Dexter's Desserts: Bucket List

Showing posts with label Bucket List. Show all posts

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Gluten- Free Lemon Cupcakes

Recently I threw a big beautiful baby for a friend and co-worker of mine recently. The theme was Children's Books with a gray and yellow color scheme. Since the mommy-to-be's MIL has a gluten intolerance, I did my best to accommodate and provide some food and dessert options for her.

I made a regular Strawberry cupcake with Strawberry buttercream frosting and then make a semi-homemade Gluten-Free Lemon Cupcake with Lemon Buttercream.

Semi-Homemade Lemon Cupcakes

1 box (15 oz) Betty Crocker® Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup water
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, stir cake mix, water, 1/2 cup melted butter, the eggs and lemon peel just until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

Gluten Free Lemon Frosting

½ cup butter at room temperature
¼ cup cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sifted powdered sugar (make sure it’s made with corn starch)
2-3 tablespoons half & half
a drizzling of more freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Whip butter and cream cheese together using a standing mixer with the paddle attachment: whip together at medium speed for 2 minutes.
Slowly add sifted sugar to icing on slow speed, gently increasing to medium speed for 5 minutes.
Mix in other ingredients and continue mixing until smooth, fluffy, and creamy.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

These have been on my Baking Bucket list and on my mind for a long time. Apparently I'm not the only one! My friend Tera had Caramel Apple cupcakes as one of her flavors at her wedding a year and a half ago, ever since her mother has been thinking about them and wanting them again. So I got a special request for them, along with 3 other flavors for Tera's sister's graduation celebration.

Caramel Apple and Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I, of course made extra to test out for my husband and I. Dave gets to be my guinea pig a lot, lucky him! He got to be the first to try the Caramel Apple Cupcakes out. He was such a fan that after his first bite he actually cussed! I won't repeat what he said but it was his way of saying "These are awesome!" ;)

They are made with a fresh apple cake that is so moist and flavorful then topped with a caramel buttercream (made with homemade caramel sauce) and garnished with an apple slice dipped in caramel sauce.

I think these are one of my new favorites!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Rocky Road Popcorn

I'm a bit behind on a few new posts that have been patiently waiting for me to finally finish them from all the craziness these last two weeks.....time to play catch up ;)

I'm a huge fan of popcorn. Caramel corn. Cheddar Cheese. White cheddar. Loaded with butter. Or just plain stove top with salt. Should I go on? I am obsessed with the homemade caramel corn I made last winter, found here. I've been looking forward to trying something new that you can't go buy at the store. Plus homemade is always better! This Rocky Road popcorn is the best of both worlds, salty 'n sweet and it's just as addicting at the caramel corn is.

Rocky road popcorn

Adapted from recipes by “Mouse Potato” and foodchannel.com

1 cup popping corn, popped
1 to 2 cups almonds (I used peanuts)
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
2½ cups miniature marshmallows, divided
¼ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 250˚F. Spread popped popcorn on a greased baking sheet, and sprinkle with the almonds.
In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt, and stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil.
Stop stirring and let the mixture boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Add 1½ cups of the marshmallows and stir until melted. Stir in vanilla. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn mixture; stir until well coated.
Bake popcorn and nuts for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove popcorn from oven and let cool.
Put chocolate chips into a large heatproof bowl set over, but not touching, a pot of simmering water, and stir until melted.
Add a few scoops of popcorn and nuts to the bowl of melted chocolate, and stir until coated. Then add a couple more scoops, and stir some more. Repeat until about half the batch of popcorn is coated in chocolate.
Pluck the popcorn pieces from the chocolate with tongs and spread them out on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of marshmallows over the chocolate-coated popcorn, and let cool.
When the chocolate has hardened, mix the chocolate-marshmallow-coated popcorn with the rest of the candied popcorn in a large bowl for serving. Store in an airtight container.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Baking Bucket List

I read many other food blogs and Google lots of recipes that peak my interest. I came across one baking blog the other day who had a baking bucket list on her blog and thought it was such a great idea as there are a ton of recipes I have been wanting to make for a long time and I either email myself ideas or just keep a mental list (which we all know how bad of memory I have!). But starting a baking bucket list would put all my ideas in one place and help achieve my goal of making everything (eventually) I've always wanted to try. So I've starting making my list and added it as it's own page (up above) to keep track and refer back to. It's hard to think back and remember everything I've wanted to make, so this list is not final and will always be adding new items to it.

Feel free to give me ideas to add to my Baking Bucket List.... and friends you can always request me to make something off the list for one of our next parties or gathering :)