Competitive Charity Bake Sale Recipes!

Chubby's Chocolate Chip Muffins

Definitely not a Weight Watchers Recipe. This decadent muffin is really dessert disguised as breakfast! Want to go completely overboard, frost with classic cream cheese frosting.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1/3 cup whole almonds, optional
4 tablespoons white sugar, optional



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
In medium bowl, Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl stir in milk, egg, oil and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to large bowl; beat well. Add chocolate chips and walnuts, stir well.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Poke almonds into tops of unbaked muffins. Sprinkle muffins with sugar.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Classic Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup real butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Whip all ingredients until well blended and fluffy. Using a pastry bag or a large spatula, swirl on top of muffins.

Winter Sunshine Cake

Fresh squeezed orange juice is the key to this deliciously moist cake. Garnish with candied citrus (I used tangerines just because that's what I had). Don't turn up your nose at cake mix, it's just flour, sugar, and leavening agents mixed up for you. You can still make a homemade tasting cake with mix.

1 18.25-ounce package yellow cake mix with pudding

1 cup fresh orange juice--fresh squeezed!

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs

GLAZE:

1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon fresh grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour, shaking out excess. Setaside. Place the cake mix, orange juice, oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and place on middle rack of oven.Bake until cake is golden brown and starts to pull away for the sides of the pan, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes more. Make glaze: Combine the sugar, juice and zest in a small bowl and stiruntil smooth. Place the cake on a serving platter and pour the glaze over the top, letting it drizzle down the sides. Let the glaze set a few minutes before slicing. Makes 16 servings.

PER SERVING: 258 calories, 3 grams protein, 37 grams carbohydrates,12 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 40 percent calories as fat, 0.1 gramfiber, 53 milligrams cholesterol, 226 milligrams sodium.

Candied Tangerines

1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

1 tangerine cut into thin slices

In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, tangerine and water to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage while continuing to stir occasionally. Strain out the tangerine slices and allow to cool on a wire rack positioned on top of wax paper to catch drips.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

This eggless chocolate cake recipe has been a family favorite for years. You can actually put all of the ingredients in a 9x13 inch pan and then mix with a fork, right in the pan! My mom once left the cake in the pan when she baked it! It's a Depression era recipe that just might work it's way back into popularity during the Recession. I made it in a mixing bowl and put into cupcakes for the bake sale. About 5 WW Points per cupcake, I'm working on a lower Points recipe. Stay tuned.

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Mix all and beat well with an electric mixer. Place in muffin tins. Or mix all ingredients in the pan and bake. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-25 minutes , or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Makes 24 cupcakes.

I frosted the cupcakes with buttercream frosting, half vanilla, and half with chocolate buttercream and pressed chopped Andes mints on top. You can find a basic buttercream on allrecipes.com (Sorry, sick kid here, no time)