Happy St. Patrick’s Day + Lucky Charms Cupcakes

I hope all of you had a great weekend like we did!  This was our first weekend together since we’ve been done with the big remodeling projects at our house.  We did a lot of this….

….and this.  Basically, it was a relaxing weekend in which we didn’t get too much accomplished.  Oh well, you need one every now and then.

My fun project yesterday was making some festive cupcakes for the Sunday night small group we have at our house.  All it took was a box white cake mix, green food coloring, packaged frosting (the fluffy, whipped kind) and Lucky Charms.  Some desserts I can justify as healthy, but definitely not this one.  It falls in the “festive” category.

I dyed the cake batter green and when they came out of the oven, since I was in a hurry, I popped them into the freezer for 5 minutes.  They were cooled off enough at that point to frost and decorate.  Cute and easy!  It would be a fun project to do with a little kid!

 

Chocolate Pie + Coconut Whipped Cream

I made this new recipe for chocolate pie the other day, and it turned out way different than I expected.  Instead of being a pudding consistency, it was almost like a gooey brownie.  It. Was. So. Good.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE PIE

2 cups white sugar

5 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 cup flour

1 12-oz can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 egg yolks

1/4 cup butter

First, I took a refrigerated crust and pressed it into the 9-inch pie pan.

In a medium saucepan, I stirred together the sugar, flour, and cocoa.

Then, I whisked in the can of evaporated milk.

Before turning on the heat, I added the egg yolks and butter.  It’s really important to mix this all together before turning on the heat and keep whisking constantly to keep chunks of egg from forming.  I know this from experience-Chunky Egg Pie, anyone?

I cooked and stirred just until all the butter had melted.

Finally, I poured the filling into the pie crust and baked it at 350 for 35 minutes, until the pie wasn’t “wobbly” when I shook it.

I wanted to try something a little different from my usual whipped cream, and I keep seeing stuff pop up on Pinterest about Coconut Milk Whipped Cream.  It was a great replacement for whipped cream, and Nathan really liked it, but I can’t say I will make it again.

All I did was open a can of coconut milk- the milk was separated into thick “cream” and some watery liquid.  I drained the liquid and put the thick cream into a bowl.  I whipped it for about 3 minutes with a tablespoon of sugar and a splash of vanilla.