Mint Chocoate Crazy Cake Recipe! (Tastes like Girl Scouts' Thin Mints cookies)

Chocolate Mint CRAZY CAKE (NO EGGS, MILK, BUTTER)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose)
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa (unsweetened)
• 1 cup sugar (All purpose sugar - Granulated Pure Cane Sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil
• 1 cup water 

Directions (
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8" square baking pan.  Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients - two small, one larger (see #3 in photo below). Pour vinegar in one depression, peppermint extract in the other and the oil in third larger depression.  Pour water over all.  Mix well until smooth.
Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes.  Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool.  Top with your favorite frosting.  Enjoy!

Note:  Oven baking times may vary, be sure to check your cake to make sure you do not over bake.

Frosting:  Use your favorite chocolate, vanilla or peppermint frosting.  For this cake, I didn't have what I needed to make homemade frosting so I used a can of Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting from the pantry.  I added 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract and mixed it up - it was perfect.   You can do the same with a container of vanilla frosting. 

Sangria Cupcakes

Sangria Cupcakes

 

Yield: 12 cupcakes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1 & 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, or a little less
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 cup blueberries or diced apples

To top the cupcakes

• Orange slices, strawberry slices and blueberries.

Buttercream

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 2-2.5 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups red wine and 1/4 cup sugar, reduced to red wine syrup, see below

Directions:

Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350º F.
2. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Whisk and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl combine the eggs, melted butter, vanilla, and sour cream until combined.
4. Slowly add half of the flour mixture to the liquid, stirring to combine. Repeat with the rest of the flour mixture. Add in the chopped strawberries, orange zest, and blueberries or chopped apples. Stir to mix.
5. Divide the batter among a muffin pan lined with muffin liners, fill the muffin cups to be about a little more than 1/2 full.
6. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Red Wine Syrup

1. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the red wine and sugar to a boil. Once the wine starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, you still want to see the wine boiling, just not a rigorous boil. Allow the wine to thicken and reduce, about 20-30 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow it to cool at remove temperature. This is where the wine will begin to thicken. Once the wine has cooled to room temperature, you can place the saucepan in the fridge to help speed on the cooling process.

Buttercream

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the room temperature butter and shortening, beat using an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
2. Add 1/4 cup of the red wine syrup and mix. You can add more later, but you do not want the buttercream to become too wet.
3. Begin to add in the powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time. Slowly beat the mixture until the powered sugar is incorporated. Continue this process, adding enough powdered sugar to make sure the frosting isn't too wet. You can add more red wine syrup at this time if you’d like the flavor to be stronger. You may have to add more powdered sugar too.
4. Transfer a portion of the frosting to a large ziploc bag or piping bag fit with a piping tip. Push or squeeze the frosting down, getting rid of any air pockets. If using a ziploc bag, cut half one corner, making a hole between the size of a dime and a penny.
5. Begin to pipe the frosting onto a cupcake, starting with the outside edge and working your way into the center of the cupcake, progressively stacking the frosting as you go around in circles. I used a wilton 2D piping tip.
6. Top each cupcake with a small orange slice, strawberry slice and one blueberry.

Crazy Wacky Cake! (No egg, milk, butter or bowls!)

Vanilla Crazy Cake Recipe (No Eggs, Milk, Butter or Bowls)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups flour + 3 Tablespoons (all-purpose)
• 1 Cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp.  salt

• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp.  pure vanilla extract
• 5 Tbsp. vegetable oil 
• 1 Cup water

 Directions (picture tutorial below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8" square baking pan.  Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients - two small, one larger (see #3 in photo below). Pour vinegar in one depression, vanilla in the other and the vegetable oil in third larger depression. Pour water over all. Mix well until smooth.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes. Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool. Top with your favorite frosting. Enjoy!

Note: Oven baking times may vary, be sure to check your cake to make sure you do not over bake.

Chocolate Crazy Cake Recipe (No Eggs, Milk, Butter or Bowls)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups flour (all-purpose)
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa (unsweetened)
• 1 Cup sugar (All purpose sugar - Granulated Pure Cane Sugar)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp.  salt

• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 tsp.  pure vanilla extract
• 5 Tbsp. vegetable oil 
• 1 Cup water 

Easter Cookies!

So for Easter I made some Peeps for my Peeps at work :D These were super fun to make!!

Welcome back!

So I've been away for a while now, but that doesn't mean I haven't been making cookies in the meantime! I recently bought some new cookie cutters too, so that's what I've been focusing on. My manager at work requested I make him some cookies with my new Fallout cookie cutter, so I had to comply.

The cutter was a little wonky, this was my first experience with a 3D printer cutter. The dough refused to come loose at first, then I inquired online and learned that I needed to drill a few small holes through the back of the cutter to create airflow so the dough wouldn't vacuum into the cutter. I also had to heavily flour the cutter and the dough to get it to come out halfway clean. So a heads up, 3D printed "whole" cutters are fun, but you gotta work with them a bit.
However I also just recently bought some 2-piece cutters from CrimsonManeCreations in Australia. Now these cutters are amazing! They're also 3D printed, but they are "plunger" type cutters. They are the easiest to use, and the details are amazing!! I haven't tried to decorate them yet, but I made basic sugar cookies with them.