S'mores Cheesecake

Don't wait to go camping to enjoy S'mores!  Bake up this rich and delicious cake without a campfire.

Recipe

Have your cake and eat cookies too.

First things first: I did NOT make this cake. The credit goes to Briana's (and Michaela's) mom. She made this cake for Michaela's baby shower. Secondly: This cake is even cooler because it matches the quilt, accessories and decorations that said mom made for the baby's room. Thirdly: A really fun, 3D way to decorate a cake. The cookies on the sticks were not placed into the cake until it arrived at the shower location. Frosting was put around some of the sticks to help stabilize them.

Gracie's Birthday Cake

This is the cake I made for Gracie's birthday. It turned out quite cute. Instead of frosting the bottom, I just cut some paper and fan folded it to go around the bottom. It gave it a different kind of look but I think it worked out okay.

Traveling Dessert Buffet

A fun selection of treats that can also travel the distance to the party (from top left, clockwise): Peanut Butter Temptations, Brownie Bites, Cream Cheese Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Cranberry Pecan Cookies, and M&M Cookies. The cookies are the same basic dough as the cookie bars, I just divided it and put M&Ms in one half and cranberries and pecans in the other half.

For traveling, I put everything in plastic containers. The cookies and cookie bars packed the easiest. I used waxed paper between layers of Brownie Bites and the PB Temptations. Waxed paper on top of the Cream Cheese Brownies pulled off the top of the cream cheese, so I only did single layers in shallow containers. Ideally, I would I have just left these guys in the pan and covered it, but I had already cut them up when I realized I couldn't stack them.

Make your own cupcake picks!

By using stickers that were nearly symmetrical, I stuck them together with a toothpick sandwiched between and they became cupcake toppers. If your stickers aren't very symmetrical, you could punch out some paper circles so you have a symmetrical base, and put your stickers on the circles with the toothpick between the two circles. For the top cupcake pick, I printed out the words using my computer printer and took a scallop punch to them. To keep the surface flat, and not rounding over the toothpick, I used mounting tape to put the two scallop circles together.

My First Cheesecake

This is the first cheesecake I made that didn't come out of a box. I used the recipe Vanilla Cheesecake from Williams-Sonoma Dessert cookbook. The cinnamon in the graham crust and the vanilla in the filling created a delicious dessert that could stand on it's own without a berry topping, although I did have sliced strawberries on hand. When I first pulled the cheesecake out of the oven, the center was not split like in the picture, but the it was split along the edges. As it cooled, the edges unsplit and the center pulled apart. I should have tried running a knife around the edge when I took it out of the oven so it wouldn't split down the middle I think. I have decided that cheesecakes are not that hard to make and will definitely make one again. Here is a less vanilla variety I am thinking of trying next: S'mores Cheesecake.

Cookie Flower Bouquet

I used my normal sugar cookie recipe for this. I made sure not to roll the dough out too thin. After I cut out the shape with a cookie cutter, I placed it on a cookie sheet and stuck a stem in. For the stem you could use the white candy making sticks, but I happened to have the long bamboo skewers on hand so I used those. Then I baked the cookies as normal until done. After cooling, I frosted with a powdered sugar frosting. I learned that the frosting should be just barely runny enough that you can move it to frost, and if you are doing multiple colors on a cookie, you really need to let the first one dry so you don't mess it up with the second color.

When the frosting was dry I wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap and used a green ribbon to secure it like leaves. I put styrofoam in a pail and topped it with paper grass so I could stick my cookie flower stems in. The "birds" are peeps, also wrapped in plastic so they don't dry out.

This is definitely one of those things that would hopefully turn out better the second time around. The frosting didn't go as well as I hoped because it was too runny, and then I should have let it dry longer before standing it up in the bucket. A container that was rectangular would make a nice planter box so you could spread the flowers out and could even get some gummie bugs/worms for decorating the "grass".

Pie Decorating

Use your pie dough scraps, cookie cutters, and colorful sprinkles to make a pie for a special person. No frosting required.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This has to be the easiest cookie recipe ever! It is not quite as good as making it entirely from scratch but when the dough is ready in less than 5 minutes who can complain.
Combine:
1 Spice cake mix
15 oz Pumpkin
Chocolate Chips
Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.
(yes, it really doesn't need eggs)

Chicken Tikka Masala

MARINADE (or use bottle of Garam Masala Sauce from Albertsons)
1 c. plain yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ginger, minced

Marinade chicken for at least one hour. I go for half a day. Grill or broil, on skewers if desired, while sauce is cooking. I would double the sauce recipe below if using more than four small boneless skinless chicken breasts.

SAUCE
1 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (or other hot pepper)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz.
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/4 c fresh cilantro, chopped

Melt butter on medium heat. Saute garlic and pepper. Add seasonings. Stir in tomato sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cream. Simmer to thicken, about 10 minutes. Add cooked chicken to sauce and simmer for about an hour.

Goes nicely with basmati rice and naan.

Peanut Butter Cup Trifle

The recipe for this trifle is extremely easy. You have three layers - 1) chocolate muffins or chocolate cake (the muffins have chocolate chips and I like that best); 2) 1 box of vanilla pudding prepared and then mixed with one 8 oz of cool whip; 3) chopped peanut butter cups. Layer cake, pudding, peanut butter cups and then repeat. A perfect recipe - easy, beautiful, and delicious!

This was Gracie's birthday cake when she turned 5. Since it is almost her birthday again, I thought I better get this one posted. I used the Ariel Barbie doll. It was a little hard since her legs were a little bit bigger than the cake. I had to bend her in a little bit. Now I know why they have you use doll picks to put into the cake.

Dirt Cups

At my farewell party at work today, we had fancy dirt cups for dessert. A green metal pail was filled with pudding, oreos, and gummy worms and even had some fake daisies stuck in the dirt and a ribbon tied onto the pail handle. What a great presentation for the spring time - wish I had been the creator of it, but it was my boss Jennifer.

Definite baking inspiration!

Need a new take on your cupcake? The Batch Cupcakery here in Reno (which I so want to go to) has a great site, and this link will take you to 28 really cool ideas for cupcakes, with cool names to go with them:
http://www.batchcupcakery.com/?goto=flavors

For example:
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore. . .
Emerald City Mint frosting with dark chocolate cake. Delicious enough to make Dorothy click her heels two times.

I labeled this under cakes as well, because you could apply the ideas to larger items..

Chocolate Pudding Fudge Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1 cup lowfat milk
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup egg substitutes
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
Glaze:
1/1 cups mini chocolate chips
1 tablespoon canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 10-inch bundt pan with canola cooking spray and dust lightly with flour.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, water, eggs and egg substitute. Beat for 4 minutes, then mix in 1 cup of chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To make the glaze: Add chocolate chips and oil to a 2 cup glass measure and cook in microwave oven until soft ( about 20-30 seconds). Stir until smooth and drizzle over cake.
Per serving: 279 calories, 8.5 g. fat 1.5 g fiber
Weight Watchers POINTS = 6

This is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten! It is so good. Keep in mind that normal cake has about 12 WW POINTS so this is technically low fat cake ( at least that's what Peggy the maker of the cake said ).

Potstickers

Cal and I made our own potstickers.  We used a cooked salmon, green onion, egg, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper mixture for the inside.  We were lazy and bought the wrappers instead of making our own, which are better but more work.  I like the assembly line method where I lay out several wrappers and put a heaping teaspoon of filling in the middle of each one (picture 1).  Then using my cup of water and a brush, moisten the outer edge and fold in half, crimping it with pressure from your fingers as you go (picture 2).  Once I have a pan full ready (picture 3), I let Cal cook then in a pan brushed with oil on medium+ for a couple minutes until browned on the bottom (picture 4).  Pour in water or chicken broth to cover the bottom of the pan, put on the lid and steam 30 seconds until the water or broth has evaporated and the potstickers have loosened from the pan (picture 5). Remove from pan and keep warm in the oven while you finish the rest.  Eat as they are or make a soy sauce concoction to go with it (picture 6).

Quick Homemade Pizzas

For a quick and easy way to have homemade individual pizzas that also taste really good try using pita bread as the crust. We don't do this very often and so I forget how good it is and how well it meets the needs of my kids to "create" their own pizzas. Just top your pizza with whatever toppings you like and cook in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. With a variety of toppings to choose from you can also have company and have a pizza bar for dinner. Enjoy

No-Frost Valentines

They are very pretty and easier to put into bags to give as valentines, but I'm not sure they are tastier than their frosted friends. After baking the cookies, I melted some chocolate and dipped the cookies half way in. Then I put the dipped cookies on waxed paper and applied sprinkles. Might be pretty cool if you melted white chocolate and dipped the other side too.

Cookie Salad

This is the most addicting salad ever!

Cookie Salad
2 pkgs instant Vanilla Pudding
2 1/2 c. buttermilk
12 oz. cool whip
1 20 oz. can pineapple
2 cans mandarin oranges
bananas
1 pkg. fudge striped cookies

combine pudding and buttermilk, fold in cool whip. add fruit. just before serving add the cookies so that they are not mushy. Enjoy!!

Brownie Pie

For those of you who prefer chocolate to cooked fruit, this is the pie for you. Pretty much just brownie batter (2 eggs, not 3) baked between pie dough - with marshmallows and caramel sauce in the middle of the brownie batter (although you don't know they are there after it's baked, but not sure yet if they make a difference). Since calcium is very important, be sure to have a scoop of vanilla ice cream with it.