S'more Pops

This is a super easy, super fast treat. I made them for a sip n' see party but you could make them for any occasion, even a weeknight. 

What you need: 

12 or so large marshmallows
6 oz of chocolate chips or bark chocolate chopped
3 large graham crackers crushed 
12 or so paper straws or Popsicle sticks  

What you do: 

1. skewer the marshmallows with the straws
2. melt the chocolate chips in a mug in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time 
3. dip the marshmallow one at a time in the melted chocolate about 3/4 of the way up
4. take the chocolate marshmallow  out of the chocolate and allow the excess chocolate to drip off, shaking slightly 
5. then dip the chocolate covered marshmallow still wet into a bowl of crushed crackers about half way up 
6. allow the marshmallows to cool and harden on wax paper about an inch from each other 

as always, much love, many blessings, and happy chocolate dipping 

Valentine Chocolate Pretzel Bites

Here is what you need:

1 bag of the square bite sized pretzels I've heard them called waffle pattern
1 bag of Hershey's Hugs
1 bag of Valentine's M&Ms
Cute little baggies 

Here is what you:

1. Unwrap a bag of Hershey Hugs (preferably with a friend and wine) My mother always said a burden shared is half a burden thus the friend.
2. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees F
3. Using a rimmed baking sheet also called a jelly roll pan. I lined it with parchment paper just to be safe, although I am not sure you really need it.  Lay out as many pretzel bites as you can without them overlapping.
4. Top each pretzel with the Hershey Hug.
5. Place in the oven for 4 minutes.
6. Working quickly, press one M&M down into the chocolate.
7. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill.
8. Wrap up in cute little baggies, give to friends and family... 

Hooray for pop-able, Valentines treats!

Happy Valentine's Day! As always, many blessings, much love, and Happy Baking!

Freddy's Valentine Cookies

This was the first year I made Valentine's for Freddy's class. Last year he was only 9 months old and most of his buddies weren't eating solid foods. This year however, we had a bunch of sugar craving toddlers, so cookies were indeed in order. We gave out little baggies, with heart sugar cookies, chocolate chip, and organic lollipops. I tied the whole thing together with a cut out heart and a little smiley face out of construction paper. 

To make the sugar cookies: 
5 cups of flour
5 cups of sugar
2 sticks of butter
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon of baking soda
2 Tablespoons of cream cheese
Food Coloring 
Food Color Markers to draw the faces

Method:

1. Mix all of the ingredients in your standing mixer, it is a lot to do by hand.
2. Once mixed together separate into two discs, and wrap in cling plastic wrap and let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 1 day, or in the freezer up to a month.
3. When ready, roll out the dough, use flour on a board and rolling pin to get the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Cut with your favorite heart shaped cookie cutters and place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are just slightly golden. Let cool and use markers to draw your faces.

To make the Chocolate Chip Cookies with the Heart Chocolate Center

½ cup of sugar bowl sugar
½ cup of brown sugar
1 stick of butter softened overnight
1 egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
½ teaspoon bakind soda
1 and ¼ cup of all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon of sea salt
1 cup of best quality chocolate chips Ghirardelli is my favorite

24 Dove Hearts

Here is what you do: 

1. Preheat your oven to 325 F.

2. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl (except for the chocolate chips), wooden spoon is fine. 

3.  Place teaspoon dollops on parchment lined sheet pan. 

4. Bake for 18 minutes. ]

5. Place an unwrapped Dove heart in the center of the cookies while they are still warm. Enjoy

There you have it my friends, easy, classic, but delicious cookies. 

Here is a picture of the finished product... 

Happy Valentines'! As always, much love, many blessings, happy baking!

PaddyCake's Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes

Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes are made with organic strawberries, premium dutch chocolate, these lovely little white and dark chocolate pebbles as decorations. These chocolate cupcakes are the classic vegan chocolate recipe, but the frosting is super special. 

Cream Cheese Strawberry Frosting

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of cream cheese
1/2 cup of pureed strawberries
2 1/4 cups of powdered sugar\

Using a standing mixer whip together until desired consistency, pipe with a 1/2 inch tube pipette... enjoy with milk.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy cupcake baking!

Oreo Truffles

This is less of a recipe and more of a concoction  but it is a lovely and delicious concoction  I needed something bite-size I could bring to a Super Bowl Party. My son loves Oreo's and who doesn't love chocolate... so here you go.

What you need:
1 package of Oreo's
1 8 oz package of cream cheese softened at room temperature
Melted chocolate

What you do:

1. In an food processor chop up the Oreo's. Add the cream cheese and cream together until it is one mashed up deliciousness. 
2. Form balls with a small ice cream scoop. Freeze on a large sheet pan and once frozen (about an hour) roll in the melted chocolate and allow to harden. If you would like to decorate feel free to add sprinkles or drizzle a different color of chocolate. 
3. You can eat them straight away, or you can store in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for two months. 

Enjoy with milk and football. 

25 Days of Cookies: Day 2 Leslie Cookies aka Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies

So my best friend Leslie, loves these cookies. Her mom calls them Leslie cookies, and whatever Mama Bear calls them, so do I.

I'm blogging these not because they are my recipe, I'm sure the credit goes to a large corporation. But because they are Leslie's favorite, and I need the recipe to be Google searchable under her name :). Thus... Leslie cookies.

What you need:

1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 egg
1 stick (1/2 a cup) of softened butter
2 Tablespoons of water
powdered sugar to roll the dough balls in

What we did:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
2. Mix all the ingredients, and spoon into your hands to roll into balls
3. Rolls the balls in powdered sugar and place on to parchment paper covered baking sheets
3. Bake for 10 minutes and Voila Leslie Cookies.

You can store them in an air tight container for a couple of days. They are the only cookies that Freddy likes better than Oreos.

Do as we did, and enjoy with wine while decorating the tree listening to the White Christmas Musical.

Happy Christmas! As always, many blessings, much love, and Happy Baking!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes for Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I must admit that I never really celebrated Halloween, we would make chili, and carve a pumpkin but it was just another weeknight. Now with a little one the week has become super fun! And by super fun I mean Super Freddy

But, Super Freddy's best friend Dalmatian Isla can't have milk or eggs, and so for her we made special chocolate cupcakes for Halloween. These cupcakes are fantastic... I found the same recipe from multiple sources on the internet and I amended it some to make it more... um, me... but it is wonderful. I am not sure I will make regular chocolate cake again. 

Vegan Chocolate Cake Ingredients


1 1/4 cups organic flour
1 cup organic sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup warm water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp of strong coffee
1 tsp organic apple cider vinegar


Vegan Frosting 
4 cup confectioners sugar
8 tbsp margarine
1 tbsp coconut milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Orange Dye to tint the icing for Halloween 

What you do... 

1. Preheat your over to 350 degrees F

2. Take out your trusty muffin tins, this will make about 18 cupcakes so you will need two tins, and cupcake liners 

3. I blitzed all the ingredients in my food processor, but you can use a bowl and a wooden spoon, or whatever you have handy. 

4. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean 

5. While the cupcakes are cooling make the frosting... 

6. With a standing mixer or a whisk and strong arm slowly mix together the sugar and margarine. Once you have a good whipped consistency add the other ingredients, slowly adding the orange tint until you reach your desired color. I went for a bright neon orange for the festivities. 

7. Once the cupcakes are cool you can decorate the cupcakes anyway you like. I simply used a star-tipped pastry bag and some cupcake toppers I made for the occasion. 

Happy Halloween, much love, many blessings, and happy baking!