Sweeping Through Life

cookies Hello, fellow bloggers, it is holiday time and it is time to get baking. With all the great holiday cookie reciepes out there, I wanted to see if others wanted to share. I will list a link up for the next few weeks if you want to share. Here is one of the cookies that I make every year and is a big hit with friends and family. Seven Layer Bars Ingredients 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup butterscotch chips 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 1 1/3 cups shredded coconut Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Place butter in 13 x 9 inch pan and melt in oven. Swirl to coat bottom and sides with butter. Spread crumbs evenly...

Since I am trying to eat healthier, but still have a sweet tooth to try to locate some good, but healthy (or not as bad) sweets. I located this recipe at The Cupcake Recipe . According to the website the applesauce in it what makes it low-fat and low-calorie. Applesauce Low-Fat Cupcakes Ingredients: * 1/2 cup margarine * 1 egg * 1/4 cup sugar * 1 1/2 cup sifted flour * 1 tsp baking soda * 1/4 tsp salt * 1 tsp cinnamon * 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg * 1 cup unsweetened applesauce * 1 tsp vanilla * 1/4 cup chopped walnuts Directions : Blend the margarine with the beaten egg and sugar. Then, you need to sift in all of your other dry ingredients. Next, add the applesauce, vanilla and nuts, and mix well. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190.5 degrees Celsius), and spoon the yummy mix into a cupcake pan that you’ve sprayed with some vegetable oil to prevent sticking. After about 15 to 20 minutes, your cupcakes are out of the oven and ready to enjoy, no guilt allowed. I made a ...

Last year I made some creepy foods for my Halloween party. I thought that I would share one of the recipes. I made these Creepy Witches Fingers last year and they were a big hit. I used a pot like the one shown below and use crushed up Oreos for the dirt to set the finger shaped cookies in so they looked like they were coming out of the ground. Creepy Witches' Fingers Yield: 5 dozen 1 cup Butter, softened 1 cup Icing sugar (powdered sugar) 1 Egg 1 tsp Almond extract 1 tsp Vanilla 2 2/3 cups Flour 1 tsp Baking powder* 1 tsp Salt 3/4 cup Almonds, whole blanched 1 Tube red decorator gel (optional, not pictured) Gross everyone out with these creepy cookies. In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda*, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of d...

In my pursuit to drop some pounds, I have been looking for recipes that reduce the fat but still have the taste that I am looking for. I found this Weight Watchers Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were really easy to make. If you are doing Weight Watchers, the cookies are 1 point each. Mine might be a little more since I added some chopped pecans to them. They were yummy and smelled good when they were baking. I did not tell anyone in my household that they were not regular chocolate cookies..but it did not seem to matter, because they were eaten up. Ingredients 2 Tbsp butter, softened    ...

My husband had a wonderful birthday celebration this past weekend. On Friday, I had a small gathering of friends to surprise him at a local resturant for dinner. For an extra special surprise I made him a birthday cake shaped like a car. I had the cake hid at one of my friends homes until the party. He loves cars  and everything doing with cars and even used to have a little yellow sports car. He loved it and so did everyone else. No one really seemed to believe me that I had made this cake. I made it and I have the two days of being tired to prove it. I used the Wilton 3-D car cake pan for the car shape and used a regular rectangle pan for the bottom of the cake. I made buttercream icing, that I learned to make from the cake decorating class that I took this past summer. In decorating the cake, I used the star tip for the car and wheels and the grass tip for the grass. For a the actual cake I made a pound cake recipe for the car and a yellow cake for the bottom. The rocks and ...

On Saturday was my church's annual picnic. Since I am apart of my women fellowship at my church, the women were responsible for bring desserts. As I type that last statement, it sounds so sexiest. Why are the women bringing desserts and not the men? Maybe because we do not want a bunch of store bought stuff....as I digress. Doing my part from the picnic, I created some cupcakes. I am really obsessed with them right now. Making these cupcakes allowed me to feed my obsession, but it also gave me practice on some of my decorating techniques and I do need practice. When making these cupcakes I got use one of the tips that we did not use in class, but it was tip that my mom found on sale. It was a leaf tip. It was the first time that I used this tip and I think that I did pretty good using it. I used my swirl technique and made the star flowers on top of the cupcake. I felt so polished when I started putting them into the cake box to take to church. I had some extra cupcakes and t...

Thursday was week three of my Wilton class. This week we worked on the second part of the rose, shell border, and making cartoon faces. I really enjoyed making the teddy bear face. We also worked on some of other flowers like the star flower and the spiral flower. I really enjoyed making the spiral flowers. This week I had the right consistency of my medium icing that is used to decorate with. This week we had the option of bringing a cake or cupcakes. I chose to make cupcakes. Besides being cute, they are just easier to make. We had to use the clown heads for this cake. My mom had saved some of my from my clown cake when I was young and I recycled those, but I had to purchase some more. You know what they look exactly the same. I guess why mess up a good thing. My instructor taught us how to make the pretty swirl that you see on the cakes at the grocery store. I love knowing this skill. I think it makes your cupcakes look so pretty. We then learned how to make the body of the cl...

I have not updated you on some of the things that I had previously posted about. Here we go... My office held their Cake Smackdown a couple of weeks ago. I used a lemon poppy seed cake recipe that I found on the Heather Drive blog that I read. Thanks Heather. Even though I did not win, I got lots of compliments on my cake. There were lots of yummy cakes there to and I tasted several of them. We had a wonderful time at our annual 4th of July party . Two of my sister-in-laws even came in town to share it with us. We had lots of fun and lots of fun. If was full of great conversation and laughter. I must remember that my BFF 's jell-o shots are not my friend. I think that is all the updates right now. Keep reading, to see what else is going on in my life.

I started taking Wilton I cake decorating classes. I always enjoyed baking, so I wanted to make my cakes look better. Last week we just talked about the different tools we would need for the class and this Thursday we put those tools to use. We made the Wilton rainbow cake this week. We had to bring a cake already iced. I made the blue icing at home. When icing our cakes we are suppose to use the thin icing. When I took my icing to class so that the teacher could make sure that we had the right consistency of thin, middle and thick icing. Well, of course my icing had a little trouble. What I thought was medium was really my thin and my thin was really too thin. Which would give the reason why I had a little t rouble with icing my cake and it did not really crust over. These stars took alot of time to do. They look really pretty once done. My hands got tired as I tried to create all of these little stars trying to make them just perfect so that you could not see any of the blue in t...

I had taste for some chocolate chip cookies to eat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream,that I had in the freezer, so I made some when I got home from work. Here is the recipe: 1 package of yellow cake mix 1 cup of quick cooking rolled oats, uncooked 1/4 cup of butter, softened 2 eggs 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup of pecan pieces Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix,oats, butter and eggs. Then add the pecans and chocolate chips, alternating between the two. Mix well. Place spoonfuls of the mixture on a baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen. The cookies were still a little warm when I placed them with 2 scoops of ice cream for dessert. Yummy, yummy, yummy in my tummy, tummy, tummy.

My job's "fun" committee is having a Cake Smack Down. I of course entered the contest, since I think that I am Martha Stewart or Paula Deen since I purchased my Kitchenaide mixer. I just do not know what kind of cake to make, something new or something that is tried and true. Have any suggestions? I have a little time. The bake off is not until the middle of June. I will keep you updated.

Today is my step-daughter Shaykila's 17th birthday. It is odd to realize that she is that old. What a perfect reason to use my new mixer, but to make a birthday cake. I decided to make her a Snickers candy bar cake. What kid does not like candy. This cake seems like such a "fat crime" and you will understand once you see the recipe. There is nothing light about it. She will be surprised this morning when she realizes that the cake I made was not to take to work, but for her. Snickers Candy Bar Cake (recipe via Cooks.com) There are several version of this cake, one you make all from scratch and the other you use boxed German chocolate or devil food cake mix. I chose to be like Martha Stewart and make the cake from scratch. Serves 12 Calories per serving 211 (nothing light about this cake) 8 SNICKERS® bars (reg. size) 2 sticks butter 2 c. sugar 4 eggs 2 1/2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 1/4 c. buttermilk Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt candy bars and 1 stick of butter, ...