So today, I wanted to share a version for those who love a sweet breakfast!
This Blueberry French Toast Casserole is easy to make the day of, or to assemble the night before for an easier next-day breakfast. My recipe is adapted from a version you can find here.
Ingredients:
French Toast Casserole
1 loaf of challah bread, cut into cubes
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, cut into small cubes
Every year, I have two responsibilities for Thanksgiving: make Bloody Mary’s as everyone arrives and show up with a dessert that is chocolate and/or pumpkin.
This year, I decided to make a dessert that is both pumpkin-y and chocolatey: Chocolate Pumpkin Cake!
This recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Cake is adapted from a Country Living recipe, and uses my cinnamon cream cheese frosting from my Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes recipe.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake:
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
¾ cup low fat buttermilk
1 (15 oz can) pumpkin purée
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (2.25 sticks), at room temperature
Note: I was sent a Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan, Silicone Baking Cups, and a Baker’s Decorating Tool from OXO. All opinions are my own.
September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, so I’m sharing this recipe a bit ahead of time. Every year, OXO donates up to $100,000 to support an organization called Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. The organization was founded by two OXOnians (OXO employees) who were inspired by their son Liam’s battle with pediatric cancer, a disease which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer provides inspiration and support to allow anyone to easily get involved in fundraising to find a cure for pediatric cancer.
To help reach their goal, OXO donates $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each blogger who posts a recipe to bring awareness, up to their $100,000 commitment. I’ve posted twice a year for the last few years to help bring awareness to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Click here to see some of my past posts.
This year, OXO sent me Silicone Baking Cups, a Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan, and a Baker’s Decorating Tool to make this post.
Here’s a little about each product:
The Non-Stick Pro Muffin Pan (paid link) features a unique micro-textured pattern that ensures even baking and adds structural rigidity. It’s made with a ceramic-reinforced, two-layer, commercial-grade coating that provides ultimate non-stick release and is scratch-, stain-, corrosion- and abrasion-resistant.
The BPA-free Baking Cups have handy tabs to help remove them from muffin tins without making a thumbprint, and the inside of each Cup is smooth and non-stick to release your treat easily. With a fill line, your cupcakes will be consistent every time.
Our easy-to-use, easy-to-fill Baker’s Decorating Tool is designed to give you complete control while decorating. The unique trigger provides a smooth stream of icing for clean lines, and the comfortable handles ensure a steady grip and protect icing from warm hands.
I wanted to make a new, fun, and different cupcake to try out all of these cool tools. My husband and I are huge fans of Old Fashioned Cocktails, so I decided to turn those flavors into Old Fashioned Cupcakes! Note: the frosting contains alcohol so this is not a kid-friendly recipe.
To bring in the flavors of an Old Fashioned, I made a Vanilla-Orange Cupcake and topped it with Bourbon-Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. To finish it off, I added a maraschino cherry and some orange peel.
I was sent quite a few jalapenos as part of my Door-to-Door Organics box, more than I could really use in a normal time frame. So as part of #MyFarm2Table dinner, I decided to make Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers as one of the side dishes to use up the jalapenos.
I’m not the biggest fan of super spicy dishes, so after cutting and seeding the jalapenos, I placed them in a bowl of water for at least an hour to try to take some of the heat out of them. There was still some in the peppers, but it did help! (Note: there were still a couple of peppers that packed a punch, so be aware that every pepper is different in terms of heat).
If you follow my Instagram, you may have seen what “tough” research I had to do this weekend for this post. With the 3rd Annual South Street Spring Festival just days away (Saturday, May 2), I visited Sweet Life Bakeshop at 7th and South to try their signature Banana Pudding.
This. Pudding. Is. Fantastic. I gobbled up the whole thing in minutes, so I’m surprised I even was able to get a photo of it beforehand!
Sweet Life Bakeshop’s banana pudding will be available at the South Street Spring Festival, along with nearly 30 other eateries, bars, and food trucks, so come hungry! From 11am to 8pm this Saturday, 8 blocks of South Street (between Front and 8th) will be shut down and turned into a huge (and free) block party!
Headhouse Plaza will also be in on the fun, so be sure to check out 2nd Street between South and Lombard. The plaza will be transformed into a giant lawn concert complete with grass, lawn chairs, games and beach balls!
Along with all of the delicious food, South Street will feature more than 40 bands on three stages and seven performance areas. Over 100 boutiques, small businesses and other other retailers will cater to your style, beauty, health, fitness and other shopping needs. In conjunction with the Festival, Brauhaus Schmitz will host the third annual German Maifest on the 700 block of South Street, with German beers, dancers, music, food, flower headbands and even a Maypole. Outside of Atomic City Comics (638 South Street) look for free giveaways and character appearances during Free Comic Book Day.
Whew! Ok so, to highlight one of the amazing offerings, I decided to make a spin on Sweet Life’s banana pudding — Peanut Butter Banana Pudding Cheesecake Bars! This recipe is adapted from a Southern Living Banana Pudding Cheesecake recipe, but adds in some peanut-buttery goodness and then is topped with a drizzle of chocolate and some fresh whipped cream.
I’ve waited long enough. It’s time to give in to the most wonderful time of year. No, not Christmas. Autumn! And the best way to really dive in to the season? Pumpkins, of course!
I love pumpkin. Like, really love pumpkin. I actually hoard Green Mountain Pumpkin Spice K-Cups around this time of year so that I can drink them year-round. From sweet to savory, pumpkin is just the best. I have so many pumpkin recipes on here so if you’re a pumpkin aficionado like myself, be sure to check them all out! (Just a sample of some pumpkin-filled recipes: Cheesecake bars, Flan, Whoopie Pies, Eggnog, Trifle, Ravioli, Bread, Soup… you get the idea)
So, I came across this recipe looking for a Pumpkin Brownie. Despite this recipe being called Pumpkin Brownies in the original recipe, it is most certainly cake. But who am I to worry about semantics? It’s still delicious! I added more pumpkin-y spices to give the pumpkin flavor a boost and added in some dark chocolate chips because, why not?
With the weather starting to cool off a bit, I had a hankering for something a little more hearty that I could still prepare on a weeknight. This recipe from Cooking Light incorporates mushrooms and turkey sausage into a tomato sauce to make a filling but lighter meal. The polenta is kicked up a notch with the addition of some cream cheese to add some decadence to the whole dish. I kept this recipe mostly in tact and just messed with some of the amounts for the ingredients. To see the original recipe, click here. Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
3/4 cup chopped onion
20 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 large (or 4 small) garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon coconut aminos (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
I love comfort food dishes, but they can take quite a bit of time to make. And sometimes after a long day, all you want is a comforting meal without having to put forth all that effort and time. This recipe for a deconstructed chicken pot pie from Cooking Light uses rotisserie chicken meat to speed up the process without taking away from the overall taste of a traditional pot pie. The “crust” is actually a round of puff pastry that is baked separately in the oven to stay crispy.
This recipe takes about 35 minutes to make so you can have this comfort food even on busy weeknights!
Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 cups unsalted chicken stock
1 1/2 cups chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
I had a craving for a pumpkin treat this weekend so I went in search of a recipe I could make with stuff I already had on hand. I came across this recipe from Whole Foods for Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles and was all set to make them as stated in the recipe. But I find white chocolate to be such a pain to work with and honestly, I don’t really like the taste.
So although the Whole Foods recipe is the inspiration for this post, my recipe is completely different. These pumpkin truffles are made with dark chocolate and are then rolled in toasted pecans to give it some crunch.
It’s time for my monthly Walkers Shortbread Blogger Ambassador program post, and I think they tailored this one just for me! This month’s theme is “Fruit Desserts for Fall,” where we were asked to use in-season fall autumn fruits including apples, pears, cranberries, figs, pomegranates, or pumpkins. Clearly, there was no question which one I was choosing.
Walkers Shortbread also has an exclusive promotion for I Can Cook That readers. Now through Monday, September 23, you can receive 25% off your total purchase, excluding sales items when you use the promo code ICCTFRUIT. So you can experiment with your very own fall treats! (Another favorite of mine that uses Walkers Shortbread is this Gingerbread Chocolate Pumpkin Trifle)
Because it is September and it hasn’t completely cooled off just yet, I thought I’d go for a chilled dessert. I have wanted to make Pumpkin Cheesecake for a while now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. But to make it a little more special, I decided to swirl in some Nutella.
This recipe for Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars is a result of me going a little off the grocery list last time I went food shopping. Have you ever seen an ingredient in the supermarket and decided you just have to make something with it? This happens to me quite a bit.
Unfortunately, I normally do not have a recipe lined up to take advantage of my new purchase. I wanted to take a break from some peach recipes I’ve been making recently (Brown Sugar Cinnamon Peach Pie, Peach Cobbler, and Bourbon-Peach Lemonade to name a few) and focus on a relative of peaches: the plum. I haven’t worked with plums much in the past (I actually only have once recipe: Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken) but I just could not resist how great they looked!
I decided to take a Martha Stewart recipe for Apricot Cheesecake Bars and instead make my own Plum Compote as a substitute for the Apricots, resulting in these Plum Swirled Cheesecake Bars.
Ingredients:
Plum Compote:
½ cup port wine
½ cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
The zest of one orange
6 plums, stones removed and sliced
Cheesecake:
18 graham crackers (I used cinnamon graham crackers)
Happy Pi Day! As a Mathlete alum, Pi Day has always been a part of my nerdy math world. And what better way to celebrate than to make a pie?
I have some other pie recipes on here, but I have had a hankering for peanut butter lately, so I am celebrating this year with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. This is a FoodNetwork.com recipe but I decided to make my own crust (you are more than welcome to just buy one – use a 9-inch pie crust).
Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
1 package oreos
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Hot Fudge Sauce:
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3.5 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
Peanut Butter Pie:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
I’m so ready for spring. I’m sick of the cold and wind, although we didn’t have any snow this year. So I am going to force spring upon you in the hope of it pushing the warmer months up a little bit. When I think of spring, I always think of Strawberries. And what better way to show off strawberries than in Strawberry Shortcake, or more specifically, in Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes? I decided to make them in cupcake form because, well, I like cupcakes. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for angel food cake to make the cupcake, filled the inside of the cupcake with a strawberry-sugar mixture, and topped it off with a strawberry whipped cream icing. These are pretty delicious if I do say so myself! Ingredients: Angel Food Cake Cupcakes:
1 cup cake flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 large egg whites, room temperature
4 teaspoons lemon juice and zest from 1 lemon, divided
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Strawberry filling:
3/4 container of strawberries, hulled and chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
Strawberry whipped cream:
1 8-oz container cream cheese
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
lemon zest from lemon used in angel food cake
2 cups heavy cream
4-5 strawberries, stems removed and finely chopped
I am a huge fan of coffee and coffee-related foods, so tiramisu is obviously a favorite of mine. When the concept of Tiramisu Brownies was mentioned, I was immediately excited. What a fantastic combination of desserts!
Barista Prima Coffeehouse® K-Cup® (paid link) packs are four dark, rich coffee blends that really deliver an intense flavor that are more bold and robust than other K-Cup offerings. The four flavors offered are: Colombia, House Blend, Italian Roast, and French Roast. I’ve had a Keurig for years now (I just had to retire my original Keurig and buy a replacement, sniffle) and am always really pleased with the coffee choices that can be found in K-Cup form. I tend to use coffee grounds in a bunch of recipes, especially ones that use chocolate, to really up the flavor.
Barista Prima was nice enough to send me a box of their House Blend K-Cups so I naturally wanted to make a dish that used these delicious grounds as well as a dessert that would be perfect paired with a cup of House Blend coffee. Many thanks to Barista Prima for also sending me this mouthwatering recipe!
Ingredients:
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1 cup cake flour (or normal flour if you can’t find it)
Every Christmas, my mom makes an absolutely delicious trifle to give to neighbors and have for dessert on Christmas day. This trifle is so ingrained in our winter holidays that I’m pretty sure we aren’t allowed to show up to my aunt and uncle’s house without the trifle in hand. I’ve always loved the simplicity of trifles and wanted to try out a version using my favorite ingredient: pumpkin!
I was given the opportunity to enter a contest with nine other bloggers. The challenge is to use Walkers Shortbread products to make a new dessert, and luckily one of the categories was trifle! It was a sign!
My mom’s trifle has custard, chocolate pudding, and rum-soaked pound cake slices with whipped cream and fruit on top. So I wanted to keep the general concept the same with my recipe. I decided to keep the chocolate pudding because, well, who doesn’t love chocolate pudding? A thought a pumpkin mousse would just be fantastic. I decided to make it a bourbon pumpkin mousse to add an extra layer of flavor. And of course instead of pound cake slices, I used Walkers’ Stem Ginger Biscuits and Pure Butter Shortbread. The trifle is topped off with whipped topping, pecan pieces, and a some more Walker’s cookie crumbs.
Ingredients:
1 box Walker’s Stem Ginger Biscuits
1 box Pure Butter Shortbread
3 cups milk
2 packages instant chocolate pudding
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups whipping cream
2 ounces bourbon (can omit if you’d like)
1/4 cup sugar
1 container whipped topping
1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped
Begin by preparing your ingredients. Thaw your whipping cream. Roughly chop the pecans and set aside. Crush the biscuits and shortbread in separate ziploc bags, using a rolling pin.
Take one tablespoon of the stem ginger biscuit crumbs and set aside. Combine the remaining biscuit crumbs with the shortbread crumbs.
Prepare your chocolate pudding. Combine the two packs of instant pudding mix with three cups milk.
Mix for two minutes with a whisk. Refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large bowl, combine 1 can pumpkin puree, the spices, vanilla extract, cream cheese, and brown sugar using a hand mixer.
In a separate bowl, make whipped cream. Add two cups heavy whipping cream, 2 ounces bourbon, and 1/4 cup sugar and whip on high speed until soft peaks form (about 3 minutes).
Fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Time to assemble! These are photos from my test batch so take note that I might be pointing out what I changed in comparison to the photo. Oh the joy of recipe development. You’ll need a clear bowl to get the full effect of the trifle.
Arrange a layer of cookie crumbs at the bottom of a glass or plastic (see through) bowl. You want to be able to see it coming up the edges. (I initially added melted butter to form more of a crust. But that made the crumbs super sticky, so leave that out)
Add a layer of chocolate pudding next. I attempted to put the pumpkin mousse first, which was silly. The pudding is much heavier than the pumpkin mousse and sank into it. So go pudding, pressing it against the sides of the bowl, and then put the pumpkin mousse on top.
Continue this process until the bowl is filled. (Crumbs, pudding, mousse). I made a mini version so it didn’t take much to fill mine up. Top with the whipped topping.
Rim the bowl with crushed pecans.
Sprinkle with the reserved ginger biscuits. I’d suggest refrigerating for a few hours to let the flavors meld together. You can also make it mostly ahead of time and just assemble a few hours before eating.
You clearly don’t have to have a steady hand to make these still look cool, although I do wish mine was a bit more uniform layer-wise. Ah well.
They are also easy to assemble as individual servings.
The flavors of this are rocking. Pumpkin, chocolate, gingerbread, and pecans were just made for each other. This is perfect for Thanksgiving, especially because it can be made ahead of time!
I will be entering this trifle in the contest on November 12 so send some good vibes my way that day!
Begin by preparing your ingredients. Thaw your whipping cream. Roughly chop the pecans and set aside. Crush the biscuits and shortbread in separate ziploc bags, using a rolling pin.
Take one tablespoon of the stem ginger biscuit crumbs and set aside. Combine the remaining biscuit crumbs with the shortbread crumbs.
Prepare your chocolate pudding. Combine the two packs of instant pudding mix with three cups milk.
Mix for two minutes with a whisk. Refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large bowl, combine 1 can pumpkin puree, the spices, vanilla extract, cream cheese, and brown sugar using a hand mixer.
In a separate bowl, make whipped cream. Add two cups heavy whipping cream, 2 ounces bourbon, and 1/4 cup sugar and whip on high speed until soft peaks form (about 3 minutes).
Fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Time to assemble! You’ll need a clear bowl to get the full effect of the trifle.
Arrange a layer of cookie crumbs at the bottom of a glass or plastic (see through) bowl. You want to be able to see it coming up the edges.
Add a layer of chocolate pudding next. I attempted to put the pumpkin mousse first, which was silly. The pudding is much heavier than the pumpkin mousse and sank into it. So go pudding, pressing it against the sides of the bowl, and then put the pumpkin mousse on top.
Continue this process until the bowl is filled. (Crumbs, pudding, mousse). Top with the whipped topping.
Rim the bowl with crushed pecans.
Sprinkle with the reserved ginger biscuits. I’d suggest refrigerating for a few hours to let the flavors meld together. You can also make it mostly ahead of time and just assemble a few hours before eating.
