cake batter blondies.

You know how when moms visit their daughters at college they bring stuff like money or furniture? My mom is cooler than that. She brings me cake mixes. And not just any cake mix, she brings me funfetti cake mix. It’s pretty awesome. However, now I have 4 cake mixes in my pantry and no desire to make 96 cupcakes. So I’m going to share some recipes I’ve found that use cake mix that aren’t actually cake (remember birthday cake fudge?)! Some from Pinterest, some from other food blogs. (I’ll just apologize in advance for some of these…please forgive me for their richness)

We’re going to start with cake batter blondies. Cake batter and white chocolate. You can’t go wrong. You all know how I feel about funfetti. It is the king of cake mixes.

Another awesome thing about this recipe is that it is a one-bowl-wonder. All you need is large bowl, a wooden spoon, and an 8×8 pan. Simple and delicious. Those are two of my favorite words.

This is the conversation you and I are going to have when you cut into these:
“Joy, there is no way these are done baking. Obviously you are a crazy person.”
“You are correct about my craziness. However, the slightly undercooked middle is the best part. Trust me.”
You take a bite…”Oh my. I should have trusted you. These ARE amazing!”
“I’m so glad we’re on the same page. Please eat seven more. There’s no judgement here.”
The end.

Make some blondies, spend some quality with your best friend, stop worrying about recital dresses, and eat some blondies.

Cake Batter Blondies

recipe from girl meets life

makes one 8×8 pan

1 box of Funfetti cake mix

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/3 cup of milk

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8×8 pan with nonstick spray. Set aside. In a large bowl combine the cake mix, oil, and egg with a wooden spoon. Slowly add the milk and stir until everything is mixed. The batter will be really thick and dense. Add the white chocolate chips and mix well. Dump into the prepared pan and spread to the edges. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Let set for 15-20 minutes so the middle can firm up a little bit. Cut and serve warm or at room temperature.

These blondies will last for 3-4 days stored in an airtight container. Or just share them will all your friends and you won’t have to worry about it.

buttermilk pancakes with white chocolate chips.

I can’t even believe it. Two blog posts in two days. This is getting crazy. I’m really trying to give myself goals for the rest of the summer before my life gets really crazy.
Here’s a short list:
Blog more.
Practice my oboe a lot more.
Get more organized.
Read more books.
Run some more and get in shape.

That last one is difficult because right now our campus is overrun with Chicago Bears and everything that goes along with that (aka…sports media and a bunch of security people) so it’s a little bit more difficult to get anywhere. I don’t even know who any of them are so it doesn’t make much difference to me. Now…if Orlando Bloom or Robert Downey Jr. were here it would be a totally different story indeed. Okay, I’m done complaining about that situation now. Just had to get it out of my system.

Pancakes are that one thing you can’t go wrong with. Especially if you add chocolate chips. Especially if those chocolate chips are white chocolate chips. Although any kind of chocolate is totally fine by me. I also like to top my pancakes with Nutella. Wait…you don’t know what Nutella is? I’m so sorry. It’s the most delicious chocolate hazelnut spread. Seriously one of the best things ever created.

You can add these extra things to any pancake recipe you have. I found this one on my Foodily app for my phone (such a good app!) and I really need to use up the buttermilk in my fridge so it all worked out. These are really fluffy and light (as long as you don’t put too much butter in the pan like I did…). Perfect for breakfast or an evening snack. We used to have pancakes for dinner every so often when I was little. My mom always said that there wasn’t enough time in the mornings with 3 little kids getting ready for school and my dad getting ready for school so we had breakfast for dinner. It was the best thing for us kids. Especially when there was bacon involved. Which was often.

You can make these pancakes any way you want. Add different kinds of chocolate chips. Leave them plain. Slather peanut butter over the tops. Drown them in Michigan maple syrup. There are so many possibilities. This is just one way for you to enjoy them. And it’s a pretty delicious one. So make some pancakes, drink some tea, and check out my “Now Playing” page (above) to read all about the music in my life right now.

Buttermilk Pancakes with White Chocolate Chips

from bon appetite hon

makes about a dozen pancakes

1 cup flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

White chocolate chips and extra toppings (like syrup)

Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter in a smaller bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until just incorporated. Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Lightly coat with butter or nonstick spray. Ladle by 1/4 cup into the pan. Drop chocolate chips in the top of the batter. Cook until there are bubbles on the top and the bottom of the pancake is golden brown. Flip and brown the other side. When done remove from pan, top with Nutella or other topping of choice. Serve immediately.

These will keep in the fridge. Just microwave them for about 30 seconds to reheat them for a quick pancake breakfast.

birthday cake fudge.

Sometimes the future seems a lot closer than I want it to. My senior year of college starts in about a month. This week I started looking at graduate schools. What is that?! I don’t even know what that means. That seems so scary for me. I guess real life is closer than I want it to be.

Sugar cures all woes. That’s my thought right now. Some may call it emotional eating…maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. That remains to be seen. One of my good friends came over this week and we made this crazy fudge. Thank heavens for Pinterest. It’s my go to place for new and interesting recipes (beside my family cookbooks). I’ve wanted to make this for awhile, and I have a really good friend with a birthday pretty soon so I finally got a chance (it’s a secret though. So don’t tell).

I’m just going to apologize for this right now…I am so sorry. This fudge is crazy. I’m so sorry…again.

There are 3 cups of sugar in this fudge. 3 cups. That’s insane to me. But it works. It gives so much sweetness to the fudge. There’s also an entire package of white chocolate chips. I am totally okay with that (remember the muffins from last post? yeah, it’s my favorite). There’s also an entire jar of marshmallow fluff. I mean, why not? And you can’t have birthday cake without sprinkles, so you might as well dump a bunch of those on top. Because that’s the way we do.

Beware: this is addicting. My friend and I may or may not have eaten a couple pieces for breakfast a few days this week (no judgement please?). It’s a good idea to have people that you can give this away to. Don’t let yourself eat the whole thing. That’s just bad news.

Okay, I’m going to go continue looking up alter-ego names for a special project. Make this fudge, watch some Comic Con coverage, and maybe run a couple miles to burn off these calories. Well, that was my plan anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Cake Fudge

recipe from Mrs. Bettie Rocker

3 cups sugar

1 and 1/2 sticks of margarine

One 5 oz can evaporated milk

1 (12 oz) bag white chocolate chips

One 7 oz jar marshmallow creme

4 Tablespoons yellow cake mix (just the mix, not the batter)

1 teaspoon vanilla

blue food coloring (or any color you want)

sprinkles

Line a 9×9 square pan with aluminum foil, leaving overhang on the edges to act as handles, and spray well with nonstick spray. In a large saucepan heat sugar, margarine, and evaporated milk over medium heat. Bring this to a boil and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and cake mix until the chocolate chips are melted. Add the vanilla and stir well. Quickly pour 1/3 of the fudge into a bowl and add food coloring and stir until your desired color is reached. Pour the white fudge into the pan and spread out evenly. Place dollops of the colored fudge on top in different areas. Swirl the colored fudge around with a knife. Generously top with the sprinkles. Leave at room temperature to cool and then place in the refrigerator to harden. Once firm, cut into squares and serve.

This fudge will last in the fridge for up to a week.

white chocolate chip blueberry muffins

Summer is in full swing, in case you didn’t notice that. I’ve got another blueberry recipe for you. And this time I got to use real Michigan blueberries! It was too hot to pick them ourselves, but we actually did go to a blueberry farm to get them. It’s the second best way to get them.

I love the way white chocolate tastes. It’s so sweet and delicious. There are days when I just eat white chocolate chips by themselves to contain my sweet tooth. And pairing white chocolate and blueberries is a brilliant idea. I think these are perfect for a quick, sweet breakfast or just a nice afternoon snack.

This recipe starts with wet and dry ingredients. Eggs in one bowl, melted butter in another, and all the dry ingredients in the last one. All you really do is throw everything in a bowl, mix it up, and throw it in the oven. If there’s anything I’ve learned while baking it’s that I need to stop baking late at night. It gets hairy sometimes. Usually it works out, but sometimes I get crazy ideas that totally fail. Thankfully, this one turned out pretty well. Especially with the help of really good blueberries.

Just look at all those blueberries and chocolate chips. So good. That’s what summer should look like. In my opinion anyway. Make these, share them with friends, knit some dinosaurs, and enjoy life.

White Chocolate Chip Blueberry Muffins

adapted from Cookies by Hilarie Walden

makes 12 muffins

1 and 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

4 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until well blended. Add milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the eggs. Mix well. Create a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture. With a large spoon, stir until the flour is just wet. Fold in blueberries and chocolate chips. Divide between the muffin liners and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These muffins will last in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.