Chocolate Chip Banana Crumb Muffins

This morning I woke up at 7am, & couldn't get back to sleep. My brain was awake -- and thinking about muffins! I wanted to use up the bananas I bought that were finally ripe, too, so I looked for a recipe & found this one for Banana Crumb Muffins.

I added chocolate chips, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, & a random amount of cinnamon to the batter. I just sprinkled cinnamon into the mix until the batter tasted good, honestly, haha. For the crumbly part, I cheated. I had some of the crumb mix from a crumb cake box mix leftover, so I just put generous heaps of that on top of each muffin.

They took a few more minutes to bake than the recipe said they would, but the wait was worth it -- these are SO good! Moist, melt in your mouth, cinnamon-y goodness. Here's what they look like:

Minty Chocolate Covered Pretzels

These mint candies have been sitting in my baking cabinet for too long! So tonight on a whim I used them to cover chocolate-y pretzels, along with a few almonds. I melted the chocolate, put the mint candies in the food processor until they were almost dust, & that was all the prep necessary! The mint adds a refreshing twist to one of my most favorite treats :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

This recipe combines two of the best things, so I pretty much had to give it a try. I didn't follow the instructions entirely though. Halfway into the baking process, I took a knife to it and swirled the melted cookie dough around to make it look mosaic-y instead of just messy. Here's the final product:




It was good! Nice & chewy. It was mostly gone the morning after I made it, so I guess everyone enjoyed it ;)

Gorilla Bread might just be the greatest thing ever

It's been way too long since I've baked and/or blogged, BUT I did bake this and not tell you about it :X

A while ago it was requested that I do something with cinnamon, so I found this amazing recipe from Paula Deen. It's called Gorilla Bread, and it is amazing. If you're a cinnamon fan & you've never had it, you need to make it asap! Not only is it delicious beyond belief, but it's beautiful.

I substituted the walnuts for pecans, & I added chocolate chips in with the cream cheese.







I will DEFINITELY be making this again. My mom said it beat out everything else I've ever made. I would suggest this recipe to pretty much anyone :)

Peanut Butter Pie in an Oreo Crust

I wanted to make a pie with an oreo crumb crust, so I found this recipe & made it this morning.
Instead of just drizzling chocolate over the pie, I sprinkled chopped up bits of candy on top. Here's what it looked like:


It was pretty damn good!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These turned out SO good. For the strawberry cupcakes, I used a strawberry cake box mix, but I didn't follow the directions. I combined the cake mix with a 20 oz. can of strawberry pie filling & three eggs.

For the icing, I used this recipe. Then, I added whatever candy toppings I could find in my baking cabinet. M&Ms, mini hershey bars, sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc. -- they all worked awesomely. They were perfect candidates to test out my new cupcake stand! They look beautiful, if I do say so myself :P

Pillow Cookies! (Mom's personal favorite)

This recipe has been on my mind for so long, & I finally got to make it! And they are SO good. Sinfully good, actually.


Brownies + Cookie Dough = The Greatest.

A brownie INSIDE cookie dough = Even better!
I can't find any pictures of the inside, so click here to see the inside of someone else's.
Here's one of my huge ass cookies:



They're crispy cookies on the outside, with a soft & chewy brownie center. I'm in love.

Blueberry Cookies

I was at Costco the other day, & these gorgeous blueberries caught my eye. I had to bake with them. So I went to one of my favorite baking blogs to see what I could do with them, & I found this recipe.

I didn't do the recipe exactly as is though. I made the blueberry cookies the way I wanted, & dipped some of them in chocolate sauce.



I wish I had gotten better pictures, but the lighting situation was bad, & the boys in my house inhaled these so fast I didn't get a chance to figure out how to accommodate. But trust me, these are GOOD!

Cake Balls!

They are the newest baking fad & I had to try & make 'em. They're very decadent & heavy, not my thing, but everyone at my house LOVED them. I'm planning to make more as gifts in the future, for sure.

I originally read about cake balls here, but you can mix & match cake mixes, icing flavors, & toppings. For my cake balls, I baked a funfetti cake, mixed it with chocolate frosting, coated them in chocolate, & sprinkled some color on top. Here's what they looked like:
I made about 50 of these, but most of them were eaten before I was able to get a picture!

Fun with Food Coloring: A Rainbow Cupcake Attempt

My little cousins & I played around with a white cake mix & food coloring this weekend! I wanted to follow this recipe, but little kids will do what they want, so it didn't turn out as I had planned. But it was okay, because we still got some pretty cool results :) Here are some of the shots I took during this event:

Fresh Fruit Tart with Ginger Snap Crust

Last weekend was the first time I'd ever made anything like this, so I was a little tentative, but in the end, my Fresh Fruit Tart with Gingersnap Crust was delicious!

This recipe is different than most, it seems, because it calls for crushed gingersnaps as the crust. I served this at a family get together, & many people commented that they really liked this difference, which I was glad for. It would've been a lot easier to buy a premade crust, but my hard work was worth it :) Here's a pictures of the end result:

Smores Cupcakes

Immediately upon finding this recipe, I knew I had to make these. Not only were these cupcakes delicious, but they were super fun to make! These are so good that they don't even need frosting. I will use any excuse to make these again, I loved them so much. The only thing I'd do differently next time is make double ;)