'Blown Away' Blueberry Muffins

I saw the recipe for these on pinterest earlier this week and have been CRAVING them ever since. I was actually in a really bad mood on Tuesday because I knew I wouldn't have any time to bake them until Friday (today!).

Well, with my calculus exam behind me and a fun weekend ahead of me - I figured it was time to make these :) And they more than fulfiled my expectations!!

Definitely give these a shot for breakfast some morning - you won't be disappointed!

Blueberry Muffins 

Recipe Adapted from Gourmet

Makes 12 Muffins (seriously! It makes an even dozen! when does a recipe ever make an even dozen???)

For Muffins:

1 cup All purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 large egg

1/2 cup nonfat milk

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (about 7 ounces)

For topping:

1 tsp. turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter muffin pan or use paper liners. 

-Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in zest.

-Whisk egg in another bowl, then whisk in milk and butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (batter will be dense). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter amount muffin cups.

-Stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

- Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center of muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Serve at warm or room temp. 

Pumpkin Pie Dip

This dip is REALLY good! And it's healthy too! I whipped this up last night in our suite (so easy too because it doesn't require any cooking and so I can do the whole thing in my room!) and now it is going to be a great little treat to have in the fridge all week. Eat it with apples, pita bread, carrots, crackers... anything!

Pumpkin Pie Dip
Recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff
Makes about 6 cups (12 servings). Mine made two of the tupperwares in the picture above.

Ingredients:

15 oz can pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
6 oz. fat free Greek yogurt
8 oz. Cool Whip (fat-free)
apples, bananas, crackers, cookies...

Mix pumpkin with brown sugar, vanilla and spices, blend well. Mix in yogurt. Fold in coolwhip and chill in refrigerator until ready to eat.

Snickerdoodle Cake!

This cake was awesome! It was our first baking attempt of the year - it's definitely going to be interesting with no easily accessible kitchen! We made up the batter in our room and then ran it down to the kitchen next door to bake it... worked just fine! I see a lot of "no bake" items in our future though!

Okay so this Snickerdoodle cake is from pinterest and the picture looked incredible! So when we were trying to figure out what to make - I kept returning to that recipe and... well pretty soon it was in progress!

Ours wasn't nearly as pretty as the one in the original link - but it sure tasted fantastic!!!

Snickerdoodle Cake
Makes 1 9/13 or 2 round cakes (to layer)
Recipe from foodwithfamily

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (we substituted with 1 1/3 cups AP flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
2 sticks butter, softened to room temp.
1 3/4 cups fine or superfine sugar (we just used regular)
4 large eggs, room temp.
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk, warmed to room temp.

For the buttercream: (we made this up because we didn't have enough butter but it was still really good so i'll share it with you. Find the directions to the original recipe in the link above)
1 stick of butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
These are REALLY rough estimates. We really just eyeballed it until it tasted/looked good :)

To Bake the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 235. Butter and flour your pan(s) (tip is to use the butter wrappers from the butter you're about to use!)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color.

Beat the eggs in one at a time, fully incorporating each egg and scraping down the bowl in between each addition. Beat in vanilla.

Add about 1/3 of the milk, beat to incorporate, then 1/3 of the flour mixture, again beating to incorporate.

Repeat this process, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until all of the milk and flour are mixed in evenly - starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Pour the batter into the bans and bake, rotating midway through, for about 35 minutes (we did 40) or until it tests done.

Let the cakes cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before turning onto the racks to finish cooling.

To Make the Buttercream:

Beat together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat. Add milk to desired consistency.

Frost and you're good to go!