Sweetened Sensations

Life here in Paulding is pretty sweet, especially when you live within walking distance from the Dairy Queen. I have tried not to abuse the privilege of living so close, but once in a while I find myself lacking self-control, especially during Happy Hour when certain items are 50% off. Yikes, that is the worst. 

Plus, living across from DQ is a tactic I use to get people to come visit me. 

Paulding Dairy Queen (photo taken from my yard)

After buying a DQ ice cream cake for $20 the other day, I decided that I could make one a little cheaper. I had been asked to bring dessert to a gathering, so I set out to copy-cat the famous DQ ice cream cake recipe. 

I even bought real DQ ice cream for the cake. I used my springform pan and layered the following:

 1 layer of DQ chocolate ice cream,

a layer of crushed up oreos, with my favorite hot fudge recipe drizzled on top,

1 layer of DQ vanilla ice cream, and cool whip for the very top.

Take-home quart for $2

The cake turned out good. It didn't taste exactly like the 'real' thing, but it tasted pretty close. The cake was a little time-consuming, but enjoyable and fun to prepare. We can't forget about the money I saved too you know. A whole $10.

I garnished the cake with frozen chocolate curly cues.

 Another quick and easy favorite of ours is peanut butter pie. This is a great option for last-minute company.

quick, simple, easy, & delicious

Here are my raspberry, lemonade cupcakes. I made these for our Memorial Day gathering a few weeks back. These are some of my favorite cupcakes. Oh, they are so delicious, especially a few hours after being baked and frosted. The raspberry on top gives it the finishing touch it needs.

Have you heard of these frosting creations flavor mixes? Maybe they have been out for a while, and I just discovered them. Anyways, I cheated with the frosting and added the 'pink lemonade' flavor mix to a container of vanilla frosting. There are so many fun flavors to spice up your frosting with. Get adventurous and pick one up today! You would think Duncan Hines has me advertising for them or something.

Can't go wrong with peanut butter, chocolate cupcakes either. Depending on my mood, sometimes these are more of a craving, but for the most part I normally lean toward the fruitier desserts, ice cream flavors, ect.

I may have added a little too much cupcake batter. As you can see, the cupcakes were quite large.

I have fallen in love with these Keebler Ready Graham Crusts. Sometimes coming up with a dessert for just the two of us can be challenging. To make an entire pie or a whole 9x13 of something could mean that we eat the same dessert all week. Trust me, we like a little variety. You just coat these crusts with egg white, bake them for 5 minutes, and they are ready to be filled.

I like to fill mine with strawberry pie, peach pie, a cream cheese filling with a raspberry sauce on top, or peanut butter pie. Those are just a few that I have tried, but you could fill these with absolutely anything. Not only are these mini-pies cute, but they are tasty as well.

Keebler crusts with strawberry pie filling. YUM!

Well those are my sweetened sensations for this beautiful Saturday morning. Hope I got your taste buds ready for the weekend!!