Snickerdoodles

One of the things I'm loving about being home all day every day is the opportunity to bake all the time! 

I baking is such a great thing to do at home with a little one. 

Most bake goods only take up to 30 minutes to prepare (done during nap time or play time), and then I can easily start feeding my daughter while they are baking in the oven. 

Since I've been on my maternity leave we have had an almost constant supply of fresh cookies, breads, and treats in our kitchen. 

This week I made some delicious snicker doodle cookies.

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Nutella Fudge Cookies

This recipe is going on the top of my cookie recipe pile!

These are the easiest cookies I’ve ever made. And they are good.  As in super rich, fudgy in the middle, good. As in you can whip these up, give them to your friends and pretend you labored over them for a few hours, when in actuality they took about 15 minutes, including baking time. Yup, honestly only takes 5 minutes to prepare, and 10 minutes to bake. Couldn't get any easier! 

Oh, and did I mention it's only 4 ingredients?

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13. Make an Angel Food Cake - Check!

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I figured it was the perfect time to complete another (delicious) goal from my 14 of 14 goal list. 

I was not wrong in assuming that an angel food cake can be difficult to make! 

Apparently they are temperamental. Egg whites not beat enough? Doesn't turn out. Little bit of yolk in the mix? Doesn't turn out. Cooking time not exact? Doesn't turn out. Ingredients not mixed at the right time? Doesn't turn out. 

Bahh! How does one succeed with these recipes! 

I didn't hit it out of the park on my first attempt. You can see from the photos that it didn't quite rise enough and was a bit heavy. But it was still delicious!

It was the perfect time to make this cake. It's almost mandatory to have sweets on Valentine's Day, and angel food cake is a fairly healthy cake (although that's a total oxymoron!), and still tastes decadent. 

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Valentine's Sorbet

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No-Bake Pumpkin Trifle

Post-holidays I had some leftover pumpkin pie filling that needed to be used up. 

Since I don't have a regular store of pumpkin recipes, I started searching for ideas. 

When I came across the idea for pumpkin trifle, I knew that it was perfect. 

Mr. A loves everything to do with trifle. Everything. 

So I found a couple recipes and modified them to make them easier for me :) 

Here's what I came up with:

Crunchy Pecan and Graham Cracker Crumb Layer

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsp. of brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup crushed pecans

5 tbsp of butter, melted and slightly cooled

Instructions: 

Combine graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cover with butter making sure it is evenly softened/mixed.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Layer

Ingredients: 

8 oz. of cream cheese, softened

1 can pumpkin pie filling

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Then add the pumpkin, vanilla, and sugar. Mix until Creamy. 

Whipped Cream Layer

Ingredients: 

Heavy whipping cream (whipped into whipped cream!)

Once all the layers are made, you simply layer them one at a time into each cup, and top with extra graham cracker crumb at the end.  I did 6 layers total (2 of each). Best if served fresh, but they can be refrigerated and eaten the next day - just watch the whipped cream doesn't settle too much!

That's it! 

This recipe made approx. 12 mini trifles (as seen above) and took approx. 30 minutes to prepare.

{yumm}