Last night, the winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest was revealed on The Oprah Show. Sue Compton is taking home the Grand Prize of $1 MILLION! Congratulations, Ms. Compton! Now, let’s see the recipe!

Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups

photo courtesy of pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS
- 1 package (16 oz) Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ refrigerated sugar cookies (24 cookies)
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 1/3 cup Fisher® Chef’s Naturals® Chopped Walnuts, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Hershey’s® semi-sweet chocolate baking chips
- 1/4 cup Smucker’s® Seedless Red Raspberry Jam
- 1 1/2 cups vanilla bean ice cream, softened
- 24 fresh raspberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray. Place 1 cookie dough round in each muffin cup. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

2. Place 2 teaspoons of the sugar in small bowl. Dip end of wooden spoon handle in sugar; carefully press into center of each cookie to make 1-inch-wide indentation. Cool completely in pan, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix walnuts and remaining 2 teaspoons sugar; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds, stirring after 30 seconds, until smooth.

4. Run knife around edges of cups to loosen; gently remove from pan. Dip rim of each cup into melted chocolate, then into walnut mixture. Place walnut side up on cookie sheet with sides.

5. In another small microwavable bowl, microwave jam uncovered on High about 15 seconds until melted. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon jam into each cup. Freeze cups about 5 minutes or until chocolate is set.

6. Spoon ice cream into cups, using small cookie scoop or measuring tablespoon. Top each cup with fresh raspberry. Store in freezer; let stand at room temperature 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Makes: 24 tartlets
Prep. Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes.

Inspired by a recipe from Kraft Canada, and fit for any occasion, this uber easy decadent chocolate cake is made with only one  bowl (that’s right, only one!) Easy to make, easy to clean up after, super easy to eat and enjoy. What’s not to love?

Courtesy of bunchofpants

The Things You’ll Need:

3 full squares semi-sweet baking chocolate

6 tbsp butter

¾ cup sugar (whichever kind you prefer)

2 eggs

1 ¼ cup flour

¾ cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp baking soda

How to Put It All Together:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Melted chocolate and butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Stir until completely smooth.
3. Add each of the remaining ingredients one at a time, mixing with an electric beater after each new addition, until everything has become one rich mixture.
4. Grease a 9” pan. Pour mixture evenly into the aforementioned pan.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool, then garnish with a chocolate sauce or icing from a jar, and fresh seasonal fruit.
7. Serve and allow everyone to think you’ve slaved away for hours over a hot oven to bring them a divine chocolaty indulgence.

Courtesy of .ben*

To make this dessert suitable for Easter dinner, simply adjust the decorating style. Add a few mini chocolate Easter eggs or a chocolate bunny to keep it festive.

Also, if you have the time, salvage the egg shells used whilst baking and paint them. These can be used as table decorations, not only providing a little more flair to your Easter this year, but also making a small memento of your 2010 celebration, which can be admired in years to come.

As you know, a few days ago we published Valentine’s Day Cupcake Guide – Part 1. Now, it’s time for Part 2! Hope you like our choices!

Tart Bakery

Tart Bakery, located in Dallas, Texas was founded in November, 2004 by Executive Pastry Chef Kristen Massad, who trained at the French Culinary Institute of New York.

Kristen felt that Dallas could use a vintage bakery (everything is made completely from scratch with all-natural ingredients) with a modern touch.

Kristen’s business has grown significantly and Tart now ships goodies across the country.

Website: tartbakerydallas.com

Kara’s Cupcakes

Kara’s Cupcakes is the vision of executive pastry chef, Kara Lind.

For Valentine’s Day, Kara’s Cupcakes is offering the “Sweet Package”: a selection of four “lovely” cupcakes that will make you swoon. Presented in a custom white box adorned with Kara’s Cupcakes signature wrapping. The perfect gift for your sweetie!

Price: $15 per box

Location: Kara’s Cupcakes has five locations around the San Francisco Bay Area. More info on their website at karascupcakes.com

Dean & DeLuca

 Dean & DeLuca will be featuring the following cupcake treats for Valentine’s Day:

Melt My Heart Cupcakes: These cupcakes are filled with chewy chocolate caramel, which is sublime when gently warmed. The cupcakes are made from scratch in small batches. Made exclusively for Dean & DeLuca by Two Hearts Bakery in San Francisco. Nine cupcakes $55

Valentine Mini Cupcake Chocolates (in the image): Knipschildt Chocolatier in New York City created these chocolate confections to look just like miniature cupcakes. Three different ganache fillings: Champagne, strawberry, and passion fruit. Set of 9 $45

Website: www.deandeluca.com.

Cupcakes by Carousel

Cupcakes by Carousel is a new shop in Ridgewood, NJ.

Their Red Velvet is Oprah’s favorite in a cupcake form. They donate $1.00 per cupcake and red velvet cake with heart to the american heart association in the month of February.

Their Red Velvet cupcakes have cream cheese icing and sugar heart; their Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes are decorated with rich buttercream topped with valentine picks or sugar hearts.

Price: $29.00 per dozen

Website: www.cupcakesbycarousel.com

Cakes for Occasions

Cakes for Occasions specializes in creating the finest gourmet cakes, cupcakes and sinfully delicious pastries. Owner Kelly Delaney and her creations have been featured in a wide range of media, including NBC’s Today Show and FOX25 Morning News in Boston.

Cakes for Occasions just came out with a heart-shaped box filled with a bakers dozen (13) mini cupcakes. The assortment of chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet cupcakes are all coated with chocolate. The delectable treats are packaged in a heart-shaped box and sell for $17.

Location: Danvers, Massachusetts. Website: www.cakes4occasions.com

This Valentine’s Day, we decided to feature some of the most beautiful cupcakes out there. The following are just a few suggestions (in random order) we have received from our readers. If you own a bakery shop or sell cupcakes online and have gorgeous Valentine’s Day cupcakes, don’t hesitate to contact us! If we like your “artwork”, we might feature you, too! Check out Part 2!

Sweet and Saucy Shop

Sweet & Saucy Shop specializes in custom desserts that taste as good as they look.

Melody Brandon, Owner and head Pastry Chef, realized her passion for desserts and stopped her pursuit of a career as a teacher and jumped head first into the world of butter, sugar, and flour! She headed to pastry school and graduated from the Le Cordon Bleu program at the California School of Culinary Arts as a Pastry Chef. She started Sweet & Saucy Shop with the desire to create gorgeous, delicious, modern looking desserts.

Price: $3.oo – $3.25 each. Cupcake with custom fondant accents range in price from $3.50-$7.00 each. Their mini cupcakes: $1.50 – $2.00

Location: Long Beach, California or Sweetandsaucyshop.com.

Cupcake

Cupcake’s cupcakes will whisk you away to your childhood with just the first look! 

One of their Valentine’s Day cupcakes: Black Bottom Cupcake – a dark chocolate cake with chocolate chip cheesecake baked in complimented with cream cheese icing . Mix & match a dozen -$30.00 or $2.75 each.

All of their cupcakes are made to order with real butter, whole milk and buy organic ingredients whenever possible with no preservatives. Nine flavors are baked every day for our customers. Their cupcakes are made-to-order, so they are at their very best! Special orders are always welcome with 24 hour notice.

Location: Charleston, Mt. Pleasant and Columbia South Carolina; website: FreshCupcakes.com

Kupcake Kitchen

Choose from their richly moist chocolate cupcake to their luscious classic red velvet to something fun like cookies ‘n cream and then pick your design. Both featured cupcakes are topped with their creamy vanilla butter cream frosting (one tinted pink). Their layered fondant hearts with red sprinkled edges and their fondant “XO” cut-out design with heart-sprinkled edges (see the gallery below) are the perfect Valentine’s treat that say “Wow.”

Kupcake Kitchen is a special-order cupcake company located in Santa Clarita, CA. All of their cupcakes are baked from scratch using only the freshest ingredients, are made to order, and are never frozen.

Prices: $15 for 12 mini kupcakes or 6 standard kupcakes. 

Website: KupcakeKitchen.com

Sweet Surrender

 Decadence D’Or (from Sweet Surrender) is a sumptuous cupcake, handcrafted from the most exclusive, rich, and enterprising ingredients around the globe. One main ingredient in Decadence D’Or is Palmira Single Estate Chocolate. This special chocolate varietal is derived from the rare and fragile Porcelana Criollo bean and cultivated to its fullest state of richness exclusively at the Valrhona plantation in Venezuela. Complementary to the Palmira Single Estate Chocolate is Tahitian Gold Vanilla Caviar. This fruit, after it is ripened for nine months, then hand-harvested, cured, sweat, dried, and hand-split, is obtained only by tedious manual extraction; it is truly a delicacy, both in taste and exclusivity. Topping the Decadence D’Or is the masterfully smooth Louis XIII de Remy Martin Cognac, 100 years in the making, and edible, metallic gold flakes, each painstakingly hand-placed. Finally, once baked to perfection, this grand dessert is encased in a stately, hand blown sugar Fleur-de-Lis and presented on a handmade exclusive elegant crackled-gold glass curved plate and bowl. Talk about the royal treatment!

Chef Long Nguyen, executive pastry chef of The Venetian and The Palazzo is the visionary genius behind all the exotic cupcake flavors and Chef Johann Springfield, head baker makes the cupcakes a reality.

Price: $750

Location: Sweet Surrender, located on The Palazzo casino (Las Vegas) floor next to guest elevators; special orders can be placed by dialing 702-607-0753.

Diana Sproveri Cupcakes

Since last Fall, Diana Sproveri Cupcakes have been delightfully devoured by Hollywood celebrities, busy executives, and hard-working mommies. Diana Sproveri’s designer baked goods have appeared in Sunset, People, and Good Day LA.

Why all the munching and buzzing? Diana Sproveri cupcakes are artisanal, decadent, and crafted from heirloom recipes. No matter the occasion, they make a great and delicious dessert!

Pricing: Online pricing is $36 per dozen. With premium Valentine’s gift-wrapped packaging, $47/dozen.

Location: Los Angeles, California; her website: dianasproveri.com

Yummy Cupcakes

For Valentine’s day their special cupcake menu will include:

Cream Puff: Vanilla bean cupcake filled with fresh whipped cream, dipped in pure chocolate ganache, topped with a dollop of buttercream and an edible petal of gold
Sprinkle Heart: Vanilla bean cupcake frosted with vanilla bean buttercream, rolled in solid red sprinkles that shape a heart.
Vanilla Rose: Vanilla bean cupcake baked with a hint of rose essence frosted with a vanilla rose buttercream, topped with a small chocolate rose
Cherries Jubilee (aka Bleeding Heart): Vanilla bean cupcake filled with cherry pie filling that overflows out of the vanilla bean buttercream. Take a bite and cherries flow out!

Some other cupcake creations that make great gift items and can be shipped nationally and won’t break your budget include: original ”Cupcake in a jar” (see gallery below) and Cupcake truffles: An assortment of decadent chocolate cupcake truffles for the Valentine holiday, decorated with chocolate drizzles and chocolate hearts

Location: Yummy Cupcakes has two locations in LA but they ship nationally so anyone can enjoy their 175+ designer cupcake flavors, 42 vegan flavors, and 100% natural ingredients. Website: YummyCupcakes.com.

Sweet E’s

Sweet E’s, “the mini bake shop” is LA’s premier Dessert Delivery service. Sweet E’s bakes the perfect size treat, 2-3 bites of pure delight. They offer an array of deliciously convenient mini cupcakes, cake pops, brownies, and more! Everything at Sweet E’s is baked from scratch using only the finest ingredients, then hand decorated and delivered straight from their ovens to your table.

Sweet E’s specializes in customizing cupcakes, cakes, & cupcake towers to match the style and theme of any event. They will help you visualize your dream and design your creation specifically for you.

Valentine’s Day Special: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake Strawberry cake with milk chocolate frosting.

Price: Valentine’s Day cupcakes – $66/2 doz.

Location: With a kitchen based in North Hollywood, hand delivery is available anywhere in the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Website: SweetEsBakeShop.com

Kumquat Cupcakery

Every Valentines Day, Kumquat Cupcakery- a catering company in New York City, drops the minimum of 3 dozen to 2 dozen cupcakes and adds a cute little holiday card. This year they are doing something really special: they are offering a box of “roses”! An assortment of vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet cupcakes adorned with different shades of frosting in the shape of roses.

Kumquat Cupackery was mentioned in many printed magazines and even on Martha Stewart!

Price: Each box is $48 + tax.

Location: New York City; more info on their website: KumquatCupcakery.com

Gallery

Fondant "XO" cut-out design from KupcakeKitchen.com

Cupcake in a jar - yummycupcakes.com

More to come!!

At times the prospect of making dessert can seem a bit daunting.  You have to pick a recipe, make a list, go to the store, buy the ingredients, then return home, prep and bake.  Often there just aren’t enough hours in the day to make that special trip out.

Courtesy of axlotl

But does that mean dessert has to be forgotten altogether?  Never!  A marvelous website, “ice-cream-recipes.com,” shows how to dress up dessert using a single, readily available ingredient, ice-cream!

Try this out for yourself and make some funky Ice Cream Sculptures.

Believe it or not you can sculpt anything from an otherwise unassuming block of ice-cream; pyramids, houses, faces, flowers, all sort of things!  But here are a few tips to get you started.

First of all, it is best to use hard ice-cream, as soft scoop melts quickly, thus making sculpting trickier than it has to be.  Have a variety of utensils set out, so that you can scoop and sculpt as much detail as you’d like.

It is best to have a bowl of hot water on hand as well, so that you can clean utensils between scoops and slicing, especially if you’re using different kinds of ice-cream in a single sculpture.

Another helpful suggestion is to use a chilling tray.  Think of it as sort of a staging area for your sculpture, which can be easily slid into the refrigerator for safe keeping.  And last, but not least, keep your sculpture chilled.  Place it in the fridge about every 5 minutes while sculpting away to avoid melting.

Ice-cream sculptures can be as simple or complex as you’d like.  Use different flavours of ice-cream to achieve different colours and textures in your design.

Decorate with candies, chocolates, and sprinkles to bring forth a refreshing take on a classic favourite — ice-cream — who doesn’t love it?  Especially now that it is available in any shape and size.  Literally.

photo courtesy of Taste of Home

Makes 24 Servings
Prep: 30 min. + rising Bake: 10 min.
 
Ingredients:
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups warm 2% milk (110° to 115°)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
 
Directions:
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the sugar, shortening, egg, salt and 2 cups flour; beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
- Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Combine filling ingredients; set aside. Punch dough down; divide in half. On a floured surface, roll each portion into a 12-in. square. Spread filling over dough. Roll up tightly jelly-roll style; pinch to seal.
- Cut into 1-inch slices; place on greased baking sheets (four slices per sheet). Cover with waxed paper; flatten slices with palm of hand into 3-in. circles. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Cover with waxed paper and flatten or roll into 5-in. circles. Brush with butter. Combine the sugar, cinnamon and pecans; sprinkle over butter. Cover with waxed paper; roll or flatten again. Discard waxed paper.
- Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or until browned. Serve warm. Yield: 2 dozen.

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This recipe is courtesy of Taste of Home magazine, the #1 cooking magazine in the country.