White Chocolate Cake Batter Cups

I don't like white chocolate. There...I put it out there. It's just too sweet, too creamy, harder to work with, etc. I don't mind it mixed into things like batters and frostings and cheesecakes, but straight up white chocolate? PASS.

So why did I make these, you ask? They looked fun, and easy, and everyone else seems to like white chocolate. Can't be selfish all the time!

I threw the green sprinkles on top as a little nod to the fact that it's St. Patrick's Day. I had about 3 other recipes planned this week in honor of the Irish holiday, but life got in the way, as usual. For dinner, I wanted to make my Shepherd's Pie with Stout Gravy (best ever...promise!), but instead I got busy catching up on work stuff and ate frozen pork dumplings instead. Although, last night's dinner was phenomenal, and I will share that recipe with you all soon!

These are so simple to make, I already had everything I needed other than 2 more bars of white chocolate. If you decide to make these, get good quality white chocolate, baker's chocolate works well. Ghiradelli bars just happened to be on sale last week, so I grabbed 3 (already had 1!). You can use white chocolate chips, but they just don't melt and mix the same. You won't be sorry by going higher quality with this. Also, when it says heat the chocolate in 30 second increments, do just that! White chocolate burns and dries out much faster, so shorter heating increments and a good mixing is key.

White Chocolate Cake Batter Cups
from House of Yum

1 cup white or yellow boxed cake mix
5 tbsp. butter (salted or unsalted), softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp. rainbow (or any color) non-pareil sprinkles
16 oz. white chocolate
1 tsp. vegetable or coconut oil

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix cake mix, butter, vanilla sugars, and flour together on low until a crumbly dough forms. Add the sprinkles and mix a little more. If the dough doesn't fully come together, continue mixing it with your hands.
2. Shape the dough into small discs (using about 1/2 tablespoon of dough). I rolled them into a ball and squished them a bit. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
3. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt for 30 seconds in the microwave. Stir, heat for another 30 seconds. Stir and heat for another 15 seconds or so until mostly melted. Add oil and continue stirring until all is melted and smooth.
4. Using mini cupcake liners, spoon a small amount into the bottom of about 26-28 cups and spread so it's even. Place a dough disc on top and cover each with more white chocolate, smoothing over to cover the disc.
5. Place more sprinkles on top or leave them plain. Chill in the refrigerator and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Stuffed Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

This might be the longest recipe name I have. It's worth typing it out, though...promise!

Before I get to posting about the coffee cake, I'd like to take a moment and be thankful that we survived another bout of the stomach bug. December 2014 (Christmas Eve to be exact), I was hit with the bug for the first time since seventh grade. Dan had it two days prior. Well this time around, we both got it at the same time. Luckily, it only lasted a bit over a day, and we have now recovered, disinfected, and would like to put it behind us. Thankfully, our family did a full day of babysitting yesterday while we wasted away on the couch. But really though, I escape it for 18 years and now I feel like I'm going to get hit with it once a year.

Anyways, this recipe is from a week ago, pre-sickness. I'm feeling better, but not enough to start baking away. This recipe is easy and super yummy. I brought most of it to work to share and it was eaten right up. Other than bananas and cream cheese, I always have everything I need to make this, so this recipe is a keeper. Basic ingredients and it's pretty simple, you can't ask for more in a baked good.

Can I make a confession?

I started this post 4 days ago.... Then I got distracted/busy, maybe a little lazy after that, and then tired after that and never finished it. It's been a long week of recovering from the aforementioned stomach bug, and then P ended up with a cold. So now, she's hacking away, all super congested and throws an absolute nutty when we try to suction her nose. I can't blame her, I would too, but she wasn't a fan of the doctor trying to clean wax out of her ear this morning either. Poor babe.

I guess I can get to posting the recipe now, since I made this almost two week ago. The original recipe includes walnuts in the cake and streusel, as well as a vanilla glaze for the top. I omitted both.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
From Carlsbad Cravings

Cinnamon Streusel

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Banana Cake

2 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

1.5 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large ripe bananas)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cups sour cream

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup Reserved Batter (see instructions)

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a tube pan on all inside surfaces with a non-stick spray that contains flour, or butter and flour your pan. Don't just use cooking spray, it will stick. Set aside.
2. For the streusel, add flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Sprinkle cold butter over top and pulse until the mixture resembles small pebbles. (You may also combine in a bowl and cut butter in by hand). Set aside in the refrigerator.
3. For the cake, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy on medium high speed, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears after each egg. Mix in vanilla and bananas until just until combined.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to banana mixture, alternating with sour cream (flour, cream, flour, cream, flour). Beat until just combined. Measure out 1/4 cup batter and set aside for cream cheese filling. Stir chocolate chips into remaining batter until just until combined.
6. Measure out 1 cup batter (to top cream cheese layer) and spoon the rest of the batter into the prepared pan.
7. To your now empty mixing bowl, add 1/4 cup reserved batter, cream cheese, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat on medium high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Spoon cream cheese filling over batter and gently smooth, but do not touch the sides of the pan. Spread reserved 1 cup batter evenly over filling (it will be very thin).
8. Tap pan on counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles then sprinkle evenly with streusel.
9. Bake for 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees F or until toothpick inserted comes out clean (without inserting in cream cheese). Let baked cake cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Gently invert cake onto a baking sheet, remove pan, and invert back onto cooling rack streusel side up. Let cool to room temperature.
10. Store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

 

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

This is a first for me. I'm blogging from my phone! I was tuckered out and went to lay in bed, and as I was pinning recipes I remembered I haven't updated the blog with a few that I've made. So far, my typo rate has sky-rocketed, thanks autocorrect. I don't know about any of you, but I use the swipe feature to type on my phone, which comes up with all sorts of words sometimes. I don't think I'll do much blogging from the mobile end any time soon. But, for tonight I'll test it out.

My mom makes these really great chocolate chip cookies. When we asked her what her secret was, she said "vanilla pitching". And there's that autocorrect...she actually said "vanilla pudding". I remembered seeing these pudding cookies somewhere, so I began to investigate (Google). I found a recipe on AllRecipes.Com and it featured butterscotch pudding in the cookies. Then I came to this realization:

You can use any pudding flavor to change up the cookie flavor. Ummm, heck yeah! I immediately rummaged through my bin of chocolate chips, yes, a bin, and needed to choose one kind. But which kind?  You see I have chocolate chips,  mini chips, dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chocolate mint chips, Andes peppermint chips, butterscotch chips, and caramel bits. So, yeah, I need a bin.  I chose mint chocolate chips and a sugar free chocolate pudding. I also had vanilla, butterscotch, white chocolate, and pistachio puddings.

I have A LOT of baking supplies, okay?!?!

These came out great, and I can't wait to try them with different flavor combinations.

At this point I am highly annoyed with mobile blogging, so I am going to leave the link to the recipe and not type it all out.  Sorry folks, next time I'll stick to the good old-fashioned (err old-modern?) way of typing it on my tablet.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/11182/chocolate-chip-pudding-cookies/