If you are looking for delicious desserts, dinners, or appetizers, look no further. I created dozens of amazing recipes for General Mills’ Tablespoon dot com recipe site over the years.
If you love cake and peach cobbler, you are going to go nuts over this dessert mashup. This naked Peach Cobbler Cake combines a lightly spiced cinnamon cake with layers of cream cheese fluff, caramelized peaches, and crunchy brown sugar cake crumbles.
This cake is the ultimate summer dessert. It’s loaded with peaches, has caramel dripping down the sides, doesn’t require any fussy decoration (even though I love that sort of thing,) and is just amazingly good.
The fluffy cake layered with rich and creamy cheesecake filling was enough to make this dessert insanely good, but adding caramel-coated peaches and some toasty little crumbles of the cake coated in butter and brown sugar made this dessert, over the top.
How much fun would it be to surprise your friends at your Christmas cookie exchange by bringing along some of these giant cookie cakes to serve for dessert?
The Giant Peanut Blossom Cookie Cakes are moist and tender and bursting with peanut butter flavor. I even included bits of fresh peanuts and a brown sugar topping to give the cakes a little crunch.
Each cake is topped with a giant chocolate kiss that was nestled in the center of the cake while it was still warm so the chocolate melts slightly. I even made a peanut butter glaze to drizzle on top of each slice.
The Giant Raspberry Thumbprint Cookie Cakes have hints of almond extract and are topped with raspberry jam and a sweet glaze.
You can turn your dessert into breakfast or your breakfast into dessert when you serve these Pink Donut Cake or a Chocolate Eclair Cake.
These cakes are super-sized versions of smaller breakfast sweets that would be fun to serve any time of day.
Celebrate Earth Day with this amazing Earth Cake filled with Candy Rocks! Not only is this 3-D globe-shaped cake impressive on the outside, but when you cut into it, there are candy rocks hiding inside.
In a kitchen far, far away you can create this 3D-Sculpted Star Wars cake. This Jabba the Hutt Cake will give you the heebie-jeebies just like Leia when she was held captive by this ugly, giant slug.
This cake is fun to serve for a Star Wars party. It’s challenging to make but it looks so impressive that your party guests will be in awe.
Add new dimensions to your dessert and make this Apple Tree Cake! This apple-filled pound cake comes to life with a White Chocolate Popcorn Apple Tree on top.
Mini Marshmallow Cream Cakes in Mason Jars
All the flavors you love in a chocolate whoopie pie can be served up in a cute little jar. These Mini Marshmallow Cream Cakes make a wonderful dessert for any special occasion. They’d even make great bake sale items.
If pink is your color, you are going to fall in love with all these pink desserts including a Pink Velvet Cake Roll and Pink Velvet Cheesecake Bars. These pink desserts will sweeten up your Valentine’s Day, brighten up a baby shower, or liven up a potluck.
Not only is the pink velvet cake roll bright and colorful, but the filling is chock full of chocolate rainbow chips and the glaze is topped with pink sprinkles.
The Pink Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Bars have a blondie base which is swirled with cheesecake filling. They look as sweet as they taste.
Enjoy two easy-to-make fall desserts loaded with your favorite fruit, Apple Crispy Ice Cream Pie with an oatmeal cookie crust topped with vanilla ice cream, caramelized apples & cookie crumbles, and a French Pear Tart on a sugar cookie crust with pastry cream and sautéed pears.
If you love apple crisp a la mode, this Apple Crisp Ice Cream pie is perfect for you. This simple dessert is easy to make starting with an oatmeal cookie crust topped with store-bought vanilla ice cream. The pie is topped off with caramelized apples and crispy cookie crumbles.
If you prefer pears to apples, this French Pear Tart is for you. This tart is made with a sugar cookie crust topped with luscious pastry cream. I could eat pastry cream in just about any dessert. It’s so amazing just on its own, but when spread on top of the sugar cookie crust and topped with sautéed pears, it’s heaven.
My sister called this recipe, Heaven on a pita chip. It’s apple pie spiced no-bake cheesecake filling is truly ethereal, floating above a cinnamon pita chip crust.
Fresh tart Granny Smith apples are caramelized with brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled on top. Heaven, indeed.
If you love cookies that are loaded up with dynamic flavors these Monster Cookie Bars are for you.
These peanut butter oatmeal cookies are packed full of chocolate and butterscotch chips, M&Ms™, Reese’s Pieces™, peanuts, and cashews, and are topped with peanut butter-chocolate ganache and even more candies and nuts.
I don’t work with fondant very often, well, O.K. hardly ever. This is only the second cake I’ve ever made covered in fondant, so believe me when I tell you it’s easier than you would think.
I do work with modeling chocolate all the time and the two are very similar. Plus, over the years I watched a lot of cake decorating competitions on Food Network and when I had to cover my first cake I viewed several videos on the subject and the cake turned out great.
If you know a few simple techniques, covering a cake in fondant will go smoothly. I share my knowledge, tips and tricks, and the tutorial to make these fondant covered cake at Tablespoon.com. So head over and check it out.
Bundt Cakes have been popular for decades because they are super easy to make, look really pretty, and taste great. You can create bundt cakes in dozens of different flavors including red velvet and lemon.
The lemon bundt cake is a classic and probably the bundt cake seen at more pot lucks than any other. When I was asked to create a lemon bundt cake for Tablespoon.com, I wanted to make sure it had an intense lemon flavor so I started with a lemon cake mix, added lemon juice and lemon zest.
To really give it a boost, I even drizzled on a lemon glaze and sprinkled on more lemon zest.
A slice of this cake won’t make you pucker, but it comes close.
If you aren’t a fan of citrus you might prefer this Red Velvet Pound Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting instead.
I’ve never been a big fan of red velvet cake because most have a rather dull flavor in my opinion. The cakes I’ve tasted have also been rather dry. To intensify the flavor I added chocolate pudding to the recipe and to make it super moist, I included sour cream. Both additions really helped amplify this dessert to something special.
Then I topped it off with a pretty drizzle of cream cheese frosting. It’s a classic pairing because it really works.
Red Velvet Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
If you sandwich some creamy vanilla ice cream between two fudgy brownies, I promise your kids will not run after the ice cream truck tonight. I had never had a brownie ice cream sandwich before making these, and believe me, once you taste one you’ll never want a store-bought sandwich again.
Homemade Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches
I enjoy creating everyday desserts just as much as I love designing cute treats especially when they taste incredibly amazing like these three sweets.
Every month I develop new recipes that I share over at Tablespoon.com. Be sure to check them out.
Caramel is one of my absolute favorite flavors and using Dulce de Leche which is caramelized sweetened condensed milk is one of the easiest ways to get amazing caramel flavor into a dessert. You can buy cans of this amazing treat in the grocery store near the sweetened condensed milk or in the International food aisle.
I used it to make this creamy no-bake caramel cheesecake on a Cinnamon Toast Crunch™ and graham cracker crust. This impressive-looking dessert can be put together in 20 minutes!
See the No-Bake Dulce de Leche Cheese cake recipe, here.
If you cut into this Melting Snowman Surprise Cake, you’ll find something hiding inside. Well, it’s not actual snow, but it is snowball candies, gumballs to be exact.
My husband could eat a lemon dessert every day so he loves when I use the tart citrus fruit in a new recipe.
He loved these Lemon Swirl Cheesecake Bars so much but he had to fight me for them being I loved them almost as much as he did.
Find the recipe for these Lemon Swirl Cheesecake Bars, here.
If you love eating cookie dough, you are going to flip when you taste these crispy fried wontons with gooey chocolate chip cookie dough stuffed inside.
The exterior is crunchy like the edge of a cookie, but the filling is only par-baked so you get that sensation of eating raw cookie dough but it’s warm and gooey.
See the recipe for these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Wontons here.
I love the look of this chocolate cake with lavender frosting. Not only is this cake colored lavender but it is flavored with lavender lemon simple syrup, as well.
You can see the recipe for this Easy Naked Chocolate Cake filled with Lavender Frosting at Tablespoon.com.
Or, take a look at the recipe to create a Pink Velvet Cake filled with Pink Champagne Buttercream.
The bright pink cake is layered with buttercream frosting that is full of bubbly pink champagne.
Dreidel Cookies Filled with Candy
Whether you are celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah you can make and decorate fun cookies to share with family and friends.
This Mexican Layer Salad with colorful layers of lettuce, olives, tomatoes, peppers, beans, cheese, tortilla chips, beef and sour cream served in a trifle bowl is easy to make and looks really festive.
It’s quick and easy to make too.
The thing I like best about this is that there will only be one bowl to clean up after dinner. That’s a big bonus when I’m hosting a family dinner.
If you like that idea too, you can find the recipe for this Mexican Layer Salad, here.
For dessert, I’ll be making these crispy Churo Bowls. Each bowl is made by baking a tortilla boat which has been coated in cinnamon sugar. Each crunchy bowl can be filled with one of three fillings.
The dulce de leche mousse is a super simple 3-ingredient treat that goes perfectly with the cinnamon sugar coated tortilla. It’s rich and creamy and has a lovely caramel flavor.
The Mexican Hot Chocolate Mousse has a delicate chocolate flavor with a hint of cinnamon and the cheesecake mousse is silky and smooth and so easy to make.
You can find the filling recipes and the churo bowl tutorial, here.
Christmas Ornament Gingerbread Cookies
I used Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie Mix and their tubes of Cookie Icing to make and decorate these cookies. You’d never know they were not made from scratch.
They have the most wonderful gingerbread flavor.
Honey Mustard Chicken Tortellini Pasta Salad
This is my absolute favorite meal to serve in the spring and summer.
The blend of cheese-filled pasta with tart Granny Smith apples, crunchy peppers, and celery, savory grilled chicken in this Honey Mustard Tortellini Pasta Salad is so flavorful that you’ll make this recipe over and over again.
If you love the look of a gingerbread house, but don’t have days to decorate, then make a Gingerbread House Cake instead. It’s simple using a gingerbread house cake pan and cake mix.
Use fruit and vegetable purees to decorate this beautiful Naturally Colored Rainbow Cake. Each colorful layer of white cake is stacked with frosting in between into a towering dessert that will really impress.
Have you ever tried your hand at making pancake art? Until recently I had not, but that all changed when I was asked to create some Pretty in Pink Pancake Art for Tablespoon.com
I really had fun creating my pancake art and found it much easier than expected. That was because I did a lot of research and found several pancake artists who use what I’d call the cold method, which is piping the colored pancake batter onto a cold skillet, then heating it up to cook the pancakes.
I figured that would be much easier than trying to draw quickly as the pancakes cooked on a hot skillet. If I made a mistake, I was able to wipe it up and start over.
Strawberry Surprise Cake
If you love strawberries you have to make this Strawberry Surprise Cake! This cute cake is filled with delicious flavors and has a sweet surprise on the inside that will wow everyone!
Tablespoon asked me to create this Strawberry shaped cake filled with fresh strawberries. I love the look of the cake but there is one big issue with the strawberries inside. You need to make and decorate this cake the day it will be served.
I did not hull the strawberries (remove the stem and leaves) because once that happens the strawberries begin to seep juice. A pinata cake needs structure to hold up due to the fact that it is hollow. A soggy cake would not hold up well.
The reason the chocolate-dipped strawberries are in a bowl and not in the cake is that the moisture inside the cake would make the chocolate very sticky and not as appealing. If you are going to serve this cake right after you decorate it, then, by all means, put any kind of strawberries you like, slices would even work.
Fruit pairs so nicely with chocolate and these Banana Stuffed Brownie Cupcakes and Strawberry Rhubarb Brownie Cheesecake are fun twists on classic desserts.
Bananas taste great dipped in chocolate, so I figured they’d be pretty tasty stuffed inside a cupcake, and I was right. These cupcakes are especially good hot out of the oven.
The soft, warm, banana melts in your mouth as you take a bite of the gooey brownie. It adds a nice creamy texture and wonderful flavor to the intense chocolate dessert.
Also, enjoy bits of rhubarb baked into a brownie topped with a creamy no-bake cheesecake filling and homemade strawberry rhubarb sauce.
Did you ever close your eyes, shake a Magic 8 Ball, and hope for the right answer when asking life’s important questions, like, “does Billy really like me” or “will I get into Mrs. Smith’s homeroom?” I sure did.
You may not be able to shake these little Eight Ball shaped-cakes but they are definitely magical.
Curling up on a cold winter day with some hot chocolate and a cute cookie hanging off the side of the mug sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Get the recipe to make these Conversation Heart Mug Hugger Cookies over at Tablespoon dot com.
Homemade Marshmallow Easter Chicks
If you have never made or even tasted a homemade marshmallow, you really must. I’m a huge fan of Peeps and even enjoy eating the conical marshmallows out of a bag, but those really don’t compare to a fresh batch of the billowy soft candy made in your own kitchen.
Plus, when you make your own marshmallows you can color and flavor them as you like and even cut them into fun shapes to make cute treats like these baby chicks.
Can you believe the footballs sitting on the edge of these beer mugs are actually cheese stuffed pretzels made from Pillsbury Pizza dough?
When the folks at Tablespoon dot com asked me to create this unusual Super Bowl snack, I had my doubts that it could be done. I was shocked when I made just one pretzel, boiled it, and baked it and it looked perfect. I wish I would have had the same luck when I made an entire batch at one time. Oozing cheese filled my baking sheet and I had to go back to my kitchen for some recipe tweaks.
I finally figured it out and was pretty excited taking these pictures. Want to know how I got the cheese stuffed inside, or why they are so naturally dark brown, or how they are sitting so nicely on the beer mugs?
Beer Mug Cheese Stuffed Football Pretzels
Have you ever had a Smörgåstårta, a sandwich that is decorated to look like a cake? I hadn’t until General Mills asked me to create some of them for Tablespoon.com. A quick internet search was all it took to understand just how popular these sandwich cakes are throughout the world.
Many of the Smörgåstårta recipes call for several different complicated fillings to be layered in between bread, then each sandwich is frosted with a cream cheese mixture. I kept my little cakes simple using store-bought chicken or ham salad and Pillsbury Grands Biscuits. I then frosted them with a combination of cream cheese and sour cream then decorated them with vegetables, eggs, nuts, and herbs.
Mini Sandwich Cakes (Smörgåstårta)
I have to admit that when the gang at Tablespoon.com asked me to create a zombie bunny cake, I was beyond surprised. Turning a chocolate Easter bunny into a zombie had never crossed my mind, even though I’m a huge Halloween nut. I even had a house full of zombies for our party two years ago and know zombies have become even more popular than ever.
I suppose I was the perfect person to create this cake. It was actually fun to make. It was unlike any other cake I’ve ever made. I tried to be a tad gory without making it too gross.
When the cake was shared on Tablespoon’s Facebook page, I was tentative. I didn’t know how people would react. Some have been offended, but more than not, people have been enthusiastic about it. They think it’s cool and many plan to make it for Easter.
I have to admit that buffalo chicken dip is not a beautiful looking dish but it’s such a popular appetizer to serve at parties that I tried to dress it up a bit. The puffs of bread around the outer perimeter of the dip add a nice touch aesthetically plus they add a wonderful balance of flavor to the spicy dip.
I love that this dip is baked and served in an oven-safe skillet, so there isn’t a lot of mess to clean up. That’s always a good thing at the end of the night when your party guests have all gone home.
If you aren’t a fan of spicy food then this Meat & Potatoes Crostata may be more to your liking. It is loaded with sausage, bacon, cheese, and mashed potatoes and surrounded by a flaky pie crust.
Making a crostata is so simple yet the rustic looking savory tart is quite eye-appealing.
Serve slices of this appetizer with a big dollop of sour cream and maybe even sprinkle on some diced tomatoes. This recipe is hearty enough to be served as a meal along with a side salad, is pretty enough to be served at any party, but simple enough to make that it’s a perfect snack to serve while watching the game with your friends.
The delicious dessert combines chocolate ganache with white chocolate pumpkin ganache on a crispy tart crust.
The swirl of chocolate and pumpkin make this dessert elegant enough to serve at a fancy dinner party but it’s so easy to make that you can whip one up for a weeknight meal.
If you want something that’s not quite as fancy as the Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Tart, try making a batch of these No-Bake Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. They take about 20 minutes to put together then you pop them in the freezer for a while.
You can serve them frozen or chilled. I like them either way.
Each individually sized dessert has a lusciously creamy blend of cream cheese and pumpkin-spiced with a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. They make great desserts to bring to pot luck.
No-Bake Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Use up some of your home grown zucchini to make these decadent Raspberry Swirl Brownies. These treats are speckled with bits of zucchini, but no one will ever know these sweet treats have vegetables inside.
O.K. these vinyl records are actually brownies topped with frosting and fondant, but hey, I can officially say I made a record.
If you’d like to make your own records, head on over to Tablespoon dot com to see the recipe and tutorial to create these Platinum and Gold Brownie Records.
There is no candy more synonymous with Halloween than candy corn, so these lollipops are the perfect treat to make this Halloween season.
When creating this confection, I wanted to make them look and taste similar to the original, so I took a cue from a bag of candy corn and added honey to the candy centers. I couldn’t stop eating it and had to make another batch so that I could make enough pops for my pictures.
You can check out the recipe and tutorial for these Candy Corn Pops over at Tablespoon.com.
If you’re looking for a healthier alternative to a birthday dessert, make some of these
Stack layers of watermelon and pineapple together with a light tropical fruit whip in between each to create festive little birthday desserts that won’t ruin your diet.
These tiny cakes would really brighten up any table at tea time. They are colorful inside and out with a rainbow of sugary glaze running down the sides of the cakes and bright red raspberry jam and orange apricot jam in between layers of almond pound cake.
As a kid, I loved to play with my food. I remember cutting my lunchmeat into shapes and decorating my plate. I never thought to use a cookie-cutter back then. I’m sure I would have asked my mom to buy me more cutters if I’d discovered they could be used to make something simple like these airplane pizzas.
Each airplane-shaped crust is topped with sauce and an airplane-shaped slice of cheese and decorated with pizza toppings. The step-by-step instructions to make these pizza airplanes are over at Tablespoon.com.
Create a festive meal for St. Patrick’s Day by sculpting a bread bowl out of Pillsbury French Bread dough then fill it with your favorite stew or soup. My Shamrock Bread Bowl is filled with White Bean Chili and is topped with some cilantro.
In just over an hour this shamrock-shaped bread bowl can be sculpted, baked, filled, and ready for the dinner table.
It is really a fun meal to serve to your family on St. Patrick’s Day and is quite simple to make.
This red Cooler Cake looks almost like the real deal! With isomalt ice cubes and shiny modeling chocolate beer bottles, this is the perfect dessert for any tailgating party.
With its simple rectangle shape, it’s easily transportable and it’s the perfect size to feed up to 16 hungry fans.
You may not be able to drink from these Red Solo Cup Cakes, but they are sure to be consumed just as quickly as any liquid inside a plastic cup at your next party.
To create these fun party desserts, I baked chocolate cupcakes, stacked them, added chocolate ganache (which makes any cake taste heavenly,) and wrapped them in red modeling chocolate.
This summer take your s’mores indoors and enjoy sticks of rich and creamy marshmallow fluff cheesecake layered in between a graham cracker sugar cookie crust and chocolate ganache.
These S’mores Cheesecake Sticks are nice enough to serve at a party but easy enough to make for an afternoon snack.
Crispy wedges of cinnamon sugar-coated pie crust are topped with creamy cheesecake fluff, cherry pie filling, and bits of white chocolate.
These Cherry Pie Nachos are easy and quick enough to make that you can serve them after a weeknight meal or bring them with you to a holiday potluck.
These crispy wedges of cinnamon sugar sprinkled pie crust are topped with a lusciously creamy cheesecake fluff, cherry pie filling, and shredded white chocolate. You can make your own homemade cherry pie filling with the summer bounty of fresh cherries or you can simply open a can. Either way, the flavor is fresh and bright.
If you love the flavor of a Creamsicle™ these tiny treats are for you. These Orange Creamsicle™ Candy Pops each have a sweet vanilla candy center coated in a creamy orange-flavored shell.
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