And even more amazing when you see the inside right? It was my neighbor Riley’s birthday yesterday and he loves chocolate and peanut butter so this cake was perfect! And my quarantining baking continues.
cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup water
3 eggs
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
toppings
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 – 3 tablespoons milk
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
20 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures, cut in half
1 For cake, heat oven to 350. Spray two 8 x 4″ loaf pans with cooking spray for baking.
2 Beat cake mix, water, eggs, peanut butter, and butter on low for 30 seconds then on medium for 2 minutes. Put 1/2 cup of batter in a medium bowl and then stir in chocolate syrup.
3 Spread half of the peanut butter batter evenly into loaf pans so 1/4 of the batter into each pan. Spoon chocolate batter onto center of peanut butter batter in loaf pans. Spoon remaining peanut butter batter evenly over chocolate batter. Swirl batters together with a knife in a circular motion.
4 Bake 50 – 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan then invert onto serving platter to cool completely, about 1 hour.
5 For toppings, whisk together peanut butter and milk until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add more milk if needed. Divide glaze into 2 small bowls. In one bowl, stir in the chocolate syrup. Drizzle glazes over cakes then top with peanut butter cups.
Why am I showing you a picture of my porch (with my corgi Finn for added cuteness)? Because I want to share with you something that I started doing last month during quarantine, I call them “Penny’s Porch Treats”. Once a week I make treats, bag them all individually, and then put them on a tray on a little table on my porch. I then go onto my neighborhood Facebook pages and let everyone know that the porch treats are out and then I sit back and watch all the happy faces come to my porch for a treat. It makes me happy, pretty sure my love language is feeding people. Since I view my blog as my own personal food diary, I decided to blog about it.
May the Fourth Chewbacca Oreos
Porch treats kicked off on May the 4th aka Star Wars Day with these Chewbacca Oreos, directions here. I made these for fun but then realized that there were far too many for my family to eat so porch treats were born and the response was great so I decided to keep going.
Funfetti Cake PopsFunfetti Cake Pops
The following week I made these Funfetti Cake Pops because I had a couple of layers of Funfetti cake in my freezer which weren’t good enough for the wedding cake I made but were great for cake pops, recipe here. Who doesn’t love cake pops?
Reeses Peanut Butter Brownie Cups
The week after that I made these Reeses Peanut Butter Brownie Cups, recipe here. Everyone always loves these treats and the porch treat kids were no different, plus one box of brownie mix makes a lot of these guys.
Chocolate Filled Sugar Cookie Cups
The following week I made something similar called Chocolate Filled Sugar Cookie Cups, only they were sugar cookie cups with one of four different candies in the middle – Rolos, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, half a mini Kit Kat or half a mini Hershey Bar. You can find a similar recipe here, just sub the candies for the truffle filling or you can use the brownie cup recipe and just sub a sugar cookie mix for the brownie mix.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
And the week after that there were some bananas laying around which were perfect for banana bread or banana muffins so I made these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, recipe here.
Chocolate Rolo Cookies
And now we are caught up to last week when I made these Chocolate Rolo Cookies which were insanely good and which I will make again for us at some point, recipe here.
UPDATE 6/25/20
This week I made M&M Cookie Bars from this recipe here. The recipe is very easy and very adaptable to whatever flavor cake mix you want to use and whatever kind of mix in you like and everyone loves them!
UPDATE 7/3/20
This week I made these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins for the porch treats, recipe here because it’s zucchini season and my garden has exploded with zucchini! They were really good and chocolatey and if you don’t tell people there is zucchini in them, they will never know!
UPDATE 8/28/20
I’ve been working again so haven’t had a lot of time to do porch treats but yesterday I had the time so I made these Reese’s Pieces Blondies, recipe here and put them out for porch treats. Some kids came running, literally!
UPDATE 10/20/20
I’ve been so busy working that I haven’t had any time to do porch treats but now I’m working on a show that films Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so I have a couple of days to have some fun which means more porch treats!
I made these Halloween cake pops with some coconut cake layers left over from a wedding cake and these babies were gone in a flash!
I got a little carried away for Halloween Porch Treats this week as you can see! I made the following:
molded chocolate candies using Wilton Candy Melts
molded candies on pretzel rods also using the candy melts
chocolate dipped Oreos (with, you guessed it, candy melts)
Reese’s Peanut Butter Sugar Cookie Cups, recipe here, just use a sugar cookie mix instead of the peanut butter one
molded Halloween sugar cookies using a tube of sugar cookie dough
and Mustache Sugar Cookies using a tube of sugar cookie dough and a pouch of chocolate cookie icing
I had a lot of fun making all these and the kids seemed to really like them too!
UPDATE 11/13/20
I am really proud of these guys! I call them Nutter Butter Thanksgiving Turkeys on a Chocolate Graham Cracker Carving Board, recipe here. I made 40 and they were gone in an hour!
UPDATE 11/18/20
This week I made these Chocolate Covered Oreo Turkeys, instructions here, for Porch Treats. They were pretty easy to make, I made 50 in about an hour and put them out and they were almost all gone. My son was happy that there were a few leftovers!
UPDATE 12/1/20
First Christmas treat of the season were these Nutter Butter Reindeers for porch treats, click here for how to. They are pretty easy to make and would be fun to make with kids. I love Christmas and have plans for multiple porch treats before Christmas gets here so stay tuned!
UPDATE 12/10/20
I made these Chocolate Covered Reindeers and Smowmen for the second Christmas porch treats of the year. You can find the instructions here. They were pretty easy to make and would be another great treat to make with your kids. Merry Christmas everyone!
UPDATE1/19/21
First porch treats of 2021! When I used to make these for my kids we called them Magic Wands but basically they are chocolate covered pretzels. Dip pretzel rods in melted candy melts or chocolate and then sprinkle generously with sprinkles. Fun and delicious!
UPDATE 1/27/21
Decided to get an early jump on Valentine’s Day because I have several treats that I want to make.
I made these Valentine chocolate dipped Oreos and molded chocolates for the first Valentine porch treats.
Stay tuned because I’m hoping to get in two more Valentine themed porch treats before Valentine’s Day!
UPDATE 2/1/21
Valentine treat #2, Valentine Strawberry Truffle Cupcakes for this week’s porch treats. I made 33 cupcakes and they were gone in 30 minutes! You can find the how to here.
UPDATE 2/18/21
I’m getting a jump on St Patrick’s Day with these Lucky Charms Cupcakes, recipe here.
I made 3 dozen and they were gone in less than 2 hours so I think they were a hit with the neighborhood kids, and some grownups too!
UPDATE 2/24/21
I made some Reeses Peanut Butter Sugar Cookie Cups and some Chocolate Dipped Oreos for St Patrick’s Day themed porch treats. You can find the instructions here. Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone!
UPDATE 5/4/21
May the Fourth Star Wars Treats + Porch Treats 1 Year Anniversary!
Happy Star Wars Day Everyone!
Also Happy 1st Anniversary Porch Treats! I’ve been making porch treats for 1 year now. Go me!
Here’s the how to if you are interested in making these Star Wars Treats.
UPDATE 5/13/21
Made these cute little “Under the Sea Graham Crackers” for the summer kickoff of porch treats. You can find the how to by clicking here.
UPDATE 5/28/21
I made sugar cookies this week, recipe here. (I used canned frosting because I had two tubs of it leftover from other porch treats but the homemade frosting is so much better! And do you know what’s better than the homemade frosting? Nutella instead of frosting!) I put out 40 individually wrapped sugar cookies and they were gone in an hour! WOW!
UPDATE 6/23/21
I like to call these “Teddy Grahams Go Swimming”! They are my latest porch treats and you can check out the how to here. They would be a fun food craft to do with kids as they are super easy to put together, especially if you use store bought Rice Krispie Treats like I did.
UPDATE 8/31/21
It’s been a couple of months since I’ve been working so haven’t been able to do porch treats but I finally have some time off so I put together these “Mini Treat Kabobs” (how to here) and put them out yesterday. I made about 40 and they were gone before I even knew it!
UPDATE 9/8/21
Made these adorable Blondie Sticks for Porch Treats this week. You can find the recipe here. I made almost 50 and the porch treat kids gobbled them all up!
UPDATE 10/12/21
Made some Halloween themed Sugar Cookie Cups and
some Halloween themed Brownie Cups and
if you would like to see the how to, click here. Happy Halloween!
UPDATE 10/21/21
So I made a bunch of treats with Wilton Candy Melts for the neighborhood kids – Rice Krispie Treat Monsters, Oreo Witch Hats, Pretzel Broomsticks, Chocolate Vampire Teeth, and Pretzel Monster Fingers. I had a good time making them, this is totally my idea of a fun day. You can find the how to here. Happy Halloween!
UPDATE 10/29/21
I made these Halloween Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes for the final Halloween Porch Treats. You can find the how to by clicking here.
UPDATE 11/10/21
Thanksgiving Cornucopia Cookies for the first Thanksgiving treat of the year. Here is the how to!
UPDATE 12/8/21
I made these cute Reindeer treats for the neighbor kids yesterday. You can find the how to right here. I think they turned out so cute!
UPDATE 1/20/22
First Porch Treats of 2022! I had a bunch of Rolos leftover from making Christmas treats so I decided to make these – Rolo Cake Mix Bars, recipe here, and Chocolate Rolo Thumbprint Cookies, recipe here. They were gone pretty quickly even though it was a chilly day.
I’m going to update this post every time I make porch treats so if you are curious, you can check back!
and just when you though it couldn’t get any better, it does with a caramel filling. Be still my heart.
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 Rolos, unwrapped
sugar for topping* (see note below)
1 Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment or silpat or grease lightly.
2 Cream butter and sugars in mixer bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3 Whisk together dry ingredients then add slowly to butter mixture until fully combined.
4 Wrap 1 tablespoon of dough around 1 Rolo then dip top in sugar.
5 Bake for about 9 minutes then cool on racks 2 minutes before removing.
*A note about the sugar for the topping – I tried three different kinds – granulated sugar, Trader Joe’s Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar and Bob’s Red Mill Decorative Sparkling Sugar. Bob’s Red Mill Decorative Sparkling Sugar was the clear winner. The granulated sugar got absorbed into the cookies and you didn’t even know it was there, it was almost the same with the TJ’s sugar but the Bob’s sugar looked great and also gave the cookies a sweet crunchy bonus exterior.
Yum, such a good combination of flavors. If you’ve got some really ripe bananas on your counter, this is a good way to use them. More quarantine baking for me as I try to stay sane.
2 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1/4 cup peanut butter plus more for swirling
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate chips
1 Preheat oven to 425. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
2 In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and brown sugar.
3 In a medium bowl, mash bananas then stir in butter, oil, buttermilk, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla.
4 Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined then stir in chocolate chips.
5 Scoop batter into muffin cups and sprinkle with a few more chocolate chips then swirl about 1/4 teaspoon of peanut butter into the top of each muffin, warming up peanut butter in microwave if needed for easier swirling.
6 Bake at 425 for 5 minutes then lower temperature to 400 and bake for 13 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7 Let cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing.
They could have been called Dark Chocolate Pecan PIE Bars because that’s what they taste like, pecan pie, really yummy.
Dark Chocolate Pecan Bars
See? They look like pecan pie. Some more quarantine baking although we are getting out of the house a tiny bit more but still being careful. Weird times my friends, weird times. Fortunately there are are pecans and dark chocolate in the world to make the weird times a little easier to endure.
crust
1/3 cup pecans
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into cubes
topping
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
3 – 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 For the crust, preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray. Pulse pecans in food processor until finely ground. Add flour, sugar, and salt and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until dough starts clumping together but is still a bit crumbly. Transfer to baking dish and press into even layer with fingers. Bake until golden brown and set, 25 – 30 minutes.
2 For the topping, whisk corn syrup, sugars, eggs, melted butter, vanilla and salt in bowl until smooth then stir in pecans.
3 Spread topping over warm crust and sprinkle with chocolate. Return to oven and bake until top is set and no longer jiggles, 25 – 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into bars or diamonds.
These are one of the best things I’ve made with my quarantine sourdough starter so far, they were so good! They’re not hard to make but do require a bit of time and some strong arm muscles. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, beg some from someone so you can make these!
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into small pieces plus 2 tablespoons melted for brushing
1 cup sourdough starter discard from a starter fed within the previous 24 hours, room temperature
flaky sea salt for sprinkling
1 Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2 Stir together baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and flour with a whisk in a large bowl. Add butter pieces and toss with hands or fork to coat with flour. Using a pastry cutter or fork, work butter into dry ingredients until shaggy crumbles form. You will have various sizes of pieces in the dough but none should be too large.
3 Add sourdough starter and mix gently with fork to incorporate, then fold with hands just until dough comes together with just a few crumbly pieces in the bottom of the bowl.
4 Transfer dough to well floured surface and pat out with hands until about 1/2″ thick, the shape doesn’t matter too much right now. Fold into thirds as you would a letter to create a rough rectangle. Working from the short sides, fold in thirds like a letter again. Pat dough out again to a 1/2′ thick square. Repeat folding process. Pat dough out for a third time to a 1″ thick square. Using a floured 2 1/2″ diameter biscuit cutter or glass, punch out as many biscuits as you can, do not twist cutter. Transfer biscuits to baking sheets, spacing at least 1″ apart.
5 Gently press scraps into a rectangle, then fold in half. Pat out to 1″ thick rectangle and cut out more biscuits. Gather remaining scraps together to form final biscuit, you should have 10 total. Transfer to baking sheet. Brush biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt.
6 Bake biscuits until tall and golden and an instant read thermometer registers 205, about 12 – 15 minutes.
This is the perfect summer pasta salad, light and refreshing! Highly recommend! Even though things are starting to open back up around here, we are still being cautious as one of the members of our family has had multiple heart issues. I’m trying to find ways to still bake and cook that don’t make all of us gain weight.
1 pound pasta
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup Parmesan, shredded or flaked
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil
1 Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2 In a large bowl, combine vinegar, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk to combine.
3 Toss pasta into dressing mix and add pine nuts, Parmesan and basil.
4 Refrigerate until ready to serve, preferably for at least 2 hours.
I have quite a few new followers to my blog (thank you for joining me on my food adventures!) so some of you may not know that I have a day job in the film and television industry which keeps me pretty busy, until the pandemic hit. March 13 was my last day on set. I was working on a movie in Mississippi when a day player showed up sick with what turned out to be the corona/covid virus and so we were shut down with only a week to go. I’m not very good at sitting at home with not much to do so I’ve been looking for projects to fill my time and also looking to serve others wherever possible. We have quite a few neighbors with little kids so I thought this might be a fun activity for me and for them. The feedback has been great, the kids really enjoyed the kits and I had fun putting them together so win, win!
I was going to make homemade frosting but I needed so much of it that I decided to go with Pillsbury Funfetti Frosting which I divided up between the kits by putting half a container of frosting into a piping bag and tying off with a twisty tie
I have so many sprinkles so I made little bags of sprinkles for each kit and even included some tiny candy eyes for fun
I had a tub of gum drops from another project so I included some of those in each kit as well
Have a good day my friends! Go out and do some service for someone else! It will make you feel better and take your mind off of your own concerns!
1 Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray.
2 In large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, soda and salt and stir to combine. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Reserve 1/2 the crumb mixture, about 2 cups, for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture in bottom of prepared pan.
3 Combine caramels and milk in saucepan and heat over medium high heat, stirring until melted and smooth.
4 Sprinkle chocolate chips and pecans over crust in pan. Drizzle evenly with caramel. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
5 Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool in pan before cutting into bars.
Twitter (and Uncle Mike’s) Banana Bread by Chrissy Tiegen
This was amazing! Bread or cake? Hard to decide. Give it a go, it was delicious. Another quarantine bake for the books or the blog.
2 cups mashed very ripe bananas, about 6 bananas
4 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 (3.5 oz) box vanilla instant pudding mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 (3.5 oz) bar dark chocolate, chopped into chunks or 1/2 – 1 cup chocolate chips
1 Heat oven to 325. Spray bundt pan with cooking spray for baking.
2 In one bowl, combine bananas, eggs, and oil. In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix carefully just until combined. Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.
3 Bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, 60 – 80 minutes. Let cool 10 – 15 minutes in pan then turn out onto serving platter.
Penny's Food Blog 