Category Archives: Desserts Galore

mint bark 1

St. Patrick’s Day Mint Bark… It doesn’t get more simple than this!

Hope you had a great weekend! The boy and I decided if we were going to make a St. Patrick’s treat this year, we needed to do it before our crazy week began. We came up with a few sweet ideas, and this is what he picked. I knew better than to argue with the boy. He loves to eat this (what’s not to love?) and it’s kind of become a tradition. I love it because it’s festive, takes little time, and requires very little brain power.

Here’s another thing to love… you don’t even need to measure. But if you must, the basic recipe is here. I just fill my large measuring bowl with chocolate chips (about 2  1/2 cups) and melt in the microwave. Be sure to stir every 30 seconds until fully melted, otherwise the chocolate will seize on you and make you wanna cry. I spread the melted chocolate with a spatula on a cookie sheet that has been covered in parchment paper, and then add whatever we want on top before it sets. For these, we added green M&Ms, mint flavored Oreos, and shamrock sprinkles. You can put the pan in the fridge or just leave it out for awhile it set. Once set break it up and you’re done. It’s that simple!

If you want a little more mint-spiration, and have some extra time this week, these mint cupcakes and whoopies pies are fabulous! If you decide to make the mint chip cupcakes, use my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and this mint frosting recipe. And if you’re looking for a St. Patrick’s Day cocktail, this thin mint martini is perfect!



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heart 3

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats… Spread the Love

I made these a few weeks ago and they didn’t last long around our house. I didn’t want Valentine’s Day to go by without sharing these with you. I feel the need to spread the recipe love! These are a fun twist on the traditional treat and are quick to make.  It’s pretty much your basic rice krispie recipe with cake batter mix and sprinkles added. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how these would turn out, and I LOVE cake batter flavored treats. I just couldn’t imagine a rice krispie treat tasting like cake batter. These were really good and the cake batter flavor wasn’t overpowering. A few bloggers have increased the amount of cake batter mix from 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup and loved them. I thought they were great as is. You will literally spend more time driving back and forth to the store to get the ingredients than you will actually making these.

I know Valentine’s Day often inspires us to make amazingly decadent desserts for those we love, and if you’re planning something elaborate for your valentine, by all means go for it. I don’t claim to be a relationship expert, but here is my advice… Do not stress if you are short on time.  Skip the complicated dessert recipe, make a batch of these, and then spend the rest of your time planning for dessert after your dessert (if you know what I mean). The reality is, regardless of what edible dessert your whip up, your valentine is much more likely to remember the second course dessert.

 

Cake Batter Rice Krispies (Recipe from How Sweet Eats)

3 tablespoons butter

1 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows

1/4 cup white cake mix (original recipe uses yellow cake mix)

6 cups rice krispies cereal

1 1.75-ounce container of sprinkles

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Use a cookie cutter to cut out rice krispie shapes.



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Peanut Butter, M&M, Pretzel Bars

Happy Friday everyone! Okay, I know I’ve done a terrible job of posting regularly. I refuse to feel guilty about it though because one of my new year’s resolutions is to feel less guilty, less often, and since it’s only February, I’m still stickin’ to it (give it a couple of months). I’ve said it before, I blame it entirely on the Catholic guilt gene that I inherited from my mom. I’ve never even visited a Catholic church in my 38 years of life, but have been plagued with Catholic guilt…. God does have a sense of humor.

I’ve compiled a whole list of excuses for not blogging, first being the fact that my real job takes up most of my time (whine, wine, I know!). Secondly, I’ve come to the recent realization that the boy is never going to be 10 again, and I don’t want to look back and wonder where the time went. Then, there is the Naughty One who barks incessantly at me when I get on my laptop. I have to video it so you get the full effect. How did I end up with a blog-hating dog? It’s bizarre.

But I’ll stop here with the excuses because really they’re just excuses. Don’t you agree that even when life’s crazy you make time for what’s important? So here is the honest truth, I’m struggling with the whole blogging thing right now. I don’t do this for money (see, there are no ads), I don’t try to market myself; I’m terrible at networking, and I don’t have time to worry about my blog stats,…that’s not why I started this blog. I started this blog because I love to bake and learn from people who know what they’re doing. As things unfolded,  I realized that there is more to this than baking. It’s about trying to find the humor in my crazy life, and discovering the blessings that often come out of the insanity. It’s also been about connecting with other people who share my passion and finding people who have lived paralleled lives. You’ve given me hope for the next chapter of my life!

If you know me personally, you probably know way too much about me… Really, I’m sorry! I live in the details. Recently, I was with a group of friends and one alluded to the “back story” of my blog. Being the all-American girl that I am, I just don’t believe in censorship. In the blogging world, you can’t control who reads what you write, and that is a HUGE struggle for me. I don’t like feeling like I have to hold back. Hmmmm…. maybe one day, I’ll make the back story, the published story (wouldn’t that be fun?).  For now, I’ll try to work through my blogging issues and get back to baking!

There are sweeter things to discuss today… these Peanut Butter, Pretzel, Chocolate Chip, M&M bars.

I completely screwed up the recipe and added the peanut butter to the batter. The original recipe has you mix the peanut butter with the melted chocolate to drizzle on the bars. But you know what…. these turned out awesome! LOVE when that happens! One day I will learn to read a recipe in its entirety before jumping in.

One of the best parts of this is the pretzel, chocolately, topping! I cut these into bars and put all of the topping pieces that had fallen off in a bowl and left for work. When I came home, my mom confessed to eating it and asked me to make a batch of just the topping for a Sunday football party she was going to. We used yellow and green m&m’s because these were big Packers’ fans. We also added a cup or so of salted peanuts.

These would be fun to make with M&M team colors for a Super Bowl party, or an end of season kids’ party. Definitely a recipe worth repeating!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!

 

Peanut Butter, M&M, Pretzel Bars

Adapted from Food and Wine

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup peanut butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

One 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped

1 ½ cup M&M’s

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with parchment paper allowing paper to hang over sides.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter with both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. On low, beat in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and ¾  cup of the pretzel pieces, and ¾ cup of the M&M’s.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Press the batter down with a spatula. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until golden brown. The middle might be a little gooey but that is ok, the bars will set up. Transfer the pan to a rack. In a bowl, melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Sprinkle the bars with remaining pretzels and remaining M&M’s. Drizzle with melted chocolate.  Let cool until set.

Lift parchment paper out of pan. Use a knife to go around the side of the pan to loosen the bars. Cut the bars in squares and serve or store in an air-tight container.



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keepcalmbakeonblue

My Favorite Holiday Treats & Our Crazy Week!

Be prepared… I’m going to get all sappy and dramatic for a minute before we talk baked goods. It’s been a whirlwind of a week and I am mentally drained. As I’m typing this, the Boy is in the other room doing Face-time with his cousin and laughing hysterically. It’s truly the best sound in the world. On Tuesday, the feverish boy wasn’t getting any better, so Matt and I brought him in expecting to be sent home with antibiotics. We shared with the doctor that the Boy has been throwing up in the middle of the night quite a bit over the past six weeks (and yes, I realize there is something completely wrong writing about vomiting on a food blog).

The doctor was concerned and scheduled the Boy to have an MRI of his brain on Wednesday… scariest few hours of our lives. We got through it together, and thankfully found out that that the scan was clear. The Boy is on day 8 of a fever and we’re still trying to get to the bottom of it (hoping it’s just the virus from hell!). Talk about putting your life into perspective in a matter of seconds. When it comes right down to it, the only thing that really matters are the special people in my life. Not only have I been blessed with an awesome family that keeps me grounded, but also a core group of friends who are there through life’s unpredictable twists and turns. What I hope the boy takes away from this is knowing that his dad and I will always be here for him. The bond that the three of us share is one of the greatest blessings in my life.

Okay… Now, on a much, much lighter note (I promise!), here are some of my favorite holidays recipes. Hope you’re baking up something sweet t!his weekend!


 

Peppermint Whoopie Pies

Snowflake Cookies

White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Snowman Brownie Pops

Cranberry Bliss Bars

Peppermint Brownies

Chocolate Covered Oreos

 


Peanut Butter Chocolate Bark With a Secret Ingredient

Rice Krispie Cupcake Treats

Wishing you a weekend full of happiness!



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bark l 2

Peppermint Bark Cookies, Shhh…. I’ve got a Secret Shortcut


Hope you’re enjoying the weekend! I’ve been home with a sick boy all weekend. Poor boy is missing an important baseball tournament ~ five games in one weekend and I don’t think he will make any of them. Every few hours he wakes up from the couch and tells me he is ready to pitch in the next game. He calls his dad to hear a play by play of what’s been going on, and then he goes back to sleep. What’s a mom to do? Needless to say, my detox from carbs has come to an end and the KJ bottle has been opened. See this peppermint bark above… I’m stuck in a house with a sick boy, his naughty dog, and this. Take pity on me please.

I made these peppermint bark  cookies last holiday season after seeing a recipe in Gourmet magazine (original recipe posted here). I  decided to try it again with a secret shortcut. This time of year gets crazy, so I embrace any shortcut in the kitchen, as long as it doesn’t compromise the taste. Thanks to Betty… Betty Crocker that is, these cookies are even simpler and equally as yummy as the original recipe.

Here’s how it all comes together:

The secret shortcut involves using a package of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix. The only other ingredients you use are a stick of butter, an egg, a cup of chocolate chips, and a few candy canes.

The dough comes together quickly with little mess. The trickiest part is smoothing it out in the pan. If you take a handful of dough at a time, flatten in your hands like a pancake and put it in the pan, it works much easier than trying to spread the dough. Don’t skip the parchment paper in the bottom. It allows you to lift it out of the pan and cut it into pieces when it’s done.

Once the dough bakes for about 18 minutes, sprinkle a cup to a cup and a half of chocolate chips on it while it’s still hot and let it sit for three minutes.

After three minutes, the chocolate chips have melted enough making it a cinch to spread on top of the cookie crust.

Immediately, sprinkle with crushed candy canes, and if you like drizzle white chocolate over the top. Put it in the fridge for a half hour or so to set and then cut into pieces.

 

These cookies can be easily varied. Switch out dark chocolate for semi-sweet, add Reese’s or Oreos instead of candy canes… the sky’s the limit.

I’m hoping to take these to a party tomorrow night with some of my girlfriends. Crossing my fingers the boy feels better, or I’m going to be stuck with two batches of this yumminess! Someone come save me!!

 

Click here for the printable recipe.



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cinnamon roll cake

Cinnamon Roll Cake… All That Ooey Gooey Goodness in Cake Form

 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving week! I am almost finished with day three of my detox from carbs and wine, and let me tell you how much it pains me to even look at this photo. It is only because I’m already past the withdrawal phase that I can post this. I think it was the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and this cinnamon roll cake that put me over the edge… carb overload! And don’t think this is a long-term thing, I only plan on torturing myself for a few more days.

My sister, brother-in-law, and my niece came and stayed with us last week and we had a great time. My sis and I stayed up late one night in our jammies laughing and watching Cupcake Wars. What a blessing to just hang out and catch up with her. She is also a master chef in the kitchen, so I loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner together. She didn’t even get mad at me when we had to run out to the grocery store a half an hour before the turkey was done.

This cinnamon roll cake is both a dessert and a breakfast, especially if you’re a fellow carb-addict. This recipe has made the rounds in the foodie blogosphere for good reason, and this will definitely become a repeat recipe in our house. The boy and family LOVED it! It really does taste like an ooey, gooey cinnamon roll, but it’s way easier than homemade cinnamon rolls. This would make the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning. You can even make it the day before and warm it up before serving.

On a totally unrelated note, thank you to my friends and readers who have let me know about my spam-posting impostor over the past few weeks. I was in denial, hoping it would go away. It didn’t! And no, that was not me trying to sell you false eyelashes, or whatever else was popping up here. The boy has a whole theory about the spam posting impostor and he could be right (he usually is and that completely frustrates me).

Jen from Swank Web Design, who created my blog design, has updated everything and I think the problem has been fixed. If you are looking for a blog designer, I cannot sing her praises enough. I love working with her! She is so creative and incredibly efficient. While Jen was updating things, I had her add a section to my sidebar called “The Essentials”. Many of you have asked for my frosting, sugar cookie, and gingerbread recipes, which I know have gotten buried in my blog posts. All of the essential recipes are now right there, just in time for holiday baking.

Hope you’re having a carb-indulgent week for me! More carbs next week… I promise!

 

 

Cinnamon Roll Cake (Posted by Holly at Life as a Lofthouse)

12 servings

 

CAKE:

3 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Sugar

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1/2 cup ( 1 stick)  Butter, melted

TOPPING:

1 cup ( 2 sticks) Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

GLAZE:

2 cups Powdered Sugar

5 Tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

 

In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well , slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared 9×13 baking pan.

 

For topping, In a large bowl mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

 

Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.

 

FOR GLAZE:  In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.



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grave yard

Halloween Graveyard Push-up Pops

Our pumpkin carving party is this Friday night. It’s one of my favorite celebrations that we have all year. Good friends, good food, martinis, desserts, and prizes… it doesn’t get much better than that. I have some grand party plans, but seeing how it’s only a few days away, we’ll see how much I can pull off.

I’m serving Mexican food, a crowd favorite around here. It also happens to be the easiest dinner for me to put together for fifty or more people. But as much as I love Mexican food, cocktails and dessert are still what it’s all about.

The boy and I have been on a cake push-up pop kick for awhile, so we decided to create Halloween cake push-up pops for the party. The boy came up with the idea of  a push-up pop graveyard, so  this is what I’ve come up with… now to make a bunch more and a graveyard!

The push-up containers can be purchased from a variety of vendors. They can be purchased in bulk, but if you’re not in the market for more than 100, go visit Cupkate’s Event Design online storefront and buy them from Kate. She has them in stock. The goal of these was to keep it simple. The biggest time investment was making a Duncan Hines chocolate cake, pretty simple. I am of the belief that some occasions require homemade buttercream, birthdays, showers, and Valentine’s Day to name a few. However, there are other occasions where taking the shortcut is your best bet. This is where the pre-made icing comes in. Milano cookies were used to make the tombstones. I had black royal icing on hand to pipe on the cookies. As an alternative, the Food Writers made by Wilton, or melted chocolate chips or candy wafers could also be used for the design. The little candy bones are also from Wilton. We buried them in the layers of chocolate. Finally, we topped them off with chocolate candy rocks that we found from the candy store.

Want some more Halloween Push-up Pop inspiration? See what Christi of Love From the Oven created. I love the candy corn colored push-up pop! I might need to make some of those too.

 



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pumpkin bread

Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread and One Giant Pumpkin!

Last weekend we took our annual road trip to find our giant pumpkin. We’ve been driving out to Bate’s Nut Farm since Blake was a baby. It’s always a family affair.  My BFF Keri and her family join in our adventure too. The Naughty One was part of the fun again this year (I think she was more excited than the boy!). It ended up being quite warm, so we alternated between me carrying the Naughty One and letting her ride in the wheel barrow (and we wonder why she is such a little sausage).

Here’s our pumpkin. There’s a whole system in place to move the giant pumpkin from field to wheel barrow to car to the doorstep. I keep the weight of the pumpkin a secret, and we reveal it the night of our annual pumpkin carving party. It always hits the triple digit mark. All of our guests get to guess the weight, and whoever is closest wins a prize. According to the boy, my prizes aren’t all that great so I’ve got to come up with something new this year. He used to think I was so cool. What has 5th grade done to him? I have a week before our party to come up with some 5th grade approved prizes (that the little ones like too). Any suggestions? The adult prizes are so much easier, no one ever seems to complain about winning a bottle of wine.

 

I made up a batch of pumpkin bread this week and decided to use up my stash of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I chopped them up and folded them into the batter.  These mini loaves, like the Reese’s Banana Bread turned out to be a great combo.

This recipe is very adaptable, and the loaves come out very moist. You can substitute the peanut butter cups for chocolate chips, toffee bits, chopped nuts, or any other kind of baking chips and I think it would still taste great. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think the batter would also work well for pumpkin muffins.

 

printable recipe

Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini pumpkin pans*.  In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in peanut butter cups. Fill pans 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake approximately 40 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for ten minutes before removing from pans.

* I made 10 mini loaves from one batch.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

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