360/366 white christmas

 Favorite gift #1 = snow

 Favorite gift #2 = super gigantic peanut butter cups

 Our drive out in the morning,

and our drive home at night.

We had an exciting day!

308/366 uno and yogurt cookie dough

Lazy day. Pajamas all day. (Cute piggie ones.) 

Voting, oil changing, take-and-baking, story reading, UNO playing. 

While the boys were out working on the car, I whipped up some yogurt cookie dough, which is my new “healthy” dessert. It's not really healthy, but it's healthier than when I make it with butter. I usually don't measure and I usually just improvise the ingredients, because I can't find the one I used to use. It's kind of like Bakerella's, but with melted butter instead of softened and only brown sugar. (I posted it on the MakeHappy Facebook page months ago, but haven't had the desire to go through months of posts to try to find it.)

Anyway, I substitute the butter with plain yogurt to make it healthier. It's not as tasty, but it's close enough and I don't feel the slightest bit guilty. Us girls shared some while we played UNO. And laughed. Good quality girl time. ♥

157/366 peanut butter frosting

I love this frosting.

I made chocolate zucchini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for our annual Teacher Appreciation Brunch. Thirty six tiny, delicious cupcakes. I used the original Better Homes and Gardens recipe this time, but I've made a healthy version before that is just as tasty, as long as you have that amazing frosting.

Don't worry, teachers. I made sure I was completely done frosting yours before I licked the bowl. And the spoon. 

And the offset spatula. . .

peanut butter chocolate cheesecake with pretzel crust

I've been wanting to make a cheesecake version of the peanut butter pretzel balls for a long time. I volunteered to make a dessert for a family party a few weeks ago, and the guest of honor happens to love peanut butter and chocolate, so I decided it was time to attempt the cheesecake. (Dun, dun, DUN.)

I knew I wanted a pretzel crust. I envisioned a peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate on top, and maybe mini chips mixed in. I'm not an expert at cheesecake composition, so I consulted the internet recipe treasure trove for a peanut butter cheesecake recipe. The winner was this Ruggles Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake recipe from Peggy Lynn on Food.com.

I altered the recipe by using pretzels instead of Oreos for the crust, subtracting one egg (from prior experience, I've found that one egg per 8oz package of cream cheese is sufficient), letting it cook for closer to two hours, and replacing the sour cream topping with chocolate ganache. (I did not bake the ganache—I poured it on after the cheesecake had cooled a bit.) I topped it with extra chopped peanut butter cups.

Um, yeah. It was amazing.

It smelled amazing while it was baking, and it tasted just as good. I could have easily eaten the whole thing by myself, though it was rich, so it would have taken me a few days. But I'd commit to it—I'd eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. These sacrifices make me a better person.

What's your favorite cheesecake?

chocolate zucchini cake with peanut butter frosting

This is absolutely one of my favorite cakes. The “Choco-Zucchini” recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, though plagued with an unfortunate name, is very tasty. 

But the best part about it is the peanut butter frosting. The first time I tasted it, I thought it was too rich and sweet. It grew on me, however, as we worked our way through that first cake, and now it is one of my favorite frostings.

This time around, I didn't use the cake recipe, but made up my own. I had a chocolate cake mix that was nearing its expiration date. I combined it with the called-for three eggs, two cups of shredded zucchini, and two cups of shredded carrots. I added a tablespoon of oil—because I've ruined cakes before by cutting the oil completely—but I really think it would have worked without the oil. It did need a tablespoon or two of water to get it to the right consistency, but that would vary depending on the water content of your vegetables.

I divided the cake batter into two 8" square pans. After baking and cooling, I covered one with the peanut butter frosting (the full amount in the recipe—shh!). I covered the other with cream cheese frosting, and called Little Mister in to help me decorate it. Having full reign over the sprinkles was quite a power trip for him! :)

The cakes disappeared entirely too fast. Looking at these pictures makes me want to bake another one.

11/366 s'more cupcakes

 Struggled with the Canon S5iS today. I had less than optimal light for this camera.

But Nikon is currently replacing “major parts” on my camera, so hopefully I'll have a better-than-new machine soon.

Sweetpea found a recipe for S'Mores Cupcakes in October, and it's been hanging on our fridge waiting for the Halloween candy to be gone, the Thanksgiving desserts to be gone, and then the Christmas/New Year's goodies to be finished. We decided to jump on it this week before the Valentine treats show up. She did almost everything herself, and she was so proud to do so.

She was so excited to do the frosting and decorating herself. I was so busy studying the light and angles and trying to make the camera cooperate, I didn't realize until it was too late that she only used half the frosting. She covered all the cupcakes, but could have used twice the frosting on each one. Oh well. It's not like we need the extra sugar.

I know, I know. You're waiting for the recipe, right? Sorry, I'm not going to give it to you. The chocolate cupcakes were not so great. The kids loved them, but I'm a little pickier about my chocolate cake. I find that a lot of recipes geared toward kids—usually found in kids' magazines, quirky chapter books, and character merchandise—are so very basic and overly sweet that they don't meet my expectations. 

But I don't want to disappoint. I will give you the simple marshmallow frosting recipe. I did a little searching on the internet and found three takes on marshmallow frosting:

1) butter cream + marshmallow creme, like we used today

2) fancy whipped egg white style, and 

3) sticking a marshmallow on top of a baked cupcake and baking for a few minutes to let it melt.

That last one seems a little strange to me. Wouldn't the cupcake overcook and dry out?

The egg white option sounds great, but not very kid-friendly. If I feel like making another attempt at s'more cupcakes, I'll use this recipe.

Here's what we did today:

Marshmallow Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

3 tsp vanilla

14oz marshmallow creme

Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, beat until well combined. (It won't necessarily be smooth and frosting-like yet.) Add marshmallow creme and beat until thoroughly combined, smooth and creamy.

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes. This frosting will harden a little as it stands, so it's best to make it just before you're ready to frost the cupcakes.

*     *     *     *     *

So, make a batch of chocolate cupcakes. Cool completely. Frost with marshmallow frosting and top with mini chocolate chips and graham cracker chunks. Pretty easy, and the kids will love it.

2011 favorites

2011 was a great year.

I can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

  Lilacs and the beginning of Photo Friday

Water glass xylophone

  Lemon cheesecake

Photo found here.

My daughter decided to redecorate her room this year, abolishing the Princesses.

I'm embracing (and excited for!) her future and mourning the end of her babyhood.

Bittersweet, for sure.

Photo from this post.

  

Zig Zag Seuss quilt

 

LEGO organization

Photo from this post.

Peanut butter brownies

  The wedding cake

Watermelon on a stick

Cucumber smoothies

Chocolate peanut butter pretzel balls/bars

Seeing my recipe all over Pinterest was very flattering.

Roasted broccoli and walnuts with pasta

Photo found here.

More on my photography journey here.

Nostalgic (for me) first post with my dslr here.

In February, I purchased my first dslr camera, a Nikon D7000. I haven't put it down since. The camera and learning photography have dominated my 2011. I have much, much more to learn and am loving every minute of my education. Many thanks to my sister-in-law Megan Cieloha and her friend Courtney from Click It Up A Notch (and several of their friends via blogs) for their tremendous help, whether they know they gave it or not.

And many thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and encouraging me along the way! This blog would be very lonely without you. :)

cake balls

I almost titled this post “cake ballz.” I wanted to, but this isn't really that kind of blog. I think I'm just in a punchy kind of mood because I'm exhausted, just finished a large cup of coffee, and think I may be developing strep throat. Oh, the joys of Christmastime.

Some of you may remember my first attempt at cake balls. It didn't go well. I twenty-questioned my cake-ball-wizard friend for tips this time, and they did go better. I think the first time I didn't have enough frosting. These babies need to be pretty darn wet to hold the ball shape well.

I used scraps from the wedding cake for the cake balls, and leftover frosting, and added peppermint extract because chocolate peppermint cake balls are my favorite. But as I was starting my second batch, I discovered I didn't have enough peppermint extract, so I rummaged through the internet and the house to find a solution. Creme de Menthe would have been perfect, but we didn't have any. This shall be remedied as soon as possible. I ended up pulverizing candy canes (from last year, mind you) in the food processor and adding the dust to the frosting. It worked great for flavoring, but left the cake balls a weird peachy-pink color and made them ultra wet as the candy cane powder melted. Why do candy canes melt when crushed?

One tip from my friend was to use almond bark instead of actual chocolate or candy melts for dipping. She says it tastes better than candy melts, and melts better than chocolate. The Queen of Cake Pops, Bakerella Angie, has more tips in her cake ball tutorial. You should check there if you want to make them yourself.

I set the kids up for assembly-line sprinkling. Waxed paper on the table and a row of easily accessible sprinkles. I dipped the balls in the hot almond bark, then placed them immediately in front of the children. The almond bark cools quickly on the cold cake balls (they dip more easily if really cold), so you can't monkey around. You have to make a sprinkle plan, little people! As soon as they were done sprinkling one, I would bark at encourage them to prepare for their next cake ball, so they'd have enough time before the almond bark hardened. We made it into a speedy game, reminiscent of the old I Love Lucy candy factory episode, without the eating. It was fun.

I gave away some and packed most of them away for Christmas Eve/Day, but kept the rejects out for us. You know, the lumpy ones, the ones toward the end that had crumbs in the almond bark, the ones that didn't get all the way covered and had little cake hernias. There were several in this condition.

And now, I'm a little tired of peppermint cake balls. I'll have to make two flavors next year.

Are you baking this week?

What's on your baking list this year?

peanut butter topped brownie smackdown

Last weekend, I got an email from my friend Cathy describing a recipe she tried for peanut butter cookie dough brownies. It turned into an email conversation that went a little like this:

Cathy: I tried this recipe for peanut butter cookie dough brownies.

Me: Yum! 

Cathy: Eh, it was ok. Could use some improvement. I bet you could do it better. Maybe with your peanut butter balls mixture?

Me: Duh. Everything is better with my peanut butter balls mixture. This sounds like a peanut butter chocolate challenge.

Cathy: I double dog dare you to make a better peanut butter brownie.

Me: You're on!

I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it. How could I resist a challenge involving peanut butter and chocolate?

I began with a pan of brownies, divided into four because I had four recipes in my plan to try.

First, I had to make the recipe Cathy tried. You can find it here. For smackdown purposes, we're going to call it “Recipe #1.” It tasted fine, but Cathy was right—it needed a little something. I noticed that the person who posted it adapted it from another recipe, so I clicked over there for research. That recipe, hereby known as “Recipe Zero,” contained twice the amount of butter and it was salted butter.

That's what is missing! The salt!

So I made Recipe Zero and added it to the pan. I didn't have any salted butter, so I added 1/4 teaspoon of salt to my half recipe. (That would mean you'd need to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the original recipe if you're not using salted butter.)

Then I gave Little Mister a bag of pretzels to smash and dug out my peanut butter bar recipe, upon which the peanut butter balls recipe is based.

I whipped that up (see below for recipe), added the chocolate chips and divided it in half. I placed half in the pan (labeled “MakeHappy”). I mixed the pretzel pieces into the other half, and found that I needed some extra melted butter to hold it all together. That one went onto the last quarter of brownies and received the “MakeHappy w/ pretzels” label.

This was super duper fun for me. Can you tell? I even made washi tape flags.

When Sweetpea came home from school, I cut tiny pieces of each section for all of us and we had a taste test.

I have to say, the kids liked all of them. They couldn't tell the difference. Peanut butter? Good. Chocolate? Good. I'm a little more discriminating. . . 

I liked my peanut butter topping best, but this is no surprise. I'm such a fan of the gritty sweetness provided by the brown sugar in that peanut butter mixture, I'd eat it on top of anything. Probably even sardines. I liked the pretzel version the very bestest.

But my peanut butter topping is not very cookie dough-like. If you want cookie dough, definitely go for the salt + butter version (or salted butter version, whichever you prefer.)

So for me:
Winner—my recipe (below) with pretzels
Runner Up—my recipe without pretzels
Cookie dough winner—either of the originating recipes, using salted butter or unsalted butter + salt

Oh, and I couldn't find mini M&Ms anywhere (called for in Recipe Zero). Do they still make those? I substituted mini chocolate chips for now, but I'm on the lookout for mini M&Ms. They're great for baking.

Peanut Butter (Pretzel?) Topped Brownies (printable version)
1 8x8 pan of your favorite brownies
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Jif)
1 1/8 cup brown sugar
1 1/8 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp salt

optional: 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

optional: 1 cup mini pretzels, crushed into tiny pieces + 1-2 Tbsp extra melted butter, as needed to hold everything together

• Combine peanut butter, brown sugar, powdered sugar, melted butter and salt in a bowl until thoroughly mixed. 
• If desired, stir in chocolate chips. 
• If desired, stir in crushed pretzels and extra melted butter. Press together with your hands, if necessary to form one solid mass of peanut butter topping.
• Spread on top of brownies.

If you add the pretzels, they'll bulk up the peanut butter mixture quite a bit. This will either give you a thicker layer of peanut butter goodness on top of your brownies, or some leftovers. You could use the leftovers to make some peanut butter chocolate pretzel balls, or flatten the balls and make homemade peanut butter cups. Or you could just eat it. I won't tell.