Super Yummy Homemade Oreos

Although I don't allow myself to eat them very often nowadays... (alright, I just realized we're going on our Hawaii trip next week, and let's just say that my food choices haven't been as 'figure-friendly' as my tummy would like!) ...left to my own devices, I do believe I could polish off an entire package. My current fave would be the mint Oreos. Lookey here, I'm salivating as I type the word. Honestly, it's a problem. And that's why after I baked these bad boys I promptly gave them away; because I knew it wouldn't be long before I started stacking them in piles and eating away the whole batch one pile at a time. Ok, ok, so maybe I enjoyed one or two before giving them away.

If you're an Oreo fan, you've got to try these cookies. I was amazed at how much they tasted like the originals, albeit in a freshly baked, more sophisticated sort of way. The chocolate really shines through in the cookie portion, and even though I'm a huge fan of the filling in store-bought Oreos, I am a new-found fan of the homemade stuff.

Homemade Oreos

2 pkgs Devil's cake mix

4 eggs

2/3 C. canola oil

Frosting

8 oz. pkg cream cheese

1/2 C. butter

5 C. powder sugar

2 T vanilla

8 oz. cool whip

Combine the cake mixes, eggs, and oil together. Mix thoroughly. I rolled out my cookie dough onto a floured surface. You can go the simple route by scooping the dough into spoonfuled chunks and place them directly onto the cookie sheet. I didn't like how messy the oreos were because of the 'imperfect dome-y' cookies. Trust me, roll them out. They'll be so much prettier.

I used the rim of a glass to cut out proportional sized cookies. Use your noggin'. Get creative!

Place these beauties onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 minutes on 350 degrees.

While the cookies are baking, mix up the frosting. Cream together the cream cheese and butter. No chunks and no light substitutions over here! Add vanilla. Slowly stir in powdered sugar. Mix with the cool whip. Place a few tablespoons of frosting onto the ugliest cookies. Top with a cookie and lightly press down to seal it in place. Voila! Now enjoy your super yummy homemade oreos!

Sincerely, Little Bakin' Blonde

Cakes CAKES cakes!

I've been told time and time again that one of my weaknesses is my lack of self-confidence. It's not that I don't believe in myself, nor do I think I have limited potential in the things that I pursue. It's just that sometimes I fear the unknown, the pitfalls, the what ifs. Simply put, I am downright terrified of letting others down and having them think poorly of me, my talents, or my intentions. Naturally, it's often a battle for me to charge head first into something even if in my heart everything fits so perfectly together.

My good friend since forever got married! Sarabeth is such a doll. I have always deeply admired her and have received an unmeasured amount of spiritual inspiration from her. If you knew Sarabeth, you would too. And she is gorgeous. Through and through. I really just love her. 

Her tight wedding budget had been dancing around my mind and I knew she was getting her cake from Costco. And this simply should never be the case. Even with no cake decorating classes behind me, I asked her if I could do her wedding cake for her luncheon reception. As mentioned previously, it doesn't come naturally to charge head first into something that I have little, if any, experience with. I believe it was her sheer excitement that gave me the confidence that whatever I did, she would love it.

Base tier: Italian cream cheese cake with a coconut-cream cheese filling

 Middle tier: Raspberry cake with a cream cheese filling

 Top tier: Pineapple cake with a pineapple-cream cheese filling

She chose neutral colors which left me wanting to do a simple, classy, and romantic style. 

I decided to make her the cake less than a week before her wedding. 

And somehow, it all came together. Beautifully, I must add. 

I am just so darn proud of myself and the incredible support that my sweet Aaron is to me. I also appreciated the sweet pep calls and texts that my mom and bff would send my way. 

My heart is very tender towards those who believe in me.

I also made a tooth cake for a surprise congratulations party for Aaron getting accepted to Baylor. 

I used the same recipe for this chocolate-peanut butter tooth cake that I did with my Chocolate Reese's Mousse Cake

One of his little cousins read a short story to Aaron of The Crocodile's Toothache. 

How creative and cute is that?!

Congrats future DDS!

I like to continually think it's the simple things in my life, or in anybody's life, that always create the happiest and most memorable of moments--the moments you cherish for as long as you live, and the moments you reflect back on when you're needing a little inspiration or a reason to feel thankful for the incredible things that have blessed your personal journey in life. 

Yours truly,  Me

Dipped Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls

Me and my husband are cookie dough fanatics. In fact, when I make chocolate chip cookies, I always reserve some (okay, a lot) of the batter for us. Yes, I know raw eggs can be dangerous. Consider me a rebel. Good thing my micro professor taught me the slim chances of actually becoming ill with salmonella.

And. Oh. My. If you could take perfection, roll it in a ball, and dip it in chocolate, this would be it.

My apologies to the New Years’ resolution people. It may have crossed my mind to hold off a short while to post these, but I just couldn’t do it. Call it a little treat to yourself for doing so well up until this point. While one of these beauties won’t hurt, good luck practicing self-restraint when faced with a cookie sheet full of them. It’s not easy. What is easy is whipping them up. Which I encourage you to go do.

Dipped Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls

Makes approx. 3-4 dozen

2 1/2 C. flour

1 t. salt

1/4 t. baking soda

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 C. white sugar

3/4 C. brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/3 C. milk

1 C. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

14 oz dark chocolate 

In a mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour. I know. I know. Good things will come to those who wait.

When dough is firm enough to handle, it may help to lightly flour your hands, form dough into 1″ balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. 

Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week (though good luck making them last that long).

Happy Baking!

Yours truly, Little Bakin' Blonde

Thanksgiving

I realize this holiday post is well overdue. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving with the Crossley clan. I made a White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Pecan-Gingersnap crust. It was heavenly. The thought makes my mouth water. This was my third year to make it and I have no doubt the tradition will continue. I admit, this afterthought photo isn't the prettiest. But it's darn good!

We played plenty of games including a new favorite, Dominoes, and sat around the TV to enjoy some football team play a wild game.

Feeding the most sweetest baby girl while managing to hold off Grammy and other Aunt's and Uncle's. 

A sudden storm drowned the boys who tried to save Nannie's porch chairs from being blown into the lake.

The poor guys were unsuccessful :(

Happy Holidays!!

Yours truly, Me

Gorgeous Caramel Apples

Homemade Caramel:

1 C. Butter

1 C. Corn syrup

2 1/2 C. Brown sugar

1 Can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)

2 t. Vanilla

1/4 t. Salt

Decorations:

White chocolate

Sugar/cinnamon mixture

Milk chocolate

Heath candy bits

Nuts

Tips for rockin' caramel apples:

*Wash and scrub the waxy film off the apples before you begin. If you don't, the hot caramel will melt the nasty, waxy layer off and your caramel layer will drip off into a goopy mess. Baking soda works great. Scrub scrub scrub!
*You want cold apples! This will help the caramel to not slip off. Dry the apples really well and leave them in the fridge until your caramel is ready.

*This makes enough caramel to coat 6-8 large apples. I removed the stem from each apple and inserted lollipop sticks. You can even use a heavy bowl to hammer them if you've been completely slacking on your Pilates like I have.
Let's get dipping!
In a large saucepan, melt butter over med-high. Add syrup and sugar and stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil and then slowly add condensed milk while stirring.

Continue to stir while it thickens and darkens for 30 minutes. If you want to use a candy thermometer then you'll cook the caramel until it reaches the "firm ball" stage, which is 245-250 degrees F. I used a thermometer twice and ended up burning it twice. So, my appetite decided to not let me use the thermometer anymore. Essentially, the firm ball stage is reached when you can drop a piece of caramel into cold water, a firm ball forms.

Remove caramel from heat and stir in the vanilla. You'll want to have your apples and greased wax paper ready to go.

The fun part! Dip the apples at an angle and rotate in the hot caramel. Then, pull it up and use a knife and slide it under the apple to cut off the extra caramel. Believe me. There will still be a little pool of caramel on the bottom. Which is the best part of the apple once all is said and done!

Place the dipped apples onto greased wax paper. If you want to roll the mix-ins directly onto the caramel then this is the time to roll while it's still soft and warm! Or let the caramel set for an hour or so if you want to dip them into chocolate. 

This is such a fun activity to do with the family!

And the result? Wow. The caramel is heavenly. Double dipping is completely accepted here and heavily done, let me tell you. Paired with the sweet and tart apples?

You make my taste buds dance. 

Yours truly, Little Bakin' Blonde

Making A Girly Fondant Cake

Nearly 2 years ago I started to get this craving to make and decorate a fondant cake. The Food Channel was deadly for this craving and the new Cupcake Wars episodes didn't help either. But, let's face it, fondant is gross. I always peel it off at weddings and parties. Not to mention it's physical form of pasty diabetes due to the sugar overload you'll acquire if you are bold enough to swallow it with your cake. Yuk! So, I kicked Wilton's expensive trash and made a homemade marshmallow fondant. 

Of course, with the help of my super cute sou chef ; )

Since this was my first cake and I honestly didn't know what the heck I was doing, I only did a two-tiered cake. I decided on a red velvet cake for the base and a triple chocolate chip cake for the topper with both slathered with cream cheese filling. 

Mouth watering yet? Ummm mine sure is.

I crumb coated the cakes and put them in the freezer. I made the marshmallow fondant, rolled it out, and had then Aaron help me decide on what colors to do. For some reason, he didn't like my original teal/blue, black, and white color scheme. 

Can I just say that forming this fondant to the cake is NOT easy. At all.

But i did it! And i'm sure I strategically placed the cake in this position for a snapshot to cover any...imperfections. 

Phew! The hard part was over and now I could breathe and decorate.

I used a pizza cutter to get the stripes and bottle caps and glass rims to get the polka dots.

I was really happy with the outcome and how great it turned out! I'm realizing that I like to be alone in the kitchen when I bake. It was so hard to think clearly because there were tons of people, haha. I had one meltdown that i'll shamelessly admit to. Definitely a favorite hobby that i'll continue.

Yours truly, Little Bakin' Blonde

Crunchy-goo Cinnabun Popcorn

I adore cinnamon caramel popcorn. Not popcorn, but the combination of warm cinnamon-butter glazed over semi-crunchy-gooey popped popcorn is pure bliss. It takes me back to my childhood love for Crunch 'n Munch popcorn. Besides being easy to whip up, this popcorn compliments the divided parties among dessert-lovers. Some like it gooey and sticky. Some like it crunchy and dry. I learned this the hard way when I sold this deliciousness at a local pharmacy. I mean really? Who complains about objective preferences? After tweaking this a bit, I think this has the best of both worlds. 

I love to make this for the teachers that spoil Aaron daily with delicious Kolaches and croissants. He's sort of the young and determined celebrity teacher that reminds them of their own children. Cute, huh? I think it's darling and it makes me happy. 

So here's payback, grab your popcorn popper and kernels and let's get baking!

Crunchy-goo Cinnabun Popcorn
adapted from Ourbestbites

16 cups popped popcorn or 1/2 C kernels

1 1/3 C brown sugar

1 1/4 t cinnamon

3/4 C real butter

1/3 C karo syrup

3/4 t baking soda

1-2 t vanilla

1 C halved pecans

What's the worst thing while eating popcorn? Breaking your precious teeth on the tiny kernels you've forgotten to take out of your batch. Biggest understatement. Ever. I use two bowls--one bowl to catch the flying popcorn that's spewing from the popper and another large bowl to transfer the fresh, natural popcorn into. Set aside.

Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon in a 2 Qt microwaveable dish. Cut in butter. Top with karo syrup. 

Microwave for 1 minute. Stir with a large, rubber spatula (this won't crush your beautifully large popcorn pieces later on.) Microwave for another 2 minutes.  

You want it to be hot and bubbly. BUT, but.... don't overcook this. You may end up with a hard clump that won't drizzle nicely over your popcorn but your husband may be a little more optimistic by thinking it'll still be scrumptious as sugary globs and you'll then need to whip up another batch really quick and pour it over your popcorn. Don't over cook it. I'm just saying... 

Next, stir in vanilla and baking soda which will make it pop and bubble into a foamy-mess. Quite divine. This is also the part where you'll be tempted to lick the spatula. Don't. Not yet.

Sprinkle the nuts on top of the popcorn (don't mix in) and quickly pour the caramel mixture on top of the nuts and popcorn. Stir it all together and pour onto a foil-lined jelly roll pan.

Bake at 250 degrees for 20-25 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes.

When it's done, stir it again to cool off and remove the foil from the pan. Melt 2 squares of almond bark or 1/3 C white chocolate. Using a fork, flick the white chocolate onto the cooling popcorn. 

This is my favorite part! INDULGE. 

If your household is anything like mine then half of your batch has already been sampled and devoured.

(You can place it in the fridge if you need the chocolate to set quickly.)

These make gorgeous little gifts and they taste even better than store-bought gourmet popcorn!

And here you have it. Cinnamon caramel corn with pecans and white chocolate.

 Sincerely, Little Bakin' Blonde

Chocolate Reese's Mousse Cake

I know ya'll will hate me for this, but this decadent cake is worth EVERY calorie!!
Peanut butter and chocolate is our favorite dessert combination. Aaron only has 2 birthday wishes each year and one of them is a gourmet dessert. Last year for his 23rd birthday I made him a GIANT Peanut Butter Cup that was heavenly!

I'm thinking Reese's will be a long-standing tradition for his birthday cake(which happens to fall on the week after my birthday, Reese's coincidentally being my favorite candy EVER!) So what better excuse to make a cake as gorgeous as the chocolate mousse with bits of toffee cake from Our Best Bites? Thank goodness, I couldn't think of one either.
I've also been dying to try the grooms cake I had our Aunt Mitzi make for our wedding. She's a baker--a fabulous one I might add-- not a decorator! My wedding cake was a 5-tiered beauty. Until it sunk in and toppled over itself a few minutes before the reception. It was THAT heavy and rich : ) Ask anyone there, it was the best cake they had ever tasted! We took home a bunch of leftover the grooms chocolate cake with a divine cream cheese peanut butter filling. This little heaven on earth became our midnight snack for the first few months of our newlywed life. Jealous? You should be. As long as you're not a chocolate hater you'll love this knock-out cake!

Chocolate Reese's Mousse Cake

1 package Devils Food cake mix

1 large pkg miniture Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

1/2 pkg cream cheese (4 oz. No fat free substitutions here!)

1 C. smooth peanut butter

2 C. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 T. milk

1 1/2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 C. heavy cream

3 T. peanut butter

1 t. vanilla

1/3 C. light karo syrup

Let's bake!
Start off with pouring the cake batter in 2 8" or 9" round cake pans. Bake and then cool to room temperature.

While the cake's are cooling you can begin working on this easy mousse. Well, it's not really a mousse. This is a heavier filling. It compliments the moist and light cake very nicely. Next time I give this a go or the next good excuse I can reason up to I plan on using William's Sonoma's Classic Chocolate Cake recipe. It is a bit more time-consuming to make, but it is guaranteed to be a pleaser. I'll let you know how it compares.

Cream together the softened cream cheese and peanut butter. Stir in the vanilla and milk. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar until smooth. You can double the recipe if you want to make a 4 layered torte instead of a 2 layered cake. Slice the each cake once horizontally with a cake leveler or serrated knife and this will use more filling a ganache. It may be too thick and fall over but you may be more adventurous then I am and give it a try.

Heat heavy cream just until boiling. Remove from heat. Add semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter and allow to sit for a couple minutes. Stir until chocolate chips are completely melted. Add karo syrup and vanilla. It will thicken as it cools. I cooled my ganache for about an hour before pouring it on top of the cake.

You're ready to assemble your cake!
Carefully slice the dome-iest part of each cake layer off so the layers are level. Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread the entire peanut butter mousse on top of the layer. Sprinkle with chopped Reese's. Place the second cake layer on top of the Reese's chunks. Spoon ganache over the top layer, allowing it to drip down the sides. Sprinkle with additional Reese's chunks and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Happy baking y'all!

Sincerely, Little Bakin' Blonde

The Best Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!

Dear Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies,

I want to first off, apologize for judging a book by its cover. I am not a cookie fan. I never make cookies because frankly I haven't found a recipe that makes me want to ball up little chunks of dough so they can bake into perfectly plumps little disks. Cause, well how do I put this...they uhh never ever bake up into little plumps of anything. Aaron is the cookie baker in the fam. It's his breakfast if they're in the kitchen. I'm more of a cheesecake kind of gal; a chocolate ganache and moist cake kind of chick. I came across you on the pages of William-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking and I flipped right by you not giving you the time of day.

Yet something caught my eye. Your simplicity and ease. The very few ingredients required to make you. With the money I am trying to save and the little time I have on my hands, I thought maybe we could make this work. Maybe we could make it happen; me, you and the oven. And all I have to say is thank you. Thank you for allowing me to find my inner cookie-goddess. For teaching me how glorious all your chocolates taste when you dive into a plump and perfectly baked cookie. I hope we can meet again. Real soon. Like tomorrow maybe?

Sincerely, Little Bakin' Blonde

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c butter at room-temp. (unsalted)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 c bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 c milk chocolate chips
3/4 c white chocolate chips

Sift flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture, a little at a time until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto lined baking sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet 10 minutes and transfer to finish cooling on plate. 


Try to let them cool before enjoying; but who am I kidding? You'll dig in like we did : )