A Girl's Gotta Eat!

Yum indeed...Weight Watchers friendly cupcakes. I make a friend/co-worker a birthday treat every year, and this year we went with Hungry Girl's Boston Cream Cupcakes . The recipe was easy to follow and doubled well (I didn't want to use only half a box of cake mix), and quite tasty to boot. I do think I could have stuffed more filling into each delicious treat, but I didn't realize that until they were already being enjoyed at the office. For my first attempt at a filled cupcake, though, I was pretty pleased. Everyone else seemed pretty pleased as well, especially the birthday girl (she was really the only one who mattered anyway!) (As a side note, Hungry Girl also has several recipes utilizing won ton wrappers that I want to try.) Boston Cream Cupcakes Ingredients: Half of an 18.25-oz. box (about 1 3/4 cups) moist-style yellow cake mix 1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original ) 3 tbsp. chocolate frosting, room temperature 2 tbsp. l...

Today's treat is in honor of Shayla's birthday. I was in the mood to try something new, and I knew she loved coconut. Hence, this Almond Joy Cake. I did everything exactly as directed by the recipe, but I will share one word of warning: The cake pan gets very full. As in, when I was adding the chocolate topping, chocolate started oozing off the sides of the pan and all over my table. You should probably set it on a cookie sheet first unless you have a super-deep cake pan (in which case, I'd like to know where you found it.) Oh! I also used dark chocolate chips instead of semisweet because I was just certain Almond Joy candy bars were made with dark chocolate. I was later informed I was incorrect, but I thought the cake was delicious nonetheless. I would say to go with your personal preference. Almond Joy Cake 1 (2-layer) package devil’s food cake mix 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk 1½ cups sugar 25 large marshmallows 1 (14-ounce) package flaked coconut 1 cup sugar ½...

Truth be told, muffins are up there as one of my favorite things both to make and to eat. There's something about a warm muffin fresh from the oven, split open and enjoyed with a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee that just can't be beat. Several months ago I spotted a recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins that I knew I had to try. Since we had a cooler day today, and because Mike was busy studying, I decided it was well past time to whip up some of these bad boys. The recipe may sound difficult and decadent, but in truth falls only in the latter category. There's not even a need to bust out your mixer, because everything is stirred together by hand. And because you melt the butter, you don't even have to plan ahead and set butter out to soften. This was my kind of recipe. Now, my plan is to take them to the office tomorrow, so one batch would simply not be enough. I made up a second batch and made some regular-size muffins and some mini muffins. Other that a lit...

Mike’s 30 th birthday is tomorrow, so I wanted to make a birthday treat for him to take to work tonight. I thought about cupcakes, but Mike mentioned brownies sounded good, and I’ve recently come across several recipes I want to try. I narrowed it down to either Whiskey Brownies or Mocha Brownies with Coffee Frosting. I had every intention of making Whiskey Brownies when I arrived home from work and the store, but alas…no whiskey anywhere in the house. Mocha Brownies it was!! The brownie recipe itself was simple enough. I used butter-flavor Crisco sticks for the shortening, because that’s what I had in the house. They baked up fairly nicely. I went to book club after I pulled them from the oven so they’d have plenty of time to cool before I frosted them. If you want a big melty mess, go ahead and try frosting warm brownies or cake, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.  The brownies batter was REALLY thick. Be sure to spread it evenly in your pan.    The frosting really was t...