Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

On Saturday, I had the itch to bake. I found some yellow cake mix in the cabinet, but didn't feel like making your basic cupcakes. I saw this recipe for peanut butter and chocolate chip cupcakes and wanted to adapt it by using the cake mix instead. So did a little Google search and found the perfect recipe. I also had some leftover dark chocolate candy in the house and incorporated it in the mix. And I have to say they came out pretty good. 

Peanut Butter Cupcakes 

Ingredients:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used creamy peanut butter)
• Chocolate chips (I added this to the recipe)

For the chocolate I used what was left of the Godiva chocolate gems (there was about 14 pieces) and rough chopped them. This probably yielded about a 1/2 cup. Of course if you use chocolate chips you might want to use 1 cup to get maximum chocolate goodness. 

For the frosting, I used this chocolate buttercream recipe and added 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. Ever since I started making my own frosting, I can't go back to canned frosting. It's way too sweet and with making it yourself, it's easier to control the sweetness factor. 

I want to get more baking done before the weather makes turning on an oven insufferable. Hopefully my next recipe will come from the Milk Bar cook book I got for Christmas. 

Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime

The only picture I took on Christmas. An instagram of our little Christmas feast.

I think that preparing for the holiday season is similar to preparing for a big test. Better to work in small chunks instead of trying to pull consecutive all-nighters. I was not well prepared and did the latter only to crash and burn. I didn't get to finish everything I wanted to accomplish. One being my Christmas dress, which was a disappointing because I really wanted to get it done before Sunday. But I'm still working on it and I'll have it done for New Year's. I'm going to wear it even if I stay home gosh darn-it. 

During our Christmas festivities, one of the sweetest things happened, my sister got engaged! Her boyfriend proposed in-front of our family and his and it was just so sweet and heartwarming that there wasn't a dry eye in the house, myself included. Most of our family knew about it, and the fact that we pulled it off without her noticing at all was nothing short of amazing.

As for the rest of the day, we spend it eating, watching the Lakers lose their lead from the Bulls, my brother taking our yearly family group photo with now even more extended family, and playing some trivia games. All I have to say about the games is that I rock when it comes to my aunts music trivia one. I was the team spokesperson for my group, but there were times I didn't need any help figuring out the songs. I would totally blurt out the name of the song after a couple of notes were played.

This was basically me during the trivia game:

However I need to work on my 60's and 70's music because we lost in the group tie breaker because one of the other teams got the correct answer first. Plus there were times where I knew the song, but I could not think of the title. Ugh, that's the worst. Next year, I'm probably going to be my own team. 

Finally, the older cousins in our family have their own gift exchange and this year I got the Momofuku Milk Bar Dessert Book.

It's chock-full of recipes from the famed NYC Bakery, which I really want to go to the next time I visit New York. But for now, I can make some of Christina Tosi's mouthwatering desserts at home. This book needs it's own post.

So that was my Christmas in a nutshell. How was yours?

Creamsicle

Tank, cardigan and sandals: Old Navy

Skirt: Target

Belt: American Eagle Outfitters

Ring and earrings: Forever 21

Wore this yesterday as I went to get some crafting supplies and the library to check out some books/DVDs and pay my fine. I 'm so horrible at turning my books in on time. I've been making a lot of necklaces and bracelets latey and soon I'll be listing them on my Etsy site. I missed doing crafts so it's been nice tapping into my creativity. 

Another thing I haven't done in a while, mainly due to the sweltering heat, is bake. My dad a reunion picnic for his high school on Saturday and we ended up coming home with a lot of rolls and French bread. We didn't want it to go to waste, so I made a bread pudding out of it. I got the recipe from here and I kept to the directions with a few minor tweaks. I used heavy whipping cream and evaporated milk, (since there was no regular milk in the fridge) used raspberries and blackberries instead of raisins and placed it on a shallow baking tray filled with water so the pudding would have a more custard texture. 

It was my first time baking it and I didn't know how it was going to turn out. But once I pulled it out of the oven it looked ok. It tasted like french toast with berries. Yum. The greater test would be if my family liked it and they did since it was gone by the end of the night. There's still have more bread left, so I'll be trying some other bread pudding combinations this week.

Just Desserts

I love to bake and for a while I was without an oven. But after my dad installed a new oven in our house a couple of months ago, I've been a frequent baker.
I love baking desserts especially when it's from scratch.

This holiday season I plan on making some of these mouth-watering goodies...

Maple French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes


It's the perfect trifecta of the foods I love, bacon, maple syrup and french toast. All in a cupcake. It's basically breakfast disguised as a dessert.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

It's described as an alternative to pecan pie. While I do love pie, It'd be easier for me to tackle baking these cupcakes, than a pie.
With all the cupcakes I plan on making, I'll to invest in a cupcake holder.

Starbucks-style Cranberry Bliss Bars

Every holiday season I look forward to these staring at me in the display counter. But getting them when I get my latte can get expensive. As if getting the latte wasn't expensive enough.
So I was excited to find a recipe for it last week. Ok it's not the exact recipe, but I hope that it'll be a fairly good facsimile of the orignal.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

I know I posted about these before, but they are sooo good that I had to post it again. I probably going to bake quite a few batches of it this season. This week alone, I'll be baking three.

What desserts are you going to bake this holiday season?