Black and White Krispie Treats

I love homemade rice krispie treat. Maybe one day rice krispie treats will be the new hip baked good, like cupcakes, macarons, and whoopie pies have been the last few years. Except that it isn't reallly baked, but you know what I mean.

Earlier this week I saw a recipe for Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats. I was immediately sold but when I got to the grocery store I just couldn't commit to cocoa krispies. It took me back to 3rd grade when my grandmother had 18 types of cereal and we ate a different one each day. Anybody remember Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cereal? I swear it looked like dog food but I still ate it. And Trix? I always felt bad for the rabbit and how they never gave him any cereal so I boycotted it. Really, I just didn't like it, but that was another good reason. I couldn't see me eating a bowl of cocoa krispies and instead just bought the regular kind. Actually the store brand, because I was feeling cheap that day.

So once I got around to making them I had to figure out another way to make them chocolate since I also felt too cheap for hot chocolate mix. If I drink hot chocolate I like the real thing. I hate how hot chocolate mix never dissolves all the way. So basically, I scrapped the whole recipe.

Here is what I did:

Black and White Krispie Treats

1/4 cup of butter (half a stick)

1 bag of marshmallows (plus 1/2 bag for later)

4 oz. good semisweet chocolate (1 bar)

6 cups rice krispies

Spray baking pan with cooking spray. Chop 1/2 of chocolate bar and melt with butter in a large saucepan over low heat. When chocolate and butter are melted add 1 bag of mini marshmallows. Continue to stir until marshmallows are melted and incorporated with chocolate.

Remove from heat and add 6 cups of rice krispies. Now add 2 cups of mini marshmallows. Stir in until slightly melted. Pour into prepared pan and press down. Immediately spread 2 cups of marshmallows on top of krispies and press down. Let cool.

Melt remaining 1/2 bar (2 oz.) of chocolate over a double boiler until melted. With a spatula drizzle over krispies and marshmallows. Let cool and cut into squares.

Caramel Cake: Revisited 1 Year Later

Friday, on the way home, I had a baking craving. I love baking cravings. I had no idea what I was going to bake but I was going to bake something. Somehow caramel cake popped up into my head. I thought of my first and last caramel cake attempt. It was a good cake but thinking back on it it was a little cakey. I should have split those 3 layers into 6 and upped the caramel to cake ratio.

Here is the sappy, sticky, sweet part:

Last year when I made the cake it was a random baking event and ended up taking it to a small engagement party for two friends who had just recently gotten engaged. I'm thinking about all of this driving home and I remembered a conversation I had that night with newly engaged Heather about how I had a date the next night with an art director in Charlotte. That's what I called him I think. Our first date was January 10th. So, I'm making caramel cake the same weekend as I did last year. The first weekend in January. The weekend of my first date with Jon. That is why I had caramel cake on the brain (or heart).

Here is the recipe I had saved and forgotten about. It was okay. Didn't quite live up to my expectations. The cake was ever so slightly dry and the caramel was good but maybe because I forgot to add the vanilla at the end it wasn't as good as it could have been. Oh, and the presentation...I had to tell Jon it was supposed to look like that! Jon and I took it to poker night and when he told the sad story of how I didn't make him a birthday cake we turned this into a 5 month late celebration. I told him to look sad in the photo.

Baking Lust-Art 101

Autumn Rhythm Number 30 by Jackson Pollock

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud

Flowers in a Glass Vase by Rachel Ruysch

Homage to the Square Series by Josef Albers

via Martha Stewart

l'obsession

Paris vs. NYC

Kitchen Drawers

Most days off I've had lately have been teacher workdays and even on the weekends I'm somewhere else. So today means I need to do all the things I haven't, starting withk reorganizing my kitchen. Not sure it will be as good as Martha's but I can try.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

So, let me explain. My camera hates me. At the beginning of August Jon and I went to Nashville. I took lots of photos, most importantly of Jon beside Gram Parson's suit at the Country Music Hall of Fame on his birthday and of a room full of vintage party dresses. Then I got home and my computer and camera refused to get along anymore. It'd really been an on and off relationship for some time. So everything I've baked since then has not been blogged about because I feel like if I don't have a picture it didn't really happen. But some things need to be shared.

I've been on a whoopie pie kick lately. I guess they are like the new cupcake. or macaron. or whatever. I've made a few varieties but this is the best one so far. I took them to school for a halloween dessert fest. There were lots of store bought things and some regular brownies and such. When I went to get my dish, everything else had leftovers and these were gone! Unlike some other whoopie pies I've tried these are very moist (ugh, I hate that word because everyone else hates that word but can't think of another to use) and have the perfect amount of pumpkin and spice. A must have for Halloween and the upcoming month of November.

*And if you really want a picture click on Tracy's link. They looked the same :)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

from Tracy's Culinary Adventures

Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 cups canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Filling
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk the sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Finally, gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and whisk to combine completely.

Use a small scoop (or a large spoon) to drop rounds of dough (about 1.5-2 tablespoons each) onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven, then let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

To make the filling, beat the butter on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat to combine. Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth.

To assemble the whoopie pies: Turn half of the cookies over so the flat side is up. Put the cream cheese filling in a disposable pastry bag and cut a hole from the end. Pipe the filling onto the flat side of the turned cookies. Sandwich with the remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so the filling spreads to the edge. Cover the whoopie pies and transfer them to the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Bake Lust: Children's Lit

I'm using this to explain my lack of baking lately. Well, it's not my only excuse but it's the easiest to blame. Here are some really lovely cakes inspired by good children's lit. Of course I chose these cakes based on my favorite books:

Let's start with a basic intro into children's lit. Mostly early elementary but very good choices.

And also, the basic intro into children's lit:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle- I used to check this book out from the library every time my grandmother took me. Love, love, his illustrations. The cake above is maybe perhaps the best cake ever.

When I was in 3rd grade we read Farmer Boy as a class. My mom bought me the Laura Ingalls Wilder box set and I would do nothing but read book after book each weekend. Last year I read several of them to my 3rd graders and I was happy to see that even in these technological times, the kids still loved hearing about Laura and Mary's adventures, Pa's fiddle, and traveling in covered wagons. I also think about Little House on the Prairie everytime I hear the word calico.

And my all time favorite...love, love, love. Love.

The Giving Tree.

Love.