Fruit Bites & Mini-Raspberry Cupcakes

This is my favorite Mini-Raspberry Cupcake recipe:

Mini-Raspberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes

         1 stick(s) (1⁄2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

         3/4 cup(s) sugar

         1 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking powder

         1/4 teaspoon(s) salt

         2 large eggs

         1 teaspoon(s) raspberry or vanilla extract

         1/2 cup(s) milk, & 5-6 fresh raspberries

         1 1/3 cup(s) all-purpose flour

Raspberry Buttercream

         1 stick(s) (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

         4 cup(s) confectioners’ sugar

         4 tablespoon(s) milk, and 2-3 fresh raspberries

         1 teaspoon(s) raspberry or vanilla extract

         1/2 teaspoon(s) salt

         Red or pink gel or liquid food color (optional)

directions

1.            Heat oven to 350ºF. Line mini-- muffin pans with paper liners. (Don't worry if you only have one pan. After baking a batch, remove baked cupcakes to rack. Then place the pan in your freezer to cool quickly before lining and baking the next batch.)

2.            Beat butter, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with electric mixer on high speed 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Stir extract into milk. Beat in flour in three parts, alternating with milk, just until blended. Spoon 1 Tbsp into each muffin cup.

3.            Bake 15 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes before removing from pan to rack. Cool completely.

4.            Beat all ingredients in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Then increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy. Tint pink if desired. Frost cupcakes.  I love to use silicone, recyclable cake cups.  I let my kids top the mini-cakes with fresh raspberries for the final touch.  Enjoy!

These are pictures from a gathering my cooking club friend, Rupali hosted.  The theme was fruit desserts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Rockin Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 C margarine or shortening

1/2 C peanut butter

1/2 C Sugar

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 C flour

1 bag mini recesses peanut butter cups

SPRAY PAN - really well - Mix all together roll into balls about a tablespoon

size. Put into mini muffin pan.

350 for 7-10 minutes

take out of oven - immediately press peanut butter cups into the center of the cookies. Let cool completely then take out of pan.

** for the shower I put whipping cream and shaved chocolate on them... they didn't look very good, because the whipping cream, fell.....*** I normally don't put anything on top of them. Really easy and YUMMY!

Recipe compliments of Amy Kirby:).

Bananna Chocolate Trifle

Pound cake, whipped cream, banana pudding, and vanilla wafers are layered to form this easy trifle that's sure to please!

INGREDIENTS:

2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant banana pudding mix 1 quart cold milk 2 bananas, chopped 4 cups heavy cream4 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup confectioners' sugar 1 (12 ounce) package prepared pound cake, cubed 1/2 (12 ounce) box vanilla wafers (such as Nilla®), crushed Directions: Whisk pudding mix with milk until smooth. Stir in chopped bananas; set aside. In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, or cream will become lumpy and butter-like. Layer half the pound cake cubes, half the pudding, half the whipped cream, and half the crushed vanilla wafers in a trifle bowl. Repeat with the remaining cake, pudding, and whipped cream, and top with the remaining crushed wafers. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Recipe compliments of Kerry Smitheram.

M&M cookies

M&M cookies:

(Recipe from the M&M website)

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 12-ounce package M&M’S® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies (I couldn't find Minis so I just used regular sized and they worked fine).

3/4 cup chopped nuts (I didn't do nuts, but that might be yummy).

Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla.

In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; blend into butter/sugar mixture.

Stir in M&M’S® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies and nuts, if desired.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft.

Do not overbake. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks. Store in tightly covered container.

I took a before picture of the M&Ms in the dough.

All done!

These cookies were fairly easy and very yummy!

Lemon Curd

I love all things lemon - especially desserts - here is a basic lemon curd recipe that can be used to pair with scones, as filling for a cake, or in a tart - like I did here. All I did was bake a pre-made pie crust and fill it with the curd. I then topped it with some fresh berries.

3 eggs

3/4 C sugar

1/3 C fresh lemon juice

2 TBSP lemon zest

4 TBSP butter, at room temp - cut into small pieces

1. Combine eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. Whisk until smooth. Over a double broiler with simmering water whist mixture for about 10 minutes until it is thickened and coats a spoon.

2. Remove from heat, stir in lemon zest and butter. Cool to room temp before using and store in refrigerator for up to 7 days.

Luau time!

Hi Everyone, I am Marianne! I am really excited to share with you all today a party I planned for my cousin last month. (And it involves some food too!)

A while ago My aunt asked me if I would be in charge of planning my cousin Cammi's 7th birthday party. I agreed to and I'm glad I did! I'm going to take you step by step into Cammi's party in case you want to throw a party like this too or just see some cute ideas. Cammi wanted Bright colors, so I thought of a Luau theme! I worked great.

1. Invitations. I started by looking for invitations on Etsy and I found Pink Pickle studio's etsy shop. I loved their cute Luau invites so we ordered those. You can see them HERE. We just printed them out at cosco and then hand delivered them or emailed them.

2. The set up. We had the party in Cammi's backyard. We set up 2 tables and lots of chairs for where the kids would eat. We got the cute table clothes at Party city.


3. Food! The party was at 1:30 so we made it simple and just did snacks and cupcakes. The kids loved the food! We had: Tropical juice pouches, Rainbow goldfish, Cheesy sun chips (Cammi's request), A fruit rainbow, and cupcakes!



My mom made this fruit rainbow out of different fruit and marshmallows... Don't you just want to eat it?!



4. The cupcakes! I am SOO happy with how they turned out! I found the idea at Family fun's site. They took a long time to make but were really yummy.




Here is the recipe in case you want to try making these cute fish! I got the recipe from Family fun and was very impressed with it.

You will need:

• 24 cupcakes (I did half chocolate & half vanilla)
  
• vanilla frosting (I just used a butter cream recipe I love)
  
• food coloring (yellow, orange, blue, green)

• M&M's
• candy fruit slices
  

Directions:

1. Spoon 1/3 cup of the frosting into a ziplock bag ( I used a piping bag) and set it aside.

2. In a bowl, tint 1/2 cup of the frosting with yellow food coloring. Evenly divide the remaining frosting among three more bowls and tint one portion orange, one blue, and one green.
   

3. Frost the first group of colored cupcake fish, then press four rows of identically colored M&M scales into each as shown ,you'll need two 1-pound bags of M&M's altogether. ( I just bought one of the huge bags of M&Ms) Add 2 red M&M lips.

4. Snip a corner from the frosting bag, then pipe a frosting eye onto each fish and press a brown M&M on top. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and frosting, then assemble them into a fish shape.

5. Attach a candy fruit slice onto five or six of the cupcakes as shown.

I had this idea then to make Cammi a Rainbow fish! She was the only one who had it and it was a special birthday treat for her.

5. The activities. We split them up into 4 different groups and the rotated to each different activity

Activity #1.. Limbo! Sorry no pictures...

Activity #2 Digging for treasure!

We bought a kiddie pool at Walmart, bought sand at home depot and filled it with fun prizes from the 99 cents store! The kids loved this activity and thought it was so much fun!



Activity #3 Donuts on a string! It was very fun for everyone.
Activity # 4 Games with Hula hoops and balls!
I was in charge of this station. All I did was come up with a few quick games with the balls and hula hoops, but everyone had fun. They also blew bubbles and danced to Hawaiian music!



6. Pinata time!

Here is the cute fish pinata we bought at party city. We filled it with candy and let the kids hit away!


7. The party buckets
We found sand buckets that were a great price and filled them with some fun stuff. Like their own canteen/water bottles, rubber duckies, a Hawaiian kit to make a bracelet, bubbles, a noise maker, candy from pinata and the prizes from sand digging. They also got a Lei at the beginning of the party from the birthday girl.


The Birthday girl was very happy and I hope she had a great birthday! ( I just had to take a picture with her and the amazing clouds in the background!)

For the LOVE of CHOCOLATE {divine truffles}

Rupali's Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup brandy (optional... can use corn syrup)
• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder, finely chopped nuts, and/or toasted coconut, for coating truffles
• 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

Directions

Place the 10 ounces of chocolate and butter in a medium size glass mixing bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove and stir, and repeat this process 1 more time. Set aside.
Heat the heavy cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture over the melted chocolate mixture; let stand for 2 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, stir gently, starting in the middle of bowl and working in concentric circles until all chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and creamy. Gently stir in the brandy. Pour the mixture into an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Using a melon baller, scoop chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and return to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Place the cocoa powder, nuts, and/or toasted coconut each in its own pie pan and set aside.
In the meantime, place the 8 ounces of chocolate into a medium mixing bowl which is sitting on top of a heating pad lined bowl, with the heating pad set to medium. Depending on the heating pad, you may need to adjust the heat up or down. Stirring the chocolate occasionally, test the temperature of the chocolate and continue heating until it reaches 90 to 92 degrees F; do not allow the chocolate to go above 94 degrees F. If you do, the coating will not have a nice snap to it when you bite into the chocolate. Once you have reached the optimal temperature, adjust the heat to maintain it.
Remove the truffles from the refrigerator and shape into balls by rolling between the palms of your hands. Use powder-free vinyl or latex gloves, if desired.
Dip an ice cream scoop into the chocolate and turn upside down to remove excess chocolate. Place truffles 1 at time into the scoop and roll around until coated. Then place the truffle into the dish with either the cocoa powder, nuts or coconut. Move the truffle around to coat; leave truffle in the coating for 10 to 15 seconds before removing. In the meantime, continue placing the chocolate-coated truffles in the cocoa or other secondary coating. After 10 to 15 seconds, remove the truffle to a parchment lined sheet pan. Repeat until all truffles are coated. Allow to set in a cool dry place for at least 1 hour; or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Truffles are best when served at room temperature.

Cori's Pumpkin Cookies:

2C flour

1t+1/2t baking powder

1t. baking soda

1/2t salt

1t. ground cinamon

1/4t ground nutmeg

1/4t ground cloves

2 eggs

3/4C sugar

1/2C + 1/8C butter

1C +1/2C fresh pumpkin (canned will work)

1t vanilla extract

3/4C chopped walnuts

1 Orange (Zest)

1C dried cranberries

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets w/parchment paper and butter the paper

2. stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl. Set aside

3. In large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed (ok by hand) beat eggs, and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 min. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides as needed. On low speed, mix oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix the flour mixture to incorporate it. Stir in the nuts, zest and cranberries by hand.

4. Scoop mounds (aprox. tablespoon size) of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2" apart.

5. Bake cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 8mins. Let cool on the sheet for 5mins. before transferring to a rack or plate to cool completely. Makes 32 cookies

Raspberry Pretzel Squares

This has become a Thanksgiving side dish tradition. It sounds strange, but trust me - this dish is so so yummy!

2 2/3 Cups Chopped Pretzels

1 1/2 Cubes Butter

12 oz Cream Cheese

1 1/4 Cups Sugar

1 large package of frozen raspberries

3/4 Carton Cool Whip

1 large package of strawberry Jello

2 Cups Pineapple Juice

1. Cream Cream Cheese and Sugar, set aside.

2. Mix pretzels and butter, press into a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

3. Spread cream cheese mixture over pretzels. (This is tough, and I usually end up mixing the pretzels and cream cheese together)

4. Spread cool whip over the top and chill.

5. Dissolve jello in hot pineapple juice, add the frozen berries and let it set up slightly. Pour over the top of the cool whip and refrigerate.