Lovin' From the Oven

Chocolate Cappuccino Chip Cookies

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The LOST finale was this week and my boyfriend had a couple of his friends over to watch it. I decided to bake something, since everyone can snack on something while watching tv. Ummm speaking of the LOST finale, did anyone else watch it? Too bad we have to wait another full YEAR before it comes back on! What’s with the whole Locke situation?! That really threw me off. I’ll stop myself there, just in case you guys didn’t watch it. No spoilers, here! That’s okay though… Dexter comes back on in fall and will hold us over until then. 🙂 For the finale, I made some chocolate cappuccino chip cookies for the boys.

Whoa.. try saying that ten times fast: chocolate cappuccino chip cookies, chocolate cappuccino chip cookies, chocolate cappuccino chip cookies. That’s a mouthful. Anyways, I was off roaming the aisle at Cost Plus World Market and found these Guittard Cappuccino Chips and knew I had to get them! I looked on the back for their recipes, but none of them really appealed to me. Then I remembered about Guittard’s Polka Dot Cookies I made on the back of their mint chocolate chips bag! Those cookies were good, but the mint chips didn’t really do it for me.. so I used that same recipe and replaced them with the cappuccino chips. Perfect! You can tell from the last picture how incredibly fudgy and chewy these cookies were, my favorite. They were chocolatey with a kick of coffee, nothing too overwhelming.

2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups (12 oz) Guittard Cappuccino Chips

Preheat oven to 350F

In top of double boiler over low heat, melt semi-sweet chips and butter, stirring constantly until smooth. Set aside to cool. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light. Blend in melted chocolate, then dry ingredients. Stir in cappuccino chips and chill for 10-15 minutes or until stiff. Drop by well-round teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes, cookies will be soft in centers but will harden as they cool.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies

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Is it just me or has time been FLYING lately? We’re already in 6th week! Goodness! Where does the time go? I graduate in 37 days!!! I just bought my cap and gown last week and my senioritis has officially kicked in… who am I kidding, I’ve had a bad case of senioritis ever since freshman year. My schedule has been so busy lately with midterm after midterm, baking & mailing out cookies, making my grad invites (see below), and spring cleaning! I actually got my boyfriend to vacuum and clean the bathroom today, which is probably one of my biggest accomplishments of my life. Haha.

Speaking of my boyfriend, his birthday just passed two days ago and I had the hardest time figuring out what to get him. I couldn’t bake him anything because he’s dieting (ridiculous, I know.. it’s like I’m dating a girl. Shhhh don’t tell him I said that) and he already has everything that he wants! I was going to buy him a Gucci wallet but then he wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I would since he doesn’t know anything about brand names and can care less for them. He actually thinks it’s ridiculous, but of course being the girl that I am, I tend to differ. I have this die hard love for Chanel and have made quite the collection in the past couple of years. I long for the Chanel Cerf Tote and the Chanel Medallion Tote, which I think I’ll be selling a purse to get soon. Basically… he’ll never understand why I pay so much for a purse when I can get a decent working purse for less than ten bucks. Honestly, I have no idea either… all I know is that it makes me so gosh darn happy.

I ended up buying him some RVCA t shirts and shorts, and a button up t shirt. He needs to update his wardrobe and he hates shopping… so it all worked out nicely. I then took him to a restaurant called Buenos Aires Grill for dinner and it was delicious! One of the best salmon and sauteed vegetables plates that I’ve had (he had the rib eye steak with creamed spinach.. we’re big on our meat, can you tell?). I’m getting hungry just talking about it. Moving on…

This is actually one of the cookies I made to mail out this month, along with two others. This is my favorite cookie– it’s hard to eat just one! The cookie is not too sweet or too chocolatey; they’re soft and crumbly with the perfect amont of sweetness. I’m an avid fan of mint chocolate, so you should definitely give this recipe a try if you are, too! I’ve made this recipe before on my blog, found HERE. However, they were posted a million years ago and I didn’t post recipes back then. So here it is!

  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and water. Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted. Remove from heat and stir. Pour into large mixing bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
  3. Beat in eggs one at a time on high speed. Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour, salt and baking soda. Beat until well-blended.
  4. Chill one hour.
  5. Roll into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes.
  6. Place an Andes Mint half on top after taking them out from the oven. Allow to melt slightly and spread with a spoon.

I took a lot of time making/decorating my graduation invitations because I’m a grandma like that and love scrapbooking & stationary. It’s also way cheaper than buying announcements from the school.. I mean, $40 for 25 cards?! I would’ve needed 50, spending $80 total just on cards… and they’re not even pretty! They’re actually pretty bland… so no, thank you. I’d much rather make my own since they’re more personalized and unique that way. I just had to share with you how they turned out!

This is how it looked all put together, how it would look when taking it out of the envelope:

take off the band and it slowly opens up…

there’s the invitation placed inside!

and voi-la! my invite. 🙂 (don’t mind the blur, I took out my personal info)

It’s so close I can feel it!

Mocha Cupcakes with Kahlua Cream Cheese Frosting

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Please excuse my repetitive posts of cupcakes recently. I realized that my photos are also becoming somewhat homogeneous. Hmm… I’ll have to work on that. I’m done with midterms this week and the weekend is finally here! As you may or may not know, I’m kind of a nerd at heart. I love the marvel superhero comics, my favorite being X-Men. I’ve seriously been counting down the days for Wolverine to come out ever since last year. That day is finally here! I’m celebrating the end of week 5 with the midnight showing of Wolverine. Luckily, my boyfriend is a bigger nerd than me, so I don’t have to hold back my adoration for X-Men. 🙂

By the way, is anyone watching this Bulls/Celtics game? It’s so ridiculous!!! I can’t stand the celtics, but oh my goodness, ray allen! By the way that they’re playing, this game will never end. But man, what a game to be at. They’re going into the 3rd overtime right now… how intense is that?!

I haven’t baked in a week and it’s driving me nuts! Luckily, I’ll be baking this weekend and next week, as I’ll be sending out cookies for my mailing list. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my previous post. I got this recipe from Culinography and pretty much followed it exactly, with a few minor adjustments. I piped on the cream cheese frosting and dusted some cocoa powder on top (the second picture, I just slathered on the frosting and got a little lazy 🙂 The cupcake was indefinitely moist, flavorful, and went well with the Kahlua frosting. I upped the cocoa and mocha, making an even stronger cupcake. After baking, you couldn’t really taste the coffee much.. it just had a coffee aftertaste. Now, don’t go thinking that I’m an alcoholic because I put a little kick into the frosting. I actually despise drinking and everything about it, but if I HAD to choose a drink, it’d be a white russian. You can always sub this frosting and use a regular cream cheese frosting if you don’t want the alcohol or plan on serving it to kids. The recipe with my adjustments is as follows:

Mocha Cupcakes
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup yogurt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 1/2 rounded tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Insert liners into a cupcake pan.

On medium speed, cream together the sugar, butter, and eggs until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the yogurt.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt.

In a measuring cup combine the water, coffee and vanilla.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/sour cream mixture with the coffee mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to wire rack and cool before frosting. (makes 24 cupcakes)

Kahlua Frosting
5 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2.5 tablespoons Kahlua
16 ounces powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Mix in Kahlua, then powdered sugar in one cup increments until frosting reaches desired consistency. Apply to cupcakes. (frosts 24 cupcakes generously)

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