Cookies and Cream Cake, SAY WHAT?!

This is by far the best cake I have ever made!  I found it on Annie's Eats.  I love her blog, it is one of my main go to blogs for recipes.  The other of course being Pioneer Woman.  They can do no wrong!

I just followed Annie's directions step by step and ending up with the best tasting cookies and cream cake I've had in my life, and a very happy husband!

Sorry for the ugly cake platter dealio.  I had to use the one for transporting because we had his birthday dinner at my mom's casa.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I've been dying to make those and I finally had a legit reason to.  My friend Sarah is having a baby girl in October and over the weekend all of us Sunday School gals threw her a shower.  Thus...the baby pink lemonade cupcakes.

The recipe I used for the cupcakes I found here.  I also used her recipe for the icing as well.  I just decided to use 1 color instead of 2.  I also added a little bit of lemon zest to both the cupcake batter and the icing to give it a little extra zing. 

For the garnish I added pink sugar sprinkles and cut up lemon triangles.  I figured I had a whole lemon that was going to go to waste (you know, the lemon that I used a little bit of zest from) so might as well use it up!  I think lemon zest swirly things would be pretty on top too but I don't have a zester (I use a cheese grater) and I'm not that talented.

Lunch Break Cookie Making

Today was a slow day at work and I re-discovered Tasty Kitchen.  I wanted to make a dessert because we kind of ran out of ice cream the other day and apparently more ice cream is not in the budget for this month.  Time to get creative.  Lucky for my husband I tend to be the creative type  (otherwise I would turn into a monster due to the lack of ice cream) Insert smiley face.

I stumbled across this recipe for Nutella No Bake Cookies and lucky for me (and the keeper of the budget, who just so happens to LOVE Nutella) we had all the ingredients on hand.  *Cartwheel* 

Here it is:

• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• ½ cups Milk
• ½ cups Margarine
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pinch Salt
• ¼ cups Peanut Butter, Creamy
• ¼ cups Nutella
• 3 cups Quick Oats

Over medium heat, cook sugar, cocoa, milk and margarine. Boil one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, salt, peanut butter, Nutella and oats. Stir until combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls on wax paper and cool. Refrigerate. Eat. Repeat.

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I was able to make this, take the dog out for a potty break, and pick up Subway on my 1 hour lunch break.   Not too bad. 

I did not taste the cookies yet but the batter was delish!

Cookies N Cream Cupcakes

Oh yes it's ladies night
And the feeling's right
Oh yes it's ladies night

Oh what a night

Once a month we have a "Ladies Night" and this month it was my turn to host.  We did potato bar for dinner with fresh veggies and some dips.  My favorite was dessert though (surprise surprise).  I made COOKIES N CREAM CUPCAKES from scratch. Yum.

 

P.S. This is the tray I just bought at IKEA for $1.99

Makes: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I break them up with my hands)

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.  

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

I found this recipe here

Homemade Caramel Popcorn

Every Tuesday evening all the ladies from my Sunday School class come over for Bible Study.  We meet at 6:30 so a lot of the ladies are coming straight from work so I always try and have a little snack ready for them.  I'm always trying to think of something yummy yet inexpensive to make so I stumbled upon a recipe for Caramel Popcorn.  I already had everything needed to make it.  

Here is what you need:

1 bag of popcorn

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

What to do:

1.  Pop the popcorn. Separate the popped kernels from any of the unpopped kernels. You don't want anybody breaking a tooth. 

2. Prepare an area to receive the hot coated popcorn.  Layout wax paper on a cookie sheet and spray with cooking spray to prevent the caramel corn from sticking.

3. In medium sauce pan combine brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly. Stop stirring. Boil for (4) minutes. Remove from heat, stir in baking soda and vanilla. It will become bubblely. Stir until the baking soda is completely dissolved.

4. Pour over popcorn.  Stir thoroughly to completely coat the popcorn. Pour the caramel onto the wax paper where you already have your popcorn spread out.  Allow to cool...although I couldn't wait and it was really yummy while it was still warm.

Yum

My husband has a interesting great relationship with Nutella.  Even though he is a 6'4" man he eats his waffle with Nutella on it almost every morning like any 5 year old man would.  When I found this recipe for Nutella-Raspberry Crescents I just knew he would love them. 


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It was so easy to make these.  It took a whole of like 3 minutes and then I put them in the oven for 10 minutes.  You just need a package of crescent rolls, Nutella, and raspberry jam (except I used real raspberries). 

Instructions:

1. Unroll the dough onto your baking sheet (I used my Pampered Chef stone)

2. Spread some Nutella on the inside of the triangle.

3. Place your jam (or fresh raspberries) on top of the Nutella

4. Roll up your crescents (make sure you seal all the goey stuff inside so it does not leak out)

5. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes

YUM-O!

P.S. The weather here is giving me major spring fever...I just might be wearing a sun dress and flip-flops today

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

No finished projects for today.  The weather has been too cold to do anything outside, especially anything involving spray paint.  I learned my lesson the hard way with that!  Therefore, I have been stuck inside and here is the project I did for today.  Paula Deen's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies.  Mine are a lot darker and chocolatiar(is that even a word) than hers because I used fudge cake mix instead of just plain ol' chocolate. 

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

They go wonderfully with a cold glass of milk.  Hopefully you don't have an "Izzy" that jumps up on the counters when you aren't in the room that eats 4 of your cookies!!!  

Boy did she get it!  I tried to tell my husband that she takes after her mom and has a sweet tooth!