cupcakes.

So my mother and I share a love for baked goods, what girl doesn't? We love cupcakes and I have been bugging her about my need to try these Sprinkles cupcakes everyone keeps talking about! So we decided to start a cupcake tasting contest. Since La Jolla just opened a Sprinkles store and I knew I was going to be in San Diego, we planned a date for it! So I had my first ever Sprinkles cupcakes... the verdict? They were divine. I LURVED them. I also loved that they had an SD Padres Sprinkles cupcake, I couldn't get over that haha.

Next up was a place down in Hillcrest (down town San Diego) called Babycakes! This place was great and we actually had lunch there too that was incredible, I will share about that later. These cupcakes were great and unique (I even had a PB & J one) but I think the true winner was really Sprinkles in the comparison test.

Next up? My mom keeps on RAVING about a place called Crumbs up in Malibu? Heard of it? What do you think? Where is another great cupcake place we should go and try?!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

This past weekend while Trevor and I were down in Provo apartment hunting, I stopped by a Blog Swap Party :) I will give you details on the party later, but until then I wanted to share the recipe of the dessert I brought. When I saw this recipe I got excited because I had read about Sopapilla. Sopapilla is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread served in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, northern Mexico, New Mexico, Peru, Texas, and Uruguay. I have three brothers, two of which both served LDS missions in Mexico, and my little brother Alex is currently serving in Chile. I am sure this recipe is as far from authentic as you can get to the real Sopapilla but it made me think of my little brother out in Chile, who I have been missing lately.

According to good ol' Wikki, depending if they are served as a pastry or bread Chilean, sopaipillas are served with either mustard, ketchup, manjar, chancaca sauce (sopaipillas pasadas), hot butter, or pebre, a sauce of onion, tomato, garlic, and herbs. In Chile sopaipillas are traditionally made and eaten during days of rain. Well.... it isn't raining, and these are more of a dessert, so I don't think they count as Chilean. They can just be my American version :) But I wish my little brother auckie was here to have some with me.

3 cans Pillsbury butter crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar 
(this recipe has so many possibilities, you could add raisins or nuts or whatever you want inside with the filling. I think these would even taste good with some syrup and make it like a pancake! be creative!)

Instructions:

Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. 

Trevor had some before we left for Provo and he really liked them. I am pretty sure everyone at the party liked them too!

ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwhiches.

 The other night me and Trevor went over to his cousin's house along with his sister and we all had dinner. It was fun to meet his cousin and her husband again since the first time I met them was on my wedding day, and that wasn't the best day to really get to know them, haha. But it was such a fun night, and we of course played... Mexican Train :) &Scum. Since she was making dinner, I brought over a dessert. I was feeling creative so I decided to make some homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches. As you learned in my oreo post, I am not a huge fan of chocolate. So I decided to make them out of Peanut Butter cookies :) So here we go...

What you will need:
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
(If you want to use another type of cookie, you could try something like a sugar cookie so you could use a cookie cutter and create fun shaped ice cream sandwiches!)
Ice Cream
Plastic Wrap, or Aluminum Foil

What to Do:
Bake cookies.
Take out Ice Cream and soften to a point where it is spreadable (work quickly, will melt fast!)
Take a cookie and spread desired amount of Ice Cream on it. Sandwich it between another cookie.
Take Plastic Wrap or Aluminum Foil and wrap tightly around cookie and place in freezer.
Place in freezer for 4 hours or until hard.

ENJOY :)

How do you eat your Oreos?

I have never been a huge fan of chocolate... I know call me crazy. I blame it on originally being from Canada and having relatives send me the most amazing candy. Almost all the candy bars are made with Cadbury chocolate. So when I eat something here in the States and it is all Hershey chocolate, it just doesn't measure up. I also hate hate hate chocolate chips... chocolate cake is okay, I don't mind brownies... but at the end of the day I guess you could say I am a vanilla girl all the way.

Because of this, growing up I would split my Oreos in half and lick the frosting off (well lick isn't the right word... it was more like using my two front teeth and scraping it into my mouth, haha) Then I would discard the Oreo cookie part. But every once in awhile my mother would make homemade Oreo cookies. Now these were Oreos that didn't require me to take the cookie part off... because they were simply amazing. So here you go... my mama's quick and simple recipe for homemade Oreo Cookies! I made a big batch of them for the young primary class that me and Trevor teach at church... they loved them :)
 

OREO COOKIES

3 pkgs Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake mix

6 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Work together with your hands because it’s too heavy for a blender (but you could with a Bosch or Kitchenaid).  Roll into walnut size balls.  Do not press.  Bake at 375 for 10 – 12 mins.

When you take them out of the oven tap pan on the counter, this will flatten the cookies.  Put two cookies together with the following:

ICING

¼ cup margarine or butter                        

1 – 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

4 cups icing sugar                                     

tsp vanilla

Mix together.  Spread generously.

You can also double the icing recipe if you want more filling in your cookies! --I double mine :)

 Do you think I used enough Pam? HA.

  These are some double stuffed ones :)