Halloween Cupcakes

I was so proud of my cupcakes that I made for Halloween. I found the skeleton hand at Roberts awhile back and then made it using an idea I saw in the Rachael Ray magazine. The cupcakes are caramel cupcakes, then I made the frosting from scratch, with my favorite recipe from the Pampered Chef website. Sprinkled Oreo's on top, and added the hand!!


Caramel Cupcakes

Ingredients
3½ oz	white chocolate, coarsely chopped
4½ oz	butter, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup	brown sugar
¼ cup	golden syrup
2/3 cup	milk
1 cup	plain flour
1/3 cup	self-raising flour
1	egg, lightly beaten

	Preheat the oven to 330°F (170°C).
	Line a 12 cupcake pan, with cupcake papers.
	Combine the chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk in a saucepan.
	Stir over a low heat until melted and combined. (I had a few small bits of white choc that just would not combine - not a problem).
	Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.
	Sift the flours.
	Mix flours into the caramel mixture.
	Next, stir in the egg.
	Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.
	Bake for 30 minutes.
	Remove tin from the oven, transfer to rack and cool.
Makes 12 Cup Cakes. Frosting 1 package (2 pounds) powdered sugar (about 7 cups), divided 1 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract For frosting, combine half of the powdered sugar with butter, shortening, vanilla and 3 tablespoons of the milk in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, adding more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed for good spreading consistency. Tint some of the frosting with food coloring, if desired. (I had to play with it to get it to be grey) And in case anyone noticed, I really really want to get the blog going again. So leave a comment if you are full on in favor of participating. I have gone back to this blog so many times for recipes, I really miss it!!

Cherry Dump

This is a really easy desert that is good with any kind of pie filling. Cherry and Blueberry are our favorites. I always serve this with ice cream.

2 cans cherry pie filling
1 box yellow cake mix
2/3 cup melted butter

Spray cooking spray along bottom and sides of slow cooker. Pour in pie filling. Sprinkle cake mix on top. Drizzle butter over top. Cook on high 4 hours.

CREAM PUFF DESSERT

a.k.a. Black Tie Eclaire

1 C. water
1 stick butter or margarine
1 C. flour
5 eggs
1 pkg. 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 lrg. Or 2 sm. Box instant vanilla pudding
1 tub cool whip
Chocolate syrup

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In saucepan bring water and butter to boil. Remove from heat and add 1 C. flour, stir fast and eggs, beat well. Spread evenly on greased cookie sheet (will be thick). Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Let cool.
Prepare vanilla pudding and add cream cheese. Spread mixture over cream puffs. Spread cool whip over mixture and top with chocolate syrup. Cut through syrup with knife for marbled effect.

Hershey/Reeses Double Decker Fudge

Ingredients:

2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) Reese's peanut butter chips,

divided use1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow creme

1 1/2 cups (12 oz. can) evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter

Line a 13x9x2-inch pan with foil. Place 1 cup peanut butter chips in medium bowl; set aside. In second medium bowl, blend 1/4 cup melted butter, cocoa and vanilla until smooth; add 1 cup peanut butter chips.

In heavy 4-quart saucepan, combine sugar, marshmallow creme, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup butter. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil; boil and stir 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, immediately add half of hot mixture to bowl with peanut butter chips only. Pour remainder into cocoa mixture; stir to blend.

Beat peanut butter mixture until chips are completely melted; spread evenly in prepared pan.

Beat cocoa mixture until chips are melted and mixture thickens. Spread evenly over top of peanut butter layer.

Cool; remove from pan. Remove foil; cut into squares. Store in airtight container in a cool, dry place. Makes about 4 pounds

Melt In Your Mouth Sugar Cookies

COOKIES

*preheat the oven to 350

1 cup butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup power sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

1. Cream butter, powder sugar & vanilla together

2. Sift flower and cornstarch and add to mixture

3. Drop teaspoon size balls onto a grease cookie sheet and flatten the tops with your fingers

4. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the middle to upper racks and watch they should be light brown on the bottoms

5. Frost with frosting recipe below when the cookies are still warm

FROSTING

1 cup powder sugar

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp milk

*I doubled the frosting recipe because you can never have enough frosting! This recipe ends up with 15-20 cookies

Oreo Cookies

This is just a super easy recipe. Our friends always request them at Christmas, and they are my kids favorite treat. I usually double the frosting recipe. I also prefer not to make a sandwich with mine. I usually load 1-2 cups of frosting on a single cookie and pretend not to notice the frosting oozing out the side of my mouth as I shove it on in. But hey, thats just me.

2 packages devils food cake mix
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 (8oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, beat cake mixes, eggs, and oil. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool.

In another bowl, beat cream cheese and butter. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until smooth. Spread on bottom of half the cookies and top with remaining cookies.

Red Velvet Bread Pudding

We didn't have any favorite holiday desserts that we could think of, but we found this one watching Paula Dean and decided to give it a whirl. It was well worth it. Even just the recipe for the red velvet cake is delicious by itself.

Red Velvet Cake:
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Bread Pudding Mix:
3 cups half-and-half
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Greased 9 by 13 by 2-inch sheet pan.
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.
In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into the prepared sheet pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely. When the cake is cooled, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Place cubes onto 11 by 17-inch cookie sheet. Place in oven for 10 minutes.

Bread Pudding Mix:

Combine the half-and-half, eggs, egg yolk, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl. With an electric hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the half-and-half mixture.

Place the red velvet cubes in a large baking dish or 8 individual ramekins. Add the pudding mixture to the dish. Make sure the cake cubes are completely covered. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the pudding is set. Serve with ice cream.

Chocolate Chex Caramel Mix

Okay, don't laugh. I have wanted to make this for a long time, and I changed up a couple of things, so I get to claim it! And its easy, and good!

Ingredients:

8 cups Chocolate Chex® cereal
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
4 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup of vanilla frosting

Preparations

1. Into large microwavable bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2. Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup microwave uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth.

3. Stir in baking soda until dissolved.

4. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.

5. Microwave on High 3 minutes, stirring every minute.

6. Spread on cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Let cool.
7. Warm vanilla frosting in microwave for 1 min. Drizzle over snack. (You can put it in a ziploc bag and cut the bottom corner) Refrigerate until set. Store in tightly covered container.