Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake

These were a good idea, but weren't my best decorating skills. Taste great though! I didn't have white chocolate, so didn't do that step.

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes by Southern Living

Chocolate-Peppermint Candy Cupcakes

Yield

Makes 36 cupcakes
Ingredients

* Chocolate Velvet Cake Batter (see below)
* 1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate morsels
* 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes
* Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (see below)

Place 36 paper baking cups in muffin pans; spoon batter evenly into paper cups, filling two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan, and let cool completely on wire racks.

Melt white chocolate morsels in a microwave-safe bowl at HIGH for 30-second intervals until melted (about 1 1/2 minutes total). Stir until smooth, and spread in a 1/4-inch-thick layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with peppermint candy. Chill 30 minutes or until firm. Remove from baking sheet, and chop.

Spread cupcakes evenly with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting; sprinkle evenly with chopped candy mixture.

Chocolate Velvet Cake Batter

Yield

Makes about 8 1/2 cups
Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 (16-ounce) package light brown sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
* 1 cup hot water
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Melt semisweet chocolate morsels in a microwave-safe bowl at HIGH for 30-second intervals until melted (about 1 1/2 minutes total time). Stir until smooth.

Beat butter and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer, beating about 5 minutes or until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating just until blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Gradually add 1 cup hot water in a slow, steady stream, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla. Use immediately, following directions for desired cake.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting


Yield

Makes about 6 cups
Ingredients

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 2 (16-ounce) packages powdered sugar
* 2/3 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with milk, beating at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract.

Cranberry sauce

This is so good, it's ridiculous. It's very simple, so you never need to to the sauce out of a can again! You'll never turn back. Promise!

Cranberry Sauce

3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1 cup orange juice

1 cup sugar

In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice. Stir in the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and place sauce in a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

Sweet Potato Casserole

This is to die for! I'm not a fan of sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and so I tried this from my fav, The Pioneer Woman. Her recipes are great!!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients

• 4 whole Medium Sweet Potatoes
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Pecans
• ½ cups Flour
• ¾ sticks Butter

Preparation Instructions

Wash 4 medium sweet potatoes and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 30-35 minutes. When they are finished cooking slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular grandulated) sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of salt. With a potato masher, mash them up just enough—you don’t want to be perfectly smooth.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup pecans, chopped (that means measure a cup of pecans, then chop them), ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a pastry cutter or fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pecan Pie Tassies

I made these bite size pecan pie for Thanksgiving this year. Much easier for the kids. Delicious!

Pecan Tassies

Ingredients:
Tart Shells 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened 3 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 cup all-purpose flour Filling 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 3/4 cup packed brown sugar		1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup pecan halves, finely chopped Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
1.	Preheat oven to 350°F. For tart shells, beat butter and cream cheese in Classic Batter Bowl until well blended. Add flour; mix until a soft dough forms.
2.	Using Small Scoop, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls of dough into ungreased cups of Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan. Dip Mini-Tart Shaper in flour; press into dough with even pressure until dough rises slightly above rim of pan.
3.	For filling, place butter in Small Batter Bowl; microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until melted. Stir in brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Finely chop pecans using Food Chopper; add to batter bowl and mix well.
4.	Using Small Scoop, fill each tart shell with level scoop of filling (do not overfill). Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven; cool in pan 3 minutes. Remove from pan to Stackable Cooling Rack; cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.
Yield: 24 tarts Nutrients per serving: (1 tart): Calories 130, Total Fat 10 g, Saturated Fat 4 g, Cholesterol 25 g, Carbohydrate 11 g, Protein 2 g, Sodium 65 mg, Fiber less than 1 g

Monkey Bread

This was great and eaten FAST!!! This is a recipe from Pastor Ryan that posted on Pioneer Women.

Monkey Bread

• 3 cans Buttermilk Biscuits (the Non-flaky Ones)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 teaspoons (to 3 Teaspoons) Cinnamon
• 2 sticks Butter
• ½ cups Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. (3 teaspoons of cinnamon gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons.) Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly.

Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with cinnamon-sugar. Spread these nuggets out evenly in the bundt pan.

At this point, you’re going to want to melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Cook butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the two become one. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep dark brown on top. When its finished cooking, remove it from the oven. If you have the willpower, allow it to cook for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate.

I love muffins! I had a lot of apples and so this is one of the many things I made with them. Will make again for sure!

Apple Strudel Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

I used a recipe for sugar cookies and then form them and baked, and they are adorable!!!! Small, but great bite size cookies. Perfect for Halloween parties!

Sugar Cookie

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together.
3. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Leave one section uncolored. Dye with food gel one part yellow and the other orange.
4. Line a loaf pan with wax paper. Enough to over to cover the sides too. Press the white dough evenly on the bottom, then the orange, then the yellow. Chill in the refrigerator several hours.
5. Once chilled, removed cookie dough and slice into 1/4 inches slices and then start making triangles (like candy corn).
6. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.