White Chocolate Peanut Butter Funfetti Cake Balls

I’ve got probs.

First of all, I haven’t jumped on the pumpkin bandwagon and I’m still making summery, Funfetti-colored cake balls. I have already had: pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin coffee creamer, Starbucks pumpkin latte, store-bought pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin tea, but I have yet to bake pumpkin-flavored food.  (Actually, I did, but I forgot to take pictures so it doesn’t count.)

Second of all, I may have overdone it here with the triple flavor combo, but it worked.

So, yeah, I’ve got probs, but it’s okay because I made you cake balls.

These are just like regular cake balls, but instead of frosting, you use melted white chocolate and peanut butter.  Yum, yum, yum.

 White Chocolate Peanut Butter Funfetti Cake Balls

Ingredients

• 1 pre-made cake (Use a box mix or your own recipe)
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter, melted  (Preferably Peanut Butter & Co Peanut Butter!)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted
• 1 (3 ounce) bar chocolate flavored almond bark

Directions

1. Crumble your pre-made cake in a bowl.
2. Mix in melted peanut butter and white chocolate.
3. Melt chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
4. Use a small scoop to form balls of the chocolate cake mixture.
5. Dip the balls in chocolate using a toothpick or fork to hold them. Place on waxed paper to set.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

I just need to tell you guys that Brandy is awesome because without her, I would have never discovered these gems.

I made these cheesecake cookie bars for my family a couple of weeks ago and they were devoured in a day.  Mind you, my family consists of my mom and dad… that’s it.  We have dessert issues.

If you like cheesecake, you’ll like these.  If you like cookie dough, you’ll like these.  If you like them both, you’ll love these.

Also, to add to how happy these cheesecake bars make me, I’m just going to post some more things that are making me happy right now  (*Note: the only pictures that are mine are the cheesecake bar photos):

 

What are you loving right now??

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
From:  Brandy

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:

• 10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8″ square baking pan with parchment paper or foil allowing a little overhang and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Leave your oven on while you prepare the dough.

3. While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside. (*Note: This mixture is going to be dry…that’s okay. You’re going to crumble it on top of the cheesecake layer.)

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Use your hands to form “clumps” of the cookie dough, smoosh it together and flatten it out.  Distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Be sure to use all of the dough.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Chill in refrigerator overnight or for at least a couple hours.

6. Lift the bars out by the overhang and cut into squares for serving.

Chocolate 7 Layer Bars

I’ve  featured these 7 Layer Bars on my blog before, but just in case you didn’t see them I’m posting them again.

These aren’t the ordinary 7 Layer Bars.  They’re close, but just different enough to make a huge difference.

If you’re trying to impress a large crowd, but don’t have much time on your hands, this is the dessert for you.  I can’t believe how good these are considering how extremely easy they are to make.

What’s your “go-to” quick dessert recipe?

Chocolate 7 Layer Bars

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup Chocolate Animal Crackers, crushed to a fine crumble (like graham  cracker crumbs)
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup nuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
2. Mix animal cookie crumbs and melted butter until it becomes dough like.
3. Press the “dough” into the bottom of a 9×13 in dish.
4. Layer the coconut and chips in order given in ingredients list.
5. Pour sweetened condensed milk over all.
6. Top with nuts.
7. Do not mix together.
8. Bake for 25 minutes.

White Chocolate Butterscotch Bark and {8 Ways to Drive Free Traffic to Your Blog}

It can be a tough blogosphere out there if your blog isn’t getting any traffic.

Trust me, I know how frustrating it is.

When I started out a little over a year ago, I made this blog expecting to wake up with tons of comments and visitors.  Obviously, that didn’t happen and I woke up discouraged.  But, I kept doing it because it’s what I love to do.

That would be my one word of advice to any blogger starting out: Don’t give up.

If you’re discouraged like I was, here are some tips I’ve learned along the way to help drive traffic to my blog:

1.  Tastespotting and foodgawker.  If you’re a food blogger, I would suggest taking a photography course or doing some research on how to take professional food photographs. Getting your photos accepted on these two websites will benefit your traffic big time.

2.  Post Often. The more you write, the better your chances of getting traffic are.  First of all, the more you write, the more people have to read… duh.  Second of all, search engines will pick up your keywords and send viewers to your site.

3.  Join sites like Reddit.  Don’t feel bad submitting your own content to Reddit every once in a while; there’s no harm in that.  It will get you recognized and get your blog out there.  However, do not post every single post you write on Reddit.

4.  Add a StumbleUpon widget to your website.  Check out StumbleUpon’s audience tools.  They’re super helpful.  Most importantly, add their badge to your site, just in case you have a few sweet readers who want to submit your website.  All of their tools are very beneficial.

5.  Google AdWords: Keyword Tool.   When you’re writing a blog post, put a few of the words into the keyword tool and see if there are any words you could use that would draw more traffic to your blog.  Use those words often: in the title, in the actual post, in the labels.

6.  Advertise yourself on Twitter and Facebook.  When you make a new post, tweet about it, make a status about it, email people about it.  Do what you’ve gotta do to get your blog name out there.

7.  Guest Posts.  Ask other blogger’s if you can write a guest post for them.  You’d be surprised how often they say yes.  And if they don’t say yes, don’t worry about it, at least you tried.

8.  Comment.  Guarantee you if you comment on 50 other blogs, you’ll at least get 20 replies back.  It’s as simple as that.  You can’t expect people to write on your blog if you don’t write on theirs.

What do you guys do to drive traffic to your blog?


I made this Butterscotch Bark because butterscotch chips and butterscotch “discs” were on sale at Wal-Mart and I got a little sale happy.  I didn’t really need them, but I figured since they were on sale, I should probably buy them.  Luckily, they make for a pretty good bark.  I love making bark because it’s so adaptable.  If you don’t like butterscotch, you can add whatever you want and it will still be good.

White Chocolate Butterscotch Bark


Ingredients:
1 package (12 ounce) white chocolate chips
1/2 package (6 ounce) butterscotch chips
24 butterscotch “discs”, chopped to small pieces
*Optional:
1/2 cup chocolate Cheerios
1/2 cup chocolate frosting, melted
Sprinkles

1.  Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave or with a double broiler.  Poor onto a piece of parchment paper and spread out with a spatula.
2.  Melt the butterscotch chips and drizzle over the white chocolate.
3.  Sprinkle the chopped butterscotch chips evenly over the top.
4.  Sprinkle and drizzle the optional toppings over the top.
5.  Let cool until the chocolate has hardened.
6.  Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.