Twix Trifle

I'm all about candy bar inspired desserts.

Like almond joy brownies, butterfinger blondies, snickers cake.....They're all just so good.

I was inspired the other night by the cute little mini twix's and as I was eating one, dreamily basking in the magnificently smooth chocolate + caramel and then crunchy shortbread combination, an idea hit me! Since I am the lover of all things trifle, why not do a twix trifle?!

Let me tell you, this stuff is the bomb. I only wish the pictures did it justice but let's face it- there's just no way to make a serving of trifle look pretty.

I suggest you just make it to see for yourself.

Twix Trifle

We're going to need 5 layers:

1- For the Chocolate cake I used THIS recipe, HALVED.

2- For the Caramel sauce I used THIS recipe.

3- For the Shortbread cookies I used THIS recipe, halved, but I might do the whole recipe next time.

4- For the whipped topping I used 2, 8 oz. tubs of Cool Whip

5- For the chocolate mouse:

-1 Cup milk chocolate chips

-1/4 Cup Heavy Cream

 Mix together on the stove top in a small pot.

Stir constantly over medium heat til smooth.

Let cool.

Fold the ganache into one of the tubs of cool whip in a medium bowl.

Now that you have all your layers, layer away!

I started with Chocolate cake, cubed into smallish cubes on the bottom.

Chocolate Mousse.

Crumbled shortbread.

Caramel sauce.

Cool Whip.

Repeat to the top!

Obviously you can mess with it....There's no wrong way to do a trifle, but this seriously taste just like a Twix...So I can't couch for the Twix-y taste so much if things are changed. But I do know, It will taste amazing no matter what!

Happy Tuesday!

Oreo Cake Batter Bark

I am an all or nothing kind of girl.

Like, if I'm going to do something, I'm gonna DO it. None of this halfway stuff.

Especially when it comes to cleaning. In my world, it's either clean, or it isn't. I will never ever just 'pick up' my house when it needs to be vacuumed. I'll pretty much always leave the mess til I can really attack it. And if I'm cleaning the floors,  I won't just clean a little....It's ALL getting vacuumed/swiffered- which means furniture is being moved, rugs being rolled up and all that....

Sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes this is a major problem. Because when I clean, I am a perfectionist, and I end up cleaning ALL day and before you know it, I have nothing to show for my day except for a house so clean you could drink out of the toilet and eat pasta off the floor.

Another area i'm an all or nothing person is with dessert.

If you're going to have to dessert, by all means, HAVE DESSERT.

And while we're at it, have you had the Birthday Cake Oreo's yet?!?! Well you need to! They're limited edition, so HURRY UP AND GO BUY THEM! You will be a changed person. And since this recipe I'm about to share only uses 2 rows, I suggest you eat the 3rd row. Waste not, want not.

So, I present to you a very over the top delicious candy type thing:

Oreo Cake Batter Bark
1, 12 oz. bag good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
1, 12 oz. bag good quality white chocolate chips 
6 Tbs. shortening, divided
2 Tbsp. White cake mix 
2 rows of birthday cake Oreo's, roughly chopped
Sprinkles


In the microwave at 20 second intervals melt the chocolate chips with 3 Tbsp. shortening. You should only need to do this 3 times, tops. You don't want the chocolate to seize! If a  few chunks are left but it is mostly melted, don't reheat, just keep stirring and the chunks will melt too.


Pour melted chocolate onto a lightly sprayed piece of wax paper placed on a jellyroll pan and spread to desired thickness.


Freeze for 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, melt white chocolate with remaining 3 Tbsp. of shortening in the same manner.
I find white chocolate seizes easier than regular chocolate, so be extra careful.
Once the white chocolate is smooth, mix in the 2 Tbsp. of cake mix very well!


Pour most of the white chocolate over frozen chocolate layer, and spread so it's how you want it. (you need a little reserved to pour over the Oreo's)


Immediately sprinkle with Oreo's and as many sprinkles as your heart desires, and drizzle with remaining white chocolate so the Oreo's stay on better.

Put back in freezer for 5-10 minutes, and to cut, stab with a knife randomly to break into chunks.

This makes quite a bit of bark. But I suggest you don't share...

Monster Cookies!

These have been all over the internet lately...and usually, if something is all over the place it must be pretty good, right?

Oh, yes.

These are my new favorite cookie. But since I am a cookie dough eater person, I definitely ate more dough than actual cookies. Whatever way you get this stuff in your mouth, I'm glad you did it.

I made these with my brothers yesterday and we could NOT STOP 'testing' the dough. I think we went through 20 spoons. Then the actual cookies came out and we could NOT STOP EATING THEM.

They covered our lunch and dinner, I'm pretty sure.

And they're all gone now. Did I mention we made these yesterday afternoon and it's now only 7:30 in the morning as I write this?

Next time, me and the littlest brother decided to skip the cookie part and just make the dough to eat, which we found a recipe for on Pinterest from the-girl-who-ate-everything. We are dough addicts.

I promise if you make these, 2 things: your jeans won't fit for the next week, And everyone in your life you share these with will love you more than they ever have!

If you want to make them Gluten free (which we did) It's super easy! Just use GF quick oats!

Monster Cookies

Makes 36 regular sized cookies, or 22 massive ones. Mine were in-between, so I got 30.

Pre-heat oven to 350.

1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 stick butter, softened

3 eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup+ semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup+ mini or regular M&M's

In a large bowl, by hand or with an electric mixer, combine peanut butter with sugar and butter.

Mix very well.

Mix in eggs and vanilla.

Mix in oats and baking soda.

Stir in chocolate chips and m&m's.

Drop cookie dough by heaping spoonful onto  a greased or pan lines with parchment paper.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Do NOT over bake!

Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack.

So easy! Good luck with your self control!

Butterfingers! YES!

A couple things are on my mind this morning.


1) Why don't babies love sleeping as much as real humans? 
I am soooooo tired and the coffee maker is being a tease and taking FOREVER to brew. Do you ever feel like that on extra sleepy mornings?! I feel like a drop an hour is coming out. It's torture.
My daughter has taken up this new thing of singing in her sleep. We've been watching American Idol lately, so maybe she's been inspired. Cool. NOT at 3 am though, honey.
It is adorable to hear her little voice making song like noises whenever she hears music. But when she wakes you up in the middle of the night to do so, not so adorable. Especially when you roll over and see that she is dead asleep. Greeeeat...How do I stop this thing???!!
So, needless to say, I'm tired.
And my coffee is finally done brewing. *singing songs of joy*


2)another thing:
Have you been watching American Idol this season???
Man are they cruel to those kids! Me and Mr. Husband felt for them as they completed their song for the day and were passed through to the next round, only to be kicked off at the end of the day cause the judges passed too many people through, so they had to do more cuts. AFTER THEY TOLD THEM THEY WERE THROUGH!!! Is it just me, or is that just downright cruel?!


3)Also, what is it with guys calling each other 'bra'?
Is it really that hard to say the "o"? It sounds so lazy. And also, It's part of our undergarments. 
How dumb would that be if us girls called each other "boxer"? Or, we could just shorten it to "box"....that's much easier to say.
I just hate hate hate improper and lazy english. 
Like the There, They're, and Their's. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE GET THOSE STRAIGHT?!
Or when someone says "I aint sayin' nothin'". What exactly does that even mean? Cause what you're actually is saying is that you are saying something, because your 'aint' negates your 'nothing'. And you know 'aint' isn't even a word and never should be used because when you type it out it gets underlined with the red squiggly.


4)So go learn your English grammar and make Butterfingers.
Which is another thing I've been thinking about. 
HOMEMADE BUTTERFINGERS!
Can you even believe It?!
Something about butterfingers makes me so happy...I'm usually a chocolate, chocolate on more chocolate kind of girl...But for some reason I love these things. And the homemade taste pretty much identical to the original store kind! How dangerous is that? 
They're a cinch to make, and ridiculously amazing.
Did I mention they're healthy? They have a whole jar of peanut butter in them- which means they're protein packed!
Actually, if that jar of PB wasn't in there, we'd all die from sugar overdoses...seeing as there is a whole bag of candy corn in there too. But the protein makes our blood sugar not go crazy and kill us, or something like that. 
I'm not a doctor, okay?

Butterfingers

adapted from Plain Chicken

1, 16 oz. can of Peanut Butter

1 Bag (16-19 oz.) Candy Corn

1 Bag Milk Chocolate, Semi-sweet chocolate chips/Melting chocolate

2 Tbsp. Shorteing (For melting, if using chocolate chips, which I did)

Melt candy corn in microwave at 30 second intervals.

When completely melted, stir in Peanut butter.

Mix til completely incorporated and smooth. It might look like the mixture is seperating, but don't worry...It's fine.

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper so it comes up the sides of the pans. this just makes for easier cutting at the end.

Cool completely.

Lift out bars from pan, and cut into desired size.

Dip in chocolate.

Done, time!

Enjoy :)

*I let mine sit in the fridge for 4 hours before cutting them, so they were pretty hard and more broke off into chunks. Which is fine by me cause they still tasted like heaven, but for presentations sake, they weren't the most gorgeous looking things. So be smart and don't let them sit in the cold for too long!