Wahoo it’s Thursday!  We are probably on the road back home as you read this yummy little post   Great times in AZ, but bring me my beach weather back!!

Picked up some beautiful red and golden raspberries at the farmers market before we went out of town.  They are fabulous in my little lemon baby cheesecake pies.  I love everything about this recipe.  No need to wait all day for your cheesecake to cool, after about 15 minutes these are ready to gobble up!  Not to mention they look absolutely adorable too

Hope you enjoy this summer dessert, we sure did!

Here’s your line up

Have you tried lemon curd before?  It is delicious even by itself.  Found this cute jar at Trader Joes, but you can purchase it about anywhere….or make your own

I used a glass bowl to cut out 4 1/2 inch circles for the pies.  Use what you’ve got around the house.

I added some fresh cinnamon spiced whipped cream….I would definitely add this.

Red and Golden Raspberry Lemon Baby Cheesecake Pies

8 oz softened Cream Cheese

1/2 Cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

1/2 Cup prepared Lemon Curd (found mine at Trader Joes)

1 Cup red raspberries

1 Cup golden raspberries

2 12 inch pie dough rolls, I used Pillsbury

1/2 Cup heavy whipping cream

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined, scraping sides as needed.  Beat in lemon curd until combined then gently stir in berries until just combined.

2.  Cut 4 1/2 inch rounds out of the pie crust, re-rolling scraps.  I was able to get 14 rounds out of both crusts.  Gently press into 14 traditional size muffin tin cups then fill each crust with about 1/4 cup of cheesecake batter.  Brush crust with egg white wash then bake for 30-35 minutes or until cheesecake is set and crust is golden.  Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from cups.  Refrigerate or serve room temperature.  Beat heavy cream, powdered sugar and cinnamon until stiff.  Serve cheesecake pies with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if desired

14 baby cheesecake pies

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend, see you soon!

Happy Thursday everyone!! Woohoo, weekend is a comin’! We are back in AZ for some fun family activities this week. It’s going to be so nice spending time with our family. Gotta love the Arizona summers, yikes!

I am really excited to be writing for Smithfield.com. My first intro post is up, if you get a second come over and say hi

This recipe was a perfect example to me that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. At first glance these aren’t crazy beautiful, but can I just say they are worth every calorie?! They are buttery, white chocolate-y and Kit Kat-amazing. We really enjoyed them. I broke out my trusty Muffin Top Pan again and it was fun to eat cookie shaped blondies. Give it a whirl or you can absolutely use an 8×8 inch baking dish. Either way….YUMMY!

Hope you enjoy!!

LOVE these darn candy bars!

Now, if you use your muffin top pan, only fill with one scoop of batter so you don’t get spillage like I did

White Chocolate Kit Kat Blondies

1/4 Cup butter

3/4 Cup white chocolate chips

1/2 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup packed brown sugar

1 Cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup white chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

10 individual Kit Kat sticks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place butter into a microwave safe bowl and melt. Stir in white chips until melted and smooth. Place sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and white chips into a mixing bowl, stir in melted butter/white chocolate then stir in eggs and cream. 2 options here: Option #1: Pour batter into a 8×8 inch baking dish lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray and top with cut up pieces of kit kat bars. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through, let cool then cut into squares. Option #2: Use a medium cookie scoop (about 2 Tablespoons) and place 1 scoop of batter into muffin top pan cups, then top with cut up pieces of kit kat bars. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden around edges. Remove from oven and use a plastic knife to clean up edges while it’s still soft. Let cool and remove from muffin top cups.

Makes 9 bars or 12 blondie cookies from the muffin top pan

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Here’s a little of what we’ve been doing the last couple weeks with all of our visitors! Love the beach

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend!! See you soon

How could I forget how good a nice big dish of rice crispy treats are?!  It had been a long time since I’ve made a big batch of this classic treat….glad I did!

Go grab the kiddos, these layered rice krispie treats are going to knock your flip flops off.  If you are a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup fan like we are in this house, then you will want to make these asap!  We made these while my sister and her family were visiting last week and we even caught ourselves sneaking a few bites for breakfast.

The kids will love helping with this one, it’s great for the whole family, hope you enjoy!!

My sweet friend Brooke posted about my Fluffernutter Cookies on Babble.com, check it out if you get a second

Nothing too off the wall right?  Let’s keep it simple this summer

Love those little snap crackle pop guys, always such happy little fella’s!

I kinda forgot how much I LOVE rice krispie treats, YUM!

double yum!

Break out the jar of peanut butter

Dangerous!

Wait until you try this over your rice krispie treats!

Yah, it’s incredible!

Ta-da!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Layered Krispie Treats

6 Cups rice krispie cereal

1 large bag mini marshmallows

1/4 Cup butter

2 Cups creamy peanut butter

50 mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, quartered

1 1/2 Cups melted chocolate to drizzle

1.  Place cereal into a large mixing bowl, set aside.  Place marshmallows and butter into a large bowl and microwave until puffed up, about 3 minutes.  Remove and pour into cereal, mix to combine then pour into a greased 9×13 inch baking dish and press to make even.  Melt peanut butter until nice and runny, about 45 seconds.  Pour in quartered peanut butter cups, stir gently then pour over treats.   Drizzle melted chocolate over top and refrigerate to harden.  When set, cut into squares and serve!!

16 squares

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I just started writing for Smithfield.com’s new blog page.  My first intro post is up, come check it out HERE

Have a great new week!  See you soon

Y’all knew I wasn’t stopping with the whole ice cream thing until I did a cake right?!  Well, I’ve done it and did it well…..this baby was chocolate cake heaven!  Don’t tell anyone that this cake is a breeze to make either, they’ll NEVER know

My sister and her family visited this week and it happened to be her Birthday on Tuesday.  I wanted to create a very special cake for her and this fit the bill just perfectly.  I knew my ice cream cookies were the bomb, then the ice cream brownies were irresistible, now we’ve got an Ice Cream Sundae Cake to put on our list.  Talk about a perfect birthday cake, very special indeed.

Enough blabbing from me, take a peek and make one this summer!

Here’s your line-up for cake ingredients.  Again, have fun with your ice cream.  Use any favorite flavor you’d like!!

Dump it in baby!

Ice cream and hot fudge….Yes!

Pour into 4 sprayed cake pans, bake and cool.

Layer onto a nice little cake stand and frost each and every layer.

These chocolate curls look great on the sides and even top of the cake if you want.  Take your everyday vegetable peeler and peel away at a nice bloc of chocolate.  I used Sarris Milk Chocolate Bloc, which was AMAZING!!

Here you have a birthday cake to make any birthday boy or girl happy

Ice Cream Sundae 4 Layer Chocolate Cake

1 box Devils Food Cake Mix

1 small box instant chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs

1/2 Cup water

1/2 Cup canola or vegetable oil

1 heaping Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream (or whatever ice cream flavor you choose)

1/4 Cup Hot Fudge Sauce

Chocolate Frosting of Choice

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place cake mix, pudding, eggs, water oil, ice cream and hot fudge sauce into stand or electric mixer.  Beat on low then medium for about 1 minute 30 seconds or until well combined and thick.  Divide evenly into 4 (9 inch) cake pans that have been generously sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes mostly clean from center.  Let cool completely, loosen sides with a plastic knife then remove from pans.  Place bottom layer onto a cake stand, spread with your favorite chocolate frosting….repeat until 3 layers are frosted leaving 4th layer on top.  Frost remaining top and sides of cake with frosting.

2.  Take a vegetable peeler and peel chocolate bloc to get curls, about 2 cups worth.  Press curls onto sides of cake and serve room temperature or refrigerate to chill.

12 servings

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend, come back soon!!

It’s Monday again!!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend!  I spent part of my weekend in sunny AZ for a Thermador Event with 19 other Bloggers.  It was awesome, See my Life in OC page for all my pics and rundown of the trip

I am not a fan of excuses, but I have to say my lack of pictures for this recipe do NOT do it justice (it was one of those…family in town, kids don’t want to wait for mommy to take pictures kinda day).

This little personal pan size Cinnamon Roll Pizza was so unbelievably delicious!  We’ve all had dessert pizza, but just wait until you try my version of this.  It is gooey, buttery and perfectly cinnamon-ey!  I used the mini pizza pans from William Sonoma which I love for so many recipes, however you can absolutely use a normal size pizza pan if you’d prefer.

We made this fun dessert last week when my family was visiting and needless to say, we were all licking the pan clean.  Not only is the top gooey and fabulous, but the bottom is also baked in brown sugar and butter which makes for…..trouble

Hope you give this one a try over the summer, you’ll love it!

Here’s your line-up…these are the mini pizza pans I used, LOVE them.  Also note, I decided at the last minute to NOT use the cream cheese.  I was going to use it for the drizzle, but opted for the heavy cream and powdered sugar.  Either way is delish!

So, place little cut up pieces of butter into bottom of each pan then sprinkle with brown sugar.  Makes the bottom of the pizza fabulous!

Next, press in your pizza dough over butter and brown sugar.

Spread tops of dough with butter….lots of butter

Next comes the brown sugar and cinnamon…

Let cool and you’ll get a crispy buttery cinnamon topped pizza with none other than a sweet drizzle.  This one will go in “our favorite” recipe file for sure!!

Cinnamon Roll Pizza

4 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes, divided in half

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar, divided in half

13 oz pizza dough of choice, divided in half

4 Tablespoons room temperature butter

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided in half

1 Cup powdered sugar

4-5 Tablespoons heavy cream

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray pizza pans with cooking spray and layer each pan with butter cubes and brown sugar.  Gently place divided dough into pans over butter and brown sugar then spread butter over tops of dough.  Layer with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until pizza crust is cooked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes or until butter and brown sugar have set.  Cut into wedges.

2.  Place powdered sugar and cream into mixing bowl and stir until smooth.  Drizzle over warm slices of pizza and serve.

8 small slices of pizza, 2 full personal pan size or 1 12 inch pizza

My mom’s dog always comes for vacation too and happened to find the plate that had the gooey cinnamon remnants and went to town, we were cracking up and I had to snap a picture, can’t blame her

Love this picture of my boys, my dad and little brother hanging at the beach.  It just screams summer doesn’t it?!

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Have a great new week, see you all soon!!

Happy Thursday! Hope everyone is enjoying summer. CA is always full of life in the summer, there’s always family visiting, beach trips and partying going on. I have a feeling it’s going to fly by and school will be back in session in no time. Better enjoy this while I can

Wait until you try these individual cheesecakes! I didn’t know what to call them because they look like my giant cookies, but are really little cheesecakes. Whatever you want to call them, they are ridiculously incredible! Yes, break out your muffin top pan people, cheesecake works perfect in it. If you haven’t found your muffin top pan yet, you can try this in a mini cheesecake pan or even some mini muffin tins but make sure you spray your mini muffin tins well. It might be tricky to remove your cakes.

We made this recipe while my family was visiting this week and let’s just say they didn’t last long. The best part about this recipe, is you don’t have to wait the traditional hour for cheesecake to bake. These are done in under 30 minutes! Love it

Take a peek…hope you enjoy!

Here’s your line up, pretty easy right?!  Seriously if you don’t have the muffin top pan yet, it’s a must, here’s the EXACT one I use HERE!!

Ahhh, I think this will be my new computer wallpaper

Whip up the cheesecake batter…

Feel free to use any caramel sauce you’d like. Make your own, melt down some Kraft Caramels….anything will work

Graham cracker crust….YUM!

I have officially fallen in love with my muffin top pan! It’s options are endless, stay tuned for more fun ideas with it

Told you these were ridiculous

Snickers Caramel Cheesecake Cookies

2 Cups chopped Snickers Bars

2 1/2 Cups graham cracker crumbs

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

5 Tablespoons melted butter

2 8oz packages softened cream cheese

1 Cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

3 Tablespoons caramel sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place chopped Snickers Bars into a bowl, set aside for now. Place graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter into a mixing bowl to combine. Spoon a couple spoonfuls of crumbs into each muffin top pan and press down and up the sides. Bake for 5-6 minutes or just until browned. Remove from oven.

2. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined, scraping sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in caramel sauce until well combined. Pour about 1/4 Cup of cheesecake mixture over each baked crust then top evenly with chopped Snickers. Bake for 23-26 minutes or until cheescake edges are just starting to brown and centers are nearly set. Remove and let cool completely. While still warm, loosen all edges with a plastic knife to make for easier removal from pan. Refrigerate once cooled then top with caramel sauce and whipped cream to serve!

12 individual cheesecakes

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend, come back soon!  More Muffin Top Pan Recipes to come

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a great Father’s Day weekend   We took the boys to see Toy Story 3 Saturday evening and I was a mess, did you guys see it?  Talk about a tear jerker!  I haven’t cried like that in a movie in a long time.  How embarrassing.  We LOVED it, can’t wait to buy it on video

So, I’ve got a great kid friendly snack for you today.  We all love our traditional “puppy chow” or “muddy mix” so I’ve created a Peanut Butter and Jelly version that you guys are going to LOVE!  I’m talking white chocolate, peanut butter and jelly mixed up with honey nut chex cereal and powdered sugar….yum.

Easy, perfect for summer and great for getting the kids in the kitchen to make a midday snack   Hope you all enjoy!

Here’s the line up of ingredients

Oh man, I love this cereal, measure out 9 cups

I used Sarris’s White Chocolate Bloc and chopped it up, but you can also use white chocolate chips

Add you chocolate, peanut butter, jelly and butter into a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted.

perfect, nice and melted.  Now stir until well combined.

Pour your cereal into a giant mixing bowl…

Pour in your melted chocolate mixture…

Give it a big stir

Time to shake it up!!

Yes!  Now munch!

White Chocolate PB&J Muddy Mix

9 Cups Honey Nut Chex (or any chex variety you like)

3/4 Cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips

1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 Cup strawberry jam

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Cups powdered sugar

1.  Place chex cereal in a large mixing bowl.  Place chocolate, peanut butter, jam and butter into a microwavable safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute or until melted.  Stir then pour into bowl of cereal.  Mix well then divide mixture into 2 large ziplock bags.  Pour in 1 Cup powdered sugar into each ziplock.  Close bags and shake until cereal is coated.  Pour into a large bowl and serve.

Serves A LOT!

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Have  a great new week, see you soon!

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Some of you may have gotten a preview of this post Friday morning….I hit the “publish” tab waaaaay too early

So, you knew once I tried ice cream inside of cookies that I wasn’t stopping there right?!!  These devilish brownies are equally as decadent as those cookies.  I’m talking perfectly crisp edges, chewy centers, thick, ultra CHOCOLATY and down right delicious!  The beauty of this recipe is you can personalize it with your family’s favorite ice cream.  I sat in front of the ice cream section for 5 minutes before I could decide what flavor to choose

Enough talking from me….go try these….TODAY!!

Here’s your line-up of ingredients (minus the hot fudge)  Ben and Jerry’s “Phish Food” was an awesome pick I must say

Add all of your goodies to the brownie mix….*Please note:  I did not add the water since I added the ice cream and hot fudge*

Ice cream time!!

Scoop in that beautiful ice cream!!  I added a heaping 1/2 cup!

Add some chocolate chips

….and some hot fudge, well when I added it, it was cold from the fridge

yes, hot fudge!!

mmmm!

Pour into prepared 9×13 inch baking dish.  I always line mine with foil. You can pull the foil right out, cut into squares MUCH easier and it’s one less dish to wash

It’s bake time!!

Ahhhhh, no words needed

How cute is this parchment paper?!  I found it at Crate&Barrel. They are actually burger liners, but I cut them into squares and LOVE them for my brownies   I believe they were $4.99.

Ice Cream Sundae Brownies

1 box Brownie Mix

2 eggs

1/2 Cup canola or vegetable oil

Heaping 1/2 Cup of your favorite Ice Cream (I used Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food)

1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips

1/4 Cup hot fudge topping (chilled)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl mix the brownie mix, 2 eggs and oil until combined…and thick.  I did NOT add the water.  Scoop in ice cream, chocolate chips and hot fudge; mix until combined.  Pour into a foil lined 9×13 inch baking dish that’s been GENEROUSLY sprayed with cooking spray.  More is better here   Bake for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick comes clean from center.

2.  Let cool completely.  Remove foil from baking dish, cut into squares and serve.

12 brownies

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Happy Baking!  Come back soon

Happy Thursday!!  Hope your week is treating you well   I posted some of my favorite Memorial Day Pictures from our Day Trip to San Diego if you’d like to take a peek, check it out on my Life in OC page, you can subscribe to that page as well….upper right corner of the page

I’ve got a fun cinnamon sweet cupcake to share with you today.  Crumb cakes/coffee cakes are typically done with yellow cake, but I decided I wanted to give it a try with my favorite chocolate cake recipe…..and yes, it was really good!  You get little bites of slightly crunchy, cinnamon buttery topping with every bite of cupcake.  I LOVED these, the boys really enjoyed them too!

My friend Beth Royals created the crumb topping from her Starbucks Coffee Cake, from back in early 2008 when I just started my blog.  I just halved the crumb topping here.  Hope you’ll all enjoy, bake up some cupcakes this weekend

Here’s your line up

The items you’ll need for the crumb topping….it’s seriously the best crumb topping ever!

Break out your favorite cupcake liners

Mix up your cake mix and fill em’ up!

While the cupcakes are partially baking, prepare the crumb topping….cut up some cold butter and mix with the ingredients listed below

Spoon some jam over partially baked cupcakes, then sprinkle with the crumb topping….back in the oven they go!

Ta-da!  Love these

Chocolate Crumb Topped Cupcakes

1 box devils food cake mix

1 small box chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

1/2 Cup water

8 oz sour cream

3/4 Cup of your favorite jam, warmed in microwave until melted

Beth Royals Crumb Topping

1 stick cold butter, cut into small cubes

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

3/4 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

3/4 Tablespoon pure vanilla

Powdered sugar for dusting

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, water and sour cream until well combined.  Will appear to be nice and thick   Fill 24 muffin cups 1/2 full and bake for 12 minutes.

2.  While cupcakes are partially baking, place cold butter cubes, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla into a stand mixer.  Beat until combined and crubmly looking.  After cupcakes have baked for 12 minutes, remove from oven spoon jam over tops then sprinkle with crumb mixture, pressing down slightly.  Bake for another 15 minutes or until toothpick comes clean when poked into centers.

3  Let cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

24 cupcakes

**I baked half the batch with the jam and half without.  I LOVE the jam filled ones, but the centers cave in ever so slightly…just so you know **

While I was baking up these cupcakes, I had a superhero come to visit.  He was very interested in my choice of cupcake liners!! LOL!  I love my little Superhero

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Have a great rest of your week and weekend!!  Come back soon!

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone is out doing something fun today   Huge thanks to Emily from Swank Design for the Picky Palate face lift, I love it!  Let me know what you guys think

Feast your eyes on these devilish little brownies!  Who doesn’t love s’mores?  I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t just love them.  It was a no brainer last week to create a layered stuffed s’mores brownie and I am so glad I did!  We devoured these like they were going out of style.

Another very easy recipe to whip up which makes it all the more awesome right?!  I’m talking like 4 main ingredients plus the few items you’ll need for your brownie mix.  Just what we need this week to kick off summer!  Get your kids in the kitchen for this one….they’ll love these brownies and can help layer all the yummy ingredients.

Take a peek…..enjoy!

Break out your basic S’mores ingredients….mmm!

Chocolate!

Grahams!

Pour half of your brownie batter into prepared pan.

Start your layering…..grahams first

Then comes the chocolate…

….and the marshmallows

Now, pour the rest of the brownies!

Now, it’s time to bake!

Love it!

If you like little bite size brownies, check out this pan.  Found it at Sur La Table a couple months ago.  Wilton makes it, found a link on amazon HERE if you like it.

I could totally be fine just eating the batter and s’mores toppings like this…

S’mores Stuffed Brownies

Batch Prepared in 8×8 inch baking pan

1 box of your favorite brownie mix

4 1/2 full Graham Crackers

3 1/2 Full size Hershey’s Bars

16 large marshmallows

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare brownie mix according to package directions.  Line foil into an 8×8 inch baking pan and spray generously with cooking spray.  Pour half the brownie batter into lined pan.  Layer graham crackers over brownies following Hershey Bars and marshmallows.  Pour remaining brownie batter over marshmallows.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes mostly clean from center.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.  Carefully remove foil and brownies from pan.  Peel any foil from away from edges and cut into squares.

12 brownies

Batch Prepared in the Wilton Mini Square Brownie Pan

1 box of your favorite brownie mix,the box that calls for 8×8 inch size pan

2 full graham crackers broken into 1/2 inch pieces

2 Full size Hershey Bars broken into squares

About 18 large marshmallows quartered or 1 Cup mini marshmallows

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare brownie mix according to package directions.  Spray square baking pan generously with cooking spray.  Fill each cup 1/2 full with brownie batter.  Press 1 piece of chocolate bar, graham cracker and marshmallow into center of squares.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brownies are cooked through in center.  Remove from oven and use a plastic knife to loosen all sides and clean up any marshmallow that may have oozed over   Let  cool then remove from silicone pan.  Now you are ready to EAT!