Red velvet crepes

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups butter milk
- 1 1/4 cup whole or lowfat milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tablespoon red food color gel
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
+ 2 tablespoons cooking oil (for pan)

Mascarpone Cream Filling
- 500 mL heavy cream
- 300 gr mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange (optional, but adds nice tang)
+ 1/2 cup raspberry jam (optional, for filling crepes)

Chocolate Ganache Topping
- 75 gr bittersweet chocolate
- 75 mL heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar


Directions:
For the Mascarpone Filling:
1. Using a mixer, mix mascarpone cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla until soft and fluffy. Set aside.
2. Whip cream and remaining sugar to a stiff peak. Carefully fold into the mascarpone cheese until combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For Chocolate Ganche Sauce:
1. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. In a small sauce pan, heat cream and sugar to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, and pour over chocolate. Carefully mix until homogenous, and set aside until ready to use. If the ganache sets, re-melt the chocolate over a double boiler.

Red Velvet Crepes
1. In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, milk, egg, sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and food coloring. Whisk until combined.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are combined. The batter will be a little runny (think soup). If you find that the batter is too thick and pancake like, add more milk (regular). Make sure the batter is clear of lumps.
4. With a pastry brush, brush the surface of large (non-stick) skillet with cooking oil. Heat it over medium heat. Test skillet after a couple of minutes by drizzling a few few drops of water onto the cooking surface. If the drops sizzle and evaporate, the surface is hot enough.
5. Turn the heat down to medium. For each crepe, spoon or ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the skillet. Holding onto the handle of the pan, remove it from the heat and swirl the pan so the batter coats the bottom of the pan. You want to make the coating as thin as possible. If you have holes in the crepe, go ahead and add more batter to the pan to cover them. Return to heat.
6. As the batter cooks, it will dry and lose its shine (~ 2 minutes). Once this happens, use a non-metal spatula and carefully flip the crepe over. Finish cooking the crepe on the other side (~ 45 seconds).
7. Gently slide the cooked crepe onto an ovenproof plate, and keep the finished crepes warm in an oven set at 195 degrees.

Assembly:
- If using raspberry jam, place a small amount the center of the crepe. Pipe mascarpone cream filling, and carefully roll.
- Drizzle with chocolate ganache sauce and dust with icing sugar.

Credit.

Banana split mini bites

This isn't really a recipe, just directions and such. I saw a picture of this and made up the directions myself.

What you'll need:
- Firm bananas
- Chocolate chips (to melt)
- Chocolate chip ice cream (or any flavor that you like!)
- Whipped cream
- Maraschino cherries (to top)
- Sprinkles (to decorate)

Directions:

• Cut bananas into one inch sections and use a melon baller (or a spoon, whatever) to cutout a well in the banana. At this point, leave the peel on for easy handling.
• Melt the chocolate and dip the bottom of the banana (after you take the peel off of course!) into it. Stick that in the sprinkles and put it in the freezer to harden the chocolate quickly.
• Put the ice cream in the little wells you dug, spray whipped cream on top and top off with a cherry

Oreo cookies and cream cheesecakes

Ingredients:
42 Oreo, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275° F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in the vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add in sour cream and salt, beat to combine. Using a large spatula, fold in the chopped Oreo cookies.
4. Divide batter evenly among the cookie-filled muffin cups, fill each cup almost to the top. Bake, rotating muffin tins halfway through, until the filling is set, about 22 to 28 minutes. Transfer the muffins tins to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate (in the muffin tins) at least 4 hours (or overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Thanks, Martha Stewart

Cupcake madness

All the cupcakes you can possibly imagine and so much more

There are so many cupcakes to choose from on this site that you will NEVER get bored. Some of them are really swanky and high-end, but others are simple and look easy enough to make. I'll be trying a few of these out this summer and definitely turning my kitchen into an unofficial Mr. Cupcakes. A few favorites from the site:

Eton's mess cupcakes: Yellow cake with cream, meringue and strawberries

Mango cupcake with buttercream frosting and coconut

Vanilla almond cupcake with maple cream cheese filling

Zebra cake

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk (whole, 2% or 1%)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Double Dutched Dark Cocoa

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9″ x 2″ round baking pan with cooking spray (you can use a 8″ x 2″ for a slightly thicker cake). Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment, and spritz again. Set the pan aside.

2) In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

3) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.

4) Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.

5) Now for the stripes. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center.

Credit

Honeyed apple peanut butter tart

Ingredients:
1 sheet Puff Pastry, thawed
heaping 1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons honey, warmed plus 4 Tablespoons for drizzling
2 apples of choice, sliced thinly
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Slice puff pastry dough into 3 equal size rectangles and place onto a silpat lined baking sheet.  Warm peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl until liquid like.  Drizzle in 2 Tablespoons of honey, stir then spread evenly over 3 pastry rectangles leaving 1/2 inch border around edges.  Layer apple slices neatly over top of peanut butter, drizzle with warm honey, sprinkle with sugar then bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned and puffed around the edges.  Let cool completely then drizzle with additional warm honey if desired and powdered sugar.  Serve as whole tarts or cut each tart into fourths.

Credit

Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie

Ingredients:
2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 package of Oreo cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugars and butter with a mixer until well mixed.
2. Once your sugars and butter are well mixed, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Once these are well mixed, slowly add them to the wet ingredients. Mix in your chocolate chips.
4. Place one scoop of cookie dough on bottom of an Oreo. Take another scoop of cookie dough and place it on top of an Oreo. Press the cookie dough until Oreo is completely enclosed with dough.
5. Place cookies onto a cookie a sheet. Bake cookies in the oven for 9-13 minutes.

Peanut Butter Fudge

I'm in the mood for chocolate. And chocolate and peanut butter are an undeniably perfect combo (other than caramel and chocolate, yum!) So I stumbled upon this recipe on StumbleUpon.com, naturally. But the real credit goes here.

Ingredients:
2 cups peanut butter chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions: 
1. Line a 9x9 inch square pan with wax paper.
2. In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in the condensed milk. Add the peanut butter and chocolate chips, stirring constantly until everything is melted and blended together.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and refrigerate for 3 hours. Cut into squares when cool.

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Roses

If I guy ever made me these, he would: a) get some serious ass b) get made fun of my both myself and all his friends for being a huge pussy c) get even more ass. Worth it? You decide. Credit owed.

Ingredients:

• 10-15 medium sized strawberries, cleaned and thoroughly dried
• 10-15 bamboo skewers
• 1 1/2 cups pink candy melts
• 1/2 cup red candy melts
• Small block of styrofoam

Directions:

In a small, deep bowl, microwave the pink candy melts for 30 seconds, then stir.  Melt for 30 seconds and stir again.  Continue microwaving for 30 seconds and stirring just until the mixture is fully melted.  Heating it in small spurts will keep you from overheating the chocolate, creating a mottled appearance in the final product. 

Pull the top, green part of the strawberries up and away from the red fruit.  This will keep the greens out of your chocolate, and will also make the greens look more like rose leaves once the strawberries are dipped.  Carefully press the sharp edge of a skewer directly into the center part of the strawberry green, press the skewer in just far enough to hold the strawberry .  Dip the strawberries into the melted pink chocolate.  Turn upside-down and press the sticks upright into the styrofoam, store them here until the chocolate is hardened.

In a small bowl, melt the red candy melts in the same way as you melted the pink candies.  Once melted, transfer to a ziptop bag, snip off a small corner of the bag, and pipe up one side of the strawberry and in a spiral on top.  Allow to harden once more.  Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Rainbow Cake in a Jar

I just died and went to heaven. How amazing does this look? Serious credit is owed to the people who created this.

Ingredients:

• 1 box white cake mix made according to package instructions
• Neon food coloring in pink, yellow, green, turquoise, and purple
• 3 one-pint canning jars
• 1 can vanilla frosting
• Rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Scoop about 1/2 cups of cake batter into five small bowls. It doesn’t have to be perfect, don’t panic if you get a little more of less of one color than another.  Tint each bowl of cake batter with the food coloring until very vibrant.

Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the purple batter into the bottom of each jar.  Spoon equal amounts of turquoise batter, then green, yellow, and pink.  Place the jars in a shallow baking dish, add about 1/4″ in water in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.