Candy Bar Cookies

So that we are all on the same page, I am a college student. Since I currently live on campus, I have one of the meal plans. This particular plan give me 350 Blocks per semester. Each Block is $5. We are coming up on summer and the end of school and I still have 43 Blocks. I am on campus for a total of 4 more days. I need to spend $50 dollars a day on food for four days. 

Since I have so many blocks, there are a few things I can do. I can buy a lot of food (and I mean A LOT of food) or I can donate blocks to the local food bank. I will probably be donating a fair amount of blocks to the food bank, but I have the ability to indulge my baking needs with my excess blocks.

Unfortunately, most of what I can buy is already pre made. Because of this, I like to get creative. 

Cookie dough, the pre made tubes of it, are a common addiction of late night snackers, at least on this college campus. I prefer to make cookies from scratch but because of my Block situation I decided to get creative with pre made cookie dough and candy bars.

I call them Candy Bar Cookies. Simply chop up the candy bars, add them to the cookie dough, either on top or folded in the cookie dough. I did both since I wanted to be able to tell which cookie had each of the candy bar flavors.

I used four candy bars (Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats, 3 Musketeers, Snickers) and peppermint patties. I ended up using two tubes of pre made cookie dough since I had too many pieces of candy bars. The result was 38 candy bar cookies. The peppermint pattie pieces melted and turned into white goop and stuck to the parchment paper. However, personally, the peppermint pattie cookies were my favorite, the other flavors were more subtle.





Other Ways to Use Cookie Dough
Cookie Dough Bowls
Cookie Dough Egg Rolls
On Top of Pastries, Inside of Pies

 Candy Bar Dinner, the Ultimate Dinner to Recover from Finals Week

Applesauce

Applesauce has many great qualities besides being high in fiber and vitamin C. It can be used as substitutes in baking and used as a low calorie sweetener in cooking seeing as apples are naturally sweet because of the fructose in them . For a more extensive explanation on these information tid-bits visit Livestrong and [the nest].

As stated on [the nest], the healthiest version of applesauce is homemade. The best part about homemade applesauce is that you don't even need a recipe (but keep in mind proportions). In my case, I have only made applesauce twice, one was a blueberry vanilla applesauce and the other was a cinnamon vanilla applesauce. I followed a recipe for the blueberry vanilla applesauce and winged it for the cinnamon vanilla applesauce.

Where can you find this recipe? HERE!

Along with the blueberry vanilla, there is also a Peach Ginger Almond, a Spiced, and a Cranberry Clove.

As far as going without a recipe, I took note of what I had added before. I used cinnamon and vanilla along with lemon juice, water, honey and apples (of course!). The main reason I decided to make applesauce was because I had about ten apples in my fridge that I was never going to eat otherwise. If this is the case, another option is to make apple chips, a recipe can be found here (I make mine without the sugar, just cinnamon). The process is simply dehydrating the apples, so if you don't want your electricity bill to take a hit, I recommend making applesauce.

Speaking of which, my scratch made applesauce started with ten apples, eight green and two red. I peeled the apples (I recommend NOT doing this, it takes away the nutrients in the skin of the apple, especially the fiber). I then rough chopped the apples and put them in a medium stove pot. Since the apples I used were mainly green, they did not go brown as quickly as the red delicious. This is not a problem if you for go peeling the apples.

Back to the recipe. I added about 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/3 cup honey, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla to the pot as well. Once all of the ingredients are in the pot, set the pot over medium heat and stir every few minutes. I added about 1/4 cup of water to the pot as well, this helps to break down the apples.

After about an hour on the stove, the apples had turned soft and some had become, for lack of a better word, mush. Some still looked like apple chunks but that's perfectly okay!

Now, since I live in a dorm and have a limited supply of cooking equipment, I used my Nutri-bullet to blend the apple mixture into what resembled baby food. If you desire chunky applesauce, leave as is, it will still be delicious!

I let the applesauce come to room temperature then put it in the fridge overnight to cool, but it's great hot, warm or cold.

Here are some other great ways to use apples:
Spiced Apple Ring Pancakes
Apple Nachos
Apple Rose
Apple (Ice Cream) Cups
Apple Pops

This involves apples and I love cats and so I present:

 A Cat Trying to Fit Into the Apple Bowl

Cake Pops

Cake pops are not as complex as many people make them out to be. The only drawback to them is the amount of time that it takes to make them.Of course this depends on the method you choose to make them. 

Cake Pop Maker

There are a few ways to make cake pops, using different pans or rolling them by hand. And there is always the option to pop on into Starbucks (no pun intended) and purchase theirs (I have never tried theirs so I can not say anything about them).

The only way that I have ever make cake pops is by making them by hand. By this method, the cake is baked, crumbled, mixed with frosting, rolled into balls and coated with a candy coating. The recipe for making cake pops with a cake pop maker can be found here. 

The recipe that I follow can be found here at the Wilton baking site. The one variation that I use is that I make the frosting fresh using the basic Wilton butter cream frosting found here. 

Now, none of these sites offer a specific time for the entire process of making cake pops, probably as to not scare you off from making them. In total, I have made two batches, using a boxed cake mix with the pudding mix, the homemade butter cream frosting and using Wilton Candy Melts. In both cases, I made the cake and frosting ahead of time which takes about an hour to an hour and a half taking into consideration the time it takes for the cake to cool. I whipped up the frosting while the cake was baking. The rest of the process took me around 5-6 hours but this time can easily be cut in half with extra helpers!

So sum up to process, I made the cake and the frosting and let the cake cool over night. The following night I crumbled the cake (it is helpful to use a mixer when crumbling the cake to make sure there are not chunks of cake. I then incorporated the frosting using my hands (what else). As for forming the balls, you can use a scoop or just eyeball them. Since I eyeballed them, the first batch made 60 cake pops and the second made 70 so be warned, you may just want to use half of the cake and half of the frosting and save the rest for a later time. After rolling them, I placed mine in the fridge for an hour (actually half an hour because I was impatient). Before pulling them front the fridge, I melted some of the candy melts to dip the sticks in. This is just to help the cake pops stay on the sticks. I simply dipped the sticks about a inch into the candy melts and stuck them into each cake pop. There will be a ring around the stick with excess candy melt, this can be whipped away or left, it does not make a difference in the taste.

After dipping the cake pops

After adding the stick to each pop, I placed them back in the fridge for about an hour (this is essential to make sure the cake pop does not come off of the stick while dipping them). 

As for dipping the cake pops, the best way that I have found is to dip the cake pop on holding the stick in one hand then to get rid of the excess candy melt, use the hand not holding the cake pop to lightly tap the wrist of the hand holding the cake pop. This helps to prevent the cake pop from coming off of the stick. 

Waiting for the cake pops to dry can take anywhere from a minute to five to dry depending on how hot the candy melts were when you dip the pop. So for drying them, there are drying racks for cake pops or you can stack drying racks to help hold the cake pops still to let them dry. 

As a quick side note, the cake pops are best decorated when the candy melts have not dried so if you would like to add sprinkles, it would be best to prepare them before you begin dipping the pops. Or you can be "fancy" like me and drizzle chocolate melts on top of them afterwards then add the sprinkles. Just keep in mind the more you do the more time it will take. 

Drizzled with chocolate with added sprinkles

Another Side Note: The candy melts (if you choose to use them) have to be bought in the color you want to use, food coloring makes the candy melts seize up and they turn into an unusable paste.

Here are some other ideas for cake/non-cake pops:

Cinnamon Roll Cake Pops

Rose Cake Pops
Oreo Pops
Buckeye Pops
S'mores Pops

Just add a green jelly bean and pretzel stick.

Not your typical ball shape...

Make two different sized balls for this and you're all set!

Because who doesn't love Gold!?

A little more challenging but adorable if you can pull them off!

Simple and elegant.

No butter needed!

Sushi for dinner and dessert!

Even sweeter than watermelon, especially with the chocolate chips!

Jello Swim Cake

Pinterest is my life, in a manner of speaking. More accurately, it serves as the inspiration to most if not all of my projects, recipes and wacky inventions. My most recent one was an attempt to make a dessert of some kind for a swim banquet. While searching pinterest I found a Jello Cake, not one where you dye the cake with the jello, this recipe had three layers; a sponge cake, a mousse jello, and a jello layer. The original recipe can be found here at Natasha's Kitchen. In her recipe she uses a raspberry jello. Since I was going to make a swimming cake it made more sense to use blue jello and blueberries.
I had the idea to make the cake look like a pool, so the idea was to use the blueberries to mimic the look of the tiles at the bottom of the pool and to use Twizzlers to mimic the lane lines.


When I first told my mother about the recipe, she was confused about the cake and how it would be sponge like without any leavening agent. To clarify, the cake is made from eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla. The sponge part is created when you beat the eggs and sugar together until they are thick and fluffy. The flour and vanilla are folded in as to not deflate the eggs.

The sponge cake in the oven.

The cake pan is only lined with parchment paper and does not stick to the side of the pan. After I pulled it from the oven, I inverted the pan onto a cooling rack and pealed the parchment paper off of the back of the cake then let the cake cool.

Meanwhile, the jello mousse is made as well as the simple syrup for the cake. The jello mousse is made with 6 oz. of jello, 2 cups of boiling water, 1 cup of ice water and once that starts to set, cool whip is mixed in with it. The simple syrup is made with 1/2 cup of hot water, 2 tablespoons sugar and a teaspoon lemon juice. 

The simple syrup is brushed on the cake and once the mousse layer starts to set, it is spread on top of the cake. Nothing should be above room temperature.

While the mouse is setting, the final jello layer is made with 3 oz. of jello, 1 cup of boiling water and 1/2 cup ice water. 

When I made the blueberry cake, I put the blueberries in the mousse layer right after I poured it. After I let the mousse layer sit, I added the Twizzlers and the final jello layer. 

The only problem I had with this step was that once I tried to move the cake, the watery jello layer on top made the Twizzler pieces move so I have to adjust them back into place. Other than that little tid-bit, the cake was quite simple to make. I followed Natasha's video to a T so that helped and I would highly recommend it. she gives a lot of little pointers that she doesn't add to the written instructions.

The Final Product

For the final product, I added 'flags' to make the cake look even more like a pool. At the party, most people didn't want me to cut it because it looked so good so be advised, it might be too pretty to eat!

Happy Jello

More Jello Related Ideas:

Broken Glass Jello

Jello Aquarium

Homemade Gummies

A Brief Introduction

To Whomever Reads This Blog,

Welcome to my food blog! I am a college student despriately deprived of cooking (I live in a dorm) so when I have the opportunity to cook or bake I take pride in my work and put a lot of effort into my projects. That being said, I absolutely love to cook and bake. I have a major sweet tooth but also love to play around with spices.

I love to try new recipes and so on this blog I will be posting all of my cooking/baking successes and fails. Most of my ideas come from pinterest (I am a pinterest adict!) and I tweak the recipes to my food needs, such as substituting different sweeteners, flours, fats (oils, nuts), dairy, and spices. Some of the recipes that I have tried have ranged from cake pops (without the cake pop pan) to homemade ravioli (pasta made with a rolling pin). I love to try new ingredients (I tried playing with yeast a few weeks ago and it is my new favorite ingredient!) and find new recipes to use them.

So if all of my cooking madness appeals to you, then take a look around. I will be posting links to similar recipes at the end of recipes to add alternatives to recipes such as gluten free alternatives and dairy free alternatives (probably courtesy of pinterest).
(I also love gifs so here are some food related ones.)