All I Want To Do...

...is bake cupcakes all day long! Except I get stuck eating most of them, and that's probably not good for one's diet haha I baked White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes for New Year's Eve. I found a similar recipe at Baking Bites, but I dressed it up with peppermint extract and crushed candy canes. Since I only had enough white chocolate for the batter, I used a plain cream cheese frosting.

Nicole's recipe called for 18 cupcakes, so I cut it in half and made 9. Next time, I will probably make the same amount but scoop out 6 cupcakes because as you can somewhat see, mine were too tiny to be full cupcakes. I also ended up baking them an extra 10 minutes.

I imagine you can do more with the white chocolate cupcakes as a base, such as adding raspberries or macadamia nuts. A raspberry buttercream perhaps?


White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting




3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2-oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tsp milk

Frosting
2-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/8 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp milk
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pans with 6 cupcake liners.

2. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. Melt white chocolate by either heating it in 30 second intervals in the microwave or in a heat-proof bowl over boiling water. Stir well with a fork and cook only until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.

4. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg, followed by chocolate and peppermint extract. Working in three additions, alternate adding in milk and flour mixture, ending with flour. Mix until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

5. Bake 20-23 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Cool on a wire rack.

6. Frosting: Cream together cream cheese and butter. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches desired consistency. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Makes 6 cupcakes.

Source: Adapted from Baking Bites

Winding Down 2008

Here's one last holiday cookie recipe for 2008. This cookie needs time to chill in the refrigerator because it softens quite easily, but once cut and baked, they look beautiful. Although these look nice on a holiday cookie tray, you could probably make these any time during the year, maybe even change up the flavors and color.




Mint is one of my favorite flavors. I decided this holiday to give in and buy peppermint extract. I used it in my peppermint bark and these cookies. I was going to do cupcakes, but my brother brought home a cookie tray from his work, so we were over our heads in sweets.


Chocolate Mint Pinwheels




1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp oil
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp peppermint extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1-2 drops green food coloring

1. In large mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter, water, oil, 1 tsp baking powder, vanilla, and peppermint extract at medium speed until creamy (2-3 minutes). Reduce speed to low. Add flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and salt. Beat until well mixed (1-2 minutes).

2. Remove half of dough. Add melted chocolate to one half and food coloring to the other half. Shape each half into a rectangle and wrap in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Roll out each rectangle thin but not too thin. Place green rectangle on top of chocolate rectangle. Gently press together. Roll up, jelly roll fashion. Refrigerate for another 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut roll into 1/4-inch slices. Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes or until set. Cool completely.

Makes 12 cookies.

Source: Land-O-Lake's 5th Annual Holiday Cookies, 1998 p.24

Chocolate Covered Cherries? Not Exactly...

I love chocolate covered cherries. I could probably eat an entire box myself, so whenever I stumbled upon this recipe at school one day, I knew I had to make them for Christmas. I tweaked the recipe a bit because there wasn't enough liquid holding the dough together. I also cut it down to one dozen because we are dealing with enough cookies already. Some of the recipe reviewers suggested using the chocolate cherry kisses Hershey makes to bring the whole recipe together, but since we already had regular kisses in the house, that's what I used. Make sure you put enough chopped cherry in the dough because the bites without the cherries lack some of the cherry flavor.

Cherry Chocolate Blossoms




1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
2-3 drops red food coloring
2/3 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp maraschino cherries, chopped
12 chocolate kisses, unwrapped

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine powdered sugar, butter, juice, almond extract, and food coloring. Add flour and salt. Mix well. Stir in chopped cherries.

2. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Immediately top each cookie with a kiss, pressing down firmly to flatten out cookies. Remove to cooling rack.

Makes 12 cookies.

Source: Recipe Zaar

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Now that Christmas is only a few days away, time to get some serious holiday baking finished. If you are pressed for time or just too tired to make any more cookies, you can make this easy Peppermint Bark. It also lets you relieve some stress because you crush the candy canes (although I had some trouble).

Peppermint Bark




All you do is melt white chocolate, mix in crushed peppermints and a little bit of peppermint extract, spread it on some wax paper, and let chill for about an hour or so. Once it is hardened, you break into chunks. Perfect when company arrives on short notice.

Source: Recipe Zaar