I Heart Bakerella's Cupcake Lollipops

It was a typical February afternoon in Seattle. Cold, windy and rainy. Blah. The day was progressing like any other and it was lunch time. I had just arrived back to my desk, waiting patiently for my piping hot (yet still frozen in the center) Cedarlane vegetable enchiladas to cool off. As I do just about every work day, I fired up the first of several of my favorite blogs while I started to dig into my lunch:NotMartha.org. The daily post consisted of a collection of a bunch of links to interesting stuff of or related to my favorite subject: food. Yay!

I scroll through the links: something about beef (gross), crust less quiche (promising)...and then I see it: "cake lollipops at Bakerella". Bakerella? Cake lollipops? I'm so there!

Oh. My. Goodness. These cake lollipops were the cutest things ever! That was until I clicked on the picture and was directed to Flickr. I immediately started looking at Bakerella's photostream and that's when I saw them....Cupcake Lollipops!!! Only the coolest most adorable thing EVER! I knew right then and there I had to make these -- so I did, two months later :-)

These were challenging (and fun...and messy!) to make but worth the effort. If you'd like to make them you can either go to Bakerella's blog where she *just* posted really wonderful step by step instructions (I would have loved these yesterday!) or to theMarthaStewart.com website(there's a step by step video there). Bakerella, was invited to be on the show to make these! How cool is she?

I have a few tips after making these:

1. I didn't use cheesecake frosting from a can but instead make it from scratch. I just don't care for canned icing. The recipe still worked out fine, although the "dough" (cake + frosting mixed together) was on the soft side. My recipe is really simple: 3 8oz blocks of cream cheese, at room temperature. 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature. 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix the cheese and butter together until really well blended, add the vanilla and mix again. Add powdered sugar and mix on low until the sugar is combined. Then mix on high for about 2 minutes. Done. (Makes about 2 1/2 cups)

2. Don't skimp on the Almond Bark for the bottoms of the little cakes or try to use candy melts or even real chocolate. What's Almond Bark? This is the stuff you usually find on the bottom shelf of the chocolate chip isle that comes in a solid block. It typically comes in two flavors: chocolate and vanilla. Don't worry, it doesn't taste like almond or contain almonds. What I loved about this product was that it stayed viscous for a long time which meant I didn't have to keep tempering it. I also loved the way it looked when it set. It was very smooth and even. Eventually I ran out and had to use candy melts instead and the texture was just different and it didn't look as pretty to me as the bark did. I think the almond bark also adds a nice chocolaty flavor. The candy melts don't really taste like anything so bark is a nice contrast.

3. The directions to use the 1 1/4-by-3/4-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter. I had a hard time finding this at first but eventually found it at Williams & Sonoma as part of a six piece pack for $10. I also found the exact same six piece pack, although packaged differently, at Michael's for $3. Yeah... I'm bringing back the set from Williams & Sonoma (rip off!).


4. While you're at Micheal's, pick yourself up a big hunk of WHITE Styrofoam. Avoid the green kind. Why? Well, the green kind is designed to work more with silk flowers and breaks apart as you touch it. Before you know it you have have this green, sand-like material all over the place, which will attach itself to the pops. Ick.

5. Give yourself lots of time. It took me many hours to make this from start to finish. Be patient and think through each step before you start.

6. Always use the lollipop stick when handling the cupcakes, especially when you're sticking them into the Styrofoam. I made the mistake of pushing on down onto the top of the cupcake to stick it into the Styrofoam and the stick went right through the top of the cupcake, breaking it.

I really enjoyed making these little guys. I already have some other ideas on what I can use the "dough" to make next. It's a great way to show your creativity. I think I got a little carried away but I loved the results.
Bakerella, thank you for this recipe. You're a genius!

Yield: I made two cakes, using two boxes of cake mix and made about 75 total cupcakes.
Would I Make This Again? Um, YES! Just a little aside: One of the gals at the party today asked me if I made food like this for a living after she ate one of these little guys. I laughed out loud and told her I was a business analyst by day. If there was ever a reason to rate a recipe 5 out of 5, that was it.
(I made this one for my hubby. Happy Anniversary honey!)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip One-Bite Sammies

Okay, so yeah... it's been a few um, months since my last post. But, life has threw me a few curve balls and I didn't feel much like baking. One of the biggest changes has been that I am no longer working for the company that started the whole "Birthday Fairy" thing. I've since started over at a new company in a completely different industry. So far so good! I'm really enjoying the new job and the new folks that I get the pleasure to work with everyday.

Now that I'm settled, I'm really starting to get the itch to bake again. Yippee! I have a lot of awesome stuff lined up too. So get ready!

So on to the good stuff....the cookies!

I selected these because the other day I sent out an email to some friends at work asking them for suggestions on what I should make. My boss and I were talking about it and I told her I was thinking about making something with peanut butter and chocolate. Right when I said that she stopped in her tracks and said, "I was just going to say chocolate and peanut butter! Woah... that's so freaky!" I figured it was a sign. :-)

These cookie sandwiches are really something special. As you eat them, the flavors change and mature. I highly recommend using really good milk chocolate for the filling such as Green and Blacks brand. Also, as much as I try to avoid the cheapo peanut butter with all the sugar, these cookies really need to be made with it. Don't use natural peanut butter as it's just not emulsified or sweet enough for this recipe.

These cookies are an adaptation of this recipe that I found on Epicurious.com

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (packed) dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter like Jiff, NOT all natural
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups (about 8 ounces) of mini milk chocolate chips for small cookies and normal sized chips for larger cookies

Filling
3 ounces high-quality milk chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter like Jiff NOT all natural
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons whipping cream

Preparation
For cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, and butter in large bowl to blend. Add peanut butter; beat until creamy. Gradually beat in vegetable oil and vanilla extract, then egg. Add dry ingredients; mix just until blended. Stir in milk chocolate chips.

I used this teaspoon-sized cookie scoop but the size is really up to you. Epicurious's recipe says to use a level tablespoonful of dough. Either way, drop cookies onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing about 1/2 inch apart for the tiny sized cookie and up to 1 1/2 inches apart for the tablesoon size. Honestly, I didn't feel like these cookies spread all that much. They rise up and then fall, that's about it.

Bake cookies until puffed and golden brown, about 8 minutes for the smaller cookie and 12 minutes for the larger. Cool slightly, then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely. Seriously...wait for them to really cool down. Otherwise when you try to fill them, the filling will just ooze out and the two cookies won't stay together.

For filling: Place chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and kosher salt in medium bowl. Bring whipping cream to boil in heavy small saucepan. Pour hot cream over chocolate mixture; stir until mixture is melted and smooth. Chill until filling is thick and spreadable, about 1 hour. Spread a small dollop for smaller cookies and about 1 rounded teaspoonful of chocolate-peanut butter filling on flat side of 1 cookie. Top with second cookie, forming sandwich. Repeat with remaining filling and cookies. (Cookie sandwiches can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator or at room temperature.)

Yield: I made the minis and I lost count after that 6th batch. Each batch was averaging about 30 cookies each...so yeah, it made a lot of cookies! Epicurious says their recipe makes 2 1/2 dozen.
Would I Make This Again? I think so. If I met someone who was a die hard chocolate and peanut butter fanatic, this would be the first thing that would come to mind. These cookies on the crispy side and are not very chewy.... but don't get me wrong, they are good just at bit unexpected. The filling is really something else too. I'd love this in between the layers of chocolate cake. Another plus about this recipe is that it makes so many, so if you need to feed a crowd, this might be a good choice. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Groundhog Day Cupcakes

Groundhog Day has always been a favorite movie of my husband. He was so inspired by it he bought a piano and taught himself how to play! Last year, on February 2nd, he started a ritual with our son where they watch the movie together. It was Jake's first time seeing it and he loved it so much that he asked to watch it again the next day. That day a tradition was born. Tomorrow evening they will watch the movie again and to commemorate the event I created a special Groundhog Day cupcake. I did my usual research on the web and I found a few recipes but none of them really looked much like an actual groundhog, so I created my own. I think Phil would be proud!

In case it doesn't come through in the photograph, it's a groundhog coming up out of it's snow covered burrow to see it's shadow. The cupcake is buttermilk chocolate-almond cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting (which is suppose to be snow). The little guy in the center is made from Tootsie rolls, regular size and mini chocolate chips, white candy melts, and cocoa. The cake crumbs around his head are suppose to be the dirt from his burrow. Yum!

One of my husband's favorite quotes from the movie:
Piano Teacher: Not bad... Mr. Connors, you say this is your first lesson?
Phil: Yes, but my father was a piano *mover*, so...

This just in! Phil Says Spring is Right Around the Corner! Straight from Gobbler's Knob, read Phil's official forecast here. I wonder if my cupcakes helped scare his shadow away? :-)

Jake's Pizza Cake

Tonight is my son's 11th birthday party and because I am the Birthday Fairy, last weekend I offered to make him any dessert he wanted. He originally asked for a cat cake, but the idea of cutting and eating a cake shaped like his favorite animal quickly caused him to change his mind. A few years ago I made him a kitty litter cake (I will never look at Tootsie Rolls quite the same way ever again!) and he asked me to make it again, but I refused. It didn't take long for him to run out of ideas. "Just make something cool," he said.

So later on in the week we discussed what would be served for dinner at his party and he decided on pizza (total shocker!) and that was when the idea came to me, "Pizza Cake". I searched the web briefly and didn't find anything other than dessert pizzas so I decided to make my own.

I'll do my best to describe how I made the cake but it was an experiment so please bear with me.

Pizza Cake

• 1 cake mix - any light colored favor prepared as the package recommends


• 1 container any flavor homemade or store bought icing


• 2 cups strawberry preserves (raspberry will do too but I would recommend buying seedless)


• Wilton Candy Melts 14 oz package in white, red, and light-brown


• 8-10 larger-sized malt balls ( I found these in the bulk food isle)


• Green icing


• 1/8 cup dried blueberries

1. Prepare the cake mix as directed making on a a time. Pour half the batter into a greased/floured 12" round cake pan (or smaller, depending on how large you want the cake to be) and bake it for about 20 min or until a toothpick comes out clear from the center. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Cool.

2. Cover a large oven proof cutting board or the bottom of a large cookiesheet with tinfoil or wax paper. Place one layer of the cake on top of the tin-foil. Frost the top of the bottom layer and place the top layer on top.

3. Over medium heat, simmer the preserves until runny. Add several drops of red food coloring (if desired) to make the color closer to that of tomato sauce. .

4. Spread the warm preserves over the cake, covering the top thoroughly but not so much that the cake is saturated. Chill the cake again for at least an hour so that the preserves re-congeal.

5. Now for the fun part - decorating!

- Sausage/Meatballs - with a very sharp knife, cut the malt balls in half, set aside

- Green Peppers - I am sure there's lots of great ways to do this but I bought Wilton's green icing and piped it onto a greased plate into small squares and rectangles. I then placed it into the freezer to firm-up.

- Pepperoni - Grease a small muffin tin and put one red candy-melt into each cup. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of grated brown candy-melts into each well. (I used a handheld cheese-grater to grate the candy-melts. See "cheese below for more details). Put the muffin tin under the broiler to melt the candies (only takes a minute or two). Once they are melted, mix the red and brown candy-melts together using a toothpick. Place into the freezer for about 10 minutes or until set. Once they are hard, flip the muffin pan over to release the "pepperoni" (I ended up hitting the back of the tin with knife to free the candy).

- Olives - get the dried blueberries ready, set aside.

- Cheese - I used a handheld cheese grater like this one to grate the white candy-melts over the top of the pizza. I worked my way over the top of the pizza until it had a good coating of cheese, but not so much that the "tomato sauce" didn't peek through. Then I used the brown candy melts around the perimeter the the "crust" -- I thought it looked more crust and slightly burnt, like a real pizza would. Finally I put the entire pizza in the oven under the broiler and watched it very closely. It only took 3 minutes for the "cheese" to melt - it even browned slightly!

After you take it out of the oven and while it is still warm, put your toppings on the pizza. I started with the sausage/meatballs, then the green pepper, followed by the olives and the pepperoni and then a little more cheese. Put it into the fridge to set again. For fun, put the pizza cake in a pizza box for a cute visual effect. Use a pizza cutter to slice it!