Yellow Butter Cupcakes

Imagine a soft, moist and buttery cupcake with a fluffy chocolate frosting on top. Yes. These cupcakes are exactly like that. I like the fact that these have a strong butter flavour so it's important that you use a really good quality butter. And don't use low fat ingredients here. Speaking about the frosting, it seems like there's nothing special about it. And really, it's super simple. No heavy cream or chocolate is needed here. That means, you probably already have all the ingredients at home. Despite the simple ingredients, it's surprisingly good! But there's one important condition! Do beat the frosting with a mixer as long as you can. That's how it becomes so fluffy and bubbly. Believe me, it's worth the effort.

Recipe found here.

For the cupcakes:

125g/1 cup all-purpose flour
62g/½ cup cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
56g/¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, room temperature
1 large egg yolk
60g/¼ cup sour cream, room temperature
2 tbsp oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
80ml/1/3 cup  milk, room temperature

1) Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line 15 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and mix until evenly blended.

3) Add softened butter and beat on low speed for 1 minute. Increase speed to medium-low and continue to beat until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs, about 2 minutes.

4) In another bowl, whisk together egg, yolk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add it to the flour mixture and beat on low speed until moistened, about 20 seconds.

5) Gradually add milk and then beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Do not over-mix.

6) Spoon the batter into lined muffin cups, filling them no more than halfway full. Bake until lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:  
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
56g/1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 to 1 1/2 tbsp milk, depending on the consistency you want
1 1/4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1) Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. 

2) Add a small amount of milk to reach desired spreading consistency. Add cocoa powder and beat well. (The more you beat the more fluffy frosting you get) 

3) Spread over the cooled cupcakes.

Mozzarella Sticks with French Onion Dip

I don't know how many times I found myself staring at mozzarella stick pictures on the internet. They look so good with all that melty cheese and crispy bread crumbs around it. I can't tell you how happy I am that I finally made them myself! For some reason, it often takes so much time for me when I decide to make something yummy that I've been craving for a long time.

Enough about these mozzarella sticks. You probably already know that they are amazing.

But this French onion dip...

This is MORE than amazing. Basically it seems like a simple dip. But these c a r a m e l i z e d onions change everything. It adds sweetness to a sour/salty dip. Actually I think that onions make every meal taste much better, they are my favourite ingredient. Especially when they are caramelized.

I hope you're already checking if you have all the ingredients and are preparing to make this right now. If you're too lazy to make mozzarella sticks, do make this dip because it's so good with everything. Really, so good.

Mozzarella Sticks

12 sticks of mozzarella string cheese
1/2 cup flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 - 2 cups bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika flakes
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano*
oil for frying

*You may use/omit any seasoning you like. For example, I also like it with dried basil.
**The amount of the ingredients may vary here: it depends how much you flour the sticks or how much bread crumbs stick to your cheese so be ready to add some more ingredients if needed.


1) Place flour in a small dish. In another bowl, combine together eggs and milk. In a third bowl, combine bread crumbs with garlic powder, sweet smoked paprika flakes, pepper and oregano. Cut mozzarella sticks into halves.

2) Roll a half of mozzarella in flour, dip into egg-milk mixture, and roll in bread crumb mixture. Press crumbs in place so mozzarella stick is fully coated. Continue with remaining pieces. Place coated mozzarella sticks on a baking sheet and freeze for at least 30 minutes.

3) Heat oil in a heavy saucepan. Remove frozen mozzarella sticks and fry a few pieces at a time. Fry about 30 seconds - 1 minute (depending on the heat), turning sticks until they are golden brown, and drain on paper towels. Continue with remaining sticks. Serve with french onion dip. Avocado-garlic dip and garlic-dill dip is also fine!! Eat these while hot!

French Onion Dip
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
200g sour cream
2 tbsp mayonnaise
large pinch salt
large pinch white pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin

1) Place onions and oil into a small saucepan and cook until onions are dark brown color, stiring occasionaly.

2) Drain any liquid off the onions and let cool completely. Combine onions with remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Add salt to taste.

Spinach, Ricotta and Pesto stuffed Jumbo Shells

Pasta. Mozzarella. Ricotta. Spinach. Garlic. Pesto.

Sounds good.

But when these ingredients come together, it doesn't only sound good, it tastes amazing.

These jumbo shells were out of this world. I mean it. When I tasted them, I was almost crying. I couldn't believe how well they turned out! The filling was so creamy and so, so good. It rarely happens when I don't know what could be improved in a dish. And this time it happened! Really, they were perfect. And I ate 8 shells at once. I felt a bit guilty because one serving is 4 shells. As always.

Spinach, Ricotta and Pesto stuffed Jumbo Shells

200g jumbo pasta shells
250g ricotta
100g spinach, chopped
200g mozzarella, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp pesto sauce
1/3 tsp salt
pinch white pepper
2 cups pasta sauce*

*I used half homemade half Heinz.

1)  Preheat oven to 180 deg. C.

2) Boil pasta shells to al dente. Pour on cold water and coat with a dash of olive oil so they don't stick together.

3) In a medium bowl, combine together ricotta, spinach, 150g mozzarella, egg, garlic, dried oregano, pesto, salt and white pepper. Set aside.

4) Coat the bottom of your baking dish with 1 cup of pasta sauce.

5) Fill pasta shells with the filling and place them into the baking dish. Top with remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

6) Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

After I made chocolate oatmeal, I was inspired to try out many more flavours. Pumpkin pie oatmeal sounded too good not to be made. I'm very happy that it tasted as good as it sounded. It's so creamy, packed with cinnamon and, most importantly, healthy. Oh, and easy. Too easy.


1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tbsp brown sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup water

½ cup rolled oats

1 cup pumpkin puree

1) Bring the milk and water to boil.
 
2) Add the oats and pumpkin puree and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
 
3) Add the cinnamon, salt, spice, brown sugar and cook for an additional minute.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter. two magical words. In fact, I don't really like plain peanut butter by itself and I wouldn't eat it from the jar but added to baked goods it creates an amazing flavour. At least for now, I have never tried a bad tasting peanut butter dessert. Okay, now about these peanut butter cookies. Actually I'm not sure if I have ever made anything easier than this. Only three ingredients and you have the most delicious, fragrant treat. These cookies are very crunchy. However, they're slightly chewy in the centre and you have to be very careful about not overbaking them in order to achieve this texture. The sea salt made them completely fantastic.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (I used homemade)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Sea Salt for sprinkling (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) In a medium bowl, mix together peanut butter, sugar and egg until combined. With a small ice cream scoop, or just using your hands, form balls and place them on parchment paper.

3) Using a fork (or your hands), press down the cookies lightly to flatten, but don't flatten too much. Sprinkle with sea salt.

4) Bake until slightly golden brown, cracked, and still soft to the touch, 10-12 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Take them out of the oven when they still look a little bit underdone in the center because they will harden a bit. If you overbake them, the cookies will loose their chewiness. Cool completely on rack.