Pink Icing

What do you want from me

2010-08-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, i really like this music video.

Song Of The Day:

Forever the sickest kids, What do you want from me?

Red Velvet Party Roll

2008-06-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Red Velvet Party Roll

The recipe i got from Paula Deens Chocolate Celebration magazine, which is an amazing magazine! The one thing i didnt realize, however, is that because it is different than a normal red velvet cake, the color doesnt turn out the same. Usually this would have been a gorgeous purple velvet cake, which is what i had visioned, howver then it quickly became just plain old brown.. blah. It was still very festive though with colorful sprinkles in the icing layers, and on top.

Paula Deen Red Velvet Cake Roll Recipe:

5 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 (1 ounce) bottle red food coloring
1/2 cup cake flour
1/3 cup unsweetned cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Coat a 15 by 10 by 1 inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Beat egg yolks at medium speed with an electric mixer until thick and pale. Add 1/2 cup sugar, beating well. Beat in buttermilk, vinegar, and food coloring.
3. In small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; sift. Gradually add to egg mixture, beating until combined.

4. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peak forms. Fold eggs into chocolate mixture.

5. Dpread batter into prepared pan and bake for 10-12 min. or until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.
6. Sift two tablespoons confectioners sugar in a 15 by 10 inch rectangle on a cloth towel. Immediately loosen cake from sides of pan and turn out onto prepared towel. Peel off wax paper. Sift remaining powdered sugar over cake.

Starting at narrow end, roll up cake and towel together; place cake seam side down on a wire rack. Cool cake completly.
7. Gently unroll cake and spread with cream cheese white chocolate filling. Reroll cake without towel; place seam side down on a serving platter. Dust cake with confectioners sugar if desired. To serve, cut into 3/4 inch slices. You can garnish with chocolate sauce, or fresh mint leaves.

Cream Cheese White Chocolate Filling
(makes about 3 cups)

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup coarsely chopped white-chocolate morsels
about 1/2 cup sprinkles
(I also added about 1/3-1/2 cup melted white chocolate chips)

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed until creamy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add in confectioners sugar until smooth. Here I added the melted white chocolate. Then when its cool, add white chocolate morsels, and sprinkles.

Chocolate Turtle Fathers Day cake

2008-06-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Turtle Fathers Day Cake

My dad has always loved those little turtle candies (..you know the ones in the orange and white package..) and we usually end up getting him a box for holidays, so this year i decided to include his love for those little turtles in a cake made just for him. I got this recipe from my recipes.com and Oxmoor house, but instead of buying frosting, i couldn't help but make my own, I actually didnt find anything else about this recipe i would change, i think thats a first! Anyway.. in the process of making my own frostings, i actually invented my own chocolate frosting recipe that tastes AMAZING! When finished the cake turned out moist, rich, and absolutely fabulous! This could almost tie with my decadent Oreo cake, and actually it took a lot less time to make than that one. SooooOooo... heres the recipes i used:

Ingredients

Unsweetened cocoa
1 (18.25-oz.) package devil's food cake mix
1 (3.9-oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 (6-oz.) package semisweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (16-oz.) container ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting
1/2 cup canned dulce de leche
2 (7-oz.) packages turtle candies
1 (16-oz.) can ready-to-spread chocolate fudge frosting
1 (12-oz.) jar dulce de leche ice cream topping
1/4 cup pecan halves, toasted

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, and dust with cocoa. Set aside.

2. Beat cake mix and next 7 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chocolate morsels and chopped pecans. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake at 350° for 30 to 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour.
refrigerator.

4. Whisk together cream cheese frosting and canned dulce de leche in a small bowl until well blended. Set aside. Cut 6 turtle candies in half, and set aside for garnish. Dice remaining turtle candies.

5. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread with 1/2 cup cream cheese frosting mixture; sprinkle with one-third diced turtle candies. Repeat procedure twice. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread chocolate fudge frosting on top and sides of cake. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before serving, drizzle dulce de leche ice cream topping over top of cake. Garnish with remaining halved turtle candies and pecan halves. Store in

Test Kitchen Tip: We tested with 2 dulce de leche products: canned and jarred. The canned product is by Nestlé and available in a 14-oz. can. It's quite thick, and when blended with ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting, makes a rich, caramel-flavored filling. Find it in the supermarket with the Mexican ingredients. The jarred dulce de leche ice cream topping is perfect to drizzle over the finished cake. Find it in the supermarket with other ice cream toppings.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz. Cream Cheese, Room Temp.
1/4 cup butter, room temp.
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/3 cup white chocolate chips, melted

Simply beat all ingredients together, make sure and melt the white chocolate chips first, they are my favorite part,
and they just add a little extra kick.
BTW this is probably the only recipe i wont add butter flavoring too, i think im a butter flavoring addict.

Emilee's Super Rich Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

3/4 cup butter
4 cups powder sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
2 squares of unsweet baking chocolate, or 2 ounces
1/3 cup semi-sweet choc. Chips
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavoring

Beat butter on medium speed until it is smooth. Melt the semi-sweet chips and the unsweet squares, and let cool a couple of minutes while you do the next step (you can melt these together, in a double boiler, or just simply in the microwave). Next pour in 2 cups powder sugar, along with cocoa, and when that is combined pour in your melted chocolate. Next, one more cup powdered sugar, then your milk, then the final cup powder sugar, and finally when all that is mixed add your flavorings.

My mother always tells me to make my frosting thicker since it will pipe better, however depending on how thin/thick you would like it, you can add more milk, also i ended up adding a little of my left over dulce de leche to the last of my frosting as i piped around the sides and top of my cake, and it added a nice texture, and just a tiny bit more flavor as well.

Thanks Dad!

White Chocolate Strawberry Cups

2008-06-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

White Chocolate Strawberry Cups

The perfect summer dessert

*4 ounces cream cheese
*1/2 large cool whip container
*1/2 Tbsp Jello mix, or just add to your tastes, however strong you want it.
*1/3 cup strawberrys, chopped really little
*about 4 or 5 more strawberrys to cut up on top for decoration.
*1/2 White Chocolate Almond Bark
*Wilton cup molds

Mix cool whip, and softened cream cheese together. Add Strawberry Jello mix to your tastes, and a couple drops strawberry extract can even be added here, and then add the diced strawberries. Melt White chocolate and pour into wilton cup molds 1/3 full brushing up the sides just like the oreo truffle cups. Refridgerate for several minutes, and brush up the sides a little more for thickness if desired. Pop the cups out, fill with strawberry ,mixture and drizzle white chocolate on top if you would like, they also look nice without it, then add a strabwerry slice in the top.

Bird Strawberry Cup! Get creative, this guy is made with mini chocolate kisses and melted chocolate for the eyes, and a strawberry nose, lol.

Oreo Truffle Cups

2008-06-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Oreo Truffle Cups

Oreo Truffles with a twist..

*Wilton plastic cup molds
*White Chocolate Almond Bark
*Milk Chocolate too, if desired
*8 ounces, or one package, cream cheese
*18 oz. package of oreo cookies

Crush up the oreos and mix them with the cream cheese just like you would for oreo truffles. I then melted chocolate, i mixed whtie and milk a little, however just white chocolate would be really cute, and then i added a little bit of crushed oreos in with the chocolate to give it that cookies and cream look. Next fill the wilton cup molds about 1/3 full and take a paint brush and brush up some chocolate up the sides of the cups. Place them in the fridge for several minutes, and then brush up the sides again, because chances are there is some still melted in the bottom, and not very thick sides. Finally pop out the cups, fill them with the oreo mix, and drizzle chocolate on top, placing some remaining oreo crumbs on top adds a final touch.

Red Velvet Black and White Cookies

2008-06-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

Red Velvet Black and White Cookies

I found this recipe in a Rachel ray magazine, however I've also seen them made along with some Gorgeous pictures on Joy the Baker's blog: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/archives/64. I already love red velvet, and these cookies are probably the most moist, and perfect cookies I've ever made. I made them once several months ago just to try out a new red velvet cake recipe, however these i made for a black, white, and red prom. When i was asked to make cookies, and learned of the colors, i new these were the perfect match. They are a perfect cookie, that appears with a little class, and of course all the appeal of the popular black and white cookie.

* I added Cream cheese to the white icing, just cause i think that you can't have red velvet without cream cheese icing. It turned out a lot better like this.

Recipe:
By Rachel Ray

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5 Tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

For Vanilla Graze

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 oz. Cream Cheese (my lil Alteration)

For Chocolate Glaze

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan well so the cookies don’t stick. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, beat 5 tablespoons butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart of the prepared baking sheet, spread the batter out with a butter knife. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

Mini Muffin Pan Brownie Kisses and Peanut Butter Cookie Cups:

2008-06-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

Back to the peanut butter cookie variations i picked up a classic with the peanut butter cookies and kisses, and put a Reeses on it instead. The kisses i changed and put on a brownie cookie. And finally i decided to bake them in mini muffin pans instead of the classic boring cookie sheet. this also helped them be a little thicker, and easier to press the candy into. Simple, easy, and cheap, which would explain why these are my mothers newest favorite to make. She also insists on merely buying the pre-packaged dough, so you really don't even get your kitchen very messy, and everybody is still impressed with all your creativity.

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

All you need is:

*Pilsbury Peanut butter cookie mix in a tube
*Reeses peanut butter cups

Just Scoop out about a tablespoon, or so, of dough into mini muffin pan. After cooking make sure that your Reeses have already been unwrapped and press one into the top of all the cookies. Best to do this before taking them out of the pan.

Brownie Kisses:

All you need is:
*Pilsbury brownie mix in a tube
* Hersheys Kisses The brownie mix is super soft, and a little strange took worth with at first, i recommend freezing it for about 10 min. before you work with it so that its not so slimy and soft. After that just scoop out about a tablespoon into your mini muffins tins. After baking press a kiss into each brownie just enough so that it will stay in, this must be done shortly after taking them out so that they are still soft enough. Also remember to have all these unwrapped before they get done baking just like the reeses.

Easy and Yummy Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-06-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

Easy and Yummy Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

After getting tired of the plain old peanut butter cookies, or the reeses puanut butter cookies that my mother always insists i make, i decided to find something a little different to make, and i found this recipe on pilsbury. For a party or anything where you have to feed a lot of people, these are super easy and cheap, yet are unique, and sure to be a crowd pleaser. Heres all i did.

Ingredients:

Create and bake Pillsbury refrigerated cookies
peanut butter
powder sugar

What i did: I basically mixed some peanut butter with some powdered sugar, the exact amount im not sure, and then i rolled them into balls, and rolled some peanut butter cookie dough around them. After that i put them on the cookie sheet to bake at 350.

What i did, was basically take the original recipe and make it even easier, however here is the recipe from Pillsbury for Double Delight Peanut Butter cookies:

Ingredients:

1/4	cup Fisher® Dry Roasted Peanuts, finely chopped
1/4	cup Domino® or C&H® Granulated Sugar
1/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2	cup JIF® Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2	cup Domino® or C&H® Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1	roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® Create ‘n Bake® refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled

DIRECTIONS

1.	Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
2.	In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
3.	Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
4.	Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with CRISCO® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
5.	Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

Graduation Cap Cookies

2008-05-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Grad Caps

Getting ready for graduation? These cookie hats, are perfect for a Grad party! They are super adorable, and they taste amazing as well! I found this recipe at family fun originally.

*Reeses Peanut butter cups
*Fudge Graham cracker cookies (just use Keebler)
*peanut butter
*yellow fruit roll ups (i bought a package with all the colors, and even though it was the tattoo kind, i just cut around the tattoos)
*Ready to use yellow frosting (just this just looks cute on top)

Place some peanut butter in between the graham cracker and the top of the Reeses, then take your fruit rollups, spread them out, and cut little strips, splitting them at the end. Press the top of the fruit rollup on the top, center of the graham cracker, and pull the split a little farther apart at the bottom because its probably stuck back together by now, and its just cuter with the actual end split. Finally add a little dab of the squirt icing, and you might need to wait a little bit so that it can dry and you can pat down the spike left from the icing.

Cheap, easy, and they taste amazing! make sure you add these to your Family Graduation party!

My Photography:

2008-05-23T16:34:00.001-07:00

My photography:

These are a little random i know, but they are my favorites! comment me if you would like to know a little more about any of them!

Caterpillar Cake

2008-05-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

My Caterpillar Cake:

His body is made out of a dome/semi-circle shaped pan, and i dyed each hump a different color, so each segment was different, on the inside and out! The grass is made out of coconut dyed green, you just put it into a bag with some green food coloring, and a little water... (the exact amount should be on the coconut can) and then you squeeze it around till it's all dyed. His body I did with a star tip, any size will do since i used a different tip on just about every hump. You can also use a hair tip, i used one of these on the purple part, and it was super cute. His eyes are just ovals filled in, and if you dip your finger in powder sugar and then pat them down, it makes them look smooth, finally put a brown m&m in the middle. The nose is done in the same way with powdered sugar, and then i used these spaghetti gummies i found for the mouth and antenna, the feet are just hersheys kisses.

Teacher Appreciation: Gooey Coconut-Chocolate Brownie Mini-cakes

2008-05-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

Gooey Coconut-Chocolate Brownie Mini Cakes

These Brownie mini cakes, were the perfect excuse to try out my new Wilton mini cake pans, as well as celebrate teacher appreciation. I combined several recipes, and of course didnt follow any of them very well, mostly because i cook on taste rather than directions. So i will get to putting the recipe on here for how i made these, in the mean time i thought id just put up the pics! They are so cute!

Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Muffins w/ Cream Chees Icing

2008-05-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Muffins
w/ Cream Cheese Icing

Buttery Cinnamon and Chocolate chip Muffins.. and if thats not enough, i topped them off with a little cream cheese icing! Unlike those muffins that when your done with the top your ready to toss out and start on another, these you can't stop till every last bite is devoured!

I combined a cinnamon swirl muffin mix i had with a cinnamon streusel coffee cake mix, just adding the ingredients as instructed on the back of the boxes. Then i added chocolate chips, and mine were normal semi-sweet, but i think this might have been the tiniest bit better with milk chocolate, mini chocolate chips, or even without. After that i took the streusel from one box and put it on the top. I then added a little slice of butter, and then the crumble topping from the other recipe, and cooked them at 350 until they looked lightly brown and i could stick a toothpick in and it come out clean. I had a little cream cheese icing left from another recipe, so i just drizzled it on top, not totally necessary, but it added a finished look, and tasted just that much more amazing. An easy recipe, that wasn't very time consuming, but was definitely a crowd pleaser, and as far as muffins go, ranked above the rest!

Tip: Make sure and use muffin cups, just greasing the pan isn't the best idea for this recipe, i tried it both ways, and muffin cups are the better way to go!

Pink and Zebra Cake:

2008-04-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for my friends birthday. My friend declared that she wanted a chocolate cake, however since I'm not a big fan of plain chocolate cake, i decided to mix it up a little. I followed a recipe that called for chocolate cupcakes, with a cheesecake center. instead of the cheesecake in the cupcakes, i made a layer of cheesecake in the middle of my cake by pouring some of the batter in it, then putting on the cheesecake layer, then pouring the rest of the batter on top. I was a little scared at how this recipe would turn out, however, it turned out pretty good. I also made some red velvet cake balls to go along with the cake since she was having some people over, and i didn't know how many the cake would feed. Turns out it was more than enough, and the zebra was a big hit! O yeah, I didn't use any fondant on my cake, i have yet to experiment with that. I iced it with regular old bags, but i still think it looked pretty good, and definitely tasted Amazing!

Cookie Dough + Brownies=YUM!

2008-04-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Cookie Dough Brownies!!

Brownies:

1 package fudge brownie mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
I Also added:
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 cup oatmeal

Glaze:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-2 tablespoons butter or oil (its easier to spread thinner glaze, but estimate to see how thick/thin you want it.)
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom only of a 13 x 9-inch pan. In large bowl, combine brownie mix, water, oil and eggs. Beat 50 strokes by hand. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Spread in greased pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool completely.

Filling: In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla extract; blend well. Add flour; mix well. Spread over cool brownies.

Glaze: In small microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and butter or oil on MEDIUM for 1 to 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth. Carefully spoon glaze over filling; spread to cover. Sprinkle with nuts, pressing down slightly. Cut into bars. Store in
refrigerator.

Yummm!!!!

Original recipe courtesy of: aaa-recipes.com

Heavenly Cookies and Cream Cake

2008-04-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

Cake Balls..

..Or No Cake Balls??, That is the question!

If heaven was a cake, it would taste like this one. This cake turned out absolutely AMAZING! I recommend it to any chocolate, or Oreo lover for that matter. I couldn't decide if i liked it better with cake balls on top or not through, so the choice is yours! Anyways, this cake has a rich, moist chocolate cake base, and in the middle is a cookies and cream-cream cheese layer, not to mention it's covered with chocolate cream cheese icing, the perfect combination of all the best flavors!

Heres what i did:

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

1 cup hot coffee
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)

For the creamy Center:

1 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 cups crushed oreos

For the chocolate Cream Cheese icing:

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)
1 cup cream cheese
(you can add some crushed oreos here if you like)

INSTRUCTIONS

For the cake:

Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. ( or if you like it simple like me, get some spray that already has flour in it) In a bowl, combine the coffee and cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Add 1 cup cold water and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking so da, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Continue beating at medium speed while slowly adding the eggs, butter flavoring, and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture until well combined. Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
Allow to cool 10 minutes in the cake pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the Creamy Center:

Whisk the Cream cheese, cream, and sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the crushed oreos. Set aside.

For the chocolate-Cream Cheese icing:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, or in a double boiler over low heat, if you like that better; set aside to cool. Combine the butt er, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Next mix in the Cream cheese. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the vanilla, butter flavoring, and cooled chocolate. Beat until well in corporated. Set aside at room temperature.

To Finish it off: Get one cake out and spread a layer at least 1/2 inch thick on it of the creamy center. Next flip the other c ake on top, and cover in Chocolate-cream cheese icing. Finally, sprinkle crushed oreos on top, mini chocolate chips might be good too, and if you wish make a few cake balls with some extra cake and apply them on top as well. O yeah, i also cut oreos neatly in half, and put them around the bottom of my cake, creating a cute border.

Cookies and Cream, Oreo, Cake balls :

I poured a little extra cake into a little pan, if you dont have one, you could use a muffin pan, or any mini cake pan. Then i crumbled up the cake, and added some icing,

and a tiny bit of the creamy center, i just est imated, but make sure you don't put too much icing and filling, because your cake balls could get a little runny. After that, roll them into balls and sometimes it's best to put t hem in the freezer for only a couple min. so that they are easier to roll in the chocolate, and they aren't falling apart on you. Next i melted some chocolate, rolled the balls in it, and placed it out. I used bittersweet, but for better results i might suggest trying a milk chocolate cooking bar, or melting milk choco late, chocolate chips. Finally i Rolled them in powder sugar before the chocolate got too hard.

Dinner AND a movie? Chinese Style: Mongolian Beef and Fortune Cookies from scratch!

2008-04-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

MONGOLIAN BEEF:

Soo while i really love to make more desserts and such than actual meals, I really wanted to make some Chinese food. I found this recipe for Mongolian beef on http://www.recipezaar.com/66121 and it just happened to be a recipe like the Mongolian beef at P.F. Chang's which is my FAVORITE Chinese restaurant!
I changed the recipe a little by adding some broccoli around step 17, and cooking it in the sauce as well. I also found with this recipe it's much easier if you put out most of your ingredients at the beginning in the needed amounts, because it says to add lots of the ingredients quickly. I didn't have any dark brown sugar, however regular brown sugar worked just fine. In making it, I doubled the recipe since it says it only serves two, and I actually think doubling it can feed five, just make sure you make some rice along with it, we just made regular steamed rice.
Overall I LOVED this recipe! I actually think it tasted a little better than P.F. Changs! It seemed sweeter though, which while i like that, my mom likes things spicy and not sweet, so you might want to take that into consideration in trying this. A little time consuming, but well worth it in the end.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 cup)

1 lb flank steak

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 large green onion

Directions

1
Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.
2
Don't get the oil too hot.
3
Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.
4
Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thic kens.
5
Remove it from the heat.
6
Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices.
7
Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.
8
Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.
9
Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.
10
As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil).
11
Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not sm oking.
12
Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges.
13
You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later.
14
Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.
15
After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.
16
Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat b ack into it and simmer for one minute.
17
Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions.
18
Cook for one more minute, then remov e the be ef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.
19
Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.

DESSERT: FABULOUS CHOCOLATE-SPRINKLE FORTUNE COOKIES!

After a great chinese meal , you have to have Fortune Cookies of course!! I found this recipe at About.com, and while they tasted great, I ended up having some trouble forming them to actually looking like fortune cookies. In the end one turned out right, and the rest wern't so great looking. I quirked the recipe a little. Adding my own flare, i put sprinkles in many of them, and instead of fortunes, since they were just for my family, I put chocolate chips in them before folding them over, this melted in the still-warm co okies, and tasted fabulous!

INGREDIENTS:

2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water
(If you make it my way) Some colored sprinkles and a few mini chocolate chips (depending on if you want them all this way or not)

PREPARATION:

1. Write fortunes on pieces of paper that are 3 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 9-X-13 inch baking sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg white, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy, but not stiff.
3. Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into a separate bowl. Stir the water into the flour mixture.
4. Add the flour into the egg white mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter. The batter should not be runny, but should drop easily off a wooden spoon. Note: if you want to dye the fortune cookies, add the food coloring at this point, stirr ing it into the batter. For example, I used 1/2 teaspoon green food coloring to make green fortune cookies.
5. Place level tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth and from side to side so that each tablespoon of batter forms into a circle 4 inches in diameter.
6. Bake until the outer 1/2-inch of each cookie turns golden brown and they are easy to remove from the baking sheet with a spatula (14 - 15 minutes).
7. Working quickly, remove the cookie with a spatula a nd flip it over in your hand. Place a fortune in the middle of a cookie. To form the fortune cookie shape, fold the cookie in half, then gently pull the edges downward over the rim of a glass, wooden spoon or the edge of a muffin tin. Place the finished cookie in the cup of the muffin tin so that it keeps its shape. Continue with the rest of the cookies.
(this is obviously the part where i failed. Learn from my mistakes, and just use the end of a big spoon or spatula to fold it over at the end. I was confused because I couldn't see how this affected the end result, however it does mold them to actuall y look like fortune cookies.)

My one Good Fortune cookie: This is how they should turn out!

Crazy Funny Asian Prank (kinda fits with the theme):

Brownie Choco-Chip CupCakes

2008-04-05T14:19:00.001-07:00

YAY first post!

So I'm new at this.. but I'm really excited! anyways... I made these for some friends coming over, and they tasted AMAZING!!

Although I'd rather make my own mix, i had some left over brownie mix hanging around the house so i decided to use it up. Instead of making the same old brownies I made these brownie cupcakes and they are just as easy only slightly cuter i think. I didn't use muffin cups, instead I just sprayed my pan down with some cooking spray that has flour in it. Just make sure to watch them because they cook a little faster than usual brownies!

Cupcake brownie Photo Shoot:Turquoise-Chocolate

Kellyns Flower:

SpiKeY:

All that was left this morning, they were THAT amazing!