Banana Chocolate Cake Pops

T begged me to  make cake pops for his birthday.  I planned on making cupcakes, but who am I to deny the birthday boy?  We went through the cabinets and he picked out banana cake mix.  I decided to use chocolate frosting with it, and they were super good.

I also noticed that the banana cake was more moist than the other cakes I've made for cake pops, so I only had to use 1/2 a container of frosting instead of most of the can.

Ingredients:
1 box banana cake mix, made according to package directions
1/2 can of chocolate fudge frosting
2 pounds milk chocolate candy melts
lollipop sticks

-crumble the cake and mix with frosting
-refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, then roll into balls
-dip end of lollipop stick in melted chocolate, then insert halfway through ball
-freeze balls 20-30 minutes
-dip in chocolate and serve when ready

Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza and Roll-Ups

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know we did.  Ours was small, just me, the boyfriend, the kids, my parents and my sister  (since we are now finally back on speaking terms, which I'm grateful for).

My mom and I did all the cooking, as usual, while the boyfriend pretty much slept all day and my dad watched football.  It was hectic, but fun.

With Thanksgiving comes leftovers.  I usually hate leftovers, but there's something about all the flavors of Thanksgiving that I love.  So I try to be creative with them so it's not boring.

Last year, I made the most incredible roll ups with crescent roll dough.  This year, I had pre-baked pizza crusts that were going to expire, so that is what I used.  Although I really recommend making roll-ups if you've never tried them.  They are amazing and easy, and the entire family (even my picky children who wouldn't eat the actual Thanksgiving dinner) loved them.

Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza or Roll-Ups

1 pizza crust or package of crescent rolls
cranberry sauce
bite size pieces of turkey
gravy
leftover mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and/or any other leftover veggies on hand
shredded cheddar cheese

-If using crescent rolls, unroll the entire sheet and pinch together where the perforations are.  Preheat the oven according to package directions.
-Spread a layer of cranberry sauce all over the pizza crust or dough (if using crescent rolls, leave 1/2" around all sides so it doesn't squeeze out when you roll it up)
-Sprinkle turkey pieces on crust or dough.  Do the same with the other leftovers.  For mashed potatoes and stuffing, I take a piece of it in my hand and crumble it over the top so there's little clumps of potato, not a thick layer that covers the entire thing.
-Put some gravy on top, followed by cheddar cheese.
-If you're using pizza crust, you're done-just pop it in the oven and bakef until everything is hot.  If you're using crescent roll dough, take one long end and carefully roll the dough until you have a log.  Cut 1" thick slices and lay them on a baking sheet.  Bake according to package directions.

Mashed Potatoes and Carrots

I think potatoes should be a food group unto themselves.  That is how much I love them.  So when I found out that the Crazy Cooking Challenge recipe for November was mashed potatoes, I was really excited.  I searched and searched for the perfect recipe.  I usually make roasted garlic mashed potatoes or loaded mashed potatoes, so I wanted something different.

Then I found it.  Mashed Potatoes and Carrots from Kitchen Parade's A Veggie Venture.  I remember mashing some carrots with a fork into my mashed potatoes as a kid, but I never even thought of making mashed potatoes and carrots as a dish unto itself.

Ingredients:
1 pound Yukon Gold Potatoes (but I had russets, so that's what I used)
1 pound carrots, scrubbed and peeled
1 Tbsp butter (I probably used closer to 2 or 3)
salt and pepper, to taste
Optional (because this is what I added that was extra)
2 heads garlic
2 small onions, chopped

-if using garlic, preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut off the top of the heads of garlic.  Place heads on a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for about 40 minutes, until garlic is soft.

It should look like this when it is done

-Peel potatoes and carrots.  Dice them into 1/2" cubes.  Place in a dutch oven or a big pot and add water to cover.  Turn heat on Medium-High.  When water comes to a boil, add salt and a little butter (it prevents the water from boiling over).  Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook 20-30 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

-If using onions, peel, cut in half, and dice into small pieces.  Add to a saute pan with some butter, and cook until golden.  Once cooked, add some salt.

Onions go from this....

...to this.

-While you're waiting for the potatoes to be done, take the roasted garlic out of it's skin.  You could just smush it all out, but I like to take out each clove.  Be careful if you do this, if the garlic is still hot you can burn your fingers!

There's my roasted garlic out of the skin

-Drain potatoes and carrots, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid (I forgot to do this and drained the whole thing).  Mash carrots and potatoes, using a hand mixer or a potato masher (I always use a potato masher-I think potatoes can get gluey with a mixer), adding reserved liquid and butter (I used about 1/4 cup of milk, since I didn't save the water).
-Season to taste with salt and pepper.

And voila! Mashed potatoes and carrots.

So here are my thoughts on this recipe.  It was really simple and it tastes great.  I had to add a ton of salt.  I added more than I normally would for 5 pounds of potatoes-it was really bland without it (and I hate pepper, so I never add it to anything).  I noticed it took less milk than regular mashed potatoes would, and I'm sure it would have been healthier if I remembered to just save the cooking water, but it was good with the milk.

It's my first challenge that I am participating in, so I don't know if I'm really allowed to add more to the recipe, so I'm sorry if changing it a little is a bad thing.  My family loves garlic, and we cook everything with it.  And I had a couple onions laying around, so I figured I'd add them too and it would be a healthy meal.  I will definitely be making this recipe again.  It is so simple and quick, and I'm pretty sure it's healthier than most of the recipes I make.





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Halloween Cake Pops!

So I was supposed to go to Lady's Halloween party on Saturday.  Lady is my best friend from college, and she only lives 45 minutes away from me.  I made Halloween cake pops on Friday afternoon, and went crazy because my new 9x13 pan burnt my first cake.  So I ran back to the store and bought 2 more boxes of Devils Food cake mix just in case.  The second time I baked the cake, I ended up taking it out of the oven 13 minutes early.  This new pan is killing me, and I couldn't find my usual cake pops pan.  Thankfully, the cake was done and not burnt.  So here's my cake pops tutorial.

1. Bake the cake of your choice.  If it's a light-colored cake, remove the ends and any brown parts.  This doesn't matter with dark cakes.

2. Crumble cake into a bowl until you have uniform small crumbs.  Add frosting and mix together until cake and frosting mix holds together well.  You will use about 3/4 of a container of frosting.

3. Melt some chocolate in the color you are going to cover your cake pops with.  I chose orange.  Dip your lollipop sticks in the chocolate so the tip of one end is covered.

4. Make a ball out of the cake and frosting mix.  Insert the chocolate covered stick halfway into the ball.

5. Once you have a bunch of pops made, stick them in the freezer for about 30 minutes, until they are firm but not frozen.

6. Melt more chocolate and dip each of the pops.  Tap off excess chocolate, and stick into a foam block to dry.  You need about 2 bags of candy wafers for every cake you crumble.

7. Once pops are dry, you can decorate with edible markers or use more chocolate as glue for big sprinkles or other decorations.  I was planning on making them jack-o-lantern pops, but my black edible marker crapped out after the first one I did and the other colors didn't look right.  So they're plain orange.

I don't know where everyone who reads this lives, but we had a freak snowstorm in New York on Saturday.  It was treacherous out and we got 9" of snow where I live.  Needless to say, I did not make it to my party, so I have 30 cake pops sitting around in my house.

This is the photo I took from my bedroom on Saturday afternoon of the tree bent so far that the branches were touching the ground, blocking me from even leaving my house.  Thankfully, when some of the snow melted on Sunday, the branches rose back up to where they're supposed to be, although there were a lot of downed trees and power outages in my area.

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you liked the cake pops tutorial and my cat on a fence pumpkin!

Pumpkin Muffins and Chocolate Cherry Brownies and a Deco Phone Case

I've seen a number of awesome looking recipes on the link ups I've done over the past few weeks.  So I decided to try a few this weekend.  One was successful, one was not.  Both were easy 2-3 ingredient recipes, so I had T help me make them.

First up was pumpkin muffins.  They turned out well.  All we used was a box of spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.  Just mix it all together, put it in a cupcake pan, and bake according to the directions on the cake mix.  I made 12 muffins with this, even though the cake mix said it would make 24 cupcakes.  I also baked them 6 minutes longer than the box said, as the toothpick I initially inserted was not clean.

My only improvement for next time will be to use a bigger can of pumpkin.  I used a 16 oz can and the muffins are slightly drier than I would like.  I want them to be more like the ones from Dunkin Donuts, which are really mushy and pumpkin-y.

And I will be glazing them in the morning before breakfast.  Just mix together 2 tbsp. milk, 1 tbsp. melted butter, 1-2 tsp. vanilla extract, and a cup of powdered sugar.  You may have some left over depending on how much glaze you put on each muffin.

 Next we made chocolate cherry brownies.  They are not so good.  The only two ingredients are brownie mix and a can of cherry pie filling.  You also bake these according to brownie box directions.  They are very gooey, and not in a good, ooey-gooey way.  More like a gluey gooey.  They are edible, but I have some improvements so they taste good.

First, make the brownie mix according to the directions on the box, with the eggs and oil and water.  I always use the fudgy brownie directions instead of the cake like brownie directions.  Instead of cherry pie filling, use plain canned, jarred, or frozen cherries.  And it never hurts to add half a package of chocolate chips.  These taste much better.

You can see how gluey gooey these are, even in a picture

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I made an awesome Hello Kitty Deco phone case.  It is spectacular, and if anyone is interested, I can do a tutorial.  Or you can buy it from my Etsy shop, even though it is not listed yet since my digital camera is MIA and I am not comfortable listing items for sale with a cell phone camera.

The case is pink and covered in pink and blue faux pearls. I love it.

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake

For Goober's birthday party last Saturday, I not only made the French Vanilla Cake Pops I posted last Monday, but I also made the best chocolate cake ever.  And it is easy.  I originally found the recipe here.

This is not your average chocolate cake.  It is rich, and gooey, and you can only eat a few bites.  It reminds me of fudge, almost.  I love it so much I will make it again for every holiday in the foreseeable future.

I did mess up the frosting, which looks awful.  It was the first time I bought buttercream in a can and I should have bought icing gel or made my own pastry bag and done it with the homemade whipped cream  I served the cake with.  Oh well.  Now I know what not to do.

Ingredients:
10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (I used most of a bag of chocolate chips-there was about 1/4 cup of chips left over)
7 oz. butter
5 large eggs
1 cup sugar

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350.
-Butter a 9-inch springform pan and then dust it with cocoa powder, throwing out the excess.  Wrap outside of springform pan with foil to make sure it is watertight.
-Melt butter and chocolate together over a double boiler.  You can use the microwave also.  When it is smooth and combined, remove from heat.
-Whisk together eggs and sugar, then add chocolate mixture and whisk until combined.
-Pour batter into springform pan and cover with foil.  Place inside a roasting pan and fill roasting pan with water until it is halfway up the springform pan.
-Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
-Remove from water bath.  Remove foil.  Cool completely on cooling rack before serving.

And that's it!  There are only a few ingredients, and it is so easy!  It was the first time I ever cooked anything in a water bath, which always seemed a little daunting to me, but it wasn't hard at all.  Serve this cake with whipped cream on the side and enjoy.  I promise you this cake is worth making!

French Vanilla Cake Pops

Goober turned 1 on Friday and we had his party Saturday afternoon.  It was a small party, with family and a few close friends.  I think T and Princess got more presents than Goober did, but that's okay because everyone was happy.  Anyway, I made an awesome chocolate cake and also some french vanilla cake pops, which were awesome!

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 box french vanilla cake mix (I chose Betty Crocker, but you can choose any brand, or make it from scratch)

Frosting:
7 extra-large egg whites
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 bag cake pop (or lollipop) sticks, at least 6" tall
2 bags melting chocolate, in your favorite color (I chose vanilla flavored light blue chocolate)
floral foam or styrofoam block

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350

-Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Add batter to a 9"x13" pan or a large round cake pan (mine is a 13" round).  Bake 30 mins or until light brown on top.
-Let cake cool 10-15 minutes.  Using a dull knife, scrape all the brown off the top.  Cut around the cake edges and remove.  Flip the cake onto a plate and scrape the brown off the bottom, so all your cake is a uniform white color.

-Crumble the cake into a large bowl.

-In a large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, whisk together egg whites and sugar until sugar is melted and mixture reaches 140 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes.  Transfer mixture to the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on high until stiff peaks form, 12 to 15 minutes. Add cream of tartar and beat for one minute more.  Reduce speed to medium and add butter, a few pieces at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract; beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. Transfer to refrigerator; chill for 15 minutes .

-Mix frosting into cake crumbs a big spoonful at a time until the cake and frosting mixture is really moist and can be rolled into balls and hold together.  You will not use all the frosting (I mixed the rest with the cake scraps and let the kids eat it).  Chill for at least 30 minutes.

-Cover a tray that will fit into your freezer with waxed paper.   Roll cake mixture into uniform balls (mine were about 1 1/2"  in diameter), then put a stick in them, about 3/4 of the way through each ball.  Lay them on the waxed paper and freeze 20-30 minutes.

-While the pops are in the freezer, pour melting chocolate into a heatproof bowl over simmering water like you did for the frosting.  Stir constantly until melted.  I usually turn off the burner once the chocolate is melted and it stays warm for a while.

-Take the pops out of the freezer and dip them in chocolate so all the cake is covered.  I use a big spoon to help drizzle chocolate over the part near the stick.  Shake off excess chocolate so the pop is evenly coated.  If the cake slides off the stick, you need to freeze it longer.  Stick pops into the styrofoam until the chocolate is set.  Refrigerate finished pops until 1-2 hours before serving.

Swarovski Crystal Link Bracelet

Here's a tutorial for my favorite bracelet ever.  I wear one every day, and I also sell them in my Etsy Shop.

Materials:
6 3-inch long pieces of 24 gauge craft wire
6 8mm Swarovski round beads, in the color of your choice
40 4mm Swarovski bicone beads, in coordinating colors (10 each of 4 colors)
40 24 gauge headpins
1 TierraCast spiral toggle clasp set (choose either type of toggle in either copper, silver plated, or gold plated-make sure links, wire and headpins are all the same color-I used silver)
2 TierraCast spiral ring components in 16mm
2 TierraCast spiral ring components in 19mm
1 TierraCast spiral ring component in 25mm

You will also need:
a wirecutter
chain nose pliers
round nose pliers

Directions:
1. Take a piece of the wire and made a loop about an inch down.  Add a the bar side of the toggle clasp, and make a wire wrapped link.  Add a 6mm round Swarovski crystal, then make another loop, add a 16mm link, and complete the wire wrap.  The loops should be on the large side, since you will be adding wire wrapped beads to them.

2. Continue to make wire wrapped links with one bead per link in this order: After the 16mm link, connect to a 19mm link, then the 25mm link, then a 19mm link, the other 16mm link, and finally, the other end of the toggle clasp.

3. String a 4mm bicone bead on a headpin and make a small loop.  Wire wrap this to the first link attached to the 16mm spiral ring component.  Continue to do this with the other 3 colors.

4. Continue to do this on all of the remaining links except for the loops attached to either side of the toggle clasp.  You will wire wrap 4 beads on each link.  There are 10 links.

Voila!  This bracelet should take about 3 hours from start to finish.  If it is too loose on your wrist (it tends to be on mine), you can put the toggle bar through a 16mm link so it is snug.