Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Adapted from Georgetown Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar 
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons honey  

1/3 cup hot water

Notes / Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and grease or line cupcake pans. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt and set aside. In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each egg. Mix in pumpkin puree and honey. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by 1/3 of the water. Mix thoroughly. Scrape down bowl as needed. Repeat process 2 more times. Scoop into baking pan and cook for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Frosting:

Ingredients

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

4 teaspoons cinnamon

Notes / Directions

Beat hard for at least 2 minutes to make it light and fluffy. Generously pipe onto cupcakes.

You will have extra frosting. It is scaled to frost 36 cupcakes and you will only have 24. I recommend making cinnamon rolls to put the extra frosting on top of.
 

Almond Sheet Cake

This dessert isn't originally served with strawberries, but I had some in my fridge and just KNEW they were going to be good. I was right. Serve it with strawberries that have been cut up and mixed with sugar.

 

Ingredients

Mix:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
 

Boil and add to mix:
1 cup butter
1 cup water
 

Stir in:
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
 

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup whole milk (or whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups powder sugar

Notes / Directions

Pour into greased jelly roll pan. Bake 22-25 minutes at 350°. Let cool 30 minutes, then frost.

Frosting:
Boil milk and butter. Add extract and powder sugar and whip till lumps are gone.

Creme Fraiche

This is like a yogurt/pudding type of dessert. It's great for things like baby showers or relief society parties. It's so so very delicious. I actually first had it at a relief society activity and ate like 5 of them. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin (or one packet)
3 cup heavy cream
1 cup cold water
12 oz sour cream
3 teaspoon vanilla

Notes / Directions

Mix sugar & gelatin in large sauce pan. Add heavy cream & water. Warm thru until sugar & gelatin are dissolved, but do not boil. Remove from heat. Add sour cream & vanilla & mix well. Pour into cups & set in refrigerator for 3 hours or more. Top with your favorite fruit close to serving time.

3x recipe = about 58 1/3 c. servings. 5 oz. clear cups work well.
(For triple recipe, add 1 extra gelatin packet for a firmer set, if desired)

Raspberry Pretzel Cheesecake

This is just so good. Originally, it's supposed to be a salad. But it's totally not a salad. It's a dessert, like a cheesecake dessert.

 

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
Filling:
1 cup white sugar
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (6 ounce) package raspberry flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 (16 ounce) package frozen raspberries

Notes / Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Mix together the pretzels, 1/4 cup sugar and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Bake for no more than 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread evenly over the cooled crust. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. In a medium bowl, stir together the gelatin mix and boiling water. Mix in frozen raspberries, and stir until thawed. Pour over cream cheese mixture in pan. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 1 hour.

*If using thawed raspberries, cool jello until it sets a little before pouring it over the cream cheese layer. You want to avoid liquids spilling down into the pretzel layer so that it will stay crisp.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Ritz

Salted Caramel or just Chocolate?? You choose! 

I'm feeling really proud because I was the genius behind these! Well, sort of. I saw chocolate covered Ritz at the store and decided to make them myself and then my genius was to dip them in caramel first! They are absolutely divine and so incredibly easy. It's like dipping pretzels.

  
Ingredients
1 box Ritz crackers
24 oz. chocolate almond bark
1 bag caramel cubes
2 tablespoons whole milk
sea salt

Notes / Directions
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and grease it (only if you're doing caramel). Heat caramel in microwave at 30 second intervals, pulling it out to stir it in between. If it starts to bubble, pull it out immediately and stir. Overcooking the caramel will make it extremely chewy. Dip Ritz crackers, gently scrape excess caramel, and place on greased wax paper. Place in fridge for 5-10 minutes until they are hard. In the meantime, melt chocolate in microwave for a minute. Stir and put back in microwave until melted through. Dip Ritz and place back on cookie sheet. As the chocolate first begins to harden, sprinkle with sea salt. If this step is done too soon, it will sink into the chocolate. If it's done too late, it won't stick at all.

Want to make it easier? Just dip in chocolate and forget the caramel!

Apple Crostata

This is like an apple pie, but it's not an apple pie. It's a delicious pastry!

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Parties

Ingredients:

For the Pastry:

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons canola oil
2-4 tablespoons milk

For the Filling:

3 large apples
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1 small box Vanilla cook and serve pudding
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 allspice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

Notes / Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

For the pastry, mix dry ingredients together. Add oil and 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix together quickly until it just starts to come together, add a tablespoon at a time until the dough is moist, not dry and crumbly. Avoid over-mixing.

Place between sheets of plastic wrap and roll into an 11 inch circle. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

For the filling, peel, core, and cut the apples into 8ths. Cut each wedge into 3 chunks. Toss the chunks with the orange zest. Cover the tart dough with the apple chunks leaving a 1-1/2 inch border.

Combine dry filling ingredients. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumble. Rub it with your fingers until it starts holding together. Sprinkle evenly on the apples. Gently fold the border over the apples to enclose the dough, pleating it to make a circle.

Bake the crostata for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the apples are tender. Allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*If you don't have pudding, or you want it a little more tart and less flavorful, use 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar instead.

Peppermint Bark Puppy Chow

 Ingredients
1 (12 oz) box rice chex
1 (12 oz) bag white morsels
12 candy canes

Notes / Directions
Place candy canes into a blender and blend until it's mostly powder and dump into a large ziploc bag.  Melt white morsels in microwave for about 1 minute, stir to make sure it's smooth and melted through, and pour over rice chex.  Carefully stir until well coated.  Pour chex into the ziploc bag with the candy canes and seal off.  Turn the bag upside down and shake the candy cane powder down through the chex.  Keep turning bag until well coated.  Serve and enjoy!

*For more evenly coated chex, reserve a cup or two of chex or add more white morsels.

Andes Mint Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients
1 box Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix
2 medium sized eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 (12 oz.) bag Andes Mint baking chips

Notes / Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil well.  Add 1/2 bag of Andes Mint baking chips and mix well.  Scoop heaping teaspoons full onto greased baking sheet.  Using remaining baking chips, press on about 1/2 teaspoon onto the top of each cookie.  There will be lots of chips left over.  Bake for 8 minutes.

Andes Mint Puppy Chow

Ingredients
1 (12 oz) box rice chex
2 (12 oz) bag Andes mints baking chips
1 1/4 cup brownie mix

Notes / Directions
Melt 1 1/2 bags of Andes mints in microwave and pour over rice chex.  Carefully stir until well coated.  Pour chex into the ziploc bag with brownie mix and seal off.  Turn the bag upside down and shake the brownie mix down through the chex.  Keep turning bag until well coated.  Add remaining half of Andes mints and enjoy!

Raspberry Cream Salad

I don't know where my mom found this recipe, but I just about died and went to heaven when I tried it.  It's an all around easy recipe and takes like 2 minutes to prepare.  This is also very delicious with some graham crackers or pie crust in it.

Ingredients
32-36 oz. raspberry yogurt (32 oz. is a large container, 36 oz. is 6 single servings)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 (8 oz.) tub cool whip
raspberries, fresh or frozen

Notes / Directions
Stir together yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, and cool whip.  Gently stir in raspberries and serve!

Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Dip

Adapted from Jo and Sue

Ingredients

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

14 oz caramels, unwrapped

2/3 cup half and half

2 Crunch bars

8 apples

8 (1/2 cup each) mason jars

Notes / Directions

Heat up caramels and half and half on medium heat until caramels have melted and the mixture is smooth.  Put cream cheese and 1/2 cup of caramel in a bowl and stir until smooth.  Scoop and flatten an equal amount of the cream cheese and caramel mixture into each of the 8 jars.  Top each jar with the remaining caramel sauce.  Crunch up the Crunch bars and sprinkle on top.

To turn into gifts, place one apple on top of the jar and place in a small, clear, plastic gift bag or cover with saran wrap.  Tie shut with a ribbon.

Oreo Cheesecake

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients

2 packages (about 72 cookies) Oreo Cookies, divided
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter
4 packages (8-ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs

Notes / Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, with ends extending over sides. Finely crush 1 1/2 packages of Oreo cookies (or about 50 cookies). Melt 1/2 cup butter and mix with crumbs. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar with mixer until blended and smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each just until blended. Chop remaining cookies and gently stir into mixture.  Pour over crust.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the sides are set and barely browning and the center is almost set. Cool completely on a wire rack.  Once completely cooled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Remove the cheesecake using the foil overhang and cut the cheesecake into desired serving sizes.

 

Make Your Own Truck Cake!

 

I cut my cake into thirds and went from there, doing my best to make a truck shape.

I used doughnuts for the wheels but something like oreos would be great too.

I wished he was turning one so that the candle could be the antenna but on well...

Snickerdoodle Puppy Chow

I've been craving snickerdoodles but don't like making them because I just find the process a bit irratating.  So I thought, "Hey!!!  Puppy chow!"  I recently made some puppy chow that used brownie batter as the coating so I thought using yellow cake mix would be incredibly delicious.  Turns out I was right!
 
Inspired by Your Cup of Cake

Ingredients
1 (12 oz) box rice chex
1 (12 oz) bag white morsels
1 cup yellow cake mix
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Notes / Directions
In a large ziploc bag, combine cake mix, sugar, and cinnamon.  Shake well and smash any clumps of cake mix.  Melt white morsels in microwave for about 1 minute, stir to make sure it's smooth and melted through, and pour over rice chex.  Carefully stir until well coated.  Pour chex into the ziploc bag and seal off.  Turn the bag upside down and shake the cake mix mixture down through the chex.  Keep turning bag until well coated.  Serve and enjoy!

*For more evenly coated chex, reserve a cup or two of chex or add more white morsels. 
**You can also make snickerdoodle popcorn. Instead of chex, pop 1/2 cup popcorn kernels.

                 It really does taste as good as it looks!!!

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Adapted from allrecipes.com 

Ingredients

For the cookies:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

For the icing:

4 cups confectioners' sugar 

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (milk could also be used)
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Notes / Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.  Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla and cream again.  Stir in dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.  Drop heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

In another bowl, whip icing ingredients until it becomes nice and smooth, adding small portions of whipping cream at a time to measure consistency.

There are a few options for icing and spreading.  For a

runnier icing, add more whipping cream and frost cookies

when they are completely cool.  For thicker, less. 

 For more of a frosting glaze, let the cookies cool completely

and use a thicker frosting.

For more of an icing effect, ice with thicker frosting

while cookies are still hot out of the oven.  Or use a more runny

frosting and ice when the cookies are cooled.

 

And here's my sweet little cookie thief:

Banana Mousse

Ingredients
3 frozen ripe bananas
2-3 room temperature bananas

Notes / Directions
Place bananas in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  If it's too thick to blend, try adding another banana at room temperature.  You can also add cocoa, peanut butter, strawberries, or anything else you like to eat with bananas!

Makes 4 servings.

Caramel Apples

These caramel apples tasted exactly as a caramel apple should.  I was very pleased with the simplicity of the caramel and the richness of the flavor.  It definitely beats buying caramel apple kits!

Adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
dash of salt
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
10-12 popsicle sticks
10-12 medium tart apples

Notes / Directions
Melt butter in a sauce pan.  Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt.  Over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula.  Slowly add sweetened condensed milk and insert a candy thermometer, always stirring.  Bring to a boil and continue to stir and cook, carefully scraping all surfaces of the bottom of the pan, until temperature reads 248° (firm-ball stage).  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Push popsicle sticks into the tops of the apples and prepare a greased cookie sheet.  Take apples and dip and twirl in the caramel till completely covered.  Let excess caramel drip off and then place on the cookie sheet.  Let caramel cool and then serve.

Peanut Butter Bars

I really wanted peanut butter bars tonight, but I also wanted no-bake cookies...  It was a conundrum.  What I wanted was more peanut buttery goodness with chocolate AND oats!  The recipe I had for peanut butter bars was OK, but not as good as I would have liked.  They were far too sweet and didn't have the oats in them.  So I tweaked it!  I must say, the outcome was far better than I expected.  It was a definite improvement of the original recipe.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!  And a quick note, I crushed the graham crackers in my kitchen aid and slowly added everything else and that made it super easy.

Ingredients
1 package graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup powder sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons Nutella (or peanut butter)

Notes / Directions
Mix graham crackers, oats, powder sugar, butter, and peanut butter until well blended.  Press down evenly in an ungreased 9x9 inch pan.

Put chocolate chips and Nutella in a metal bowl.  Float the bowl in a pot of boiling water.  Stir mixture until all chocolate is melted and smooth.  Pour over prepared crust.  Place in freezer for about 10 minutes until it is hardened.  Best if stored in the fridge.

Sauteed Apples

A fine thanks to Allrecipes.com!

This is what I make when I have a bunch of apples lying around that need to be eaten!  And it makes a delicious breakfast too. 

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
4 large tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Notes / Directions
1. In a large skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; add apples. Cook, stirring constantly, until apples are almost tender, about 6 to 7 minutes.

2. Dissolve cornstarch in water; add to skillet. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

Making one of these might be a bad idea because you'll never stop making them!

Ingredients
2 packages of hot chocolate
6 ice cubes
1 cup milk

Notes / Directions
Blend everything together, serve with whipped topping on top.