Easy No Bake Lemonade Pie

Delicious, light, and lemony...
What more is there to say?  With the summer coming up,  this easy dessert will have you coming back for more and is perfect for the spring/summer season.
Feel free to thank me later!
:-)

INGREDIENTS

6 oz can frozen lemonade 
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk 
8 oz container Cool Whip or whipped cream
1 graham cracker crust (I buy this already made - but if you want to make one from scratch, follow my easy directions below)

DIRECTIONS

1. Use mixer and mix all ingredients until fluffy. 
2. Pour into ready made crust. 
3. Refrigerate until firm (overnight is best).
4. Top with whipped cream or Cool Whip and garnish with lemons.
5. Enjoy!

Easy No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

This is a really easy recipe I found from Martha Stewart that I combined with a recipe found on Google.  The recipe was the dessert to round out our Jamaican night that took place last Sunday but since it wasn't Jamaican, I didn't include it under the Rice and Peas recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 blocks cream cheese - softened to room temperature
Box of lemon jello
14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 oz Whipped topping


DIRECTIONS

1. In mixer, blend softened cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
2. Add in the condensed milk slowly, beating a little at a time.  Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl so that both ingredients are mixed well.
3. Add in the vanilla and lemon juice.
4. Slowly add jello mix and whipped topping.  Mix until well combined.
5. Pour slowly into graham cracker pie crust.
6. Refrigerate for at least an hour and enjoy!

And if you want to be really adventurous and make your own graham cracker pie crust, here are the ingredients and the instructions...

1 packages (10 sheets) of graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp butter - melted

1. Put graham crackers in a large resealable plastic bag, and crush them with a rolling pin until very fine crumbs form.  You can also place the graham crackers in a food processor and process until fine crumbs form.
2. Pour crumbs into a medium bowl; stir in sugar. Add butter, and stir until well combined.
3. Press the crumb mixture into pie pan, spreading it 1 1/2 to 2 inches up the side; press flat. 
4. Chill crust in freezer at least 10 minutes.

To brown the graham cracker crust:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place in oven for 5 minutes to slightly brown.
3. Remove from oven, fill with pie crust filling and enjoy!

Yes, it really was that easy!

Easy Peach Cobbler

Ok, I know I've been gone for quite some time now. There has been a lot going on over here at Casa de Burns. Hubby and I have switched adoption agencies. Now that all of our original paperwork has expired and we have to start over, we figured we would go with a local (and smaller) agency in order to get a more personalized experience. We didn't want to be just one of the thousands with something so important as adopting a baby.

We've also moved (again). So on top of work, trying to save, and relocating, I am just now getting my mojo back with the cooking. Yesterday was Independence Day and it was too hot to try grilling since we got up early to go to the gym instead of getting the grill fired up. By the time we got out, it was scorching outside, so I made my BBQ Pulled Pork in the crockpot, thawed out some Hawaiian Rolls (you mean, you don't keep a supply of Hawaiian Rolls in your freezer??? LOL), made some BBQ baked beans, and salad, and there was our 4th of July dinner.  I decided to make a homemade peach cobbler for dessert because I wanted something quick and easy. I also had some fresh peaches in the refrigerator that were just begging to be used, so here we go.  I hope you enjoy...

I was actually quite pleased with how easy it was to make this cobbler. I started off by peeling and chopping 3 fresh peaches.  You can use drained canned peaches or thawed frozen peaches, but I used what I had in the refrigerator. The original recipe makes a big 9 x 13 pan of cobbler but it was just the two of us for the 4th this year so I made a smaller 8 x 8 pan. Feel free to double everything if you need the bigger recipe.

INGREDIENTS
3-4 medium sized fresh peaches (approximately 2 cups)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (divided into 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar (divided into 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp lemon juicde
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Melt butter in 8 x 8 baking dish in oven.
3.  In mixing bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and milk.  Stir until dry ingredients are moistened.
4.  Pour batter over melted butter. DO NOT STIR!
5.  In a sauce pan, bring remaining 1/2 cup sugar (1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar), peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over heat, stirring constantly.
6.  Remove from heat and add vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Stir well.
7.  Pour peach mixture over batter.  DO NOT STIR!
8.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in crust comes out clean.
9.  Enjoy! Can be served warm or cold and is especially delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped topping on top.

Flaky Homemade Pie Crust

Don't you just love the fall?  I can't seem to help myself, but the crispier air, beautiful autumn colors, and cooler temperatures puts me in the mood to bake bake bake!

I bought more than a few sweet potatoes at the store and tried to figure out what I wanted to do with them. I decided to make a couple of sweet potato pies for the hubby, my brother and sister-in-law.  I sat there and tried to find my recipe on the computer and decided that I had everything to make it.  I was not in the mood to go to the store to get any pie crusts, so I decided to try my hand at making my own.
Back to the internet I went to search for an easy to make, yet flaky and delicious pie crust. 
Keep in mind that I've never made my own pie crust before, but luckily I have family who don't mind being my guinea pigs.  The test kitchen is back open!
bwa ha ha ha ha (in my evil laugh while rubbing my hands together)
Ok, I just had a whole Bram Stoker/Mary Shelley moment there, complete with the flickering lights and the thunder in the background.
LOL!



Yeah, something like that. LOL!!!

So anyway, I found this fabulous recipe from Monique at DivasCanCook titled the Best Homemade Pie Crust and let me tell you it was delicious! For a newby with regards to making an actual pie crust that has to be refrigerated and rolled out with a rolling pin and flour and all that, I have to say it was pretty easy to make.  I was actually quite proud of myself.

Of course, it didn't come out all that pretty and I need to work on getting the thickness more uniform, but the taste and the texture were amazing!
Here is the recipe. The only thing I changed at a suggestion of one of her other blog followers was to switch the water to half & half.  Delicious!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of cold butter, chopped in pieces
• 1/2 cup cold butter-flavored shortening
• 1/2 cup cold half & half (add more by the tablespoon if the dough is too dry)

DIRECTIONS
1.  In medium-sized bowl, add flour. Be sure to carefully measure!
2.  Add in sugar and salt.  Whisk to combine.
3.  Add in chopped, cold butter.
4.  Use your hands, a pastry cutter, or 2 knives to cut the butter into the flour. (I used my new KitchenAid mixer for this step.)
5.  Add in cold butter-flavored shortening.  Cut in the shortening.
6.  Can finish it up with a fork to break up the larger chunks of butter.  Mixture should be nice & crumbly.
7.  Add in the half & half.
8.  Use a spatula to fold in the liquid until just combined.  Add a little more if the dough is too dry.
9.  When slightly moistened, gently shape dough into a flattened disc and wrap securely in plastic wrap.
10. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
11. Lightly flour a flat surface and your rolling pin.
12. Pinch the dough into two equal halves (makes 2 pie crusts).
13. Gently flatten the dough with your hands and then proceed to roll the dough flat using rolling pin to desired thickness.
14. Gently roll the dough onto the rolling pin and place over pie pan.
15. Using fingers, press dough into pie pan. Gently shape out if needed and remove excess crust from edge.
16.  Fill with pie filling of your choice and enjoy!

P.S.  Both the pie and my 1st homemade pie crust got good reviews from all test kitchen lab rats.  On to the next experiment!

KITCHEN KREATION: Baked Cinnamon Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

Yum. Yum. Yum.
Since moving up north where there is a Dunkin' Donuts literally on every other corner, I have been fighting this intense urge to give in and have one of those delicious deep fried pieces of sugar covered dough...
(sigh...)
The hubby and I have been doing so good with our workouts that I just didn't want to cave. I know myself and if I give in once, I'll keep going back. Deep fried donuts are like crack to me. Y'all don't want me to end up looking like Pookie from New Jack City, right???

Trust and believe, that is NOT a good look for ANYBODY!!!

So, like anyone else with an addiction, you recognize it and don't put yourself in a situation where you can be tempted. Above all else, you have to stay strong and believe that you can get through whatever cravings are running through your head at that time. So far that's what has been working for me.

So, even though they have a donut shop on every other corner up here in Philly. I have refrained from getting one. I'm quite proud of myself for that, now that I think about it...
Anyway, back to the recipe.

A few months ago, I was on my girl Kristin's blog at IowaGirlEats.com and she was talking about the wonders of baking donuts to make them healthier for you, in other words, "delicious and nutritious". I immediately ordered one of the Wilton donut pans from amazon that she mentioned in her post but never had the chance to make any donuts until this morning.

The recipe came from Kate who has a page on foodbuzz. Her recipe can be found here. I looked at the recipe and thought, hey, I have everything on that list, I'll make those for Saturday morning. Imagine my dismay when I woke up bright and early this morning to realize that I didn't have any all purpose flour. I had cake flour, but no all purpose flour. Who does that? I mean, really...

Before I got too disappointed, however, I looked at the back of the Wilton's donut pan and lo and behold they had a basic donut recipe using cake flour.
Did anyone else hear the angels singing this morning? LOL

I immediately started measuring and whisking things together. What resulted was a delicious dozen of donuts that came out moist, semi-healthy, and they helped to kick that deep fried donut craving right in the butt. Here's my adaptation of both recipes, let me know what you guys think...

INGREDIENTS - FOR DONUTS
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar (feel free to use the equivalent of Splenda)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup skim milk
3/4 tsp white vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, melted (use real butter for more calories)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

INGREDIENTS - FOR GLAZE
2 Tbsp skim milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan bring together the milk, white vinegar, vanilla, egg, and butter.Cook over medium-heat, stirring constantly with a whisk until the butter melts, about one minute. Remove from heat.
4. Add the milk mixture into the flour mixture; mix until combined.Fill each donut cup approximately 2/3 full.
5. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of teh donuts spring back when touched.
6. Let cool in pan before removing.

While the donuts are cooling, start working on the glaze.

FOR GLAZE:

1. Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium-heat, stirring until everything is combined and there are no lumps.
2. Set the saucepan in a bowl with hot water.
3. Dip the doughnuts into the glaze, one at a time, and set on a rack, glaze side up. Be sure to place something (parchment paper, wax paper, etc) underneath the rack because some of that glaze will drip off.
4. Re-dip until you have the glaze thickness you like and enjoy!

Now wasn't that easy???

KITCHEN KREATION: Muffins, Muffins, & More Muffins!

I know, I know, right? I am on this insane cupcake/muffin obsession over here.
With my sweet tooth and our efforts to keep slimming down, I think cupcakes are the perfect way to indulge myself. This way, I get one perfect serving and I can still hold myself accountable. I won't be able to keep trimming "just another sliver" off of a cake.

So, Sunday morning, I woke up after this crazy dream where I was running all over KMart and Walmart looking for the brown sugar Splenda because I just had to make these muffins. Needless to say, when I woke up, I headed straight to the kitchen to make up what were literally the muffins of my dreams. LOL

Thought I would try something a little different this morning though. I made up a batch of the basic muffin batter and in a separate bowl, I used my ice cream scoop to scoop out four portions into a separate bowl. Next I mixed in blueberries, carrots, and chocolate chips. Yum! It smells like a bakery in here.


When I first headed into the kitchen this morning, I started whining about not remembering to get a new hand mixer. The last one kicked the bucket after the carrot cake muffins. I had it for probably 10 years or so, but it just couldn't seem to keep up with my new baking frenzy. I have to say, it served me well. I'm pretty sure I got my money's worth out of it. So anyway, I had to shake it off and remember, how did the women back in the day bake things? By hand, of course! So, I got out my handy dandy wisk and my spatula and put in some elbow grease this morning.

I am very happy to say that these muffins came out moist and semi-healthy. I didn't stuff them with the cream cheese frosting and didn't put any frosting on top. I just added the coarse sparkling sugar on top for a little extra sweetness & crunch. They came out really well, although I have to admit that I liked the blueberry muffins the best followed closely by the carrot muffins.
*HANDY DANDY TIP OF THE DAY: Coat your blueberries with flour before mixing them into the batter. It will keep your blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. Cool, huh?

Notice the pretty even distribution of blueberries?

Here is the recipe, hope you enjoy.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup blueberries (either fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup finely grated carrots
1/2 cup chocolate chips (your preference, I used 1/4 c. white chips & 1/4 c. milk chocolate)
1 Tbsp flour
Coarse sparkling sugar (optional)
Cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line muffin pan with muffin liners. Spray liners with cooking spray.
3. Combine the flours, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
4. In separate bowl whisk the eggs, water, and vegetable oil together until well incorporated.
5. Slowly stir in the wet egg mixture into the dry mixture.
6. Mix well until fully moistened.
7. In small bowl, add blueberries and the tablespoon of flour. (This will keep all of your blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.)
8. Using an ice cream scooper, dole out four servings of the muffin batter.
9. Mix with blueberries.
10. Scoop the four servings into four muffin liners.
11. Scoop four more servings into bowl, add grated carrots and mix well.
12. Scoop the carrot mixture into liners.
13. Lastly, add the chocolate chips into the remaining muffin batter. Stir well and scoop into liners.
14. Sprinkle sparkling sugar over muffin batter (optional)
15. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
16. Enjoy!

Makes 12 muffins.
Mine ended up making 13 muffins because I didn't measure my carrots out and had one extra carrot muffin.
Enjoy!

KITCHEN KREATION: Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I am so excited about this recipe! First of all, I have NEVER made a carrot cake before, much less made one from scratch, but I was feeling adventurous today and decided to not only make a carrot cake from scratch, BUT to turn them into inside-out cupcakes! Ha! Take that Betty Crocker! LOL
To quote Drake, "Oh you, fancy, huh?"
And my reply, "Oh yeah! Today I am!"
LOL
Does anyone else get excited about finding recipes that when you look at them you know it is pure gold???

Of course when looking for any kind of dessert recipe, I go to my girl Monique's blog, YesDivasCanCook, to find a staple recipe. She had a cool looking video and recipe for Moist Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting that really looked good, but I had something else in mind for these cupcakes. Originally, I came across this recipe for Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins from King Arthur's Flour blog. I'm not even sure how in the world I happened to get to the blog much less, how I found the Carrot Cake Muffins recipe, but just click on the link above to get to their recipe.

What came out of this masterpiece was a beautiful blending of both recipes with a few of my own little add-ins (cuz that's how I do things over here in my kitchen).
OH. MY. WORD.
Delicious, delicious, delicious!
I wanted to do something different for Easter this year and what better way than to have a new carrot cake recipe to experiment on the hubby and his work crew (AKA my test-kitchen lab rats). Please try this one, it was a little more work than my usual cupcakes, but I can imagine that this would be delicious if you just decided to make a cake with the recipe and use the cream cheese frosting to top it. You could also add crushed pineapple, raisins, or your favorite crushed nuts if you like. I might do that next time, for this first carrot cake recipe, I just decided to keep it simple with chopped carrots and cake. If you try it, let me know how it came out!

DISCLAIMER #1: Both blogs say to grate carrots by hand on a grater. Hmm, since I wasn't feeling that doggoned ambitious, I bought the shredded matchstick carrots and put them in my handy dandy chopper. A few pulses later, I had tiny minced pieces of carrot without the bruised and cut-up knuckles & finger tips. [Hehehe, I just love figuring out a good shortcut!]

So anyway, here is my adapted recipe from the two of their blogs. Hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS - MUFFINS
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp melted butter, unsalted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour (can use all-purpose flour if needed)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup grated/chopped carrots
Non-stick cooking spray
Coarse white sparkling sugar crystals (optional)

INGREDIENTS - CREAM CHEESE FILLING
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla


DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line a standard muffin pan with muffin liners. Spray the liners with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Use either a grater with peeled whole carrots or use a chopper to mince the shredded carrot
matchsticks to make approximately 2 cups of minced carrots. Set aside.
4. To make the filling: in a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until
smooth.
5.To make the muffin batter: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
6. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, melted butter and oil.
7. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
8. Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine.
9. Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom.
10. Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling; a level tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.
11. Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full. The batter will come to within about 1/4" to 3/8" of the top of each muffin cup. But don't try to use all the batter; unless you have particularly deep cups, you'll have abut 1/3 cup batter left over. Bake it in a separate custard cup, if desired.
12. Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch.
13. Remove the muffins from the oven, and as soon as you're able to handle them, transfer them to a rack. If you serve the muffins warm, the filling will be molten. If you wait for them to cool, it'll firm up.

DISCLAIMER #2: I had to use the top picture from the King Arthur's blog recipe because my cupcakes did not come out as pretty as his did. I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong, but for some reason I had a big air pocket between my top layer of batter and my filling once it baked up. I told the hubby that I was going to try again & maybe not beat the batter as much. I'm thinking that I may have introduced extra air into the recipe. We'll see and I'll let you all know how the 2nd batch comes out. Regardless, they tasted so good that the hubby and his crew all gave it two thumbs up. This is a great recipe.

Oh yeah, this tablespoon sized cookie dough dropper worked wonders! Get one if you try this recipe. It helps things go sooo much faster! Best thing ever! I think I'm going to get another one so that I can have one for my batter and one for the filling.

KITCHEN KREATION: Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

So, I was in the mood to fix something in honor of St. Patrick's Day for the hubby and his crew on the job and I decided to find a recipe for Key Lime Pie cupcakes. I wanted something green and pretty, sweet and tart. I found this recipe online at allrecipes.com and adapted it a little bit to make it my own. I think next time I might leave the orange juice out of it so that it can be just a little bit more tart and the batter won't be quite as soupy. For my first try though, this came out to be a really delicious and moist cupcake. The designated kitchen lab rats all gave them two thumbs up and raved about how good they were.

Sorry for the not-so good picture this time. I forgot to take pictures of the pretty ones before he took them to his friends, so here are some pictures of the ones that stayed at home with us because they didn't make the cut for public consumption. LOL! Hope you enjoy!

• 1 box Lemon Supreme Cake Mix
• 1 box Lime Flavored Gelatin (3 oz)
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup orange juice
• 10 oz. of PHILADELPHIA Original Cooking Crème (Original flavor)
• Green sugar crystals (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• 2 Tbsp butter – melted
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 4 oz Cool Whip (½ of 8 oz container)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, add in the first 8 ingredients.

3. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.

4. Line cupcake pans with cupcake baking papers.

5. Spoon the batter into the cupcake baking papers (about 3/4 full)

6. Place the cupcakes into the oven for 23-25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

7. When cupcakes are done, remove them from the pan and place them on a baking sheet.

8. Allow cupcakes to completely cool.

9. Garnish with Cream Cheese Frosting and green sugar crystals.

10. Enjoy!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is an Irish blessing for you:

"May love & laughter light your days, & warm your heart and home.

May good & faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.

May peace & plenty bless your world, with joy that long endures.

May all life's passing seasons, bring the best to you and yours."

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Valentine's Day Strawberry Cream Cupcakes

I decided to make Valentine's Day cupcakes for my hubby and his crew at work.
I didn't really have a specific recipe, so I used the recipe from my Banana Pudding Cupcake recipe, made a couple of small adaptations to make it strawberry flavored and voila!
Instant success.

These came out really good too. The only thing is that I forgot to add my whipped cream to my frosting so I didn't have as much as I normally do when I make my homemade cake icing. Even without the whipped cream added, both the cake and the frosting came out to be quite delicious.

These cupcakes were easy to make even with the adaptations and the unintentional omission.
I give them two thumbs up. Will have to wait to see what the hubby & his co-workers think. Here are the ingredients and directions. If you are a strawberry lover, you've got to try these cupcakes. They are great!

INGREDIENTS
• 1 box French Vanilla Cake Mix
• 1 box Instant Strawberry Cream Pudding (3.4 oz)
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup milk
• 10 oz. of PHILADELPHIA Original Cooking Creme
• 1 cup of frozen sweetened strawberries – thawed & pureed
• Red and pink sugar crystals (optional)
• Chocolate heart candy (optional)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp butter – melted
4 Tbsp milk
2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp imitation strawberry flavoring
4 oz Cool Whip (½ of 8 oz container)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, add in the first 7 ingredients.
3. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.
4. Fold in the pureed strawberries.
5. Line cupcake pans with cupcake baking papers.
6. Spoon the batter into the cupcake baking papers (about 3/4 full)
7. Place the cupcakes into a preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.
8. When cupcakes are done, remove them from the pan and place them on a baking sheet.
9. Allow cupcakes to completely cool.
10. Garnish with Cream Cheese Frosting, sugar crystals, and chocolate heart.
11. Enjoy!

Banana Pudding Cupcakes

Oh my goodness, words cannot describe how amazing these cupcakes are. I must give credit where credit is due and thank Monique from Yes, Divas Can Cook for this amazing recipe. You know it's bad for you when you have to take a moment of silence to thank the Lord for the flavors exploding on your tongue. These cupcakes are in no way good for you so if you are on a diet, don't even pretend that you are just going to eat a piece. I promise after one bite you will eat the whole cupcake. I am sitting here typing this blog post so that I don't knock my hubby over trying to get another one. One is enough for tonight, right???

Here are the ingredients and directions with my adaptations. Of course I had to do a lil something to it cuz that's what I do. You know that, fam! (LOL) The original recipe can be found here and used Cool Whip for the frosting. I made my own cream cheese frosting and it only enhanced the flavors of the cupcake. You have got to try this one. I am telling myself that since it has real bananas in it, it's good for me. Shouldn't a cupcake with bananas be added to the four food groups? I think that it would get my vote...

Ingredients

· 1 box French Vanilla Cake Mix

· 1 box Instant Banana Cream Pudding (3.4 oz)

· 3 eggs

· ½ cup vegetable oil

· ½ cup water

· ½ cup milk

· 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

· 10 oz. of PHILADELPHIA Original Cooking Creme

· 1 cup of bananas – ripened & smashed (approx 2-3 medium sized)

· 2 cups Vanilla Wafers – crushed (plus more for garnishing if desired)

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 Tbsp butter – melted
4 Tbsp milk
2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp banana flavoring
4 oz Cool Whip (½ of 8 oz container)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, add in the first 8 ingredients.
3. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.
4. Fold in the bananas and vanilla wafers.
5. Line cupcake pans with cupcake baking papers.
6. Spoon the batter into the cupcake baking papers (about 3/4 full)
7. Place the cupcakes into a preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.
8. When cupcakes are done, remove them from the pan and place them on a baking sheet.
9. Allow cupcakes to completely cool.
10. Garnish with Cream Cheese Frosting and crushed vanilla wafers.
11. Enjoy!

KITCHEN KREATIONS: Vanilla Whoopie Pies

Oh my word, talk about yummy deliciousness! These things are fantastic!

I get a lot of my cooking ideas from different blog sites that I visit and occasionally follow. Today, I was reading IowaGirlEats' blog which had a link to the Better Homes & Gardens Red Velvet Whoopie Pie recipe. Kristin, from IowaGirlEats, made these for her hubby last Valentine's Day. Since we aren't big fans of Red Velvet cake, I decided to take out the ingredients that made it taste like Red Velvet (ie. the cocoa and red food dye). Everything else was the same. I also didn't like the BH&G filling recipe, so I decided to go to the She's Becoming Domestic blog because she had a Pumpkin Spice whoopie pie recipe with a delicious-sounding Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling. So, I used my adapted Red Velvet Whoopie Pie recipe and combined it with Susan's Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling recipe. Voila! Instant success! Woo hoo!!! I am definitely on a roll.

I had to do something to reward the hubby for tackling all that snow by himself today. He did an awesome job, too bad the street is still not driveable. Hubby gives this one two more thumbs up.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring (If you can find it in your area, use the Vanilla Butternut flavoring, it's awesome!)
  
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 recipe Whoopie Pie Filling, recipe below

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment; set aside. In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. In large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high 30 seconds. Beat in brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beating after each addition just until combined. Stir in food coloring.

3. Spoon batter in 1- or 2-inch diameter rounds, about 1/2-inch high on prepared baking sheets, allowing 1 inch between each round.

4. Bake 7 to 9 minutes for 1-inch cookies or 9 to 11 minutes for 2-inch cookies, or until tops are set. Cool completely on baking sheets on rack. Remove cooled cookies from baking sheets.

5. To fill, dollop Whoopie Pie Filling on flat sides of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies, flat sides down.

6. To store: Refrigerate in airtight container up to 4 days. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 stick butter, Room Temperature
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
• 2 cups Confectioners Sugar
• 4 Tbsp evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Vanilla (I also used the Vanilla Butternut flavoring here too. Yummy!)
  
• Dash of Salt

Beat cream cheese, butter, milk, salt & cinnamon until lump-free and smooth. Gradually add sugar until well combined. Add vanilla until just incorporated. Pipe onto cookies and sandwich them together. Enjoy!!

Whoopie Pie

KITCHEN KREATIONS: Louisiana Crunch Cake

This weekend, I decided to try my hand at baking. It's sad to say that I have never made a cake from scratch, but there it is. So anyway, I saw this video on YouTube where these girls were making this delicious-looking cake. Here's their original video, titled "Cookin' with the Twins: Homemade Louisiana Crunch Cake From Scratch"...

I saw the video and thought that it looked pretty easy to make, so I decided to try my hand at it. I only changed one thing in the recipe. I switched the almond flavoring in the Vanilla Glaze to lemon flavoring. Everything else was the same. I had to use the mouth-watering picture from their blog because let's just say that my cake did not come out looking like that.
Care to see a picture? I promise it will make you laugh out loud...

Now, look at the twins' cake, now look at mine... Notice anything different???
And yes, as you can see, I did go ahead and put icing on that broken-down thing!
LOL!!!

Apparently, I didn't bother to read the line in the directions that CLEARLY states to let the cake cool. As soon as I tried to flip it, it fell apart and I knew immediately that I should have let it cool. Hmmm... One of those Homer Simpson moments, where I was like, "Doh!"
I'm not even sure why I didn't bother to wait for it to cool. Guess I was just a little bit anxious, with it being my first cake from scratch and all.

LOL-I swear, every time I look at that picture it cracks me up!

So anyway, here are the directions and ingredients for this Louisiana Crunch cake. Even with it being ugly as sin, it still tasted delicious!
Hope you try the recipe and be sure to let me know how it comes out! Oh yeah, it helps to watch the video too because the alternating between the buttermilk and the dry ingredients was a little confusing when reading, but was easy enough to do after watching the video.

Cake Ingredients:
3 c. cake flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. (2 sticks) butter...softened
1/2 c. sour cream
4 large eggs...room temp.
1 c. buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. white granulated sugar
1/4 c. sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees...Have a non stick tube cake pan ready.
In a medium bowl sift together cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda...Set aside.
Beat softened butter and sugar together until very fluffy (about 5 minutes).
Mix in sour cream.
Add eggs one at a time and beat until mixture becomes light and fluffy.
Mix in vanilla extract.
Add in buttermilk and the cake flour mixture in alternates and beat until fully combined.
PLEASE DO NOT OVER BEAT OTHERWISE CAKE IS GOING TO BECOME ROCK HARD!!!
Thoroughly grease a non stick tube pan. If your pan in not a non stick pan, you will need to grease and flour it.
Add approx 1/4 cup of granulated sugar to the pan, and tap around the sides and bottom until evenly coated.
(Optional) Sprinkle coconut flakes on the bottom of pan...You may add more or less coconut, its totally up to you.
Pour in batter.
Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a wooden skewer inserted into cake comes out clean. DO NOT OVER BAKE!!!!! Otherwise cake will become dry.
Once cake is finished baking, remove from pan and let cool.

Vanilla Lemon Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
4 tbs. butter...melted
4 tbs. canned evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Directions:
Whisk together powdered sugar butter and milk.
Add vanilla extract and lemon extract and mix.
Drizzle glaze over cake and let set for 10 minutes.

KITCHEN KREATIONS: Gingerbread Cheesecake Dessert

I found this recipe on the back of the Gingerbread Cookie mix. It can also be found on the Betty Crocker website.
Let me tell you, if you are a fan of gingerbread, either as a cookie or in cake form and you love cheesecake like I do, then you will LOVE LOVE LOVE this dessert! It is so yummy. I give it a definite two thumbs up and will definitely be making it again.

Ingredients

1 pouch Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 Tbsp water
1 egg

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

1. Heat oven to 375°. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, water and egg until soft dough forms.
2. Make 5 cookies by shaping dough into 5 (1-inch) balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with bottom of glass dipped in sugar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
3. Meanwhile, press remaining dough in pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
4. In large bowl, beat milk, cream cheese and lemon juice with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread over cooled cookie base.
5. Crumble 5 baked cookies; sprinkle over cream cheese mixture. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until chilled. Store covered in refrigerator.

Sweet Potato Pie recipe

Ok, so I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks, Aunt Niecy for a fabulous sweet potato pie recipe. The hubby was just saying the other day that he really misses his grandma's sweet potato pie now that she has passed on. So, I was on a mission to find a good recipe that would help to ease the ache a little as well as one that I could pass down to my nieces and nephews and eventually my grandbabies (Lord willing). So here you go, a wonderful pretty darned easy to make sweet potato pie recipe that is fool-proof! Your folks will think that you slaved away in the kitchen all day! LOL!!!


Ingredients

Sweet potatoes (2 medium-sized potatoes per pie)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter - melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 large eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk

*NOTE:  ALWAYS taste test your pie filling BEFORE adding the eggs to see if you would like to add more sugar.  If you want to make 2 pies, then just double the amounts!

1 store-bought pie crust (normally comes with two per package)

Preheat oven to 375^o.

Directions

1. Bake (or boil) potatoes until tender. [I bake my potatoes at 400^o for approximately 1 hour.]
2. When done, let the potatoes cool and peel them.
3. Place potatoes in a large mixing bowl and roughly mash with a potato masher or fork.
4. Melt the butter and pour it and remaining ingredients into bowl of potatoes.
5. Mix on low with mixer until well blended and smooth.
6. Pour the potato mixture into pie crusts and place into preheated oven.
7. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.
8. (Optional) Sprinkle a couple dashes of paprika for decoration
9. Enjoy!