Paula Deen's Lemon Gooey Butter Cake

Paula Deen is the queen of butter and let's face it people, butter makes things better! My very generous Aunt Penny went down to her restaurant The Lady and Sons in Savannah, Georgia and got me an autographed copy of her cookbook The Lady and Sons - Just Desserts.


My mom, sis, and I went down to her restuarant The Lady and Sons a few years ago and everything I ate was so delicious that I am trying to figure out when I can get down there again. In the meantime I can do my best to recreate her recipes.
Chad and I were invited to my Aunt Pat's house for a bar-b-que for Memorial Day weekend so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a new, delicious, fatty dessert.
As I looked through the book I saw a two page spread for Gooey Butter Cakes. Now these are legendary in Paula Deen land. She has a million different ways to make these Gooey Butter Cakes (which are really like bars). I decided to "lighten it up" hahahaha, by adding lemon.

Basic Recipe for Gooey Butter Cake - from Paula Deen's Lady and Sons - Just Desserts
Cake
1 18.25 oz. box of yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, melted

Filling
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 16 oz. box confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, melted.

Directions:
Combine cake mix, egg, and butter in an electric mixer. Pat into a lightly greased 9x13x2 pan. This will be like a paste of sorts and will act as a crust. Set aside.

Next, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth, add eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners' sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and add butter slowly. Mix well.
Pour onto cake mixture and spread evenly.

Bake at 350* for 40 - 50 minutes. It should remain a little gooey in the center. cool completely and cut into squares. These are rich (hence the TWO sticks of butter) so it should yield 20 - 24 bars.

Now, I decided to make it lemony - so there were some changes. I used a lemon cake mix instead of yellow and then added 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice and the zest of two lemons to the cream cheese mixture. YUMMY.



Some of the other suggestions are available in the cookbook or on Food Network

Ducky cookie favors and cake - Kacey's Shower

I think one of my favorite parts of the shower was the duck cookies I made for favors. It was my first attempt at royal icing and while it was messy and I don't think it tasted that great it looked beautiful.

I made sugar cookies from the Better Homes and Garden's cook book. I made the cookies on a snow day in February and then froze them until the shower. I made royal icing based on the Martha Stewart recipe. I made the royal icing with meringue powder because Kacey shouldn't have raw egg whites which are usually in the icing.

I decorated each duck cookie with yellow and then put a squirt of orange and spread it with a skewer for the beak. I also gave each duck a brown eye and a pretty pink bow. I was really proud of my work!

The best part was putting the ducks into individual cellophane bags. I tied each bag with a pink ribbon with while polka dots. I placed them on a big lazy susan that my mom made me and placed another sign in front of the platter so everyone knew to take one when they left.


I got a cake from Sam's club with a ducky on it as well. The chocolate cake was DELICIOUS! I will continue to get cakes from them because of the good taste, ease of ordering, and great price! It was much easier than making a cake, which was kinda out of the question since I thew the shower by myself!

Panera Chocolate Duet Cookie rip off

So we often go to Panera Bread on Sunday mornings to get delicious food and read the newspaper. It is a really relaxing way to start the day. One of my favorite things about it is the cookies we get. They have delicious Chocolate Duet Cookies. They call them that because they have milk and white chocolate chips in chocolate cookies. They also have walnuts. I tried to find a copycat recipe online but I couldn't. So I found a chocolate chocolate chip cookies and changed it up a bit.

Amy's Chocolate Duet Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup butter (I used half butter and half margarine butter is too expensive!)

1 small package walnuts
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350* F
Mix together dry ingredients (MINUS SUGARS) in a large bowl
Cream together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla
Add dry ingredients to butter mixture
Stir in chips and nuts
Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet
Bake 9-12 Minutes

Well, the instructions I had first said combine dry ingredients and then later it said to cream sugars, eggs, and butter. So of course my freaking sugar was my already mixed with my stupid flour and cocoa powder. Anyway, it turned out okay. The batter was delicious!!! I know I shouldn't eat raw batter but I don't care, its yummy and gooey. These cookies turned out surprisingly like the original. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a rule follower and that goes with recipes too. I am always nervous to go without a recipe so it was nice to try to make something new without a plan. I think Chad will like them and they made SO many cookies that I am sure to gain a pound or two before they are all gone! In fact, I should take some to work, otherwise we are both going to get sick on these cookies!

Cinnamon Muffins, The Easy Way

A little girl in my class brought in some cinnamon muffins for her snack day. Let me tell you, I don't usually eat the kid's snack but the muffins looked so good that I had to try one. They were SO good. In fact, I liked them so much I wrote her mom a note asking for the recipe, I thought I would make them for Thanksgiving morning because my in-laws don't keep breakfast food at their house.
On Monday, the little girl came in to school with a box that I thought was for the food drive. Then she told me that it was for me. Upon closer inspection I saw what the box was, it was a box of Cinnamon Strusel muffin mix.

This was the recipe for the muffins she brought in! HA! I thought it was great!
I still decided to make them for Thanksgiving morning. I am not against mixes, in fact, I am all for them. I have been so busy this week getting ready for two Thanksgivings and making sure my students are doing enough Thanksgiving turkey crafts to sustain them. I was more than happy to add egg whites (for a healthier version) some oil and milk to the mix and pop it in the oven. They look and smell DELICIOUS! You should consider this mix because it tastes great!
We are leaving right after work tomorrow for our Thanksgiving whirlwind so I won't be blogging before the big holiday. So, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy your turkey day!

Banana Muffins

Last week and this week I am working with the afterschool program at my school. I decided to teach "Cooking healthy snacks" with the third and fourth graders. We made all sorts of snacks, I will try to take pictures this week and post the kid friendly recipes! Well, because of this I had three leftover rotten bananas. And as I always say, when life hands you rotten bananas, make banana muffins! I went to Allrecipes.com and found a recipe with a strussel topping, what a winner!

Banana Muffins
From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted (I used veg. oil)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375* F
Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners

In a large bowl mix 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.(I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon into the batter)
In another bowl mix bananas, sugar, egg, and oil.
Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until just moistened.
Spoon into muffin cups.

In a small bowl mix brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until it is the texture of cornmeal. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake 18-20 minutes

Apple Crisp and Killing Time

In a further attempt to avoid writing my paper (see below) I decided to also make an apple crisp. While shopping at Meijer today I bought a ¼ peck of apples. I thought that there would be no way I would finish all of the apples but after my yummy apple with peanut butter snack after work I had a hankering for more!
So, I was reading the various cooking blogs I frequent and I found a yummy (and easy) recipe for an apple crisp courtesy of Kayte’s Kitchen. Her blog always features some delicious recipes that I feel I can tackle even as a novice cook.

Apple Crisp courtesy of Kayte’s Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
8 tbsp butter, melted
4 apples, peeled and sliced
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Mix flour, sugar , baking powder and salt. Gradually add egg until crumbly. Layer apples in and 8x8 cake pan. Cover apples with flour mixture and drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
Of course my janky oven took 45 minutes. Does anyone know how to get an oven fixed. I don’t even know who to call for that. Anyway, the crisp is delicious and definitely makes me feel like Fall is in the air! This recipe was much, much easier than apple pie but with the same effect and less fat and calories. The apple goodness is present but there is crisp in every bite! YUM!!

Pumpkin Cake!

So, awhile back I made those pumpkin muffins that were so yummy. Well, I opened a big can of pumpkin when I made them so I have had two cups of pumpkin calling to my from my fridge ever since. With just Chad and I at home it is difficult to justify making regular sized baked goods because it takes us about 2 weeks to finish. Besides the fact that as a Weight Watchers member and a self proclaimed food addict, it isn't a good idea for me to keep delicious baked goods around the house. Well, my friend Kacey turned 28 today so I thought I would make a pumpkin cake for her birthday and bring it into work. I figured between all the teachers one 9x13 cake would disappear. Oh, was I right! It was delicious!

Pumpkin Sheet Cake Borrowed (or stolen) from Delish: A Food Blog
Cake:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat. I DO NOT recommend it though, it totally tasted reduced fat. I would have much preferred regular. In fact, I would have thrown my frosting away if I had any regular cream cheese to use)
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar (U put in about another cup to counteract the yuckiness of the reduced fat cream cheese)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, apple sauce and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13×10″ baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes.(It took mine 35 minutes because my oven has been janky lately)
Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the icing: Using an electric mixer in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled cake.

The teachers at my school LOVED it and I was proud to have a cake made from scratch. So fall-ish, even thought it was 90* today! Oh well, it will be in the 50s by midweek. Gotta love Michigan!

Spur of the moment cookies!

When I went grocery shopping last week I decided to stock up on some of the ingredients I see in everyone's food blogs because I was sick of seeing delicious recipes just to say, "I wish I had ____."
So tonight I saw an easy recipe for cake cookies that is weight watchers friendly so I stood right up and got to work! The last thing I needed was a cookie but I had all of the ingredients and honestly, I was going to eat something sugary anyway, I might as well make it interesting.

One Point Cake Cookies
Courtesy of One Tiny Pink Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 cake mix (I used Devil's Food my all time fav)
1/2 cup egg beaters
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Directions:
Mix the ingredients
Bake for 12 minutes at 350*F
This makes 36 cookies (allegedly for one point each)

Oh I almost forgot the most important direcion - Eat as much batter as possible. I am sure it doesn't count for points if it isn't baked, right?
Trisha's husband had a pretty good idea of what to do with these cookies. I got my Fat Free Cool Whip out of the freezer and made a little sandwich of deliciousness! YUMMY! I have been on Weight Watchers since January of 2006. I have been a lifetime member since June 2006! It is recipes like this that keep me going!

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins!

Okay, so let me start by saying that this recipe was DELICIOUS and let me admit that I didn't follow the directions exactly. The biggest "mistake" I made was that I read the directions to say a 12 cup muffin pan instead of TWO 12 cup muffin pans. As I was filling them I thought, wow these are awfully full, but they were GOOD. It really just saved me some time. I would have had two at a time because they were so yummy!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Courtesy of Culinary Infatuation

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)
3 eggs (I used Egg Beaters, or "Great Eggspectations" which is Meijer's brand isn't that name hillarious?)
2 1/2 cups sugar - divided
2 1/2 cups flour - divided
1/4 cup pecans roughly chopped (I used some leftover sliced almonds)
3 tbls butter melted
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon - divided
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups solid packed canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla (I have some really yummy vanilla from our honeymoon in Mexico!)

Directions: I will admit that this recipe was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It uses a lot of bowls!
Heat oven to 375*F
Bowl #1 - Mix cream cheese, 1 egg, and 3 tbsp sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Bowl #2 - Melt your butter and add 5 tbsp sugar, 1/2 cup flour, nuts, 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl (this will be your topping) and set aside
Bowl #3 - Combine the rest of the sugar (I found it to be one tbsp less than two cups), flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and remaining cinnamon in a bowl.
Bowl #4 - Beat together pumpkin, remaining eggs, oil, and vanilla in bowl.

Make a well in bowl #3 and add the mixture from bowl #4. Mix with a fork until moistened (I hate the word moist)

Divide half of this mixture into the muffin cups (12 or 24 its your choice)
Then distribute the cream cheese mixture (bowl #1) into each muffin cup
Put remaining muffin mixture on top of cream cheese mixture
Put the topping (bowl #2) on each muffin.
Bake 20-25 minutes. Take out of oven and enjoy the yumminess.