Chocolate Cupcakes

This post is to help Allison not feel so lonely on this blog! I've made these cupcakes from The Sisters Cafe twice now. Once with the truffles inside a few weeks back, and once with Hershey's Kisses inside for my little guy's birthday. Here's my review:

• The cake: it's a doctored up cake-mix and it turns out really good and moist. I think I'll have to do this to cake mixes from now on.


• The frosting: I prefer chocolate pudding and cool whip mixed together, but that's because I'm not a frosting person.


• Truffles or Hershey's Kisses inside?: they were both delicious. However, the truffles were probably a little better since they were creamier and meltier in your mouth. The Hershey's Kisses were still fun and way cheaper. My kids thought it was so fun to have one inside. Plus you can buy a whole bag of them and eat them while you are baking! With the truffles, you have to save them all for the cupcakes. The truffles melted into a thin, horizontal layer toward the bottom of the cupcake. The Kisses stayed in a clump in the middle of the cupcake.

Hungry-Girl Nacho-rific Chicken!

Judging from the fact that I've posted most of the recent posts about food, I would almost say that I am the only one cooking, BUT I KNOW THAT'S NOT TRUE!

COUSINS, have you fallen of the face of the earth????  I want to see what you're making!

Here's what I made last night:

You can find a link to the recipe HERE!

Or, here's an image of the recipe directly from the site!

Thin Mints--Knock Off!

Ok...so the story is:

I wanted to buy Thin Mints and Samoas from the Girl Scouts, but when I happened to see some girl scouts selling cookies, I only had $4 cash with me...which will only buy 1 solitary, sad, lonely box. And, I love thin mints, but I had a recipe. So, Samoas won.

But, the good news is that the Thin Mints were delicious homemade!

Jereld suggested the parsley twig garnish...don't laugh.

Girl Scout Thin Mints

Chocolate Cookie Wafers

1 18.25-ounce package Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix
3 Tbsp. shortening, melted
1/2 C. cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 Tbsp. water
nonstick cooking spray

Coating

3 12-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
6 Tbsp. shortening

1) Combine the wafer ingredients (except the water) in a large bowl. Add the water a little bit at a time until a dough forms (the dough will seem very thick--this will give the wafers a crispy texture once baked). Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 2 hours.

2) On a lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out wafers with a spice jar lid (like McCormick spices or whatever you have).  Put wafers on a lightly greased cookie sheet (they can be pretty close together--they don't spread out). Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool completely before moving on to the next step.

3) Combine chocolate chips, peppermint extract, and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Heat on 50% power for 2 minutes, stir.  Repeat heating and stirring until chocolate is melted and is a smooth consistency.

5) Dip each wafer in chocolate. Let the excess chocolate run off into the bowl (tapping your fork on the side of the bowl helps).  Place dipped wafers on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

YUM!