Red Velvet Cake

Made this Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese filling and buttercream icing for Andrea's graduation gift!
Filled with cream cheese icing, smothered in buttercream and decorated with extra cake crumbs and buttercream swirls. All recipes courtesy of the Crumb Boss!

Red Velvet Cake
Swiss Buttercream
Cream Cheese Icing



the hungry monkey

PB & Nutella French Toast

You can't go wrong with Peanut Butter and Nutella!

For Beth's birthday breakfast, I whipped up a quick batch of PB & Nutella French Toast.

It's quick, easy, and delicious!

PB & Nutella French Toast

Ingredients

2 eggs

dash of milk

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

4 slices of wheat bread

2 heaping tbls of Peanut Butter

2 heaping tbls of Nutella

Cool Whip, powdered sugar, and strawberries for garnish

Beat eggs and add milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Spread PB and nutella on one side of each of your pieces of bread

Sandwich the two pieces together then dip into your egg mixture until completely moist.

Spray some cooking spray on a small pan. Cook the french toast for about 10 minutes until the sides are browned and crispy.

Top with Cool Whip, powdered sugar, and some sliced strawberries!

ENJOY and go NUTS FOR NUTELLA!

Ribbon Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

I made this super simple pirouette ice cream cake for Mother's Day! There were layers of Chocolate Cake between Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream with a layer of Chocolate magic shell on top. The idea came from Haagen Daaz Ice Cream Ribbon Cake that I saw in the store when I went in on Free Scoop Day! :)  I just baked layers of chocolate cake, and filled it with ice cream. The decorations are whipped cream and chocolate jimmies. The sides are garnished with Pirouettes Chocolate Hazelnut flavor. Tie it off with a ribbon and you're done!

Ribbon Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

1 box Devils food cake mix

2 cans of Pirouette Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies (find them at Walmart, Target, supermarkets, etc)

1 gallon of Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream (or your favorite ice cream flavor!)

1 bottle of Magic Shell- Chocolate or Reeses flavor :P

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped until stiff

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Bake the Chocolate Cake in 8 inch round pans. You need 2 layers.

Once cooled, line the bottom of a springform pan with cooking spray and a piece of parchment paper.

Layer the first layer of chocolate cake then pack in the ice cream on top. Then place the 2nd layer of cake on top. Freeze for one hour.

Whip up the whipping cream with the sugar. Place into a pastry bag.

Put a thin layer of whipped cream all over the cake layer. Freeze for another 30-45 minutes.

Make sure your Magic Shell is at room temp. If not, microwave for 10-15 seconds so that it is pourable. Pour it all over the frozen whipped cream and it should immediately harden. This will form a sort of sealant around the top of your cake.

Cut the pirouettes to match the height of your cake, leaving a little extra on top to cover the unevenness. Carefully stick each pirouette around the cake, you will probably use almost all of the 2 cans.

Decorate the top of the cake with large swirls of whipped cream using your pastry bag and a large star tip. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles and a couple of your extra pirouettes!

Take a piece of thick ribbon and tie it in a nice bow around your cake.

Freeze for several hours or overnight before serving!

Enjoy!

le hungry monkey

Super Simple Green Onion Pancakes

I made these for Mother's Day Breakfast! Everyone loves these crispy Chinese "pancakes", although they aren't sweet, but super savory. I adapted the recipe from thekitchn website. We go to Chinese restaurants all the time and always order Chong Yao Bang, so try these out if you are craving them and aren't going out!
***Be sure that if you are storing them in the fridge to put a piece of parchment paper between each one so they don't stick! I made that mistake, which is why some of mine were super distorted looking o_O

Green Onion Pancakes

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup warm water
Sesame Oil
Kosher salt
1 bunch scallions

Equipment
Spray oil or cooking spray
Rolling pin
Large metal baking sheet
One 10-inch heavy skillet or sauté pan
Thin spatula
Kitchen scissors

Instructions

1. Mix 2 1/2 cups flour with 1 cup water until it forms a smooth dough. Knead by doubling the dough over and pressing it down repeatedly, until the dough is even more smooth and very elastic. Coat this ball of dough lightly in oil and put it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

2. Cut the dough into 4 equal parts. Lightly oil the back of a large metal baking sheet. Roll out one part of the dough on the back of the baking sheet. Roll until it is a thin rectangle at least 12 x 9 inches.

3. Finely chop the bunch of scallions and have them ready, along with a small bowl of kosher salt.

4. Lightly brush the top of the dough with oil, then sprinkle it evenly with chopped scallions and kosher salt.

5. Starting from the long end, roll the dough up tightly, creating one long snake of rolled-up dough.

6. Cut the dough snake in two equal parts.

7. Take one of these halves and coil into a round dough bundle.

8. Roll out the coiled dough bundle again into a flat, smooth, round pancake.

9. Heat a 10-inch heavy skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat, and oil it with a drizzle of canola of vegetable oil. When the oil shimmers, pick up the pancake dough and lay it gently in the pan. It should sizzle, but not burn. Cook for 2 minutes on one side.

10. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the other side, or until golden brown.

11. Cut the pancake into wedges with a pair of kitchen scissors, and serve immediately with soy sauce or another dipping sauce.


Ho Sick uhhh!

le hungry monkey

Low Fat OatFlax Walnut Choco Chip Cookies

 

Low Fat OatFlax Walnut Choco Chip Cookies

My big sis Jess likes oatmeal cookies, but she always wants me to make them with less butter, less fat, less sugar, etc. She has super bland taste buds -__-. We had a bag of almost stale walnuts so I chopped them up and added them in as well. So here's my attempt adapted from baking bites. 

Low Fat Oat Flax Walnut Choco Chip Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg

1/2 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup plain, unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the flax, applesauce and the vanilla extract. Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and the oats until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, flattening each cookie slightly. Bake for about 10-12 min. Cookies will be light brown at the edges when done.
Let cool on sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

GO GET HEALTHY!

le hungry monkey

Strawberry Mango Ice Cream Pie

It was Beth's birthday, and the third birthday dinner we had, so I decided to go simple and elegant with this wonderful Strawberry Mango Ice Cream Pie. It's great for a smaller audience since it's much smaller than a BIG ice cream cake.

I actually made this up myself! It's really easy!

Just take 3 flavors of ice cream: I used Strawberry Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Mango Sherbet.

Then get a graham cracker pie crust from the supermarket. I used Keebler's 9 inch Graham Cracker crust. Then layer the pie, freezing in between each layer for about 10 minutes. This allows the ice cream to set before you add the next layer.

Strawberry Mango Ice Cream Pie

1 Keebler's Graham Cracker Pie Crust- 9 inch

1 pint Haagen Daaz strawberry ice cream

1 pint Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream

1 pint Mango Sherbet

1 cup heavy whipping cream + 2 tbls powdered sugar

a couple of fresh strawberries sliced in half

Layer the bottom of the pie with mango sherbet. Freeze for 10 minutes. Then layer the strawberry ice cream, then the vanilla, freezing in between each layer. 

Whip up the cream until stiff peaks have formed. Place into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe onto the edge of the pie. Then add fresh strawberries on the border to garnish. 

Freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.

Enjoy! Happy Summer!

-B

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

I made this awhile ago, but thought I'd share it. It's just a simple Chocolate Chip cookie recipe with a bit of pecans added in for a nice nutty flavor. I really love pecans, just plain or with any of my baked goods! So here's the super simple recipe. I made it back in April when I came back home for Pacific Day. I was DYING from not baking for like 4 months, so I just grabbed some of the ingredients from the pantry and started baking...at like 10pm. Great midnight snack! Recipe was adapted from Picky Palate. She's great, go check her site out!

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) softened unsalted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and place your silicon mats or spray your cookie sheets.

2. Place softened butter in bowl of stand or electric mixer. 

3. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla beating until well combined. Slowly add dry ingredients, chocolate chips, beating until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, add a heaping scoop of dough onto the sheet. Press down onto the pan so that it won't be a big mountain of dough.  Bake for 15-18 minutes, until edges become golden brown. Remove and let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing. Remove from pans and serve with a glass of milk!

Makes 2 dozen cookies

LOVE,

le hungry monkey

Black and White Cupcakes with a SURPRISE!

Last week, I was asked by my mom's best friend to make some cupcakes for her friend's bridal shower. The theme was black and white, so I immediately thought chocolate and vanilla. However, I knew I wanted to add an extra POP to these cupcakes to make them even better. So I went on YouTube and searched black and white cupcake recipes. I've always been pretty lazy about making my own cupcakes from scratch because it takes a really long time, and usually I'm just doing a quick thing and grab a box of Pillsbury cake mix. This particular time, though, was my first paid job, so I decided to find something that would be a hit. Thank goodness for YT! I discovered a channel called Crumb Boss TV (http://www.youtube.com/user/steph91069) and found that they have UHH-mazing videos here on basically anything under the sun that you need to make. PLUS, they are super entertaining! I've been addicted to their videos so the recipe below is my attempt at making Crumb Boss' Oreo cupcakes with her famous Swiss Meringue Buttercream. All recipes were taken from http://www.crumbboss.com/.

Click here for the chocolate cupcake recipe. What I did was I added a Golden Oreo to represent the "white" part of the theme into the cupcake. This adds a really great surprise when the person bites into the cupcake!
Click here for the buttercream recipe. This recipe is super fattening but super worth it! She makes it really easy to follow her methods. Go out and try it!

I also made some candy chocolates using black and white Wilton Candy Melts. I bought these at Michaels and they were on sale for $2.49 each. I think it added a really nice touch to the top of the cupcake. Here is where you can go to find these molds. It's super simple, but takes a long time.
I also added some black jimmies and white sand sugar to decorate the cupcake.

Overall, I'm really happy with how these cupcakes turned out. The only thing that was disappointing was the the cupcakes turned out in different sizes because of the different cupcake pans. I discovered that the older cupcake pan tends to make the cupcake flatten out rather than puff up.

Oops! Another thing, I ended up with so many extra cupcakes because I had to make the recipe twice! The first time, Beth and I forgot to put the Oreo in! We were so upset.


Thanks for reading!
le hungry monkey