Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

These cupcakes are much lighter than the Brownie Mint Cupcakes I had made previously.  They are a classic cupcake texture (instead of a denser brownie-like texture) and the mint flavor is infused throughout the cupcake due to the use of mint extract.  These are really good cupcakes and can be dressed up with a variety of frostings or served all by themselves.  You can also use vanilla instead of the mint extract for a classic and delicious chocolate cupcake!

In addition to how moist and delicious these are, the recipe is great because it makes about 18 cupcakes, instead of a huge number like many chocolate cupcake recipes I have tried so far. This cupcake recipe is also from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. As you can probably tell, it was my first cupcake cookbook, so it is still my go-to book for cupcakes!


I topped mine with a vanilla buttercream and a mint patty, but you can top these with almost any type of frosting you like!


Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups coca
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 3/4 cups water

1. Line your cupcake pans with paper liners, and preheat your oven to 350F
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together your flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well mixed
3. Add the buttermilk, eggs, oil, peppermint extract (or vanilla if you prefer) and the water to the dry ingredients, mixing until nice and smooth
4. Pour the batter into the cupcake cups, and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake
5. Let cool completely before icing.  These cupcakes freeze really well, so they are perfect for making ahead, or having in the freezer just in case!
6. Top with your favorite icing: vanilla buttercream, mint buttercream, cream cheese, whichever!

Sunflower Cupcakes

I recently bought a new book on cupcakes, Hello, Cupcake!, that has some amazing ideas for ways to dress up your naked cupcakes. These sunflowers are so cute, and perfect for the beautiful sunny weather we are having right now.


They are actually quite east to make too! The best part of the book is that they don't require you to buy any fancy icing tips or other supplies can only be found at specialty stores.


To make these sunflowers, all you need is oreos, vanilla icing, ziploc bags, scotch tape, and icing dyes/food clouring.  

First dye a portion of the vanilla icing green and then cover each cupcake in the green icing.  Next, press the oreos randomly into each cupcake top.


Dye a portion of the icing yellow, and another portion orange.  Place each icing in a ziploc bag (side by side) and press out all air, then seal the ziploc.  

Reinforce one corner of the bag with scotch tape, and then cut a 'V' into the corner.  Then all you need to do is put a layer of petals onto each cookie, and before you know it you have beautiful sunflowers!


Now you have a whole bouquet of beautiful sunflowers to enjoy after a great summer meal.

I hope you are having an amazing summer!

Raspberry Preserves

With all of the rain we have been having lately, there is a serious abundance of raspberries right now.  We went and picked a ton a couple of days ago, but there were more ripe raspberries than we could possibly eat so we decided to try and make raspberry preserves.


If you have never had these, they are so good! The raspberry syrup it produces is amazing with vanilla ice cream, pancakes, whipped cream, on pie, by itself, really the uses are endless.


We have access to a very large number of raspberry bushes, half of which produce yellow raspberries.  They are so good, but I find the traditional red raspberries to be a bit sweeter.  I have never seen yellow raspberry preserves, but we figured why not give it a shot!


This is just what we picked the first night.  A couple of days later we doubled our raspberry harvest! And this Saturday, we will probably pick at least this much again. I think I need more jars.

This was also our first attempt at canning, and we managed to have 11 of our 12 cans produce the 'pop' that lets you know the jar is sealed. Pretty successful for a first attempt!  Since we have a ceramic stove top, we can't can in the traditional way, so we did our canning in the oven instead.  This method is amazing and so easy, I don't think I will ever stray!


There is only three ingredients in raspberry preserves: raspberries, sugar, and water!


Raspberry Preserves

• 6 - 8 liters (about 1.5 to 2 ice cream pails) raspberries
• 9 cups water
• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• 12 x 500 ml jars

1. Sterilize your jars (we did so in the dishwasher) and your lids/sealers (we washed them and then put them in bowl of water we boiled in an electric kettle).  Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Make a simple syrup by combining the water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil so all of the sugar dissolves. Set the simple syrup aside
3. Wash all of the raspberries and fill up your jars with the raspberries, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top. We fit about 2 liters of raspberries in 3 to 3.5 jars (we gently pressed them into the jars)
4. Pour the simple syrup into each jar, again leaving 1 inch of space at the top (we had a couple cups of simple syrup left over)
5. Carefully place the lids and sealers on top the jars and close tightly
6. Place your jars in a shallow pan or rectangular casserole dish that has about 1 inch of water in it
7. Place the dish with the water and the jars in the oven for 30 minutes
8. Remove the pans from the oven and set the jars on a cooling rack then wait for the 'pop'!
9. If some of the jars do not seal (if the top moves when you press on it), just place these ones in the fridge to eat first!

Honey Oat Bread

Thats right! I finally did it.  I got over my fear and tackled the art of making bread.  And you know what? It wasn't that bad! In fact, it was a delicious adventure and I can not wait to try it out again.


I found this recipe on tastykitchen.com and the actual recipe from that site can be found here.  This recipe had a ton of awesome reviews, and they were all very well deserved! If you are looking for a tasty and healthy bread recipe, then I will definitely recommend this one.


Another bonus? Trying out this recipe also gave me a chance to use the dough hook attachment on my KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer (oh how I love that machine) for the first time, which I found very exciting!


This is a whole wheat bread, so it is a little bit heavier than if you are used to white bread.  It is fantastic for making sandwiches, or for toasting in the morning for breakfast (or for supper, like I may have done today).  I think this recipe can also be tweaked to add other fun elements, maybe something tasty like sunflower seeds!  This recipe produces two loaves, so you can easily freeze one for later.


Honey Oat Bread

• 4 1/2 tsps Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 cups honey
• 4 tbsps butter
• 2 1/4 cups warm water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats (the quick cooking variety)
• 1 egg

1. Heat the butter and the honey in a small saucepan over medium heat until the butter is completely melted.
2. Remove from heat and add the warm water
3. Test the mixture to make sure it is warm to the touch (but not hot), and then add the active dry yeast
4. Stir in the yeast, and let it sit for about 10 minutes until it is really bubbly. Note: If your yeast is not producing bubbles at this point, the liquid may have been too hot, not warm enough, or your yeast may be expired. These things happen to the best of us! If your yeast expiry date has not passed, then try again and really monitor the temperature of the liquids before adding the yeast, the bubbles are key to fluffy bread.
5. Pour the bubbly yeast mixture into a bowl, and then add the salt, 1 cup regular flour, and 2 cups whole wheat flour.  If you have a stand mixer, you can mix this up with the dough hook attachment
6. After it is mixed, beat the mixture for 2 minutes
7. Add the egg, and then 1 cup whole wheat flour, and beat for another 2 minutes
8. Add the oats, the remaining whole wheat flour, and 1 cup regular flour
9. Knead with your hands on a floured surface (or with the dough-hook attachment on your mixer) until it is nice and soft.  I had to add all of the remaining regular flour to get it to the correct consistency (it was originally really sticky)
10. Grease a bowl with butter and place the ball of dough inside the bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 1 hour
11. After the dough has risen and doubled in size, punch it down and then place it onto a floured surface. 
12. Cover, and let rise for about 15 - 20 minutes
13. Split the dough into two equal pieces, and place each piece into a loaf pan 
14. Cover the loaf pans with a tea towel and let the loaves rise for another hour
15. Bake the loaves at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes

Note: My oven seems to run quite hot, and my loaves were done at 30 minutes.  

Another Note: Do me a favor and try this when it is still warm with some butter, mmmmmm

Third Note: Or toast a couple slices and serve with peanut butter for breakfast the next day, so good!

Classic Buttercream Icing

This past weekend we went on a camping trip with a large group of family.  It is an annual camping and family golf tournament event that is always a blast.  We had a large potluck on Friday and I was in charge of dessert!


I made one batch of Devil's Food Chocolate, and one batch of Yellow Buttermilk cupcakes.  I baked each as half regular cupcakes, and half mini.  Next time, I think I will go with all mini, they seem to go over much better after a really large meal!

I also found a buttercream icing recipe that seemed to work really well. It was super easy to decorate with; it spread well and also held up to piping. And best of all, it held up great against the heat all weekend!  It is a Wilton recipe and can be found on the Wilton website here. It can also be found in the 2003 Wilton Yearbook: Cake Decorating!

I can already see some people cringing when they see what is actually in icing, but trust me, it is so worth it! 


Buttercream Icing

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tbsps milk

1. Cream together the butter and shortening until smooth
2. Add the vanilla, and mix until fully mixed
3. Add the icing sugar 1 cup at a time, making sure it is completely mixed in before adding the next cup
4. After all the icing sugar is added, add in the milk and beat until it is nice and fluffy. At this point you can also add your food coloring if you wish to do so
5. If you want to make this ahead of time, you can store it in an air-tight container for about two weeks in the fridge