Blueberry Pie

From HERE:........

To HERE!

This is more of an "I'm proud of myself" kind of post! I won't be sharing the recipe with ya'll beacause it didn't turn out quite right.....VERY RUNNY.....good but runny. BUt the story of the pie........
My friend had told me that she had gone and picked blueberries at a u-pick farm and how much fun it was. So the next time she went she invited me along! So we went and picked almost 5 pounds of blueberries for $12! Not too shabby! I had heard that this recipe I used was soooo good, so I was super excited to try it. It called for 1 golden delicious apple which is kinda unique and I had heard that the apple is like a natural thickener......apparently not the one I picked! Plus I really wasn't so much of a fan of the apple in the pie....didn't really fit. But I did eat 2 pieces! THis was my first double crust pie and the crust turned out really good! Anyway....I'll have to try a different recipe sometime!

Cream Cheese Stuffed Strawberries

It has been a while since I posted something....I haven't baked much these days. Cupcakes when it's so hot don't sound so good!!!! But thses are a perfect, cool enough to eat in the summer treat! Just looking at this picture makes my mouth water!!! These are so good, easy to make and look pretty elegant, if I do say so myself! Try them!!!

The Recipe:::
2 Pints of strawberries
1 8 oz. packeage cream cheese
3/4 cup powedered sugar
1 t almond extract

1- Wash strawberries and either let them air dry or softly pat them dry. Leave the stems on them. Then cut the the ends of them like an x not quite to the stem end. Set them aside.

2- To prepare the filling: Beat cream cheese, powdererd sugar and almond extract. You can do these 2 or 3 days ahead to save time.

3- Put filling into a piping bag and gently insert into the x'd end of the strawberry.

4- For a delicious option you can drizzle chocolate on them!

                                                                                                     Recipe from: Our Best Bites Cookbook

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are amazing! They are so versatile.....sweet or savory.....add chocolate mousse or chicken salad! The ones I made I filled with chocolate mousse. They were so yummy! And really thought they were a quick and easy treat to make. I got the recipe from Our Best Bites cookbook.... which by the way is awesome! I'm so in love with it!

The Recipe:

½ c. water
¼ c. butter
1/8 tsp. salt
½ c. flour
2 eggs

~Preheat your oven to 400. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, and salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour all at once. Stir quickly with a spoon until dough forms a ball.

~Add one egg at a time, combining completely after each addition. The mixture will be very smooth and velvety
~Either drop the dough by scant teaspoons or spoon dough into a pastry bag and pipe them directly onto an un-greased baking sheet. Yes, teaspoons; they’ll puff up, but you also want them to be bite-sized. If you want larger cream puffs, you could use a cookie scoop to get a tablespoon of dough.  ( I tried some both ways and thought that he pastry bag way was not only easier, but they looked prettier and were easier to fill after they baked.)
~Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. ( I don't know if my oven is like super super hot or what, but I only cooked them for about 17 minutes and they were perfect......so test yer oven!)



Chocolate Mousse:

1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1 Tbsp. cold water
2 Tbsp. boiling water
½ c. sugar
¼ c. cocoa
1 c. cold whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a small bowl. Let stand 1 minute to soften. Add boiling water; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved and mixture is clear. Cool slightly. Stir together ½ c. sugar and ¼ c. cocoa in a medium bowl. Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat at medium speed, scraping bottom of bowl occasionally, until stiff. Pour in gelatin mixture and beat until well blended.


Refrigerate ½ hour and then spoon into icing bag.

This mousse is so good to just eat by itself too!

How to Fill:

Gently insert piping tip into the bottom of each pastry puff and squeeze filling into puff, being careful not to over-fill. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (or dip top in chocolate) and refrigerate until ready to serve. These are definitely better the next day, so it lightens your workload to be able to make these a day or two in advance if you’re throwing a party.

Strawberry Cheesecake

This cheesecake recipe is so delish! I got the recipe from my sister along time ago. It is super easy to make and very fast. And the straberry sauce I found on the Our Best Bites blog. I seriously sit with the container of it and eat it plain with a spoon!

Strawberry Sauce Recipe:

1 pint strawberries

1/3 c. white sugar
1 tsp. almond extract (my favorite) or vanilla extract

Wash strawberries and cut up some....if you want!
Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.
After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached.


This sauce can be used on just about anything...I had it on my pancakes one morning.....so nice and refreshing!

Cheesecake Recipe:

1 8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/3 cup sugar
MIX WELL
1 cup sour cream
2 t vanilla
1 8 oz. cool whip- fold into the rest.

See so easy! Thow it in a graham cracker crust and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours and voila!

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

I have never actually had Key Lime Pie....maybe I should try that!....but these cupcakes we absolutely DELISH! The lime flavor was perfect and the the buttercream frosting was just the right touch. ANd look how pretty it is!!!!!! You put a graham cracker crust in the bottom of each cupcake wrapper and that really makes the cupcake!  I found the recipe on Elly Says Opa! blog.

The Recipe:

Key Lime Pie Filling

8 oz. mascarpone or cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (9 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
5 oz. key lime juice

Place all ingredients in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and mix on low for 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and blend for 2 minutes.

Refrigerate the filing for 2 or more hours.

Graham Cracker Crust

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
3-4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Prepare 2 muffin tins with liners.

In a food processor, blend together graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add 3 Tbsp melted butter and pulse a few times. If it seems like it needs more butter, add the remaining tablespoon. Distribute evenly among cupcake liners and press down to form a shell.

Lime Cake

2.25 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.5 cups granulated sugar
2 egg whites
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. lime zest

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add egg whites, beating well after each addition. Add eggs, beating well after each addition. Beat in the lime zest until blended.

Combine milk, vanilla, and sour cream in a bowl, whisking until incorporated.

With electric mixer at low speed, add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, beating well after each addition.

Lime Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 8 cups powdered sugar
3 TBSP key lime juice, possibly more to thin out frosting
splash of vanilla

Beat together the butter, 3 cups of the sugar, key lime juice and vanilla on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency.

You may not need to add all of the sugar. If too thick, thin with more key lime juice. You can also use more lime juice if you want a more tart flavor.

WHAT I DID:

1-The biggest thing I did was I didn't use Key limes. They didn't have any at the store I was at and I didn't feel like hunting them down somewhere else. So I guess they're just Lime Pie Cupcakes! I don't know what key limes taste like, but the cupcakes were awesome with regular limes!

2- It takes ALOT of limes......they really aren't the juiciest fruit!

3- In the frosting I used about 3 1/2 Tablespoons of lime juice and about 5 cups of powder sugar.

SOOOO Delicious and PRETTY!

Pink Lemonade Crumble Bars

So GOOD!.....but kinda a pain in the old rear to make!!! It just was alot of bowls and honestly I think it was mostly that my kids were DRIVING ME NUTS! I personally couldn't really taste the raspberry in them, but they were really good! I found this recipe in my Family CIrcle magazine.

Igredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

5 large eggs

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam, stirred to loosen up

1/2 cup cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Grated zest of 1 lemon (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13 x 9 x 2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick foil.

2. Crust and Crumbs. Combine 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, almonds and salt in a food processor. Pulse to finely grind almonds and blend ingredients. While processor is running, add butter and vanilla. Reserve 2/3 cup crumbs mixture and press rest into bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, with your hands, blend remaining 2 tablespoons flour into reserved crumbs.

3. Filling. In a medium-size bowl, whisk sugar and flour. Whisk in eggs, then raspberry jam. Whisk in lemon juice and zest.

4. Remove crust from oven and pour filling over crust. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes. Sprinkle crumbs over top of bar and bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Chill before cutting into bars. Refrigerate until packaging or serving.

WHAT I DID:

1. I followed the recipe on this one except I used just regualar rasberry jam with seeds and I couldn' t even tell they were in there.
2. Just FYI- there is only one thing that I ever use Real Butter in.....I use I Can't Believe Its NOt Butter in Everything else.

Peach Crisp Cupcakes

I found this recipe on the blog 52 cupcakes, but I tweeked it  bit. I have this dream of someday coming up with a completely original recipe.....a time when I just know how much flour, baking soda, perfect flavor combinations.....you get the point. So this was my first attempt! I was not a fan of these to be completely honest. I felt they had way too much nutmeg in them. But my honey LOVED them! So they're worth a try!

The Recipe:

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp grated orange zest-

3/4 cup milk

2 peaches or nectarines, pitted and thinly sliced and cut into thirds

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffly. Add vanilla and orange zest, beating well. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk, beating until smooth. Fold in peaches or nectarines.
3. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated over for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.
Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

The CRISP part:
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

Mix into a crumble with a fork.
Put on top of cupcake batter before you bake them. Don't fill the cups up as much as normal because the crisp part fills them up some.
Top with whipped cream.
 

What I did::

1. I used grapfruit zest because I didn't have any oranges. I'm not sure it did anything....I couldn't taste it!
2. Instead of using the cut up peaches, I substituted a 1/4 cup of the millf with peach puree. SO it was 1/4 cup peach puree and 1/2 cup milk. I think I would even do 1/2 cup peach puree and 1/4 cup milk. I mixed the two together so I could add them at the same time. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting


This was actually the recipe for Red Waldorf Cake out of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Anyway....I had never had Red Velevet cake before. Everybody hyped it up so much that I decided it had to be on my list. Well, really it is just chocolate cake with red food coloring. I'm not sure why mine turned out VERY dark....2 oz of red food coloring!!!! All in all it was good. Probably not as good as people make it sound, but hey......who doesn't like chocolate cake?!!!

The Recipe:

2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ounces red food coloring (1/4 cup)

2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour or 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vinegar
Directions:

1. Allow eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease and flour two 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set pan(s) aside. In a small bowl stir together cocoa powder and food coloring; set aside. In another small bowl stir together flour and salt; set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla to shortening; beat until well combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating on medium speed after each addition until combined. Beat in cocoa mixture. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beating on low to medium speed after each addition just until combined. Stir together baking soda and vinegar. Add to batter, mixing until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan(s).
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, about 30 minutes for 13x9x2-inch pan, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans; cool thoroughly on wire racks. Or, place the 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with Creamy Frosting. Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Makes 12 servings.

Frosting Recipe:

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting-
 
1  8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 t vanilla
5 cups powder sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
 
Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla till fluffy. Beat in cocoa. Beat in powder sugar.
 

What I did:::

1. On the cake I used apple cider vinegar instead of white. I was watching Cupcake Wars once and oneof the groups said that they used it. So I figured if they were good enough to get to Cupcake Wars it was worth trying!!!
2. For the frosting....I used about 1 t of milk as well becaue it was way thick.
3. I also used Almond exctract instead of vanilla. I did get some compliments on the frosting so I guess that was a good trade!

Candy Bars

My sister told me about this recipe. They were so easy to make and soooooo good! Very fast for when you're in a rush!

The Recipe From About. Com- Busy Cooks:

•1/2 cup butter, melted
•1 pkg. two layer chocolate cake mix

•1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

•1 cup white chocolate chips

•2 cups chopped pecans OR coconut

•1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

•14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter and cake mix in large bowl. Mix with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over bottom of 15x10" jelly roll pan and press to form crust. Sprinkle with semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips and pecans or coconut.

In microwave on medium power, melt milk chocolate chips for 1-2 minutes or until melted. Stir sweetened condensed milk into the melted chips. Spread milk mixture evenly over nuts in jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely and cut into bars. 48 bars

What I did:

1. Instead of using white chocolate chips....because I didn't have any!.....I used Butterscotch! I love the change! I love Butterscotch!
2. I didn't use any pecans or cocunut. Just chocolate chips!
3. The chocolate/milk mixture didn't spread over it very well, so when you pour it on, just pour it around well and then when it cooks it spreads out.
4. These are great for a big group!

Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

VERY DELECTABLE!! These were so light and lemony and delicious! I'm making some cupcakes for a Relief Society thing at the end of this month, so I'm doing some experimenting!! After I get all my trials posted, I want ya'll to vote so I can see what you guys think would be best!!!
I found this recipe on The Sisters' Cafe blog:

Meyer Lemon Cupcakes


Submitted by Erin ~ The Sisters Cafe

Recipe from cupcakeblog.com

Makes ~28 regular cupcakes


1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup meyer lemon juice

zest of one meyer lemon
Preheat oven to 375°. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, beat to combine. Scoop into cupcake papers about half full. Place cupcakes in the oven and turn the oven down to 350°. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.


To assemble cupcakes: Fill cupcakes by cutting out a cone from each cupcake. Flip the cone and cut off the excess. Set the top aside. Fill each cavity with the tart cranberry filling. Replace each top. Frost with the meyer lemon cream cheese frosting. (I put the frosting in a piping bag with a star tip.)
Tart Cranberry Filling

Half of a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries

½ cup water

¼ cup sugar
Rinse and pick through cranberries. Add to a medium pan with water and sugar. Bring to a boil stirring to dissolve sugar. Let the mixture boil for ten minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight

Meyer Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

1 sticks (½ cup) butter, room temperature

¾ of a 8-oz package of Philly cream cheese

1 ½ - 2 cups sifted powdered sugar

½ tablespoon meyer lemon juice

zest of one fourth of a meyer lemon
Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Add cream cheese and beat until combined. Sift 1 ½ cups of the powdered sugar into the butter and cream cheese. Add the lemon juice and zest. Beat until combined. Add more sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like. I used 2 cups.

What I Did:

1. The main thing that I did different....which is a huge difference.... was that instead of doing the tart cranberry filling, I used the Raspberry filling stuff from the raspberry cream pie that is also on this blog. I just didn't see cranberries and lemon going together but it is probably delicious too!
2. I'm not sure what meyer lemons are, so I just used some regular lemons and I think it turned out the way it was supposed to!

Brownie Dipped Oreos

I first heard of this idea from my sister, but then I found a few food blogs with them. They were good, a little crunchy.....I was excpecting chewy soft brownie and one site even said that the oreo got soft, but I didn't think so. The yellow frosting was just a powdered sugar glaze......good with or without. All in all I think I would rather just eat a straight up oreo! But so fun to make and cute with " Holiday" oreos!

What I did:

1. Just make a box brownie mix.
2. Grease a muffin tin VERY well.
3. Dip the oreos in the brownie mix and put in mffin tin.
4. Bake on 350* for about 15 or so min. I would start looking at them aroumd 10 min.
5. The center may look like it's not quite done (mine did anyway) but it really probably is. The oreo in the center makes it look that way.

Raspberry Cream Pie

This was SoOOOOO DELICIOUS! A sit down with the whole pan recipe!!! Definantly a must try. I found it on the blog LifeShould Be Delicious.
Raspberry Layer:

2 packages (10 oz each) frozen raspberries, thawed
2 Tbls. sugar
2 Tbls. cornstarch

Drain raspberries reserving juice in a 1 cup measuring cup (sometimes I really have to smash the berries in a mesh strainer to get liquid out of them). Add enough water to measure 1 cup. Set raspberries aside. In a small saucepan combine cornstarch, sugar and raspberry juice mixture until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, cool for 10 minutes and gently stir in raspberries. *Can be frozen and used later*

Cream Layer:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 C. cold water
1 package of instant vanilla pudding (big or small)
1 8 oz. tub of cool whip

Whisk together sweetened condensed milk and cold water until mixed, then whisk pudding for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft set, fold in cool whip.

Using your favorite pie crust recipe bake crust then let cool (or you can cheat like I did and buy a Pillsbury ready to bake pie crust. It was by the biscuits in the refrigerated section). Fill with half of raspberry mixture then add half the cream mixture on top of it. Let sit in the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight to let set. Before serving top with fresh whip cream or more cool whip (I prefer fresh whip cream).

This is enough for 2 pies.


** If the raspberry layer seems like too much work you can just smash some of the thawed raspberries, add some sugar to sweeten them and put in crust. It just won't have the pie filling/jelly like consistency. It would be more of a fresh fruit consistency, but still yummy!


This is what I did:

• Instead of a reagular pie crust I used a graham cracker one. Definantly a must do!! It made it perfect!
• When getting the raspberry juice out, I only got a 1/4 cup of it and it was still great.
• I didn't put the whipped cream on top. I can stand on its own!
• I would definantly go through the work of doing the raspberry layer the way the recipe says.
• The raspberry layer will be fairly thin in the bottom, but don't worry....it's just the right amount.
• If you think you won't want two pies you are wrong!

Raspberry Truffle Brownies

These brownies were SOOOO rich! REALLY good, but not something you sit down with the pan! I found the recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything.
What I did:
~ First of all I used a Dark Chocolate Brownie mix. I LOVE dark Chocolate!
~ Then I bought Dove Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Chocolates, cut them up and put them in the brownie mix.
~ For the truffle part I got just plane Dove dark chocolate in a bag instead of the chocolate chips.
~ Then for the drizzle on top I used the Raspberry swirl chocolates again.

All in all VERY GOOD, but not something I would eat everyday....(Thank heavens). It reminded me of fancy resturaunt desserts!

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes.....

As you can tell, I'm a little obsessed with cupcakes right now! They are just perfect for eating, for sharing, for decorating......I just LOVE them! These cupcakes were inspired from a recipe that I saw on Three Sisters Cafe blog....CHerry Chocolate Cake. I dreamed them up and had to make them right away! And the outcome was SOOOOO WORTH IT!

What I did:
First I followed this recipe that I got off the Three Sisters Cafe~
1 box of devil's food cake mix
1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling ( I had canned my own last summer and used it...I love that I canned pie filling!)
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
Then: I put them in muffin tins. I baked them on 350* for about 16~17 minutes. I checked them after 15 minutes.
NOW for the Topping::::
I fisrt made a Ganache to put directly on the cupcake. This is the recipe:
1 Cup Whippping Cream
8 oz. of Chocolate (I used the Baker's Brand Semi-Sweet, but you could use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, unsweetened.....what ever yer feeling like)Coarsely chop up.

Bring the cream just to a boil in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Just let it sit there for 5 minutes, then stir it all together. Let it cool for 15 minutes, then frost the cupcakes.

This is what it looked like with just the ganache.

Then.....if they could get better.....You whip up some cream and pi[e it on each one. They really needed some kind of pretty topping like a marchino cherry dipped in the ganache and set on top.....oooooooh I like that! I may have to try them again with that!
The whip cream recipe I use is:
1 Cup whip cream
2 T sugar
1/2 t vanilla ( I actually tried use almond extract and LOVED it! I love the smell of almond extract!)

This may sound like alot of work but really so easy and SO worth all of the work! THey were just as good if not better the second day!

GLUTEN FREE Peanut Butter Cookies

(A.K.A Pop's Munchies)

This recipe is out of a If YOu Give A Mouse A Cookie book. They are sooooo good! Chewy, Soft, and so easy to make....3 ingredients!


The Recipe:
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix ingredients and roll into 1 inch balls. Cook for 10-12 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, make the crossy designs with a fork while they are still soft.

Better Than SANTA Cupcakes

I originally saw this idea at the Cocoa Bean in Idaho Falls. I LOVE Better Than Santa Cake.(THats what we call it these days since there are little ears!) It really is probably one of my all time favorites. Something with the carmel in the chocolate cake making it so ooey and gooey.....my mouth is salivating!!! So I Loved the idea of a cupcake....more ooey and gooey.

The cupcakes before the whipped topping.

What I did:
~ Made a box chocolate cake and made them into cupcakes. (I used applesauce instead of oil. THey trade straight across.)
~ Put store bought carmel into a pipeing bag. ( I have a tip that you use to inject things in.) You could also just poke the cupcakes with a toothpicka and put the carmel on it and it will melt down into the cake.
~ I whipped my own cream.....I have never done that before and thought it would add something special to it and boy did it! THen I put it in a pipeing bag and piped it onto the cupcakes.
~ Instead of skore bits, I used chopped up snickers. Jake had been wanting me to try that. I liked it just as well as the skore bits.
~ I kind of drizzled carmel over the top just to make it look pretty!

These are a must must must try! I made myself sick eating so many!

CupCaKEs

It has been way too long since I have put anything on this blog.....like a year! But my cooking wheels have been going again! One of my friends husband told his wife that he was enjoying the cooking war that we had going on because he got the benefits from both sides! Anyway.....I made the cupcakes below about the end of January. They were SOOOOOOO much fun to make, and they looked so cute......until the frosting starting melting. The cupcakes had cooled all night, so I contribut it wholey to bad frosting, which really didn't taste very good at all....like I scraped it off! The little "I love you" on top is out of chocolate. I just piped it onto wax paper, put it in the fridge for a little bit, then stuck it into the frosting. I loved that idea! THis is where I found the idea and recipe: http://readysetcraft.blogspot.com/2010/01/cupkins-valentines-edition.html


The things I would do/did different:
1- Just use a chocolate cake mix.
2- DEFINANTLY just use a basic buttercream frosting, not the one they use on the website.
3- I used raspberry jam....not sure how I feel about that....It seemed a little off to me, but I can't put my finger on why!

All in all it was a fun experiment that didn't turn out quite right, but was definantly worth trying!