Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients:
*6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
*4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
*2/3 cup granulated sugar
*2 large eggs, room temperature
*1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
*1 tablespoon unsweetened natural cocoa powder
*1/8 teaspoon salt
*1 tablespoon LorAnn Red Velvet Emulsion

*8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
*1 large egg yolk
*1/3 cup granulated sugar
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Using foil, line an 8 inch square pan, make sure liner overhangs all four sides.  Spray liner with cooking spray.
3. Place butter and chocolate chips in a small microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth (do not overheat).
4. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl.  Using an electric mixer beat in 2/3 cup granulated sugar, then the eggs.
5. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder and salt just until combined.  Mix in the Red Velvet Emulsion. Spread evenly into prepared pan. 
6. In a sperate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg yolk, 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth.
7. Place dollops of the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter, than use a butter knife or spatula to swirl the mixture together. 

8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the batter in the center of the pan is just set.  Allow to cool.  Lift out the foil from the pan and peel the liner from the brownies. 

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies- Valentine's Day Style

I took the classic peanut butter kiss cookie and dyed them hot pink for Valentine's Day.

I also added a "Hugs and Kisses" to make them extra special and cute. 

Ingredients:

* Hugs and Kisses chocolates
* 1/2 cup shortening 
* 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter 
* 1/3 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 
* 1 egg 
* 2 tablespoons milk 
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
* 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda 
* 1/2 teaspoon salt 
* granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add 1/3 cup granulated and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate heart into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely

Red Velvet Cookies

I love red velvet cupcakes. 

They are delicious.

So I tried my hand at making red velvet cookies.

They turned out to be just as delicious as cupcakes.

This recipe was fabulous.

Chewy, moist and tasted just like cupcakes in a cookie form. 

Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Ingredients:

• *2 cups all-purpose flour
• *1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• *1/2 teaspoon salt
• *2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into pieces
• *1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• *2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• *1/3 cup white sugar
• *1 large egg
• *1 tablespoon red food coloring
• *3/4 cup sour cream
• *1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I actually used white chocolate chips when I made them this 
• time)
• 
  
• Directions:
• 
  
• 
  
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) with the rack in the middle position. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
  2. Break the chocolate squares into chunks, place in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on High until the chocolate melts, about 90 seconds. Stir the chocolate until smooth and set aside to cool.
  3. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy; pour in the egg and beat until smooth. Mix in the red food coloring and chocolate, scraping the bowl down regularly, until evenly blended, about 30 seconds. Add half of the sifted dry ingredients, stirring until well incorporated. Beat in the sour cream and mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
  4. Bake one sheet at a time in the preheated oven until they spring back when pressed, about 9 
  6. minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed with Reese's

I made these delicious cookies this weekend to send over to Chris for a little Valentine's Day surprise.

It was surprisingly simple to make them. 

I used this chocolate chip cookie recipe to make the cookies. 

Used this super cute cookie pan. 

Which I found at Michael's, with all their Valentine's baking goodies. 

 I simply filled each heart with a little cookie batter on the bottom, added a mini Reese Cup and then covered it with more cookie batter. 

Make sure not to cover all the way to the top so it doesn't over when cooking.

I baked on 350 for about 12 minutes and they came out perfect. 

And delicious :)

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients

*½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
*3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
*1 cup granulated sugar
*1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*½ cup mini chocolate chips
*1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and well-combined.

3. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix until the ingredients are well-combined. Add the flour and mix on low until the flour is incorporated. Stir in the mini chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.

4. Place the Oreo cookie crumbs in a small bowl. Scoop the cookies into about 1½ to 2″ balls and then roll in the cookie crumbs. Place the cookie balls on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.

S'More Cookies

I had some company over for dinner tonight so I was on Pinterest looking for something original and cute to make.

But that was also simple and I wouldn't need to go out and buy a million ingredients to make. 

Behold, 

S'More Cookies

These were a hit.

They were yummmmy.

And, they were so easy to make.

Ingredients:

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
4 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions

*Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper.

*Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching).  You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.

*In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

*In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

*Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

*Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour.

*Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. (I put one tablespoon of dough on each half of every cracker.) Press down slightly with fingertips.

*Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top.

*Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've found an amazing recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

These suckers are delicious times ten.

So so yummy.

Nice and chewy on the inside with a crisp outer...perfect!

Ingredients:

*1 cup butter, softened

*1 cup white sugar

*1 cup packed brown sugar

*2 eggs

*2 teaspoons vanilla extract

*3 cups all-purpose flour

*1 teaspoon baking soda

*2 teaspoons hot water

*1/2 teaspoon salt

*2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

*Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

*Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Ahhhh I'm melllllting

I'll admit it, pinterest has the most fabulous ideas for fun baking adventures.

I saw these cookies on pinterest and decided to try my hand at making my own little spin on them; and I think they turned out rather fabulous.

Behold my melted snowman snickerdoodle cookies.

Pinterest recommended store bought sugar cookie recipes but I don't make anything out of a box and I really wanted some snickerdoodles so I decided to try, and they turned out just as well.

We'll see if they make it all the way over to Chris and if he agrees with cuteness factor.

Basically after I let the cookies cool off I iced them, not very pretty since it's supposed to look like they are melting.

Then I used jumbo marshmallows and sprayed a plated with cooking spray and microwave the marshmallows for 30 seconds.  Just long enough for them to start to puff but not double in size.  When I took them out, I sprayed my fingers with cooking spray before taking the marshmallows off of the plate.

Then I place them on top of the icing and pushed down so they look a little flattened, as if they are melting.

Next, I just decorated as I wished.

**Please ignore the piping arm...I stuck my thumb in it right before I took the picture so I messed up his arm.

But here's a picture of the snowman, grinch and reindeer all together :)

Reindeer Cookies

If these aren't the cutest Christmas cookies I've ever seen, then I don't know what are!

(I saw these on pinteret and altered it a little bit and decided to to make them with a peanut butter cookie because I love peanut butter)

Adorable!

I made these adorable festive cookies using a delicious peanut butter cookie recipe that I found online (a new favorite...much creamy than my other one!), mini chocolate covered pretzels and M&M's.

I used mostly red M&M's for the noses and any color for the eyes. The eyes in the pictures are brown but any color looked cute, I like the blue a lot as well :)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

*3/4 cup peanut butter

*1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

*1/2 cup shortening

*3 tablespoons milk

*1 tablespoon vanilla

*1 egg

*1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

*3/4 teaspoon baking soda

*3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 375°F.

*Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended.

*In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

*Form dough into 1-inch balls. To make reindeer-shaped cookies, pinch the bottom of the ball slightly to form a point, then gently flatten with your hand. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just beginning to brown. 

*Remove from oven and immediately (and gently) press two mini pretzels into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer's antlers. Press two brown M&Ms in for the eyes and one red M&M for the nose. 

*Allow to cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 



You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

I have found a new favorite cookie of this holiday season.

Behold my masterpiece...

Ahhhhh! Isn't it the best Christmas cookie ever?

Ok so it's not your usual holiday cookie, but i LOVE it!

I think it came out adorable.

And so grinch-like.

So basically I used a sugar cookie recipe and then the wilton comfort grip cookie cutter mold in the SANTA shape.

Next, I made a batch of wilton buttercream icing which I used for the coloring.

I used the kelly green icing dye color for the bottom half of the grinch and the the no taste red dye for the top half.

Next, I piped the furry part of his hat with a star tip.

I used the golden yellow colored dye for his eyes, which I kind of made into upward,slanted shape to give them that evil eye look.

Finally, I piped the lining of his face with a small circular tip.  I made the lines of his face based on a picture I was looking at and then just went from there.

I have to say,  for my first time making any type of character, I think I did a pretty decent job.

 

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas



A day off from work and I baked. ALL. DAY.

Ahhh. I just love to bake. and decorate. and make cute little things.

These were my first Christmas cookies of the season and I think they turned out fabulous.

It also helps that I have icing bags, tips and icing colors to make the decorating look a lot better.

Obviously, those are just a couple of them, but I adore them.

I used the Wilton Comfort Grip Cookie Cutters.

I also used a new sugar cookie recipe that turned out amazing.

They're soft, chewy and very tasteful.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

*1/2 cup butter

*1/2 cup shortening

*1 cup sugar

*1 egg

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1 teaspoon almond extract

*2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

*1/2 teaspoon baking powder

*1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

*In a mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
*Add egg and vanilla and almond; mix well.
*Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to the creamed mixture.
*Shape into 1-in. balls.  Place on greased baking sheet; flatten with a glass. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

**I only cooked mine for exactly 10 minutes and they came out perfectly.  Also, I added the almond extract to the recipe.  Feel free to take it out of the recipe but I think it adds great flavor to the cookies.  Another thing,  if you are going to use this recipe for cut out cookies, I would strongly suggest freezing the dough for out 20 minutes or so before you start to roll it out.



Cupcake Pops

Cupcake Pops

I have these super adorable snowman cupcake MOLDS that I got last year.

They are in STORAGE. Kind of like everything else I own. haha.

So i went off I went on the hunt for some other cute Christmas themed, cupcake MOLDS.

Which I could not find. ANYWHERE.

Instead, all I could find were cupcake pop molds.

So, I gave up my dream of making my adorable snowpeople cupcakes again this year.

And I relented to making cupcake pops.

After much pouting, I have to admit.

Because those darn snowpeople were so cute!

Anyways, this is the mold I used.

It's a wilton mold; I'm a fan of Wilton products.

So, you have to be careful when filling up the cavities because if you fill them up too much, they get way too puffy and they don't deflat.

Also, you have to make sure that the lollipop stick is completly covered because if it isn't covered all the way, when it done baking the cupcake will swivel around on the stick.

As you can tell, I went out and bought new icing bags and new decorating tips so these are much prettier than my pathetic attempt at thanksgiving cookies :)

I also got a new box of Wilton icing colors, which makes decorating so much easier.

Anyways, I baked red velvet cupcakes, which I have posted the recipe on my blog in the past.

I have found that when you are doing decorating such as I did in the above picture, buttercream icing is the easiest to work with.
I like the Wilton Buttercream Icing Recipe.

It's a stiffer icing which makes decorating easier.

I've also found that when I'm decorating, to get the icing to appear perfectly even and smooth I dip my knife in a bowl of warm water and then the icing that works the best.

A little tip that my mom taught me :)

Wilton Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

*1/2 cup shortening

*1/2 cup softened butter

*1 teaspoon vanilla

* 4 cups confectioner's sugar

*2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

*In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer.

*Add vanilla.

*Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.

*Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

*Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.For all of you who are dying to see, here are the snowpeople from last year :)



Acorn Treats

These are very simple to make and they are super cute.

They're good for any type of fall party, not just Thanksgiving!

Ingrediants:

*Peanut Butter

*Hersey Kisses (unwrapped)

*Bite Sized Nutter Butters

* Chocolate Chips

Directions:

*Dip one side of the  Nutter Butter in peanut butter

*Stick it the flat side of a Hersey Kiss

* Dip the flat side of the chocolate chip in the peanut butter and stick it the to top of the nutter butter

Football Cookies

Chris is a HUGE football fan.

One of his favorite things to do on Thanksgiving is watch football...just like 95% of males.

So since he can't be here to watch this thanksgiving I figured I'd send him these...

Again, pardon my piping; all my tips and icing bags are still in storage so i was working by hand and with toothpicks!

 To make these I made a simple chocolate cookie.

I wanted to make a whoopie like cookie but I was afraid too much icing, and it being too hot would equal a disaster.  Meaning, it might go bad by the time it actually got to him, so I'll save those for when he actually gets home.



Ingredients:

*1 cup of all-purpose flour

*1/4 cup of cocoa powder

*1/2 tsp of baking powder

*1/2 tsp of baking soda

*1 dash of salt

*1 cup of sugar

*1 beaten egg

*1 tsp of vanilla extract

*5 Tbsp of melted butter

*1/2 cup of melted chocolate semi-sweet morsels

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Mix the sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and the beaten egg until creamy
4. Mix in creamy mixture from step 4 into the melted semi-sweet chocolate morsels
5. Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients little by little
6. Form into 1 inch round balls and place on a cookie sheet evenly spread apart
7. Bake in oven for 12 minutes or until done.
8. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Turkey Cookies

I wanted to send Chris a little taste of Thanksgiving while he's overseas, and since I can't very well send him a turkey and all the fixings that make for a turkey day dinner.

So after a little research (aka pinterest) I found a cookie that looked like these.

After making a few alterations of my own to make them last a little longer and send better, this is what I got.

Not my best work, since my icing bag and tips are in storage but they'll do. :)



Basically I started with a sugar cookie recipe from scratch...

Ingrediants

*1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
*1 cup butter or margarine, softened
*1 egg
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*1/2 tsp almond extract
*2 1/2 cups flour
*1 tsp baking soda
*1 tsp cream of tartar
Directions
*Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
* Add egg, vanill and almond extrat and beat until well mixed
* Add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar
* Roll into circular 1/2 balls
* Place in a preheated 375 oven and bake for 7 to 8 minutes



Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

While flipping through Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine last week, I stumbled across this super simple recipe.

I was putting together a care package for Chris and also a package of cookies to send to my brother and I thought these cookies looked  easy enough to bake in 20 minutes and sounded delicious enough that both men would enjoy them, so why not add them to both boxes.

And they were a hit!

So I'm going to share them with you :)

Ingredients

1 Cup peanut butter (I used Skippy all natural with honey PB)
I cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (i used chocolate chips instead)
Directions
*Beat first 4 ingredients in mixer.
*Stir in in chocolate chips.
*Drop round tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes
*Let cook on pans

Halloween Goodies

Since I made the awful mistake of packing all my beloved baking tools in boxes that are in storage,

I been having baking withdrawls.

I'm talking about almost 3 weeks without baking anything.

At all.

Oh my goodness.  Tragic.

Anyway, my mom and I went to Home Goods (L.OV.E.) on Saturday and I found this little treasure...

Isn't it just a little Halloween gem?

So, naturally I decided Chris needed brownies in the shape of skeletons to get him in the spooooky spirit.

Because it's not like he has anything better to do.

Like save the world.

While they didn't come out as beautiful as they would've if I'd had my tools, they're still pretty scary (aka cute) looking. If you ask me.

I also found some really cute halloweeny cookie cutters.

So he got these little gems in his package as well.

Adorable, I know.

But not as adorable as they could've been if I'd had my baking tools.

Sigh.

I made them with sugar cookies, for anyone who is wondering.

Butterfly Cake

I made this super cute cake for a coworkers little girl's birthday. 

The Cake Recipe:

Ingredients

• 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

Directions

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 the Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

**Will make about 3 Cups icing**

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening with an electric bowl.

2. Add vanilla.

3. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.

4.  When all of the sugar has been mixed in,  icing will appear dry.  Add milk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.

5. Keep bowl covered with damp colth until ready to use.

For The Decorations

*For the overall icing I used wilton icing color "Rose" and iced the entire cake.

* For the blue dots on the wings, i used a cut up airheard, and kind of  smushed it into little circles.  Then, I used wilton icicng color "teal" to form the little dots around the airhead dots.

* For the body of the butterfly, Iused wilton icing color "Copper" and tip number 21, made small little circles to get the shape the body.
* I used twizzlers for her antlers and spice drops to go around the body.

Dirt Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups oreo cookies

Directions

1. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, cream the white sugar, brown sugar, and the butter together until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Stir the crushed cookies into the dough. Cover, and chill the dough for 1/2 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

3. Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove to cool on wire racks.