Easy Homemade Whoopie Pies

Call them Whoopie Pies or Stuffed Cookies, everyone loves them. And they are so easy to whip together. It doesn't take much longer to make four flavors than it does to make one. A variety of flavors makes an attractive dessert tray and allows you to satisfy different flavor preferences among those you are serving. They also freeze well. It's nice to be able to pull a few out of the freezer on a week night, or to be able to put a quick plate together to deliver to a friend.

Father's Day is a perfect time for Chocolate Bowls For Ice Cream Sundaes and a selection of different flavored Whoopie Pies. Speaking of Father's Day, another dessert that is ALWAYS a hit is this Almost Better Than Sex Cake. In my experience, even guys who aren't huge chocolate fans LOVE this cake...it's like eating a candy bar in cake form. If you are having a crowd over and want variety, make a couple of these super easy Butterfinger Pies. I can always count on these two dessert plates being empty before the day is over. And what are you making for Dad for dinner? Shouldn't it be some of his favorite foods? All guys love Gourmet Mac-n-Cheese...mom will enjoy the creamy, decadent flavor of this one too. 

Back to the Whoopie Pies...I know there are multiple recipes out there, but I like this one because it is simple, quick and delicious! Without further ado...here you go...and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

What you need:
1 Box Cake Mix
1 Stick Melted Butter
2 Eggs

Frosting: Purchase cans of frosting to coordinate with cake mix flavors.


Some great combinations are:
Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate OR Devils Food with Cream Cheese OR Vanilla Frosting
Strawberry with Chocolate Frosting
Yellow with Chocolate Frosting
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Gingerbread Cake with Vanilla Frosting

Technique:

Mix cake mix, melted butter and eggs together.
Scoop rounded teaspoon, roll into ball and set on baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes on 350*
Don't overcook. Cookies will continue to cook as they sit.

Let cookies sit for 5 minutes before transferring to wax paper.
Let cookies cool completely.
Turn cookies upside and and pipe frosting on one half of the cookies, using the piping technique below.
You can also just spread the frosting on the cookies, but piping is so much easier and faster.

Gently press a second cookie on top of frosted cookies while frosting is still soft. For best flavor and consistency, refrigerate for a couple hours before eating. If you need to keep them for more than a day or two, they store very nicely in the fridge. And as I mentioned before, they are awesome frozen! 

Piping Technique:
Stand a plastic baggie in a glass, spreading it over the outside of the glass. 

Using a spatula, fill the baggie with frosting. 

Using scissors, cut the tip of the baggie off. Keep the size of the hole relevant to what you are piping. For Whoopie Pies, it can be a fairly large hole.

Printable Recipe
My two favorites are red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and a Dark Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Just can't decide which I like best. What is your favorite flavor combination? Can you suggest a new combo for me to try?

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Strawberry Angel Kabobs

Don’t you hate it when you're browsing through Pinterest and you come across something that someone else has pinned that is just like something that you have been making forever and have been saving to post?! That happened recently when I logged on and saw something similar to my Strawberry Angel Kabobs (which I had been saving to post this week.) These are a favorite for Mother's Day Brunch.

This is the perfect dessert for Mother's Day that is low-calorie, (what mom isn't always looking for low-cal?) and easy to assemble (see tips for chocolate striping below). It also has an elegant presentation and tastes delicious! What more can you ask for from a dessert? You could even serve Ice Cream in Chocolate Bowls alongside the skewers. 

If you like brunch that leans towards breakfast foods, try these Personal Frittatas, with  Perfectly Crisp Bacon and Roasted Asparagus on the side. They are always a hit and everyone loves bacon! If your brunch is more of lunch food, here's a new and fun way to serve Caprese Salad. And this Sweet Mango Salsa is delicious served as a salad on a bed of lettuce. And Mom will think you are a gourmet chef when you present her with Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup. 


So, on to the kabobs...

Ingredients:

Angel Food Cake (check your grocery store bakery for rectangle or square cake-it's easier to cut in squares than round cake)

Fresh Strawberries

Wooden Skewers

Melting Candy - Chocolate & Vanilla

Technique:

Cut angel food cake into squares

Cut tops off strawberries

Slide strawberry onto skewers, followed by cake.

Repeat until skewer is full.

Set skewers close together on a tray.

Squeeze melting candy over skewers, either in stripes back and forth or twisting and circling.

Preparing Melting Candy:

Here's a super easy way to squeeze chocolate or frosting for decorating.

Put chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute, then stir. Keep heating in 30 second increments, stirring in between each until melted.

Stand sandwich baggie inside of a small glass, spreading it open over the top of the glass.

Scoop up the melted chocolate and put in inside the baggie.

Pick the the baggie, using your hand to slide the chocolate down into the corner.

Cut a TINY bit off the corner of the baggie. I can't stress TINY enough, if you want to decorate in thin strips of chocolate.

Once you have finished decorating your skewers with chocolate melting candy, repeat the process with the vanilla melting candy.

Happy Mother's Day!

What is your favorite Mother's Day dessert? To leave a comment Click Here.

Chocolate Bowls for Ice Cream Sundaes

Are you looking for a dessert idea that looks way cool but is super simple? These chocolate bowls are great for serving ice cream sundaes. The simplest dessert is just setting out the ice cream, brownies and toppings for people to create their own sundae. People get really excited when they get to create their own...I guess it's kind of like going to an ice cream or yogurt shop where you get to choose your own mix-ins. This dessert works in all settings, from a nice Easter dinner, to a casual night of entertaining, to a fun birthday party.

I like to make both chocolate and vanilla bowls; strange, but some people actually prefer vanilla to chocolate. I typically use candy melts that you get by the bag from Michaels, JoAnns, etc. Most of them are chocolate flavor, but there is always a white one (or white with sparkles in it) that is vanilla flavored.

Toppings could include chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, chopped walnuts, sliced almonds, fresh berries, pineapple, whipped topping, sprinkles and maraschino cherries. And you can never go wrong with crushed Butterfingers or Heath bars and brownies or chocolate chip cookies. For Easter I will serve Tuxedo Bunnies and Chocolate Bird Nests with the ice cream sundaes. On another occasion I might serve Homemade Whoopie Pies  with them. Is your mouth watering yet??

Here's what you need:

Melting Candy

Small Balloons

Wax Paper

Technique:

Blow up balloons to fit into the size of bowl you want.

Put melting candy in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval until melted.

Dip balloon into chocolate. Tilt the balloon to get the chocolate to the depth that you want your bowl. Set balloons on wax paper and allow to harden. Be sure to stir the chocolate after melting, before dipping the balloon (so the hot chocolate doesn't make the balloon burst! (What you don't see is the chocolate that splattered all across the kitchen - floor, wall, counter!) See the orange balloon still in the one on the right? The balloon on the left is completely covered.

And here's what happens when you have extra chocolate. (I said I would make chocolate treats, I never said I wouldn't play with it.)

To get them to set faster. set them on a tray and put them in the fridge. 

After the chocolate is completely set, pop the balloons and peel them out of the chocolate shell.

Every bowl will be different...that's part of the coolness of them.

Some of the balloons peeled out very easily, some of them didn't (I had to use my fingernail to scrape and help it along.) Be sure to hold the bowl very gently while peeling the balloon; the chocolate is still somewhat soft and will crush in your hand. Some of the bowls may have a "hole" in the bottom from where the balloon touched. Just put a dollop of chocolate on top of it. It will be covered up with ice cream.

You can set the bowls out with the toppings, or you might find it easier to set the chocolate bowls on a small plate or in a bowl and scoop the ice cream or frozen yogurt into them. That makes it easier for people to pick one up as they walk down your toppings bar or they can be passed out at the table and the toppings passed around the table.


Update: Every time I serve these bowls I plan to get pictures of peoples creations as they make them. But it never fails...they dive into eating it so fast, it is literally impossible. I managed to get these two pics as he was lifting it to eat it...lol!!

For more recipes and fun holiday ideas Click Here and Here.


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Tuxedo Bunnies

This is the week for Easter treats, so even though I am eating healthy and juicing this week, I will post some fun Easter treats for your celebrations this weekend. You have to check out these awesome Chocolate Bird Nests...so fun, so crunchy, such chocolaty goodness!

You might also like these Homemade Chocolate Bowls, which are perfect for serving ice cream sundaes.

So here are Tuxedo Bunnies. I'm not a huge fan of plain marshmallow peeps, but all dressed up in formal chocolate attire, they are pretty darn good! This will be a hit with both kids and adults.

If you are putting them in Easter baskets, I would recommend either wrapping them in plastic wrap or putting them in a plastic sandwich bag. If the chocolate gets warm, you don't want chocolate rubbing off on everything else in the basket.

I do recommend keeping them at room temperature. While the chocolate is good in the fridge, marshmallow gets hard when cold...and no one wants a hard marshmallow bunny!

You can use regular chocolate chips or melting candy; I used melting chocolate discs. You can use any round candy for the tuxedo button; I used a red hot.

These are fun to serve along side of an ice cream sundae in a chocolate bowl or as a centerpiece standing guard in a circle around a nest full of eggs.

However you display them, they never last long. So, have fun and enjoy them.

Happy Easter!!


Update: Here's what we do with the leftovers...Bunny and Chick s'mores!!

30 seconds in the microwave…

Gives you warm, gooey marshmallow and chocolate on a soft graham cracker.

For more recipes and fun holiday ideas Click Here and Here.

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Almost Better Than Sex Cake!!

This cake is perfectly named…ALMOST Better Than Sex Cake!!

Enough said...just try it...you'll know what I mean. Everyone loves this cake. My son, (who has requested white cake with vanilla frosting his whole life and would rather skip cake altogether if the only option is chocolate) tried this cake and said, "wow, I don't usually like chocolate cake, but this is really good!"


In full disclosure I will say, "This cake is NOT low cal!" This is one of my fabulous, but not so healthy recipes. (That's why it doesn't get made very often!)


This is the perfect dessert to serve with Super Bowl Mac-N-Cheese or Crock Pot Lasagna.

If you are hosting a large group for Super Bowl Sunday, you may want to make two pans (9x13) of cake...it goes fast!
So here it is.....

Almost Better Than Sex Cake

1 Pkg Devil's Food OR Chocolate OR German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Caramel Ice Cream Topping

Hot Fudge Ice Cream Topping

1 (8 oz) Container Frozen Whipped Topping, thawed (like Cool Whip)

5 Heath Candy Bars, chopped up (or Skor Candy Bars)

Bake cake according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan; cool for about 5 minutes.

Using a large fork, poke holes into the cake (wiggle the fork a little to make holes bigger).

Let the cake cool for a while.

Slowly pour the sweetened condensed milk (straight from the can) over the top of the cake.

Drizzle caramel on top of cake-back and forth one direction, then the other direction.

Drizzle hot fudge on top of cake-back and forth one direction, then the other direction. 

Sprinkle about 1/4 - 1/3 of the crushed candy bars on top of the cake.

Let cake cool completely.

Spread whipped topping on cake.

Decorate the top of the cake with generous swirls of caramel and hot fudge topping and the rest of the crushed candy bars.

Refrigerate before serving. (at least a few hours-overnight is better).

Putting it in the freezer for an hour or so before serving takes it up a notch.

Question: What dessert does your Super Bowl crowd expect every year?