Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Cupcakes for breakfast - now that's what I'm taking about!
These are mini size, which means you can have even more :)

I made these for a co-workers birthday and they were a hit.
They really taste like pancakes too.
Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake Cupcakes

Recipe from Kevin and Amanda

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Maple Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tbsp milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Measure out 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and stir with just enough of the flour mixture (about 1/2 tbsp) to coat the chips. To the butter and sugar, slowly add the maple syrup, vanilla, eggs, and milk, beating well after each addition until well combined. Add in the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Line a mini muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill the liners 3/4 full of batter. Bake at 350 for 7-9 mins, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

To make the frosting: Cream the butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk if needed to thin out the frosting enough to be of a good spreading consistency and beat well to combine. Frost the cupcakes and store at room temperature.

Makes 24 mini cupcakes.

Linking Up To:
Anti-Procrastination Tuesday
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Tasty Tuesday
Serenity Now
30 Handmade Days
Tatertots and Jello

Hello Monday

Hello Monday.

Hello cute Knitty Bitties Mug Rug.  I love how you keep water rings from my furniture :)

Hello mama's yummy stuffing balls.  Oh how I love seeing you every Thanksgiving.
























Hello Madison.  My only child who will turn 18 on Saturday. 
How did this happen so quickly?????

Hello Hokie Bird.  We had fun watching your football game on Saturday.

Hello basket that arrived this weekend filled with Smucker goodness. 
Thank you girls from Our Best Bites!!!























Hello Christmas decorations.  Nice to see you again.




































Hello clean fish tank.  You were so disgusting I finally couldn't stand your green water any longer.

Hello Biscuit.

Hello new Cooking Light magazine and Cupcake book.  I look forward to reading you.

Linking up to Hello Monday at Lisa Leonard.

Have a great week!!



Thankful

I am thankful for so many wonderful people in my life.

This week of Thanksgiving has been the perfect time to let some of them know how much I love and appreciate them. 

Mel, from The Larson Lingo, gave me the idea of baking these cute little pumpkin breads and she made these awesome Thankful printables to go along with them.  I thought they were perfect to hand out to a few neighbors, family and friends to let them know how much they mean to us.

If you want these cute labels, just go to Mel's blog and print them out!  Thanks Mel!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from Me and My Pink Mixer!!

My Favorite Pumpkin Bread
From The Larson Lingo

1 - 15 oz. can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

3 C sugar

1 C water

1 C vegetable oil

4 eggs
3 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, water, oil and eggs.  Beat until well mixed.

In a medium bowl, add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nugmeg and cloves.  Whisk until combined.  Slowly add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, beating until smooth.  Spray two 9 x 5 loaf pans with Pam.  Evenly divide batter into two pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes (or until toothpick inserted comes out clean).  Cool for 10-15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

If you are making mini-loaves it makes 7 mini-loaves & bake for 35-40 minutes.

Weekending and Twix Trifle

How was your weekend?

Mine was great.  I love weekends with no big plans.

The only thing on our calendar was a high school athletic banquet on Sunday evening.

Nice.

We have lots of trees on our cul-de-sac.

Lots.

We spent hours raking leaves and we still have a long way to go.

I took a break from raking to look at these.

I love magazines.

Especially food magazines.

I could look at them for hours.

I picked up some bagels for us for breakfast on Sunday morning.

We have a fantasic bagel shop called Mr. J's.  Their bagels are so good.

I saved mine for lunch and made a turkey sandwich.

Yum.

I used the bagel run as an excuse to stop for my Sheetz Diet Coke.

Sad, but true.

I made a Twix Trifle for the athletic banquet. 

This is my go-to dessert when I want to make something quick and easy.

The bowl always comes back empty :)

Well I've got to go now. 

Desperate Housewives is calling my name.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my weekend.

Have a great week!!

Twix Trifle

1/2 of a prepared Devil's Food Chocolate Sheet Cake

(I bake a cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan and freeze the other half to make another trifle later)

1 large box of Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding

3 cups milk (I used 2%)

8 oz. container of Cool Whip

8 Fun Size Twix Bars

Bake cake as directed in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Cool cake completely.

Mix pudding and milk with a whisk for 2 minutes; set aside.

Crumble 1/4 of the cake on the bottom of your trifle bowl. Next layer half of the pudding onto the cake. Spread half of the cool whip over the pudding and top with four Twix bars sliced into chunks.

Follow with another layer of crumbled cake, pudding, cool whip and twix bars

.

Since you only use half of the cake, you can freeze the other half to make this again another day or you can just grab a fork and dig in like I do most of the time. Enjoy!

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

If you know me well, then you know how much I love, love, love oatmeal.
I have it every morning for breakfast.
Really.  I do.
I'm addicted to Diet Coke and oatmeal - ha!
No - forget that.  The oatmeal I could do without one morning or two.
But the Diet Coke........never!!!

I found this recipe while going through old emails and I'm so glad I saved it!
This breakfast is easy to throw together, takes only 20 minutes to bake and tastes like a warm peanut butter cookie.  The original recipe says to bake it in an 11 x 13 inch pan, but I wanted mine a little thicker, so I made it in a 7 x 11, but I may even try an 8 x 8 next time and just bake it a little longer.

Give it a try. 
It is sooooooo good!

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal
recipe from Tidy Mom

1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 7 x 11 pan. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and stir well. Spread in to pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Serve with warm milk poured over top.

Linking To:
Made By You Mondays

Cinnamon Honey Butter

Don't you just love the yummy butter they serve with the rolls at Texas Roadhouse. 
So sweet and delish!
Now you can make it at home for yourself or put it in a cute little mason jar and give some to your friends :)

Cinnamon Honey Butter
1/4 lb. unsalted butter, softened
3 T honey
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. kosher salt

Combine honey, butter, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
Mix until all ingredients are combined.
Spread on warm rolls and enjoy!

Fun with Chalkboard Contact Paper

I've been a little obsessed with chalkboard contact paper lately.
It's just so fun to use - I can't help myself!

I picked some up this summer at Michael's when I had a 40% off coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket :)

Aren't these food labels so cute! I used them at the baby shower I recently hosted.
They were so easy to make.

I bought the wood rectangles at Michael's and the sticks are recycled Starbuck's coffee sticks.  I painted them both with white craft paint, glued the sticks onto the back of the wood and then cut the chalkboard paper to fit.  Just stick the chalkboard paper on the wood rectangle and write on them with chalk.  I prefer chalk pens - they are brighter than regular chalk and are easy to write with.

Next I made labels for my kitchen canisters.
I used this Marvy paper punch that I also purchased from Michael's.

I've been labeling every thing I can get my hands on.
Send help soon :)