Happy (almost) Birthday, JulieBakes!

It's funny how you never forget certain dates.  

It's been a whirlwind of a year!  The COVID pandemic hit NYC mid-March, and working in healthcare and losing our childcare (we were so lucky that baby J's grandparents watched him, but with COVID and the fact that out parents are older, meant we couldn't risk putting them at risk), well suffice it to say it's been an interesting 7 months...Oh, and then we moved at the beginning of October.  Seriously.

But, as I sat talking to B last night, and he asked me the date, I realized "Wow, JulieBakes' birthday is in 2 days!"  I don't know why, I haven't posted in nearly 3 years, but there I was remembering that this little blog of mine has a birthday on October 16!  (Full disclosure, I had to look up exactly how old the blog was turning, and was floored when I calculated that it's NINE YEARS OLD!)

Unfortunately, it's looking like I won't be able to bake anything in time to celebrate the blog's birthday, but I do have a bunch of Halloween treats planned.  I literally spent way too much money on Halloween sprinkles over the weekend...

Happy (almost) Birthday, JulieBakes!  Nine years old, I honestly can't believe it!

Sugar cookie bars with flower buttercream

I came across a sugar cookie bar I really wanted to make, but didn't have sour cream at home.  We won't talk about the fact that I was at Trader Joe's earlier today -- before I found this recipe -- and reminded myself I wanted to get sour cream in case I made chocolate cupcakes later.  Great reminder, since I left the store without it!

But I digress.

I couldn't make the original sugar cookie bars I wanted to make, but that didn't stop me.  A quick internet search yielded a few other bar recipes (one used cream cheese, which I also didn't have), and I ended up choosing one from Lauren's Latest (remember those recent to die for chocolate chip cookies?  Yeah, those were hers, too, so I knew these bars had to be good!).

I made one and a half times the recipe for the icing, though, because I bought myself a little birthday gift today.  Well, really a few.  I've been eyeing those Russian flower piping tips for a while, and today at the baking store I bought myself 2 sets of them!  I decided that these would be the perfect decoration for the sugar cookie bars, and after I made a HUGE amount of frosting, I divided it up and dyed it different colors, so that I could have a flower garden on top of my sugar cookie bars!  Now all I need to do is perfect my icing leaves!

Sugar Cookie Bars with Flower Buttercream
Recipe from Lauren's Latest, Icing decorations by me

Ingredients:

For the Cookie Bars:

1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour,
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For the icing (remember, I 1.5 times'd the recipe, listed below is the original recipe):

1/2 cup softened butter
1 pound powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 Tablespoons milk
Sprinkles, if desired

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchement paper.
Lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Stir in egg, vanilla, and almond extract.
Whip until fluffy.
Scrape the sides and stir again briefly.
Stir in remaining dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.
It won't come together as a dough initially, but if you can grab a handful, it should hold it's shape.
Spread dough into prepared pan and press down evenly.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool completely.

Make the frosting.

Stir all ingredients together until smooth and fluffy, except for milk.
Start by adding 3 tablespoons of milk and work up from there until frosting is the desired consistency.
If making bars as I did, continue below at the *.
If making the bars as intended, Spread icing over cooled cookie bars.
Add sprinkles if using (if you can believe it, I didn't use sprinkles this time).
Cut into bars and serve.

Funfetti muddy buddies

Birthday treats are continuing with these funfetti muddy buddies.  Interestingly, this is the 3rd installment of my birthday treats, and it's also the third sprinkle-laden treat of my birthday treats (and the 4th birthday treat, if you include B's birthday galaxy vanilla fudge!).  I guess #sprinkles(reallydo)makeeverythingbetter -- even more so when they're fancy sprinkle blends!

Just be warned: These muddy buddies are HIGHLY addictive.  Like insanely can't-get-my-hand-out-of-the-bag, walk-back-into-the-kitchen-even-though-I-walked-out-because-I-needed-to-stop-eating-them addictive.

Go ahead and make them.  Just don't say I didn't warn you....

Funfetti Muddy Buddies
A JulieBakes original!

Ingredients:

6 cups chex (I used all rice chex, but any plain chex flavor, or a combination, would work)
12 oz vanilla candiquik
4 Tbsp sprinkles/sprinkle medley
3 Tbsp nonpareils, divided
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Place cereal in a large bowl.

Melt CandiQuik in it's tray (or a microwave safe bowl) and microwave in 30 second increments.
Stir.
Continue microwaving and stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.

Pour melted CandiQuik over cereal.
Stir carefully to coat it.

Immediately 4 tablespoons of sprinkles and 2 tablespoons of nonpareils.
Toss/Stir to coat.
Next, toss on the powdered sugar and mix until coated.
Toss last tablespoon of nonpareils.

I placed mine on a wax paper lined baking sheet so that the CandiQuik could dry.

If you feel that yours need a little more powdered sugar, add 1 tablespoon at a time until all of the muddy buddies are coated in powdered sugar.

Funfetti sprinkle cookies

When something isn't broken, you really don't need to fix it.  But play around with it a little, make some modifications, and make something different-but-similar?  That's totally OK!

See, I loved the flavor and texture of those heavenly chocolate chip cookies I made a week or so ago (and also a few months ago...you can read about it here), but I wanted to make something a little more *festive* for my upcoming birthday (although I'm not so excited about the actual day...you can read about that here).  So I thought FUNFETTI!  But, although I've seen recipes for chocolate chip funfetti things, I didn't want chocolate chips to overpower the flavor or pretty colorful specks of sprinkles.  So I opted for a funfetti/sprinkle cookie, and left the chocolate chips out.

The only question?  How much many sprinkles should I use?  A cup seemed way excessive (but it's only half the volume of the chocolate chips), but I definitely wanted a pop of color!  So I started with 1/3 of a cup of sprinkles and went from there...eventually I ended up with 2/3 cup sprinkles.

Funfetti Cookies
modified from Lauren's Latest

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sprinkles

Directions:

Stir melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well combined.
Add in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.
Mix until light in color.
Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and the bottom really well to ensure the batter is well mixed.

Hand stir the sprinkles into the batter.
Let dough stand for 20 minutes to let the flour soak into the rest of the batter.

Preheat the oven to 325 while the dough is resting.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop cookie dough onto prepared pans using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop.

Bake 10-11 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking (I totally skip this step.....shhh!).
When you take the cookies out of the oven, they will look cooked around the edges and undercooked in the center.

Leave the cookies on the hot baking pans for 5-7 minutes or until you can remove them without falling apart.  I let mine completely cool on the baking trays.
Place onto cooling racks.
Cool to room temperature before storing in airtight containers.

Birthday Cake Fudge

I hate to admit it, but I'm a little bit depressed about disinterested in my birthday this year.  I don't know why; I can't put my finger on it, but I just am.  (And I know that I have so much to be thankful for.  I'm just not digging this birthday.)  You know what's making it a little bit more tolerable?  Baking.  So, despite being depressed about my birthday, I'm going to be making treats in the ten days leading up to my birthday.  And I'm actually going to post them on time (that's my birthday present to you!).

First up is this.  Birthday cake fudge.  Because I've been eyeing it for a while, and wanted to make it for B's birthday last week (I made him this galaxy vanilla white chocolate fudge instead, because vanilla fudge is his favorite kind of fudge).  Plus, I ordered a huge shipment of adorable Sweetapolita sprinkles for B's birthday and I've been dying to use them all (I used the galaxy ones for B's birthday fudge).  And because it's called birthday cake fudge, and it is, after all, almost my birthday.

I absolutely loved the way Sweetapolita made her fudge look, with the thicker white chocolate layer on top of the semisweet chocolate "crust" that I made it her way -- and posted the recipe that way, too.  If you want to make it the original way (even white chocolate and semisweet layers), go to the link below and follow that recipe as is.

Birthday Cake Fudge
from Sally's Candy Addiction by way of Sweetapolita

Note: even if you love nonpareils as much as I do, they aren't recommended to mix into the white chocolate layer as their color can bleed.  They are, however, perfectly acceptable to sprinkle on top of the fudge (in copious amounts, if you so choose....which you should.  Just saying.).

Ingredients:

Chocolate fudge layer:

1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 of a 14 oz can of full-fat sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp marshmallow creme

White fudge layer:

3 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (1 14 oz can) full-fat sweetened condensed milk
4 Tbsp marshmallow creme
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (not nonpareils) + 2 Tbsp sprinkles (nonpareils are OK for this portion), rainbow or any color, divided

Directions:

Line an 8x8" square baking pan with aluminum foil (I used a 9x9 inch pan since I STILL don't own an 8x8" pan), leaving enough overhang on the sides to easily remove the fudge once it has set.
Set aside.

Make the chocolate fudge layer:

Combine the semisweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and marshmallow fluff/creme in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Stir constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon as the chocolate chips melt.
Once the mixture is smooth and the chips have melted, remove pan from the heat.
The mixture will be extremely thick.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Smooth down the top to make 1 even layer.
Set aside.

You can either wash, dry, and reuse the same saucepan for the next layer or use a new, similar-sized saucepan.

Make the white fudge layer:

Combine the white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, marshmallow fluff/creme in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat.
The mixture will be extremely thick.
Stir in the vanilla extract.
Once fully combined, very gently fold in 2/3 cup of the sprinkles (remember, no nonpareils here!).
Do not stir too much or the color of the sprinkles cold bleed.
Pour on top of the chocolate fudge layer.
Smooth down the top to make 1 even layer.
Decorate with the remaining 2 Tbsp sprinkles while the fudge is still warm and wet.

Cover pan with aluminum foil.
Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set -- or you can let the covered fudge sit out at room temperature overnight to set (I don't recommend this during the summer months in NYC....).

Once set, remove the fudge from the pan by lifting out the foil.
Invert the fudge from the pan and onto a cutting board, peel away foil, and turn the fudge back over (or you can just lift it out of the pan, and peel the foil back, like I did).
Using a large sharp knife, slice the fudge into 1 inch squares.  If the fudge is too firm, allow it to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before cutting.

Galaxy vanilla fudge

It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything on this blog, and I have no one to blame but myself.  I've even been baking (a little), I just haven't been posting.  There have been lots of reasons, and I can list them for you if you really want, but frankly I just need to be better about posting.  I mean we did get married 6 weeks ago, we had guests in from out of town, and we've been trying to get the apartment in order.  But today, I'm turning over a new leaf.  I'm going to be better about posting.  I'm even going to go back and post some of the treats I've made between my last post and today.  But first let's talk about this...

Let me tell you about this fudge.  I saw it posted as unicorn fudge.  I wanted to make unicorn fudge.  I even bought all of the ingredients for it a while ago.  And then they sat.  But see, my husband's birthday (I still can't get used to saying that, my husband!) is in 3 days, and I wanted to make a treat.  But my husband probably wouldn't want unicorn fudge, so I changed it up a little.  I used these awesome new sprinkles I just got -- which are aptly named Galaxy Twinkle Sprinkles -- which I figured were more "manly" than unicorn sprinkles.  I used the original purple color that they recommended, but any color would work.  I even thought about swirling a few colors, but figured I'd start off simple.  I'm pretty sure I'll be making this again, so I have time to test out all of my new theories!

The best part of this fudge?  It's vanilla white chocolate.  And B loves vanilla fudge!

It's also super easy to make.  Like one bowl, straight into the pan, and then chill.  Easy peasy.  And delicious, too!

Vanilla Fudge with Sprinkles
Recipe from Sprinkles for Breakfast

Ingredients:

24 oz white chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Purple food coloring (you can use any color, really.  I went with purple gel coloring, and used 4 drops to get the shade of purple I liked)
Sprinkles -- lots of sprinkles.  I didn't measure mine out, I just shook and shook until the entire top of the fudge was covered.

Directions:

Prepare an 8x8 inch pan with parchment (I used a 9x9 inch pan since that's what I had).

Place white chocolate, heavy cream, and vanilla extract into a microwave safe bowl.
Melt in 30 second intervals, stirring between, until smooth.

Add in a few drops of purple (or whatever color you choose) food coloring.
Keep adding until you get the desired color.

Pour into prepared pan.
Smooth with a knife or an offset spatula.

Add sprinkles.
Press lightly into the fudge.

Place into the fridge for at least an hour.
Cut into squares.  I recommend small squares -- it's super sweet!

Let fudge come to room temperature before serving.

Funfetti cookies

It's been a while since you've heard from me.  Like nearly two months.  I blame a lot of things.  There was the absence of me baking during the Whole30 (plus the 10 day reintroduction, which no one really seems to mention until you finish the Whole30 and then go "wait, what?!  I still can't eat most of those foods for the next. ten. days?!").  There are the full weekends devoted to wedding planning.  And there was Passover.  And a weekend away with my girlfriends for my bachelorette party, and one at a conference in Boston.  Oh, and I got strep somewhere in there, too.  Oh, and I have an actual full time job?  Right, there's that, too.  Anyway, I can blame a lot of things.  But the thing I need to blame the most.....is me.  I could've found the time to bake, and share the goodies with you, but I just didn't.  I have no one to blame but myself.

But....

Things are getting festive and celebratory around here in JulieBakes-land.  Like we're getting married in 38 days.  Thirty.  Eight.  Days!!  That's just over a month, people!  And because when things get exciting and festive, I like to bake.  And because I like to bake festive things for celebratory events, I decided to use sprinkles because, well, they're festive, and frankly #sprinklesmakeeverythingbetter.

Enter the funfetti cookie.  Chock full of not only sprinkles but also nonpareils (the recipe called for a total of 5 tablespoons....I rounded up), these cookies scream "PARTY!!!"  Because, we're getting married soon!!!!

** Update: I made these cookies three times.  The first time I was unimpressed with the way they looked, but they tasted great.  I made them a second time, but didn't refrigerate the dough as the recipe stated to.  The third time I made them was for guests we had coming over, three days after the wedding! **

Funfetti Cookies
Recipe from Sugar Spun Run

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 2/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sprinkles -- I used 4 Tbsp
2 Tbsp nonpareils -- I used 3 Tbsp

Directions:

Place the butter in a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave in 15-second intervals (stirring between) until butter is completely melted.
If the butter is too hot, allow it to cool for a few minutes before the next step.

Stir in the sugar.
Add eggs and vanilla extract.
Stir well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet, until completely combined.
Stir in sprinkles and nonpareils.

Transfer bowl of dough to the fridge.
Allow dough to chill for at least 30 minutes.  Once, I skipped this step.  Another time, I chilled the dough but then let it come to room temperature before baking it.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Once the dough has chilled, scoop in into 2 Tbsp-sized balls (I rolled them and then slightly flattened them, so they were like a thick disc).
Place at least 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 1 minutes (I took mine out after 11 minutes, so watch them).  The cookies will still seem slightly underdone; this is OK, they will continue to cook on the cookie sheet as they cool.

Allow cookies to cool completely on the cookie sheet before enjoying.

Tiki party mix

For B's birthday, I decided I'd throw together a little impromptu tiki party on our roof deck.  Although it wasn't really that impromptu -- I had put A LOT of thought into almost every detail.  Pineapples, palm trees, and flamingos adorned most everything, and the color theme was mainly pink, yellow, and green to reflect those things. Matching sprinkles.  Pineapple and shark ceramic glasses (but no actual tiki glasses...go figure!).  Ok, so maybe more casual than impromptu. Poor word choice, Julie!

I let my creative juices flow in terms of decor (floating flamingo drink holders, leis, and mini beach balls) and desserts/baking (pina colada marshmallows, pineapple and palm tree chocolate lollipops), and let my trusty friend Trader Joe do most of the catering (I went with tropical/Polynesian themed foods -- coconut shrimp, scallion pancakes, mini meatballs, chicken lemongrass spring rolls, edamame, shrimp toasts -- but ended up serving only about half of those things). B, my resident bartender extraordinaire, mixed up his signature pineapple and mezcal cocktail, among others!  One more place I let my creativity shine through?  This tropical themed snack mix!

I have to say, sometimes I impress myself!  I went with traditional tropical and Polynesian flavors - coconut, mango, pineapple, macadamia, and banana (I was thinking about adding in some sesame sticks for a salty component, but decided to leave them out). Talk about addictive!  I'm so glad I made a huge batch!!

Tiki Snack Mix
A JulieBakes Original!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup roasted coconut chips
1/2 cup banana chips
1 cup dried baby sweet pineapple (unsweetened), cut into 1/4s (larger rings cut into 1/6s)
1/4 cup lightly sweetened coconut strips, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup dried unsweetened mango, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup roasted macadamia nuts (I used unsalted, but salted would be good, too.).

Directions:

Cut dried fruit into the sizes mentioned above.
Add them all to a gallon sized zip lock bag.
Shake up until well mixed.

Add to the serving bowl of your choice (I used a plastic coconut drink holder to keep with the theme).
Extra snack mix (if there should even be any), can be stored in the ziplock bag.

Birthday chocolate lollipops

Festive treats are always fun, especially for birthdays.  And sprinkles?  They're definitely festive!

So, while scrolling through my (wayyyyyy too many) photos on my phone earlier today, I came across a screenshot from just over a year ago (I tend to take a screenshot when I see something interesting that I want to make or go back to at a later date).  It was for a chocolate and sprinkle lollipop that I just thought was adorable.  So when I had leftover chocolate and lollipop sticks in the apartment later on, I knew I had to test these out!  

I had so much fun making these.  I used about six different sprinkles (mostly sprinkle mixtures I had bought, plus some rainbow regular and nonpareil sprinkles). And when I had made them in milk chocolate but was having too much fun to stop there, I went on and made them in white chocolate, too!

These would be really fun to make for different holidays, using specific colors or themed sprinkles....looks like I may have my work cut out for me!

Chocolate and Sprinkle Lollipops
Adapted from a photo I saw from SugarHero

Ingredients:

Chocolate wafers, such as Wilton or Mercken's
A variety of sprinkles

Other tools needed:

Wax paper
Lollipop sticks
Piping bags

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, in 30 second increments, mixing between each.
Make sure not to burn the chocolate.
Let the chocolate cool slightly so it's not too hot to the touch.

Place wax paper onto a flat baking sheet with a lip.
Lay lollipop sticks on the wax paper about 4 inches apart.

Spoon the chocolate in to a piping bag.
Snip off the end so that only a very small hole is there.

Working quickly, start piping chocolate over the end of the lollipop stick.
Start making circles going away from the end of the stick, but making sure that when completing the circles you make it touch the chocolate you piped at the beginning.
Once you're done piping the lollipop, immediately sprinkle the sprinkles over the wet chocolate, before it cools.

Then, move on to the next lollipop.
Repeat the stages above before making the next lollipop.

Once all the lollipops are made, place the tray into the fridge and allow the chocolate to harden.

Dad's birthday cupcakes

For my dad's 65th birthday, my mom went a little overboard (I talked a bit about it here...she made over a dozen hors d'ourves!), and seeing as I'm her daughter, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that I make a second birthday dessert for my dad at 9 a.m. before people came over for brunch.  Brunch was supposed to be out at a restaurant with an extensive brunch and champagne cocktails, but at the end, my dad decided he wanted round two of hour d'ourves, and my mom was happy to oblige -- plus she got to serve the remaining tasty treats that she didn't get to serve the night before.

Years ago, through a series of jokes, my father gave himself the nickname of being our "shining light."  And seeing as my dad likes chocolate (I didn't fall far from that parental "tree" either), I made some double chocolate cupcakes with sugar stars on them.  Seemed only fitting on his birthday :)

The cupcake recipe can be found here, and the icing recipe here.

Chocolate Elmo lollipops

For Baby J's birthday party, the one with the Elmo Smash Cake, I also made some chocolate Elmo lollipops for the kiddos (and some of the adults, too!).  I bought the red chocolate, and had some leftover black and super white chocolate from some other treats I had made (and it lasts forever! in the fridge).  I colored some white chocolate with powdered food coloring to make the orange for the noses.

(Disclaimer -- I have had these two lollipop molds for about 4 years.  My friend's husband bought them for me for their now-almost-5-year-old daughter's first birthday party in March 2011.  I do not know where he got them, but I can guarantee you that a quick little google search yields several nice options.)

The trick to making these lollipops is layering.  And patience!

I make these lollipops in 3 steps.

First, I melt the chocolate in the microwave.  30 second intervals -- especially with white chocolate, so that it doesn't burn! -- mixing in between.

I start with the black chocolate and some white chocolate in separate bowls.

Once the white chocolate is melted and smooth, I add the orange powdered food coloring in small increments mixing well, until the desired color is reached.

Then, I start with my "layering."

I use a clean tooth pick and fill in the pupils and the mouth with the black chocolate.

Then, using a paper lollipop stick, I fill in the nose.

Then I let them cool and harden.  The chocolate kinda looses some of its sheen and is a little more dull when it's try.  Then I wait a little longer, because I really don't want the colors to bleed together.

Once it's all dried and hard, I put the white on the eyes.  I dab it to avoid the black pupils spreading when I apply the white chocolate.  I also use a lollipop stick to do this, since it's a little bigger than the toothpick and the area is a little bigger and round.

Then, I let them dry again.  Like before.  With a little added time just to make sure that they're set.

Then, I spoon in the melted red chocolate.  Place a stick in each and roll it to make sure that the stick is coated/covered in chocolate.  Add more red chocolate if needed to fill the cavity of the mold.  

Tap gently on the counter a few times to release air bubbles.  I have OCD so I pop all the bubbles that have risen to the top, and then shake gently the mold so that the backs of the lollipops are flat.  

Carefully move the molds to the fridge and allow them to set, for at least 4 hours, or until hardened.

To serve, gift, or use as favors, place lollipops in a cellophane bag and tie with ribbon.  I used red because Elmo is red, but you could use any colored ribbon to coordinate with a party theme!

Elmo smash cake

My friend's son turned 1 at the end of January, and they threw him a little first birthday party.  And apparently a first birthday party just isn't complete without a smash cake (don't worry, I'm already working on patenting the smash cake and starting a side business...I'm kidding (well, only sorta)).  I've been making treats for this little boy and his big sister since her baby shower 5 years ago.

The theme of the party was Elmo/Sesame Street, and so besides a bunch of chocolate Elmo lollipops (I even recycled the Elmo chocolate lollipop molds from his big sister's 1st birthday party in March 2010!), I made baby J a smash cake -- complete with a sugar Elmo face on top!  The cake itself was simple, just a 6" two layer cake of my go-to yellow cake with vanilla buttercream (which, coincidentally, I debuted on the blog on his big sister's 3rd birthday cupcakes), a few sprinkles, and a red buttercream "1" with an Elmo face stuck on top of the cake.

I have to admit the cake and the lollipops turned out pretty cute, but I have to say that the cute little boy who devoured his smash cake was definitely the cutest part of the party!

I might be wrong, but is looks like he was a little into the cake.... ;-)

York peppermint patty cupcakes -- Belated blog birthday post

I am the worst blog-mommy ever.  My sweet (no pun intended) little baking blog turned 3 on October 16th, and I skipped right over it.  Didn't mention it on the blog.  Nothing.  I didn't even realize that I missed it until October 29th -- nearly two weeks later!!  I am THE.  WORST.  EVER!

But the funny thing is that I baked a day or two before (this babka....it was a delayed post), and again two days later (when I made these brownies for the second time -- to rave reviews, yet again).  But neither for this momentous event.

Again, I SUCK.

Here's the thing -- I just didn't want JulieBakes to feel neglected and let it's birthday pass too long without mention, so I'm mentioning it now and am including this very, very, very belated (we're talking 17 days belated) blog birthday treat post!!!

I had actually been wanting to make this cupcake that I had come up with for a while.  I was inspired by all of those new (and not-so-new) mini candies -- unwrapped miniature candy bars in 1- or 2-bite sized pieces.  The ones that were calling to me the most were the York Peppermint Patty minis...and I wanted to make a cupcake for them.  

So my idea was to make a dark chocolate cupcakes with a white mint buttercream....and top them off with a mini York patty and a little dark chocolate drizzle....so that's exactly what I did!

I present to you the very belated "happy 3rd birthday, JulieBakes" York Peppermint Patty (dark chocolate peppermint) cupcakes!!

The dark chocolate cupcakes have become my go-to as of late....I made them first in July for B's birthday and then pretty recently for the spooky graveyard cupcakes.  They're super easy and uber chocolatey, and well, it's hard to go back to another chocolate cupcake when these are so darn delicious.  The white peppermint buttercream is completely my own recipe (albeit, when you've made enough buttercreams over time, I guess they all have a pretty basic base recipe).  The chocolate drizzle is straight from the Hershey's Special Dark Syrup bottle, but I put it into a small squeeze bottle to get a finer drizzle.  If you wanted to go completely homemade, a dark chocolate ganache would work well (which I wanted to make, but was out of cream).

York Peppermint Patty Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
From Brown Eyed Baker
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used semisweet since the store didn't have bittersweet.  They're basically the same thing anyway).
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F (325F if using a nonstick pan).
Line standard-sized muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a medium heat proof bowl.
Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water, and heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted.
Whisk until smooth and combined.
(...or you could microwave the mixture at 50% powder, stirring every 30 seconds, until completely melted.  Which is exactly what I did.)
Set aside to cool until just warm to touch.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl to combine.

Whisk eggs in another bowl to combine.
Add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated.
Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined.
Sift about 1/3 of the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined.
Whisk in sour cream until combined.
Sift the remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is thick and fully incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners.
Bake until a skewer inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.

Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on a wire rack until they are cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.
Place cupcakes on a wire rack.
Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.

Peppermint Buttercream

Recipe by yours truly

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter

3 cups of powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tsp peppermint extract, or more to taste (I used 1 tsp and found it to have just the right amount of mintiness aka not TOO minty...you could always start with 1/2 tsp and then add gradually to taste)

Few drops of vanilla extract (I used about 9 drops)

I wanted my icing to be white to mimic the filling of a York Peppermint Patty.  You could always add some green food coloring if you wanted to go for the typical "green" mint.

Directions:

Beat the butter with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment fir a few minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time.  

Make sure that the mixer is not on high speed, otherwise you'll end up wearing powdered sugar!

Once all the sugar is incorporated, increase the mixer speed.

Add the salt and the extracts, and beat until incorporated.
Add more peppermint extract, as needed, for taste (I didn't need to add any).

Other ingredients you'll need:

12 York Peppermint Patties

Dark Chocolate Syrup (or homemade ganache.....you can always use the recipe from these cupcakes)

Assemble the cupcakes

Place the icing into a piping bag fitted with a large circle tip.

Pipe icing onto cupcakes.
I did half with a spiral, and half with a big dallop of icing on top.

Place cupcakes on a papertowel/piece of wax paper/piece of foil.
Drizzle the chocolate syrup on top of cupcakes -- I went back and forth a few times in a zigzag pattern.
Top each cupcake with a York Peppermint Patty mini.

Funfetti marshmallows

I made those adorable little ice cream cone marshmallows yesterday, but I was left with a TON of leftover marshmallow batter.  I mean, I probably had used only a few tablespoons at best to fill the ice cream cones.  So what to do with leftover marshmallow batter?  And a 6-lb tub (ok, ok, I've used some....maybe I'm down to 5.75 lbs?) of rainbow sprinkles?  Funfetti marshmallows seemed like the perfect answer!

And how festive to bring to my friend's birthday celebration last night, a movie in the park?!

I made my regular go-to vanilla marshmallows, and then at the very end added in a few handfuls of rainbow sprinkles (I have small hands, people, it wasn't quite as much as it sounds like).  I poured the marshmallow batter into a prepared pan and then let them set.

When it came to coating the marshmallows, I debated using some regular marshmallow coating.  But then I thought "what if I just coat one marshmallow in rainbow sprinkles, just to see what it looks like?" -- and as you can imagine, once I did that there was no need for regular marshmallow coating!

(P.S. I packed them up in a mini cupcake tin for easy transport.  Such a good and clever idea, if I do say so myself!)  I also got better about cutting the marshmallows smaller, which I'm super happy about!  Check out how cute they are!

Funfetti Marshmallows
Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

1 cup water, divided

3 Tbsp. + 1 1/2 tsp. unflavored powdered gelatin (3 envelopes – envelope is 1/4 oz. each, for 3/4 oz. total)

2 cups granulated white sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. fine salt

2 Tbsp. pure vanilla or vanilla bean paste -- I cut this down to 1 Tbsp and still found them overly vanilla-y...I'd go down to 2 tsp next time

Rainbow sprinkles -- about 2 cups

Directions:

Spray a 9x9 or 7x11 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper (Recommendation: cut to fit flat on the bottom, with the edges of the paper over-hanging the sides. The ends are fine just sprayed.)

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, pour in 1/2 cup of the water and sprinkle the gelatin over.

Let stand.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup of water.

Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.

Stop stirring and once mixture comes to a rolling boil, continue boiling for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat. (Recommendation: the original recipe said that they like to carefully pour mixture into a 2-cup glass measuring cup, to make it easier to pour into mixer.  I did this and found it extremely helpful!).

The mixture is very, very, very hot.  Be extremely careful!

Turn the mixer to low and mix the gelatin a bit to loosen.
Very slowly and carefully add the hot sugar mixture by pouring it gently down the side of the bowl.
Continue to mix on low until all the sugar mixture is added.

Turn the mixer to high and whip the mixture for 10 to 12 minutes until the marshmallow batter almost triples in size and becomes very thick.
If you have a smaller mixer bowl, you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently to avoid the batter overflowing as it grows.
Stop the mixer, add the vanilla, and then whip briefly to combine.  When I added the vanilla, mine thinned out a bit.  Just an FYI.
Throw in a few handfuls of sprinkles

Place the mixture into the prepared baking pan (a silicone bowl scraper works like a charm for this) and use a spatula or bench scraper to spread the marshmallow evenly in the pan, pushing it down into the corners.
Work quickly, as the marshmallow becomes more difficult to manipulate as it begins to set.

Spray a sheet of plastic wrap liberally with cooking spray and lay it across the top of the marshmallow, sprayed side down.
Using you fingers, smooth the plastic wrap on top of the marshmallows a bit to seal it smoothly and tightly against the mixture.

Leave the marshmallow to set at room temperature for at least 3 hours or, even better, overnight.
The marshmallow will be too sticky and soft to cut if you try too soon.

Place the rainbow sprinkles in a bowl or shallow pan.

When marshmallows are ready, grab the edges of the parchment and lift the marshmallows from the pan.
Remove the plastic wrap from the top and fold down the parchment on the sides.
Using a pizza cutter or a large knife, cut the slab into 1x1 inch squares.
Roll each of the freshly cut marshmallow squares in the sprinkles.
Put them on a baking sheet to dry slightly before packaging them up (about 30 – 45 minutes).