I combined the following ingredients to make my homemade peanut butter frosting.
-1 cup Peanut butter
-4 cups Confectioners sugar
-1 teaspoon Vanilla
-2 teaspoons Milk
This is the best frosting I have made yet! Everyone asks for this when I make their cakes. It comes out sweet.
I made these cupcakes for my mothers birthday. They were a huge hit, and I am requested to make them again for every birthday now.
Directions:
1. I used a regular Chocolate chip cupcake mix and made the cupcakes as the box told me to. However, to get the most moist cupcake, set your time for 5-8 minutes earlier than they call for. So if they say it will take 18 minutes, set your timer for 13 and check with a toothpick. I can’t stress this enough! My mom always overcooks her cupcakes, and this is the problem.
2. Let the cupcakes cool. You want them to be fully cooled before doing anything else.
3. I used half of the first bag of Reeses minis, chopped them up finely. After, I cut the rest of the minis 1 1/2 bags into halves. Then, put all of it in the refrigerator to cool… they kind of melted from handling.
4. I then took the cooled cupcakes and cut holes in the middle to fill them with my homemade filling. DON’T get rid of the cut outs.
5. I combined the following ingredients to make my homemade peanut butter frosting.
-1 cup Peanut butter
-4 cups Confectioners sugar
-1 teaspoon Vanilla
-2 teaspoons Milk
Blend this with a mixer. If the consistency is too thick, keep adding milk at small quanities. It will change fast so don’t add too much too soon.
6. After the peanut butter frosting is made, take about 1/4 of this mixture and put it in a bowl. Take your finely chopped Reeses out of the fridge and mix it into the icing.
7. Place a small spoonfull of the reeses into the cupcakes and cover with the parts your cut out.
8. Place the rest of the Reeses frosting into a frosting bag. Make sure it is only on one side of the bag. Place store bought chocolate icing on the opposite side.
9. Squeeze to ice all of your cupcakes, twist your hand to creat a pretty design.
10. Place the halved Reeses on top to decorate.
11. Enjoy.
I’m by no means an expert baker, but I love baking. There is a precise science to baking, you have to follow some rules. However, after you follow these rules you are free to explore the deliciousness of baking with a twist. Here are some tips I have discovered while baking from a box mix.
1.Preheat your oven! Don’t put your cupcakes into the cold oven, it will mess with the cupcakes cooking process and the cooking times.
2. Use cupcake liners and take your time filling them. Wouldn’t it be great to finish cooking and not have those stubborn cupcake pans staring you in the face. Sure, you will “soak” them, but they will be staring you in the face every time you walk near the sink. Use cupcake liners, and WIPE away the small blobs of batter that dropped onto the cupcake pans while filling the liners with a damp paper towel. This way the cupcake pans just need to cool down and they can be put back away.
3. Play around with adding things to your boxed mixes. I have created an amazing cinnamon apple cupcake from a vanilla box mix.I posted my recipe earlier this week.
4. If you use a box mix or any recipe if it says to cook for 10-15 minutes set your timer for 10 minutes then do the *toothpick test. If the toothpick isn’t clean, cook for 3 more minutes. The point is to bake it fully but not overcooking it.
5. Cupcakes should be removed from their pan immediately so they don’t “cook” from the heat of the pan. You don’t want an overcooked dry cupcake.
6. Don’t be afraid to add a filling to your cupcakes. I have put frosting inside the cupcakes, for a reverse cupcake. I have used jam, sprinkles with frosting mixed in, and even fruit. To fill the cupcakes, let them cook a bit after cooking, hollow out a bit of the middle and fill. SAVE the hollowed part to top the cupcake. This way the isn’t a huge hole.
7. Don’t try to frost your cupcakes too soon. They are hot, even if they are warm they will melt the frosting.
8. Mix frostings. Mix a chocolate frosting with a peanut butter frosting. Put a chocolate frosting onto an orange cake. You are the designer, have fun!
9. Always store your cupcakes in air tight containers. This will stop them from drying out.
10. Have fun and experiment. Explore and create!
Let me know of the different combinations you have made. What went well together?
*See my post on Fall Cupcakes for the toothpick test
These cupcakes are unbelievable. Everyone in my family is addicted to these, and it isn’t fall if I don’t make them. Perfect for Thanksgiving!
Ingredients for cupcakes
1 box of vanilla or yellow cake mix
1 apple
(3 oz) or 6 tablespoons of Cinnamon Sugar
2 packets of Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Drink Mix
2 eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
From the Dollar Tree I bought 1 box of yellow or vanilla cake mix. On the back of the box it will say it only makes 12 cupcakes, don’t believe this. Every time I have made this I was able to make 24 cupcakes plus at least 6 minis.
Also, from the Dollar Tree again, I bought 1 8 oz Baker’s Select Cinnamon Sugar container and 1 box of Alpine Spiced Apple Cider drink mix.
1. Put 2 packets of the Spiced Apple Cider into a cup and boil water. Add 1 cup of water to the 2 packets. Let it cool.
2. Peel and cut the apple into small cubes. Put into a sauce pan.
3. Add 1/4 cup of the Spiced Apple Cider to the apples and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar.
4. Stir and heat until the apples are soft. Let cool.
5. Open the cake mix, pour into a mixing bowl.
6. Add the vegetable oil and egg.
7. Take the remaining 3/4 cup of the Spiced Apple Cider and add this to the cake mix (don’t add any more water. This is substituting the water)
8. Add the apples to the cake mix.
9. Grease your cupcake pan (I used liners) and fill. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.
I frost these with my homemade Peanut Butter Frosting which I will be posting later today. They do taste great with powered sugar as well.
***Toothpick test*** If you place a toothpick into a cupcake and it pulls out “clean” (nothing gooey on it) then it is fully cooked and done.
I made these cupcakes for my mothers birthday. They were a huge hit, and I am requested to make them again for every birthday now.
Directions:
1. I used a regular Chocolate chip cupcake mix and made the cupcakes as the box told me to. However, to get the most moist cupcake, set your time for 5-8 minutes earlier than they call for. So if they say it will take 18 minutes, set your timer for 13 and check with a toothpick. I can’t stress this enough! My mom always overcooks her cupcakes, and this is the problem.
2. Let the cupcakes cool. You want them to be fully cooled before doing anything else.
3. I used half of the first bag of Reeses minis, chopped them up finely. After, I cut the rest of the minis 1 1/2 bags into halves. Then, put all of it in the refrigerator to cool… they kind of melted from handling.
4. I then took the cooled cupcakes and cut holes in the middle to fill them with my homemade filling. DON’T get rid of the cut outs.
5. I combined the following ingredients to make my homemade peanut butter frosting.
-1 cup Peanut butter
-4 cups Confectioners sugar
-1 teaspoon Vanilla
-2 teaspoons Milk
Blend this with a mixer. If the consistency is too thick, keep adding milk at small quanities. It will change fast so don’t add too much too soon.
6. After the peanut butter frosting is made, take about 1/4 of this mixture and put it in a bowl. Take your finely chopped Reeses out of the fridge and mix it into the icing.
7. Place a small spoonfull of the reeses into the cupcakes and cover with the parts your cut out.
8. Place the rest of the Reeses frosting into a frosting bag. Make sure it is only on one side of the bag. Place store bought chocolate icing on the opposite side.
9. Squeeze to ice all of your cupcakes, twist your hand to creat a pretty design.
10. Place the halved Reeses on top to decorate.
11. Enjoy.
My boyfriend and I have hit a rough patch in our relationship, and I really wanted him to know how much I truly cared about him.
I saw a post on Pinterest about making a book our of a deck of cards. The title was 52 reasons I love you – you can also just search this on google.
After listing all the reasons I loved him, I numbered them. I was surprised at how many extra reasons I had. I put them on the cards, following the directions given on the Pinterest post.
The worst part of making this deck of cards was the hole punching. Gosh darn, it hurt the palm of my hand!
Anyways, after making the deck I wanted a creative way to give it to him. I found a show box and some random items around my room that I had laying around- literally.
I wrote him a 2 page description on everything in the box, this was what it said:
“Every object inside this box tells a story. One that can give you strength, one that can make you smile. Each story, each object, has one purpose and that is to make you stronger.”
“These object and their meanings are listed below.
~Hockey Tickets– to remind you of our fun adventures!
~A piece of wood– from the first board you broke (in karate)- to remind you that you are strong!
~A Fortune– you never know when you need good luck!
~A Heart– to remind you that you will always have mine!
~A Paperclip– to remind you to hold yourself together!
~A Penny– to remind you that it is never to late to give someone a penny for your thoughts!
~The word Love– to remind you that you will always have all of my love!
~A Deck Of Cards– to give you 52 reasons why I love you!
~Tissue Paper– to wipe your tears when I’m not there to do it for you!
~Shoe Box– to hold everything for you, so you don’t have to.”
I looked at my kitchen table today, which is tiled and actually noticed how DIRTY the grout is. It disgusted me. So, I did some experiments on which product would work best. I was shocked with the results.
I used 4 different “cleaners.”
1. Window Cleaner 
2. Concentrated Lemon Juice 
3. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser 
4. Kitchen Cleaner with Bleach 
I expected to use less effort, and get best results with the cleaner with bleach. I was wrong.
I used less force, and power with the lemon juice, and the grout came out brighter and cleaner. So, squirt some of that lip puckering juice on the grout and walk away. I gave it about 2 minutes, and scrubbed lightly with a tooth brush. I say give it 5 minutes then scrub. You’ll be disgusted with the smell, but thats all the guck coming up. The results will be great!
briannajoycee 