Good morning! How's your Monday so far? Mine has been hectic. Thanks in part to a forgotten show-and-tell day at my sons school - which resulted in a mad dash back to the house to stash a bag full of toys for him to pick from. Because you know if I had brought just one, inevitably that one would have been the WRONG one.

Yes, my six year old is becoming a big boy. Gone are the days when everything Mommy did was perfect.

Sniff.

Anyway, crisis averted and I made another mad dash back to the house to get this post up. What's the rush you ask? Well, because this post is part of a recipe contest! If you have a soft spot in your heart for dear 'ol Amber, I'd reeeeeally love for you to vote for me.

Hypothetically, I'd come to your house and do all your laundry forever and ever. Hypothetically, of course. That counts...right?

Recently, I was asked to be a part of a Sweetest 16 Baking Recipe Contest, featuring 16 food bloggers. Since I'm a baker at heart and I love experimenting in the kitchen, how could I say no?

THE MISSION: Choose at least one ingredient from a box of goodies I was sent, create a delicious recipe with it. Go head to head against the other great bloggers in a March Madness style sweet 16 contest.

THE RESULT: One of the products I received was a Raspberry Cake and Pastry filling, so I decided to work with that. After rummaging through my cabinets to see what I had, I zeroed in on a fat bag of heaven's nectar - a.k.a white chocolate chips. What goes better with raspberry than white chocolate? So I threw them together and made a pan full of delicious babies that I like to call White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Bars.

They are gooood!

Each blogger will advance by popular vote in a March Madness-style tournament, and voting begins today!! The first round ends at 9:00pm on 12/12, so if you fee like it, pretty please, head on over and vote for my White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Bars!

White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Bars

Yield: 12-16 bars   Printable Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup Solo Raspberry Cake and Pastry Filling


Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and dry milk. Stir in the eggs and oil.. Press two-thirds of the mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Set remaining cake mixture aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the condensed milk, white chocolate chips and butter. Heat uncovered until chips and butter are melted. Stir until smooth. Pour over the crust.

Drop tablespoons of raspberry filling evenly over the white chocolate layer. Using a knife, drag the knife through the raspberry dollops, creating a swirl effect.

Drop teaspoonfuls of remaining cake mixture over the raspberry layer. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

Optional: Garnish bars with drizzled melted white chocolate.

I've got another tasty recipe of my mom's here. We just got to visit with them for a week, and she made these bars for us that were so good. 

Of course, anything with chocolate in it gets a thumbs up at our house, so these were destined to be a hit. They are so chewy and gooey right out of the oven, and the next day after they had set up a bit more, they were still chewy and delicious.

I adapted the recipe to suit my own tastes, and I love how simple they are.



Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and dry milk. Stir in the eggs and oil.. Press two-thirds of the mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Set remaining cake mixture aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the milk, chocolate chips and butter. Heat uncovered until chips and butter are melted. Stir until smooth. Pour over the crust.

Drop teaspoonfuls of remaining cake mixture over top. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

In a saucepan over low heat, heat the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cream and vanilla, stir and allow to cool.

In a saucepan over low heat, combine the brown sugar, butter and half & half. Cook for about 7 minutes until it begins to thicken. Add the vanilla and cook for another minute or two, until slightly thickened. Allow to cool.

Pour the cooled cream mixture into an electric ice cream maker and make according to manufacturers directions. When the ice cream has thickened, add the chocolate chips and stir to combine. Then add about 1/2 cup of the caramel and stir gently with a spoon to swirl. Place in a covered container and allow to set up in the freezer at least 4 hours or overnight.

I made a special treat for my husband's birthday this week. He usually requests my Cheap Chocolate Cake as his birthday treat, but I decided to do something a bit different this year.

Something rich, something chocolaty....something that would be a candy lovers dream.

He is a candy lover. So much so, that I'm pretty sure the cashiers at the convenience store by our house know him by name.

My last candy concoction for him was my Chunky Twix Cookies. Those cookies were so out of this world good, I now have the reputation in our family as the Twix Cookie girl. That recipe has also made it's way around the blogging world. Yes, they are that good.

So for this candy creation I made a super moist chocolate cake, threw in some snickers bars, cream cheese frosting and homemade caramel sauce. Wow. This cake is knock your socks off good. It is rich, but birthday's only come once a year, right?

Chocolate Snickers Layer Cake
Serves:16          Printable Recipe

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
butter, for greasing the pans
12 fun sized snicker bars, cut into small pieces

Homemade Caramel Sauce, recipe follows
Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows



Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans with butter. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer, mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Scatter some of the snickers pieces over the icing, then drizzle a little caramel sauce over it. Place the second cake layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Press two rows of snickers pieces into the sides of the bottom edge of the cake, all around the cake. Decorate the top of cake with remaining snickers pieces. Drizzle caramel sauce over the cake. Serve and enjoy!

Homemade Caramel Sauce:
(Recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup half and half
4 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix the brown sugar, half-and-half, butter and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until it gets thicker. Add the vanilla and cook another minute to thicken further. Turn off the heat, cool slightly and pour the sauce into a jar. Refrigerate until cold.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
12-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. I like to put my frosting in the fridge to firm up a bit before frosting my cake.

My child is not graceful.

So as I was laying in bed, trying to go back to sleep - not an easy task when 40 pounds of knees, elbows and flailing limbs has you in his grasp - I began thinking of food. I've been throwing around variations to my Blackberry Crumble Bars for a while, and last night I really wanted to turn these into a chocolate lovers best friend.

It was simple really. Just swap the berries for chocolate chips, and voila! Chocolate Chip Crumble Bars. These turned out so good. I'm talking lick the pan good. Good thing we have company coming tomorrow, otherwise I would be in trouble if I had these sitting around all to myself.

Chocolate Chip Crumb Bars
Servings: 9 squares   Printable Recipe

Crust & Topping:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt 
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, chilled

Filling:
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup sour cream 
6 tbsp flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips, plus 1 tbsp flour

Directions:

For crust/topping: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Using a fork for pastry cutter, cut the butter in until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Reserve 3/4 cup of the mixture to use as the topping.  Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool for 10-15 minutes.

For filling: Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then add the white and brown sugar, sour cream, flour, salt and vanilla extract.  Toss the chocolate chips with the tablespoon of flour, this helps prevent the chips from sinking to the bottom. Gently fold the chocolate chips into the batter and pour the mixture over the crust. Scatter the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 35-45 minutes.