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.