Yummy Rolo Cupcakes

In my last placement every Thursday was pot luck, aka my favourite way to eat. I was nominated to make dessert and I remembered I had this super awesome giant cupcake holder, so obviously my first choice was to make cupcakes! But what kind? After scouring my cupcakes board on Pinterest and remember my favourite chocolate bar I decided on Rolo Cupcakes. 

Makes about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

2 cups flour

¾ cup cocoa 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup full fat mayonnaise

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups freshly brewed coffee

3 packs (about) Rolo chocolates - chopped 

40 (about) caramel candies (like chewy caramels)

Mini Rolos for decorating

Chocolate Fudge Buttercream Icing

I barely had enough to ice all of them, I'd recommend a double batch if you plan on using lots like I did.

1 cup softened butter

3 1/2 cups icing sugar

dash of vanilla extract

dash of cream

2 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 cup melted dark chocolate - cooled but still runny

Instructions 

Cupcakes 
Preheat oven to 180' C / 350' F .
Add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except for the freshly brewed coffee and mix on high speed until combined
Add the coffee bit by bit until it is all mixed in
Add the chopped up rolo chunks and mix
Fill some prepared cupcakes liners so the bottom is covered
Drop a single caramel candy the cupcake liner so it sits on top of the cake mixture
Cover the caramel with the remaining cake mixture but be careful not to over-fill (¾ way is perfect!)
Bake for about 20min. (I usually check after 15 min and take them out at about 18min)
Let them cool completely before frosting them

Frosting
Caramel Drizzle 
Make sure it isn't too hot or it'll melt the icing! 
And that's it!! Enjoy some delicious, chocolatey, chewy, caramely cupcakes. They we're a huge hit in the staff room, I had NONE to bring home and a few requests to bring in the recipe to share!
The original recipe I adapted this from can be found here at Bits of Sunshine. 

In an electric mixture, mix butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy, adding the cream bit by bit until a nice smooth piping consistency is reached.
Add the vanilla essence and mix a bit more
While the mixer is running, slowly add the chocolate and beat.
Ice your cooled cupcakes as you wish!

Melt the rest of the caramel candies using a double boiler and add 1-2 tbsp of cream, when the consistency is runny enough drizzle over frosted cupcakes.

A box full of sunshine!

To start, I wanted to share my "sunshine" moment of this week, I'M GOING TO OTTAWA! This year for my birthday/Christmas Jeff got us a trip to Ottawa together. We leave tomorrow morning on a flight from Windsor. I'm so excited! We've never been on a trip together, this should be fun! I'm sure I'll post an update during or after the trip, probably after can't waste time online when I'll be in such a beautiful city. I'm going to admit there is one thing I'm afraid of for this trip... the cold. Being a southwestern Ontario girl, it doesn't get too chilly down here... At least I'll have my man to warm me up! 

My "cloudy" moment of this week, so much schoolwork already. Or maybe it's just stress getting the better of me! I'm back in school for my last semester of undergrad (WHAT?!?!). So it's back to books, and papers, and green tea and late nights. 

During last exam period, Christmas time, my roommates decided instead of doing a traditional "secret santa" we should just do something nice for the person we had chose, something to brighten their day... I took that quite literally. So I found this thing on Pinterest.... I think I say that in almost every post.... Anyways, the idea for a "Box of sunshine" is essentially just a box of yellow things that have the potential to brighten someone's day. So I set off to my favorite store, Dollarama and grabbed all the delicious and fun yellow things I could find! When I got home I found some quotes about sunshine and tossed those in as well, and voila! 

In  Sydney's box of sunshine: 

Candy with yellow wrappers (Mr. Big, Crunchie, Toblerone, mini M&Ms) 

Juicy Fruit Gum 

Stress Ball 

Fuzzy Socks 

Snapple Iced Tea 

Cat treats (obviously, for her cat not her) 

Chips

Chapstick 

Werthers candies and chocolate loonies to sprinkle throughout 

Garland for decorations 

Sunshine quotes 

You can download the sunshine quotes I used here

From what I saw, Sydney really enjoyed it and it was super easy to make! It's like the perfect combo.

The Birthday/Christmas recap.

Now that I'm settled back into my house in Windsor... the copious amounts of shit I brought home is put away, there's fresh groceries in the fridge, I've showered and went to the gym already, I'm feeling pretty good. But I cant help to reminisce a little about the amazing time I spent at home during the Christmas break. Truth be told I was working with Ronald McDonald most days, but I still managed to get out and do things. Best of all, I paid off all my Christmas presents and got to work with some people I haven't seen in a while, it was grand. So working the break was really a win-win. Other than working my family and I went through the usual Christmas schedule, Christmas at meme and pepe's (with poutines!!!) nice and early, my birthday and Christmas eve dinner with the cousins followed my Jeff's family Christmas and cookie baking, Christmas breakfast at our place and finally Christmas day with my Dad's extended family... Well that was a mouthful, or really just a run-on sentence. The best part? I loved every minute of it. Christmas time always reminds me that I've really got a great family that I was born into as well as having "chose" a great family through Jeff. Nothing beats getting together and eating food, nothing. 

Both families got Apples to Apples for Christmas so obviously we had to play it! AWESOME GIFT.

The family picture. 

Mémé and Pépé... before he morphed into Santa. 

SANTA! I know him 

Eating leftovers the next day, I really needed a lot of room...

My two favourites, too bad only one is smiling!

Love them. 

Cupcake carrier Mémé & Pépé gave me, super cute. As for me, super cheesy. 

Putting my gift to good use with some Chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter cookie dough frosting!

Sleepy Koda with Dad. 

Aw, sisters. 

Sisters and the bfs! 

Me and Roxy wanted to catch a snooze. 

Birthday/Christmas Eve dinner with a Strawberry Daiquiri. 

And the Christmas dinner,  did you know I really like ham?

 And finally I really wanted to share what I made Jeff for his birthday. I bought him a couple things as well but I really wanted to do something more personal this year so after browsing Pinterest (what else is new...) I remembered the "52 things I love about you" on a deck of cards, and that was it. Some cards were just words, others had pictures. I was surprised how easily I came up with 52 things, at first I was worried I might have a hard time! Anywho, here's some of my favourite (and prettier) cards that we're included. 

 If you made it to the end of this, congrats! And I also hope you and your family had a great Christmas and an amazing New Year!

Christmas dessert baskets... Mmmm

This year for christmas I decided to channel the grandmother in me and make dessert baskets for friends and family. I remember as a kid always getting desserts from my Aunt Charlene and loving them, so I decided it was my turn to try. At first I was ecstatic, to bake, to use my new gear, and well to create these beautiful plate things. Let me tell you friends, that excitement quickly wore down after two days straight in the kitchen. The final day I was up till 3 am wrapping these puppies, which included a 2am trip to wal-mart to get more cellophane. It was hard to bake this much! I give all you bakers out there bonus points. After the work was done I did go back to enjoying it though when I got to see how excited people were to receive them and how much they liked my desserts. My meme and pepe have even "hired" me to make desserts for the 50th wedding anniversary open house, so alas I'll be slaving in the kitchen.... I say slaving, but we all know I'll enjoy it in the end. 

After a good month of Pinterest browsing I put together a board of possible desserts to include on these wonderful plates, this board right here. In the end I picked 7 recipes I thought I could handle, and I was right about 6 of them! Click on the pictures below to go to the site where the recipe is posted, I've included my notes about how the recipes went for me too of course. 

Hot Chocolate on a Stick 

I used these to add some height to the middle of the plates. Also, a trick I used was to set the chocolate in ice cube trays so you don't have to worry about cutting them, it worked great! just run the trays (don't hit the chocolate!) under hot water and they slide right out.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls 

[via Marisa at Make Happy]

This recipe was great, easy and tasted delicious. The only thing I changed is after they're cooled in "rough balls" I rolled them in my palm to smooth them out before dipping them in chocolate.

Peppermint Crunch Pudding Cookies 

[via Nikki at Chef in Training]

These cookies were my favorite part of of the basket! The recipe was simple and I thought they tasted the best. The only problem I ran into was I couldn't find the Andes peppermint crunch chips the recipe called for. Instead, I crushed up a couple boxes of candy canes and they worked great! Definitely a recipe I want to make again. 

Butter Tart Squares 

[via Intimate Weddings]

This was the only recipe I wasn't entirely thrilled about, I think I missed something in the crust, other than that they still tasted great!

Peanut Butter Toffee Bark 

[via Kate at Grin and Bake It]

This recipe I modified for two reason, 1) My boyfriends loves the regular toffee (skor bars) I make so he begged me to make them the same, and 2) I forgot to get festive peanut butter M&Ms. Otherwise, I used the recipe without adding the peanut butter and the M&M topping. Still a boyfriend favorite, he had an extra bag for himself and he's still begging for more! I'd say that's a successful recipe. 

Sugar Cookies 

[via Country Living] 

And there she is, the recipe that nearly drove me insane. There's video from my sister to prove it, I was yelling at the dough.. like it could hear me or something. But anyway, other than questioning my sanity they tasted alright, nothing special so not worth the work. I wanted to make the beautiful candy cane cookies you see above because I remember them being my favorite as a kid. My aunt Charlene used to make dessert baskets every year, and I loved the candy cane cookies. She forgot to mention that they're REALLY hard to make! The dough wouldn't twist properly it was sticking and it was awful. This dough is very temperamental, if it gets too hot it give you a great big "F you" and stick to everything. After making a few candy canes I gave up on that and bought some cookie cutters, easier but the dough was still out to get me. In the end, I'm on the hunt for a different sugar cookie recipe. 

Chocolate Pretzel Bites & Turtle Bites 

[via Six Sister's Stuff]

These were simple and delicious! If you need a quick treat this is your recipe, I made a ton of these and used them as fillers. For the chocolate Pretzels bites I used the same heat and timing as the recipe calls for but I used hershey hugs and red and green smarties on pretzels. 

And that's it! Here's some pictures of my final products, the first few where taken at 3am after I finished wrapping. 

Almost done...

All the finished plates!! 

Larger plates for families 

Smaller single plates for friends 

Monday night ramblings

It's official, 2013 will be my year of travel! It may not seem like much to some, but for me it's a big deal to be taking two large trips next year. Not to mention my very first trip overseas!! I'm more excited than a cat with catnip.

My first trip is back to my homeland, London, ENGLAND!! I say my homeland because my grandma literally came over in a boat as a child, my family has the chest she brought with her in our living room. It's legit, not antiques roadshow approved, but legitimate none the less. My school and department is amazing and is offering a trip to England during reading week that counts for a credit. Yep, I get to go on a trip AND get an academic credit for it, unfreakingreal. I mean, I do have to write a paper... but, I'll worry about that on the hungover plane ride home. 

My second trip is our yearly family trip to Florida, BUT there's an added bonus this year... Jeffrey is coming! For the first time in our lives we will be vacationing together. FINALLY. My excitement for this goes beyond cats and catnip, maybe like the way my goldfish feel about any food I put in their tanks.

Mondays suck, but this monday wasn't too bad considering it was the last day of first semester classes!

Other than that, this Monday also made me happy because I had time to think about all the things I want to do/make this week...

Food I want to make: Whenever I get groceries I try to pick 2 or 3 recipes I want to make so I buy stuff especially for that. As you can imagine, I pick from my "I like to eat" Pinterest board. Click the pictures below for the recipes.

1. Cheesy Broccoli and Rice I have some leftover ham from a Christmas dinner this weekend that I want to try adding to this recipe as well!
2. Asparagus, Mushroom & Wild Rice Asparagus & Mushrooms are two of my favourite veggies. Actually, I like almost all veggies.
3. Spinach & Strawberry Salad No official recipe for this one, just a massive craving for it. Basically it will be a mix of Spinach, Strawberries, Pecans, goat cheese and Balsamic dressing. Mmm... my mouth is watering.

1.   2.  3.

BONUS: I have some "gone bad" bananas which can only mean one thing... 

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS (aka the perfect study snack)

I use my aunt liz's recipe to make these delicious treats, I'll post it for you later in the week! Fun fact about this recipe, it was given to by my aunt over an xbox headset, classic recipe sharing.

FUN FACT FOR STUDENTS: If you show your student card at the Superstore on Tuesdays, you get 10% off! Save your money so you can buy more than Kraft Dinner. 

Pinterest thing I want to make: DIY wall flower refills. I absolutely love my Bath and Body Works wallflowers, all 4 of them. The only problem is, the chemicals used to create the smells aren't so lovely. I sometimes try to be green, so I'm going to try to make my own homemade refills. I bought some lavender essential oil to try. Click on the images to check out the tutorial!

 

Place I want to go: My Little Tea Shop. Ever since a lady I worked with gave me this card I've been dying to check out this tea shop in Windsor. I love tea and could really use a good winter/christmas flavour. But I also want to go to do some Christmas shopping! I'll fill you in on that one later..

How I want to paint my nails: Frosty Glitter Gradient. If you noticed in my last picture, my nails look like garbage, that will be fixed this week. Now that December is finally here, it's time for some snow. I know I can't expect much being in Southwestern Ontario, but I'll settle for snow-like frosty nails. It's time for a glitter gradient nail, one of my favorite looks... as seen here on Packzi day last year. I could really go for a Packzi now, only 70 days until Fat Tuesday 2013.

And finally, here's some motivation for exam times, which can also be found on our fridge:

I hope your monday went well and that the rest of your week is even better... Can you tell I'm in a good mood?

Wrapped up in you.

I've always had this weird dream of being a white girl rapper, that will never happen. But I can be an amazing Christmas gift wrapper, and that is my plan for this year. I really wanted to get crafty with Christmas this year, in two ways. First, I'm hoping to bake my heart out and make goodie baskets for friends and family, but that sweetness will have to wait until I'm done school and back home. Second, I wanted to be unique in my gift wrapping. After browsing Pinterest for hours, I kept coming across great and unique ways to wrap gifts, I loved them so much I even have a wrapping board. Yes, I'm that obsessed with Pinterest, it's great. 

So these are some of the ideas I've found! I'm not quite sure exactly how I'm going to put it all together, but I'll figure that out later and let you know how it goes. To start I went to my new favorite store, Michaels and grabbed some brown "butcher paper" as I like to call it. On a side note, if you're wondering what to get me for Christmas I would gladly accept a Michaels gift card... so many neat things!! Back to wrapping, I grabbed some silver ribbon but am now wishing I would have grabbed some twine or raffia... or black ribbon, too many ideas. I'll have to take a stroll and steal some evergreen pieces, or I think the neighbours tree hangs over our yard a little bit...
Anywho, I'll be sure to update you when the wrapping begins because I currently have nothing to wrap... But, Here's my Pinsperation for this project!