Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my neighbors as a thank you for watching my dog and I was amazed by how good they turned out! I actually liked the cupcake better than the peanut butter cup on top! I used my usual chocolate cupcake recipe and just changed up the frosting. Here's the recipe!

Peanut Butter Frosting

• 1 Cup of butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1/3 cup peanut butter, creamy
• 1 bag powdered sugar

Cream butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add in 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat. Add in vanilla and milk and beat in more powdered sugar on a medium speed. Keep adding more powdered sugar until the frosting is thick enough to hold the peaks. Add more peanut butter if desired.

Mariasha

Andes Cupcakes

These cupcakes are seriously delicious! Try them out!

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water

Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry mixture to creamed mixture alternating with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk. Fill cupcake liners to 1/2 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Place in fridge until completely cooled, then frost.

Mint Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• Powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp mint extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• green food coloring
• Andes mints

Cream butter until smooth. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and mix. Mix in vanilla, mint extract, and milk. Add more powdered sugar until you like the taste and it is thick and fluffy. Add in green food coloring. Frost and top with Andes chocolate!

Enjoy!

Mariasha

The Best Chocolate Cupcake

This is my husbands favorite cupcake and he gets so excited every time I make it! There is nothing I can say to do this cupcake justice so you will just have to try it! Here's the recipe!

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water

Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry mixture to creamed mixture alternating with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk. Fill cupcake liners to 1/2 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Place in fridge until completely cooled, then frost.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• powdered sugar
• cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp milk

Cream butter until fluffy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of cocoa and mix. Mix in vanilla and milk. Gradually add more powdered sugar until it is thick enough that the "peaks" don't relax when you stop beating. Add more cocoa until you like the taste. Then frost the cupcakes!

Here's the finished cupcake!

Banana Bread

I know that I haven't posted in a few days, but I've been enjoying not having to post every day:) And I've been busy RUNNING! The weather has been in the high 30's this week so I was able to bundle up and go running outside! I'm now up to 2 miles with a 12.5 minute mile! That may not seem like a lot to all of you but for me that's amazing! In high school the fastest I ever walked (yes I just said walked) the mile was like 18 minutes, so 12.5 seems pretty dang good to me! In fact I'm doing so much better than I thought I would, that I think I'll be able to run my first 5k sooner than expected!!! Yay! 

Anyway, I was supposed to go for another run today, but good old Utah decided we needed a lot more snow! So instead I made banana bread! I got this recipe from my mom and it was sooo good! Normally I'm more of a zucchini bread kind of girl, but I had tons of bananas and needed to use them. Here is the recipe!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup Oil

1 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

3 Lg. Bananas (Mashed)

1 cup Nuts or substitute with 3/4 cup Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/8 tsp. Salt

2 1/4 cup Flour

Cream oil and sugar. Mix in eggs, bananas, and nuts/flour. Add in the dry ingredients and mix. Grease bread pan and lightly sugar. Pour in dough. Bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes. 

This recipe turned out great! The only thing I had to change was the bread was not fully cooked after 40 minutes. I just checked it every 5-10 minutes after the initial 40 minutes, and pulled it out when a knife inserted came out clean. Super easy, quick, and yummy!

I'm hoping to get a diy craft project done this week so check back later for a post!

Mariasha

Be my valentine!

I don't know about all of you but I had such a great valentines day! My adorable husband came home and surprised me with my favorite pink roses and delicious Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes!  If you have not had them before you NEED to try them!

Anywho, I love surprising people! So of course valentines day is one of my favorite holidays! This year I decided to surprise Jared with a candlelight picnic in our living room! I made him his favorite spaghetti and some really yummy red velvet cupcakes! Great minds think alike right?! Here is the recipe I used!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes about 30 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
1 oz red food coloring (liquid not gel)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Scrape down bowl and beat again. On low, add eggs one at a time and add vanilla. Add sour cream. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) alternating while adding the milk. Stir in red food coloring. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 17-22 minutes or until a knife/toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

I did a regular almond buttercream frosting because Jared doesn't like cream cheese frosting, but I would recommend using this frosting recipe!

Have a good day all!

Mariasha

It must be love...

I just want to take a moment to brag about my amazing husband! Last night I was super tired and had the worst migraine ever but I was CRAVING cookies! I mentioned that they sounded good to me but that I was not up to making them. Jared, being the smart man he is, told me to go lay down on the couch and finish watching Bones while he made me cookies. Of course I wasn't going to argue with that! Then when he was done he brought me some of the cookies and a glass of milk and watched The Hunger Games with me... which might have been the second time watching in one day:)) Anyway moving on... This is my go-to recipe for making yummy super sweet chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 35-40 cookies.

1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups brown sugar
6 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Milk chocolate chips (as much as you want)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix together butter and sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients. Bake about 15 min.

These cookies turn out super soft and fluffy and really sweet!

Have fun Baking!!!

Mariasha