Healthy Treats For Your New Year Resolutions

Everyone always makes new year resolutions to lose weight or eat healthier, here are some delicious looking recipes from Shape magazine that will help you sacrifice the calories without sacrificing taste :).

1) FONUTS:

These are fake doughnuts, they look like doughnuts but they have about half the calories of a real doughnut. This quick and easy treat only takes a bout half an hour to make and makes about twenty four mini doughnuts. Here is the recipe for the Rosemary-Olive Oil Fonuts :).

 Calorie Count: 143 per Fonut (9g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein, 21mg calcium, 1mg iron, 81 mg sodium) Compare to Dunkin' Donuts at anywhere from 200-500 calories for a full size donut.

                                                                                                                                  Ingredients:

2 Cups of Flour

3/4 Cup of Sugar

2 and 1/4 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Eggs

3/4 Cup of Milk

1/4 Vegetable Oil

2 Tablespoons of Coarsely Chopped Fresh Rosemary

Zest from 3/4 of a Lemon

Juice from 1/2 of a Lemon

1/4 Cup Pine Nuts (for the top of the fonut)

Steps:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 and grease your doughnut pan.

2) Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl

3) In another bowl mix the eggs, milk, oils, rosemary, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

4) Combine the wet and dry ingredients

5) Mix until they are combined (this mixture may be lumpy)

6) Fill each slot 2/3 of the way full.

7) Bake for 10-12 minutes

8) Grind the pine nuts into a powder and place the powder into a shallow pan, when the doughnuts are finished cooking lightly spray the top of them with a cooking spray and dip them into the pine powder.

For more Fonut Recipe's check out Shape's website :).

2) Vegan Cupcakes:

If chocolate is your weakness try out these chocolate cupcakes topped with a healthier version of butter cream.  This recipe makes about 12 frosted cupcakes.

Cake Ingredients:

1 Cup of Almond Milk

1 Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

1/3 Cup of Vegetable Oil

3/4 Cup of Sugar

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla

1 Cup of Flour

1/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder

3/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Vegan Margarine (or butter)

3 Cups of Powdered Sugar

2 Chai Tea Bags

2 Tablespoons of Boiling Water

2 Tablespoons of Almond Milk

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Cupcake Steps:

1) Preheat your oven to 350

2) Mix the vinegar and the almond milk and let them sit for five minutes

3) Whisk your vinegar almond mixture with the oil, sugar, and vanilla

4) In another bowl sift the dry ingredients together

5) Combine both bowls and mix them together

6) Pour the batter into the cupcake molds and bake for 25 minutes.

Frosting Steps:

1) Beat the butter until it is soft

2) Brew the tea in the boiling water and let it sit for ten minutes

3) Add the almond milk to the tea

4) Next mix the tea with the powdered sugar and the butter

5) Beat for ten minutes

6) For extra flavor try adding some cinnamon to the frosting.

For more on these cupcakes check out Shape Magazine

3) Molasses Cookies:

Yum!!  These cookies look delicious and they have healthy ingredients to help you get your sugar fix while keeping you in shape and on track for your new year goals.  Makes 20 Cookies.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of Ground Flax

1 Egg White

1 Banana

1 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup of Oats (not instant)

1/2 Cup of Blackstrap Molasses

2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

Steps:

1) Preheat the oven to 350

2) Combine the flax and egg whites

3) Mash the banana in another bowl

4) Add the flour and oats to the banana and mix well

5) Add the flax and molasses and mix until combined

6) Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

7) Scoop rounded spoonfuls of batter onto a baking sheet

8) Bake for 25 minutes

For other healthy cookie ideas scroll through Shape's healthy cookie slide show.

4) DRINKS :)

Celebrate the new year and get a jump start on your resolution at the same time.  Celebrate with a 92 calorie Cranapple Cobbler.  Mix 1 and 1/2 oz of TY KU Liqueur with 1 oz of apple juice and a splash of sugar free cranberry juice.  For other drinks Shape can help give you ideas.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Mini 3 Tiered Cakes

These haven't been covered in fondant yet just a quick layer of frosting but they are still adorable.  I used a 3 Tier Mini Cake Pan (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Krause! <3)  to make these cakes.  One box of cake mix makes four mini cakes.  They only take about half and hour to bake and they come out of the pan easily.  It's hard to coat the pan in flour and it works well with just a cooking spray but they come out better with a light dusting of flour if you can do it. 

I'll put more up on these when I decorate them in fondant :).

Holiday Gift Ideas

Christmas Treats Sleigh

Fill little sleighs with your favorite holiday themed treats to give as gifts or keep as a center piece for your table :).  If you are giving it as a gift wrap it in cellophane and tie a ribbon around the top of it to give it a finished look.

Bow Cupcakes

These cupcakes are so simple and so cute!  I haven't made them yet but I am definitely planning on making them asap!

Snowmen Cake Bites

Cake bites <3.  Cake bites are cake pops without the sticks, still just as delicious.  I used edible markers to draw their faces and buttons and pink sprinkles for their hats.


To make these treats roll two different sized cake balls (just like cake pops, follow a cake pop recipe).  Dip the largest cake ball into the melted chocolate first and place it on wax  paper, immediately dip the smaller ball into the melted chocolate and place it on top of the larger cake ball.  Now allow it to dry completely.  Once it has completely dried dip just the very top of its head back into the chocolate, then dip the top of its head into a small prep bowl filled with sprinkles.  The sprinkles will only stick to the melted chocolate.  Once that dries you can decorate with the edible markers.

Sugar Sheets and Cake Tattoos

 Playing around with sugar sheets and cake tattoos.

While these are awesome for adding easy designs to your cake I prefer Duff's cake tattoos over Wilton's sugar sheets.  Wilton's sugar sheets are thicker than Duff's cake tattoos so they are harder to stick on the cake.  The cake tattoos are very thin and blend easily into the cake.  

All in all I am not a fan of either product, neither product worked amazing over the fondant.  However if you are only going to frost your cake then I assume (haven't actually tried this so I can't guarantee anything) that the cake tattoos would stick much better, but I still wouldn't recommend the sugar sheets, they were too stiff. I would only use them if I wanted to cut out stiff shapes and put them on top of cupcakes or other little desserts.

:) 

Doughnut Cookies

These sweet little sugar cookies were so good they didn't make it to the decorating stage :x.  


Using my Babycakes donut maker I decided to make sugar cookies :).  The sugar cookie dough worked perfectly!  As long as you put about two tablespoons (A LOT) of dough in the maker it will make perfect doughnut cookies.




If you want to try this for yourself let each cookie sit in the maker until the edges turn golden brown (about ten minutes) and use the tool that comes with the maker to gently scoop the cookies out (they are very soft when the first come out).  Finally try not to eat all of them before decorating :x.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Cookie Dough Truffles YUM <3 :).  

I love the recipe from Recipe Girl's website.  When I make truffles I DO NOT put the chocolate chips inside, I feel like that makes it too sweet and chocolatey (yes there is such a thing as too much chocolate).  The insides are plain "cookie dough" and the chocolate is the coating :).  


The dough is a little sweeter than actual cookie dough and I don't think it tastes nearly as good before it is dipped in chocolate so don't judge it before its dipped.


Next time I make truffles I am going to try the sugar cookie version :).  The sugar cookie version is coated in sprinkles instead of dipped in chocolate and of course has a completely different recipe.  I'll update that one soon <3

Tricolor Cookie Tutorial

How To Make Oreo Snowmen

Oreo Snowmen

These are the cutest winter cookies and they are very easy to make.  I'll post a how-to-video asap! :) 

Cake Plates

 LOVE LOVE LOVE <3

I can't wait to use these!! They are so cute :)!

Thank you Christmas Tree Shop !

Updates on Marshmallow Fondant

I promised to report back after using the homemade marshmallow fondant and here are my thoughts on it:


At first I thought I was going to love it; it looked nice, it felt better, it tasted AMAZING, but it was extremely difficult to handle.  I'm thinking now that it could be because I only used half the amount of sugar called for in the recipe but it was beginning to dry out with the amount of sugar I had put in.  Oh well, that will be my next experiment.  The biggest problem I had with this was trying to roll it out WITHOUT it sticking to the counter top.  It didn't matter how thickly I coated the counter top with sugar kept sticking, ripping, and needing to be re-microwaved.  Finally I used a thick layer of Crisco to coat the counter, that worked wonders!  All in all I guess I'd try this recipe again and use the full amount of sugar in the recipe, but for important projects I'll stick with store bought fondant :x.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Clubhouse

Mickey, Minnie, and the bottom of the clubhouse are entirely cake!  The top of the clubhouse is one massive sugar cookie (putting that massive cookie on made me so nervous) :P!  The most exciting part of this cake was that I got to use my homemade marshmallow fondant for some of it.

Happy Birthday Abby and Kyle!!

CONTEST!

I have reached my goal of 30 followers!  The contest is on!  Check back on January 1st to see who the winner is :) and what the prize will be! :)  Thanks guys! :)

Low Cal Strawberry Smoothie

This is a recipe I made myself so I really hope you try it and love it as much as I do.


Calorie Count: 106


Ingredients:
- Ice
- Strawberries
- Smucker's Sugar Free Strawberry Preserves
- Light and Fit Strawberry Yogurt




This will make enough smoothie to fill one large glass, like the one in the picture :).




Start by filling half of your tall glass with crushed ice, then put the ice into a blender to really crush the ice.  Next put in four whole strawberries (obviously cut off the green top first) I prefer Dole's frozen strawberries but it doesn't make a big difference.  (Cal Count: 4 medium strawberries are about 16 calories) Blend the strawberries and ice until there are no big pieces, you want strawberry snow for this part.  Next add 1 tablespoon of the sugar free strawberry preserves (Cal Count: 10 calories from the preserves, totaling so far at 26) and the entire container of yogurt (Cal Count: 80, totaling 106) into the blender.  Blend well, once it is completely mixed and smooth (hence smoothie) pour it into your tall glass and enjoy!


YUM!!