Halloween Cupcakes ~ Pumpkins and Spiders

I had a few kiddies coming for a playdate today as well as my annual Halloween party for the daycare so I used cake mix and Betty crocker frosting to whip up these cupcakes quickly for the kids. 

For these simple pumpkins I used white cake mix and fluffy white frosting.  Used my orange food colouring on both and swirled the icing on in a circular motion.  Added tiny M&M's for a leaf.  Easy peasy.

For the spider, chocolalte cake mix and icing.  I was supposed to use shoestring licorice for the legs but couldn't find it anywhere so I cut my own.  At least the legs look hairy, I guess.  Sprinkles for the spider hair and red M&M minis for the eyes. 

I had to use my cute pumpkin and Bat non pariels too so the last chocolate cupcakes got those.

MMMMMM, fun and tasty. 

Chocolate Marshmallow Candy Squares

PREP:  10 minutes READY IN:  1hour 10 min (including refridgerating) SERVES: 25

DIRECTIONS:
MICROWAVE 1pkg (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi Sweet Chocolate and 1 cup KRAFT Crunchy Peanut Butter (I didn't have it so I used smooth) in a microwavable bowl on MEDIUM for 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is almost melted.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended.

ADD 4cups Jet Puffed fruit flavoured mini marshmallows (250g bag), toss to coat. 
SPOON into greased 9 inch square pan and refridgerate until firm. 
CUT into 25 squares, enjoy!

Semi Sweet Bakers Chocolate squares

Fruity Jet Puffed Mini Marshmallows

This was supposed to be crunchy. I WISH I had crunchy, but smooth will have to do.

Mixing peanut butter and chocolate

Tossing Marshmallows into the mixture ~ I transferred this into a larger bowl after this pic

Smooth the mixture into a greased pan and refridgerate

Hot chocolatey goodness.  Hard not to dip into that with a spoon.  I'll get a pic of the cut squares later on.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

I found this recipe on The Harwood Podcast and subsequently it won my cupcake poll on facebook.  It's about time I try this one!

Harwood Podcasts The Cupcake Show says:  "Little sponge cakes filled with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate ganache. It's just like a big Boston Cream Pie, just smaller!"
- Recipe -

Cake:

● 1/2 c. cake flour

● 1/4 c. flour

● 1 t. baking powder

● 1/4 t. table salt

● 3 T. milk

● 2 T. unsalted butter

● 1 t. vanilla extract

● 5 eggs

● 12 T. granulated sugar (divided into two 6T. portions

Cream Filling:

● 1 (4.6 oz. package) ready to cook vanilla pudding

● 3 cups milk (2% or whole)

● 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

● 1/2 t. vanilla

● 2 T. sugar

Chocolate Ganache Glaze:

● 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream

● 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

● 2 t. light corn syrup

For Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners.

1. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Heat milk and butter in asmall glass measuring cup in the micro wave. Use 10 second bursts until the buttermelts. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

2. Separate 3 eggs, putting the whites in a bowl and the yolks in another bowl. Place thewhites in the mixer with the whisk attachment and beat on high speed until foamy. Slowlyadd 6 T. of the sugar & continue to beat whites to soft, moist peaks. Transfer the eggwhites to a large bowl.

3. To the egg yolks bowl, add 2 whole eggs. Place the yolk/whole egg mixture to themixing bowl. Beat yolk/whole egg mixture with remaining 6 T. sugar. Beat on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, until the eggs are very thick and a pale yellow color. Add thebeaten eggs to the egg whites bowl.

4. Sprinkle flour mixture over beaten eggs and whites; fold very gently 12 times with a large rubber spatula. Make a well in one side of batter and pour milk mixture into bowl. Continue folding until batter shows no flour and whites and milk is mixed in.

5. Scoop the batter into the cupcake pans. Bake 12 minutes.

6. Immediately run a knife around the cups to loosen the cupcakes. Remove the cupcakes and let them cool on a rack.

For Pastry Cream Filling:

1. Mix the pudding mix and milk in microwave for 15 minutes, stopping to stir every 5

minutes. Cool.

2. In mixer, whip cream with sugar and vanilla until cream is stiffened.

3. Once pudding is cooled, fold 2 cups into the whipped cream. Refrigerate until ready to fill the cupcakes.

For Chocolate Ganache Glaze:

1. Heat cream, chocolate and corn syrup in small saucepan over low heat. Stir until

chocolate is melted.

Assembly:

1. Cut dime-sized circles out of the tops of the cupcakes. Fill a zip bag with the pastry cream filling and cut the corner off the end of the bag. Pipe the cream into the cupcakes. (If it will be a few minutes before you put the glaze on top, put the filled cupcakes in the refrigerator, until youʼre ready to finish them.)

2. Spoon the glaze over the tops of the cupcakes. Make sure to refrigerate the cupcakes until you're ready to serve them. When you are ready, let them sit out for 5-10 minutes to take the chill off.

Autumn Apple Pie ~ Betty Crocker Cookbook Recipe

I recently bought a big bag of Honey Crisp apples to appease my daughter who heard all about them from her school teacher.  Came home and realized they cost me $20!  Each of the kids ate one and then the rest of them sat in a bowl like a treasure chest filled with gold until I finally decided to make a pie.

Thinly sliced apple, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and little butter pieces atop the apple mixture. 
I used a Tenderflake crust because let's face it, I had five kids here!

I had hoped to use my Pampered Chef apple slicer/peeler/corer but my apples were on their last leg and too soft.  I ended up peeling with a knife.

Tossed the apples into the dry ingredient mixture

This is the exact moment that I knew I was going to love this pie.  Amazing aroma.

Added little butter pieces to the top and made my apple stack HUGE.  I know they cook down.

Had to stretch my crust to the max to fit over the apples.  Added tablespoon of water and sprinkled with sugar.

Closeup of my sugar coated crust.

Little ridge of foil helps to prevent burning around the edge of your crust.

Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or less of cooking.

Crunchy sugar crust goodness!

Some cracking of my crust took place when I tried to lift the hot pie from the cookie sheet it was resting on in the oven (for spillage control).  Oops! 

Boys Love to Cook Also! More Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Since the girls had the chance to bake cookies recently, Griffin expressed a real interest in whipping up a batch himself so we took advantage of his day off from school to make REAL chocolate chip cookies without the mint!
We used the recipe in the cookbook "Cookies" instead of our usual chippits package of chocolate chips recipe.

Captain Cooking with the ingredients laid out

Pure Vanilla, every time

Measuring his flour

The fine art of gradually adding flour to the mixer

Learning how to pour the vanilla onto the edge of the bowl

Damp Tea towel to catch the dusty flour and it's time to add the chips!

Yummy cookie dough goodness

Discovering why we scrape the edges before we finish mixing