birthday cake oreo cupcakes

Have you tried the Birthday Cake Oreos???

They're SUPER yummy! 

So yummy, I thought they'd be great IN a cupcake. 

I've made Oreo cupcakes before 

and I thought this would be a fun twist on the basic recipe.  

 Here's the recipe....

Birthday Cake Oreo Cupcakes

Adapted from Anne Byrn 

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes from 

Cupcakes from the Cake Doctor

30 Birthday Cake Oreos (or any Oreos)
I purchased mine at Super 1 (grocery store), 
but the sneaky part was they were on a special display by the milk! Not with the other Oreos. 

1 package plain white cake mix

1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt (you can substitute sour cream)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles (or more)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.

3. Separate 12 Oreos and place one half oreo in each cupcake cup. I tried to make sure there was filling on both halves. Place them in the cup filling side up. 

4. Place remaining 18 Oreos in large Ziploc bag and SMASH away! 

5. Place cake mix, yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Mix away! Low for 30-ish seconds, scrape down sides, then beat on medium for 1.5 min and scrape down sides again. Mix in (on low) 1.5 cups of crushed Oreos until well combined. Mix in sprinkles. 

6. Spoon in 1/3 cup mixture into each cup and place in oven. 

7. Bake cupcakes 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden and spring back when you touch them. 

8. Cool on wire racks for 5 min. and then remove baked cupcakes from the pan to cool on a wire rack. The Cake Doctor says if you run a butter knife around the edge (outside of the wrapper) you can loosen the cupcakes and then use the knife to lift the cupcakes from the bottom to make it easier to remove. 

9. Now for the frosting!

Buttercream Frosting 

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature 

3 cups powdered sugar sifted

3-4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

The remaining crushed Oreos

In a large mixing bowl blend butter for 30 seconds or until fluffy. Stop the machine and add sugar, milk, and vanilla. Blend on low until sugar is incorporate and then on medium until light and fluffy. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if frosting seems too stiff. Add remaining Oreos and mix on low until fully combined. 


10. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl around. Then sprinkles! I liked dipping the whole top of the cupcake the bowl of sprinkles. 
11. These cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for a week. That's IF there are any leftovers! ENJOY! 

Happy Birthday Oreo!

hunt and cut - 2011

My FAVORITE Montana tradition is cutting down my Christmas tree

(my California trees were usually purchased at Target).

We call this wonderful day

"Hunt and Cut"

and this year I made a special treat for the event....

candy melt pretzel trees on coconut cupcakes!

Here's how I did it...

Gather all supplies- pretzel sticks, Candy Melts, a small zip-lock, and cupcakes.  

1. Prepare the Candy Melts according to the directions and place it in a small zip-lock bag.
Then, cut the tip off the corner of the bag (better to start with a small snip and make it bigger if needed).

2. Make a small strip of candy melts on wax paper (a little over half the length of the pretzel).

3. Place a pretzel rod on top of the candy melt strip. 

4. Starting at the top of the pretzel lightly squeeze the bag and create "branches".

5. Cross over the pretzel to the other side and....

6. Create "branches" on the other side.

7. Let the trees dry.

8. Place tree in a cupcake (I made coconut cupcakes to look like snow) and TA-DA!!

A forest of trees!

These would also be fun to decorate with sprinkles and other colors of Candy Melts.

I kept them all natural... just like the tree I chopped!

This year (2013) I put them on brownies. 

Check them out here- hunt and cut 2013. 

mexican chocolate surprise cupcakes

For Cinco De Mayo I celebrated my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday 

and it was quite the FIESTA!

Alaina (mother of the birthday girl) asked me to make cupcakes 

for the occasion and I gladly obliged.

I decided on Mexican Chocolate Surprise cupcakes.

I baked basic chocolate cupcakes and made Mexican chocolate frosting. 

What's the surprise you ask? A mini Reese's in the cupcake!

 

 A friend of mine gave me some vanilla from Mexico.... AMAZING!!!

I made the toppers from tissue pom stickers by Martha Stewart 

(they carry her crafts at Joann's now... AHHH!!!).

And then.... because I'm crazy.... I purchased this can at the Dollar Tree 

because I'm in LOVE with the colors AND

I wanted to take pictures of the cupcakes on the can and 

I LOVE them!!! 

Photos by Elisha Guido

cupcakes in a jar

I LOVE jars. 

I feel my previous posts have shown my love of jars....

Breakfast in a jar

Presents in jars

Pie in a jar

Candles in jars

Jars as decorations

Jars as cups

and

my latest creation....

CUPCAKES in a JAR!

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting &

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Cute, convient & delish!

green velvet cupcakes

I wanted to make a treat for the staff today 

because they're amazing!

Since it's Saint Patrick's Day, I knew something green was in order. 

I decided to make Bakerella's Red Green Velvet Cupcakes,

with the Pioneer Woman's (I'm meeting her tomorrow!!!!) 

World's Best Frosting.

To be honest (it's my blog, I can be open and honest here) 

I'm not a huge fan of Red Velvet desserts (gasp!). 

So, I injected the cupcakes with salted caramel.... yummmmmm.

Then I topped them off with green nonpareils.

I made the cute flags with tape I 

purchased from Michaels last year. 

I heart them. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

straw-berried treasure cupcakes

I'm going back in my photo library and finding some fun events, recipes and crafts that I never blogged about and posting them here.

The 1st is a delish cupcake recipe if found from I Heart Cuppycakes called, Straw-Berried Treasure Cupcakes and I made them a year ago. One of the reasons I really enjoyed these cupcakes because they had the flavor combo of sour cream, strawberries and brown sugar. 
I had never tried this combo until I moved to Montana. I was at a baby shower they had strawberries that you dip in sour cream and then brown sugar... oh yeah, so yummmmm! 
I was hesitant at first and you may be too, but don't knock it, till you try it! 


Anyways, I was eager to try these and they lived up to all my expectations! 
I'll give you the simple versions...

Bake delish chocolate cupcakes. Skull liners are optional :) I purchased these liners because my church was just launching a new ministry called Skull Church, check it out!

Cut off the tops and hallow out strawberries.

Cut a hole inside the cupcake and place the strawberries inside.

Fill the strawberries and frost the cupcakes with the frosting (combine 2 jars -7 oz each, marshmallow creme and 2-8 oz cream cheese, softened until smooth).

Sprinkle with brown sugar. This is the best part!!! 
Make sure you sprinkle the brown sugar as close to the serving time as possible 
so it doesn't get melty and gooey.

YUM!!!!

To get the full recipe go here.

salted carmel

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE blogs. I love gaining fun ideas and inspiration from others. The problem is now I subscribe to so many I can't keep count or remember how I even found the blog. The latter is the case for one of my new favorite blogs, Joys Hope. I needed to make some cupcakes for my friends baby shower and I came across her Salted Carmel Cupcakes and they were AMAZING!!!

One of the fun things about Julie (blog author) is she's from Orange County! 

Also, her husband was/is in the OC Supertones and I love them! 

Ah such a small world. 

Anyways, definitely check out her blog for some fun ideas and great stories.

Back to the cupcakes... seriously may be my new favorite. Here's the short version of how I made these (slightly different from Julie).

I made chocolate cupcakes from a box mix (gasp!). I actually do this sometimes when making it from scratch is just too much work for me (lazy). However, I add ingredients to the mix to make them even better. The Cake Doctor has a great cookbook that I use often. All of her recipes are made from box mixes, but are kicked up a notch. Here ya go...

Cupcakes-

Devil's food cake mix

3 tablespoons dutch process unsweetened powder

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

mix it up! 350 degrees 17-20 min.

Frosting-

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp, but not too soft)

4 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. whole milk

pinch of salt

Cream butter & sugar; add milk, vanilla, & salt; mix until thick & creamy.

Salted Caramel- yummmmmmmm

Pour caramel into a measuring cup.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt per 8oz. of caramel.

Warm in the microwave for one minute.

Stir.

4-5 Heath or Skor bars smashed (i used a hammer... it was fun).

I waited till my cupcakes cooled, then used a melon baler and scooped out the middle and placed a spoonful of salted caramel in the cupcake and then put the piece back on. Then I frosted the cupcakes, dipped them in smashed up Heath bars and spooned a little more salted caramel on top. Ta-da!!! Enjoy the yummy goodness of these cupcakes.