Apple Bars. Mmm mmmm good.

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. I went ahead and made those apple bars that I wanted. Much to my dismay, because it made the already sweltering apartment that much worse. >.>

Aren't those swirls so pretty? Wanna know what that is? Brown sugar, cinnamon swirls. Mmmmm cinnamon.

Silly me though. . .I used too big of a pan. So instead of apple bars I now have apple. . .crisp? I stuck them in the freezer. I'm hoping that they'll harden enough to be able to get them out of the pan in bars.

Even though I made a boo boo on the pan size they were still divine. I love this recipe so much.

Here's the recipe that I used(I think it'd be best to double it and use the size pan that I used in the picture):

• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped apple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch pan.(I used a 13X9 I think it is, to be honest I'm not quite sure XD)
Sift together flour, baking powder, and teaspoon of cinnamon. Then set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth(I used my stand mixer).
Stir in the egg and vanilla.
Blend in the flour mixture until just combined, then stir in the apples.
Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
In a cup or small bowl, stir together the 2 tsp cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons sugar; sprinkle over the top of the bars.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven the finished bars should spring back when lightly touched. Cool and cut into squares

Now this is optional, but I recommend it, because well. . .it just totally adds to the bars. I make a homemade glaze and cover the bars with it when they are still slightly warm.

Glaze(these are kinda approximate, because I just kinda throw stuff together until it looks and tastes right):

4 tsp butter

1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar(enough to make the glaze thick)

1 tsp almond extract

Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl. Mix in powdered sugar. When the mixture is thick, mix in almond extract.
Spread on top of bars.
Indulge =)

Little Debbie Zebra Cakes

Even though I made that batch of Sugar Cookie Bars yesterday(which like I said. . .we haven't even put a eensy dent in them. . .at all) I wanted to bake again today. I have some apples laying around that I need to get rid of. Especially since they are the not so, how should I put this, tasty kind? Well I wanted to make these apple bars that are unbelievably hard to resist. Then I remembered our apartment gets wayyyy waaayyyy too hot when I bake(found that out the hard way yesterday while make the cookie bars).

Soooo I decided to go on a recipe hunt, which for me is an everyday thing, but still! I wanted to try to find a recipe for Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, you know. . .those little white cakes with zebra stripes on them? because let's face it. . .THEY'RE CRACK IN A BOX =D

I mean come on. . .who can resist the amazingness that is these little cakes?

By the way! Did you know they come in chocolate?!?! CHOCOLATE! =D=D

I knew they came in orange, because I've had those before, but chocolate? Dude sign me up!

Hmmm well I was just thinking that I could get a box cake(which I only use for experiments cause they're quick and cheap) to make little cakes, frost them, layer them, and then dip them in . . .I don't know saaaaay white Almond Bark. Then I would stripe them with chocolate. Think that'd be legit enough?

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna try it either way. It'd probably come out yummy even IF they didn't taste like the real thing. Who can go wrong with white cake, frosting, and chocolate?

All this looking around for Little Debbie Zebra Cakes makes me want to make an actual zebra cake though. They are so pretty with their vanilla and chocolate stripes. Maybe that's my next project?

Sugar Cookies? Hecks no! Sugar Cookie Bars!

Lately I've been having this urge to make sugar cookies, but I just haven't had the motivation to do all the waiting, rolling, and cutting. Yet I've been wanting to make SOMETHING. I've been having that baker's itch. You know. . .that feeling where you just have to make something. Well as I was looking around at recipes I've bookmarked, I ran into the sugar cookie bars recipe. Every time I see these somewhere on the internet I say to myself. . .I should make those. Well today my roommate finally convinced me(all it took was her saying "do it!") to make them. So that I did.

I used the recipe off of RecipeGirl, but added just a little touch of almond extract to the batter. I'm not partial to sugar cookies, because they are so bland so I like the added flavor.

So what's my verdict? I like the recipe, but they are unbelievably sweet. These are a treat you have to take in small doses. Like. . .one bite doses. One deliciously sweet bite.

The other problem I have is that. . .this makes a HUGE batch and. . .and. . .I don't have any one to eat them! All of my friends, or family are either

A. On diets or

B. Diabetic

So I'm not exactly sure what I should do with this massive batch of cookie bars. =(

Oh life, why do you plague me so. Pretty sure I want to invent baked goods that actually make people LOSE weight. Yeah. . .that's right LOSE weight. Wouldn't that be amazing? Eating cookies and cake and pie all day only to see the pounds shed off. *starry eyed*

Chocolate And An Overview

Okay so I have something I need to admit. . .it's not easy, but. . .here I go.

I. . .have an addiction to chocolate. There I said it. Aren't I supposed to feel better now? Admitting is the first step to recovery right? Right?! *sigh* I don't know that I want to recover from this problem though. Chocolate is just soooooooo good. Let me give you an example of my never ending love of chocolate:

These are chocolate chocolate chip cookies with milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and white chocolate drizzled on top.

Any more proof needed here?

Well just incase you need some more. . .here's a chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese

frosting in between the layers and what is the whole thing covered in? Chocolate Marshmallow

Fondant. Ohhhh yeah 8)

This cake was a grad cake for a friend of mine. It was the devil to make since I had never worked with any type of fondant before. Nor had I worked with Royal Icing. Let me tell you. . .piping writing with R.I. is a hard task to do. . .

Okay okay so now you know I love chocolate. I do have another obsession. I'm not sure if it counts though, because it has chocolate IN it. I love cookie dough. Raw cookie dough, cookie dough bites, cookie dough blizzards, cookie dough anything(as long as it's chocolate chip cookie dough of course). Mmmmmmm. I have an example of something crazy that I baked that has to deal with this.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes via Martha Stewart

Topped with Marshmallow Buttercream

Topped by a chocolate chip cookie

They were amazing =)

I paired these off with Mini Red Velvet Hi-Hats. Which were equally amazing. I even got asked for the recipe on these.

I don't want to leave you thinking that I never make anything that DOESN'T have chocolate in it so . . .here's one of my favorite cookies recipes I came across one day. It's from RecipeGirl and it's her Cinnamon Bun Cookies recipe. I absolutely LOVE them and they don't have one trace of chocolate in them.

I've made them on two different occasions

Here's a picture of the first time:

They tasted delicious, but didn't roll out the way I had hoped. I wanted pretty cookies! PRETTY ONES! So I made them a second time. . .

They were just as delicious(maybe even more so cause they were so much prettier) the second time. Okay maybe not the two in front. . .but the one in back has the pretty cinnamon swirl =) I basically have a hard time NOT eating all of these.

I think the cinnamon sugar combination is almost, not as good, just ALMOST as good as chocolate. I guess that's why most the stuff I make that doesn't have chocolate in it has cinnamon and sugar XD Example:

Monkey Bread via Baking Bites

I absolutely LOVE Monkey Bread and the recipe from Baking Bites is to die for. Yummy. =)

Cinnamon Rolls via Pioneer Woman(That's me standing in the background like the creeper that I am >.> <.< >.>)

These were amazing too. I halved the recipe and I still had like 4 pans of them. I made them, because it was the first morning since I moved in that my roommate and I were actually together in the apartment at the same time. They were deeeeeliiiiiiiciooooous. I loved them. They were even good the next day cold! Which is extraordinary in itself, because I hate leftovers. Yuck.

Cake Pokeballs?

So a few days ago we had a bonfire birthday party for one of my friends. Him and I are uber nerds and LOVE LOVE LOVE. . .okay well I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pokemon. He just likes it. Well he requested I make a Pokeball cake. (which when I look back at it. . . maybe it would have been the better route). I was thinking of just doing a double layer cake(he requested Red Velvet) and just frost it like a Pokeball, but that's waaaaaay to lame for me. I'm eccentric. The weirder the better. So I was thinking make two layers that are half spheres and assemble them together to make a ball. Unfortunately I don't have the right shaped bowls for that sort of thing. So what did I come up with????

POKEBALL CAKE BALLS =D

• Now. . .they aren't AMAZING.
• This is the first time I've made cake balls.
• This is the first time I've ever played with candy melts(which I really never want to do again)
• I also had a helper who didn't know what ROUND meant.
• But. . .for my first time doing this. . .I think they're pretty legit. . .right? Right? Just nod and smile. . .nod and smile.

To be honest I wish they would've come out better, but I did the best I could and he really liked them.

I set the balls on the counter and after he saw the picture he proceeded to tell me that his team wasn't complete, because EVERYONE knows your team consists of 6 Pokemon.

Thanks Ricky. . .thanks >.>

All in all I counted and I ended up making 40 COMPLETE Pokeball cake balls. 40! That doesn't included the other like 50 non completed half dipped cake balls still sitting in my freezer. *sigh* Next time I know not to make two box mixes.

Self reminder:

Stick with only one Kori. . . two is one too many. . .