

I used my bread machine to make the dough.  

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon olive oil1/2 cup to 3/4 cup lukewarm water


Put the ingredients in your bread machine and set on dough cycle.  When dough is finished, make the filling.

10 ounces spinach (fresh or frozen), cooked, drained, and squeezed completely dry
1 cup ricotta cheese, whole-milk or part-skim
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Working with one half at a time, place the dough on a piece of parchment, or onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Pat it into a 10″ to 11″ circle.

Spread half of each disk of dough with half the filling. Fold the unfilled half over the filling, crimping and pressing the edges together to seal.

Cut 3 or 4 slits in the top of each calzone, to allow steam to escape. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of shredded Parmesan Cheese.

Let the calzone rest, uncovered, for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 450°F.

Bake the calzone for 18 to 22 minutes, until they’re golden brown.

I served these with a side of spicy marina.  Oh these came out really really really good!  You can always count on fantastic and easy recipes from King Arthur Flour.  I think one of these days, I would really love to visit their shop in VT.  But not in the winter....

Shredded Buffalo Chicken

I have been such a slacker...so I am going to post what I have made in the last couple of weeks. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest and kind of tweaked it to what I like.

6 frozen chicken breasts
1 envelope of ranch dressing/dip
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs onion powder
2 cups of Franks Red Hot

Place the chicken breasts on the bottom of your crock pot.

Sprinkle with the garlic powder, onion powder and ranch dressing.

Pour the Franks Red Hot over the chicken.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Shred the chicken when done and add a bit more Franks.

Serve on a sandwich roll with chips.

This came out great and I even added some Mexican Blend Shredded cheese to the chicken.  This lasted a few days.

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese

I know I am not the only one who is Pinning all sorts of pumpkin/fall recipes.  After church yesterday, I HAD to stop and pick up some cream cheese for this yummy looking spread for bagels.

You can find the original recipe at Laa Loosh.

I did change it a bit.

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese softened
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree, not pie filling
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Mix all the ingredients in a mixer until well combined.  It was a bit bland, but I figured it would taste better after siting in the fridge over night.  Place into gladware containers and store in the fridge.

 

It tastes much better after a night in the fridge!  I think next time I would add some fresh nutmeg.

Camouflage Cupcakes

Another friend asked if I could make Camouflage Cupcakes for her son's birthday.  Sure....but somehow I was going to get that frosting more than one color!!!!  Oh and Miss V was offended that she didn't get to help the day before with Phil the Minion, she said that I cannot frost her friend's cupcakes.  Wow...got it!

 

This time, I attempted just TWO colors.  I mixed up the buttercream and tinted half Americolor Avocado Green and left the other white.

I used to plastic piping bags and filled them 2/3 the way full.  Placed those two bags into one bag fitted with a Sunny Side 1M Tip. With this tip you also need the Large Coupler Set. I use standard size bags from Sunny Side Up.  They also have a larger 16 inch bag.

Minion Cake

So the other day a friend sent me a picture of a Minion cake from the Betty Crocker Site and asked if I could make something like that for her son, who happens to be in Miss V's class.  Oh sure!  The more I thought about it, it kind of looked boring, it is just a flat sheet cake carved with frosting.  Well I turned to my favorite site Pinterest for inspiration and found it!  Here is a link to the inspiration Minion.  I chatted with my friend a bit about cake flavor and went out and picked up two French Vanilla Cake mixes, a couple cans of white frosting, 4 bags of mini marshmallows and powdered sugar.

When I got home Tuesday morning from dropping Miss V off at school, I started working on Mr. Minion.  I made the two cake mixes and put them in a prepared 11x15 sheet pan.  It took about 30 minutes to bake.  Wilton has a great chart on how much batter per pan and cooking temps and times.  You can find it here.

I then put out my fondant mat and used Minion Yellow Duck tape to keep it in place.

While he was in the oven, I made a batch of Marshmallow Fondant.  I kept it simple and just used clear vanilla extract and water.

When the cake was done, I flipped it and let it cool on a wire rack.

With the first batch of fondant, I colored some with black, grey, brown, pink and left some white.  So I made some shoes, hair, hands, parts of eyes, and buttons from the black.  With the white I designed some teeth, and eyes.  I made the pupils out of the brown.  With the pink I made a cute little tongue by using a small heart shaped cookie cutter.  I also made the goggles from the gray.  I rolled it out pretty thick and used different sized round cutters.

I wrapped the extra fondant up in plastic wrap to keep from drying out.  Then it was time to carve the Minion.  I kind of stood and looked at him for a few minutes deciding how he should look.

He then went into the fridge to cool down for about 30 minutes.  When he was cool, I gave him a quick crumb coat and added a little tiny section from the scrap cake for legs.  Minions have to have legs.

Then back into the fridge.  I normally like to put them in the freezer, but the cookie sheet he is on is to big to fit in the freezer.

While he was chilling in the fridge, I put the eyes together with the goggle frames and looked at the scale and looked pretty good.

When he was done with his chill time, I made another two batches of marshmallow fondant and tinted it yellow with Americolor Lemon Yellow.  Rolled it out and covered Mr. Minion.

I put on the eyes/goggles and the mouth to check for scale on the body.  Whoa....I did not like the mouth at all.  It made him creepy!

That mouth came off very quickly!  Then I made another batch of marshmallow fondant and colored it with Americolor Royal Blue.  Rolled it out and made a nice straight rectangle then put it on as his overalls.

I cut straps and put them on and put a little black button on each one.  I wanted that to dry a little so I made the goggles metallic looking by using a bit of silver luster dust and lemon extract.  You can see the difference here.

When both were done I let them air dry a bit and placed them on Mr. Minion.

Next came his eyes

Tried the funky mouth again, just to make sure.

He still looked creepy so I rolled some more black fondant and made another mouth.

Yep that one looks much more friendly and silly!  Next up arms!  I did put a toothpick in the upper arms to keep them attached to the body and did the same with the shoes.  The rest of the parts I used a dab of corn syrup.  Works like a charm!

Next up was hair!  I did use toothpicks to keep the hair sticking up.

I think he is done....then went into a box for safe keeping overnight.

I kept thinking how flippin adorable he was!  He was a lot of hours worth of work, but he was so worth it!

Mr. Minion (Miss V called him Phil) took a ride to school on her lap.  She was guardian of the Minion.