I baked! Hazzzah! One of our family get togethers included Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and a birthday! Mr. J made a pistachio cake but since I didn’t plan any other desserts I decided to sneak a cookie into the schedule. These were such a winner. I was nervous the whole time but they worked! Using cake mix made it so easy.

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix
2 tablespoons flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 powdered sugar

Directions:

Mix together the cake mix, flour, eggs, oil, and vanilla with a mixer.

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
Roll the dough into balls and toss in a bowl of the powdered sugar.

Place the cookies onto a baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes. (They won’t look crinkled until they puff and then set.)

I loved these! They were super cute, so good, and perfectly cooked. Now I want to try other cake mixes! Lemon seems Easter-y. Funfetti would be festive anytime! I’ll totally make these again. Making red velvet from scratch costs a fortune for how much red dye. Cake mix makes these cookies so easy. Success!

I just whipped up some fudge upon request from my dad and I wanted to go crazy with it, or just make some I hadn’t done before. Since it was his bday  I figured I’d stick to chocolate and find out what other flavors would pass muster for the future. I added a few colored sprinkles on top and poof, it was birthday fudge.

I still wanted to jack up some fudge. I thought about cookies & cream, but I seem to always have mini marshmallows around so this proved timely.

Everyone loved the half chocolate half peanut butter one I did. Dad liked the mocha fudge I gave him for Christmas last year. I messed around making this s’more fuge and figured Mr. J would eat it since I had made some but given it all away.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 container Fluff
1 small can evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter (I used a butter substitute and the texture was off, don’t do this)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 mini marshmallows
4 graham crackers, crumbled

Directions:

Over medium heat, melt sugar, fluff, milk, butter, and salt together. Some bubbles will come up when the air is coming out.
Bring to a boil and boil, stirring consistently for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips until melted and mixed through.

Pour into a 9×9 baking dish that you’ve buttered, sprayed, or lined with parchment paper.
Top with marshmallows.

Top with graham crackers.

Let cool for at least 2 hours.

It gets firmer in the fridge, but then the marshmallows get a bit weird. They don’t seem to like life in the fridge. I made this a while ago…it was hot and also because I made the mistake of using a butter substitute it didn’t quite harden enough. It tasted great though. It is definitely “never fail fudge” if you follow the instructions. I had gotten as far as melting the marshmallow so it was too late to turn back, or I’d be figuring how to dispose of sticky melted marshmallow which seemed more challenging than taking the risk with not-real butter.

Bread pudding is so foolproof. It also is the perfect dessert to make as a “small batch”. I made some mini ramekins that were a great single serving. I loved these flavors so I’m glad there wasn’t a big batch to sneak bites from. I also kicked it up a notch by using chocolate chunks. Chocolate chips would be fine but I loooove the big hunks. It is such a special touch to me.

Need a Valentine’s Day treat? Make this. Dinner isn’t necessary. Valentine’s Day is a day for chocolate. Done!

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream/light cream/milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 soft sub rolls cut into into cubes (or approx. 6 slices of French bread)
1 cup chocolate chunks
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup crumbled graham crackers (plus another few tbs for topping)

Direction:

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
Whisk together cream, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Cut bread into 1″ cubes
Mix the bread into the wet mixture and toss to coat.
Add in marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and crumbled graham crackers and stir.

Spray ramekins or muffin tins, or a baking dish with non-stick spray and spoon into dishes.

Top with remaining graham cracker crumbles.
Bake 20 minutes. Broil another minute to brown the top.

Bread pudding is so adaptable. It lends itself to so many flavor combos. I had s’mores on the brain so I went with it. I’ve made black forest bread pudding a few times and love it. It uses pumpernickel bread (which has cocoa in it = dark color) and dark cherries.

I kind of let mine go a minute too long. Seriously. That decision to broil needs to be carefully watched. I had some “crunchy” parts. It was really good nonetheless. I loved the simplicity of this for a quick dessert.

suggested adaptations: 
bread pudding base + 1 tsp cocoa powder + strawberry slices + chocolate chips = chocolate dipped strawberry bread pudding
bread pudding base + 1 tsp cocoa powder + mini marshmallows = hot cocoa bread pudding
bread pudding base + banana + butterscotch/cinnamon chips = bananas foster bread pudding