Cake Box Cookies

Hi there Friends! Just a quick note-- If you want to read my most recent blogs, your going to have to backtrack a lot! This is one of my very first blogs, which I'm very proud of! Enjoy--

Let me start off by introducing myself, my name is Alisa, and I am obsessed with baking! I love sweets, and I love to create sweet treats!
For as long as I can remember, I have always loved dessert. I’ve gotten myself into this horrible habit of right after I finish eating lunch, dinner (sometimes even breakfast!) I immediately have to have dessert! Anyone else like this? Come on… admit it!

I wanted to start off my blog with a super easy recipe for a chocolate chip cookie. This will probably be the easiest chocolate chip cookie you will ever make (other then the pre-made store bought cookie dough)

These cookies are a favorite of mine and my family. They are called “cake box cookies”.
I like these cookies for when I need a last minute dessert, don’t have enough ingredients on hand, a quick after school treat, sports team snack for my kids, I could go on and on with reasons to make these! How about you just want a cookie for no reason at all! That sounds like a good reason to me.

Here is what you need:
1 Box of  white/yellow cake mix (I will be using a butter golden mix by Duncan Hines)
¼ cup of vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup of chocolate chips

Now these cookies can be made with any flavor and any brand of cake mix. I will usually use whatever I have in my pantry. You can also use any mix in’s that you like. Today, I am using the chocolate chips as my mix in.

To start you empty the box of dry cake mix into a bowl (or mixer), combine the cake mix with the 2 eggs and ¼ cup of vegetable oil, and mix together with a fork, or your mixer. Once these three ingredients are mixed, you will have your cookie dough.



Here is a photo of the dry cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of vegatable oil

This is what the dough will look like once it is mixed.
Now you add the chocolate chips to the dough (or whatever mix in you prefer).

Roll dough into 1 inch balls on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. This will make about 2 dozen cookies.

There you go, you now have the most perfect, easy to make chocolate chip cookie!

Here are some other suggestions for different types of cake box cookie mix in’s:
(always use the base recipe which is your box of cake mix, 2 eggs, and ¼ cup of vegetable oil)
*walnuts, pecans, almonds
*white, peanut butter, butterscotch, dark chocolate chips
*coconut
*sprinkles
Pretty much anything you can imagine can be used in these cookies!

Here are my 2 kidlets, Charlie and Ciera ready to enjoy a yummy chocolate chip cookie!
Happy baking and enjoy,
Alisa aka Dessert Before Dinner

Lemon Cake Balls

The other day I went to bake a bundt type cake. When I went to get the cake out of the pan, the whole thing fell apart. Destroyed! I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t want to throw it away, there was nothing wrong with the cake, except for that it didn’t actually look like a cake. So instead I put the destroyed cake into a gallon ziplock, threw it into the freezer for about 2 weeks, until I was ready to do something with it!

About a year ago I tried making “cake pops”. They are always so yummy and moist, and coated in chocolate, YUM! So I thought, I could totally make cake pops {sans the pops} out of this destroyed cake of mine. So I did! I brought them to a Church event, they were a huge hit and they turned out great!

Here’s what you do:

*Bake a cake (any flavor) mine happened to be lemon.

*Once the cake is done baking, and cooled throw it into a food processor (I used my hand blender). Blend the cake into crumbs.



*Take any frosting (canned is fine), I made a lemon buttercream. Take about a cup of the frosting, and mix it into the ground up cake crumbs.

*Roll up the frosting/cake crumb mixture into about 1 inch balls (kinda like cookie dough). Place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

*Freeze the cake balls (I’d say a minimum of 30 minutes). The longer you freeze the better, it makes the cake balls easier to work with.

*Take the cake balls out of the freezer, and dip them one at a time into melted chocolate. I used white candy melts by Wilton. I find that candy melts are super easy to melt/work with. They come in all different colors and even chocolate flavor if you’d prefer. You can find candy melts at JoAnn’s, Michaels or www.wilton.com. Melted chocolate chips will work fine as well.
*Once the cake balls are all dipped, you can top them with colorful sprinkles. I used some fun summer colors.

Here is Ciera with the finished cake balls. She loved helping make these!
*Place the cake balls back into the freezer to harden.

There you go, these are super yummy, and always a fun treat for all ages!

Homemade crockpot applesauce

Ever wonder what to do with those apples that haven’t yet gone bad, but are not as crisp as they should be?
Make applesauce!
Here’s my recipe:
*about 7 of any type of apples, peeled and chopped (a mix of green and red apples works very well)
*approx 1/2 cup of orange juice
*cinnamon sprinkled to taste
*about 1/3 cup of brown sugar/sugar substitute/agave nectar (optional)
Cook in a crock pot on high until the mixture is boiling. You can then blend the applesauce with a hand mixer/food processor if you like a thin type applesauce, or feel free to leave the apples chopped.
Great served warm,  your house will smell AMAZING! Perfect for Fall!

Enjoy!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

One of my favorite desserts to bake is cupcakes. Who doesn’t like a cupcake, right?

These cupcakes were inspired by one of my favorite cupcake shops. They make a “cookies and cream” cupcake, which is an Oreo flavored cake with an Oreo baked in the center of the cupcake.  It is then topped with a buttercream frosting.

Well, I decided to come up with my own version of this fabulous cupcake, and it goes a little something like this: It’s a chocolate cupcake with an Oreo baked in the center, topped with a cream cheese icing {love cream cheese icing} and Oreo crumbs for decoration. Oh yes! It is pretty amazing.

I brought these cupcakes to a Church event a few months ago, and they were a big hit. So, at the request of the lead pastor at my Church, Steve Phillips of Journey Christian Church in Irvine, click here for the Church website: http://www.journeyoc.com , Im going to share about these yummies and this pretty simple recipe!

I told him that I would blog about these cupcakes and share how to make them, as long as he promised to take the cupcakes off my hands when I was done. He said that would definitely not be a problem!

Here is what you will need for this recipe:

1 boxed chocolate cake mix, plus the ingredients needed to prepare the mix (or if you’d prefer, you can make homemade chocolate cupcakes, recipe below)

1 package of Oreos

1- 8oz. block of cream cheese

8 oz. of butter (both salted or unsalted will work, I always prefer salted)

4 cups of powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract



So to start, for the chocolate cupcake you can either use a boxed chocolate cake mix, or if you have a little more time, you can make a homemade chocolate cake recipe. Both work just fine! Here is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes from the “Better Homes and Gardens” cookbook (my absolute favorite cookbook!):

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
¾ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups milk

Directions
1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into prepared, lined cupcake pans.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven, for about 20 minutes.

If you decide to use a boxed cake mix, prepare the mix as it states on the box.
Once you have your cake batter, pour it into your lined cupcake pan (this will make about 2 dozen cupcakes)

Place one Oreo cookie vertically into the center of the cake batter.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Let them cool completely.

Now for my favorite part, the icing! I love all kinds of icing, but cream cheese is my favorite. I can eat this right off the spoon, it’s SO yummy. One of my little baking tricks that I always do, is I make my own icing. Im not a big fan of the packaged store bought canned icings. I think that this one extra little step makes all the difference in the dessert, even if you are using a boxed cake mix.

Here is my favorite cream cheese icing recipe:
Ingredients
8 ounces butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Directions
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Top the cupcake however you would like with the icing. I like to use my piping bag/tip to make it look fancy! For those of you wondering, I used a Wilton tip #2D.


Now take a few Oreos, crush them up, and sprinkle them over the icing.


And there you have it, my cookies and cream cupcake. Enjoy, and Happy Friday!

Cherry Crumble Bars

I came across a recipe the other day for raspberry crumble bars. The recipe was on a website that I like to go to www.allrecipes.com

It seemed pretty easy, and I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for, except for the raspberry jam. So I thought why not still make this and just use a different type of jam in place of the raspberry. I searched my fridge, and saw that I had a cherry jam from Trader Joes (one of my very favorite jams!)
The bars turned out great and my family loved them. I actually made these again to bring to a Labor Day potluck we went to over the weekend. Perfect dessert for a potluck!

Here is the super easy recipe:


*1/2 cup packed brown sugar
*1 cup flour
*1/4 tsp. baking soda
*1/8 tsp. salt
*1 cup rolled oats
*1/2 cup butter- softened
*about ½ jar (approx 1 cup) of cherry jam (or any flavor jam you prefer)

Directions:


*Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and rolled oats.

*Add in the butter, mix until it becomes a crumbly mixture.
*Press 2 cups of the mixture into a foil lined, greased 8 x 8 pan.

*Spread jam on top of the mixture.


*Sprinkle remaining dry mix over the jam.

*Bake at 350, for about 35 minutes.

Yum!

Back To School

I can’t believe summer is over. It went by super fast, huh? This year my son Charlie will start 2^nd grade and my daughter Ciera will start pre-school. WOW!

I’ve been seeing so many great ideas for healthy school lunches, tips and tricks on parenting websites, pinterest, and from other OC Family bloggers. My friend, Tara has a great blog: http://always-underfoot.blogspot.com. Not only does she have super cute ideas and blog posts, she is also a great crafter and invitation maker. She gave me a great idea for my kid’s lunches this year.

I was reading her blog and seeing all her cute instagram photos of her son’s Bento Box lunches and I thought, I need to do this for my kids. So, Charlie and I went out to Target, and I had him pick out his own Bento style box:

He is super excited about having fruits and veggies all cut up in his lunch box with a sandwich, chicken, etc. in the same box!
I love the idea. Not only is he going to be eating healthy snacks at school out of a cute box that he picked out and loves, but it is going to save me from buying so many of those plastic ziplock bags!

Here is a photo of Charlie’s 1^st day of school bento box lunch:


Here is Charlie:



I also wanted to share an easy breakfast idea that my kids go absolutely crazy for, “No Bake Energy Bites”

Here is the recipe:


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups (dry) oats
• 2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or dried cranberries or pepitas (its up to you!)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Ciera loves to help out in the kitchen! This is a perfect little treat for the kids to help out with.

*Mix all the ingredients together and roll into 1 inch balls, place balls into an airtight container, and store in the fridge for up to a week.
Here they are!

Good luck this school year!

Soccer and Snacks

Soccer season has begun for my son Charlie. It’s time to begin weekday practices and games every Saturday. I signed up our family to bring snack for the very first game.
Of course you need to have the sliced oranges for the kids at half time, and then the juice,  fruit snacks etc. for everyone at the end of the game.
I wanted to do something special for the kids. Something different. When Charlie played little league last season I made these cookies called “pillow cookies” for the team snack. The kids loved them! It’s an Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie (can you tell I love baking with Oreos?).
They are pretty easy to make and a lot more fun than a plain chocolate chip cookie!
Here’s what you do:
Start by making a chocolate chip cookie dough (any recipe is fine) here’s my favorite-
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar (or 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses)
1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Place sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in mixer bowl
*Sift together baking soda, salt, and flour
* Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture
*add chocolate chips, mixing for 15 seconds.

*Take a little bit of the cookie dough, flatten it out like this:


*Now, place an Oreo on top


*Take a little bit more cookie dough, flatten, and place it on top of the Oreo

*Pinch the edges of the cookie dough together, so the Oreo is completely hidden inside, like this:

Here they are, I have placed 9 of these on a cookie sheet. They are a lot larger then a regular cookie!


Here’s Ciera modeling the cookie:


My Son’s soccer team is called “The Blue Jedi’s”, so I made up a bag for each of the kids that included a juice pack, fruit snack and pillow cookie:

Charlie loved handing these out to his soccer buddies, and they all loved the snack! {Even the parents!!}

Annnnddddd…. My boy scored his very first soccer goal!!!!! Wahoooooo!

Enjoy and go Blue Jedis!!
(if you make these please let me know what you think. Ive seen these cookies made with brownies stuffed inside rather then the Oreo. Hmmm, what  other fun combinations  can we come up with?)

COOKIES!

I want to share a couple of my favorite cookie recipes with you.
Oatmeal cookies with dried cherries and pepitas (pumpkin seeds):
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup pepitas
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars until smooth, beat in vanilla and eggs. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Beat into creamed mixture. Stir in oats, cherries and pepitas.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.
Here are the cherries and pepitas I used (from Fresh and Easy)-

Here are the cookies-

Here is another favorite cookie of mine, snickerdoodles (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens):
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter, add sugar, vanilla and egg. Combine baking soda, cream of tartar and flour. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture.
In a small mixing bowl combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in the sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for approx. 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack. This recipe makes about 36 cookies. I usually double this recipe.

Here is a dessert platter that I put together for a Monday night football event my church is having tonight:

I have included my oatmeal cookies, snickerdoodles and pumpkin swirl brownies (recipe for the brownies coming very soon!)
I found this reusable plastic tray at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 (I used a coupon, of course!) I love it because it has dividers built into the tray, so all the desserts can be kept separate.
Enjoy the cookie recipes, and please let me know if you try them out. I would love to know what you think. Have a great week!