Maple Bar Bread Pudding

This recipe is one of those once in a while types-the amount of calories in 1 serving....well lets not think about it;) Either way it's for the books-sooo delish-not as sweet as you would think! The bacon adds just the right amount of salt to cut down on the sweetness of the doughnut.

I was checking for a different bread pudding recipe and chatting with my hubby when he came up with the idea to use actual doughnut-maple bars. I just kinda took it, ran with it and came out with this yummalicious dish!:)

4 ingredients are all you need-Yay!

8 maple bars

4 eggs

1 c. milk

4 large strips of bacon

Start by cutting the bars into cubes.

Layer into a 9x13 inch pan.

Whisk together milk and eggs and pour over the cubed bars.

Sprinkle with bacon and mix all together.

Bake at 375 for 40 mins.

Now you may want to use 1-1/2 c. milk but we like our bread pudding a little more dry than most people probly do:)

I was thinking-you could totally use your favorite doughnut really.

Wouldn't the Pumpkin Spice Cake doughnut be delish?!?!

Kids would so love sprinkle doughnut bread pudding:)

We could get real creative with all the options;)

Dish it up and dig in!!

Enjoy!

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The Fastest Birthday Cake Ever!

Race Car Cake!!!

My son Max requested a race car shaped cake for his 4th birthday,

so Michelle and I... eagerly..hehee decided to give it a go;)

It was a white cake with cheesecake flavoring and strawberry filling.

This is how it went...

We started out with 2-13x9 inch cakes stacked with a layer of filling.

In hindsight I would have used a 4 layer cake;

this allows for more simplified shaping.

We cut off the back first and frosted a spot for the top of the car.

Then we cut off the front and placed it on top.

While we were shaping the cake we were really questioning the end result.

Then we did a base layer of frosting.

Tinted our fondant the requested color:)

Lay it over, smooth it out and cut away the excess.

Detailing the car,

using our mad piping skills, our creative genius and our ever helpful husbands, this race car is ready for the track!!

The end result!

VAROOOM!

We are getting better with our timing though-we only worked on this one 'til 4 am...the Princess cake however took us 'til 5 am;)

The birthday boy was very impressed with his cake and that is all that really matters:)

Mini Pork Cheeseburgers

I made these burgers for my family one day last week, while I thought they were really good and full of flavor, my kids didn't really want anything to do with them! They have severe aversion to anything they think has onion in it! I would definitely make them again and I think you all should give them a shot to;)

2 lbs ground pork

1 clove garlic-minced

2 t. smoked paprika

1 t. ground cumin

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

Mix together above ingredients.

Swiss cheese

Buns

We broiled them in the oven for about 4 to 5 mins per side then topped them with a slice of Swiss cheese. Return to the oven for just a minute to melt cheese.

For the buns I used Rhodes Texas style dinner rolls-just let em raise and bake 15 minutes.

They make these burgers extra special because of the softness of the roll!

Yum!

Hope you all give these yummy little burgers a try!

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin French Toast Stuffed with Blackberry-Caramel Mascarpone

Another Fall recipe to add to my favorites!!! This one is a divine Bobby Flay French toast that is not too sweet and just down right good!

The Mascarpone is so creamy and just melts on your warm pumpkin-y french toast! Mmmm...

The recipe calls for blackberry puree so i just made my own by throwing some fresh blackberries in the food processor.

Only takes a couple minutes to puree them!


Start making the Blackberry-Caramel. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. In another small saucepan, combine the sugar and water over high heat and cook, without stirring....


Cook about 8 minutes or until liquid is amber brown.

Slowly whisk in the warm cream, blackberry puree and cook until smooth and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. (If you want to add the blackberry liqueur, add at this time too!)

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and extract. Let come to room temperature.

On to the french toast.... Whisk together eggs, sugar and salt in a large baking dish until smooth.

Add the pumpkin, ground spices milk and heavy cream, vanilla and rum (or maple flavoring) and whisk until smooth.

Place your sliced bread in the custard mixture and let sit for 2 minutes. Carefully turn over and let sit until bread is completely soaked through, about 2 more minutes. (You may want to take note of how many slices you are going to be able to fry at a time and only soak that amount!)

Heat oil and butter in large pan over medium-high heat until mixture begins to sizzle.

Cook the bread until golden brown on the bottom, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip! Continue to cook until the other side is golden brown, about 2 to 3 more minutes.

Remove from pan and place on a baking sheet in a warmed oven....continue making the rest of the french toast!

For the creamy stuffing... combine mascarpone and remaining cream in a bowl and mix with kitchen aid or electric mixer. Beat until fluffy and smooth!

Scrap the mixture into the bowl and fold a few tablespoons of the blackberry-caramel sauce. Put the remaining sauce back on the stove on low to reheat.

Start to assemble... Top a piece of warm french toast with a large dollop of the blackberry-caramel mascarpone.

Add some blackberries....

Cover with another piece of french toast and drizzle with the blackberry-caramel sauce. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Time to devour and enjoy!!!

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**Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

From all of us at The Peppered Pantry!!!

Monster Mummy Munch

This is a really quick, easy and addicting snack!!

Did anyone else see this recipe over at Picky Palate?

It was a must try for me.

I made a few changes to the original recipe to suit our tastes,

but there are so many different ways you could change up this recipe!

Here is the original recipe.

Here is mine:)

I used Autumn mix peanut butter M&M's

candy corn

mini marshmallows

chocolate chips

almond bark

2 c. chex cereal

2 c. honey nut cheerios

I really couldn't decide weather to stick to the original name-Mummy Munch

or to come up with something different. I had been calling Monster Munch the whole time and later realized she called it Mummy...so I decided on Monster-Mummy!

Mmmm-waiting for the almond bark:)

Almost ready to go into the treat bags...

Viola!!

I also wanted to update you all on this Munch:

for Maxs' birthday on Monday I made it for the party favor bags using the pretzel M&Ms and peanut butter M&Ms with only the chex cereal and mini pretzels and the autumn mix candy corn-soooo yummy!!

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Princess Cake with Marshmallow Fondant

My niece had her golden birthday, the theme being a Princess Ball at the beginning of October and I was asked to make her a princess cake. So of course I said "oh I can totally do that!" and immediately asked Michelle if she wanted to help:)

It called for us to use fondant-which neither of us has ever worked with let alone made!

Yikes...thankfully while we were in Jo-Ann Fabrics a lady in the aisle advised us NOT to buy, but to make it. She gave us a bunch of tips that really helped us out-Thank You fondant lady from the Jo-Ann Fabrics aisle;)

So here she is!!

She also wanted to have some cupcakes for the other princesses.

So here is a little breakdown of how we made the fondant.

 I'm using "we" rather loosely cuz Michelle basically did that part herself!;)

We got our basic instructions from this blog.

You will need these 4 ingredients:

1 2lb bag powdered sugar

1 large mini marshmallows

shortening

2 to 4 T. water

She says use only name brand of the above ingredients but we made a mistake and all we had left was some store brand powdered sugar. That batch turned out awesome...so I'm not totally convinced of the name brand thing!

First you put down a generous layer of shortening.

Sift 1 2lb bag of powdered sugar into a mound and make a well in it.

Place marshmallows in a large bowl.

Microwave for 2 1/2 to 3 mins-watch it carefully-we had a run over!

Cover your hands well with shortening!

Pour melted marshmallows into the well.

Start folding the powdered sugar.

Folding, folding, folding...

Now its starting to take shape.

Almost there.

Next, roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness.

Roll onto rolling pin in order to make laying it over the cake easier.

Then lay it out evenly over prepared cake.

Smooth it out to the cake's shape, careful not to get wrinkles.

Detail work on our princess cake: Diamond pattern using a ruler for straight edge and sharp knife. At each point we added a edible pearl.

We made large fondant pearls for borders on each tier.

We added some sprinkles and a crown to top off this pretty "little" princess

cake!

The birthday girl requested chocolate and strawberry as the flavors.

Ta DA!

Here is the cake all set up at the ball:)

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