Last Minute Halloween Treats

Halloween treats are so fun to make. Food is "funner" at Halloween. (I know funner is not a word.)

I made these whoopie pies for a little get together with a friend. The frosting was more orange in real life. Then, I thought maybe I should do green? Too late now!

These are cake mix cookies and possibly the fastest and yummiest treat to throw together.

1 box cake mix

½ c. oil

2 c. chocolate chips

2 eggs

350 for 8-10 min.

Frosting from this site:

The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting Ever

1 package cream cheese (8 oz)

1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)

4 cups confectioners sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons imitation vanilla (I think if you use pure vanilla extract cut it to 1 tsp)

I threw all the ingredients in a bowl and mixed with a spoon (thats right, by hand) until the confectioners sugar was incorporated. I noticed there were a lot of lumps so I got out the hand held mixer, and used it on med. for less then a minute. (that added SUCH a smooth and light texture!)

My super awesome sister, Michelle made these cupcakes for our little family Halloween party. They are cockroaches and spiders. Cockroaches made out of tootsie rolls, caramels and rasinets. The spiders were a mold. She is gifted!! And she can make cupcakes for you too. Leave me a comment if you need any and I can get you in contact with her!

Eyeball deviled egss. Nasty sounding "eye" know (haha), but delicious just the same! I got the idea from this site and because of sick hubby and grumpy kids, wasn't as creative as hers, but same effect!

Hope you all have a great Halloween!!

2 Year Old Birthday Cupcakes!

Decorating cupcakes is NOT my forte! My sister is much better at that stuff! My cute 2 year old loves babies, so I tried to make these baby cupcakes look like they were under a blanket. I don't mind sharing my funky failures! This was my first attempt with fondant and I cut it out with a flower cookie cutter to look like a blanket.

I can bake a mean cupcake and my frosting turned out perfectly this time! Hooray!! The cake was a bit more dense than I like, but not bad. Next time, I'll have to look for a fluffier recipe. My husband loves dense though so he was pretty happy with it! I got the cupcake recipe here. The frosting was super yummy and creamy and chocolatey!! I found the recipe here.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 36 or so

3-1/2 cups AP flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, unsalted
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil
2/3 cup buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl, sift to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until light. Add vanilla. Then eggs, one at a time. (Don’t worry if the batter looks curdled.) Add oil and buttermilk. Slowly add flour mixture in 3 additions and mix until just combined. Try not to overmix!

Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ozs cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 C sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)
• 1/2 C cocoa powder

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder

Fat Friday: Root Beer Float Cupcakes

If you are interested in a chance to win these cupcakes (and live in Las Vegas near me), answer this question: What is your favorite soda? Mine would be Dr. Pepper. Hmmm, wonder if they have Dr. Pepper cupcakes?=)

Photo courtesy of confessions of a cookbook queen

I decided to go out of my usual routine and not do chocolate for once. I think I'll survive one week! I wanted to try something root beer because of summer and nothing says "summer" like root beer float! I combined two recipes because I wasn't really up for "from scratch" today!

The cupcake recipe comes from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and is just the easiest 2 indredient recipe ever! I even used diet soda and it was still awesome!

1 box white cake mix (I always use Duncan Hines)
1 cup of your favorite root beer

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin tins with paper liners.

Mix together root beer and cake mix (yes, just those two ingredients). Pour into paper liners and fill 3/4 full.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool.

Wow! Yum, right?

And I got the frosting recipe from How Sweet Eats. The cupcake recipe also looked delectable, but like I said, not in a "from scratch" mood.

Vanilla and Root Beer Frosting

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon root beer extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth. On low speed, add powdered sugar one cup at a time, increasing speed to bring the frosting together. Add milk and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Remove almost all of the vanilla frosting, leaving behind about 1/3-1/2 cup in the mixer. Set vanilla frosting aside. Add root beer extract to remaining frosting in the bowl and beat until it comes together.

Prep two pastry bags (or you can simply use spoons) and fill one with vanilla frosting and the other with root beer frosting. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, fill each one with root beer frosting (I simply plunge the pastry tip into the cupcake and squeeze), then top with vanilla frosting. Top with hot fudge or cocoa syrup.