Red Velvet Twinkies

Red is my absolute favorite color, and chocolate is my numero uno.........

so the moment I found Red Velvet I was totally in love! 

Some may describe red velvet cake as just chocolate cake in a red dress, but to me it's so much more. The taste is not so much a chocolate, but more of a cocoa.

It's a moist cake that's not really sweet at all, but slathered with cream cheese frosting that's tangy and sweet enough to keep you licking every mordita (bite) from your plump little fingers.

In honor of Valentine's Day and the untimely passing of the Hostess Twinkie, I decided to transform this southern classic cake into an conveniently portable iconic snack food. 

With a white chocolate drizzle, deep red sprinkles and a sweet gummy heart an American classic is brought back a la vida ( to life) in the warm comforts of your very own kitchen!

Obviously you'll need a Twinkie pan to bake in, if you don't already have one you can purchase them here.

Because I was super excited to just get to the good stuff, I decided to use a Duncan Hines Box Mix.  I was actually pretty happy with the results, the cake came out nice and moist yet firm enough to hold the filling inside.  If you must have a scratch cake recipe here is one to try courtesy of the
Food Network.

Although I occasionally use a box mix, I rarely if ever use a canned frosting.  I am a frosting chica and I love a little cake with my frosting if you know what I mean.  I could do frosting shots all day if it wouldn't send me into sugar shock!

                          


                                                               Cream Cheese Filling Recipe
 
 
                                                                       Ingredients
 

4 tablespoons butter, softened

 

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

 

4 cups confectioners' sugar

 

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

 

                                                                       Directions

 

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until blended. With electric

 

mixer on low, beat in the powdered sugar a little at a time until well blended. Beat on high speed until

 

smooth and creamy.

 

                                                           Red Velvet Twinkie

                                               Directions

                                                                     
1.Follow the directions on the box of your cake mix or scratch cake recipe. Add your cake batter to the Twinkie mold filling the cake wells 1/2 way. 
 
2.Once your Twinkies are completely cooled, fill an icing bag with a tip and on the underside of the Twinkie insert the tip and squeeze in the filling.
 
3. Melt 1/2 cup of white melting chocolates then with a spoon quickly drizzle the white chocolate back and forth over each Twinkie.
 
4. Shake sprinkles over the white chocolate and immediately place your gummy heart in the middle of your Twinkie.

5. Sit down, enjoy them and wonder how Hostess could ever let anything so wonderful slip out of their pretty little fingers!

Mexican Breakfast Club- Mexican Chocolate French Toast

So although lunch is my preferred meal of the day, breakfast holds a very special memory in my heart. Why you ask ? Because many, many lunas ( moons) ago when I was a small, pequena muchahcha I would spend countless mornings around my Nana & Pop Pops breakfast table. I remember sitting at their great big walnut colored kitchen table and watching my Pop Pop flipping the pancakes for what seemed like forever, than making sky high fluffy stacks of his family famous maple pancakes.



There were six little chicas to feed between my sister and my four primas ( cousins) and it didn't even seem to phase him that we had the appetites of  little baby lions and just 1 pancake a piece would not do. He just kept happily slappin the batter on the griddle, and telling us to make sure we had a seat so that we had the perfect view of our early morning cartoons. Such a sweet connection between cooking and showing love.






I couldn't see it back then but now I realize that my Pop Pop didn't see cooking for his grand girls as a chore but a labor of love ♥  Okay, Okay I have to get syrupy sweet about things sometimes.........now to the task at hand.  If you follow my blog you may already know that a few weeks ago I was consumed by all things breakfast, I couldn't stop thinking of new early morning recipes.  I was OBSESSED!  So when I saw that girlie chef & Helen's Breakfast Club   were hosting a Mexican Club event.

 I figured my Mexican Chocolate French Toast could fit the bill.  Although Mexican Chocolate French Toast is not a "traditional" breakfast food it does use Mexican ingredients. It's what I love to call Mexi-Nueva , which is taking common Mexican ingredients and giving them a new spin and a twist! I did previously post about my Mexican French Toast but I never did give the recipe, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
4-5 slices of thick Texas toast or 5-6 slices of reg bread
1 tbsp of Mexican canela or cinnamon
1 tbsp Dutch process cocoa
2 tsp of chocolate extract
drizzle of  Nestle Abuelita Mexican chocolate syrup
chocolate chips

Directions :


1. Pour the milk into a medium size bowl, whisk in the eggs until well incorporated and smooth. Next, mix in your, Mexican canela,  cocoa and chocolate extract,whisk until smooth.

2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.

3.Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated, but not soggy. Cook bread on each side until golden brown.  Sprinkle with cocoa, cinnamon chocolate chips and a drizzle of  Nestle Abuelita chocolate syrup and Enjoy!

Okay so where did the summer go?......Just yesterday I was tearing through my closet, cursing any piece of clothing that hit the edge of my wrists or even lightly touched my ankles. In reality it wasn't

yesterday it was 3 months ago, but it definitely seems like it was. Anyway with the days flying by it's inevitable that one of these days I'm going to crack my weary eyes open and come crashing into the

early dawn hours of the first day of school.  And with the preparation of the first day of school outfits, of course come the first day of school lunch.  Fortunately, I have been blessed with children

that aren't even a smidgen as picky as I was as a little chica. Yes, yes I am the child that can not eat crust on her bread, and can not stomach white milk, chocolate only please! And if I am made a peanut

butter and jelly sandwich, there must be equal parts jelly, equal parts peanut butter or I can not eat it! There will be none of the ooey gooey jelly running down my elbows, nor do I want to experience

lock jaw eating a sandwich that is cemented with too much peanut butter!  So although the cabbage patch fairies from my younger years have now bestowed me with well adjusted, well mannered, easy

going "eat whatever mommy packs them" chicas. I still feel like Plain Jane lunches for them just won't do, so every year I search for new and intriguing lunch box recipes so that I can pack them

delicious meals that are" ahem, ah no pun intended......"outside of the box".......okay, okay...pun was intended, hehehehe! ( yup, I'm corny like that).  My mini chocolatina's all love rice krispy treats, so

much so that I stock pile them when there on sale, but one thing I do know is that they love chocolate just a little bit more. These little treats are a perfect mix of cinnamon, caramel marshmallows and

their favorite chocolatey cereal comingled in one little square....actually more like a rectangle. Whichever shape, these are a perfectly unconventional treat and a sweet way to show your chica's or

chico's lunch some back to school lovin!...Well really, these are so good I'm sure they would work for anything that needs lovin! ♥

Mexican-Caramel Krispy Treats

Ingredients

6 tbsp butter (use real butter)
1 10 oz bag kraft caramel marshmallows
1 tbsp of Mexican canela or cinnamon1 box cocoa pebbles cereal 13oz

 

Directions

Melt butter over med low heat add marshmallows remove from heat. Let marshmallows melt into butter, make sure marshmallows are completely melted, add cocoa pebbles cereal and tbsp of canela

 

or cinnamon. Stir until compleatly incorperated. Spread into 9x13 cake pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool in fridge. Cut into four inch squares.

 

Makes about 15 servings.