Candy Corn Cupcake (also egg and dairy free)

Okay, so we have a Fall Birthday Bash/Halloween party with our playgroup. I had to come up with some dessert that was egg free and kid friendly, but also perfect for a fall party. This seemed perfect. The cupcakes you can make with any old yellow box cake mix, but you can follow below to see how I made them egg and dairy free. I think they turned out really well. They seemed to rise well. The only thing was that they were quite crumbly, but I'm pretty sure that is the case with all egg free cakes.  I also didn't have a really ripe banana on hand, but thought that would help hold it together a little better.  I ended up making these with about 1/2 c. applesauce and 1/2 a banana, but that was a little too much moisture.  I've adjusted the recipe accordingly

Ingredients

1 (18 ounce) box yellow cake mix (look carefully at allergen list)

1 1/3 c. water

1/3 c. canola oil

1 banana, ripe and mashed, or 1/2 c. applesauce

1 t. baking powder

1 T. vinegar

orange food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Line muffin baking pan with cupcake liners.
3. Using an electric mixer on low speed, blend the ingredients together (except food coloring) until moistened (approximately 30 seconds) in a large bowl.
4. Scrape the sides of the bowl and blend on medium speed for another minute.
5. To make the candy corn color, pour half or slightly less of the mixture into a bowl and add a color of drops of orange food coloring.  Be careful not to overfill the cups.
6. In each cupcake liner, pour a little yellow cake mix and then top with a little orange cake mix.  You'll want the tins to be about 2/3 full.
7. Bake according to the directions on the box (this batter can, of course, be used for making cakes of different sizes, not just cupcakes).
8. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely before frosting.
9. I frosted the cakes with a simple butter cream frosting, but you can easily buy egg free dairy free frosting at the store (just make sure to look at the allergen listing)

S'mores Bars

Okay, so the picture didn't turn our great, but the bars are all gone, so this is what you get. It looks a little more like a mound of S'mores, but whatever - they tasted GREAT! These seemed like a perfect dessert for trick or treating night. My husband was so upset when they were all gone. I guess I'll be making these again!

Ingredients

10 oz. bag (6 c.) mini marshmallows

12 oz. package semi sweet chocolate chips

5 T. butter

12 oz box (8 c.) Golden Graham cereal

1 t. vanilla

Directions

1. Place package of chocolate chips in the freezer to chill.
2. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan, set aside.
3. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.
4. Once butter is melted, add in 5 cups of marshmallows and stir until almost completely melted.  Don't worry about making sure they are all melted!
5. Stir in vanilla.
6. Remove from heat and add cereal, stirring to coat.
7. Once cereal is coated, remove chocolate chips from freezer and add to cereal mixture. Also add in the remaining cup of marshmallows. Gently stir until evenly distributed.
8. Press cereal mixture into prepared baking pan.
9. Once cooled, cut into squares and enjoy!

Applesauce Bread

I know my husband is a big fan of appleasauce bread, so I found a recipe to surprise him with some bread to accompany our dinner. As my husband generally doesn't like nuts or extra stuff in his bread, I left out the pecans. Over dinner, I told him that I had left them out. Of course he replied, "That would have been a great addition to this bread!" How was I suppose to know? Anyway, it turned out great without the nuts, and I'm sure it would be great with them as well!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups applesauce

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

3 tablespoons milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, sugar, oil, eggs and milk; beat well. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt; stir until smooth. Fold in the pecans. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

S'mores Cookies

I found this recipe online and thought we'd try it out for birthday treats for Aiden to take to preschool. They are so good, that I don't want to send them with him, but it's better to share than to eat that many cookies, I suppose. This recipe is going into my recipe box. Need I say more?

Ingredients

• 2 1/8 c. all-purpose flour (~ 10 1/2 ounces) 
• 1/2 t. salt 
• 1/2 t. baking soda 
• 12 T. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
• 2 T. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly 
• 1 c. brown sugar  (7 ounces) 
• 1/2 c. sugar (3 1/2 ounces) 
• 1 egg 
• 1 egg yolk 
• 2 t. vanilla extract 
• 1 - 2 c. chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)
• 1/2 bag of mini marshmallows
• 1 box graham crackers
• 3 Hersey bars broken into the pieces

Directions

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions.  Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. By hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.
4. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.
5. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips and marshmallows. 
7. Place about 1 1/2 T. of dough on graham crackers squares. Press down slightly with fingertips.
8. Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.
9. Bake for 7-10 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges.  Do NOT over bake!
10. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

Cake Batter Pancake

Okay, so I thought these would be perfect for Aiden's birthday dinner, but we had a slight problem. We ended up buying a butter cake mix instead of a yellow cake mix. Note, these are completely different. I'm pretty sure they would be AWESOME with a yellow cake mix, but I couldn't force myself to eat these with the butter cake mix. I certainly want to try them again because they weren't awful, they just had a taste that was off from the mix.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup yellow cake mix

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups milk

sprinkles

Directions

1. Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix.
2. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. *You may need to have small taste test to see if the pancakes are flavored enough, if not, add a little more yellow cake mix until desired flavor is reached**
3. Preheat a skillet on medium-high heat.
4. Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter.
5. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more.
6. Serve with vanilla glaze.

Glaze Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Directions

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. I needed to add more milk. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

My husband seems to like banana cake, so I threw this together last night. It turned out well and was quite easy to make. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of banana bread or banana bars, but this was good as well. If you have a few extra brown bananas lying around, make something yummy today!  (Just noticed that I've never made my banana bars for this website.  I will have to fix that very shortly as they are FANTASTIC!)

Ingredients

2 c. sugar

1 c. canola oil

3 eggs

1 T. vanilla

4 overripe bananas, mashed

3 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. kosher salt

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 and lightly grease a bundt or 9x13 pan.
2. Place the sugar, oil, and eggs in mixer bowl and beat with paddle until light and lemon colored.
3. Add the vanilla and bananas and mix until just combined.
4. Scrape down bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix until just combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake in oven until a toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.
6. Cool cake completely before frosting with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 c. butter

8 oz cream cheese

2 c. powdered sugar

2 t. vanilla

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Scrape down sides and slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla.
3. Continue to beat until frosting is fully incorporated and smooth.

Chocolate Crispy Log

Another item out of our freezer meals cookbook. I guess I didn't realize that you could freeze rice crispy bar type food without it getting soggy or something, but guess what, you can! These are actually a bit TOO chocolatey for me, but Brandon loved them. If you love chocolate try this....

Ingredients

10 oz package of marshmallows

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. peanut butter

5 1/2 c. Rice Krispies cereal

1 1/3 v. semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 c. butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Line a 10x15 jellyroll pan with waxed paper, or silicone baking mat.  Grease paper with butter and set aside.
2. In a pot, melt marshmallows, butter, and peanut butter over medium-low heat until well blended.
3. Stir in cereal until well coated.
4. Spread into prepared pan, pressing it flat using another sheet of buttered waxed paper, or silicone mat.
5. In small pan, melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips until completely melted.  Spread over cereal mixture
6. Roll up jellyroll style, starting with long side, peeling waxed paper away while rolling.  Place seam side down on serving plate and refrigerate for 1 hour or until set.
7. To freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil and freeze.
8. Thaw, slice, serve, and enjoy.