Baked Lemon Donuts

I'm a huge fan of citrus especially in a dessert form. These lemon donuts are light and fluffy and are covered with a lemon glaze that will completely satisfy any citrus craving.  

I'm loving this donut pan. It makes baking donuts so much easier and in my mind makes the donuts semi healthier, right? Okay, probably not.  

I've found that by putting the dough in a pastry bag like this, will make it easier to divide the dough in the pan.

Baked Lemon Donuts

Ingredients

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powcer

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

6 oz. container lemon Greek yogurt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup milk

zest of one lemon

Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar

juice of one lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease donut pan with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, yogurt, oil milk and lemon zest. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Divide batter evenly into donut cups, filling each cup about half full. Bake for 10-15 minutes. 

Remove from oven and cool donuts on a cooling rack for a few minutes. While cooling make the glaze.

Whisk together the confectioners sugar and lemon juice until it's a thin glaze. Drizzle glaze on donuts.

Yield: 12 donuts

Recipe adapted from Barbara Bakes

Black and White Cupcakes

Are you ready for Halloween? I'm super excited to see all the fun costumes when the kids come trick-or-treating! This is one of the highlights for me on Halloween. 

Another highlight would be all the yummy treats like these yummy black and white cupcakes I made for the kiddos. The frosting is the best part; (isn't it always?) with the almond flavoring and the fluffiness from the cool whip. These would be great to make for your Halloween party!!

Black and White Cupcakes
Makes 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Black food coloring paste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners; set aside. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Remove one-third of batter(this will be your white batter). To the other batter, add cocoa powder and desired amount of black food coloring. Beat at medium speed until well combined. Beginning and ending with black batter, alternate about 1 tablespoon of each batter into muffin cups, filling about two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; let cool in pan, and let cool completely on wire rack. Frost.

Fluffy White Frosting
Makes about 3 cups

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

In medium bowl, combine cream cheese and butter. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in whipped topping, confectioners' sugar, and almond extract, beating until smooth.

*Cupcake toppers are from Silhouette taped to a lollipop stick.

Recipe adapted from Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate

Halloween Jello Cups

Today, I thought I would surprise the kids with a fun after school snack. Jello cups in Halloween colors. Yes, it took pretty much the whole day to make but it was worth it to see the surprise looks on their faces.

They were actually pretty easy to make, it just takes time for the jello to set up. All you need for this spooky treat is 3 different jello flavors, I used grape, lime, and orange. I also used the quick set method from the jello box so I wouldn't have to wait as long between each color then topped it with some cool whip! 

Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

If you like chocolate, cookies, and brownies, these are the cookies for you! They are a chewy, chocolate piece of heaven! I absolutely love cookies and have now found another favorite. 

 Outrageous Chocolate Cookies
(recipe from Martha Stewart)

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20 second increments, stirring between each, until almost melted; do not overheat. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in the centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen

*Cookie batter will seem thin. It should look more like brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

Want to know something about me? It might not come as a big surprise after looking at these photos but I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!
Loving chocolate is a weakness that's for sure but it's one that I'm willing to live with!  
Last night I was having one of those chocolate cravings and these chocolate cupcakes hit the spot! Chocolate moist cake with chocolate ganache, chocolate buttercream frosting and topped with chocolate sprinkles and a Belgian Chocolate Thin. As you can see it's a chocoholic dream come true! 

I discovered these Belgian Chocolate Thins at Target a while back and let me just say, they are divine! If you haven't already tried them, I'll just apologize now for introducing them to you because you'll love them!

You can find the recipe to these delicious cupcakes here at Your Cup of Cake. 

This post is linked to these parties
Six Sisters' Stuff
Tatertots and Jello
Positively Splendid
I Heart Naptime
Brassy Apple

Mom's Banana Bread

This is how our bananas looked this morning. Ugly enough that the kids won't eat them anymore but just right for yummy banana bread. I've always used my mother's recipe because first off it's delicious but also because it's easy. Her recipe didn't call for chocolate chips but I have a love for chocolate and bananas!! I also sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of the batter right before I put them in the oven to bake. Yummy!! 

Mash your bananas. I just throw the bananas into my kitchen aid mixer with the paddle attachment first and let it mix them up then mix all ingredients together EXCEPT for nuts and chocolate chips.

Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Divide batter into greased pans and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Let cool in pans for a few minutes then turn out onto cooling rack.

Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors, especially in the summer time. This is a muffin recipe but I wanted to try it as a cake. They turned out great! The cake is so moist and light and has the yummy citrus taste of lemon. 

These little cakes would make a great impression at your next summer get together. Enjoy!

Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 buttermilk
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
2 large eggs
2 tsp poppy seeds

Glaze
1 tsp melted butter
confectioners' sugar
4 tsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cake pans with non-stick spray.  Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, set aside.
Whisk sour cream, buttermilk and lemon juice in small bowl, set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and lemon zest in a large bowl to blend. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after adding each egg. Beat in dry mixture and buttermilk mixture alternating each mixture. Mix just until blended. Stir in poppy seeds. Spoon batter into cake pans. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
Mix together the melted butter, lemon juice and enough confectioners sugar to make a glaze then pour over warm cakes.

Adapted from Delish-blog

Monster Cookies

This is probably one of our most favorite cookies. They're easy to whip up when you need cookies in a hurry and one of the best things about this recipe, is that the cookie dough is SOOO GOOOOD to just eat. 

It has so many of my yummy goodies in them like peanut butter, quick oats, mini M&M's and chocolate chunks.  Can you see why they're so popular at our house? 

You could also add any kind of nut, or change up the chocolate chunks with butterscotch, white chocolate, or peanut butter chips. Double the recipe to make a lot of cookies for a bake food sale. 

Yummy!!

Monster Cookies

Ingredients:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 Tablespoon corn syrup
2 large eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks (semi-sweet chocolate chips work too)
1 cup mini M&M's

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Set aside.

In your kitchen aid mixer or large bowl, using medium speed, beat together butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in vanilla, corn syrup and eggs until well combined. Beat in flour-oat mixture until combined. Fold in chocolate chunks and mini M&M's.

You can chill your dough for about 1/2 hour if desired but not necessary. Using a cookie scooper, place balls of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. The bigger the scoop the bigger the cookies will be. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen

*You can easily double this recipe to make 5-6 dozen cookies

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Here's a recipe for all you chocolate lovers out there. So yummy and chocolaty with chocolate chips and a chocolate glaze on top. It's especially good with a cold glass of milk. With the weather being cold and rainy outside it was a perfect day to bake these delicious brownies and watch a movie with the kids.

One of my favorite food blogs is Recipe Girl, this is where I discovered the brownie recipe that she adapted from Joy Wilson's new cookbook "Joy the Baker". So many great recipes from both blogs! 

You can find the recipe here. (The only change I made was instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate). 

This post is linked to these parties:
Bloom
We Like to Learn as We Go
House of Hepworths
Loving this Crazy Life
Blissful and Domestic


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Orange-Lemon Cake

This cake has been a favorite in our home for the past few years. It's quick to make and has the yummy taste of citrus. It's a perfect dessert for your summer time gatherings.

 

Orange-Lemon Cake

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) lemon cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Icing

1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons orange juice
orange rind (optional)

Combine cake mix, gelatin, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 10 inch bundt pan. ( I used the Baking spray with flour and it came out just fine).

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For icing, combine confectioners' sugar and enough orange juice to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over cake.

This post is linked to these wonderful parties:

Naptime Delights

Live Laugh Rowe

The Stuff of Success

Grits and Giggles

What's Cooking, Love?

House of Hepworths

Delightful Order

Quality Cheap Home

Little Beck Homecky

Loving This Crazy Life

It's Overflowing

I Heart Nap Time

Craft O Maniac

The Crafty Blogstalker

Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

One of my favorite things about going to a pizza place is the dessert pizza! It doesn't matter the variation, they're all so yummy! I found this recipe through Pinterest and for sure had to give it a try! You can whip this dessert up in a jiffy and it only takes a few ingredients. The kids give it two thumbs up! Next time I make this dessert, I'm going to  try it with apple or raspberry pie filling. 


Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza dough-make your own or use store bought refrigerated dough
1 TBSP melted butter
Cinnamon

Streusel:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP vegetable shortening
2 TBSP Vegetable oil

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1TBSP milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together streusel ingredients with fork or pastry blender, then set aside.

To make pizza, pat dough into a 12 inch pizza pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Poke holes in dough with fork to keep bubbles from forming. Brush dough with 1 TBSP melted butter. Sprinkle cinnamon all around buttered dough. Top pizza with streusel mix.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8-9 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust.

Mix icing ingredients. Add more milk if it needs to be thinner. Drizzle over pizza. Cut and enjoy!

{Recipe adapted from Rumbly in my Tumbly} 

Almond Doughnuts

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The weather here was great and we were able to spend some time with family. If only the weekends lasted a bit longer. 

I found this recipe for vanilla bean donuts which sounded yummy, but as much as I like vanilla, I LOVE almond flavoring even more. So all I changed in this recipe was the vanilla extract to almond extract. This is a very easy recipe to make and a you can change up how you top them. 

I chose a simple confectioners glaze but you could do chocolate, maple, cinnamon sugar, or dust with confectioner sugar. 

Happy Monday!!

Doughnut Batter

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs, almond extract, and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 1/2 full. I used a pastry bag to put the batter in. This made it so easy to fill the doughnut cups.

Bake 5- 8 minutes or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes. Finish doughnuts with almond glaze. Doughnuts are best served fresh.

Almond Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp. milk
1/4 tsp. almond extract
4 drops food coloring of choice
sprinkles

In small bowl, stir together sugar, milk and almond extract until sugar is completely dissolved. Add food coloring and stir. Use immediately to glaze doughnuts. Add sprinkles.

{Recipe adapted from Sprinkle Bakes}

Buttery Cinnabun Cake

I don't know what it is about Sunday afternoons but that's when I want to bake. It's kind of become a tradition to find a yummy dessert recipe, one that we've never had before and try it out. This weeks recipe was one that I found through Pinterest and originally comes from Picky Palate. 

It was not a disappointment! YUMMY! The kids and the hubby all approved.  

Buttery Cinnabun Cake

-recipe from Picky Palate

Cake:
3 c. flour
1/4 tsp.salt
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter, melted

Topping:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix everything together except for the butter. Once everything is mixed together, slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes.
*I had to bake it for a few extra minutes because the middle was a tad gooey, but it came out great!

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

While warm drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Frosted Banana Bars

I've wanted to try these for a while and when I noticed that the bananas on the counter were a little more than ripe I pulled out this recipe. One of my favorite combinations is bananas with chocolate so of course I had to throw a few mini chips in as well as on top. These bars are really moist and almost have that melt in your mouth effect. Yummy!

Frosted Banana Bars

(adapted from Taste of Home)

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

dash salt

mini chocolate chips (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture just until blended. Transfer to a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

For frosting: in a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Frost bars when cooled.

Yield 3 dozen