Apple Cobbler

Tags

apple cobbler, dessert, food, recipe

This recipe for apple cobbler comes to you from Food Network. I made it for Mother’s Day, and it turned out oh so delicious! I highly recommend it. It was easy, tasty, and well-liked! And I have just a few appley photos for you…

Look at that golden crust…

Songs For Sound

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cake, dessert, event, nashville, songs for sound

This weekend, I had the privilege to help out a local fundraiser by donating some of my baking skills. I made nearly 300 cake bites for Songs for Sound, at the Franklin Factory. Songs for Sound is a non-profit aimed at supporting cochlear implant awareness and resource availability.

The event was really great, with local musicians, great food, and plenty of drinks. Here’s a quick shot from my phone of the dessert display – I did not make cupcakes, but I would say my cake bites were a big hit!

And here are a few up close shots from before the event! I am currently working on a website, and cannot wait to share it with you all. But here are a few teasers for the time being…

A New Lens! {And Cake}

Tags

cake, dessert, food, photography, tasty tuesday

I did not make this cake:

My roomie Katy made it, and you can get her recipe here. But it so happened that we cut into it the VERY SAME DAY that I got my wonderful new camera lens, so this became my first subject. It’s a 50mm f/1.8 and it is beautiful and wonderful. Can you see the depth of field in these pictures or what?

I mean…I just cannot wait to use it more!!

And here is the cake that I made for Easter, before I had my new lens to take pictures of it…

Cookie Dough Dip {The Healthy Kind}

Tags

dessert, food, health, recipe, tasty tuesday

Well, I’ve attempted Chocolate Covered Katie’s cookie dough dip recipe. And what’s it made of? Oh that’s right…chickpeas. Now don’t get me wrong…I didn’t make it exactly “low-cal,” but I do like to think it’s a lot lower cal than eating real cookie dough. I followed Katie’s recipe – I used natural peanut butter, real brown sugar (yes, the full amount), and even a smidgen more than 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. And it was delicious. And it was worth it. I have to say, I’m impressed by the texture and the flavor. If I brought this to a party, and you ate it, you wouldn’t even think about it. I promise.

So really, scoot on over there and try it! This concoction was very sweet, and I think next time I could even go with a lot less sugar. But it was SO GOOD! Seriously…try it.

Guilt-Free Brownies {Trader Joe’s}

Tags

chocolate, dessert, food, tasty tuesday, trader joes

This weekend, I finally made the box-mix brownies that have been living in my pantry. When I saw this fat-free chocolate promise at the store, I had to try it. And I’m so glad I did! I highly recommend these brownies – you’ll notice there are no pictures of the final product because they disappeared so quickly both with my boyfriend and in my tummy. So next time you’re at TJ’s, pick these suckers up!

Valentine Chocolate Scones

Tags

brunch, chocolate, coffee, dessert, recipe, scone, tasty tuesday, valentine

Happy Love Day, people!

I must admit – I love heart shaped things, and so when I had an itch to bake some scones this weekend, I chose to break out the heart cookie cutter rather than cut them into typical boring triangles. That said, I bring you chocolate scones…in the shape of hearts.

This recipe comes from Sharon O’Conner, found in this sweet little box of recipes my mom gave me a while back. I considered tossing in some dried cherries for Vday, but ultimately decided to keep it simple. If you don’t already know this, scones are absolutely one of my favorite treats. It’s something about how they are slightly dry, yet chewy and smooth.

And so, here you are: Chocolate Scones

Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 c. heavy cream or half and half
1 t. vanilla extract
1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg, cream, and vanilla together until blended; set aside.

In a larger bowl, stir the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combines. Using your fingers (or a pastry blender or knives), combine the butter with the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.

Add the flour mixture to the cream mixture and stir until the dough just comes together; do not overmix. I like to use my hands to combine the last final bit.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 1/2-inch-thick round; cut into 8 wedges OR use a cookie cutter and get creative

Transfer cones to a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes (this will depend on how big your scones are), or until firm on the edges and a little soft in the center.

YUM!

Santa Hat Cake Balls

Tags

cake balls, christmas, dessert, food, recipe, santa hat, santa hat cake ball

Oh yes. They are delicious. They are festive.

And they were a little difficult.

In spite of a few sloppy santa hats though, this was a fun little project. Do you remember those good ol’ cake balls? Well, that’s all this is! Here’s the process in a nut shell:

1. Bake a cake (I recommend any chocolate box cake).

2. Let the cake cool completely, then crumble and mix with almost an entire container of icing (again…I vote for chocolate).

3. Chill the mixture for a little while, then form into little cone shapes. Chill the cones.

4. Heat white candy melts in the microwave until melted and dip the bottoms. Chill until hard. Then, repeat the process with red melts, dipping the tops of the hats in. Let them chill again.

5. Re-melt your white candy coating and apply a generous little coat around the bottom, making any repairs you need to make after dipping in red (I had all sorts of smudges and accidental drizzles). Throughout the process, I added some red/white sanding sugar for a little extra sparkle.

6. Finally, add your cotton ball top. You can really use any white candy, like chocolate coated espresso beans. I had some white fondant in my cabinet, so I made little balls and used the candy coating as glue.

And then, you’re done! Wrap them up in little bags for your coworkers…

Or just break ‘em open!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Tags

baking, chocolate, cookies, dessert, food, peanut butter, recpie, tasty tuesday

Senior year of college, our suite-mate Sam made THE most killer peanut butter blossom cookies (Sam, give a shout out if you’re reading this). She was kind enough to share her recipe with us, and from time to time I love to pull out this classic cookie favorite. Please enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. margarine (I used butter and they turned out just fine)
1/2 c. peanut butter
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
Hershey’s kisses* (I recommend dark chocolate)

*The recipe calls for 48, but when I made them I ended up with about 28 cookies. I suppose it depends on how big you make them!

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients together (except hershey’s kisses) until your dough is combined and smooth. Scoop the dough into rounded spoonfuls and roll the ball in some regular sugar. Place the sugar-coated dough balls on your cookie sheets a few inches apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Right when they come out of the oven, push one hershey’s kiss into the middle of each cookie. Move to cooling rack and let cool completely.

ENJOY!!

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Tags

dessert, donuts, food, pumpkin, recipe, tasty tuesday

Miss Katy found this recipe on pinterest a few weeks ago, so this weekend I decided to try it! Let me just say….DELCIOUS! A great way to use all that pumpkin you stocked up on when you thought there was going to be a shortage…

Homemade Banana Cake and Whipped Cream

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banana cake, cake, dessert, food, recipe, tasty tuesday, whipped cream

While at Julia’s over the weekend, we whipped up a little banana cake and homemade whipped cream. Did you know how easy it is to make whipped cream? I had no idea. All you do is whip whipping cream, literally. Just add in a little powdered sugar and vanilla (and maybe cinnamon) and that’s it! Oh the things you learn.

We also made a banana cake, recipe provided by her hubby’s family. She gave me permission to share it, so here you go!

Banana Cake

Ingredients
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp. sour cream mashed with 2 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour
dash salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar; mix in eggs and vanilla.

2. In a small bowl, mash bananas and add in sour cream; mix well.

3. In another bowl, mix dry ingredients.

4. Alternate adding your dry ingredients and your banana mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Go slow!

5. Fold in nuts.

6. Grease and flower 8×8 baking pan; pour in mixture. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Enjoy!