Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes

I made these awhile ago when I was still living in Ft Lauderdale. They were super yummy, especially if you're on a New Year's diet!

Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes

• 1 box funfetti cake mix
• 12 ounces Diet Sprite/Sprite Zero

Mix these two together & spoon into cupcake tins. I like using a springy ice cream scoop to get perfectly even cupcakes :)

Bake according to directions.

For the frosting, use one container Cool Whip with a few drops of vanilla extract. (The original recipe called for using a package of sugar-free vanilla pudding mix mixed in with the Cool Whip, but I found that it made the frosting really gritty.) Frost then add some rainbow sprinkles and VOILA!

Enjoy these delicious and healthy treats!

xoxo,
janie from scratch

Coq au Vin Dinner Party

A few weeks ago I had some of my friends in Ft Lauderdale over to help me check-off one of my 2012 goals: making Coq au Vin from scratch. My parents actually had both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which I have since adopted and brought to Ft Laudy with me), so I had ALL the recipes on hand for my dinner! But I had to do some menu planning  to make my dinner party EXTRA fabulous :)

After menu planning and spending nearly a FORTUNE at Publix, I got to work in the kitchen! To be quite honest, none of Julia Child's recipes (that I've made anyways) are that difficult or take that long. When I made Beef Bourgionon in the spring, it really didn't take ALL afternoon, but there were a lot of steps. The same thing for Coq au Vin. All-in-all, it maybe took 2 hours, but there were a lot of steps. Nothing complex, just a lot of steps. I set a gorg table, and used my favorite plates EVER (still) I got from John & Juan a few Christmases ago.

I decided on an app I made for the Orlando gays awhile ago: Pancetta Crisps with Goat Cheese & Figs. It's seriously SO easy and so delicious. And I randomly bought honey-flavored goat cheese at Publix that day, and I drizzled a little honey on top instead of the fig jam, and it was AMAZING! The boys LOVED them. (And so did I!)

I also made a delish Sparkling Pomegranate Cocktail which was so refreshing on a Saturday afternoon!

We had a green salad, which was easy and delicious. I mixed arugula and spinach, topped with some cherry tomatoes and thinly sliced red onions and a honey-balsamic vinaigrette:

Honey-Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinager
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Mix first 3 ingredients, then stream in olive oil while whisking. Add salt & fresh-ground pepper to taste. (Okay, yes, I went there with the "fresh-ground pepper"... but honestly, it makes a big difference in recipes where the flavors are simple and easy.) This has become my go-to dressing for everything, it's just THAT good.

You can KINDA see the salad in this shot of the table.

Then we had the Coq au Vin, which was simply amazing. Julia Child makes some GOOD FOOD. I made some mashed potatoes (from scratch of course) and bought a few baguettes at the store (I would've made them but didn't plan enough in advance!), and our meal was complete with LOTS of red wine.

For dessert, I made Vanilla Panna Cotta with chocolate whipped cream. The easiest dessert but it tastes amazing and if you put it in classy glasses it looks REALLY fancy!

So that leaves me with ONE item left on my 2012 food hit list: croissants. I have 2 months and I feel pretty good I can find another group of friends to grin and bear it while I make some croissants.

Go out there and have a fun party and cook some good food!!

Oreo Footballs

I am SUCH a failure. I made these ADORABLE footballs for the office potluck today and I totally forgot to take any pictures at all :( so that's a downer. My friend Flossie made them a few months ago for a Superbowl potluck we had and they were a big hit! So I decided to recreate them for today's potluck.

Anyways, here's the link to the recipe: Oreo Football Cookie Balls

And here's an adorable picture I stole from the Kraft website:

Mine looked similar but definitely not as polished. But they tasted SUPER yummy, everyone loved them!

My trusty kitchen aid did most of the heavy lifting in this recipe. First I crushed the oreos with the paddle until the pieces were small, then I added in the cream cheese. The hardest part was definitely shaping them, then dipping them in the chocolate. I made the mistake of putting them on a cookie rack and the chocolate stuck to the rack so prying them off was a little challenging too. For the laces, I got white icing and put it in a ziplock bag, then cut a tiny hole in the corner.

Try these! They're easier than they look and SO amazingly delicious :)

St Patty's Green Velvet Cupcakes

I wanted to make something special for mine and Ryan's work colleagues for St Patrick's day so it HAD to be green. One of the blogs I read and LOVE because she has the greatest ideas (um how cute is THIS!?!?) is Bakerella, and she made green velvet cupcakes last week. So I decided to give them a whirl.

Bakerella's Green Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 oz. green food coloring

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients in one bowl, and all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Be careful with the green food coloring, I got it ALL over my hands and the kitchen. Even after the batter is mixed, it'll still stain your fingers!

The wet ingredients:

Add the wet to the dry ingredients, and mix well.
(SOO green, right?!?!)

Use a spring ice cream scoop to fill your cupcakes. I got a little overzealous and overfilled my cupcakes so I only got 20, but if you only fill them 2/3 full you should get 24.

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes (or until they look "done"). I baked mine for 25 minutes and they got a little dry. Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add vanilla. Then add sugar, making sure to scrape down the bowl in between the cups.

This makes a LOT of frosting, so I had to be super generous when frosting my cupcakes. I think it's a recipe to frost a cake, which is why it makes so much. But it tastes so good, you can put the extra in a tupperware in the fridge and keep for a few weeks.

Bakerella has the most darling sprinkles, so she topped her cupcakes with little shamrocks. I just had green sugar, so mine weren't AS cute as hers, but they were delicious!

Ryan tried one tonight:)

Chocolate Cupcakes

One of the food blogs I follow is My Baking Addiction. The other day she posted about a chocolate cake with espresso buttercream frosting. I am not big on coffee-flavored anything, but the chocolate cake I can totally get down with. And I've been a bit timid to make cakes from scratch (usually I use a box.. I know, totally against my from scratch mindset, but you gotta do what you gotta do!). So I took the plunge and decided to make the chocolate cake part, but in cupcakes for my work buddies.

Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup very hot water

First, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder & soda, and salt with a mixer using the whisk attachment. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix into the dry ingredients, making sure to scrape down the edges of the bowl. When I made this, it didn't get completely mixed the first time. Add in the hot water (I just used water from my tap--it gets super hot). The batter will be really runny, a lot runnier than the batter that comes from the box mix. At first, I thought I did it wrong, but it's supposed to be like that!

I made cupcakes, and used a ladle to scoop the batter in. I filled them probably a little too full, because the cupcakes came out super round. Usually I use a large ice cream scooper to fill my cupcakes, but the batter was just too runny to do that, so I had to use a ladle instead. Also, I used silicon cupcake liners today, sprayed with baking Pam (you can never be too sure about them sticking!), but you can use paper too.

Bake at 375F for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

I made a quick butter cream for frosting.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened (remember-unsalted!)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

Mix the butter until it's smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients, mix until creamy.

You can be pretty generous frosting your cupcakes, since this makes a lot of frosting. You can add some food coloring or sprinkles to make your cupcakes a little prettier. But these are delicious plain without any decorations too!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cookies

So you've mastered the chocolate chip cookie. You feel good about it. You've made them a few times and gotten rave reviews from your friends and family. But now that they know you can bake, they are getting greedy for more. Switch it up next time with these equally simple peanut butter cookies. And since you already know the basics from reading my Chocolate Chip Cookie blog, this will be super simple for you.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (you can use crunchy or smooth, whatever your favorite is)
1 tablespoon milk

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, my faithful followers. It is time for chocolate chip cookies. And while today I'm not divulging my super-top-secret Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (that will come eventually, stay tuned!), the Toll House recipe I will divulge is AMAZING as well. You can also find this recipe on the back of basically every bag of Toll House Chocolate Chips--the best ones, I think, and the ones I always use.

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 sticks softened unsalted butter (for baking, we always use unsalted butter, so we can control how much salt goes into our recipes)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (not baking powder--there IS a difference!)
2 cups chocolate chips

A Big NO: Chocolate Cake in a Mug

(I apologize in advance that there are no photos with this post... I'm going to have to get into the habit of taking pictures of everything I make from now on!)

Women across America (and probably the world) have been RAVING about this 5-minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug. I recently got the recipe in an e-mail, and tonight I was craving some chocolate (slightly strange for me, because I don't have much of a sweet tooth), so I decided to try this out, instead of making a pan of boxed-brownies.

The recipe says you are supposed to "bake" this cake in a microwave for 5-minutes, but my microwave is more than a little finicky (it's actually half-microwave, half-convection oven), so I made one for the microwave, and one in a small Le Creuset saucepan to cook in the oven.

The recipe I used was from http://tinyurl.com/y9ou3y2, and is as follows:
4 Tbsp. flour
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. oil
Small splash of vanilla

So the gig is you mix everything together, put in a coffee mug (I used a mason jar, as a tribute to my redneck heritage), zap it in the microwave for 5 minutes, and POOF, a delicious chocolate cake.

Well, that was what was supposed to happen anyways. Surprisingly, my microwave didn't set this thing on fire (as happened a few weeks ago to one of those pre-made store-bought microwavable chocolate cakes), and it actually puffed up like it showed in the photos. I dumped it out onto a plate for Ryan, my boyfriend and ultimate taste-tester, to try. It was rubbery. Like one of those bouncy balls you win at Chuck E Cheese. And surprisingly not that chocolatey. We threw it away after two bites. "Let's not make this again, ok?" said Ryan.

The oven baked one (I cooked it for around 15 minutes), was slightly less rubbery, but also not a "make-again" according to Ryan (and me).

I do hope this serves as a warning against all you (women) out there that are looking for a quick chocolate fix--there is none!! Buy some good dark chocolate (I prefer Ghiradelli for both snacking and baking) and keep it in the freezer for your more desperate chocolate moments!