Happy New Year cupcakes

We made these to ring in the New Year with friends. 

Too Much Chocolate Cake from Allrecipes.com:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips 
• Bake in a jelly roll pan. 350 for 20ish minutes. Once cooled cut cake in half, pipe a damn around the edge of one half of the cake, add raspberry filling to the center and top with other half of cake, and pipe rosettes. Double the frosting recipe.

Raspberry filling
16 oz. frozen raspberries thawed
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixtures boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir thawed raspberries into cool mixture.

Patti's Chocolate Frosting:

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup softened butter

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Hot chocolate mix

We put these hot chocolate baskets together for one of the 12 days of Christmas we are doing with some friends. 

*I know they aren't very exciting but I want to remember this recipe:

Hot Chocolate Mix

4 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 cup powdered sugar

1 package (16 oz) coffee mate creamer, original

1 box (25.6 oz) powdered non fat milk

1 package (21.8 oz) Nestle quick

We added these cute marshmallow Peeps to go with the regular marshmallows.

I found this tag online to go with it.

The most famous reindeer of all...

Rudolph the red nose reindeer, had a very shiny (and long=) nose...

I made these for my primary class at church. 

I used a cone cellophane bag and filled the bottom with red M&M's and the rest with anything chocolate I could find. I used chocolate: pretzels, peanuts, whoppers, and raisins.

You'll go down in his-tor-y!

Christmas bundt cakes

I thought I would never make another bundt cake again after the wedding but here I am. They are just the perfect size and so yummy.

Vanilla with Raspberry:

Vanilla cake: We used these extra ingredients (cake extender) to go with a white cake mix

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2/3 c milk

1 cup sour cream

1 egg yolk

This is how we prepared it:

Mix dry ingredients in bowl: 1 cake mix, 1 cup flour, and 1 tsp. baking powder

Mix wet ingredients in mixing bowl:1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup sour cream, 3 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 3/4 cup oil, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup lemon ** don't add lemon until very last or else it will curdle. 

Bake in greased (we used Bakers Joy) mini bundt cake pan 350 for 12ish minutes

Raspberry filling
16 oz. frozen raspberries thawed
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixtures boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir thawed raspberries into cool mixture.

 

White chocolate ganache:

7 1/2 cups white chocolate chips  and 2 1/2 cups cream (3:1 ratio). Microwave 1 minute (50%power) repeat until melted

Chocolate Cake (this is Michelle recipe and it is delicious)

Mix the dry ingredients in bowl: 3/4 cup cocoa powder (adding a little dark is yummy)

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Chocolate part: combine and melt in microwave 30 seconds at time, 1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

Combine wet ingredients in mixing bowl: 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk

Wet+ chocolate+ Dry. 

Bake in greased (we used Bakers Joy) mini bundt cake pan 350 for 12ish minutes.

We topped these with a chocolate ganache. We melted 2 2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 1/3 cup cream (2:1 ratio) in microwave(50% power) for 1 minute and then stirred it. We repeated it every 30 seconds until melted.

*add  some peppermint oil (to taste) to the ganache before you drizzle. 

 Drizzle over the cakes once it has set up a little bit. 

*top with crushed up peppermint candy cane.

We made these for our friends and neighbors.

I found this tag online but it's not available anymore. The only ones I could find are on Etsy. But you could create your own pretty easily.

We made another batch for our teachers.

This time I waited for the white ganache to set up a little more before I drizzled it on. This way it covers up the raspberry filling better. We also added some holly sprinkles. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas class snack

December class snack:

Boom Chicka Pop, Chex mix, peanuts, white fudge cookies, and M&M's