Oreo Fudge Bars

Don't these look great?! I got this recipe from Lemons and Love and I am so glad I did. These bars are pretty easy to make and are always a big hit. I made them for our barbeque this weekend but I have made them before and they always are a crowd pleaser. What's not to love about Oreos and chocolate?

Ingredients:
1 package Oreos, divided
1 stick butter
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a mixture of semi sweet and milk)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini M&Ms

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Line a 9x13 cake pan with foil. Separate out 6 Oreos to use for the topping and coarsely chop them. Crush remaining Oreos either in a food processor or in a gallon bag with a rolling pin. Melt butter and stir in Oreo crumbs. Press Oreo mixture into cake pan to create the bottom crust.

Combine sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave to melt the chocolate, stirring often until smooth. Spread chocolate mixture over Oreo crust. Top with crushed Oreos, mini chocolate chips, and M&Ms. Press down lightly into chocolate. Bake 20 minutes.

Let cool completely in the fridge before cutting into bars or you will end up with a mess. I keep these in the fridge until serving so they don't get too soft sitting out.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I made these for our barbeque this weekend. They are delicious! I love peanut butter cookies and I added those new mini Reeses peanut butter cups to have some chocolate as well. I think this will be my new go to recipe for peanut butter cookies. I got the recipe from Bakeaholic.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted)
1 tsp baking soda
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and brown sugar until well mixed. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined well. Add peanut butter and beat until mixture is smooth. Next add flour and baking soda and beat until well combined. I added about 1 cup of Reeses Mini Peanut Butter Cups, but you can make them plain as well. I beat the dough on a high speed to break up the Reeses a little bit.

Chill the dough about 15 minutes in the freezer. Roll into balls (I used a medium cookie scoop) and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass or your finger. If you made them plain, you can make a criss cross design with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

"Watermelon" Cupcakes

Aren't they cute? I got the idea from Stephanie Cooks. These are incredibly simple to make. Basically you make a batch of vanilla cake batter (I used boxed but you can make from scratch if you are feeling feisty) and add red food coloring and some mini chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup) before baking. The frosting is just vanilla frosting (I used canned frosting but you could also make this homemade) with green food coloring added. Easy peasy and adorable!

Oreo Cupcakes

 Welcome to my new cooking blog! I have been trying out a lot of new recipes lately and have decided I might as well blog about them. I am also working on getting better with my photography so bear with me on that!

My first recipe is for Oreo cupcakes. I made these cupcakes for a coworkers bridal shower. Everyone loved them! This was my first attempt at decorating cupcakes and all I have is an old cake decorating kit my mom gave me. I think it might be older than I am, I know she used it for my birthday cakes when I was very young. It gets the job done but I am hoping to purchase a new kit someday soon.

I have seen several recipes for Oreo cupcakes floating around the internet, but I decided to use this one from Lemons & Love with just a few changes. The main difference is that I decided not to fill them. I also adapted the frosting a little to fit my preferences more. I love that this recipe uses a cake mix and tweaks it to make it that much more yummy. I know homemade is supposed to be better, but I have yet to find a cake recipe that I actually like better than a mix

I will definitely be making these cupcakes again! I might change things up and use a white cake mix next time and I'd like to try a whipped cream frosting on these as well. Enjoy!

Cake Ingredients:
1 boxed chocolate cake mix, unprepared
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package Oreos, divided

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with paper liners (this recipe should make about 24 cupcakes). Carefully twist apart 24 Oreos and place one wafer filling-side up in each cupcake liner. Cut the remaining 24 wafers in half. Save 24 halves to top the cupcakes and crumble the remaining halves to use in the frosting. Crush the remaining Oreos to add to the cake batter. These can be as large or small as you want.

Mix together cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add crushed Oreos. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. The batter is pretty thick, so I tapped the pan on the counter a few times to distribute the batter evenly. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes (mine actually needed to bake for 22 minutes, but it seems I always have to bake things longer in my oven). Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:
2 1/3 sticks butter, softened (next time I will use less, the frosting had a very strong butter taste)
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:
Beat butter with a mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix until sugar is moistened. Add vanilla and cream and mix until smooth. You can add more or less cream depending on how thick you want your frosting. Mix in crushed Oreos. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and top with an Oreo half.