Happy Birthday & Happy Easter!

Chocolate, peanut butter, and oreos?? Yup, you bet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lindsay and Sammie!! I love that you both have the same taste in treats as I do...;)

These are Peanut Butter Oreo Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting and topped with crushed up Oreos!!!

(^^No Oreos on these guys yet!^^)

All boxed up and ready to go to the birthday girls!!

As someone who is not a big cake fan, I LOVE these!! It was a new recipe, and one that I will definitely make over and over again! Check out the recipe at the end of the post!!

Peanut Butter Oreo Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk (I used unsweetened soy milk)

Crushed up Oreos (however many you want! I do two sleeves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with 24-30 baking cups (I made 2 dozen cupcakes, plus a small loaf "cake" with the extra batter).

Combined the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and eggs and beat well. Alternate adding the flour mixing and the milk. With the beater on low speed, I poured in about half of the flour mixture, then half of the milk, then the last half of the flour mixture, and ending with the rest of the milk. Gently fold in the crushed Oreos.

Scoop into prepared baking cups and bake in preheated oven for 16-24 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched. Cool on a baking rack.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup cocoa powder

dash of salt

2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup milk (again, I used soy milk)

6-7 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, melt the stick of butter. While the melted butter is still hot, mix in the peanut butter with the butter. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt, and stir until well combined. Then break out your hand mixer if you have one, because the next step is MUCH easier with a mixer, rather than by hand with a spatula or spoon. Add in about half of the powered sugar and about half of the milk. Use hand mixer on low speed until well combined. Then add the rest of the sugar and milk, and again beat until combined.

Frost cooled cupcakes with frosting. Top with additional crushed Oreos if you desire! (of course!!)

P.S. I know 6-7 cups of powdered sugar seems like a lot, but it's right, trust me!! I used 6 cups. You get enough frosting for all of the cupcakes and it tastes delicious!!

If you have any issues let me know! I will try to help ya through it!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful friends, and Happy Easter!

Enjoy!

Baking with Sticky Fingers!

So I walked into work on Thursday, and was greeted with an amazing surprise!

My scheduled 3-hour meeting that morning was not actually a meeting, but rather I was going to the dry-run of the LivingSocial Sticky Fingers Bakery Baking Class!!!!!

Yeeeeeee! I was so excited!

Doron Petersan (founder, owner, and baker of Sticky Fingers) was the one teaching the class!

Everything they make is vegan and DELICIOUS! We were making two things: Brown Sugar Cupcakes with spiced rum frosting and Smore's Brownies.

I wasn't taking pictures during the class, but after I got home, I decided to take a few! Most of the treats were gone because I had brought them back to the office with me for the rest of the workday, but you can at least see what we made!

These (above) are the smore's brownies!!! They were absolutely amazing!

And this is the lone cupcake! All the others were gobbled up!

Did I mention Sticky Fingers/Doron has won Cupcake Wars twice?! Pretty sweet!!

The BEST surprise. ever.

Thank you Caitlyn & Sara!!! :)

CUPCAKES!

A new experiment!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with a peanut butter center frosted with creamy chocolate frosting and topped with Reese's Pieces!!!

I used my go-to chocolate cake and frosting recipes. The experiment was the filling in the center! I have to admit, though tasty, it didn't work how I wanted it to. I believe the source of the issue was that I used natural peanut butter, which has always worked for cookies, brownies, and anything where I'm baking it. However, I wasn't able to achieve the consistency I wanted when I was whipping the filling for these cupcakes. Note to self: go back to buying the non-natural stuff for baking.

That being said, it still tastes DELICIOUS! Personally I'll just make a different filling next time :)

The picture above is kind of fuzzy, but it shows you the center! (as well as the very large bite I took, ha!)

I love this chocolate cake because it is super moist, and never fails (at least not yet!) I'm not a huge cake lover, but I.Love.This.Cake!!

I made them for my friend Nicole's 21st birthday!!! She doesn't know it yet, so I might be spoiling the surprise... ;)

The ones I don't give to her will be part going with me to work in the morning and part staying in my room for my roommates (and me) to enjoy!!

Happy Hump Day!

Only 2 days 'til the weekend! Wahoo!

And the Oscar goes to...

Peanut butter, Oreos, and Chocolate!!

Since it's such a winning combination of flavors, I decided to use them to bake for the Oscars (as if I really needed a reason)! I made a peanut butter oreo sheet cake and frosted it with chocolate oreo frosting!

They look a littttle sloppy...I was in a rush so the cake wasn't completely cool before I put the frosting on. So that's why it was gooey...

...but oh-so-delicious! The cake was really moist and the frosting was wonderfully chocolaty!!

One thing I love about sheet cakes is that you can cut them into bars ahead of time, making them easier to eat at group gatherings. No need for cutting a cake while everyone waits for a piece, no forks, and really plates aren't even necessary (though it doesn't hurt if you have them)! Also, it makes it so the quantity goes further! I used them for three different things!

(1) I brought some to the Oscars party I went to with my sorority sisters, (2) kept some for me and my roommates, and (3) am bringing the rest to work tomorrow!!

Enjoy!

Have a great week!

Banana Bundt Breakfast Bread!

Happy Weekend!

We had a lovely potluck senior brunch this morning! I brought this!

It's my usual whole wheat, fat free banana bread recipe, but I wanted to make it look a little more special! Hence, Banana Bundt Bread, dusted with powdered sugar! I suppose you could call it cake...I brought along some honey cinnamon cream cheese frosting to go with it too :)

Yum yum....

Pretty with my roommate's flowers in the pic!

Enjoy!

Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting!!

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!

Which for me is basically just an excuse to make baked goods that are heart shaped, love-themed, or red & pink!

So these cupcakes aren't actually very Valentine's Day-y, BUT I happened to have a lot of bananas that were in need of being used in some sort of baking. So why not try out some banana cupcakes?! Frosted with honey cinnamon cream cheese frosting (which is as decadent as it sounds), and topped with a conversation heart, of course, to make it festive :)

^^I'm bringing this dozen to work... ^^

...giving some to friends for their birthdays....

...and keeping some for me and my roommates!

Perfect!

I'll be doing some more baking in the spirit of V-day, so stay tuned!!

Cupcakes & Cookies

Cupcakes & Cookies--> what could be better?!

Who doesn't like red velvet cupcakes?! Moist & delicious, finished with creamy cream cheese frosting. YUM!




And now the cookies! These are oatmeal cookies with chocolate covered toffee pieces and chocolate chips! A touch of cinnamon adds a unique taste to these! They are definitely one of my favorites!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

First birthday in the Taste of DC office! This is a peanut butter banana cake, frosted with chocolate peanut butter frosting, and then topped off with peanuts for the words!
I must say, it was finger-licking good. YUM!

Carrot Cake bars!

I dont remember what I made these for, but I know everyone loved them and I did too! moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

BIG RED!!

So my House Staff Group was/is the red team. So what do I make for our first meeting? Red Velvet cupcakes of course!! these were DELICIOUS my first time making red velvet :)

4th of July Cupcakes!

Happy 4th of July!
Ok so I'm obviously posting these WAY later than the 4th of July, but that is what I made them for! I brought them in to Founding Farmers for my co-workers to enjoy-- big hit! :) They are chocolate cupcakes with red-white-and-blue vanilla buttercream frosting. yum.

Katya's 21st!!!

LOVE Birthdays!!! A GREAT reason to make a cake! :)
This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. It's the first time I decorated with vanilla frosting. And this frosting tasted great! I saved the extra to eat with...well, whatever will be good with frosting? My cake writing skills need some work, but the cake itself = YUMMMMMYYYYYY! and Oreos make everything better :)


Cake + frosting (before I spread it)

Spread the SCRUMPTIOUS chocolate oreo frosting. Yes, I included crushed up oreos in this frosting recipe!
Happy Birthday!

Way better than store-bought :)