Seriously Sinful Caramel Nut Brownies . . .OMG!

OMG these are good! And that is no lie! Ooey, gooey, messy squares of deliciousness. Super rich, and pairs wonderfully with a tall glass of cold milk! These brownies start out with a box of german chocolate cake mix, and hide a layer of chocolate chips and melted caramel. I know - these aren't COWs, but I don't think anyone will mind. We'll see!

What my friends thought . . .

Fred - "I just finished eating my Cow. Holy crap, that was good!"
Yadi (the Birthday Girl!) said it was her favorite of them all.
Laila has decided Mondays are her favorite day of the week.
Actually, everyone who had one loved them! A COW in any form is good, I guess!

Chocolate Covered Banana C*O*W

Feel like monkeying around? Then sink your teeth into this! Today's COW is a chocolate covered banana cupcake. Moist banana cake holds a a little surprise - sweet banana filling. Piled high with chocolate frosting and sprinkled with chopped nuts and crowned with a crisp banana chip . . . you'll think you're at the county fair!

It's Baaack! Hot Cha Cha Cappuccino Chip C*O*W

The winner of the favorite cupcake poll is making its return! "Hot Cha Cha Cappuccino Chip" is back.

Cappuccino chip cake frosted with mocha buttercream, sprinkled with mini chocolate chips, and drizzled with chocolate. Hope it was worth the wait!

Chai Latte C*O*W

Today's C*O*W is Chai Latte with White Chocolate Cinnamon Buttercream frosting. I thought they'd be so cute in their little red Asian-inspired wrappers with golden dragons. I sprinkled gold metallic sprinkles on top to match, but I'm dissapointed in the sprinkes. They look gold and sparkly in the bag! It's always something . . . .

The cupcakes were dipped in homemade caramel before frosting them I am keeping my fingers crossed that the icing doesn't slide off the caramel overnight on on the drive to work. It seemed to set up, but you never know. You can almost see the caramel in the photo if you look closely (and know what you're looking for).

Strawberry Field C*O*W

After not baking COWs for 2 weeks, I sort of struggled with what to do this week. I wanted to use my strawberry filling, so that pretty much made the decision simple.

So, I present to you this week's COW. Strawberry cake with strawberry filling piled high with vanilla buttercream icing. Sort of simple, but there you go!

I am liking these Debbie Meyer pans less and less with each use. Even with lowering my baking temp to 325 degrees, they still seem to burn the bottoms! I am convinced it is the dark surface of the pans. If I could only get the indentation gizmo to fit other pans, I'd be a happy baker.

"Hello, Yellow!" C*O*W

"Hello, Yellow!" Something simple this week . . . going old school with the all time favorite . . . luscious yellow cake generously frosted with homemade chocolate frosting. I did manage to hide some chocolate filling inside, though! This cake was always a popular choice for the good, old fashioned birthday cake. So they say, but I don't know by who. It certainly wouldn't be my favorite. My favorite birthday cake wasn't a cake at all, actually, it was (and still is) rhubarb pie!

I have so many different styles of cupcake papers, but I find myself always using the ones I like best, the brown wrappers. But, this time I decided to pick a "fancy" style. I find when you bake directly into these designed wrappers, though, that the cake shows through and sort of ruins the design of the papers. I decided to bake these cupcakes in my basic white glassine paper liners, and set those inside of the fancy ones. Works much better!

I also tried a new pan called the "Debbie Myer Cupcake Genius". It's a typical cupcake pan, but has a frame that fits over the top and bakes a cavity into each cupcake that you can fill with any kind of filling you'd like, from candy (think a mini peanut butter cup, rolo, etc.), chocolate chips, or your usual raspberry, lemon, or chocloate type fillings. Interesting idea. I usually use a pastry bag and bismark tip to fill them, but I was never sure I was getting enough in each cupcake. This way you know what you're doing!

What my friends thought . . .

Deanne said: "There's nothing like a classic. Thank you!"

German Chocolate C*O*W

I had several people suggest that I make a German Chocolate cupcake - so I did. And I'm glad I did - I LOVE the frosting! All from scratch - toasted pecans, toasted coconut and flaked coconut. The cake has German's sweet chocolate grated and added to the batter. I slpit them and put a layer of coconut pecan frosting and topped that with a layer of chocolate frosting, added the top half of the cake, and topped that with more coconut pecan frosting, a burst of chocolate frosting and a chocolate fudge fondant heart. These remind me of the Girls Scout cookies called Samoas. Dee-licious!

I decided to pack these individually in cups to prevent the layers from sliding off each other. I even made little flavor labels for the cups. Here they are, all line up and ready to go . . .

What my friends thought . . .

Fred said: "This one is now officially #2 after the Pineapple Upside-down COW"

Rhonda: "This is my 2nd favorite, after the Bananna-Rama" (I agree!)

Nousha and Laila: "This is definitely our favorite of all times!!"

Nancy thought it was one of the best desserts she'd had.

I think more people have loved this one than any of the others! The addition of the chocolate frosting was what put it over the top, I think. Definitely rich and decadant!

Home Grown Tomatoes!

Talk about your edible delectables!! Home grown tomatoes are definitely TOPS on my list! These luscious beauties were a heavenly gift from my friend Liz (I need to work on keeping her on my good side - I hear she has BASIL too!) I swear I will eat these until they are gone, non-stop, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I sliced these up and topped with goat cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. YUM! As you can see, I didn't like them much! ;-}

I think what makes these tomatoes extra special is the supervision they received from Angel Scooter. I have a feeling theirs is one garden that will have some extra love from above, for ever after.

Mint Brownie Cup C*O*W

So, for my second attempt at my weekly COW (see the In-edible Delectable post below) I made Mint Brownie Cups. These are moist fudge brownies, with a peppermint patty layer inside. I topped it with a swirl of fudge icing and a sliver of mint patty. Luckily, I only had to make a dozen COWs this week, so having to come up with a back-up COW wasn't too difficult.

In-Edible Delectable!

So much for my lovely C*O*W! I had such high hopes for my Salted Caramel Cupcakes! But, it was not to be - and this photo shows the best of the bunch! Even the caramel that was meant to swirled through the icing flopped. The sugar melted ok, but when I added the cream, theo whole thing turned into a giant hard ball of glop. What a waste of ingredients! :-{

Good thing I have a backup plan. On to the Mint Brownie cups . . .