Doughnut Miss These

See what I did there?? Ba-dum-cha. Bad jokes all around.

I am not a huge doughnut fan (I mean, I love sugar, don't get me wrong - but as for doughnuts? I can take 'em or leave 'em). However, when I found myself in Portland last night, just a few minutes away from Voodoo Doughnut, I knew I had to make a stop. I've seen Voodoo on shows on the Travel Channel and in plenty of articles featuring the "best of Portland," so it only seemed right to check it out.

The shop was easy to find, and there was no line (probably not surprising on a Wednesday evening) but cues set up for busy weekend mornings. I was prepared with cash (thanks for the warning, Internet) but not prepared for a huge menu with limited descriptors of flavors. It's probably important to note that most of the names are rather raunchy - good for a laugh but not good for describing to your mother! I just kind of picked a few blindly and hoped for the best. The prices were great - I got three doughnuts to sample and a cup of water for $5!

The treats turned out to be delicious - I picked well, I got the famous Portland Cream (like Boston Cream), a Butterfingering (chocolate cake doughnut with Butterfinger crumbles), and a Raspberry Romeo (raspberry-jelly filled). My coworker picked up a Voodoo Bubble (bubblegum flavored! A little crazy but the color was amazing).

It was a fun, touristy experience, and a cool travel bucket-list item to check off. When in Rome Portland!

Summer Desserts

Happy June! Can you believe we are already in the 6th month of this year?? Not I, said the fly.

We were invited to a barbecue on Saturday afternoon, and I was volun-told to bring a dessert. Not knowing if the food was going to be served indoors or outside, I knew I needed something that was simple and would stand up to anything - nothing that had to be kept warm or cold or need attention throughout the party. 

I hemmed and hawed over several choices, but ended up going with a tried-and-true favorite: pineapple upside-down cake! I have a recipe that my grandmother taught me years ago, and I kind of forget about it at times, but whenever I make it, it's always a hit. Pineapple upside-down cake is severely underrated. Fact.

While I am looking forward to sharing the recipe for that cake soon, I thought I'd share a few of the ideas that were left on the cutting room kitchen floor this time around. It is definitely cookout and eat-every-meal-outdoors season, so I'm sure you may be needing a dessert or two soon. Maybe one of these will strike your fancy!

S'mores Trifle

Lemon Pie Bars

Watermelon Cupcakes

Raspberry Lemonade Bars

Banana Blondies

All of these recipes seem pretty easy to put together, and all use easy-to-find ingredients. Plus, they sound delicious! What is your go-to summer dessert? First and foremost, I'd obviously say ice cream or frozen yogurt, but when those aren't options, a cupcake or cookie bar that is easy to hold and not very messy is a great choice.

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: non-cookie dessert

My mother-in-law makes a special holiday version of the classic "dirt" dessert every year - it's chocolately, pepperminty, goodness, and it always gets devoured!

I don't have her exact recipe, but this one from Taste of Home is pretty close to how she makes it - just add a layer of crushed candy canes or other mints while you are laying in the pudding and cookies!


Holiday "Dirt"
Original recipe from Taste of Home
Makes 20 servings

Ingredients 

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar 
• 3-1/2 cups cold 2% milk 
• 2 packages (3.4 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding mix 
• 1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed 
• 1 package (15-1/2 ounces) Oreo cookies 
• Crushed candy canes or other mints
• Shaved chocolate, optional 

Directions 

1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth. In another large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes; let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Gradually stir into cream cheese mixture. Fold in whipped topping. 
2. Spread 1-1/3 cups of crushed cookies into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. dish. Layer with half of the pudding mixture, half of the candy canes, and half of the remaining cookies. Repeat layers. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve topped with shaved chocolate if desired. 

Cake Batter Blondies

Hooooo boy, do I have a recipe for you? Trust me, you're going to want to make this - immediately. These cake batter blondies are so good!!

Yesterday, C & I were going out to Lindsey & Nick's for dinner, and, in exchange for receiving my Christmas and birthday presents, I offered to bring everything for dinner - all L2 had to do was host us! I made crock pot carnitas and we took all the fixings for burritos, plus a salad and refried beans. It was delicious! But I'm pretty sure the star of the show was dessert. I'd been debating on what to make and had almost decided on nothing (yeah, really) when I stumbled across this recipe yesterday afternoon. I basically had everything I needed, so I decided to throw it together. SO glad I did! These might be my new favorite treat!

Cake Batter Blondies
recipe from Girl Meets Life

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350*. Dump cake mix into a large mixing bowl and add sprinkles and chocolate chips. Add oil and egg and mix. Add milk while stirring slowly until batter is just combined (this is important!! - batter should be very dense. Don't add extra liquid and make it cake batter-y.) Pour into greased 8"x8" baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes, until edges and top are just golden. Let stand 20 minutes before cutting (this is also important - the gooey center needs to set! This is not a "test with a toothpick" recipe - the middle should be a little gooey when you take it out of the oven; it will set while it cools).

This makes the most amazing, dense, fudge-like blondies - the middle is definitely the best part (but the edges are just as delicious!!... I tried one of each, don't worry. Quality control, people!) Just make sure that you follow the directions carefully - those two important details totally make the treat. I will be making these again (and probably soon)! :)

The Calming Powers of Cookies

Alternately titled, "Stress Baking."

Oatmeal Scotchies
from Very Best Baking

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
•  ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 2/3 cup (11-oz package) butterscotch chips

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 375.

2.       Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in small bowl.

3.       Beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl.

4.       Gradually beat in flour mixture.

5.       Stir in oats and chips.

6.       Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

OR do what I did…

1.       Grease (/spray with Pam cooking spray) 15”x10” jelly roll pan (AKA cookie sheet).

2.       Prepare dough as above.

3.       Use your hands to spread into the pan.

4.       Bake for 18-22 minutes or until light brown.

5.       Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

6.       Cut into squares/rectangles/whatever.

My mom used to make these all the time, and they were never, ever in "cookie" form - always bars. So that's what makes sense to me. I know that any cookie can be done in either manner, but for me, chocolate chip cookies are always in "cookie" form, and oatmeal scotchies are always in bars. They taste better that way, swear.

Bathroom Keys & Birthday Cake

In my new work building, the bathrooms are located in the halls outside the suites, and they are locked. You must have a bathroom key to access the bathroom. (This makes me feel like I'm taking the hall pass in middle school again. Which leads to my weird embarrassment about people knowing I'm in the bathroom. But that's another story.) Why they are locked, there must be a good reason, but I don't know it. Here's what I do know: I am pretty sure that I will never, ever remember to grab the bathroom key prior to leaving the suite. This thereby ensures that I will always waltz out the door, walk down the hall, turn the handle, and immediately slap my hand to my forehead before returning to the suite for the bathroom key and looking like a real doofus. Every single time. Sigh. #firstworldproblems

Anyway.

Because it's Friday and I'm feeling particularly generous, I thought I'd do you all a favor and share the recipe for the best birthday cake ever, AKA the Oreo cake I made C for his birthday last weekend.

I'm going to make a bold statement here: this could be the best chocolate cake ever. This is slap-yo'-grandma good. This is impress-your-mother-in-law good. This is save-for-special-occasions good (or don't, because who ever wants to wait for a special occasion to eat chocolate cake? Not this girl!). Seriously. It's good.

The recipe I used was one that I found online after doing a search for "Oreo Cake," as C had requested. The cake gods looked down on me and granted me access to the best recipe ever.

Oreo Cake (Recipe from My Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:

For the Cake

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix {with or without pudding}
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs 
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the Oreo Buttercream

• 1 stick salted butter – room temperature
• 1 stick unsalted butter – room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
• 3-4 tablespoons very cold milk
• 25 Oreo cookies chopped

Directions:

For the Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottoms of (2) 9 inch round cake pans with parchment and grease pans thoroughly.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mix, salt vanilla, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and divide batter into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for 25-35 minutes, rotating pans half way through baking the baking time. Bake until the top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake for at least 30 minutes before inverting. Allow cake to cool completely on wire rack.

For the Oreo Buttercream

1. Cream the butters in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk… one tablespoon at a time, combining well after each addition until you reach the desired consistency.
3. Fold in chopped Oreo Cookies and frost your cooled cake layers.

(FYI: I used two sticks of unsalted butter in the frosting and threw in a pinch of salt. Turned out fine. I used my food processor to turn the cookies to crumbs, rather than chopping, because I'm lazy and I love my food processor. That's why my frosting looks kind of... grey... don't worry about it. It's Oreo-y and delicious. Additionally, I found that I needed to add more milk once I added the cookies, because the frosting got too dry and crumbly to actually spread. Just add milk, a splash at a time, until it reaches the consistency you like. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as stated.)

The cake is so moist and fluffy and chocolately. The buttercream is perfect. Perfect, I say! I'm keeping the frosting recipe for sure to use as my go-to frosting recipe, because I adored the way it turned out.

I love everything about this cake. I have especially loved eating it for breakfast, in a bowl, with cold milk on top. If you don't eat your cake that way, don't judge me - just try it. It's fantastic. PS - you're allowed to eat birthday cake for breakfast because, hello, it's birthday cake, and it's a special occasion. All week.

Having, making, and eating my cake. Happily!

This is what your husband looks like when you actually light candles and have everyone sing to him and make him the center of attention. It's fine. He will love you forever for making this cake.

Happy Friday, y'all. Have your cake and eat it, too!

Psssst. A secret!

I'm going to share a little secret with you: sometimes, the best recipes are the ones that are simple, unchanged, and on the back of the box.

Case in point: oatmeal raisin cookies.

I've been craving oatmeal raisin cookies for about three weeks. I don't know why - the craving came out of the blue, and I've been thinking about fluffy-yet-dense, cinnamon-y, cookies with plump, exploding raisins for days. I caved on Tuesday night when I realized I already had all of the ingredients. It just needed to be done. So I got everything out, and followed the same recipe I've always used, which is the one my mom has always used: the one on the back of the box of oats. Seriously - the Quaker oat man knows best. The cookies turned out perfectly, and I ate a couple to satiate the craving, then fed the rest to my co-workers and family. Everyone wins!

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (recipe from Quaker)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

Heat oven to 350*. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown.

(Notes: This recipe claims to make 4 dozen cookies. I made much bigger cookies apparently, because I only got about 2 dozen out of it. Totally fine. Bigger = more deliciousness. Therefore, though, they also took longer than 8-10 minutes to bake. More like 12. Just be aware. The cookies should still look the tiniest bit wet when you pull them out of the oven, because they will finish baking and solidify while cooling.

Also, my raisins were a bit old - I have a giant bag from BJs so I've had them about 6 months - so I measured out the needed amount, covered them in water, and microwaved for one minute to rehydrate a bit before draining them and adding them to the dough. Instant plump raisins! I may do this from now on - the raisins in this batch were so plump and extra explode-y, AKA perfect.)

I could probably sit and eat an entire batch of these cookies, no joke. My sweet tooth kicked into complete overdrive as they were baking. My whole house smelled sweet and cinnamony-delicious, and I had to literally pack the cookies up and make myself walk away, for fear of eating them all. Normal.

Pi(e) Day: Banana Pudding Cream Pie

Yesterday was Pi Day! (3/14... 3.14... get it??) I don't claim to love math - quite the opposite, in fact - but Pi Day makes me happy because it always reminds me of my sorority sisters. As members of Pi Beta Phi, we always had to do something special on π day!

To celebrate at work, the folks on my floor had "Pi(e) Day" (of course!). For my contribution, I decided on something simple but delicious, and homemade, to boot (always better than anything store-bought!) - Banana Pudding Cream Pie. This is basically banana pudding in a pie pan, and it's super easy to make. In fact, I felt a lot like Sandra Lee - semi-home-made = 60% store-bought, 40% homemade! Call me bananas (pun intended...), but this pie was spot-on. Cool, creamy, crunchy, and might we go so far as to say, healthy?? There is fruit in it after all... Ha!

Want to make your own? Here's what you'll need:

• 1 box of Nilla Wafers
• 1 small box of banana-cream flavored sugar-free, low-calorie pudding (I used Jell-o brand)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 2-3 ripe bananas
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

And here's what to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Put mixing bowl and beater(s) to be used for whipped cream in the freezer to chill. 

2. Put ~35 Nilla Wafers in your food processor and blend until all cookies have been reduced to fine crumbs.

3. Pour melted butter and Nilla crumbs into pie pan; mix and smoosh (technical term) so that entire bottom of pan is covered (but not the sides).

4. Put pie pan in oven (preheated to 350*) to bake for about 15 minutes.

5. While crust is baking, thinly slice bananas (about 1/4" slices).

6.  Make pudding according to directions on package. Put in fridge to set.

7. Take a break to share delicious cupcakes you bought over the weekend with your husband. Red velvet is amazing. Nutella was also fantastic. Clearly I was on a sugar binge on Monday night. Oops.

8. Remove pie crust from oven and set aside to cool. In the mean time, make whipped cream. (Homemade is legit - a million times better than Cool Whip!) Pour heavy cream into mixer and set on medium high. Then leave it alone until soft peaks start to form. Once that happens, add powdered sugar and vanilla, and continue mixing until it reaches "whipped cream" consistency that you prefer. (Full disclosure - I got distracted and let mine go a little too long - it's a bit stiffer than I would have liked! Still delicious, though).

9. While cream is whipping, line edges of pie pan with whole Nilla Wafers.

10. Layer pudding, banana slices, and Nilla Wafers in pie pan. I started with a spoonful of pudding to make the base, then did bananas, wafers, pudding, wafers, bananas.

 

11. Spread whipped cream evenly over the top.

12. Insert toothpicks and cover with Saran wrap (the toothpicks are so the plastic doesn't stick to the whipped cream, of course!). Place in fridge to chill over night (overnight is ideal; as long as possible works well, too. The longer is has to sit and let the flavors mix and meld, the better!).

Done! Part of why I love this recipe is because each part can be done while you're waiting on another part - there's no just sitting and waiting for the crust to bake, or pudding to firm up, for example. It was ready to go in a snap, and I had the pie in the fridge and the kitchen cleaned up before one period of the Caps game was finished!

Note: vanilla pudding would work just fine, but I love the banana flavor. This would also be good with chocolate, but not quite as refreshing, I don't think!

As a final step (that I forgot to document), I drizzled caramel sauce over the top of the pie right before serving it. A little extra sweetness never hurt anyone - and in fact, I think it added just the right extra oomph! Wondering if my coworkers loved this treat? Well, the proof is in the pudding (pie):

Just 30 minutes after setting it out. Gone!