Sea salt and thyme chocolate chip cookies

For the past few years, I have really been enjoying the salty sweet combo. To me, it’s the perfect combination.
These cookies fit perfectly into that category. Plus, they have the added flavor of the thyme.

To make them, I mixed together the flour, baking soda, salt and thyme. I didn’t measure the thyme but just added until I felt it looked like enough.

Next, I combined the butter and sugar in my mixer. Then I added the vanilla and eggs. Finally, the flour mixture is added in three batches.

The last ingredient is the chocolate. I used chocolate chips instead of chunks.

Once the chocolate is folded in, the dough is ready to be scooped out onto the pan.

Before the cookies go into the oven, they are sprinkled with coarse sea salt.

11 minutes in the oven and you have some tasty cookies!

Brownies

Mmmmm brownies! Recently, I was in a baking mood. Seeing this recipe convinced me I wanted to make brownies!

The first step was to melt the butter in a pan. Then add it to the cocoa powder and combine.

Then the rest of the ingredients are added and it is mixed until just combined.

The batter is poured into a greased and floured dish and baked in the oven. So easy!

The ideal time to make the icing is while the brownies bake. The ingredients are put into a bowl and mixed. I added a little extra water to get the consistency I was looking for.

After the brownies have cooled, they are iced. I put mine into the fridge after they were iced, but not before I tried one! Of course I forgot to take a picture because I was too excited about trying a brownie!

Mini cheesecakes

I’ve never been big into cheesecake. Some people love it, but I’ve never been too excited about it.
Since I’ve started making it at home for other people, I’ve starts to quite enjoy cheesecake.
This recipe is one I tried a few months back for a friends birthday. I couldn’t find Nila cookies so I used a graham cracker as the base. This time, I decided to make my own base from graham crumbs, sugar and butter. I used a cup of graham crumbs, two teaspoons of sugar and a little bit too much melted butter (probably around 5 tablespoons).

The bases baked in the oven for 3 minutes on 350 degrees.

On to the cheesecake recipe! I put the cream cheese, egg, vanilla and sugar into a mixing bowl and mixed it all together.

Then I put the cream cheese mixture on top of the crusts and baked them in the oven for 25 minutes on 325 degrees.

After the cheesecakes cooled down, I topped them with cherry pie filling.

These are super easy, delicious and a hit when brought to functions! Or given as gifts.

Buttercream frosting

My daughters second birthday was the other day. For her party, I made cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

This recipe was easy to follow. I let my butter sit out for a couple of hours to soften. Then I put it in the mixer for a couple minutes.

Next I added the icing sugar and put the mixer on low until the butter and icing sugar were combined.

The last step was to add the vanilla and heavy cream. The recipe called for 3-5 tablespoons of heavy cream. I think I used just over 5.

Once the buttercream frosting was ready, I split it into two containers. Using gel dyes, I turned one container of frosting pink, and one blue.

My taste tester approved!
Yum!
Do you have a go to recipe for frosting?
What is your favorite kind of frosting?

White Cake

Well hello everyone my name is Adrienne & today I will be guest blogging on Morgan’s account. Let me start off by introducing myself. I am a 23 year old avid pinner on pinterest, I love cupcakes, makeup, cheerleading, travelling and being kind to others. Like many of us I am still creating my path in life. I am also one of Morgan’s best friends. We met in 2006 when I tried out for the high school cheer team. Morgan happened to be one of the coaches & from then on we became very good friends. We are always there for each other & that’s important in a friendship I’d say.

Today I want to talk about cake. Specifically white cakes, homemade moist white cakes. This is what I had set out for on my most recent pinterest journey. I found a recipe, well I found several recipes actually. The one I chose was . I wanted a simple cake something where I wouldn’t have to rush to the store to grab 9 strange, exotic ingredients I’d never use again. I’m exaggerating but I’m just meaning I wanted a fast simple tasty white cake.
I have made this recipe twice now. Both times I split the recipe in half & made cupcakes. The first time I made them they came out a bit dry & tasted kind of like a cornmeal muffin they weren’t sweet enough for my liking & I may have over mixed the batter or possibly over cooked them. They were pretty fluffy looking though. They were in the oven for 20 minutes the first time & although they weren’t terrible they were kind of just okay. Just okay is not acceptable for an Adrienne cupcake. So I decided to try making them again for Father’s day only this time I made sure to only use the mixer when incorporating the milk and vanilla & only until combined. This second time I created them I doubled the sugar, bad idea. Now they were too sweet, dense & sunk in the middle. The flavour again wasn’t terrible but not my best work. Since I still had to serve these I whipped up some whipping cream added lemon zest & only about a teaspoon of powdered sugar. The cupcakes actually ended up tasting like lemon meringue pie which was kind of cool. However I did not get the fluffy moist white cake I was looking for. I may try this recipe one more time, again cutting it in ½ but using 1 ½ cups of sugar because I think if I can get the sugar balance right I may be in luck for what I’m looking for. Two things I wanted to discuss 1.) They don’t state it in the directions when to add the vanilla, I found it appropriate to add it with the milk. 2.) Most of this recipe you use your hands to mix & fold. I thought that was kind of different. So the verdict, I’m not happy with this recipe as of yet I will be trying it a 3rd time to see the results. I will also be on the hunt and testing out more pinterest white cake recipes.






Have you found a white cake recipe on pinterest you love?
How do you feel about incorporating ingredients using your hands?
Feel free to follow me on pinterest, username Adrienne Lucky

Salted caramel cheesecake cupcakes

It was Matt’s birthday the other day, so I decided to try a dessert recipe. Salted caramel is one of my obsessions right now so this recipe for salted caramel cheesecake cupcakes caught my eye.
To make them, it took some time because each part needed to be made, cooked and cooled. I did it over two days. But they were sure worth it!

I started with the cookie base. Sugar, graham crumbs and melted butter.

The recipe said to bake the cookie base for 5 minutes, but I took mine out at 4 and a few were burnt. Every oven is different, so make sure to watch closely.

The next step was making the cheesecake part.

I mixed the sugar with the flour. Then I mixed the cream cheese with the sugar mixture.

Next came the 4 eggs, mixed in one at a time.

Once the eggs were mixed in, I added the sour cream, heavy cream and homemade vanilla.

Then I added some cheesecake batter to each cupcake liner. I poured the mixture into a glass measuring cup to make pouring easier.

I baked the cheesecake for 19 minutes. Then I let them cool overnight in the fridge.

Next came the caramel sauce. If you are buying caramel sauce from the store, stop! Homemade caramel is so easy to make and it’s delicious! And it probably has fever ingredients too.

I whisked the sugar and water together until it came to a boil.

I let it boil until it started turning amber, which took longer than I expected. Once it changes colour, the butter goes in and is whisked until melted.

When the butter has melted, it comes off the heat and the heavy cream is added.

After it cools a bit, it’s ready!

I added a fairly generous amount to each cheesecake cupcake.
We had them when my dad was over and our brother-in-law. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cheesecake cupcakes. I know I did!