Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved those Boston cream doughnuts from Dunkin Doughnuts.  They are my absolute favorite.  I've never tried to make Boston cream pie cupcakes before, but they have the same components that I love about Boston Cream doughnuts: the pudding-like filling inside and the chocolate glaze on top.  So I figured I couldn't go wrong with this recipe.

Gather the following ingredients:

Cupcakes:

•  1 box of yellow cake mix
•  3 eggs
•  1/3 cup vegetable oil
•  1 cup water

Filling:

•  1 3oz box of french vanilla Jello instant pudding
•  1 cup half-and-half
•  1 cup heavy whipping cream
•  2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Chocolate Ganache:

•  1 cup heavy cream
•  1/4 cup light corn syrup
•  8 oz semisweet chocolate
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the cupcakes using the directions on the cake mix box.  You can make a lower fat version by substituting the vegetable oil with apple sauce (I may try that next time).

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the filling. Combine the pudding mix and 1 cup of half-and-half, put to the side (another low fat option would be to use the Jello sugar free vanilla instant pudding mix - they usually taste just as good as regular). Then, in a bowl of an electric mixer with the whip attachment, combine 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  Whip until soft peaks form.  Fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream goodness.  Place the pudding/whipped cream mix into a piping bag with a star tip.

Fill the cupcakes with the whipped cream/pudding mixture by inserting the star tip into the middle of the cupcake and giving the piping bag a squeeze.  Its kind of hard to tell how much gets into the actual cupcake, but just squeeze until the stuff starts spilling out of the top.  Like this:

I wiped down the excess filling off the top so I could glaze them without making a mess.

Prepare the chocolate ganache by combining 1/4 cup light corn syrup with 1 cup heavy cream and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat.  The corn syrup gives the ganache a nice, pretty shine.  When the corn syrup and cream starts to simmer, remove the heat and add 8oz of semisweet chocolate.  Cover and wait 8 minutes for the chocolate to melt. Mix it all together and let it cool a bit (about 15 - 20 minutes).  Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the chocolate ganache and place on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet (just in case any of the chocolate drips).

How pretty are these?!

Last step - dig in!

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

I saw this recipe on Pinterest for chocolate chip lava cookies.  Once I saw the photo of the warm cookie smothered in vanilla ice cream...they had me.

Start with melting 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips in a plastic bag in the microwave for 30 seconds, or until melted, set aside.  (I used a sandwich bag but after microwaving it didn't hold up so well, so use something sturdier, like a freezer bag)

Cream one stick of butter with 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar

After creaming the butter and sugars for 3-5 minutes in the electric mixer, add one egg and 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract...

swirls!

Add combined 1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to wet mixture

Add one cup of chocolate chips.  Then try not to eat half of the dough while you assemble the cookies - very important!

Using only half of the prepared dough, scoop 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons into your hands and flatten it out, and place in a greased muffin pan (makes 10-11 cookies)

 

Now, grab the plastic bag with the melted chocolate....  It's time.  

Snip of a corner of the bag with a scissor, and squeeze the chocolate in the middle of the dough.

Using the remaining dough, scoop and flatten out in your hands like you did for the first layer, and gently place over first layer and melted chocolate

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  WHEN I make these again, I will bake them for a couple minutes less, just to leave the center more gooey.  I was concerned that the edges weren’t getting  browned, so I left it in for closer to 20 minutes. I would think 15 is probably perfect.

Cooling down

Oh look!  I've got all the dessert I didn't need to eat lined up for the week!

 

I microwave them for about 30 seconds to get them really warm and then scoop some vanilla ice cream on top.  It was like the cookie and ice cream were made for each other!  

I'm so cute, you'll have to eat me

yum yum yum

Now, my diet isn't so happy about these cookies being in the house, but I say screw it!  Live a little and eat some chocolate chip lava cookies once in a while :-)

Toffee Latte Scones With Irish Cream Glaze

I saw this recipe for Toffee Latte Scones the other day, and I thought they sounded sooo good, I had to try making a batch this weekend.  I've never made scones before but it wasn't too involved and they turned out pretty great!

The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of toffee bits.  I couldn't find any so I just chopped up three Heath bars.  It was a little more than 1/2 cup, so I saved the extra to sprinkle on some ice cream for later.

Three Heath Bars

All chopped up

Next, melt 1/4 cup of vanilla ice cream

Melted vanilla ice cream

 Then, add 2 tablespoons of instant coffee into the melted ice cream

 Add two eggs into the melted vanilla ice cream and instant coffee mixture.

 

Next, mix 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder.

Then, cut 1/2 cup of butter (1/2 of a stick) into small cubes, and incorporate into the flour mixture.  I used a pastry blender, but you could use a fork.

 

 

It will look something like this:

 

 Add 1/2 cup of the chopped up toffee

 

Then add the liquids

 

 

 Mix with a fork and dough will come together

 

 Pat into 8-10 inch circle about 1 inch thick and cut into wedges

 

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then 300 for another 10 minutes

While the scones were baking, I got creative and decided to make a glaze to drizzle on top of the scones for some extra sweetness.  I used one cup of powdered sugar and three tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream Coffee Creamer.

I let the scones cool before drizzling the glaze

Scones on a cooling rack

Everyone is glazed and happy

This little one has my name written all over it

I hope you all have a great week!

Two Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

Continuing on with my obsession with Pinterest recipes, I decided to try out this latest recipe.  If you know me, then you know I absolutely love anything pumpkin flavor.  It doesn't have to be Fall for me to enjoy a pumpkin treat.  Even if you aren't as into pumpkins as I am, I think you will still like this recipe.  Its fairly healthy too, with my rough calculations, they should be about 185 calories each if you make 12 muffins, which isn't bad if you're having it for breakfast. 

This recipe couldn't be any easier, just one box of yellow cake mix and one 15oz can of pumpkin.


I have made a similar recipe before, preparing the yellow cake mix as directed on the box and adding one up of the canned pumpkin.  It's one of my favorite cupcake recipes, so I was curious how this would turn out without using any of the oil, eggs, etc.

Cake mix and canned pumpkin

Mixing

All the pumpkin incorporated into the cake mix

The batter was thicker than your average cupcake, and didn't smell overwhelmingly of pumpkin.

I always like to use an ice cream scooper to divide the batter evenly into muffin sized cups.

I tried out different sized muffins

Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes and voila!

Baked and ready to eat

Of course I couldn't resist one

The end result is a dense, moist muffin with a hint of pumpkin flavor.  Not too sweet either, just perfect, and it took little to no effort to bake these up.  I will surely be making these again!