Hostess Has Nothing On Me

How long has it been since you have had a Hostess cupcake?  You know--the chocolate cupcake with the white cream filling inside and the chocolate ganach topping with the signature white stripe on top?  It's been a LONG time since I have had one but I decided this week that I wanted to make a filled cupcake for our February birthday celebration.  My sister happened to have this marshmallow cream recipe and shared it with me along with a couple tips about how to successfully fill the cupcakes. 

I started with a basic Devil's food cake recipe.  Using an old-fashioned ice cream scoop, I scooped a level scoop of batter into my large greased muffin tins and ended up with nicely rounded topped cupcakes.  I made the filling while the cupcakes were baking and made the ganach while the cupcakes were cooling.To fill the cupcakes, I used my Pampered Chef apple corer and gently pulled a section out of the center of the cupcake, keeping the "plug" in tact.  I piped the filling into the hole I had created and filled it almost to the top.  I then cup off about half of the cake from my "plug" and inserted the stub back in place to cover the cream.   Holding the cupcake gently, I dipped the top into the ganach letting the excess drip back into the pan.  I put them in the refrigerator to set up.  Meanwhile, I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips (separately) and piped heart shapes out onto waxed paper, refrigerating them to set up also.  Just before serving, I simply placed the hearts on top of the cupcakes pressing the tips gently to "glue" them into place. 

The cupcakes were very good and one of our guests, Jerry, made the comment that Hostess had nothing on me!  Thank you, Jerry.  Come any time! We love a happy guest!  Hope your birthday was special.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe.

Granola Cereal Take 2

My husband is a big cereal fan and especially enjoys grain cereals with raisins and nuts. If you buy much cereal at your house, you know that while the cost is going up, the size of the box is going down. So I decided recently to make my own granola mix and after two recipe trials, I think I've found a winner. The two recipes were very similar (oats, dried fruits, nuts), but the ingredient that made the second recipe stand out was the sweetener. The first recipe has maple syrup as its sweetener while the second recipe calls for brown sugar and honey. The other thing that set the second recipe apart is that the dried fruit isn't actually baked with the granola which keeps them nice and soft. They tend to dry up when they are baked.

The granola is good with milk and also makes a nice topping for yogurt. I haven't had the opportunity to figure out how much it costs to make a recipe, but I'm sure its significantly lower than the boxed cereals at the grocery--and probably a lot better for you. Give it a try and see what you think!

Click here for a printable version of Homemade Granola.

Tyler Does it Again

My favorite Food Network chefs seem to go in cycles.  I find one, make many of their recipes, watch their program over and over again, then get a little tired of them and move on.  (Sounds like my past relationships with hair dressers!)  My new favorite chef is Tyler Florence.  I love to watch him cook--he makes everything look so good.  I will have to say that every recipe of his that I have tried has had wonderful flavor.

So it just seemed natural to turn to Tyler recently when I was looking for a new recipe for shrimp scampi.  I was not disappointed.  This recipe has a very fresh and sigificant flavor.  I have made it a couple times recently because it's a very quick but hearty meal.  Watch Tyler make this dish.  You will be inspired!