Category Archives: Baking

May 20 2013

Kroger Upside Down Cake Review

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I had a crazy day the other day.

And, to top it all off, I was in charge of bringing dessert to our friends’ home that night for our dinner party.

We were set to arrive at 4:00 and I finished up my last working appointment at 3:00 (I’m a housecall vet).  I almost panicked until I remembered I needed to review an upside down cake from our local Kroger store.  I swung into the store on the way home.  I had a real dilemma picking between the molton chocolate and honey cinnamon apple.  In the end, I chose the apple because it seemed more “homemade” to me.  I picked up a quart of vanilla bean ice cream to go with it.

I called my husband and had him preheat the oven, so all I had to do was  pop it in for abou 15 minutes when I got home.  The cake warmed and I got dressed and ready.  As soon as the cake came out, I thought it smelled great!  I flipped it out of the pan….easy peasy….no sticking!  I “fluffed” up some of the apples by picking them up with a fork (so they weren’t so flat) and drizzled warm caramel sauce on top.  Looks, great, right?

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I could have totally passed it off as homemade, too, because it tasted so good.  No plasticky taste or aftertaste, like I was expecting.  But, I had to tell my friends, as I have to tell you.  I got this for free through BzzAgent!  All opinions are my own!

Mar 5 2013

Rainbow Cupcakes!

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cupcakes

Well, I showed you a great St. Patrick’s Day treat without artificial dye, and today I’m showing you one chock full of it!  But, remember, you can always use natural dyes as well.  I think I’ll do a post on that soon…

bowls of colored cake mixJust mix up your favorite white cake mix and divide it evenly into six bowls.  Color each bowl a different color of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple!  You’ll need quite  a bit of red food coloring; otherwise, you’ll end up with pink!  As you can see, mine is more of dark pink as I was a little low on food coloring.  It ended up working fine, but it was not a true red.

IMG_1686Next, you’ll want to start layering your cupcakes.  You’ll want to work backwards, first purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange, and finally red.  This part takes patience.  You’ll need some time to spread each layer out evenly so your cupcakes look layered  Otherwise, you’ll end up with tie-dye cupcakes.  But, I think that would be cool, too!  Just not what I was going for here.

IMG_1687Finally, bake as directed and let cool completely.  As you can see, they look pretty cool when they just come out of the oven.  A few colors are peaking through.  My kids could barely wait until they were ready!

After they’re cooled, you’ll want to add some cloud frosting.  White would be perfect, but I only had pink….turned out great still, so probably any color would work!

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I added some sprinkles to mine, as well.  Might as well go all out, right?  And, you can’t beat how cute they look when cut open!
cupcakes2

Feb 25 2013

St. Patrick’s Pots of Gold

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pots

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner! And, although I do have some Irish in my background, it is not a real major holiday around our house. But, I do like to make a few fun treats for the kiddos. Because, as you know, any holiday is a major holiday to children. It would be absolutely criminal to not celebrate them!

I made up these yummy Pot of Gold cookies when I was attempting to make a treat that didn’t contain a lot of artificial green dye. And, I wanted it to be easy….because, face it, my life is complicated enough! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Pots of Gold

Print recipe
Pots of Gold
Serves 24
Allergy Egg, Milk, Wheat
Snack Dessert, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Butter (softened)
  • 1 cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1 cup Rolled Oats
  • 1/2 bag Caramels
  • 1 tablespoon Evaporated Milk or Cream

Directions

1. Grease muffin pan and set oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Mix in vanilla extract.
3. In small bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Slowly add this mixture to the wet ingredients.
4. Stir in oats.
5. Fill muffin cups about 1/3 to 1/2 full. Press down and make large thumbprint indention in middle of cup.
6. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and allow to completely cool.
7. Put caramels and evaporated milk together in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 30 second increments. Stir after each 30 seconds until mixture is runny.
8. Place a large spoonful of caramel into indention in cookies.

 

Feb 13 2013

Valentine’s Snack Attack!

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chex mix
I was in charge of snack for our Girl Scout troop this week, and went with a fun Valentine’s theme.  I made some Valentine Chex Mix as well as cut strawberries up into heart shapes.  It was super cute and easy!  Happy Valentines!  The chex mix recipe is below.  Let me tell you, it is killer-good.  You’ll want to make lots!  And, I can’t wait to experiment with different pudding flavors!

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Valentine’s Chex Mix

Print recipe
Valentine’s Chex Mix
Serves 15-20
Prep time 30 minutes
Dietary Vegetarian
Snack Dessert, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Occasion Valentines day
A fun mix of colors and flavors is sure to delight. Change up the recipe by choosing different food coloring & candy for different holidays. You can change the flavor too with different pudding mixes.

Ingredients

  • 1 box Rice Chex (or whatever variety you prefer)
  • 1 bag White Chocolate Chips
  • Few drop Food Coloring (You'll want red for Valentine's, of course)
  • 1 box Instant Pudding (Any variety, I used coconut cream)
  • 1 bag M&Ms (or candy of your choosing, conversation hearts would be cute!)
  • 1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. Melt white chocolate chips on over low heat on stovetop or in microwave. I prefer the stovetop because I can watch it closer. Stir frequently.
2. While chocolate is melting, measure out 3 cups each of chex mix into 2 separate bowls.
3. When chocolate has melted, mix in the dry instant pudding mix. Then, pour half of the chocolate mixture on to the chex mix in one of the bowls. Stir well to coat. With the other half of melted chocolate mixture, add few drops of red food coloring to make the chocolate pink. Or, use any color you desire. Pour onto the other bowl of chex mix and stir well to coat.
4. Pour out the coated chex mix onto wax paper to cool. Now is the perfect time to sprinkle the mixture with M&Ms or other candy.
5. In another sauce pan, melt 1 cup milk chocolate chips. Stir frequently.
6. Pour remaining chex mix 2-3 cups into a bowl while milk chocolate melts.
7. Once milk chocolate is melted, pour on top of remaining chex mix. Stir to coat. And, lay to cool on wax paper. Sprinkle with candy before it cools.
8. Once all three colors of chex mix have cooled, mix together and enjoy!

Jul 18 2012

Healthy Potato Chips!

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My kids love chips.  My husband loves chips.  I pretend to not love chips (waistline, you know?), but I really do and I always steal them off my husband’s plate.

Anyhow….

Here’s a “healthy” version of potato chips that you can whip up in 5 minutes.  Not only are they better for you since they contain no oil (and you can use organic potatoes, too!), but the taste is incredible.  So fresh and delicious.  Way better than the bagged version. I have to admit I was really skeptical of this recipe at first, especially since they are made in the microwave. But, my whole family can vouch for their deliciousness! :)

 

 

 

 

Microwave Healthy Potato Chips

Print recipe
Microwave Healthy Potato Chips
Serves 2
Prep time 2 minutes
Cook time 5 minutes
Total time 7 minutes
Dietary Vegan, Vegetarian
Snack Side Dish, Snack
Misc Child Friendly
A great oil-free way to make potato chips. They are crisp, fresh, and full of flavor. You'll never want to go back to bagged chips again!

Ingredients

  • 2-3 Small Potatoes (Yukon Gold has great flavor)
  • 1 sprinkle Salt (I like sea salt!)
  • 2 sheets Parchment Paper
  • 1 Microwave Safe Plate
  • 1 Madolin Slicer

Note

Experiment with different toppings!

Directions

1. Peel your potatoes (optional!) and slice into thin slices using your mandolin slicer. I usually choose the thinnest slice setting.
2. Place parchment paper on microwave safe plate and arrange a single layer of potato slices on the paper. Sprinkle with salt if desired. Top the slices with another sheet of parchment paper.
3. Microwave parchement covered potatoes for 3-5 minutes. I usually microwave mine for 3:10, but it depends on your microwave. You want the potato chips to be crisp, but not brown.

 

Apr 20 2012

S’mores Pizza (Papa Murphy’s Copy Cat)

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My husband recently fell in love with the S’mores dessert pizza from Papa Murphy’s Take n Bake.  All of sudden, he’s wanting to order pizza in the middle of the week.  I thought it was strange at first until I noticed he kept coming home with a S’mores pizza as well.  Aha!  Trickery!  What he really wanted was some of their awesome S’mores dessert pizza!

I have to admit, it’s quite good.  But, when I looked at the ingredient list, I was a little disappointed with all the processed items included in the list.  So, I whipped up my very own copy cat recipe and I have to say *ahem* that it is very tasty.  I won’t pretend that it’s healthy.  So, if you see me running laps around the block…now you know why…I’m working off dessert.

Copy Cat Recipe for:

Papa Murphy’s S’mores Pizza

Ingredients:

  • Your Favorite Pizza crust (you can buy store made or I like this recipe because it’s simple, quick, and quite good)
  • 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Rolled Oats
  • 2 tablespoons Softened Butter
  • 1/4 cup Flour
  • Mini Marshmallows
  • Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Prepare crust as you normally would.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and butter with a fork until you have corn meal consistency.  Mix in the rolled oats.
  3. Sprinkle this mixture across your pizza crust
  4. Liberally sprinkle marshmallows and chocolate chips onto crust
  5. Bake pizza crust as directed. *Note, if you’re crust cooking time is longer than 10 minutes, you’ll want to wait and add the marshmallows when there is just about 10 minutes left for the pizza to cook.  That prevents them from getting to toasty*
  6. YUM!

 

Mar 27 2012

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

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Yum.  With a capital Y.  My kids are really fond of soft pretzels (ahem…thank you, Target cafe).  So, I wanted to satisfy their cravings in a more healthy way.  So, I made some whole wheat soft pretzels.  Yep, whole wheat!  And, guess what, I think they are even more delicious and pretzely than what you find elsewhere.

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon sugar or turbinado
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups white flour
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • Oil (I used olive) for greasing bowl
  • 10 cups water
  • 2/3 cup baking soda
  • 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
  • Coarse sea salt

Directions

Mix the water, sugar and sea salt in a bowl until dissolved.  Sprinkle the yeast on top. and allow to sit until the mixture begins to foam. Slowly add the flour and melted butter.  Mix and knead with hands until dough forms a nice round ball.  Don’t over knead of the dough will get stiff.  Remove the dough from the bowl, spray bowl , then return the dough to the bowl.  Cover with clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm location until doubled in size (about an hour).

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan.

Meanwhile, using a slightly oiled surface, divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a long 1/2″ thick rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, twist them around each other and press the ends onto the bottom of the U to form the shape of a pretzel.  Set aside and repeat with all 8 pieces of dough.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, one at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a flat spatula.  Place pretzel on baking sheet, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the coarse sea salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, roughly 12 minutes.  Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before serving.

Once pretzels are cool, enjoy right away or you can freeze them for up to one month.

Feb 18 2012

White Chocolate Strawberry Jam Cookies

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For Valentine’s Day, I made these yummy heart-shaped cookies. I have to say, the quality of the jam really makes a difference. If you must use store bought, be sure to buy preserves rather than jelly or jam. Flavor is exceptional.

White Chocolate Strawberry Jam Cookies
adapted from hot polka dot

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup strawberry jam

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or preheat baking stone (my preferred method)
  2. Cream the butter and sugars together, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
  3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in separate bowl.
  4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture soft dough forms.  Stir in chocolate chips.
  5. Spoon into heart shaped pan.  Flatten top slightly with spoon or glass.
  6. Spread generous amount  of jam onto each cookie so it covers most of the top of cookie.
  7. Bake 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool on wire rack.
Feb 14 2012

Screwdriver Birthday Cake

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It’s kind of my tradition to make fun cakes for all my children’s birthdays.  I wonder how old they’ll be when they decide the don’t like this tradition anymore.  I’m sure it will become embarassing at some point.  :(

Anyhow, my son is obsessed with screwdrivers.

'nuff said

So, obviously, I had to have a screwdriver cake for him!  Despite my best efforts, I could not find any screwdriver cakes on the internet.  I googled it.  I pinterest-ed it (is that a word?).  No luck.  Lots of cakes made in honor of a certain cocktail by the same name, but none appropriate for a little man who would soon be 2.

I had to fend for myself and I think I did pretty well.  Here’s how I made the cake:

  1. I made a roll cake.  Any roll cake will do.  I’m pretty lazy, so I went with the boxed variety I found here.
  2. Freeze your cake.  This really is important.  Cutting and icing a cake that isn’t frozen really is twice as hard.  (don’t ask how I know….ahem)
  3. Cut triangular wedges out of the sides of the roll about 1/4 of the way down the sides.  This makes the taper of the handle.
  4. Ice with your base color.  I used brown (AKA chocolate), but feel free to get creative with some food color.
  5. Pipe on the colored squares for the handle.  The red part.  I used icing in a spray can because, that’s right, I’m lazy.  But, go ahead, put on your chef hat and use a piping bag.
  6. For the screwdriver handle I simple made Rice Krispie Treats.  While the mixture was still warm, I rolled a section of the treats into a greased piece of cling wrap to make a long tube.  Flattened one end of the tube into screwdriver end.  Once cooled, I coated with white almond bark and sliver sprinkles.
  7. Scoop out a section in the middle of your roll cake before inserting your screwdriver bit into the handle.  I used a little icing to seal in in place.  You might need some toothpicks to prop up that handle if it’s too heavy.
  8. Voila

Do you love it or do you love it?  Come on, be honest, I can handle it!