Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

Fall is officially here!

Our church has annual “Hands and Hearts” market.  It is a craft sale, bake sale, silent auction and most importantly a whole lot of fun!  The funds raised go to Youth missions and other events in the church.  

I volunteered to make a fall treat for the annual event.  I love pumpkin treats, but really only make them from about mid October through Thanksgiving.  Here is a delicious treat with my yummy cream cheese frosting!

You’ll need:

Bars

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of oil
• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg

Frosting – click here for pictures and step by step (bottom of page!)

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3-4 cups of sifted powder sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step-by-step:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan
2.  Mix eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until smooth

3. In a separate bowl mix flour, powder cinnamon, salt and baking soda

4. Pour flour mixture into pumpkin mixture and blend together

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes

6. Fully cool before frosting

7. To frost – Blend cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add the sugar, one cup at a time, and stir in vanilla. Click here for step-by step pics on frosting

What is your favorite fall treat?

-Domesticated Duchess

eDomestication! Invitations and Labels

I have really good computer skills.  Not to show off. It's true though. I make PowerPoint presentations that are presented to my company's leadership teams. I can make Excel sing (I do pivot tables and vlookups in my sleep.. not really that would be weird).  I can even dabble with HTML.  But using these ‘skills’ to enhance my domesticated-ism?  Hmmm....

I co-hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Jessica (click here to read about her gender reveal party!).  I knew I wanted to do something special for her favors that people would actually enjoy.  I put together cookie mix bags that would be tasty, simple and cute!

For each bag you need:

I bought 10 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of brown sugar, 15 pounds of flour and 3 24 oz bags of chocolate chips!!!

• 1 cup of flour + 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/3 cup of white sugar
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Please note, if you are making a lot of these, put some paper towels underneath because this was MESSY!

Now back to the computer skills.  I needed to make labels for these bags.  I didn’t want to handwrite the directions (I had to make 24 bags!), and I wanted them to be cute and feminine.  So I got to work and eDomestication was born.

I managed to make a zebra border after a lot of trial and error, then add the text in the middle.  I taped these onto the white bags and they were quite the hit!

After feeling so computer crafty, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and make bachelorette party invitations for a party I am co-hosting with one of my best friends, Danni.  These were also a bit tricky to make, but here is what I made!

All I had to do is go to Office Max and get them printed on high quality paper! It was easy, and they look great! 

If you would like this sample invitation, or label just email me and I will send you the template!  All you need to do is change the text. And it's FREE :)

Signing Logging out,

-Domesticated Duchess

Pepperoni Bites

Have  you been on pinterest?  I’ve been hopelessly addicted since I discovered it during Memorial day weekend this past May. 

This is one of the first items I pinned, Rachel Ray’s Pepperoni bites!  They are yummy, easy and a really good appetizer!  Or make up a nice salad, and serve these as a side!

You’ll need:

• ¾ cup of flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of itialian season
• Pinch of Salt
• ¾ cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese  (add a ¼ cup if you like it extra cheesy!)
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese (make that 1/3 cup if you love cheese!)
• 1 cup of pepperoni (small, cut up slices)
• ½ cup of pizza sauce for dipping

Step-by-step:

 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

 2.  Grease a 24 cup mini-muffin pan

 3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, itialian season, and salt

 4. Whisk in milk and egg

 5. Stir in mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni – let stand 10 minutes

  6. Divide the batter in the mini muffin cups

  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes

 8. Sever while warm, with pizza sauce for dipping!

Enjoy!

-Domesticated Duchess


PS: If you like pepperoni, try these delicious pepperoni rolls!

No Bake Oreo Bars!

I guess this must be no-bake October!  No bake cookies, no bake bars, I'm not sure what is next... perhaps no bake casserole? Eep! That sounds awful. 


Anyway, these no bake Oreo bars are seriously the easiest thing to make ever. It literally takes three ingredients. Even my simple peanut butter cookies take 5 ingredients. That's 40% more ingredients. 

Anyway, bake to the bars.  I mean back to the bars.  Back to the no bake bars.


You'll need:

• 5 cups of marshmallows (big or small work!)... this equals about 1 big bag 
• 1 package of Oreos (I only buy double stuff, but regular work too!)
• 1/2 stick of butter

You'll need to:
1. Take the Oreo's out of the bag

2. Grind up the Oreo's in your food processor. If you don't have a food processor, put them in a large zip lock bag. Then put the zip lock bag in a grocery store plastic bag and use a rolling pin.
3. Take the entire bag of marshmallows and put the butter on top
4. Melt in the microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, in 30 second intervals

5. You'll get something like this when you pull out the puff
6. Pour in the Oreo crumbs and mix really well
7. Press into a 8x8 container

8. Enjoy at your tailgate or other event! 


Thanks to Christina for this yummy recipe!


-Domesticated Duchess

Chocolate Fudge Molten Brownie Cake

Chocolate Fudge Molten Brownie Cake aka Chocolate Heaven 

This recipe is directly copy and pasted from Pioneer Woman.  I have had some GREAT luck with a few of her recipes (pear crisp) and horrible luck (cobbler, mac and cheese).

But this recipe is by far the best!  She refers to it as “baked fudge” but it really is more like a mix between fudge and a brownie and molten cake. Which is why I refer to it as Chocolate Fudge Molten Brownie Cake. It’s basically awesome.

Here is what you’ll need:

2 eggs

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons (HEAPING) cocoa

2 tablespoons of flour

1/2 cup of melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Step-by-step:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (or 300 if yours gets SUPER hot)

2. Beat eggs until light in color.  Beat in sugar until just combined

3. Add in cocoa, flour, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix.

4. Pour batter into four large ramekins (or a 8x8 pan, but the ramekins are better as they cook more evenly).  Set ramekins or pan into a larger pan halfway full of water.

*Please note* Bathtub rule applies. Fill up just 1/4 of the way because the water will rise when you add the ramekins in it.

5. Bake 40-50 minutes (I baked mine at 325 for 40 minutes).  The upper crust will be crispy and the batter will be firm but not set, it should not be too runny either.

6. Serve with whip cream, or ice-cream. Or enjoy all by its lonesome!

-Domesticated Duchess

Banana Bread-Cake!

My mom is a champion amongst banana bread bakers.  I had some very ripe (almost overly ripe) bananas that needed to be turned into a banana bread fast.  I looked in my folders for my mom's recipe and it wasn't there. I checked my drawer where I keep my cook books no luck. I picked up the phone to call her and ask for it, but before dialing I remembered she is on vacation for the next two weeks.   (I should have remembered earlier, since we are dog-sitting her golden retriever and Ben's best pup friend)

Back to the drawing board. I searched allrecipes.com until I found the recipe I wanted, tweaked it a bit (ok maybe a lot), and then got to work. The only tiny problem is that this is actually turned out to be a banana bread cake, rather than the standard banana bread. This is the first time I made this recipe and I'm sure glad I found it!  So good, and a great twist on such a staple in everyone's recipe box. I can't wait to share with my mom :)


One thing to note, is that this is more of a "cakey" banana bread, and not the moist, dense traditional banana bread


You'll need:

• 1 to 1.5 cups of mashed bananas (this is 2-3 medium/large bananas)
• 1 cup of sour cream (light works too!)
• 1/2 stick of softened butter
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 3/4 cups of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (if you really like cinnamon, you can put an extra 1/2 teaspoon!)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• Optional Note: You can add nuts or chocolate chips to make this treat extra special! (1/2 cup should be plenty!)

Step-by-Step:


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease up one 9x13 inch pan
2. Combine mashed up banana and sour cream in a bowl, set aside

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth
4. Beat in eggs, then stir in vanilla and banana mixture

5. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Slowly blend into the banana mixture.

6. Spread the battre evenly into prepared pan
7. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

Tip: After cooling for 30 minutes, wrap up the bread in foil to trap in the moisture!


As mentioned, this is my first time to make this recipe but if you want Banana Bread Muffins, I think you could use this recipe but bake for 25 minutes.


-Domesticated D

Key Lime Pie

This post has gone viral!!  I would love for you to send it to a friend, or check out my recipe index full of other tasty recipes. Thanks y'all :)

With summer officially over, I realized I didn't get a chance to make one of my favorite summer treat - Key Lime Pie!  This is a copycat recipe from a favorite chain restaurant, Pappadeaux Seafood restaurant!  As a native of Florida this is the recipe my family grew up on.  I love the zing of key lime - another great recipe to bookmark for later are the Zesty Lemon Bars!

This is SO easy, and yet so wonderful!  If you don't have time to make a graham crust, you can just buy one that is already made, and skip steps 2 and 3!  

What You'll Need

For the Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 3 tablespoons of Sugar
• 1/3 cup of butter

For the Filling:

• 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 3/4 cup key lime juice
• 1 - 2 tablespoons grated lime zest

Step-by-step:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs and sugar, melt the butter and mix together

3. Press grainy combination against the bottom and sides of a pie dish

4. Grate the skin of a lime untl you have 1 - 2 tablespoons (depending on how "limey" you like it!)

5. In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime rind.

6. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. Do not overcook or get even close to brown!

8. Chill pie thoroughly before serving
9. Garnish with whip cream and limes, or however desired!

I think this was my last way to hold onto summer!  

If you're looking for another pie recipe - I have two 'skinny' no bake pies that are delicious! Peanut Butter and Strawberry!  

-Domesticated Duchess

Product Review: Special K Chocolate

I love chocolate.  This was probably my first sentence as a baby.  It might have been "more chocolate"or "mother, please serve more chocolate deliciousness at your earliest convenience" but, most likely it was definitely some variation of "I WANT CHOCOLATE".

I like Special K cereal.  For a healthy cereal, it is filling and pretty darn good.  When I saw a commercial for Special K Chocolately Delight, I was delighted!  That is until I purchased a box.

Not only is the chocolate version more expensive (and a smaller box!) but the taste is subpar.

The chocolate lacks flavor. The flakes are dry, unlike the regular Special K berries that have the bit of sugar on the flakes.

But most of all, when someone says chocolatey, I expect a plethora of chocolate goodness. However, this really was a dash of sprinkled chocolate.

Needless to save, stick with the original Special K cereal.

Over and out,
Domesticated Duchess

No-Bake Cookies!

Another one for the sweet tooths (hmm.. sweet-teeths? no, sweets tooths, wait sweets tooth?)  those who crave sugar in large quantities.

You'll need: 

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (one stick)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup Hershey's cocoa
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Step-by-step:

1. Place a piece of wax paper or foil on cookie sheet or counter.

2. Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a rolling boil.

3. Remove from heat and cool for 1 minute.

4. Add peanut butter, oats and vanilla. Stir to mix well.

5. Quickly drop mixture by heaping teaspoons onto wax paper.

6. Cool completely and store in a cool dry place.

This recipe is PERFECT to half (just keep an eye on the amount of cocoa), which is good because these only lasts about 3 days.

-Domesticated Duchess