Chocolate Chip Muffins!

Today was a pretty busy day! Actually, I take that back. This AFTERNOON was very busy!  I did school this morning, read, and did some bloggy stuff {my awesome new blog template from LeeLou Blogs. You likey? Me likey!} Then we went grocery shopping, came home and did tons of cleaning for company tonight {my awesome bible-quizing team is coming!}, I baked these delish muffins, and I am very surprised I am able to post this! I still have a few things to do though... ^-^ 

I've been getting a little "stressy" lately with all my devos that need to be done for church and youth group, my bible quizzing {me and my wonderfullest team memorize chapters from the bible and we have quizzes every first Saturday of the month! I'm a "rookie" and my first quiz is on Saturday! I AM. SO. SCARED. (;}, other things that would take much toooooo long to explain, school, and everything else in life, it adds up. But I know I can't complain. Some people I know have truckloads more than I do, and I am grateful for it. ...But still(; haha 

However, I have still been able to find time for my creativeness. I did those Red Velvet Cake Balls last week, and I made an awesome craft this last weekend {or something...} I will try to post soon. I tried a couple days ago, and for some reason I couldn't find the pictures I needed. :P

Now, I am sitting in my kitchen family-less {i love my family, but it's fun to have some alone time sometimes.. (: }, blasting my music from my "Songs that make me happy(:" playlist on my iPod {currently playing JUSTIN BIEBER! Yes, Justin Bieber makes me happy! }, with a sweet breeze blowing in through the windows, blogging, and muffins baking in the oven. I THINK YES! (; 

Side Notes:

-Forgot to put the sugar crumbly stuff on the first batch before I put it in the oven, so I just put some on when they came out. OOPS! ;)

-Forgot to put the salt in it. But who wants salty muffins?.. Not me. (; ahhhh... 

- The sugar stuff made kinda a lot unless you wanted to fill half the muffin cup with it. Soooo... You could probably use a little less if you wanted to.

-I had EXACTLY 1/3 c. oil left. FUNNY!

- I searched in the refrigerator for the muffin cups... Don't think I'll find them in there!

So enough with the chatty-chat-chat. On with the MUFFINS! haha(; 

I hope you enjoy this recipe from allrecipes.com. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION! INSTEAD OF HUNCHING OVER YOUR COMPUTER, YOU CAN HAVE A WONDERFUL PIECE OF PAPER RIGHT THERE FOR YOU! 

Ingredients

2 c. AP flour

1/2 c. white sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. milk

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 egg

3/4 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips {or regular- that's what I used!}

3 tbsp. white sugar

2 tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 ºF. Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups. 

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 c. sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened {batter will be lumpy.}

3. Fill cups 2/3 full, Sprinkle tops of muffins before baking with a combination of 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons brown sugar.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.

Ok- So I have no idea what in the world is wrong with my computer {or blogger!}, but I can't find my pictures when I try to upload them! When I go into iPhoto, they're there, but when I try to upload them for blog, they're not. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?! It happened a couple days ago too when I was trying to upload pictures for my awesome craft... Hmmmmm.... Well I will post pictures whenever I find what in the world is going on. :P

Thanks for reading, and I am super-duper sorry for my first ever pictureless blog! URGGG! :P

No pictures, muffins, and Justin Bieber-

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Oh goodness! Where do I start?! ... 

I have been wanting to make these bite-size wonders since the moment I saw them on a baking magazine cover. They always looked so cute, elegant, easy, and most importantly- DELICIOUS!! I finally had a reason to make them and went at it full speed. I found the recipe from one of my favorite blogs, bakerella.com. You should stop by her blog... There are TONS more beauties like these!

As I was candy-coating them, I ran into a little issue. When I took out the first batch of melted chocolate stuff, I noticed it was burnt, and it turned all chunky and gross. Luckily I didn't use the whole thing at once, otherwise I would have been out of luck! But it turned out, I needed those few 

"chunks o' chocolate" because I ran out after doing only like 18 balls! So I just used some white chocolate chips instead{which didn't turn out as well, but whatcha gonna do, right!?} So please ignore the ones that looked like they're covered in craft glue. :P

ALSO, BEWARE OF RED HANDS AND SMELLING

LIKE CUPCAKES UNTIL YOU'RE 86!

Red Velvet Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.

6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.

Balls of cake and hands of red!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

{SOPHIE}

Cake Batter Bars

I saw these bars awhile ago and wanted to make them so bad! I finally did, and {LOVED} them... They were so perfectly chewy, it was like having cake batter 

melt in your mouth!(: I had people over last night, and they were gone

by the end of the night. I even had a friend ask me for the recipe! 

ENJOY!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cake Batter Bars

{recipe from Lovin' From the Oven}

1 1/4 c. funfetti cake mix

3/4 c. AP flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

5 HEAPING tablespoons sprinkles of your choice(:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8 x 8 inch pan.
2. Cream both sugars, butter, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. 
3. Gradually mix in flour, cake mix, and baking soda until just mixed. Stir in sprinkles.
4. Spread batter evenly into greased pan.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is lightly browned and middle still jiggles slightly. Cool completely before cutting.

<3 

-Sophie

PICTURES!

Funny thing, I didn't even take any of these pictures {obviously}, but I did edit them! Haha(: They're from a weekend trip my family took Up North a few weeks ago. You're probably wondering why I am wearing the same thing in all the pictures... I only brought one sweatshirt and it was WAY colder than I expected! Enjoy!

{Me and my daddy}

{Throwing rocks into Lake Superior. It was VERY entertaining 

because of the funny sounds the rocks made when they hit the water.}

{SO SERIOUS.}

{I have a super weird look on my face... haha I guess I was very

into looking at my rocks!}

'

Date Bread

Here's a recipe for some SUPER YUMMY date bread I made yesterday from my new cookbook I won {from a blog giveaway!} called "Mennonite Women Can Cook". As I flipped through it, I found a bunch of other yummy-looking recipes I'll be trying soon!...

Date Bread

{recipe makes 2 loafs}

1/2 pound {1 c.} pitted dates, chopped

2 c. brown sugar

2 c. boiling water

2 tsp, baking soda

2 eggs

3 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1. Place chopped dates and brown sugar in a large glass or metal bowl.

2. Pour boiling water over date mixture

3. Add baking soda and stir well until the foaming stops. Let stand for 15 minutes.

4. Beat aggs and combine dry ingredients; add both to date mixture.

5. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.

6. Bake º325 F for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Freezes well.

The bread was SOOOOOO good served straight out of the oven with some butter on top! YUMALICIOUS!(:

Enjoy!

Shabby Blogs Speech Bubbles

I found these speech bubbles on Shabby Blogs awhile ago and thought I

should share them with you! They would be great to use as labels,

scrapbook pieces, or whatever else your creative

minds can come up with! Enjoy!(:

Keep Calm And...