Raspberry Fool

Pressed for time but want to make an impression? Make a Fool! Not of yourself, of course, but with a delectable creamy dessert! I was planning the menu for my families Mother's day celebration and just was NOT feeling confident in my ability to do all of the cooking as well as dessert. I don't like to make people wait for their food and that's why this dessert is perfect for anyone who is in a pinch for time or just doesn't want the hassle of using an oven. 

This fool recipe IS NOT MINE. It is based off Ree Drummond's (The Pioneer Woman) fool recipe. The other two desserts pictured are a banana creme pie parfait and a cookies and creme parfait. Recipe is not given for those two in this post because they are simply crushed cookie, pudding mix, and whipped cream layered on top of each other.  

Tools:

• Mixing Bowl
• Wooden Spoon
• Mixer (stand or hand held)
• Gallon Freezer Bags
• Rolling Pin (optional)
• Sieve 
• Regular Bowl
• Fork
• Measuring cups/spoons

Raspberry Fool Ingredients: 

• 2 C. of Raspberries (frozen is fine if fresh is unavailable)(set 6 berries aside for decoration)
• 1/4 C. granulated sugar
• 3tbs. Raspberry liqueur (optional)
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 1/4 c. powdered sugar
• 12 Nilla Wafer cookies
• fresh mint (to decorate with)

Add the raspberries to a bowl and sprinkle the granulated sugar and liqueur (if you chose to add it) and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, add the heavy cream and sugar to the bowl and whip (use an electric mixer)  until soft peaks form. This can take a few minutes depending on the temperature of the room you are in. the cooler the better. When your raspberries have sat for 10 minutes mash them with a fork until they are all almost completely broken down. A few chunks here and there is fine. Now FOLD it into the whipped cream in the bowl. You want to keep those pretty red streaks so two or three full folds should be fine. Scoop berries and cream into cup, bowl, whatever you choose to serve in, and crumble two Nilla wafers on top. Top with a berry and garnish with a mint sprig.

 Tada! all finished.

Makes about 6 servings

Confetti Cake Cookies

Confetti cake is my fiance's favorite baked treat. I could make him anything in the world (or try to anyway) but he will always prefer his beloved confetti cake. Needless to say that makes these cookies an instant hit with him. The same great flavor without the hassle of using a fork!!

Tools:

• Mixing bowl
• Mixing spoon 
• Whisk
• Cookie dough scoop (regular soup spoon will work as well) 
• parchment paper (optional)
• Cookie sheet

Ingredients

• White cake mix (you can use confetti cake mix if desired)
• 1/3 C. oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp baking powder
• 2eggs
• 5 tbs Sprinkles of your choice

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• whisk oil, eggs, and vanilla together  in bowl until combined
• add cake mix and baking powder to egg mixture until combined
• add sprinkles and fold them into the batter.
• place parchment paper on top of baking sheet (if you don't have wax paper grease pan liberally)

Consistency of dough will be thick and sticky! Use scoop or spoon to put approximately eight 1inch balls of dough onto the pan. Make sure there is plenty of space around each ball of dough, these cookies spread!!!

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes. DO NOT LET THEM GET BROWN! For once, golden brown is not  a good thing. 

When finished the cookies will appear white-ish and slightly sponge-like, they might even look a little wet. That is okay. They will flatten and firm up a little after sitting on the pan for 3-5 minutes. 

Remove them from the pan after letting them sit for the 3-5 minutes and allow them to finish cooling on the cooling rack. 

Yield: 16 cookies. 

Donut Decorator

How cute are these!! I definitely don't miss working for Dunkin Donuts but I do miss the opportunities to custom design holiday donuts!

The Devil's Roses

These cups of delicious awesomeness are one of my absolute favorite creations. Inspired by a good friend of mine while I was in a pinch and didn't know what to get her for her birthday. Rich chocolaty brownie cups filled with a savory cream center, garnished with strategically placed slices of strawberries to resemble a rose, and then dusted with powdered sugar.

Tools:

•  Two Mixing Bowls
• Cutting Board
• Cupcake Tin
• Cupcake Corer (optional)
• Knife
• Cutting Board
• Whisk
• Mixer (optional, I prefer to use my KitchenAid but mixing by hand is fine)
• Spoon

Ingredients and Preparation:

Brownie Cups

• Brownie Mix (Boxed is fine or you can make a batch from scratch)

Preheat the oven and prepare the mix as the box or recipe indicates! Most box mixes require corn/canola oil as well as eggs and water. If you are using a recipe (either your own or online) make sure to purchase/acquire ingredients that you need as I cannot list them for you due to the fact that I don't necessarily know which recipe you are using. 

Grease the cupcake tin liberally, do not line them with cupcake papers! They are not needed. 

Pour the batter into the tins until they are all half way filled or until you run out of batter.

Bake for the amount of time indicated on box or recipe.

When baked thoroughly let brownies sit in the tin for five minutes  and then remove from tin. Be careful as they will still be hot. After removing the brownies set them  aside and allow them to cool completely. 

While they cool you can prepare the filling, unless you did that already while the brownies cooked. 

Filling

• 2 cups of Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup softened cream cheese
• 1tsp of vanilla extract
• 4 tbs of Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur (optional) 

Whip the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until fluffy. Then fold in the brown sugar, liqueur, and cream cheese into the whipped mixture and continue to fold until combined. The mixture should resemble custard! Again, the booze is completely optional and can be left out if desired. Put in fridge while you prepare the roses. 

Strawberry Roses

• Carton of strawberries
• Powdered Sugar

Slice the top (green leafy part) off of the berry and throw away. Slice berries into thin slices. NOT paper thin, thin enough to be folded but thick enough to not break. Approximately 1 cm thick. The slices should be all different sizes. Take each slice (try to select the most circular slices) and cut them down the middle so you have two semi circles. Set halved slices to the side. 

Assembly

• Spoon out (use a cupcake corer if you have one)  and hollow each brownie cup. Be gentle! It can get messy! But you can feel free to eat the middle. Treat yo' self, honey ;) 
• After the center of the brownie is hollow spoon the filling into the void. Do not over flow! leave just a smidgen of space on the top for to arrange your flowers. 
• Working your way outward from the center place your "rose petals" (strawberry slices) in a layered spiral. Start with the smaller strawberries and use bigger ones as you work toward the edges. You can get crafty and play with this step, make it your own. 
• After your roses are places sprinkle powdered sugar over the top

Notes

These are very heavy! I really like how indulgent they are but if you are looking for a lighter treat go ahead and use hollowed out cupcakes instead of brownies and if you want a fluffier filling you can feel free to leave out the cream cheese. 

Voila! 

Bunny Buddies!

Just in time for Easter!!!! These adorable cupcakes are quick and totally easy!!

Tools:

• Piping bag and tip (I used Wilton M but you can use what you want)
• Kitchen sheers
• Small Plate (to put your bunny ears on)
• 2 Bowls (1 for sprinkles the other to whip frosting in, size accordingly) 
• Beater 
• Spoon

Ingredients: 

• Cupcakes (of your choice)
• Frosting (of your choice) 
• Sprinkles (of your choice)
• Marshmallows
• Edible Pearls (I found mine for $1.50 at Wal*Mart in the baking aisle) 

   There is no standard cupcake recipe for these little guys so go ahead and make which ever ones you are most comfortable with whether that be from a box or from scratch.

While your cupcakes are cooling is when most of the work is done, like whipping frosting. It doesn't matter if you get your from a tub make sure you scoop it into a bowl and run a beater through it for a few minutes. This not only aerates your frosting, making it go a little farther, but fluffs it.  Because bunnies are poofy your frosting needs to be as well. When your frosting is fluffed go ahead and let it sit there in the bowl while you make your bunny ears. 

   Bunny ears are made by cutting a full-sized marshmallow in half with your kitchen sheers and then dipping the sticky side into sprinkles of your choice, now set them aside for a bit. (That was clearly very difficult ;p  ) 

   Load your aerated frosting into a piping bag with a Wilton 'M' tip. (Feel free to experiment with various different tips to get different fur textures.) now pipe the frosting on your cooled cupcakes starting at the base and pulling up to get the peaks in your frosting. Do this until the cupcake is covered. 

   Go ahead and pick two ears and place them on the cupcake and then  pick whatever colored edible pearls you would like to make the bunny eyes and nose and place them accordingly.
 
   You now have an adorable edible bunny sitting before you that is perfect for just you or impressive to bring to any event. Make sure to make the ears and put them on the day that they will be served, if left out over night the ears will get hard and chewy.

S'more What?

      These little lovelies were a pass/fail experience and I managed to hit the 50% mark. Inspired by a scene from the movie "The Sandlot" that I will post after finishing this entry. I had originally set out to find a way to form the chocolate into hollow balls and then fill them with graham cracker bits and marshmallow.... That didn't work so well. So instead I used the outside of water balloons to form shells and filled them. They tasted good but I didn't get the look I had anticipated. 

       I used two different sets of ingredients to experiment with these "S'more What's". The first being chocolate chips for the shell and 'Mallow Fluff for the filling. The crackers I used were the same for both trial runs, just your generic run of the mill graham crackers. My boyfriend (who happens to be my official taste tester) said that these were the best tasting out of the two. I happen to disagree.

Although the generic ingredients held together better I personally preferred the second batch. 

    Batch number two was made of traditional Hershey's chocolate, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, and again the same graham crackers as trial one. As previously stated I thought these superior over the first batch. I loved the melt in your mouth effect that Hershey's have and the actual homemade marshmallow goo over the jarred fluff. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlddDZkkxCc

Yield: 8 S'more what?'s

Prep time: 20 min

Set time: 30 min

Total: About an hour

 Tools you will need: 

• water balloons (because they're smaller)
• Two pots for the stove (not very large ones )
• Two mixing spoons (wooden) 
• A cupcake pan (I used a mini cupcake pan but a regular sized cupcake pan should be okay. I do not recommend using a muffin pan.)
• Piping bag (any tip will suffice)
• Chefs Blowtorch or lighter. (i recommend torch but I totally used a lighter... it was hard.)
• 2 smaller bowls 
• A plate
• Pastry Brush
• Scissors

Ingredients: (I will list supplies for both trials 1&2, feel free to mix, match and try what you think would give the best result!)

Trial 1

• 1/2 bag of Generic Chocolate Chips (I got mine from Wal*Mart but I'm sure any brand would be fine!)
• 1 Tub of Marshmallow Fluff (I used Wal*Mart's Marshmallow Creme ((because it was $1)))
• 1 1/2 C. of crushed graham cracker bits (I used Honey Maid but any brand is fine)
• 3 TBS of Honey (any brand)
• Pam
• 1/2 TBS of Shortening 

Trial 2

• 6 regular sized Hershey bars (the kind you see while waiting to check out at the convenience store) break the bar up into the small rectangles.
• 1/2 bag of Jet-Puff Marshmallows
• 1 1/2 C. of crushed graham cracker bits  (I used Honey Maid but any brand is fine)
• 3 TBS of Honey (any brand is fine)
• Pam 
• Shortening
• 1/2 TBS Butter

Preparation: 

    On your stove top place one of your pots and turn the heat setting to low. Now place either your chocolate chips or Hershey's pieces into the pot along with your shortening stirring occasionally until all the lumps are gone. This will take a few minutes so go ahead and blow up ten balloons (not all the way, just enough to make them round-ish) and then rinse them off. Next (after they dry a little) spray the balloons lightly with Pam. When the chocolate is completely melted (but not too hot! remember the stove needs to be on low because the chocolate WILL burn.) Dip the round bottom of the balloon into the chocolate until it appears to form a bowl. set the balloon tie-side down into the cupcake pan to set. It can be tricky to make sure that the balloon doesn't tip the wrong way and get stuck on the side, there is no way to fix this, just keep trying. Once all are dipped go ahead and let them sit there for 15 minutes on the counter and then dip them a second time. After dipping them a second time replace them back into the pan and then put the pan in the freezer for another 15 minutes or until whenever you are ready to take them out.

     While the chocolate is in the freezer go ahead and crush your graham crackers and put them in a bowl (don't make them into complete dust, just small crumbs and crumbles). Now in a separate bowl/dish put your honey so its ready when you need it.


Even if its been past 15 minutes go ahead and leave your choclate in the freezer while you do the next step. Bring out the second pot ( if you are using the fluff from a jar you don't need to do anything with the second pot) and place it on the stove on low. Place the butter  in the pan and when it melts go ahead and the marshmallows. Keep stirring until the marshmallows are smooth. Now if you are following trial one you don't need to melt your marshmallow fluff/ceme' on the stove because it's already pastry bag ready. When your melted marshmallows are done spoon some into your pastry bag, do the same if you are using the fluff/creme'.  This can be sticky and messy but that's okay.

Now you are going to close the end of the piping bag with a rubber band (just wrap it around a few times) and set you piping bag on your plate. Go to the freezer and grab your mini chocolate bowls. Using the scissors cut at the base of the tie that should be on the top of your chocolate bowls and gently peel the balloon away. I had you make extra just in case one or two break. If not then that's awesome!!!  Now quickly dip your pastry brush in the honey and spread a thin layer inside the chocolate and then immediately fill it with graham cracker bits. But be gentle, the bowls are fragile.  Now dump most of it out but you will notice that a lot of it will stick and that's a fabulous thing. Now pick that piping bag back up and pipe some marshmallow (either melted/fluff or cream its all the same here on out) in the chocolate bowl until it is full. Keep doing this until all the little bowls you have are filled with s'more-y goodness.

Last but not least you can toast the tops, just be careful not to melt the chocolate. You can actually use a lighter it just takes awhile. (A chef torch is much preferred) Just toast until the tops are a golden brown. 

Eat and Enjoy!!!!!

Sugar Free, Gluten Free, GUILT FREE!!

Paleo Chocolate Olive Oil Cupcakes!

I have a dear friend who has a very strict diet. She doesn't eat any gluten, dairy, red meat, or unnatural sugars. With very few exceptions to this life-style it can be hard to find treats we can both enjoy ( I like butter, and sugar, and more butter... she doesn't ;p ) These cupcakes are based off a recipe I found online one day while trying to decide what to make one day in honor of her visit. I was so worried that she wouldn't like them but she absolutely LOVED them (otherwise I probably wouldn't be sharing this with you). This friend is very picky so when she ate, I kid you not, EVERY ONE of them throughout the course of the night I couldn't help but smile about it.

The recipe is very simple but I was a total ninny and forgot to add the eggs to my batch, amazingly enough they still turned out fine. I think the eggs would have given them more of  that velvety texture that no cupcake should go without. But, otherwise, this recipe was trifle free.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs cocoa powder
2 Tbs coconut flour
1 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
3 Tbs honey
1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs olive oil
( I added a few drops of imitation raspberry extract that I found in my cabinet to give the cake some extra flavor)

Icing:
1 Tbs  melted coconut oil
1 Tbs cocoa powder
1 Tbs honey




The recipe told me to set my oven to 160 degrees Celsius which converts to about 223 degrees Fahrenheit. My oven does not have this setting so what I did is set my oven on the lowest setting and then watched the cupcakes very carefully!

However, first things first, combine all dry ingredients and then one by one add in the wet ingredients (eggs, honey, vanilla, and olive oil) and then mix thoroughly until it's smooth.

The batter yields very little to work with  so I tripled the recipe and then used mini cupcake tins and a mini cupcake pan.

The bake time is 20-25 minutes but like I stated earlier my oven was quite a bit hotter so my cupcakes took significantly less time to bake.

Like when working with any frosting you must allow the cake to cool completely before icing.

The icing consistency can very if you would like it too. To make it thicker add more coco (with some honey to sweeten it)  Add a little more coconut oil to thin. This homemade frosting takes a bit to thicken so make sure you give it time to set!

These cupcakes taste wonderful and natural however I thought they needed a little bit more sweetener so I added the raspberry topper to give it a little zing! Also, to compliment the extract in the cakes.


Some ingredients can get pricey so I recommend taking advantage of stores like Aldi where organic honey, coco powder, eggs, raspberries, vanilla, baking powder, cinnamon, and olive oil can all be found.

Raspberry extract and all natural flour can be found at your local Target :) I honestly thought that the coconut flour was WAY to expensive. So I used gluten free Bob's Red Mill flour because I don't believe in paying $40 for something that wont be paired with butter ;)






Source: http://www.siascookingblog.com/2013/10/chocolate-olive-oil-cupcakes.html