Thanksgiving Oreo Turkeys

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's so festive, and little pressure is placed upon the holiday. I could go on my soap box and talk about how Black Friday is no longer on Black Friday, but has instead intruded on a holiday where we reflect on the blessings that have been bestowed upon us and are thankful for what we have and the people that surround us. But I won't go take that step onto my soap box, I will, however,  talk about about turkeys.

Thanksgiving has long centered around the family table that is topped with a roasted turkey, a side of stuffing, and a slice of pumpkin pie. That's the way it is, and that's the way I like it. Because of this magnificent fact it is so easy to be festive on Thanksgiving. I can put pumpkin in anything, and everyone's cool with that. I can make food to look like turkeys, and that makes everyone more festive. And that is exactly what I did. 

I try to do this every year. Last year, I made cupcakes, and I made them into a big turkey shape.

One of my brothers and one of my sisters wanted a pic with the cupcake turkey. 

This year I decided to use OREOS as my medium for creating my turkey. 

These Oreo turkeys are fairly easy to make. I put each Oreo on a sucker stick (which can be found at Walmart or other craft stores). I used candy corn as the feathers, and M&Ms as the eyes. For the beak, I used frosting that I dyed orange.

Thanksgiving OREO Turkeys:

Ingredients:

Oreos

Sucker sticks

White almond bark or white chocolate

Chocolate chips (semi sweet or you can use almond bark)

Frosting

Frosting dyes (red and orange)

M & Ms

Candy corn

Directions: 

1. Melt some white almond bark in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl (about 2 squares).
2. Gently twist each of the Oreos apart, so that the cream stays on part of the cookie and the other is clean. 
3. Put melted melted chocolate in a baggie with a small tip clipped at one end. Squeeze a small amount of chocolate onto the cream side of the Oreo. 
4. Next, place a sucker stick on the small amount of the chocolate that is on the cream side of the Oreo. Add the top back onto the Oreo. Repeat until all of Oreos have been done. 
5. Next, melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave. 
6. Dip the pointy end of the candy corn in to the chocolate. Then put in between the two cookie halves of the Oreo. I put 4-5 pieces of candy corn on each Oreo.
7. After all of the Oreos have candy corn on them, place in the freezer or fridge so that the chocolate can harden up (In the freezer for about 15-20 minutes).
8. For the eyes, you will need more white chocolate or just remelt the leftovers the  from previous steps. Using the same bag as before, pipe two small circle dollops on the Oreo (This makes the white of the eye). Then place an M&M on each of the dollops. Repeat for rest of Oreos.
9. Next, dye half of the frosting orange, place in a sandwich baggie with tip cut off. Pipe the beaks on the Oreos. (I basically did a squiggle; I started the squiggle bigger at one end and then taper off; refer to picture).
10. To make the snood (the red thing that hangs off a turkey's beak), dye the other half of the frosting red. Using a sandwich baggie with the tip cut of, pipe the snood on the larger side of the beak (I made a little line on the larger side of the beak).
11. Place in freezer or fridge to allow the chocolate to solidify if it hasn't already. 
12. Share with the family and friends!

I'm sorry if the directions are thoroughly confusing. It was sometimes hard ot explain what I was doing. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or contact me. Have a Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving,

                              Andrea

Halloween Cupcakes

I hope everyone is having happy fall. Halloween is upon us. I was busy tonight making treats for my brothers and sisters to take to school for their Halloween parties. I had a lot of fun. They were fairly easy to make, just time consuming to do. They ended up looking pretty great. 

I found a lot of ideas off Pinterest. I love Pinterest. Pinterest has everything a person could ever need know(well, at least about cupcakes). 

    

1. The first cupcake I made was a mummy cupcake. I just made my own version of grease frosting (I call it Crisco frosting). It makes really white frosting because there isn't any butter in it. I then cut a small tip off the end of a sandwich baggie. I piped frosting on the cupcake, and then added Reese's Pieces for the eyes (or M&Ms). This was really easy to do. 

2. The second cupcake I made was the ghosts. I made these ghosts on mini cupcakes for my little brother's class. He has a fairly large class, so it made it easier. I made Crisco frosting again. I cut a tip off of a sandwich baggie again, but this time I made a slightly larger cut. A tip when doing this, make sure to make a clean, straight cut. If you have the 1A or 2A frosting tip then you could also use that. I then colored some left over frosting black, and then piped little dotted eyes on each ghost. 

3. The last cupcake I made were green monster cupcakes. I made more frosting, which I then dyed green. I pipped the cupcakes in a swirl using a baggie; you could again use the 1A or 2A tip here. I couldn't find mine. I melted some white melties (white almond bark). I put the melted chocolate in a baggie with a small tip cut off. I piped enough to make eyes for my cupcakes. After, I placed a M&M on each of the dots I just made with the white chocolate. Now you have your eyes.

While those cool, I cut up Airheads in different shapes. I did triangles and rectangles. After the eyes cool and harden, place on frosted cupcake, and then add eyes. I then added Mike and Ikes on the side for ears. I let the kids help decorate these. It was a fun activity to do with them. 

I hope ya'll have a happy Halloween. Keep warm, and trick or treat to your hearts content. Eat as much candy as you can get, I know I will. 

Happy Halloween.

                         Peace, love, bake on.

                                  Andrea 

           

Happy Valentine's Day cupcakes.

Happy Valentine's Day! How do you celebrate the Valentine's Day? When I think of holidays, I think of sweets. So it's only natural that when I think of Valentine's Day, I think of cupcakes. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to have cupcakes. 

Cupcakes pretty much sum up the holiday. They make a statement, especially if you made them yourself. Everyone loves cupcakes. So, if you don't know what to give your sweetheart for Valentine's Day then make them cupcakes. Doing so shows that you care enough about the person to share the cupcakes with them. Even if you don't have a sweetheart to share cupcakes with make them anyway, I did. I promise you won't regret it. 

When I made Valentine's Day cupcake, I made chocolate cupcakes ,  my favorite buttercream frosting, and various decorations I found that was Valentine's Day themed. I used these adorable tiny heart shaped sprinkles and these hard candy heart decorations. Both were Wilton. 

I used my favorite piping tip: the Wilton 1M tip. I colored my frosting light pink to go with the theme, of course. 

I hope you draw inspiration from these scrumptious desserts. I shared these Valentine's Day cupcakes with my friends. They all ooohhhed  and ahhhed over them. Let me tell you a secret. I think decorating cupcakes is easy and fun. It just takes a little patience, love, and time that's all. 

 All you that need to make these is a little heart and extra love. 

All it takes is a little heart. 

Have a very, very happy Valentine's Day. Make the most of it. Tell the one's you cherish that you love and appreciate them. Because all it takes three little words to sometimes make a difference. 

As always,

Peace, love, bake on. 

                                                 Andrea 

Pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese cinnamon frosting.

My favorite season is fall. The leaves are changing beautiful bright colors, and as they fall and drift through the wind, everything seems magical. I, more than normal, took great notice in the colors of the leaves this year. There were these trees that I passed everyday on my way to school that were this beautiful, bright red. You couldn't help but notice them when you went by. During this time of the year to express the magical qualities that I find in fall, I think of pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin, pumpkin pumpkin. Pumpkin just screams autumn. Above I mentioned pumpkin cupcakes, these little cakes are just scrumptious. Pumpkin cupcakes are fall, all wrapped up into one little delight. So if that wasn't enough to get you to make them, I don't know what will.

Another reason to love these is that this recipe is so super easy to make. If you have a cake mix and pumpkin then you can probably make these. Not a lot of work involved since it uses a cake mix. BONUS! You of course don't have to use the cream cheese cinnamon frosting recipe that I provided but I would highly recommend because it is awesome.  

The cream cheese cinnamon frosting as mentioned above that accompanies these pumpkin cupcakes is absolutely amazing. Cream cheese frosting is amazing with out cinnamon, but you add the cinnamon and it is even more amazing. I could probably just eat it right out the bowl all day long. Pair that with the pumpkin cupcakes, and you have one delicious dessert. So go ahead and make them for Thanksgiving or for just the heck of it. You won't be disappointed. 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

1 yellow cake mix

1 can (14-15 oz.) pumpkin puree 

1 cup milk

2 Tbs. oil

5 Tbs. butter, melted

4 eggs

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

For cinnamon cream cheese frosting:

1-  8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

7 Tbs. butter, at room temperature

1 lb. powder sugar (or about 7 cups powder sugar)

1 tsp.vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon 

Directions:

For cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake holder with liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pumpkin pie spice. Add pumpkin, milk, oil, butter, and eggs to the bowl and mix well until smooth.
3. Fill each lined cupcake holder with batter 2/3 full. 
4. Bake in oven for 10-16 minutes or until when a inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack or towel. 

For Frosting:

1. Using electric mixer, in a large bowl beat cream cheese until fluffy and smooth. Next add the butter and mix with mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla and mix. Combine in powder sugar 1 cup at time, so that it doesn't make a huge mess. Mix until smooth.
3. After adding all the powder sugar, add the cinnamon. Mix until well blended.
4. Frost cupcakes or pipe frosting on with piping bag and tip. I used the Wilton 1M tip. 

Enjoy! Everyone in my family loved these cupcakes, They each came back wanting another one. I plan on serving these at Thanksgiving dinner. They will easily fit in with any Thanksgiving meal. Or eat them anytime like I am sure my family and I will. 

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Peace, love, bake on.

                                             Andrea 

Quick and easy brownies.

Ever in a hurry and craving something chocolaty? Well, I do on occasion. On such occasions, I may have made these quick and easy brownies. These brownies always hit the spot. The great things about brownies are that they are chocolaty, gooey, and most usually everybody loves them. In my family, they never last more than a day. The other day I made these to go with some homemade chocolate ice cream that I made. 

To make these brownies you will need:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup walnut halves (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. Melt butter. Then mix all ingredients in the order given.
3. Pour into greased 9 x 13 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

Optional: sprinkle a little powder sugar on top for an extra touch.

** I sometimes use a sheet cake pan, instead of a  9 x 13, though you must adjust the time.

As always enjoy.

Peace, love, bake on.

                                   Andrea

 I found the original recipes here, but I made a few changes to make it my own.

Cream cheese frosting

Who all loves cream cheese? I love cream cheese. Though my dad doesn't like it in desserts such as cheese cake, he does like it in dinner foods, such as dips, like Chicken Buffalo Dip. And he does not like cream cheese frosting, he hates it. But I love it. One of the many differences between my dad and I. 

For Easter this year, I made many desserts including a carrot cake and with carrot cake, you must have cream cheese frosting. So I decided to share my cream cheese frosting with you. It is super easy and yummy! So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese(1/2 cup)
• 4 ounces butter, softened (1/2 cup)
• 2 cups powder sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions:

• Using mixer beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Mix in powder sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Enjoy!

It's that easy. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled. I do quite often. If you want it to be thicker add a half cup or more of the powder sugar to make it thicker. 

Thanks and enjoy!

                      Happy Easter! 

                            Andrea 

Blueberry Cobbler

Everyone loves blueberries, right? Well this dessert will sure be hit with anyone who does. It's so good and guess what? Really easy to make as well. (YES!) 

My dad for a while had been wanting me to make blueberry cobbler, and so I found and used my favorite cobbler recipe. 
The great thing about this recipe is that you don't have to use blueberries. You can use any fruit. It's very versatile. This recipe double nicely. Also, I should note that, I use this cobbler recipe as the base for all my cobbler. So, if I make peach cobbler is just sub in peaches for the blueberries. 
I could eat this whole thing by myself. There's not just eat one serving. It's so scrumptious. Words or pictures really can't describe it loveliness. It's even better served warm with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Consider yourself warned. 

Blueberry Cobbler

adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients: 

• 6 tbs. butter
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour (or 1 cup flour, 1 1/3 tsp. baking powder, & 1/3 tsp. salt)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (21 oz.) can blueberry pie filling or other fruit(You don't have to use pie filling)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt butter and pour into a 2 or 2.5 quart casserole or baking pan. Mix sugar, flour, and milk together.
3. Pour mixture into pan over butter, but do NOT mix. Pour blueberry pie filling over mixture, but do NOT mix. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 
5. Serve warm with ice cream, if you desire to do so. 

*When I made this I wanted to get it baked in 45 minutes, so I preheated the oven 375 degrees instead of 350 degrees. At 375 degrees I baked it for 45 minutes. I would still recommend to cook at 350 for 1 hour if you have the time. 

** My 2 and 2.5 quart casserole/ baking dishes were being used or dirty, so I used a 9x13 pan, which was 3 quarts instead of 2 or 2.5 quarts, but it baked nicely and looked good, too.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Good luck, as always! 

Peace, Love, Bake on.

                                                          Andrea  

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

So everyone loves chocolate chip cookies and everyone loves cake, so why not combine to make something everyone will extremely love? You can with this amazing recipe. And why stop with just the cookie dough cupcake, when you can also have an amazing cookie dough frosting to pair with it. 

I was recently looking for some fun cupcake recipes for my sister's birthday and my birthday. And instantly thought of cookie dough cupcakes. I had made them once but I didn't really like the concept of the recipe, so I looked for a new one and I found one that I like. I found this recipe, courtesy of the Tidy Mom. From that recipe though I conjured up my own version of this recipe. 

Okay, so here is how you make them.

For the Cookie dough cake batter you will need:

• 3 sticks of butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups  brown sugar, packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp.  baking powder
• 1 tsp.  baking soda 
• 1/4 tsp.  salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips ( semisweet or bittersweet)

For the cookie dough frosting you will need:

• 3 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3 1/2 cup powdered or confectioners sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3 tbs. heavy cream
• 2  tsp. vanilla extract

For the cookie dough filling, you will need:

• Refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough from store, rolled into balls.
• Or your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe rolled into balled ( after they are rolled into balls, put them in freezer for 2-3 hours so that it is firm)

Instructions for the cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the sugar and butter, using a mixer cream them together until it's light and fluffy ( about 3 minutes). Add eggs, one at time, beating well after each addition and scraping the the sides after each one as well. 
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
4. Alternating add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the milk on low speed, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until it is incorporated.
5. Blend in the vanilla extract.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
7. Divide batter into 24 cupcake liners. 
8. Drop one rolled cookie dough into each cupcake liner filled with the cake batter. Do not push the cookie dough down.
9. Bake in oven for 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean when inserted into cake portion of cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans, after transfer to wire rack to cool.

Instructions for frosting:

1. Beat butter and brown sugar with a mixer on high speed until creamy and fluffy.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth. 
3. Beat in the flour and the salt.
4. Mix in the cream and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. 

I used a 1M tip to pipe frosting onto cupcakes. You can further decorate by sprinkling cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and with a small cookie. 

These were the cupcakes I made for my sister's birthday. She took them to school to share with her class. I sprinkled the cupcakes with blue icing sugar and a little decoration that was the theme for her cookie dough cupcakes. These cupcakes were a hit for everyone who ate them and I am sure they will be hit with you too!

As usual good luck and have a great day! And if it's your birthday, I hope it's a good one!

Peace, love, bake on.

 Andrea

Fun Fact about me: I share my birthday with my younger sister and we are 7 years apart. 

My favorite Buttercream frosting.

Have you tried numerous buttercream recipes and still haven't been wowwed? Well I know I went through that, and after trial and error I now can say I have found my favorite buttercream frosting recipe.

The great thing about buttercream is that it is so versatile and fairly simple to make. Buttercream is a tradional frosting that can be easily used to pipe frosting and decorate with. I found that recipes I had used before were just never thick enough and this recipe is always thick the first time.

Buttercream Frosting:

1  1/2  cups of butter (at room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar (sifted)

3 tablespoons heavy cream (whipping cream)

First, using a blender whip the butter until it is a lighter color, which should take 3-5 minutes. Next, add the vanilla. Mix together. Next, add half the powdered sugar and two tablespoons of heavy cream. Start mixing that together. Add the remaining sugar and heavy cream, and mix together until it is all one consistency.

You can always thin this frosting out if it slightly to thick for you. You can either add a teaspoon or two of 2% milk or more heavy cream.

When I use this recipe, I almost always add frosting dye. This recipe does coloring well.

In the picure above, I used this buttercream recipe and added Wilton Royal Blue frosting dye. The cake recipe I used to make the cupcakes can be found on my blog or click HERE.

I hope the direction aren't to confusing and if they are please comment!

Peace, love, Bake on.

               
                                                Andrea



Boxed cakes in a pinch.

If your are like me, you are always in a hurry and need a cake in a pinch. I sometimes have to use boxed cake mixes. And as you know, boxed cakes mixes just don't taste as good as cakes made from scratch. So if you are in a pinch and need a cake in a hurry, use a boxed cake mix with these minor but amazing adjustments.

So, all you have to do to make a box cake taste bettter is to follow these few simple steps.

If your cake mix asks you to use oil, use butter instead and double the amount. So if it asks for a 1/2 cup of oil, use 1 cup of butter instead.Next, when the mix asks for eggs add 1 or 2 extra eggs. Lasltly, the mix will asks for water, use milk instead.Even with these few adjustment, you still bake the cake at the same temperature and time that it says.

If you follow these few simple steps, you won't be able to tell that you even used abox cake.

Good luck and have fun baking.

Thanks,

               Andrea

Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

I recently found this recipe on Pinterest. I was in need of a quick fix for a dessert. Though this recipe wasn't the very best, it was great for a quick cookie. This peanut butter cookie has only 4 ingredient, FOUR. I know its hard to believe, but these cookies have a melt in your mouth quality. When I made these cookies the first time they hardened after a couple of days , but were still delicious dipped in milk. These cookies are easy enough that kids could make them (of course with supervision) and they take only a few minutes to mix up. 

Ingredients you'll need:

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of peanut butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.Mix sugar, vanilla, egg and peanut butter together in a mixing bowl. 

3. Drop tablespoons of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Make sure they are evenly spread apart, about 1 or 2 inches. 

4. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden.

5. Put on a rack or towel to cool.

6. Eat up and enjoy!

There see how easy that was! 

Thanks and enjoy!

                         The Fiery Redhead.

Strawberry Cheesecake

  Strawberry Cheesecake. Just hearing it sounds so DELISH. This recipe I found ages ago. Cheesecake looks hard to make but is actually usually so simple, a piece of cake.

         These are the ingredients you will need:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (I usually just use one package of graham crackers)

1/4 cupwhite sugar

2 teaspoonsground cinnamon

1/3 cupbutter, melted

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed and drained

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened (very important. try to have it at room temp. or close to it)

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cuplemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3eggs

1 tablespoon water (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a bowl. Then press mixture into the bottom of  an ungreased 9-inch spring form pan. Refrigerate this while preparing the cream cheese mixture and the strawberry mixture..

2. Preheat oven 300 degrees.

3. Place strawberries and cornstarch into a blender. Cover and puree until smooth. Pour strawberry sauce into a saucepan.

4.Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil and stir until sauce is thick and shiny, about 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup strawberry sauce; cool. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving.

5.Beat cream cheese in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffed. Then gradually beat in condensed milk and mix in lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat in eggs on low speed until just combined.

6. Pour half of cream cheese mixture over crust and drop half of reserved strawberry sauce by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on cream cheese layer.Carefully spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over sauce; drop remaining strawberry sauce by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on top. Cut through top layer only with a knife to swirl strawberry sauce.

7. Bake in preheated oven until center is almost set, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Serve reserved strawberry sauce with cheesecake. If the sauce it too thick, stir in water.

                      Eat up and enjoy!