Strawberry White Hot Chocolate

I love everything Valentine's Day, mostly because I love pink and hearts, but we don't really celebrate it. It just isn't a priority. I'll make some treats and we will go out to dinner at some point, but nothing more than a normal date night. Of course, our anniversary and my birthday surround it and I better get treated like a queen those days! I'm just selectively high maintenance. It works well for us.

But......

I made you a present. I hope you like it. Since I can't give it to you, I gave it to my guys for Valentines Day.

It's super easy. And delicious.

To start go make this Strawberry Syrup. It's handy to have around.

And it's so much better than the fake stuff you can buy at the store.

Then make this hot chocolate but let's change a few things. 

See below or the full recipe! 

Strawberry White Hot Chocolate

serves 4

8 oz white chocolate, chopped 

1/2 cup strawberry syrup

2 cups milk

1 1/4 tablespoons cornstarch

In a a saucepan, over med/low heat, heat your chocolate and strawberry syrup. Stirring often, do not let the chocolate burn. Once the chocolate is melted, whisk in 1 3/4 cup milk, making sure that all the chocolate and milk combine evenly. In a small bowl stir the remaining milk and cornstarch together, making sure there are no lumps. Stir it into the hot chocolate and let it cook until thickened, stirring often. Serve warm with whipped cream, marshmallows or alone. (I prefer unsweetened whipped cream)

Chocolate Peppermint Chip Cookies

Peppermint is one of my favorite things and pair it with chocolate and I am all over it! I made this Chocolate Peppermint Chip cookies for my little Monkey's Cubbies class. I baked up a half a recipe of these guys and a recipe of these cuties, packaged them up in cute little bags that I stamped with a snowman and sealed with red washi tape and sent them to church with him. I hope the kids like them as much as we do. I can't keep my husband out of them. As I type this I have butter softening for a second batch. I may buy multiple bags of the Peppermint Chips to keep around the house so I can have Christmas in July with the babies.

 I scooped the remainder of the recipe into balls tossed them onto a cookie sheet and stuck them into the freezer just to firm up, then I moved them to a freezer bag so that I could pull them out of Christmas Eve and bake them up for family and possibly leave some for the big man in red, if they last that long, I can make no promises. ;-)

Chocolate Peppermint Chip Cookies
yields approximately 3 dozen if using a small cookie scoop
1 1/4 cups butter softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp peppermint extra
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
 3/4 cup peppermint chips

Place butter and sugar into the bowl for your stand mixer and beat on medium speed around 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Stop and scrap down the sides, add in the eggs and vanilla and beat another minutes longer. In a separate bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients and mix on medium until the dough comes together and flour is no longer visible. Stir in the chips. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F and top baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop cookies on keeping 2 inches apart. Bake 8-9 minutes, until edges have set. Allow to cool for around 5 minutes on cookie sheet before moving them to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely before putting hem in an airtight container. Cookies will keep for about a week, as long as they are kept in an airtight container.

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies Sprinkled with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

 I made these for the, girls only crafty retreat, my mom and I usually go to twice a year. It is always a perfect combination of girl talk, crafting, relaxation, bad chick flicks, mostly from the 80s and tons of food. These brownies are based from my favorite brownie recipe, from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, which also happens to be one of my favorite cookbooks. This recipes makes a large amount of brownies, not only do you use a 13x9 pan but they're thick too, so don't freak out when you realize you need 3 sticks of butter and half a dozen eggs. I usually cut them fairly small because they're so rich and fudgy this time I cut them larger than normal and got about two dozens brownies. I also made the "Elvis Blondies" that have been rolling around in my head but I think they need some serious tweaking before I commit to a recipe just yet. 

   We had a few brownies left since we had a massive amount of food as usual. In sweets alone we had these brownies and my blondies along with some butter pecan cookies that were delicious and addictive, a sinful chocolate cake with coffee filling, chocolate butter cream and chocolate ganache, banana pudding that was so light and creamy, grabbed that recipe up, some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, stole that recipe too, and guava and cream cheese empanadas that were redonkulously good. That was just the sweets, don't even get me started on the hearty stew, chips, onion dip, AREPAS, got that recipe too, HOLLA, muffins, bagels, veggies and Mediterranean salad that I need that recipe for, so good! Its amazing we weren't sick from gorging ourselves. So needless to say I had some brownie leftovers that I sent to work the mister, mostly to keep me from eating them ALL. According to what I heard back, his employees LOVED them too, like rolled their eyes back in their head and started muttering things, that kind of good. I highly recommend you make these for someone with a sweet tooth or for a chocoholic, they will be indebted to you for life! 

Adapted from: Nigella Lawson's Birthday Brownies

1/4 cup Nutella

1 1/2 cup butter (3 sticks)

14 oz super dark (but not unsweetened) chocolate, chopped

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup semi sweet mini chips or chopped hazelnuts

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup Nutella

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (or any type of Sea Salt, preferably a coarse grain)

Preheat over to 350° F. Butter and 9x13 baking pan and line with parchment paper. In a medium to large sauce pan, melt, Nutella, butter and chocolate over medium heat. Once melted remove from heat. In a separate bowl whisk together vanilla, eggs and sugar. Stir egg mixture, flour and chocolate chips or nuts into sauce pan. Pour batter into prepared pan and set aside. In another bowl, (I would recommend using a mixer here) whisk, cream cheese, Nutella and sugar together until smooth. Spoon medium sized dollops over the surface of the brownie batter and swirl with a knife and sprinkle on sea salt. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until mostly firm but not totally set.Allow to cool before slicing. Makes a maximum of 48 small brownies or 24 large brownies.

Mustache Bash {Liam turned 1}

Its been almost three weeks since we celebrated Liam's first birthday. We had a "small" dinner with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, which is small for most families, it was 16 for us and that isn't everyone. To make things easier we did a pasta bar. We put out three types of pasta, three types of sauces, two toppings, salad fixings and homemade bread with a dipping oil for dinner and we had two desserts, cupcakes and chocolate pavlova. I made a couple of cute menus to go along with and called it a day. Easy right?

My menus looked like:

I grabbed a couple of snap shots of the food with my parent's camera since mine was dead and we were saving it for shot of the birthday boy and his "smash" cupcake. I'll try to update the post when I get those from them. But for now all I have is dessert shots. We didn't really decorate beyond that, we just used white serving dishes and mason jars. In fact any decor we used was just left out from our Family Cookout two weeks prior. Good timing huh? 

Vanilla Confetti Cupcakes with Swiss Buttercream and Chocolate mustaches. I bought my mold at Bake It Pretty. 

Chocolate Pavlova with whipped cream and strawberries. 

I know my husband took some pictures and/or a video with the camera with barely a charge but they have disappeared into oblivion. I've searched the entire computer and they are gone and I wiped the memory stick after I uploaded them. I don't know what I was thinking?!!? The one time I try to be efficient it backfires. Oh well, we have out pics from our phones

and the shots I put on Instagram and the pictures my sister put on there as well. 

Robot Birthday Party Part 3... The FOOD

The recipes I used for the party are...

Cosmic Cookies via Bakerella. 

I ♥ her so much!!! They were very butterscotchy! I loved them that way though. A few people thought we should cut back on the butterscotch chips next time. But honestly I loved them that way so I will probably leave them just the way they are.

Gear Gumdrops also from Bakerella. 

Told you I love her. These are a lot  of work but very much worth it. The orange were root beer flavored and the blue were bubblegum flavored. I did two recipes and wound up with left overs. Next time I think I will do a fruit flavor and cut down to one recipe. Maybe next time I will remember to put out the treat bags so guest can take them home too.

Gadget Gellies from Food Librarian. 

I used berry blue and orange flavors. I now have a major obsession with gelatin related recipes. I bought the tiny spoons from Bake It Pretty but now they have these spoons that I think I like better. They have everything you need and more! I bought the shot glasses from Oriental Trading.

Mechanical Marshmallows

These are pretty self explanatory. Just put lollipop stick in marshmallows then dip in melted chocolate and shake on the sprinkles let set until chocolate hardens. Easy!

Contraption Cupcakes

(mango lemonade cupcakes)

I'm not going to give you the recipe I used for the cupcakes. It was a new recipe and it was dry and had a weird texture. So I recommend using this cake just add lemon zest and reduce the milk but the amount of lemon juice you add. I would add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and zest of at least 3 lemons.

For the butter cream we still haven't perefected that either. It had an amzing flavor but the textuer was odd. We used...

2-3 cup powered sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup fresh mango puree

but next time I think we will strain the puree and maybe cook it down until it has thickened and let it cool. Then add it to a cream cheese frosting. Maybe! Who know what I will do.

Bionic Brownies

1 cup butter
2 cups cugar
1/2 cup cocoa
4 eggs beaten
2/3 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup nut optional

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease 13x9 pan. Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cocoa; stir to blend. Remove from heat, stir in eggs. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda; stir into chocolate mixture. Stir in vanilla, chocolate and nuts. Bake 30-35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from pan.

Birthday Bot Cake

(chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling)
For the cake we used Hershey's Black Magic Cake. It is our most used chocolate cake.
 For the filling...
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package of chocolate  cream sandwich cookies
Cook flour and milk together in small saucepan until thick and bubbly. Cool. In separate bowl cream shortening and butter. Beat in sugar. Beat in flour mixture and vanilla. Stir in cookies.   
 The filling for this cake can be used to make a wonderful chocolate filling, an amazing mint, coffee, caramel or peanut butter filling. Just omit cookies and add flavoring of choice. 

A Happy Hubby AKA Apple Crisp

     I wanted to make something for Lee to welcome him home. Something that makes him feel warm and fuzzy, so I made one of the easiest things in my repertoire, but is one of his favorites. I used to make this all the time when we were first married, but it has severely fallen out of use. I think I stopped making it because I'm always exploring new recipes and flavors, but sometimes the same ole, same ole is what you really need. It is super easy and super good. 

 

The Ingredients:

The apple base

6 apples, peeled and sliced in the juice of a lemon

1/8 cup agave nectar

1/8 cup raw sugar

1/8 cup AP or Wheat flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, I don't always add it)

salt AND black pepper to taste (trust me here)

The streusel topping

3/4 c up raw oats

1/8 raw sugar

2 large pinches AP flour

1/2 stick (4 TBSP butter)

White Chocolate for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine and mix all ingredients for apple base. Pour into a small casserole dish. 

See the flecks of pepper????? trust me!

Next combine remaining ingredients leave a few small bits of butter to top.

Cover apple mixture with streusel mixture and drop bit of butter in a few spots. 

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minustes or until brown and bubbly.

Melt white chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds, stir if not melted completely put back in and heat to 10 second intervals, stirring in between each. Be careful, white chocolate burns easily. Drizzle over crisp.

Serve warm.

♥ And they all live happily ever after. The End. ♥

Strawberry Shortcake Trifle

I love trifles! I really really really love trifles! I make them any chance I get. I mean, what is there not to love?!?!?! Cake, a fruit sauce of some sort, maybe some custard and whipped cream, that is a recipe for some oooey gooey creamy, dreamy awesomeness! Plus I have some kind of strange love for trifle bowls. I mean really, a bowl on a pedestal!? That evokes something delectable doesn't it? I happened upon this little beauty at one of those off the beaten path flea markets. The type that will have a table with bone china next to someone selling mass produced toys of Disney characters but aren't the licensed version so they are Mikey Mouse instead of Mickey.  Anyway, I found it for less than $10.00 and could not leave without it.

This one was one of my best! The crazy thing is that there is no strict recipe.

Lousy Picture huh? It was gone before I could get a good shot! I was lucky to get this one!

First I made my favorite white cake. Once it cooled I crumbled it into the bottom of my favorite trifle bowl. While that was baking I cooked a large bag of frozen whole strawberries, in a large saucepan covered 3/4 of the way up with water and about 3/4 of a cup (I'm guessing here) of raw sugar. Simmer over medium heat until the strawberries can be mashed with the back of a spoon. You could easily leave it this way but I wanted my smooth so I pureed my in the food processor. Mine was extra tart so I added a bit of honey and vanilla extract but a vanilla bean would have been AMAZING!!! Or some balsamic vinegar would have be great too. I put them back on the stove to thicken a bit more. When it was to the right consistency I set it in the refrigerator to cool but, you could let it come to room temperature slowly, but I was in a hurry. When I started the strawberries I put my metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment for my mixer in the freezer. When we were about to walk out the door I beat a medium size container of heavy cream and slowly added just a bit of confectioner sugar, for a touch of sweetness. I also had a frozen, small to go container because we had an hour car ride in the heat and I wanted it to stay fluffy. When we got there I topped the trifle and we were ready to eat.

Now I only got a tiny bit of the trifle and was quite proud of myself. But I knew it was amazing when Lee's grandmother, Mom-Mom, could not stop telling me how good it was. She is one person I love to get approval from. Since the first time I cooked for Lee he has compared my food to hers and she loves that I keep her baby boy well fed and satisfied.

Old Fashioned Tasty Goodness

 

     So this cupcake looks like any other unassuming vanilla cupcake cake with plain vanilla butter cream right? WRONG! It's a miniature bite of heaven! My Mom made these for a party she had and she sent them home with me. Manners are very important to me and it would have been extremely rude to turn them down, right?

     One bite teleports you back in time. You know the three layer cakes that ladies always bring to church socials?  But then again all of the recipes she used came out of a Pillsbury cookbook, circa some time in the 1970s, maybe older. It was Granny's but, when she realized Mom had the bug to bake and she was off the hook for baking for everything, she passed it on to her. One day, I'll get it but until then I have to call her every time I need a recipe. That book also has the best muffin recipe ever in it, but I'll save that for another post.  The cake recipe is our go to, make for everything, super adaptable cake. The frosting is very similar to 7 minute frosting but easier and just as good in my opinion. I'm not sure if we've ever used the lemon filling before, but I will be using it again that is for sure!

 

For the cake:
2 cups of AP flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of shortening
4 egg whites
vanilla (us as much as you like)

Butter and flour two 8 inch round pans or fill 2 cupcake pans with liners. Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat the first 6 ingredients on medium for two minutes. Add egg whites one at a time then vanilla. Beat two more minuets. Pour into prepared pans. Bake cupcake 20-25 minutes and round cakes 30-35 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool then fill and ice.

For the Lemon Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups water
2 egg yolks lightly beaten
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons lemon zest

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a small sauce pan. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat until just boiling. Boil 1 minute. Pour 1/3 of hot sugar mixture into eggs and stir until combined. Add mixture back into hot sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in juice and zest. Cook until just bubbles. Add butter and stir until melted. Allow to cool. Fill cupcakes.

For the White Cloud Frosting:
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In small bowl, beat egg whites and salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar, continuously beating until soft peaks form. In small saucepan, beat corn syrup to boiling. Pour in thin stream over egg whites. Continue to beat until frosting is stiff. Beat in vanilla. Allow to cool slightly the frost the filled cupcakes.

Circus Shower Part 2... The Recipes

Mocha Cupcake with 
Chocolate Ganache

For the cake:
*all ingredients  should be at room temperature

1/2 cup cocoa powder 
2/3 cup hot coffee 
2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate coarsely chopped
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt 
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine cocoa, coffee and chocolate, whisk until lumps dissolve. Set aside to cool. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating 1 minute after each. Add the vanilla. In a separete bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add half of dry mixture to butter mixture. Mix on low until well integrated. Add the yogurt and mix well. Add the remaining dry and mix until combined. Add the chocolate mix until blended but do not over mix. Fill liners and bake. Standard cupcakes bake 20-25 minutes, mini cupcakes bake 7-10 minutes.

For the ganache

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup chocolate finely chopped

Heat the cream over low heat and stir in chocolate. Let cool to room temperature. Dip the cupcakes in the ganache and decorate with sprinkles.

Lime Cupcake with 

White Chocolate Buttercream

For the cake:

*all ingredients should be at room temperature

1/2 lb of butter

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs 

3 cups AP flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons lime zest

2 tablespoons lime juice 

Preheat oven to 325 F. In large bowl cream butter and sugar using an electric mix for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating 1 minute after each. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. In small bowl stir together milk and sour cream. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture alternating with milk mixture. Add lime juice and zest. Fill liners and bake. Standard cupcakes bake for 20 minutes, mini cupcakes bake for 7-10 minutes.

For the buttercream:

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

6-8 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)

3-9 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 1/2 to 5 cups confectioner sugar

Heat chips, 4 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of milk in a saucepan over medium heat until totally melted. In a mixer combine the white chocolate mixture with sugar and vanilla. Add more butter, milk and sugar as needed.

Fever Fudge 

(I renamed it Red Hot Fudge for the Shower)

This is actually a recipe that my sister found and is a take on "Fever Fudge" from the Harry Potter novels. She made it for our July 4th get together and asked her to make it for the shower. She made the vanilla and spicy version instead of the mint and spicy version. This time she added yellow to match the the theme. I think it was absolutely adorable. For the recipe go here. Don't be fooled by the bright colors it is very tasty and I think she has added it to her growing collection of go to recipes. :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

If you have a major sweet tooth like me then these are going to rock your world! For the recipe go here and if you make them be prepared to over indulge!

Baby Boy Blue Punch

This punch is not only super easy but is surprisingly great tasting.  It is also very easily customized to any color palette. It is another one of those recipes that make you raise an eyebrow when you see it but trust me it is actually very good. 

1 bottle of White Cranberry or White Grape Juice

1 2 liter of Club Soda (or Lemon Lime Soda)

1 envelope of unsweetened blue powered drink mix (Koolaide)

1/2 a 48oz container of Vanilla Ice Cream

Chill the juice and soda before the party and just before serving mix juice, soda and drink mix then scoop ice cream on top and then serve.

Lemon Trifle

So for this recipes go here. I did leave the whipped cream off of these only because we ran out of time. They are good either way.

Snack Mix

It isn't much to look at but ap[paently is is quite good.

It is 1 lg bag of pretzels coated with white chocolate and nonpareils mixed with blueberry kettle corn and animal crackers. I didn't actually eat any but I was told it was a great pairing. I found the kettle corn at my local grocery store but you can order it at their website.

I don't have the recipe for the strawberry fluff because I keep losing it. I am going to get it and keep up with it this time because I am starting a family recipe scrapbook. I plan on doing a post about family recipes as soon also.

I bought the cupcake liners and mustache mold at bake it pretty. I love everything in their online shop!!!!