Cookie Dough Dip

Sorry I only got this one picture. I meant to snap a picture in the bowl, but oh well. 

This dip was really quick to make and plenty easy too. I made it the other night in a pinch to take as a snack for our Ladies' Night Out festivities at church and it was rather tasty! I used vanilla wafers to dip with.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
dash of half and half (about a tablespoon)
1/2 cup of flour
1 cup of mini chocolate chips
1 bag of king size M&M's

Combine all ingredients minus the chocolate chips and M&M's and blend well, adding more flour to get desired thickness. Add chocolate chips and M&M's and stir with a spoon. Dip with Vanilla wafers, pretzels, or animal crackers. Refrigerate if you're not going to use right away, but beware that will make the candies harden!

Hope you enjoy this quick and easy dip!

Love,
Casey

Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was looking for something to do and wanted to bake the other day, and decided to see what I could come up with. One of the things I had was a bottle of raspberry extract that I'd bought to bake something and never got around to baking it (I don't even know what that something was anymore), and another was a bag of white chocolate chips (I think I bought them to make Christmas candy). I also had a bag of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix and figured if I could make Mint cookies with mint extract, sugar cookie mix, and chocolate chips, I could very well try other flavors too.

All I used was:

-Betty Crocker Sugar cookie mix
-1 egg
-1 stick of unsalted butter
-1 bag of white chocolate chips
-2 tsp of raspberry extract (you can use as much or as little as you want depending on how well you like raspberry)
- a dash of pink food coloring

Combine everything but the white chocolate in a mixer, add as much food coloring as you need until you have the pink you like. I used Wilson's pink gel and so I just took a small sliver with a knife and dropped it in. A little bit of that stuff goes a long way.

When you've got everything mixed up, add your chocolate chips and stir them in. Then scoop out the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I like to use a cookie scoop) and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. Let them cool completely before trying to eat or remove from pan.

And viola! Easy and tasty. Husband, sister, and daddy gave a thumbs up, hope y'all like them too!

Love,
Casey

Key Lime Cupcakes

Cake mix

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder

2 large eggs

3/4 cup of white sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 T of Key Lime Juice

1/2 tsp salt

Green and Yellow food coloring

Frosting

2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 tsp of Key Lime Juice

2 cups powdered sugar

1 heaping tsp vanilla

Zest of one Lime

Cupcakes:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Allow butter to soften to room temperature. To aid with this process, I take a stick out of the fridge and cut it into chunks or slices before I do anything else and dump it in my mixer bowl to soften while I do other things. While that's getting soft, combine flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl and whisk well. Set it aside. Now is when I take my time getting everything else ready (so my butter can soften, you know). I line my cupcake pan with liners, measure out my milk, go ahead and dump the sugar into the mixing bowl with the butter, take my eggs out and crack and whisk them together in a small bowl, set out the vanilla, etc. THEN when I can think of nothing else to do, I turn on my mixer and cream the butter and sugar well. Depending on how patient, or impatient, I have been, I might have to turn my mixer on high to make sure the butter and sugar are well creamed. Make sure you take a spatula and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get out excess sugar that's tried to get away.

Next add your egg mixture (I usually pour in half, mix, and then pour in the rest and mix again), again the time to make sure all is getting mixed and not sticking to the sides or bottom. Add vanilla.

Finally, it's time to alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk. A good rule of thumb for baking in general is to begin with the dry and end with the dry. You're going to have way more flour mix than you do milk, so give generous with the dry and sparingly with the wet, stopping to mix each in the batter before adding the other. In the end, you'll add your Key lime juice. This is usually pretty easy to find in the grocery store with the baking supplies. If you can't find it, though, I don't see why regular lime juice wouldn't do the trick.

Once you've got your batter, this is where you will add the green and yellow food coloring. Mix just a dash at a time until you're getting the color you like. It might take a try or two to get it right. If there's an exact science to this I haven't discovered it yet!

Lastly, a good rule I follow for filling cupcake liners is a little bit more than halfway, about 3/4's because I like my cupcakes to rise above the paper. I don't know why they taste better to me that way, they just do. I take either a Tablespoon spoon or a cookie dough scoop and fill them up about three scoops each. My goal is to make them all even. If you're making 12, then you should have no batter left over.

Bake them for about 18-20 minutes.

Frosting:

When the cupcakes are cool enough, I cut up two sticks of cold butter and a heaping tsp of vanilla and cream them in my mixer until they are no longer solid. I then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well until all is combined. Then add the key lime juice and lime zest. If you're not a huge fan of the zest, half it. I just think it looks pretty with the frosting and the smell is so refreshing while you're zesting! To frost these, I simply filled a ziplock back with the frosting and snipped the corner. It doesn't exactly look professional, but I thought it was cute enough since I was making these for a friend's birthday.

Hope you like this really easy recipe!

Casey

Pumpkin Roll with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filling

Every few weeks or so, my best friend Cora and I make a commitment to spend the afternoon together. On Tuesday she came over and had a very special project in mind: we needed to make Pumpkin rolls. As someone who has never attempted a cake roll, this seemed scary to me. BUT I had the recent memory of enjoying a tasty slice of pumpkin cake roll from Burt's Pumpkin farm on my brain (not to mention, David had heard whispers of baking and had gotten pretty enthusiastic about it) and was powerless not to consent. We bought one can of pumpkin and decided to make two.

Pumpkin Roll with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients (makes one pumpkin roll)
For the cake:

3 eggs
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup of sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
1 T of Sifted Powdered sugar

For the filling:
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup of pumpkin
1 (heaping) tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon 

Allow eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile grease a 15x10x1-inch pan. Add a sheet of parchment paper on top and then grease parchment. In a bowl stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Preheat the oven to 375.

In your mixer, beat eggs on high speed for five minutes until they are very thick (yes, this is necessary).When it is finished, gradually add in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. Gently mix in the flour mixture.

Spread batter evenly onto the greased pan. Bake for about 15 minutes (or until cake is done). While your cake is baking, lay out a clean dishtowel and sift about a tablespoon of powdered sugar on top of it. Immediately after cake has finished baking, you're going to transfer it to the towel. Gently roll it up with the towel, and set it on a wired rack to cool.

While the cake is rolled up and cooling, cut up your butter and mix it up with the vanilla and cream cheese (at room temperature), gradually add in powdered sugar. When everything is well mixed, add your pumpkin and cinnamon and mix again. Set in fridge to stay cool while cake is cooling.

Once the cake has cooled, gently unroll it from the towel and remove towel. Spread cream cheese filling over the cake generously and then roll back up. Take a knife and cut off the ends for aesthetic effect Wrap in saran wrap and chill for 2-6 hours (The longer it sits in the fridge the better it is going to taste later).

This recipe isn't difficult, per se, but we did learn how important it is to follow the baking and rolling instructions to a T. Make sure your cake is completely finished cooking before removing it from the oven, and give it time to cool before adding the cream cheese. If you don't, your cream cheese will be oozy and you won't get to have as much on the cake. Cora and I were pretty impatient, though, and had to hurry up and have a taste. We cut off the ends and grabbed two forks! Even though it wasn't chilled, it was extremely yummy! 

I hope you guys are enjoying everything this season has to offer!

Love,
Casey

Homemade Pecan Pie

This is one of those recipes that has been passed around by everyone. It's both in my great aunt's personal recipe book and on the back of Karo syrup. When I made it for Christmas last year, my father in law exclaimed it was just how his mother used to make it. High praise indeed!

In my opinion there's no better pie than the Pecan pie. It's a southern delicacy and a staple at any proper get together. I made this one for a girlfriend's bridal shower and it turned out just perfect.

And yes, I know that you can go to any grocery store and pick up a pecan pie just as surely, but I'm telling you, the recipe is so simple, you'll want to do it yourself for that extra homemade flavor that sets this dessert apart.

Pecan Pie

Here's what you need:

1 Marie Calender's deep dish pie crust
2 cups of Pecans
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of Karo light corn syrup
 2 T of melted butter
1 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract



Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and in a large bowl combine all ingredients except the pecans and stir well. Pour in the pecans and stir again. Transfer mixture to pie shell and CAREFULLY place it in the oven. You're working with liquid in a pie shell here so definitely proceed with caution and make sure no husbands, children, or pets are underfoot when you're putting this in the oven. Bake pie for 60 minutes or until center of pie reaches 200 degrees. If the top is getting too brown, take it out and cover with aluminum foil and keep baking.



This turned out really wonderful, and safely made it from my kitchen to the bridal shower venue. I'll be making it again next weekend for my sister in law's shower, and then again for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can't go wrong with Pecan pie! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

Okay, if you're a fan of Pinterest (like me) I'm sure you've seen recipes for these yummy cookies floating around on the boards. I witnessed these for the first time at a bridal shower I was helping to throw and was hooked. They're delicious, and you can tweak this recipe to your liking or to fit what is available in your kitchen. For my part, I had to do just that. Here is the original recipe. I had everything I needed, minus the creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks. What I did have plenty of was chocolate chips and peppermint extract, so I decided to see what happened if I just upped the chocolate chips and peppermint. I was pretty pleased with my results. Here's what I did:

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

Ingredients
1 bag of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 egg
1 stick of unsalted butter (softened)
1 tsp of peppermint extract
6 drops of green food coloring
1 12oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips

This recipe is so simple, you'll be surprised how quickly you're done. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and combine all of your ingredients minus the chocolate chips. Be careful with the food coloring, a few drops is going to give you a light green, more is going to make these great for St Patrick's Day, if you catch my drift. Now the original recipe says to stir together the ingredients, but you've got a stick of softened butter to mix in a thick batter that has no liquid save for the one egg you've added, so I recommend using a mixer. I did. Make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated; your batter will be thick and sticky - like cookie dough (obviously). When you're satisfied with the batter, pour in the bag of chocolate chips and gently mix them with the mixer into the cookie dough. Use a tablespoon to transfer them, two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I used parchment paper to avoid making extra dishes. This step depends on how thick you want and how many cookies you need. I made mine a little bigger because I'm lazy and didn't feel like making several batches or pans, so I only had twenty cookies, but you can make as many as three dozen with this mix. Bake for 8-11 minutes, allow to cool and set and then transfer to a container, plate, or your mouth. I chose the latter. :)

These came out very moist and soft, which is my favorite kind of cookie. I was really happy with them. The extra peppermint extract smelled strong as I poured it into the batter, but once cooked, it made the perfect mint cookies. This was definitely an effective substitute for mint chips. My girlfriend also used Andes Mint chips in hers and they turned out delicious too. They probably took me a total of 20 minutes to make with minimal clean up or hassle. These will definitely get made again. I think they'll be great for Christmastime and St Patty's Day, too!

Go whip yourself up some right now and thank me later!

Love,
Casey

Coca-cola Cake

Now for some baking! This is such a yummy and rich cake that is really easy to make. I like it as something really quick to throw together for get-togethers or just as something easy and to have as a dessert at home. The trick is, of course, that you have to like chocolate and Coke. Fortunately, I'm a big fan of both. Here's how I make mine:

Coca-Cola Cake 

Ingredients

Cake
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 cups of mini marshmallows
1 cup of Coca-cola
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt

Glaze 
4 cups of confectioner's sugar (powdered)
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla 
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup of Coca-cola

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 13x9 inch cake pan (Sheet cake pan). In a pot, combine butter, Coca-cola, and cocoa and bring to a boil, stirring off and on to avoid clumps or settling at the bottom. Meanwhile, you'll want to combine your flour, white and brown sugar, and salt in a big bowl (Everything is going to eventually get stirred into this bowl so make sure you have picked one that can securely hold all of these ingredients). When your cocoa/cola (see what I did there?) mixture is boiling, remove from heat and pour into flour bowl, stirring it good. In a measuring cup, combine baking soda and buttermilk and stir well. This will get foamy and rise, so go ahead and pour it into your big bowl along with the eggs and vanilla. Whisk together and stir in marshmallows.

Transfer your mixture into your sheet cake pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes (or until fork/toothpick comes out clean). Let your cake cool for about 15-20 minutes before you begin with the glaze. Glaze will be runny enough without the added heat to keep it from thickening!

Take your pot that you used to make your first cocoa/cola mixture and start again, bringing butter, cocoa, and Coca-cola again to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla and powdered sugar. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time while continuously stirring to avoid clumping. Pour this mixture right on top of the cake as a nice glaze. Allow about 15 minutes to set (if you can wait that long). :)

*This cake is also great with a few pecans (about a cup) in the glaze, if you like, or served warm with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream, which is my husband's favorite way to eat it.