Categories
Breakfast Dessert

Pumpkin spice donuts make for a ‘gourd’ fall recipe

Pumpkin spice donuts are extremely easy to make, only using two ingredients: a cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree.

One of the pieces of advice you get if you ever put your house on the market is to bake cookies before a showing so that your home feels more inviting.

When we had a house on the market several years ago, our real estate agent also banned us from cooking anything too pungent—like curry or fish—lest we end up with the opposite problem.

I was on board with the fish rule, but if it were up to me, I think the curry smell would attract me more than repel me from a house. To each his own, I guess.

I thought about that advice this week after making this week’s recipe for pumpkin spice donuts. Our whole house immediately just smelled like fall—comforting and inviting.

If you don’t tend to be a baker, this is the recipe for you. All you need is a donut pan and two ingredients, and you can have some amazing donuts in no time.

I found this recipe on the blog “The Suburban Soapbox.” You can find the original post at https://thesuburbansoapbox.com/two-ingredient-baked-pumpkin-spice-donuts/. I didn’t make any changes to the recipe, since it’s only two ingredients, but I did leave off the powdered sugar glaze the original post suggested. These were moist, flavorful and plenty sweet without it.

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Pumpkin Spice Cake Donuts

Pumpkin spice donuts are extremely easy to make, only using two ingredients: a cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword cake mix, donuts, pumpkin, spice cake

Ingredients

  • 15.25- ounce spice cake mix
  • 15 ounces pumpkin puree

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a donut pan by lightly spraying the wells with cooking spray.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix and pumpkin puree until the mixture is smooth (it will be thick).
  • Spoon your filling into the wells (or use a piping bag, as the original recipe author suggests, if you want your donuts to look more uniform and not have rough edges). I filled my wells to the tops.
  • Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the donuts comes out clean.
  • Let the donuts cool and then remove them from the pan, running a knife around the edges of each, if necessary, to loosen them. Store the finished donuts in an airtight container.

These were so, so easy and made a moist, delicious donut, too. The only “hard” part was that since I only have a six-well donut pan, I had to go in batches to get my donuts done. I managed to get a dozen out of this recipe.

That same day, I decided to make some chili in my crockpot, and I ate a donut along with my bowl that evening. It wasn’t quite the same as a cinnamon roll, but it was a great companion. They were also phenomenal along with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

I hope I don’t have to move from our current house any time soon (like never, ever, ever), but if I do have to put a house on the market again, I’m going to remember this recipe as a great air freshener. It’s quick, easy and smells and tastes fantastic.

Plus, if you don’t end up with any offers on your house, at least you have donuts to drown your sorrows.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 28, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Butter cookies have toddler tickled pink

Pinkalicious cookies are made with a cake mix base, with butter and cream cheese added for a rich, soft cookie.

My folks recently invited all of us over for hot dogs and hamburgers on a Saturday afternoon. We hadn’t all been in the same room since the stay-at-home orders began, and with things opening up and gathering sizes expanded, it seemed like a good time for the seven of us to socialize just a bit.

As I have been doing throughout the quarantine, I sent a video message through my sister to my two-year-old niece, asking her what I should bring for lunch.

The video I received back wasn’t quite what I expected, but I was ready for the challenge.

“Dessert, Lindsey,” she said.

“A dessert? What kind of dessert,” my sister prompted.

“Ummm…pinkalicious,” she said with a grin.

My sister pushed a little more on what kind of pink dessert she meant, and she said “pinkalicous” was another word for pink cookies.

Who knew?

Well, when the niece asks, the aunt must deliver, so this week, I’m sharing with you what was originally called “Gooey Butter Cookies” but has now been deemed “Pinkalicious” in our family.

This recipe comes from the blog “Lil’ Luna.” You can find the original post at https://lilluna.com/recipe-tip-of-the-week-gooey-butter-cookies. I added quite a bit of pink food coloring to get the color I wanted, doubled the vanilla and used sprinkles on some of the cookies in my version.

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Pinkalicious Cookies

Pinkalicious cookies are made with a cake mix base, with butter and cream cheese added for a rich, soft cookie.
Course Dessert
Keyword butter, cake mix, cookies, cream cheese, pink, powdered sugar, sprinkles

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 8 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 1 egg
  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • pink food coloring to desired hue
  • powdered sugar or sprinkles for coating cookies

Instructions

  • Beat the butter, vanilla, cream cheese and egg until the mixture is fairly smooth. Beat in the cake mix and then mix in as much food coloring as you desire.
  • Chill the batter for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and while the oven is preheating, roll the cookie dough into about one-inch balls and then roll them in a bowl of either powdered sugar or sprinkles. Place the balls about two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
  • Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown.
  • Let them cool for a bit to set up before transferring them to an airtight container for storage.

Well, if you’re wondering how these turned out, these were absolutely fantastic. They’re soft and flavorful, and even the grownups were pretty happy to eat some “pinkalicious.”

I actually thought they were even better after sitting in my Tupperware overnight than they were straight out of the oven.

And, after sending the leftovers home with my sister and brother-in-law, I got another video message of my niece, cookie in hand.

“Thank you, Lindsey,” she said into the camera, making me absolutely melt.

My sister accused me of spoiling my sweet niece, but I’m pretty sure that’s my primary job as her aunt. And, if you’re wondering, the toddler decree was that the cookies coated in sprinkles were the best ones.

I don’t know if I’ll always be able to accomplish every kind of food that comes out of her little imagination, but I’m sure going to try.

This piece first appeared in print on June 18, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

You’ll be head over ‘peels’ for lemon truffles

Easy lemon truffles come together quickly with just a few ingredients, including a cake mix.

When I write about recipes every week, I normally tell you about my friends and family, who step in as guinea pigs to try all of my concoctions.

And normally, I tell you how they really liked it or about the lack of leftovers after I present them with a plate of something new.

But I have to admit this week that of the three family members I tried this out on—my sister, brother-in-law and two-year-old niece—I was only successful with two-thirds of the crowd.

The adults loved the lemon-based dessert I brought for a shared meal.

My niece, on the other hand, was not impressed. She was a lot happier with the store-bought cookies I brought as a backup, though, so she forgave my after-dinner failure.

Regardless of not pleasing the toddler palate, I still decided to share this recipe with you this week, which comes from the blog “Premeditated Leftovers.” You can find it at https://premeditatedleftovers.com/recipes-cooking-tips/easy-lemon-truffle-recipe/. I added a bit more lemon juice and zest in my version.

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Easy Lemon Truffles

Course Dessert
Keyword cake mix, lemon, truffle

Ingredients

  • 1 lemon cake mix
  • 7 tablespoons butter melted
  • juice of one lemon
  • zest of one lemon
  • 3/4 cup sugar divided

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and 1/2 cup sugar until everything is well incorporated.
  • Place the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl.
  • Roll the dough mixture into about one-inch balls and then roll them in the bowl of sugar.
  • Store the finished truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about an hour to set up before serving.

I would argue that these weren’t overly sweet or sour—they were just in the middle—and I was glad I added just a bit of extra lemon to cut the sweetness.

I will also warn you that this doesn’t make a lot of truffles. I got around a dozen and a half out of mine, so if you’re looking for more volume, I highly recommend doubling this one.

And, if you’re planning on supplying treats for children, I can tell you from my experience that this may not be a good go-to recipe. Apparently, it’s more well-suited for adult tastebuds, and if it would hurt your feelings to watch a toddler screw up their face in disgust after trying your cooking, beware of sharing this one with anyone still in diapers.

In the end, though, this recipe was a slam dunk with my sister and brother-in-law, and they even requested that I leave the leftovers behind when I went home.

If I had to guess, that was half because they enjoyed them, and half because they knew they wouldn’t have to share.

This piece first appeared in print on March 5, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Melt their heart with ice cream sandwiches

Homemade ice cream sandwiches have simple ingredients, including a cake mix, even if they’re a bit tricky to create.

With Joey out of the house a few evenings ago, I decided it was time to clean another random ingredient out of the pantry and settled on a red velvet cake mix that I don’t even remember purchasing.

With Valentine’s Day looming, I thought it was perfect.

When I finally got through all my baking, though, it looked more like I’d performed open heart surgery on my countertops rather than making something from the heart.

Love is messy, it seems, but it’s also delicious.

I will also warn you that this recipe is a bit tricky, as it requires some painstaking spreading of thick cake batter into an evenly thin layer, but even if you’re like me and have less than beautiful results, you can still make something that tastes great, and if your sweetie is a fan of cake and ice cream, they won’t mind, either.

The recipe I decided to try is ice cream sandwiches made with a cake mix. While the original asks for red velvet and vanilla ice cream, you can use whatever combination of cake and ice cream sounds good to you. I kept thinking a spice cake with butter pecan ice cream or a dark chocolate one with some mint chocolate chip would be amazing.

This comes from the website “Delish” and is by Lauren Miyashiro. You can find the original at https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a53798/red-velvet-ice-cream-sandwiches-recipe/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Cake Mix Ice Cream Sandwiches

Homemade ice cream sandwiches have simple ingredients, including a cake mix, even if they're a bit tricky to create.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake mix, ice cream, red velvet

Ingredients

  • 1 boxed cake mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 gallon ice cream slightly softened

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a large, rimmed baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, eggs, butter, vanilla and salt until it’s smooth. This will create a very thick batter.
  • Spread the batter out to about one-quarter- to one-half-inch thick. The main goal is to have the thickness be as consistent as possible so the cake bakes evenly. Mine did not go all the way to the edges of my pan.
  • Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the cake is set (depending on how thinly you spread it out, you may need to watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn).
  • Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely.
  • Once the cake is cooled, cut it in half to create two, equal parts. Spread the ice cream evenly over one half of the cake and then top with the other half. Put the whole thing in the freezer to let it firm back up—probably about 30 minutes, depending on your freezer and how soft your ice cream was.
  • Slice into your desired size of sandwiches and store in an airtight container in the freezer.

I had some very jagged edges on my cake and ended up trimming it up. I also took one for the team and ate those trimmed off pieces. If your cake doesn’t turn out 100 percent like you wanted, don’t worry. It’s a very forgiving recipe if you just get your knife out and trim away the mistakes.

For mine, I definitely didn’t end up getting my batter thin enough, but even my thick sandwiches were really yummy.

Also, be careful not to let your ice cream soften too much. If it’s soupy, you will have a hard time getting it to stay put, and you’ll end up with more cake than ice cream in your sandwiches.

I did manage to get the kitchen cleaned up before Joey got home. I figured seeing red everywhere and hearing your wife say, “I have a surprise for you.” isn’t the best Valentine’s Day present.

But it turns out that ice cream sandwiches are a pretty decent gift—even if they are from an old cake mix from the back of the pantry.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 13, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Baking pumpkin cake easier than pie

A pumpkin pie cake has all the flavors of a traditional pie with very little effort.

For the week before Thanksgiving, some friends of ours invited us to their house for a “Friendsgiving,” where we’ll all enjoy a big potluck meal together with a large group. This is the second year for the tradition, and we’re really looking forward to spending time with everyone while eating a great meal.

I will be taking pie this year, and it led to a discussion on the best Thanksgiving pies between Joey and myself.

Joey is a big advocate of pecan pie above all others. I tend to be one of those folks who will try a sliver of everything on the dessert table.

But one thing is certain, and that is that baking pies can get labor intensive pretty quickly. Although I’m a big fan of the process, I would guess I’m in the minority, so I decided to try a new recipe this week that might help those of you who want to bake something at home but don’t want to have to fiddle with pie crust this Thanksgiving.

This recipe came from the blog “The Country Cook.” You can find the original at https://www.thecountrycook.net/pumpkin-pie-cake/. I used just pureed pumpkin instead of pumpkin pie filling in my version and added extra spices.

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Pumpkin Pie Cake

A pumpkin pie cake has all the flavors of a traditional pie with very little effort.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake, cake mix, pie, pumpkin

Ingredients

  • 30 ounces pumpkin puree
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 box spice cake mix
  • 1 cup butter melted
  • 1 container vanilla frosting

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13-inch baking pan by spraying the bottom with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin, eggs, salt and spices until the mixture is smooth.
  • Beat in the cake mix and butter for two minutes until well combined, and then spread the mixture into the prepared pan.
  • Bake for 45 minutes or until the center doesn’t jiggle. (Don’t use the toothpick method. Since it’s a little pie-like, it won’t be a good indicator.)
  • Once the cake is cooled, spread the frosting on top and serve.

My entire house smelled just like I baked a fresh pie in my oven, which was a nice way to get in the mood for Thanksgiving, and it was an extremely easy recipe to complete. 

I’m still planning on making a pie for Friendsgiving this week, but this cake would fit in perfectly on any Thanksgiving dessert table without making anyone too disappointed.

Well, anyone but Joey, who would wonder why you bothered with making a pumpkin pie version of cake instead of figuring out how to do the same thing with pecans.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 21, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

These cookies are a ‘cream’ come true

Boston cream pie cookie bites are creamy, delicious and slightly addictive.

Early on in our marriage, Joey told me he loves Boston cream pie, and I kept that in the back of my mind for a long time as a recipe I should try to make for him.

But then I didn’t.

I think it’s probably because I often balk at making layer cakes, as though they’re somehow supremely more difficult than making one with a single layer.

But then I was gifted a mini muffin tin very recently, and I finally knew how I could give Joey a taste of Boston cream pie without making a large dessert.

I found a recipe for some Boston cream pie cookie bites not long ago on the blog “Practically Homemade.” You can find the post at https://practicallyhomemade.com/boston-cream-pie-cookie-bites/. The only thing I changed was a bit of the procedure, and I highly recommend using dark chocolate chips for the ganache rather than semi-sweet if you have it available.

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Boston Cream Pie Cookie Bites

Boston cream pie cookie bites are creamy, delicious and slightly addictive.
Course Dessert
Keyword boston cream pie, cake mix, chocolate, cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 stick butter softened
  • 3.25- ounce instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 cup milk I used skim
  • 2 tablespoon chocolate chips I used dark chocolate
  • 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Spray the cups of a mini muffin tin with cooking spray and set it aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs and butter until smooth.
  • Use a small scoop to evenly distribute the batter into all the cups (about a tablespoon or dough or so). Pat each cup down so that it has a smooth, flat top, and then bake for seven to eight minutes or until the edges are browned slightly.
  • Set the cookies aside to cool for about five minutes, and then use a tart shaper or a similarly shaped spoon handle to press down the middle of each cookie and create an indentation.
  • Let the cookies cool completely before going on to the next step, and remove them from the muffin tin.
  • For the filling, beat the pudding mix, cup of heavy cream and milk until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
  • Using the same scoop as before, evenly distribute the filling into all of the cups.
  • In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and two tablespoons heavy cream and microwave 10 seconds at a time, stirring between each heating, until the mixture is smooth. Spoon a little of the ganache over each of the cookies, and then refrigerate them until the ganache is set.
  • Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

These were a huge hit. So much so that when I took the last few cookies over to dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s house, they announced I wasn’t allowed back without making them another batch (I think they were joking…). And then, when I returned home, Joey was a bit perturbed that his last few cookies ended up disappearing from the fridge.

I guess you can’t win them all.

I probably should still try making a real Boston cream pie, but I’m now obligated to make another batch of cookies for my sister and for Joey, so it still might be awhile before I get that recipe checked off my bucket list.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 29, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Bread Breakfast Dessert

Sweet roll recipe is the only ‘bun’ for me

No one will be able to tell that you completely transformed a cake mix into these delectable chocolate sweet rolls.

When I first started going solo in the kitchen as a youngster, I was very concerned with cooking by the book.

Mom never minded me hovering over her shoulder (or if she did, she hid it really well), and I asked a lot of questions.

Once I felt ready to make meals on my own, I asked her to help me write out my own recipe cards, which I still have in my recipe box at home. My favorite one is for canned corn. She didn’t make fun of me when I asked her to help me write down the steps for how to heat it up and how much salt and pepper to add, and from the food stains on my notecard, I clearly used the “recipe” more than once over the years.

Nowadays, though, I’m a lot more adventurous and tend to tweak recipes regularly and without hesitation. Such was the case recently when I used a recipe for cake mix cinnamon rolls to make chocolate sweet rolls instead.

I actually used two authors’ recipes as my basis for this week. The rolls recipe comes from the blog “Norine’s Nest.” You can find her post at https://www.norinesnest.com/cake-mix-cinnamon-rolls/. The other recipe started as the filling recipe for some sweet rolls by Kate Wood on her blog “The Wood and Spoon.” You can find her recipe at http://thewoodandspoon.com/chocolate-sweet-rolls/. I made changes to each to come up with the concoction below.

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Cake Mix Chocolate Sweet Rolls

No one will be able to tell that you completely transformed a cake mix into these delectable chocolate sweet rolls.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword cake mix, chocolate, glaze, icing, sweet rolls

Ingredients

Rolls

  • 1 Dutch chocolate cake mix
  • 2 packages yeast instant or active
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 cups flour
  • 2-1/4 cups hot water

Filling

  • 6 ounces dark chocolate chips or chop up a bar
  • 6 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons espresso or instant coffee powder I used a mocha-flavored
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • about 1/2 cup sliced almonds or your favorite nut, chopped

Icing

  • 1-1/3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk you may need to add more
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  • In a mixer with a dough hook (or you can start by mixing with a wooden spoon and switch over to kneading to bring it together), combine the cake mix, yeast, salt and two cups of flour.
  • Mix until it’s well combined and add the water slowly while the mixer continues to run.
  • Add in the rest of the flour, and mix until everything is well combined and the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl to form a ball.
  • Turn the dough out onto a well-floured workspace, sprinkle the top with more flour and knead five or six times with floured hands until it forms into a well-shaped ball.
  • Cover the dough with a clean cloth and allow it to rise until it’s doubled in size (mine took about 20 minutes).
  • When the dough is almost ready to work with, combine the chocolate chips and butter into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining filling ingredients except the sliced almonds and set aside.
  • Punch the dough down and roll out into a large rectangle about 1/4-inch thick.
  • Spread the filling out evenly over the entire rectangle of dough and sprinkle on the almonds.
  • Tightly roll the rectangle from the long side so that you get a nice, long, snake-like roll.
  • Cut the roll into 1-1/2-inch thick slices.
  • Grease two 9×12-inch pans and place the slices, with one of the cut sides up, into the pans. Space them out a bit to give them room to rise.
  • Cover both pans with a clean cloth and let them rise for about 30 more minutes or until they double in size.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the rolls for 20 minutes or until they are a golden brown.
  • Before serving, mix the icing ingredients together until smooth. If it’s too thick, add a little more milk until you get the consistency you like.
  • Let the rolls cool for about 10 minutes, and then drizzle or spread the icing over top of them.
  • Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

These were absolutely delicious. I immediately delivered them to friends and family to get them out of the house before we ate too many of them ourselves.

The best part of this recipe is that it’s super easy to customize. Just choose another cake mix and filling ingredients, and you have a completely new type of sweet roll to enjoy.

Younger me would have been amazed at how off script I went with this recipe, but we all start somewhere. Looking back, I’m just so thankful I had someone willing to patiently show me the ropes in the kitchen—canned corn recipes and all.

This piece first appeared in print on June 27, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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