Creamy Fruit Pops - Smoothie Saturdays #6

By Vicky Nardone

I work in a fairly large building downtown and every so often, the building brings vendors in during the lunch hour for people to shop at.  I think my favorite one so far was a discount book seller that they had in right around Easter time.  They had all these really great cookbooks for under $15!  I got at least five or six.  One of the books that I got was a popsicle recipe book and I'm so glad it's getting warm again so that I can eat these without freezing to death. 

Margarita Cupcakes - Whatever Wednesday #2

By Vicky Nardone

Ok, so I know that Cinco de Mayo was on Monday but here's a fun delicious recipe that really tastes good at any time.  Margarita cupcakes taste great and you won't end up with a hangover the next morning.  I paired these with a delicious cherry limeade.  Look for the recipe for that on the next Whatever Wednesday!  The below recipe makes 2 dozen cupcakes.

Chocolate & Caramel Apple Donuts

By Vicky Nardone

So the story of these donuts starts with me changing my pajamas and ends with deliciousness!  My dad was in town visiting last weekend as a surprise for my aunt and uncle for their 40th anniversary.  We had a big surprise party with them and it was awesome!  They were very surprised.

Anyway, my dad loves donuts and he is always commenting when he sees posts or pictures of the desserts that I make that I need to send him some in the mail.  So I decided while he was here on a weekend where we didn't have a million things going on that I would make him some donuts.

Decadent Chocolate Mousse

By Vicky Nardone

If you want a sweet, creamy heaven-on-earth type of dessert this is your winner.  I always associate this recipe with New Year's Eve because my mom used to make it for dessert on that night a lot when I was young.

Minty Fudge Cups

By Vicky Nardone

The above recipe was another one of the desserts I made when I was catering for the latest film Matt's been working on a couple weeks ago.  One of the actresses in the film told me she liked these even better than the peanut butter chocolate cupcakes I had made the night before.  Now that's my type of girl!  I have to tell you that what really made these was the chocolate icing that goes on top of them.  The recipe for the fudge cups says to just use some store bought icing for the tops but I knew that I could do better.  Plus I've never really been a fan of the store bought icing since I started making my own.  I found a delicious icing recipe in one of my other cookbooks that just made this recipe pop.

Reese's Chocolate Cupcakes

Can I make a confession?  I hate peanut butter and chocolate together.  It's one of those combinations that triggers a migraine for me.  Is anyone still reading or did I lose you all?  I know I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't like these two things together but if you're still reading good because I'm going to share the peanut butter chocolate cupcakes I made as part of my kraft services gig over the weekend.

These were very well received by the entire cast and crew of the latest movie that Matt's been working on.  They are Matt's new favorite cupcake that I make.  He liked them even though I made them full size and with wrappers.  He's a little picky about how he likes his cupcakes - he likes to be able to just pick them up and pop them in his mouth with one bite.  Anyway, I can't personally vouch for the taste of these cupcakes but given that there were none left, I think they were a hit.  I was told the frosting was especially delicious.  Here's how you make them.  The below makes three dozen.  Modify the portions as appropriate.

Cupcake Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Either line your cupcake pans or grease them with spray or butter.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside.

Use a hand or stand mixer to whip the sugar, milk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla until the ingredients are blended.

Add approximately half the dry ingredients in the wet ingredients and mix until combined.  Do the same for the second half of the dry ingredients.

Fill the cupcake liners about half full.  Bake for about 15-18 minutes until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out cleanly.

Icing

• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 cups creamy peanut butter
• 4 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Beat the butter and peanut butter with a hand mixer or with a standing mixer until light and smooth. 
2. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until incorporated on low speed.  Mixture will be somewhat thick.
3. Add the vanilla and heavy cream and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
4. Pipe onto cupcakes.  You can add some reeses pieces or reeses cups on top for decoration for a special touch.

Happy Mother's Day 2013

By Vicky Nardone

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  I am not a mother to any human children yet, but I do have two little dogs and a kitty to call my own.  My dog Piper left me a pile of poop in the corner today - not sure if that can really be called a Mother's Day present?

Anyway, for Mother's Day my husband and I did lunch with my mom.  She wanted to have lobster at our place and she insisted on bringing them over herself.  I made sides to go with them - garlicky green beans and golden potatoes.  For dessert we had mint chocolate fudge cups which I will be sharing the recipe for with you later this week.

Our (not so great) Easter

By Vicky Nardone

So as Easter's go, this one was not so great.  It started being not so great last night around 2am when Matt got the flu.  He had the chills and spent a good majority of the night shaking.  Needless to say neither of us had a very good night's sleep and my Easter started out with a trip to the grocery store to buy a combo pack of dayquil and nyquil for him.

Orange Chocolate Easter Muddy Buddies

By Vicky Nardone

I have always associated orange chocolate with Easter but tonight my husband Matt told me that's apparently just me.  My mom used to buy the orange chocolate miniatures from Niagara Candy (not sure if that's just a Buffalo thing) when I was growing up.  Anyway, in honor of Easter I'm making a twist on an old favorite of mine that my babysitter when I was growing up used to make me.  I got the inspiration to make these from +Alyssa Adams with her Andes Mints Muddy Buddies which I definitely plan to try making next time I make muddy buddies.  These are orange chocolate muddy buddies with rainbow sprinkles.  Although actually a lot of the rainbow sprinkles melted so they didn't show up as well as I would have liked.

S'mores Cupcakes

By Vicky Nardone

Our friends Mel and Andy are coming in for a visit this weekend!!  Mel recently moved to Detroit and Andy has lived in California for almost two years now.  Andy surprised Mel by showing up in Detroit on Monday and the two of them are making the drive from Detroit to Buffalo as I write this post.  In honor of their visit I thought I would whip up a batch of s'mores cupcakes.

Key Lime Cheesecake Cupcakes

By Vicky Nardone

I decided that it was time for another round of cupcakes.  I was going to make pina colada ones but when I went to the store they only sold huge containers of pineapple juice and they were completely out of coconut extract.  When I was browsing in the juice section, I noticed that the were selling Key Lime juice.  I had gone on a vacation to Key West when I was a sophomore in college and one of my favorite things there was the many varieties of key lime pie.  I believe Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville has a cheesecake version of it and theirs was my favorite.  I have a favorite cream cheese icing recipe that I used in my chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes so I figured I could make an awesome key lime cheesecake cupcake.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

By Vicky Nardone

Today has been a pretty good day!  We started the day by going to the SPCA to look at a beagle terrier mix.  Matt and I had a deal that if I got the new job I applied for that we could get a second dog and I just officially found out that I got the job on Thursday!!!  The dog we went to look at was a one year old female and she was gorgeous!  Light brown and white.  Unfortunately we found out once we got there and went to take her out to play that she had to go to a home that didn't have other dogs because she didn't get along well with other dogs.  It's really too bad because she seemed like the perfect dog too.  So the search continues.  If anyone knows of any female terrier/beagle mixes in the Buffalo area up for adoption that are between one and three years old, let me know.