Crostata two ways

"A crostata is an Italian baked dessert tart, and a form of pie. It is traditionally prepared by folding the edges of the dough over the top of the jam/marmalade filling, creating a more "rough" look, rather than a uniform, circular shape" - Wikipedia

Before Baking =) 

So we made these for girls night. It was experiment inspired by a few of Giada's recipes.

Apricot

1/4 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup marscapone cheese
handful of dried apricots, diced.
1 refrigerated pie crust
sliced almonds for garnish

Pear

2 pears, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup marscapone cheese
1/2 lemon zest
squeeze of lemon juice
sliced almonds as garnish
Cinnamon, Nutmeg

They were alright. Nothing special. The apricot one was a lot better than the pear one. Probably should have used apples since they are a sturdier fruit.  

Yum.

This is Halloween

So my eyeballs were a hit last night. They were gone within 15 minutes of me being there and they weren't even on the main display table!

Scary Eyeballs-
1 box doughnut holes
2 bags white chocolate
1 bag lifesaver gummies
1 bag mini m&ms

Directions
1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler, add about 1 tbsp of whole milk and mix together. It should be a bit runnier than normal melted chocolate.
2. Remove from heat. Dip doughnut holes in white chocolate
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once all doughnuts dipped, refrigerate for about 30 minutes...
4. Take them out, assemble eyes as shown...

OVERALL:

Oh boy the fiasco of dealing with melted chocolate. I ruined 2 batches of white chocolate because I didn't know I was suppose to add milk for dipping. Once I added the milk we had, which was NOT whole milk and was a bit runnier than I would have liked. See how the chocolate looks more like a glaze? But anyways, That worked well and my roommate mentioned we could also use Oil instead of work. So thinking that I might as well see which one is better, we do the oil for the last batch... and it turns out horrible. It did not coat as evenly as the chocolate with the milk did. But everyone liked them... For added effect I got raspberry jelly doughnut holes. Yeah it's not accurate but it's awesome!

Cupcakes

Hope they make your day better =)

Best Ice Cream Sandwich

From Here
Best Overall

Epi Top Pick: Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Sandwich ($3.99 for a box of six)

Pros: The creamy ice cream with real vanilla flavor and the moist, spongy cakelike cookie won raves from the testers. "The ice cream is so fluffy and smooth!" said one editor. "The vanilla specks are not just for show, the ice cream tastes like it's made with a real vanilla pod; very natural," said another.

Cons: Thin in comparison to other competitors.

First Runner-Up: Nestle Super Sandwich ($2.50 per bar)

Pros: All editors agreed that this ice cream sandwich's 2:1 ice cream–to-cookie ratio was just right. Tasters also loved the incredibly creamy, milky ice cream and the coffee bean color and cocoa flavor of the cookie. "A masterpiece," commented one editor.

Cons: Cookie is a bit dry, according to several judges.

Best Nondairy: Organic So-Delicious Nondairy Frozen Dessert ($ 5.49 for a box of six)

Pros: This nondairy option was far more engaging than the other soy-based competitors. In addition to having a firm and dense filling, it actually tasted milky. The bars are also marketed as low-fat. "This one is my new go-to, even though I can eat dairy!" said one taster.

Cons: It's the most expensive of the winner's circle entries, and the filling has a slight eggnoglike taste.

The Other Contenders: The Bottom Three

Two out of the three nondairy varieties were voted the least favorite of all the sandwiches we tested. Soy Dream Lil' Dreamers had a grainy texture and tasted like edamame (soy beans). Tofutti Cuties' filling appeared foamy and had an off-putting orange tint.

Among the classic sandwiches, Dolly Madison's fared the worst: The ice cream was foamy and tasted artificial. The cookie was unimpressive—it tasted minty and like fake chocolate.

Kit Kat Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 4 kit-kat bars
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Directions
1. Cut kit kats into 1/2 inch pieces.
2. Combine sugar and egg until creamy
3. Slowly heat milk on stove.
4. Add the milk to the egg/sugar mixture SLOWLY and whisk while adding. (This prevents scrambled eggs...)
5. Return the egg/milk/sugar mixture to stove top and cook on low heat until heavy cream like consistency (coats the back of spoon)
6. In a separate bowl whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
7. Add the vanilla and fold in.
8. In the ice cream mixer combine the egg/sugar/milk mixture and the heavy cream into the ice mixture.
9. spin for 30 minutes. (add kit-kats about 5 minutes before ice cream is done.)

Overall: I made this with my new roomie and his ice cream maker. This was very creamy ice cream. We were using the good old Ben & Jerrys recipe book... from the 1980s. It said to use raw egg, so we modified the recipe and tempered the egg... (not even sure if I spelt that right). The recipe book called for 1/2 inch kit-kat bits but I would have cut them smaller. Also, roommate suggested that the ice cream was 'eggy' but in the same moment, other roommate didn't realize that egg was in the mixture but I would try to modify that because I did taste it. Not to mention there was a weird coating on the roof of your mouth when you ate this. Not sure what, but I would restructure this recipe before making again....

Chocolate, Coffee, and... Peanut butter milkshake?

Yes, so this was an entry sitting in my "drafts" for a while simply because I made this way back in may with my sister and haven't even looked at posting this... but I should.

• 3 scoops Vanilla ice cream
• 1/4 cup brewed coffee
• handful of chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp peanut butter

You should know my measurements are never exact and I think playing with what is available is always fun. We happened to have a smidgen of vanilla ice cream left and used the rest of the ingredients because they were almost empty and taking up space in the fridge. Always fun. But this is a very nice, smooth, and a tab rich for a milkshake. Not healthy by any means =)

Rice Pudding

I am alive, I know!

Quick explanation: Old apartment was a mess and I hated cooking because it meant that I not only had to clean my mess but I also had to clean up the mess my roommates left. I got tired. But I did recently make Rice pudding.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch glass baking dish.

In a large bowl, stir together first 7 ingredients. Spoon into prepared baking dish. Place baking dish in a large pan; pour water into the pan to a depth of 1-inch. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until lightly browned and set. Combine cinnamon and nutmeg; sift over top of pudding. Cool slightly and cut into squares to serve.

OVERALL:Hmm. So I've never had rice pudding and this was the first time I've made/tried it. Not a fan. The texture freaks me out a little. But the taste was wonderful. I would suggest mixing it up before you serve it though lol.

Toffee Cheesecake

Gingersnap crust:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 1/2 cups ground gingersnap cookies (about 7 1/4 ounces)
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar

Cheesecake:

• 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 5 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel topping

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 4 1.4-ounce English toffee candy bars (such as Heath or Skor), chopped

For gingersnap crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 9-inch springform pan with 2 1/2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Stir ground cookies, butter, and sugar in medium bowl until moist clumps form. Press cookie mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. Wrap outside of pan with 3 layers of heavy-duty foil. Bake crust until firm and beginning to darken, about 14 minutes. Cool crust. Maintain oven temperature.

For cheesecake:
Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in butter, then eggs, 1 at a time, until just blended. Beat in vanilla. Pour batter over crust in pan. Place springform pan in large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake cake uncovered until filling is puffed around edges and moves slightly in center when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove pan from water; remove foil. Place hot cheesecake uncovered in refrigerator overnight.

For caramel topping:
Stir sugar, water, and lemon juice in large saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until mixture turns deep amber, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with wet pastry brush, about 9 minutes. Add cream (mixture will bubble). Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until reduced to 1 1/4 cups, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Chill until thickened but still pourable, about 15 minutes.

Spoon caramel over top of cake just to edges (do not allow caramel to drip down sides). Garnish top edges with chopped English toffee. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours.

OVERALL: Okay so, No I did not make the caramel topping, instead I added about 1/2 cup of chopped toffee candy. It turned out really good. It was not as smooth as I wanted, probably because I forgot to add the butter (oops), but my friend who I gave it too as a birthday cake enjoyed it. Next time I would add more toffee to the cheesecake and probably just buy some caramel to melt and pour on top... But it was very good.

Also, no pictures because I fail, so the photo is the stock photo from the original recipe.

Chocolate Chili Cookies

Chocolate Chili Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup melted butter
  
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup coco
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chili powder

1. Combine dry ingredient in bowl.
2. Add butter & chocolate chips make sure butter is cooled so it doesn't melt the chocolate
3. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 14 minutes.

OVERALL: So these were suppose to be chocolate chip cookies. Then one ingredient led to another and before you know it, these babies were born. These were so freaking good. I brought them to my study group the following day and were gone within 10 minutes of me getting there. The only thing I would do differently is play with the amount of chili powder, maybe adding some more because you couldn't taste it. But over all these were wonderful

Now I leave you with Cookie Porn...

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice cream

So for Christmas my grandma got our family an ice cream maker:


Behold! The wonderful ice cream maker. Sadly, I don't live at home so I haven't gotten to use it since Christmas because I haven't been home. What a waste of a beautiful machine too. My mom and sister don't eat sweets and my step dad will have a sweet tooth once in a blue moon. But I wasn't allowed to bring it home.

So my first experience with an ice cream maker was a blast. My mom and I spent the time catching up and having a great time. We made Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

• 4 oz egg beater
• 2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup pureed strawberries
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Optional: So if you want some texture in your ice cream you can add chocolate chips, quartered strawberries, whatever you would like in your strawberry ice cream.


Directions:

Note: You have to put the metal canister in the freezer for a LONG time, we left it in for like 24 hours so it was nice and cold.

1. Cream together egg beaters and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add in cream, cream cheese, pureed strawberries, and vanilla.
3. Mix thoroughly.
4. Once everything is mixed, set up the ice cream machine and have everything ready to pour into canister. Once you take the canister out of the freezer it starts to thaw, which is bad because the cold canister is what freezes the ice cream.
5. turn on machine. leave for 30 minutes.
6. Ice cream is going to be custard-y once done. Put in a container and freeze for a few hours if you want it harder.


Overall: Honestly, this was just as fun for me to make as it was to eat. The ice cream was creamy and had nice flavor. I would have loved some chocolate chips. But it was fun. Wish I had this to play with. Do you know HOW many flavors of ice cream you can make?

Double Delights

So I feel like I haven't made food in forever!

That's actually not true, I've just gotten in a routines of making potatoes for dinner, maybe with a side of chicken. I should remember to make a post about my awesome potatoes. But for now, a bit of story time and two wonderful sweet treats.

One of the best things I can advise any new college student is to get into a routine or habit of hanging out with friends. Whether that's going out to dinner on saturday nights or having late night study groups, it's important to remember that socializing is a good thing. For me, I (normally) get together with friends Monday nights to watch House MD. We often have dinner, either I bring dinnner or some appetizers are already made. Lately we've had to put our weekly meetings on hold because of school conflicts. But the last week we met I brought along some Ginger Cookies:

Ginger Cookies:

• Box of Gingerbread cake mix
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• Optional: Butter cream frosting
  

Directions/Overall: BASICALLY on side of the gingerbread cake mix tells you how to make ginger cookies (soft) or gingersnap cookies (hard). I opted for the middle ground using only 1 tbsp flour instead of 2 tbsp, which would have given some crisy cookies. They were crisp enough that they didn't fall apart when you picked them up, but soft enough that they didn't break your teeth.

So my gimick was melting a little butter cream frosting and spreading a thin layer on top. Best to do this when the cookies are cooled. And then refridgerate. You only need a thin layer otherwise it's very overpowering.




Cut to Valentines day:

So my Valentine is across the world for the military. Instead of staying at home moping I decided to hang out with my friend, Tiffany and have a lovely smorgasbord of desserts. Honestly this girl bought chocolate cake, 5 different cookies, cupcakes, and strawberries. It was awesome. I decide to bring brownies (because I did not know the extent of her sweet tooth!) Here are my mint chocolate brownies (inspired by Sandra Lees Slow Cooker Mint Brownies)

Mint Chocolate Brownies

• Package of brownie mix
• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 cup confectionary sugar
• Andes chocolate mint candies
• 2 tsp mint extract (she used Creme de Menthe, which is fine but I don't know where to get that)
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:
1) Mix the brownie mix as the directions say.
2) Add in chopped Andes chocolates (it's okay you can sneak one :) )
3) add in mint extract (truth be told I don't remember if I added 1 tsp or 2. I would start with one, taste the batter, and if you want more of a minty flavor add one more tsp)
4) pour in 13x9 pan
5) In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, confectionery sugar, and 1 tsp mint. Use a hand mixer/whisk to beat together until smooth.
6) Add cream cheese mixture on top of brownie mixture. Using a tooth pick or a knife, draw in vertical lines to give it a marbleized look.
7) Bake at 350 (or whatever temp on the box) for the time needed for the pan size.

Overall: Yeah these were awesome. I very much enjoyed the cream cheese layer. Yummy.

Grandpa' Joe's Cheesecake

Sorry I've been gone for a while. My boyfriend is in town and I'm spending as much time with him as I can before he leaves for Japan for 2 years. I've been bragging about a cheesecake my grandpa made when I was little. We just called it Italian Cheesecake.

Grandpa Joe's "Italian" Cheesecake

3lbs of Ricotta Cheese
8 eggs (I did 2 eggs and 6 egg yolks)
1.5 cups sugar
0.5 cup flour
0.5 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
Graham Cracker crumbs.

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 425.

2. In a VERY large bowl beat the Ricotta until smooth. gradually add in the eggs, beating after every addition. Once the mixture is smooth, add the sugar and flour. Beat. Add the Lemon zest, vanilla, and heavy cream. The mixture should be smooth, no lumps.

3. Butter the sides of a large spring pan. Sprinkle the graham crackers over, making sure they stick. For a thicker crust, add more crumbs but make sure to press them down.

4. Pour in the batter. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven temp down to 350 degrees and cook for an hour. After the hour, turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool for about 10 minutes.

5. Refrigerate for about 3 hours before serving.

OVERALL: This is honestly my FAVORITE cheesecake ever. It's not nearly as sweet as cream cheese based cheesecakes, but is still smooth and rich. It would go great with any type of topping be it fruit, chocolate, or even a base for a pumpkin pie cheesecake. My boyfriend really like it, never having a ricotta cheesecake. But watch out, it's really not that healthy for you, so make this when you are having company over or giving some away because, trust me, you WILL eat it all if precautions aren't taking.

This recipe is very near and dear to my heart. I hope you guys try it and love it as much as I do :)

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

My favorite thing about autumn is Pumpkin. I love the smell, taste, texture, and color. Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin soups, so good. I've been saving this recipe for a while...

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Recipe provided by Skinny Chef

5 cups day-old cubed challah, brioche or whole-wheat baguette (I used Challah)
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground clove (I didn't have clove so I added some cinnamon. I have no idea clove was so expensive either...)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Non-stick cooking spray

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, spices and salt. Add the bread cubes and stir. Set aside and allow to soak for 4-5 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed by the bread.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F and coat an 8-inch square baking dish or 5-quart round Dutch oven with cooking spray.
Gently fold in the pumpkin and chocolate chips. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and cover with foil. Bake 35 minutes or until mixture is slightly firm. Remove foil and continue to bake an additional 10-15 minutes until the chips are melted and the top has darkened slightly.




OVERALL: Pretty good. This is my first time making any type of bread pudding. Its not as sweet as you might think, since there is no white sugar. But it is pretty good. I Love the little chocolate chips, I think that adds a much needed texture. Do not confuse this with the taste of pumpkin pie. So many people think pumpkin is normally sweet-- it's not.

Pumpkin itself is pretty healthy for you, Skinny Chef explains "Pumpkin has tons of beta carotene, an important antioxidant..." It's a shame the most people only experience pumpkin in sweet foods. It's actually part of the squash family and can be cooked in the same way as a zucchini most of the time. Only reason I haven't bought a fresh pumpkin is because they are expensive & heavy.. which comes into play up 3 flights of stairs!

I will definitely make this dish for an upcoming Halloween party and for SURE on thanksgiving.

Fruit Pie

This weekend I went home to celebrate my sisters 18th birthday. I wish I brought my camera to post the massive amounts of food. Since my sister loves eating healthy, there was a lot of fruit at the party, ergo I brought home a lot of fruit. I didn't want the fruit to go bad, because I know I tend to have a habit of forgetting I have fruit. So I tried to make something healthy. Here it goes:

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Cream Cheese & Yogurt Fruit Pie

Filling:

• 1 oz package of cream cheese
• 1 - 1.5 cup fat free yogurt
• 1-1.5 cup confectionery sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Crust:
I tried this recipe. I was stingy on the cookies so put a layer of non crushed cookies at the bottom and added the crust that I mangled on top.

Fruit:
Kiwis, Strawberries, Grapes, Anything you can think of!

1. Make the crust accordingly. If I make this again I'm just going to buy a premade graham cracker crust. I think it would taste awesome.

2. In a large bowl, mix the filling ingredients. It should have a pudding-like consistency. When the crust comes out and is cooled, pour in the filling. Add your fruit on top. Sprinkle some cinnamon for decoration.. and awesome taste



OVERALL: Again, wow. The filling is really awesome. It has a wonderful flavor of vanilla with a little zing of lemon. The texture is creamier than yogurt but still light enough that you don't feel heavy after eating. When you are making it, make sure you taste the filling. I wasn't sure on the measurements as far as the Confectionery sugar and yogurt because I was adding yogurt if the mixture was too sweet and sugar if it wasn't sweet enough. But I hope this is healthy enough that my sister would eat this :)

Some other ideas, that I had half way through making this is maybe just having cookies on the bottom and the filling would soak up in the cookies? Sounds awesome to me.

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On a completely unrelated note, I brought back a crock pot. Anyone know any good recipes?

Gameday Smores and Exciting Prizes :)

So I joined a wonderful Food Blog Site, and I won a prize just for being there! It's actually the first prize I've every won (yay!). Above is the nifty little pin as well as a very sweet card.

Sadly I haven't had much time to cook. I've been trying to save money, dealing with relationship drama, and studying for my exams next week. Tomorrow though is the UF vs. Tenn game, and I've been invited to a few parties. I made some insanely good smores via Hershey's suggestions.

S'Mores Cereal Squares

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 4 (1.55 oz. each) HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate Bars, broken into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3-1/2 cups honey graham cereal
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows

1. Butter 8-inch square pan.

2. Cook syrup to boiling in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat or place in large microwave-safe bowl and microwave at HIGH (100%) 1 minute or to boiling. Remove from heat or microwave oven; add chocolate pieces and vanilla, stirring until chocolate is melted. Gradually fold in cereal until coated with chocolate. Fold in marshmallows.

3. Press mixture into prepared pan; refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Cut into squares. Cover; refrigerate leftover squares to retain crispness. 24 squares.

OVERALL: They are still in the fridge cooling, but OH. My. God. Chandler Bing. I nibbled on some leftovers on the spoon and it was so good. Plus it took about 5 minutes to make.

Sweet Potato Pie

So tonight I was invited to a wonderful Pot Luck Dinner, although there wasn't much dinner type foods. It was more potatoes and desserts. Having never been to one myself, I assumed everyone brings side dishes and main dishes and completely neglects my favorite meal: dessert. So I made something that disguises itself as a side dish AND as a dessert. Sneaky, I am. Turns out everyone had the same idea I did! It's cool. I tried some AWESOME stuff and will try to replicate. Next time, I'm going to make Chicken salad :)

Unfortunately I don't have my camera charger/USB cable, so I didn't take any pictures of the outcome. I used This Recipe

Sweet Potato Pie

1 (1 pound) sweet potato

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

1. Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.Uh no. I peeled the sweet potatoes and diced them into about 3 inch circles. This cuts down on cooking time. Also, how impossible must it be to take the skin off something that's that soft?
   
2. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.

OUTCOME: The pie was very good. I Don't think it was as good as the recipe I normally use, which I can't find at the moment. The pie was creamy, but not as sweet as I am use too (which may be a good thing). Now the kicker for this pie (ESPECIALLY ON THANKSGIVING) Is to add Jumbo marshmallows on top of the pie, let the marshmallows have a nice light brown before taking them out. That's what this pie was missing.

Image used from here

Stephen Mayper's Pistacho Cake

This cake was made for me by a really good friend for my birthday this year. I asked him for the recipe to make this cake for my mom's birthday. So here we go:
Pistacho Cake:
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 pkg pistachio pudding jello mix
4 eggs
1 stick melted butter
8 oz sour cream or plain yogurt (I Opted for Sour Cream)
1/4 cup canola oil (Used Sunflower Oil because i couldn't find canola in the house)

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (Not part of the original recipe, but added on because every cake needs frosting!)
1 8oz package of soften creamcheese
3 cups confectionary sugar
1 cup sweetened cocoa powder

Just mix everything in a big bowl, sprinkle cinnamon sugar in your greased pan, pour 1/2 batter, pour a thicker layer of cinnamon sugar, the rest of the batter, and some more cinnamon sugar.


it was quite a thick batter, not what I'm use to making.

to be extra special I added a heart for my mom's birthday!

This cake is insanely good. It's a heavier cake, so one to two pieces in one sitting. But for cake enthusiats it goes fast. The frosting was INSANE. I basically altered a vanilla recipe, hoping that the ratio of chocolate would be alright. It totally was. I only wish I had gotten to pipe more designs on the cake.

Mini Cheesecake Cupcakes

So this is actually a dessert! Sadly I made these a while ago, but I loved them so much and I stumbled on the recipe again, I had to post it.

Mini Cheesecakes

2 (8 oz.) block cream cheese

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Oreo Cookies

1. Soften cream cheese to room temperature.
2. Mix cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla together until smooth.
3. Place 1 whole oreo in bottom of foil cup, fill 3/4 full with cheese mixture (approximately 2 dozen).
4. Place cups on large cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
5. Refrigerate until served. Optional: Top with pie filling or fruit of your choice. (I opted for the Kiwi and Strawberry)

Overall: These are such a wonderful dessert. If I remember they weren't heavy when you ate them. But man were they addicting. The oreo at the bottom added a nice base and flavor for the cupcake. I sadly don't have any pictures without the wrappers on them. I suppose if you wanted to be health concious, you could use low fat cream cheese or something.

Peach Cobbler.... or Crisp?

So I bought store made pie crusts, waiting to make this dinner, but every time I've gone to make it, we've been missing a key ingredient. So this morning I decided to improvse a Peach Cobbler... or Crisp. I'm not sure the difference. Actually I think it's both.


To the right are the ingredients I played with:


1 Store Bought Pie Crust
1 Can Sliced Peaches
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Flour
1 tsp Nutmeg & Cinnamon
Butter...

Directions: Take the pie crust out of the freezer to thaw for 10 minutes (or however long the direction say on the back of the package).

In a medium Mixing bowl, combine Sugar, Flour, Nutmeg & Cinnamon (Looking back, I would have cut the cup of sugar and tried half brown sugar and half white sugar... just to see). Cut in about 1/3 cup butter. You want it to look coarse, it's suppose to be a crust.

Drain the peaches and dump them into the pie shell, spreading them out on one layer... then add the crisp mix ontop.

See? Easy right? Put in a 375 Oven for about 30 minutes....

Cooking away....

Overall: Sadly, the crisp wasn't crispy enough. I think I put too much butter in. Also, I would have seasoned the peaches themselves then they were drained with some cinnamon and nutmeg, maybe some vanilla. I really wanted to make a spiced peach cobbler/crisp, but I was too impatient to search for the spice that did that! It tastes alright, nothing spectacular.

Cherry Buckle

So my sister and I have been watching Food network of late. My favorite show thus far is Semi-Homemade with Sandra lee. The other day we watched an easy to make recipe for something called a Cherry Buckle... something I've never heard of. It was so easy to make and WONDERFUL to eat.
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Pear and Cherry Buckle

1 (26-ounce) can cherry pie filling
2 (15-ounce) cans diced pears in syrup
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
1 (1.19-ounce) packet maple and brown sugar instant oatmeal
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Whipped topping, for serving

Spray a 5-quart slow cooker(Mmm... crock pot meals) with butter-flavored cooking spray (we used regular Pam) and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine pie filling, pears, and almond extract. Pour into prepared slow cooker. Sprinkle cake mix over fruit mixture. Dot with butter. In a small bowl, combine oatmeal packet and almonds. Sprinkle over cake mixture. (For this part we just poured Cherry filling, pears, cake mix, and oatmeal in the crock pot. Less Cleaning. We didn't use almond extract or almonds at all)

Place 8 paper towels over slow cooker bowl and secure with lid. (This helps to trap steam.) Cook on LOW setting for 4 to 6 hours. Do not lift lid to check cake for the first 3 hours. (It's SO tempting)

Serve warm with whipped topping.

I'm learning on the photos. I didn't get a good shot of the dessert on plates because it was gone WAY to quickly.

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