Valentine's Day Treats Massacre

      Hello again, twice in one day...lol... So with Valentines Day approaching rapidly I have decided to start making some holiday appropriate treats and desserts.  With that in mind, my son came home from school yesterday and told me they are having a Valentines Day party at school.  He requested the cheesecake brownie cake in a heart shape...  Okay no problem I tell him.  I had just bought this metal heart shape tube cylinder cake pan/bread pan at Odd-Lots the other day that I figured they would be perfect.  

      When I woke up this morning I started to think about how I was going to make this perfect for my little boy, he deserves nothing but the best.  Also, considering the fact they will given to each and every classmate in his class, therefore I must make these brownie cakes better then before.  My brother in law says to me maybe you should do a test run to see how the pan works because you don't want to run into any problems or disasters the night before the party.  I thought about and I totally agreed with what he had said, besides I don't think anyone here would mind brownie cake again...lol...

      Okay, so now I'm in the kitchen and every thing is mixed and I realize that there are absolutely no directions for this pan.  So I fill it up half way and I lay it on it's side on top a baking sheet.  There was still a lot of brownie batter left over so I improvised I used small individual silicone teddy bear, heart and moon shaped cake pans for the rest of the batter.

     Well here is where it gets interesting and the massacre takes place so to say..lmao...  So apparently a test run was the way to go because after the 30 minutes were up I take it out and the little silicone ones were so cute and perfect.  I take the lid off the heart shape cylinder and the brownie batter exploded all over me and all over the counter.  I laughed to hold back the tears cause I tend to get a little emotional sometimes lol.  So now that half of the batter is now all over the place I decide to try this again with what is left inside the pan.  I closed it back up, stood it up horizontally in the oven and did not put it on a baking sheet, I put it directly on the oven rack itself for another 30 minutes.

     Well after an explosion, disaster and an hour of baking I finally managed to get it right.  Now that is what i call determination...lol... There are no perfect people in this world. Even the top chefs and bakers out there have had anywhere from a minor kitchen disaster to some of the most major kitchen disasters ever.... lol.... I am going to go and practice my decorating now on the brownie cakes and I think I am going to frost the tops with the cheesecake topping and then with whats left over I might add some red food coloring and accent with pink for Valentines Day.. Like I said I want to know exactly what I am going to do for his party on Monday and they must be absolutely perfect. Nothing but the best for my little guy... :) 

      Until tomorrow stay warm, safe, and happy!!!!

Cheesy Biscuits

     Good afternoon everyone, hope your all having a good day.  I apologize for not writing last night but it was a very busy day for me.   Okay first lets start off by saying that the cheesecake topped brownie cake from my previous blog was a major success.  My husband and I had tasted it that night and it was amazing.  The next morning my father, and brother in law had some and were already telling me I better be making more real soon... 


    Later in the afternoon, I had decided to whip up another one of those Sugar Free Cheesecakes that I had previously blogged about for my mother.  She really can't eat much of what I make because of the diabetes so i figured I would make her something nice.  So while I'm in the kitchen doing all of this the kids had come home from school and see that i'm baking something.  They seen the cake dish and start cutting away at whats left of the cake... The next thing you hear " Mommy this is amazing, this is the best brownie ever, Aunt Nikolle, this is delicious, Aunt Neenee, next time i just want the brownie" thats the little guy, he's a cutie,lol....He didn't like cheesecake part.... My mother in law came by to pick up my nephews and we sent a piece home for her, she called up and instantly said baby girl there good enough to sell... So i think enough said on that. 


      So after the cheesecake was made my husband put a nice pork roast in the oven, I thought you know what cheesy biscuits.  So instead of baking something sweet to blog about I choose nice yummy biscuits.  


What You Will Need:


       2 cups flour
       2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
       1/8 teaspoon salt
       1/3 cup margarine 
       3/4 buttermilk
       1 cup shredded cheddar 
     




   
       In bowl, combine flour, cheddar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in butter until crumbly (you will know when you see it i can't explain it but you will know it).  Stir in the buttermilk just until moistened.  Knead on a floured surfaced for 1 minute.  Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness, cut with 2- 1/2 in cutter.  place on a greased baking sheet.   I used a star shape cookie cutter.  




      Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.  My father loved them he had to have eaten about 15 of them at dinner.  Sorry I do not have any photos posted but my camera has seen its last day, so now i have to save up for one, so I promise within the next week I will have a camera!!!


     I will be back tonight with something yummy, if you have any ideas for me please send me a comment either on here or on facebook and I will be more then happy to give it a try!!!!


     Until later stay safe, Stay warm and stay happy:)


        

Cheesecake Topped Brownie Cake

    Good evening everyone, I am so sorry it has been awhile since my last post.  I came down with the flu and as you all know when you are sick you really do not feel like doing to much of anything.  Besides I really would not want to eat anything a sick person baked anyway...lol...  Well enough about the flu I spent way to much of my time and energy on that this past week, on to bigger and better things...


    Today my mom was dying to get out of the house and go for ride to Odd-Lots for a few odds and ends.  My family has been really great to me with my newly found hobby, and acquiring all the baking pans and gadgets I need to become a great baker.  So today I was like a giant kid in  a candy store at Odd-Lots. We bought mini silicone cake pans in a heart, teddy bear and bunt shapes, two 10 inch round silicone pans, cake decorating set, and a bunch of other stuff.  It was great I had a ball 


     So anyway, on tonight I decided to bake Cheesecake Topped Brownie Cake  yum yum yum....  I had to of course like the big kid I am use the round 10 inch silicone cake pan we bought today and the decorating kit.  


Okay so what you will need:


                                               Brownie Cake


         1 cup flour 
         1/2 teaspoon baking powder
         1/4 teaspoon salt
         2 cups sugar 
         3/4 cup cocoa powder
         1 cup butter 
         4 eggs 
         1 tablespoon vanilla




                            1.   Preheat to 350 degrees and grease and flour 10 inch silicone pan.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl.  Mix sugar and coca in medium bowl. Set aside.

 2.  Melt butter, stir in cocoa sugar mix. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring until well blended after each.  Add vanilla.  Gradually stir in flour mixture till well mixed.  Spre




 3.   Bake for 35 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from sides of pan.    In my oven it took about 45 minutes, but my oven has a mind of its own and times are always different in my oven then anyone else.  So check on it after 35 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Lift from pan.  

                                    Cheesecake Topping


        1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
        1 cup confectioners sugar
        1/4 cup butter (softened)         
        1 teaspoon vanilla




                 In mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until creamy.  Mix in the vanilla then gradually mix in the confectioners sugar.   


          
         

            After the cheesecake topping was put on the brownie cake I added a little bit of chocolate sauce and topped with a cherry.  Finally it was the best past of the night, time to dig in. I have to say brownies are my favorite, they are weakness.  These brownies, OMG, there should really be a law against something being allowed to be this GOOD... Absolutely sinful...


         Well once again I am up way past my bed time and my eyes are winning the war. lol.. I hope you all had a good night! 


          Until tomorrow, stay safe, stay warm and stay happy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nee~Nee's Stuffed Chocolate Cupcake with a Cream Cheese Filling

   Hello all, I hope you all had a nice day today... So tonight I am not being a slacker... I went out earlier today with my father cause we were starting to run low on baking products.  So I picked up a few odds and ends that I needed to get me through the next few days.  While in the baking isle I realized I had been dying to make cupcakes but had not had liners for the pan.  So thats how I came up with today's tasty treat... My son is certainly happy, so that is a plus, chocolate and cream cheese are 2 of his most favorite things lol.. What more could the child ask for....lol... Well I am off to get started on our little baking adventure be back soon with the details and hopefully not disasters but you never know!!!


   Okay so my stuffed cupcakes go like this:


What you will need:


Nee~Nee's Chocolate Cupcakes
11/3 cups flour 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
2 teaspoons baking powder 
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt 
3 tablespoons butter (softened)
11/2 cups sugar 
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk 


          1.  Preheat to 350 degrees.  Line muffin with cupcake liners. In medium bowl Sift together flour baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt.  Set aside.


          2.  In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy not liquidy fluffy but kinda puffy.  Add one egg at a time beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla.  Add the flour mixture alternating with the milk beat well..

          3.  Fill cups 3/4 of the way full, bake for 20 minutes maybe longer depending on your oven..

Cream Cheese Filling
1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup batter (softened)
1 cup confectioners sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla 


            1.   In a large bowl mix cream cheese and butter until creamy, mix in vanilla, then gradually stir in confectioners sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. 


            2.  Fill pastry bag with a tip to insert cream cheese filling into cupcakes.  


NOTE: If you do not have a pastry bag try using a plastic baggy.




   After I took the cupcakes out of the oven I let them cool for about 10-15 minutes then I inserted the tip of the pastry bag into the top of the cupcake and squeezed until some cream cheese came out the top 

   Well they came out pretty good taste wise I'm still working on presentation lol... The cream cheese filling was amazing and the cake was pretty good, they came out pretty moist.  The only problem that I came across was that I bought Reynolds cupcake liners and I DO NOT recommend them, the paper was ridiculously hard to get off the cakes... Here is one more picture of the best one I decorated..lol... I'm still trying to master that skill....

     Okay, now I am exhausted I think I need a good nights rest, because I have not been sleeping well... 


     Until tomorrow stay warm, safe and the ones you love!!!!!!!!!!

Banana Boileau w/ Chocolate Marshmallow cream Sauce

   Good evening everyone, hope you all had a good day... Well luckily the power did not go off last night from the storm that we had... When it was time for me to figure out what i was going to bake tonight, I went in search to see what ingredients we had to work with.  I realized we only had a minimal amount of sugar left to bake with, so with that in mind it really narrowed down our choices...  With that being said my brain went in to full gear to figure something out... 


     I looked at the kitchen table, once again the fruit bowl caught my eye, this time only I spotted 2 bananas. So I looked on a website for something quick and easy with bananas.  I found something with bananas, chocolate and  nuts and few other things, not really what I was feeling but it gave me an idea. 


    So that is when I decided to create my own little dessert and call it Banana's Boileau w/ Chocolate Marshmallow Cream Sauce.  


what you will need:
banana boileau recipe 
2-3 bananas (peeled and cut)
3 graham crackers (crumbled fine like bread crumbs)
2 tlbs sugar 
3 tlbs brown sugar 
1/2 tlbs cinnamon 


 chocolate marshmallow sauce recipe 
2 tlbs butter
1/4 tbsp vanilla 
1/3 cup mini marshmallow (add a palm full more after the first ones melt)
1/3 cup milk chocolate morsels
1 tbsp confectioners sugar 
1/3 cup milk 

                            




           Banana Boileau

         1.   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

         2.   In a mixing bowl mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon together with you hands.  Add cut bananas to the mixture in the bowel and toss them around until completely covered 

         3.  Put them in baking dish for 10 minutes to bake them and them turn the oven to broil but watch them by putting the oven light on you only want to tops to get a little dark.

                            Chocolate Marshmallow Sauce 

        1.  In medium saucepan melt butter, add marshmallows melt, add chocolate chips melt, palm full more marshmallows and the milk but you have to keep whisking during the process as to not burn, bring to a light boil and remove from heat immediately. 

This is only 4 Banana Boileau with sauce on side for dipping just to show you!  Sorry for the pics I need a new camera.

This is not the best picture but its a plate of them with sauce drizzled all over with a hint of powder sugar

    So after taking it out of the oven and seeing it I really regret that I did not slice the bananas on a bias.. I think they would have plated nicer and obviously the presentation would have been a lot better.  The chocolate marshmallow sauce however was really really good, and to tell you the truth I kinda just threw that one together.  Hey as long as it worked right?  lol...  My son didn't like the texture of the banana from being in the oven but loved the coating and the sauce though....

    Well I will really try to work on getting a new camera as soon as possible so that the pictures my at least do my baking its justice...lol... 

    Until tomorrow, stay warm, healthy and with the ones you who make you happy!!!!!!!!!!

Really bad ice storm (no baking tonight)

    Due to Old man winter and his good old bag of tricks it looks as though up here in the Pocono's we are getting somewhere around 3 inches of ice tonight with the possibility of power outages across my area...  Therefore, I am not even going to make an attempt to bake anything tonight for fear that I might get it into the oven and then the poof the power will go out... So I will be back tomorrow, power permitting that is lol...

    Until then be safe, warm, and I hope your power stays on for those of you who live in cold places....

    Bye for now!!!!

Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce

      I'm getting a pretty late start tonight but that's allowed now and then...lol... So before I start telling you about the baked apples I'd like to say a few things about the pineapple upside down cake.   Like I said last night It was very good while it was still warm.  Today my brother in law and a friend of the family told me they thought it tasted delicious but that the cake was kinda dense, the flavor was there just not the texture.  So in my book I have not mastered that one yet... I also found out yesterday that my oven was off center and that my was why my cake come out slightly lopsided, but it's all fixed now.... Okay enough already, on to the apples....

       

      My husband and I where just relaxing tonight watching a little t.v. and getting ready to watch a movie.  Me of course at the time was still undecided on what to bake tonight.  I thought about banana bread but it was already at this point 11 p.m.  So my husband recommended BAKED APPLES with VANILLA SAUCE.  He knew I had been in a lot of pain lately and especially today with my back so we figured it was simple, fast and easy...

what you will need:

2 apples cored 

1 stick of butter 

water to coat bottom of dish 

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/3 cup of sugar divided in half  (half over apple half in melted butter)

1/3 cup of brown sugar divided in half (half over apple half in melted butter)

1/4teaspoon vanilla

                                         BAKED APPLES

          1.   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To melted butter add cinnamon half of the sugar and half of the brown sugar, vanilla and whisk it together.

         2.     Add a little bit of water to bottom of glass baking dish to prevent burning then place apples in dish, sprinkle the remaining sugar and brown sugar over top the apples and then pour mixture in step 1 over the apples make sure to let it get in the center of the apples.  Cover with foil for 15 minutes then take foil off bast and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes.

                                          VANILLA SAUCE

1 1/2 confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup cream

3 light dashes of cinnamon 

little flour ( just for thickness)

                 1.       In a medium saucepan add butter, cream, vanilla confectioners sugar, sugar, and cinnamon bring to a light boil while whisking the entire time, remove from heat, add a little flour just for thickness

 (cornstarch works best if you have it, i just so happen to have run out so i improvised)lol...

        So that was absolutely sinful I tell you and the vanilla sauce was a perfect added touch to this dessert.  Thank you to my wonderful husband for recommending this delectable treat for us all to enjoy.  I know my posts are usually a bit longer but it is now pretty late and my eyes are starting to win the war. So to those of you still awake at 3 a.m. Good night fellow night owls and to the rest of you hope your dreams are filled with joy and creativity!!!!!     

         Until tomorrow, be safe, healthy and with the ones you love most in this world!!!!!!!!