Firecracker cake

A friend of mine sent me this recipe and I had to try it out for the 4th of July! SO easy and very festive. I had an issue with the cake sticking to the pan... it actually broke in half! But I pieced it back together....

1 Box of white cake mix. Yellow would work too.

Red and blue food coloring

Icing and sprinkles

Prepare cake mix as directed. Tint one cup of the batter red and one cup blue. Pour red into a well greased tube pan or a bunt pan. Pour regular batter on top, then the blue last. Bake as directed.

Once cake is cooled and flipped out of the pan, drizzle with red, white, and blue icing. Add sprinkles.

Flourless peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies

If you like peanut butter and chocolate, you will like these!! Yes... these cookies have NO flour and NO butter. They only call for six ingredients. And they were quite good. No, make that "Oh my these were very good!" My kids devoured a plate of them in no time.

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky) I used Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter.
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix first five ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form generous one tablespoon of dough for each cookie into a ball. Arrange on a baking sheet, spacing cookies two inches apart. Bake cookies until puffed, golden brown on bottom & still soft to the touch in the center -- about 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for about five minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cupcakes... from scratch!

Today I decided to forego the usual mix and make cupcakes from scratch. This is by far the easiest scratch cake to make. It's not too sweet and it doesn't make a gazillion cupcakes, so it's perfect for a quick treat. It made exactly 12 cupcakes. I pulled a small container of vanilla icing out the freezer, added some cocoa, and topped them with homemade chocolate icing.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Father's Day Cake

This did not turn out the way I had in mind! For one, the blue icing bled into the white. I'll just blame that on the humidity and not the baker!! I attempted a frozen buttercream transfer for the tie. It didn't come out quite right either. It tasted good, so I guess that is what matters most!!

Duncan Hines Mix because it was on sale

My fav slider cake pans

Homemade lemon filling ~ always yummy!

Now we wait for the icing to dry or crust over....

Then smooth it out with a handy dandy... wallpaper roller.

Add a blue border

And write (very messily) Happy Father's Day!

This was my attempt at a frozen buttercream transfer ~ It's supposed to be a tie. Didn't come out quite right either!! And see how the blue ran into the white? Darn humidity!!

Cupcakes galore

Today is Veronica's end of year picnic. I signed up to bring a dessert, so I baked four dozen cupcakes for her school. Nothing fancy, I just used what I had on hand - white cake mix and red velvet. Duncan Hines was on sale for $.88 a while back, so I stocked up. I put icing on some, sprinkles on some, and left some plain.

Lemon Bars

So, I've been slacking. Not necessarily on baking, but on taking pictures and blogging. I made a couple batches of cookies and cupcakes for the kids that didn't make it here. Oh well.

Over the weekend I made lemon bars!! We spent the day with my Dad and I brought lunch over. His favorite flavor anything is lemon, so I thought these would be something he would like.

Very easy, and very yummy! Sort of a lemon pie in a bar.

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter, melted

4 eggs

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

5/8 cup lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 2 cups flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the melted butter. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Combine the sugar, baking powder and 1/4 cup of flour so there will be no flour lumps. Stir the sugar mixture into the eggs. Finally, stir in the lemon juice. Pour over the prepared crust and return to the oven.
4. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until bars are set. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Veronica requested cookies and milk today, so chocolate chip cookies it is! The recipe is pretty straight forward. I halved it though, so that we wouldn't have a ton of cookies sitting around. I subbed half of the flour with wheat flour and I didn't have sea salt so I used regular salt.

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt **
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

**If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy. Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!