S'Mores Cookies

I made these cookies for a Fourth of July BBQ and they were such a hit with the Holmbo Family!

It did get a little messy but that's because I am not graceful in the kitchen and I tend to ALWAYS make a mess!


So to begin with the cookie recipe:                                           (Sorry for the blurry picture!)

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (I left some chunks)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups chocolate chips
24-28 large marshmallows
                                                                         
Directions:

In a large bowl cream butter and sugars. Then beat in egg, milk, and vanilla. Combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on your baking sheet and bake 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes and let cool.

Once cool, place 4 cookies bottom side up in microwave uncovered. Place marshmallow on the cookie and microwave for 10-15 seconds until the mallow puffs. Immediately top with another cookie, pressing firmly to make a sandwich. Store in the fridge to cool, and if it is hot outside like it was for the fourth of July!

I think this is a fun recipe and they were so delicious! And it's always a good feeling when the people you are hanging out with say they can't get enough! :) Thanks Sarah, Becca, Mike, Ben, Trinity, and Papa Holmbo for loving my cookies!

And because I am the crazy cat lady, here's a picture of Kitten relaxing

Can't forget about Kitten

I almost forgot to post a picture of Kitten and we can't forget that see now the blog is about cupcakes and Kitten.

She has this interesting habit of waking me up between the hours of 3:30am and 5am. She'll run on a dead sprint into my bedroom jump on the bed, lay across me, and then reach her paw out to any limb and/or face. She'll meow and meow until I open my eyes. But sorry Kitten you're not getting me out of bed to give you food this early. So my spray bottle to get her to go away has become my new bedside accessory.

Ain't she adorable, it's hard to say no to her.

Grinch Cupcakes

To get in the spirit of Christmas my sister and I decided to bake a lot because we were hosting a Christmas Eve party. The whole weekend we competed to see who the better child was and were awarding points to ourselves for different crafts and activities that we did. For example I decorated the entrance light with those little mittens that Starbucks giftcards used to come in that I had saved (5pts). While my sister made reindeer cookies (10pts). So to one up her I made  Grinch cupcakes. 

So what you'll need:

1 box cake mix (we used a funfetti Christmas edition)

m&ms (all yellow)

food coloring (We had green holiday frosting but it can also be dyed green with food coloring)

Frosting

Eggs

Veggie Oil

toothpicks (or piping equipment if you have it)

To begin:

Preheat oven and mix cake mix as directed. Fill each liner 2/3 full and bake as directed. Let cool.

Mean while if you have regular white frosting add green food coloring until shade of green is achieved. I had a Christmas edition of funfetti green frosting so this step was already accomplished for me.

To Frost:

 Once  the cupcakes are cool frost with green frosting. Instead of putting the peak of the frosting (the point that usually occurs when frosting) in the center, I put it close to a side to be reminiscent of the Grinch's pointy head. Then add two yellow m&ms as eyeballs. Now I used the left over frosting and added a mix of food coloring to get a brown color, but you could also just use chocolate. And because I didn't have piping bags and tips at the time I used a toothpick to make my lines. I created two eyebrows and a smile and instantly you have a Grinch. 

I think this is a cute and easy way to make festive cupcakes and will definitely do this again sometime. And if you're wondering who won the best child award between my sister and I, we decided it should be a tie (though I personally think I won) but we came to the tie decision because my mom says she loves us both equally. But that's okay Mom because secretly we know who the better child is. :)

Ice Cream Cupcakes

I've always enjoyed ice cream and cake and to put them together as layers in a cake was a genius idea by whoever thought of it. So of course if it can be made into a cake, it can be done as cupcakes.

There was only a few speed bumps that I ran into on this adventure, one was that nowhere in Pullman was there cake batter ice cream. And by nowhere I mean there was zero cake batter ice cream in all three of the grocery stores here. The second problem was that it does get a little messy, but that definitely could have just been a personal problem.

So let's begin shall we..

What you'll need:


1 box cake mix (I used funfetti because everyone loves funfetti)
Eggs
Veggie oil
Ice Cream (flavor of your choice)
Frosting (I used Duncan Hines Flavor Creations from Safeway)

To Start:

Preheat your oven and mix cake mix. Line your cupcake pan and be prepared because this makes quite a few because in each liner you only need to put 1 teaspoon of batter to cover the bottom. You can increase this but I wouldn't do anymore than just another 1/2 teaspoon because this was my trial and error stage. First  I thought 1 tablespoon would be ok, but that much batter rose quite a bit after baking. So I recommend 1-2 teaspoons, depending on how much cake you like.Bake for about 10-15 min.

After baking all your baby cupcakes let them cool. While cooling, set out your ice cream so it can soften making it easy to put in the liners. My ice cream melted pretty fast so I made sure to put the cupcakes in the freezer right away. So once cupcakes are cool and ice cream is soft, spoon in scoops of ice cream to fill the remaining space in the liner. Make sure you have enough room in your freezer for all of the cupcakes so you don't have to make shift shelves out of lasagna and cool whip like I had to. Leave cupcakes for a few hours or even overnight.

To Frost:

Have everything ready to go before removing cupcakes from the freezer because you'll need to work fast. For frosting you can use whatever flavor coordinating with your cake and ice cream but because I was using fun flavors I decided to use Duncan Hines Flavor Creations flavoring packets to make cotton candy frosting (so delicious). And to top it off I put a gumball on top. In theory this was a good idea but I forgot the little fact that when gumballs freeze they become jaw breakers, so next time I'll wait until I serve them to add the gumball.

I brought them to work with me and thinking because we have a big walk-in fridge it would be ok to leave them in there for an hour or two; that plan failed miserably and withing like 15-20 min they began to melt. So if not in the freezer, eat them fast!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

So I'll start with my most recent baking excursion, I decided to try out cookie dough cupcakes. 

This was a really delicious idea I got, of course, from Pinterest. I tried it out for a going away party for my friend Robby and it was a big hit! 

Because I don't have a kitchen aid mixer (though it's on my wishlist) and I'm a broke college grad, I tend to stick to box cakes because it's cheaper and easier for me. 

So here's what you'll need:

1 box yellow cake mix

2-3 eggs (depending on the mix)

veggie oil (amount depends on mix)

2 cans milk chocolate frosting

1 bag mini chocolate chips

1 package break&bake cookie dough

1 bag mini chocolate chips ahoy cookies

 To start:

Mix cake batter according to box directions. Preheat oven as directed. While waiting for  the oven to preheat break the cookie dough from their little squares into balls. Once the oven is preheated line your cupcake pan with liners and pour batter about 2/3 full. Place one cookie dough ball in the middle of each cupcake. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake part comes out clean. Let cool.

To frost:

I use Wilton icing bags and tips but you could also just use a knife to spread on the frosting. I used 2 cans of frosting because I love frosting and wanted to have extravagant looking cupcakes but realistically 1 can would probably do the job. So after your cupcakes are cooled frost the cupcake as the way you like. Then sprinkle mini chocolate chips on all cupcakes and top with a mini cookie.

 Voila! Cookie dough cupcakes!

I really love this recipe because let's face it, who doesn't love cookie dough! I only encountered a few bumps in the road. First was that my batter only made 21 cupcakes, which wasn't a big deal because it was only going to be 10 people at the party. Second was that some of the cookie dough baked like an actual cookie instead of staying in a ball so it made a cave on the inside. I think this was because I pressed down on the cookie dough pushing it to the bottom instead of letting it just sit on top. I will definitely be trying this again because it was a crowd favorite!

Stay tuned because my next adventure is a tribute to my sister Lauren with one of her favorites-Moose Tracks. I've seen a few different recipes but I'm going to try to accomplish my own version!

Just an Introduction

I'm so excited to join the blogging game! I decided to try this out because I see so many other blogs and I get so jealous that my life isn't as interesting as other peoples.

So here's the short story of me: I'm 22, fresh out of college (Go Cougs!) and besides working two jobs my life pretty much revolves around baking and my kitten. Occasionally there is the hang out with friends but that usually turns into a baking therapy session. My hopes and dreams are to eventually open a bakery with my friend Melina (she's AMAZING at baking so she's the perfect partner in crime). All I have to do is win the lottery and I'm set to make it all happen. So anyways that's my life in a nutshell.

This is Kitten and me (She doesn't look entirely happy to be taking the picture)

Happy Blogging!