chocolate orange cupcakes

My sister-in-law requested these for her birthday cupcakes. I was at a loss on how to invent them myself, so I took the easy route.

First, get a chocolate cake mix and two chocolate oranges (I got one dark and one milk chocolate). Prepare your cake mix according to package directions. Take 1/2-ish of one of your chocolate oranges and chop it into little pieces. Stir those pieces into your cake mix, and bake them.

While they are cooling, make some orange chocolate ganache. Ganache is super easy, and super delicious.

In a double boiler (which, to me, is a silver bowl placed over a pot of simmering water), melt 4 oz of your chocolate orange (I don't remember how many ounces a whole orange is, but I know that Mr. Webb and I just ate a couple slices and called the rest good). Stir in a 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the ganache looks nice a smooth. Then dip your cupcakes in the ganache. Let cool, and then enjoy!

caramel apple cupcakes

Yesterday we celebrated my nephew's birthday. He turned 7 at the end of October (hence the '7' candle).

I usually let people choose what kind of cupcakes they want for their birthday, but this little guy wasn't very picky. He said he didn't care what kind he had. So, I made caramel apple cupcakes.

I've been wanting to try these cupcakes for a few months now, so I was happy for an excuse to finally make them! Plus, I pretty much made them up on my own! I'm more than a little bit proud of that fact.

Would you like to make them? Because it's incredibly easy!

First, mix up a white cake mix according to the package directions. Then add in some toffee bits (I used Heath brand).

Peel and finely dice 2 or 3 green apples, toss them in some cinnamon and sugar, and add them to the cake mix as well. I used 2 regular sized apples and one small one, but I probably could have just used the 2 regular ones. It was a lot of apples!

Fill your cupcake wrappers about 1/2 way full, and bake at 350 until done (I almost never time my cupcakes).

Make some magical toffee sauce. No, it actually is magical. You have to plan ahead to make this. It takes 8 hours. I started mine on Saturday night before I went to bed.

Take a can of sweetened condensed milk, and take the wrapper off. Put it in a crock pot and cover it with water. Cook it on low for 8 hours, turn off the crock pot, and let it sit until the water and can cool to room temperature. Open the can and be amazed! It turns into a delicious dulce de leche tasting sauce (I've never had dulce de leche, but Mr. Webb said that's what it tasted like).

You can make it on the stove, and it takes only 3-4 hours, but I've heard stories about cans exploding...so I went the safe route with the slow cooker.

After they are completely cooled, top with your magical toffee sauce, drizzle with melted chocolate, sprinkle with more toffee pieces, and stick a popsicle stick in (I used mini popsicle sticks).

For birthdays, I've started making regular sized cupcakes, but then I make a jumbo one for the birthday person and put it in a cute glass goblet that I bought at the thrift store for 50 cents.

The little nephews especially enjoy that I do this!

Mr. Webb and I sampled one before we went to the party. We were just making sure they tasted good, honest!

my baby is so cute!

Getting a haircut tomorrow. Yay! I've been getting really bad headaches for the past week or two, so I'm very excited to get my hair cut and get rid of those bothersome aches! Yay!

Also, I've started a new blog. I know, I know. I do this too much. This one has been a goal of mine for a long time, because of Julie and Julia (great movie). It's a try-a-new-recipe-every-day blog. So, if you'd like to look at it, you may. But it's pretty much just for me, so you really don't need to. I'm just kind of proud that I've tried 6 new recipes in 6 days! :)

First video is one of baby's favorite games. You blow in her face, and then she sniffs and smiles. I don't understand it.

Second video is her ALMOST laughing. She always laughs, and then I pull out the camera, and no more laughs. Story of my life...

recently

My baby wants to grow up too fast. Within one month, she learned to roll from her back to her tummy AND roll from her tummy to her back. She's a pro at the first, and getting scarily good at the second. This mommy needs to baby proof ASAP.

One problem we have with the rolling is that she does it in her sleep. And then mommy gets a rude awakening when baby screams because she doesn't want to be on her tummy. She's getting better, though. Most mornings when I get her up, she is asleep on her tummy.

She's a very, very happy baby. Especially in the morning. I walk in, see her little face, say "Hi!" And I get the biggest smile ever. I love it!

In non-baby news, I am very proud of myself. For the past few weeks, I have not only planned menus, but have actually made dinner almost every night! My recent favorite was one I made just today. Crispy orange beef. So amazingly yummy. Mr. Webb LOVED it! Instead of using plain white rice like the recipe said, I made some brown rice, and then added carrots, snow peas, green onions, an egg, and some soy sauce and sesame oil to make some very yummy fried rice. The recipe took a lot of work, but was definitely worth it!

Also, I have been called as the Relief Society chorister, which I am loving. The rest of the ward loves it too, because they get to hold my cute girl. :)

I had some coupons for 50% and 40% off some bakeware items, so I purchased some things that I hope will make cake making a happier experience for me. I want to make pretty cakes, like this. But I've never succeeded. Hopefully I'll have an excuse to make a cake soon so I can try it out again.

Well, I'll try to put up some pictures next time.

Until then, have a wonderful week!

pinterest

Yes, I am dedicating an entire post to Pinterest. If you don't know what Pinterest is, I'll sum it up in one word. Awesome. Pinterest.com has nothing less than inspired me. It's basically a website where you can 'pin' things from any website to different boards. I think of it like having online bulletin boards. For instance, I have a board for recipes, one for crafts, and even one dedicated to cakes and cupcakes. All in all, I have 12 boards.

You can also follow other boards. So if someone has a lot of pins that you like, you can follow that board. The only thing I don't like about Pinterest, is that once in awhile, the website will just decide for you that you should follow someone. Then you have to go and unfollow all of their boards. But other than that, I have loved Pinterest.

Here are some of the things that Pinterest has inspired me to do:

1. Remember my last post, how I took 3 month baby pictures and had the letters above my baby's head? Got that idea from Pinterest.

2. Made THIS brilliant idea. Turn a 12-pack soda box into canned food storage? Although I found out AFTER I made it, that it doesn't fit normal sized cans. I wasn't aware that Campbell's soup cans were smaller than other cans. So that project didn't work out for me.

3. Made THIS no-sew jacket/wrap.

4. Made a bunch of THESE little bows, tied by using a fork.

5. Made Cinnamon Honey Butter. Delicious.

6. Made THIS pasta dish. Basically like carbonara, but instead of putting the egg with the cream sauce, you fry it and stick it up top. It was pretty much delicious.

7. Made THIS egg in a bell pepper slice. I made it for Mr. Webb for breakfast, and he rather enjoyed it. I didn't flip my egg though. I just cooked it a low heat for a long time.

8. Reorganized my cupcake wrappers. Luckily, I already had a container that worked wonderfully! Here are my before and after pictures of my cupcake supplies. See how much my container was overflowing before?

9. Made this paper star. I can't decide if I like it or not.

10. Used a weekly meal planner, and planned about a month's worth of meals.

So, in a nutshell, you should go join Pinterest. Because it rocks. :)

what i've made lately

I swear I've made cupcakes or cookies or something every weekend lately. Here are some of the things I've made:

• Giant Double Chocolate Cookies - Mr. Webb and I both LOVED these cookies! They were so delicious!

• Snickerdoodle Cookies - Neither of us liked these. They were very dry, and not sweet enough for our liking. We'll not be using this recipe again.
• Strawberry Stuffed French Toast - We were going to make this the Saturday before Valentine's Day, but we ended up car shopping the whole day. We did make it the next Saturday, and not only was it much easier than I anticipated, but it was delicious! We made more the next morning for breakfast!
• Chocolate Chip Cookies - I got this recipe from the Webb family cookie cook book. We took 10 cookies to Mr. Webb's family. The 4 of them still living there ate all 10 cookies that night. We brought the rest to Sunday lunch the next day, and only two were left. This recipe went over so well! Here's the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz package chocolate chips

Cream together sugars and butter. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Sift dry ingredients, then add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees.

dinner from a garden, a bag, a can, and a lime

I haven't been very good at making dinner lately. I did superbly at the beginning of the school year, and made it just about every day. But the past few weeks I've slacked off. About week or two ago I did make something delicious! And I pretty much made it up by myself.

One of the regular meals at our house is pasta with cherry tomatoes that have been roasted with olive oil and herbs in a frying pan until they split. Simple. Easy. Just the way I like it.

But it was sounding a little boring while I was making it...

So I simply popped open a can of black beans and mixed them in with the tomatoes. Then I squeezed the juice of one lime (could have used two) over the tomatoes and beans, and let them heat through. Instead of Italian seasoning with the tomatoes, I used garlic salt, and some salt and pepper.

Then you just mix that in with just under a pound of pasta (maybe 3/4 pound or so), and voila! You've got a simple meal that we thought was pretty dang good! :)

my favorite recipe

I love this recipe! It's fast, easy, and delicious! I like to serve it with roasted asparagus, seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic salt.

Lemon Pasta

1 pound of pasta

2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

zest and juice of two lemons

3/4 cup heavy cream

parmesan cheese

Cook pasta.

While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, and salt and pepper. Add lemon juice, heavy cream, and a ladle of the pasta water. Bring to a bubble.

When pasta is done, drain and put in serving dish. Pour sauce over pasta and stir to coat completely. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese.

source