Gooey Butter Cake

My mom made  gooey butter cake when I was growing up. I rediscovered it a couple of years ago when I came across Paula Deen's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake. Gooey butter cake can be made in many different flavors: regular butter, chocolate, pumpkin, banana, etc.  But recently I came across this recipe that was completely from scratch - no box mix! After trying it, I loved it! I personally think it made a big difference to be from scratch.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1/4 cup Milk
• 1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
• 1 whole Egg

• 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, At Room Temperature
• 2 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
• 3-¾ cups Confectioner's Sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add melted butter and egg. Mix enough to moisten the dough. Transfer to a 13″x9″ greased baking pan and spread evenly over the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
3. In another large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter, and continue to mix. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time until all sugar is mixed in. Pour filling over the crust, and spread evenly with a spatula.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned.  The center should still jiggle a bit. 
5. Cool for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with additional confectioner’s sugar and serve.

Source: Tasty Kitchen

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I've been making my own vanilla extract for several years now. It's so easy and tastes so much better than store bough extracts. You can also control the ingredients you put in it. The best thing about homemade extract is that it takes 2 ingredients, vanilla beans and alcohol, and doesn't run out.  When you use the extract, just add more alcohol. The only problem with making your own vanilla extract is you have to wait awhile for it to be ready, about 6-8 weeks. I use vodka but you can also use rum.

Ingredients

• Vanilla Beans (6 beans per cup of alcohol)
• Vodka or Rum

Will also need a sterilized glass bottle. My bottle is 5 oz.

Directions

1. Cut beans lengthwise. You can cut them completely in half or leave the ends attached.

2. Fill the bottle with the beans. If the beans are too long for the bottle, they will either need to be bent or cut in half.
3. Fill the bottle with alcohol.
4. Keep the bottle in a dark place and let it sit for 6-8 weeks. Shake it up every couple of weeks. 
5. Enjoy! Whenever you use the extract, top it off with alcohol.

Iced Sugar Cookies

I love the blog Annie's Eats and she's always making the prettiest sugar cookies. To be honest, as much as I wanted to make them myself I was afraid because they looked like a lot of work. But, I was meeting a couple of friends for lunch and thought it would be fun to give them each a box of cookies.

The cookies were really easy to make. They tasted good especially once they were iced. I was concerned at first because they were a little drier than I usually prefer. My friends liked them. I'd be interested in trying some other recipes out as well.

The icing was easy to make and for a first time icing sugar cookies, I think I did an ok job. I know I'll get better with practice. I'll learn what the right consistency should be.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 ½ t. almond extract
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 t. salt
• 2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions

1. Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Cover dough and refrigerate until firm. 
2. Roll dough to ¼” thickness on a floured surface. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. You don't want the cookies to brown. 
3. Once cookies have cooled, ice and decorate.

Source: Annie's Eats 

Royal Icing

Ingredients
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. meringue powder
5 tbsp. water
Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until glossy (about 7 minutes). Icing should forms stiff peaks. At this point you can add food coloring if desired (gel not liquid). 
2. This is still too stiff to pipe. Add a small amount of water at a time by hand until it's thin enough to pipe. 
3. Use a pastry bag and pipe around the edges of the cookies. Let the cookies stand so the icing sets. When you aren't using the icing, make sure to keep it covered so it doesn't get hard. When you aren't using the pastry bag, you can set it in a glass with a small amount of water at the bottom.
4. To thin the icing for filling, add a little water at a time until the icing drips off the spoon easily.  It should smooth easily into the rest of the icing still in the bowl. The thinned out icing can now be used to flood the cookies that have already been outlined. You can spoon the icing in, transfer it to a squeeze bottle, or a hole plastic bag with a hole in the corner. You can use a toothpick to help the icing to spread into corners. Decorate as desired and set cookies aside so icing can set.

Source: Annie's Eats

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

Who doesn't love funfetti cake? My friend's son is turning 1 so I thought it would be fun to find a good homemade funfetti cake recipe. This recipe came from I Heart Cuppycakes. It really wasn't hard to make this without a box. I already had all the ingredients. The sprinkles melt while baking to give you the same colored dots in the cakes.

The icing was just as easy and really yummy! The recipe tells you to start with 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar and then add more to get your desired consistency. I think I ended up using just under 6 cups. The cake recipe made 12 cupcakes but the icing recipe (depending on how much icing you like on each cupcake) could have iced more than 12 cupcakes, probably about 18 cupcakes. Overall these cupcakes were delicious! It didn't taste exactly like boxed funfetti cake but I think it was better. It had more of a buttery flavor.

For Cupcakes:

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups AP flour
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low. Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in rainbow sprinkles.
4. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

 For Buttercream:

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter
• 7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat butter until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla, beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency desired.
2. Frost cupcakes and garnish with more rainbow sprinkles.

Source: I Heart Cuppycakes

S'mores Cookies

I've seen this recipe on so many food blogs and decided it was about time to give it a try. I think the original recipe is from Cookie Madness but I got an adapted recipe from Sweet Tooth. These cookies are delicious!!  I actually took them to my doctor's office and I overhead some people say they were the best cookies they've had. I just love the gooey marshmallows. YUM!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups mini chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, or large ones cut up
• 2 Hershey bars, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. With an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla to butter mixture until combined.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, graham crackers, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Use 2 tablespoons or a medium-sized ice cream scoop to drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake for 8 minutes and remove from oven. Push a few marshmallows and pieces of chocolate into each cookie and return to the oven to bake an additional 3-4 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Recipe yields about 3 dozen cookies. Source: Sweet Tooth and Cookie Madness.

Applesauce Muffins

I've really been in the mood to bake the past couple of days. I had been looking all over for a muffin recipe that caught my eye. I came across this recipe on All Recipes and since I already had some applesauce in my fridge, I figured I'd give it a try. I made it last night and was so anxious to try it that I dug in as soon as they came out of the oven. At first I was a little disappointed. I thought it was kind of bland. But this morning I ate one for breakfast and quickly changed my mind. These are best room temperature. You can really taste the cinnamon and allspice. I changed the recipe only slightly. I love brown sugar so I used 1/2 white and 1/2 brown sugar. I also topped the muffins before baking with a little brown sugar. I love the brown sugar topping. This recipe was really easy and I'll definitely make them again.


Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and baking soda; set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, applesauce and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
3. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins. Adapted from All Recipes.

Twix Blondies

My mom found this recipe for us from Cookies and Cups.  I love Twix and I love Blondies so when she told me about this recipe I knew we'd have to make it. It was DELICIOUS!!!!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 2 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cup AP flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 30 mini Twix bars coarsely chopped + 9 mini Twix reserved for garnish more finely chopped
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat to 350. Grease 9x13 baking pan
2. In medium sized bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt, whisking together.
3. In mixing bowl combine butter and brown sugar on low speed until smooth.
4. Add eggs one at a time continuing on low speed.
5. Slowly add the the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined.
6. Add the coarsely chopped Twix and chocolate chips stirring with wooden spoon.
7. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake approx 25-30 minutes until they are set.
8. Toothpick will come out slightly gooey.  Be careful not to overcook.

Source: Cookies and Cups

Annual Christmas Baking Extravaganza

Every Christmas, my mom and I get together and bake ALL day!  We make so many cookies and treats. It's tradition in our family to bake cookies for our husbands to take to work. My grandma did it, my mom did it, and now it's my turn. Here's all we made:

• Brownie covered Oreos
• Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
• Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
• Toffee Crackle Cookies
• Snickerdoodles
• Hot Cocoa Cookies
• Twix Blondies
• Pretzel ToffeeBark
• Candy Coated Pretzels
• Cake Batter Bark
• Peppermint Bark
• Peanut Brittle

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
This was my mom's recipe. We've made this so much growing up and I've always loved it, especially with the butterscotch chips.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 package (4 serving size) JELL-O Brand Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
• 2 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Mix flour with baking soda.
2. Combine butter, the sugars, and pudding mix in large mixer bowl; beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour micture; then stir in oats and butterscotch chips. (Batter will be stiff.) 
3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen.

Pumpkin Bars

This is another dessert I made for my friend's baby shower.  It's so easy but so good. Everyone seemed to love this dessert too, in fact I had several recipe requests.

Ingredients

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg

• 1 (29 oz) can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I made my own. Recipe below.)

• 1/4 cup butter, chilled
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly greese a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Set aside 1 cup of cake mix. Combine remaining cake mix with melted butter and 1 egg and mix until well blended. Spread mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, milk, 3 eggs, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well and pour this mixture over cake mix mixture in baking dish.
4. In a small bowl with a pastry blender, or in a food processor, combine chilled butter and white sugar with reserved 1 cup of cake mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinklie over pumpkin mixture. 
5. Bake 45-50 minutes until top is golden.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1. In a small bowl mix together the ingredients. Store in an airtight container.

Fruit Pizza

This recipe actually came from my mom.  I've made this so many times. It's so easy yet everyone always loves it. In the past, I've always rolled the cookie dough out. But I have learned, it's easier to just slice the cookie dough and lay it out on the pan. You can use any fruit you want. I just happen to like pineapple, grapes, strawberries, and mandarin oranges. By the way, this is the best picture I got of it. Once it was cut it was devoured before I ever had a chance to take another picture!

Ingredients

• 1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar (+ more to your liking)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cup grapes, halved

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slice cookie dough and arrange on greased pizza pan or glass baking dish, overlapping edges. Press dough flat into pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. In a small mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over crust.
3. Arrange the pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and mandarin oranges over cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.