gourmet

Raspberry-filled Vanilla Cupcakes

/ Jodi / 65 Comments

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes.

If you are looking for a super special, absolutely rock-your-world delicious treat to bake for your special Valentine(s), look no further thank these amazing Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes!

I have always admired beautiful cupcakes and love those special gourmet ones that have surprise fillings and are extravagantly decorated, but I have never had much success making them.

I had the urge to give it another try yesterday after purchasing some fun sprinkles I was dying to use somehow.

Disclaimer – I have a weird “thing” for sprinkles and buy way more than I ever use!  I bought three different kinds of red/pink Valentiney ones and one big container of regular ones.  My granddaughter had fun shaking them in the cart while we were shopping!

I found a recipe at RockRecipes.com that I tweaked up a bit.  I was so excited with how beautiful and YUMMY they turned out.

When I handed one to Hubby to taste test, I said,  “Are you ready to have your world rocked by this?”

He loved it!

Here is how I made them.  Hope you give them a try.

Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcake Batter:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk

Raspberry Filling:

  • 1 cup fresh raspberries
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp corn starch
  • 1 oz. water

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup (4 oz.) cream cheese
  • 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2-3 Tbsp milk

Directions:

To make cupcakes, preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated.  Stir in vanilla.  Add baking powder and salt, then fold in flour.  Finally stir in milk to create batter.

Pour into paper-lined cupcake/muffin pan.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare raspberry filling by stirring 1 cup raspberries and 1/4 cup sugar in small saucepan.  Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in water, and slowly pour into boiling berries.  Stir constantly until thickened.  Allow to cool.

Prepare frosting by blending together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla.  Add powdered sugar and enough milk to make a smooth, creamy consistency.

When cupcakes are cooled, use an apple corer to remove a small section from center of cupcake.  Fill with raspberry filling.

Decorate with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles and fresh raspberries if desired.

Enjoy!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Best Ever Dry Rub Mix for Ribs and Pork

/ Jodi / 29 Comments

dry rub seasoning mix

I recently mixed up a batch of seasonings for a dry rub mix that has rocked our world (well – that might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration… but I really wanted to catch your attention.)  

But seriously – who knew mixing spices could be so exciting…  Pack so much punch…. add such “zip” to what would otherwise be so … ordinary?!

And once you make a batch of this, you will have it for a while…  But you will want to use it often!

I’ve used it so far for slow roasted oven baked ribs where I rubbed it on and baked them for 8 hours on a low heat in the oven.  O. M. G!

I’ve also rubbed it all over a couple of pork tenderloins and marinated all day in the refrigerator, then grilled.  YUM!

Both ways turned out amazing.

I’m looking forward to trying it on more things… Maybe chicken?  Beef?  I’ll bet it would even be a nice seasoning for roasted potatoes.

This mix smells so amazing, that we sometimes just open the jar and breathe it in!

I am sure you can mix and match the ingredients as you see fit or as you have on hand, but I believe the two most key ingredients are the SMOKEY paprika (oh how I wish we had smell-a-blog or scratch and sniff photos on our phones and computers so you could experience this smell if you never have – it is very different from “regular” or Spanish paprika) and cinnamon (the smell and bit of sweet bite that you don’t quite expect takes it over the top!).

dry rub seasoning on ribs

Here is the recipe.  I hope you will give it a try.  If you do, let me know how you liked it.

Best Ever Dry Rub Seasoning Mix for Ribs and Pork

  • 3 Tbsp paprika
  • 2 Tbsp Penzey’s smoked paprika (I think this is one of the KEY ingredients)
  • 3 Tbsp chili powder
  • 3 Tbsp coarse salt
  • 1 Tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp ground ginger
  • 6 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp freshly micro-planed nutmeg (or ground)
  • 1 Tbsp ground oregano
  • 1 Tbsp ground thyme
  • 1 Tbsp curry powder
  • 2 Tbsp dry mustard powder
  • 2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 3 Tbsp dried onion flakes
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp cinnamon (another KEY ingredient)

Mix all together and store in airtight jar.

To use, sprinkle and rub liberally over all sides of ribs, pork tenderloin, pork chops, or anything you like.  Let marinade for several hours or overnight.  Bake or grill to your liking.

This really is an amazing seasoning mix to kick up your pork tenderloin and ribs.
It would also make a great gift to give in pint size jars for the holidays for gourmet cooking friends on your holiday gift list.

The guys we had over for dinner this past Saturday evening loved it.  I think you will too!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi