Toppings | Mixes, Ingredients, Recipes

Make Your Own Bavarian Cream

July 15th, 2020Dennis Weaver | Alice Wach0 Comments

Blog Home Prepared Pantry Store Shopping Cart Take your desserts to the next level with real Bavarian cream. It really is a must-have filling for many desserts: cream puffs, pies, cupcakes, donuts, and more. Here, you can decide between making your own Bavarian cream with our recipe or using our pre-made Bavarian cream to make your life easier and tastier. Homemade vs. Premade Normally, I’d tell you that making anything from scratch is always better–even if you have to put a little extra work in it, but the line between “worth the effort” and “still has great taste” gets very …

How to Paint Cookies with Food Colors

July 14th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

The Fun Way to Decorate Cookies When I was a child, my mother made sugar cookies for the holidays. We frosted them and sprinkled them with decorations in different colors. We looked forward to it every year, the bright cookies and that chance to be creative with different colors. It was a happy time. So fun! Painting cookies is more fun than decorating cookies with frosting and sprinkles, and even adults get hooked. The kids are sure to have a blast. Time to be artistic! Let your creative side go wild as you paint patterns, pictures, and even delicate scenes on …

Falling in Love with French Toast: Banana Bread French Toast

July 9th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Blog Home Prepared Pantry Store Shopping Cart Get a FREE Cinnamon Chip Banana Bread Mix Now! Add it to cart and use code “ZBAN” at checkout. Falling in Love with French Toast: Banana Bread French Toast This scrumptious banana bread French toast will change your life. We love French toast. Doesn’t everyone? We love a good bread, one of substance, soaked in an egg wash, maybe with a touch of cinnamon,and then cooked until it just starts to get crusty but not tough. There are a thousand ways to fix and serve French toast. We go to an extra effort …

How to Make Chocolate Banana Pops

July 9th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

chocolate banana pops hanging from clothes line to show chocolate setting.

Blog Home Prepared Pantry Store Shopping Cart How to Make Chocolate Banana Pops Make chocolate banana pops the kids will love! We made some of these with our five-year old granddaughter, Anna. She was so excited. They’re easy, fun, and really good. They’re frozen bananas on a stick, dipped in chocolate, and rolled in sprinkles. So fun to make! Turn these chocolate banana pops into a project for the kids. They’re so fun and easy to make. The whole family is sure to love them. Great taste! Who doesn’t like chocolate and bananas? It’s a classic combination, and the crunch …

Lemonade Pies: A Luscious Summertime Treat

July 7th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Celebrate summer with these luscious lemonade pies. This is a type of pie, not just a recipe. It started out as a pink lemonade pie, made with pink lemonade fruit juice concentrate from your grocer’s shelf. But it soon evolved into pies made with any fruit juice concentrate. Since there is an amazing array of fruit drink concentrates, you can make an amazing array of desserts. Lemonade Pies: The Best Dessert of the Summer They’re luscious. We serve these in the store often. They’re always a hit. The contrast of sweet and tart from the concentrate is delightful. They’re cool …

Rhubarb Nut Crisp

June 30th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Surprise the family with one of these great rhubarb recipes. Strawberry rhubarb is a classic combination, and the flavors pair so well together. Here’s a few recipes to get you into the season. Rhubarb Nut Crisp Recipe I like rhubarb. I have a rhubarb plant in my back yard that has grown into a monster perennial. It takes no care and provides enough stalks for few rhubarb pies and crisps each spring. This makes a great springtime dessert.A crisp can be served hot or cold with whipped cream or ice cream. This is another crisp that goes well with lemon …

Easy Crostatas

June 23rd, 2020Dennis Weaver | Alice Wach0 Comments

How to Make Easy Crostatas Even if you’ve never made pie before, you can make crostatas. Get the premade pie fillings now to make it even easier! Get the Premade Pie Fillings Now Crostatas: Easier than Pie Crostatas are easier than pie. And we actually mean it. Making a typical pie means going through the hassle of rolling out the pie dough, fitting it into the pie pan, crimping the edges to make it look pretty, and hoping the sides of the pie crust don’t collapse while baking. You don’t have to worry about that with crostatas. Crostatas are little …

How to Make Ice Cream Sandwiches Three Ways

June 22nd, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

How to Make Ice Cream Sandwiches Three Ways Get a FREE Soft Cookie Mix for your ice cream sandwiches! Choose one, add it to cart, and use code “ZSOFT” at checkout. Make Ice Cream Sandwiches Three Ways! So much better than the store! You can’t get more than simple chocolate and vanilla ice cream sandwiches from the store; making them yourself is so much better. Get creative! Choose your favorite cookie base and mix and match with the ice cream, the toppings, and even the shape. You can even dip them in chocolate or frosting. So fun and always delicious! Whether you decide to use the ice cream sandwich maker, cut out the cookie shapes from a sheet cookie, or use simple cookies they’re fun to make with the kids and will taste great.

How to Make Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes in 15 Minutes

June 19th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

These are my favorite cupcakes—and you can make them a batch of 18 in 15 minutes prep time, about 30 minutes elapsed time with baking. Boston cream pie cupcakes are made with a vanilla bean cake mix, filled with Bavarian cream, and topped with chocolate ganache. Here’s how to make them with step-by-step pictures. Step 1: Bake the Cupcakes Mix the batter as directed on the cake mix package. We used our vanilla bean cake mix and our stand-type mixer. While the cake was mixing, we put paper liners in two standard muffin pans. We also used this time to …

How to Make Whoopie Pies

June 19th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Extraordinary Whoopie Pies and How They’re Made Whoopie pies won’t go away. They’ve been around for decades and unlike most food fads, these just stick around. That’s usually a pretty good sign that they’re worthwhile. These are not your ordinary whoopie pies. We served whoopie pies in our store. Instead of two cake-like cookies sandwiched with frosting, we filled them—chocolate cookies with cherry filling and others with strawberry frosting and cream cheese centers. Very yummy and very easy. We dipped each whoopie pie in melted chocolate frosting. Then we drizzled lines across the top with a small pastry bag for …

How to Use a Mix to Make Carrot Cake that Will Rock Their Socks!

June 19th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

This is not your ordinary carrot cake; it’s so much better. Whenever we served it in the store, our customers would go crazy over it. This is sure to be the best carrot cake you’ve ever made. Carrot cake is a great variation of the typical vanilla cake, and now you can make it different ways with a carrot cake mix or even a vanilla bean cake mix. Learn how to use a cake mix to make carrot cake and the different ways we like to make it at Prepared Pantry. Making the Carrot Cake Base from a Mix Start …

How to Make Easy Strawberry and Other Berry Shortcakes

June 19th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Every day is a baking day at The Prepared Pantry. We bake, we test, and we share the good stuff with our customers in the store. We made cakes using our Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes and then topped them with fresh or frozen fruit, sauces, and flavored whipped cream. When we got them right, they were luscious. The Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes are cream cake mixes— denser and moister than the fluffy mixes from the store. They are about halfway between the fluffy mixes and a pound cake. Technically, they’re a cream cake. With more substance, we think …

How to Avoid Weeping Meringues

June 12th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

One of the best things to make a picturesque pie is to top it with meringue, but how do you keep the meringue from weeping? Weeping meringues aren’t very pretty. The meringue pulls back from the crust, moisture beads on the topping, and a clear liquid forms below the crust. It doesn’t hurt the pie but it’s not presentable. Most weeping seems to be caused by one of two conditions, either the sugar isn’t completely dissolved or the egg whites are not fully cooked. Say goodbye to weeping meringues. Beautiful pies every time! Your meringue pies don’t have to be …

Favorite Peach Cobbler with Canned Peaches

June 12th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

This peach cobbler is a nod to the old fashioned peach cobblers my mother would make. My mother made the best peach cobblers. She used the peaches that we canned in the summertime, a quart to a cobbler. They were easy to put together and so good. We liked our cobblers warm. Often we would pour milk over our bowl of warm peach cobbler like you would hot cereal or maybe we would load it with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. My father poured canned milk over his. I’ve long since lost Mother’s recipe for peach cobbler. Our …

Traditional Strawberry Shortcakes with Flavored Whipped Cream

June 11th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

We served traditional strawberry shortcakes in our store on Saturday. That means 400, maybe 500 desserts and 30 pounds of strawberries. How do you make 500 desserts in a hurry? You take every shortcut you can without sacrificing quality. We simplified the shortcakes. We took our just-add-water biscuit mix, added a little sugar, and baked sheets of sweetened biscuits. It worked. Repeatedly we were asked, “Where can I get this recipe?” We used a strawberry slicer for the berries. We had nice, neat slices and probably cut our prep time by two-thirds. We made caramel whipped cream by the quart. …

How to Make Muffin Tops

June 11th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Make Perfect High-Domed Muffin Tops! Get a FREE Strawberry Muffin Mix! Add it to cart and use the code “ZMUFF” at checkout. Everyone knows that the top of the muffin is always the best part. Muffin tops are crunchy, have the most flavor, and can even taste like fluffy cookies if you do it right. They’re not crusty or sweaty like the bottoms of the muffins sometimes are. Once you start making muffin tops, you’ll never go back to standard muffins. Use a Muffin Top Pan All it takes to make muffin tops is a muffin top pan, muffin batter, …

Ten Ways to Make Flavored Whipped Cream

June 11th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Make the Best Desserts Ever with Flavored Whipped Cream! Make this Flavored Whipped Cream with a FREE Meringue Powder! Add it to cart and use code “ZPOW” at checkout. Look at All the Different Kinds of Whipped Creams You Can Make! If you want to make the best desserts on the planet, use flavored whipped cream—like caramel or strawberry or chocolate or even peanut butter. Just let your imagination roam. Consider different flavors but don’t overlook inclusions—like peanut butter, chopped nuts, minced pineapple, spices, zest, flavored syrups, chocolate, jams, and pastry fillings. Think of all the ice cream flavors. You’re …

How to Make Stuffed Braided Bread

May 29th, 2020rrf0 Comments

Get a free Buttermilk Bread Mix now! Add it to cart and use code “ZYUM” at checkout. You can braid nearly any bread—including your favorite recipe. We often grab a mix—that makes it even easier. And you can stuff your bread with either a sweet or a savory filling. Cherry Braided Bread With Cream Cheese Frosting For this project, we made a cherry bread with a cream cheese frosting. We used a Buttermilk White Bread Mix but you can use any mix or recipe you like. We used a cherry pastry filling but a pie filling or Chubby Cherry would …

How to Turn Your Whipped Cream into Frosting

May 29th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

Make the Best Cakes with Whipped Cream Frosting! It’s better than buttercream frosting! Make whipped cream frosting now with a free stabilizer! Add it to cart and use the code “ZPOW at checkout, Whipped cream is so good you could eat it out of the tub or can, but what if I told you that you could make your own whipped cream and never have to run into an empty can or tub and out to the store again. Better yet, you can make that luxurious whipped cream into frosting. Whipped cream frosting is absolutely scrumptious —better than butter or …

Thirteen Ways to Make Your Sugar Cookies Anything but Ordinary

May 18th, 2020Dennis Weaver0 Comments

(Updated From May 13, 2014) Get a FREE Snickerdoodle Mix! Add it to cart and use code “Z145” at checkout. Or Try our Sugarsnap Cookie mix for FREE instead! Add it to cart and use code “ZSNAPS” at checkout. *Only one coupon allowed per order. The sugar cookie is a classic and such a crowd-pleaser. They’re a go-to in my house when we need a sweet treat to share, but when you’ve made hundreds of sugar cookies, there needs to be some sort of variation to keep it interesting. Sugar cookies can be a work of art. I’m not an …