Hidden Heart Cupcakes with Strawberry Laffy Taffy Buttercream Icing

Isn't the heart hidden inside the cupcake adorable? A friend of mine sent me a link to this recipe saying it looked like something I would like to make.  Yeah, you could say she knows me!  But I don't think she even knew how perfect for me these are.  The more obvious reasons are that I love to bake, like cupcakes in particular and these are perfect for Valentine's day.  What my friend may not have known was that I love strawberry Laffy Taffy.  My passion for Laffy Taffy goes way back to the days when I first got a paper route, which was actually 20 years ago!  After I finished my paper route I would walk down to the little corner store near our house and buy Laffy Taffy.  I can still remember the days I spent looking and my excitement when I purchased the piece that had my sister Lydia's joke submission!  So I am guessing you want to hear the joke, right?  Question: "What does a bee sit on?"  Answer: "It's bee-hind!"  Haha!  Gotta love Laffy Taffy jokes, and yes I did read each joke as I made the frosting for the cupcakes :) 

You could use any cookie cutter you like for the portion in the middle of the cupcake and vary it to whatever theme you like.  I was very happy to find that the flavor of the strawberry Laffy Taffy came through in the icing.  If you have trouble finding the individual pieces of strawberry taffy, 5 small pieces equals one of the big bars.

Hidden Heart Cupcakes with Strawberry Laffy Taffy Buttercream Icing  Source: Alison's Wonder Scraporium via my friend Corey

Ingredients:

Cupcakes and hearts:

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3 C granulated sugar
6 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
5 C flour
2 2/3 C whole milk
red food coloring

Strawberry Laffy Taffy Buttercream Icing:

20 pieces of strawberry Laffy Taffy candy
4 Tbsp heavy cream
4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
5 C powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. 

2. Mix the butter and sugar together at medium speed until fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until creamy. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla and mix until the batter is smooth.
4. Add the flour and milk a little at a time alternating while beating on med-high speed until the batter is light and creamy.
5. Pour about 2- 2 1/2 C of batter into a smaller bowl. Add red food coloring until you get your desired pink or red color.
6. Pour the colored batter into a non-stick (or lightly greased) 9 x 13 baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes until the edges of the cake start to turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
7. Allow to baked cake to cool completely (to speed up the process, I stuck mine in the fridge).
8. Once the sheet cake is cool, loosen the edges away from the pan with a knife and then invert the pan onto a cutting board. Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out two dozen cake hearts that are small enough to fit into an average-sized cupcake pan.  I found that the slightly more done hearts I cut from the edges of the pan were better than the fluffier hearts from the very center of the cake at staying down in the batter.  (Refer to pictures below).
9. Spoon two heaping tablespoons of the remaining batter into paper-lined cupcake tins, so they’re about half-full. Put one heart into each tin and press it point down into the batter. Keep all the hearts facing forward in the pan. Cover with another teaspoon of batter and bake for 24 minutes.
10. Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting.
11. Here’s the tricky part—you’ll have to keep the cupcakes facing forward so you get the right cross-section of the heart when you cut or bite into the cupcake.
12. For the buttercream, melt the taffy and the heavy cream together in a small bowl for one minute on high, stirring every 20 seconds. Stir the mixture together until it’s smooth, then stick it in the fridge so it cools a bit and doesn't melt the butter. The cream will keep the taffy from completely hardening. 

13. In a mixing bowl, whip the butter for 30 seconds until it’s smooth. Add the powdered sugar, a half cup at a time, whipping until fluffy.

14. Finally, with the mixer on medium-low, drizzle in the melted and cooled taffy mixture. When it’s all in, turn the mixer up to high and whip the frosting until it’s fluffy. If you’d like, add a little pink or red food coloring to get the desired shade.
15. Frost! **Remember, while frosting, to keep track of which direction the heart in the cupcake is facing.  I found it helpful to have my heart decorations right there next to me and to put them on before I even picked up the cupcake after applying the icing.





Most came out like this with the heart nearly covered.



The fluffiest hearts cut from the center of the cake tended to float up to the top during baking like the ones shown here near the back of the muffin tin.

*Recipe makes 30 cupcakes

This recipe linked to: Valentine's Treats at Baked Bree and the February Food Challenge at My Wooden Spoon

Chicken Parmesan

Are you planning a special Valentine's dinner for your family or sweetheart?  This meal is Valentine's candlelight dinner worthy! I recently made this lighter version of chicken parmesan for Matt and he loved it! The breading on the chicken was so crispy and the chicken inside so tender and juicy.  This is a lighter version because the chicken is baked and not fried.  Make sure you use panko breadcrumbs instead of regular ones for this.  Truly a wonderful dinner for those you hold dear! 

Chicken Parmesan  Source: Macaroni and Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C panko breadcrumbs
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 C grated or shredded Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper
3 egg whites
1 tbsp water
vegetable cooking spray
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and cut into halves (4 pieces total) or chicken tenders
2 C marinara sauce

1/2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley (I did not have)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees with oven rack in the middle position.

2. Place breadcrumbs in a large skillet and add olive oil. Toast over medium heat until lightly golden brown, stirring often (approximately 10 minutes). Remove from heat and place in a shallow bowl and allow to cool slightly. Once cool, stir in the Parmesan.
3. In another shallow bowl, whisk together flour, garlic powder, 1 tbsp salt (yes a tablespoon), 1/2 tsp pepper.

4. In third shallow dish whisk together water & egg whites.
5. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray cooking spray. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Take each piece of chicken and dredge each piece first in the flour, then the egg white, and lastly the breadcrumbs, making sure chicken is fully covered. Place chicken so that none of the pieces touch on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake chicken approximately 15 minutes or until nearly cooked through. Remove from oven and spoon approximately 2 tbsp. marinara sauce over chicken & top with 2 tbsp. mozzarella. Return to the oven and bake chicken for 5 minutes more until cheese is melted.

7. Top with chopped parsley, Parmesan & additional marinara. Serve over spaghetti noodles.

Homemade Maple Syrup

My two little guys love pancakes.  I love that often times Matt will make pancakes for us!  Maybe I will get lucky on Valentine's Day and he will make me pancakes for breakfast!  A while back a friend shared with me that she makes her own maple syrup at home.  I was intrigued.  It turns out that her recipe is really simple!  The recipe uses imitation maple flavoring, which I had never heard of before.  At first I thought I wouldn't like an 'imitation' but then I realized I use imitation vanilla all the time!  Once I tried the syrup I couldn't believe how much I liked it!  The flavor is wonderful!  The recipe from Sarah is a thinner syrup, if you prefer a thicker syrup I've included recipe for that too!

Homemade Maple Syrup  Source: My friend Sarah and the Mapleine Box

Thinner Syrup Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 C sugar (Sarah's recipe is 1 3/4 C white sugar, 1/4 C brown sugar)

1 C boiling water

1/2 tsp. vanilla (Mapleine box recipe omits)

1/2 tsp. maple flavoring

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients and stir.

Thicker Syrup Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. water

1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 C corn syrup

1/2 tsp. maple flavoring

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small pan. 

2. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes.

*Sarah recommends covering the syrup immediately after you combine the ingredients and the mixture is still near boiling to help prevent the syrup from crystallizing during storage.  I have found that if I keep the syrup for more than a couple months small crystals will begin to form on the bottom of my syrup jar anyway.  The syrup is still fine and tastes the same you just need to let the jar soak in hot water to break up the crystals when you are ready to wash the empty jar.

**I like to use Maple Butter on my pancakes!

Amazing Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Over the weekend I got together with my best blogging buddy, Valerie of The Best Is Yet To Be.  We had been wanting to bake together and being the good friend she is, Valerie allowed me to pick the recipe :)  I chose Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and couldn't be happier with my selection!

These cupcakes are amazing!  Seriously!  For a choco-holic like myself, one bite and I was in heaven!  Wrapped inside a wonderful chocolate cupcake is a generous scoop of brownie batter, all topped off with a to die for chocolate frosting!  The frosting reminded me of licking the batter bowl when baking brownies.  While eating them I couldn't decide if it tasted more like a cupcake or a brownie.  For research purposes I've had, ahem, a few.  I think that the brownie flavor wins.   But please, please don't take my word for it- go make these!!! 

You will want to plan ahead when baking, in order for the brownie batter part to stay yummy gooey brownie batter and not bake it needs to be frozen when you add it to the cupcake mix.  Don't worry the brownie batter is egg free, so enjoy it without any risk of salmonella!  I actually wish we would have made more of the brownie batter part just so I could sit there and eat it plain :)

Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes  Source: Kevin and Amanda

Brownie Batter:
1/4 C butter, melted
1/3 C fat-free sweetened condensed milk (We used regular sweetened condensed milk)
1/3 C milk
1 (18.25 oz) box devil’s food cake mix

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 mins until well combined. Using a small scoop (about 1.5 tbsp) drop batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze overnight or until completely frozen.

Frozen brownie batter nestled inside the unbaked cupake batter

Cupcakes:
1 (18.25 oz) box devil’s food cake mix
1 (3.9 oz) pkg Jello instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
1 C sour cream
1 C vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 C milk
2 C mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips into a very large bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 mins until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a large scoop (about 3 tbsp) drop batter into the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3rds full. Remove brownie batter from freezer and press into the cupcake batter. Bake for 22-28 mins. Valerine and mine only needed to bake for the shorter amount of time. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

After baking!

Frosting:
5 sticks butter, softened
8 oz powdered sugar
1.5 C unsweetened cocoa powder
a pinch of table salt
1.5 C light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
16 oz milk chocolate chips

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring well every 30 seconds. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins. Combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt and mix until smooth.  Add the corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, then add the melted chocolate and blend until smooth and creamy.  Our frosting was pretty thin so we set it in the freezer for just a couple of minutes to thicken.  Using a ziploc bag with the corner cut off or an icing bag add a generous swirl of frosting to each cupcake.

*Makes 36 cupcakes! 

Seriously!! How yummy does that look?!?

This post linked to: Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade, Sweets for a Saturday #4 at Sweet as Sugar Cookies, Valentine's Treats at Baked Bree

Sugar Cookies

Valentine's sugar cookies are so much fun!  I love this recipe because it tastes so yummy.  Have you ever had a sugar cookie that looks really pretty but the taste is just blah?  Yeah, me too.  Don't worry this is not that recipe!!  I love the look of the fancy decorated sugar cookies, but didn't have a lot of time to commit to decorating and because Lincoln really wanted to help I went the easy way with just hearts and sprinkles.

To do the shortcut decorating: 
1. Plop your cookie face down in the bowl of icing.  Use your finger to scrap off the excess.
2.  Place on a cooling rack to allow for any extra icing to drip off.
3. Add sprinkles to your heart's desire- for Lincoln that means the whole container :)

To get a teeny bit fancy and create heart shapes in the icing:
1. Do steps 1 & 2 above.  Immediately after dipping the cookie in icing, use a different color of icing to drop little dots of icing on the cookie.
2. As soon as you have all the dots in place, use a toothpick to run a line through the center of each dot.  When the icing dries you will have a cute little heart!  So fast and adorable!

Sugar Cookies  Adapted from: Good News Radio Family Favorites Cookbook Volume 2


Ingredients:


1/2 C sugar
1/2 C shortening
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


Directions:


1. In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar, shortening, egg, milk and vanilla.
2. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 400 F.
5. Roll dough out on a heavily floured board.  It is not uncommon for me to have to add a little more flour to the whole ball of dough.
6. Cut out with cookie cutters.
7. Bake for 6-8 minutes, mine usually take closer to 8.


*This makes a very small batch, only about 18 cookies depending on how big of a cookie cutter you use.

This post linked to:  Sweet & Tasty Monday at Tnt Cook , Sweets for a Saturday #4 at Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Stuffed Pizza Bites

One last appetizer post before the big Super Bowl game! Stuffed Pizza Bites! I've seen these around blogland, have you seen them? Often if a recipe is getting a lot of advertisement I take it to mean that I should be making it because there is a reason for all the press!  I was not disappointed in these Stuffed Pizza Bites.  WAY better than any frozen store bought pizza rolls (not that I ever had any question in my mind if they would be!)  I loved the way these pulled away easily into individual bites, looked fantastic, were dippable and already in party size pieces! Fill these up with your favorite pizza toppings, I went for broad appeal and used pepperoni and mozzarella.

Stuffed Pizza Bites  Source: Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

1 roll refrigerated pizza dough or your favorite homemade recipe

marinara/pizza sauce

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil or melted butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1  tsp dried Italian seasoning
mozzarella cheese, diced or grated
Pizza toppings of your choice (I used pepperoni)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. or if using store bought dough, the temperature specified on the package. 

2. Roll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat or roll the dough so it's about 12" by 8". Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 24 squares.

3. Place a small amount of cheese and desired toppings on each square. Remember that you will need to fold each square closed so don't put too much in.
4. When all of your dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings.  Pinch to make sure each ball is sealed shut and then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan (or similar sized dish).
5. Brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil or melted butter, then sprinkle with the garlic and Italian seasoning and top with Parmesan cheese. 
6. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
7. Serve warm with warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.