Brown Paper Bag Recipe Cards

I found this template in a round about way but I found this very resourceful.

At the Naval base they normally bag groceries in brown paper sacks. I admit that a few times I have forgotten my reusable bags and therefore have a large stack of brown bags that I couldn't throw away. I suppose I remember the days of wrapping my text books in these same sacks just so I could draw on them when I was bored in Geometry class.

Check out the tutorial here from Crafting Green World. It's quite simple and I'm currently in the process of making my own...

PB and Choco Rice Krispie Treats

Because I'm stressed I can't stop baking. I'm running out of ideas and money on this hobby! I made this because I had all the ingredients and I needed something to occupy my time and my stomach. Fortunately for my weight, I packaged them all up (minus a few I ate) to send to my husband.

Eating these brings out the kid in me. Plus, anything with PB and chocolate is fine by me.

PB and Choco Rice Krispie Treats

1/2 a stick unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish
10 ounces jumbo marshmalllows
3/4 cup creamy Peanut Butter
6 cups crispy rice cereal
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Melt butter over low heat in a large pot. Stir in marshmallows and cook until fully melted and no marshmallow bits remain. Stir in the peanut butter until combined. Poor mixture over the crispy rice cereal in a large bowl. Mix until mixture is distributed evenly throughout the cereal . Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Smooth out the tops of the treats and press down gently to form together. Set aside to cool. Once they are cool, melt the chocolate over low heat. Cut the treats into even squares and quickly just shallowly dip the top side of the treats into the chocolate. Place on wax paper, baking rack or dish to cool.

Cupcake Beads

On this beautiful Sunday afternoon I'm sitting hear eating one of my lemon and raspberry cupcakes and browsing the internet and checking e-mails. I came across these adorable cupcake beads ($13) by beadsbylaura on Etsy. I think I'm going to have to buy one for a necklace.

My Sister's Cupcakes

My sister has always been the artsy one. I've always been fascinated how she could look at a blank canvas, a piece of newspaper or a piece of driftwood and turn it into amazing art. Normally over Christmas we usually always make each other something. I have been asking her for something pretty for my walls and she made me these amazing cupcakes.

I know I had posted about them earlier, but I thought that they deserved a post of their own. I don't know how she did it, but these look good enough to eat! If you like them, tell me. I keep trying to get her to sell her art.

Candy Hearts

I am still stuck on lemons. I suppose it's because life keeps handing them to me and I still have a few left in my fridge. I'm also feeling very lovey. Again, it's probably because my husband has been away for so long and his return date is quickly approaching. I already sent him some Valentine's Day treats.....but what about me????? Don't I deserve some fresh baked goodies that tell me how much I love myself????

I do love myself, so I shall make me something heartwarming.....

My parents sent me a gift that came in the mail today. I sweet cupcake pan with heart shaped tops. The set is from Williams Sonoma and came with colored fondant and letter cookie cutters so you can make sweet little hearts with personal messages. So perfect time to bake "I love you" cupcakes that I will keep for myself. Stop it, you love it. Sometimes you bake things just because you want them and no one else likes it. Yes, I will admit, I will probably eventually eat every single delicious cake I make.

If you haven't done the same, you're lying. Stop lying to yourself, you should love yourself :) Eat a cupcake.

I don't reccomend this cake recipe for heart top shaped cupcakes. The batter is too fluffy and you'll end up with wonky inflated hearts like I did. The batter is delicious, though. So please make this in a normal cupcake pan. Even by itself it's superb. I'm proud of this recipe because it taste's great *she says after having eaten 2 cupcakes*.

Lemon Cupcakes

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs (will be seperated later)
2 tsp. baking powder
12 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cup sifted cake flour
1 3/4 cups +2 tbl. +1 tsp. all purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. lemon zest
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

Start by seperating the fix eggs. Set aside the 5 egg yolks and in a mixer beat 5 egg whites until you get nice stiff peaks. Set aside egg white's because you won't need them again until the very end.

Sift cake flour, all purpose flour, salt, baking soda and set aside.

Using a mixer beat room temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy. To this add egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice and sour cream and beat until combined. Once combined, add the dry mixture a little at a time while scraping sides until all dry mixture is combined. Using a spoon, slowly incorporate the egg whites until they are all combined. Make sure you have scraped to the bottom of the bowl and that the batter has reached a consistent color. You don't want to have a mass of egg white's sitting in the bottom of the bowl.

Fill your cupcake liners only half way full. This is a very fluffy batter and will rise during baking. Bake for 15-2o minutes or until a wooden tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool and then frost.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter
4 oz. of cream cheese
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1/2-1 cup seedless raspberry jam (depending on how you like it to taste)

Add butter and cream cheese to an electric mixer and beat until fluffy. Add desired amount of powder sugar. Once combined add raspberry jam and mix until combined.

When Life Hands you Lemons........

Make something tasty :)

Life really hasn't handed me the hypothetical lemons. Well, maybe. I mean, my husband is still overseas and I can't find a job and I'm re-thinking my entire career. I suppose that could be life's lemons. I like to consider it a good thing, my husband is almost home and lemon's make for some tasty bread....

So I modified the Better & Home's and Garden recipe for Lemon Bread. I filled it with dried cranberries instead of nuts and glazed it with a lemon glaze for a little extra sweet. So here it is; life's lemon's, sweet and soft, and delciously lemony cranberry lemon bread.

Life's Lemon's, Sweet and Soft and Deliciously Lemony Cranberry Lemon Bread
(Adapted from Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook recipe for Lemon Bread)

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil (butter or margarine melted)
2 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Lemon Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
enough lemon juice to reach glaze consistency (about 4 tsp.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of an 8x4x2 inch loaf pan; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a seperate bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Add wet mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in cranberries and spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 35-50 minutes or until a wooden tooth pick inserted near center comes out clean. Then pour or brush glaze on top while the bread is still warm.

Lil Duke's

Ok, the Superbowl is over and I'm convinced that my cupcakes had something to do with it! I'm super stoked that there was some excitement to the game and that the second half was great. Good job, Cardinals. You gave us a good little scare.

Now that it's all over I promised to post the recipe for my cupcakes. After eating quite a few and twisting my friends arms to try them as well, I'm convinced that I have yet to master the perfect vanilla cupcake. With that said, the chocolate cupcakes I affectionately call Lil Duke's were quite tasty.

My favorite part of sharing these cupcakes is watching people's faces after I explain what's in them. For many of you baker's out there you know that unconventional ingredients work great in sweet baked goods i.e. vinegar, sauerkraut, sour cream and mayonnaise. So these little tasty treats use the ladder: Duke's mayonnaise. I suppose you could use any kind of mayonnaise you'd like, I'm just partial Duke's and they make a perfect 1 cup size that's freakishly cute and all that I needed for the recipe.

Lil Duke's
(adapted from the recipe for Chocalate Mayonnaise Cupcakes from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey)

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup-3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup superfine sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup Duke's mayonnaise (Not Low Fat)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cup boiling water

preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a seperate bowl combine the sugar and eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla just until combined. Beat in half of the flour mixture and then scrape the sides of the bowl . Add half of the boiling water and beat slowly until batter is smooth. Add remaining flour and beat until combined. Beat in the remaining water. The batter will look more thin than you are used to.

Divide amongst your cupcake liners and only fill 2/3 full. Bake 18-22 minutes until a tooth pick insterted comes out clean.

Top with the most AMAZING chocolate frosting that ever existed. The trick to this frosting is rich chocolate Ovaltine please. I know, that mystery powder you didn't think actually existed, well it does. Although I would never have bought it if I didn't know it would taste delicious. I got this recipe from Joy the Baker.....you can find it here Joy The Baker.