No-Bake Samoa Cookie Bars
One of the beautiful things about working where I work is that I am among ladies who love love love love to eat. Contrary to what one might think based on the LARGE amounts of cookies, dips, pies, mochi, cakes, baked brie, breads, salads, tarts, leftovers and soups us ladies ARE NOT the size of houses! Shocking!!
Another great thing about working here is we can usually talk the doctors into buying us all of the above treats, or at least the ingredients so I can make something. I have to say the only down fall to working here is that we don’t have an oven. I have however been known to ask Murphy’s Market, the store across the street from us to bake and make us our “must have” snacks. Yes, I have even had them deep fry candy bars for us. That’s how we roll!! Today, FOOD FRIDAY we persuaded, bribed and threatened Dr. Appy, until he bought the ingredients for my much needed FOOD FRIDAY dessert! NO BAKE SAMOA COOKIE BARS!!!
Cinnamon Roll Shooters in Cake Form
I caught myself licking my computer screen when I first saw this cake in my RSS feed. When I realized what I was doing, I quickly wiped my screen and thanked the Lord no one caught me.
A few years ago I had come across this recipe Have Your Cake…
I subscribe to Grace’s RSS feed and think you should as well. She takes BEYOND AMAZING photos. Everyone of her photos makes me feel like I am about to bite into the cake, cookies, or bar. She takes me there, if you know what I mean. She is so good that I feel it is only right to give her credit for my increasing skirt size. 
When My coworker came into day she said that she had been reading some food blogs and had realized that it is a very popular cake in the south with just a few variations, some add vanilla to the icing, some do layers with the cake and topping and some swirl. I preferably like to add more icing, since I am fond of frosting, icings, and glazes. My hips prove it.
Cinnamon Roll Shooters in Cake Form
from asoutherngrace.blogspot.com
Ingredients
Cake:
1 box of yellow cake mix
4 eggs
¾ cup oil
1 cup sour cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3-4 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 13×9-inch baking pan.
Mix the first four ingredients by hand and pour into the prepared pan.
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the cake batter. Swirl decoratively with a knife.
Bake for 40-50 minutes and let it cool briefly before adding the icing.
To make the icing, stir together the sugar and milk until smooth, adding more milk as needed. Pour over the warm cake.
bake eat and repeat!
Like I said you can add some vanilla to your icing, double your icing, layer your cake and sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon….choose your own adventure!
~ Have a happy mouth!
Almond Joy Cheesecake
Despite my pleas and prayers for my dear friend Lage to make this for me, we made it together. Typically when I make a cheesecake I let it set over night and slice a small or not so small piece for breakfast. Today was a little different though. I decided to opt out of having some for breakfast and wait until my friends arrived after lunch for the tasting.
I have to say I read the reviews AFTER I made the cheesecake so I was a bit uneasy about not having tried it before my friends showed up. There were some horrible reviews from http://www.epicurious.com/ . Then again there were some wonderful reviews as well. This made me nervous!! I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Friends arrived coffee was made and we let indulgence over take us. I had my fingers crossed…. All was well!
This cheesecake is ginormo! It will feed the multitudes!!
Almond Joy Cheesecake
adapted from Bon Appétit | February 1998
Ingredients
Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (about 2 ounces)
1/4 cup Splenda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Filling
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup Sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1 tablespoon coconut extract
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/c mini chocolate chips
Glaze
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
For crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap outside of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with foil. FInely grind cracker crumbs, coconut, almonds and sugar in processor. Add butter; process until moist crumbs form. Press mixture onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of pan. Bake crust until set and beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. I forgot to add the almonds to the food processor…:) so after the crust came out of the oven we just sprinkled some on the crust.
For filling: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Mix in coconut and extract . Fold in almonds and mini chocolate chips. Transfer filling to crust. Bake until cake is puffed and no longer moves when pan is shaken, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely on rack.
For glaze: Combine 1 cup chocolate chips, cream and vanilla in small saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until smooth. Cool until glaze begins to thicken but can still be poured, about 30 minutes. Pour glaze over cooled cake; spread evenly. Chill cake overnight.
Run small knife around sides of cake to loosen. Release pan sides
I did use splenda instead of sugar and I added chocolate to the filling.
~ Have a happy mouth!
Read More: www.epicurious.com
