And we are giving away an incredible Cupcake Prize Pack valued at $565! Sweet!

Hey, there’s a cake pop in my cupcake! Not a bad problem to have.

To create these, I make 24 cupcakes and use half of them to create the cake pop balls that top the cupcakes.  I frosted my cupcakes with chocolate frosting to coordinate with the cute Bella Cupcake Couture cupcake wrappers, but you could use any frosting that you would like.  For the cake pops I used a vanilla frosting, as a chocolate frosting would change the pink velvet look.   Use whatever works best for you, be it store bought or homemade!

For more detailed information on how I make cake pops,
as well as tips, tricks, resources and advice, visit this post.

And for more fun cake pop & cupcake combos,  check out…

Devil’s Food Pink Velvet Cake Pop Cupcakes

Oreo Truffle Stuffed Cupcakes

There are lots of other great blogs sharing cupcake recipes as part of the Cupcake
Couture Blog Party!  Make sure to head over to these fantastic blogs to see
what sweet treats they have for you.

An American Cupcake in London Bella Cupcake Couture

Chronicles of a Foodie

Crazy for Crust

Creative Food

Cupcakes Take the Cake

Diary of a Mad Hausfrau

Eat Your Heart Out

Haniela’s

Hoosier Homemade

In Katrina’s Kitchen

Inside BruCrew Life

Java Cupcake

Love From the Oven

Make Bake Celebrate

Not Just a Mommy

Sugar Daze

Sugar Swings! Serve Some

The Baked Equation

The Baking Cup

The Decorated Cookie

Now I did mention an amazing giveaway, right?   Here you go!

Thanks to our amazing Prize Pack sponsors for their generous donations!
Please, visit their websites to see more of their fabulous products!

Cupcake Stand

Java Cupcake

Lil’ Punkin Creations

Sweets & Treats Boutique

To enter to WIN this Prize Pack, simply fill out the entry form below.

Contest opens 21May13 at 0700 PST and closes 27May12 at 2359 PST. One winner will be chosen and announced within 24 hours of the contest ending. Winner will be contacted via email to claim their prize.

This contest is open to residents of the USA and Europe only.   Void where prohibited by law.  This giveaway is a sweepstakes, no purchase necessary and a purchase will not increase your chances of winning.   Odds of winning depends on number of entries.    Winner will be selected at random.   Giveaway sponsors are responsible for fulfilling the winners prize, not Love From The Oven.

This recipe comes from my Double Dark Chocolate Cookies I made last year when I wanted to see how cookies would turn out if you replaced half the butter with Greek yogurt.  The answer is they turn out all kinds of awesome and stay super moist and chewy for days.   To heck with the fact that you cut out some fat and added some protein, it’s worth it just for the end result.  If you need to make cookies a few days in advance (or just love a chewy cookie) I can’t recommend this recipe enough.

Due to the Greek yogurt, the cookie dough is very sticky.   And right out of the oven they are almost brownie like.   To me, these cookies are at their best the next day.  I made my batch on Saturday morning, and here on Monday afternoon they are still fresh and fantastic.

I used Semi-Sweet Chocolate Snow Caps (found at Target) and white chocolate chips in mine, but you could really use anything that you wanted to.   Once you have that great base cookie recipe, feel free to get creative with your mix-ins.

Like a cookie that looks perfect with lots of chips on top?  In addition to mixing them into the dough, pop some on to the tops before baking.

When I first made these with Greek yogurt, I also used white whole wheat flour.  They totally rocked.  They are however even more decadent with all purpose flour, but by all means, go for the white whole wheat if you want.   I do find that chocolate baked goods using whole wheat flour seem to change in texture over the first few hours and I almost always prefer them the following day.

I make these, and all my chocolate recipes that call for cocoa, with dark chocolate cocoa.  I am a big dark chocolate fan, so it’s my default.  I’m sure these would be delicious with regular cocoa as well.    Here’s the recipe.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Craving more chocolate cookies?   Here are some great recipes to try…

Double Dark Chocolate Cookies (the original version of this recipe made with whole wheat flour)

Creative Cookie Dough Mix Ins.  Make your own dough or buy store bought, there are so many great things you can mix in to shake up your cookie recipes!

Hot Cocoa Cookies (seriously, these are incredible!!!)

My very favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Recipe.  This has been a holiday staple in our house for over a decade.  If you love chocolate and peanut butter, you must make these.  Period.

A totally decadent giant Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe inspired by Levain Bakery.   These are like pulling out the big guns of chocolate cookies.

Have a delicious day!

Trying to decide on what color frame to use.   As you can see, I’m all about the bright pops of color.       To download a free copy, head over to the free printables page.   And just an FYI, www.lovefromtheoven.com doesn’t appear on the printable itself, only the graphics on the site.  Enjoy!

You should probably make these.   And you can serve them straight from the pan like this…

But I highly recommend topping them with a scoop of ice cream and a little more caramel sauce.  I mean if you are going to serve an over the top brownie, go completely over the top.  A La Mode, baby!

These are super simple.  They start with a box brownie mix.  Growing up on box brownies (versus from scratch, not like we ate brownies for breakfast), I kind of have a love from them.  If you want to go with homemade, this is my favorite homemade brownie recipe, just leave out the peppermint cookies and candy canes.    When making box brownies, I often add a 1/2 tsp baking powder (to help give a bit more rise) and a tsp of vanilla.

In addition to your brownie base, you will want to have some toffee bits and pieces.   I found these from Heath at my grocery store.   If you want to add caramel to the brownies (optional, but I say go for it), I like the Kraft Caramel Bits combined with a bit of whipping cream.

Make your brownie batter according to the directions/recipe.   Once you have your brownie batter made,  want to smooth a small amount over the bottom of your pan (bake in whatever size pan your recipe/mix calls for).

Once you have a layer of brownie batter down, sprinkle with your toffee bits.   Now, I will add a disclaimer that my toffee bits did seem to lose their consistency and melt into the brownies, but they left the very distinct flavor.   However if you want the crunch, it may be best to save these for the top.

If you are adding caramel, warm it up and drizzle on.   I use approximately one cup of Kraft Caramel Bits along with two tablespoons of whipping cream, and microwave for one minute, stirring every few seconds after 40 seconds.

Cover with the rest of your brownie batter and bake for HALF of the time recommended on your box/recipe.   At the halfway point, pull them out and smother the top with your toffee pieces.   This will allow them to sink into the brownies, but not totally melt.   Then back into the oven it goes for the rest of the recommended baking time.

When you pull them out, let them cool for a bit, but then if you like a nice warm brownie, dish ones of these babies up along with a scoop of ice cream and some caramel or chocolate sauce.  Divine.

Just the right amount of fudgey goodness if you ask me!

Can’t get enough brownies?   Check out some of my other favorite brownie recipes…

S’mores Crunch Hazelnut Spread Brownies

Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Biscoff Brownies

Brownies Made With Greek Yogurt

Birthday Cake Oreo Brownies

Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Brownies

Caramel & Chocolate Chip Brownies With Pretzel Crust

Peanut Butter Pretzel Filled Brownies

Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Brownies With Peanut Butter Buttercream

Brownie A La Anytime – Single Serve Microwave Brownie A La Mode

If you can’t tell, I LOVE brownies.

I have shared before what apraxia is as well as talking about The Childhood Apraxia Of Speech Association of America. In short, apraxia is a neurological disorder that affects motor planning, making speech hard for some kids and almost impossible for children such as Grace. She works every single day, in therapy and at home, to find her voice. It is an incredibly slow process.  While many three year olds spend their mornings at the park or having playdates, five days a week our girl is working hard with therapists (our amazing, incredible therapists!), trying to find her voice.   You can read an in depth interview I did over at HerScoop, discussing our journey through adoption and now apraxia.

As I said, this is a very personal mission. There is nothing I want more in life than to know that someday this little girl with the great big personality will be able to express herself and find her voice. I never realized how much we take for granted our ability to communicate.   Our ability to… tell people what we want to eat, that we don’t feel good, that we are afraid of the dark, that we are cold, that we are thirsty, that we can’t find our favorite toy, to ask another child to play with us, to tell Santa what we want for Christmas, to tell Mom why we are sad, to tell Dad we made a new friend, to ask for help, anything and everything.  For now we do everything we can to tune in and figure out what she’s thinking.  We use a picture exchange system where she can give us photos of what she wants and in a few months she will hopefully receive an augmentative communication device to help “speak” for her.

Some children with apraxia are able to use sign language to communicate, while others like our daughter, struggle just as much with sign language as they do speech.   The brain formulates the thought and motor planning helps carry it out, either through speech or sign, and for Grace, sign language is every bit as hard, if not harder than speech is.   At age three, she speaks fewer than ten words, but she tries all day, every day, to communicate with us.  Her motivation (and stubbornness!) is huge, and hopefully will serve her well on this journey.

But Grace is so much more than apraxia…

A few photos from the recent Arizona Apraxia Walk, where we raised money for and awareness of Apraxia…

I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to read this post and learn about apraxia.  I thank you for now maybe understanding why one child may not say hello at the park, why another may not say thank you when handed Halloween candy, why one “talks funny” or why another carries an electronic “talker” that they use for speech.   I truly believe that awareness helps breed acceptance.  Tomorrow my older daughter will be telling her 3rd and 4th grade classmates about apraxia, and raising awareness at her school.   She knows her little sister has a long road ahead, she worries about her being an easy target for bullying, and is doing what she can to educate others in hopes of creating a more accepting environment for her one day.    That is one of the silver linings of this journey, the understanding, empathy and desire to help others that living such a life brings into your home.

I leave you with a video that does an incredible job of sharing the feelings that we have as parents when it comes to apraxia, and why it matters so much for us to do what we can to help.