No-Bake Oreo Layer Cake

Okay, so I'm a little obsessed with Pinterest. I found this recipe on Pinterest and now have made it twice in a 1-month time span. It is sooo simple and it doesn't have to be baked, which means I didn't have to turn on my oven in 80 degree weather. It's also amazingly delicious. I've made it twice and because it's so easy I'm going to write the ingredients and instructions without looking at my recipe! (Hopefully).

Ingredients:
1 package of Oreos. I use regular oreos but for a more oreo taste I would use double-stuf. Also, the recipe works with one package minus 3 oreos. :)
1 - 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
2 - 8 oz tubs of cool whip, thawed
1 large box of instant chocolate pudding The pudding requires milk so be sure to have that on hand too!
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Instructions:
First, crush the oreos any way you like. Food chopper, blender, rolling pin. I do not have any of those three items in my kitchen so I put the oreos in a large baggie, took a ladle, and used the back of the ladle to really go at the oreos. Once the cookies are crushed, measure out 1/2 cup and set that aside. Put the rest of the oreos in the bottom of a 9x13 in pan. Melt the one stick of butter and pour onto the cookie crumbs in the pan, stir well, and then press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan for the crust.

Next, make the pudding according to package directions. Stir in the bag of pudding into 3 cups of milk and whisk, whisk, whisk! The more you whisk, the smoother and better-tasting the pudding will be. Put the pudding in the fridge and let set for about 5-10 minutes.

While the pudding is setting, beat the cream cheese to a pulp in a mixing bowl. Well, not to a pulp. Just until smooth. Use a hand mixer or a stand mixer if you're lucky enough to have one. Add the powdered sugar and mix until blended together and the mixture is smooth. Fold in one tub of cool whip until everything has been stirred together. Pour this mixture onto the oreo crust and spread over the crust. Next, take the pudding out of the fridge and pour the pudding over the cream cheese mixture and spread. THEN take the second tub of cool whip and spread over the top of the pudding being careful unless you don't mind the pudding and cool whip coming together a little bit on the top layer. Last but not least, remember that 1/2 cup of oreo crumbs sitting nearby? Sprinkle those on top of the cool whip and TAA DAA! No-Bake Oreo Layer Cake. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for a couple hours so the layers can set and then dig in!

Seriously...dig in whatever way you would like.

Now, the nice thing about this recipe is that it can be modified any way you want it. Use mint oreos and pistachio pudding for a nice St. Patty's Day dessert and top with Andes Mints. Add a tiny bit of food coloring to the cream cheese mixture for any holiday or occasion. Use whatever flavor pudding you want. Heck, you could probably use any kind of cookie you want too.  I'm not the kind of person who likes to make desserts healthy. If I'm trying to be healthy, I don't eat dessert. Period, end of story. HOWEVER, I know there are people out there who like to be healthy so just used reduced fat cream cheese, reduced fat or sugar free cool whip, or margarine instead of butter.

I feel like I didn't hit this point hard enough in the post. This recipe is DELICIOUS!

Have I mentioned I am obsessed with Pinterest. I found this joke yesterday and would like to share it with all of you:
Where do you drown a hipster?

In the mainsteam.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Until next time...

Fire Away!

Blue Velvet Cupcakes

I first found this recipe from an AMAZING baking blog, Sprinklebakes. I highly suggest you check it out and feel inferior that you will never be able to do half of those recipes. I know I do but it's okay because there are some fantastic recipes on there.

I was curious about blue velvet as opposed to red velvet and decided to attempt them for a Christmas treat because we had a pathetic lack-of-winter here in Minnesota. We were on track to have a brown Christmas and I decided to make the blue velvet cupcakes in hopes that it would magically snow. It did not snow but the cupcakes turned out great.

Cake recipe:  

2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, softened. (I would highly suggest using real butter. Margarine does make the cupcakes taste a little different and, in my opinion, not as delicious)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon Wilton royal blue gel food coloring
1 small dab Wilton violet gel food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour and it worked great)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (I used skim milk and again, it worked great)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cupcake pan(s) with paper liners.

Cake:
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time (I always put both in at the same...I'm all about making things as easy as possible!) and mix well. In a small bowl, mix cocoa and food colorings together to form a paste. It might take a little bit of stirring to get the food coloring and cocoa powder to mix but don't give up hope. They do love each other and will mix together, even if it takes a few minutes.  Add the cocoa powder/food coloring paste to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture and blend well.

Pour batter into cupcake papers. Batter will be a little thick and that's okay! Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened (16 ounces)
2 sticks butter, softened (again, I suggest using real butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (I used un-sifted powdered sugar... and it was delicious)

In a large, and I do mean LARGE, mixing bowl beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat on low speed until incorporated into the mixture. Once the powdered sugar is mixed in well enough not to go flying all over the kitchen, beat the mixture on high until frosting is light and fluffy.

Frost and decorate the cooled cupcakes as you wish. I would suggest using some kind of tip and piping the frosting on. The frosting recipe makes about double what you need in order to adequately frost the cupcakes. Or you could always double the cupcake recipe and then the frosting recipe will be just about right.

These cupcakes were amazing. Normally something goes wrong when I bake but nothing went wrong with these except for too much frosting and I don't really consider that bad. It was very good and wanted to eat it by the spoonful. I may have had one or two spoonfuls but shhhhh. Nobody needs to know.

I did learn a couple things from this baking experience:
1. I'm never going to use canned cream cheese frosting again.
2. I want to make different-colored velvet cupcakes for all kinds of occasions. Green velvet for St. Patty's Day, pink velvet for a girl's baby shower, black and orange velvet for Halloween, purple velvet for the heck of it, and the list goes on and on. Like the song that never ends.

I do believe, my dear Watson, that this is the first recipe to go into the fire-proof box. Until next time...

Fire away!

I'm (Maybe) Back

Hello, all you reader(s). I think it is time to return to the blogging sphere. I have one recipe I can actually blog about later and yes, it is one of the treats I made for Christmas...over two months ago. A lot has happened since then. I moved out of my parents house into an apartment with my boyfriend, I got a kitty, gave back said kitty because she got really, really, really, sick (she was sick before we adopted her...we just didn't know it). We then adopted another kitty who is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She's so loving and friendly with humans but she loves attacking our other cat. Her tail gets really fluffy when she's scared, upset, etc. It's awesome.

Our kitchen is very small but I'm hoping to bake more often than not. Well, more often than I did at my parent's house. We don't even have a kitchen table or anything so counter-space is a little bit of an issue. I miss the stand mixer too. When I get a house I'm so getting a stand mixer. I have a tiny little hand mixer which does the job but a stand mixer is definitely better and I think a stand mixer mixes everything better.

Anywhos, here's my uneventful return to the blogging world. Can you handle it?

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I can't believe it's already the end of December. It's been a crazy busy month, with my birthday and Christmas and all. I did bake a couple things for Christmas...posts to come. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures because A) my camera was almost dead, and B) I was rushing to get everything done and taking pictures were not high on the priority list. I'll also probably have to have a little sabbatical. I'm in the process of trying to find an apartment and hopefully moving in about a month, as well as possibly looking for a new job in a month or two. Plus I won't have a kick-ass stand mixer :( that makes me really sad. Anyways. Posts to come.

Yay New Layout!

Hola! Soooo my new layout is done! Yay! I did not design it myself. That's almost laughable if you thought that. My awesomest friend Lace designed it for me! She's also my #1 Fan ;) I'm glad I could give her something to do  that would procrastinate her grad school homework. Thousands of miles away and I still manage to distract her. That's what I call talent, people. Also, as a little teaser...my next recipe is going to be Amish Friendship Bread! It still has a few more days to go so new post coming soon! :)

Again, thanks to my most awesomest friend in NYC for the most awesomest layout!

Dog Food is Delicious!

I mean Puppy Chow is delicious. Chocolate, peanut butter, Chex cereal, and powdered sugar. What could be better? Ooooo I know! Chocolate, peanut butter, Crispix cereal, and powdered sugar.  There is a big difference, my friends.
I went and visited my little brother this past weekend at his school. I had never been to Concordia, or Moorhead for that matter, and so I decided to take a little trip. He not-so-subtly asked if I was going to bake anything before I went to visit and I had all the intention in the world to bake something magnificent. Unfortunately I did not have all the time in the world. I had a very busy week leading up to the weekend and I thought that Puppy Chow (or Chex Muddy Buddies) would be a quick, delicious way to get out of baking something time-consuming. I used the recipe right off the Rice Chex cereal box so here it is:

Ingredients:
9 cups rice chex, corn chex, chocolate chex, or combination. (I substituted Crispix cereal because it's both rice and corn. And I think it tastes better than chex).
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Measure cereal into large bowl; set aside.
2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. (I actually melted everything on the stove top. It takes a little longer than the microwave but you don't have to worry about touching a hot bowl or anything.)
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

I made double what the recipe called for and it made a ton. I brought some for Daniel, brought some for the 3 1/2 - 4 hour ride to Moorhead for Andy and me, and I left the majority of it at home ;) Because I made so much, I actually mixed everything in a huge, ginormous tupperware bowl. It worked very well and I even coated the puppy chow with the powdered sugar in the bowl. I just made sure the lid was on tight and shook it! I was a little worried that it might break the cereal pieces but there was so much of it in the bowl that that I really didn't have a problem. I then laid it on wax paper to cool, went to dinner with some friends so there was plenty of time to cool, and came home and put it in ziploc bags. I didn't refrigerate it and I think it's just fine non-refrigerated. I was in such a rush to get this done before my dinner that I didn't even think about taking pictures. Making the puppy chow my way took about 20-25 minutes instead of the 15 minutes the Chex box says it takes. I think it's because I slowly melted everything on the stovetop instead of microwaving it all. Until next time...

Fire Away!

Under Construction

I'm getting the itch for a new blog design so please don't mind the non-matching, weird colors, or anything else that might seem off! It's a work in progress :)