Pop Star Wanna Be

I'm a Bakerella fan through and through.  I stalk her blog, order her cookbooks, and now I.....

make cake pops!!!!

She is the queen momma of cake on a stick.....and for that......I'll be forever in her debt!

    

These are just a few of her many creations.  

I wonder what it feels like to be so talented?  I wonder if she looks in the mirror and says, "yup, you're da bomb of sugar."?

  

She also makes other things like, brownies, cheesecakes, muffins, cookies, and these super photographic gummies.

So how does this apply to the "mommyofthree"?  

Well......

I wanted to do something special for the Hornet football team.  They made it to the play-offs and we were having a small celebration for them.  (which means, lots of food in teenager talk!)  In planning the celebration, I blurted out, "I will make cake pops"!  Then before I could retract my statement, everyone was cheering for me.  They were smiling......and nodding their heads in agreement.  They were patting me on the back and clapping their hands!  

OK, not really, but I did say it loud enough that everyone heard me.  And because I am a wanna-be Martha Stewart, I could not let them down.

It took me nearly a full day to make 60 of them.  

I destroyed two of them (then ate them).

So technically, there were 58.

I am not Bakerella! 

But I tried.

I'm sure that I'm not going to end up on her "Pop Stars" page with these cake pops.

I'm going to keep trying though.

It is basketball season now, you know?

Ohh.....Snowman cake pops!

and elf cake pops!

and present cake pops!

and.............

It's endless guys!

The Voices in my Head

It's Honeycrisp season.  The coveted apple that lives up to it's name.

I bought a sack of them the other day.

Normally I consider it blamsphemy to bake with Honeycrisp apples.  They were meant to be eaten as the Lord created them. BUT........ I found a recipe that beckoned my name.  It said in a ghostie sort of voice, "Mandy, you need to make me."  "Your family will love you."  "You will become famous."  and "People will send you all sorts of money."  "Your children will honor you and your husband will worship the ground you walk on."  

I fell to the temptation.  Peeled and Chopped six Honeycrisp apples to little bites.  Mixed them up in a bowl with all sorts of ingredients.  Then popped it into the oven.  

They were pulled out of the oven two hours ago.  No one has sent me money, asked me for an interview with Barbara Walters, my children have not called and told me that I was the coolest mom ever, and my husband hasn't sent me flowers or diamonds.

Nevertheless, the house smells wonderful.  

Thanks to Bakerella.

 It's called Easy Apple Cake.  Not to be mistaken for Granny's Apple Cake.  (which I made a few weeks ago)  I'm not sure that it was any easier, as the name implies.  The clear difference is that I made this recipe in a 9" X 13" pan instead of a bundt pan.  I will let the official taste testers decide tonight.

I love that you get to poke holes in this cake.  Stab.....stab.....stab......  Kinda feels good.  

Now that you are officially afraid of me.  I will note that I think the holes will make for a moister, 

gooey-er cake.

 Easy Apple Cake

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups diced apples

1 cup chopped dates rolled in flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and cinnamon with a wire whisk and set aside.

Combine sugar and oil using a mixer until blended.

Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until combined.

Add flour mixture and mix well.

Stir in nuts, dates and apples. The batter will be very thick.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 X 13 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until done.

Cool cake and using a skewer, poke holes in cake.

Cook topping ingredients on stove until mixture bubbles.

Pour topping over cake letting some (ha… more if you like) seep into the cake.

                from: BAKERELLA

Congo Bars

The only thing worse than being host of my monthly sorority (a.k.a. hen pecking) meeting, is being the co-hostess.

That's probably not true friends. Hosting is much worse. But since I am co-hostess tonight, it feels worse to me.

Co-hostess prepare food/drinks. We serve and clean. Basically waitress for the entire evening.

So, I was searching recipes via blog hopping. Trying to find something that would travel well, wouldn't require spoons and forks, and tasted yummy.

I stumbled across these beauties!!!!!!!! Good ole' Bakerella. I just love her!!!!!!

So, I made them.

Did you notice the name? Congo Bars!!! It was fate. My destiny to make these.

Right, Congo? My one brown eye, one blue eye cheetah kitty. Congo prefers salmon, so he will take my word for it that these are DA BOMB!!!

Here is the recipe, although you could pop over to Bakerella's site and find it also.

♥CONGO BARS♥

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 pound light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you)

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By Mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside

Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.

Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.

Add vanilla and mix

Add flour and mix until combined

Stir in chips and then pecans.

By Hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside

Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together. Add eggs on at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.

Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.

Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9" pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don't over bake.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

Mandy's notes:

I used peanut butter chips instead of pecans and I also added 1/2 of a bag of milk chocolate chips.

My baking time was 24 minutes, not 30. I'm sure it depends on the oven. Watch them close, these are too yummy to burn.

P.S. I found Mr. Rabbit in the garden today. His ears were missing.

Let me rephrase that. His ears weren't missing. They just weren't attached.

I have 3 suspects in custody. However, it is most likely a tall red-head, or a tall (nearly 12 year old) blondie. I will give a full report after I interrogate.