Birthday Cake Oreo Fudge

In honor of Oreo's birthday today, I really felt like I needed to make this fudge. At my house we don't discriminate celebrating birthdays just because they don't happen to belong to a human being. 

My cute bloggy friend Dorothy at Crazy for Crust posted this a few weeks back and I went out that very day and bought the birthday cake Oreos.  (I'll be honest, I was just waiting for an excuse to buy some.  More than happy to oblige, I'm sure.)

I decided to use a 2-ingredient fudge as my base because... welp, I was feeling lazy, but I followed her main idea.

This fudge is crumbly and incredibly sweet but only takes about 5 minutes to whip up.  The benefit to one piece being PLENTY is that you have lots to share.


When you cut this fudge, the Oreos and sprinkles make a huge mess...  If you are worried about that you can omit the Oreos on top (add about 5 more to the batter) and just sprinkle with jimmies.

Happy Birthday Oreo!!

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Chocolate Raspberry Bark

I think that cars should come with built-in signs.  Like so you could communicate with other drivers.  Maybe you could have a touchpad in your center console so you could select one to display on the side or back of your car.  I'm pretty sure it would be beneficial to have signs that said things like:  "Dude, use your blinker", "Sorry for cutting you off!", and "Stop picking your nose". 

(When you used that one you'd put on your sunglasses and look the other way so the driver thought maybe it was an accident...)

And when you were out of gas and coasting 1.6 miles to the closest gas station you could put out your sign that says "Sorry for going 3 miles an hour, my tank's dry."  and then the guy behind you wouldn't be riding your tail, honking his horn, and giving you a whole flock of birds.

Plus it would make driving a lot more entertaining. 

Like when the sign in front of you said "Honk if you think it's okay to drive while wearing a snuggie", or "If any of my six deer heads fall out of my trunk, please stop immediately.  Deer are people too."

And of course this wouldn't be distracting at all.

And obviously, my next invention would have to be a company that sells bling for your car signs.  You know, so you could put purple rhinestones and feathers on your sign that says "Dude, your truck smells horrible, and when you stare at me at stoplights, it makes me uncomfortable."


Now that you see how busy my brain has been, you can probably understand why I forgot to post this bark back around Valentine's day...  If you can forgive me maybe I can give you some free car-sign bling someday or something. 

Enjoy!

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Sugar Cookie Frosting

 

On Valentine's day the kids and I baked up some Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix cookies to decorate.  Super yummy but super flat... maybe should've followed the baking directions for high altitude and added some more flour...  The frosting was so complimentary I thought I'd post it.  It is sweet and rich so you only need a thin layer, but it was the perfect "kid cookie".  The hearts of course got eaten up right away. 

And in case you need photographic evidence of this frosting's deliciosity:   

(The cookie is fully intact but the frosting is all licked off.)

Told ya it's good.

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Creamy Lemon Crumb Bars

Anybody else feeling like winter should have been over about a month ago??  Unfortunately, where I live it's pretty much winter until May.  Seriously.  Sometimes it's still snowing.  I cry about it daily.

During this last stretch of winter I like to bake a bunch of springtime/summertime treats and pretend we don't have three more months of winter ahead of us.

These lemon bars are great because they aren't too tart and never taste metallic.  The crumb topping goes perfectly with the creamy lemon filling, and a big glass of milk.  I've made these lemon bars 4 or 5 times and probably will never look for another recipe.  They really are that good.



PS- Don't use a foil-lined pan to make these.  Once refrigerated they cut and remove pretty easily just using a small metal spatula, so you won't even need it.

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White Chocolate Raspberry Scones

I want you to know I like you.  Like really I do. I so appreciate everyone who reads and follows and leaves sweet comments or lets me know they've tried my recipe.  It feels good to be able to share something I am so passionate about.

I love these white chocolate raspberry scones and hope you can consider them a big (super late!) Valentine's THANK YOU from me for being part of my life.

(Yes, they turn out looking like freaky alien brains, but hopefully you can overlook this because they are super delicious and only taste a TINY bit like freaky alien brain.)

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Gram Gram's Juice Can Ice Cream Sandwiches

My sweet grandmother passed away last week.  She was one heck of a lady who outran bears, saved someone's life using the Heimlich, and gave away roses from her garden to anyone passing by.  Not only was she spunky and sweet and tough as nails, she was an award winning candy maker and might've had a sweet tooth to rival mine.

When we lived in Europe I used to spend summers at her condo with my dad.  We watched Matlock and fed the geese, and made these ice cream sandwiches together.  I will always cherish those memories.

We made these a few days ago in honor of her.  I think she would have approved.


You can use any cookie/ice cream combo you want.  We used Chocolate Cherry M&M cookies and artisan vanilla bean ice cream (all other vanilla ice creams are dead to me).  You can even use store-bought cookies if you want.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

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Cinnamon Scones

Normally I quite like where I live. But I have two major pet peeves that get me all fired up about Utah.

Number one- pictures of Jesus with blue eyes.

*NEWSFLASH*   Jesus was Jewish.

Number two- the use of the word "scone" referring to Indian fry bread.

It's really disappointing to go to a place called SCONECUTTERS and find out that all they sell is Navajo tacos. Really, I think I might be emotionally scarred from that experience.  I know this is a difficult concept, but scones are supposed to be sweet little British biscuits that are usually triangular and served with tea.

I'm sorry, I just die a little inside every time I hear Indian fry bread referred to as a "scone".

Anyway.  These English scones are delicious and rich and triangular.  You could probably make them half this size.  Also they don't turn out a freaky deeky yellow color, I just added that effect to see if I could make them look jaundiced.

Maybe they need a bili-bed.


Hahaaaa.


It's ok if you don't get my joke... Let's just move right along to the recipe so things don't get awkward, shall we?

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Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Cups

I thought I took step-by-step pictures while making these cups, but of course now they are nowhere to be found.  If the directions make them seem complicated, you should know they aren't at all.  The point is basically to throw melted chocolate and a bunch of yummy mix-ins into a silicone cupcake mold, allow to set, and pop out to enjoy. Feel free to experiment with any combinations you want.  Also if you can't find the caramel bits you can just cut regular caramels into fourths and use them like bits.

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Red Hot Cupcakes and Frosting

If you have been wondering where I am you should know that my laptop charger died.  (I realize I have already used that excuse once this year, but really, I should probably be a professional charger exterminator or something because I do a really good job.)

I have currently taken my husband's laptop hostage for the night so I can post some of my Valentine's treats far enough in advance that you can actually make them if you want to.

Anyways, this charger drama cause a real rift in our marriage.  I was all "Whyy do you have to be in *marketing*... why couldn't you work at the Toshiba parts assembly plant! Seriously!  Why do these things always happen to me!"

So then for awhile I'm really mad at him for not being a charger repairman.

But then he says he'll go get me a slice of pie to make me feel better. (Obviously he knows the way to my heart.) And he returns with not one slice of pie, but two WHOLE pies, (which is like 8 slices of pies, or 16 if you have portion control), so then I pretty much forgive him for not being a Toshiba repairman, because first of all, who does that? and second of all, he buys me pie so he pretty much rocks.

I think these cupcakes are a pretty great way of saying "I forgive you for not being a Toshiba repairman and you're a pretty awesome pie-bringer."

Which is always a great thing to express to people, don't ya think?


These are really yummy. I was so-so on the frosting, because I have aversions to buttercream.  But the red hots in the cake... mmmm so good.  Don't be afraid of them if you don't like feeling like your mouth is on fire.  These have a great cinnamon flavor but are not really "hot" per se.  You don't need to have a glass of water handy to chase it with, I promise. My 2 year old didn't even notice, and he's kind of a wuss.

Have a great week! 

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Graham Streusel Coffee Cake

I am a fan of coffee cakes.  To me they are just an acceptable way to eat cake to eat for breakfast, so what's not to love?  This is even more true for this recipe, because it uses a spice cake mix as the base.  Just ignore the fact that you're adding even more butter and sugar to it and calling it breakfast.  Your tummy with thank you.  (But in spirit of full disclosure, your thighs probably won't.)

I think it's pretty obvious from the ingredient list that this is a sweet coffee cake, so if you can't handle sugar in the morning, you can feel free to eat it for snack or dessert instead.  

I on the other hand do not function properly without massive amounts of sugar, so I have no problem having a slice for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and afternoon snack.  And maybe a teeeensy slice for midnight snack.  

This is because I am actually an alien and my blood has been replaced by extraterrestrials with pure glucose.  

Which, of course, I need to keep regenerating by constantly consuming sugar.

duh.

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