White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

Only 11 more days until me & my 2 oldest boys jump on a plane and head to Tennessee!  I'm really looking forward to this trip.  Well, everything except the heat & humidity!  I may just die & there's no telling what my naturally curly hair is going to do while there, but it's all part of the experience right?!

I just want to give a quick thank you before we move on to today's DELICIOUS recipe to everyone who has donated money & helped us fundraise.  We really appreciate it, so a huge THANK YOU to you!!

Alright, on to another cupcake.  Are you surprised?  It seems like all I've been doing for the past few weeks is baking (and mainly cupcakes!).  So, I'm sorry for the lack of healthy, dinner menu recipes...I promise I'll do better in June!:)  But I've got to say, I have loved creating & making all these fun cupcakes, and I've been able to help raise money for my boys by doing it as well!  So I've been killing 2 birds with one stone: #1 Raising money for my boys, #2 Feeding my desire to bake & not making myself gain 300 pounds in the process!:)

Hope you enjoy this one...words cannot express my love!

White Chocolate Rasberry Swirl Cupcakes

PRINT RECIPE

For the cake:

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon clear vanilla

Raspberry pie filling

White Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Raspberry Cream Cheese Buttercream:

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup smashed raspberries

4-5 cups powdered sugar

Raspberries for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with 24 muffin liners.

Mix cake mix with eggs, oil, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla until smooth.  Scoop batter into muffin tins about 3/4 full.  Spoon a teaspoon of raspberry pie filling onto the top of each cupcake.  Take a toothpick and swirl the filling into the batter.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let sit for about 5 minutes and remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Place white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring inbetween until melted & smooth.  Add the heavy whipping cream until it's about the consistency of a heavy syrup.

Dip the tops of each cupcake in the ganache.  Lightly scrape off any excess so it doesn't run down the sides of your cupcake.  Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to help it set up.

For the frosting; cream the butter and cream cheese for about 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the mashed raspberries & mix to combine.  Add teh powdered sugar a cup at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Pipe onto cupcakes & top with a fresh raspberry.

Barbie Birthday Cake

I made this cake for a neighbor & I had so much fun!!  It's been a while since I was able to make something cute with pinks & purples!   Kyla's been out of that stage since about age 5...she never was a big pink lover anyway (gasp!).

There's really no recipe for this cake.  I just used a regular vanilla cake mix & a vanilla buttercream recipe for the frosting.

I used a small star tip for the dress.  And although your hand will be in agony by the time you're done with all those stars, it really isn't hard or too time consuming!

Here's a few steps that I used in making this cake that might be helpful to someone else.

I "crumb coated" the cake first.  It's just a thin layer of frosting to cover the cake.  It will help keep any crumbs from falling away from the cake and getting into your final layer which will keep it looking good.  It's also great to help you design whatever it is you're doing with the cake.  Just use a toothpick and "draw" your design into the cake so you can follow it when you start frosting.
 

 

Now just work your way around the cake with the stars.  They need to be pretty close together, and try not to put them in lines, but just sporadic...it'll look better trust me! 

 

 

For the body, you just frost right over the body of the barbie.  Then you just embellish however you would like.  We created a necklace & added some candy flowers and pearls. 

 

 

Turned out pretty cute & was a joy to make!!

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake

If you are a regular reader here you've probably already guessed that Kyla came up with these cupcakes!  She's our PB & chocolate lovin' girl (she takes after her Dad).  She's always coming up with great ideas for PB desserts.  Like the PB Whoopie Pies.  DELICIOUS! 

So plan a time to make these...you will not be disappointed!

(I told you we were on a cupcake craze!!!)

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake

PRINT RECIPE

1 box devils food cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

For frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon milk

8-10 PB cups, chopped

extra PB cups for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners.

Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla until smooth.  Fill liners 3/4 the way full with batter & bake for 15-18 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.

For the frosting, cream butter and cream cheese until light & fluffy.  Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and the cocoa & mix until combined.  Add the milk & as much more of the powdered sugar you need to reach your desired consistency.  Put in the chopped PB pieces and mix to combine.  (I used my chopper to chop the PB cups & all the pieces stuck together pretty good, so I was a little worried, but when you get them in your mixer it disperses the pieces and works wonderfully!)

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and top with half of a PB cup.

I'm officially drooling right now!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

We finally got Bountiful Baskets (if you have not heard of it, go to the link & see if it's going on in your area...lots of fresh fruits and veggies & extras for an awesome price!) going here in my wonderful little town!  It's bright & early on Saturday mornings (7:00 a.m. pick up time!!), but I'm so glad it's here!

They had strawberries to order this last week and so I got 2 cases. (8, 1 lb. packages for $11...pretty great price!)

So guess what I'm making today?  Yep, strawberry freezer jam!  This is my families favorite jam & we go through it like crazy!  It is more affordable than buying jam AND it's tastes so much better!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

(Cost per bottle=$2.18, approximately)

PRINT RECIPE

4 cups mashed strawberries (about 2 1/2 pounds whole strawberries)

8 cups sugar

2 boxes of pectin

1 1/2 cups water

Wash & remove stems from strawberries and mash them. You can mash them with a potato masher or I just like to blend them in my blender, but if you do that just don't blend them to death! In a large bowl measure the EXACT amount of sugar...I know that's a lot of sugar, but it needs to be that much or else the jam will not set. You can try the recipes on the less-sugar pectin boxes if that much sugar scares you to death!:) Pour the strawberries over the sugar and stir until mixture is combined really well. Let sit for 10 minutes.

When there is about 3-4 minutes left of the strawberry/sugar mixture start making the pectin. Measure water into a medium sized sauce pan (you don't want it too small because when it starts to boil it boils up...I've had many a spill overs over the years!) and add the pectin. It may be a little lumpy but will dissolve during this process so don't worry. Bring the water/pectin to a boil stirring constantly. When it reaches a boil, stir & boil for 1 minute. Pour over the strawberries and mix for 3 minutes to ensure it's incorporated throughout. Pour into freezer safe jars. Let sit at room temperature for 24 hours and then put in the freezer for up to a year (we've used some past the year mark and it was still good) or store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Makes about 5 pint size jars.

Grasshopper Cupcakes

The necessities of life right now:  Eating, sleeping (not as much as I'd like!), baseball, & FUNDRAISING!

(If you missed my post before, we're sending 2 teams from my kids' school (including 2 of my boys) to Globals for Destination Imagination (read about it HERE))

I'm feeling a little sleep-deprived, stressed, overwhelmed, and I think I might go crazy before this is all over! 

So, like any sane person would do...when asked to make about 300 cupcakes for Prom, I said yes.  Anything to help my boys make it to Tennessee!! 

That means I will be making another batch of these babies!

(you'd think I'd be getting sick of cupcakes, but they are just so fun to make...and I've recruited the help of Kyla...she's good at the cupcake part, but she's still working on getting the piping of the frosting down, although she is getting better.)

I could crawl into my closet with this frosting & be happy there for quite some time!:)

Grasshopper Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake

PRINT RECIPE

For the cupcakes:

1 box devil's food cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

Ganache:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Grasshopper Buttercream:

1 sleeve grasshopper cookies

1/2 cup butter

8 oz. cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners. 

Mix the cake mix with the rest of the cake ingredients until nice and smooth.  Fill liners 3/4 way full with batter.  Use large cookie scoop to make this easier. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Ganache, place chocolate chips in a glass bowl.  Heat the cream in the microwave until it starts to bubble, about 1-2 minutes.  Pour cream over the chocolate chips and stir until smooth.  Stir in the peppermint extract.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache and let cool until set.

For the frosting, crush the cookies using a blender (which is how I do it, but however you want to do it is fine:)); set aside.  Beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and 2 cups of the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk and the cookie crumbs, and mix until incorporated.  Continue adding powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.

Pipe frosting over set ganache & top with 1/4 of a grasshopper cookie.

Looks good enough to eat!:)

Mom's Sloppy Joes

These sloppy joes are a repeat recipe here, but I knew they'd fit into my Budget Dinners, so I figured out the cost & am here to bring you my Mom's fabulous sloppy joes again!

We always use Bullseye BBQ sauce because that's my Mom's favorite, but you can use your favoirte brand.  (Just don't tell my Mom!!:))

UPDATE:  I went to the store to get some ground beef so I could make these last night & found some 93% lean ground turkey on sale for $2 a pound so I thought I'd try it.  It was delicious!  My beef lovin' hubby couldn't even tell the difference!!  Score!  And it took the price down to .58 cents a serving!  Awesome!:)

Mom's Sloppy Joes

(Budget Dinner Totals: $8.93 total.  Makes about 12 sloppy joes which equals .74 cents per sloppy joe. (not including cheese)

PRINT RECIPE

2 lbs. lean hamburger

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce

1 Tablespoon Whorchestershire sauce

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon mustard

1/2 cup BULLSEYE bbq sauce

Cook hamburger and onion together until burger is no longer pink. Sift the flour over and then add the remaining ingredients. Heat the slop throughly and serve on buns.

I like to use deli rolls or something like that (the picture is taken with just regular old hamburger buns...which is still good too!) and then I will spread a little butter on the insides and then place under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until a little crispy.

Place sloppy joe on bun and add a slice of cheese. Whatever kind of cheese your family likes.  I love me some Havarti on these...YUM!!

SO GOOD!! Enjoy with a salad or coleslaw!



Destination ImagiNation Globals (we need your help!)

My family spent this last weekend in Denver with our 2 boys who were competing in the State finals with their Destination ImagiNation teams.

We were thrilled when my son Eli's (9) team took 1st place!

AND my son Caleb's (11) team took 3rd place!!

This qualifies BOTH teams to go to Globals from May 23-26 in Knoxville, Tennessee to compete against other teams from all around the world!

WOW! 

What an opportunity for these kids!  This is the first time in the history of our community that any DI team has advanced this far & we are so proud of them!!

For those of you who do not know what Destination ImagiNation is, you can go check it out HERE.  But here's a description of what it's all about from their website:



"Destination ImagiNation, Inc. is an extraordinary non-profit organization that provides educational programs for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving. Every year, we reach 125,000 students across the U.S. and in more than 30 countries. Destination ImagiNation, our core program, is an educational program in which student teams solve open-ended Challenges and present their solutions at Tournaments. Teams are tested to think on their feet, work together and devise original solutions that satisfy the requirements of the Challenges. Participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills—they learn to unleash their imaginations and take unique approaches to problem solving."

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these kids and something they will carry with them for the rest of their lives!  They have been working on their challenges since September and have advanced to this level only through an enormous amount of hard work and diligence!

Please consider supporting our teams by donating whatever you can.  In order to send these 2 teams and their coaches we need to raise approximately $25,000!  I know that sounds daunting, but even if all you can do is a few dollars WE APPRECIATE IT!!

I have set up a DONATE button on the right hand side of the blog.  You can donate with any credit/debit card through Paypal.

If you have any questions please let me know by leaving a comment or you can always e-mail me at doublethedeliciousness@gmail.com.

Thank you so much!