Mini Pumpkin Pies

I just love fall recipes! So be prepared for lots of them in the next upcoming few months! Be sure to make plently of these little guys, because they will go fast!

Ingredients

• 2 prepared pie crusts
• 3 eggs, divided
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Roll each pie crust out onto a floured surface to a rough rectangle about 11 inches square. Cut each pie crust into 12 3-inch rounds. Fit the little pie crust circles into 24 mini pie dishes.
3. Separate one egg, and place the egg white into a small bowl. Beat the egg white until slightly frothy, and brush the edges of each mini pie crust with egg white. Place the remaining yolk into a bowl, and beat with remaining 2 eggs. Mix the softened cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice into the eggs until the filling is smooth. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the filling into each crust.
4. Bake the pies in the preheated oven until the crust edges are golden brown and the filling is set, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool before eating.

 

candy eggs

 Yum Yum Yum Candy Eggs!

coconut cream egg

A few weeks ago my mom came to visit and said she wanted to make candy eggs. SWEET i'm in. She had two recipes to try, so I did one and she did the other. The one i did was peanut butter eggs, and she did the coconut cream eggs. I recently made the coconut cream eggs last week....HUGE hit a work, one co-worker ordered 5 boxes! So you know they are good!

peanut butter ready to be dipped!

mom making the coconut eggs

Dipped in Chocolate!

Coconut Cream

peanut butter eggs

Coconut Cream Eggs:

¼ lb. butter

1 8 oz pkg. cream cheese

2 lb. 10x sugar

1/2teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 lb. angle flake coconut

Cream butter and cream cheese.  Sift together sugar and salt then ADD to cream mixture.

Add vanilla, mix well then add coconut.  *Refrigerate batter for about an hour or more. 

*I put mine in the freezer for a little bit. It helped with the dipping process. I found refrigerating them did not help set them for dipping. The consistency of the eggs tends to be kind of sticky, and the heat of the chocolate will shape them weird. So, put them in the freezer to help harden them up, and it will make the chocolate dipping process so much easier!

Then shape into small or med sized eggs & dip into chocolate – refrigerate to set. (Now it is OK to use refrigerator)

Bunny Cake

No, it is not made of real bunny! 

Happy Easter! Here is a fun and easy recipe for your holiday weekend!

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 3 3/4 cups flaked coconut
• 1 (16 ounce) package vanilla frosting
• 30 small jellybeans
• 4 red licorice

Directions

1. Heat oven and prepare two 9 inch round baking pans as directed on cake box. Prepare cake batter with as directed on package adding in 1/2 cup of coconut. Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake and cool cake as directed on package.
2. When cooled, place one whole 9 inch cake layer on serving tray, forming the bunny's head. Cut 2 convex shaped ears from each side of the second layer, place on each side of head to form ears. Use concave shaped piece for the bowtie, place about 1/2 inch below head.
3. Frost entire bunny covering top and sides of bunny. Pat remaining 3 1/4 cup coconut evenly over top and sides. Decorate the bunny face and bowtie with jellybeans and use the licorice to make whiskers.

St. Patty's Day tasty treat

Chocolate Irish Cream Liqueur Cupcakes

Take your favorite cupcake recipe and give it a twist! In your cupcake recipe, when it calls for water, just cut that in half! For example, if it calls for 1 2/3 water....make it 2/3 water & 2/3 liqueur.

I saw a recipe for an icing for brownies, but it didn't suit my needs for the cupcakes. So i played around with ingredients, and found something that worked great! And tasted good too!!

Lissa's Irish Cream Liqueur Frosting

3-4 cups confectioners sugar (depending on how thick you want consistency)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons Irish Cream Liqueur

2 tsp milk

Berry Berry Goodness! Great BBQ dessert!

This weekend was a GORGEOUS weekend!

The weather was great, it was warm, the sun was out, and it was the 1st official day of spring!  I hope you East Coast people visited a Rita's Water Ice for your free water ice!

This recipe I actually found online. It is a great No-Cook Spring/Summer/BBQ dessert recipe. My husband and I were having friends and family over for a BBQ. Guests were coming between 2 & 3 in the afternoon. It is around noon when I realize that I had not figured out a dessert! I found a great dessert to try,  I was reading through the recipe, and it needed to sit in the freezer overnight, so that was a no-go.

I googled on the internet quick easy BBQ desserts. This one popped up and I read through the recipe directions, it sounded super easy, and I didn't need to bake anything! It was a winner. I rushed the grocery store, grabbed the ingredients, and rushed home to start. I then realized I didn't quite grab the correct ingredients, but I could improvise with what I had bought.

This recipe would be great at a cookout, or an outdoor dinner. It is just great for the warm spring & summer weather!

Berry Berry BBQ Cake

(the original name was kinda plain so I changed it, sorry!)

Ingredients
1 loaf butter pound cake
1/2 cup strawberry jam
1 cup sliced strawberries
**1/2 cup blackberry jam
**1 cup blackberries, each cut in half
4 cups whipped topping

**see below

 **( In exchange for the blackberries, I used blueberries. It worked great! This would make a great 4th of July recipe since it is red, white and blue!)

Directions
( I found it does not matter what layer you use for the berries. Strawberry does NOT have to go on bottom. For blackberries, I used blueberries instead.)
 1.Slice pound cake lengthwise into 3 equal layers. Set top two layers aside.

2.Spread strawberry jam on bottom layer and top with strawberries. Gently press second layer onto strawberries. Spread second layer with blackberry jam and top with blackberries. Gently press remaining cake layer onto blackberries.

3.Frost top and sides of cake with whipped topping. Garnish with additional strawberries and blackberries.
 

* Do not put on whipped topping until ready to serve. I learned this when I tired to put on and put in refridgerator. It get kind of melty. It still tastes good though!

If you are short on time, this recipe is a real winner and will impress your friends and family!

 

 

rolled sugar cookie recipe

Lazy Weekend Concoction:

Rolled Sugar Cookies

This recipe is the recipe I used for my St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Sugar Cookies. You can use this recipe for any holiday of the year or for any fun sugar cookie cutter project!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground all-spice

1/8 tsp sat

2 tsp cinnamon ( I added this ingredient)

1/4 nutmeg (I added this ingredient)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, soft

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

**A bowl of cinnmon & sugar to top the cookies with if desired to make cinnamon sugar cookies

Directions:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees
• Combine flour, baking powder, all-spice, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
• Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl till creamy.
• Add eggs and beat till just blended.
• Mix in the dry ingredients until just blended
• Press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 mins or until firm.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. ( I did mine a 1/4 inch thick and they came out much better than the 1/8 inch.)
• Cut out cookies with desired cookie cutter shape. Continue to gather dough, re-roll and continue cutting till all dough is used.
• Place all cookies on a greased cookie sheet., about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 10 mins or till lighty browned at edges.
• Cool on sheets till lightly firmed.
• Decorate as desired!

I rolled my cookie dough in sprinkles before I rolled them so that it was already incorpoated into the dough.

I also sprinkled colored sugar onto my cookie cut outs bfore placeing them in the oven, so that way it is baked into the dough.

**If you want to make cinnamon sugar cookies, dust them with the mixture before baking them.

Enjoy!!

St. Patrick's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE!

I hope everyone wore something festive today! I wore my shamrock socks under my work boots!

Here are a few recipes for you to celebrate the holiday!

Cinnamon Sugar Shamrock cookies & Festive Chocolate Chip cookies

Shamrock cookies first!

Gather the ingredients of what you need.

 I love cinnamon, it just makes everything taste so good!

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl

In a larger bowl, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.

One dough is mixed shape into a disc shape

wrap in plastic wrap and place in refridgerator till firm

Next roll out dough on flour surface.

Recipe say 1/8inch thick, but I find that slightly thicker cookies are better!

Follow your regular chocolate chip recipe. When it comes times to add the chocolate chips, add some festive ingredients to it. I found cookies decorations at A.C. Moore. I used sprinkles that had shamrocks in them!

Once combined, place on a cookie sheet as you normally do, and bake as directed.

Use what cookie cutter shape you desire. You can use this recipe for any cookie cutter shape.

I found this shamrock cutout at A.C. Moore for $0.69!

Transfer cookie dough cutout to a greased baking sheet.

Add your decorations to bake! I used green & white sugar toppings. Place in oven.

Remove from oven and let cool.

And serve!

Chocolate Chips with Festive shamrock sugar decorations!

Check back for recipe!

Lazy Weekend Concoctions: Part III

Lazy Weekend Concoctions,

Valentine's Day Edition

Part III

Cosomopolitan Truffles

Truffles are a great romantic recipe that anyone will love! These truffles are so good, you loved one will think they were made by a fancy professional baker! They are also easy to make, and it is not a long or hard process! Click the link below for the tutorial and recipe!

Truffles Recipe

Here are  pictures of the ones I did. I just sprinkled some color sugar on top or some mini chocolate chips.

You can use truffles at any holiday, just decorate them to the theme you want!