Apple Streusel Muffins

These are the best. I didn't have any apples when I made it so I substituted them with bananas. If you want to make them with bananas, mush them until they are pastey.

Ingredients: Muffins

~ 350mL flour

~ 125mL sugar

~ 10mL baking powder

~ 2mL salt

~ 2mL. cinnamon

~ 125mL milk

~ 1 egg

~ 60mL oil

~ ½ apple chopped

Ingredients: Topping

~ 2mL Cinnamon

~ 15mL Brown sugar

~ 10mL Margarine

Directions

1. Hands, hair, book, apron.

2. Collect all necessary equipment and supplies.

3. Centre oven racks and preheat oven to 200°C

4. Make topping: combine ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

5. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

6. Wash apple, dry and chop apple finely. Set aside.

7. Sift flour onto pie plate, then measure. Resift flour into a large bowl.

8. Into the large bowl add sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

9. Stir the dry ingredients with a fork. Make a well in the centre. Set aside.

10. In a medium bowl combine the liquid ingredients: milk, egg and oil. Beat with fork until frothy.

11. Add the liquid ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.

12. Stir only until moistened. (Do not over mix! The tops will become peaks!) Gently stir in the chopped apple. Batter should be lumpy.

13. Spoon batter into the muffin cups and fill about 2/3 full.

14. Evenly distribute streusel topping on muffins.

15. Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

16. Remove from oven. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then remove muffins and place on cooling rack.

17. Enjoy!

Button Cupcakes

Cute little snack for your kids!

Ingredients:

~ 1¹/₂ cups unbleached white flour

~ ¹/₂ teaspoon salt

~ 1¹/₂ teaspoons baking powder

~ ³/₄ cup sugar

~ ¹/₂ cup milk

~ 2 eggs

~ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

~ 1 stick butter

~ 12 Hershey’s kisses

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F

2. Put muffin paper in a muffin pan with 12 muffin cups

3. Put a strainer over a bowl. Put in the strainer:

1 ¹/₂ cups flour

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

1 ¹/₂ teaspoons baking powder

Gently shake the strainer up and down until everything sifts into the bowl

4. Add ³/₄ cup sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix in the sugar, and make a dent in the center. Put this aside for now

5. Pour milk into a 2 cup measuring cup until it reaches the line for ¹/₂ cup.

6. Break 2 eggs into a bowl. Add these to the milk, along with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

7. Put a whole stick of butter into a bowl, and it heat it in the microwave on high for 1 ¹/₂ minutes, until it is melted. (Or melt it in a pot on the stove over low heat.)

8. Pour butter into milk mixture.

9. Slowly whisk the milk mixture until it is all one color and you don’t see any egg yolk.

10. Carefully pour this into the dent in the flour mixture.

11. Beat the batter with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes.

12. Stop the mixer and put it down.

13. Pick up a rubber spatula and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl few times.

14. Beat again with the electric mixer, this time on medium speed. Do this for about 2 minutes.

15. Put down the mixer and scrape the bowl again with the rubber spatula.

16. Put 2 full soup spoons of batter into each muffin paper.

17. Put a chocolate kiss pointing down, into the center of each raw cupcake.

18. Push it down a little with your finger, like you’re gently pushing a button. It should still show.

19. Put the pan in the oven.

20. Set the timer for 20 minutes

21. Take the pan out of the oven.

22. Cool for 15 minutes before eating.

Spongecake

I just made this today! Tastes better warm. To me, the cupcakes taste better, but that's for you to decide!

Spongecake: Ingredients
~ 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
~ 1 1/4 cups of sugar
~ 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
~ 1/2 tsp baking soda
~ 3/4 cup oil
~ 1/2 cup water or milk
~ 8 large eggs
Spongecake: Directions
1. Separate you egg whites and yolks
2. Mix egg yolks with oil, and milk
3. In a separate bowl, mix baking powder, sugar and flour together.
4. Add #2 to #3
5. Beat egg whites with baking soda until stiff
6. Now mix everything together throughly
7. Pour the batter into a cake pan
8. At 300 degrees fahrenheit, bake for an hour (convection ovens: 275 degrees fahrenheit for 45
minutes) or until golden brown
9. Take out of oven
10. Balance the cake upside down in it's pan on 4 cups to cool
11. Serve

Spongecake, cupcake style: Directions (#1-6 are the same as the one above)
7. Line the cupcake tin with liners
8. Pour the batter into the liners
9. Bake at 300 degrees fahrenheit for 25 minutes (convection ovens: 275 degrees fahrenheit for
35 minutes) or until golden brown
10. Take the cupcakes out of the oven
11. Take cupcakes in their liners out of the tin
12. Place them upside down in cups to cool.
13. Serve

Chocolate Brownie Cookies - yields 26 cookies without chips, 30 cookies with chips

For these cookies, I think that if you add chocolate chips, it's way too sweet... but you can add them if you want.
Credit: www.joythebaker.com

Ingredients

~ 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (chopped or in chips)

~ 3 Tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter

~ 1 cup sugar

~ 3 large eggs

~ 1 teaspoon espresso powder

~ 1 teaspoon vanilla

~ 1 cup all-purpose flour

~ 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

~ 1/4 teaspoons salt

~ 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

In a double boiler, or in the microwave, gently melt together the chocolate and butter. To avoid heating the chocolate too much and possibly burning it, the best method is to heat till the butter is melted and the chocolate has partially melted, then remove from the heat. Stir till all the chocolate melts.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs till they’re thoroughly combined. You don’t need a mixer, just do it in a medium sized bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the hot melted chocolate, then stir in the remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips, if you’re using them. Refrigerate the batter like dough for 1 hour, to make it easier to handle.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets, three if you have them.

Drop the cookie dough by the tablespoonfuls (about the size of a small ping pong ball) onto the prepared baking sheets. A tablespoon cookie scoop makes this task extremely simple. Leave about 2″ between the dough balls, as they’ll spread as they bake.

Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, until their tops are shiny and cracked. They won’t crack until the very end, so keep a close eye on them; when they’re cracked all the way across the top surface, they’re done. The point is, you want these baked all the way through, but just barely; additional baking makes them more crisp rather than chewy. Remove the cookies from the oven, and top each with a kiss-shaped chocolate, a bittersweet chocolate wafer, or a chocolate covered sunflower seed. Wait 5 minutes then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Ganache

A chocolate topping!
Credit: www.joythebaker.com

Ingredients
~ 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
~ 1/4 heavy cream

Directions
1. Put chocolate chips in a small bowl
2. Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan
3. Pour cream evenly over the chocolate
4. Let stand for a minute to soften (stirring may help!)
5. Stir until smooth

Note: If it's too wet to spread, let it stand at room temperature stirring occasionally, for 10-30 minutes. It will thicken as it stands

Ice Cream Cupcakes

I made these last year, they were delicious! I thought they were a bit too sweet but that's okay! =3 I'll post the Chocolate Ganache recipe later!
Credit: www.joythebaker.com

Ingredients
~ Cake/Cupcake Mix
~ Ice Cream

Directions
1. Make batter with your cake/cupcake mix
2. Bake cupcakes (fill the cups halfway, for regular cupcake tins it would be about 2 tbsp)
3. Remove ice cream from freezer to soften
4. Take cupcakes out of the oven and let them cool.
5. Run a spoon under hot water to warm it slightly
6. With cupcakes still in the pan, scoop ice cream onto each cupcake quickly, smooth as much as
possible
7. Once all cupcakes are topped with ice cream, return to freezer for at least 2 hours
8.*Remove the frozen cupcakes from the freezer
9.*Place on a serving plate
10.*Top with chocolate ganache and sprinkles
11.*Return to freezer to harden ganache
12.*Serve and eat quickly

*optional

Cheesecake

This was the first thing that I ever baked. Simple and quick.

(A)Crust/Bottom: Ingredients
~ 1/2 or 1 cup 7 oz. HoneyMaid Granham Crumbs
~ 1/4 cup butter
(A)Crust/Bottom: Directions
1. Mix Granham Crumbs and butter together.
2. Press to the bottom of a cake pan firmly.

(B)Cheesecake: Ingredients
~ 2 packets of Knox Gelatin
~ 1/2 or 3/4 cup white sugar
~ 1 cup of any of the following liquids: water, juice or milk
(B)Cheesecake: Directions
1. Mix gelatin and sugar together
2. Put in the liquid of your choice
3. Use stove or microwave to dissolve gelatin and sugar
Note: Don't leave this alone for too long, it will solidify.

(C)Cheesecake: Ingredients
~ 250ml (1 cup) Whipping Cream (Nutriwhip)
(C)Cheesecake: Directions
1. Beat until stiff
2. Refrigerate

(D)Cheesecake: Ingredients
~ 500g (2 boxes) Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Directions
1. Mix (D) and (B) together then add (C)
2. Add a few drops of lemon juice and vanilla
3. Beat
4. Add to cake tray
5. Refrigerate

When the cake has hardened....
Topping: Ingredients
~ 1/2 cup of Fruit Juice
~ 1 tsp. gelatin
Topping: Directions
*1. Blend any type of fruit (i.e. strawberries) with 1/2 cup of water
2. Add gelatin to the fruit juice
3. Pour on top of the cake

*This is only if you don't have fruit juice.