Scrumptious Wednesday {Double Chocolate Walnut Cookies}

When ever I make cookies, I love adding extra goodies to experiment. 

For these babies, I adapted my favorite recipe. 

And they were so delicious! 

Ingredients 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons corn starch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk chocolate chunks

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. 

Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks and walnuts.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. 

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.

  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.   

 Don't they look Scrumptious?

Scrumptious Wednesday {Funfetti Cake Balls}

Remember when I made these cake balls?

I figured Easter was the perfect holiday to make them again. 

Don't worry, these ones are the easy version. 

These babies are made with funfetti cake and lots of sprinkles!

Ingredients

1 funfetti cake box

1 funfetti frosting mix

1 bag white chocolate chips

oil

sprinkles

Directions

1. Bake the cake. Let it cool. Crumble it all up into pieces. 

2. Mix in 3/4 of the frosting container. 

3. Use a cookie scooper to grab a ball of cake/frosting mix and roll it so it is really dense. 

4. Cool the cake balls in the fridge overnight. 

5. Melt the white chocolate and add canola oil to make it thinner (I added about 1/2 cup)

6. Dip cake ball into the chocolate, put it on wax paper, sprinkle. 

7. Let cool in the fridge before serving. 

Good luck trying to have just 1!

Cheers for the weekend!

Our weekend was nice and relaxing. 

Well, for me at least. 

Dave competed in a climbing competition on Saturday. 

He was totally rocking it until he tweaked his finger. 

His finger has been bugging him forever and he had it taped

but it obviously was not good enough. 

We ended up leaving early but he still rocked it in my opinion... 

We also had a fabulous date night on Friday.
We ate at one of our favorite restaurants.
Chuy's.
Heard of it?
it is AMAZING!
And we even got dessert there, which we never do.
Tres leches.

My dad also helped us file our taxes.
We were expecting to have to pay A LOT!
My nanny job last Fall didn't take out any taxes, so I was super worried. 
We found out that between what we made from State and what we owe for Federal...
we only owe 10 dollars!
BEST NEWS EVER!

How was your weekend? 

Any delicious desserts or  fun sporting events? 

Scrumptious Wednesday: Homemade Cake balls {Recipe}

I have been wanting to make homemade cake balls for a long time

but I haven't had a good opportunity to. 

It ended up being the perfect treat for Superbowl Sunday

and I even decorated mine to look like footballs.

To make this recipe even easier, you can use a cake box and store bought frosting

but I like to go homemade...

I found this fabulous recipe on pinterest for Chocolate cake:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

pre heat oven to 350 degrees

1. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
2. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
3. Pour cake batter into a 9x13 pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

After the cake cools for about 15 minutes, crumble the cake with your hands.

I made a simple buttercream frosting:

 (but you can use whatever sounds good to you)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

Pour all of the ingredients into a bowl and whip them. 

Combine the cake crumbles and the frosting in a big bowl

warning- this gets really messy!

Grab a chunk of the cake/frosting mix and roll it into a ball. 

Make sure to roll them really tight and compact. 

My recipe yielded about 40 cake balls. 

I used a whole package of milk chocolate chips for the outer chocolate shell. 

We are old fashioned and don't have a microwave. 

If you are melting on the stove, you can boil water and put the chocolate chips in a glass bowl. 

Stir in a little bit of vegetable oil with the chocolate in order to make it a little thinner. 

Insert a toothpick into each ball before submerging it in the melted chocolate. 

Make sure to tap the excess chocolate back into the bowl.

You can decorate them however you would like. 

I used melted white chocolate to make the threads of a football. 

yummmmmmmy. 

Enjoy!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

St Augustine Beach in January!

I could really get used to the fabulous January weather temps in Florida. 

Everyone back in Utah has freezing rain and I get to lay out in the sun...

it makes being away from home ten times easier :)

Last weekend, we took my parents to St. Augustine. 

St. Augustine Beach is by far the best beach near Gainesville. 

It was PERFECT weather. 

The beach was empty because apparently it is way too cold for the locals...

My mom is the one who taught me how to be a beach baby. 

We both love the sunshine so much. 

She almost went all the way in the ocean with her clothes on

and the water was FREEZING!

This guy was even excited to be there 

and he is a mountain man. 

He is such a goof ball and makes me laugh every day. 

My dad said he thought the sand was like brown sugar...

it totally is! It is so smooth and fine. 

There is nothing better than sand between my toes :)

If you are ever in St. Augustine, you must head to the Taco Shop. 

It is the most delicious food right on the beach. 

This up above is called there UFO.

It is basically a crunch wrap supreme from taco bell, 

but WAY better. 

And you have heard of this lovely gem before... Ritas. 

They make the most amazing treat called a 'gelati'

Have italian ice and have frozen custard. 

Mine was vanilla with lemonade frozen custard... 

TO DIE FOR!

We drove over into the main part of St. Augustine and it was packed!

This must be where all the locals go when the beach is 'too cold'

They have this beautiful Castle there that my dad was excited to see. 

It was gorgeous but with limited time, I chose to look at the shops instead. 

St. Augustine is our favorite little spot... 

you must check it out if you are ever close by,

the sunshine felt way too good!