Chocolate Chip Cookies are my BFF

 

The secret is out. Even though my last name is "Cupcake", I LURVE (that's my word for extra credit love) chocolate chip cookies. Making chocolate chip cookies is a fun hobby for me. I don't sell them anywhere.I've baked them for many reasons.One..is that I eat the dough and never eat the cookie ♥♥♥♥ 

Perfect gift idea: Scoop the dough into a jar and give it to a friend to eat with a wooden spoon. Or throw yourself a **me** party and gift it to yourself! Just to be safe, if I am eating the dough only, I substitute 1/4 cup milk in place of the eggs. It works and still tastes just like cookie dough!

I have used the eggless cookie dough recipe to make chocolate chip cookie dough balls dipped in candy melts. Heaven on earth. ♥ What's better than cookie dough on a stick?!

I throw sprinkles in my chocolate chip cookie dough because I'm a big kid.
I love giving these to kids of all ages. (Hmm maybe a back to school treat or great for a college care package?!)

But did you know..there is something that a chocolate chip cookie does to fill a void in your spirit?! A warm ball of soft gooey slightly crispy chocolate chip cookie in your tummy replaces a hole and makes you feel better if even just for the moment you are eating the cookie.That's why I  hand deliver generous sized packages of them to people who I know are grieving. ♥

What tummies will your chocolate chip cookies travel to?

The possibilities are endless. Don't be afraid to add bits and pieces of the things that you crave. (Sprinkles, m&ms, sparkles, white chocolate chips, cherry chocolate chips, marshmallows?! Use your imagination)!

Recipe below ♥
This recipe takes patience, so make sure you plan at least 24 hours in advance.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients needed:
2 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
A little dab of salt
3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Fine Baking Sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 small box of white chocolate instant pudding mix (dry powder form)
1 egg
2 cups chocolate chips
optional: 1 cup rainbow sprinkles

**Note, to make this recipe eggless for cookie dough treats: replace the egg with 1/4 cup whole milk. Omit the pudding.

Method:

1.  In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the egg, softened butter, sugars, and extracts together.

2.  In separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, salt, pudding mix, and baking soda) together.
3.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and beat until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure there are no forgotten bits of valuable ingredients ♥
4. Fold in chocolate chips and sprinkles.

5. Line baking pan with parchment paper. Scoop cookies onto baking pan. I like using a cookie scoop to make sure they are all uniform in size.
6. This is the secret to amazing puffy cookies that won't flatten when you bake them: Cover cookies with plastic wrap and refrigerate them on the pan overnight.

7. Get up the next morning, and bake at 325 for appx 12-15 minutes. I like to under-bake my cookies and take them out at about 10-12 minutes so that they are super soft and gooey.

A few chocolate chip cookie tips:

♥Cookies last forever in the freezer when covered in an airtight container (my "forever": is about half a year)...but I don't think these will last long enough. They are toooooo yummy!!!! ♥ Cookie dough can also be frozen for up to about 90 days.

♥If you want to add more color and sparkle to your cookies, top them with extra chocolate chips, m&m gems, mini peanut butter cups, or sprinkles immediately after you remove them from the oven.   The extra pieces will add more color and will "melt" just enough to stick to the top of your cookies!

♥And as always..don't be afraid to sprinkle some edible glitter on top!

Fresh chocolate chip cookies always taste good with cupcakes....and coffee! ♥♥♥

Shoes with real sprinkles on top! DIY!

I altered some pink and white faux "chucks" I bought at a local discount store by throwing magical glittery sprinkles on them. Yep, this time the shoes got the sprinkles on top instead of the cupcakes!  Unless you are a baker yourself, you may not realize that there are many times when my shoes look similar to this at the end of a really busy baking & decorating day.

You know what I think is really special?  There will always be something that you leave behind that makes people love you more. Little reminders, pieces of you. I'd have to say my special thing is sprinkles and glitter.  Since I am leaving a trail of glitter, it makes total sense that I'd put sequins on my shoes!

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What's your special thing? What makes people love and miss you when they see it?

I "iced" the sides of the shoes with white puffy paint to make it look like I spilled frosting on my shoes! (not far from the truth).  You really don't need this part to be perfect.  Spilling icing is far from perfect. It's messy.



You're probably asking, "What happens if your shoes get wet? Will the sprinkles fall off or dissolve?"

.

My answer is no! My not-so-secret ingredient in this recipe:  Clear Glitter Nail Polish.

First, I painted the white part of the shoe with clear glitter nail polish. 

 I threw the sprinkles on the wet nail polish and waited for the sprinkles to dry & "set" to the shoes. Last, I brushed the nail polish on top of the sprinkles as a sealant. Note: You can use regular clear nail polish as a sealant, I used glitter nail polish as my glue of choice because glitter is my favorite color.

♥

Nail polish dries pretty quickly, so this is a perfect project if you are feeling creative but impatient to see the end result. I finished both the "icing" and "sprinkling"part in about an hour and let everything set for less than a day (about 4-6 hours just to be safe).

I was wearing these by EOD and already received compliments and people asking me where they could get some shoes like this?! Can you tell I am smiling in this picture?! :)   

Sometimes I wish that I could go back to school in the fall..

It's that pivotal moment.
That time when everything changes again.

A new school year.

You can be anyone you want.
You grew a little bit taller over the summer.
Your hair is lighter from the sun.
The backpack on your back has that new leathery smell.
Your pencils need to be sharpened.
Your shoes are so squeaky clean. They need to get dirty.
You have nightmares about walking through the school doors.
Will your classmates laugh with you..or at you?

Are you forgetting anything before you walk out the door?
Maybe your locker combination.

Or..a peanut butter & jelly sandwich cupcake.

Stacked high with peanut butter frosting, strawberry jelly.

Then topped with a heart shaped pb&j sandwich.

What a great mom I would be (someday)! :) Packing this in my kids lunch as they are off to school.

I am going to put this on my to-do-list once  I become a mom:

"Put PB&J sandwich cupcakes in (insert my future child's name here)'s bag lunch."

On the other side of things..

can you imagine being the lucky kid who takes this out of their lunchbox at school?

Way better than a Twinkie.

A Peanut Butter Cupcake. Peanut Butter Frosting. Swirled with Strawberry Jelly. And a Sandwich. Lunch & Dessert all in one.

I think your friends would laugh with you if you brought some to lunch.

Maybe now.. a glass of milk ♥

and a good book.

Perhaps even a recipe so you can make your kiddo (or the kid in you!) an amazing bag lunch:

Recipe for PB& J Sandwich Cupcakes:

For the Sandwiches:
Four Slices of Bread
A Heart Shaped Cookie or Fondant Cutter.
A Spatula to Spread the Peanut Butter Frosting With.
Edible Glitter

For the Cupcakes:

Dry Ingredients:
1 3/4 C Flour
3/4 T Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda


Creaming Ingredients:
1 1/3 C Sugar
2/3 C Peanut Butter
6 oz unsalted butter (or 1 1/2 sticks) -- At Room Temperature
1/2 C Sour Cream

Liquid Ingredients:
3 Large Eggs -- At Room Temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


♥♥♥

The Filling:
Peanut Butter Frosting
Your favorite kind of Jelly


♥♥♥



The Fun Begins:
1. Take out 3 bowls. (one will be your kitchen aid mixer bowl).

2. Sift flour into one bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, mix remaining dry ingredients.

4. Add dry ingredients to flour mixture and whisk together.

5. In your Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl, cream your butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.

6. Turn your speed down to low. Then add your peanut butter to the creaming mixture.

7. Continue to scrape the bowl down as you continue to make sure there are no escapees :)

8. Add your eggs one at a time until just blended.

9. When eggs are blended, add vanilla.

10. Now it is time to add your flour mixture to the peanut butter blend in the Kitchen Aid Bowl. Gradually add the flour mixture but do not mix longer than 60 seconds.

11. For the first 30 seconds, combine flour and all ingredients together. Then add sour cream.

12. For the second 30 seconds, scrape down bowl to incorporate all ingredients and re-blend.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the batter out and fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350. (Different ovens will vary). This recipe will make about 18 cupcakes. ♥


♥♥♥

Filling the Cupcakes with a surprise:

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can use an apple corer to create a hole inside the center of the cupcake.
Use 2 different piping bags to fill the cupcake - one piping bag will be full of pb frosting.

The second piping bag will be full of jelly.

First pipe a little bit of jelly inside of the cupcake. Then pipe a little bit of peanut butter frosting. Follow this filling pattern until the inside of your cupcake is full (sort of like how your tummy will be after eating these cupcakes).

Frosting the Cupcakes:


Peanut Butter Frosting:
(you can use this as the filling and on top of the cupcake)

6 oz. cream cheese
2 C confectioners’ sugar
1/2 t salt
1 C creamy peanut butter (try not to use natural peanut butter since it is extremely oily)
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
1/2 C heavy cream

In your Kitchen Aid Mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy.
Then gradually add peanut butter, salt, and vanilla.
After these ingredients are blended add powdered sugar (I add even more than this sometimes if I want my frosting to have texture and be thick-no matter what the frosting never seems to be too sweet!)
Then add heavy cream.
If the frosting gets too soft at this point, you can always add more powdered sugar to thicken.
Then...Taste Test.


Then..
You can frost the cupcake with the peanut butter frosting. Or the jelly. Or layers of both.

Or you can frost the cupcake with peanut butter frosting underneath buttercream frosting if you are doing really decorative cupcakes (since buttercream works better than pb frosting for a really decorative cupcake).


Making the Sandwiches:Using your heart shaped fondant cutter, cut out several little pieces of bread in adorable heart shapes.
Then stack them together with your peanut butter frosting and jelly.
Top the sandwiches with edible glitter.

Then top your cupcake with the mini heart shaped sandwich!