PB&J Blondies

I don't know if yall have figured it out yet, but my sister and I are kinda obsessed with peanut butter and jelly combo. So why not put it in all of your favorite desserts?! This is just a basic blondie recipe with peanut butter and jelly swirled into it. Little kids love these and they are super easy. Of course, I got the recipe from pinterest and tweeked it a little. Ps, if you don't have pinterest.. sign up for one asap. I mean it. So here's what you'll need for these babies:

 Butter, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, reese's peanut butter chips, peanut butter, and your favorite flavor jelly (I used strawberry). In a large microwave safe bowl, melt butter. Add packed brown sugar

Stir together; add vanilla and egg

Beat those ingredients in until well combined. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pb chips

Scoop your finished batter in a greased foil lined baking dish

Spread out evenly. Scoop tablespoonful amounts of peanut butter over the blondies

   

Fill the open spots with a generous amount of jelly

 

Using a butter knife, swirl pb and jelly into the blondie batter

Bake in a preheated oven

Let cool on a wire rack. You can see the melty pb and gooey jelly.. and these are definitely gooey. Slice and serve!

PB&J Blondies

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup pb chips

creamy peanut butter

your favorite flavor jam

In a large microwave safe bowl, melt butter. Add brown sugar  and mix well. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Then add in the flour, baking soda, powder, salt, and pb chips. Once well combined, scoop into a foil lined and greased 9x13 pan. Scoop desired amounts of pb and jelly over unbaked brownies. Swirl in with a butter knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-25 minutes. Cool completely. Slice, serve, enjoy.

Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Bean Cake

This is a perfect summer cake. It's fresh, sweet, fruity, but still rich and delicious. I just made a basic vanilla cake recipe, put strawberries in between the layers and frosted with real vanilla bean frosting. I adapted Billy's vanilla cupcake recipe for the cake. So here's what you'll need for the vanilla cake

Butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, sift together both flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder

Slice butter into tablespoons and add to the dry mixture

Mix until the butter is crumbly and covered with dry mixture. In a large pourable measuring cup, whisk together milk, vanilla, and eggs

Slowly pour into the first mixture

Beat until just combined, being careful not to over mix

Pour batter evenly into 2 round, greased 9-inch pans. Bake

When cakes are finished baking, pull out of the oven and let cool a couple of minutes. Here's the baked cake

Flip them out onto wax paper covered wire wracks. Let cool completely. While the cakes are cooling, prepare the vanilla bean buttercream. Here's what you need

Butter, vanilla beans (or vanilla bean paste), powdered sugar, and milk. If you are using vanilla beans, cut straight down the middle to open up the vanilla bean

Take a spoon and scrape out all of the paste you can

Drop paste into a mixing bowl with butter

Mix until vanilla bean paste turns into vanilla beans

add powdered sugar, a cup at a time

Beat well, add milk until your desired spreading consistency is reached

Set the frosting aside and sweeten the strawberries. Wash and slice strawberries, place in a small bowl and add sugar

Stir together; let sit about 5 minutes so the strawberries can soak up all the sugar. Now assemble the cake! Place one layer of the cake on a serving plate. Cover that layer with frosting

Spoon strawberries onto cake, leaving behind as much juice as possible

Place the other layer on top of the strawberries

Cover with vanilla bean frosting

If you want to get a little fancy, pipe frosting around the edges and place more sliced strawberries around the top

Slice er up..

preferably hefty slices

Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Bean Cake

(Adapted from Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325°. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Divide batter evenly among 2 9-inch round greased cake pans. Bake about 25-35 minutes, or until the center of the cake no longer jiggles. Remove from oven and let sit in pans about 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack covered with wax paper to cool completely. While cake layers are cooling; prepare frosting. 

Vanilla Bean Frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla bean paste

4 cups powdered sugar

1-2 Tbs. whole milk

Place butter and vanilla bean paste in mixing bowl. Beat together until the vanilla bean paste turns into little specks throughout. Mix in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. If needed, add milk, a tablespoon at a time. Mix throughly until frosting is light and fluffy. 

Strawberries:

10 strawberries, washed, capped, and sliced

3 Tbs. sugar

Place in a small bowl and stir until strawberries are fully coated with sugar. Let sit about 5 minutes to let the strawberries soak up the sugar. Assemble the cake.

Place one cooled cake layer on a serving plate. Spread about 1/4 of the frosting over that layer. Then scoop strawberries over the frosting, leaving behind as much of the juices as possible. Stack the second layer on over the strawberries. Use the remaining frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake. You can pipe frosting around the edges and top the cake with more strawberries for decoration, if desired. Enjoy :)

Strawberry Cake

This is the perfect cake for summer! It's sweet, cold, fruity, and pink :) I've been through almost every strawberry cake recipe trying to find the perfect one, & believe it or not, my favorite starts out with a cake mix. I'm usually against using cake mixes unless its to make something cake batter flavored. But in this cake recipe, you cannot taste the cake mix or tell that I used one because you add more ingredients to disguise it. Here's what you need for the cake

White cake mix, strawberry jello, eggs, vanilla, oil, milk, and strawberries (pureed). Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl

Mix on low speed until combined. Then beat on medium speed until well combined. Do not over beat. Pour into 2 greased 9-inch round cake pans

Bake! Flip out of cake pans onto wax paper to cool

This is optional, but if you want to make the cake four layers instead of two, you can use a knife and cut each layer in half

Here's what it will look like when you cut them in half

If you do decide to cut the layers in half, be very careful because they are thin and fragile. While cooling, prepare the frosting. Here's what you'll need

Cream cheese, butter, vanilla, strawberries, and powdered sugar. Wash, dry, crush, and well drain the strawberries; set aside. (Strawberries must NOT have any juice in them or the frosting will become runny)

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla

Once well combined, add the powdered sugar

Mix well, stir in the strawberries

Mine wasn't very pink so I added a little pink food coloring

Once the cake is cooled, fill layers and frost the outside and top

Decorate and refrigerate

Here's what the four layers will look like

perfect strawberry cake. Yum. These also work perfectly as cupcakes

Strawberry Cake

1 box white cake mix

1 small box strawberry jello

1 cup pureed strawberries, washed and capped

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup whole milk

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Combined all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir on low speed until combined. Turn up to medium and beat until well combined, but do not over beat. (You don't want the cake to become tough). Pour finished batter in 2 greased 9-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. When cakes are done baking, remove from oven and let cool in pans about 3-5 minutes. Carefully flip out onto a wax paper lined cooling wrack. (If making into four layers, cut the layers in half using a long serrated knife.) Prepare frosting while the cake is cooling.

strawberry cream cheese frosting:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup crushed strawberries, well drained

1 tsp. vanilla extract

7 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Stir in the strawberries. (Add pink or red food coloring for more of a strawberry color.) Once the frosting is finished and cakes are cooled, frosting in between cake layers, outside, and top of cake. Decorate and top with fresh strawberries as a garnish. :) Store cake in fridge.

Happy Single's Awareness Day

A.K.A: Happy Valentine's Day. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day! I was planning on getting this up sooner, but I got called into work and that put me behind a little, but didn't stop me. So in honor of Valentine's Day I made white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate filling topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting, chocolate ganche, and a chocolate covered strawberry. whew. These cupcakes had a lot of steps, obviously, and were pretty time consuming. I thought they were really good, but the cupcakes themselves didn't have a distinct white chocolate flavor and I really got my hopes up for that. So next time, I'm sure I will be doubling the white chocolate. Here's what you need for the cupcakes

Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, white bakers chocolate (I used chocolate chips and I think they would have a stronger flavor with bakers chocolate), water, vanilla, butter, sugar, eggs, and buttermilk. In a medium-size bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

 In a small saucepan, melt together white bakers chocolate and water

 Once melted, turn off heat and stir in vanilla; set aside

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar about 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition

Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mixing the batter until well combined

Pour in the white chocolate mixture, gently folding in. I added white chocolate chips to the batter, DON'T do this. The chocolate chips sunk to the bottom, burned, and stuck to the cupcake liners. I had a feeling this was going to happen, but I did it anyways

Scoop batter into muffin tins, filling each one about 2/3 way full. Bake about 15 minutes and cool on wire rack

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare the white chocolate filling. You will need butter, white bakers chocolate, powdered sugar, and heavy cream. (Once again I used white chocolate chips and probably should have used white bakers chocolate like the recipe called for, but I was too lazy to go to the store)

Melt butter and white chocolate together in a saucepan

Turn off the heat and whisk in powdered sugar

Set aside. Whip heavy cream in mixing bowl until soft peaks form, using electric mixer at high speed

Slowly mix in the white chocolate mixture, beating at low speed. Set aside and prepare the rest of the cupcake. Now prepare the strawberry frosting. I made this ahead of time and forgot to take pictures, sorry! I'll just post the recipe at the bottom. Now for the chocolate covered strawberries, I cut them in half and dipped them in white bark chocolate. Let harden on wax paper

Lastly, the chocolate ganache

All you need is semi-sweet bakers chocolate and heavy cream. Chop bakers chocolate up in a bowl; set that aside and put heavy cream in a pot. Bring that just to a boil and pour over the chopped chocolate. Whisk together until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set that aside until ready to decorate the cupcakes. Don't let cool to long because it will harden up. Now fill the cupcakes

 Put the top back on the cupcake, covering the filling

Pipe on the frosting

 Dip in the somewhat cooled ganache

Top with a chocolate covered strawberry

Happy Valentine's Day to me :)

This is seriously Valentine's day stuffed into one delicious bite

Valentine's Day Cupcakes


White Chocolate Cupcakes:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 (1 oz) squares white chocolate (this is what the recipe calls for, but I would at least use 8 squares)
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In small saucepan, melt white chocolate and hot water over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature; add vanilla. Set Aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk (beginning and ending with dry mixture). Mix in white chocolate mixture. Pour into cupcake lined muffin tins, filling about 2/3 way full. Bake 15 minutes. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then take out of pan and set on a wire rack/foil/wax paper until cooled completely.

White Chocolate Filling:
6 (1 oz) squares baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream

Melt white chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar. Cool slightly. Whip heavy cream in mixing bowl until soft peaks form, using electric mixer at high speed. Gradually add white chocolate mixture, beating at low speed. Cut a well in each cupcake, fill with white chocolate filling and cover with the flat top cupcake, hiding the filling. Prepare frosting.


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, soft
1 stick butter, soft
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup fresh strawberries, rinsed, capped, and mashed to make ½ cup, drained well

Combine the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the vanilla, sugar, and drained strawberries.  Blend the frosting until the sugar has been incorporated.  Then raise the speed to medium and mix the frosting another minute or until the frosting lightens and is well combined. Frost filled cupcakes.

Chocolate Ganache:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over the cupcakes. (This is not that sweet so you might want to add powdered sugar, but then you will need to add more cream to thin out.) Dip cupcakes in finished and cooled ganache. Top with white chocolate bark covered strawberry. Let ganache harden before serving. Keep cupcakes stored in fridge.