Pot of Gold Cupcakes – Chocolate Cupcakes with Lemon Mousse Filling

I’m all about traditional foods when it comes to holiday’s. I love diving deep into the roots of a culture and pulling up recipes that were used way back when. My family’s cookbooks and recipe boxes are great for that. They’re filled with recipes from parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on. My step dad’s recipe box goes all the way back to the mid 1700’s (allegedly) with recipes from Ireland, Germany and France.

Sometimes, however, you just want to be creative and cute. You want to make something that’s not necessarily traditional but still fitting to the holiday. Take St. Patrick’s Day for instance. I’ve shared a few of my family’s traditional Irish St. Patrick’s Day recipes. These are passed down recipes that represent Ireland, but I want to share yummy American derived St. Patrick’s Day goodies too! And, sometimes, you just have to bring the kids in the kitchen and let them decorate the goodies.

These Pot of Gold Cupcakes stem from my love of lemon & chocolate combinations. They’re like the Sonny & Cher of the food groups. You keep expecting them not to work out. Sometimes 1 will overpower the other, but when you put them together they make great things happen. It was hard to choose how I wanted my lemon filling. I whipped up some lemon curd and was just going to use that but decided to go an extra step and make a lemon mousse.

All I did was add a cup of whipped cream to the lemon curd. It lightened up the mixture and spread it out so I could fill more cupcakes! I also used my favorite Hershey Cake recipe since it’s one of those that doesn’t need improving. I used the same method of filling the cupcakes as I did with my Mounds Cupcakes. We also used canned white frosting and the kids dyed it green – call me lazy (because I am today!) They came out so good and fluffy; if you’re not on the lemon & chocolate bandwagon take my hand and I’ll pull you in!

Note: The kids had free reign with the decorating of these cupcakes. They mixed icings, played with decorating tips and made a huge mess. They had an incredible amount of fun though – why not let yours do the same?!

 

Desserts Made with Chocolate Pudding

 Desserts made with chocolate pudding

This recipe is called Love Pudding  and it is a desserts made with chocolate pudding. The love I have for pudding goes way back. I tried to make everything into pudding. I was convinced if you put it in milk it would create pudding. I put everything I could think of in that glass and frankly it turned brown but didn’t taste like pudding. I could eat pudding all day everyday and not tire. We decided to take pudding to  a whole new level when this recipe was created so enjoy and keep everything but pudding milk out of your milk trust me!

Desserts made with chocolate pudding recipe:

Ingredients:

*1 package of chocolate instant pudding

*1 package of white chocolate instant pudding

*4 cups of milk

*red food coloring

*1 container of Whipped Topping, thawed

*1 Chocolate Bar

*Pink Sprinkles  (Or whatever color you choose)

Directions:

1.  Prepare the chocolate pudding as directed on the box

2.  Place in the refrigerator to set.

3.  Put 2 cups of milk into a bowl.

4.  Add in 6 drops of red food coloring into the milk and stir together.

5.  Add in the white chocolate mix and whisk until well blended.

6.  Place in the refrigerator to set.

7.  After about 10 minutes the pudding will be set.

8.  Take about a third of the each pudding and put each into their own separate bowls.

9.  Mix in a third of the whipped topping into the new bowls.

10.  It is your choice on what types of containers to put the pudding in.

11.  Layer each pudding on top on another, making sure that you try to get out all of the air

bubbles (I found that using a piping bag helped)

12.  After the layers are added, add on an additional layer of just whipped topping.

13.  Finish off with some of the sprinkles and with the chocolate pieces (You can make these by

using a potato peeler)

14.  Finally, enjoy your creation!!

If you would like to see more dessert recipes made using pudding check out These weight watcher smores or how about this “Dirt recipe”  silly recipe for kids or these monster match pudding cups.

 

S’mores Pie Parfait

Being sick is my least favorite thing – ever. If I had to choose between being sick and going to the dentist every day for the rest of my life I’d have to go with the dentist. I’ve been sick more than half of the year and now that I’m finally shaking this nasty cold my tastebuds are back to functional. I wouldn’t wish not being able to taste on anyone. Well, unless you’re stuck with nasty food and then maybe.

I wanted my first treat to be something special; something to make these past 3 weeks not be in vain. You’d think the first thing I thought of was chocolate because, well, I’m human – but no. What I thought of first was so much more than just chocolate; I wanted S’mores. During the past 3 weeks I’ve been whining like a kid so it’s only fitting that I’d want a childhood favorite to comfort me. Well, that’s my logic at least.

Realizing that I’m not actually a child (except at heart) I decided to make something with a little more grown up feel. I went with a S’mores Pie at first and while it was simple to make and tasted great, it was missing something. I opened the fridge to get some inspiration or answers to what was missing and it was staring me in the face. Yogurt. Greek yogurt to be exact. And from there it was all downhill. I went with a S’mores Parfait and it was just what the doctor called for.

Of course you can stick with the S’mores Pie if you’d like, but the yogurt adds something great.

 

Tres Leches Bread Pudding with Chocolate Rum Raisin Sauce

My grandmother always found the most delicious ways to stretch a dollar. Eating at her house you’d never know she struggled financially, living paycheck to paycheck. Everything was always so divine and full of flavor that nothing else compared to. One of my favorite desserts has always been bread pudding. The way Granny made it was like heaven in a dish.

  

I was craving bread pudding tonight after a light dinner. I wanted to do a twist on hers so I added some chocolate covered raisins and a chocolate rum raisin sauce on top  – yum! I love this bread pudding for so many reasons, mainly because it’s so easy and inexpensive to make. If you’re looking for a frugal dessert idea, this is it.

One thing to note, we rarely – if ever – have stale bread in the house. Neither did Granny. I used Granny’s trick for priming the bread for bread pudding. I tore the bread into small squares and placed them in the oven (at 200 degrees F) for 5 minutes. Long enough for most of the moisture to come out but not long enough to toast it. You can do this, or use stale bread/brioche if you have it.