Valentine's Cookie Pie

Warm, chocolately cookie pie.  And it's healthy?

Um, yes please!

I recently discovered a blog called Chocolate Covered Katie which is amazing!  She makes the most scrumptious desserts using healthy ingredients such as stevia, nuts, and chick peas.  Seriously, you have to check it out.  Low sugar, low fat, and added nutrition means I can have more dessert.  Right?  Right!

Anyways, this cookie pie here is a version of the Tollhouse Cookie Pie, but a lot healthier and flour free (yippee!)  I pretty much followed her recipe to a T except I don't have a food processor so I used my electric hand mixer.  It was the perfect Valentine's treat to surprise my hubby with after his long day of flying.

Here is the link to the exact recipe: "Deep Dish Cookie Pie".

this was my version...

     2 cans garbanzo beans (drained)

     1 cup sugar (or brown sugar)

     3 TB vegetable oil

     1 egg

     1 cup quick oats

     1/2 tsp baking soda

     2 tsp baking powder

     2 tsp vanilla

     1/2 tsp salt

     1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1)   Preheat oven to 350 F.

2)   Blend all ingredients except for chocolate chips as smooth as possible (this is where a food processor would come in handy!)

3)   Stir in chocolate chips then press mixture into greased 10 inch spring-form pan.

4)   Bake for about 40 minutes!

So simple and so yummy.  And doesn't taste beany at all.  I pinky promise you because I hate bean flours and beany baked goods!

FYI:  I just bought six more cans of garbanzo beans today in anticipation of making more cookie pies hehe  :)

I also wanted to share what my sweet hubby did for Valentine's Day.  First off he surprised me with roses.  

*swoon*

Have I told you about the last time he gave me flowers?!  

Well, I can't quite remember when... ha ha.

Well anyways, he and two other flight hubbys teamed up and sent us wives on a scavenger hunt.  At each location we had to walk in with a rose and get our cute little goodie bags waiting for us.  Each bag had sweet love cards from our guys! We had such a wonderful girl time together talking about where we're moving, family life, and of course how sweet our guys are!  Love my friends!  And our wonderful hubbys!

Happy very belated Valentine's Day!  xoxo

Something Swanky Sweet Treats Thursday

Eagle Birthday Cake

My largest cake order yet: two layer sheet cake for a Pensacola principal's surprise birthday party!

My customer wanted an edible, 3D bald eagle to grace the cake.  She said that bald eagles hold a lot of spiritual meaning in addition to it being the school's mascot.  She also wanted it to look like Alaska with the eagle perched on top of an iceberg (with all that gorgeous blue color!)

 So I sculpted an eagle out of rice krispies and covered it in gum paste.

36 eggs total in this cake!  I put 4 half sheet cakes together to make one huge double layer sheet cake.

Strawberry filling in between the layer... sealed in with my beautiful crumb coat layer... ;)

Covered in marbleized marshmallow fondant!  In hindsight I won't cover a cake this large with fondant again... I don't have the proper equipment to do so easily.  But thankfully the marbleized effect helped cover the two fondant pieces and it just looked more like water!

Iceberg made out of rice krispies as well.

I was very happy I had the opportunity to make this cake.  It pushed my creativity limit and I gained a lot of experience from it.  

Happy 50th Reggie!  Hoped you enjoyed your surprise party!!

Aviator Winging Cakes

I had the honor of making the cakes for this week's winging class at NAS Whiting Field!  This week I made three full sheet cakes (including a monstrous one for a birthday party).  Lots of prep work and late night bake-a-thons have turned me into one tired girl.  Wait, that's an understatement... more like one sleep-deprived, forgot to eat and drink, back-aching, sore handed, sugar coated girl.  Phew!  Saturday is one my one day break before I go back at it again...

Well, anyways, Congrats Wingers!

(my hubby will be one in about a month!)

fondant aviator wings dusted with gold

color flow squadron emblems

the frosting wouldn't crust on this chocolate cake  :(  

but my friend Christina had a good description for it: cookies and cream frosting!

I think we'll go with that description instead of speckled frosting lol

fondant wings before gold dust was brushed on

Color flow!  squadron HT-8

HT-18

HT-28 ... my hubby's in this helicopter squadron

Congrats wingers!

I'm About to Be A CALI GIRL!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know the big news!  Beau received his orders this past Friday morning and he will officially fly the USCG Dolphin helo and we're moving to...

Guess it yet?!?

SAN FRANCISCO!!!

He will receive his gold wings March 23rd and then we will do a ditty move (aka pack everything we own by ourselves and drive a huge huge moving truck!) at the end of March!

Let the house hunting begin!