Frozen Berry Meringue Squares

I first tried this recipe last summer at my baby shower for Liam. One of the ladies at our church made it as the dessert, and I immediately fell in love with it. This dessert is wonderful for the summer, and best of all? It can be made ahead of time and stored in a freezer, so you can make several pans of this and have a delicious dessert ready at a moment's notice. The original recipe makes one 13x9 inch pan, but for this recipe I have doubled the crust portion of the recipe, and found that I could divide it into 3- 8x8 square pans, which is a more manageable sized dessert for our family, even if we include a few guests. If you don't plan to eat this dessert right away, I suggest using foil bakeware so you don't tie up the use of your normal bakeware!!! Another word to the wise- for the berry portion of the recipe, make sure not to get any egg yolk or whipping cream in the meringue mixture or else it will not form stiff peaks! I learned that the hard way the first time I made this recipe!!!

Frozen Berry Meringue Squares
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans!)
1 cup butter, melted

2 egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups fresh sliced strawberries or raspberries*
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Stir together flour, brown sugar, nuts and butter, spread evenly in a shallow baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle 3/4ths of the crumbs into 3- 8x8 pans (or 1-13x9 and 1 8x8!). Allow to cool. Combine egg whites, sugar, berries and lemon juice in large bowl and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes until stiff peaks form. Fold in whipped cream. Spoon over cooled crumbs and top with remaining crumbs. Freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Before serving, allow to slightly thaw and trim with whole berries.

*You can also use one 10 oz package of frozen berries partially thawed if fresh berries are not available. Make sure to reduce the sugar added to 2/3 cup.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Here's another fun dessert for spring. I promise I do make more than dessert in this house- the reason behind all the dessert posts is simply that my mom asked me to be in charge of Jello and dessert for Easter this year, so I thought it would be a fun way to start out this blog.

For Easter this year I decided to make pastel rainbow cupcakes instead of the bright colored ones I made for St. Patrick's Day. I simply did this by decreasing the amount of food coloring I added to the batter. I don't have the exact amount of drops I used- I pretty much eye balled it, and slowly put in a few drops at a time until I was happy with the hue of the batter. I will, however, be giving the exact drop measurements for the bright rainbow cupcakes in this recipe!

Rainbow Cupcakes
1 white cake mix
Food Coloring
Frosting or whipped cream topping

1) Prepare white cake mix according to directions, then divide batter equally among 6 small bowls. Following this chart, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color.

Purple: 9 Red and 6 Blue Drops
Blue: 12 Drops
Green: 12 Drops
Yellow: 12 Drops
Orange 12 Yellow and 4 Red Drops
Red: 18 Drops

2) Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following rainbow order. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of the spoon to cover the color underneath (though, if the batter seems unwilling to completely cover the previous layer, plopping it in the middle and continuing with the next color can make some interesting results, too!)

3) Bake cupcakes according to cake recipe's directions. Before serving remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with frosting or whipped cream topping.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

We love Jell-O in this house. I tend to make it, in some form or another, for pretty much every holiday or big event throughout the year. So, you will find a lot of jello recipes from me!

When I first heard about this recipe, my initial thought was that it sounded really gross. I love pretzels, but the idea of mixing them into a jello salad sounded rather unappetizing. However, one bite and I quickly fell in love. My children also really love this recipe, and we often make it for Sunday dinner, which is the biggest meal of our week. It is good enough to be a dessert, but we tend to serve it as a side dish during the meal!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad
2 cups crushed thin pretzels (I use a food processor , but you do not want them too fine- small pieces is great!)
4 Tbs. sugar
3/4 c. butter, melted
8 oz. package cream cheese
8 oz. carton Cool Whip
1/2 c. sugar
1 lg. box Strawberry Jello
2 c. boiling water
2 (10 oz) packages frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
1 small can crushed pineapple (I sometimes omit this)

Mix pretzels, 4 Tbs. sugar, and melted butter. Pour into greased 13x7 baking dish, cover bottom and pack down with a spoon or the bottom of a measuring cup. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes. Allow to completely cool, about 1 hour.

Beat cream cheese, cool whip and sugar until creamy. Spread over the top of cooled pretzel crust.

Combine strawberry jello and boiling water, mix until Jello is dissolved. Add frozen strawberries and pineapple, if desired, and allow to slightly congeal before pouring on top of cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until firm.

Cake Balls

So, yesterday I showed you how to make Mint Oreo Balls. Today I am going to share my recipe for cake balls. The beauty of this recipe is that you can make whatever flavor you like! The first time I made it, I used a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The second time I used a German chocolate cake with caramel pecan frosting (which was too delicious for words!), and for our Easter celebration this year I used a confetti cake with rainbow chip frosting for one batch, and a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting for the other batch. I haven't tried them yet (saving it all for Easter!), but my favorite taste tester, my husband, said they were pretty good! So, I encourage you to be creative with this recipe, and then share what you did! I'd love to hear your suggestions!!!

Cake Balls
1 box cake mix, any flavor
1 15 oz. can frosting, any flavor
Chocolate bark or Wilton Candy Melts

1. Bake cake in 13x7 inch pan, according to directions. Allow cake to completely cool.
2. When cake is completely cool, break entire cake up into crumbs in a bowl and then mix with can of frosting. I use my hands for this because it's easier than using a spoon!
3. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet.
4. Place balls in the freezer for an hour, until firm.
5. Heat chocolate bark or candy melts according to directions.
6. Roll balls in chocolate until completely covered, then place on sheet of wax paper. Allow to harden before storing in the refrigerator.

Mint Oreo Balls

This is a new recipe that I have made twice now. The first time was for our annual St. Patrick's Day party. The remainder of the balls were left out after church the next Sunday, and they were fought over! I had nothing but compliments about these, and I even had someone ask me where I had purchased them!

Mint Oreo Balls
1 pkg. Double Stuf Oreos – Cool Mint Flavor – (1 lb. , 1 oz. pkg.)
• use 22 cookies with cream centers included
• use 10 cookies with cream centers discarded
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
chocolate bark or Wilton candy melts

1. Finely crush the cookies in a food processor or a ziploc bag with a rolling pin.
2. Stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together completely.
3. Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Place covered in freezer or refrigerator for a few minutes to help retain shape when dipping in melted chocolate.
5. Melt chocolate or candy melts as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.
6. Refrigerate and enjoy!