Tag: Desserts

Easy Ice Box Cake with Berries & White Chocolate Drizzle

This easy no bake dessert recipe is PERFECT year round, but you will especially love this easy ice box cake as a great summer no bake treat! This easy ice box dessert has layers of tasty pudding, berries and graham crackers and is a quick and easy dessert that anyone can make! This recipe is simple enough, even your kids can make it.

Texas is currently experiencing record breaking temperatures. It’s HOT, it’s humid and honestly if you aren’t in a pool, you have no business being outside. People have posted pictures of tar in parking lots actually MELTING and bubbling.

Yuck.

I have been using my Instant Pot and Slow Cooker a LOT to avoid heating up the house with the oven. This easy ice box cake requires NO heat whatsoever and comes together really quickly. Plus, it’s a nice cold treat. Make this for your family or bring this to your next summer poolside potluck!

FYI, I used strawberries and blueberries for this easy ice box cake this time. However, my family prefers this with strawberries, raspberries & blackberries. I just knew I was going to photograph it this time, and thought the strawberry/blueberry combo would be prettier 😉 . All that to say, what fruit you use is up to you!

Easy Ice Box Cake with Berries & (Optional) White Chocolate Drizzle

Inspired By Cakes Cottage

Ingredients: 

  • 1 pack of Vanilla Pudding (3.4 oz)
  • 6 oz of whipped cream or Cool Whip
  • 1 1/4 cup cold milk
  • 4 oz cream cheese (softened)
  • Graham Crackers (I use about one sleeve)
  • 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
  • 3/4 cup blueberries
  • (optional) Melt White Chocolate Chips to drizzle on the top

Directions: 

  1. In your mixing bowl or stand mixer (I have a KitchenAid…I love it and could not live without it!) whip up your softened cream cheese and dry pudding mix
  2. Next beat in your milk about a 1/4 cup at a time.
  3. Fold in 4 oz of your whipped cream (you’ll save a small amount of it to layer the bottom of your loaf pan) until well combined
  4. Grab a glass loaf pan (I like to use the glass loaf pan so you can see the layers!) and spread the rest of your whipped cream on the bottom.
  5. Put a single layer of graham crackers on top of the whipped cream, breaking crackers where necessary to get the most coverage.
  6. Next spread 1/3 of the pudding mixture on top of the graham crackers.
  7. Top with 1/3 of the berries
  8. Repeat the graham cracker/pudding/fruit layers two more times (for a total of 3 layers).
  9. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours (the graham crackers will soften).
  10. Drizzle your white chocolate on top and then serve!
Easy Ice Box Cake with Berries & White Chocolate Drizzle
Ingredients
  • 1 pack of Vanilla Pudding (3.4 oz)
  • 6 oz of whipped cream or Cool Whip
  • 1 1/4 cup cold milk
  • 4 oz cream cheese (softened)
  • Graham Crackers (I use about one sleeve)
  • 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
  • 3/4 cup blueberries
  • (optional) Melt White Chocolate Chips to drizzle on the top
Instructions
  1. In your mixing bowl or stand mixer (I have a KitchenAid…I love it and could not live without it!) whip up your softened cream cheese and dry pudding mix
  2. Next beat in your milk about a 1/4 cup at a time.
  3. Fold in 4 oz of your whipped cream (you’ll save a small amount of it to layer the bottom of your loaf pan) until well combined
  4. Grab a glass loaf pan (I like to use the glass loaf pan so you can see the layers!) and spread the rest of your whipped cream on the bottom.
  5. Put a single layer of graham crackers on top of the whipped cream, breaking crackers where necessary to get the most coverage.
  6. Next spread 1/3 of the pudding mixture on top of the graham crackers.
  7. Top with 1/3 of the berries
  8. Repeat the graham cracker/pudding/fruit layers two more times (for a total of 3 layers).
  9. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours (the graham crackers will soften).
  10. Drizzle your white chocolate on top and then serve!
3.5.3251

 

Copy Cat Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark Recipe

Last year, my sister purchased tins of Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark and handed it out to everyone for Christmas.

I fell deeply in love.

However, this year when I went to go purchase some lovely Peppermint Bark for myself, I had a bit of sticker shock!

It’s quite pricey!

I decided to see if I could recreate the magic at home and started googling “copycat Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark” recipes.

I found the ingredients were actually quite simple!

So simple in fact, that I didn’t actually follow any one recipe when making this. I just kind of made it based on the ingredients I saw repeatedly in the recipes I came across.

It’s super simple and while it is less expensive than purchasing the bark from Williams Sonoma, I’m not sure it’s EXACTLY the same.

Still…so worth it. So good. You need to make this!

Copycat Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark

Ingredients: 

Directions: 

Crush up your candy canes! Be sure to crush them up well. I had some bigger pieces in my bark and they were a bit overwhelming.

Next, melt your semisweet chocolate chips over a double boiler being VERY careful to not over do it. (take it off the heat before fully melted! and stir stir stir the whole time)

Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil to your chocolate and stir

Pour your chocolate into a foil lined 13×9 pan

Allow to set and cool for just a bit

Melt your white chocolate the same way.

Pour over the semisweet chocolate and then sprinkle your candy cane pieces on top.

Let fully cool/harden (I put mine in the fridge) and enjoy!

This is so super simple and it’s so tasty. Give it as a gift or enjoy it all by yourself!

Ingredients
  • 1 bag of Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips
  • 1 bag of Ghirardelli Semisweet Chocolate Chips
  • About 5 or 6 Peppermint Candy Canes
  • Peppermint Oil (found this by the candy making section or purchase here)
Instructions
  1. Crush up your candy canes! Be sure to crush them up well. I had some bigger pieces in my bark and they were a bit overwhelming.
  2. Next, melt your semisweet chocolate chips over a double boiler being VERY careful to not over do it. (take it off the heat before fully melted! and stir stir stir the whole time)
  3. Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil to your chocolate and stir
  4. Pour your chocolate into a foil lined 13×9 pan
  5. Allow to set and cool for just a bit
  6. Melt your white chocolate the same way.
  7. Pour over the semisweet chocolate and then sprinkle your candy cane pieces on top.
  8. Let fully cool/harden (I put mine in the fridge) and enjoy!
3.2.1269

 

 

 

Easy Pecan Pie Bars Recipe

These are so good y’all!

This makes a LOT of Pecan Pie bars though, so if you are like me and you are the only pecan pie eater in your household…get out some goodie bags for friends and family!

This would be perfect to bring to a potluck or a church dinner. I’m thinking about making it for the week my Bible Study group does breakfast for our church! (so what, I have had a few of these as breakfast sometimes. Nuts. Those are healthy.)

Pecan Pie Bars Recipe

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup butter (leave out on the counter for about 30 minutes)
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¾ cup corn syrup
  • ¾ cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups pecans
  • sea salt (optional)

Directions:

  1. Cream together the butter and white sugar.
  2. Add the flour and either use two forks or a pastry cutter until the dough is kind of crumbly. If you pick up a ball of dough,  you should be able to smush it together.
  3. Add the dough mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Until just very slightly brown on top. Remove from oven.
  4. Next,  mix together the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup and vanilla until well combined. Add the pecans.
  5. Pour the pecan mixture over the top of the crust and put it back in the oven for around 15-20 minutes.
  6. When you remove it, you can top it with some sea salt.
  7. Once it cools, place it in the refrigerator until it cools. Then cut it into 24 bite sized pieces or larger pieces if you want to serve it as a full dessert.

Do you see that ooey gooey layer there? That’s  my favorite thing in the whole wide world I think.

 

Enjoy!

A Southern Mom: Halloween Bark

Today on A Southern Mom, I posted a great recipe for Halloween Bark!

To recap, this week on A Southern Mom:

Have a great weekend!

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites Recipe

If you like brownies and you like peanut butter, you won’t want to miss this recipe.

My two favorite pairings in the world are as follows:

  • Salty & Sweet
  • Peanut Butter and Chocolate

This wonderful recipe for Peanut Butter Brownie Bites involves peanut butter and chocolate and it’s honestly SO stinking easy that it’s almost embarrassing to call it a recipe.

You COULD make it harder.

You COULD make your brownies from scratch (I have a GREAT from scratch brownie recipe here).

Who has time for that nowadays?

Okay, sometimes I make time for it. But on this day, I just needed brownies ASAP and my FAVORITE boxed brownies were on hand (Ghirardelli Double Chocolate).

The hardest part of making these brownies, was holding off long enough to let them cool so I could drizzle melted peanut butter in the middle.

Yum. 

Why so many pictures you ask?

Well because these are gone. They were gone the day after they were made and I’m feeling kind of nostalgic 😉

Okay, now onto the recipe.

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

adapted from Nestle

Ingredients: 

  • Either your favorite boxed brownie mix (mine:  Ghirardelli Double Chocolate) or your favorite from scratch recipe (here’s mine) and whatever ingredients needed to make them
  • 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut butter
  • Peanut butter chips
  • Chocolate chips

Directions: 

  1. Make brownies as directed, bake in cupcake or mini muffin tins until just barely set in the center (toothpick should come out just slightly coated in batter)
  2. Remove from oven and let cool.
  3. Brownies will either fall in the center, or you can push them down a bit to make a well for the peanut butter
  4. Melt the peanut butter in the microwave and drizzle into the center of each brownie.
  5. Top with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips
  6. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites Recipe
Ingredients
  • Either your favorite boxed brownie mix (mine: Ghirardelli Double Chocolate) or your favorite from scratch recipe (here’s mine) and whatever ingredients needed to make them
  • 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut butter
  • Peanut butter chips
  • Chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Make brownies as directed, bake in cupcake or mini muffin tins until just barely set in the center (toothpick should come out just slightly coated in batter)
  2. Remove from oven and let cool.
  3. Brownies will either fall in the center, or you can push them down a bit to make a well for the peanut butter
  4. Melt the peanut butter in the microwave and drizzle into the center of each brownie.
  5. Top with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips
  6. Enjoy!
3.2.1269

 

Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

Like this? Also try out these great Thanksgiving recipes:

Rice Krispie Treat Turkeys

My FAMOUS Mashed Potatoes!

Pecan Pie Bites

From Scratch Stuffing

Sweet Potato Casserole

Are you a fan of pumpkin recipes?

Then you will most definitely want to make this scrumptious Pumpkin Cupcake recipe!

I’ll be the first to admit that my family is not really pumpkin crazy. It’s just not something we go out of our way to consume.

I was sent this awesome Pumpkin Scoop from GoodCook though (along with all of this other awesomeness! Happy Thanksgiving y’all!) and it inspired me to whip up something pumpkin!

This recipe is fairly simple and quick and you can either make the icing from scratch (like I did) or you can easily just top these with some store bought Cream Cheese icing and call it a day!

If you are craving something pumpkin…you’ll love these pumpkin cupcakes!

Be sure to check out the Good Cook line of products online and at your local retail stores as well. They are great quality and great value!

In addition, Good Cook is holding The Ultimate Thanksgiving Twitter party on Monday November 25th at 6pm EST under the hashtag #Thanksgivingtips. Hurry and RSVP because the first 500 who RSVP will get a FREE Turkey Lifter!

I’ll write more about this awesome Twitter Party later, but be sure you plan to attend because 3 winners will receive all of this:

Pumpkin Cupcakes

adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 15 oz can of pumpkin (or equivalent fresh pumpkin)
  • 1 3/4 cup of flour
  • 1/4 cup Corn Starch
  • 4 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

Blend the eggs, oil, sugar and pumpkin together until well combined. Mix your dry ingredients and slowly add them to your wet mixture.

Spoon into cupcake wrapper lined muffin tins (about 2/3 full) and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool before frosting.

Optional Cream Cheese frosting recipe: 

Ingredients: 

  • 1 8 oz package of softened cream cheese
  • 3 tablespoons of softened butter
  • 1 tablespoon orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 cups powdered sugar

Directions: 

Beat Cream cheese and butter until fluffy, add remaining ingredients and beat until nice and smooth.

Disclaimer: I received GoodCook products for free to facilitate my review and to help me bake these yummy pumpkin cupcakes!

Leftover Candy Cookies Made with Bakeware from Sweet Creations by Good Cook

Tis the season.

The season for candy!

I don’t know about you, but from Halloween until the New Year, there is constantly CANDY in my house. I don’t even know where it all comes from. It just keeps showing up.

Recently I wanted to make some Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I was out of chocolate chips. I had some mini chocolate chips, but not near enough.

Then I eyed the candy bowl 😉

I had TONS of chocolate in the candy bowl!

With the help of my kiddos (they unwrapped) I chopped up the candy into small pieces and made some really delicious leftover candy cookies!

We used:

Milky Ways

Snickers

Hershey’s Bars

Mini chocolate chips

I’m sure you could get even more creative though and use whatever chocolatey candy you might have on hand!

 

My kids wanted to decorate the cookies, so I pulled out this rectangle Cookie Cutter by Sweet Creations (by Good Cook) and decided to see if making the cookies a bigger rectangle would make them more fun to decorate.

 

It totally did!

I think from now on, when I make cookies to decorate, we’ll use this awesome cookie cutter!

We also baked our cookies on the fabulous cookie sheet that Good Cook sent. I’ve been having issues with the new oven (new to me at least) at our new house since we got here. I’ve burned half of the things I’ve cooked in there and the other half have been undercooked! The cookies definitely baked MUCH more evenly on this baking sheet.

Goodies sent to us by Good Cook!

I was also sent some decorator bottles, but we had SO many sprinkles/icings from previous projects that I thought we should use those up first. I know the decorating bottles will come in handy soon though!

Leftover Candy Cookies

(adapted from my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of melted butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons hot water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups leftover candy!

Directions:

  1. Cream the butter and the sugars together
  2. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat until fluffy
  3. Combine the hot water and baking soda and add to the sugar mixture along with the vanilla extract.
  4. Beat until combined.
  5. Add the salt and combine
  6. Add the flour and mix until just combined, then add the candy!
  7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

Enjoy!

What leftover candy do you have in your house right now?

Disclaimer: I received a kit of free baking items from Good Cook to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own.

40 Amazing Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes

I love Thanksgiving.

It’s an eating holiday (oh yeah, and a time to say what you are thankful for too), and I like eating holidays.

I especially like the desserts!

I’m not often a dessert person. I’ll take a big savory meal over something sweet any day.

Except Thanksgiving! Then I just want it all!

Check out this AMAZING round up of Thanksgiving Desserts!

Might give you some ideas on what to bring to the many Thanksgiving dinners/brunches/lunches/company parties you will be attending this year!

If you make any of these, be sure to come back and let me know what you think!

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