VANILLA fudge. Trust me, it's GOOD.

Hi baking babes! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As you can probably imagine, I have a few posts from over the holidays that I would love to share with you guys! Here is the first. This vanilla fudge was actually a happy accident. The recipe I found on Pinterest is from TasteofHome.com, but it’s actually for lemon fudge. You guessed it – I thought I had lemon extract on hand but did not. I substituted equal parts of vanilla extract and the result was amazing! It's a lot lighter than chocolate fudge - it's almost airy and light. I made this recipe the night before our annual Christmas cocktail party and it was a big hit. I wanted to change it up this year and make something other than cupcakes or cookies. It’s easy, trust me! I would love to try it with lemon extract to see what the original tastes like haha. My husband had the great idea of adding these pretty chocolate sprinkles to the platter to give it some color!

1-1/2 teaspoons plus 6 tablespoons butter, divided
2 packages (10 to 12 ounces each) vanilla or white chips
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup marshmallow creme
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

Line a 9-in. square pan with foil. Grease foil with 1-1/2 teaspoons butter; set aside.
In a large saucepan, melt remaining butter over low heat. Add chips and milk; cook and stir for 10-12 minutes or until chips are melted.
Stir in marshmallow creme and extract; cook and stir 3-4 minutes longer or until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Chill until set.
Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut fudge into squares. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: about 2 pounds

All in all, I would definitely make it again. It's funny, it looks a little like cheese, so I would tell your friends and family that it is fudge before they bite into it and are very confused. Hope you guys enjoyed! More posts to come shortly =)

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Bright Blue Buttercream!

I made these cute little guys for a coworker that is getting married in 2 weeks! He hadn’t eaten any lunch yet, so was very grateful for the sweet surprise! I didn’t know exactly what kind of cupcakes he liked, so I went with plain vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. I got the mini vanilla cupcake recipe from food.com. The below recipe makes 20-25 mini cupcakes (I didn’t need that many) so I halved this recipe:


• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar (if you like your cupcakes very sweet, add a little more.)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (optional)


Directions:
1. preheat oven to 375 degrees, line muffin cups with papers.
2. cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.
3. add flour (mixed with baking powder and salt) alternating with milk beat well; stir in vanilla.
4. divide evenly among pans and bake for 18 minutes. let cool in pans


For the Buttercream Frosting, I used the recipe on the side of the Confectioner’s Sugar box:
1 box (3 ¾ cups) Domino Confectioner’s Sugar
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
3 to 4 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Again, I didn’t need that much frosting so I halved the above recipe too. I spruced up the buttercream by using my Wilton Food Gel in blue. Since I halved the batch, I put a bit too much food gel! I was going for more of a sky/pale blue but instead got this bright blue color. They are still pretty cool! I finished the cupcakes off with some candy hearts and chocolate pearls from Michael’s. You guys like them? =)

PINK Chocolate Chip Cookies! Photos and Recipe!

They came out so beautiful right?! Ever since joining Pinterest, my life has taken a drastic turn into non-productive land. All I want to do is look up 1000 recipes, and bake them all at once. To say i'm obsessed would pretty much cover it.

I've seen a new fad going around the Pinterest world - pink chocolate chip cookies! I thought it was such an adorable idea, and had to try it out for myself. I just bought Wilton's Food Coloring Gel (below) and could not wait to try them out. They are like food coloring on steroids, seriously. If you want very strong colors, it takes a large amount of food coloring to achieve it. A few drops of this gel and wow! Bright pink, beautiful cookies woohoo! 

I found the chocolate chip cookie recipe on Pinterest as well, they are so soft and doughy, I prefer them this way! I used about 3 drops of the pink gel to achieve the bright pink color. Happy baking!