Pinteresting Recipes: Cake Batter Fudge and Chocolate Fudge

Cake Batter Fudge 

&

Chocolate Fudge

Cake Batter Fudge

Well I saw a Pin last week... Cake Batter Fudge, and had to run on over to Baked From a Box (blog) to get the whole story. The recipe seemed very straight forward: yellow cake mix, butter, milk, and confectioners’ sugar (about a cup of each dry and a 1/4 a cup of each wet). Cook time? 2 minutes in the microwave, and an hour in the fridge. Here is the exact recipe:

Ingredients
    1 cup yellow cake mix
    1 cup confectioners’ sugar
    1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter or margarine, cut into small squares
    1/4 cup milk or 1/8 cup soy milk

    sprinkles (optional)

Instructions
    Mix cake mix and icing sugar in microwave-safe bowl. Add butter and milk. Don’t stir.
    Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir immediately until completely combined. Add sprinkles.
    Do not overmix as sprinkle color may bleed.

    Spread into greased pan. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

* Makes one 6 x 6” container, or double for an 8 x 8” pan.
** Notes: If the batter comes out too runny, stir in about 1 tsp or sugar or cake mix at a time until stiff. If too thick to stir in all components, slowly add 1/2 tsp of milk at a time, but batter should be thick!

The recipe seems very simple to remember however.... when making it I discovered it isn't quite that simple.  

Warning:

The brand of mix you use will vary how much of the dry ingredients you need.
I think I used at least an extra 1/2 cup of each dry ingredient. 

Speed bumps:

1. I did not have sprinkles... so ours was just yellow, no fancy colors. 
2. My first batch was way too runny and I only discovered this after it had been sitting in the fridge. The good news? It's fixable. take the mix out of the pan, powder your working surface with powdered sugar, and knead in some extra powdered sugar (and mix, if you want), then put the thickened fudge back in the pan, pat it down, and let is sit for about 30 minutes.

Verdict: YUM -

 This recipe is "stupid easy" aside from the whole eyeballing it part. Last minute party? Surprise guests? No problem, it takes less than 5 minutes to mix up the recipe, microwave it, and put it in the fridge. In an hour you have dessert (and really, that's a flexible time frame, sometimes my fudge was done in 30 minutes.

You can also go for chocolate chip cookie flavor by substituting chocolate chips for the sprinkles. Just pour the fudge in the greased pan, and then press the chocolate chips into the fudge quickly (it will start to melt, don't worry, just move quickly and pop it right in the fridge.

Also, you can use specific colors of sprinkles or chocolate candies to give the fudge a holiday feel (think red and green, or orange, yellow, and brown).

Alternate Recipe for Cake Batter Fudge

Ingredients:
    2 cups yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
    2 cups powdered sugar
    1 stick butter
    1/4 cup milk
    1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
Directions:
    Place cake mix and powdered sugar in a large bowl and combine.
    Pour in the milk, top with stick of butter, and microwave for 2 minutes.
    Immediately begin mixing everything together – the butter may not be fully melted but will as you continue mixing.
    Lastly, mix in the rainbow sprinkles, then pour fudge into a greased cake pan.
    Chill for at least 2 hours before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.
From: Girl Meets Life

Chocolate Fudge

My husband had an idea. Cake batter fudge is awesome and all.... but what about chocolate cake batter fudge? Touche Tom, Touche! So I grabbed a box of chocolate cake mix and gave it a whirl. Good news! It works! Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients
    1 cup chocolate cake mix
    1 cup confectioners’ sugar
    1/4 cup (half stick) margarine (I haven't tried butter but it probably works)
    1/4 cup milk

    Chocolate Chips (optional)

Instructions
    Mix cake mix and icing sugar in microwave-safe bowl. Add butter and milk. Don’t stir.
    Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir immediately until completely combined.
    Spread into greased pan.
    Press chocolate chips into the fudge (liberally and quickly as they may start to melt)
    Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Verdict: YUM - 

It was good, very good. Possibly better than the original (because of the texture the chips gave it)

Just like with the cake batter recipe, you can use specific colors of sprinkles or chocolate candies to give the fudge a holiday feel (think red and green, or orange, yellow, and brown).

Find more Pinteresting Recipes!

Welcome to "Pinteresting Recipes"

For the past few months I have been Pinning-- neigh, hording new recipes on Pinterest and I must admit, I am totally addicted. I love that site and I have no less than 4 different boards dedicated to food; party food, holiday food, desserts, just plain ole great recipes and more.

That being said, having hundreds of recipes is great and all... but that doesn't get our little family fed.

SO! I have decided to give myself some homework; It is time to start going through the boards and actually trying to cook some of those things. Pinteresting Recipes is a portion of the blog dedicated to trying new things, new recipes, new techniques and new foods.

There may be successes or total failures, but hey, it's all food! 

Let the trial and error begin!

Interesting ideas

Mac & Cheese Waffled

Cell Phone Stack Game

Wandering in the World without a Map

Months and I haven't written a thing... I admit I am lost. Life seems like it has just begun and I am lost, wandering and confused. I had a plan and it has been turned upside down. I had it worked out in my head with a timeline and everything... Married young, kids before 30, licensed and working as few years after returning to Virginia... Now everything is spinning in some dark void where I can only see snippets of what life is supposed to be.

 I admit, at this point, that I have lost my way, and I am desperately trying to see the path. I've started keeping a prayer journal but I admit I am not doing it enough... I started counseling (counselor heal thyself), I started exercising again (a little) and felt great for a small period of time, I've been buying books left and right to try to gain perspective (might be going on another book buying binge later today). I need to pick up "Eat, Pray, Love" and one more book. There is a quote from the book which makes me think i need to read more. I'm watching the movie presently (Thank you Blockbuster for having a closing sale where it was only $3).

"I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time-everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else."
                                                                                -from Eat, Pray, Love

I want to run away and go to some beautiful foreign country and just find me again. Or run home, where home really is, and hide under my sheets... I have never been, to the best of my memory, so confused and torn... then again, perhaps I was and my memories just fail me.

I have started burning incense again, having candlelit baths, journaling a lot in a private journal (it's been one month and I've filled almost 80 pages), the prayer journal, drinking more fruit smoothies in hopes of improving mood... I want to get back into meditation (probably another book I'll get) and breathing, and I still stand here, holding pieces and threads that will somehow lead me back to where I am supposed to be. I just wish I knew where that was.

 I am so looking forward to the time I can sit on a beach in the morning with a mug of coffee with my mom...
The day can't come soon enough.

Recipe: Chicken Tacos

Here is our recipe of the week.  Good stuff! Picture to follow the next time we make some!

The Recipe

1 tbs chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder or granulated
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp course salt

Thanks to this page for the recipe.

I chop raw chicken into cubes, cook it off in a pan with about a table spoon of olive oil (until it just changes from pink to white).

Add the entire spice mixture to the pan with about a 1/2 cup water and stir, while cooking, until it coats the chick and becomes sauce like (Monitor  this step fairly closely, if too much water cooks off it could burn the spices to the pan and infuse bad flavors.)

Serve on you preference of taco shell with your favorite toppings (we like cheese, salsa, and a tiny bit of sour cream)

Good Eats: Columbia, Maryland

House of India - Google Map -Website -

Menu - Additional Info

What was good:

Lamb Shahi Korma - Tender pieces of Lamb cooked in a cashew nut based sauce and cream.$15.95.  This dish was literally so good it froze me mid bite. I was out to dinner with my professor and research group in undergrad and my professor saw me freeze and laughed, saying something along the lines of "well if it is THAT good..." I swear, I would go up to Maryland just to get this dish!

Naan - A soft white flour bread.$2.25 (also comes in Garlic flavor) Soft, slightly chewy, and really good dipped in the sauce of whatever you are eating. Yum!

Cha Ya Sushi N Tai - Google Map -Website -

Menu - Additional Info

What was good:

Rainbow Roll - Assorted raw fish on top of California roll (it's good, it just is)

Sakura Roll - Shrimp tempura, avocado, spicy tuna, and Tobiko (caviar) on top! I took one bite and LOVED it when I expected not to.

Killing it at Kohl's

Ok, normally I just clip coupons and save a dollar or two but when Kohls sends out their $10 of $10 cards it's time to go major league.

First you need to know that our mailroom has a trash can, and as unsavory as it sounds, only mail goes in it. When the cards come out I glance at the can and half the time people just toss away a free $10 and I'm there to pick it up.

So I gathered my free money and finally made my trip to Kohl's, cards in hand, and the shopping began!


My friend Ashlee had told me about an amazing new coffee (only for the fall?) for the Keurig so I went through Kohl's coffee section, all 4 rows of it, until I found one, of two boxes they had left. Needles to say, it was in my cart in a heartbeat.

Green Mountain Coffee: Pumpkin Spice K-cups, 18 count.

Normally, $17.99, discounted to $11.99.






  Also on the first bill was a votive from Yankee Candle, Simply Home collection called Autumn Sky which costs $1.99 (my big splurge on this trip, haha)

This should have been about a $20, but my grand total was a whopping $4.02 with a total savings of $16.00!






Well, now we have the coffee, but we really don't have many mugs. I was cruising around kitchenware and saw the most adorable turquoise mugs. If you know me, anything in the blue-green spectrum is awesome, so I checked the price and gagged, $10 per mug.

That would mean this would be my last purchase... but then I saw it "Now 4.99!"  YES! I love sales... plopped two mugs in my bag. Originally the bill would have been $20 bucks, but with the sale it is $9.98 and with the card it is... FREE! Don't you love free?  Total savings, $19.98!!



We have wedding pictures now, so I cruised the frames. Right now I have two adorable ones of us with our parents, one of each side of the family. I looked through the frames and found this adorable set. Two 4x6 frames attached in the center with a hinge, by Malden International Designs.

Normally, this frame set retails for $19.99, which would have been out of my range, except that it was now marked down to $9.99 and with the card it was FREE! Total Savings, $19.99

So, the damage is done, all $4.02 of it.

My grand total savings? $55.97!!!

Can we say "deal?"