A Succubus in the Kitchen!

You asked for it.

So I delivered.

I present to you all:

Neon’s Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 6-10 slices of cooked bacon
• 3-5 slices of candied bacon (instructions will follow!)

Directions:

For candied bacon:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Lay slices of bacon on a rack (I used one of my cooling racks) over a sheet tray lined in foil (if not, you can always just line the tray with foil, spray it down with some non stick spray and lay the bacon right on it!), and cover in brown sugar (The more the better! but a good amount for about 6 pieces is 1/2 cup if that helps). 
3. Cook bacon in oven for around 30 minutes or until just crispy, flipping every ten minutes. Let the bacon cool for about 10 minutes once done.

Also cook about 8-10 slices of regular bacon. I used the same technique so they weren’t super greasy.

For the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Chop up regular cooked bacon into small pieces or strips and set aside. Repeat with candied bacon, keeping the regular bacon and candied bacon separate.
3. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and bacon pieces. Drop by large spoonfuls (or be crazy like me and use a portion scooper to drop equal size cookies) onto ungreased pans. Top with candied bacon chunks (or roll the cookie dough in the pieces!).
4. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

And there you have it. Enjoy making them yourself or order some from The Cerulean Confectionery!

(Source: neonsuccubus)

Mini Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter cakes and whoopie pies!

So I get bored. And we’re broke. I really wanted to bake but I’m out of cocoa powder and cinnamon rolls took too much time and I wouldn’t be able to bake them tonight.

We have tons of crunchy peanut butter! Tons of it! So after making puppy chow a few nights ago (the easiest munchies of the gods. Just look up muddy buddies on the chex website), I decided on chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream. But I didn’t want cupcakes. I wanted a cake! So I chopped the top of the cupcakes off and flipped them to frost them like mini cakes. Then I used the tops to make mini whoopie pies!

But once again, I have no cocoa powder! So here’s a simple recipe when you’re in the mood for chocolate cake and have most of the ingredients but this one!

Oh, and this frosting tastes just like those De La Rosa Peanut Mazapan candies from Mexico.
 

Mini Chocolate Cakes
Ingredients:
(yields about 10 standard cupcakes) 

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup and 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup milk

Peanut Butter Buttercream:
(You can half this recipe if you don’t like lots of frosting. I did this time around and had JUST enough to frost my cakes and fill my whoopie pies a little.)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy is preferred but crunchy will work)
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and brown sugar; beat in eggs, chocolate and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream.
2. Gradually beat in water. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
3. For frosting, cream the butter, peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. I found 4 tablespoons gave me the perfect consistency but add more or less to your taste.

Now this recipe is light and fluffy so making mini cakes was probably not the best idea with these but they still turned out adorable! All I did was cut off the domed top of the cakes and flipped them upside down onto parchment paper to frost. I also paired the cut off tops and made whoopie pies. Then I just carefully picked up the cakes on the parchment paper and placed it into my storage container, but whatever way works for you!

Enjoy! 

(Source: neonsuccubus)

Sugar Cookies!

I made this simple recipe that I found on allrecipes last night.

Now, this recipe is for soft sugar cookies. The kind that are fluffy and puffed.

However, it was Christmas and I needed some sort of rolled cookie but didn’t have time to chill the dough. So what do I do? Make this recipe, roll it out a little till it was about 1/4- 1/2 inch and cut out ornaments! This recipe actually held the shape pretty well and worked out perfectly. They still came out soft and puffy but in the shape of an ornament! Try them out:

Soft Sugar Cookies!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• decorating sugar or icing or both!

Simple Sugar Cookie Icing!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• assorted food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Now, you can either roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar or roll them out and cut out shapes (For the ornaments I patted the decorating sugar on so i would have little gold clasps on top and different colored ornaments). Either way, place them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Now for the frosting!

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, paint them with a brush, or pipe the icing!

Enjoy!

(Source: neonsuccubus)

Mini Horchata Cookie Bites with Horchata Buttercream!

If there’s one drink I love other than soda, you bet it’s Horchata. I posted my Horchata recipe a while ago (Check misc recipes) but was bored and stumbled upon a cookie recipe! After making some changes, I came up with cookie bites. They’re more of a snickerdoodle cookie but I still really love them.

Horchata Cookie Bites!
(yields 48 mini cookie bites) 

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cinnamon sugar mix (1/2 cup sugar to 1 tbsp cinnamon is a great ratio)

Horchata Buttercream!
(the recipe I made below made twice the amount of frosting needed for them. But after all, I did just do a tiny swirl on top instead of the whole thing) 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1/2 cup Horchata
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5-7 cups confectioners sugar 

Cream together sugar and butter then beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours or until dough is firm enough to roll into balls.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Shape dough into small balls about ¾ inch in diameter. Roll in cinnamon sugar to coat. Set cookies in paper liners in a mini muffin pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool slightly on pans, then remove to racks to cool completely. Frost the cookies and sprinkle with cinnamon.

For buttercream:

Beat butter, horchata, and vanilla extract until well blended and smooth. Slowly mix in confectioners sugar until desired consistency (I liked 5 cups for a simple swirled dollop on top). Frost away!

Enjoy!

Coconut cupcakes with Coconut buttercream!

I decided to bake some coconut cakes this week but wanted to try a new recipe.
This time we went with good ol’ Ina Garten’s recipe. Sure, I thought she was boring and lame on her cooking show but the lady knows what she’s doing so I knew it’d be a good idea. One thing about this recipe though:

The recipe says it yields 18-20 cupcakes… 
I got 22 standard cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes.

It’s a delicious recipe however. It’s got a really mild coconut flavor considering it only has shredded coconut but I still like it a lot.
Ina pairs it was a cream cheese frosting, but I decided to try out a coconut buttercream with it that ended up being delicious and light. Try them out!

Coconut Cupcakes!

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs at room temperature (I used 6 large eggs instead)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 7 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut (half a package usually)

Coconut Buttercream

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter at room temp
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-2 tsp coconut extract
• 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/8 tsp salt 

 Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (I did 30 and they came out perfectly and about 15-20 minutes for the minis), until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

For the frosting:

In a large bowl, cream butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add coconut extract. Mix salt into milk. Alternate adding the confectioners sugar and milk into the butter mixture. Beat well. (Don’t over beat though! I left mine to beat while I finished doing other things and it was over whipped. My fault obviously but still delicious. It was super light and airy and fluffy when piped but I’d prefer a smooth texture for easy piping.)

I topped mine off with some star sprinkles. I used to eat the star sprinkles straight out of the container so I figured I should use them to decorate before I could let the 5 year old in me come out. Enjoy!

(Source: neonsuccubus)

Mini Pistachio cakes aka Vicky cakes.

Mini Pistachio Cakes filled with pistachio pudding.
The cream cheese frosting on top has a hint of pistachio.

I start at my new store tomorrow and wanted to bring along a sweet snack for everyone. Although I originally planned to make the signature red velvet cakes, the pistachio pudding was on sale and I instantly knew I had to make these.
I call these Vicky cakes. When I was little, my best friend’s mom would bake a pistachio cake for their birthday parties. It was my favorite thing considering pistachio ice cream was (and still is) my favorite ice cream and it tasted just like it in cake form. Not to mention they’re a pretty shade of green!

Eventually I’ll make a “real” pistachio cake by using ground pistachios instead of pistachio pudding but this is still one of my favorite cakes ever. So here we go!
This recipe yields 24 mini cakes and 8 standard cakes. 

Mini Pistachio Cakes with Pistachio Pudding filling!
Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 packages (3.4 ounces packages) instant pistachio pudding mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups 2% milk
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• Green food coloring, optional
• 1 cup milk for pudding filling

Hint of pistachio cream cheese frosting!

• 6 tablespoons butter, at room temp
• 1 8oz package of cream cheese, at room temp
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons pistachio pudding mix

In a small bowl, whisk together half of a packet of pistachio pudding and 1 cup of milk and set aside to thicken till ready for use.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking powder and salt. Beat the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla in a large bowl. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until blended.

Fill paper-lined standard muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 375° for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. If baking minis, fill paper-lined mini muffin cups three-fourths full and bake at 375° for 12-16 minutes.
Allow cakes to cool for 5 minutes before filling. (I like to fill with pudding while the cake is still pretty warm so that the hole I poke closes back up easily). 

For the filling:

Fill pastry bag equipped with a round tip (I don’t remember what size I used but it was about 1/4” wide) with pistachio pudding. 

Poke a hole in the middle of the cake with a toothpick or wooden spoon handle (I actually used a piping tip to get a cone shape to fill).  Fill hole with pistachio pudding until pudding reaches the top of the cake. Then just frost!

For the frosting:

In a stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until combined and smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts along with 1 or 2 teaspoons of pistachio pudding mix (I used 1 to get the tiniest flavor of it but I think 2 would be delicious next time!). Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar until desired consistency and sweetness. (I also like to keep some milk or cream around too in case it gets too thick for my liking).
Frost cakes with knife or piping bag.

Enjoy! 

(Source: neonsuccubus)

Mini half & half cakes with half & half buttercream!

Ok, so I call these half & half cakes because I did literally just that with them. I filled half the liner with one batter and then the other half with the other batter.

In reality, this is a marble cake recipe I found just not swirled together.
Marble cake was one of my favorite cakes ever and I’d make it for my dad all the time back home because that was the cake that I liked that he’d eat.

Having bite sized marble cakes is wonderful.

Mini Half & Half (or marble) cupcakes!
(yields 24 mini cupcakes) 

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-oz semisweet or dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp cocoa powder 

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease line 24 cups in a mini muffin tin with paper cup liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Pour in dry ingredients and combine.
Remove 1 cup of the batter to a small bowl and stir in melted chocolate. Whisk in cocoa powder.
Evenly distribute batters into prepared pans, filling liner 1/3 full with one flavor. Then fill liner 2/3 full with other flavor. For Marble, you can add a bit of the first flavor on top and swirl with a knife or toothpick.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting.

Half & Half buttercream!

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder

In a large bowl, beat together butter, milk and vanilla. Gradually blend in about 3 cups confectioners sugar until smooth, then divide frosting evenly into two bowls. Blend 2 tbsp cocoa powder into one portion of the frosting and beat until smooth. Add additional confectioners sugar to each bowl as needed, until frosting reaches a thick, spreadable consistency.
To pipe a swirled flavor look, fill a small pastry bag or ziplock bag with one flavor and repeat for the other flavor. cut the corner tip of bag about 1/2 in and place side by side in a bigger pastry bag or ziplock bag equipped with a piping tip or cut tip. When you squeeze the bag, the flavors will swirl together and there you go!