Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Be Back Soon!
I'm sure you're all expecting another lovely blog post this week about something delicious, delectable,or even fantastic. I'm so sorry to disappoint everyone, but I'm working in DC this week as part of a work group to redesign our training program for newly hired employees. It's a huge honor, only 12 of us out of 40,000 employees were selected to take part in this work shop. I am so excited to get to take part in redesigning the program and getting to network with the best and brightest our organization has to offer, along with some great folks from headquarters and Lockheed.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Special Surprise Inside!
Ok, are we done with all of this New Year's Resolution silliness? Yes? Great. I have the most decadent chocolate cookie to share with you this week. Even better than chocolate decadence? There's a surprise inside!
Chocolate Surprise Inside Cookies
Yield: ~24 cookies
1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
24 Rolo caramel candies
Combine the cake mix, eggs and oil, stirring just until all the large lumps are out. (Don't be afraid to reach in and mix with your hands!) The dough will be quite stiff, like a fudgy brownie dough.
To shape the cookies, grab about 1-2 T of dough (a large-ish ball) and flatten it in the palm of your hand. Place the candy in the center and roll the dough around the candy. Try to keep the caramel in the center of the cookie so as to avoid any messy blowouts while baking.
Bake for about 8 minutes. The cookies will still be a little soft. To get the crackled look, just push down on the baked cookies before they cool. I made mine in both my whoopie pie pan (thanks Angela!) and on a regular cookie sheet. I was worried the cookies would spread too much, but they held their shape really well. A regular non-stick ungreased cookie sheet will work just fine.
Don't they look delicious? A sprinkling of powdered sugar would go really well on these to 'dress them up' a little (I thought they were sweet enough without).
Other surprise inside ideas? Maybe mini Reese's cups inside? Or Andes mints?
Yield: ~24 cookies
1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
24 Rolo caramel candies
Combine the cake mix, eggs and oil, stirring just until all the large lumps are out. (Don't be afraid to reach in and mix with your hands!) The dough will be quite stiff, like a fudgy brownie dough.
To shape the cookies, grab about 1-2 T of dough (a large-ish ball) and flatten it in the palm of your hand. Place the candy in the center and roll the dough around the candy. Try to keep the caramel in the center of the cookie so as to avoid any messy blowouts while baking.
Bake for about 8 minutes. The cookies will still be a little soft. To get the crackled look, just push down on the baked cookies before they cool. I made mine in both my whoopie pie pan (thanks Angela!) and on a regular cookie sheet. I was worried the cookies would spread too much, but they held their shape really well. A regular non-stick ungreased cookie sheet will work just fine.
Don't they look delicious? A sprinkling of powdered sugar would go really well on these to 'dress them up' a little (I thought they were sweet enough without).
Other surprise inside ideas? Maybe mini Reese's cups inside? Or Andes mints?
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Keep Your New Year's Resolutions!
Just because you made a New Year's resolution to eat better or more healthily or to lose weight does not mean you can't have your cupcakes anymore. Really! All you have to do is substitute a few key ingredients and watch the calories disappear. This week I made a lower calorie carrot cupcake just by swapping a few things.
Carrot Cake
1 box white cake mix
3 C carrots grated (about 6-7 medium carrots)
3 egg whites
1 1/2 C applesauce
1/3 C water
1/4 C dried cranberries (I use the Ocean Spray Craisins)
After you grate the carrots, squeeze the excess moisture out by wrapping them in a paper towel and squeezing them over the sink. They don't have to be bone dry, but you'll be surprised by how much water comes out! Combine the cake mix, egg whites, applesauce, and water. Stir in the dried cranberries. Stir in the grated carrots. Bake at 350 for about 20-24 minutes (the excess moisture means they will need a few more minutes in the oven).
What did I substitute? 3 egg whites for 3 whole eggs (a calorie savings of 159 calories). Applesauce for vegetable oil, which saves 339 calories. Craisins for raisins which saves 35 calories. These few easy substitutions just saved you 533 calories, which comes to 22 calories saved per cupcake.
Another really easy way to save calories is to cut out the frosting. Don't get me wrong, I love frosting, but the vast majority of the calories hide in the frosting (cream cheese, butter, sugar, all of the good stuff). Or you can limit the amount you put on. One way to do that is to make the frosting into a filling. You will most likely only be able to get 1, maybe 2 tablespoons of frosting into the cupcake, as opposed to the gobs that would normally go on top of it. To keep the cupcake from looking too bare, sprinkle some large crystal sugar on the top.
Cream Cheese Frosting
16 oz Neufchatel 1/3 fat cream cheese (softened)
1/2 C butter (softened)
2 C powdered sugar
2-4 T milk (until it reaches the consistency you want)
2 t vanilla
Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla and add milk until you have the consistency that you want. (Some like thinner frosting, some like thicker).
Frost the tops of the cupcakes, or cut out a small hole in the middle of the cupcake and fill with the cream cheese frosting. Replace just the top of the cut out portion of the cupcake to hide the filling if you aren't going to frost the tops as well.
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| Lower Calorie Carrot Cupcakes |
Carrot Cake
1 box white cake mix
3 C carrots grated (about 6-7 medium carrots)
3 egg whites
1 1/2 C applesauce
1/3 C water
1/4 C dried cranberries (I use the Ocean Spray Craisins)
After you grate the carrots, squeeze the excess moisture out by wrapping them in a paper towel and squeezing them over the sink. They don't have to be bone dry, but you'll be surprised by how much water comes out! Combine the cake mix, egg whites, applesauce, and water. Stir in the dried cranberries. Stir in the grated carrots. Bake at 350 for about 20-24 minutes (the excess moisture means they will need a few more minutes in the oven).
What did I substitute? 3 egg whites for 3 whole eggs (a calorie savings of 159 calories). Applesauce for vegetable oil, which saves 339 calories. Craisins for raisins which saves 35 calories. These few easy substitutions just saved you 533 calories, which comes to 22 calories saved per cupcake.
Another really easy way to save calories is to cut out the frosting. Don't get me wrong, I love frosting, but the vast majority of the calories hide in the frosting (cream cheese, butter, sugar, all of the good stuff). Or you can limit the amount you put on. One way to do that is to make the frosting into a filling. You will most likely only be able to get 1, maybe 2 tablespoons of frosting into the cupcake, as opposed to the gobs that would normally go on top of it. To keep the cupcake from looking too bare, sprinkle some large crystal sugar on the top.
Cream Cheese Frosting
16 oz Neufchatel 1/3 fat cream cheese (softened)
1/2 C butter (softened)
2 C powdered sugar
2-4 T milk (until it reaches the consistency you want)
2 t vanilla
Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla and add milk until you have the consistency that you want. (Some like thinner frosting, some like thicker).
Frost the tops of the cupcakes, or cut out a small hole in the middle of the cupcake and fill with the cream cheese frosting. Replace just the top of the cut out portion of the cupcake to hide the filling if you aren't going to frost the tops as well.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Smother Me....In Frosting!
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| Chocolate cupcakes w/vanilla & chocolate cream cheese frosting |
For these cupcakes I just used a chocolate cake mix, but upped the flavor profile by adding 2 teaspoons of chocolate extract. Mmmmmm, liquid chocolate....But back to the recipe. Once you have made your 24 cupcakes, whip up some cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 C softened butter
2-3 C powdered sugar (2 C for soft frosting, 3 C for stiff frosting)
1/3 C milk
1 T vanilla extract
Cream the butter and cream cheese together and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add milk until you reach a desired consistency, then fold in the vanilla. Divide frosting in half, leave one as the vanilla cream cheese frosting. Add 1 T chocolate extract and 1/4 C sifted cocoa powder to the other half of the frosting to make the chocolate cream cheese frosting.
I mixed and matched the two flavors by putting a chocolate filling in the vanilla topped cupcakes and vanilla filling in the chocolate topped cupcakes. I used a large star tip for the vanilla frosting, and just a plain ol' butter knife for the chocolate frosting (with a 'healthy' dollop of vanilla on top of that).
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| Isn't my new stand so pretty? |
*Tip* To make it easier on yourself to fill a pastry bag, simply grab a tall drinking glass, place the pastry bag tip end down into the glass, and fold the top sides of the bag over the edge of the glass. Now you don't need four hands to hold, scrape, scoop and clean off the counter!
Do you have a favorite helpful tidbit for frosting cakes and cupcakes?
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