Birthday Cake Popcorn

Yup, no baking. Just a really fun and delicious snack that you could sneak into a movie theater if you didn't want to pay their ridiculous popcorn prices share with everyone at a movie night! I was blog reading yesterday and found this blog, which has a lot of really fun and creative recipes. It was here that I found this awesome-ness. I changed it up a little bit, partly because I didn't really read her recipe, just the ingredients and I had no idea what I was doing.

My melted white chocolate seized because I added the cake mix to it, so I tried adding milk and honey to un- seize it. It worked, kinda. It worked in my favor because I decided to add this to the popcorn anyway. I mixed it up with the popcorn and it turned into little balls of cake flavored white chocolate (yum!) I then poured the mixture onto wax paper sprinkled with M&M's and sprinkles. Then I drizzled a new batch of melted white chocolate over the whole mixture. Swirled it around a bit to get everything stuck together. Allowed it to firm up for and hour or so, then ate it.

Yesterday RJ and I decided to watch Dexter, have you seen it? If you haven't I would recommend it. The humor is twisted (obviously he's a serial killer) but the juxtapositions crack me up. We started watching the TV-DVD's this past weekend so we just started season 2 and so far so good.

I like to have a small snack when watching movies, so I thought this recipe would be acceptable. Not time consuming and a lot of fun. I bet this would be a fun dish to bring to a kids birthday party. But maybe you don't bring dishes to a party, I don't know. I don't have children, maybe the host parent would appreciate it. But then again I don't know. I'm going to stop talking about kids.

Here's the recipe.

1 Bag Kettle Corn, (you could use whatever flavor popcorn you like here.)
1 C. melted white chocolate
2-3 Tbs Cake mix  (I used funfetti)
1 C  M&M's
2-3 Tbs. Sprinkles

Pop your popcorn in the microwave. Remove all un-popped kernels and any burnt ones if you cooked your corn too long. Pour into a large air tight container with cake mix and shake it up. Hopefully the butter on the corn will still be sticky enough for the mix to stick.
Sprinkle in your M&M's and sprinkles.
Melt your chocolate in 30 second intervals or over a double boiler.
Once completely melted pour over popcorn mix. With a wooden spoon, mix everything together. Pour onto wax paper and allow everything to cool and set up. Once cool, feel free to eat as much as you want.

This recipe is sweet so you probably won't be stuffing your face, but if you do, I won't judge.

Piece!

Peach Bourbon Cupcakes

I know, I know, you thought I fell off the face earth and didn't even leave you with an awesome recipe! But alas, I am fine and well, sweltering in the NC heat. I've just been too hot to blog...OK, fine, I haven't but I have been very hesitant about turning my oven on, it really is just that hot.

When I first moved to Raleigh I was told the summers down here were sleepy hot (awesome..) Turns out, it was a very true statement (bummer)  Let me explain sleepy hot to you, it's when it's literally to hot to do anything, inside or out, they only thing you can do to survive is sleep a few hours away. It's when you get exhausted walking from your air conditioned house, to your air conditioned car, to the air conditioned store and back. Folks, I kid you not it really gets like that here. Do you remember that scene from Gone With the Wind, when they are at Ashley's house having the Barbecue and the ladies take a nap in the middle of the day? That's really what it's like here... minus the huge dresses. Absurd. Alright, enough about the ungodly heat, onto cupcakes.

This past weekend RJ and I met up with some old high school friends of mine, Paul and Amanda. They just started a blog, go check them out at 2lovesfood, it's pretty awesome. We met up at the NC farmers market and had lunch there too, it was nice to see familiar faces.

After lunch we went our separate ways but I hope to meet up again sometime soon! Before RJ and I left I bought some local peaches and blueberries. I LOVE fresh local produce, that is one really nice thing about the South, all the great summer produce. I purchased way more that I needed, so I will probably have a few good recipes soon...maybe, my track record hasn't been great lately, but we'll see.
Anyways, last night while watching Beauty and the Beast, one of my favs, I had the hankering to use up some of my peaches. But what to make? Remember when I bought Bourbon for my pecan pie? Well I still have like a whole bottle of it. Turns out Bourbon is NOT a shot taking drink, it is a sipping liquor. I bet the men were drinking Bourbon while the ladies had their afternoon nap in Gone With the Wind. So, I wanted to use some of that and TA-DA Peach Bourbon Cupcakes were born.

Naturally, I had to google a few recipes because I had never made these before, and wound up making my own version. Peaches have a very delicate flavor that can easily be lost when baked. I put peaches in the cupcakes, in the frosting and I added a dollop on top. I think the dollop really added a nice flavor to the overall experience. I also think it made it look like an over-easy egg... The cupcake is very moist, maybe a little too moist, but maybe not, let me know what you think.

Pre-heat: 350*   Bake time: 22 minutes

Cupcake:
1 1/4 C. Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 C Butter
1/2 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 TBS Bourbon (Makers Mark)
1 Egg
1/2 C. Milk
1/2 C Peach Puree* (1 - 2 peaches)
1 tsp Orange Juice (optional)

In a mixer start whipping butter and sugars until fluffy.
In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
In yet another small bowl, (or cup) combine peach puree, milk and OJ, set aside.
Add vanilla and bourbon to butter and sugar, combine then add egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then begin alternating flour mixture and milk mixture, start and end with flour.
Line 12 muffin wells and fill 2/3- 3/4 of the way full, these cakes don't rise a lot. Bake for 22 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. As noted before, these cakes run a little moist, so you may need to adjust your bake time.
Remove from oven and allow cakes to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to finish their cooling. Once cooled Frost!

* To make a peach puree, remove the skin from the peaches and pulse in a blender or food processor until liquefied.

Frosting:
2 1/2 TBS Butter
1/3 C. shortening (Crisco)
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Bourbon
1/4 C Peach Puree (1 peach)
3 C. Powdered Sugar

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Add and mix-in powdered sugar one cup at a time. Adjust the powdered sugar as you see fit. If you like a stronger bourbon flavor, add more bourbon and less vanilla. You can also omit the bourbon altogether.

When frosting I created a little well for my extra peach puree to sit in. I mounded up the edges and spooned a little puree into the center. I did this to add a little more peach flavor. You could drizzle puree over the top or fill the cupcake with it. The choice will be yours.

Until next time. Piece!