Yummy Oreo Dessert Graveyard

As much as I love a cute themed food, I have a REALLY hard time spending a bunch of time on something that looks great and tastes just ok only to have it demolished immediately! So, I just kinda took one of my favorite recipes that I knew would taste good and decorated accordingly!
The dessert is like a layered ice cream sundae for a group. One of my personal favorites that I have a REALLY hard time staying out of when it's in my freezer.

Dessert:
1 pkg oreos
1 jar hot fudge sauce
1 carton (1 1/2- 2 qt) ice cream, slightly softened {my fav is mint chip, but vanilla is what it originally calls for}
1 carton Cool Whip

Crush the Oreo's {I use my food processor} and cover the bottom of a 9x13" pan with half the Oreo's. Cut the ice cream into 1" slices and place on top of the cookie crumbs. Warm the fudge sauce according to package directions and spread on top of the ice cream. Spread the Cool Whip over that. Sprinkle with remaining Oreo crumbs. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until frozen through.

Graveyard decorations:
Tombstones: I just used graham crackers that I'd crumbled off the corners to round them out then used a toothpick to write RIP on some with frosting. I had cinnamon graham crackers so, I alternated the cinnamon side and plain sides for variety.

Ghosts: The two ghosts in the front are blobs of cool whip with chocolate chips for eyes. M&M's would work well, too. The ghost in the back is a Dum Dum sucker with 2 pieces of toilet paper (CLEAN!!) tied with a ribbon and a face drawn in.

Gummy worms at random always add an instant element of Halloween.

The Fence: Pull-a-part licorice held together with toothpicks.

Graveyard Shots

Simple, creepy, full of sugar- Everything Halloween should be! Shaunae Pomeroy sure knows how to get to the heart of things! I always bring home leftovers, and this was the first thing my 4 year old went after!

2 boxes instant chocolate pudding mix
1 box Oreo cookies
gummy worms


Crumble Oreo's by chopping with a knife, sticking in a food processor, or placing in a Ziploc bag and mashing with a rolling pin. Set aside. Prepare pudding mix according to pkg directions, pouring into small cups. Squish a worm half way into pudding and sprinkle Oreo around the worm. Let set 5 minutes. Keep refrigerated.

Texas Sheet Cake

The beauty of gummy worms is you can turn something tasty, but not creepy, into a great Halloween treat just by adding one or two of these bad boys. That's how this cake from Trina Bowers came to be at our Halloween night, anyway! I gotta say, I've had lots of sheet cake, but this was my favorite yet! It was thick and fudgy, somewhere between cake and brownies- just how I like it!


CAKE:
2 C sugar
2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 C margarine
4 heaping tbsp cocoa
1 C water
1/2 C buttermilk {you can use 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice in a 1/2 C container and add whole milk until full. Let set a few minutes}
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla


Mix dry ingredients together; set aside. Bring margarine, cocoa and water to a boil and pour hot over dry ingredients. Mix together and add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Pour into greased and floured jelly roll pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.


FROSTING:
1/2 C margarine
4 heaping tbsp cocoa
5 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 lg box powdered sugar

While cake is baking, bring first 3 ingredients to a boil add vanilla and beat in powdered sugar. Pour and spread over cake while warm.

Red Velvet Cupcake Eyeballs

I'm sure I've seen this idea a hundred times, though no particular one prompted these cupcakes. It's not a new idea, by any means, but I've added an extra dose of macabre by making them on red velvet cupcakes. That way, if the eyeballs aren't scary enough, the way your kids look after eating them will be! Case in point:

The bath tub looked like a crime scene after this! As if that weren't enough, this is by far my favorite red velvet recipe with a yummy cream cheese icing and surprise filling. Also makes an excellent valentines day treat- minus the optical orb.

CUPCAKES:

1 pkg red velvet cake mix, plus ingredients as called for on box

1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding mix

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 C butter or margarine, softened

1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)

1 C thawed Cool Whip

Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes, blending dry pudding mix into batter before spooning into muffin cups lined with cupcake paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Cool. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a hole in the top of each cupcake.

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with a mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Whisk in cool whip. Spoon 1 1/2 C into sandwich or qt sized Ziploc bag; seal bag. Cut small corner off bottom of bag. Insert tip of bag into the holes on the cupcakes and pipe about 1 tbsp frosting into center of cupcake. Frost cupcakes with remaining frosting.

EYEBALLS:
I used LifeSaver gummies for the irises and upside down chocolate chips for the pupils. I used decorating frosting to pipe the veins.

Valentines day:

Top with shaved white chocolate curls or sprinkle red decorating sugar over a stencil to make a heart.

Peppermint Poke Cake

Chocolate is a miracle drug. Seriously, is there a better band-aid in all the world? Sure, it may not fix any problems, but it sure does help you feel better faster! This cake is like one giant, gooey york peppermint patty first-aid kit that will have you eating right out of the pan and back on cloud nine. Not that I've been there... this afternoon... The white you see in the cake is a minty white chocolate pudding that seeps all throughout the cake making it super ooey-gooey-lick-the-plate-clean good! Plus, yet again, easy peasy! From the back of a cake mix box years ago:

1 box double fudge or Devil's food cake
2 C milk
1 (6 oz) box instant white chocolate pudding ***
1 can (12-16 oz) whipped milk chocolate frosting
1 1/2 tsp peppermint flavoring, divided
Chocolate covered mint candies, chopped

Make cake in 9x13" pan as directed on box. Let cool 15 minutes. Poke holes every 1/4- 1/2" with the handle of a wooden spoon. Mix milk, pudding and 1 tsp peppermint and slowly pour over top of cake. Refrigerate 2 hours. Mix 1/2 tsp peppermint into frosting and carefully spread over cold cake. Sprinkle with chopped candy pieces. Serve with a shovel. Keep refrigerated.

*** I had a hard time finding a 6 oz box of white chocolate pudding, so I used two 3.8{ish} oz boxes. IF you do this, be sure to up the milk to 2 1/2 C milk or the pudding mixture will be too thick to pour into the holes and instead you'll end up with a layer on top of the cake. Again, allow my experience to be your lesson!

Samoa Brownies

These brownies were featured on my cousins' blog Sixsistersstuff and I'd been dying to try it. Ya know those tasty Samoa Girl Scout cookies? They are Hubbs favorite, so I was excited to try it for him. It was a super simple recipe and should have been cake to make, but that's not my style! It was a disaster from the beginning! I thought I had everything I needed and I was so wrong. I didn't have brownie mix, like it called for, so I just made some from scratch- about 3 times more effort! Then I realized that I needed 2 bags of caramel and I only had one! Blah. But by now, I was committed, so I pulled out my recipe for homemade caramel. Except that called for Karo syrup. Which I also did not have. Two seconds from giving up, I found another caramel recipe that says you can substitute honey for the Karo. Like I said. Disaster. Finally, we made everything that didn't need to be home made and put it all together with the substitute ingredients... Blah. Anyway, I was so frustrated I'm not even going to repost the recipe. I'm just going to give you the link here. It was rich and chewy and oh, so good, but I'm betting it would be even better had it been done right! I'm not giving up on you, Samoa's!!

Caramel Apple (Nachos)

We LOVE caramel apples around here. LOVE. So when I saw a few different ideas for them, I combined them to this amazing new tradition! The thought behind doing it like nachos was that it would be less messy for kids. I think it just moves the mess from your face to your fingers! But it sure is easier to serve up!

Caramel:

1 bag Kraft caramels

1 tbsp milk

Unwrap caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl with milk. Microwave on high for 1 minute then stir. Microwave an additional minute or until caramel is smooth.

White Chocolate :

6 oz white chocolate or white candy coating

Microwave on high 30 seconds, stir, microwave an additional 30 seconds or until smooth.

Chocolate:

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz)

1 tbsp shortening

Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds; stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds or until smooth.

For Nachos:

Wash and dry 4-6 Granny Smith apples. Core, slice, then arrange them on a platter. Drizzle toppings over apples slices making sure to get each slice. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar{ I usually do about two to three parts sugar, one part cinnamon}.

For Dipped apples:
Wash and dry{or the toppings won't stick} 4-6 Granny Smith apples. Dip in melted caramel then spin slowly over the bowl allowing the caramel to cool on the apple a bit. Place on a piece of waxed paper and allow to set in the fridge while you prepare the white chocolate layer. Carefully remove from the waxed paper by twisting. Dip in the white chocolate, again twisting over the bowl until it stops dripping. Place on clean waxed paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Allow to cool and set while preparing chocolate. Drizzle chocolate over the white chocolate and cool.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe several years ago and it is the easiest cookie recipe in existence. It helps that it is so freaking good! Moist. Chewy. Flavorful. 3 ingredients.

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 box spice cake mix

1 C chocolate chips

2 tbsp molasses(optional)

Preheat oven to 3 . Mix all ingredients together. Drop by tablespoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes.

I forgot the molasses the night of the exchange, but I think it adds a little bit extra...

Easy Oreo Fudge Ice Cream Cake

My son just turned 4 {yikes!} and we had a pirate party for him. I had been eyeing this recipe forever and this presented a perfect opportunity!

Ta-da! Ok, so it may not have been perfect, but you can't really take your time to decorate an ICE CREAM cake! I'm really more about the taste of a dessert then how perfectly it is presented. The good news for you is that the recipe should be a little easier to put together and be all white instead of the brown and white I needed. PLUS it was really, really, really, really good. Really. In fact, the leftovers went home for the dad's! Thanks, again, Kraft!

1/2 C hot fudge sauce, slightly warmed

1 (8 oz) tub whipped topping, thawed and divided

1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding

8 oreo cookies, chopped

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Pour fudge topping into medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup cool whip. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 minutes. Stir in chopped cookies. Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches long ends side to side on a 24" long piece of foil; top with half the whipped topping mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining sandwiches. Frost top and sides with remaining whipped topping. Bring up foil on both sides; double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet. Freeze 4 hours.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

We used to live pretty close to a Chili's{and no other restaurant}, so occasionally we'd get dinner there. I don't know if we ever went there without picking up their Molten Chocolate Cake for dessert. We sometimes went there JUST for that dessert! I don't remember where I found this recipe, but I was over joyed that I could stay in the comfort of my own home and have this fudgy, gooey, thigh-enlarging treat at any time! Just saved myself a $6.29 habit! This comes together quick and with the convenient individual sizes, it's a favorite for FHE...

6 oz bittersweet chocolate{This is 1 C of chocolate chips. I don't usually have this on hand, so I usually use semi-sweet. It works fine, but go with bittersweet if you have the choice}
1/2 C butter
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
3/4 C flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray the wells of a floral cupcake pan with Pam. Set pan aside. Coarsely chop chocolate and combine with butter in a medium bowl. Microwave on high 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring after each 30 second interval. Remove chocolate mix from microwave; cool 5 minutes. Whisk eggs and egg yolks into chocolate mixture. Add sugar and flour; mix just until moist.

Divide batter equally among wells. Bake 13-14 minutes or until outside edges are just set and center is still liquid. Do NOT over bake{or you'll just have cupcakes!}. When done, immediately, carefully invert pan. Gently press on tops and sides of wells to loosen cakes. Slowly lift pan, checking to see that all cakes have released before lifting pan completely. Serve with ice cream.

Better-than-Sex/Anything cake

Call it what you will, it's probably better than that, too! I've heard several name for this particular dessert, and had several variations of it, but this has been my favorite so far! Way to go, Jayme Welly!

1 pkg devils food cake mix

1/2 (14 oz can) sweetened condensed milk

6 oz caramel ice cream topping

3 Heath or Skor Chocolate bars, chopped

1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Bake according to the directions on the box. Once it's cooled down, poke holes ALL over the cake. Drizzle your condensed milk over the cake. Sprinkle 1/2 of the chocolate bars over the cake and drizzle with 1/2 the caramel topping. Cover with whipped cream. Sprinkle/drizzle with the remaining caramel and chocolate bars. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cherry O'lets

This recipe is very dear to us. Well, to Matt. This was one of those treats his grandma would make for him. I'd heard him talk about it once or twice before. It wasn't until she recently passed that I heard him talking about it in a way that attached so much fondness and memories of her. That's when I decided to hunt down the recipe from his cousin. Got it just in time to surprise him with it for his birthday! So this was his 'birthday cake' this year. I'm not typically a fan of cherries, but I actually really like this! Cherries aren't for everyone, but if you like anything cherry, you'd probably really enjoy this. Tastes very much like a 9x13" pan of The Big Cherry candy. The recipe was missing a step or two, so this is the recipe with what I did to fill in the difference.

2 C sugar
2/3 C evaporated milk
12 large marshmallows
1/2 C margarine
3/4-1 tsp salt
10 oz vanilla chips
2 tbsp cherry flavoring
Small bottle Maraschino cherries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz milk chocolate chips
3/4 C peanut butter

1 lb salted peanuts (no skins) grated or chopped

Combine sugar, milk, marshmallows, margarine and salt. Heat on medium until it comes to a full boil. Boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla chips, cherry flavoring, chopped cherries and vanilla {actually, the vanilla is listed in the ingredient list, but not which layer it should be in. This is Matt's best guess...}. Spread in 9x13" pan lined with waxed paper. Chill for about an hour{this was vague, but the more it's chilled the easier it is to transport}.

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and peanuts. Spread 1/2 of mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan. Flip chilled cherry mixture onto top of chocolate layer, spread other half of chocolate mixture over top. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

Janece Perkins brought this yummy dessert recipe that she found on RealMomKitchen. You have to be careful with peanut butter & chocolate recipes because they can very easily become too rich. This had all the right balance so there was plenty of the moist chocolate and rich peanut butter, yet didn't stick to the roof of your mouth!


1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownie mix
ingredients called for on box


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 9x13" pan with cooking spray or shortening.(For easier cutting, line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only of pan.)
In medium bowl, stir brownie mix, pouch of chocolate syrup, water, oil and eggs until well blended. Spread in pan. bake 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Filling:
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2-3/4 C creamy peanut butter
2 C powdered sugar
2 tsp milk

In medium bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over brownie base.

Topping:
1 C semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 C butter
In small, microwavable bowl, microwave topping ingredients uncovered on high 30-60 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Store covered in refrigerator. (Best if taken out of the fridge about 15 minutes before serving so the chocolate topping has time to soften for cutting.)

3 Layer Brownies

These were a tasty surprise. A layer of marshmallow creme and a layer of peanut buttery chocolate with crispy rice all over a moist brownie. I love the assortment of textures in this- creamy, chewy, crispy, ooey gooey! This is from Janna Ellsworth.

1st & 2nd Layers:

1 box brownies

Ingredients as called for on box

10 oz mini marshmallows

Prepare and bake brownies according to directions on box. Remove from oven and cover with marshmallows. Return to oven for 2-3 minutes.

3rd layer:

1 1/2 C chocolate chips

1 C peanut butter

1 tbsp butter

2 C Rice Krispies

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Stir in Rice Krispies. Spread over brownies and cool completely.

Chocolate Strawberry Pudding Cake

I signed up to bring a dessert and since the Raspberry Crunch Salad is called salad, I thought I better make an unmistakable dessert as well! What's wrong with that? This mostly looks like a blob once it's served, but could potentially be really pretty in the bowl. It makes a TON so don't try to put it in a triffle bowl- Use a punch bowl. The pudding soaks into the cake bites and makes for the most moist and gooey chocolate cake goodness ever. This is one of my top 5 desserts. What do you think?

1 box Devil's Food cake mix & called for ingredients
4 C milk
4 tsp strawberry jam
2 boxes (4 serving size each)white chocolate pudding mix
1 C chocolate syrup
30 oz strawberries, sliced
1 container (8 oz) cool whip

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13" pan. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box. Run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In a large bowl, mix milk and jam. With wire whisk, beat pudding mix into milk about 2 minutes or until blended. Cut cooled cake into 1" pieces. Arrange half of pieces in 3 1/2 quart serving bowl. Drizzle 1/2 C of the syrup over the cake pieces. Spread 2 cups of the pudding. Reserve 1/2 cup of strawberries for garnish; arrange remaining strawberries over pudding. Add remaining cake pieces. Top with remaining chocolate syrup, remaining pudding and the whipped topping. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled.

Garnish dessert with strawberries {I dipped mine in chocolate- 1 C chocolate chips melted with 1 tbsp of shortening}. Store covered in refrigerator.

The original recipe called for mandarin oranges instead of strawberries. I haven't tried that yet, but I bet it'd be good, too. BTW- don't use raspberry jam instead of strawberry; raspberry makes the pudding a unappealing purple-gray color.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

Wow. That's a bad picture. I made this for a Memorial Day BBQ- Gotta love those Monday holiday BBQ's! To be fair, this gem was a sliver of the last piece at the end of the evening when I remembered I needed a picture. The last piece, split in half! The only alternative was this:

For the failure it was photogenically, it certainly was not a failure to the palate! Impressive, especially since I did my best to mess it up. Seriously, even though it's really not a difficult recipe, I was having a crazy hard time today for some reason. So, if you were one of the ones who got some today, you'll probably far surpass my offering just by having the plan to make this! Yikes! Enough about how bad this turned out- It is actually one of my favorite recipes! I mean, c'mon: White chocolate- check. Raspberry- check. Cheesecake- Check! Eat it all day long- Check! Oops, did I just admit to that? ;)

12 oreo cookies, finely crushed

2 tbsp butter, melted

3 oz white chocolate, divided{1 square = 1 oz}

2 pkgs cream cheese, softened

1/2 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/4- 1/3 C preserves {I like it thick!}

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 8" square pan. Melt 2 oz of chocolate as directed on package. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with a mixer until well blended. Add melted chocolate, mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust. Bake 25-28 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool 5 minutes.

Warm preserves in microwave 30 seconds or just until soft. Spread over cheesecake. Melt remaining chocolate and drizzle over preserves. Cool cheesecake. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Just for giggles, I'm going to share with you how my actual attempt at this went today. {#1}For posterity and in hopes you will all understand {#2} I make as many mistakes as anyone else and {#3} most things will survive even if it's not quite right...

For starters, I only had frozen cream cheese {yeah, who does that?? Me. For occasions just like this.} and since I decided to make this about 2 hours after I needed to start making it, it was not thawed. Nuke it! Still, not quite the same. But I press on, doubling the recipe cause this only makes an 8" pan. Seriously, what's everyone else going to eat? So I kinda burnt the white chocolate, but stir it enough that the chunks of burnt chocolate mostly dissolve making the chocolate slightly grainy. Add sugar, vanilla, now eggs one at a time{whew, took 4 eggs, had exactly 4 eggs! Lucky break!}, double check I've properly doubled everything- OH CRAP! I didn't double the cream cheese! Ya know, from 5 steps ago! So back to the freezer {I'm out of cream cheese, now, BTW}, pop in the microwave, ok, that's 'thawed' enough. If thawed means mostly not frozen... Mix that in, pour over the crust and bake. My oven sucks, so about 15 minutes after it should have been done, it finally was. Look at that, cool and chill for 4 hours? Well, party starts in 1 & 1/2, so back to the freezer! Oops, I'm out of white chocolate {man, this cleaned my cupboards!}. Guess we'll just drizzle semi-sweet chocolate over top. Nuke that. Kids wake up from napping, so I stir the mostly melted chocolate as I come talk to my son and SPLASH! Melted chocolate on my carpet! *SIGH* Seriously debate crawling back into bed. Nah, then it's just me and the kids and there is no 'crawling back to bed' with two little ones jumping and crawling all over! Luckily, it came out. Whew. Done. Did it seriously take me almost 2 hours to make this?? So much for Mom Time during nap time... Wait! There's more... It was still not quite chilled by the time the dessert comes out. Yuummm... room temperature cheesecake! It's just not right! One of these days I'll have a do-over and get good pictures and prove that, even as good as everyone thought it was, it should actually be much better! Ranting done. Why are you still reading this??? I'm going to bed. ;)

Georgie Porgie

This came from a friend of my mom's. We loved this so much as kids that we would ask for it for our birthdays. First is the original recipe, followed by the mint rendition I made.

Original Georgie Porgie

Crust:

1 C flour

1/2 C margarine or butter

1 C nuts, chopped

Blend flour, butter, and nuts with a pastry cutter. Press into 9x13" pan. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.

We also like to do an oreo crust of about 16 crushed oreos mixed with 2 tbsp melted butter and pressed into the bottom of a 9x13. Refrigerate while preparing the next layer.

First Layer:

1 C powdered sugar

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1 12 oz carton cool whip, divided

Mix powdered sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Stir in 3 cups of the cool whip. Spread over the cooled crust. Chill.

Second layer:

1 (6oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding

1 (6 oz) pkg instant vanilla pudding

4 C milk

Mix pudding mixes with milk. Pour over cream cheese layer. Chill.

Third Layer:

When pudding is set, spread remaining cool whip over top. Sprinkle with grated candy bar or nuts if desired. Chill for 2 hours or until served.

Mint Variation

Crust- Use mint oreos instead of the regular oreo crust. There is a mint chocolate pudding mix you can use or about 1/2- 1 tsp mint flavoring in the pudding layer. I chopped up about 15 andes mints and added that to the pudding layer. Then I used a potato peeler to shave a couple andes mints for decoration.

Fruit Topped Triple Chocolate Pizza

THE pizza from the party... One I made a while ago with regular chocolate chip cookie dough. Closer to how the recipe dictates...

I made this for a gathering of some friends the other night and was bombarded with requests for the recipe. Even my hubby's cop buddy who got some of the leftovers requested it! And for good reason- it's hard to fail with cookies, cream cheese, fruit, or chocolate. But put them all together... Yeowsa! I was actually starting to make Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies for the party, then I remembered this recipe and used the cookie dough to make this instead. Is it terrible that I was on the fence about going (it started a half hour before my baby goes to bed. I LOVE when my baby goes to bed....) until I realized it'd give me an excuse to make this? I actually have two variations, an easier one, and one that takes a half second more effort but is just a tad better. The one I followed was:

Fruit Topped Triple Chocolate Pizza

1 (18 oz) pkg chocolate chip cookie dough (Alexa's recipe here)

2 squares white baking chocolate

2 tbsp milk

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 C powdered sugar

1 C thawed whipped topping

12-16 oz of strawberries, cut in half

1 can mandarin orange segments, drained

1/4 C semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape cookie dough into a ball and place in center of a large pizza stone. Using a lightly floured rolling pin {aka, my fingers...} roll dough into a 12 inch circle, about 1/4" thick. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set. Cookie will be soft, do not over bake. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes. Loosen cookie from pizza stone. Cool completely.

Place white chocolate and milk in small mixing bowl. Microwave on high 1 minute. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Microwave and additional 10-20 seconds if necessary. Cool slightly. In separate bowl combine cream cheese and powdered sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in white chocolate mixture; mix until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over cookie. Arrange strawberries and oranges over cream cheese mixture. Microwave chocolate chips and oil on high 30 seconds or until chocolate is melted and smooth. Drizzle over fruit. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

My variation

I used this recipe for the crust and made it in a greased cookie sheet, baked for about 7 minutes or until edges were set. I doubled the topping since it was such a large surface and then I added kiwi with the fruit. I think it the cookie base was so crumbly that night because it had been out of the fridge for a bit. After I put the leftovers back in the fridge, the cookie stayed firm as I kept piecing away at it....

Slightly easier, brownie version
1 box brownie mix

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/3 C sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 C fresh strawberries, sliced

1 C blueberries, rinsed

1 C raspberries

1/2 C apple jelly

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 12 inch pizza pan. Prepare brownie mix according to directions on the package. Spread in the pan. Bake 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2" from edge comes out clean. Cool completely.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until smooth. Spread evenly over the brownie. Arrange berries over the cream cheese{these berries make a lovely American flag design.}. Stir jelly until smooth; brush over the berries. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Refrigerate leftovers.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were one of my favorite cookies growing up. I hadn't made them for a long time, I guess subconsciously I figured they were like Lucky Charms- great when I was a kid, but my tastes had outgrown. I made them not too long ago with my son and, MAN, was I wrong! Still amazing! Seriously, I just ate two. I think they're even better chilled, which is really nice as we head into Arizona summers. This is what I made my cookie pizza with. I made an entire cookie sheet sized cookie pizza and still had enough dough for about 3 dozen cookies.

3/4 C butter
1 C shortening
3 C sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C flour
1 C cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. Do NOT over bake. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

These are also amazing with peanut butter or mint chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips. They also make and EXCEPTIONAL ice cream cookie sandwich.

Snowball Cake/ Chick cupcakes

I made these for Easter, then totally forgot to post the recipe! Good thing we're doing desserts on Wednesday... Maybe no one will notice the little yellow bird part of this... I saw the idea for these cupcakes on a blog and thought they were super cute. I always envy adorable cupcakes, I just can't bring myself to spend 5 minutes decorating ONE cupcake just to have some under-appreciative person devour it, then comment on it's taste. The chicks were super cute AND super simple. I, however, can't be content with just plain cupcakes, so I took one of our favorite recipes and adjusted it for cupcakes. Notice the inside of the cupcakes have a little white filling. Cream cheese filling. Pudding frosting. When this is done as a cake it comes out looking like an overgrown Snowball- the nasty Ding Dong kind, not the throw-in-your-face kind. But it tastes SOOO much better. To be honest, I don't think the cupcakes came out quite as good as I'd hoped, but still, addictively yummy. First the cake recipe, then the chick decorating instructions.

1 pkg devil's food cake mix

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened (I always use Neufchatel- a lower fat cream cheese)

1 egg

2 tbsp sugar

1 (3.4 oz)pkg instant vanilla pudding

1/4 C powdered sugar

1 C cold milk

2 C thawed Cool Whip

1 C flake coconut

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake batter in 2 1/2 qt OVENPROOF bowl, as directed on package; scrape sides of bowl (since you cook the cake in this bowl, scraping the sides helps keep it from sticking when you're done). In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, egg and granulated sugar until well blended. Spoon into center of batter in bowl.

Bake 1 hour 5 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool bowl 10 minutes. Loosen cake from bowl with a knife or spatula, then, using potholders if necessary, invert onto wire rack. Remove bowl and cool cake completely.

Meanwhile, beat pudding mix, powdered sugar and milk in medium bowl with a whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in Cool Whip (this will still have a slight yellowish tint to it. Don't worry, we'll cover it with coconut which will make it look less like... yellow snow.). Refrigerate until ready to use.

Once it's cooled, place cake on a plate and frost with the pudding mix. Cover with coconut. Keep refrigerated.

Cupcakes:

For the cupcakes I just poured the cake batter into a cupcake pan lined with cupcake paper then dropped a dollop of the filling in the center. In the cake, the filling sinks almost to the bottom of the bowl, so when it's inverted it's about 1/2" from the top. The filling doesn't really go anywhere with the cupcakes, so it's just cream cheese in the middle. I used the same frosting because it's so good and it has a yellowish tint to it already. If you use a different frosting, add a few drops of yellow food coloring to it. Add a few drops to the coconut as well and mix well. Try not to MASH the food coloring in. Not as cute. Seems like that would be obvious. To most... Dip, sprinkle or dump the coconut on each cupcake. The eyes are mini M&M's. The beaks are orange starbursts cut into quarters and smooshed into shape. Have fun!