Caramel Apple Upsidedown Cupcakes

I again welcome my readers from my author blog. Over there, I posted a recipe for Upside Down Banana Muffins, and wanted to share another upside down recipe here. This recipe is for Caramel Apple Upside Down Cupcakes. This will absolutely melt in your mouth.

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted

2 C. brown sugar

2 cans apple pie filling

Preheat the oven to 350° f. Prepare cake mix according to instructions on box. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and spray lightly with cooking spray and set aside. Mix the melted butter and brown sugar together. Spoon a full Tablespoon of the mixture into each paper liner. On top of the mixture, add 2-3 apple slices. Then, fill each cup to the top with the cake batter.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and let cool. After 10 minutes, turn pan over onto a pan lines with parchment paper. While the muffins are still warm, remove the paper cups from each. Makes 24 muffins.

Enjoy,

Carol

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Welcome to the readers that have followed the link here from my Author's Blog, where my topic today was chocolate. For my regular readers here, let me explain. On my Author Blog, I'm participating in the A - Z Blog Challenge where I blog on there every day in April with topics according to the alphabet. Today's topic had to start with C and mine was chocolate.

Recently, a friend of mine told me ab out a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake that she makes. Since my favorite candy bar is a Reese's Cup, I had to try this. To give full disclosure and credit, this recipe is actually from the Taste of Home web site, so you know it has to be good. I plan on making this for Easter dinner dessert.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

2 C. miniature marshmallows
1 package chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 C. water
3/4 C. peanut butter
1/3 C. canola oil
3 eggs
1 C. semisweet chocolate chips

Sprinkle marshmallows into a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, water, peanut butter, oil and eggs; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour over marshmallows, sprinkle with chocolate chips

Bake at 350° f. for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick insered near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Yields 12-15 servings.

Enjoy,
Carol

Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Imagine my surprise when I came to the blog today and discovered it has been a month since I posted anything. My apologies and I will try and do better. I haven't been either cooking much lately or felt creative. My husband has been doing most of the cooking lately. No, nothing wrong. He loves to cook as much as I do and it's nice to be able
take a break from it.

A few weeks ago, we had a little luncheon at work; mostly snacks and my contribution was Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins. It was a late minute decision to have this luncheon, so I had to go with what I had on hand at home. This recipe is very easy and quick to make. These are mini muffins so you'll need to have a mini muffin baking pan and papercups to go with it. The muffins were a big hit and it's something that I will definitely keep the ingredients for on hand for any other spur of the moment snacks.

Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. shortening
1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
2/3 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° f. Cream together sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add in egg and mix well. Add vanilla and milk to mixture and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Put about 1 Tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup in the pan. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then remove for further cooling. This makes about 3 dozen muffins.

Confetti Cauliflower

This is a healthy recipe for today. It's cold here and I keep looking for comfort food. When I do that, its usually something that is not so healthy.

I won't lie to you, finding colored cauliflower is not something you can find just anywhere. You really have to look for it. If you can't find it, that's okay because there's nothing wrong with using the regular white cauliflower. The taste is the same.

Confetti Cauliflower

1 large head confetti cauliflower (purple, orange, yellow or green)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 packet Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

Preheat oven to 350° F. Break cauliflower into bite-size florets about the size of popped corn.
Toss cauliflower florets, olive oil and Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix in a large bowl until well coated. Spread cauliflower on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, turning 3-4 times while baking, until cauliflower is slightly browned and tender. Remove from oven and serve immediately. If desired, set a bowl of ranch dressing our for dipping.

Carol

Coca-Cola Cake

I was looking back through my recipes on here because I thought I had already posted my Coca-Cola Cake recipe. I didn't find it, so my apologies if I have already posted it.

I'm a little late with this because January 27 was National Chocolate Cake day and I got busy with things and forgot to post. I guess its better late than never.

I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but it was given to me by my late aunt, who was a wonderful cook. It has to be the most moist chocolate cake I have ever had. If you need a dessert for your Super Bowl party, Valentine's Day, or you're just craving chocolate, I highly recommend this one.

Coca-Cola Cake

2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 T. cocoa
1 t. soda
2 sticks butter or margarine
1 c. Coca-Cola
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 c. mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350° f. Mix all dry ingredients together and set aside. Heat butter/margarine, cocoa, and Coke to boiling. Pour into dry ingredients and mix well. Add buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Finally, add the marshmallows and stir until they've melted.

Pour into a 9 x 13 inch prepared baking pan and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Icing:
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1 1/2 T. cocoa
3 T. Coca-Cola
1/2 t. vanilla
powdered sugar

Put all ingredients, except the powdered sugar into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add just enough powdered sugar to the mixture to make it a consistency to spread.

Popcorn

If I were only allowed one snack in my life, it would be popcorn. I love the stuff and never seem to be able to have enough of it. It's considered a staple around our house. During football season, I always pop a big bowl of it to munch on during the game.

Normally, I pop it on top of the stove in a popper that my parents used when I was a kid, but when I only want a little, I will grab a bag of microwave popcorn. The bad thing about microwave popcorn is that some bags are coated with something that can get onto the popcorn during the cooking process. This chemical is not really good for you and has been thought could cause cancer.

So, since it's a new year and I'm trying to eat healthier, I'm going to try and make my own microwave popcorn where I can control the ingredients. It's actually easy to make, but you'll have to do the trial and error thing with your own microwave to make sure you get the right amount of cooking time and remember that, as with regular microwave popcorn, not all of the kernels will pop. Keep an eye on your bag during the popping, you don't want it to catch fire, if popped too long.

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

1/2 c. popcorn
1 t. oil, vegetable or olive oil (either will work)
salt to taste

Mix ingredients together and pour into a small brown paper lunch sack. Microwave on high for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on high. Pour into a bowl and enjoy.

Super Duper Totally authorized Top Secret Recipes ebook

Super Duper Totally Authorized Top Secret Recipes eBook by Todd Wilbur

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a fantastic ebook. I never really wanted to get a recipe book on my Kindle because I don't want to use it in the kitchen where it could get dirty, but this is an exception. Not only does it have recipes from well-known restaurants and fast food chains, it has a few paragraphs with each recipe to explain how they reproduced it.

I have one of this author's older hard back books like this, but this one is up-to-date with current dishes.

I would highly recommned this e-book and when I got it, it was a free Kindle download, which makes it all the better.

View all my reviews