Holiday Heads

Long overdue, but I wanted to post pictures of the holiday cookies I made for my coworkers this year. I dipped pretzels in white chocolate and added glitter sugar and holly sprinkles I found in the dollar section at Target. While the holly sprinkles were ADORABLE on the chocolate covered pretzels, they stained everyone's lips red! This definitely makes me rethink buying the cheap stuff...

While Pinteresting, I came across the cutest cookies by Bakerella. She had cut out circle gingerbread cookies and decorated them just as heads. I'm not a HUGE gingerbread fan because it gets really spicy, but I thought this would be really cute. I made circle sugar cookies also to make snowmen heads. These were incredibly time consuming and required lots of individualized TLC, but I was happy with the results. Here's the link to Bakerella's perfect holiday head cookies!

My not-so-perfect-but-just-as-cute-cookies are below!

- gingerbread and snowman heads -

- chocolate covered pretzels -

Happy Holidays!

Puppy Chow

I have been seeing lots of pins on Pinterest in regards to puppy chow (or muddy buddies if you prefer), so I bought a box of chex when I was @ Walmart. I've never made it myself before, but had some when coworkers would bring some in. Having all the ingredients that I need in my pantry already, I paid for my box of chex and went home to try the recipe on the back of the box (how convenient!). It was a bit of a messy project, but super quick and easy! Who can deny tiny, crunchy, chocolatey, peanut buttery goodness?? I can't stop popping these in my mouth!

9 cups of chex
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Melt chocolate, peanut butter, and butter in the microwave until smooth.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Pour over cereal and stir until evenly coated.
4. Put the cereal mix and the sugar into a ziploc bag and shake until well coated
5. Spread on a baking sheet to cool.
6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (or eat them all in one sitting).

Thanksgiving Pies

I had to bake desserts for Thanksgiving this year (BIG surprise!) and got right down to business beginning that Monday. I baked an apple pie, pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie. For the apple pie recipe, I tried googling "apple pie" and went with the first one that popped up. With over 1,000 reviews, I knew it had to be pretty good. It was stuffed with granny smith apples, and topped with a syrupy mixture that was poured all over the top to get a beautiful brown color. I used my handy pie tool that I got from a friend one Christmas to make the pretty lattice top!

- apple pie -

I'm not a huge fan of the jelly-consistency pumpkin pie recipe that is found on the side of the Libby's can, so I went with another brand recipe this year. I wanted the pie to be creamier and spicier, and the Eagle Brand pumpkin pie recipe was just that!

- pumpkin pie -

Pecan pie is the family favorite every single year. It doesn't even matter which recipe I use, because anyway I make it, my family will devour it up. I used the Food Network pecan pie recipe, but omitted the bourbon. Toasting the pecans before adding them to the pie really makes a noticeable difference in the final product!

- pecan pie -

I am extremely thankful for the close family and friends I am surrounded by! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Crepe Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with one of my besties, Joyce, for dinner and dessert. She made me drive all over the city, insisting that I have to try this particular cake! So we drove to Lady M Confections (their actual store front) only to find it closed... Boy, was Joyce upset! Thank goodness she remembered they had a location inside the Plaza Hotel! So after all the driving in circles we did, we finally got our hands on the Lady M Crepe Cake. It was so airy and fluffy, with the perfect amount of sweetness. At $7.50 a slice it's a splurge, but I have never had anything like it!

- chocolate banana and the original -

- look at all them layers -

Cake Truffles

I had some left over cake lying around from this weekend, and God knows I hate wasting cake, so I made some easy-peasy cake truffles! You just take some cake, crumble them up, mix in frosting, and shape into balls. I threw them in the freezer for a little bit so that they won't get all mushy when I dip them in chocolate. Could have popped them onto sticks to make cake pops, but that required another step so I stuck with the truffles. Still good!