Waffles

To make these easy on me in the morning, I mixed all the dry ingredients the night before and just added the wet in the morning. Easy, fluffy, delicious. And if your waffle iron makes little hearts, that's just a bonus!

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla, just until smooth.

Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Serve hot.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I always make SMBC and wanted to try good ol' American buttercream some time. This is delicious! Taste like the chocolate frosting you get from a box but 100000 times better. Very easy to make, I don't see why anybody needs to buy frosting out of a box anymore. This frosting is also very pipable. I opted not to this time to keep it looking homemade.

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!)
3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer.

Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter.

Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.

If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Source: Savory Sweet Life

Moist Yellow Cupcakes (from scratch)

I rarely bake from scratch...it's one of those things I really want to do, but never have the courage or time to do it. I decided to start testing recipes to find the ones I like. I like this one very much. It's a yellow butter cake that is moist and tender. I didn't have real buttermilk on hand, so I made some with lemon juice and low-fat milk. I think if I had real buttermilk, this recipe would be even moister. It was pretty easy to put together and the batter came out silky and beautiful!

I got 36 cupcakes out of this recipe:

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk , well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two standard muffin pans with cupcake liners.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 full, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 16 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Snickerdoodles

I found this recipe on Pinterest and I've been trying to actively try the recipes/crafts I pin otherwise I'm just pinning for nothing! This is a real great recipe. The snickerdoodles comes out soft and chewy. And it's always a plus when it was easy to make!

makes 16-20 cookies

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon for dipping

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combine, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in milk. If dough is still crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Remove dough from fridge and roll into big 1 1/2 inch balls. Dip in cinnamon sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. Lightly press down on dough to flatten it. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Soft M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted to try this Award Winning chocolate chip cookie recipe I found on allrecipes.com but I really feel uneasy about a recipe that calls for instant pudding mix. When it comes to cookies, I like to use whatever I have and I don't know about you, but I never have instant pudding mix on hand. Plus, since having the kids, I'm trying to move away from using cake mixes after I found out they have hydrogenated oils in them and trying start cooking from scratch (When I do use cake mixes though, Trader Joe's has one with no trans fat and is delicious...I used it for the pistachio cupcakes I made for Bao's birthday).

Anyways these cookies were fun to make since the kids helped me. I didn't have to refrigerate the dough and it still came out super puffy and a little cakey. I'm guessing from the baking powder. I'm not one for cakey cookies but the kids like it and I cut the sugar a little bit because of the addition of M&Ms. Since Valentine's day is coming up, we went with a cute Valentine's edition of M&Ms that only had red, white and pink M&Ms in the bag. Unfortunately, a lot of these ended up in the kids mouth right before bedtime. I hope these as much as they do! Enjoy!

Soft M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons pure vanilla
• 3 3/4 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz bag chocolate chips
• 1 bag M&M’s (you’ll have some left over) & various sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer beat the butter and sugars until well beaten. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined. Place flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl; mix.

Slowly add to wet ingredients until combined. Hand mix in chocolate chips. Do not mix in M&M’s or sprinkles in with the batter – they go on last.

Drop down by the teaspoon onto a parchment lined cookie pan, than press M&M’s or sprinkles onto the top of each cookie and bake.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until edges are golden but the middle may be soft still.

Cool in pan for about 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Pistachio Cake w/ Pistachio Swiss Meringue Buttercream

For Bao's birthday, she requested pistachio cupcakes with pistachio swiss meringue buttercream. We've made the buttercream before but I don't remember making a cake. I found a good one on Allrecipes.com and copied it down below. The batter is really runny but it actually rises fine. I even used leftover batter in my Babycakes Cake Pops Maker and it was perfect.

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
7 drops green food coloring (I omitted this and it was still pretty green)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
In a large bowl mix together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs, water, oil, almond extract and green food coloring. Blend ingredients, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.
Pour into prepared 10 inch tube pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes (16-18 minutes for cupcakes), or until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Jalapeno Popper Dip

We made this for Bao's birthday and it was a hit. Delicious and creamy and most importantly, easy to make!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temp
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (half Jack, half cheddar cheese)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies
• 1 (4 ounce) can sliced jalapenos
• 1 (4 ounce) can sliced jalapeno, diced
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 stick butter, melted

Preparation:
In a food processor, add the first 7 ingredients and process until smooth. You do not need to drain either can of peppers. Dice the 2nd can of jalapenos and hand mix into the dip. Spread the dip into a greased 2-quart casserole. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and melted butter; mix well. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over the dip and bake in a preheated 375 degree F. oven for about 20 minutes. You want the top to get browned and the dip to be heated through and bubble gently on the edges.

Do not over cook this dish or the mayonnaise with separate and you will have a grease puddle in your dip. Serve with Buttery crackers or a sliced French baguette.