Baking with LeeLee!

What is it about the Christmas season that makes us all want to pull out our hand-mixers, stir up some fun (and chocolate!) and get to baking?

I don't know why, but I am a baking fool during this time of year!

So, if you have been reading Life with LeeLee and B, you know that I just recently had a small get together for my sisters and sister-in-law and my mother.

You can read alllllllllllll about it HERE.

Now that we're caught up, we had some yummy desserts at our little shin-dig. And these desserts weren't just yummy...they were easy, too.

Easy as pie...get it?!

Here's a pic so you can see all the deliciousness...is your mouth watering yet?

Anyways, our menu consisted of the following:

Peppermint Chocolate Chunk Cookies - read HERE for that recipe. And YES, they were amazing.

Chocolate cake with candy cane icing - super easy...just bake a plain, ole chocolate box cake. Then, add some peppermint extract to your vanilla icing. Put your icing on your cake like normal. Crunch up a bunch of candy canes (I used a meat mallet for this) and cover your entire cake with it. Super easy and looks almost too pretty to eat!

Peanut butter brownie bites - again, an easy one. Mix up a regular box of brownie mix and pour into a mini muffin pan. I'm not sure how long I let them cook, but you don't want them to get too done...you can put a toothpick in the center, and if some batter is still on it when you pull it out, they're good to go. You want them a little mush-y in the middle. Don't take them out of the pan. Let the centers fall a little bit - I also used the back of a spoon to make a little "hole." Melt 3/4 cup of peanut butter for 45 seconds. Spoon some of the peanut butter in the center and top with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Let them cool in the pan. TO.DIE.FOR. I'm STILL eating these, and they are so good! (I found the recipe HERE for these)

Cake batter truffles - I made these the night before, and they were perfect the next day! Recipe below...(I found the recipe HERE for these)

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup white sugar

1 ½ cups flour

1 cup yellow cake mix

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

3-4 Tablespoons milk

2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Truffle Coating:

16 ounces (8 squares) almond bark (or white candy melts)

sprinkles

Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Blend in vanilla. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up. 

While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Using a fork, dip truffles into almond bark and shake of excess bark by tapping the bottom of the fork on the side of your bowl. Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished.

Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving. Makes around 24-30 truffles.

Everything we had was so yummy! The thing I loved about most of the recipes was that I could do a lot of the prep work the night before - which is super helpful when you are a busy hostess! I even had enough time before this party to take a nice shower and take my time getting ready...that was a FIRST for me!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our easy AND fun recipes...if you try them, let me know how they turned out for you!

Merry Christmas!

LeeLee