Giant Toasted Coconut Donut Cake

While looking through a sales ad one day I came across an ad for a giant 3D donut pan. I just had to have it so I rushed to the store to buy it. Unfortunately when I got there they had none left in stock, so I became very sad. Well for Christmas I got lucky because my family found one and bought it for me. And it took me until now to finally put it to good use. I figured the best way to try it out would be to make a giant toasted coconut donut cake. Now to be honest I didn't eat any of it because I don't really care for cake much, but I am assuming it was good because the plate was cleaned in no time. To make it I didn't do anything special. All I did was prepare a cake mix and bake it in the donut pan. When done I stacked the two layers together to make the donut. I then took a can of vanilla frosting and placed it in the microwave for no more than 15 seconds. I then took that frosting and pored it over the top of the donut cake. I then took about 1 cup sweetened coconut and placed it on a cookie sheet and toasted it under the broiler until the coconut was a nice golden brown. I then sprinkled that coconut on top of the frosting. And Viola I had a giant toasted coconut donut cake. If you don't have a donut pan then you can do this cake with any pan you desire. If you do make this cake or any cake then I hope you enjoy it. :)

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Snickerdoodles

January 28th was my mom's birthday. So to celebrate I went home to Atwater to spend the day with her. I was going to make a cake for her, but she decided that this year she wanted an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins. Since I still wanted to make something special for her I decided to make her favorite cookies, Snickerdoodles. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and it had nothing but great reviews, so I decided that this will be the one I will try. They came out great, even though I purposely forgot the baking soda because I could not find it anywhere and of course I found it after I was done baking. Other than the cookies my Mom had a great birthday and we all had lots of fun hanging out.

Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Remember how I talked about my mint chocolate chip obsession in my last post, well guess what I still have it. All day at work I couldn't stop thinking about making these cupcakes. At first I was not sure it they were going to work out or not, but turns out they did. They were very easy to make and not over powering at all. So if you like mint chocolate chip, then you will love this light and fluffy version of a classic flavor.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

1 White cake mix (as well as ingredients listed on the package)

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 tablespoon flour

3 drops green food coloring

3- 5 drops mint extract

1 can vanilla frosting

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips for decoration, optional.



Preheat the oven and prepare the cake according to the package directions. Mix well. Add the food coloring and mint extract. In a separate bowl toss the chocolate chips with the flour to help keep the chocolate chips from sinking in the batter. Gently fold the chocolate chips in to the cake batter. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake wrappers and evenly fill with the batter. Bake according to the package directions until done. Transfer the cupcakes to a rack to cool. Spread the frosting on the tops of the cupcakes and sprinkle a little bit of mini chocolate chips. Serve and enjoy. :)




Now since I have been having this weird obsession I decided to look up some fun facts on Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Enjoy

• Mint chocolate chip ice cream is the 10th most popular ice cream flavor according to the International Dairy Foods Association

• Marilyn Ricketts invented mint chocolate chip ice cream while studying at Torquay Catering College. She entered a contest to prepare an ice cream for Princess Anns' wedding to captain Mark Phillips. The ice cream was then called Mint Royale.

• These facts were found on Wkipedia :)
  
  

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Mint Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookie Cups

I have a new obsession lately, and that obsession happens to be mint chocolate chip. I don't know where it started but I cannot get enough of it. I am already on my second tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and different recipes keep running through my head on what I can do to create the flavor of mint chocolate chip. One of those recipes happen to be the one I am sharing right now. I found a bag of Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels and I thought that they would be perfect for my addiction. Well I was right they came out pretty good. There was one small issue though. That problem was some of the cookies came out dry, but that was my own fault because I left the first batch in there two long because I didn't know if they were done or not. So if you make them, then take them out when the timer goes off and not any longer.

Mint Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookie Cups

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels

1/8 cup white chocolate chips melted

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by well-rounded tablespoons into an ungreassed mini muffin pans.Gently push your thumb down the centers of the cookie creating a well. Bake for 12 -15 minutes. Remove and drop some of the morsels into each of the wells that you previously made. If the well is no longer visible, then gently press your thumb down the center again. Using a fork and butter knife gently lift the cookies out of the pan and transfer to a cooling rack. Drizzle some melted white chocolate across the tops. Serve and enjoy. :)

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Chicken With Sun Dried Tomato Orzo

The other night I wanted to make something different for dinner. Therefore I started to do some research. I came across a wonderful recipe on EatingWell.com that I will definitely be making again. My boyfriend Tomas actually went back for seconds but unfortunately for him there was absolutely nothing left at all. That wonderful recipe I am talking about is Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato Orzo. Now I did make a couple of changes because I am not a fan of artichoke hearts and I tripled the garlic. So the recipe below will be the way I prepared it and if you want the original then you can follow the link I created above. Enjoy :)

Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato Orzo
8 ounces orzo
1 cup water
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes, (not oil-packed), divided
1 plum tomato, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram, divided
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed (1-1 1/4 pounds)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup finely shredded Romano cheese, divided

Cook orzo in a large saucepan of boiling water until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and rinse. Meanwhile, place 1 cup water, 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, plum tomato, garlic, 2 teaspoons marjoram, vinegar and 2 teaspoons oil in a blender. Blend until just a few chunks remain. Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent burning, until golden outside and no longer pink in the middle, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate; tent with foil to keep warm. Pour the tomato sauce into the pan and bring to a boil. Measure out 1/2 cup sauce to a small bowl. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes to the pan along with the orzo and 6 tablespoons cheese. Cook, stirring, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide among 4 plates. Slice the chicken. Top each portion of pasta with sliced chicken, 2 tablespoons of the reserved tomato sauce and a sprinkling of the remaining cheese and marjoram. Enjoy :)

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Chocolate Almond Toffee

Today is a special day because it is national English toffee day. I am so excited because I love English toffee and I especially love making it; as well as eating it. It never last long at our house because everyone else loves eating it as much as I do. It is a good thing that it is easy to make because if it were hard I would not be making it as much especially on how it doesn't last long here. Well I hope you get to enjoy national English toffee day as well. :)

Chocolate Almond Toffee

1 cup butter

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped almonds

Line a 15x10x1 inch baking pan with foil; butter the foil. In a heavy saucepan combine the butter, corn syrup, water, and sugar. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture boils, stirring constantly. Using a candy thermometer, continue cooking to 200*F (soft crack stage) stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Quickly stir in almonds. Pour mixture onto the butter foil lined pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the hot toffee and spread out until smooth. Sprinkle 1/4 chopped almonds on top of the melted chocolate . Refrigerate until chocolate is set. Break into serving sized pieces. Enjoy

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Turtle Cookies

A while back I was shopping with my mom and I came across these caramel balls in the baking isle. They are called caramel bits and they are put out by Kraft. When I saw them I started to think of all the things I could do with them, with these turtle cookies being one of them. The first time I made them was a disaster. I could not get the cookies off the pan after they were done baking. That was because the caramel would stick to the pan once they cooled off. Therefore I baked the rest of them on parchment paper, it made it easier to remove from the pan as well as easier clean up. Well I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Oh and if you cannot find the caramel bits in the store you can always cut up the individual wrapped caramel squares. Have fun :)

Turtle Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup caramel bits

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips, chopped pecans, and caramel bits. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool and enjoy.

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Chocolate Covered Pretzel Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Since the marshmallow pretzel sandwiches were such a hit, I just had to make other variations of them. Therefore I decided that I should try using peanut butter this time. I am so glad I did because these too came out very good. I have to say the peanut butter are my favorite, but that may be because I love peanut butter. Tomas is the opposite because he prefers the marshmallow ones over the peanut butter ones. So it is up to you to decide which ones taste better. Either way I hope you enjoy them as much as we have been. :)

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Peanut Butter Sandwiches

1 bag of pretzels

Jar of peanut butter

1 package of dipping chocolate

Take two pretzels and place a decent amount of peanut butter between the two pretzels. wipe off any excess peanut butter that comes out or push back in. Melt the chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. Take the pretzel sandwiches and dip, using a fork. and cover the entire pretzel sandwich. Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet and let set. Swirl with melted peanut butter over tops if you desire (it doesn't ever fully dry though, unless kept in the fridge). Transfer to a plate. Serve and enjoy.

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Chocolate Covered Pretzel Marshmallow Sandwiches

A while back, while shopping at the grocery store, I came across the chocolate covered pretzel sandwiches with a york peppermint patty center. So I decided why don't I try to do something similar at home. I looked at in my pantry and I saw that I had a jar of marshmallow cream (sad thing is I couldn't remember why I had it and what I intended on using it for). But anyways I decided that I will put some of the marshmallow cream between two pretzels and dip that in chocolate. They were such a hit everyone devoured them up. Since they were so good that Tomas sister Monika made a batch as well and of course those were gone in no time as well. Well I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Also there wasn't a exact amount made in each batch. WE just made them until we ran of chocolate. Therefore the results will vary. Enjoy :)

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Marshmallow Sandwiches

Bag of pretzel twist or checker squares

1 jar of marshmallow cream

1 bag of dipping milk chocolate

2 tablespoons white chocolate chips melted, optional

Take two pretzels and place a decent amount of marshmallow cream between the two pretzels. wipe off any excess cream that comes out or push back in. Melt the chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. Take the pretzel sandwiches and dip, using a fork. and cover the entire pretzel sandwich. Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet and let set. Swirl white chocolate over tops if you desire. Transfer to a plate. Serve and enjoy.

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