Mini Date and Walnut Cakes

These are the easiest little yummy desserts.  There are only 4 ingredients and you just mix everything together and bake in a mini muffin pan, you just can't screw these up.  The outcome are these little crispy, chewy, nutty, "cakes" Be careful, these are really delicious and before you know it you've eaten 12 all by yourself.  Save some for the rest of your family :)

Ingredients:

3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
1 cup chopped dates (you can buy dates already chopped in a box at the grocery store, so easy!
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into a well greased mini muffin pan.  Fill each almost to the top of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until cakes are golden brown.

**Do not line the tins with paper liners before baking.  It's best to heavily grease the mini muffin tins and bake directly in the greased tins.  Then pop out the cakes and put each one into a liner and top with half a candied cherry.

Makes 24 mini cakes

Marshmallow Snowmen Stirrers

How cute are these little guys?  My kids are obsessed with hot chocolate lately so I thought it would be fun to dress up their mugs as an activity one day after school.   These cute marshmallow stirrers are so easy to make and the kids can definitely help.  They would also be cute to have pre-made for a holiday party as a stirrer or just a yummy little winter treat.

Ingredients:

Wooden skewers

Large marshmallows

Rolo chocolate candy for hat (or any small round chocolate candy. i.e; junior mints etc.)

Orange fruit slices (or any orange gummy candy that can be cut to look like a carrot)

White icing/frosting (very small amount for glue to adhere the nose)

Black writing gel

Preparation:

First put 1 marshmallow onto the skewer, next add half a marshmallow for the head.  If you squeeze the marshmallow a little you can get it to be slightly smaller than body.  Last add the Rolo for the hat.   Cut your orange candy slices into small triangles for the nose.  You can adhere the nose with a tiny bit of white icing.   Use the black writing gel to make eye and 3 buttons down the body.   I found my gel was coming out too fast and making huge blobs so I put a blob of writing gel on a paper plate and then using the pointy side of another skewer I dipped it in the black gel and then used that to add my eyes and buttons.

If when all is said and done and you don't feel like making these from scratch you could always buy these adorable peep snowmen at a the grocery store which are really cute too!  Please let us know if you try these.  We would LOVE to see pics of your little snowmen on our Facebook page ;)  Just click the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/EverydaySistersBlog

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Baking has always been an amazing distraction for me. When I am stressed out or overwhelmed by a task, I stop what I'm doing and head straight to the kitchen to immerse myself in baking. It is a relaxing activity that instantly releases all my stress and worry. So when I sat down this morning to write 5 long and boring papers for my graduate school portfolio, I knew it wasn't going to be long before I was in the kitchen baking. I lasted about 2 hours LOL. Since Thanksgiving had just ended, I still had my mom's pecan pumpkin pie on my mind (and all the ingredients still in the kitchen). I decided on a chocolate pecan pie. I have always wanted to make one and thought that this was the perfect time to test out a recipe. This recipe is fantastic! Absolutely delish! and very easy to make 

Ingredients:

1 prepared frozen pie crust
1 cup dark corn syrup
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. kosher salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ¼ cups roughly chopped pecans, plus ½ cup halves

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°  Whisk corn syrup, sugars, butter, vanilla, salt, chocolate and eggs in a bowl; fold in chopped pecans. Distribute filling evenly over dough; arrange pecan halves decoratively around the inside edge of the pie crust. Bake until crust is golden brown and filling is set, about 1 hour. Let cool completely before serving.