Peanut Buster Parfait Bars

Submitted by Hannah

I think I have been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. I have made a lot of recipes that we ate as kids and this happens to be one of my favorites probably because it has ice cream in it. Who needs the Dairy Queen when you can whip this up at home. My Grandma Kolberg always had this for us on a hot summer day when all you wanted was something cold. With an oreo crust, vanilla ice cream, peanuts and a chocolate sauce that could be served on cardboard and still taste fantastic, I think this could become one of your favorites also.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened

15 ounces of Oreo cookies, crushed until fine like graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

peanuts

chocolate sauce (recipe below)

Chocolate sauce:

2/3 cup chocolate chips

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla

Boil all ingredients for 8 minutes in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Let it cool completly before putting on ice cream.

Directions:

Mix the crushed oreos with the butter. Spread and pat firmly in the bottom of a 9x13 pan and freeze. When firm, put a layer of peanuts over the cookies. Spread softened ice cream on top of the peanuts. I also put peanuts on top of the ice cream and then freeze until firm. When the ice cream is frozen, spread the chocolate sauce over the ice cream and put back in the freezer. Once the chocolate sauce has set on top you are ready to eat.

Mini Perfect Party Cake Cupcakes

Submitted by Hannah

The other day my son Nicholas and I were so excited to have a beautiful day in Minnesota after such a long harsh winter that we decided to bake a treat for our neighbors. We decided to make mini cupcakes using one of my favorite frosting recipes and we tried a new cake recipe that turned out to be delicious. These pretty and tasty little treats were the perfect way to say hello to the neighbors after hibernating for six months (and I'm not even kidding on how long we have been couped up, so sad). I found that this frosting recipe happens to be good on everything I have tried it with. I have gotten many compliments on it and have been asked for the recipe many times. The cake recipe will definitely be a cake I would make again and it is just a delicious white cake with just a hint of lemon flavor. I happen to love cake so when I find a good recipe that is the perfect combination of flavor and texture I get excited. I chose to make these into mini cupcakes and cook them a shorter amount of time as the recipe calls for it to be a traditional cake.

Perfect Party Cake

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 ½ cups sugar

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ tsp. lemon extract (I omitted this)

Directions: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment paper. Dust both pans with flour, shaking out the excess. Set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Mix them with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter to the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon extract. Add one third of the flour mixture, continuing to beat on medium speed. Beat in half of the egg mixture, then half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans and smooth tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well-risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted in the centers should come out clean. ( For the cupcakes I only cooked them about 12-14 minutes.)

Not Too Sweet Frosting

Here is the frosting recipe:

1 Cup Milk

5 Tablespoons Flour

1/2 Cup Butter, softened ( You can use all butter in this recipe and omit the shortening if you would like)

1/2 Cup Shortening

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Whisk flour and milk together in medium saucepan over medium heat until thickened. Pour into shallow dish, cover with plastic wrap and let cool (I put mine in the refrigerator for a couple of hours). Beat butter and shortening together for 4 minutes. Gradually add sugar to the butter mixture. Beat an additional 4 minutes. Slowly add the cooled flour paste to the butter mixture and beat an additional 4 minutes. Add vanilla and beat well.

Cake Source: Annie's Eats

Frosting Source: The Fat Bottomed Girl

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Submitted by Heather

Have you ever had Red Velvet Cupcakes? You should try this recipe, whether you have or have not.  They're hard to describe, except to say that they're delicious. They have a tiny bit of cocoa, but they're not supposed to taste like chocolate, so don't expect it. They're a little tangy, though that doesn't sound quite right either. They're just good, so try them.

As crazy as it may sound, I never had a red velvet cake until about 2 years ago. I'd never heard of it before and wasn't really sold once I tasted it.  Maybe that was because it was store bought.  Since then, I've had a few more chances to taste red velvet cake and have definitely become a fan. Just a bit of advice -  stay away from the red velvet cake mix.  It's no where near as good as homemade and actually tastes kind of strange.

So, on to the recipe. I got this from a great food blog called annies-eats.com. She has lots of great recipes, but I particularly liked that this recipe had been tested against at least 4 other red velvet cupcake recipes to see which was the best (this one).  I also posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog, Recipe Shoebox, after she very kindly asked me to do a guest post around Christmastime.  Check out her blog - she's got some wonderful recipes.  After you make these cupcakes, give most of them away so you don't eat them all. They have a lovely, unique flavor that's hard to resist!

**Before we had this little blog, I guest posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog - Recipe Shoebox.  I put a lot more pictures of the steps on that post, so go check it out if you'd like to see more process steps. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring*

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting (you may want to double this):

8 oz. cream cheese

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.  It's important to sift, since I've found that cocoa sometimes doesn't break up with a whisk and you're left with little brown chunks in your batter.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. My favorite way is to put the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star or circle tip.  It gives it a fancy look.

*If you're using gel food coloring, you're going to just have to eyeball the quantity.  I would suggest, though, that you mix the gel coloring in a small bowl with some of the batter, so that you don't get any gel chunks in your batter.  Not that that happened to me or anything.

Recipe Source:  Annie’s Eats

S'more Brownies

These look so fun! I haven't eaten one yet. Tonight for Young Womens we are planning a "High Adventure" camp out with the girls. We wanted to have some sort of "camp" inspired treat while we plan.... what is better at camp than smores? Not much. So, here it is. (if I taste it and it is not all it promises to be, then you won't see this post for long! I will remove it) I found this recipe on the Food Network Website. http://www.foodnetwork.com/

**(update...OH YUM! I had one last night and it was amazing)**

Crust:

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

Brownie:

8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick)

4 ounces unsweeteened chocolate, chopped

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp fine salt

4 large cold eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

Topping:

4 cups large marshmallows

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line as 8 x 8 square pan with foil or parchment paper, overhanging the edges about 1 inch.

For the crust: Lightly butter the foil. Stir the butter together with the crumbs, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the brownie. Put the butter and chocolate in a medium microwave safe bowl. Melt in microwave on 75% power for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave again until completely melted, about 2 more minutes. Stir in the sugars, vanilla and salt into the melted chocolatge.

Add the eggs and beat vigorously to make a thick and glossy batter.

Add the flour and stir until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean, with a few crumbs, about 40 to 45 min.

Remove from the oven, carefully position the rack about 6 inches from the broiler and preheat on low. Layer the marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden. (I cut the large marshmallows in half and put them on top...it was so tall already!)

Watch it closely!

Cool on rack, gently remove the brownies from the pan using the flaps of foil/parchment paper. Carefully separate any marshmallow from the foil and fold away. Cut into 12 squares.

**Tip: 1) I cooked these longer than it called for by about 15 min. It was still not done in the center. The toothpick was still wet..ish and I thought maybe it would firm up when cooled. nope. So make sure your toothpick is pretty much clean.

2) Cutting them was an experience. The marshmallows are beyond sticky. I finally sprayed my knife with cooking spray and the helped some. Make sure they are pretty cool and I think that will also help. ENJOY

Cinnamon Rolls

Submitted by Melanie

My kids sat at the oven waiting the whole time while these were baking. They are so yummy, you can't just eat one!

Ingredients

• 1 quart Whole Milk (I used skim milk to save on calories)
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 packages Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 Ounce Packets
• 8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
• Plenty Of Melted Butter
• 2 cups Sugar ( I used brown sugar)
• Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

Cream cheese frosting

• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it. Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.

Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes. For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting. I sometimes double the recipe. Note: My rolls don’t work for me at 400 degrees anymore. I now bake them at 375 degrees.

Source for cinnamon rolls thepioneerwoman.com

Source for Cream Cheese frosting Allrecipes.com