With Sprinkles on Top

One of my favorite things about Dairy Queen is their mysterious and delicious crunchy topping. I’m not entirely sure what the crunch topping is, but it involves sprinkles, nuts, and something akin to toffee bits. I found a tub of the crunch topping at a local baking store called U-Bake. If you’re interesting in making these cupcakes, use the almighty Google to search and I’m sure you’ll be able to source some of the topping. I really do think that if you can’t find something through Google, it doesn’t exist!

Anyway, I wanted to make a cupcake that reminded me of Dairy Queen. I went with a box mix for the cupcake and made the icing with ice cream. Yes, ice cream. And it was amazing. I topped the cupcake with the crunch topping.

Dairy Queen Cupcakes
Icing recipe source: sweettoothsweetlife.com
Print Recipe

1 box cake mix (plus required eggs and oil)
1/3 cup butter, softened
4 oz, cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vanilla ice cream
2-4 Tablespoons milk
5-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Crunch topping

1. Make cupcakes according to box directions and cool entirely.
2. Make the icing: Allow 1/4 cup of ice cream to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine. Gradually add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix in ice cream and gradually add milk until you reach your desired consistency.
3. Pipe icing onto the cupcakes. I used a large round tip.
4. Dip cupcakes into the crunch topping and enjoy!

I’m back! My almost-month long hiatus is over, my first year of law school is finished, and I’m celebrating summer. OK, so Memorial Day isn’t even here yet — but it’s basically summertime. I mean, it was in the 80s yesterday. Close enough.

A staple of summertime is the root beer float (or black cow, as it’s commonly called around here). There’s a local drive-in in my hometown of Oshkosh that makes the BEST root beer. If you ever find yourself in Oshkosh (unlikely, I know), be sure to visit Ardy and Ed’s — their root beer is delicious, the rest of the menu is mediocre, but the retro atmosphere cannot be beat. We pay more and go out of our way to experience the past, don’t we? Nostalgia is oddly powerful.

Here’s a recipe for all of you root beer lovers. The hardest part about making these was finding the candy root beer barrels!

Root Beer Float Cupcakes
Recipe source: Midwest Living February 2013
Print Recipe

1 box yellow cake mix (all I had was a funfetti mix, so I used that and it worked)
3 eggs
1 cup root beer (don’t use diet)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4-1/2 teaspoons root beer flavoring
1 tub of store-bought vanilla frosting
~ 24 root beer barrel candies
Straws for decoration (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, root beer, oil, and the root beer flavoring on low speed until combined. Beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes (batter will be thick).
3. Divide batter among prepared muffin tins, filling each cup 2/3 full.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. (Mine baked for about 20 minutes, so you may need a longer baking time) Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.
5. Once cooled completely, frost the cupcakes. I used a small cookie scoop to place a scoop of chilled frosting on each cupcake. I wanted the frosting to look like a scoop of ice cream — chilling the frosting in the refrigerator beforehand helps with this.
6. Top each cupcake with a root beer barrel. If you’d like, crush a handful of barrels in a food processor or with a meat mallet and sprinkle the pieces on top of each cupcake. Decorate with a straw.

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Hello all! My final exams begin in just about a week, so I’m taking a baking hiatus until sometime in May. I hope you understand & I hope you’re having a beautiful spring!

One of the trends lately seems to be chocolate chip cookie recipes involving cornstarch. I don’t know if it’s a trend or if I’m imagining it, but cornstarch seems to be everywhere lately! [and if you use it in your kitchen, it literally will be everywhere — ha!] But I was intrigued to try a recipe for the perfect, classic chocolate chip cookie that incorporates cornstarch. The selling point? Cornstarch will make your cookies chewier! Softer! Thicker! More magical!

Are all of those claims true? Yes! The cookies I made weren’t really any thicker than usual – but they were definitely more soft and chewy. This is one trend that lives up to the hype.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe source: Sweetest Kitchen
Print Recipe

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or regular chocolate chips, either will work)

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Place flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla, mix in.
4. Mix in flour mixture on low speed. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Using a tablespoon or a cookie scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until barely golden around the edges. Don’t let the cookies brown and do not bake longer than 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

You guys. These exist. It was like my dream came true.

Even more Oreo filling!

I know Oreos are not healthy and I know they are processed and do not resemble anything homemade. But I love them.

If you are like me and think that the sun rises and sets in the Oreo cookie, run to the grocery store and try these limited edition Oreos.

And then make these peanut butter Oreo blondies.

Yield: About 16 bars

Peanut Butter Oreo Blondies

Print

Peanut butter goodness featuring MEGA STUF Oreos!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup soft butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup cream
• 16-24 Oreo cookies depending on size of pan
• 1 bag white chocolate chips (optional) [I did not include these]

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish for thicker bars, or a 9x13" baking dish for thinner bars.

2. Cream the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well mixed.

3. Add the flour and baking powder and mix for less than 1 minute with an electric mixer or stir with a wooden spoon until all flour is incorporated (batter gets tough to work with if you mix it for too long).

4. Add the cream and use electric mixers or wooden spoon to stir until incorporated. Batter should be thick but spreadable.

5. Spread half the batter in the prepared dish; layer Oreos evenly over the batter; top with remaining half of batter.

6. Bake for 40-50 minutes, depending on the size of your pan (less time for a rectangle, more time for a square) and whether or not you like them to still be a little soft and doughy. [I baked mine 50 minutes – it’ll depend on your oven]

Notes

Your yield will depend on the size of your baking pan -- and how big or small you cut your bars.

Recipe credit: Pinch of Yum