Whoopie Pies

Whoopie Pies are basically cake sandwiches, two little cakes with marshmallowy frosting stuffed inbetween. AKA the perfect little dessert! If I had my own bakery right now, I would definitely be selling these in there!

I've been making this recipe since 2010. This is the first and only whoopie pie recipe I will ever use. I actually went to a bakery in North Carolina and saw whoopie pies for sale. I figured they would be AWESOME since they were coming from a bakery... So me and my dad bought one and it was terrible (and expensive). Needless to say, I will forever bake them at home instead of buying them elsewhere, because this recipe is 43728974293 times better!!!

Here is EVERYTHING you'll need!

Flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, milk, vanilla, eggs, butter, marshmallow fluff, and powdered sugar.

 

 

1. Combine these ingredients in medium bowl.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

2. In mixing bowl, mix these ingredients on medium speed until fluffy.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

 

3. Add these to your mixing bowl and beat until smooth.

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

4. Measure out 1 cup of milk.

Alternately add your bowl of flour and your cup of milk to the mixing bowl (4 additions flour, 3 additions milk)

 

5. Grease a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or grease a nifty whoopie pie pan :)

and scoop out your batter (heaping tablespoons) or, use a cookie scoop like me!

 

6. Bake in 375 degree oven for 7 minutes. Do not over bake!

7. Cool on cooling rack for 1 minute then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

 

 

This recipe will make 36 cakes, so 18 whoopie pies total.

 

The frosting recipe is super simple!

1. Combine 1 stick butter and one 7oz jar of marshmallow fluff in a mixing bowl.

Mix on medium speed until combined.

2. Add 2 cups powdered sugar on low speed and beat until combined.

3. Last, beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

 

Okay here's the fun part! Assembling!

 

A little piping.

 

A little sprinkles.

 

Or no sprinkles if you're boring. (but still delicious)

 

 

Phillip took his first bite, shook his head, and said, "these are naughty" haha!!

 

I'd love to hear about YOUR favorite recipe! Email me your recipe, I'll make it, and I might just post it on my blog and tell everyone how wonderful it is. :)

Sydneybarton16@gmail.com

 

Hope to hear from you soon!!! Enjoy!

Thai Chicken

Thai Chicken is something my family has been making ever since I can remember. It's super easy and delicious! Another awesome thing is that the recipe came out of a cookbook called "Controlling Your Fat Tooth" so, it's not too bad for you I guess!

Thai Chicken
16 oz Tri-Colored Rotini noodles, Wacky Mac is good too
about 1 pound of chicken
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2/3 cup rice vinegar
onion flakes
chopped jalapeno
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon tobasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 large carrots, sliced (MY FAV PART)

1. Boil large pot of water to cook the noodles in.
2. While the water is heating up, cook your chicken. We dice it up before we cook it. Set aside. (If you're feeling lazy, just use cut up chicken fingers. Still just as good.)
3. Combine the rest of the ingredients in medium saucepan over low heat. Heat just until it's nice and hot. I like to add my carrots in the sauce LAST, cause I like them more crispy instead of like... cooked.
   (And as for the onion flakes and chopped jalapeno, I don't measure them. The onion flakes I just shake into the pot until it almost covers the top of the sauce, if that makes any sense. Just don't like COVER it or it would be too much. And the jalapeno- Put 1 or 2 teaspoons in. It depends on how spicy you'd like it.)
4. When your noodles are done cooking, drain them and put them into a large bowl. Put cooked chicken on top of noodles then pour your sauce on top of everything. Mix it all together and enjoy!

As far as leftovers go, we sometimes are just lazy and just eat it cold and it's still tasty. But of course, you can heat it up too!

This is actually the first dinner I made here in Boca!

 

 

Here's my daily random fact about me.

I love ceramics and pottery. I took the class all 4 years in highschool, and I was even my teacher's aid the last two years as well. She was my favorite teacher ever. Anyways, I wish I could find a place around here where I could do some pottery! And I don't want to just paint it. I want to sculpt it and everything. It's so relaxing to me and another reason why I love it so much is because I'm a perfectionist and I love working hard to make it look as perfect as possible. Here's a couple of things I made in high school.

This is my cupcake bowl!

This is an owl pot (to put plants in or whatever)

 Of course my favorite one is sideways.

 

Okay well, that is all! Muahhhh

Beer Bread

Beer Bread... Sounds interesting.

I was trying to think of some things I could post on here, so for some ideas, I looked on Pinterest to see if anything on there reminded me of some good recipes I've got. As I'm scrolling down the "food and drink" category, I see this recipe. Beer bread. All I could think was hmmmmm... beer's good. Bread's good. I bet beer bread is good too. Sooooo.... why not? And yes.... it is 11:00 pm and I'm baking bread. Judge me.

LUCKILY, I had everything I needed to make it without going to the store. My favorite.


 As you've probably gathered, I've never made this before. So hopefully it turns out well. It's in the oven right now and it smells good. Smelling a lot better than it looked when I was making it...... It looked..not so beautiful. It kind of looked like a white, mushy brain with some yellow goo on top. Mmmmmmmm, sounds good.

Here's me pouring the yellow goo on top.

I just remembered that I did not turn my timer on. Whoops. Not to worry. That's one cool thing I learned in school. Timers are not necessarily as important as you may think. We never used timers in class, ever ever. When my teacher first told us that I was thinking, "what the hell is wrong with this lady?" She told us that what we're baking is not done when the timer goes off, it's done when it's done. It makes sense to me now.

 

By the way, I know that the thought of baking bread sounds kindof scary because you have to deal with yeast and letting the dough rise and rest and what not. But this recipe is different than normal breads. There's no dry yeast in the recipe, just the yeast that's in the beer. Kinda cool.

 

I'd say this bread probably took me about 5 minutes to mix together. There's no kneading involved! Woo hoo! Another fun thing about this recipe is that you don't need any kind of mixer to whip it up. All you need is a bowl, a spoon, and your built-in mixer...your hand.

 

I was thinking earlier that it would be fun to throw in a random fact about me in each of my blog posts. So here's my random fact of the day.

I AM SO WEIRD. I like everything to match perfectly and fit perfectly and look the same and blah blah blah. For example, all of my baking pans and cookie sheets and what not are all from the same place, they're the same gold color, the same brand, and I would never ever have it any other way. Why? Because when I look in my baking cabinet and I see everything matching I get this crazy-person happy feeling and I can't imagine it not being this way. All of my containers in my pantry also match and fit perfectly together. All of my baking ingredients are in their own special container because the different sized boxes in my pantry drive me crazy. See.

Okay that is a terrible picture. It's blurry and sideways. I can't figure out how to make it right-side-up. haha! But you get my point. I'm a freak, and I'm not ashamed. :)

Here's my beautiful cake pans and all that. See how nice that looks. Ah. Just right.

 

Well, I guess I will give you guys this recipe now... since that's really what this blog is all about.

 

 

BEER BREAD

3 cups all purpose flour

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

12 oz. can of beer

1/2 cup butter

 

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Stir flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in bowl.
3. Stir in the beer with a spoon.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan. (You'll need a bigger pan than you think, it rises quite a bit. I used a 9x5 inch pan..... I think.)
5. Melt your butter completely and pour on top of your bread dough.
6. Bake for 1 hour.
7. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes.

 

Here's my bread that JUST came out of the oven. I want to take it out and cut it so bad. 15 minutes is starting to feel like forever right now. And once again, my picture did not turn out the way I had planned. This one is upside down. I just don't get it, haha! Sorry bout it. I will figure this blog thing out one of these days.



 

Okay YAY!!! It's time! What a beaut!

Omg ya'll. This bread is like a mixture between a buttery biscuit and ummmm, heaven. It really is so good. Damn it, I hate it when I make things that taste good. Please, try this recipe and let me know how you like it! By the way, here's another fun fact, the beer I used in this bread was actually a month old, and the bread still is delicious. So I bet if you use normal, not-expired beer, it will taste even MORE delicous. Give it a shot :)

 

Love and kisses yall. Muah!

Spicy Crock Pot Chili

I know chili doesn't fit into the whole 'baking blog' thing, but trust me, its worthy of a post here. I love this recipe for so many reasons.

1. It's spicy. Really spicy. I freaking love spicy food. Not even just food food, I even prefer spicy candy. Hot Tamales are the bees knees.
2. It's so stinking easy to make. You'll see what I mean if you actually finish reading this.
3. It's "male-friendly". When I make this for dinner I don't get the, "what the hell is this" response, like when I make black bean burgers. And I don't hear "I need real protein, Sydney". THIS IS REAL PROTEIN BABY. Beef beef beef.
4. It's pretty cheap. And it makes quite a bit. Great for left overs! Which reminds me...

About a month ago, I was reheating some of this chili for me and Phillip to have for lunch. I was starving. I was so excited to eat this. I had just taken it out of the microwave and for some reason I left the kitchen for a minute, and what do you know. I turn back towards the kitchen and see MY STUPID DOG EATING OUT OF MY CHILI BOWL off the counter. If any of you know anything about this dog, this is not a surprising story to you. I was so frustrated. My dog is the most BEAUTIFUL dog I've ever seen, and also the most ANNOYING creature I've ever come encounter with. Anyways.. Imagine this. Me and Phillip sharing one small bowl of chili for lunch... ha ha. That was fun.

So let's get to the point. Here's the recipe.

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 (16oz) cans kidney beans
• 2 (14.5oz) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 (15oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons chili powder (if you want less heat, decrease to 1 1/2 or 2 TBSP)
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Cook ground beef in large skillet. Drain any excess liquid.
2. Combine ALL ingredients into crock pot, including cooked beef.
3. Cook on low for 10 hours, or on high for 4 hours.
4. DROOL. Then drool again the next day when you eat it for left overs.

These will save you lots of time. If you use these, you dont have to clean your crock pot bowl! just cook the chili in this bag inside of your bowl, and throw it out when you're done!

Here's a picture of my delicioussssss chili, yall. PS it's even better if you eat it with Fritos! (But let's be real here, everything is better with fritos, am I right?)

I really hope you make it!! And I also want to thank you if you are still reading! More posts coming soon. :)
PSS if you ever decide to make the fudge recipe I posted yesterday, your friends/family will thank you! Or maybe hate you! Haha it's addicting!