Birthday Desserts

Tomorrow is my SIL's birthday, and she's requested cupcakes and pie for her birthday. I was more than happy to comply. We decided on a Snicker's Pie and Oreo cupcakes, which are both totally doable. The Snickers Pie was :

1 chocolate pie crust
1 (8 oz.) block of cream cheese
½ cup dulce de leche (turns out I accidentally bought sweetened condensed milk instead of dulce, and this actually worked as well, just fyi)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 oz.) package Cool Whip
3 Snickers candy bars, chopped
1/2  cup peanuts, chopped
Melted chocolate, for drizzling (optional)
Spread 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche on the bottom of the pie prepared pie crust (fully cooled if homemade). Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the chopped peanuts and 1 of the chopped Snickers bars over the bottom of the pie crust. In a large bowl, beat ¼ cup of the dulce de leche with the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add in the thawed Cool Whip and beat mixture until creamy and fluffy, scraping the sides as needed to ensure everything is fully incorporated. Fold in 1 chopped Snickers bar. Pour filling into crust, evening out the top with a knife or spatula. Dollop the remaining 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche around the top of the pie and swirl in with a knife. Top with remaining peanuts and chopped Snickers. If desired, drizzle the top of your pie with melted chocolate. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Y'all this is freaking delicious. 

 Next, I made Oreo cupcakes. The cake is your basic chocolate cake, with which I put half of an Oreo on the bottom before the batter, then I baked it. But the piece de resistance, the frosting. I tried a frosting this time that tasted like the inside of an Oreo, and y'all, I succeeded and I am happy. Here is is:

2 cup butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 TB heavy cream
10-20 Oreo cookies

In a food processor or blender, make the Oreo cookies into a fine powder, you want it that way so that you can pipe the frosting. Mix butter and powdered sugar together, but only add the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. Mix until well blended. Add vanilla and heavy cream, whip together until all blended and creamy, if you need to add more cream or powdered sugar, feel free. Then add in the Oreo powder, blend until just together, if you whip too much, it'll turn your frosting gray. Then just pipe it on! It was so good. I loved it. This amount of frosting did about 30ish cupcakes, and had some leftover, so just...fyi I guess.

These were all so good, I can't wait to eat more. 

Snickers Brownie Cups

Ok, before, I have made these Chocolate Treasures many a time, blogging about them many a time. I decided they would be a delicious thing to make right now, and so as I got started, I realized I didn't have any Rolos. So I improvised. I had mini Snickers baking bits, and decided, those could go very well in the recipe. So I made a regular ol' brownie mix, and scooped them into mini cupcake tins. I baked at 350 for 13 minutes and as soon as I pulled them out of the oven, I put a mini snickers into the middle. After they cooled, I frosted them.

I tried a new frosting today, and I gotta tell you, I think I have a winner. Here's what I did:

1 cup of butter, softened. Mine were maybe too softened, and I think that's ok.
4-5 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs heavy cream
1 tsp Vanilla extract

So, take the butter. Cream it. Cream it nice and good until its nearly clear in color. Then, add the vanilla, and mix a bit longer until its all creamed together. Add the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, scraping the sides as needed. Then, I added 2 TB of cream, saw how it looked, and then added another almost cup (see, 4-5 is what I said) of powdered sugar. Then I saw how that was, and added another TB of cream. So basically, add at your discretion. It ends up being a super delicious frosting with a great consistency. These were really good, y'all.

Cookie Cups with Snickers

So, last night, I had a little time on my hands before Husband was done with school, so I made a little treat. I had some leftover caramel frosting, and some Snickers from when I did the cupcakes, and decided now was as good a time as any to use them. I had some pre-made cookie dough in the fridge, so here's what I did. I put some mini cupcake papers into a mini cupcake pan, and pressed some dough into them. (I did 48) I baked them at 350 degrees, for 10 minutes.

As they were baking, I had a bag of mini-Snickers. I cut each mini Snickers in half.  Then when the cookie-cups came out, I pressed one of the halves into the middle. I waited about 10 minutes, and then took the cups out of the pans, to cool completely. After they cooled, I used the caramel frosting left over from my Snickers cupcakes, and frosted these.

They are amazing, delicious, and look great (once the frosting is on. Without the frosting, they look awful). Make these when you're in a bind!

Snickers Pie

I needed a dessert to bring to a family dinner tomorrow evening, and decided to make a Snickers pie. It was crazy easy! All you need is:

1 green apple
20 mini snickers bars (I’m sure you could use some big ones but I didn’t)
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
2 1/2 cups Cool Whip, softened
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 oz cream cheese

So, chop up those Snickers, chop up those apples, and put them on the bottom of a graham cracker crust pie. Poor the caramel topping on them. Mix together the cool whip, the milk, and the cream cheese. Spread it over the pie crust. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Then, sprinkle some of the leftover Snickers pieces, a few strategic apple slices, and some caramel topping drizzled over.

This was so tasty! And so easy! Make it, guys. It’s sticky to eat, but oh so yummy.

Snickers Brownies

Ok, I made the most amazing dessert last night. I’ll give you the website straight off where I got it:

http://jaseyscrazydaisy.com/2012/02/snickers-brownies/

But that’s just because in case you have questions, you can go there for clarification. The first website I got the recipe from, like, skimped on details, so luckily she posted to this site so I could use it instead, so I was glad not to have to rely on the first one anymore. Here we go:

Brownie Layer

1 box of brownie mix (I suppose you could also homemake one, but man, go the easy route, guys
1/4 cup hot fudge topping, unheated, straight from the jar

Nougat Layer:

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 (7 oz.) jars marshmallow creme
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla

Caramel Layer

1 (17 oz.) jar of caramel, preferably Mrs. Richardson's Butterscotch Caramel

Candy Bar Topping

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

How to:

Prepare brownie batter according to package directions for a 9x13-inch pan, adding 1/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, unheated and straight from the jar to the batter. Cool the brownies.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved. Bring to a boil. Add in the marshmallow crème, peanut butter, and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Fold in peanuts. Pour evenly over cooled brownies. Use a spatula to help spread the mixture. Cool, by sticking the brownies in the fridge for like, half an hour. Scoop caramel topping into a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat over low until caramel is soft and easy to stir. I’m going to be honest – my caramel was already pretty soft, so this step seemed like a waste, but do it anyway, just in case. Pour the caramel over the nougat layer. Make sure to pour it evenly across the nougat. Let cool. Again, I put this in the fridge for like, 20 minutes. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Pour over the caramel layer, and let cool, again. And yes, again, I put it in the fridge.

Now, the chocolate melts pretty quickly when it’s not left in the fridge, so keep it there until you’re ready to eat it, and then bring it out, let it sit a few minutes to soften just a touch, and then cut your piece( s ) and then put back in.

Guys, this was awesome. It tastes just like a Snickers and it was fantastic. Make them, post haste.

Snicker’s Cupcakes

For a neighborhood BBQ the other day, I made some Snicker’s cupcakes. Basically, what I did was make a chocolate cupcake, top it with peanut butter frosting, and then put some chopped up Snicker’s on it. Easy-peasy.

And it was really delicious!