What do we have here? Swirls of cookie dough frosting on top of a moist yellow cake with mini chocolate chips mixed into the batter and neatly sprinkled on top. Mmmm look at those cupcakes… I’m actually just distracting you from the news that I promised you in my last time. But no more of that nonsense, let’s get right to it, shall we?
Deep breaths now… I’ve decided to finally pursue my dream, to do something for myself for once. I figured what better time than now? I have no real commitments, nothing holding me back, no kids to take care of, I’m young and I still have plenty of time ahead of me *knocks on wood* to start my life. Heck, this is me starting my life right now.
I’m… I’m… going to Paris next year for Le Cordon Bleu!!!!! Well, I’m not going to get too ahead of myself just yet because nothing’s official. I haven’t done any paperwork or anything.. I’ve just made the decision that I’m going.
I figure that I’ll work until then and save up as much money as I possibly can before I leave. I’m debating to either go to the one that starts in March or June of 2011. I actually have an uncle that lives in Paris with a spare room, and he told me that I could stay with him for as long as I want to. It’s meant to be. I can feel it.
The program is divided into three parts: basic, intermediate, and superior. Each part is about three months long, so I’ll be gone for a total of roughly nine months. Oh, also the superior course is only demonstrated in French… which means I’ll need to get my hands on the Rosetta Stone soon. I’m really excited about this decision and I will definitely keep you posted along the way.
Back to the initial distraction– I got the cupcake recipe from Cupcakes From The Cake Doctor and the frosting recipe from Perry’s Plate. Frosting was a bit sugary for me, but the cupcake was perfect. I seriously love that book and sleep with it by my bed every night. It’s comforting.
- 1 18 ounce package of cookie dough
- 24 cupcake liners
- about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, depending on your taste
- 1 18.25 ounces box of yellow cake mix
- 1 3.4 ounce box of vanilla instant pudding mix
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Put the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in your big mixing bowl.
- Mix with an electric mixer until combined (2 minutes-ish) scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well blended.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop batter into each lined cupcake cup for a total of 24 cupcakes.
- Push a frozen cookie dough chunk in the middle of each cupcake.
- Bake the cupcakes until they are goldeny done – for about 20 to 25 minutes.
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 2½ tsp. vanilla extract
- To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.
- Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
- Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.