Buckeye Brownies

I love 3 day weekends! This weekend we went out to my grandparents lake house. I was looking for some treats to make, and my sister requested these buckeye brownies. She used to live in Ohio, home of the buckeye balls (delicious little balls of peanut butter dipped in chocolate), and when she saw this recipe, she put in a special request. Good thing they were so easy to make!

Start with a box of brownie mix. Bake it according to the directions.

While they're cooling, make the peanut butter topping. Mix a jar of peanut butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar, and a stick of butter, then spread it over the top of the brownies when they're cool.

Stick them in the fridge for about an hour. Then make the chocolate topping. Melt a package of chocolate chips with 6 tablespoons of butter. I did it on the stove, with a homemade double boiler. Just fill a sauce pan with water and place it under the pan with the chocolate chips and butter. That way the chocolate will melt slowly and won't burn. When it's all melted, spread it over the top of the brownies. Stick it back in the fridge until the chocolate topping is hardened.

Then get ready for some serious chocolate/peanut butter goodness! Be warned: they are really rich, so cut the brownies small! They are also delicious served with vanilla ice cream!

I know the pictures don't quite do them justice, but trust me, these are some seriously good brownies! In fact, we didn't finish them all at the lake, so I had to bring some home. (Oh, rats!) And even though I'm supposed to be starting day 1 of healty eating today, I just couldn't resist eating a little bit more of these brownies! I think I'll bring the rest to work tomorrow and let someone else finish them off!

Nutella Sugar Donuts

I love donuts. I really do. Whenever someone brings them for treat day at work, I get a little excited. I've never made them, because I'm kind of afraid of frying things. So when I found these little baked donuts on Pinterest, I thought they might be a good first donut to try making. Plus, as an added bonus, they are filled with Nutella (which I also love)!

I also got excited because I got to use the dough hook on my mixer for the first time.

 

They took a while to make. There was lots of waiting and rising and cutting out the dough. Then more waiting and rising and baking and dipping in butter and sugar. Then filling with nutella. For detailed instructions, check out the original recipe here. I didn't have the exact kind of sugar and flour she used, but even so, I think they turned out pretty good.

 

 

I may or may not have eaten 4 of them right from the oven.

Good thing they're small!

 

 

 



Texas Sheet Cupcakes

Hmm...Just realized I never posted these. I got all excited about them when I made them and then kinda forgot about them! Here's what I found when I clicked "edit this post"

 

Yep, just a bunch of pictures...but don't they look delicious.

 

(If you're looking for the recipe, I found it on pinterest from this blog.)

Another Baby Shower

Cake Ball 911! Call me!

This was my text on Thursday night from a friend making cake pops as favors for her friend's baby shower. I talked her down from crises mode while she was rolling out the cake balls, then headed over after work the next day to help with the dipping. We might have had a little too much fun making these...

Here are my "students" learning all the dipping and decorating techniques...

• Catching all of the drips with a spoon so they don't drip down the stick...
• Melted colored chocolate in a plastic baggie to drizzle over the cake pop...
• Tapping your wrist instead of the stick to get the drips off...
• Holding up the cake pop to see if you've missed any drips...

And they learned so well! Look how beautiful they turned out!

Apparently they were a hit at the shower. No one could believe they were homemade, and there were none left at the end! Hmm...maybe it's time to turn this cake ball stuff into a business?!

Baby Shower Cake Pops

My cousin, who blogs over at Cherry Street Cottage, is having a baby girl later this fall. Of course, we're all getting excited to meet her and to help celebrate and get ready for her arrival, I made these cute cake pops for the baby shower.

I think they turned out so pretty, and they looked great on the adorable dessert table.

Olympic Inspiration

It's official - I am already obsessed with the Olympics. For the next few weeks I will be a huge fan of whatever sport happens to be on in prime time:

Syncronized diving? Yes, Please!

Gymnastics? Love it!

Water Polo? Bring it on!

Combine that with our family trip to Scotland earlier this summer, and I am definitely feeling inspired to bake some Brittish treats.

First up, two different kinds of scones. See that cute little tin in the picture? It's full of 4 little pastry cutters that I bought in Scotland. I was pretty excited to get a chance to use them!

Here is the (super easy) recipe.

I like it because you can add in whatever sort of filling you want. This time, I used cinnamon chips for one batch (always a classic). For the other batch, I threw in white chocolate chips and craisins. Both turned out great!

Now go grab a scone and a cup of tea, and settle in for some great Olympic watching!

Feeling Brittish...

The Olympics is bringing out the Brittish in me. My family was in Scotland visiting extended family at the beginning of the summer, and there were a lot of Olympic souvenirs already in the shops. Socks, sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, umbrellas, you name it, they had it! I've got some Brittish treats in mind to bake this week, but before I do, I decided to share a few pictures from our trip...

At the beach!  

Dunnottar Castle (Apparently our ancestors used to own/live in this one!)

The best ice cream bars!

I think I want to live here!


These are just a few random snapshots of the trip. The rest are on my brother's camera - who knows when I'll see those again!

Stay tuned for more Brittish treats (if I have time in between freaking out because school starts in 2 weeks - yikes!)

Happy Olympic Watching!