Chocolate Peppermint Pop Rocks Cupcakes

This month's What's Baking theme was Peppermint, which was perfect for the holiday season. I had decided to make chocolate peppermint cupcakes until I came across candy cane flavored pop rocks when I was out Christmas shopping. I couldn't resist the candy that I ate as a child and used it to dust the tops of the cupcakes. The result was amazing! The candy on top of the cupcakes tasted like fizzy candy canes. They were a hint! I'm now on the hunt for other popping candy flavors so I can make other cupcake creations. 

Chocolate Peppermint Pop Rocks Cupcakes

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Source: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

1 and 1/2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose and cornstarch.)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In another bowl, beat together oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water with a hand mixer on medium-high speed.
Add flour mixture and beat until smooth on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. (Batter will be very thin.)
Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake about 20 - 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.

Peppermint Buttercream
2 sticks butter, room temperature
5 - 6 cups powdered sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
2 - 4 tablespoons water (or any other liquid.)

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add peppermint extract and beat well. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and water until desired consistency is reached. Beat well.

Drunken Cherries

This recipe was given to me by my husband. He wanted me to make these for him to give as Christmas presents. After he tasted them, however, he decided he was going to keep them all and only share a few. I don't blame him. They're addicting! The recipe called for plain rum, but I only had smoked and pineapple, so I decided to use the pineapple run to give them a pineapple upside-down cake flavor. The cherries turned out great! They were a sweet, boozy, and chocolately treat. Make these for the adults, but hide them from the kids!  

Drunken Cherries
Source: adapted from Taste of Home, December 2012

50 maraschino cherries (with stems)
1/2 cup pineapple rum
1 teaspoon shortening
4 oz. chocolate

Drain maraschino cherries from juice and soak overnight in pineapple rum.
Drain cherries (save rum for making drinks while you dip the cherries or discard).
Pat cherries dry and place on paper towels to completely dry.*
Melt chocolate a few pieces at a time with a little bit of the shortening in the microwave or over a double boiler. (I always use the microwave.) Be sure to stir often.
Dip the cherries into the melted chocolate, and place on waxed paper or parchment paper.


*Make sure cherries are completely dry before dipping in chocolate.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Growing up, my Aunt Margie made the best Christmas cookies. My favorite was her cream cheese chocolate chip cookies. Every year, I looked forward to those tangy and light cookies. They were so pillowy and soft. When I was old enough, she shared the recipe with me, but I lost it. With no way to recover it, I had to hunt down another recipe. I am sad to say while these are yummy and soft chocolate chip cookies, they are missing that tangy flavor I remember and not as cakey as the ones from my childhood. 



Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: adapted from Bakingblonde

2 cups plus 3 tablespsoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 sticks butter (melted and cooled)
6 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla1
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup mix chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
Beat butter and cream cheese together on medium-high until smooth. 
Add sugars and vanilla, and beat until combined. 
Cool cookies on baking sheets for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Add flour mixture, and beat on  low until incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop dough onto baking sheets, and bake for 12 - 14 minutes until edges are light brown.

Peppermint Bark Pretzels

Looking for a quick and easy treat to fill out your cookies trays this year? Well, look no further. Peppermint and white chocolate are a match made in heaven. So are pretzels and chocolate. So why not combine all of these? The result is a crunchy and salty pretzel enveloped in sweet white chocolate with tiny pieces of crunchy, minty candy canes. You know you want one! 

Peppermint Bark Pretzels
1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate (broken into pieces) 
about 1 tablespoon shortening
25 medium-sized pretzels
2 candy canes (crushed)

Crush candy canes and set aside.
Melt white chocolate a few pieces at a time with a little bit of the shortening in the microwave or over a double boiler. (I always use the microwave.) Be sure to stir often.
Dip the pretzels into the melted chocolate and place on waxed paper or parchment paper.
Sprinkle with crushed candy canes.

Pretzels are also lovely dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkles:

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

Martha Stewart has failed me again! Well, these are technically not a failure, but they are not what I had envisioned. As I rolled the cookie dough into little balls and placed them on the cookie sheets, I was dreaming of soft sugar cookies studded with Andes white chocolate peppermint pieces and mini chocolate chips. Then I baked them. The little dough balls spread out into flat, thin puddles, producing a super crispy cookie. I think I overbaked the first batch. They weren't getting brown on the edges, so I let them bake a few extra minutes. This resulted inedible rock-like cookies. (think drink coasters!) I underbaked the next batch, and these cookies were much better. The result was a thin minty cookie with a crispy exterior and chewy interior.



Peppermint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
source: adapted from Everyday Food, December 2012

2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 egg
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips

Preheat oven to 350.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
Beat butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy. 
Add egg and peppermint extract and beat well.
Turn the mixer to lower, and gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips and peppermint crunch baking chips.
Roll dough into balls and place at least 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 12 - 14 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheets for 2 - 4 minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

White & Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. Nothing can beat them. My favorite are the original tollhouse filled with semi-sweet chocolate chips. I was trying to make some room in my cabinet, so I decided to use up the open baking ingredients. I found a half-bag of milk chocolate chips and a half-bag of white chocolate chips. Of course chocolate chip cookies were the first recipe to come to mind! These were sweeter than the original, which uses my favorite semi-sweet chips, but very addicting. They are perfect to leave out for Santa with a tall glass of cold milk.

White & Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
source: adapted from Nestle Tollhouse

3 cups all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (softened)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 package white chocolate chips
1/2 package milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla with a mixer on on medium-high until creamy and fluffy. 
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Roll dough into balls and bake on ungreased baking sheets for  9 - 11 minutes. 
Cool on baking sheets for 2 - 4 minutes.
Place on wire racks to cool completely.

Adventure Time Birthday Cake

I was recently asked to make my four-year old cousin a birthday cake. I happily said yes until I was told the design he wanted: Adventure Time. Adventure, what? I had no clue what it was or what the characters looked like, so I did a quick Google search. When I saw the simple little characters, I was relieved. I could do that! I think it came out pretty good!