Chocolate Peanut Brittle Cupcakes

 From our Food Network Magazine party Kellee also made these chocolate peanut brittle cupcakes. Again these were for the kids.  Yes, we adults had to suffer by having a caramel apple cake for our dessert. :)

Chocolate-Peanut Brittle Cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces

• 1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

• 3 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Brittle:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup butterscotch chips

For the Frosting:

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 2 10-ounce bags peanut butter chips

Directions

Make the cupcakes: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F using the convection setting, if available. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Put the butter, cocoa powder and 3/4 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until the butter melts, about 2 minutes. Whisk to combine, then whisk in the brown sugar.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the warm cocoa mixture. In another bowl, beat the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla; stir into the batter until just combined but don't overmix.

Divide the batter among the prepared cups, filling each three-quarters of the way. Bake until the cupcakes are slightly domed and spring back when lightly pressed, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in the pans 10 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Make the brittle: Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Place the granulated sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring to a boil and cook, swirling the pan but not stirring, until it turns amber. Remove from the heat; stir in the peanut butter and butterscotch chips until smooth. Immediately pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, smooth into a thin layer with a spatula and let cool. Break the brittle into pieces, place in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.

Make the frosting: Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the peanut butter chips and let stand about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Place the pan over a bowl of ice, stirring occasionally, until the frosting is spreadable, about 10 minutes. Spread on the cupcakes or transfer to a pastry bag with a large round tip and pipe on top; sprinkle with the brittle.

Recipe from Foodnetwork Magazine

Team Potato Skins

It's time for another Food Network Magazine recipe! Lauren made these Team Potato Skins out of the January 2010 issue, so go find it. These take a little time to bake, but when it all comes down to it they are super easy to make, I think. I guess I can't really say that since I haven't made them, but they look pretty easy. You can put any of your favorite toppings on them when they're done. You can't go wrong with these. They are a great appetizer or even side dish to your meal. Try it out and let me know how it goes!

Directions

Pierce 4 large russet potatoes with a fork. Bake directly on the oven rack at 350 degrees F until tender, about 1 hour. Let cool, then quarter lengthwise and scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch shell. Brush both sides with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Bake, skin-side up, at 450 degrees F until crisp, about 15 minutes. Add your favorite team toppings. (For cheesy skins, flip the baked shells over before topping, sprinkle with 1 cup grated cheddar cheese and bake an extra 5 minutes.)

Caramel Apple Cake

From our Food Network Magazine Club party we had this succulent Caramel Apple Cake for dessert.  For those that are interested it is in the October 2010 issue on page 141 or you can follow along right here. A few things before we start. You need a special pan: a round 9x3 pan to be exact. Thank you Laura for sending it my way!  The first time I made this cake I used Honeycrisp apples because they are my favorite type of apple. I just love them. Well, they aren't really suited for this cake, so if you decide to make it just stick to the Golden Delicious apples that the recipe calls for. Another note that will be mentioned later as well, is that I burnt the caramel the first time I made it after following the magazine instructions. I think it turned out better when the caramel was a lighter color, like in the photo above.

Shall we begin? We’ll start by making the caramel first.  I had never actually made caramel before and now that I have made this cake I can’t believe how easy it is to make.  I think I may just have to make caramel just for fun sometime.

In a saucepan heat the corn syrup and sugar together. I had my doubts at first because it just looked hard and I didn’t think it would ever turn into caramel.

Boy was I wrong. After several minutes the sugar liquefied and turned into this.

Once it is a light amber color, (the magazine says dark amber, but I have to say when I did that it burned) add the butter and cream. Be careful because it will splatter and if it gets on your skin it will burn. I’m just sayin’. If you have babies around kick them out of the kitchen. Really. It’s a must. Just do it.

There you have it. Pour 1 1/2 cups of the caramel into a measuring cup and then the rest goes into your greased pan. This was the first time that I made the caramel. It’s a little dark and burnt, so when you try it remember that it shouldn’t look this dark. My kids still love it. They didn’t care. Me? I made the cake 3 more times until I perfected it. Now I think I can make this cake in my sleep! Okay, moving right along.

While the caramel is cooling you are going to quarter your apples. With the last apple you are going to slice it in half horizontally and scoop out the core. Chop up the other half of the apple for later. Once the caramel has cooled place the apples in the pan like the picture above. Looks cool doesn’t it?

Here are your ingredients for the cake batter. Nice cast of characters don’t you think? 

In a small bowl you are going to combine the vanilla, orange juice, and sour cream; basically all of your wet ingredients. In another bowl combine your dry ingredients.

 

Next cream your butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then you are going to add one egg at a time and mix until combined.

Once you have mixed all of the eggs in add half of the wet ingredients. Mix well. Then add half of the dry ingredients. Mix well and repeat. The mixture should not be runny.

 

Remember that pan with the caramel and apples? Grab it. Pour the cake batter over the top of it. Then grab the leftover, chopped up apple and sprinkle it over the top.

Stick that cake into the oven for about an hour and 20 minutes. That’s right. Grab a cup of coffee and relax. Read my blog, check out my Facebook page. Just chill. It’s going to be awhile. When you pull the cake out a toothpick should come out clean. Then you get to wait some more while the cake cools.

 

Once the cake cools then the caramel starts to harden a bit, so pull out your sauce pan. Fill it with a little water and heat it to a simmer. Stick the cake in there for about 8 minutes, until the caramel gets soft again. Then grab your cake plate and flip the cake upside down onto the plate. Carefully lift the pan off.

There you have it. Completely worth the wait! You will love this cake. I sure did. I made it four times in just one month. 

Caramel Apple Cake
Ingredients:
For the Caramel and Apples:

• 4 Tablespoons unsalted, butter, plus more for the pan
  
• 3 cups sugar
  
• 5 tablespoons light corn syrup
  
• 4 large Golden Delicious apples (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)

For the Batter:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 1/3 cup orange juice
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
  
• 3 large eggs

1. Butter a 9x3 inch round pan. Set that aside and make the caramel. Cook the sugar and corn syrup in a large skillet over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a dark amber, 7 to 10 minutes
   
2. Reduce the heat to medium. Carefully add the cream and 4 tablespoons butter (it will splatter) and cook, stirring, until combined, about 3 minutes.
   
3. Remove the skillet from the heat and let sit 1 minute. Pour 1 1/2 cups caramel into a glass measuring cup and set aside. Pour the remaining caramel into the prepared pan and set aside until set, about 30 minutes.
   
4. Cut 3 apples into quarters and cut out the cores. Arrange the pieces skin-side down in the pan (overlapping them slightly) to form a ring about 1/2 inch from the edge. Save any pieces that do not fit for later.
   
5. Halve the remaining whole apple crosswise. Scoop out the seeds with a melon baller or measuring spoon, leaving the stem on the top half. Chop the bottom and any of the leftover quartered apples into pieces; set aside.
   
6. Arrange apple top, stem side down, in the center of the pan. If the quartered apples shift, just push them back into place.
   
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the batter. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream, orange juice,and vanilla.
   
8. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes.
   
9. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. Slip them into the mixer bowl, one at a time, and beat until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 5 more minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater with a rubber spatula.
   
10. With the mixer on low speed, add half of the sour cream mixture, then half of the flour mixture.  Repeat.  Turn off mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula; finish combining the batter by hand.
    
11. Spread the batter over the apples in the pan. Top with the chopped apple. Bake on middle oven rack until the cake is brown on top and springs back when pressed, 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack.
    
12. Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a skillet wide enough to hold the cake pan. Carefully run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan several times, then rest the pan in the water to soften the caramel, about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the water and dry.
    
13. Inver a plate on top of the cake, then flip over the cake and plate. Using pot holders or a towel, wriggle the pan off. Soften the reserved 1 1/2 cups of caramel in the microwave, about 2 minutes. Drizzle the cake with some of the caramel. Slice and serve with the rest.

I would love to hear how this cake turns out for you, so please let me know!

Food Network Magazine Club Part 2

  The Food Network Magazine Club party continues. You can’t have an amazing party without some of the cutest kids on earth in attendance!

We had three chefs, two cupcakes, a 50’s waitress, an 8o’s girl, a clown, fairy princess, and Superman all ready to run around like crazy, eat lots of awesome food, and go nuts! They had a blast and so did we, watching them all.  Priscilla and Anna even got cute little place settings. I love it! They had mini goldfish for snack.No party would be complete without cupcakes and brownie pops! The kids all got eyeballs in their drinks! Tasty! They thought it was pretty cool.  Spider dogs, mini carrots, olives, macaroni, and candy corn were on the kids menu.You can’t go wrong with a menu like that. The kids loved their food!I think Adriane wanted to sit at the little kids’ table more than the adult table. Cheers!They all gobbled up their food pretty quickly because dessert was sitting right in front of them.There was even a game of Bingo going on. The party never ends!   Arts and crafts always win my kids over!

David found some pretty cool glasses. Is he Clark Kent or Superman? Who knows?

Thank you so much to Laura for hosting this fabulous event and taking on a ton of wild kids! We all had a blast and look forward to the next Food Network Magazine Club party. :) You can check out the rest of the photos HERE. Check back later for the recipes of all the dishes we made. Until next time…

Food Network Magazine Club

We’re an elite group. Few are chosen. We held our first annual Food Network Magazine club party last week. Some of us dressed up famous chefs. Can you guess which ones?Laura spoiled us rotten with this setup.

   Really. Look at the cute little bowls, not to mention the personalized place settings with our pictures on them. They were adorable.

All of us made food from the magazine. We had appetizers galore.  We had everything from potato skins, to meatballs, to fried pickles.   

Then we had soup with beer bread. Really. Does it get any better? Of course it gets better. We had caramel apple cake for dessert. We were in the company of great friends. There was a lot of baby rescuing going on…     and I got to see Lauren, whom I haven’t seen in almost a year. Yay! Of course hanging out with my three favorite sisters doesn’t get any better…or does it? Stay tuned for part two of the Food Network Magazine Club party. You won’t be disappointed.  :)