Oreo Cupcakes

A coworker asked if I would make a treat for our interns who are leaving us to head back to school. In my stack of recipes I found this beauty, Oreo Cupcakes. I love looking at all the cooking and baking blogs out on the Internet and Bakerella is one of my favorites. She posted the recipe awhile back and I couldn't stop salivating (sorry, gross word) while reading it. And after making these, it did not disappoint.

I thought about taking step by step pictures but due to lack of sleep and time all you are getting is the final result, which wasn't exactly how I envisioned them to be. My brain was not functioning and I was hoping I could get my Oreos crushed up enough, sans food processor, to put in my frosting. Not so much, after popping 2 decorating bags I gave up and just slapped the frosting on. Don't let my pictures be deceiving, make these, they are tasty and well worth every calorie.

I ended up making the cupcakes in two different ways. The first way was taking an Oreo and crushing it up and adding it directly to the batter.

Crushed Oreo Cookies

I loved the way these cupcakes looked right out of the oven. The cream filling and cookie pieces add a nice texture to the batter.



Even though the cookie crumb addition to the frosting caused me quite a headache I love the way it makes the frosting look.

Oreo Cupcake



The second way I made the cupcake was adding a whole Oreo to the cupcake. No crushing up, just added as is. I wasn't quite sure how these would turn out but surprisingly I preferred this way over the crushed cookies. As if a cupcake or an Oreo alone isn't bad enough for you, why not combine them? I love the way these look post first bite.

Whole Oreo Cupcake

 

Close-Up of Whole Oreo Cupcake

Owl Cake Pops

Well its a good thing Krista came out of the woodwork and our wonderful older sister Breanna did some baking, otherwise this blog would be incredibly boring! I have been busy working my normal job and at the great Minnesota Get-Together! Its been fun and exhausting and I just keep thinking it was only weekend one. Ohh well.  Today you are very lucky to get a guest blog post from Breanna. She is so incredibly creative and talented that it makes me quite jealous. I hope you enjoy her Owl Cake Pop post! Hopefully, I will resurface sometime soon after Labor Day.



Last year about this time, Holy Hannah’s posted about apple cake pops.  I brought them to school for  Workshop Week and the staff LOVED them.  Fast forward 12 months to a back-to-school gathering I was at.  My coworkers cornered me, asking what kind of cake pops I was going to bring to Workshop Week this year. 


Oops. 

Cake pops –for whatever reason – weren’t on my radar this year.  As I sat with the Cake Pop book, trying to figure out what to do, my loving hubby JB came up with the phrase “Hope your year is a HOOT” to go with Owl cake pops.  I was game!  He knows I heart anything with owls.

These owls were successful because I followed a step by step process.  Trust me…I tried taking a few shortcuts here and there with some of the steps and the guinea “owl” just fell apart.  I did not take pictures from the beginning (shame shame) but JB broke out the camera to document adding the finishing touches to the owls.   Prior to these steps, I shaped the cake balls with a slight point on the bottom.  Then I dipped the stick in the candy melt and pushed it half way into the cake ball.  Next, I added chocolate chips for the ears by dipping the bottoms in candy melt and attaching them to the top of the cake ball.  When those dried, I dipped the entire ball in candy melt so that we had what you see below.

Plain Owls

In order to add the details to the owls, you need pink flower shaped sprinkles, white candy necklace pieces, and orange rock candy sprinkles. 

Ingredients

Using a toothpick, dab a small amount of candy melt on the owl.  Add the eyes and the beak.

Following the same procedure, add the feet.

And voila!  Cake pop owls. 

Finally, this is a picture of the finished product, all set for school tomorrow!  Wish me luck!

Hope Your Year is a Hoot!

Still Alive...

I'm not sure if you were worried, but I am still alive and baking!Since I got a new job and Mike and I moved into our house, I've been a bit busy, but I'm back in action!

This past weekend, my aunt had a party for my cousin Brady. He is turning 9 on Saturday. I know you've all seen this cake before, but Brady requested my vanilla bean cake with strawberry buttercream frosting.

It looked a bit girly, so I tried to boy-it-up a bit by piping in blue.

And I love to add the strawberries around the outside of this cake, thanks for the tip Chelsea :)

A silly one because I forced him to take a picture with the cake...

I can't believe our little Brady is all grown up and turning 9! Stay tuned for more from me this week :)

Pasta Salad

Pasta salad and baking have nothing to do with one another. However, instead of baking last night I made pasta salad so that's the recipe you are getting. Plus it was hotter than Hades in Minnesota again last night so turning on the oven didn't sound like the brightest idea. Nothing is better in the summer than a nice, cool, refreshing pasta salad (none of that lettuce salad stuff!)


This pasta salad is very easy to make and you only need a few ingredients.

Rotini Noodles, Italian Dressing, Suddenly Salad Supreme Seasoning, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Onion, and Pepperoni

Start by cooking the noodles according to the box.


While the noodles are cooking, chop up your onions

Chop up your cucumber

Chop up your tomatoes

Chop up your pepperonis

Once the noodles are cooked to al dente allow to cool before adding your ingredients

Now grab an ice cream bucket, yes, we are classy like that. And of course we had to pick up the limited edition Joe Mauer ice cream bucket.

Dump in your noodles.

Add a generous portion of the Italian dressing. Again this salad is meant to be easy and there is no measuring to be done. Mix until noodles are covered.

Add in the onions

 
Add in the cucumbers

Add in the tomatoes

Mix it thoroughly. I just liked this action shot so that is why you are getting the picture. Krista is really getting into it!

 
Add in a heaping amount of Suddenly Salad Supreme seasoning. If you have never used this stuff before, stop what you are doing (well finish reading the post), drive/walk/run to the store and pick some of it up. To die for!

Add in the pepperonis

Give it one final mix, and try a sample. It might need more dressing, or more salad supreme, or even an extra bit of onion. It really comes down to your personal preference. So don't be scared if you have the urge to add more of something. As my mother always says more is better.

Pasta Salad

Enjoy!

Potato Chip Cookies

So because we are a bunch of fools, we forgot to take pictures of all 250 cookies...I know I am sad too! I really would have like to a have 1 picture with every cookie accounted for! I suppose between rushing to the wedding and packing up cookies from two different houses it slipped our minds.
But no worries, I baked some more cookies over the weekend that I thought you might find intriguing. This is the only word I could think of when I got the recipe.

Here are the ingredients you will need

Butter, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Eggs, Vanilla Extract, Potato Chips, Flour, Baking Soda, and Butterscotch Chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Start by mixing 2 sticks of softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ( I only had vanilla bean paste on-hand so just pretend its extract).

Now this part of the recipe is therapeutic. Put a handful of potato chips inside a Ziploc bag and pound them to smithereens!

Add in 2 cups of crushed potato chips to the batter.

Mix in the dry ingredients, 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Stir in a bag of butterscotch chips

My mother is quite particular about her treats. One thing for certain is she does not like butterscotch chips. So in order to appease her I made her own separate batch of potato chip cookies with chocolate chips in them.

Roll the cookies into 2 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Potato Chip Cookies

Stack of Potato Chip Cookies

Potato Chip Cookie

I had a lot of fun making these. Especially since no one knew what the secret ingredient was. Everyone assumed the butterscotch chips were meant to make them special (remember, the forgotten chip). These cookies definitely had an extra crunch to them but I was hoping the chips would make more of an appearance. Maybe I took my chip crunching therapy a little far and I crushed them up too tiny? Not quite sure, but these cookies were definitely delicious enough to be made again, and again, and again.

Side note, these cookies tasted better with butterscotch chips, no matter what my mother tries to tell you.

Just a thought for all my Minnesota readers, doesn't this cookie sound like it should be deep-fried, put on a stick and sold at the state fair?? I cannot wait for the fair to start in T-minus 3 days!