Pecan Pie

I love to bake!  Baking is so fun for me, however, I'm used to baking cakes, cookies, brownies, and cupcakes with the occasional adventure outside that list like when I attempted to make a chocolate souffle (you won't find a post on that as it was a bit of a failure because it fell after taking it out of the oven).  This was, although, my first pie I've ever made from scratch.  And, thank heavens, it was not only edible, it was delicious!  Pretty quick and easy to make, it was definitely a great adventure outside the pastries I'm used to making.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar (if you prefer a slightly sweeter pecan pie, then add ½ instead)
• ½ cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter.  Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar and the flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla and nuts.
3. Pour into an unbaked 9-in pie shell. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done. 

As always, I try to let you know where I get my recipe from so if you want to see the original page, click here, although the recipe above is the same as at the link.  I can't wait to make this again!  But, I still have one slice left... I think I'll go finish that one off!  Til next time!

Cinnamon Roll Ups

So I discovered this recipe quite a while back, and while it feels like it takes forever to do, it really is a quick and easy breakfast, brunch, or snack time meal.  They're an absolutely delicious, crispy, and sweet treat to eat.  I made these for my mom and I and we couldn't even finish the 6 I made they were so filling.  And best of all, you can make them when you don't have much in your kitchen because it needs only a whole 3 ingredients (4 if you want to count the cinnamon sugar as two separate things because you have to put it together).
I don't have pictures yet, but I'll post them the next time I make them.

Ingredients:

• 12 slices of very soft, fresh white bread
• 1/4 cup (half a stick) melted butter
• Cinnamon sugar (1/2 C sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the crust from a slice of bread and roll until very thin.  My favorite thing to use to cut the crust is the pastry cutter to the right.  I can easily stick 3 or 4 pieces of bread on top of each other and press down and get all the crust on that side at once, but if you don't have one of these, a smooth blade knife will work too.
3. Spread both sides of the bread with melted butter
4. Sprinkle (or as I prefer, smother) both sides with the cinnamon sugar, making sure to cover it well.
5. Fold each side into the middle then gently roll up and place in a buttered muffin tin.  You can use either a regular muffin tin or a mini muffin tin.  (Alternatively, you can fold the bread into a triangle, and fold into another smaller triangle and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet.)
6. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon sugar, then bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are just starting to turn golden brown and a little crisp.  Remove muffin tin to cool slightly before serving.

These will freeze really well.  To reheat, place briefly in a microwave to thaw and then bake in a low oven (250 or 300 degrees) until warm and slightly crisp.  Alternatively, you can reheat them in foil in the oven.

I'm going to post this link, but I'm not sure if it'll work since the original recipe was taken down for some reason, but in case it does work, you can find the original recipe here.

Coffee Cup Sweater

Who loves coffee? :)

My mother is a huge fan of coffee!  She loves her coffee to the point that it would burn the average person's tongue, or at least that's what we tease her about.  But she does love it hot!!!  But coffee cups can get hot sometimes, which makes them hard to hold while they're still hot unless you rely solely on the handle, which I know I never do.  So for a Christmas gift for my mum, I made her a coffee cozy, or as she calls it, a coffee cup sweater.

This pattern is easy and really good for a quick gift.  I made this in about 2 or so hours two days before Christmas so that I could give it to her on Christmas Eve.  I would really recommend this for people who are new at knitting.  I found this project on Ravelry.com, which has given me so many wonderful ideas for new things to try.  The link to my part of the project is here.  Just click on the pattern under the title.  The only reason it isn't posted onto the blog post itself is because the project is a PDF that you download to your computer.  As you can see from the photo on the left, the pattern is striped.  You don't have to do the pattern this way if you don't want to.  All you have to do is pick one color, and then keep knitting in that color and ignore the notes that tell you to change colors.

 I would say the one challenge for this project would be that there's a part where you have to cast on in the middle of the pattern from where you have to bind off to make the button hole.  As a person who's still learning techniques for knitting, I didn't know how to do this properly.  My favorite method for learning new things knitting is YouTube, which is where I sought out the answer to how to do this.  Just keep searching until you find a video that explains it to your liking.  I would post the link to the one I used, but I'm having trouble finding it.

This is with the button sewn on the
wrong side of the pattern

I love this pattern!  With it being quick and easy, it really makes for a one day project, which is useful for me as a busy college student.  My one big tip about this project is BE CAREFUL WHICH SIDE YOU SEW ON THE BUTTON!!!  I made the mistake of rushing to sew on the button and ended up putting it one the wrong side of the pattern, so when she put it on her cup that night, I had to take it back from her and fix it.  Basically, make sure you're putting it on the right side of the pattern before you decide to sew it on.  It can save you from being laughed at like I was (but it was pretty funny).

If anyone has any questions about the pattern or knitting or anything in general, just leave me a comment. :)

White Wedding Cuppy-Cakes

This is a post for those who go to weddings to get cake. :)

These delicious cupcakes, or cuppy-cakes as my dad decides to call them, are absolutely divine!!  With my mother having dietary restrictions, I had to find a recipe with simple ingredients since there's a lot of foods she can't have.  But this recipe was definitely a score!  However, I should've paid attention to how many the recipe says it makes because when I was done, I had 32 cuppy-cakes!  But they have been such a hit that in the first day, 7 were gone and that was 3 days ago lol.  So here's my version of the recipe, but cut in half:

Ingredients:

1/2 of box white cake mix
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon salt (if you don't have a 1/8th, then just estimate half using a 1/4th)
2/3 cups water
1 Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large egg whites

Directions:

This was how much batter I had after
2 dozen with the original recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (you'll need approx. 18).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Add remaining ingredients and beat with hand mixer or stand mixer for 2 minutes, or until well blended.

3. Use ice cream scoop to fill prepared cupcake tins- fill about 3/4 full. Bake about 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I would definitely check out this original link, it has the full version that makes 36 or so cupcakes as well as tips that can help.  You can also use the original recipe to make a cake instead of cuppy-cakes.  But these cupcakes are honestly worth having 30+ of.  If the taste doesn't keep you coming back for more, the smell of them will!

Oreo Cake

Happy Post-Holidays!

 It's been a few months since I've posted anything, but it's a new year and I have two wonderfully delicious blogs and two crafty blogs coming your way.  The first is Oreo Cake (if you can't tell by the title).

With my mother having dietary restrictions this holiday season, it was trouble to find a recipe that didn't have a lot of eggs, nuts, and many other ingredients while still having something that tastes good.  This recipe was my saving grace!  Here's my slightly different, simple and quick recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Devils Food Cake Mix

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

Chocolate chips (just go by however many looks good on it to you)

14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

18 Oreo cookies, broken into bite size pieces

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a 9×13 inch baking pan with tin foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl, mixing to combine. Use your hands, it works much quicker and more fun  Press into prepared baking pan. Top with broken pieces of cookies.

3. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cookies and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from oven.

4.  After 5 minutes of cooling, run a plastic knife around edges to loosen, this makes it much easier to remove from foil.  Let cool completely, remove foil from pan, then cut into squares.  

  
As always, here's the link to the original recipe: http://picky-palate.com/2011/07/05/gooey-cookies-and-cream-double-chocolate-cake-bars/.  It's a good link since there's a lot more pictures to demonstrate the different steps than I have on here.

This was a really rich and decadent treat!  It's great for chocolate lovers, that's for certain.  If you have kids, this is a great recipe to do with them.  I did this recipe with my 11 and 6 year old cousins giving them both tasks that they could do for their ages.  I let the 11 year old mix the crust since she got to get her hands dirty while letting my 6 year old cousin crunch up the Oreos in a plastic bag and then let them help put everything in a pan (except for the milk, I did that task because I didn't want either one to accidentally cut themselves on the can or lid).  I would love to make this again with them, it made the experience so much more enjoyable and fun!  And they enjoyed the pride that they made it, to the extent that the 6 year old sat and watched it cool while he asked every 5 minutes if it was cool enough to eat yet :) But after tasting it, I fully understand his excitement, and so will you! :)