Love Cake

So, normally I don't make desserts.  I leave that up to my sister because mine always turn out not quite right.  This cake ended up being delicious, but I will say that the layers are supposed to flip flop during baking and mine half-heartedly flipped.  It was still delicious, but the layers didn't look as pretty as Paula Deen's did.  Oh well!

Love Cake

Love Cake

Ingredients:
1 package chocolate cake mix and the ingredients needed to make the cake according to the package
2 lbs. ricotta cheese
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 (3.9 oz.) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup cold milk
8 oz. Cool Whip

Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 350F and spray a 9x13 inch pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, mix together your cake mix according to the directions on the box. Set aside.
In another bowl, using a hand mixer, beat together the ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish. Spread to fill the pan evenly. Once the cake batter is in place, carefully pour the cheese mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter. Spread to cover the cake batter as best as you can.
Bake the cake at 350 for 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
Once the cake is cool, stir the pudding mix and milk together with a whisk until combined. Carefully, fold the Cool Whip into the pudding until combined.
Spread the pudding mixture over the top of the cooled cake. Cover the cake and refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving. It tastes even better the next day.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Chew Nibble Nosh

Brown Sugar Baked Peaches

Tonight I really wanted something sweet for dessert, but I didn't want to make a whole batch of cookies or brownies.  I remembered I had pinned a recipe for baked peaches recently, and as luck would have it, I had bought peaches!  The weather was finally cool enough to turn on the oven, it seemed like fate.
These were great because they took about 5 seconds to prepare and they smell delicious as they're cooking.  They were super yummy and took away my craving for some sugar while remaining somewhat healthy.  Perfect!

Brown Sugar Baked Peaches

Brown Sugar Baked Peaches

Ingredients:
1 peach
*1 tsp. butter, divided (to save even more calories, I used Smart Balance)
2 tsp. brown sugar, divided
cinnamon, to taste

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375.
Halve peach and remove pit.
Place skin side down in baking dish.
Place 1/2 tsp. of butter and 1 tsp. brown sugar in each peach half.  Sprinkle both sides with cinnamon.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from The Kitchen is my Playground

*You could also use a different butter substitute and make these vegan!

Coffee Brownies

Usually I am not one for making desserts, hello, my sister is in pastry school!  However, I was cooking dinner for our friends, and decided to bake some brownies to complete the meal.  Now, normally I would make box brownies, (I know!) but I was feeling extra bakey, so I decided to whip up a batch of these babies.
I liked them, though the coffee I used wasn't ground as fine as it probably should have been, so they were a little grainy.  They were however, moist, chewy, and rich.  Plus, the extra kick from the coffee was a great surprise!

Coffee Brownies

Coffee Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
15 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. finely ground coffee (I used Kona)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 medium eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray 13x9 pan with nonstick spray.  Combine sugar, butter, cocoa, coffee, and salt in a large metal bowl.  Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water- creating a double boiler- and whisk until blended (it will be grainy).
Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Fold in flour.
Spread batter in pan.
Bake 24-25 minutes, or until tester inserted into middle of brownies comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Applesauce

Apparently Matt and Alyssa didn't know that the apples on the counter were ours, so they were getting pretty mushy by the time they asked.  They were a little too bruised to eat raw, so I decided to bake with them.  Along with apple crisp, I decided to make some applesauce.  My issue was that all the recipes I could find were for giant quantities of apples... like thirty!  I finally found this one, and I used about seven apples to make a small batch.  

Applesauce

Applesauce

Ingredients: 
About seven small apples, peeled and cored
1 cinnamon stick
3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Preparation: 
Add all ingredients to medium stock pot over high heat, stirring occasionally.  Bring to a simmer.
Turn heat to low and cover.  Cook about 20 minutes, or until apples are very soft.
Turn off heat and remove cinnamon stick.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

These cookies are vegan!  This was one of the deserts we made for our dinner party!  (Good thing, they offset my Bacon Cheeseburger Dip!)  I was a little skeptical about vegan cookies... I mean how could we make them without eggs or milk?  However, these turned out much better than I expected!  Yum!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

All right, so these look gross in the picture, but I promise they're delicious!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

Dough:

3/4 Cup flour

6 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. cocoa powder

scant 1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. agave nectar

2 Tbsp. soy milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. oil 

Filling:

3 Tbsp. pureed pumpkin

3 Tbsp. peanutbutter

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 330 degrees

Combine all ingredients for dough in a bowl and mix well.  

In separate bowl, combine filling ingredients. 

Roll dough into small balls and flatten.

Place a small scoop of the filling in the center of the dough and fold up the sides and fold around the filling.  Bake for about 10 minutes. 

Let stand 10 minutes.  

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Shape Magazine

Eggless Cookie Dough

So you know all those times when you really want to eat cookie dough, but you know you shouldn't because you know, raw eggs, and salmonella and things?  WELL, have I got news for you!  This is a recipe for EGGLESS cookie dough, one you can eat while making it and before popping it in the oven... or just eat the whole thing raw (like I did.)
The toughest part of this recipe is waiting the couple of hours for it to firm up in the fridge, though prep time was really only about 10 minutes.  This would be great for a girls night!
I will note that this does not taste the same as real cookie dough, but it doesn't taste like salmonella, so that's great!

Eggless Cookie Dough

Eggless Cookie Dough

Ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate M&Ms (or chocolate chips, or whatever you want)
Pinch of salt

Preparation:
In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the vanilla and milk and stir.
Add in the flour, salt and M&Ms.  Stir well.
Chill in the fridge for about two hours.
Enjoy!

Recipe Adapted from: Fun Foods on a Budget

Blueberry Torte

Though dinner for when Tara came over was only okay, dessert was rockin'.  (If I do say so myself).  Blueberries were on sale this week (buy one get one free!) so I picked up a couple of cartons and opted to make something with blueberries... plus if there's fruit, it's healthy right?  I also liked this recipe because I made it the night before, and then just added the blueberries right before I served it.

Look at those blueberries, dripping with sugar!

Simmering Blueberries!

I apologize for the half-eaten pie, we couldn't contain ourselves enough to take a picture of the whole thing!!

Blueberry Torte!

Blueberry Torte

Ingredients:
1 ready-made graham cracker crust (I know, I cheated a little!)
1 8-oz. package 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 cup sugar, divided
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup fresh blueberries + a handful of mashed blueberries
2 Tbsp. flour

Preparation:
Cream together cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Pour over crust and bake for 25 minutes at 325.  Throw the rest of the sugar, flour, and the mashed blueberries into a small saucepan and cook until thick.  Add the berries and cool.  Cool cake in refrigerator with berries separate if planning on serving the next day.  The berries may be spooned on top right away if planning on serving a few hours later.
Enjoy!

Source: The Country Art of Blueberry Cookery

Golf Cupcakes

Every year at the lake we live on, there is a golf tournament.  My sister, Alyssa, wanted to make cupcakes to commemorate the event, so I decided to try my hand at being sous chef, and help her out.  We made a simple chocolate cupcake (and cheated a little) and used canned frosting.  However, we were more excited about the look.  We rolled half the cupcake in crushed graham crackers to signify  "sand traps," we rolled the other half in green sanding sugar, cut some straws and used cut pieces of paper for the flags, and used big white pearl sprinkles for golf balls.

They look like "Holes-in-One" to me!

Everyone loved them!  Well, except my Dad, the avid golfer he is, informed Alyssa and I that

having a sand trap that close to the hole wouldn't happen and therefore they weren't accurate.  We told him we weren't going for accurate, we were going for cute!  

Golf Cupcakes 

Clearly we succeeded. 

Cake Batter Fudge

I really was in the mood for something sweet today, but I had limited ingredients and didn't want to turn on the oven.  Voila, this recipe fit the bill!  (Plus, it had me at "cake batter.")
I of course was so excited to make the fudge and realized too late that I didn't have any yellow cake mix, so I decided to give it a go with chocolate.  It turned out super yummy!  (Though my sister, Alyssa informed me that it would have been better with vanilla!)
The website also didn't say what size pan to use, so mine turned out a little thin... but that's fine because I didn't feel as guilty eating it!  Perfect!

Source: Girl Meets Life
Soundtrack: Cary Brothers

Spaghetti Cupcakes

Have you ever cooked a big Italian meal and decided you needed a dessert to go with it, but couldn't decide what to cook?  Well, here's the perfect solution, spaghetti cupcakes!  Okay, they're not real spaghetti, but they sure do look like a big platter of spaghetti and meatballs! (Plus, they're really easy!)
First, make your favorite white or yellow cupcakes and your favorite vanilla frosting.  (We actually were going to use boxed for both, but didn't have any, so we made both from scratch!)
After the cupcakes are cool, the fun part comes!  Arrange 11 of them on a platter.  Frost a thin layer of frosting on each cupcake before putting the spaghetti on.  Put your frosting into a piping bag, or if you're like me and don't have a piping bag, cut the corner of a baggie and use that, just make sure your frosting is thick enough to withstand the piping process.  Also, make sure to make the "spaghetti" isn't perfect, just like real spaghetti would be.  After you put down the layer of spaghetti, roll the Ferrero Rocher candies in some of your favorite red jelly for the "sauce."  We used strawberry, but you could use raspberry if that's what you have on hand.  After that, put one candy on each cupcake as the "meatballs" and leave a couple of extras on the plate, as if they rolled off.  Sprinkle with some shredded coconut for the "parmesan." Now you're ready to enjoy!

I should also note that I was the sous chef for this recipe, as my sister did most of the actual cooking :)

Ingredients for Toppings:
Frosting*
*If frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar
12 Ferrero Rocher Candies
Strawberry or Raspberry Jelly, enough to cover the candy
Shredded Coconut, just a couple pinches

Twix Cupcakes

Today my sister and I made a joint effort to make Twix cupcakes.  My sister, Alyssa, is much better at baking than I am, so I decided to consult her on this post.  First, we whipped up the batter; we cheated a little bit and used box chocolate cake mix, but we made the frosting so it's okay.

First cupcake going in!

 Then we baked the cupcakes; they turned out super moist!

So many cupcakes!

While we were baking the cupcakes, we made the frosting, salted caramel!  It turned out really yummy, but next time I would add a little bit more caramel and a dash more salt.  It ended up tasting like a very good, slightly salty, slightly caramely buttercream.
The cupcake recipe also called for a chocolate ganache, so we figured we might as well make that too!  After we frosted the cupcakes, we started by spooning the ganache on top of the cupcakes, but it was kind  of going everywhere.  Alyssa suggested we dip the cupcakes into the ganache as they do on all the baking shows, and that worked perfectly!  After the ganache, we topped each cupcake with a mini Twix bar.  Yum!

Twix Cupcakes

Twix Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix, or your favorite chocolate cake recipe
24 fun size Twix bars, unwrapped
Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks room-temperature salted butter
5 cups powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3-5 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup caramel syrup topping
Chocolate Ganache
9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Preparation:
Ganache
In a small pan, heat one cup cream over medium heat until it reaches a simmer.
Remove from heat and add semi-sweet chocolate and corn syrup.
Whisk until smooth.
Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or until it is completely cooled.
Cupcakes
Prepare according to directions on the box.
Frosting
Beat butter on medium speed until it is fluffy.
Beat in powdered sugar, salt, 3 Tbsp. heavy cream, and caramel syrup.  If frosting is too thick, add more whipping cream.

Once cupcakes are cool, top with caramel frosting.
Dip each cupcake into bowl of chocolate ganache.
Place one Twix bar on top of ganache.
Enjoy!


Recipe adapted from Mini Baker

Apple Crisp

In keeping with the fall theme for dinner tonight, I decided to follow it up with a fall inspired dessert, apple crisp!  The recipe I found was SUPER easy and required very little skill, but turned out awesome!  The recipe was supposed to be for individual apple crisps in ramekins, however, I don't have any, so I cooked it in a 9'' cake pan.  The only problem I had with that idea was that everyone wanted more!

Apple crisp- pre oven

Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp

Ingredients: 
Filling
Five apples, peeled, cored, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. chilled butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preparation: 
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all ingredients for the filling together.  Place into sprayed 9'' cake pan.
Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl.  Blend butter into the mix to form pea size lumps.  Stir in pecans and sprinkle over filling.
Bake for about 40-50 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Adapted from The Neely's

Sweet Apple Quesadillas

To continue on with my Mexican Fiesta noche, I decided to make sweet apple quesadillas, which I found the recipe for on the tortilla package!  These actually turned out quite good, though the last one I made, the pan got a bit too hot and I set off the smoke alarm... again.  Luckily, it didn't go off for the whole building!  

Also, as a side note, I would add more sugar next time; the recipe called for apple pie filling, but I used real apples, and didn't add enough sugar to make it sweet enough.  Also, the recipe called for Mexican shredded cheese, but I used cottage cheese to make it less salty.  Oh well, buenos noches!

For real, I didn't do this on purpose, but it's awesome.

The apples, cooking away!

Apple, raisin, sugar, and cinnamon mixture!

Cottage cheese, added!

Yum!  (The darkest one is the one that set off the fire alarm.)

Sweet Apple Quesadilla!  

Sweet Apple Quesadillas

Ingredients:
2 apples, chopped small
1/2 cup raisins
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup cottage cheese
4 small tortilla shells
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Preparation:
Place small saucepan over medium heat.  Add apples, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon.  Cook until apples are soft, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat.
In a small frying pan, add oil.  After hot, add one tortilla to oil.  Place about two Tbsp. of apple mixture and 1 Tbsp. cottage cheese to half of the tortilla. Fold tortilla over itself.  Flip.  Cook until golden brown.
Enjoy!