Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Bacon

Yes, you read that title correctly. These cupcakes are SO delicious! And I was surprised at how quickly I finished them.

For the cupcakes:

Ingredients:

1. Box of chocolate cake mix. Any brand will do. I picked the cheapest.
2. A can of pumpkin.
4. Oil.
5. Water.

Step One

Preheat oven to temperature called for on box's direction (most likely 350). Empty cake mix into a bowl. Add water and oil as called for in cake mix's directions. Add about 2/3 of the can of pumpkin. I've never really measured it out, so eyeball it. It's replacing the eggs,  so imagine how much pumpkin could fill three egg shells.

Mix it all up until all of the lumps are out.

Step Two

Fill the cupcake liners. Since this is a dark batter, I suggest saving your cute liners for another time. You won't be able to see any patterns or designs. I went with foil liners this time.

I have a trick that I use to fill my cupcake liners. I put a gallon-sized zip top plastic bag inside a bowl (experiment to find the right size, but I use the smaller bowl that came with my stand mixer) and turn the top over the edges. Then I use a rubber spatula to get all of the batter inside the bag.

Now, close the top. Make sure it is completely closed or you will have a huge mess. I am speaking from experience here. Cut off one of the corners about a half-inch from the tip of the corner. Now squeeze the batter through the hole into the liners. 

Obviously use two hands, but my other hand was taking the picture. This is essentially like using a piping bag, only easier since it doesn't have to be pretty. Using this technique, you can avoid dripping the batter on the muffin tin and edges of the liners.

Step Three

Using a small off-set spatula, smooth over the tops of the unbaked cupcakes. This batter will not bake like batter following the box's recipe. It will maintain any imperfections once baked.

See how mine still had a peak once smoothed over? It turned into a baked peak. I should have taken a picture before frosting them so you could see. Boo. Since I knew I was going to put candied bacon on top, I wasn't too concerned, figuring I could cover up the peaks.

Step Four

Bake as directed on the box's directions. Don't forget to rotate them half-way! I always bake these for the longest recommended time. If it says 18-22 minutes, I check after 20, but end up putting them back in for another two minutes. Sometimes even a minute or two longer. A toothpick inserted in will never come out completely clean until these are waaaaaay past overdone. If what comes out on a toothpick looks undercooked, another few minutes is needed.

Let them cool in the muffin tin for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

In the mean time, get crackin' on the candied bacon!

For the candied bacon:

Ingredients:

1. Uncooked bacon.
2. Light brown sugar.

Step One

Preheat the oven to 425. Line a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with all four sides raised) with foil. Place an oven-safe rack on top. Spray the rack with non-stick cooking spray.

I got this rack at Target specifically for candied bacon. My only other oven-safe rack (a cooling rack) won't fit in our little oven.

Step Two

Assign one hand as the bacon hand and one hand as the clean hand. Using the bacon hand only, put bacon on the rack, making sure the slices do not touch each other or hang over the edge. If they hang over, you will have a mess in your oven and a house full of smoke. Experience again, there.

Using the clean hand, put some brown sugar into a bowl. Using your bacon hand, scoop some brown sugar out of the bowl and cover each slice of bacon with it. Pat the brown sugar down so it adheres well. If you run out of brown sugar in the bowl, use your clean hand to scoop some out of the box/bag and put it into the bowl. The purpose of assigning the hands is to prevent cross-contamination into the box/bag of brown sugar. You really don't know how much you will need until you're done.

Throw away any brown sugar left in the bowl once you are done covering the yummy delicious bacon with yummy delicious sugar.

Step Three

Put it in the super hot oven for 10 minutes. Check on it. If it's not done, add another 2 minutes.

Let it cool completely. I put mine in the fridge to speed it along.

Step Four

Cut it into the size you want on the cupcakes. I did little strips about a half inch wide.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients

1. 1 pound powdered sugar.
2. 1 stick unsalted butter.
3. 1 8-oz. package of cream cheese. Don't use the low-fat version. It will make a really runny frosting.

Step One

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until it is light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.

Step Two

Add the powdered sugar a quarter-cup at a time. Wait until it is all incorporated before adding more. If it is too dry, add some milk, one teaspoon at a time, until you are happy with it. I didn't need any milk today.

That's it! Time to decorate!!

Cream cheese icing doesn't hold its shape well since it is so soft. Because of this, piping it on it completely pointless. It will end up oozing all over and all of your hard work will be unnoticed. So go old school and just slap it on with a small off-set spatula and smooth it over. Then top with your candied bacon pieces. I also added a little more brown sugar to snazz it up a little.

Eat up and enjoy!

Old Cakes

Since I re-did this blog, I figured I should make a post of some of the older cakes I've made since every cake brings something different to the table. These cakes are how I learned decorating. I never went to culinary school or even took one of those classes at the craft stores. Just watched a lot of YouTube and Food Network and tried things out for myself.

This was my attempt at almond frosting. It was... pungent, to say the least. But I liked how simple and cute they were.

This was for my husband's birthday. Black buttercream causes purple teeth, btw. A lot of these pictures are pretty low quality, but the harder I work on a cake, the harder I work to get a good picture. This, obviously, was not a huge deal.

This was my first wedding cake. For my little sister. Also my first tiered cake. So I had seen on TV that you have to put straws or rods to support each tier, but I didn't realize each tier needed to be on its own cake board. This is what culinary school is for, huh? Anyway, I figure that out like a week later. That's why it looks like it's sinking. It actually help up pretty well, looking back on it. It didn't smoosh too much. Also, I didn't make any of these flowers. Now I know how to do that.

Obviously this picture was taken late at night. This was the first time I had used plastic characters. Actually, I don't think I have since then. I also made sugar cookies to use as headstones and numbers. This one was SO easy, and the birthday girl loved it.

Octagon Hollywood cake with (I think) 7 dozen cupcakes. It was all red velvet from scratch. This took foEVer! I'd much rather decorate than bake. The movie stills are printed off from a computer and laminated, provided by the client. Obviously not edible.

This was for my baking buddy. =) Jenelle and I try to get together once every month or two to bake or decorate together. She is such a sweet girl and I enjoy spending the time with her.

These were SOOOOOOO yummy! Chocolate cinnamon with vanilla frosting. I really like the picture, too. =)

A pansy cake. =) I had fun making these flowers! Unfortunately, I didn't realize I arranged them in a sad face shape until my husband pointed it out. This is one of those cakes that I look at and see nothing but flaws... except the flowers. =) (My shell borders are definitely better now)

This is the cake that started it all. I made it for a co-worker's last day. Little did I know, a TON of people were going to be at our school for enrollment, so that TON of people saw this little mini cake. If I would have know, I would have done more, haha! I put it on a styrofoam plate! Anyway, lots of compliments came my way, including an orders and a wedding inquiry. 

This was for a very kind man at my church that has zillions of ties and loves the Rams. I did the star method, covering the cake with individually piped stars. It didn't take as long as I had imagined and it was pretty darned easy, but booooy did my hand hurt!

For my niece's sixth birthday. I was (and still am) quite proud of this cake! I molded Spongebob by hand out of fondant. It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined, but it wasn't easy, either. I loved the colors on this cake. =)

And this, my friends, is my favorite cake I've ever made. I was so nervous making it, but I figured it out. Delivering this was the worst! I should have left the letters off until I got there.

And one new one. This was from my niece's birthday party today. She LOVES nature and will grab her net to go outside and catch a butterfly if she spots one out the window. It's wonderful! She decorated the top cupcake, including breaking the snail. But she didn't mind because that meant she had a slug and a shell. =) FYI, do not try to tint batter violet. It will end up gray. =\



Felt Roses

So this is one of the easiest things you can craft up yourself. And there are so many uses for it! You can make a bunch and sew them onto scarves, ballet flats, headbands, sweaters, purses. Or glue them on hair clips, picture frames, pretty much anything. I chose to use my first one to prettify up a present.

Supplies:
1. Felt (You can buy sheets at craft stores for about 30 cents each and they come in a variety of colors)
2. Scissors
3. Hot glue gun
4. Permanent marker

Step One

Plug in your glue gun so it heats up. Draw an open swirl on your felt with your permanent marker. The larger the swirl, the larger the flower will be.

Step Two

Draw a scalloped edge attached to the outer edge of your swirl. Keep in mind that you will be cutting this out inside the lines, so leave enough room to be sure you don't make the scallops touch the swirl. When you get to the center, you will need to make a circle that the bottom of the flower will rest on. Since this was my first, I had no idea how big to make the circle, so I made it bigger than I thought I would need and later trimmed it down.

Looking at it now, I didn't even draw a circle. Let me MS Paint up a better version...

Get it? Good.

Step Three

Cut it out. Be careful to stay inside the lines so you don't get permanent marker on the finished product.

See how I still cut it out even though I didn't draw it? Yeah, draw it. It'll help.

Step Four

Starting with the end that doesn't have the circle, begin rolling it up. Try to keep the bottom nice and flat so it all glues down well. Twirl it up until you reach the circle.

Step Five

Put hot glue on the bottom of the flower. Fold the circle over and press it onto the hot glue, making it the base of the flower. Once the glue cools down, you can trim off any excess from the circle. Now you can sew or glue it onto something!

Necklace Rack for Less Than $1

I had been keeping my necklaces on a store-bought rack that was quite pretty, but it left them tangled up and discouraged me from wearing them. So I've been thinking for awhile of something to make to display them in a neat manner, making them easy to get to. Found tons of ideas on Pintrest, but they all required tools or supplies that I didn't have on hand. So on my last trip to Walmart, I spotted a 5-gallon paint stirrer. A nice, flat, shapely wooden stick for 28 cents. Perfect! Pretty sure I could afford that. So here is how you make a 28-cent necklace rack (assuming you have the other supplies on hand like I did).

Supplies:
1. 5-gallon wooden paint stirring stick
2. Paint
3. Nails
4. Measuring tape or ruler
5. Ribbon
6. Stapler or hot glue
7. Hammer

Step One

Paint the stirrer in the color of your choice. I chose white. Let it dry completely before doing another coat and letting that dry as well.

(I really need to work on taking pictures as I do my projects, but I did this one over the course of a few days)

Step Two

Lay the ruler or measuring tape on the stirrer and mark of 1-inch increments in pencil.

Step Three

Staple or hot glue a ribbon to the back. Since I experimented with this first, I will tell you two things I did wrong here. 1: I tied knots on the ribbon ends. I later had to take them out to make the hammering easier. 2: I didn't staple as closely to the top as I could have. This makes it tilt forward once hung up. So, not knots and staple/hot glue close to the top. Okay? Okay.

This is more secure than it looks, btw...

Step Four

This step is best not done on your dining room table. Gather your hammer and nails, go outside, and hammer nails into the spots you marked off earlier. Make sure they will all be tilted a little bit upward when it is hung up. Downward-pointed nails = necklaces on the ground. No bueno.

See how my ribbon is sticking out of the end because I had to untie the knots here? Yep. Just trimmed that off.

Step Five

Hang it. A little more trial-and-error happened here. I first tried hanging it on one nail. Yeah, not so smart. I couldn't keep it balanced. So I used ever-so-classy clear push pins. Two of them. This helped stabilize it. Now you are ready to display your jewelry!

I never noticed how many heart necklaces I had...

DIY Mod Podge

Mod Podge. Crafters love the stuff. With all of its glorious sticky and sealing qualities, how can we not? It has so many uses! And, my firends, I've learned a way to make your own for MUCH cheaper than buying the brand-name.

Supplies:

1. Regular cheap-o school glue (I scored this for 10 cents at Walmart! Back-to-school supplies a few weeks after school started)

2. Air-tight jar (I used a pasta sauce jar, so free!)

3. Water

Step One

Empty the glue into the bottle. I let it stay upside down for several minutes until it stopped dripping.

Step Two

Fill the empty glue bottle about 3/4 full of water. Pour that into the jar. Close the lid. Shake shake shake! That's it. You're done! And if you managed to also find a ten cent bottle of glue, you now have ten cent mod podge!

Now what do you do with it? Basically, it acts as an adhesive and sealant of sorts. You can paint some on a box and adhere decorative paper to it. Let it dry, then cover with another layer to seal the paper. Here is the project I just finished today. I got a wooden plaque, painted it, and let it dry. Then I cut out some letters from scrapbooking paper I've had for YEARS. I brushed some of my new mod podge onto the surface and stuck on the letters.

Once it was dry, I brushed on another layer to seal the paper. Added a few stickers, attached a ribbon to the back, and voila!

Birthday present for a seven year old that loves purple and bugs. (Don't tell her yet! Her party is this weekend...)

Chalkboard Menu

Want to learn how to make an easy, cheap, cute, and very functional project? You do? I'm so glad! Here is how to make a chalkboard menu.

Supplies:

1. Mini cookie sheet ($1 @ Dollar Tree)
2. Chalkboard paint (~$7 @ Michael's... although I used my 40% off coupon for it, woohoo!)
3. Chalk ($1 @ Walmart for a 12 pack of colored sticks)
4. Various paint colors (I used two colors, $1 or $2 each @ Walmart)
5. Paintbrushes (You probably have on hand, but you can buy a big variety pack for $5 at Walmart)
6. Some sort of adhesive or mounting system (Mine was $3 at Walmart, but you could screw it into the wall or hot glue a ribbon to the back)

Total spent: Eh, I'll say around $11, but the paint will be used for many other projects as well. I'm considering this a $4 project, just because of the cookie sheet and adhesive.

Step One

Thoroughly wash and dry your cookie sheet. Mine was a little bent since I bought it several months ago with the intentions of putting it in the house area at work for the kids to play with, but I knew/hoped it would flatten out once it was mounted on the wall (and it did!).

Step Two

Do your first coat of chalkboard paint directly on your squeaky clean cookie sheet. Use a small brush to paint the edges of your design and a larger one to paint the middle. Make it as even and un-lumpy as you can, but I guarantee you will see brush strokes on the finished product. I think it gives it more charm, though. =)

If you want, you can of course cut out the shape you want to paint from a piece of paper and then outline it on the cookie sheet with a black permanent marker. That would give you a chance to make sure it is perfectly as you want. I was pretty confident in my ability to wing it, though.

Step Three

Wash your paint brushes out so the paint doesn't dry in them. Oh! I forgot about my new trick! I didn't have a paint tray and didn't feel like buying one. Figured I'd jimmy something up once I got home. So I took a small plate and covered it in foil. When I washed out my brushes, I simply removed the foil and tossed it. Before the next coat, I covered it in a new piece of foil. This way, I didnt't have to wash it and the fresh paint didnt't mix with the sticky or dry paint. Made my life so much easier!

Okay, so your paint brushes are now drying. Let the first coat of paint dry on the cookie sheet completely for at least an hour. 

Once dry, do a second coat, paying close attention to the edges.

Step Four

Repeat step three. Wash brushes, new foil, let paint dry for an hour.

Third coat. Again, pay close attention to the edges. Three coats was all I needed. Let this last coat dry for another hour.

Step Five

Details! Using any color you'd like, paint whatever design you want on it. I chose two shades of blue to match the rest of the kitchen. Bright colors look really good on chalkboard paint, btw. =) You don't have to use the design I did, but if you do, start with a dotted border. Then a title. Then the letters for the days of the week. Then lines to separate the days' foods.

While doing the details, I realized it would have been a lot easier/ more professional looking if I had bought some paint pens. Alas, I'm cheap. Doing it by brush worked fine for me. But if it's that important to you and you don't mind spending some extra dough, paint pens would be easier.

Step Six

Following the directions on the chalkboard paint bottle, wait at least 24 hours before using this. Then, lightly color the whole chalkboard part with chalk and wipe it clean. I guess this conditions it. While you are waiting, you can flip it over and work on whatever system you are going to use to mount it. I used little Command sticky tag things. It's essentially like Velcro that is sticky on the back, only this will come off the wall cleanly. I was happy to find it! If it was cheaper, I'd use it in my classroom as well. Our walls are terrible for staples and tape. =\

Step Seven

After you've waited 24 hours, hang it up, write your weekly menu, and enjoy! Now you and the rest of the family know what to expect and you can see what you need at the grocery store.

Did I mention it's magnetic?

Project Earring Storage

So what happened to all of my projects I said I was gonna do, huh? Yeah, I don't know either. Laziness. Since I've been home sick with nowhere to go and no energy to do anything, I've been spending a lot of time on Pintrest getting ideas for pretty much everything. Organizing, crafts, decorating, baking... literally everything. I love the site. I have so many new ideas that I want to get started on when I get better and have motivation. But I thought I'd do a post in my blog showing one of my ideas and one idea I stole from somewhere else. How I store my earrings.

Stolen idea:

I keep my studs, hoops, and some dangling earrings in ice cube trays. It makes it SO easy to keep them paired up and easy to get to. I use to put my studs on a lacy ribbon hung on the wall. It was really cute, but it wasn't convenient to hang them up easily at the end of the day. So I searched around for other ideas. I really didn't want to put them all in one container because it makes it hard to see what your options are. Then I saw this somewhere. Maybe a magazine. Maybe online. No idea. But it's perfect! Since it's not too cute, I put them in a drawer so I don't have to look at them all the time. You can stack them if you want, also.

Own idea:

Pardon the crooked picture. This is definitely cuter than ice cube trays and I love having it displayed. =) I got a cheap frame on sale at a craft store (Dollar Tree, Goodwill, garage sale, one lying around, wherever). Took out the glass and cardboard and all so all it was was the wooden frame. Stapled a piece of that plastic grid whatnot that kids use for easy cross-stitching to the back. There are a lot of colors to choose from, but I like how black shows off the earrings. Stapled a ribbon to the top. You could also use mounting hardware, but ribbons and staples are so much easier. I thought I was done after this, but I encountered a problem when I hung it up. Since the back of the frame was flush against the wall, all of the hooks of the earrings were pushed upward and fell out. Um, oops! So, to create some distance between the wall and the hooks, I put some push pins where the corners of the frame would hit the wall. Perfect!





So there you have. Two easy solutions to a problem I'm sure a lot of accessory-loving ladies have. I have an idea of something to do with all of my necklaces next, but I need to find our drill and get some supplies first... so that will have to wait. =)