I {heart} Baking

I’m just straight up taking this—photo and all—from this blog. They’re great. And this is SO GOOD. 

Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Cake
Ingredients: 
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 T butter, melted
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
1 T cinnamon
2/3 cups nuts (optional)

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 T milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
With an electric mixer or stand-up mixer, mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in 4 T melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9x13” baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nuts until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoon and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center. Place powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm (we like it straight out of the oven) or at room temperature.

*Tip from Tina: I made this the night before I served it. Still delicious the next day. 

Thanks again, Pinterest for showing me here. 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 (10 oz.) bag of mini-marshmallows
• 1/3 cup yellow cake mix (the dry cake mix, not prepared into a batter!)
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 (1.75 oz.) container of sprinkles

Method:

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in (dry) cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting. Spraying a knife with nonstick spray helps to cut them.

• 1 stick margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 T. milk
• 1 cup apples, peeled and chopped. 
• .5 cups nuts (I didn’t use that)
• 2 cups flour
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• .5 tsp salt

Cream margarine, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add milk, apples, and nuts. Separately, mix dry ingredients. Add to apple mixture and stir only until the flour is well moistened. Bake in a 5x9-inch loaf pan at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool for 10 minutes.

Then glaze:
.5 cup powdered sugar, 2 T. warm water, 1 T. vegetable oil, .5 tsp cinnamon

(I didn’t do the glaze, so no promises on that one.)

Delicious brownie-like chocolate rollout cookies (check out my Wookie!). 

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter (I suggest powdered sugar instead of flower). Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 6 to 11 minutes (depending on the thickness) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I definitely think these should be cut on the thicker side, so Star Wars cookie cutters are not the best option. Something that’s just a shape, not detailed. 

Thanks to this website. 

Ingredients:

1. Generously grease bottom and sides of 11x7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with butter; dust with 1 tablespoon of the powdered sugar. In bowl of stand mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water to soften; set aside.
2. In 2-quart saucepan, heat granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup water over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Heat to boiling; cook without stirring about 30 minutes to 240°F on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into cup of very cold water forms a ball that holds its shape but is pliable; remove from heat.
3. Slowly pour syrup into softened gelatin while beating on low speed. Increase speed to high; beat 8 to 10 minutes or until mixture is white and has almost tripled in volume. Add peppermint extract; beat on high speed 1 minute. Pour into baking dish, patting lightly with wet hands. Drop food color randomly onto top of marshmallow mixture. Pull table knife through food color to create swirl pattern over top. Let stand uncovered at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. Dust cutting board with about 1 tablespoon powdered sugar. Place remaining powdered sugar in small bowl. To remove marshmallow mixture, loosen sides from dish and gently lift in one piece onto cutting board. Using sharp knife greased with butter, cut into 1-inch squares (11 rows by 7 rows). Dust bottom and sides of each marshmallow by dipping into bowl of powdered sugar. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 weeks.

Notes from Tina:

I didn’t have a food coloring bottle that dripped, so try to get one of those if you can. It helps A LOT. I had too much food coloring. This not only didn’t look as cute, but it also made the food coloring penetrate the whole marshmallow. Areas with too much food coloring remained sticky because they absorbed the powdered sugar. 

They take a while to cut, so be prepared. 

I did not boil the mixture for 30 minutes, I just boiled it up to 240*. I think this would be hard to do without the thermometer. 

I stored these in an airtight container with a lot of powdered sugar so they didn’t stick together. I also stored them (after the third day) in the refrigerator and that was a-ok too. 

Everyone wanted to try these in hot chocolate!

The recipe wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too hard, either. People really seemed to like that I had made them on my own, so I definitely suggest trying these for a crowd. The recipe makes over 70 marshmallow bites.