Dessert Incognito

This post has a little bit of an indentity crisis going on. I'm not really sure if you should consider it a salad or a dessert. Or maybe a dessert with multiple personalities. Either way, it's really simple to make and very yummy to eat. Now I have heard this called a couple of different names, but I call it a Snicker Salad, but in no way should the name make you think it's at all healthy like a normal salad.


Here are the ingredients in this salad. Yep, three things, couldn't be simpler right? Amounts you use can vary, if you like more apple or more Snickers. And don't feel you have to use Granny Smith apples, I just like using them because I think the tart helps balance out the sweet of the Snickers and Cool Whip.
Step one is to cut up almost a full bag of mini Snickers bars. A way to make it easier to cut them up is to refrigerate them before cutting. I cut them in pretty small pieces because I find it easier to eat once the salad is all together.
You can peel the apples, but I like it with the skin on, and it's one way to make it just a little bit better for you. I used about 4 good size Granny Smith apples for this recipe. Once things are all prepped, mix in a full container of Cool Whip thoroughly.

And because I am a dork and after 10 years of making sure things look nice as well as taste good, I decorated the top of the salad. Trust me this is so not necessary. But if you would like to, I cut up two Snickers into very small pieces and had thin slices of apples (I did soak them in some lemon juice first to prevent browning) to arrange around the edge.

The Unsharables

Back in August of 2010, I made a batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies to take tailgating before a Brewers game with our friends Aimee and Steve. The cookies where a big hit and I posted the recipe I used here on my blog. Aimee made a big batch at home one day and gave some to a friend to enjoy. Upon hearing this, Steve explained to Aimee that "these are cookies we do not share". Now fast forward to August 2011, and it's time for some Brewers tailgating again. This time we were with a pretty large group, and we decided that everyone was to bring a dish to share. I, naturally, decided to make cookies, the chocolate ones at that. But this time I made a slight recipe change.

I went a little chip crazy! I saw these Dark Chocolate Chips and knew they had to be in the cookies. And I love the Caramel Chips, so those were a must, with the White Chocolate Chips seeming to mellow and balance out the other two. I used the same recipe I posted here (although I did double it) http://abakersremix.blogspot.com/2010/08/c-is-for-cookie.html. To the batter I added a total of 4 cups of chips. The breakdown was the entire bag of the Dark Chocolate, and about 1 cup of the other two.

I once again had a hit on my hands, as all the cookies were devoured. And I am happy to say that everybody shared the unsharable cookies, even Steve.
Steve with one of the unsharable cookies!

Sweets for a Sweet Girl

So to continue on with our crazy birthday weekend of August, we had our daughter Samantha's 6th birthday party. Samantha is a very energetic and creative little girl, and has been planning her 6th birthday party, well since before her 5th birthday party. (and yes she was planning her 7th before this party even started) She asked to have her birthday at Chuck E Cheese, and after that I was free to have what ever theme my heart desired. I choose a Sweet Shoppe Theme and while Samantha loves her fruits and vegetables, she did inheret my massive sweet tooth. That is why I chose the sweet shoppe theme.

I saw this gumball machine on another cake, and thought it would be great to make for Samantha's cake.

Sorry for the bad picture, it really was a crazy weekend. There was fondant gumballs, wrapped candy and lollipops decorating a dark chocolate cake with raspberry and chocolate fudge KitKat filling. The KitKat filling was Samantha's idea. The mini gumballs next to the cake were the favors, I just thought they were to cute not to have.

Here's our Happy 6 year old (still can't believe she's 6) with her cake. Before the party, she told me that her cake was beautiful and the best, oh how I love her.

Game On

We were party central here in Wisconsin this past weekend. And not just any old birthdays, but some milestones. We had 3 family parties to throw and attend... our oldest turned 6, Jeff's grandmother had her 90th celebration and my hubby Jeff finally turned 40. Now he has to tell people he's only a year younger then me, not the two years he usually tells people the 5 months between our birthdays.

Jeff is a little bit of a gamer, so I instantly thought of a video game cake for him. And what better video cake than an XBox.
Jeff has an XBox 360, so here is my interpertation of the game console. The cake itself was a dark chocolate with a raspberry and chocolate fudge filling. I also made a small game case to have his birthday greeting on, the controller and games in the picture are real and not at all edible.

Buzz Buzz

Last week, I saw some adorable ladybug pretzels on a couple of different blogs. The creators of these cute treats were some talented ladies of Bee In Our Bonnet. After seeing their ladybugs, I wanted to try and make some myself and also make some bumblebees to go with them.


To start, I gather some colored candy melts and mini pretzels. I couldn't find any black candy melts at the store, so I got dark chocolate and added some black food coloring (and shortening to help keep it thin).

I dipped the bottoms of the pretzels to make the heads of the ladybugs and bees.

Then I dipped half of my pretzels in red candy melts...

and the other half in yellow candy melts.

I added the final touches of the ladybugs' spots and the bees' stripes and wings.

And there you have it, some cute bugs you would love to see at your next picnic.

For Your Eyes Only

I want to start this post by warning that the picture below is not really for young eyes. It's not that it's super bad or nasty, but if you don't like your children seeing cakes that look like parts of the human body, then you would want to look at the picture when they aren't in the room. That being said, lately I have been making some special cake pops. I have had friends and friends of friends who have had surgery on their chest for medical purposes. So to celebrate their surgery, I made some boob cake pops. Basically I make a double cake pop and leave it au natural. Also below is a picture of a cookie with a fancy bra to celebrate the shopping ahead for one of my friends. The cookie is gingerbread with a fondant and royal icing bra.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Last Tuesday my husband texted me to let me know he needed a dessert for work on Thursday. They we having a special lunch that day where they could wear Hawaiian shirts and shorts in honor of the party. Since cake pops are relatively easy to make and I had the supplies on hand to whip them up, that is what I went with. But I didn't make the standard chocolate cake pops this time, this time I had more fun with them. Having the island theme already established, I chose to make, what I like to call, some Pina Colada Cake Pops, and here is how I did it.

I started with a pineapple cake mix. Yep, I was short on time and need something easy, so a boxed cake mix came to my rescue. When I went to make the cake pop mix, instead of using frosting as a binder, I used rum. I knew these pops were for adults only, so I figured why not. Now, I didn't measure the amount I put in, but I will say it wasn't a whole lot and no one would ever get drunk off these cake pops. It was just enough rum to help hold the cake together. Next I dipped the pops in some white chocolate and sprinkled them generously with some coconut. Here is the end result...
(purse and Aloha bracelet not included.)