Tag Archives: Cream

Cookie Explosion Frozen Yogurt

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It is starting to really feel like summer to me now…it’s supposed to get all the way up to 95 degrees around here on Sunday!! Craziness I tell you, craziness!

In my mind when it hits 90 that means its time for some ice cream. LOL who am I kidding? I eat ice cream in December. But it’s the end of May, Memorial Day weekend-in other words, it is bikini season ladies. (and gentlemen)

Supposedly this frozen yogurt stuff is healthy healthier than ice cream, so I decided to add some cookies and make it yummy yet somewhat healthy. This is a pretty basic vanilla frozen yogurt recipe that you can add whatever you like to it. Even fruit, however, I will have to turn my face on that one. Fruit is for breakfast. Not dessert, unless it is in the popsicle form. Then we can talk. Or apple pie.

Anwywho, this frozen yogurt is great for those of you who are gonna be melting this weekend with me! And for those of you who aren’t going to be melting, well, I recommend making this if you like yummy things.

Cookie Explosion Frozen Yogurt

1 2/3 cups milk (I used skim)

3/4 cup white sugar

4 cups vanilla or plain non-fat yogurt

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

about 7 Oreos

about 7 Chips Ahoy Cookies

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the yogurt, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Mix until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into ice cream machine and prepare according to machine’s directions.
  2. Smash Oreos into small pieces and break Chips Ahoy cookies, by hand, into small pieces.
  3. When there are about 5 minutes left in the process in the ice cream machine, pour in cookie pieces and let mix for last 5 minutes. When done, place ice cream into air tight containers and place in freezer to set. After frozen yogurt has hardened, you may have to wait about 15 minutes for it to soften on the counter, I put mine in the microwave for about 25 seconds.

Random Fact of the Day: In 2008, 18,000 breast reductions were performed… on American men!

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Fudge Brownie Explosion Ice Cream

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For those of you who have not invested in an ice cream maker yet, well I highly recommend you do.

Honestly, one of the best appliances I have my parents have ever bought. Making your own ice cream is like the easiest thing ever!! I’m not one to mess with recipes with eggs in them for ice cream. I just like to stick to the basic cream, milk, and sugar base. Salmonella freaks me out in ice cream..however, I’m TOTALLY okay with it in cookie dough! ;) (Completely different story, let’s be real here)

Anyways, making ice cream at home lets you be the most creative person on the planet. You’re like Ben & Jerry for a couple hours! You get to make up your own funky flavors and just do whatever the heck you want. Like put gummy bears and skittles in your ice cream and no one will judge! One of my favorite ice cream concoctions that I have made was the Brownie Batter kind I showed you guys a bit back. Well, I tweaked it a bit and made it fudge brownie explosion ice cream! Sounds good, right? FYI: It tastes even better than it sounds :)

So here is your to do list:

  1. buy ice cream maker
  2. make ice cream
  3. eat it.
  4. :)

Fudge Brownie Explosion Ice Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk (I use skim)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Dry Brownie Mix

about 3/4 cup chopped up baked brownies

1/4 cup hot fudge topping**

  1. Mix the milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, dry brownie mix, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl using a whisk. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.
  2. When there is 5 minutes left, pour in chopped brownies.
  3. When ice cream is done in ice cream maker, fold in hot fudge topping. Place ice cream in tupperware container and pop in the freezer. It will take a few hours for the ice cream to harden up, but I like mine soft so I was ready to eat mine about 2 hours later :) Enjoy!

* I actually made brownies a few weeks ago using a box mix. I only wanted to use half the batter, so I put the other half in a zip-loc bag and popped it in the freezer. I baked the brownies from the frozen batter in silicon muffin tins, that were sprayed with cooking spray, for about 20-25 minutes in a 350 degree F oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center came out mostly clean. I accidentally over baked mine a little bit, but it was no biggie since they went in the ice cream and you couldn’t tell at all.

** I used a hot fudge topping from a jar from the store, microwaved it for about 30-35 seconds until it was soft and smooth and a pourable consistency. I stirred it around with a knife in the jar to help it get to this point, then I let it cool for a minute or two so it wouldn’t heat up the ice cream too much and totally mess up the texture and consistency.

Random Fact of the Day: The oldest person in history smoked daily for close to a century. She quit five years before her death at 122.

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Mom’s Birthday Cake

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Yesterday was my wonderful mama’s birthday! To celebrate, we ate cake :)

Of course I made a cake, by her request. It obviously included chocolate. And whipped cream. And mousse.

She’s a smart lady ;) .

Anyways, it was really great to celebrate a day dedicated to my mom. She’s a great woman who I love with all my heart. She has taught me so much in life that nobody else could have ever taught the same. She has loved like no one else could ever love. She has cooked liked no other person could ever cook!

I love my mom so much, that is hard for me to even find the right words to express how much she means to me.

She is the one who always believes in me, no matter how crazy my ideas and ambitions are. She is the one who always encourages me to go beyond my comfort zone. She is the one who always knows how I’m really feeling and how to make it all better (many times involving hugs and kisses<–including the chocolate kind). My mom means the world to me and I feel so lucky to have been blessed to have her in my life.

I love you mom!

P.S. nice choice on the cake flavor combos. deee-lish!

Mom’s Birthday Cake

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

1 cup plus 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 1 (6-inch) springform cake pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa powder, and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
  3. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
  4. Cream butter and sugar together in mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. There will be extra. You can either make cupcakes, whoopie pies, or freeze the batter for later use with the extra batter.
  5. Bake batter that is in prepared cake pan in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched and toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. Let cool on wire rack for 25 minutes. Invert out of cake pan and onto wire rack. Cool an additional 30 minutes. Pop in fridge for 15 minutes. Cut in half lengthwise. Assemble with mouse filling, then frost with whipped cream.

Chocolate Mousse Filling

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

  1. Whip cream with mixer using whisk attachment. When cream takes on whipped cream appearance, mix in melted chocolate until thoroughly combined. Spread on top of bottom cake layer. Let set in fridge for 30 minutes before topping with top cake layer.

Whipped Cream [Frosting]

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 1/2 Tablespoons powdered sugar, or to taste

chocolate syrup, for decoration

  1. Whip heavy cream with powdered sugar in mixer using whisk attachment. Add more powdered sugar or use less depending on how sweet you want your whipped cream. Stop mixer once cream has stiff peaks and takes on whipped cream appearance. Frost tops and sides of cake. Finish cake with drizzle of chocolate syrup, if desired.
Random Fact of the Day: About 85% of the plant life on earth is in the oceans.
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Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

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Is it still a surprise if you say what the surprise is in the title? Tricky, tricky.

Coming up with a name for these guys was a bit of a challenge for me, but I figured chocolate surprise cupcakes sounded pretty darn good. Who doesn’t like chocolate? Or surprises? If your hand is raised…I shake my head for you in shame.


Anyways, I mentioned a little while ago that I was visiting the Red Hen Bakery. Of course I couldn’t go empty-handed! So I decided to bring along these little gems.

Say hello to Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes.


The idea of these was to come up with a cupcake recipe that could sit out for a period of time without going bad. That eliminated heavy cream from the ingredient list, which is in like so many of my filling recipes for cupcakes….so I had to come up with a new filling.

By the way, since I have started stuffing and filling my cupcakes, there has been no turning back. Cupcakes are definitely not the same to me anymore unstuffed. They’re just..lonely. Empty.

So anyways, I came up with the idea to make a cookie dough filling. An eggless cookie dough filling, of course. Salmonella scares me and I don’t plan on finding out what it’s like to have it.

Well here we go, double chocolate cookie dough stuffed yellow cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream frosting. Or you can just call the surprise cupcakes which I find is a wittle bit easier.

My dad thought he was super witty…his title for them was “Peanut Butter CUPcakes” (emphasizing the CUP). Yes, he’s quite the clever guy. He was very proud!

Double chocolate cookie dough stuffed yellow cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream frosting. Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes. Peanut butter CUPcakes. Whatever you want to call them…you should try them, because this whole cookie dough in a cupcake thing kinda totally, completely, rocks.

Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

(Makes about 20 cupcakes)

1 box of yellow cake mix, prepared according to box directions (Don’t bake, yet until instructions below say so)

FOR COOKIE DOUGH:

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chocolate chips

FOR PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups peanut butter

1/4 cup milk (or heavy cream), as needed

4 cups powdered sugar

  1. Cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together in the bowl of a mixer. Stir in vanilla.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate chips by hand. Scoop dough into balls by the Tablespoonful, place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and freeze in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare cake batter according to directions on box and scoop into cupcake liners about half-way to 3/4-full. Drop frozen cookie dough balls into the center of each cupcake batter cup. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until tops are covered and they spring back slightly when touched. Edges should be golden.
  4. Let cool in tins for 20 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to finish cooling for an additional 30 minutes.
  5. FOR FROSTING: Cream butter until smooth. Mix in peanut butter. Beat in powdered sugar. Add milk or cream as desired to achieve the ideal consistency. Frost onto cooled cupcakes as desired. Enjoy!

of course I couldn’t just bring some cupcakes, so I brought some cute little Easter/Spring sugar cookies for them (BTW this was before Easter!)

Random Fact of the Day: Rhode Island is the smallest state but has the longest name.

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Whipped Cream Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

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It’d be nice if I could come up with a shorter name for these guys…but I thought I’d go the more descriptive route.

These cupcakes were for a special crowd that I was hoping to impress, and I thought that this was the perfect flavor combination to please any palate.

I was SUPER DUPER PUMPED to make these (picture me doing a cheerleading dance). It has been so, so, so long since I got to make a cupcake. I mean like pretty much a whole month! Lent has been driving me a little wack-o and I thought I was just about to jump out of my skin when I was making these babies.

I have never been so thankful to whip cream. Or to mix a cupcake batter. I know, I’m weird. But you secretly love it…!

One little note about this recipe that I would like to mention is that I used my Gram’s go-to chocolate cake recipe. That lady sure could bake one heck of a cake. My mom adores her red devil chocolate cake recipe and I know she hold this recipe quite close to her heart, but I’m happy to share this with the rest of you all so everybody can enjoy some of Gram’s love. If you’d like to learn more about Gram, I wrote a pretty big post about her here.

Gram’s Red Devil Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Dark cocoa powder)

1/2 cup milk (I used skim)

1 cup boiling water (I just microwaved mine for about 75 seconds)

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 24 cupcake tins with liners.
  2. Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add salt and eggs. Mix in sifted flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Stir in milk. GRADUALLY stir in hot water by HAND! (well, with a spoon or spatula, but a mixer might make a mess)
  3. Fill lined cupcake tins about half-way and bake in preheated oven 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 teaspoons powdered sugar

  1. Whip cream and powdered sugar with mixer, using whisk attachment, on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture looks just like whipped cream. Place whipped cream  into a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip to fill cupcakes. Stick pastry bag into cupcake and squeeze whipped cream into cooled cupcake. Repeat for all cupcakes.

Caramel Buttercream

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons white sugar

5 Tablespoons water

pinch of salt

5 Tablespoons heavy cream

2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

  1. Combine white sugar and water in small or medium heavy-bottom saucepan. On medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil and stir in salt. Stop stirring and let the mixture cook, gently stirring every so often, until it is a deep amber color. Remove from heat and slowly stir in cream, a couple tablespoons at a tim. Watch out because the cream will cause the caramel to get a little crazy and fizz up a bit! Set aside and let cool.
  2. Cream butter until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Add cooled caramel mixture to creamed butter. Mix in powdered sugar and add milk as needed until you achieve your desired consistency of frosting and piping.
  3. Pipe or frost cupcakes as desired.

Random Fact of the Day: Your body uses 200 muscles to take a single step.

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