Bakerella's Blog, page 24

Mom Approved!

These may not look like all that much at first glance, but let me tell you they are fantastic! They’re little lemon brownies or lemonies. My mom found them on Pinterest and said she wanted me to make some for her right away. So I came up with this version to give her on Mother’s Day.

These are such a refreshing treat.  A dense, tangy, cakey little bite of bliss. And it pains me to say that I might even choose them over chocolate. I know crazy, but they are that tasty. My mom loved them and so did I. Warning… they won’t last long so load up on lemons and be prepared to make a second batch.

Pucker up. These pack the perfect amount of lemony punch. A combination of fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest.

Zesty!

The ingredients are mixed in one bowl and stirred by hand. Nice!!!

And after they’re baked and cooled, they’re topped with a tangy lemony glaze.

Perfection.

 

Lemon Brownies may not be the right name because they’re like the opposite of chocolate. And lemon bars don’t really work since that dessert is already taken. (Speaking of lemon bars, I think you’ll like this recipe, too.) Lemonies is a cute name that some recipes used. I think I like that best. Lemony Lemonies it is. Thank you for the recipe inspiration Pinterest and for helping me make my mom happy.

Sink your teeth into these right away. You won’t regret it.

And here’s more variations on Pinterest.

Lemony Lemonies

Flower Bouquet Cake Pops

I’m sharing these easy flower bouquets today… just in time for Mother’s Day.

There are endless ways to make flower cake pops. I’m blown away by all the amazing designs you guys have created and it makes my heart happy to see how much fun this website has inspired and how creative everyone’s cake pop designs have become. You can use candies for petals, flower cookie cutters to shape your dough, molds to make flowering attachments, fondant for flower petal details, you can pipe swirly tops on roses and even use cupcake wrappers as backers to do most of the decorating. Then you can gift them grouped together for a beautiful bouquet. I bet if you did a search for flower cake pops, you’d be busy for days at all the different ways you can celebrate cake and flowers combined into one cute little treat.

Well here’s another little way that brings cute and cake together. In this design the cake pop is its own bouquet. Give them in a group piped in pastel colors or simply share them individually with a sweet little tag and make someone smile… like Mom! These would even be cute for baby or bridal showers or weddings with coordinating colors. So many options and the best part is they are easy to decorate.

You’ll need to make basic cake pops. Crumbled cake, mixed with frosting and rolled into bite-size balls.

BASIC HOW-TO HERE.

Then it’s time to get down to decorating.

First up, dip your stick about two inches in green candy coating and let start to dry. Then insert the dipped tip about halfway into a slightly flattened cake ball.

When dry, dip the uncoated cake ball in melted candy wafers in the color of your choice and let dry. Then dot on more melted coating with a toothpick or squeeze bottle. I used a toothpick and dotted it on. These can be random sizes and shapes.

There’s no need for perfection because we’re going to swirl on more coating to resemble petals… or at least insinuate petals. At this scale, tiny little swirls are all you really need. Again, I used a toothpick dipped in melted candy coating that I made lighter by mixing with white wafers. I let the coating drip off the toothpick and used the coating that was dangling to land on the pop and then swirl in a circular motion to draw. Does that make sense. I wish I had a live action shot or at least a fourth hand so I could have taken a pic, but it’s easy. Just start playing and you’ll get it. The key is fluid coating so you can make thin lines.

To finish the stems, use a toothpick dipped in remaining melted green candy wafers to layer on more stems for bulk.

Then if you want a little more detail, apply more random dots of coating and drop nonpareils on the cake pop over a large dish to reuse any that fall off. Wrap the stems in ribbon to make them super sweet.

If you’ve made flower cake pops, share a link below, I’d love to see what you’ve been doing!

Sweets for People

I don’t have one recipe for you today. Nope not one.

But how does six sound?

Pretty sweet I hope and I wanted to tell you where you can find them. I’ve been working with my friends over at People.com for the last several weeks to revisit some of their celebrity recipes and it’s been fun to be featured on the site. Below are six sweet switch ups I’ve created for them so far. Hope you like them and if you want to keep up with me over there, follow me or People’s Great Ideas on twitter for my latest treats.

But for now… enjoy these sweet links.

 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies.

These cookies with a kick were the latest recipe they featured. So good. A little spicy and a whole lot of yum!

 

 

Bunny Bark.

I made this easy treat leading up to Easter. Still perfect for spring and summer or you can switch it up with other candies and colors for any occasion.

 

 

Boozy Birthday Cake Shakes.

Ice cream, sprinkles and a little cake flavored fun to celebrate.

 

 

Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes.

I love chocolate and bananas and I love them even more in pancakes stacked and covered in syrup.

 

 

Brownie Bon Bons.

Quick and easy brownie balls dipped and covered in confetti sprinkles. A party in every bite. The instructions will work with any basic brownie recipe (homemade or from a box). There’s no frosting needed since brownies are already so moist and fudgy on their own.

 

 

Monster Cookie Bars.

These big bars are chocked full of chips, candies and even cranberries. Mix them up with your favorite add-ins.

And coming up next week……… Nutella Cinnamon Roll Muffins. So yum yum!

Enjoy.

So Peanutty! Peanut Butter Cookies.

These little cookies are soooo good and they were the perfect way to use up all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs I happen to have………Except I can’t stop eating them myself. Help!

Reese’s always seems to make an appearance around the house during Easter… and Christmas … and Valentine’s Day. Just about any day there’s a reason to celebrate. I’d definitely say they are my go to candy.

Sweet little peanut butter eggs… ALL chopped up!!!

But these cookies are jam-packed with even more peanut power.

Creamy peanut butter and chopped peanuts round these cookies out.

The dough is to die for.

Use a cookie scoop for evenly sized cookies. Place scooped dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Then roll each scoop in chopped peanuts and sugar and bake away.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long.

Just a few minutes in the oven …

and then these soft little bites of peanut butter yumminess can jump in your mouth.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Peanutty Peanut Butter Cookies

Spring Bake Giveaway

YAY! It’s spring and I couldn’t be happier. And to celebrate the season, I’m having a sweet springy giveaway for a KitchenAid Mixer in one of the following colors.  The winner gets to pick, too… Fun! What’s it going to be? Crystal Blue? Ice? Pistachio? Who’s up for Majestic Yellow?

All of these colors are beautiful and put me in the baking mood.

I hope they do for you, too!

Enter the Spring Bake Giveaway for a chance to win a KitchenAid 5-quart Artisan Series Stand Mixer

To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite color and if you’re looking forward to any fun baking soon.
Deadline to enter is Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 7:00 PM ET.
One winner will be chosen at random and announced sometime Wednesday evening on this post.

Good luck guys!

Giveaway sponsored by me.

Let’s Decorate Cupcakes!

Hey guys! I have a fun event to share if you’re in the Atlanta area and you love cupcakes and cute! I’m co-hosting my friend Jennifer Shea’s book signing at Williams-Sonoma for her fantastic new book Trophy Cupcakes and Parties! Join us for a decorating demo featuring Trophy’s most popular cupcakes. Plus, we’ll talk tips and tricks and taste cupcakes, too! It’s going to be super sweet fun and just in time for some Easter inspiration.

I personally want to see Jennifer frost these fluffy ruffles. So pretty!!! And look at the chocolate ones on the cover below. Wowzers!

So come say hi if you have a sweet tooth and pick up her book. It’s worth it alone for these S’mores Cupcakes. OH. MY. GOSH. I may just have to break out the kitchen torch before the night’s over.

Here’s the info.

Hope to see you there!

And if you’re in Seattle or plan to visit, make sure to stop by one of her shops.

Chocolate Bunnies

I’ve been playing with chocolate molds this weekend. Super fun!

A while ago I received a really cool professional chocolate bunny mold as a gift. I hadn’t seen one like it before, so as soon as I saw how it worked, I knew I wanted to try it out. And with Easter coming up, it was time to break out the bunnies. This is a professional mold as in pretty pricey for home use… but I wanted to show you guys so you can see how cool and easy it is to use.

The mold makes four bunnies at a time and comes in two pieces.

Each piece has these really strong magnets…

So when you line them up, they will snap together.

It takes a little force to separate them. They won’t budge on their own.

When they are together, the mold stands up with the 3-D bunnies upside down.

Then all you have to do is fill them with tempered chocolate. I filled mine with melted candy wafers though.

But first I wanted them to have a little color, so I painted on the inside of the mold using a toothpick to apply blue candy coating for eyes and white for tails and ears.

Then, bam. Snap them together and fill.

This is meant to be a solid chocolate mold. Fill them and you’re done.

But I wanted to make hollow bunnies, too.

So after the bunny was filled, I turned the mold upside down and let the excess chocolate fall out to reuse.

When dry, I filled the bunny tummies with pastel M&M’s right to the top. Then I added some more chocolate coating to seal them inside. The candies near the base of the bunny will get attached to the chocolate, but the others won’t.

You could also fill them with other small candies like pastel coated sunflower seeds … or even with crumbled cake and frosting and a sturdy cookie pop stick, to turn them into molded cake pops. They’d be big though.

Leave them in the freezer for a few minutes to set completely and just separate the mold pieces to pop out the bunnies.

So cute … And the awesome thing about the magnets, is these come out virtually seamless because of having such a tight seal.

Fun!!!

Here’s this for occasional use. (It doesn’t have the magnets.) And here’s the one I actually used. Eek at $195! I peeked around on their site and they have tons of other bunnies to choose from ranging in price from around $15-350. Here’s a few funny bunnies that made me chuckle. , and !!!!!!!

And… Here’s a super cute, itsy-bitsy chocolate bunny project I did a while back using plastic molds like the ones you find at craft stores.

I love making these…so much!

Eat Your Carrots

Okay, so this isn’t really a hard sell. I mean let’s face it … cake dressed up as cute baby carrots is way more fun than the real vegetable version, right?!

I think so. But, I guess I could start drawing faces on raw carrots to make me want to eat them more. Maybe. One day.

But first… let’s hop all over these carrot cake pops. A fun little Easter (or vegetable lover’s) treat!

Okay, these would have been a little more in line with the theme if I actually made carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.

But I didn’t. No carrots in the house ; )

Instead I just baked a yellow cake, crumbled it and mixed with frosting.

Here’s basic instructions for making round cake pops. To shape them into carrots, use wax paper to aid in shaping. You can slide, rock and roll your cake balls on wax paper to shape and create a smooth surface.

And then after you’ve chilled them for a bit, you can dip them in melted orange candy wafers.

Dip and remove in one easy motion and without swirling in the melted candy. Make sure the coating is nice and fluid when you dip and then remove and tap off any excess for a smooth surface.

And before the coating sets, insert the leaves right on top.

I had these teardrop candies and thought they would be the perfect shape, size and color for the leaves.

And they were. Just insert two candies side by side and then a third candy right in front before the candy coating sets.

Voila … carrots. And cute carrots at that with sweet, simpe faces.

Use an Americolor Gourmet Writing pen to draw on the eyes and mouths.

But to make the eyes pop, dot on a little white coating on each eye … it really makes a difference and gives them more personality.

For sweet cheeks, use pastel confetti sprinkles in pink and attach them to the pop using a toothpick dipped in coating.

See… super cute. But let’s add a little more detail.

You can also use a toothpick dipped in coating to draw horizontal lines on the carrots.

Now … They look good enough to eat!

But this guy tried to go in disguise and hide from any hungry bunnies.

He wasn’t successful. This big bunny knows better.

Kit Kat Cream Cheese Brownies

If you like your brownies rich then these are for you.

I’m talking chocolatey gooey goodness on the bottom, Kit Kat wafer bars in the middle and covered with a cheesecake topping to keep everything all cozy.

I wanted to make a Kit Kat cake the other day so I bought a bunch of candy bars. Then… I made the mistake of eating one. I put a package in the fridge because I like them cold with that extra little snap when you bite down. Then I did that again… thinking hey, I’ll just make a smaller cake. And then again… So needless to say a cake would not be happening. So I figured I needed to get rid of the rest of the candy bars before I ate them all by myself … so I thought I would hide them in a batch of brownies.

Because I can’t eat a whole batch right?! I’d totally have to share.

Look at that brownie batter.

It makes a perfect bed for these bars to rest on.

Just tuck them in slightly.

Then they get covered up with a cream cheese topping.

And it all goes into the oven to bake until it comes out in a big pan of perfection.

Then after they’ve cooled and chilled in the fridge, you can cut these super sweet brownies into squares to share because they are rich. So make sure you have some chocolate lovers nearby to help you out.

Kit Kat Cream Cheese Brownies

Easy Oreo Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake

I love the idea of serving ice cream in fun ways. And this one is just that.

A fun and easy no-bake mint chip ice cream cake!

Yes and yum!

And it doesn’t hurt that it’s stuffed with mint Oreo cookies either.

They’re in the crust, in the “cake” and on top too.

Want to make one?

Okay good! First chop up some of the cookies for the crust.

Mix the crumbs with melted butter and then press into the bottom of a 7-inch springform pan. But first cover the bottom section of the pan with plastic wrap before securing the ring on top. It will make it easier to transfer the cake to a plate when you’re ready to serve.

Time for the ice cream. You can use your favorite flavor. I’m going with mint chip today.

It’s not my fave…my first choice would be chocolate of course… but it’s a fun flavor for St. Patrick’s Day.

Spread a layer of ice cream on top of the cookie crust base.

Add in some oreos and then layer on more ice cream almost to the top edge of the pan.

Then layer on some whipped topping and place in the freezer for at least three hours.

Note: Next time I would break all the cookies into pieces to make the cake easier to cut.

When you are ready to serve, unclasp the springform ring to slide it off from around the cake.

Then just separate the plastic wrap from the base to serve.

Add some more oreos on top and you are ready to go.

Just slice…

And bite! Easy as pie… I mean ice cream cake!

Easy Oreo Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake