Fanci-fill Berry Cake

Put on your yalmulke, it's time for Hannukah! No, we're not making sufganiyot (jelly donuts).  My sister got me a Wilton Fanci-fill cake pan as part of my present, so we tried it out over the weekend, using a golden yellow cake mix and a strawberry filling recipe off the Wilton website. I used a Pillsbury Golden Butter Recipe Cake Mix because I wanted to make sure this cake pan actually worked before trying any custom recipes out. It came out delicious and it was pretty easy too.

Hidden surprise cupcakes

This post is a little late. I was trying to think of things to do with leftover Halloween candy. I had a bag of mini Twix bars that I wanted to use up.  I decided to try to hide the candy inside of a cupcake. While delicious, they didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped.

The best thing about these cupcakes was that I learned how to make caramel.

Sandra Lee's Red Velvet Bars

The good thing about living in Hoboken is that there's lots of opportunities to meet new people in town. My husband and I tried out a couples meetup group for a pot-luck game night last month and it was loads of fun. One of the girls brought Sandra Lee's Red Velvet Bars for dessert and they were to die for.  I was discussing my new blog with my friend who told me that he was going to have a bake-off at work the next day and that he wanted to throw a curveball and use a boxed cake mix.  I immediately thought of these delicious bars and recommended that he make them.  A few days later he told me that he was disappointed at the results... that they were really dry and the topping was thin.  I thought, how could that be?? So, I set out to try the recipe for myself... and here are my results.

Why aren't they red? Well, because this was my fourth batch of the bars and I decided not to waste any more red food coloring if they turned out badly. Read on to discover why it took me FOUR batches to figure out the correct way to make these bars....

The easiest pumpkin bread ever!

 I'm going to Florida for four days and my husband, who is now spoiled by the treats from my blog trials, was upset that I was leaving the cake dome filled with only one cupcake (the recipe will come when I get back from my trip).  So, I realized that I had some pureed pumpkin left over from my Biggest Loser cupcake debacle and decided to make some pumpkin bread. Quick, easy and delicious!

This bread is super moist, but read the notes at the bottom of the recipe for some possible modifications.

Biggest Loser Cupcakes by Curtis Stone

After making those incredible rich and delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars, I thought maybe I'd switch it up and try something that was lighter and no so bad for you.  I was catching up on the Biggest Loser Season 10 on the new free primetime On Demand that Cablevision is offering and on episode 4, they had a temptation challenge featuring cupcakes! Turns out that some of them were only 100 calorie cupcakes created by Curtis Stone and they actually looked pretty good from what I could tell.  The recipe can be found on the NBC website.

This wasn't my most successful baking venture... scroll down to see the step-by-step and verdict on these diet cupcakes!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

 This week, Wednesday night is girl's night with Nicole and Jen. We're going to Nicole's place to make dinner and watch Hellcats or some other ridiculously girly show (that I love). Since Nicole put in a request for something with peanut butter, I thought I would contribute some dessert to our get together. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

If you love Reese's peanut butter trees, eggs, etc. (the big ones they have during the holidays) and the salty sweet contrast of chocolate covered pretzels, you'll die eating these. The full recipe and verdict  is at the bottom of this post, but read on to see the step-by-step process. Just try not to think about the butter that's in here... that's why it makes more than 16 servings of this rich deliciousness.

I'm taking requests!

If there's anything you want me to make, please leave a comment and I will add it to my list of things to try.  I'm sure my co-workers will appreciate it. 

White Chocolate & Butterscotch Blondies

Happy Birthday Jen!

Since I love to bake, I usually ask my department at work to put in a request for a special baked birthday goodie.  So far this year, I made Angel Food cake (so hard!) for Jess and mini apple pies for Liuva. When I asked Jen what she wanted, she said she wanted something with white chocolate. Now, I don't know about you, but white chocolate is not my favorite ingredient.  I couldn't make white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies because Liuva is allergic to tree nuts.  So I found a recipe for White Chocolate Blondies.  The original recipe called for white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate, but I modified it to become....

White Chocolate and Butterscotch Blondies

 These things are delicious! I have to admit that I was skeptical at first because as I already mentioned, white chocolate is not my favorite.  Anyway, here's how it goes.