A little of this and some of that.....

After the holidays, I'm always left with a lot of "extras" that weren't used up in recipes. So I thought I would experiment with different toppings for cupcakes. I made French Vanilla cupcakes and iced them fluffy white icing then topped them with the things I had on hand.

Left to right: dark chocolate chips/walnuts, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips/Heath, coconut

For the dark chocolate/walnut and mini chips/Heath I put some in the middle of the cupcakes as well as on top.

Coconut Cream Pie

One of my husbands favorite desserts is coconut cream pie. I have tried some different recipes and this one got pretty good reviews from my family. The recipe was kind of hard to follow so this is my adaptation of it.

Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups of milk

3 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)

sprinkle of salt

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup coconut (more for sprinkling on top)

Prepared baked pie crust

In a medium sized bowl save out a little milk and put the rest of the milk in a double-boiler and heat. Add the egg yolks (beat them sightly) and salt to the bowl of milk. Then add sugar and stir. Add cornstartch and beat. Pour this mixture and the hot milk into a saucepan and cook on the stovetop until it thickens. Add vanilla and coconut. Pour coconut cream filling into baked pie shell. Make meringue and spread on top.

Meringue

3 egg white (add more whites if you want a taller meringue)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

2 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Add sugar. Beat until it forms stiff peaks. Put on top of cake and sprinkle coconut on top. Bake pie at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until brown on top.

Homemade Sno-balls

When I was little, I loved Hostess Sno-Balls. They were so good and gooey, so when I saw a recipe for a huge one in the Food and Family magazine I was thrilled to make it. I made two small ones instead of one big one. I wanted them to be more like the original. I used a ball pan for the two halves. It turned out really good and tasted very nummy num!

Homemade Sno-Balls

1 package devil's food cake mix

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons sugar

1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup cold milk

2 cups thawed Cool Whip

1 cup coconut

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake batter in 2 1/2 quart OVENPROOF bowl, as directed on package; scrape side of bowl. Beat cream cheese, egg and sugar until well blended. Spoon into center of batter in bowl. Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in bowl for 10 minutes. Loosen cake from bowl with a knife. Invert onto wire rack. Remove bowl and let cake cool completely. Meanwhile, beat fry pudding mix, powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl with a whisk about 2 minutes. Stir in Cool Whip. Refrigerate until ready to use. Place cake on plate; frost with pudding mixture. Cover with coconut. Keep refrigerated. (you can also tint your coconut pink for a more authentic looking snowball)

Almond Joy Cake

Ok I took it to work and everybody said they liked it (although they could be lying to be nice). I thought it tasted good but it is very rich and thick. I tend to like my cakes a little on the "fluffy" side so this cake wasn't my favorite. If you have every had Coca-Cola cake it reminds me of that.

The Captain where I work is always giving me recipes because he knows I love to bake. Well this is one of the recipes. His birthday is tomorrow so I made him this cake. A couple of things though....It calls for chocolate cake mix (which is what I used) but I think for it to be more like a true Almond Joy you should use coconut cake mix. I just couldn't find it at the store so I used chocolate. The recipe also says to use a 10X15 pan. I didn't listen for some stupid reason and I should have. I used a 9X13 and it wasn't big enough. I'm thinking it's going to be a really rich cake. I will let you know how it tasted.~side note, I realize that the writing on this cake is horrendous but my icing wasn't working with me.

Almond Joy Cake

1 chocolate cake mix

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

24 large marshmallows

1 (14 ounce) package of coconut

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or 1 stick

12 ounces butter

12 ounces chocolate chips

1 (3 ounce) package sliced almonds

Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for 10X15 inch cake pan. Bring 1 cup evaporated milk and 1 cup sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Stir in marshmallows until melted. Add coconut. Pour mixture over warm cake. Sprinkle almonds on top of that layer. Bring 1/2 cup evaporated milk and 1 1/2 cups sugar to a boil in saucepan. Stir in butter and chocolate chips until melted. Pour over coconut layer.