Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting

It's birthday time for my niece again! She's the big 11 this year - how time flies!

Made some King Arthur GF Chocolate Cupcakes, then filled and topped them with this Fluffy Peanut Butter frosting recipe that I found on AllRecipes.com

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

3 tablespoons milk, as needed

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.
Note: I doubled the recipe and used about 3.5 cups of sugar, and no milk.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies - Plus Mix-Ins of Your Choice!

Another Pinterest find! Original recipe can be found at The Burlap Bag, but it's pretty much the same as what I have here.

Ingredients
2 large, ripe bananas
1 cup quick oats

Examples of add-ins (or nothing at all!)
- chocolate chips
- walnuts
- cinnamon
- raisins
- dried cranberries

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350. Mash bananas until they're mostly smooth. Mix in oatmeal and whatever fix-ins you'd like. 
Grease a cookies sheet or use a silicone baking mat (you have to do one of these, or else the cookies will stick like crazy!). Drop sough on to cookie sheets and flatten with fork. 
Bake 15-18 min. Let sit for a minute or 2, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

I used 3 bananas, 1 1/2 cups oatmeal, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and some cinnamon. They were really good! I had 18 cookies, and 2 cookies were worth 1 Weight Watchers PlusPoints.
I think next time I'm going to add a tablespoon or 2 of peanut butter... mmmmmm

Slow-Cooker Sticky Wings

Found this on Pinterest and it looked super easy and the blogger said they're crazy good.


Ingredients
1 3" piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 lbs chicken wings, halved at joint and tips removed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions: 
Make Rub
Pulse ginger, garlic, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper in food processor until finely ground. Add mixture to slow-cooker insert. Add chicken and toss to coat.

Cook and Cool
Cover and cook on low until fat is rendered and chicken is tender, about 3-4 hours. Using slotted spoon, remove wings from slow-cooker and transfer to clean large bowl (discard liquid in slow-cooker). Let wings cool about 20 min (or cool briefly and refrigerate up to 24 hours).

Sauce and Broil
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Set wire rack inside rimmed backing sheet and spray rack with non-stick cooking spray. Whisk water, tomato paste, remaining sugar, remaining oy sauce, and remaining cayenne pepper in a bowl. Add half the sauce to a bowl with cooled wings and toss gently to coat. Arrange wings, skin side up, on prepared rack. Broil until wings are lightly charred and crisp around the edges, about 10-15 minutes. Flip wings, brush with remaining sauce, and continue to broil until well caramelized, about 3 minutes. Serve.

Note: In step 3, rack should be 10" to 12" from heating element. Don't wander off while the wings are in the oven.

Serves 12.

Roasted Cauliflower

One head cauliflower, cut into florets; 1/2 tsp. each salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder. (I threw all the ingredients into a Tupperware container and just shook it up.) Roast at 400F for 10 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through.

Had this at a party and it was good - on the must try list!

S'mores Cupcakes with Graham Cracker Buttercream

Who doesn't love s'mores??

My niece's 9th birthday was last month, but her party with her friends is tomorrow. She's having a make-your-own-pizza party - how fun!

I offered to make cupcakes for her party to give her mom a little break on the party planning. I had to find something that was gluten-free since she has Celiac Disease, and also nut-free since so many kids have nut allergies. I didn't want to risk something happening with that at all.

I offered her mom a few choices and this was her pick.

I tweaked the original recipe just a bit. I used a box of King Arthur Gluten-Free chocolate cake mix instead of making a from-scratch cake like the recipe called for, along with GF graham crackers. I'd probably do the same thing if I was making a regular cake. The box I used called for 1 1/3 cups of water (plus eggs and oil), but I used only 1/3 cup of water and 1 cup of sour cream. I think the sour cream adds nice moisture to a cake!

The below recipe is how I made it, and the original can be found here at Your Cup of Cake.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cakes:

2-layer box mix of chocolate cake plus ingredients on back minus 1 cup of water

1 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

Graham cracker crumbs (fine crumbs)

Marshmallow Cream Centers:

4 oz cream cheese

½ cup Fluff (marshmallow cream for you non New Englanders)

1 ½ - 2 cups powdered sugar

Graham Cracker Buttercream:

8 oz cream cheese

½ cup butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs (fine crumbs)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2-3 tablespoons whipping cream or milk

mini marshmallows and chocolate for decoration

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners (24).
2. Mix cake mix, ingredients from back of the box and sour cream together in a mixer until fully combined.
3. Spoon ¾ teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Shake pan to spread evenly.
4. Fill liners ¾ full and bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Mashmallow Cream Centers: Beat cream cheese, marshmallow cream and powdered sugar. Add more powdered sugar to taste. This mixture should not be thick like a buttercream, because it will be in the center of your cupcake.
6. When cupcakes are cooled, cut out a small area from the top of the cake and pipe marshmallow cream into each cupcake.
7. Graham Cracker Buttercream: Beat cream cheese and butter until light and creamy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and graham cracker crumbs. At this point, the buttercream will look like cookie dough. Add heavy cream a little bit at a time until buttercream consistency is reached.
8. Pipe onto cooled, marshmallow filled cupcakes and top with mini marshmallows and melted chocolate.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cloud Frosting

My niece turned 9 last week and today we celebrated. She was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease when she was about 2 and I always try to make her something "normal" for her birthday.


She LOVES Nutella, so when I found this recipe, I had to try it!


The reviews: My mom thought the cake was a little bitter on its own, but with the frosting she thought it was good. Another guest said he thought it tasted fine. I also thought the taste was fine, but the texture was a bit tough. I've never really tried any of my niece's GF stuff, so I don't know if this is a normal texture or not. It wasn't anything terrible, just not light and fluffy like most cakes.


But the person who mattered most loved them. She ate 2 and I think she would have kept going if her dad had let her!


NOTE: I topped half of the cupcakes with Ferrero Rocher chocolates (chocolate with hazelnuts). These are NOT gluten free, so make sure you keep that in mind.

Cupcake Ingredients
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten free flour mix (I used King Arthur's)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Cupcake Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
• In a large bowl, combine cocoa powder, flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla to dry ingredients. Mix until batter is smooth.
• Fill prepared baking cups 2/3 full. Bake around 20 minutes, until tops spring back when touched.

Frosting Ingredients (Makes enough to frost 12-15 cupcakes - double for above cupcakes)

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

1/3 cup Nutella

1 tablespoon milk

Frosting Directions

• In a large bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar for a minute until well combined. 
• Add vanilla and mix until combined. 
• Add the melted (and cooled) chocolate and beat on medium speed until frosting smooth. 
• Finally, add Nutella and beat until well combined. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Recipe from 52 Kitchen Adventures

Flourless Chocolate Cake

My niece has Celiac Disease and I'm always on the lookout for yummy recipes for her. My pal, Toby sent this to me and said "it doesn't get much easier than this". I haven't tried it yet, but it's got 4.5 stars on AllRecipes.com so it must be good! I'll be trying this out for E's birthday and see what she thinks about it :-)
If you make it, be sure to let me know what you think of it!

Ingredients

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.