Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

(from Krystina Castella)

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (makes 12)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1/2 cup chocolate milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Insert liners in standard muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy (3-5 min)
3. Beat the melted chocolate into the butter mixture. Add the eggs, peppermint extract, and chocolate milk. Beat until creamy.
4. In a seperate bowl sift together flour and baking soda.
5. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat until well blended then stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Fill cupcake liner 3/4 full. Bake 15-18 minutes. Cool completely, top with Mint Cream Cheese
Frosting. Decorate with Andes Mints or chocolate chips.

Mint Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
8 ounce pkg cream cheese
6 tablespoons butter
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons peoppermint extract
green food coloring (optional)

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Slowly stir in the sifted powdered sugar and beat until lumps are gone. Add green food coloring, vanilla and peppermint extract.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

(from BAKERS)

Ingredients:
6 oz Dark Chocolate
10 tablespoons butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup flour
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Grease your pan of choice (I made 12 standard cupcake/muffin sizes, or you can do 6 (6 oz.) custard cups)
3. Melt chocolate and butter together in the microwave on 50% power for a minute, then stir. Melt for additional 10 seconds stirring after each until smooth.
4. Sift in powdered sugar and flour
5. Add whole eggs and egg yolks, beat until well blended
6. Divide batter into cups (you can fill them pretty full as they don’t rise much. Next time I will probably fit the batter into 10 standard size cupcake liners)
7. Bake. If you use a standard muffin pan bake 6-8 min., with custard cups it will take 12-14 min. When they are done these cakes should still be wiggly in the center. Let stand 1 min.
8. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes and garnish with powdered sugar, fresh berries, or ice cream. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

Warning! These are intense! But so yummy!

Makes 3 dozen
(thanks to marthastewart.com)

COOKIES
1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
Confectioners' sugar, for work surface
GANACHE
1/4 cup heavy cream
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
GLAZE
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped


Directions
1. Make cookies: Whisk together cocoa powder and flour in a bowl. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg until well blended. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer dough to a work surface lightly dusted with confectioners' sugar. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out cookies using a 2-inch round cookie cutter; space 1/2 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining scraps of dough. Bake cookies until firm, rotating sheets halfway through, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
3. Meanwhile, make ganache: Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chocolate. Cook, stirring constantly until chocolate is smooth. Stir in peppermint extract. Let cool slightly, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Spoon 1 teaspoon ganache onto the bottom of 1 cookie; sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and ganache. Refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes.
5. Make glaze: Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring constantly. Let cool slightly. Dip one flat side of each sandwich into melted chocolate to coat; gently shake off excess. Place sandwiches, chocolate sides up, on wire racks set over baking sheets. Refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. Cookies can be refrigerated in a single layer in airtight containers up to 2 days.

Soft Ginger Cookies

I'm not usually one for gingerbread, but these were big, soft and yummy!
(allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened (seriously, use margarine)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Just made these again and this time I used margarine instead of butter and they were even better. They kept their shape and were fluffy, yet still substantial. Here is a pic of the margarine ones, you can see the difference. Much prettier too, don't you agree?

My Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies

(thanks to RaeJean Eisenhower, a family friend from St. Louis)


1 C butter
2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C sour cream
6 C flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar; add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Add in dry ingredients about one cup at a time and beat well. Refrigerate for about an hour and then roll out 1/3 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 min. Cool and decorate as desired.

Butter Frosting
6 Tb butter
1 lb powdered sugar (4 ¾ C)
¼ C milk
1 ½ tsp vanilla
Food coloring

Cream butter, gradually add about half the sugar, blending well. Beat in 2 Tb milk and vanilla. Blend in remaining sugar, add milk to desired consistency.

Rugelach

"A yummy not-too-sweet pastry rolled with cinnamon sugar, nuts and chocolate"
Makes 48 cookies
(allrecipes.com)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unsalted butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Cut cold butter or margarine and cream cheese into bits. In food processor pulse flour, salt, sugar, vanilla, butter or margarine, cream cheese and sour cream until crumbly.
2. Shape crumbly mixture into four equal disks. Wrap each disk and chill 2 hours or up to 2 days. 3. Roll each disk into a 9 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them.
4. Combine sugar, cinnamon, chopped pecans, and chocolate chips.
5. Roll each disk into a 9 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them. Sprinkle round with sugar/nut mixture. Press lightly into dough. With chefs knife or pizza cutter, cut each round into 12 wedges. Roll wedges from wide to narrow, you will end up with point on outside of cookie. Place on ungreased baking sheets and chill rugelach 20 minutes before baking.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
7. After rugelach are chilled, bake them in the center rack of your oven 20 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks. Store in airtight containers. They freeze very well.
8. Variations: Before putting the filling on the dough, use a pastry brush to layer apricot jam as well as brown sugar. Then add chopped nuts and chopped raisins. You may also make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and roll the rugelach in this prior to putting them on the cookie sheets.

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

This recipe makes 18 cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes (Amy Sedaris)
1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar
Beat well, then add:
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk
Beat well, fill cups about ¾ full, and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Ganache (chockylit)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup strawberries, diced
1. Chop chocolate and transfer into a heat proof bowl.
2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate.
3. Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.
4. Add vanilla and salt. Stir until combined.
5. Divide the ganache in two approximate equal portions. In the first portion, mix in the chopped strawberries. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill.
6. Leave the second portion on the counter to cool down. You want the filling to thicken up before the glaze.

Assembly
1. Cut out a cone from each cupcake. Flip the cone and cut off the excess. Set the top aside.
2. Fill each cavity with the strawberry-chocolate ganache
3. Replace each top
4. Glaze top with plain chocolate ganache
5. Pipe sweetened whipped cream on top and decorate with a fresh strawberry

I put the leftover cupcakes in the refrigerater, then laughed. They looked like a little bit of heaven in the middle of that ugly mess of condiments.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Cookies and Cream Cupcake (makes about 2 dozen):
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites (room temp)
1 cup Oreos (about 10) lightly crushed

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Insert liners into standard sized cupcake pan
2. Ina large bowl cream together butter and vanilla till fluffy, then slowly add milk (it may look a bit lumpy after you add the milk, it's okay.) Beat 3 min.
3. In a seperate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Ad the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in the sugar. Beat on low speed 30 seconds. Beat 2 more minutes on medium Add the egg whites and beat for 2 minutes on medium. Stir in the crushed cookies.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake 18-20 minutes till tothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Marshmallow Frosting:
2 tablespoons milk
6 tablespoons sugar
1 pkg mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and sugar for 6 minutes
2. In a double boiler heat the marshmallows. When they are very soft add the boiling water. Stir until smooth.
3. Remove from heat. Add the vanilla. With an electric mixer on medium speed beat in the hot sugar. Keep beating until cool.

Note: I have tried a few different recipes for marshmallow frsoting and that are all difficult to use, this one is no exeption. I prefer to leave the frosting to cool to room temperature before using it (otherwise it is too runny to work with). Then just spread it on, don't try to pipe it.

I topped these cupcakes with a whole Oreo cookie. They were pretty messy. I liked them even better after they sat overnight and the Oreo on top softened up.
Here's another idea put an Oreo in the cupcake liner before filling, then put cupcake batter on top and cook as directed. Sorry, no picture. I loaned out my camera. I guess that just means I'll have to make these again!

Lamingtons

(Joyofbaking.com)

You know how I love individual sized stuff, here is a fun variation on an individual cake.
Lamingtons are one of Australia's national cakes and consist of a small square of white cake (sponge, butter, or pound) that is dipped in a sweet chocolate icing and then rolled in desiccated coconut. I chose to vary a bit from the original and left some coated in pure chocolate and some rolled in toffee bits. The turned out really tasty, I loved the way some of the chocolate frosting soaked into the outside layer of the cake. But I should warn you, these are a time consuming.

Cake Recipe:
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
Chocolate Frosting:
4 cups (1 lb.) (454 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder (I like to use Dutch-processed)
3 tablespoons (42 grams) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
Coating:
Here’s where you can be creative
I used: coconut, toffee bits
Other ideas: chopped nuts (hazelnuts would be good)

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place oven rack to middle position. Butter, or spray with a nonstick cooking spray, the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square cake pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In bowl of electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cake in its pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan. Re-invert. Freeze the cake for several hours (or overnight- The reason for doing this is that it is much easier (less crumbs) to coat a cold cake with frosting.) Cut it into 16 two-inch squares
Chocolate Frosting: Place the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir the mixture until it becomes smooth and of pouring consistency.
To assemble Lamingtons: Make a production line; put the 16 squares of cakes on a wire rack that is placed over a baking sheet (to catch the drips). Have ready the coconut on a large plate and the chocolate frosting. Spoon or ladle the chocolate frosting over each square of cake, making sure you cover all sides. (It is best to do a few squares at a time.) With a small offset spatula or knife transfer the chocolate covered cake to the plate of coconut and roll the cake in the coconut, covering all sides. Gently transfer the lamington to a clean wire rack to set. Repeat with the rest of the cake squares. Once the Lamingtons have set, store in an airtight container for several days.
Note: When you ladle the frosting over the cake, some of the frosting will drip onto the baking pan. Pour this frosting back in your bowl and reuse (strain if necessary). If the icing becomes too thick to pour, simply place the frosting back over the saucepan of simmering water and reheat until it is of pouring consistency. (You may have to do this a few times as the frosting has a tendency to thicken over time. Add a little more milk to frosting if necessary to get pouring consistency.)
Makes 16 2-inch (5 cm) squares

White Chocolate Cheesecake Fruit Tart

I love this recipe- it's super easy and looks impressive- and most important it's very yummy!

Graham Cracker Crumb Tart:
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 ¾ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
Cream Filling:
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped and melted
¼ cup sour cream or creme fraiche
Garnish:
Any combination of berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries) or other fruit such as slices of peaches, plums, bananas, or kiwi
Graham Cracker Crumb Tart: Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a one 10-inch tart pan.
Cream Filling: Melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Watch carefully as white chocolate scorches very easily. Remove from heat and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy and smooth (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the melted white chocolate and then the sour cream, beating until you have a creamy smooth mixture. Smooth the cream into the tart shell. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
To serve: Top with fresh berries or cut up fruit.
Note: this could also be done in 8 individual size (4 inch) tarts, that way you can personlize the topping according to your guests tastes.