Cookies

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Ingredients:

  3/4 cup packed brown sugar

  1/2 cup sugar

  1/2 cup unsalted melted butter

  2 large eggs

  2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  3/4 teaspoon baking powder

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  1 cup dried cranberries

  1 cup white baking chips

  3/4 cup oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat sugars and butter until blended. Beat in the eggs, cream, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add in in the sugar mixture, mix well. 

Stir in the cranberries, 3/4 cup chips and oats. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, space 2 inches apart onto parchment paper. 

Bake 8-10 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

This makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Hot Chocolate

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Ingredients:

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Dash of salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and salt together in a medium saucepan, add the water; mix well.Place over medium-high heat, boil.

Add the milk, and stir occasionally until the liquid reaches the desired drinking temperature. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract.

Pour into mugs and serve!

Whipped Cream

This is optional, My daughter loves whipped cream on her cocoa 

so I make this for her and add a few sprinkles to the top.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Chill the clean bowl of a stand mixer and the whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. 

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, 

(note: you can use a hand whisk and a large chilled bowl. 

Whisk all of the ingredients until medium peaks form.) 

Coconutty Caramel Chocolate Chip Brownies

Batter:

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

8 ounces (1 whole cup) melted butter

1 1/4 cups cocoa, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Topping:

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopper pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup caramel chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with Baker's joy.

In a mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into prepared 8-inch square pan. Add coconut, pecans, chocolate chips and caramel chips. Bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with toothpick, when inserted into the 

center of the pan should come out clean. 

Today my hubby and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary.

So, to make it special I made a cake for us.

I had been eyeing this recipe for quite sometime and I am glad I did it. 

This is one of the BEST cakes I have ever tasted,

Find the recipe here at Wilton's site:

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/White-Chocolate-Cake-with-Raspberry

Decorating tips:

*The recipe calls for White Candy Melts but I used white chocolate chips 

which made the icing more of a egg shell color...one or possibly one and a half bags of white chocolate chips should do it..and let them cool sufficiently before adding them to the cream cheese, otherwise you have runny icing that is hard to spread.

*For the shavings get a thicker bar of chocolate, I got a thin bar of baking chocolate and it made shaving this bar into curls very difficult.

**I'm certain this can be modified to use any other berry!**

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Pumpkin Butter Filling:

Cake:

1 box Spice cake mix

6 TBS sifted cake flour

4 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1/3 c. oil

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degree's.  Mix all ingredients together, beating for 2 minutes on med. speed.  Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into each cupcake liner and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks. Torte and fill cake with filling.
 I have used Dickson's pumpkin butter in mine.

Butter Cream Frosting:

1 c. butter , softened

4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

4+ Tbsp. buttermilk 

2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1 Tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice 

2 drops orange food color.

DIRECTIONS:

Whip butter until fluffy. Add in powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time. Mix in 1 Tbsp. buttermilk after each addition of powdered sugar, repeating these steps until the frosting is well mixed and hold peaks. Add vanilla extract and pie spice, and mix thoroughly. Use additional powdered sugar if needed to thicken frosting. Ice cake as desired. 

*Decorating tips:

-I have a lot of little fondants decorations on my cake as you can see here. Those we done using simple punch outs that you can find on ebay or amazon for cheap.

-Tutorials on how to work with fondant can be found on youtube.

-If you want to fill your cake, this is the link to tell you how to do that:

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/filling-cake-layers.cfm

I made this cake for the home coming even at our church and it was such a huge hit. 

Something this yummy is hard to keep to myself.

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cake

One box plain yellow cake mix 

6 TBS sifted cake flour

1 1/3 cups water

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two cake ball pans (inside and outside) with Baker's Joy. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, water, peanut butter, oil, eggs, flour, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. Spoon cake batter into pans. Bake at 30 for 15 minutes. Cool cake balls then trim the edges off the tops to make them rounder. 

Set these aside until after we get the chocolate cake mixed and ready for pans. 

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Chocolate Cake:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). 

Pour a small amount of batter into pans, place cake balls in the batter and pour remaining batter ovr cake balls.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 

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Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing:

10 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended. *You can thin this out by adding milk to the icing if you feel it is too thick. 

Ice cake and put cake in fridge while mixing up the glaze, this helps the icing "set" a little more.

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze

6 ounces semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half

DIRECTIONS:

In the top of a double boiler combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Spoon ontop iced cake..it's okay for the chocolate to fall down the sides.

Decorating Tips:

You can decorate your cake like mine by using a 1M star tip in a decorating bag. Pipe some simple swirls and chop 6 mini Reese Peanut Butter Cups to put on top of each icing swirl.

You can also grate some chocolate to put on the bottom and the top like I have here.

Enjoy!

Doughnut Muffins

Ingredients for Muffins:

-You can also make cakeballs with this as well-

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

5.3 ounces melted unsalted butter

1 cup of milk or buttermilk (room temperature)

Directions:

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a small bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla together until smooth.

Add the flour and milk alternately to the egg mixture in three additions folding with a spatula until smooth.

Scoop batter into well sprayed muffin tin with no liners.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until firm to the touch in the center of the muffin.

To finish muffins with cinnamon /sugar, first dip the muffin in melted butter then roll in cinnamon sugar.

To finish the muffin with doughnut glaze, 

dip cooled muffin in glaze.

Glaze recipe: 

Stir together 3 cups powdered sugar, 4 ounces melted butter, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Add 6-9 tablespoons milk and stir until glaze is smooth and the consistency is creamy. You will have glaze left over. You can half the recipe or keep glaze refrigerated for later use. 

*Let glazed muffin dry for a few minutes before serving.

1 box strawberry cake mix 

1  box vanilla instant pudding

3 eggs 

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1 cup milk

*The box calls for water but substitute milk for a thicker batter.

Cake: 

1 box vanilla cake mix 

1  box vanilla instant pudding

4 egg whites  

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon extract 

7 - 9 drops of yellow food color [depending one how yellow you want it]

Frosting: 

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening [I use the sticks because it's not as messy when measuring]

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened

1 1/2 teaspoons of strawberry extract flavoring

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

2 tablespoons milk

5 drops of red food color

Cake balls instruction: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

 Spray cake ball pans with Baker's Secret Spray. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, milk and oil in large bowl. Beat with mixer for 2 minutes, or until blended. Spoon batter into pans. Bake for 13 minutes. Cool cake balls in pans on cooling racks for 10 minutes. While cake balls are cooling go ahead and make the other part of the cake.

Cake instruction: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with Baker's Secret Spray. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, milk, lemon extract flavoring, food coloring and oil in large bowl. Beat with mixer for 2 minutes, or until blended. Place your cooled cake balls into the pans -we used 12 cake balls in each layer.  Poor batter into pans over top of the cake balls. Bake for 29 - 33 minutes. Cool cake in pans on cooling racks for 20 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling rack and cool completely. 

Frosting Instruction:

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with mixer. Add strawberry extract flavoring. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add food coloring.

Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

Frost the cake when it's completely cooled and you can decide 

for yourself how you want to decorate yours. 

**For the flavor extract we used Watkins brand.

**Since we did a double layer cake we doubled the recipe for the cake balls and cake.

FRUIT COBBLER

2 - 3 cups of prepared fruit

-I have used blackberries, I also added about 3/4 cup of sugar to my berries and let them sit in the sugar mix for a while.

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 sugar

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.

Blend together flour, sugar, and milk.

Pour batter in baking dish over the butter. Sprinkle fruit on top of the batter, do not stir. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.

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A few notes about this recipe. This is very versatile. You can use it on any fruit! You can even use canned or frozen fruits too. When I was little mom made these a lot during the summer months. We lived in the country where berries grew wild so this was a quick and easy dessert.