Barrel of Monkeys Cake

So, the actual concept here (and above photo) is my own, for my son's 1st birthday, but it was inspired by the following pin:

http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/247868093/kit-kat-cake/










I made a layered banana cake from this recipe, and used this chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe, and simply stuck the kit kat bars to the sides, and decorated the top with the monkeys and candle. So tasty and so cute!

Greek Yogurt Banana Bread/Scones/Muffins

I pinned this when I had some greek yogurt to use up, and it turned out fantastic! So moist and yummy. It did go bad faster than regular banana bread though - I didn't notice at first read that she suggests keeping it in the fridge. Mine lasted at least 3-4 days out of the fridge (wasn't as good as fresh, but it was still edible, unlike a couple days later when it clearly went bad), but I imagine it might have lasted longer if I'd kept it in the fridge.




Recipe found at: http://www.cafeterrablog.com/2012/08/05/banana-bread-with-greek-yogurt/

S'mores Snack Mix

This was a treat I made for Spiderman and a couple of the neighborhood kiddoes.  I already had the chocolate chips.  The mini marshmallows were only a couple dollars, as were the teddy bear cookies.  Once again, I like bang for the buck!  It only took a few minutes to make, and the kids were VERY impressed(chocolate, grahams and marshmellows are all wins). 

The only thing I would caution is to leave PLENTY of cooling time.  It took forever, and I ended up tossing it in the fridge.  The issue was that I used chocolate chips that you'd use for making cookies.  The chocolate is designed to stay kind of melty after baking.  Next time, I will be sure to use candy melts.  Also, the teeny marshmellow bits are NOT with the marshmellows.  They are over by the hot chocolate mixes(save some search time).  You can find full instructions here---  http://cookiesandcups.com/smores-snack-mix/  PINTASTIC!!!

Baked Apples with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

This is basically a lazy man (or woman)'s apple crisp, and I love it! So much faster than peeling and slicing apples, and it has another advantage of being healthier, since you're eating the skin and there's no sugary coating on the apples themselves - just some sugar in the streusel. And it was T-A-S-T-Y! And pintastic, of course :)

http://nonrecipe.blogspot.ca/2012/03/baked-apples-with-oatmeal-streusel.html

Hamburger Cupcakes and Sugar Cookie Fries

A few days before our Labor Day cookout, I decided to search Pinterest for a fun dessert. I found this pin that linked to this blog with a super fun cupcake idea. The basic idea was to make cupcakes, cut them in half, put a brownie as a burger and then jazz it up with some colored "ketchup" and "mustard" icing. It sounded easy enough and I was so excited to make a super cute dessert.

The first thing I did was make a batch of cupcakes with liners. I thought I'd be sneaky and do the "add a diet soda to cake mix" trick that's floating around pinterest too. I mean, I was putting a brownie in the middle of the cupcake... I had to 'skinny' them up somehow. I used a yellow cake mix and diet ginger ale. I always have a problem with my cupcakes (or muffins) sticking to the paper liners... and that caused a bit of a problem. I put a few in the fridge over night to see if that would help and left a few out. The ones I left out fared the best. Don't put them in the fridge. It didn't work and I had to toss out a few cupcakes.

So, now I had a couple "skinny" cupcakes to work with. (and the diet soda trick - Super Pintastic except for the sticking. It was so easy and you really couldn't taste a difference. I think it makes them more moist).

 

 

The next day I baked my brownies. You can do the diet coke trick here too, but I didn't since I've never tried it with brownies before and didn't know how it would change them. I didn't have a round cookie cutter, and found out that an Avent bottle cap made the perfect sized 'burgers.' Mom ingenuity at its best!



 

 

Here's where it got messy. I wanted to get a bunch of 'burgers' so I started punching holes right at the edge. Well, you know the nice, crunchy edge brownies get? It's not very good for cutting with a plastic bottle cap. Just start more in from the edge and you'll be fine. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough, but I did. As you can see, the most you could get would be about 14 burgers anyway, so my cupcake disaster didn't make a difference anyway. 

 

 

Now you'll have a bunch of extra brownie pieces left over. I'm sure you'll figure out something you can do with them... I'll wait while you stuff your face with them... Mmm.

 

 

I bought a box of sugar cookie mix and followed the direction on the blog to make roll out cookies. I didn't really have a problem with the fries at all. Mine expanded like she said they would. I just cut them in half again when they came out of the oven with a pizza cutter. Warning: The sugar cookie fries are addicting. You will eat a ton of them. Some will break or won't be perfect and you will have to dispose of them accordingly. Don't worry. I won't tell.

 

I decided to skip the "lettuce" icing and just stick with the "ketchup" and "mustard." It was really hard to find get a shade of red that didn't look pink, but it worked and everyone drooled over my adorable little burger cupcakes and fries. It fooled almost everyone.

"Burger and Fries" cupcakes and cookies

The verdict: These turned out super adorable and I got a lot of attention for making them (and who doesn't LOVE that!) so overall I would say they were Pintastic. The only problem was they took forever to make. I really didn't put it together that I would have to bake cupcakes, brownies, and cookies for two days. It was a lot of baking and then assembling. These would be great to take to party, but if you're HOSTING the party (like me), save some time and don't make these. You have more important things to worry about... you know, like the actual hamburgers.

 

 

-AM

 

 

 

Honey Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Icing

Original Pin

When I was planning for a family party, I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, and I found these in a Pinterest search.  They looked and sounded delicious, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make them look as attractive as these pictured.  I tested my talents anyway, and the recipe turned out to be easy to follow, and the cupcakes were a hit at the party.

I actually doubled the recipe to get 24 cupcakes instead of 12, which still worked well.  I will say that it's important to follow the recipe - when combining the liquid and dry ingredients, it is important to end on the dry ingredients.  When you add the liquid ingredients, the batter becomes runny, but the dry ingredients makes it the right consistency again.




The cupcakes themselves were delicious, and the icing definitely kicked them up a notch.  The icing was easy to make, though I think if I had used the amount of confectioner's sugar that was called for in the recipe, it would have been too sweet.  I only used four cups instead of six (again, I doubled the recipe).  I will warn, however, if you are making the cup cakes a day or two ahead of time, plan to make the icing the day of.

I had kept the icing in the fridge over night, which caused the sugar to draw in a lot of moisture before I iced the cups.  I warmed the icing in my hands to try and keep it from getting too warm or falling over on the cup cakes. As the day went on, they went from being nice swirls to droopy.  You can see in the pictures to the right, this is about 30 minutes after icing them 24 hours after making the icing.  They were already starting to fall.



All in all, though, I found the recipe easy to follow, the cupcakes were absolutely delicious!  There is a perfect amount of honey flavoring, and they were very moist.

"Sand" Pudding

Growing up, my amazing Aunt always made this dessert called Dirt Pudding. Us kids would literally fight over who could get the last bite and the seasoned older cousins knew to hit the dirt pudding first before your dinner so you'd have it before it was all gone.

When I needed to make a dessert for a Fourth of July Beach Party, I thought dirt pudding would be yummy until I found this super Pintastic variation called "Sand Pudding" It was basically the same concept as dirt pudding, alternating layers of pudding and crushed cookies, but instead of using Oreos to make dirt, you use vanilla wafers and just a few Oreos to add some black specks into the sand. Don't buy a whole bag of Oreos (unless you want them for later). I just got a snack pack of Oreos. I found them in the checkout line.

The only problem I ran into was my lack of a food processor. I hastily threw in a whole box of Vanilla Wafers into my blender and hit pulse. My little blender couldn't handle all of those cookies at one time, so if when I make this again, I'll split the box in half.

When I went to "pimp out my pudding" with cream cheese, vanilla pudding, and cool whip, I opted to use the reduced/low/no fat versions (as well as the Vanilla Wafers). Guess what, with all that powdered sugar in the mix, no one was the wiser anyway and I didn't feel one ounce of remorse when I went back for a second serving.

I got SO many complements on this dessert. Everyone wanted to know how I made the sand. I told all the little kids that I scooped it off the beach (until I realized this was freaking them out and then none of them would eat it). I let the adults in on the secret.

The directions split the up the pudding between two buckets, but I found that everything fit into one bucket. At 99 cents, it was great to take to the party and leave there for the littles to keep.

"Sand" Pudding

Chocolatey/Peanut Buttery/Marshmallowy Croissant Goodness!

I have seen several pins featuring croissants stuffed with fattening goodies, so last time I went to the grocery store I made sure to pick up a tube of croissants. I wasn't sure which pin I wanted to try, and since I had peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallows available, I decided to use those. I guess this is really a "mash-up" of different pins, as Glee would say.

These are my "inspiration" pins:

I tried to link this pin to a blog,
but it says the blog is no longer found!

Yum! Too bad I didn't have any Nutella.

via

via

Had all these things!

I lined my cooking sheet with aluminum foil so I wouldn't have to wash it. I sprayed it really well with Pam. I rolled out the croissants, and loaded them up with peanut butter, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. I stuck them in the oven at 375 degrees for 9 minutes...the label says 10 but my oven seems to cook things quickly.

Here they are! My husband looked at them and said, "You cook the weirdest desserts." Whatever! If it were up to him we'd have meat, potatoes, and blueberry pie every night. Anyway, these croissants were delicious (I've already had three)! My favorite part was the bits of marshmallows that came out of the croissant. The oven had toasted them and it reminded me of a Smore. My least favorite part was the peanut butter--I may leave that out next time and just do the chocolate and marshmallow!

I think I'll even try variations of this pin in the future. I would like to try the Nutella ones. I wonder if I can even do banana and Nutella. I'm sure I'll stuff marshmallows in them no matter what. The possibilities are endless!


Final Verdict: Pintastic!

-Betsy

Witch Hat Cookies

These are super easy for any Halloween party. I made them for my sons classroom last year and they were a huge hit.

What you need:

Keebler Fudge stripe cookies (I think I found some at the Dollar Store)
Bag of Hershey kisses
Tube of Wilton orange icing

Flip the cookie over, make a large dot with the icing to cover the opening in the cookie, drop on the Hershey kiss and voila - witches hats!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Paula Deen, oh you tempt me with your buttery goodness filled recipes.  I have always wanted to try my hand at poundcake, since I love the Sarah Lee version so.  I figured today was as good a day as any.  So here is the Pin as well as the link to the Food Network recipe:

Pin

sour-cream-pound-cake-recipe

I followed the directions exactly as they are written & here's what happened:

I used a standard Pyrex clear loaf baking dish (as you can see in the background) & the batter overflowed from the pan.  I would suggest perhaps splitting the recipe & making mini loaves instead.  The part that overflowed (which of course I had to taste) tasted pretty good, so I wouldn't call this recipe a Pintastrophy, but MY finished product certainly looks like one.  I haven't cut into this bad boy yet, but as soon as I do I will reply with how it tastes.

UPDATE:  so it tastes pretty good, so it's only a Pintastrophy in the looks department.