Halloween Cheesy Crackers

I've been baking a lot of sweets lately.  It's time to do something savory.  I love goldfish crackers, wouldn't it be nice to be able to bake some homemade cheese crackers?  I found this recipe online.  It looks simple to do and I get to make my own cookie cutters!  Of course I'm doing it with a Halloween twist!  After all, it's October, a whole month with Halloween fun!

Halloween Cheesy Crackers
(I made 272 crackers ~ 6 calories each)

Ingredients:
8 ounces, weight Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp cold water

Directions:
See how to custom make your own cookie cutter here

1. Pulse everything (except water) together in the food processor until the dough resembles coarse sand.












2. Pulse in water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

3. Remove dough from the processor, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes.

4. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. You can use a toothpick to make the eyes and smile if desired. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until crispy.

 

Halloween cupcakes

I love baking cupcakes.  You can do so much with them!  This time I baked Halloween cupcakes :)

Halloween cupcakes
24 servings ~ 172 calories each

Ingredients:
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist German Chocolate Cake Mix
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light or fat free sour cream
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 egg whites

4 reduced fat Oreo cookies
1 package Pocky chocolate cream covered biscuit
12 pieces white fudge covered pretzels
24 Marshmallows
melted chocolate

2 cups Confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F, line a standard muffin pan with cupcake liners, set aside.
2. Prepare cake mix by mixing cake mix, water, egg whites, applesauce and sour cream. Beat mixture on slow speed for 30 seconds then switch to medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Pour batter into muffin tin 3/4 full and bake for 20-22 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely.
4. Prepare frosting: in a medium bowl, cream butter with an electric hand mixer, add Confectioner's sugar, coco powder, vanilla extract and milk, beat until it is the right consistency for frosting.

5. Frost cupcakes, try to make a dome shape.












6. Remove the cream filling from Oreo cookies, crash the cookies in a food processor, then dip the frosted cupcakes into Oreo cookie crumbs.

7. Dip marshmallows with melted chocolate, let dry, then draw faces on them with edible markers. Cut each pocky chocolate stick in half, insert the stick into the marshmallows then to the cupcakes.

8. Cut pretzels in half, place them on the cupcake as "bones".

Halloween "Scary" Ladyfingers

Halloween is fun!  You get to dress up and go trick or treating.  I still don't know what am I gonna be this year but I know what I want to bake!  Saw some great ideas on Google for homemade Halloween treats.  The original recipes use butter cookies. Hmmm...I don't like to bake too much fatty treats so I got the idea of transforming ordinary ladyfingers into scary Halloween ladyfingers.  How's that for a change?  It turned out excellent!  And it's only 15 calories each "finger".  Yeah, beat that! 

Halloween "Scary" Ladyfingers
~50 servings ~ 15 calories each
adapted from all recipes

Ingredients:
2 eggs, separated
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
50 whole natural almonds
 
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line two 17 x 12 inch baking sheets with baking parchment. Fit large pastry bag with a plain 1/2 inch round tube.
2. Place egg whites in bowl and beat on high until soft peaks start to form. Slowly add cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy. In another bowl beat egg yolks, vanilla extract, and remaining sugar. Whip until thick and very pale in color.
3. Sift flour and baking powder together on a sheet of wax paper. Fold half the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in flour, and then add the remaining egg whites. Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe out onto prepared baking sheet. Top with almonds on one end. Bake 8 minutes.  Serve plain or with strawberry syrup.  

Halloween Hot Dog Mummies and Cheesy Pumpkin Face Corn Buns

It's October! Fall is here. All I see is brown and orange these days. Halloween is around the corner. So I baked a few dishes to celebrate Halloween.  They are nothing out of the ordinary, but they are tons of fun to make!

Halloween Hot Dog Mummies and
Cheesy Pumpkin Face Buns

Hot Dog Mummies:
Hot Dog Bun
The difference is the way how to wrap the hot dog.  Don't wrap the hot dog all the way so you can draw faces on the hot dogs

Cheesy Pumpkin Face Buns:
Corn and Ham Buns
I left out ham on the recipe to make it vegetarian.  Made some strips of American cheese to make it "pumpkin" like. 

 

These buns look so much more delicious when they have faces on them! 

Strawberry Mousse Cake

There are a lot of birthdays lately.  My husband and my sister's birthday are both in October.  Today I'll blog my sister's birthday cake.  She requested strawberry mousse cake for her birthday.  So I searched around and found a pretty attractive one online from Eupho Cafe.  The cake was delicious and it tasted even better the next day. 

 

 

Strawberry Mousse Cake

12 servings ~213 calories each

(recipe adapted from Eupho Cafe)

 

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 eggs, separated
100g sugar

1/5 tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

20g cake flour
50g corn starch

Mousse:
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
800g fresh strawberries
90g sugar
15g gelatin
1 tbsp of rum

2 yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice

Glaze:
1 tsp gelatin and 1 tbsp warm water, dissolved.

 

Utensils：　
8" springform pan or mousse ring, 9" pan or mold (need to grease & flour to prevent from sticking), spatula, sieve, blender, brush.

Directions:
1. Cake: separate egg whites and yolks. Beat yolks with 100g sugar until fluffy and the color turns pale, and then adds vanilla extract and mix well. Preheat oven at 300 F.
In a clean and grease-free mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar using a mixer until it can form a soft peak. Add in the yolk mixture and combine gently. Sift cake flour and corn starch together into the mixture, slightly combine until incorporated and relatively lump-free, and then pour the batter into the 9" pan; bake for about 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool, cut it to the size of 8" and then level into 2 slices.

 

2. Mousse: remove stems and rinse strawberries. Blend 400g of strawberries into puree, cut 200g strawberries in halves, and slice the rest 200g for decorating. Dissolve gelatin with milk, then heat the milk until gelatin is clear and totally dissolved. Add sugar to the gelatin mixture, then add in two blended egg yolks, lemon juice, and rum. Whip heavy cream till thick (still looks like liquid, but much thicker), and then pour the strawberry puree and gelatin mixture into the whipped cream. Mix well.

3. Remove the bottom of the springform pan (or just use a mousse ring), put the ring on a plate or a cake circle. Line the bottom with a layer of cake, arrange strawberry halves on the side, pour in the mousse, cover with another layer of cake, press the top a little bit to make sure there is no bubbles inside. Decorate the top with strawberries, glaze strawberries with a soft brush, then transfer to refrigerator to chill at least 3 hours.

4. If it's difficult to remove the ring, use hot towels to surround the mousse ring to soften the mousse till it can be easily removed from cake.

 



Bundt Cakes

A coworker of mine brought me a Bundt cake pan as a birthday gift.  I can't wait to try it out!  So far I have baked two different favors of Bundt cakes with similar recipes.  They both turned out pretty good.  I love big Bundts!

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
(recipe adapted from weight watchers)
24 servings, 114 calories each

Ingredients:
butter/cooking spray for greasing cake pan
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist Chocolate Cake mix
2 boxes fat free sugar free chocolate fudge pudding mix
5 fresh egg whites
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
90 gram Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.

2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, egg whites, sour cream, water, applesauce and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low speed for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are moist, about 30 seconds. Then mix on medium speed until batter is almost smooth, about 2 minutes; fold in chocolate chips.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan and level the surface. Bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes; invert cake onto rack and cool completely. Slice and enjoy!

Lemon Bundt Cake
(recipe adapted from weight watchers)
24 servings, 103 calories each

Ingredients:
butter/cooking spray for greasing cake pan
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist lemon cake mix
2 boxes of fat free sugar free lemon instant pudding mix
5 fresh egg whites
3/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.

2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, egg whites, sour cream, water, applesauce and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low speed for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are moist, about 30 seconds. Then mix on medium speed until batter is almost smooth, about 2 minutes; mix in lemon zest.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan and level the surface. Bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes; invert cake onto rack and cool completely. Slice and enjoy!