Thursday Sweet Treats: Strawberry Yogurt Bundt Cake

This cake is delightful! The first time I made this cake was one of my first times baking a bundt cake.  I always remember as a child, that my mom would always turn the cake upside down to get it to fall out. Now I don’t know if that is an accurate memory and I found that the accurate memory was not to turn it upside down right after taking it out of the oven . My cake turned out like this….

I do have a better success story though.

In January, we had the privilege to celebrate our dear friend, Nishant’s birthday with him.  I also had the delight of teaching my new friend, how to bake a cake, and this was the cake he requested from my bank of recipes.  We stuck to the recipe this time, so Shalaka could learn how to use one.  The recipe came from aspicyperspective.com.

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Yields: 1 bundt cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 T lemon juice, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• 8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt
• 12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 cup powdered sugar

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
2. Sift together 2 ¼ cups of the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice.
4. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
5. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool at least 40 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
8. Once cooled, whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.
9. Devour!

 

-jen

Thursday Sweet Treats: Babe Ruth Bars

These are super quick and easy and generally things you have around the house(maybe minus the Hershey’s bars).  I got this recipe from my Gram that lives in PA; we used to make these at least once a summer ❤

Babe Ruth Bars

Yields: 1 9X13 cake pan

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups of white corn syrup
• 6 cups of corn flakes
• 6 Hershey bars

 

Directions:

1. Bring peanut butter and white corn syrup to a boil.
2. Mix in flakes.
3. Pack in greased 9X13 cake pan; while hot put Hershey bars on top and evenly spread it when melted.
4. Cool and place in the refrigerator (just because they taste better cold)

 

Enjoy

-jen

Thursday Sweet Treats: Apple Pie Muffins

These may be perhaps some of the best muffins that I have ever made or maybe even eaten for that matter.  We have a ton of apples still, frozen of course, from our apple picking that we did in the fall. The recipe is from this blog.  I did not change anything and won’t cause they are sooo good, so thanks for the great recipe Liz at Virtually Homemade.

Apple Pie Muffins

Yields 24 “normal sized” muffins

Ingredients for the Topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 6 T all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 t ground cinnamon

 

Ingredients for the Batter:

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups diced apple

 

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour or line with paper cups or parchment paper, 12 cup muffin tin.
2. Make the topping:  Combine brown sugar, flour, melted butter and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix until crumbly;  Set aside.
3. Combine the brown sugar, oil, egg and vanilla in a large bowl.  Mix and set aside.
4. Sift together the flour, soda, salt and cinnamon.  Blend the flour into the mixture, alternately with the buttermilk.  Add the diced apple.  Mix until just combined.  Spoon into prepared muffin tins.  Sprinkle generously with topping.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown and the top springs back when touched.

 

Enjoy

-jen

Thursday Sweet treats: gooey Brownies

This is a recap from the shower that we had this past weekend for my lovely brother-in-law and his future bride.  The first time I made these, I messed them up and melted all the chocolate chips for the shower I separated them.  I liked them better when it has the melted chocolate swirled in but it’s up to you.  I will post both. And it seems I didn’t take a picture of them but you know what brownies look like right?

Gooey Brownies

This recipe is adapted from the Ghiradelli recipe.

Yields: 1 9×9 pan of brownies or 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of chocolate chips (separated in half if you want whole chocolate chips in the brownie or not separated if you want it extra gooey with chocolate)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon salt

 

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. In the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, melt the 4 oz (or 8 depending on the above)chocolate chips and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

4. Stir the brown sugar and vanilla into 4 oz of the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and mix well.

5. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture, mixing well until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips(or remainder of the melted chocolate chips) and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Bake cupcakes for 10-12 minutes.

7. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into 2-inch squares.

 

Enjoy

-jen

Thursday Sweet Treats: Lemon Crusted Cookies

My friend told me about this recipe and really I like to bake things from scratch but sometimes there are days when you just don’t have time.  I could eat these all day long.  They have that lemon-drop taste, mmm which is so delightful.

Pic was borrowed since I was in a hurry 🙂

Ingredients:

• One box of lemon cake mix
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• powdered sugar

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Spoon out 1/2 inch balls on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
4. Dust with powdered sugar.

 

-jen

Thursday Sweet Treats: Oreo Balls

I’m getting caught up here from the holidays.  I made so many different things to give out I didn’t have enough time to blog them.  But here is a treasured recipe.  Only 3 ingredients and you could eat ‘em all day!

Picture by busy at home

Oreo Balls

Yield: Approx. 25-30 balls

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Oreos
• 1 package of softened cream cheese
• 1 1/2 packages of Bakers chocolate or almond bark

 

Directions:

1. Put all Oreos in a gallon size zip lock.  Be sure to release all the air inside.
2. Mash Oreos with a spoon, rolling pin or any other ridiculous object you can come up with. Note: You can use a food processor for steps 1 and 2…. I just find it easier to do by hand.
3. Once Oreos are mashed, place them in a large bowl and mix well with the cream cheese.  You made need to break out the hands for this one folks
4. Roll into quarter size balls (or really however big you want em) place them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and freeze them for 30-45 minutes.
5. With about 10 minutes left, use your double boiler and melt the chocolate.
6. Cover balls and place back on the cookie sheet, then freeze once all are covered.
7. Store in an airtight container once the shell has hardened.

 

-jenny

Thursday Sweet Treats: Indian Chai

I hope you all had a great Christmas!  Ours was great!  We ended up getting “snowed in” in Oklahoma (except we really could have left cause the roads weren’t bad at all) don’t tell Babes’ boss…

Here is a recipe adapted from one 6 oz. mug of chai.  I made it for a gallon of milk but I will also post the smaller amount.  This is for all the hosts out there who want to make something ethnic.

Picture from here

Chai-in bulk

Yield: 32 mugs (6 oz. full)

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of whole milk
• 1/2 gallon (64 oz.) water
• 2 cups of loose leaf tea
• 2.5 cups of sugar
• 2 in freshly grated ginger
• a very fine strainer

 

Directions:

1. Boil water, tea, and ginger
2. After water has boiled, add the milk and turn down the burner to medium heat
3. *** This is very important*** after you add the milk the pot will try to boil over.  Make sure to watch it very closely because it is awful to clean up much experience talking here
4. After milk has boiled, add the sugar and let simmer till sugar is dissolved.
5. Strain the tea particles out of the chai mixture and keep warm in a crock pot.

 

Here are the proportions for one mug of chai:

• 2/3 of the mug of milk
• 1/3 of the mug of water
• 1 T loose leaf tea (or one black tea bag)
• 4 tsp. sugar
• a little bit of grated ginger (or about 1/2 t powdered ginger but fresh is advised)

 

** You can also add cardamom, cinnamon, or even a little black pepper

**After drinking much chai with my pregnancy, I have adapted the recipe a bit. (3/22/2013)

Enjoy my friends!

-jenny

Thursday (or Friday?) Sweet Treats: Sugar-crusted Ginger Cookies

Monday I got to go to my first cookie exchange.  I was a little overwhelmed because I had so much baking to do and just didn’t have much time, but I found this perfect recipe (on pinterest of course) Anyway, I have made about 4 batches now and all of them have turned out perfect.  This batch was a little flat but the others were much puffier it probably has something to do with the fact that I hardly measure anything. You think I would learn. Anyway, delicious cookies… you should give this recipe a try.

Sugar-crusted Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup Sugar in the Raw

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together medium butter, brown sugar and spices.
4. Add egg and molasses.
5. Then add flour mixture in thirds.
6. Put sugar in the raw into a small bowl and roll out 2 tablespoons of dough and toss the ball into the sugar. Place finished cookie ball on baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes. Cool cookies on a baking sheet or cookie rack for 5 minutes.

 

Enjoy

-jenny

Thursday Sweet Treats: Peanut Butter Blossoms

Picture taken from bakeat350.blogspot.com

Last week, I had planned to bake some cookies as a thank you but had zero time so I postponed it to this week!  So lucky http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2011/02/peanut-butter-blossoms-one-of-our.html

These are my very favorite cookies.  This recipe is my Gram Schmig’s, and they always turn out perfectly crisp on the outside but soft on the inside

it’s probably due to the Crisco…..yikes…..

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season and baking as much as possible 🙂

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 t soda
• 1/2 t salt

 

• 1/2 cup shortening or margarine
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 T milk
• 1 t vanilla

 

• 1 pkg of Hersey’s kisses

 

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the 1st set of ingredients together.  In a big bowl, mix the second set together.  Add the
2. Shape in ball and roll in sugar
3. Bake at 375 for 7 minutes
4. When cookie has baked put Hersey’s kiss on and bake till melted (or about 1 min)

 

Happy Holidays!

-jenny

Thursday Sweet Treats: Cinnamon Coffee Cake

It is definitely the season of visiting friends, drinking coffee and eating sweets.  So here is a great sweet to accompany with some of that Dunkin Donuts coffee, yes, that is my favorite.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten

• 2 cups flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup buttermilk

 

Topping Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

 

Directions:

1. Cream together butter, 1/2 Cup brown sugar and 1 cup granulated sugar.
2. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
3. Sift together all dry ingredients.
4. Add to creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
5. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13-inch pan.
6. Sprinkle topping over the batter.
7. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. I am pretty sure I have never remembered to do this before I need it and it turned out fine.
8. Remove foil and bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until cake tests done.