October Cake Club: Halloween Skeleton Treats

This month's cake club hands-on project was a cute little skeleton, made of a brownie, some yogurt covered pretzels and a marshmallow.  Easy peasy.  And super kid-friendly. 

 

 
If you're looking for something cute to make for a last-minute Halloween get-together, these are your guys.  If you use store-bought brownies, as we did at cake club, it will literally only take you minutes to put together a good sized batch.

my guy's face got a little beaten up on the drive home ;)

brownies (store-bought or homemade)
sucker sticks (you can purchase these at Bulk Barn) 
yogurt or white-chocolate covered pretzels
large marshmallows
black gel
toothpicks or a fine paintbrush (that you have OBVIOUSLY never actually painted with!!!)

1.  If using homemade brownies, cut them into rectangles.

2.  Place the sucker stick towards the back of the brownie.

3.  Pile the pretzels onto the sucker stick.

4.  Place the marshmallow on top.

5.  Dip the toothpick or paintbrush into the black gel.  Decorate the face on the skeleton, as in the picture below. 

Difficulty level: couldn't be easier if you tried.  I'm pretty sure that even little Logan could do these with his eyes shut.

I also wanted to share a few of the super cute cupcake decorations that they showed us during our meeting:

Happy Halloween everyone!  Let's cross our fingers that the rain holds off for some trick or treating!!

Taken from: Eek, Shriek and be Scary Halloween Party on the Wants and Wishes blog

Mmmm Trifle

I wanted to share some delicious variations to my usual trifle recipes that we've made for everyone over here in France.

In fact, today is Ilian's birthday party.  His 4th birthday was on Friday.

Showing off his new bike

Sporting his new Spiderman mask

And today we prepared both a regular and a chocolate trifle for his birthday.

We used my mom's trifle recipe for the regular trifle, but substituted a homemade crème pâtissière for the vanilla pudding. And we just left out the jello, since they don't have any in France.  And used a homemade quatre quarts recipe instead of the pound cake.  I will post this when I get home.

Then for the chocolate version, we just followed my regular chocolate trifle recipe, but instead of the chocolate pudding, made another crème pâtissière and added 100g of dark chocolate that we had melted with a bit of milk.

Can't wait to try them!! 

Difficulty level: moderate

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

This was my second attempt to soothe myself with some chocolate.  And I LOVE these!!!! In fact, as I type this, Logan is upstairs screaming himself silly in his crib and I am dying to go get one.  Chocolate makes anything more manageable.  And chocolate peanut butter...!!!  However, my footsteps will make him scream even harder, so I will have to content myself with blogging them instead.  I used soy butter in this instead of peanut butter, since I'm not eating nuts.  But I can't wait to try it with peanut butter post-breastfeeding, since it's already so delicious with soy butter!!

This recipe comes from Taste of Home's Prize-Winning Recipes. Which is the same little cookbook where my grandmother got her recipe for the delicious raspberry truffle brownies I've previously posted.  Which were equally delicious.

I doubled the glaze, thinking that 1 oz. of chocolate didn't seem to be much to spread over the entire pan of brownies.  And the two ounces just barely covered the pan, so I'd definitely recommend doubling the glaze.  Or maybe even tripling it, as it was still tough to smooth over the entire surface when doubled.

2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate
1/2 C butter
2 eggs
1 C sugar
1/2 C all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 1/2 C confectioners' sugar
1/2 C creamy peanut butter (I used soy butter)
1/4 C butter, softened
2 to 3 tbsp. half-and-half cream or milk (I used 3.25% milk)

Glaze:
1 square (1 oz.) semisweet baking chocolate
1 tbsp. butter
1.  In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat; set aside.  In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and pale-coloured.  

2.  Add flour and melted chocolate; stir well.  Pour into greased 9-inch square baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean.  Cool.

3.  For filling, beat confectioners' sugar, peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl.  Stir in cream or milk until mixture reaches desired spreading consistency.  Spread over cooled brownies; cover and chill until firm.

4.  For glaze, melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan, stirring until smooth.  Drizzle over the filling.  Chill before cutting.  Store in refrigerator.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Difficulty level: moderate

Blackout Brownies

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, as it's been a busy week.  

Just wanted to share my favourite moments of the week, however:

- Logan incessantly telling me "careful", "fall" as I change his bum.  Clearly, if he would not throw a temper tantrum 50% of the time while he's on his change table, he would be at no risk of falling. I'm also clearly not the one who has to be careful, despite his constant reminders to me.  Maybe I should remind him of the time he wiggled his way right off of his change table and into emerg.

- Logan repeatedly screaming "want some" as I came out of the Tim Horton's drive through.  Apparently, the small handful of occasions I have gotten him a plain timbit while I pick myself up a tea has etched a solid memory into that young little brain of his.  Even though the last time he got one was over 2 months ago.  Sadly for him, this was a tea only occasion.

- Logan blinking in fear and covering his face in an attempt to protect himself from the water as we went through the car wash tonight.

Guess Chloé's gotta get older before I have some favourites for her. Though I did really appreciate her sleeping through the night last night and staying adorable quiet during my kinesitherapy session this week :)

I made these brownies couple of weeks back in an attempt to satisfy my temper-tantrum induced chocolate cravings.  Sadly, I overcooked the brownies, so they were not quite as delicious as I believe they otherwise would have been.  This recipe comes from 365 Great Cookies and Brownies.

As a quick aside, I am also super excited to have found this cookbook here while I was searching for a link for the above cookbook.  And doubly excited to see that they have it at my local library. Soooooooooo getting that out of the library the minute we get home from Vancouver.  Need to get back onto the whole homemade yogurt kick again.

Ok, back to the brownies...

1 stick (1/2 C) butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 C sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 squares semisweet chocolate (I used dark chocolate)
1/4 C heavy cream (I used homogenized milk)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Grease an 8-inch square pan and a 6-inch round in centre of a cookie sheet.

2.  In a medium saucepan, melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat, turn into a medium bowl, and set aside 10 minutes to cool slightly.

3.  With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat sugar, eggs and vanilla into cooled chocolate mixture.  Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt and fold in to make a thick batter.  Remove 1/4 C batter; spread onto greased round on cookie sheet.  Turn remaining batter into prepared pan, leveling surface.

4.  Place both brownie pans in oven.  Bake brownie round 5 to 6 minutes,or until crisp.  Bake pan of brownies 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Slide brownie round onto a wire rack and let cool completely.  Set square brownie in pan on a rack to cool.

5.  Meanwhile, chop semisweet chocolate.  In a small saucepan, heat chocolate and cream over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Or combine chocolate and cream in a glass measuring cup and microwave on High 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until chocolate is melted; stir until smooth.  Pour over baked brownie in square pan.

6.  Break brownie round from cookie sheet into pieces.  Place pieces in a plastic bag and roll to make crumbs.  Sprinkle brownie crumbs over frosted brownie in pan.  Cut into 16 squares and let cool completely. Store in an air-tight container or wrap well and refrigerate.

 

Raspberry Truffle Brownies

Busy day yesterday... holiday parties number one and two, back to back.  We started with Jerome's work party for kids at the Récréathèque, where Logan was in complete heaven.  I wish I had a playroom like that in my basement!! I'm not sure I've ever seen him quite so happy as he was as he rolled around in the balls and whipped down all of the slides:

I can't say that I enjoyed crawling through those little tunnels quite as much as he did, though it did bring back some awfully fond memories of Amazing Kidz and cleaning those darned play structures!

We also got a chance to visit with Santa, yet again.  And for once, Logan was neither afraid of him, nor did he yell "no, no, no!" as he was taken to Santa.  I guess the third time's a charm.  Though he still did wiggle and appear just generally miserable when sitting on him... 

We then basically got home from the Récréathèque and had just enough time to feed Logan and get him to sleep before our babysitter knocked on the door.  And then we were off to Michael and Cynthia's wonderful annual Chranukkah party that we are fortunate enough to be invited to.  They have a great circle of friends and every year is filled with wonderful conversation and great food.  

Chloé and Annabel were lucky enough to be the only babies young enough to be allowed to join the adults this year.  Annabel, the daughter of my friend Christine, is only 2 days younger than Chloé.  And neither yet knows that they will be each others' best friends.

Did I mention that Chranukkah's theme every year is chocolate??  This year, I decided to make these brownies to bring with me.  My grandmother made them for Logan and Maddy's baptism and they were absofrickin' fantastic.  And I have to admit that I really hate raspberry and chocolate together.  Or mostly any fruit and chocolate combination that isn't with real fruit, other than banana.  In fact, when my grandmother told me in advance that she was going to bring these, I have to admit that I thought to myself "yuck, disgusting" (sorry grammy!).  

Now, of course, that didn't stop me from trying them at the baptism and it turns out that they were amongst the world's best brownies that I have ever tried.  They're rich, and moist, and just plain delicious.  And the raspberry flavour isn't at all overwhelming and just gives it some sweetness.  Scott and I hid in my parents' dining room at the baptism, enjoying way too many portions of these.  The ones that I brought to last night's party were a little too cooked and weren't quite as tasty as my grandmothers'.  So be sure to get them out of the oven in time.  This recipe comes from Taste of Home's Prize Winning Recipes.

1/2 C butter
1 1/4 C semisweet chocolate chps
2 eggs
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 tsp. instant coffee granules
2 tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 C all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 C (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 C confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
1/3 C seedless red raspberry jam

Glaze:
1/4 C semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. shortening

1.  In a heavy saucepan, melt butter and chocolate chips over low heat.  Cool slightly.  

2.  In a large bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar.  Dissolve coffee granules in water; add to egg mixture with melted chocolate.  Mix well.  Combine baking powder and flour; stir into chocolate mixture.  Spread in a greased 9-inch square baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean.  Cool.

3.  For filling, melt chocolate chips; cool.  In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy;  add confectioners' sugar and jam.  Stir in melted chocolate; spread over cooled brownies.

4.  For glaze, melt chocolate chips and shortening.  Drizzle over filling.  Chill before cutting.  Store in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Chunk Banana Brownies

Happy Easter to everyone!!! No Easter recipes on here this year, as we chose to hang out here ourselves and didn't really do much of anything Easter-like. Didn't even eat a single Easter egg, in fact... I can't wait until next year when Logan is a bit older and we'll have some of his eggs to swipe :)

I made these brownies last week, from the Canada's 150 Best Diabetes Desserts cookbook (again, I am so going to buy this book). They make a huge pan and we've been slowly working our way through them. I find these have more of the texture of a cake than of brownies - not quite as rich and dense. But they're still good.

Last night, we decided to make a brownie sundae with them. Not terribly diabetes friendly, but we opted to have no carbs with our dinner (other than low carb veggies) so that Jerome could afford this little treat (well and really, I guess that means I can afford it more too, right?). We used a small brownie, vanilla ice cream (my favourite is Breyer's All-Natural Vanilla, as I find it actually tastes like vanilla and not chemicals), and a touch of apple caramel that we had bought at Les Vergers Lafrance where we go apple-picking each year . The caramel is sickeningly (and deliciously) sweet, so you only need a touch. I'd meant to put a bit of sliced bananas on top as well, but that slipped my mind when I made them. Mmmm... pure delight :)



1 C sugar
1/3 C vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 C mashed ripe bananas (2 large bananas)
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C chopped semisweet chocolate
1 1/3 C coarsely chopped walnuts



1. In large bowl, using an electric mixture on medium speed, beat sugar, oil and eggs until thick and light, about 2 minutes. Add bananas and cocoa and beat on low speed.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to cocoa mixture, beating on low speed just to blend. Stir in chopped chocolate and walnuts. Spread evenly in prepared 13 x 9 inch pan.

3. Bake in 350 degree Farenheit oven just until set, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into bars or squares.

Variations: substitute peanut butter chips for the chopped chocolate and coarsely chopped peanuts for the walnuts (mmm.... I can't wait until I can eat peanut butter again!!! I am sooooooooooo making them like this!).

Makes 36 brownies.

Chocolate Chunk Fudgy Brownies

I'm not quite sure what's been happening with my blog, but I know that a few previously sent recipes were recently sent out a second time - oddly enough, the day I got home from the hospital with baby Logan. No, I wasn't blogging away on my first day at home, pretending to be some kind of wonder woman. It must have just been some sort of a bug in the system, since today is the first day I've entered by account.

Yesterday, while Logan was down for a 3 hour power nap, I had a chance to make a few treats to stock in the freezer. This way, I'll have something to offer to guests as they come by to visit the baby. So note to all, those of you who drop by first will get treats... we'll see how long it lasts though, as I wasn't expecting to actually have a chance to make anything for an eternity. But so far, he's being a pretty easy baby and I'm getting several long stretches throughout the day when I can get things done. If only these stretches also extended to the night... but I get enough during the day that I can nap at times and still get things done at other times.

That being said, this recipe comes from the cookbook 365 Great Cookies and Brownies, which again, was a gift from Antonia back in my undergrad days. These brownies are nice and fudgy and freeze well. I've never bothered icing them, though I'm sure that'd make them all that much better.

1 C melted butter (I use low-fat margarine)
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
2 C sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 C flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C semisweet chocolate chunks (I use dark chocolate chips)
1 C chopped nuts (optional)



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease in a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.

2. Melt butter over low heat or in a microwave. Scrape into a medium bowl. Add cocoa powder and stir until well blended. Mix in sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla, then flour and salt. Do not overbeat. Stir in chocolate chunks and, if desired, nuts.

3. Turn into prepared pan, leveling surface. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove pan to a rack. Let cool completely in pan before cutting into 24 bars.

I find the recipe has quite a bit of sugar in it. I've never bothered trying to cut down the amount, as I make them only very rarely and figure that a treat's a treat. But if you make them more frequently and want to make them healthier, I'm sure you could cut back the sugar by 1/3 and they'd be just as good.