Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

I will be doing a post on how to do these since they came out so well. I'm going to be making these for my family for Easter.

I got the mold the other day while out wedding shopping and I decided to make the peanut butter eggs for my sisters kids. She's stopping by today to drop off her dog since our mom won't be at home. I offered to take him for awhile instead.

I wanted to share this awesome picture of them. 

They are a chocolate shell with a creamy peanut butter filling inside. So much better tasting than what you could buy.

Zebra Cupcakes

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Baby Shower Layering

I did 4 dozen cupcakes for a baby shower yesterday. There were the dozen chocolate, a dozen white that were tinted pink, and then there were 2 dozen that were white and chocolate that were a zebra design inside. I made exactly enough so I couldn't see how the inside turned out! I had a lot of extra bright hot pink icing left over so I decided to make another batch of white (dyed half of it pink) and try the zebra stripes out again. This time I'd be able to see how they look inside.


I made the cake batter with no changes. I divided it in half and dyed one bowl a light pink.

Dyed Batter

To put them in the cupcake liners I used a tablespoon to put alternating layers. 4 layers all together; 2 of each!

Alternating Layers

That's all I did and put them in the oven.

Out Of The Oven

My finished cupcake:

Now that I've done it I know what I would do different as well.

• For starters I would use a little extra water in the batter to make it thinner so it spreads instead of layering on top of each other
• To put it in the liners I would of put each batter in a separate pastry bag and piped it in instead.
  
  

What's Next?

When I go to pick up my order from last Saturday, in the next week or two, we are getting together to plan some more or our friends baby shower. I was also asked if I could make "Better than Sex" cake. So I'm making that and bringing it for everyone!!

Egg White Cake Recipe (White)

This the starting recipe, or the recipe for just the white cake, for many of the cakes.

Preheat to 350 degrees


Ingredients:

• 5 Egg Whites
• 1 1/4 Cup Water
• 1/3 Cup Oil
• White Cake Mix
• 1/4 Cup Sour Cream
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Making the Cake:

Mix the Egg Whites, Water, and Oil for 30 Sec.

Add the Cake Mix, Sour Cream, and Vanilla.

Mix for 30 Sec, scrap, and then beat on high for 2 Min.

 Scoop into lined cupcake pans and bake for 15 min then check. They're done when the toothpick comes out clean.

Butter Yellow Cake Recipe With Chocolate Icing

This is the request from the hubby. A butter yellow cake with chocolate icing.

This recipe calls for butter instead of oil.

To begin with ingrediants:

• 1 Cup Water
• 1/3 Cup Melted Butter
• 4 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1 "Golden Butter" Cake Mix

 What to do?
Preheat to 350 degrees

Mix the water, melted butter, and eggs for 30 secs.

Add the vanilla, sour cream, and cake mix.

Mix that for 30 secs, scrap the bowl, and beat on high for 2 mins.

Simple as that.
Once again all I had was mini liners so mini cupcakes is what we get.
Scoop into lined cupcake pans.

Bake for 12 min until a toothpick comes out clean.

Now:

Chocolate Icing

This is a really simple recipe.

2 sticks Butter (I use salted)

3 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder (I use Dutch / Dark)

4 Tablespoons Cream or Milk

Directions:

Cream the butter for a minute or so.

Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder into the butter. Mix until incorporated. Add the cream or milk until creamy. 

I still don't have pastry bags at the house so I used a freezer gallon bag and cut a small hole. Not as pretty as if I'd used a tip but the tip wasn't staying in the bag. 

A Request From The Hubby

Last night we went to walmart and he mentions that I haven't made him the yellow cake and chocolate icing that I meant to many months ago. So the stuff to make both ended up in the cart!

So this week I will doing both!! I will be having a post on yellow cake and a separate one on chocolate icing. Enjoy!!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

My first official cupcake post is going to be a request I had a couple month ago from one of my friends. Carrot cake with a cream cheese icing.

The mix I get has carrots and raisins.  I pick out all the raisins and throw them away!! Who has ever heard of raisins in carrot cake??? Not me!! But I guess that's really up to you so keep them in if you prefer!

Why do I start with a boxed cake mix? Check it out here.

First the Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 deluxe carrot cake mix (Yes! I start with cake mix!)
• 4 eggs
• 1 C  HOT water
• 1/4 C Amaretto (you can use water)
• 1/4 C oil
• 1/2 C sour cream

Making the Batter:
 First things first preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make sure you use the right measuring technique. You can refer to this post

with raisins (eww!)

After picking out the raisins (you can leave them in if you want)

Add the carrots to the hot water and let them sit for about 5 Min.

Combine the eggs, oil, and the amaretto and beat on low for 30 secs.

Eggs, Oil, and Amaretto

Mixed for 30 Secs

Then add the cake mix and sour cream.

Beat on medium for 30 secs. Scrape the bowl and then beat on high

( 6 on a kitchen aid stand mixer) for 2 min.

Fold in the carrots with the excess water.

I didn't have any regular cupcake liners so I made mini cupcakes. I ended up with 3 pans all together.
I like using a scoop to make my cupcakes all the same size.
Scoop the batter into lined cupcake pans

Bake for 15 min and then check. When the toothpick (or cake tester) comes out clean or few crumbs they're done!

Cool in the pan for about 5 min then take them out to cool the rest of the way on cooling racks.



Cream Cheese Icing:
I'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese icing but this recipe I like. You can always add more cream cheese to make the cream cheese flavor more pronounced. Which I did for these cupcakes. As well as adding additional powdered sugar to make it more stable. I usually use vanilla extract but Since I put amaretto in the cake I wanted to tie it in with the icing too.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces Butter, softened (I use salted butter)
• 6 ounces Cream Cheese
• 1 lb  Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 t Amaretto (you can use vanilla)

Mixing the Icing:

Beat the cream cheese and butter. Do NOT over beat!

Cream cheese and Butter

On low speed mix in the powdered sugar till smooth. Beat in the amaretto till mixed in. Again do NOT over beat!

Finished Cream Cheese Icing

And were ready to put the cupcakes all together!

 I had to use a gallon sized zip lock bag and tip because I didn't have any piping bags at the house!

High Heel Cupcakes

 I did these high heel cupcakes a couple weeks ago. And of course being my forgetful self, completely didn't take any pics on how to do it!! But good news is its not to hard and I explain it.

The finished products

After tinkering around with what size to cut things I got it to fit together more or less beautifully.

First things first-

What I used:

• 12 Graham Crackers
• 12 Kid Waffle like Cones
• Melting Chocolate
• 12 cupcakes
• Icing
• Sparklies (sanding sugar, sprinkles, pearls, etc)

First thing to do is cut the tip off the cones and cut the open end down to size.
Cut the graham crackers into the sole shape I had it in a diamond shape to cut them, not the rectangle, leaving one end pointed to stick in the cupcake.
Melt the chocolate and dip the cones and graham crackers to coat them.
While those dry decorate your cupcakes.
Pipe an outline on the coated graham cracker. Dipping it in sanding sugar or sprinkles is up to you. I also piped and decorated a line up the heal.
With icing pipe around the wide opening of the cone and stick on the graham cracker. Stick the other end into the cupcake.

Shoe s in a shoe box!