Holiday Truffles

These are the last of the treats I made for the goody plates. They were ridiculously easy and a nice chocolate addition to the plates. I got this recipe from a Taste of Home holiday cooking magazine.

Holiday Truffles
3 C semisweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
Finely chopped toasted nuts, flaked coconut, baking cocoa, or sprinkles

1. In a large microwave safe bowl combine chips and milk. Microwaves 1 1/2 minutes, stir, then microwave 1 1/2 more minutes. Stir in vanilla. Chill for three hours, or until firm.

2. Shape into 1 inch balls; roll in topping of your choice. Chill one hour, until firm. Store at room temperature or in fridge.

Cookies with Peppermint Kisses

I had to include these on the goody plates, they are so soft! These are a version of a family favorite, which are actually called Candy Cane Cookies and you shape them like candy canes. I just like to add the peppermint kisses cause I think they add a fun flavor.

Candy Cane Cookie
1/2 C soft butter
1/2 C shortening
1 C powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp salt
Peppermint Kisses

Combine everything except the flour and salt and Kisses. Beat well, then slowly add the flour and salt. Roll into balls and place a Kiss in the center. Bake 9 minutes at 375.

Cinnamon Almond Brittle

I thought this recipe sounded fun and a little different so I wanted to make it for my goody plates. I did enjoy the flavor, but they had a very sticky/chewy texture that I wasn't as crazy about. I wish they had been a bit crunchier.

Cinnamon Almond Brittle
1 C sugar
1 C light corn syrup
1 C sliced almonds
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 T butter
1 tsp baking soda

1. Line a large baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a large microwaves safe bowl, combine sugar, corn syrup, almonds and salt. Microwave on high for 6 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes and scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Bowl will get hot so be careful.
3. Add the cinnamon, vanilla and butter. Microwave 3 minutes more, stopping to stir half way through.
4. Stir in baking soda (mixture will become foamy). Carefully pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet and spread candy to 1/4 inch thickness. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Chocolate Covered Brownies

Here is another yummy treat I made for my goody plates. I got this idea from a magazine, and it was pretty simple. I just made brownies (I went the easy route and used a box mix), then I let them cool, cut them, and then froze them. Then I melted chocolate and dipped the brownies. I wrapped them in foil because I thought it was cute how the magazine did it. This is my kind of chocolate yumminess!

Peanut Butter Fudge

I love this recipe! It is so fast and easy and it tastes great. I'm a peanut butter lover though, so anything with pb makes me happy! It reminds me of the middle of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
1 C peanut butter
3/4 C butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C powdered sugar

Microwave the peanut butter and butter in a large bowl for 2 minutes. Stir, then microwave about 1 1/2 more minutes. Add vanilla and powdered sugar, stir well (a wooden spoon will makes this easier). Pour mixture into an 8x8 pan that has been buttered and lined with wax paper. Place a second sheet of wax paper on top and press/smooth the peanut butter mixture. Refrigerate until cool and cut into 1 inch pieces.

Chocolate Raspberry Crumb Bars

This is the second treat I made for the goody plates. These are one of my most favorite treats at Christmas time (the other is fudge nut pie)! So I was very excited to make them. My mom has been baking them forever and I always look forward to them. This was actually the first time I've ever made them. I especially love to eat them frozen!

Chocolate Raspberry Crumb Bars
1 C butter
2 C flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/3 C raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter until creamy. Add flour, sugar and salt. Press 1 3/4 C of the mixture into the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes. In a pot, heat and stir the condensed milk and 1 C chocolate chips. Spread chocolate mixture over hot crust. Sprinkle nuts on top of chocolate. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top. Then drop teaspoonfuls of the jam on top. Finish by sprinkling the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Pistachio Pudding Sugar Cookies

I'm very excited because this week I'm putting together some goody trays to share with some of Travis' coworkers. Let the baking begin!

First up, is a recipe from a Taste of Home Cookie magazine. The are called pudding sugar cookies and you can use any kind of instant pudding mix for flavor. I decided to get crazy and go with pistachio. I love pistachio pudding and they were a fun and festive green!

These cookies turned out soft and moist. They will make an awesome addition to the platters!

Pudding Sugar Cookies
1 C softened butter
1 C veggie oil
1 C sugar
1 C powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 package instant pudding
4 C flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

Cream the butter, oil and sugars. Beat in eggs, vanilla and dry pudding mix. In another bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar and baking soda. Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed mixture.
Drop on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Duo

I just wanted to share a picture of the cookies I made last night. I did both white and milk chocolate chips and they were jam packed with flavor!

Chewy Walnut Squares

This afternoon I whipped up these delightful little treats for the ladies at church that I visit teach. I cut this recipe out of a fundraiser book and while I was in the middle of it, I realized some typos in it. I pieced it together the best I could. So I'm not entirely sure if I got the recipe right, or even what they should have been like in the end result. They aren't the prettiest thing, but I tasted them and thought they were delish, and since they fit in perfectly with my lesson, I decided to go for it! I'm looking forward to eating a few tonight with a bit of vanilla ice cream!

Chewy Walnut Squares
1 egg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C flour
1 C brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 C chopped walnuts

Stir together egg, baking soda, and vanilla. Quickly stir in the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add in walnuts. Spread into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Apple Pie

I just thought I would share a picture of my apple pie. I was given a box of apples from someone Travis works with, and ice cream was on sale, so we had the perfect storm for apple pie! It was delicious! I debated between an apple pie and an apple crisp, so I went with the pie and did a crumb topping instead of the double crust. Yummy!

Dessert Pizza

Last night I made a dessert pizza. I always enjoy them when we've been to pizza buffets and thought I'd give one a try. My pictures make it seem like not much to look at, but it was a real tasty treat!
I just baked my dough as normal (although I rolled it a little thinner than usual, and I wish I had kept it thicker), then rubbed a little butter on it, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, and topped it with a glaze made with a little powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Yum!

Caramel Apple Muffins

Last night I made these caramel apple muffins. I got the idea from a magazine page and we all loved them.
First, you make your favorite apple muffins. I actually just made my favorite oatmeal muffins and used applesauce instead of oil. Then you beat cream cheese with a little vanilla for an icing. Stick a Popsicle stick in the middle. The original recipe has you then dip them into nuts next, but since my recipe has nuts in it, I skipped that step. Then you chop some caramel pieces and sprinkle them on top. We really enjoyed these!

Halloween Bark

The other night I made some white chocolate bark to send to Travis' class for their Halloween party. I thought it turned out cute and yummy!

Cockroach Cupcakes

I had so much fun making these Halloween goodies! I made them for Travis' grandparent's Halloween party this weekend. The past few years they have been holding contests for the scariest Halloween treats, and this year I won first place! I got the idea from a cupcake book I have.
The cockroach body is a date, the wings are caramels, the heads are M&Ms and the antennae are Chinese noodles.

Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I made these cookies. I copied the recipe off of a blog a year ago and I finally got around to making them. They have a light cake like texture with soft middles and I like the lemon with a little chocolate. Yum!

Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick of butter at room temp.
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese at room temp.
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 box lemon cake mix
1 C chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in cake mix. Mix in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Roll chilled batter into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Play on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Marshmallow Meltaways (no-bake!)

Yumminess! This is a cookie recipe that I set aside a month of so ago. Then when I was at my sister's and we were coming up with a treat she had the same one cut out, so we gave it a try. The magazine compared it to s'mores, but we thought they had more like French toast flavors. At any rate, they were delicious!

Chocolate Marshmallow Meltaways

1 1/4 C graham cracker crumbs
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1/3 C maple syrup
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
7 oz. marshmallow cream
non stick cooking spray
chocolate syrup or chopped candy bar for topping

1. Mix the crumbs, peanut butter, syrup, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Shape into 1 1/4 inch balls. Flatten each ball with a fork or spoon.

2. Spoon 1/2 tsp cream on each cookie. You can coat the spoon with the cooking spray to make it easier. Drizzle the chocolate or sprinkle chocolate on top.

Brownie Trifle

Yesterday I made brownie trifles! Travis' cousin, Stephanie, gave me this recipe a long, long time ago and I can't believe I waited so long to try it! It was so delicious and I was really proud at how pretty they turned out! I was originally making them for some friends we were going to have over for dinner. But it ended up not working out so we just had to enjoy it by ourselves!
Brownie Trifle

Make brownies (I used a chewy/fudgy box mix). Cool completely. Mix together one package of cheesecake pudding mix (although I'm guessing some other flavors would be good too if that is all you've got) with 2 C milk. Then fold in one 8oz container of cool whip. Then layer brownies with the pudding mixture. You can top it with any kind of candy, nuts, or other garnish. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Basil Scones

It's Cherie and I am guest posting again! I was flipping through torn out recipes and when I came across one that I had just about all the ingredients for I threw caution to the wind, tweaked the recipe to what I had on hand and went for it. So here you have my first batch of scones!

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 scoop of ground flaxseed

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons snipped basil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk (The original recipe calls for half-and-half but I only had fat free and it worked fine)

Additional milk and sugar for topping

In large bowl stir together flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. {Here is where I say forget it, I am not patient and I used my Kitchenaid on low.It works folks}Gently toss in the strawberries and basil. Make a well in center of flour mixture, set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together eggs and milk. Add egg mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir gently until moistened.

Turn dough onto a generously floured surface. Knead by folding and gently pressing it five to seven times, turning the dough a quarter each time. Transfer to a lightly floured parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat or lightly roll dough into a 3/4-inch-thick circle. Cut circle into 12 wedges and pull apart slightly. {Yeah, circle is a loose term. I would say big oval, this is also where my in ability to read directions thoroughly before baking got to me. I didn't cut it before it went into the oven, I realized it after a few minutes tried to cut it and it didn't want to separate. So what I say! I just re-cut it after taking it out of the oven, before it had a chance to cool} Brush wedges with additional milk and sprinkles lightly with sugar. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 16 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm. Refrigerate any leftover scones. Reheat as needed for 15 seconds in microwave.

And there you have it, my first batch of scones! I enjoyed mine with homemade strawberry jam made by anther family member and it was of so good!

Cute Cupcakes!

Yesterday Laura and I had fun in the kitchen! We made chocolate cupcakes, filled them with a caramel frosting. We topped 1/2 with a cream cheese icing and the other with dark chocolate. Then we had fun using the yellow melting chocolates to shape them into flowers.
The only new recipe we tried that I haven't already posted the recipe is the caramel filling. I'll give you the original, but for our purposes we wanted it thicker so we doubled the powdered sugar. So here it is...

Quick Caramel Frosting
1/4 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 T milk
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter and brown sugar and salt in a saucepan. Add milk and stir until boiling. Remove from heat and beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.

Healthified Dark Chocolate Mousse

Last night Laura and I made a really delicious recipe for a healthy version of a chocolate mousse. It was the perfect texture and sweet with a tad tanginess from the Greek yogurt. I loved it!
Healthy Dark Chocolate Mousse
(serves 2)

6 oz soft tofu
dash of vanilla
dash of almond extract
1/2 C melted chocolate chips (we used dark)
1/4 C Greek Yogurt

Blend the first three ingredients. Blend in the melted chocolate chips. Then blend in the yogurt last. And we topped it off with some mini chocolate chips.

Cookie Sandwiches

Last night my sister and I made these cookie sandwiches. The cookie recipe has cream cheese it it and they were soft and moist-super delish! The filling is a cream cheese Nutella recipe. It was a good frosting, but I've finally realized that whenever I made something with Nutella I like it okay, but I would rather just eat it plain. So I am going to give up on Nutella recipes and just use it as is.
Cream Cheese Cookies

1 C butter
3 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
3 tsp vanilla
2-2 1/2 C flour

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour, mix well. Cover and refrigerate until easy to handle, about an hour.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. If you are using them as a cookie sandwich, flatten them down. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1 C Nutella
1 C powdered sugar

No Bake Peanutty Cookies with NesQuik Frosting

Last night I just felt like making a yummy treat. I also wanted to send some to Travis' work to share. So I combines a couple of recipes and came up with these. I LOVED this frosting!

Peanutty Cookies

1/2 C light corn syrup
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C peanut butter (creamy or chunky is fine)
6 C cereal (Corn Flakes or Rich Chex work great)
1/2 C peanuts-optional

1. Stir and heat corn syrup and sugar in a 3 quart saucepan on medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in peanut butter. Stir in peanuts if using them until evenly coated.
3. Shape into cookies.

NesQuik Frosting

1/2 stick butter
3 T Nesquik
6 T milk
1/2 box powdered sugar (or as much as you need for desired consistency.)

Bring butter, Nesquik and milk to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze

Last night Travis and I had fun making sugar cookies together. We topped them with a strawberry and cream cheese glaze from my Crazy About Cupcakes book. Yum!
Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze

6 T butter at room temperature
One 8oz package cream cheese at room temperature
4 1/2 C powdered sugar
3/4 C fresh or frozen strawberries, sliced
lemon juice as needed if using fresh berries

1. Beat together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
2. Add the strawberries, mix well. If using fresh berries use the lemon juice until spreadable.

White Chocolate Cupcakes

First off, Happy Birthday to my wonderful, adorable, handsome husband! I wanted to make something special that was totally catered to his taste (cause usually I bake the stuff that sounds best to me!). Travis is a huge white chocolate fan and is crazy about fondant. So I put it all together along with some cute pirate decorations and we had a good ol' pirate party!




I found these recipes in my Crazy About Cupcakes book from my sister. I really liked these cupcakes because you melt white chocolate into the batter, but also fold in the white chips so you get extra flavor and texture. The frosting turned out really yummy, but I struggled with the consistency. I wanted to use a cute pipping tip but for some the frosting was too stiff and then I had it too runny. But the flavor and cuteness was still the star of the show. I just bought some pre-made fondant which is always easy and to use.

White Chocolate Cupcakes

2/3 C milk
1 T white vinegar
2/3 butter at room temp.
1 1/3 C sugar
3 large eggs at room temp.
1 1/4 C white chocolate chips
1/3 C water
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line cupcake pan with paper baking cups.
2. Combine the milk and vinegar in a cup. Let sit for at least 5 minutes.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
4. Combine 1/2 C of the white chocolate chips and the water in a small saucepan. Heat on low heat until melted, stirring constantly.
5. Add the vanilla and the white chocolate/water mixture to the creamed mixture.
6. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk, beating for 1 minutes after each addition. Fold in the rest of the white chocolate chips.
8. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 C white chocolate chips
4 T butter at room temp.
3 T milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 C powdered sugar

1. Heat the white chocolate, butter, and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, stirring constantly until combined. Add more milk or sugar to desired consistency.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

Last night we had some friends over for dinner. And you know me, I was excited for a chance to try out a new recipe! I pulled this one out of a magazine a while back and decided this was a good chance to use it. It is hot outside so ice cream sounds great and I didn't have to worry about trying to travel anywhere with an ice cream dessert! It isn't my typical idea of ice cream cake, I always think of it as having actual cake in it. But it really was delicious!

And, I decided it looked really plain on top, so I used a chocolate ganache recipe for a topping. I got the recipe from my Crazy About Cupcakes book that my sister gave me. I ended up making 1/2 regular chocolate and 1/2 white chocolate.
The crust was my favorite part!

Here is was before taking off the side of the spring form pan...



Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

4 Cups Rice Krispies or Chex cereal
6 oz semisweet chocolate chopped
3/4 C creamy peanut butter (don't use natural)
3 pints ice cream

1. Put cereal in a large bowl.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine the chocolate and peanut butter. Cook over low heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the chocolate mixture to the cereal and mix. Spread cereal in 9 inch spring form pan, pushing it up the sides as well. Freeze until set, about 10 minutes.
4. Soften ice cream and the spread into the chilled crust. Freeze until firm.

Chocolate Ganache
1 C white or dark chocolate
3/4 C whipping cream

1. Place chocolate in a bowl.
2. In a saucepan bring the whipping cream to a boil over high heat.
3. Pour the cream onto the chocolate and stir until melted. Let cool to room temperature.

Obsessed with Cookie Dough

I'm totally obsessed with this new "cookie dough" recipe. It is my most favorite thing ever! I made this this afternoon cause we've got out nephew, Jake, visiting. This time I left out the chocolate chips and nut and just added peanut M&Ms. Last week I made chocolate chip/coconut dough which I didn't blog. But I have found that I like to chill it, then freeze it into 1 inch balls and they are to die for! They are also awesome cause you can pull them right out and munch on them cause they never get too hard and you can have as little (or many) as you like!

Chocolate Macaroon Cupcakes with Toasted Coconut and Cream Cheese Frosting

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

I'll start with the bad...The bad news is that I didn't follow the instructions when the recipe said to spray the cupcake pan and I used liners instead. The consequence was that they stuck HORRIBLY to the paper and much was inedible. Plus I made these for dinner when we had our neighbors over and I was sad and embarrassed to have such a flop. But I suppose that just goes along with the fun of trying new recipes all the time.

The good news is that the parts you could eat were yummy!


Chocolate Macaroon Cupcakes

2 T (1 oz) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 C condensed milk
1/8 tsp salt
2 C shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spay cupcake cups with cooking spray.
2. In a double boiler melt the chocolate with the milk and salt. Stir in the coconut and vanilla.
3. Fill the cups 1/2 full. Bake for 30 minutes and allow to cool.

Toasted Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

4 T softened butter
2 C coconut
1 package softened cream cheese (8 oz)
2 C powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt 2 T butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in coconut and keep stirring until golden brown, about 8 minutes.
2. In a bowl, cream the other 2 T butter with the cream cheese until creamy. Add in sugar, milk, and vanilla, beating after each addition until smooth. Stir in the toasted coconut.

Cookie Dough Truffles

These truffles are amazing!!! I love cookie dough and chocolate so this was the perfect candy recipe to me! The inside seriously tasted like an awesome cookie dough, but it was great cause there is no egg inside, so no worries!

Cookie Dough Truffles

1/2 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C mini chocolate chips
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1 1/2 lbs melting chocolate

1. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add the condensed milk alternately with the flour, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate 2 hours, then shape into balls.

2. Melt the melting chocolate and dip the balls into the coating. Place back on waxed paper and cool in fridge 15 minutes. Store in the fridge.

Chocolate Bliss Cheesecake

Can you say YUM?! I can!!!

I made this for my mom and sister (with my new spring form pan that my grandma gave me). It was the dessert after a very girly, frilly dinner that we made. It was rich and delish!!!

Chocolate Bliss Cheesecake

18 crushed Oreos (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 T butter
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz (1 package) melted semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used dark chocolate chips which was just fine) and cooled slightly
3 eggs
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 for a 9 inch silver pan or 300 for a dark pan. Mix cookie crumbs and butter, press firmly into pan.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl until wells blended. Add melted chocolate, mix well. Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Pour over crust.

Bake 55-60 minutes or until almost set. Run knife around cake to loosed edges. Store in fridge. Cool completely before removing from spring form pan. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Cut a heart out of wax paper, place on top and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Pineapple, Cherry and Walnut Cookies

So I wanted to try a new recipe since my mom is visiting. I picked this one out because it sounded good and summery. They had a good, soft, fluffy texture but they were lacking in flavor. I decided not to bother typing out the recipe cause it really wasn't all that fabulous, but I'll still share the pictures...

Peanut Butter and Almond Granola Bars

Here's another batch of granola bars I came up with. I used almond extract instead of vanilla and added chopped almonds. I also did more cereal and left out the oats, and I switched the brown sugar for a no calorie sweetener. They were tasty but didn't hold together as well and I was missing the chocolate factor.

Father's Day Requests

For Father's Day I wanted to make something delicious for Travis. This was his request...

Cinnamon raisin bread in the afternoon...

Then I used some of the same dough to make hoagies for Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner...And those yummy, soft, chewy cherry macaroon cookies for dessert!

M&M Granola Bars

Remember those granola bars I made a while back? I did them again using the basic recipe and just added M&Ms. Super yummy! They were gone fast.

Monkey Banana Cake

My little boy turned two this weekend! And the same day also happens to be two of his cousin's birthdays too. So, I figured we could have a funky monkey party! And monkeys eat bananas so...I went with banana cake! I used Travis' grandma's recipe and added dried bananas on the side for extra effect. And more banana chips and chocolate covered banana chips were on the side.

Grandma Doreen's Banana Cake
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C mashed bananas
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 C buttermilk
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Grease and flour pans (I used two 9 inch rounds for my layered cake). Mix dry ingredients. Add shortening and bananas. Beat on low speed. Add buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes. Bake at 350 for 3o minutes.

Frosting
6 T soft butter
4 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 egg (optional-I left it out)
1 1/2 ts vanilla
milk to desired consistency

Beat all together, slowly add milk until you get the consistency that you want.