Mini Cookies 'n Cream Bundt Cakes #SummerDessertWeek

This post was created for #SummerDessertWeek. I received samples from some of our
sponsor companies, but as always, all opinions are my own.

Welcome to day three of #SummerDessertWeek hosted by Angie of Big Bear's Wife!
This week I have joined 24 other bloggers and we're sharing some of our favorite
summer desserts.  On Monday I shared my Homemade Angel Food Cake with Sugared
Berries! We're also hosting an awesome GIVEAWAY! Be sure to scroll down after the
recipe to enter!

The Perfect Cupcake

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Cupcakes are perfectly acceptable for breakfast if they're topped with bacon and maple

syrup. Right?!?!

There are a few men in my office who just love when I bring cupcakes to work, so I 

surprised them earlier this week with a new cupcake flavor that I thought they would 

enjoy - Maple Bacon Cupcakes.  I kept the cake simple by baking a vanilla cupcake.

One of the men suggested I add bacon to the cake next time.  

He said you can never have too much bacon!

Cute & Easy Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Hello sweet friends!

I can't believe I have made four different types of cupcakes in the past six days.

It seems like I was on a long cupcake making break and it felt good cover my counter top
with cupcake liners and sprinkles again.

Paint Chip Heart Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Over the weekend Madison and I went to Lowe's to pick out paint for her bathroom.
It was time for a makeover and she wanted to get rid of the outdated wallpaper.

While browsing the paint chips looking for the perfect shade of gray, I noticed how pretty
the pink samples were.  As our paint was being mixed I picked out a few of the pink and
red paint chip to take home.  I had an idea :)

Homemade Birthday Cake Mini Donuts

Well we survived snow storm Jonas and finally got out of the house for a little today.

We were snowed since Friday afternoon, which really isn't that long, but it was still

nice to be able to get out to visit my parents and then grab a fountain Diet Coke from

my favorite convenience store.  Fountain drinks just taste so much better!

Cinnamon Bun Mini Cakes

When I was little I asked Santa for a Betty Crocker Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas.
I wanted that little oven so badly!
Mini boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix and tiny cake pans - I would have been in heaven!

Santa was good to me that year, but he never did come through with that Easy-Bake Oven.
My mom said I should just learn how to bake in a real oven and so I did.  Thanks mom :)
I cranked out cookies, brownies and cakes for my brothers and they were happy, but deep
down I still longed for that little oven that baked cakes with a light bulb.

Muddy Buddies {Puppy Chow} Cupcakes

Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow, as some people call it, is a holiday sweet treat

tradition in our house.  We make it every year around the holidays.

University of Tennessee Graduation Party Cupcakes & Free Printable

Over the weekend I had to pleasure of making cupcakes and a dessert for a friend's
party she was hosting for her daughter's high school graduation.

Morgan will be attending the University of Tennessee this fall, so the party theme was
orange and white for the Tennessee Volunteers.  I made red velvet cupcakes with cream
cheese frosting and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  Keeping with the party
theme I decorated the cupcakes with Tennessee logo toppers and washi tape flags.

Strawberry Jell-O Poke Cake

Strawberry Jell-O Poke Cake is a dessert my mom use to make when we were kids.
My brother's and I loved it!
It's such a light and refreshing cake and easy too since it's made from a boxed cake mix.

For Easter I decided to take a trip down memory lane and make Strawberry Jell-O Poke
Cake for our family get together.
Chilled whipped cream pudding frosting combined with fluffy white cake tastes so good
on a warm spring day!
Heck, who am I kidding - it tastes good any day!

Popsicle Cupcake Minis

Summer is my fave!
Flip flops, evening bike rides, garden fresh veggies, pool time and popsicles.
Yay summer!

I decided to make mini cupcakes to celebrate the warmer temperatures and I have to say I think
these may be the cutest cupcakes I have ever made!
I love them!

To make the popsicles I cut toothpicks in half and stuck them into Mike and Ike candies.
The Tropical Typhoon colors are perfect for summer.

I would not recommend serving these to children, but if you do, make sure to remove the toothpicks first.

Popsicle Cupcake Minis

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a mini cupcake pan with liners.

Make your favorite flavor of cupcake using a box mix or homemade.
Bake cupcakes for 10-12 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 cups confectioners sugar
1 T milk or heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and beat for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
Add milk and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
Place frosting into a piping bag and pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.  
Top with sprinkles and a candy popsicle.

Enjoy your spring and summer my sweet friends!

Linking up with:
Seven Thirty-Three - Inspire Me Wednesday

Angel Flake Coconut Cupcakes with Pudding Frosting

Hi friends!
Sorry for the sporadic posts, but life happens and I haven't had too much time in the kitchen lately.
I did manage to make some cupcakes for another co-workers birthday, so I thought I would share them with you.
I post more often on Instagram, so follow along if you like.
You can find me @meandmypinkmixer.

 

I am really loving the addition of pudding in the last few cupcake recipes I have made.

I used it last in my Pistachio cupcakes and was really impressed with the results.

It may become a staple in my future cupcakes recipes :)

 

This time I even used pudding in the frosting!

Overall I was really pleased with how these coconut cupcakes turned out.

I don't bake with coconut very often, so they were a nice change of pace.

Hope you enjoy them too!

Classic Angel Flake Coconut Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/3 C canola oil
1 cup water
3 eggs
2/3 C Angel Flake coconut
1/4 C milk
1 (3.4 oz.) pkg. coconut cream instant pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners.
Prepare cake as directed on box with eggs, oil and water, adding 2/3 cup coconut, 1/4 cup milk and dry coconut cream pudding mix.  Using a large cookie scoop, fill cupcake liners.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.
Cool on a wire rack.

Pudding Frosting:

1 (3.4oz) pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1/4 C powdered sugar
1 C milk
1 tub (8 oz.) whipped topping, thawed
2 cups Angel Flake coconut

With a wire whisk, beat vanilla pudding mix, powdered sugar and milk for about 2 minutes.
Fold in whipped cream.  Refrigerate until ready to frost cupcakes.

To frost cupcakes, I spooned the cold pudding frosting into a piping bag with a round tip.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and sprinkle heavily with coconut.
Refrigerate 1 hour before serving. 
Top with a fresh raspberry or other fruit.
Store leftover cupcakes in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Jello.com

Caramel Delight {Samoa} Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream

Girl Scout cookies and I go way back.
Back to the 70's when we wore that short little brown dress with the beanie to Brownie meetings and we sang "I have something in my pocket it belongs across my face".  Remember that?!?

And then later the green dress with the beret after we flew up to Junior scouts.
Do you remember the "Fly Up" ceremony? 

I loved Girl Scouts!  We did so many fun things that I probably would have never experienced if I wasn't a scout, so naturally when my daughter started kindergarten I signed up to be a Daisy Girl Scout leader.  Little did I know, that she would stick it out for 13 years and I would have the pleasure of watching all those girls in our troop grow up and graduate high school.
We had a lot of fun over those 13 years camping, crafting, singing and working on badges.
I wouldn't trade those times for anything!

Anyway, over the past 4 decades I have sold or helped sell at lot of Girl Scout cookies.
Girl Scouts will always hold a special place in my heart and I will never pass up a cookie sale :)

Now onto the cupcakes.
My friend Bekka loves Caramel Delights, so when we got together for her birthday last month, I knew just the cupcake to make for her special day.  Chocolate cake topped with coconut buttercream frosting, finely topped cookies and a Caramel Delight cookie slice.  I totally meant to drizzle caramel sauce on top, but somehow forgot. I will definitely do it next time.

Even without the caramel sauce they were delish!
























Caramel Delight {Samoa} Cupcakes
with Coconut Buttercream

Chocolate cupcakes:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners.
Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Add eggs, milk and vanilla.
Beat with a mixer for about two minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add the boiling water and mix just until blended.  Let the batter sit for about 10 minutes to thicken slightly.
Fill cupcake liners using a large cookie scoop. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until center of the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.  Cool on a wire rack.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
5-6 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
1-2 T heavy cream or milk
1 box of Caramel Delight {Samoa} Girl Scout Cookies

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and powdered sugar 2-3 minutes on med-high speed.  Lower the speed and add the vanilla and coconut extracts along with the heavy cream. Beat for another 5-7 minutes on high until light and fluffy. Frost cooled cupcakes.  Top with finely chopped cookies and a cookie slice on top.  Drizzle with caramel if desired.

 

Yield - 32 cupcakes

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Blueberry Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Not too long ago we had a pot-luck breakfast at work.
I was asked to bring cupcakes.
Wonder why :)

I decided that if you add fruit, then it's totally acceptable to eat a cupcake for breakfast.
My co-workers must have agreed because they were all gone in about 5 minutes.




















Blueberry Cupcakes
with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1 pkg. white cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
8 oz. package frozen blueberries, rinsed and drained
fresh blueberries for garnish if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place cupcake liners into cupcake pan.
In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and canola oil with an electric mixer.
Beat for 2 minutes; occasionally scraping the sides of the bowl.
Fold in blueberries
Using a large cookie scoop, drop batter into liners.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-2 T heavy cream or milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla for 2-3 minutes on med-high speed.  Lower the speed and add the cinnamon and milk. Beat for another 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Frost cooled cupcakes.  Top with a fresh blueberry.

 

Be sure to follow Me and My Pink Mixer on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram (meandmypinkmixer)!

I have some fun giveaways coming up in March!

 

Linking to:

The 36th Avenue

Valentine Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Well it's February and you know what that means.
Valentine sweet treats!!

A box of chocolates and specialty cookies left over from Christmas make perfect Valentine's Day cupcake toppers.

Dipping the cupcakes into a little chocolate ganache before frosting makes them even more special.

Make Valentine cupcakes for the sweethearts in your life.
They will like you.
A lot.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

1 box Devil's Food chocolate cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pan with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift cake mix into a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs, buttermilk and oil. Using an electric mixer, mix until ingredients are all combined.
Using a large cookie scoop, fill liners 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.
Cool on a wire rack.

Ganache:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 c heavy cream

When your cupcakes are cooled, place chocolate chips and whipping cream in a heat proof bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir. Continue to microwave in 10 second increments and stirring in between until it's smooth.
Dip the tops of your cooled cupcakes into the ganache and let set before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 cups confectioners sugar
1 T whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and mix for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
Add whipping cream and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Garnish with Valentine sprinkles and decorative chocolates and/or cookies.

 

Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy Halloween sweet readers!!
Here's a treat to start your day.
Death by Chocolate Cupcakes - what a way to go!





















Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

1 box Devil's Food Chocolate Cake
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pan with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift cake mix into a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs, buttermilk and oil. Using an electric mixer, mix until ingredients are all combined.
Using a large cookie scoop, fill liners 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.
Cool on a wire rack.

Frost with Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting.
Top with mini chocolate chips and chocolate candies.

Printable cupcake toppers available from Chickabug.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Today's post is a recipe redo from my blog archives of 2010.
When I first started blogging in 2009 my camera was just a small point and shoot number.
It's funny to go back and look at some of those sad little photos.

Today I am sharing Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes.
I love anything salted caramel and these cupcakes are awesome.
By doctoring up a box mix, you can make these in no time at all and impress all of your friends!

Feel free to use your favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe if you're not into a box mix.
While you're at it, you might want to try making my homemade Salted Caramel Sauce too.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

1 box Devil's Food or German Chocolate Cake mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
Heath Toffee Bits
Caramel Sauce (I used Hershey's)
Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line pan with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift cake mix into a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs, buttermilk and oil.  Using an electric mixer, mix until ingredients are all combined.
Using a large cookie scoop, fill liners 2/3 full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.

Pour some caramel into a measuring cup or bowl.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt per 8 oz. of caramel.
Warm in the microwave for 30-40 seconds.  Stir.  Pour the warm salted caramel in to a squeeze bottle. As soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven, inject caramel into each one. 
Move them to a cooling rack to continue cooling.

Vanilla Buttercream

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 cups confectioners sugar
1 T whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and mix for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
Add whipping cream and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.

Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes (I use a Wilton 1M tip)

Top with toffee bits and drizzle with cooled salted caramel.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Tarts

I am SO excited to be able to attend the Mixed Food Bloggers Conference again this year! 
It's being held next month and I can not wait. 
Last year I learned cake decorating tips from Duff Goldman himself!
And Marian from Sweetopia taught me how to pipe frosting onto sugar cookies - love her!
You can check out my post about last year's conference here.

Dixie Crystals is one of the sponsors and they are hosting a pre-conference cookie contest.
My pink mixer and I are always up for a baking challenge, so we got right on it!

Snickerdoodles are a fall favorite, so I decided to turn my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe into tiny
bite-size cookie tarts filled with buttercream and topped with autumn colored pearl sprinkles I found at Target.  I think they turned out super cute and delicious. 
Hope you like them too :)

Snickerdoodle Cookie Tarts

1/2 cup butter, softened (I use unsalted)
1/2 cup Dixie Crystals brown sugar
1/4 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
cinnamon sugar for topping
vanilla buttercream and sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 24 cup mini muffin pan (I use a Pampered Chef pan) with cooking spray.  In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer if you prefer) cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix to combine.
Add the egg and vanilla, beating at medium speed until combined.  Turn your mixer to low and slowly add flour, mixing just until the flour is incorporated.
Using a small cookie scoop, drop cookie dough into each cup of your prepared mini muffin pan.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Move pan to a wire rack for cookies to cool.  Sprinkle each cookie with cinnamon sugar mixture.
I made a small indention for the frosting with a Pampered Chef mini tart shaper.
Remove each cookie tart from pan with a butter knife.
Top with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles.
Makes 24 cookie tarts.

Vanilla Buttercream:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3 cups Dixie Crystals powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 T whipping cream or milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes.  Add whipping cream or milk and beat for another 5-8 minutes until light and fluffy.

Skittles Cupcakes with Skittles Frosting

I have a friend that LOVES Skittles.
At some point during every Friday night high school football game, Lee will send one of the kids to the concession stand for a bag of Skittles. 
If he's watching a movie, you can be sure that Skittles are within reach.
Lee loves to taste the rainbow :)

The fabulous people at OXO sent me some new baking tools and challenged me to use them to
 "bake a difference" to help fight childhood cancer.

I couldn't wait to try out the Cupcake Corer, so I decided to make some Skittles cupcakes for Lee, while at the same time helping kid's with cancer.
For this blog post, OXO will be donating $100 to Cookies For Kids' Cancer, a non-profit organization founded by two OXO employees in 2008. 

The cupcake corer made the perfect little spot for a Skittles surprise :)
It was so easy to use!

You can help by looking for OXO baking tools with this sticker and OXO will donate 25 cents in support of pediatric cancer as part of the company’s $100,000 pledge to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer in 2013.

I used my Magic Bullet to crush Skittles candies into coarse powder form.
I added the powder to my vanilla buttercream to make Skittles frosting.

Skittles Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
1  bag Skittles candy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place cupcake liners into cupcake pan.
In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and canola oil with an electric mixer.
Beat for 2 minutes; occasionally scraping the sides of the bowl.
Using a large cookie scoop, drop batter into liners.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.
Using a cupcake corer, cut a hole in the top center of each cooled cupcake.
Fill with Skittles candy.

Skittles Buttercream Frosting

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 cups confectioners sugar
1 T milk or heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup Skittles candy, crushed

Crush Skittles candy in a blender, food processor or Magic Bullet.

I used a Magic Bullet and crushed them into a coarse dust.

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and beat for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
Add milk and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
Add crushed Skittles and beat for another minute.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. 
Top with additional Skittles.
Makes 24 cupcakes.

I think Lee liked them :)

Snickers Cupcakes

Know what happens when a Snickers bar and a cupcake get together?
Awesomeness happens.
Delicious, chocolatey awesomeness.

Snickers Cupcakes

Cake:

1 box Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Mix

4 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

24 frozen Sickers miniatures, plus additional for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line pan with cupcake liners.

Sift cake mix into a large mixing bowl.

Add eggs, buttermilk and oil.  Using an electric mixer, mix until ingredients are all combined.

Using a large cookie scoop, fill liners 2/3 full.  Gently push a frozen mini Snickers bar into the batter making sure the batter completely covers the candy bar. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.

Cool in pan for a few minutes and then place the cupcakes on a wire rack to continue cooling.

Vanilla Buttercream

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 cups confectioners sugar

1 T whipping cream

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and mix for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.

Add whipping cream and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.

Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes (I use a Wilton 1M tip)

Top with chopped snickers bars and drizzle with caramel sauce.

Tip:  Pour caramel sauce into a Wilton squeeze bottle and microwave it for 15-30 seconds to thin the caramel sauce.  Let it cool before drizzling it over the frosting.

Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog