S'Mores Bars

Here are we again, right back to my s'mores obsession. After I made these bars and took my first bite I had a moment of ahhh here we meet again. I don't know what it is about the chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker combination that sends my heart a flutter but it's there and I always find myself going back for more. In fact, I'm munching on one of these, this very moment as I type up this post.

I came up with this recipe through a little trial and error. I had originally searched a bunch of recipes but none were exactly what I was looking for, I wanted something dense and more bar like than cake or cookie and I wanted to nix the graham layer on top and have the marshmallows star. I love how these came out, they have the perfect balance of chocolate, graham and marshmallow. The only mistake I made was trying to cut the bars before they fully cooked with only resulted in a huge sticky mess. Once they cooled fully they cut quite nicely and came out perfect.

Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

There are a few factors that have ultimately let me to this post. First was watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network where Michael Symon went to Stand in New York City where he drank not one, not two but three Toasted Marshmallow Milkshakes!! So naturally due to my marshmallow addiction me and hubby had to make the trip there to go so I could try it and let me tell you it was the most delicious milkshake I have ever had. Joe had a peanut milkshake which was good...but it was no toasted marshmallow.

Marshmallow Frosted Brownies & A Giveaway!

I love brownies...and marshmallows for that matter so combining the two seemed like the perfect thing to do when I saw this recipe for marshmallow frosted brownies on Pinterest from Mommy's Kitchen. I had high hopes for these bad boys and it couldn't have been better timing that I found this recipe just as I received coupons for free Duncan Hines Products as a part of the FoodBuzz Featured Publishers Tastemakers Program. If this wasn't meant to be, then I don't know what was. I followed Tina's recipe closely, but honestly if I were to make these brownies again I'd nix the chocolate frosting completely or just drizzle a little over the top. Shockingly enough this sweet tooth actually has a limit and these brownies were a little too sweet for me. I would have been happy with just fudgy brownies and melty marshmallows.

Whatever way you decide to make them, I'm sure you'll love it. They are definitely going into my permanent rotation.

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2nd Birthday Elmo Cake & Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

My nieces birthday was actually last month but I never thought to put it up on here. Like most 2 year olds my niece is in love with Elmo and honestly, kid or adult who doesn't love Elmo? He's cute and fuzzy and so lovable. I made a vanilla cake with vanilla icing, nothing too crazy but decorated the cake with white and colored fondant. I don't have pictures of me making or rolling out the fondant because it is such a messy job there was no place for a camera in the kitchen, but I will walk you through each step on how to make this cake or just about any other cake with fondant on top.

Making homemade fondant is actually pretty easy, just very, very messy. It doesn't take too much skill or artistic talent, all you need is a little creativity and some cookie cutters, food dye and you're good to go!

My Birthday Cake - S'Mores Pie!

So yesterday was my birthday and naturally my husband asked me the basics, what did I want him to cook me for dinner and what kind of cake did I want? Typically that answer for me is a no brainer and I did answer my usual for dinner his specialty chicken dish and mushroom risotto (I will have to have a guest post from my husband on here one day with his dishes - they are just divine!), usually cake is easy too - ever since our wedding red velvet cake is both of our top choice for any celebration. This year though I wanted something different and since I had asked him to make a fairly labor intensive dinner I thought I take over my own birthday cake.

I did a lot of searching and finally decided on the S'Mores Pie from Steph's Bite by Bite, it looked delicious and it is just perfect for me....lots of chocolate and marshmallows and a graham cracker crust. I only varied the recipe slightly and to take my pie one step further I used my own homemade marshmallows that I made earlier in the week. It was perfect...happy birthday to me!

Marshmallows

Marshmallows are one of my favorite treats, chocolate covered or on their own I just love them. To be completely honest anything made with marshmallows are okay by me. It's probably why S'Mores are one of my favorite desserts ever and why hot chocolate is better than coffee to me.

I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a long time but have always felt intimidated by the thought of it. I have looked up the recipe dozens of time before actually making them and just leaving it as I'll try it another day. Maybe it was the fact that I have recently started blogging or maybe I just got over my fear or making them from scratch but I decided to take the plunge and let me tell you, it wasn't half bad at all. Plus it's a check off of my 100 recipes of things I want to make, not too bad at all.

There are quite a few steps involved, but they're all very easy and doable. I would however recommend a cooking buddy to man one of your stations, because in order to make homemade marshmallows you need to have three different things going at once. I did it alone and they still came out delicious but it would have been easier if I had someone watching over the stove while I ran the other two tasks. I also recommend reading the recipe thoroughly before setting out to making them and make sure every ingredient you need is close by. This is definitely a time sensitive recipe and you dont want to be held up rereading directions or looking for an ingredient last minute. I found a ton of recipes but ultimately went with the one Brown Eyed Baker posted on her website which she adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

For a first try they came out delicious, next time I will be attempting to make chocolate marshmallows and see how those come out.

S'Mores Cake

I have a confession...I am obsessed with marshmallows, espeically chocolate covered ones so naturally s'mores are one of my favorite desserts. I have been drooling over various food blogs for months and their wide variety of s'mores desserts when I decided it was finally time to make one. It was Memorial Day weekend and my sister-in-law asked me to make a dessert for their bbq, I knew it was time to roll up my sleeves and dive into a s'mores dessert. I had a ton of potential desserts to choose from but when I saw Sweet Tooth's Giant S'More Cake I knew I had found my dessert.

The dessert was delicious, but a little on the heavy side for my taste. Next time I would use less flour in the graham cracker cake to make it a bit lighter. It was described as a cookie but it had a heavy almost dense cookie bar feel to it. It tasted delicious though. The recipe seems like it may be a bit daunting but it was ridiculously easy. The cake also produces a ton of servings, we had 8 adults and 3 kids at the bbq and we ate about half the cake.