Better Than What?

Hello!
This week contained the birthday of one of my favorite people. Crystal! Of course since it's a birthday there MUST be cake!! We didn't have to be at school today because of semester tests, so we went out for lunch. The Chinese food was superb, but let me say the best part was the cake. If you have never had Better Than Sex Cake you sir are missing out. Yes the name of the cake is Better Than Sex Cake. I have heard it called many other names in my lifetime. Heath Cake, Better Than Sunday School Cake, and Better Than Anything Cake are just a few examples. This cake is amazing. One of my friends who had never eaten this cake before took one bite, paused, and said "this tastes like heaven!" The cake really is that good.
Recipes that are first described as easy and simple sort of annoy me. I know that things that taste good can be easy to make. But really recipes should not have the words easy and simple in it. Better Than Sex cake is easy yes, but it tastes as if angel wings can down and landed on your tongue. It is the best cake you can make. It just helps that it's easy! So please please please make this cake. If you know what is good for you you will make this cake and eat it. But try not to take it somewhere because you will want to eat the entire pan yourself.

Better Than Sex Cake
Ingredients
-1 box german chocolate cake and ingredients to make it
-1 can carmel ice cream topping
-1 can sweetened condensed milk
-1 tub whipped topping
-bag of heath bar pieces
Make the cake a directed on the box. Once the cake is done poke hole in it while it is still hot. You can use a straw for this. Pour the sweentened milk and carmel over the top of the cake. Once it is cooled you can put the cool whip on top and heavly sprinkle on the heath pieces. The cake is better if you let it sit over night, and if you do that do not put on the whipped topping until you are ready to serve.

Remember if you know what is good for you, you WILL make this cake!
Nancy
(P.S. Sorry there are no pictures my mom took the camera to California with her :))

Shhhhhh!!!! It's a Secret

Hello!!      So I recently pledged to stop bring food to all of my friends get together. Call it a New Year's resolution of sorts. I really need to cut back on my baking budget. Well... to show how good I am at keeping my New Year's resolutions, I already broke this one even before it is the new year. I kept telling myself no! no! no! I will not bring food to the New Year's Party I am going to tonight, but since I am sharing recipes you can assume that that didn't happen.
      I got home from coffee with some friends this morning and my mom asked me if I was bringing food to my party tonight. I stopped and thought, than answered completely wrong. "If you buy me a bag of chocolate chips then I will make some cookies." WRONG ANSWER!!! I should have said NO! I am not baking for my friends. I spend all of my money making food for other people to eat. My parents just fuel my addiction. They don't even try and step in because they enjoy my food just as much as my friends. Apparently everyone just wants me to go broke!! My mother responds with "why don't you just use the bag of mini M&M's in the cupboard?" Than my father stands up looks in the cupboard and next to the M&M's finds a bag of peppermint Kisses. His response "Make these into some cookies for me." So needless to say I gave in and have been baking for the past few hours. I understand my parents clever tricks. When I bake I have to clean up my mess, well when the kitchen is messy before I bake I just end up cleaning the entire kitchen. Oh, parents you think you are so tricky. I am on to you!!!
       Even though I have vowed to spend less money and time baking for others here I am making two different types of cookies. So please dear readers keep my secret for me. Please don't tell anyone that I broke my New Year's resolution before the new year. So shhhhh!!!!!! It's a secret!!!! I trust you, dear readers, to help me!! I don't trust my friends and family to help me from going broke!
       Well even though I have not throughly enjoyed baking today, I hope you really enjoy these recipes. The two types of cookies I made today are Kisses Candy Cane Blossoms and Chocolate Chip cookies with mini M&M's instead of chocolate chips. The chocolate chip cookies is another thing you, dear readers, will have to keep a secret. The recipe is my mother's cookies recipe. It is amazing!!! This recipe is one of the first recipes I made. These cookies and Ramen noodles fostered my love for baking. So please please please dear readers help me protect my money and my cookies!! The Kisses Blossomes have no emtional attacment because I found the recipe on the back of the bag, so do with that recipe what you like!!
Thank you Luke, my art college student brother, for taking some very artistic pictures of my cookies!!

Kisses Candy Cane Blossoms
Ingredients

• 48 peppermint Kisses
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• red and green food coloring and extra granulate sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove wrappers from candies.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
3. Mix half the dough with green food coloring and the other half with red. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in extra sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie set. Remove form oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies  

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter flavor crisco (please use crisco!!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tbl vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp spoons baking soda
• 4 cups flour
• 1 bag chocolate chips or mini M&M's

Directions:
      Combine crisco, sugars, vanilla, eggs, and salt; stir until creamy. Add flour and soda, mix well. Stir in chips. Put on ungreased cookies sheet by tablespoon full. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minute.

Remember shhhhh!!!!! it's a secret!!!
Nancy

Holiday Balls

Hello!
I have been falling behind in blogging. Since it is the Holiday season of course i have been baking like crazy, but I have found very little time to blog about it. So here are some of my fantastic Christmas cookie recipes after Christmas is already over :).
Like I said that I have been baking like crazy. I made 11 huge cookie plates for my friends, baked multiple cookies and pies for my family, and had a baking day with my friends. That's a lot of cookies!! I will try to share most of the recipes with you, dear readers. Some are very simple, so are a little more complex, but are all are equally delicious.
Here is a list of what I have made
-Oreo Balls/ Reindeer Turds
-Peanut Butter Balls
-Almond Bark pretzels
-Minty Cookies
-Oreo Snowmen
-Turtles
-Spritz cookies
-Sugar cookies
-Cut-out cookies
-Chocolate chip cookies
-Apple pie
-Pumpkin pie
-Chocolate pie
As you can see I have been busy since Thanksgiving. I would like to share two of the easiest and nomiest recipes, Oreo balls and peanut butter balls.

Oreo Balls
Ingredients
-1 package oreos
-1 8 oz. package cream cheese (softened)
-Almond bark
First you crush up the oreos. (This would be really easy in a food processor, but if you are like me and do not own one of those a pastry blender or a meat tenderizer and a plastic bag work very well too!) After all of the oreos crushed are mix in cream cheese. (This might work better with your hands.) When it is all mixed together make balls of whatever size out of the mixture and set it in the fridge or outside if it is winter to harden. Once they are hard dip them in almond bark, let dry, then enjoy!!

Crispy Peanut Butter Balls
from the Taste of Home Holiday cookie magazine

Ingredients

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups crisp rice cereal
• 4 cups (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon shortening, divided
• 1/3 cup white baking chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat peanut butter and butter until blended; gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Stir in cereal. Shape into 1-in. balls. Refrigerate until chilled.
• In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and 1/4 cup shortening; stir until smooth. Dip balls into chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Place on a waxed paper-lined pan. Let stand until set.
• In a microwave, melt white baking chips and remaining shortening. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over candies. Refrigerate until set. Yield: 6 dozen.

I could be very immature now and say I hope you really enjoy the balls, and make other inappropriate jokes about balls, but since I am mature I will not do that. ;) I really do hope you enjoy these easy and amazing recipes. I will try to share more recipes with you in the future.

Nancy

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!
I would like to share some things that I very very very very thankful for!

• orange dream pops (the only food that has ever made cry from joy)
• green bean casserole
• my Family (all of it however annoying they can get)
• my Friends
• my jobs (how provide me with money to bake!)
• my house which includes my kitchen
• Harry Potter!!!
• good books
• and of course this blog and you dear readers

I hope that this Thanksgiving day you can find somethings that you are very thankful for. Of course I am not posting just to bore you with my thankfulness. I do have some food ideas to share with you.
So this year we are going down to my uncle's house for a huge meal. I decided that since my mom was making pie and basically all of the other food was taken care of I decided to make some acorns. They are some of the easiest things I have ever made!! I saw them on pinterest and thought they were cute but of course with the ideas you find on pinterest you never make them. I just passed them off, until we made them at my job in a kitchen at a retirement home. They were soooooooo easy and sooooo cute that I just had to share them with my family.
So here is how you make them.
What you need:
Kisses
Mini Nutter Butters
Chocolate Chips
Chocolate Frosting
First you have to unwrap all of the kisses. (That's probably the hardest and most time consuming part.) Then you put some frosting on the bottom of a kiss and attach a nutter butter to it. Then on top of the nutter butter you put a chocolate chip. That's it!
They are sooooo easy! And so cute here is a few pictures of mine!!!

Well hopefully you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope dear reader you find something to be truly thankful for!!
Nancy

Halloween Treats!

Hello!
      I have really been getting into Halloween. I have made some cute Halloween treats. Today I made some Candy Corn Cupcakes. I volunteered to bring food for a class party on Monday, so I thought that these would be very very cute. They turned out very cute and very yummy.

   Here's the secret, box cake mix and food coloring! You just mix up the different colors you want

   Then you layer the colors in some muffin tins.



   After that you just bake them like normal cupcakes. About 18 minutes. I frosted them with just my favorite frosting recipe. You can use your favorite or just some from a can. I already posted my frosting recipe so look it up if you are in need of a good one. Then decorate the cupcakes with candy corn. Halloween has some of the cutest recipes that you can make, so I hope that i have inspired you a little.
   Have a GREAT Halloween filled with good food, fun times, and a lot of stomach aches.
Nancy

Just One

Hello!
    I keep making all of these wonderful treats and not telling you about them, so from now on I will blog at least once a week. I tired to say that my excuse for never writing was because I did not have enough time to bake so i had no recipes to use. But in fact I have been baking more than ever. I have recently decided that I love baking soooooo much that there is nothing else I want to do with my life. So to keep myself on sort of a regimen I will post something at least once a week. Even though no one reads this. :) I have found blogging is more for yourself.
    One of the recipes that I made and was just going to blow off and not put on here was Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then I decided that these cookies are way way to good to share the recipe. Even my mother who absolutely hates chocolate and fruit loved these cookies. They are some of the best cookies I have personally ever eaten. The oatmeal, white chocolate, and craisins all come together to make something magical happen. All my sister said about them was AMAZING! and then she went on to say how she just couldn't describe how good these cookies are. I feel exactly the same way. When I first tired these cookies at a speech competition I ate about 10 in an hour. BEWARE! they are extremely addictive. After popping one in your mouth you can't help yourself and you have to eat more. To steal from the Doritos's bag, You can't just eat one. It is so true! So I dare you to make these delicious cookies, and then try and eat only one. Tell me if you can, cause I sure can't!!
    So without further ado the best freaking cookie recipe from the Ocean Spray website (with a little of my own instructions).

Oatmeal Craisin White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup of butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 5 oz. package of craisins
2/3 white chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Using an electric mixer combine butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Then add in eggs. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, and salt. After it is all mixed in good stir in craisins and chocolate chips.
Drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack (or eat while warm and chocolate chips are melty).
Yield: About 2 1/2 dozen

Remember try to eat just one!!!!!!!
Nancy

NOMS!!

Hello!

Recently I have started using the word noms to describe food I like. Instead of using real words like this is delicous or yum I use noms. My mom and sister HATE this. They have repeatedly told me that I sound like a three year old. My mother demanded that I stop using that word at the table. So to get back at them I use that word repeativly at school and now on my blog! I found a recipe on stumbleapon that perfectly embodies the word noms. (If you do not know what stumbleapon I recommend looking it up, but WARNING it is very very very very adictive! Be prepared to wasting hours and hours of your day.) The recipe is Carmel Apple Pie Cupcakes.

Wonderful stumble brought me to another food blog where someone posted the recipe for a cupcake recipe i just had to try! Since I needed some nomy food to make to take as treats to play practice, I tried out the recipe. All I can say is NOMS!!! They were so delicious! One of my friends, Trevbot, said it best. "I am not sure if I just ate a muffin, a cupcake, or apple pie." That basically sums them up. It is a delicous cinnamon cupcake filled with crisp and refreshing apple pie filling and topped with light and fluffy caramel frosting. They are very time consuming. It took me about two and a half hours to do the whole recipe. So they are not quick and easy. But what you turn out with is truly NOMS!

There are some substitutions I made in the recipe. Since I live in Podunk, Hicksville Iowa I could not properly make the Vanilla Bean Carmel. The grocery stores in town do not sell vanilla beans; much less know what they are. Instead I just used caramel from a bottle to save time and the turned out alright, but I bet it is sooooo much better with the Carmel recipe listed. So please please try out this wonderful, delicious, and nommy recipe!!!!

Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes

Printable Recipe (Includes all sub-recipes)

Makes about 24 cupcakes

There are several steps to complete before assembling the cupcakes, but some can be done a day ahead to speed things up. The caramel and apple filling can both be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Let them come to room temperature (or gently warm caramel) before using. You won’t need the whole batch of caramel, so feel free to half it if you don’t want a bunch leftover. Any leftover pie filling or caramel sauce makes a fantastic breakfast/snack mixed with Greek yogurt, or a delicious topping for ice cream!

Ingredients

2 cups Apple Filling (below)

1 cup Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce (below)

24 Cinnamon Cupcakes (below)

1 batch of Caramel Swiss Buttercream Frosting (below)

Directions

Working with completely cooled, use a small paring knife to cut out a cone shaped wedge from the center of each cupcake. (Like when cutting the lid off of a jack-o-lantern.) Save the “lids”. If needed, scrape out a little bit of cake from each hole to make more room for filling – just don’t go too far or your cupcakes will fall apart. Fill each hole not quite to the top with Apple Filling (about 1/2 tablespoon). Replace “lids”, trimming off the bottoms of the “lids” if necessary.

Pipe frosting on cupcakes. Drizzle with caramel sauce.

Serve same day as assembled, or freeze for long term storage.

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Apple Filling

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1.5 pounds (approx.) Honey Crisp apples (about 4 medium), peeled, cored, and finely diced

1 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

Directions

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add apples, sugars, lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook until apples are tender and release their juices – about 10 minutes. In a small bowl or glass, combine cornstarch and water. Add to apples and stir, cooking until thickened. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature. (Cover and refrigerate overnight if making ahead.)

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Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce

Makes 2 1/2 cups

A word of caution: Making caramel is tricky. Have patience and have all of your ingredients ready to go. Caramel also gets very, very hot. Much hotter than boiling water. It will spatter, so be careful. Wear long sleeves, use a deep pan or pot, and do not try to taste the hot caramel no matter how much you want to!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Directions

Measure heavy cream in a measuring cup. Scrape out vanilla bean seeds and add to cream. Set aside.

Spread sugar in an even layer on the bottom of a heavy, tall-sided sauce pan or pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently with a heat-proof spatula or whisk to promote even browning, until sugar melts. Once the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.

Watch carefully. When the caramel turns a rich amber color and smells like caramel, remove from heat and immediately whisk in cream. (Caution: Caramel will bubble violently!) If any sugar has hardened, return to low heat and whisk until smooth.

Cool to room temperature. To store or make ahead, transfer to an air-tight container and keep refrigerated. Caramel can be re-warmed in microwave or in a saucepan over low heat, if needed.

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Cinnamon Cupcakes

Makes about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat eggs and sugar until thick ribbons form, about 5 minutes. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until incorporated. Add milk mixture and vanilla, and beat until blended.

Divide evenly among baking tins. Bake at 350°F for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

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Caramel Swiss Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

It’s very important that your caramel be no warmer than room temperature when you add it to the frosting, or your frosting will melt.

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Pinch of coarse salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup Vanilla Bean Caramel sauce (above), cooled

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Place a saucepan with about 2 inches of water over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer. Combine egg whites, sugar and salt in the metal bowl of a stand mixer. Place bowl over pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until mixture an instant-read thermometer reads 160°F. (Sugar will be dissolved and mixture will start to resemble marshmallow fluff.)

Remove bowl from heat and attach to stand mixer. Beat with the whisk attachment until stiff meringue peaks form and the outside of the bowl no longer feels warm, about 10 minutes. Switch to paddle attachment. On low speed, add one cube of butter at a time, waiting until incorporated before adding the next. Once all butter is added, on low speed slowly pour in caramel. Add vanilla and continue beating until smooth. (If frosting curdles, just keep beating! If frosting is soupy, place mixer bowl in fridge for 10-15 minutes and beat until smooth. Repeat if necessary.)

This recipe was originally posted on the Craving Chronicles blog. I must give credit where credit is due.

Nancy