Chocolate Covered Caramel Macaroons

Coconut macaroons!  The perfect spring cookies.  Except you know, I live in California and it's halfway into May which pretty much means it's summer.  Oops?

I wanted to make and post these in February.  I had really cute Valentines Day ideas for them.  And then Spring happened.  Which meant February, March and April was spent going on lovely hikes with the puppies,  baseball games(go giants!) and enjoying the pretty view the outdoors had to offer.  And then it was May, which meant more baseball, rodeos, and trying to steal red pandas from the zoo.

So yes, I definitely made them too late to be springy.  No problem.  Let's cover them in chocolate and caramel and they are perfect for any time of the year!!!

Chocolate Covered Caramel Macaroons
Makes 30, bake at 325* for aprox 14 minutes

4 egg whites
Dash cream of tartar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
20 oz (1.5 large bags)  sweetened, shredded coconut

1/2 c. dark chocolate, melted for decorating

Caramel Filling
1/2 lb (8 oz) caramel candies
2 tbs. heavy cream

Directions for Caramel Filling
1. Place unwrapped caramels and heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high for 1 minute and stir.  Continue to microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time.  Do not let caramels scorch.

Directions for Cookies:
1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar on high until stiff peaks form.
2. Add in salt and vanilla while mixer is still on, after peaks have formed and then immediately turn off.  Don't over beat your eggs.
3. Fold in coconut flakes into egg whites.
4. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Using your thumb, make an indentation in each cookie ball.
6. Bake for about 14 minutes, or until the edges start to darken and the coconut no longer appears wet.
7. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
8. When completely cooled, fill indentation with 1/2 a tablespoon of caramel.
9. Drizzle melted chocolate (with a spoon or using a piping bag) over entire cookie.
10. Let chocolate and caramel dry a room temp for 1-3 hours and enjoy!

Now, I know I went a little crazy with covering these sweet coconut confections with more sweet things...  But you don't have to be as enthusiastic about sugar as I am.  You don't have to put caramel in them.  You are free to eat them plain.  Or covered in a lot of chocolate.  Or a little chocolate.  Make them your own. They taste delicious any way you make them.

But I suggest you make just a few with the caramel. Just because you want to take a bite of them now, don't you?

I will mostly likely be quiet the next few weeks.  Well, I HOPEFULLY will.   Mostly because I need to somehow find a way to get Shakira's abs in exactly 4 weeks. (Does anyone know how to do that, by the way?)  I am going to Colombia with the boyfriend in June (omg, so excited!!!) and i'm pretty sure positive that my baking is not even a little conducive to that goal...

Good thing you can make other sweet things in the oven.  Like oven-roasted plantains.  And I may try granola soon?  We'll see.   I won't stray too far though, and i'll be back soon enough.  Just wait 'till you see what I am cooking up for Pammy's bachelorette party favor!


xo,
Anna

Carrot Cupcakes with Marshmallow Bunny Toppers

I went to Target earlier this month and bought a bag of bunny shaped marshmallows.  I also bought a bag of Haribo gummi bunnies (who knew they existed?).  Yup, my love of  bunnies has been going strong.  I have only found use for the marshamallows thus far.  This means that I will be eating a whole bag of gummi bunnies soon.  And I guess I HAVE to eat the leftover adorable bunny marshmallows too, right?  I don't believe in wasting time.  Or candy.   Welcome to eat like an easter rabbit month here at My Feelings Taste Like Cupcakes Headquarters.  :)  All bunny, all the time.  I'm totally wearing rabbit ears as I type this*.

You saw my post from earlier this week, my cupcakes in a jar?  Well I made more cupcakes than I had jars.  Cupcakes sans jars are easier to distribute anyways.  But I wasn't sure how to top them. I had some easter bunny sprinkles... but the frosting on these is so delicious that I didn't want to throw the flavors off balance with too much sugar.

And then I found the marshmallows in my baking cupboard.   Just add toothpicks and it's so easy it's really frankly cheating. =x

But they look so adorable I don't care.  I love the little guys hopping over mounds of cream cheese frosting, skipping over the walnuts with such ease.  They're living the life!

They're the same recipe as before, obviously.  Can't stress it enough, make these.  The cupcakes are amazing.

Wouldn't you love to get him in your Easter basket?

No I lie, you want him and all of his bunny friends with you.  What do you call that?  A family?  Not a herd, not a school...  I'm googling now because I bet you're dying to know.  You're welcome.  

A COLONY.  YOU WANT A WHOLE COLONY OF EASTER BUNNY MARSHMALLOW CARROT CUPCAKES.  Wow, my blog is educational now too.  You are DOUBLE welcome.

Do you know who doesn't care about these cupcakes though? Poodles.  Poodles do not care about cupcakes.  They just care about getting in the way of my shots.

Happy Easter everyone! From me and my spoiled poodles.  May you stay away from peep shows. And may I stay away from that ENTIRE bag of gummy bunnies.

xoxo,
Anna

*No I'm not.  Or am I?

Rabbit Food: Carrot Cupcakes In A Jar

I am having rabbit issues this week.  During Christmas, if you follow me in Instagram, you will remember that I was OBSESSED with gingerbread men.  And then with foxes on my clothes.  This season it's bunnies.   It started when I found these little Easter rabbit figurines (jax!) at Walmart.  I had been wanting to make cupcakes in a jar for months and thought they'd work well for some special Easter treats.  DIY, cute packaging, spray paint?  Right up my alley.

I spray painted the seals white and the rims baby blue and glued the bunnies on top.  I used smaller mason jars, the half pint glass ones.  It took a few days to let the paint dry but it was a fun project! Purple or green would have been cute too.

What kind of cupcakes did I bake?  Well my new motto is "eat like an Easter rabbit"!  So I did. They're carrot cake cupcakes of course. Rabbits may eat carrots, but Easter Rabbits eat sugar, for sure.  I used the same recipe last year, and still can't be happier with the taste and texture. Love the pineapple and the walnuts in the batter.  You can go here to see the recipe.

The frosting I changed up slightly, it's still pineapple cream cheese frosting but I used  2 tablespoons of pineapple-apricot preserves instead of pineapple juice.  Either will work, but I liked the stronger flavor that came through by using the preserves.

Jar Assembly

1. Bake as directed, let cool completely & cut in half, horizontally.
*If you don't wait for them to cool they will fog up your little mason jars.  Be patient.
2. Layer them into the jars: Cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cake frosting.
*You can either fit one or one and half cupcakes inside one half pint jar, depending on how generously you frost.
* I used a 1M tip and moved the jar as I squeezed.  My tip to you is NOT to frost against the glass, but about 1/2 an inch away from it to keep it clean and pretty.  When you put the cake on top, press down slightly and it will move the frosting to the edge.
3. Before you place a cap over them, add additional garnish to the top of the jars.

I tied them off with white and gold baker's twine and included those little wooden ice cream spoons.

  What child, or adult would not love getting one of these?  Best part it that you can keep the jar once the cupcake has been eaten, and save it to store something else.  That's a gift that keeps on giving right there.

This bunny is just TOO cute.  I can't get enough of him.  Or his little wooden spoon.

Happy almost Easter guys!  You will get one more Bunny post out of me this week, so stay tuned!

xoxo,
Anna

Carrot Cupcakes with Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting

... and the most adorable candy melt carrot toppers ever!

This is another one of those Anna is crazy pants things.  I baked for no reason at all.  There are 14 cupcakes sitting on my counter right now.  Luckily I can think of a few takers, but there's always the chance that I will end up with a pile of liners in front of me and a face full of crumbs.

In case you're looking for a last minute Easter treat to whip up before tomorrow you should try these.  So easy!  You probably already have most of these things in your pantry already.  I did.

Why did I bake these?  Well, it's because I discovered that I do, in fact, like carrot cake.  Wait no, I LOVE carrot cake.  Where had it been all my life!  It's only be in the last year or so that I realized this, so any time I have gotten the chance to shove these down my throat, I have.

I'm actually a crazy picky eater.  Ridiculous.  My food habits get annoying, I know, my poor friends.  At least for savory foods.  But for the sweet?  Man, I love sweets... So I don't know why I had always avoided carrot cake.  Maybe the thought of carrots? But what a huge mistake that was.

(Funny story, I went to the "Exploratorium After Dark" in San Francisco last week with some friends and the theme was food.  A bunch of different exhibits like making ice cream with dry ice and cricket chip cookies.  In one exhibit you drank some liquid that would dull your ability to sense sweet.  I refused to try this because I do NOT want to mess with my taste buds.  What if I could never taste sweet again???  The horror.)

Anyways, the cupcake recipe I adapted from here.  Something else I found on pinterest!  It's becoming so handy.

I got up at 6:55AM to start grating carrots for these.  Worth it!

The left over carrots I ate while I cooked.  I felt like Bugs Bunny.

Carrot Cupcakes
Makes 12-15, Bake at 350* for about 15 minutes

1 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tspsalt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c canola oil
4 round pineapple slices
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temp
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (3 large ones)
1/2 cups walnuts  (1/4 c for batter, 1/4 c for garnish)

Directions:
1. If using walnuts, lightly roast them on a baking tray for about 4-5 minutes. Cool, then process them finely.  I just chopped mine up small with a knife though.
2. Puree pineapple slices along with a bit of juice in a blender.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger in bowl & set aside.
 until smooth and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk sugars, pineapple puree and oil until blended. Add in eggs, one at at time and whisk. Add in the flour mixture and stir until blended.
5. Stir in the vanilla, carrots and walnuts.
6. Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake awesomeness.

These end up baking up really nicely.  This has been the first time that I have used oil instead of butter.  It scared me a little at first, but in the end it worked out fine.  Also note that you don't even need a mixer for this!  You stir by hand.  Kind of awesome.   The end result is one of those cupcakes that you can visually see that there are 568 ingredients in it.  I love that.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 a stick of non salted butter
3 tablespoons pineapple juice
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream butter and cream cheese until soft in a mixer.
2. Add pineapple juice.
3. Slowly add in sugar.
4. Refrigerate for ten minutes if too soft, then frost cupcakes.

Now it's time to work on the toppings.

Toppings
1/4 cup walnuts
Around 15 green candy melts
Around 30 orange candy melts

Easy peasy walnut sprinkling... I tried to make mine look like dirt on top!

Then, I made carrots out of orange and green candy melts that were used to stick on top of the cupcakes.  Like they were growing out of the cupcake and dirt. I just melted the chips in microwaveable proof bowls and then scooped it into zip log bags to pipe onto wax paper. I had a stencil I hand drew to help me along.

I ended up doing two sizes of the carrots, to see which were better.  In the end I liked them both and used both.

I mean after all in real carrot patches aren't the carrots in all sizes?  And my kitchen/my front yard is totally like the real thing...  Or at least I temporarily turned it into the real thing.  :)

You can kind of see the difference in sizes in this picture below.  Cute huh?

A few months ago, I was at the Daiso Japan store  (Japanese $1.50 store that sells All The Things you don't need but really so want) by my work and I found this cute little stand for a pot.  I thought it'd look awesome as a cupcake holder.  I was right.

And don't worry these are just as yummy as you would hope they would be.

Happy Easter!

xoxo,
Anna