Better-Than-Almost-Anything Cake

This is the Betty Crocker family friendly internet approved name for this cake.  At our house we have a different name for it, but I didn’t think it was appropriate for my nice innocent blog. 

Today your life will change.  Ok, not today, but the day that you make this cake. 

{Ingredients}

• 1 Chocolate Cake Mix
• Sweetened Condensed Milk  (Fat Free is ok)
• Caramel Sauce
• Cool Whip
• 2 King Size Heath Bars (Now really if you’re making a smaller cake, you probably will only need one, but you tell your husband to bring home two so that you can can pretend to be surprised and confused and then eat the extra one.)

 

{To Make}

Bake cake according to the directions on the box.  A few minutes after it’s come out of the oven, take a knife to it.  Stab the heck out of it.  No, I have not gone crazy, you need those holes so the gooey caramel and Sweetened Condensed Milk will seep into the cake. 

After you have stabbed a million holes in your cake, pop open your Sweetened Condensed Milk poor it all over the cake.  Next, poor the Caramel Sauce all over.  (I only used about half the can of milk and half of the caramel, but if you’re making a 9 x 13, you might want to use it all.)  Doesn’t have to look pretty, duh you just poked holes all over it.  Now step back.  Lick your fingers.  Let the cake cool.  Let it cool very well. 

If it does not cool well, your Cool Whip will slide off the cake and look funny.  But chances are if you are the only person to bring a dessert to your Ward Party people will still eat it if it looks funny, because it still tastes the same. . . Just sayin’.

After it has cooled well (see above).  Spread Cool Whip on top.  While you are doing that have your 2 year-old or other kitchen helper crush up your Heath Bar.  “But, Ashlie, you can just by the Heath Bits now.”  I like the crushed up bars better.  You get bigger chunks.  But you can do what you want . . .

The last and final step, sprinkle crushed Heath on top of cake.  This was our Valentine’s dessert, so I tried to make it more Valentiney by making a heart out of the Heath pieces. 

Cut yourself a piece and en-joy! 

Note:  Really this cake tastes better the next day or a few hours after you make it, the caramel and milk soak in and make it oh so gooey and good!

National Whipped Cream Day

Did you know that today is National Whipped Cream Day?  Maybe the more appropriate question is, did you know that tbere was a National Whipped Cream Day. 

Got me to thinking about one of my favorite whipped cream recipes, ok really Cool Whip, but it counts right. 

 

Symphony Pie

{Ingredients}
1 King Size Symphony bar (milk chocolate or toffee chip, but I think the toffee is the best!)

1/4 cup water

1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip

Graham Cracker Pie Crust

 

{To Make}
Break up Symphony bar (do not add one or two squares, set aside to use latter for garnish) and add water in large microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 45 seconds. Remove and mix with spoon so that all of the chocolate is melted.

Add Cool Whip and mix very well. But also gently.  Making, sure that all of the chocolate is incorporated.

Pour chocolate mixture into Graham Cracker Pie Crust and spread evenly.

Cover and freeze for 3 hours before served.

I like to use whipped cream from a can and add a little decoration on top.

Pull out those Symphony squares you saved from the beginning, if you haven’t eaten them already, grate them evenly on top of the pie for garnish. 

Photo Courtesy: PTIT Chef 

 

I also found this article that might help you celebrate:

How to Celebrate National Whipped Cream Day

What can be more fun on January fifth than celebrating National Whipped Cream Day? One of the most versatile toppings in our times deserves a day in tribute. This is the day to celebrate your dessert and honor whipped cream as it truly deserves. This article will explore various methods to pay tribute to this yummy treat.

 

Instructions

1. Mix one cup sized dollop with vanilla sugar free pudding mix and pineapple for a yummy low cal snack.

2. Bring a can of whipped topping to bed one night just to see what pops up.

3. Pumpkin pie isn't just for Thanksgiving! Bake up a family favorite and pull out the whipped cream for instant smiles.

4. Mix chocolate, or any chosen flavor, pudding per box directions. Mix in half a cup of whipped cream. Pour into a graham cracker crust. Chill for a scrumptious mousse dessert for dinner tonight. Feeling extra extravagant, go ahead add some nuts of choice.

5. Purchase at least two cans of whipped topping and start a whipped cream fight. Maybe best conducted on tile flooring.

6. Bit cold and chilly outside? Make yourself a cup of hot cocoa. Instead of marshmallows try adding whipped cream for a tasty delight.

Tips & Warnings

• Enjoy whipped cream in a group or alone. Whipped cream does not judge or discriminate.

• The fifth of January is indeed National Whipped Cream Day. As if we need a reason to indulge.

• Enjoy and have fun the options are endless. Feel free to be creative.

• Whipped cream has a potential to make hard surfaces slippery.

How to Celebrate National Whipped Cream Day

Poor Woman’s Cupcake in a Jar

From the moment I read about these Peppermint Fudge Cupcakes at Our Best Bites, I was completely and totally in love.  I may have even licked my computer screen.  I knew that I had to make them, but for what?  Why?  Who?  A few weeks later I signed up to bring a baked good to a fundraiser bake sale that the women in my community where helping put on (aka The Relief Society).  I decided this would be a worthy event for these amazing cupcakes. 
But here’s the thing.  I loved the whole cupcake in a jar idea, but didn’t want to fork out the cash to buy jars . . Cheap, yes, but lets go with frugal.  So I came up with this idea instead. 

Put the cupcake in a plastic cup!

After the cupcakes where done baking, cooled, and filled with fudgy peppermint ganache, I put an extra baking cup on, plopped into one of these plastic cups:

{Dixie 9 oz. clear plastic cup}

AFTER cupcakes where in the cups I frosted them.  I tried it the other way and it made a mess!  Sprinkle on some crushed up candy canes. 

Dropped into a cellophane treat bag, closed with a twist tie and added some ribbon.  Ta-da I give to you the Poor Woman’s Cupcake in a Jar!

(I feel like I have seen it before, but don’t know where, so I won’t take complete credit for this genius idea, but don’t who to give credit to!)



They where a big hit at the bake sale.  They were also as tasty as I thought they would be and I even cheated and used a cake mix!

I did however use the Our Best Bites, frosting recipe.  It was totally awesome.  For the complete recipe and instructions you can go {HERE}.  Be prepared, it’s gonna blow your mind!

 

I’m linking up to these holly jolly parties this week. 

Plus a few more:

Reindeer Cupcakes

Happy First Day of December!!  Let the countdown to Christmas officially begin!!  To kick off and get you in holiday mood, I have a cupcake to share with you.  Cupcakes don’t get much easier or cuter than these.

 

{You Will Need}
Gumdrops

Chocolate Chips

Christmas M&M’s or Royal Icing Eyeballs, find how-to HERE

Cupcakes

Chocolate Frosting

Cocoa Powder

 

{To Make}

Bake cupcakes, let cool.  Frost with chocolate frosting.  Lightly sprinkle frosted cupcakes with cocoa powder.  Add gumdrop for nose and M&M’s or eyeballs. 

For antlers:  Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds depending on microwave.  If too think add 1/2 TBS of shortening.  Put melted chocolate in freezer ziplock bag.  Snip off small corner of bag (remember you can always make it bigger, but you can’t take back and make it smaller!).  Pipe chocolate onto cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.  Let chocolate completely harden (speed up process by putting it in the fridge or freezer). 

When chocolate antlers have completely set up gently stick antlers in cupcakes. 

Best Peanut Butter Fingers EVER!

This is an oldie but a goodie.  A looong time ago I posted about  my favorite school lunch treat. 

This weekend my sister in-law invited us over for dinner, I offered to bring a dessert.  I was so happy that my sister in-law that is allergic to peanut butter wasn’t going to be there so that I could take these yummy Peanut Butter Fingers (that sounds meaner than it was supposed to, we still love her even though she can’t eat peanut butter). 

Strangely this is also the most popular post on my blog, I’m guessing people (crazy ones like me that grew up loving these from the cafeteria) Google the recipe and mine is one that comes up.  Sadly, they don’t serve them any more due to too many  peanut allergies among the students. 

Peanut Butter Fingers
(Local Elementary School Version)

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 tsp soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cup oats

3/4 cup additional peanut butter

Chocolate frosting

Combine first 8 ingredients; mix well.  Add flour and oats; press into 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 320 for 20 to 25 minutes.  Top with additional peanut butter while still warm.  Cool.  Spread with frosting.  Cut into squares.

Stephanie Wilkey
Cedar Hills 2nd Ward Neighborhood Recipe Collection, pg. 153

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 bag powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cube butter

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together, add more milk if needed.

Stephanie Wilkey
Cedar Hills 2nd Ward Neighborhood Recipe Collection, pg. 157

{Picture: Cheesy Kitchen}

I {Heart} S’mores

I love summer, and what goes better with summer than s’mores.  There have been so many great s’more ideas floating around the blogosphere.  My favorite round up so far was posted by Lori over at Be Different . . . Act Normal.

My favorite link she shared, Chocolate Cake S’more Cookies by Picky Palate.  Yumm-o! 

I {Heart} Muddy Buddies

My favorite snack/treat to make . . . ever!  Muddy Buddies, Monkey Munch . . . Whatever you call it I LOVE IT!

Betty Crocker has an awesome tried and true recipe. 

 

 Muddy Buddies

9 cups Corn Chex®, Rice Chex®, Wheat Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

 

Note:  Especially delicious to eat while watching Project Runway, Bones, Lost, or Modern Family.  Ok go eat and enjoy.

Fondue: Eggless Cookie Dough

Have you ever tasted the goodness of fondue? It’s such a simple tasty treat. We love taking it parties and impressing all our friends. Ok, well impressing the same friends over and over, we don’t have that many friends! The possibilities of things you can dip in that chocolaty goodness are truly endless! One of my favorite things to dip is cookie dough. Take a minute . . . think about it . . . Genius right. I’ve tried a few different cookie dough options. I made my own chocolate chip cookie recipe and used that dough. I’ve used just plain and simple Pillsbury cookie dough, we always keep some in the fridge incase we need something quick. Both were good, but there were two problems. First neither stayed together very well when you skewered the balls, it always fell apart in the fondue pot. Second, I worried about the raw eggs. So my solutions, da dada daaa (trumpets blaring), this awesome egg free cookie dough recipe. It was originally used to make cookie dough truffles. But solved my two problems and is so delicious!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (*You may need more flour than this. I added about 1/4 cup more because the dough was a little too sticky.)
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
(Optional) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, milk and vanilla; mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Shape into 1-in. balls; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Loosely cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm. (I put them in the freezer for about 40 minutes and that worked well, too. All about speed.)

So what do YOU like to dip in fondue?

Mint Shamrock Cupcakes

These ended up being my most successful St. Patrick’s Day project.  That was until my husband asked, “What are those supposed to be?  Flowers?”  “No shamrocks!  You know for St. Patrick’s Day!”

I found the recipe and idea at Pleasant Home, via Be Different . . . Act Normal

I started out with a boxed cake mix, a package of Fudge Grasshopper Cookies, and a can of chocolate frosting (but ended up using almost two cans), and white chocolate almond bark. 

Mix cake mix according to directions.  In each cupcake liner place one cookie, fill 1/4 full with batter. 

While cupcakes are cooking start making shamrocks.

 

 

I only had white chocolate almond bark on hand, which is not very St. Patricky, so I melted the chocolate and added some green food coloring.  Wha-la green chocolate!

To make my shamrocks I found some clipart online, printed it off and stuck it under some wax paper on a cookie sheet.  I need an outline, freehand scares me!  I filled a ziplock bag with the chocolate, snipped off the corner and piped away.  Note:  I have learned that the sandwich baggies do not work so great for using as a piping bag.  The freezer bags are much sturdier and won’t grow extra unwanted holes. 

 

 

 

After the cupcakes have cooled frost and top with shamrocks.  To frost I filled a ziplock bag with frosting.  This time I wanted something fancy.  First I reinforced the corner of one of the bags with a few pieces of packing tape.  Then snipped off a good portion of the corner.  Just using this would give me smooth swirlies, so I snipped a few zig zag triangles and ta-da cheap disposable fancy frosting bag. 

 

 

 

 

The results:  De-lish.  Got the husband and 18 month old stamp of approval.  The cookie in the bottom made a delightfully crispy little crust!

 

 

I used my Cricut to cut out some shamrocks, put a few on a plate with those chocolate gold coins, used some cellophane, added a tag and ribbon, and gave them to neighbors and the families that my husband and I home/visit teach. 

To Die For Hot Fudge

Fact: One of my favorite desserts of all time is brownies and ice cream.

The other night we were supposed to take the dessert to go with dinner at a friend’s house. Problem, we had been there done that with brownies and ice cream several times, and we wanted to bring something awesome so they would invite us back. Solution, when in a pickle I always turn to my trusted Blogging Idols.

I found this A-MAZ-ING Hot Fudge recipe (and it gets bonus points for being simple). It was a hit! We will be doomed to bringing dessert now forever.

To Die For Hot Fudge Sauce

1 can of Condensed Milk (like Eagle Brand) - Do not use evaporated Milk

1 stick of Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 cup of Milk or Semi chocolate Chips.

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan over low heat, until melted and well blended.

Store remaining Hot Fudge in jar with lid, or well sealed container.

You can keep this in your fridge for many days. Simply warm when ready to use.

Seriously people. If you are not convinced head over to the mastermind behind it all. She just posted a new recipe today where she uses this same sauce on Hot Fudge Oreo Cupcakes. Maybe bringing dessert from now on won’t be so bad.