Heart Shaped Donuts and Party Sprinkles!

Hi dolls! Wanted to share the super cute heart-shaped donuts I made this weekend! I went to a bbq yesterday, and wanted to bring something fun for dessert. I made chocolate donuts in my heart-shaped Wilton pan, and topped them off with an easy vanilla glaze and sprinkles. Check out the photo and recipes below, and my comments on how I think the recipe tasted. Enjoy!

Baked Chocolate Doughnuts
From the Wilton Heart Doughnut Pan package

Makes 24 doughnuts

INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray (I used Pam for Baking).

In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla; mix gently until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 1/2 full (2 tablespoons batter).

Bake 4-5 minutes or until the tops of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes before removing. Repeat with remaining batter. Finish doughnuts with desired toppings. Doughnuts are best served fresh.


Taste of Home
Quick Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, milk and vanilla. Stir until
smooth. Let stand for 5 minutes to thicken if desired. Spoon over
bread. Yield: 1/2 cup.


So here's my conclusion: the donuts LOOKED great, but the taste wasn't all that wonderful. I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I looked up the sub - milk and vinegar. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, after the donuts had baked and I tasted one, they seemed to have a slight bitter after taste. So i'm assuming it was the vinegar. If I had time, I would have run to the store and picked up some buttermilk. Oh well, lesson learned I guess.

The vanilla glaze was great and very simple to make - I put some pink Wilton food gel in it to give it some color. I had some pink edible hearts and rainbow sprinkles to top them off with. They looked so cute, I just wish the taste was better. I definitely want to try more donut recipes using this pan. The prep didn't take too long, and the donuts bake quickly - 4-5min. Thanks for reading!

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

Hi dolls! Wanted to share with you this super easy and awesome no bake recipe - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls! I made these as a back up for Valentine's day - my amazing husband cooked us a beautiful dinner and needed the oven. So my idea for a cookie cake went out the window.

We had just watched an episode of Shark Tank (love that show!) where these two chicks were trying to get an investment on their edible cookie dough in a jar. I wanted it immediately! I found the recipe for cookie dough balls on Pinterest (original post click here) and I am so glad I did. I added my own flair by using the left over chocolate chips, melting them, putting them in a ziplock bag and drawing letters and hearts on parchment paper. I refrigerated them for 30min and peeled them off the parchment paper. Cute, right? Anyway, see below for photos and step by step!

 L - could be for our last name or Love! I tried by best to make the chocolate drizzle on top of the cookie dough balls look cute - might need to work on that a little!

My first attempt at drawing with chocolate!

Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
1½ cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
6 ounces mini-chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Wilton candy melts

Instructions
1.Cream butter and sugar together
2.Add remaining ingredients and mix
3.Roll into 1-inch balls
4.Melt candy melts in microwave and use a spoon to drizzle over balls
5.Refrigerate until firm (30 minutes)
6.Let stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving
7.Store leftovers in refrigerator

Sooo easy guys, and SO good. We just had 1 before breakfast ha! As an added bonus, here is a photo of the kick ass short ribs and potatoes Greg made last night. Delicious!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day and is staying warm! Xoxo

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes - Round 2!

How cute are they?! With Valentine's Day quickly approaching (um, tomorrow) I wanted to make something quick and easy. This is the second time I've made these babies and they are the perfect snack! For my original post, click here. I got creative with my Wilton's Food Gel and made some bright colors using the buttercream frosting I made. Happy little desserts! Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day xoxo