My Favorite Recipe: Cake Mix Cookies

Category : One Week - One Room, delicious desserts

In honor of Kitchen Week in the One Week One Room carnival going on right now at Mommas Review, we thought we’d share with you some of our favorite recipes. This cookie recipe is a good one – it’s easy and delicious and it’s never failed me. I’ve been making them for a few years now and I don’t think I’ve ever made a bad batch. I know anyone can make these cookies, they are that easy – and I almost hate to give away this recipe, but as it wasn’t my own brainchild, but the creation of the Half Baked Gourmet DESSERTS Cookbook by Tamara Holt, I figure it’s only fair of me to share.  Anyway, enough fanfare – here it is, my not-so-secret recipe that dozens of friends and family have asked me for over the years, Tamara Holt calls it the Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookie – I call it delicious, easy, and a million other wonderful adjectives. Try them for yourself and please let me know how you like them!

The Easiest, Most Delicious Cookie Recipe In The Universe… I Swear!

Prep Time: 10 minutes * Bake Time: 10 minutes * Makes: About 40 cookies (for me that’s like 2 dozen, I don’t really do the tiny cookie thing)

Ingredients:

  • 1 package (1 pound 2.25 ounces) devils food cake mix (I’ve tried several kinds of chocolate cake mix, all are good – you can really do any cake mix, funfetti is fun, but the chocolate cake mixes come out better for me, so I stick to them)
  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/3 cups white chocolate chips (Truthfully, I’ve only measured once – I pour them in until it’s enough, and again you can use ANY kind of chocolate chip – chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, swirled – go nuts)

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, butter and egg. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes (you can hand mix it, too, just use your judgment and stop mixing when it starts to look like cookie dough), scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Stir in chocolate chunks of your preference.
  2. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet (I don’t know how big my balls are (my google search engine results are going to go crazy now, thanks recipe gods). They typically fit in the palm of my hand with room to spare, I suspect they are larger than the recipe calls for, because I never get 40 cookies out of the batch. And really – does it matter?).
  3. Bake until cookies are set, about 10 minutes (am I the only one who bakes cookies until I can smell them from another room – this seriously works for me and I don’t know if I’m delusional. I probably under cook my cookies a tiny bit, but at the same time – my cookies are typically moist and delicious for their entire lifespan, unlike other people’s cookies that get stale and crumbly – mine do not. So there.). Cool for 1 minute on a pan (so they don’t fall apart), then remove them with a spatula and place on a wire rack to cool completely (snagging one cookie on your way out of the kitchen because they are delicious right out of the oven and you don’t really care if this one falls apart in your hand on the way to your mouth do you?).

Your welcome.

Want to know how many calories are in each cookie? Here’s a handy tip – if you go to this calorie counting website you can hover over the tab that says FOODS and click on New Recipe. Enter all the ingredients and then how many cookies (or servings) are in the batch and it will tell you how many calories are in each cookie. Brilliant, no? For example, if I plug in this recipe and put 24 servings (assuming I make 24 cookies in my batch) then each cookie has 198 calories. Make smaller cookies, they’ll have less calories per.

Sundae Spa – Delicious Bathtime Desserts

Category : Featured Reviews, bath & body, delicious desserts

Sundae Spa makes a wide range of Dessert-like soaps that allow girls (and boys) of all ages to enjoy a sweet treat while pampering yourself. Their products range from a Creamsicle, to Truffles, and even Gourmet Pie Soaps. These products must be seen and smelled to be understood.

First of all let me say. I almost ate the Sundae Spa  product line. It smelled so good and so absolutely real that I wanted to devour it right then and there. Until I remembered “these are Soaps!” Though I did second guess that even though I knew that they were for my body not my mouth.The products smell life like. Even after remembering they were soaps I still almost went in for a lick. Don’t judge me. You would do the same.

Sundae Spa

Out of the products we were lucky enough to sample the Cupcake was our all-time favorite. Forget eating a cupcake, bring one into the tub for longer lasting fun that won’t go to your thighs.

“These cupcakes are not just for special occasions and will convince even the most reluctant bathers to jump in. Drop one in the bathtub and watch the spinning, fizzing fun as your bath water changes colors and oils and moisturizers are released. When the fizzing is over grab the floating frosting scented soap to wash up and smell delicious the whole day.” – Sundae Spa Website

I am bad at reading directions so I just handed my daughters the cupcake during bath time and ran away to grab the phone. When I walked back in my daughter was yelling for me out of excitement. The cupcake was fizzing and swirling everywhere! By the time it was completed, they had blue bath water. They thought it was the best ever and wanted to do it all over again (too bad I only had one).  Their skin was soft after the bath and they smelled great, but not overpowering.

Sundae Spa’s  soaps not only look and smell good, but they make your skin soft and moisturized. I personally will be purchasing Sundae Spa’s gift sets for birthday parties for my daughters friends. They make a great and unique present for anyone.

Doubly Sweet: New Nestlé Lil’ Drumsticks & America’s Lil’ Heroes Contest

Category : Featured Reviews, delicious desserts

Two things I love? Delicious, low calorie desserts and people who make a difference. Apparently Nestlé and I have a lot in common. They just released the new Nestlé Lil’ Drumsticks, which are basically just like their original drumsticks that I think we can all collectively agree that we know and love, but made them mini and thus lower calorie versions of the original sweet treat. At around 140-150 calories each, these Lil’ Drumsticks are a nice way to reward your kids (or yourselves) with a guilt free dessert on a hot summer day.

I tried a 10 pack variety box that contained both the Cookie Dough flavor and the Chocolate Fudge Brownie, but they also sell them in chocolate with chocolate swirls and vanilla with chocolate swirls. Our verdict was that the Chocolate Fudge Brownie was both delicious and by far superior to the Cookie Dough which was not bad, but not amazing. Still, those Chocolate Fudge Brownie drumsticks were really something else and I know we’ll be buying them again.

But enough about dessert, let’s talk about those amazing children in your life. Namely any lil’ heroes you might know and love. This summer Nestlé is looking for children who have done something to make their neighborhoods or communities a better place. Maybe they’ve helped a friend or classmate in need or shown bravery in a tough situation? I don’t think it’s any secret that kids are capable of extraordinary things.

“Children can accomplish amazing things,” said John Harrison, Official Ice Cream Taster for the Nestlé Drumstick brand. “The Nestlé Drumstick team is delighted to recognize their heroic efforts and reward young heroes for making a positive difference in their communities. Entries will be judged on the child’s accomplishments, as well as the originality and creativity used to achieve their goals.”

10 winning kids will recieve a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond and enough Nestle Drumstick Lil’ Drumsticks for a celebratory party with 50 friends and family members. Now that’s a sweet deal.

This contest started April 1, 2009 but you have until August 15 to submit an entry.

Adults aged 18+ can submit an entry form along with a 150-500 word story about any amazing children age 6-13 who lives in the US, describing why that child deserves to be a Nestle Drumstick Lil’ Drums Lil’ Hero. For an entry form just go to www.drumstick.com. Winning children will be notified by phone and / or mail throughout the length of the promotion, between June 15, 2009 and September 1, 2009.

Giveaway: Cupcakes Gourmet

Category : Giveaways, delicious desserts

Can you imagine anything better than having cupcakes delivered to your door? Last week I received a box of one dozen cupcakes from Cupcakes Gourmet. It’s been a delicious week. Cupcakes Gourmet began as a cupcake bakery in Pennsylvania (currently located in Malvern, PA Bakery – so if you live in the Philadelphia area be sure to check out their bakery in person. You can click here for the flavors available in the bakery which also sells gourmet teas and iced beverages).

Don’t live in Pennsylvania? Me neither. But don’t worry because you can also order their cupcakes online and have them delivered to your door. Click here for a list of the cupcakes available for purchase online. For under $60, including shipping, you can order two dozen (minimum online order) hand-made mini cupcakes – the perfect bite sized, guilt free cupcake for you and your children. Cupcakes Gourmet uses high quality natural ingredients with no trans-fats.

I loved my Gourmet Cupcakes. They were delivered in a cooler with dry ice packages keeping the cupcakes frozen until delivery. Thawing the cupcakes takes about 1-3 hours. Since they recommend eating the cupcakes within 24 hours of being thawed, we decided to only thaw one or two cupcakes at a time (enough for my husband and I to each enjoy one cupcake) and keep the rest in our freezer. This worked perfectly and over the course of the week we had cupcakes several nights. Each cupcake was as fresh and delicious as the one before it. I loved the concept of the mini cupcakes. I never felt like my diet was being ruined by a craving for a cupcake and while one mini cupcake was usually enough to quench said craving, you can eat 2 or 3 without breaking the calorie bank (my husband and his food scale estimated that each cupcake probably has close to 100 calories).

Want to win some Gourmet Cupcakes of your very own? We’re giving away one dozen cupcakes to one lucky reader. Here’s how you can enter to win:

  1. To be eligible to win check out the flavors offered by Cupcakes Gourmet’s online delivery and tell us which flavor cupcake you’d like to receive. You must do this to be entered into the contest.
  2. For an extra entry, you can follow us on Twitter. Post a comment here with your Twitter username.
  3. For a third entry you can tweet about this giveaway or post about it on your blog and leave a comment here with either the URL of your post or your twitter profile.
  4. For a fourth subscribe to our RSS feed, leaving a link here to tell us you’ve done so. We’ll be posting more giveaways on Momma’s Review soon so subscribing will be a great way for you to stay informed about all the great things you can win in the days and weeks to come.
  5. As a final entry donate $1.00 (or more if you’d like) to the I Heart Tucker fund. This can be done through PayPal and your donation would be greatly appreciated. Just visit I Heart Tucker and click on the donate button on the right sidebar, you can also enter raffles on the I Heart Tucker site with donations you have made!  Make sure to come back and tell us you donated.

To ensure freshness upon delivery, this giveaway is open to continental US readers only (sorry to all excluded)!

The contest will close at 12:00 p.m. EST on Monday March 9th.

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