Recent Posts

Billiard Ball Cupcakes

So let me clue you in on a little secret of mine. If my baking project requires a lot of time for decorating I — gasp — use cake mix from a box and store-bought frosting. I have no problems admitting to that and I defend my choice! ;) So these cupcakes are Betty Crocker white cake mix and vanilla frosting. No big recipe to post today! They are decorated with colored sugars and white Necco wafers. Use a little black frosting to write the numbers and you’ll be good to go. I even went as far as to find out which number goes on which color ball — so they are all accurate!

Decorating idea from Hello, Cupcake!

Double Delight Peanut Butter Honey Cookies

So this is my first blog entry ever! To start my foray into the blogosphere right, I took out a little insurance. This recipe is an adaptation from a post I found from www.visionsofsugarplum.com. This recipe is originally from the winner of the 43rd Pillsbury Bake off and the original recipe can be found here. Since my hubby loves peanut butter, I knew I had to try it. It is slightly more work than a drop cookie, but my coworkers think it is well worth the effort! Two quick notes though: 1) I found the filling dry so I added a little softened butter to force it to behave better and 2) I didn’t have to grease my pans, which is great because I hate that for some reason…

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Double Delight Peanut Butter Honey Cookies
Print Recipe

Dough

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 Tbsp honey

1 egg

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup flour

  • Cream the first 5 ingredients until combined. Beat inĀ  egg, salt and vanilla. Sift in remaining ingedients and mix on low until incorporated. Chill ~ 20 minutes.

Filling (make while dough chills):

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. butter, softened

Topping

1 cup honey-roasted peanuts,coarsely chopped

  • Preheat oven to 375 oF. Measure out a scant teaspoon of filling and roll into a ball. Repeat for rest of filling. To form cookies, measure out 1 tablespoon dough and flatten in your palm. Wrap dough around filling and squeeze gently to form it into a disk. Continue until all the dough is used up.
  • Press into peanuts and place on baking sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes until edges turn golden brown. Let rest on pan until firm and transfer to a cooling rack.

Cookies will look puffy and be very soft to the touch but don’t let them fool you- if they are browning, they are done!

Wilton Heaven

No recipe today, but I had to blog about the Wilton Homewares store. Yesterday, Val and I went out to Darien, IL to visit the Wilton Homewares store. Yes, an entire Wilton store. It was heaven. The store is stocked with pretty much every Wilton product ever made – cake pans, cupcake liners, fondant, tips, you name it, they have it. I took a photo of the sprinkle aisle:

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And speaking of Val, she will likely become a co-author of this blog. She has far more baking experience than I do (she’s one of those super-talented people who can make a 3D teddy bear baby shower cake complete with a fondant diaper) — so I can’t wait to see what she makes! I have a lot to learn from her. :)

Double Chocolate Oreo Bars

The following image is food porn for women. A FIELD OF CHOCOLATE!

I haven’t made anything super chocolate-y in a while! These bars are SO easy. They took a half hour to make – start to finish. A lot of people ask me, “how do you have the time to do all this baking?” The answer is that I don’t really make anything that takes very long. My labor-intensive baking adventures (like the crazy holiday cupcakes) are few and far between simply because they take so long.

So here is the super simple recipe for these delicious bars — I ate one this morning and they are awesome. But I’m a sucker for anything that involves Oreo cookies. :)

Double Chocolate Oreo Bars
Print Recipe

16 oz. crushed Oreos (use a food processor if you can to crush/grind them)
3/4 cup butter, melted
14 oz. condensed milk
2 cups mini semisweet chips, divided

1. Combine cookie crumbs and butter. Pat into bottom of an ungreased 9×13 pan. Combine milk and 1 cup chips in microwave-safe bowl — heat until melted, stirring until smooth.
2. Pour the milk/chips mixture over the crust. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 10-12 min at 350F. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe credit: Taste of Home

Lemon Bars

 

Today is a disgusting, dreary, cloudy, rainy day.

What better pick-me-up than to make cheery, yellow, happy lemon bars?

The recipe is simple and I had all of the ingredients I needed (I love it when that happens).

Yield: About 9 bars

Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars

Refreshing, light, and lemon-y!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

For the crust:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter at room temperature

For the filling:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

    Make the crust:

    1. Preheat oven to 350F.

    2. Sift the flour and sugar. Cream the butter and slowly blend in the flour/sugar mixture. Flatten into a 9×9 pan and bake for 15.

    Make the filling:

    1. Beat the eggs. Add the sugar and salt. Beat until light and lemon-colored.

    2. Mix the flour, powdered sugar, and lemon juice together. Fold into the egg mixture. Pour over crust and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F.

Notes

Your yield will depend on how big or small you cut your bars.