When life (or friends) give you lemons, make lemonade...cupcakes!
For a quick batch of really delicious, colorful cookies, the journey starts with a white cake mix!
Cake pops…those little balls of sweetness that are perfect for parties, wedding or picnics…in the shade, of course! They are one of my favorite treats to make and take to a potluck gathering because they pack a lot of bang in their diminutive packaging. But you need something to display the little cuties. I am always on the hunt for ways to display them. One day, while on Pinterest, I saw a super cute idea here and was doubly excited knowing that I had one of the little suitcases up in my workroom. Actually, I have them in pink, purple, orange and chartreuse – hooray! I also have them in different sizes. Add some florist foam inside, and some coordinating paper shred to hide it and you are ready to display. If you have different colors of the same size suitcase, you can use the same foam in the different cases. Let the party begin!
Ah…the donut! My first remembered experience with donuts is one of the Helm’s Bakery truck that would come around our neighborhood, stop and the driver would open up these wonderful, oak drawers filled with all sorts of delicious flavors of donuts! As kids, our parents would let us gather the empty Coke bottles from our house and drag them off to the corner 7-11, where we would get a few pennies per bottle. Back then, you weren’t charged up front for the recycling, but if you turned bottles in, they could reuse the bottle and they paid you for bringing them back. It was a great way for kids to earn a little pocket change. Sometimes we would buy 5¢ or 10¢ candy, but other times we would wait until the Helm’s truck came around to blow our “wad”. If you were lucky, they came down your street earlier in the day – then there were more varieties to choose from. Was anyone else so lucky? Not exactly as I remember (I believe the side of the truck was a little different), but what a beautiful sight it was coming down the street! Without getting into the uncertain beginnings of the humble donut, or it’s evolution, let me suffice to say that it is National Doughnut (or Donut) Day(formerly known as Doughnut Day), which was founded by The Salvation Army as a fundraiser to honor the women who served
Remember when we used to be satisfied with cupcakes with a little frosting, a chocolate chip cookie or plain old Rice Krispie Treats? It seems like forever ago. Now everything seems to need to be “stuffed with”, “topped with” or with something unexpectedly “tossed into” the mix. With each additional ingredient, those basic, traditional recipes seem to explode with more flavor and are stylishly presented with ingredients that not only compliment the taste, but make them photo-worthy as well. I have a recipe that was passed on to me called Peanut Butter Krispie Bars, but are better known as Scotcheroos. This recipe is a bit different, but a not too sweet take on the original, so far with rave reviews! Reese’s Peanut Butter Krispie Bars 1 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer creamy) 1 1/2 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup 9 cups Rice Krispie Cereal 12 Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, regular size First, put your peanut butter cups in the freezer. Measure the Rice Krispies into a large mixing bowl; set aside. Measure the sugar, peanut butter and Karo into a heavy-bottom 3-qt pan; heat on stove at medium temperature, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves (not gritty) and the mixture is smooth. While the peanut butter mixture is on the stove, take the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups out of the freezer, unwrap and chop each peanut butter cup into
Cake pops. My daughter reminded me that I had done cake pops before (here) and that I needed to do something different. But I couldn’t resist – I’ve found something really wonderful that I just couldn’t wait to tell you about…Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cake Mix! I really couldn’t wait because I’m very afraid that this is one of those seasonal things that may not be around for long and these are so yummy and make into such scrumptious cake pops with just the right tang to them. I felt the need to tell you to be on the look-out for Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cake Mix and Frosting! I found mine at Von’s in University City/San Diego, and I bought a few to have on hand for the summer activities that are coming up. I mean, what goes better with summertime than pink lemonade? Yep…that’s a bite out of the cake pop. I certainly didn’t have any problem getting Mike to take a bite out of one, as long as he got to finish it when I was done taking pictures. Keep your eye out for Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cake Mix and Frosting – delicious! Just in case you were wondering – no. Pillsbury did not pay me to rave about this new flavor. I really like it that much!
Is it a cookie? A brownie? A candy bar? Well, sort of, if you consider a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup a candy bar. For the sake of naming the treat, I’m going to consider it such…a Cookie Brownie Candy Bar! I would definitely call this a fully loaded piece of pure delight! Three treats in one. I tried, but I couldn’t figure out something cute to call it, so Cookie Brownie Candy Bar will just have to do! It follows along with one of those new-fangled “hidden” treats inside a treat, and I am especially fond of anything with brownies involved! Recently, I’ve made the Oreo Stuffed Cupcakes and the Oreo Stuffed Brownie – those are both delicious! But that’s one of the hazards of blogging…on to something different. When wandering around the web, I saw where someone had pressed chocolate chip cookie dough in the bottom of a brownie tin, placed a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, top side down, onto the dough and then added brownie batter over the top. I meant to pin the idea, but I got distracted and then I couldn’t find it. Don’t you hate it when you do that? I remembered that it used 1 1/2 pre-cut cookie squares, but I wasn’t sure about the temperature and how long to bake them…blah! Time for testing! So here’s the skinny on the not so skinny, but easy to make treat.
Recipes are best when shared, especially when friends share something super yummy and it comes with samples! Our family has a few deep, dark secrets…family recipe secrets, that is, that a certain one of my children (you know who you are) don’t like to share, so I am really excited when I ask a friend for a recipe and they will actually give it to me! Sometimes it comes with a story, usually anecdotal, that makes the recipe more fun. Thanks for the samples, Jeremy and thanks for typing up the recipe and sending it to me, Mandy! Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies 1/2 cus unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Dry ingredients: 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks Heat the waffle iron. In a large bowl, whisk the butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. Sir in flour, baking soda, and salt; finish by stirring in the chocolate chips. Coat the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Use a tablespoon to portion out a cookie onto each waffle square. Close the iron and cook until they begin to brown, about 1 1/2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool; repeat
Yet another Pinterest inspired recipe…I am determined to try things out right away and expand my recipe collection, or toss the idea away. Some people can snap a picture of something that looks really yummy, but the final taste doesn’t meet my expectations. A couple of weeks ago, I found a delicious looking cupcake using Mint Oreos: Oreos in the middle, in the frosting and on top. I didn’t have the Mint Oreos, but I used regular Oreos and made them for our family Easter party, and they were delicious. I had a little trouble with the frosting…all those crunched cookies had trouble going through the tip, and the pastry bag was already full, I needed to get out the door and on the road, blah, blah, blah…so they weren’t as pretty as I wanted them to be…you can see them here. Anyway, I was going to make the cupcakes again for the boy’s party tonight, but then I decided to try something a little different – Oreo Stuffed Brownies – and they turned out delicious! I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here’s what I did and it was really easy. For these brownies, I used two packages from a big box of Ghirardelli Brownie mix that I got from Costco, and prepared the mix according to the directions on the box. Spray the bottom of the pan with non-stick spray,
Have you ever watched little kids dish up food at a buffet and think to yourself, “They will never be able eat all that!”? I always have big plans, bigger than I seem to have the energy to accomplish. Last week I was busy making desserts for our family Easter gathering, mostly recipes or ideas that I found on Pinterest: Easter pastels dipped Golden Oreos…I used the leftover candy melts from the cake pops that I made…super easy! Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats. Yep…they were good enough to make again! Since I was trying to make desserts with things I had on hand, I opted to make Oreo Surprise Cupcakes…I was short on the supplies to make them minty. I was a little short on time and had a “lack of equipment” failure, but they were delicious! I will make these again. I also made cake pops, but ran out of time to take pictures. Megan and I made two batches…one with devil’s food cake and one with white cake. The chocolate ones were dipped in different candy melts and topped with graham cracker crumbs and crunched itty bitty marshmallows (the kind that go into hot chocolate) OR crunched up Reese’s Pieces. The white were plain with swizzled chocolate of a different color…sorry, no pictures of those. It was hard enough to take the above pictures at my brother and sister-in-laws, but
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