Oatmeal Carmelitas

These Oatmeal Carmelitas were a holiday tradition for many years, made by my great aunt Mary.  I wanted to help keep her tradition alive by making them for Easter this year.  They were incredibly easy and a big hit with everyone, including the new additions to the family.  They are like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but better because they have a layer of caramel in them. So good!  I didn't get a good picture of them after I cut them into bars, just one with really poor lighting-sorry.

Oatmeal Carmelitas Recipe

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine the following and press HALF of mixture into a 9x13 greased casserole dish.  A kitchen aid mixer works great for combining these ingredients.

2 cups Flour

2 cups Quick cooking oats

1 cup Brown sugar

1 tsp. Baking soda

½ tsp. Salt

1 ½ cups Melted unsalted butter

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

While still warm, sprinkle a 12 oz. Bag of chocolate chips and  1 cup of chopped walnuts.

Combine 6 Tb. of flour with a 12 oz. Jar of Caramel Topping, then pour on top of chocolate chip & walnuts.  Top with remaining HALF of oatmeal topping and bake for 20 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting into small bars.

Easter Cupcakes

Made these carrot cake cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting.  They were topped with toasted coconut and malt ball Easter egg candies.  I used a recipe from an old Everyday Food magazine.  I really liked the addition of the orange zest to the cream cheese frosting.  

Bake Sale For Japan

The idea started out small and then grew and grew to a nationwide event!  Through the collective bake sales, we raised about $124,000 for Japan's earthquake/tsunami relief efforts!!  Click here to read more about how this amazing bake sale began.  I was lucky enough to volunteer at the SPQR location and had a great time being surrounded by sweet treats and good company.

Baby Shower and Birthday

This past month was busy with birthdays and baby showers.  Here are some of my contributions to the events.  I made vanilla  and chocolate cupcakes with blue butter cream for the baby shower.  Then, I made ocean cupcakes to go around my nephew's store bought pirate cake.  They were a big hit.

Sprinkles Cupcakes

So it took me a while, but I finally went to Sprinkles cupcakes in Palo Alto.  I had the red velvet with cream cheese frosting and my friend had the lemon blueberry with cream cheese frosting.  They were both super yummy, but the red velvet was my favorite.  I'll definitely have to go back again to try the other flavors.