Strawberry Pie Cupcakes

I had some left over vanilla cupcakes, butter cream frosting and strawberry pie filling from my other recipes. The idea of strawberry cupcakes popped into my head and here is my creation. Next time, I will core out the cupcake to allow for more strawberry filling.


Ingredients:
dozen vanilla cupcakes
3 cups of buttercream frosting
3 cups of strawberry pie filling 


Directions:

1. Take cupcake and pipe frosting around the outside to create a wall for the strawberry filling. 
2. Spoon strawberry filling into the middle of cupcake. 
3. Add more frosting if needed.
4. Either serve immediately or refrigerate.

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Dirt Cakelet

My good friend Kasey was turning 30 years old this year and I wanted to make her a special dessert! She has fond memories of her mom making dirt cake for her birthday, so I searched for quite awhile til I found the perfect recipe. I also wanted to present it in a non traditional way (ex. flower pot). I had purchased a Nordic Ware flower cup cakelet pan from T.J.Maxx awhile back and thought it would be perfect to hold a serving of dirt cake.


I used Jane's Dirt Cake recipe that was featured on Martha Stewart's website. You can view it HERE. This recipe made 12 dirt cakelets.


Pudding Mixture 

Ingredients~~~

• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 packages (3.9 ounces each) instant chocolate pudding
• 4 3/4 cups milk
• one 16-ounce carton frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 
  

Directions~~~

1. Using your stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine cream cheese and butter, and stir until creamy. Set aside in a small bowl.
2. using your stand mixer with whisk attachment, whisk together instant-pudding mixes and milk; stir until well blended Then add the cream-cheese mixture into the pudding.  And lastly, add the whipped cream. Whisk until combined.
3.  Chill at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Nordic Ware Flowercup Cakelet Pan

Chocolate Flower Cakelets

Ingredients~~~

1 box of Duncan Hines devils food cake mix and ingredients listed on box

Directions~~~

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease and flower cakelet pan.
2. Mix cake mix and ingredients until combined.
3. Scoop 1/2 cup of cake batter into each cakelet and bake for approximately 18 minutes. 
4. When tooth pick comes out clean they are done. Let cool 10 minutes in pan then turn out on cooling rack.

Dirt Topping

Ingredients~~~

1 package Oreo cookies (16 ounces)

Directions~~~Place cookies in the bowl of a food processor. Process until mixture resembles dirt. Set aside.

Assembly of the dirt cakelets

1. Fill each cakelet with a large scoop of pudding mixture.
2. Sprinkle dirt Oreo crumbs on each cakelet
3. Place edible decorations on top. example: royal icing flowers or gummy worms

Blog Hop #74

                    Manic Monday Party #6

Tandoori Chicken Pizza

My fiance loves making tandoori chicken with Pataks Tandoori Paste in a jar. We usually mix equal amounts of tandoori paste with plain yogurt to make a marinade for chicken breasts. We allow the chicken with tandoori mixture to marinate for 30 minutes to a few hours. Then we bake it in a covered baking dish til fully cooked.

Naturally when I came across the Old Fashioned Housewife blog and she featured a recipe for tandoori chicken pizza we were so excited to try making it.

I adapted her recipe to meet  the ingredients that I had in my kitchen.





Ingredients:

2  boneless chicken breasts
1 naan flat bread larger size made for pizza
12 ounces of plain yogurt
1 jar of Pataaks tandoor paste
1/2 red onion sliced thinly
small bag of shredded cheese

Directions:

1. mix the jar of paste with the plain yogurt.
2. pour 1/2 the mixture in ziploc bag and add the chicken.
3. marinate the chicken at least 30 minutes.
4. bake the marinated chicken in a covered baking dish at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until fully cooked.


5. remove chicken from baking dish and slice into thin bite size pieces.
6. spread some of the remaining tandoori sauce on the naan bread
7. place the chicken and red onion slices on top of tandoori covered naan bread
8 sprinkle with  cheese and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.


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Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen: Manic Monday Party

 

American Flag Cake

I was inspired by With Sprinkles on Top Blog to make an American Flag cake with 13 stripes.

I really wanted to try making this cake to display  the skills I learned in the Wilton cake decorating classes. I wish I would have checked the weather outside prior to planning to make these. It was 103 degrees outside and here I am trying to cool my house with 2 ac window units. At least the 4 cakes made my house smell sweet :)

I baked 3 red 8 inch cakes and 1 blue 8 inch cake. However, I only needed 2 of the red cakes. I also made 3 batches of butter cream frosting to use as filling and to frost the cake.

I separated the red cakes into 3 layers each. I used a circle cookie cutter to cut out 3 smaller circles out of 2 of the red layers of cake. I used the same circle cookie cutter to cut our the middle of the blue layer of cake. At this point I just started stacking and frosting to build my flag cake.

Norah Jone's Fried Chicken

Crazy Cooking Challenge #11: Fried Chicken

I was on the search for a fried chicken recipe but did not know where to start my search. So I sat down last Sunday to read the Chicago Tribune and clip coupons. Well to my surprise in the Parade magazine section I came across a fried chicken recipe!!! Norah Jones wrote the article about her fried chicken recipe that she has spent years perfecting.

So Friday for lunch, I headed down to my dad's outdoor cooking station to fry my chicken. The oil could have possibly fried the chicken with out any additional heat because in the Illinois we are experiencing record breaking heat (104 degrees). This was my first time frying chicken so I called on my mom to help. The first batch was kind of burnt and not cooked thoroughly. The next 3 batches turned out really good! The fried onion rings we quite tasty to snack on while the chicken was cooking.

Fried Chicken and Onions by Norah Jones

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 chicken legs and thighs
• 1 large vidalia onion, sliced into rings
• 4 cups buttermilk
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
• 4 shakes hot sauce (like Valentina) though I prefer Franks Hot Sauce
• Salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp black pepper
• Vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, combine chicken, onion, buttermilk, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cayenne, hot sauce, and salt to taste.

2. Cover and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

3. In a paper grocery bag, combine flour, black pepper, and a dash each of onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, and salt.

4. In a large, heavy skillet, heat oil over medium-high until very hot. It should be deep enough to cover chicken halfway.

5. Drain chicken and onion rings. Shake them in grocery bag until coated with flour mixture.

6. Transfer chicken and onion rings to skillet. Be careful not to overcrowd.

7. Fry, turning occasionally, for 10 to 14 minutes per side or until golden brown and fully cooked. Remove onion rings earlier to avoid overbrowning.

8. Drain chicken and onion rings on a wire rack. Sprinkle with parsley.

Norah's Tips:

• Put music on while you cook. "I always listen to Neil Young when I’m making food."
• "Be sure to have a fire extinguisher nearby when frying!"
• "Onion rings cook faster than chicken and burn easily, so watch them carefully."
• "Set out honey and ranch dressing or hot sauce, and serve with corn bread."

                         

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

Red, White & Blue Dessert

Ingredients:


Angel Food Cake---
one box of Angel food cake mix & the ingredients it needs
blue gel food coloring


Strawberry Topping---

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

3 tablespoons of cornstarch

1/4 cup strawberry gelatin (about 1/2 a small box of jello)

4 cups fresh strawberries cut into small pieces and placed in a bowl

Whipped Topping---
Store bought or homemade

Directions:


Angel food cake: 
follow directions on cake mix box. Remember to add blue gel food coloring during first step to guarantee a uniform blue color.


Strawberry Topping:

1. In a saucepan, bring the sugar, water and cornstarch to a boil over medium heat, stirring  constantly until the mixture has thickened. 

2. Stir in the strawberry gelatin until dissolved.

3. Remove from heat,  pour into a heat prof  bowl, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.

4. Add the strawberries, stir until all strawberries are coated.

5. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Assemble:


Place a slice of angel food cake on plate
Spoon strawberry topping on the lower half of cake
Lastly, pipe whipped topping just above strawberry topping leaving room to see blue angel food cake


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