Key Lime Pie Cupcakes!

I love these little sunshine cakes! I started with baking a yellow cake base in a cupcake pan with colorful cupcake tins.  You can use either boxed cake mix or use your own recipe.  Traditionally, this cupcake is made with white cake but I thought yellow might be a good combination too.  Next, I filled my cupcake injector with a mixture of 1 14 oz. canned sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup key lime juice, & a lot of lime zest.  Mix all ingredients together and chill in the fridge...it took mine 30 mins to form a pudding type of filling and even then I left it in the fridge until I was ready to fill and serve the cupcakes.  Anyway, inject your cupcake with as much filling as you desire and pipe whipped cream (you can make it yourself or use store bought I used Sugar free Cool Whip & it turned out delicious!)  Sprinkle with smashed graham crackers (I just put two in a ziplock bag and basically beat them with the handle of my knife) and top with a fresh cut lime slice. And there you have it the perfect treat for a hot summer day!

Sugar free Blackberry Cobbler

Melissa suggested we make a blackberry cobbler the other day using the blackberries from her garden and it turned out absolutely delicious! We picked about 2 1/2 cups of blackberries to use, washed them and covered them in Splenda for about 20 mins or until a sugary syrup formed on the blackberries.  We then made breading which was actually a nice sweet touch to the slight tartness of the blackberries.  I used 1 cup Splenda, 1 cup flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a cup of milk.  Stir together until all ingredients are mixed in then add a 1/2 cup melted butter and mix.  Pour the batter in your pan then cover with blackberries.  Cook at 375 degrees for 45-50 mins and you should get a beautiful cobbler!  The nice thing about this recipe is that you can substitute it with different fruits like peaches, apples, cherries, etc to try different combinations.  Enjoy!

The Perfect Apple Pie

In honor of the summer season and all the hot weather we've been getting here in GA I decided to bake something new...apple pies!  This is the first time I've ever tried baking an apple pie and to my surprise it wasn't very difficult at all.  I'll list the recipe I used below.  Also, if you are diabetic or looking for a lower calorie treat with the same flavor I baked two pies replacing the sugar with Splenda & Splenda Blend Brown Sugar mixture (2g of sugar use 1/4 cup if you're using Splenda Blend or use 1/2 cup of regular brown sugar if wanted).  I am not a huge fan of sweet pies so I did not use brown sugar in my apple pie but feel free to add it according to my notes above.

The Perfect Apple Pie:

1 box Pillsbury Pie Crust found in the refrigerated section at your local supermarket near the Cinnamon Rolls

6 Granny Smith Apples (peeled & cored)

1/2 cup Sugar (or Splenda if desired)

3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Ginger

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

Lemon Juice (for apples)

Butter (just a dot)

1 Egg White

A pinch of extra Sugar or Splenda (for top)

Peel & core apples (I used an apple corer for this part) place in a large bowl and cover each apple with lemon juice to avoid apples browning.  In a small bowl combine sugar, flour, and spices set aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take a 9 inch round pie pan glass is best and roll out one of the Pillsbury pie crusts making sure to push down the edges that stick out over the pan. Roll each apple slice in the sugar spice mixture and place in pan I arranged my apples on their side in order to fit the most apples in.  After you've covered all the apples pour the remaining spice mixture on to the top of your pile of apples top with a small amount of butter.  Then place the top crust on the top of the pie making sure to adhere the bottom crust to the top crust on the edges to seal the pie.  Next, use a knife to cut four large slits in the pie and four small slits use your foamed egg white to cover the top of the pie and place in the oven for 35 minutes at 375 degrees.  After 35 minutes turn the oven up to 400 degrees and cook an additional 10-15 mins (I baked for 12 mins).