Key Lime Pie Cupcakes!

I love these little sunshine cakes! I started with baking a yellow cake base in a cupcake pan with colorful cupcake tins.  You can use either boxed cake mix or use your own recipe.  Traditionally, this cupcake is made with white cake but I thought yellow might be a good combination too.  Next, I filled my cupcake injector with a mixture of 1 14 oz. canned sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup key lime juice, & a lot of lime zest.  Mix all ingredients together and chill in the fridge...it took mine 30 mins to form a pudding type of filling and even then I left it in the fridge until I was ready to fill and serve the cupcakes.  Anyway, inject your cupcake with as much filling as you desire and pipe whipped cream (you can make it yourself or use store bought I used Sugar free Cool Whip & it turned out delicious!)  Sprinkle with smashed graham crackers (I just put two in a ziplock bag and basically beat them with the handle of my knife) and top with a fresh cut lime slice. And there you have it the perfect treat for a hot summer day!

Sugar free Blackberry Cobbler

Melissa suggested we make a blackberry cobbler the other day using the blackberries from her garden and it turned out absolutely delicious! We picked about 2 1/2 cups of blackberries to use, washed them and covered them in Splenda for about 20 mins or until a sugary syrup formed on the blackberries.  We then made breading which was actually a nice sweet touch to the slight tartness of the blackberries.  I used 1 cup Splenda, 1 cup flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a cup of milk.  Stir together until all ingredients are mixed in then add a 1/2 cup melted butter and mix.  Pour the batter in your pan then cover with blackberries.  Cook at 375 degrees for 45-50 mins and you should get a beautiful cobbler!  The nice thing about this recipe is that you can substitute it with different fruits like peaches, apples, cherries, etc to try different combinations.  Enjoy!

The Perfect Apple Pie

In honor of the summer season and all the hot weather we've been getting here in GA I decided to bake something new...apple pies!  This is the first time I've ever tried baking an apple pie and to my surprise it wasn't very difficult at all.  I'll list the recipe I used below.  Also, if you are diabetic or looking for a lower calorie treat with the same flavor I baked two pies replacing the sugar with Splenda & Splenda Blend Brown Sugar mixture (2g of sugar use 1/4 cup if you're using Splenda Blend or use 1/2 cup of regular brown sugar if wanted).  I am not a huge fan of sweet pies so I did not use brown sugar in my apple pie but feel free to add it according to my notes above.

The Perfect Apple Pie:

1 box Pillsbury Pie Crust found in the refrigerated section at your local supermarket near the Cinnamon Rolls

6 Granny Smith Apples (peeled & cored)

1/2 cup Sugar (or Splenda if desired)

3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Ginger

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

Lemon Juice (for apples)

Butter (just a dot)

1 Egg White

A pinch of extra Sugar or Splenda (for top)

Peel & core apples (I used an apple corer for this part) place in a large bowl and cover each apple with lemon juice to avoid apples browning.  In a small bowl combine sugar, flour, and spices set aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take a 9 inch round pie pan glass is best and roll out one of the Pillsbury pie crusts making sure to push down the edges that stick out over the pan. Roll each apple slice in the sugar spice mixture and place in pan I arranged my apples on their side in order to fit the most apples in.  After you've covered all the apples pour the remaining spice mixture on to the top of your pile of apples top with a small amount of butter.  Then place the top crust on the top of the pie making sure to adhere the bottom crust to the top crust on the edges to seal the pie.  Next, use a knife to cut four large slits in the pie and four small slits use your foamed egg white to cover the top of the pie and place in the oven for 35 minutes at 375 degrees.  After 35 minutes turn the oven up to 400 degrees and cook an additional 10-15 mins (I baked for 12 mins).

Cupcake Cake Pops!

So the holidays are over and I'm on the hunt for a new job which has given me the extra time to try some new techniques I've been reading about.  These are cupcake shaped cake pops with devils food cake filling, chocolate mint bottoms, vanilla tops complete with sprinkles & a single red M&M on top.  These are adorable and the perfect bite of a piece of cake.  Enjoy!

Halloween Cupcakes!!

So the best season of the year is finally upon us & it's only a few more days until my favorite holiday of the entire year...Halloween!!!  In honor of my favorite day I made skeleton cupcakes.  These cupcakes are my special red velvet recipe with a tasty cream cheese icing.  On top are yogurt covered pretzels forming the ribcage & arms.  The structural support is a lollipop stick topped with a marshmellow with a face painted on with black food gel.  Enjoy!!  Also, made caramel apples tonight & dying to try making some pumpkin cookies.  Stay tuned to see how everything turns out.

Red Velvet

So these are probably my favorite cupcakes to make...no messy butter or other ingredients that are difficult to work with! I started as I always do by lining my cupcake tins.  There's just something about lining cupcake tins that gets me in the mood to start baking!  This time instead of using just the standard cupcake pan I used both the standard and jumbo pans.  Mostly, because I have this cupcake swirly rack that I'm dying to use but standard size cupcakes won't fit let's hope the jumbo ones do so I can show it off!  My least favorite part about these cupcakes was using the red food gel (Wilton, Christmas Red).  It got all over my hands when I was trying to open the top & got on my hands...most of it went away with a couple washings with soap & water but theres still a little red on my fingertips.  So tip: Be careful with the food gel :)  Anyway, despite having red fingers these cupcakes turned out great!  They are moist & sweet.  I've yet to make the icing...they are still on the cooling rack.  But I've made this cream cheese icing before & know it's absolutely delicious.

Pictures to come.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

What's better on a hot summer day than Cherry Limeade Cupcakes! The cupcakes were pretty simple to make I started with three separate bowls of ingredients & had to mix with a hand mixer which was a bit much but the final product is well worth the extra work. My favorite part was zesting the limes the smell is amazing & you can really taste a definite lime flavor in the cupcakes. The frosting was incredibly easy to make too & very stable.  Icing: powdered sugar, maraschino cherry juice, 1/2 cup butter and a couple drops red food coloring.  It's a refreshing break from the traditional flavored cupcakes.  Top with cherry & candied lime and you have a great summer dessert.

Here are some pictures: