Jolts & Jollies

Not so Espresso Chocolate Cake with Hot Kahlua Syrup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 17:06:00 +0000

Have you ever noticed that the older you get, the faster time goes? I swear, when I was little time seemed to pass so slooooowly. Now, I'm shocked when I realize that, oh, it's the end of March already!

I had a friend message me recently and tell me that I needed to update my blog because she's been stalking it and needs a new recipe to drool over. Unfortunately, she had a baby on Monday and I don't think she will be able to get on my blog and see this cake any time soon. Either way, I made this cake on Monday so this one is dedicated to baby Jameson who was born healthy and is lucky to have such an incredible mommy!

This cake is the Cake Slice Bakers top voted cake for March. I made the cake a bit late so I was able to read the comments from other bakers in our Facebook group before I made it. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of espresso powder. Some feedback from the group indicated that the espresso was the dominant flavor in the cake and was overwhelming. I decided that instead of espresso, I would just brew half a cup of strong coffee and call it good. I also increased the ONE Tablespoon of cocoa powder to two. Duh! One isn't enough!

After baking, the hot cake is soaked in a hot kahlua syrup that is sweetened with honey. The syrup was a great flavor addition to the cake and made the crumb more moist. I made a chocolate ganache to go on top but for some reason it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I don't think I heated the cream enough. Oh well. It still tasted good!

I'm quite happy with the way the cake turned out (besides the look). I took it with me to my internship for our weekly PACT meeting and no one complained so I guess it was pretty good.

In other news, I'm still plugging away at school. I absolutely love the program I'm in. It feels so...right. Like I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. My internship in the homeless clinic at the VA hospital is so fulfilling. I love working with the Veterans. I have met some characters for sure! My supervisor is so knowledgeable and is teaching me so much. I also found out I get to shadow for a day next week in the Polytrauma Rehab clinic. I'm crazy excited about that since working with that population is my ultimate goal.

The Hubble is scheduled for an evasive driving course. Needless to say, he will no longer be driving the kids and me anywhere when he gets back. He's giddy about the experience though. He has so much fun with these trainings. It's neat to witness and be a part of his career and journey. I'm glad I have the opportunity to be on my own journey and career path as well.

My India trip is just 45 days away!!! To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I'm so grateful for the opportunities I've been awarded lately. I look around sometimes and am in awe that this is my life. If you are interested in donating and helping me fund this experience, you can do so at my Go Fund Me site.

And finally, the Cake Slice Bakers has decided to open the group for new members for a mid-year opportunity. If you are interested in joining us, just let me know and I will link you up with the right person. Until then, make this cake and enjoy every bite!! And don't forget to check out all the other Cake Slice Bakers' cakes at the end of this post!

Not so Espresso Chocolate Cake with Hot Kahlua Syrup

Adapted from Great Cakes by Carole Walters

Ingredients

Cake:

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
2 1/4 cup sifted cake flour
2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Hot Kahlua Syrup:

2/3 cup Kahlua
1/3 cup water
3 Tablespoons honey

Chocolate Ganache:

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Position rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray (or butter and dust with flour, tapping out excess flour).
To make the cake: Brew the coffee and set aside to cool.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to fully combine.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed until smooth and light in color, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time, at 1-minute intervals, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Blend in the vanilla and sour cream, mixture may look somewhat curdled at this point.
Reduce mixer to low speed. Add dry ingredients, alternating with the coffee, dividing the dry ingredients into 3 parts and the coffee in 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just incorporated after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for 10 seconds longer.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Center the pan on the rack and bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry and the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes while you make the syrup.
To make the syrup: In a small saucepan combine the Kahlua, water, and honey. Bring to a slow boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
Pierce cake with a wooden skewer and slowly pour the hot syrup over the top of the hot cake. Let stand in the pan for at least 1 hour to allow the cake to absorb all the syrup, then invert onto a rack and remove the pan.
To make the ganache: place the finely chopped chocolate and the butter into a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, bring the cream just to a boil. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate and butter and allow to stand for 60 seconds. Whisk the mixture until smooth and well combined. Pour over the cake allowing the ganache to spill over the edges of the cake. Let stand to cool and set.
Slice and enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Maple Pecan Pound Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:23:00 +0000

Happy New Year! I know the first month of the new year is almost over but I haven't yet acknowledged that we are in 2014. Shouldn't we all have flying cars by now?? No? Hmmm...

Well, the new semester has started for me. I've been in school for 3 weeks now and I'm having trouble finding my motivation. What better way to procrastinate than to talk about cake?!?!?

This cake is the January pick for the Cake Slice Bakers. I ended up making this cake twice. The original recipe is for an old fashioned pound cake and the author, Carole Walter, suggests different options for changing the cake up. The first time I made the cake I went with the "nutty pound cake" option which calls for nuts and a hot liquor-based syrup to be poured over the warm cake. Sounds good right?? Unfortunately, I found the texture to be all wrong. The syrup didn't seep all the way to the bottom of the cake making some parts soggy and others dry. I was really disappointed.

But I refused to give up! I was talking with a friend and she sent me pictures of her husband and his family making pure cane syrup. That gave me an idea! Instead of the milk the original recipe called for, I decided to substitute maple syrup and add some pecans (because maple and pecan just goes together, duh!). Boy am I glad that I tried this cake again! It was fluffy, flavorful, and delicious!

I'm used to pound cakes being super dense but this one wasn't. It was crumbly and soft. Sadly, my pictures aren't great. I ended up taking the cake to a friend's house for a party and had to snatch up a piece and take some quick pictures before the cake was devoured.

All in all, I am very happy with how my second rendition of this cake turned out. I suggest making it! I wish I still had some. I would heat up a slice and slab a little butter on that bad boy. Mmmmmm....

Okay. Back to work! And don't forget to jump to the bottom of this post to see how the other Cake Slice Bakers fared with this cake!

Maple Pecan Pound Cake

recipe adapted from Great Cakes via Baking and Creating with Avril

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray loaf pan (9x5) with baking spray and set aside.

2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside flour mixture.

3. Cream together butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 6-8 minutes.

4. Add the eggs, 1 at a time at 1-minute intervals. Add in vanilla and blend well. At this point the batter may appear curdled. Not to worry as the addition of the dry ingredients will remedy this.

5. On low speed add in 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 the maple syrup. Then again another 1/3 of the flour and the remaining maple syrup, ending with the last of the flour. Mix only until incorporated after each addition. Scrap the sides of bowl to make sure all ingredients have been included.

6. Gently fold in chopped pecans until blended.

7. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon. Bake in middle of the oven centered on the rack for 60-70 minutes. If cake appears to be getting dark too fast cover lightly with tin foil. Cake will be done with toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean.

8. Cool cake in pan for 10-15 minutes before inverting onto a platter to serve. Enjoy!!

Streusel Squares

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 16:32:00 +0000

I was supposed to post this cake 8 days ago. What's funny is that I made this cake a month ago but I'm barely posting it today. I had fully intended to get this posted on time. Obviously that didn't happen. Best laid plans and all that.

I don't have much of an excuse for the delay. I could say it was because I was finishing up my first semester of grad school. But that finished on the 6th of this month. I'm happy to say my first semester was a great success! I received 3 A+, 2 A's, and 1 A-. I think not too shabby for someone who hasn't been in a traditional classroom setting for 11 years, had an 8 hour internship, 10 hours of Graduate Assistantship work, 2 small kids, and no husband or family in town. I'm happy with my results! However, that means I've been lazy since school got out for winter break.

I did read a book though! For fun! Donna Tartt's Golfinch was a healthy undertaking at 771 pages but I finished it yesterday and the beauty of the novel did not disappoint. Unfortunately, I need to get back to the reality of Grad school around the 1st so I can start prepping for the new semester. Spring will consist of 4 courses, 20 hours of internship, and 10 hours of Graduate Assistantship work. But this time The Hubble will be home to help.

But that's enough about me and my school shenanigans. Now for the cake! I made this cake for The Cake Slice Bakers group. This streusel cake is MY first cake from our new book. I skipped November. The group voted and chose the book Great Cakes by Carole Walters. I wasn't thrilled with the selection for November nor did I have any time whatsoever to go get the ingredients so I skipped the first cake. However, I'm glad I jumped in for December's cake. This streusel cake was delicious! It was light and flaky with a topping to kill for! I took the cake to class (since I made it so long ago) and it was devoured within an hour. The next time I make the cake, I would add nuts (probably pecans) to the topping; I love texture. But other than that I thought the cake was perfect!

Since I'm WAY late posting this cake, the linky tool thing to the other Cake Slice Bakers is closed but you should still try to pop over to the blogroll and see what everyone else thought of the cake. And don't forget to make the cake yourself so you can form your own opinion too! Enjoy!

Streusel Squares

Recipe from Great Cakes by Carole Waltervia Lick the Bowl Good

Ingredients:

Streusel Topping:

⅓ cup (⅔ stick) unsalted butter

1¼ cups unsifted all-purpose flour

⅔ cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake:

2¼ cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup superfine sugar

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 large egg white

Directions:

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350⁰F. Butter a 9 x 13 x 2” pan.
To Make The Streusel Topping: Melt the butter, then cool slightly.

Add the flour, sugar and cinnamon all at once and stir with a fork until the mixture forms small crumbs. Take a handful of the crumbs and make a fist to press the mixture into a large clump, and then separate into smaller clusters, at least two or three times the size of the original crumbs.

Repeat until all of the crumbs have been reshaped, then set aside.

To Make The Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to soften on low speed. Increase speed to medium-high and cream until smooth and light in color, about 1½ to 2 minutes.

Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, taking about 6 to 8 minutes to blend it in well, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add the eggs and additional yolk, 1 at a time at 1-minute intervals, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.Blend in the vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, dividing the flour mixture into three parts and the milk into two parts, starting and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated after each addition, scraping the sides of the bowl and mix for 10 seconds longer.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a tablespoon.

Beat the egg white lightly with a fork, and using a pastry brush, spread about half of the beaten egg white over the top of the cake batter. Discard the remainder - the egg white helps the streusel adhere to the top of the cake.

Sprinkle the entire surface of the batter generously with the streusel, gently patting the crumbs into the batter with the palm of your hand; do not press hard.

Center the pan on the rack and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top, begins to come away from the sides of the pan, and the streusel is crisp. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out dry.

Remove the cake from the oven and set on a cake rack to cool. When ready to serve, dust the top with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

Can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Kentucky Bourbon Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:22:00 +0000

Yesterday, I was sitting in my Policy class thinking about how much I would have loved to have a glass of wine or a beer in my hand. The topic of discussion yesterday was substance abuse. We talked a lot about different forms of substance abuse, but since we had taken a midterm the day before and had several large projects due this week all we could think about was Happy Hour.

I had already made this Kentucky Bourbon cake and taken it in a couple weeks ago. But it sure would have gone with the topic of discussion quite well.

I made this cake for the Cake Slice Bakers group. Every October is bakers' choice since October marks the end of the baking year for that year's book.

As I was looking through the book and wondering if I should make one of the cakes that I've missed or try a new one, I ran across the Kentucky Bourbon cake and immediately closed the book. I had found my cake

I am so glad I chose this cake! It was simple to make and amazingly delicious! The glaze poured onto the bottom of the hot cake seeps into the crumb making it moist and flavorful. Then pouring the remaining glaze over the top of the cake creates a glaze doughnut type texture. This cake was definitely a winner! And I didn't hear any complaints from my fellow students or professors.

So this past week was midterm week. I can't believe that I'm already halfway through my first semester of Grad school. It's so crazy! Unfortunately, I had a mid-term breakdown on Thursday evening. I've heard that a number of us had the same kind of breakdown. Fortunately, I have a couple Godiva truffle flights so I ate my feelings that night. That's what a good foodie does right? But, I made it through that and now it's time to pick myself back up and keep going. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's hard. But the best things in life don't come easy.

My internship is also going really well. I'm sad that I'm only on the unit for 8 hours a week. I wish I was there every day. But I guess getting the education is kind of important. So I'll keep going to class and appreciate the time I have at my internship while I'm there. And make the most of it.

How are things going in your life? Do you have anything new happening? Are you planning on making this cake? Because you absolutely should. You won't regret it! I really wish I had a piece of it right now. Yum! If you are feeling brave, take a few minutes to check out the other Cake Slice Bakers October cakes. You can find the links to their blogs at the bottom of this post!

Kentucky Bourbon Cake

Adapted from Vintage Cakes

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperatures
1/4 cup bourbon
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Glaze:

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup bourbon

Directions:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk until well blended.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Blend in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
In a small bowl, combine bourbon and buttermilk.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. After each addition, mix until just barely blended and stop to scrape down sides of bowl. Stop mixer before the last of the flour has been incorporated and blend it in by hand with a rubber spatula.
Spread the batter evenly into a prepared bundt or fluted metal tube pan.
Place pan in oven and bake until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched, about 40 to 45 minutes.
To make the glaze: In a small saucepan, over low heat, combine the butter, sugar, and bourbon and heat just until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, whisking to combine.
Remove cake from oven and, while leaving it in the pan, immediately poke holes all over the cake with a wooden skewer or toothpick. Pour 3/4 of the glaze slowly over the cake, set aside remaining glaze.
Allow cake to cool in pan for 30 minutes then flip it out onto a serving plate so glazed side is on the bottom.
Brush or drizzle the remaining glaze over the top of the cake (if glaze has thickened, rewarm it over low heat.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 12:55:00 +0000

Hi there! I've been trying to figure out for several days now how I was going to start this post....since it's been about a year since I've been active on this blog. Sorry about that. It's been a long, hard year but I'm ready to get back to baking and sharing recipes!

Here is my year in review: The Hubble came home from Afghanistan. We moved to Florida. We took Little Butt to Disney World for her 6th birthday. Little Butt graduated Kindergarten and began First grade (which we found out is an advanced level of First grade). Baby N turned 2 and started daycare. The Hubble was promoted. And me...I started Graduate school. So yeah...not busy at all right??

Since we are so busy and I'm going to be somehow squeezing baking time into all of this, the blog is going to change. I'll no longer be sharing step-by-step pictures. And I may only post once a month. We'll see how much I can do. Just bear with me and together we'll get through these next 2 years while I'm in school. Ha!

Now let's talk about cake! I made this cake for the Cake Slice Bakers group. Now let me preface this by saying I was LESS than thrilled that this was the cake that was chosen for the month of September. I hate roll cakes. Monica from Lick the Bowl Good and I talked about how unhappy we were with the vote. Maybe you remember the last roll cake I did? Ugh! This one wasn't too bad though....at least not the rolling part.

Do you ever start to get down on yourself? It's important to remember your wonderful attributes at times like that. As I was making this cake, I felt like I had never baked. I made so many "rookie" mistakes it was incredible. The recipe has you separate eggs. You are to whisk the egg whites and add ingredients to the yolks. As I was trying to make dinner, help Little Butt with her homework, AND get the cake in the oven, I ended up adding the ingredients to the egg WHITES wasting SIX eggs.

The recipe also includes a butterscotch sauce that is whipped into heavy cream to make the filling. I made the butterscotch sauce the night before and put it in the fridge overnight. When I pulled it out of the fridge the next day it was as hard as a rock! Paloma from Cake Slice Bakers suggested I put the bowl of sauce into a bowl of warm water to try to get it to soften. When I thought it was soft enough I threw it into the bowl of heavy cream and started whisking. Well...introducing that stuff to cold cream was a BAD idea! It quickly became as hard as rock candy and ended up breaking my whisk attachment.

I was so annoyed with all the wasted eggs by then that I strained the chunks of butterscotch hard candy out of the cream and started over with the sauce. I paid more attention the second time around and the sauce came out beautifully. And it was delicious!

The rolling of the cake was much easier than I thought it would be. My fear was definitely not needed.

As I was dealing with all of that and telling myself how stupid all these mistakes were, I stopped and told myself that my perseverance is one of my strengths. I'm not one to give up easily. I rise to a challenge and refuse to back down when things get tough.

I took this cake to class with me and everyone seemed to like it. The cake was light and airy. The butterscotch cream was sweet and velvety. The sliced almonds provided a nice crunch and texture. I do love texture. :-D

This cake was much easier to make than anticipated and it yielded a lovely looking cake. Rustic, different, but fairly impressive. So if you like stuff like this, go ahead and make it and impress your friends! Monica has a great set of pictures that shows how easy the rolling process actually is. And don't forget to run over and check out the other Cake Slice Bakers and how they did with this cake.

I'll be back!

Butterscotch Roll-Up Cake

From Vintage Cakes via Lick the Bowl Good

Butterscotch Sauce:

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon whisky

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Cake:

1 cup sifted cake flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup canola oil

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling:

1 ½ cups cold heavy cream

½ cup natural sliced almonds, toasted plus more for this outside of the cake, if desired

To make the butterscotch sauce: Melt the butter over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Dump in the brown sugar all at once and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to simmer and changes from a wet sand consistency to a liquid that fives off a lovely molasses smell and looks like taffy, approximately 3 minutes from the time it comes to a simmer. Drizzle ¼ cup of the cream into the mixture and vigorously blend the cram into the sugar and whisk in the remaining cream. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow the sauce to boil, whisking occasionally, until it has darkened, about 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes before adding the whisky, vanilla, and salt. Refrigerate until cold.

To make the cake: Spray a 12 x 16 inch jelly roll pan with nonstick baking spray (with flour), line it with parchment paper, and then spray the parchment paper with more nonstick baking spray. Center a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 325⁰F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ¾ cup of the sugar in a large bowl, then whisk the ingredients by hand. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, yolks, water and vanilla. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and briskly stir with a rubber spatula until just smooth.

In the clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and gradually increase the speed to high, whipping until the whites just form a soft peak. With mixer on medium speed, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar in a slow stream. Return the mixer to high and continue whipping until the whites just begin to hold firm, shiny peaks.

With a rubber spatula, fold a third of the whites into he batter, using as few strokes as possible. Add the remaining whites, folding until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly touched and is barely golden in color, 16 to 20 minutes. Cool the cake on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

To make the filling: Begin by placing the bowl of a stand mixer and its whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 minutes. Fit the cold bowl and whisk to the mixer and whip the 1 ½ cups of cold heavy cream and 1 cup of the cold butterscotch sauce together on low speed until the ingredients are blended. Gradually turn the mixer up to high speed and whip just until the cream holds soft peaks but is not yet stiff.

To assemble the cake: Keep the cake in its pan and orient the pan so the longer side is closed to you. Cut the cake with a serrated knife into four equal pieces measure 4 by 12 inches. Cut through the underlying parchment paper with a pair of scissors in the same places that you cut the cake so you have four quarters of cake [with parchment paper attached] that can each move independently.

Leaving the cake in the pan, spread a bit more than half of the butterscotch cream evenly over the cake and sprinkle with the toasted almonds. Refrigerate the remainder of the cream while you roll up the cake.

With the pan still oriented with the longer side closest to you, lift up the nearest edge — both cake and paper — of one of your 4 strips. Using the parchment paper as the cake’s support, begin to tuck the cake into a roll and continue tucking [and peeling away the parchment paper] while gently rolling the cake away from you into a roll. Place the rolled cake upright on a serving plate, so the spiral of cake and filling is visible at the top. [Don’t worry, it gets easier from here.]Lift the next cake strip, using the parchment paper to support it, and wrap the strip around the roll on the serving plate, beginning where the outside edge of the first cake left off, in order to create a bigger roll. Continue with the next two strips, beginning the wrap where the last left off, to make one enormous rolled up cake.Finish by frosting the sides with the reminder of the cream [you might need to give the cream a few turns with a hand whisk to stiffen it up], leaving he top free to show of the spiral of cake and cream. If you desire, you can pat more almonds into the sides of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour and up to one day, lightly wrapped in plastic. Just before serving, warm the remaining butterscotch sauce and drizzle it over the individual servings.

Well wrapped and refrigerated, this cake keeps up to 3 days.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:25:00 +0000

My good friend Emily and I have Wednesday morning coffee dates. We ship our older kids off to school then get together, pre-showers and makeup, to let the younger kids play while we sip on coffee.

The last few weeks Emily has gone to Starbucks and grabbed us my beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte for our dates. But I'm sure that is getting a bit pricey for her.

This week Emily had a doctor's appointment today so I took it upon myself (since I desperately missed my Wednesday latte) to find a cheaper alternative that was just as tasty as the expensive original.

I began with this recipe, but found it entirely too milky. I love the strong coffee taste that I get in that paper cup I cherish. As a comparison, I turned to one of my favorite blogs of all time because I knew Monica had a pumpkin spice latte recipe as well.

When I read Monica's recipe I was immediately thrilled with the use of turbinado sugar instead of granulated. I considered switching the sugars in the first recipe I made but left it as stated. I also loved the use of a full cup of coffee with a splash of milk. However, Monica calls for half and half in her latte but I enjoy fat free milk in mine so I made the change and whipped up the latte. It was amazing!

I loved the strong espresso flavor in this latte. I did feel as though a more pronounced pumpkin flavor wouldn't hurt so I made yet another cuppa with more pumpkin. That, to me, was perfection! When making yours, start with the lesser amount of pumpkin, taste, and add more if needed. You can always add but you can never take away.

This recipe was so incredibly simple that I didn't take any pictures of the process. You pour your milk, coffee, sugar, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice into a small saucepan and heat it until almost boiling over medium high heat. Remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the mixture into a blender (or use a whisk) and beat until frothy.

A word of warning! Apparently when you pour a steaming hot mixture into a blender, the pressure from the steam forces the lid off the blender. Maybe leave the mixture in the blender to cool a bit before capping and turning it on?? Oops.

Pour into a mug, serve, and enjoy!!

PS. If you are enjoying this tasty beverage with a friend, make sure you double the recipe below, it only makes on mug full.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Adapted from Lick the Bowl Good

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients:

1 cup double strength brewed coffee
1/3 cup milk or half and half (I used fat free milk)
2-3 Tablespoons pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice plus more for garnish
1/4 teaspooon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Heat coffee, milk, pumpkin, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in a small saucepan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until simmering, almost to a boil.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Place mixture into a blender and blend until frothy (or whisk until frothy).
Pour into a mug, top with extra pumpkin pie spice if desired.
Serve and enjoy!

Pumpkin Walnut Cake with Caramel Mascarpone Whipped Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:21:00 +0000

"Everything has to come to an end, sometime." ~ L. Frank Baum

Lately I have been feeling the pressure of so many endings approaching. Time feels so short.

This deployment is rapidly coming to a close. Which is awesome! However, that also means that my time here in Central Texas as also coming to a close.

My family doesn't really want to talk about it. I can definitely understand that. But it's what I think about, almost constantly. Soon I won't be just around the corner from them. There won't be any Walking Dead Sundays. No tee ball games and practices with my nephew. No tennis lessons with my sister. No coffee hangouts with my niece. No nail painting with my Baby Sis. No Friday lunches with my mom. No pedicures with the girls.

Not only will my time with my family be ending, but also my time with my friends. No more book group with Kristen and Linda. No more baking with Monica. No more coffee Wednesdays with Emily.

Also ending, is our time baking from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. This is our last month baking out of this book. It's so hard to believe that a year has gone by already. How does the time fly by so quickly??

As always with The Cake Slice Bakers, we are able to choose our last cake out of whatever book we are baking from that year. I had hopes to make the Apple Cheesecake Brulee for my final cake. However, time, finances, and laziness won over and I went for a simpler option. After all, I already had everything for the Pumpkin Walnut Cake in my toolbox. And I do love pumpkin. ;-)

This cake was a spicy pumpkin cake studded with rich walnuts. I thought the cake was exceptional. It had great flavor. It was moist without being heavy. The cake flour gave it that added lift.

For a touch of decadence on this unassuming snack cake, Tish paired it with a Caramel Cream. Homemade caramel whipped into a soft mascarpone cream. Sounds great right? Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the topping. I'm not sure if it was the mascarpone that gave it an odd flavor? Or maybe it's the fact that I don't like whipped cream, or caramel really. Or it could be that the caramel and pumpkin don't settle well on my taste buds. I prefer maple with my pumpkin.

The topping may not have suited my fancy, but the cake was worthy of concluding my year with The Cake Book. Although, I pull it out more often than once a month. It's a wonderful book and would be an asset to any cookbook collection.

Make sure to jump over and peruse the final cakes for the other Cake Slice Bakers!

Let's bake!

Start with the caramel. Put some sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Kick the heat up to high and let it cook, without stirring, until it turns a golden amber color. Though the recipes states about 4 minutes it took mine about 7.

Remove the mixture from the heat and carefully add some cream. This bubbles and splatters all over the place so seriously...be careful! Stir it up until it's nice and smooth.

Pour the caramel into a heatproof glass bowl. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 2 hours.

Now we can get the cake going. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and some warm spices. Set this aside.

Now in your mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and both sugars until pale, about 2 minutes.

Add in the milk, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla. Whisk until fully combined.

In three additions, add the flour mixture to the batter, mixing until just blended.

Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the walnuts.

Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and evenly smooth out the top. Bake it for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Let it cool for about 15 minutes then invert it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is nice and cool and you are almost ready to serve it, go ahead and make your whipped cream. Pull out your mixer bowl, clean now right??, and pour in some heavy cream, vanilla, and mascarpone cheese. Whisk it until it's well combined.

Now pour in your chilled caramel and whisk the whole mixture until soft peaks form.

To serve this cake, you can spread the whipped cream over the top then slice into squares and serve. OR you can slice the cake into squares and dollop the whipped cream on each square and serve.

Either way you get that cream on there is good with me.

Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Walnut Cake
Adapted from The Cake Book

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup safflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 recipe caramel mascarpone whipped cream**

Directions:

Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9 inch square baking pan with baking spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, on medium speed, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until pale, about 2 minutes.
Add the oil, pumpkin, milk, and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
At low speed, add the flour to the batter in 3 additions. Mix until just blended.
Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the walnuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula until even.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 15 minutes then invert onto the wire rack to cool completely.
Either spread the whipped cream onto the top of the cake or cut the cake into squares and serve with a dollop of whipped cream atop the cake.
Serve and enjoy!!

**Caramel Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Adapted from The Cake Book

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

In a small heavy saucepan, over medium heat, cook the sugar, water, and lemon juice, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves.
Increase the heat to high and cook without stirring until the mixture caramelizes and becomes a golden amber color, about 4 minutes.
Remove pan from heat and carefully add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream (be careful, mixture will bubble and possibly splatter). Stir until smooth.
Pour the hot caramel into a heatproof glass bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, on medium speed, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup cream with the mascarpone cheese and vanilla until well blended.
Add the chilled caramel and increase mixer to high speed and beat until soft peaks form.
Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 8 hours.
Serve and enjoy!!

Flashback Friday ~ Candy Corn Bark

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:55:00 +0000

Candy Corn Bark

Recently I've been working on putting "pin it" buttons on all of my old posts. As I've gone through and looked at all these old recipes, I have found myself remembering how amazing these archived goodies were. I figured also, that if I'm exclaiming "Oh yeah! That was good!" then maybe you haven't seen them recently either. So...I'm going to start re-sharing some favorites of mine.

For this first Flashback Friday, I'm sharing this recipe for Candy Corn Bark. Seeing as how it's almost (one of) the biggest candy days of the year, I figured I would share this delicious recipe for a salty sweet treat that only has 3 ingredients! Click on the link directly under the picture above and that will take you to the original post and the actual recipe. Enjoy!!

PS. If anyone is interested in playing along with me, let me know and I'll start including a link up. :-)

Pumpkin Pie Bars with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Hi there! Welcome to my new digs! Isn't it pretty???

I've been playing around with the idea of getting my blog designed for me for quite some time. As a birthday/anniversary present to myself, I decided to go ahead and finally take the plunge! And I finally found someone I was really excited about to design it for me!

Sharon over at Redbud Designs was amazing to work with! And I can't say that I'm the best customer...at all. I really had no idea what I wanted. I knew a color scheme and I wanted this space to have a 1950's malt shop type of feel. Other than that, I gave her pretty much nothing! And this is what she came up with! I definitely think she hit the mark!

Many things are the same, but I now have a "browse by topic" drop down box, a fun new blog button, a pretty "print this recipe" button, and I'm loving having my Instagram feed on the sidebar. I'm a bit obsessed with Instagram. LOL! The only thing I feel is missing is maybe some place to share what books I'm reading now. I may have to email Sharon about that.

AND! A friend of mine gifted me my own domain name for my birthday! Now you can type in www.joltsandjollies.com and you will be brought directly here! It makes things a bit easier I think, don't you??

For a while now I've been trying to decide what direction I wanted to take this blog. A while back I decided to create an every day kind of blog. But I don't seem to have time to dedicate to both blogs. So I may just incorporate the two together here. After all, this is where my heart lies. I love sharing recipes with you all. But maybe you will start seeing more about every day things.

I'm definitely interested in opinions and thoughts though. Would you be terribly annoyed if I talked to you about books every now and again? Or had some random post about military living? Or the kids?

I'm always looking to learn, grow, and develop. So any tips or ideas you all can give me would be great!

So. I think that's enough of that...for now. ;-)

Let's talk about pumpkin pie bars!

I have a little baking group on Facebook. I actually started that group before I was a member of The Cake Slice Bakers. At one point, a member of the group would choose a recipe and we would all make it as the "challenge" recipe. However, life gets in the way and we couldn't all keep up. Now it's turned into a place where we can share recipes and idea with one another.

Last month, however, someone shared a recipe for pumpkin bars and we all jumped on it. Most everyone made the recipe as it was written. But all the pictures and reviews of the bars seemed very fluffy and cake like. That wasn't what I wanted.

As I read through the reviews, I decided to make a more gooey bar. Mine didn't come out like cake, it came out more as pumpkin pie. It was definitely gooey...and moist.

The bar themselves were pretty good. But I paired mine with a maple cream cheese frosting that was to die for!! Truly, the frosting was definitely the star of the show. I couldn't get enough of it! I put little dollops on each of my bars but I think spreading it would be amazing too! However you choose to add the frosting, just make sure you have enough on each bar to have frosting on each bite. You won't regret it. Shoot...you may even just end up grabbing a spoon and forgetting about the bars all together. But hopefully not.

Let's get baking!

Whisk together your flour, leaveners, and some choice spices. Set aside.

Now beat together the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and oil until thoroughly combined.

Add in the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time. Mix until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake it up then let it cool completely.

Now make your frosting...this is the best part! Cream together the butter and cream cheese, then beat in some vanilla, maple, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and a bit of salt.

Mix in a couple cups of powdered sugar, then taste it. If you want it thicker, add more. Mine worked with 2 cups.

When your bars are cool, slice them up, dollop the frosting on top (unless you want to spread it, that works too), serve, and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Pie Bars
Adapted From allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 (15 ounce) cans pumpkin puree
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with baking spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, mix together the pumpkin puree, sugar, eggs, and oil until combined.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture 1/3 at a time and mix until thoroughly combined.
Scrape batter into baking dish and spread into an even layer using a rubber spatula.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the middle no longer jiggles and a tester inserted in the center comes out almost clean.
Allow to cool completely before frosting**.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

**Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from The Cake Book

Ingredients:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon maple extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch salt
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium high speed, cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in the vanilla, maple, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt until well combined.
With the mixer on low, beat in 2 cups of the powdered sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until well combined.
Check for desired consistency and taste, add more powdered sugar as desired.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:33:00 +0000

As you all already know, I'm a bit obsessed with pumpkin.

If it were up to me I would talk about nothing but pumpkin all year long. But it's not always up to me.

Sometimes I have to put aside my one track mind and think of others. Especially when it's for a group thing. LOL!

This chocolate peanut butter mousse cake was the top voted cake for September for the Cake Slice Bakers.

Yes, I said September. I'm just slightly late.

See...my older sister's most favoritest flavor combo is peanut butter and chocolate. If you ask her, she will say she has a lot of flavor combinations that she loves but this is one I truly associate with her.

On October 4th was the second anniversary of her 35th birthday and I knew this was just the cake for her celebration. And I wasn't wrong! This cake was perfect for her! I mean...I think she liked it...she looks happy with it right??

When I first read through the recipe, I was genuinely shocked that this isn't your typical "cake." Especially for a group called the Cake Slice Bakers. You don't actually bake this cake.

The cake is light, fluffy, and melt in your mouth good. It is a rich cake for sure.

The recipe looks a little intimidating. Yes, there are several parts to this cake. But each part is pretty straight forward and fairly easy. And what's better than a cake that can be thrown together without ever having to turn on the oven.

I made this cake in an afternoon and let it set overnight. My sister was very happy with it. :-)

And speaking of the Cake Slice Bakers, we are currently open for new members! Since I am so late with this, there are only a few more days to get into the group. If you are interested, please email Paloma at love.for.coffee@gmail.com and title the email NEW CAKE SLICE MEMBER. I hope to see some of you there! And don't forget to check out the other Cake Slice Members for this cake as well.

Until then, let's ~~bake~~ refrigerate!!

Mix together the cookie crumbs and melted butter until well coated.

Press the mixture into the bottom of a springform pan. Place in the refrigerator while you make the peanut butter mousse.

Cream together the cream cheese and butter then mix in the powdered sugar.

Add in the peanut butter and salt and mix until well combined.

In a separate clean mixer bowl, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form.

Fold 1 cup of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until almost blended.

The gently fold another 1 1/2 cup whipped cream into the mixture until well blended. Place the remaining whipped cream in the fridge.

Spread the peanut butter mousse evenly over the crust. Place back in the fridge while you make the chocolate mousse.

Place both types of chocolate into the bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Leave the chocolate in the processor.

In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and half and half.

While the processor is running, pour the hot mixture into the feed tube and process until the chocolate is completely melted.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the vanilla. Process until combined.

Scrape chocolate mixture into a large bowl. Gently fold 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate.

Then add the remaining whipped cream and fold until well combined.

Evenly spread the chocolate mousse in a layer over the peanut butter mousse layer. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour.

Make your glaze. Place finely chopped chocolate into a bowl. Bring your cream to a boil, pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it stand 30 to 60 seconds. Whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Place plastic wrap on the top of the glaze and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Pour the glaze into the center of the cake and spread almost to the edges. Place in the fridge overnight.

Garnish the top of the cake with peanuts.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake
Adapted from The Cake Book

Ingredients:

For the Crust

1 1/2 cups Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer cookie crumbs (I used about 22 Oreos, processed to crumbs)
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Peanut Butter Mousse

5 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups heavy cream

For the Chocolate Mousse

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup half and half
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Glaze

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

For the Crust

Lightly grease or spray a 9 inch springform pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs and melted butter until well combined and crumbs are completely coated.
Press the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of the prepared springform pan.
Place the crust in the refrigerator while you make the peanut butter mousse.

For the Peanut Butter Mousse

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium low speed, cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 1 minute.
Add the powdered sugar and beat until well combined.
Add the peanut butter and salt, beat until well mixed, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
Remove bowl from mixer and set aside.
In a separate, clean, metal mixing bowl, using the whisk attachment, on high speed, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
Gently fold 1 cup of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until almost combined.
Fold in another 1 1/2 cups of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until well blended (cover and refrigerate remaining whipped cream).
Scrape the mousse into the prepared pan, over the crust, in an even layer.
Place in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate mousse.

For the Chocolate Mousse

Place both chocolates in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Leave the chocolate in the processor.
In a small saucepan, combine the half and half and sugar. Over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves.
With the food processor running, put the hot milk through the feed tube and process until chocolate is completely melted.
Scrape down sides of bowl and add the vanilla. Process until blended then scrape mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold 1/3 of the remaining whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.
Fold the remaining whipped cream into the mousse until well blended.
Scrape mousse into an even layer over the peanut butter mousse layer.
Loosely cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour, until firm.

For the Chocolate Glaze

Place chocolate into a heat proof bowl.
In a small saucepan, over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate in the bowl and let sit about 30 to 60 seconds.
Whisk until smooth.
Stir in vanilla.
Cover the surface of the glaze with plastic wrap and let stand for about 10 minutes.
Pour glaze over the chocolate mousse layer and spread almost to the edges of the cake.
Allow cake to sit in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.
Run a paring knife along the edges of the cake to release from the pan. Remove the sides of the springform pan.
Garnish with peanuts. Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Ale Sweet Beer Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Happy October!!!!!

I can't say I'm sad to see September go. Between celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary without The Hubble, getting sick for 2 weeks, and getting my wisdom teeth pulled, I believe it's high time to move on!

October is probably my favorite month of the whole year.

We kick off into my favorite season. We get to make all things PUMPKIN!! Football starts. We start heading into the holidays. The weather cools.

Pumpkin coffee. Pumpkin creamer. Pumpkin mug.

Ummm...can you tell I like pumpkin a little bit??

I like pumpkin so much that when I saw Pumpkin Ale on sale in early September I grabbed a 6-pack.

Now, I had never tried Pumpkin Ale so I was super excited. However, upon trying it, I can't say I'm going to be drinking much more of the sweet Ale. I'm more of a Sam Adams/Bass kind of girl.

Luckily, I had also bought Southern Living's Best Fall Baking magazine. As I was flipping through it, I found a super simple recipe for sweet beer bread.

I have wanted to try beer bread for a while and I figured that the Pumpkin Ale was just the beer I should use!!

I ended up making 4 loaves of this bread in 2 days...it was that good.

Do y'all remember the ice cream bread?? Remember how crazy easy it was? Yeah...this is the same gist.

The bread was like a sweet cornbread. I enjoyed the first loaf with some butter spread on it. But I think it would be amazing with some sharp cheddar, bacon, and tomato slices. Mmmmmm....

Maybe I need to make this again.

Let's bake!

Grab your bottle of pumpkin ale.

Stir together your flour, sugar, and beer.

Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes.

Pour the melted butter over the loaf of bread. Bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Can you believe that's it???

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Ale Sweet Beer Bread
Adapted from Southern Living

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

3 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 (12 ounce) bottle Pumpkin Ale (or other beer of choice)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan with baking spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and beer.
Pour batter into loaf pan.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Pour melted butter over the top of the bread.
Bake for another 10 minutes.
Allow bread to cool completely in the pan.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Buttery Skillet Rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Now that school has started my days are starting to get busier and busier.

Have you noticed that Summer is for being lazy, then all of a sudden your schedule is packed???

Nowadays we have school buses to catch, homework to get done, early dinner, bath time, and bedtimes.

This week, I started tennis lessons and Little Butt starts Tee Ball practices tonight.

I am in two different book groups, have joined the PTA (not that I've gone to a meeting), and am thinking about putting Little Butt into Girl Scouts.

Are you tired yet??? I like to stay busy...

I absolutely love these rolls because they are so low maintenance. You take some frozen, rolls, set them out to rise for a few hours and you are pretty much done! Love that!!

With life getting more hectic, low maintenance recipes are what I'm all about.

Not only are these easy, they are also so versatile. You can change up the seasonings and have a different flavored roll each time you make them! This time, I used some Italian Seasoning and some grated Parmesan cheese. The Italian Seasoning I use has some red pepper flakes in it so these had the perfect amount of spice! Love that!

So grab your frozen bag of dinner rolls, your choice of seasoning, and let's bake!

These are the dinner rolls I used. They are yeasted, unrisen, and frozen. Perfect!

Spray a cast iron skillet with tons of olive oil cooking spray. Or you can use actual olive oil if you are into that kind of thing. This skillet is 10 inches. You can use smaller if you want. Place some frozen dinner rolls into the skillet. Space them well so there's plenty of room for rising.

Now cover this bad boy with a dish towel, place it in a non-drafty place, and let them sit for a few hours.

Look how pretty! I love risen dough. I may be weird but whatever!

Now gently brush some melted butter onto the tops of the rolls. Be careful not to poke them or they will deflate (just ask my Baby Sister and the first batch she decided to poke while saying "what's this??").

Sprinkle with your seasoning and cheese if you are using it. Then gently brush some more butter on the tops.

Now sprinkle with some sea salt. Mmmmm...risen dough balls with seasoning, cheese, and salt. Delish!!

Now stick those babies into the oven and bake them until they get golden brown.

Serve the rolls hot, straight from the skillet, and enjoy!!!

Buttery Skillet Rolls
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

Frozen, unrisen dinner rolls
Salted butter, melted
Coarse sea salt
Italian seasoning (or seasoning or fresh herbs of your choice)
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Spray a cast iron skillet with olive oil cooking spray until well coated (or use olive oil to coat).
Place frozen dinner rolls into skillet leaving plenty of room for rising.
Cover with a kitchen towel and set in a warm, non-drafty place and allow to rise for about 3 hours.
After rolls have risen, gently brush melted butter atop the rolls (be careful not to press to heavily so as to not deflate the rolls).
Sprinkle on the seasonings and Parmesan cheese.
Gently brush the tops of the rolls and seasonings with more melted butter.
Sprinkle with salt.
Bake according to package directions. (Mine were 400 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes) Tops of rolls will be golden brown.
Serve hot fresh from the skillet.
Enjoy!!

Ultimate Lemon Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Well...I meant to post this recipe on Friday.

I wanted the last day of August to be met with a lemony goodness kind of cake. I feel like September should be for all things apple.

But alas, it's about 100 degrees here today. So it doesn't yet feel like apple season.

When I lived in NY we would be preparing for all manner of apple festivals by now. Not in Texas.

And let me tell you, getting up early all week long last week to get Little Butt off to school was pretty killer.

I don't think I read the fine print on the stay at home mom contract. I thought I would never have to wake up to an alarm again. I was wrong.

And my goodness, Little Butt is NOT a morning person. By Thursday we were pretty much screaming at each other. That day ended with me being called by the school and having to go pick her up because she threw a fit and wasn't allowed on the bus.

Friday went by without a hitch though so that's good.

Actually, this cake was supposed to be posted on the 20th of August (that's how late I really am). This was the top voted cake for the Cake Slice Bakers! It took me a while to make this cake but I'm glad I did.

I made this cake for my mom's birthday (her belated birthday celebration, are you sensing a theme here??). Her true birthday was taken up by Baby N's birthday celebration but I made this cake for her later. I didn't want her to think her special day wasn't important.

My mom's favorite flavor is lemon so I thought this would be the perfect cake for her. I wasn't wrong. She loved it!

The cake is fluffy and sweet with a little zing from the lemon. But the star of the show is the lemon filling. Not one person didn't want to eat that stuff with a spoon! Basically, the filling is a lemon curd with some whipped cream folded in. It was amazing!

I will warn you though, this is not a cake for the feint of heart. This cake is extremely lemony. If you love lemon, it will be great! If you don't, I would pass on it.

I happened to love it. Happy belated birthday mom!!

Let's bake!

Let's start by making some lemon curd. Whisk together some egg yolks and sugar.

Then stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and butter. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Press the mixture through a mesh sieve.

Then place over a bowl of ice water. Being very careful not to splash water into the lemon mixture, gently stir occasionally until the mixture is well chilled.

Using an electric mixer, whisk up the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Remove the lemon curd from the ice water (try NOT to eat it all with the extra spoon you are holding) and gently fold in a quarter of the whipped cream. Then fold in the remaining cream. Cover and refrigerate.

Now let's make the cake. Whisk together some cake flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.

Add in the flour, one quarter at a time, mixing just until combined.

In a clean mixing bowl, whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the remaining sugar then kick it up to high until the egg whites become stiff but not dry.

Quickly mix in a quarter of the whites into the batter.

Then gently fold in the remaining whites.

Pour batter onto a prepared pan and smooth it out. Bake it up.

While the cake is baking, get some parchment paper and sprinkle powdered sugar on it.

When the cake is done, you invert it onto that piece of parchment. This didn't work out too well for me. As I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to hold the cake in place, not burn my hands, and get it onto the parchment, it fell out. Half on the table, half on the parchment. Lots of colorful words flew...

But I rolled it anyway dangit! The broken pieces just got rolled up with the rest.

Once the cake is rolled up, let it cool completely.

Once cool, unroll the cake and spread the filling up to an inch of the edge of the cake.

And my broken end??? Just got worse. But I carefully spread filling on it...

Then started rolling back up the cake from that said. Go ahead and roll the cake back up, using the parchment to roll it along. Cut off about a quarter inch slice from each end to get rid of the crunchy edges. Place on a serving platter and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Right before serving, generously top with powdered sugar.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Ultimate Lemon Roll
Adapted from The Cake Book

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

Lemon Filling

7 large egg yolks
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 Tablespoon pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream

Lemon Cake

1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white, separated
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Powdered sugar for sprinkling and for garnish

Directions:

Lemon Filling

Set a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl and set aside.
Prepare a larger bowl 1/3 full of ice water and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well combined.
Stir in the lemon zest, juice, salt, and butter. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 7 to 10 minutes. The mixture should coat the back of a wooden spoon and leave a path when a finger is swiped along the center.
Remove from heat and immediately strain through the mesh sieve by pressing the mixture through with a rubber spatula.
Place the bowl of lemon curd over the bowl of ice water. Carefully, so as not to splash any water in the curd, periodically stir the curd until it's chilled, about 15 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form.
Remove the lemon mixture from the ice water.
Gently fold a large spoonful of the whipped cream into the lemon mixture to lighten. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream.
Cover the mixture and refrigerate until chilled or up to 2 days.

Lemon Cake

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray an 11 1/2 x 17 1/2 inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper then spray the parchment with cooking spray as well.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sifted cake flour, 1/2 cup sugar baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, vegetable oil, water, and vanilla extract until blended, about 1 minute.
Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, a quarter at a time, mixing until just blended.
In a clean mixing bowl, using the whisk attachment, on medium speed, beat the 4 egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
Increase the speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form but before whites are dry.
Using a rubber spatula, quickly fold a quarter of the whites into the batter.
Gently fold in the remaining whites.
Scrape batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, cake will start to brown slightly and springs back when lightly touched.
While cake is baking, place a sheet of parchment paper about the size of the pan onto a work surface and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.
Run a paring knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Carefully invert the cake onto the sugared parchment paper then remove the parchment on the bottom of the cake.
Starting with the short end, carefully roll up the cake and parchment paper. Let cool completely.
When cool, unroll the cake and fill with the lemon filling within an inch of the edges of the cake. Roll back up the cake, using the parchment to help it along.
Using a serrated knife, trim off the crusty edges from either end of the cake.
Place the cake on a serving platter and refrigerate at least one hour prior to serving.
Immediately before serving, generously sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Soft Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:23:00 +0000

Here in the heat of Central Texas, it is back to school time!

I thought I was okay with this. Little Butt went to Pre-K last year and Baby N and I spent some time on our own during the days.

This year, Little Butt is in Kindergarten!!

Can you believe it??? I can't! She's my baby girl! She's not supposed to be so big that she's in Kindergarten.

This year, she's riding the bus. Ugh! I hate that I'm not in control of her getting to and from school. But I know that it's important for me to let her go off and be independent.

Actually, this kid has been independent since the day she was conceived. She's so strong willed and hard headed. She drives me absolutely bonkers. But I love her all the more for it.

The beginning of the school year is a time for celebration. Kids should be excited about school and learning. I'm trying to find little things to keep her excited about being in school. Her first day, we went out for Chinese for dinner (her favorite). This Friday, we are going to make pizza for dinner!

And what school year is complete without a fresh batch of cookies waiting when the little ones arrive home with their backpacks full and their tummies empty.

These cookies are a great after school snack. Packed full of nutrient rich oats, protein packed peanut butter, and well...you gotta have chocolate chips in cookies right???

Each cookie is large enough to fill a hungry belly and satisfy both kids and parents alike. The candy on the outside gives a nice crunch (we all know I love texture in my baked goods) and the cookies themselves are soft and chewy.

If you have kids beginning their school year, or even if you don't, these cookies are just what you need.

Let's bake!

In a medium bowl, whisk up some flour, baking soda, and salt.

Now cream together some butter, peanut butter, granulated, and brown sugars.

Add in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time.

Then gradually beat in the flour mixture.

Stir in the oats and chocolate chips. Now toss the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Scoop the chilled dough into the palm of your hand and roll into a ball. Place the ball of dough into a dish of candy then smush until the dough is kind of flat.

Place the dough, candy side up, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake them up then let them cool.

Serve and enjoy!!!

Soft Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from In Katrina's Kitchen

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup milk or semi sweet chocolate chips
Reese's pieces (I used regular size and needed 2 bags)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars until creamy. About 3 minutes.
Stir in vanilla.
Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually mix in the flour mixture.
Stir in oats and chocolate chips.
Place dough in refrigerator until slightly chilled, about 15 minutes.
Using a medium cookie scoop (2 Tablespoons) scoop dough into hand, gently form into a ball and place into a dish of Reese's Pieces. Press the dough flat into the candies then place onto the prepared cookie sheet, candy side up.
Bake cookies 8 to 10 minutes, tops will become slightly golden.
Allow to cool on the pan about 5 minutes then carefully remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Serve and enjoy!!

Banana Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:09:00 +0000

I swear. Time sure flies when you are having fun!

I meant to post this recipe almost a week ago. But time got away from me.

With Little Butt home from Grandma's house and our countdown to the first day of school it's been a bit busier over here than it has been this summer.

I can't believe my baby girl is going to kindergarten on Monday!! It's crazy!

Not only that, but now my baby boy is ONE!!

I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by. Before I know it, The Hubble will be home and it will be time to pack up the house and head to Florida. Phew!

So yeah. Our last couple weeks has been filled with school supplies, new clothes, Kinder Camp, open house (tonight), and finally going to the Y and getting some workouts in.

I have SOOO enjoyed having this little girl home! She fills the house with a bunch of noise and energy. It's great! Baby N has been getting more adept at walking and has even started getting faster with his big sister chasing him. Haha! It will be a sad day for Baby N and I when she heads to school all day.

Now. Onto the recipe. These are the cupcakes I made for Baby N's first birthday. His cake was made from this same batter. It's a large recipe. I was able to get a 6 inch cake and easily 24 cupcakes (may have been more, I don't remember now) out of this recipe alone.

The original recipe calls for walnut but I substituted chocolate chunks for the chunky monkey theme.

The cake was dense and more like banana bread than cake. But it was yummy. I loved the addition of the cinnamon and cardamom (two of my all time favorite spices. Those and ginger). I thought the spiciness of the cake, paired with the chocolate chunks studded throughout and topped with a rich chocolate buttercream frosting was tons of fun! And if you read my last post, you know that Baby N loved it too!

I would definitely make this recipe again. But next time I think I will add walnuts as well as the chocolate chunks. Y'all know I love me some texture in my baked goods!

Let's bake!

Whisk together your flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cardamom. Mmmmm...cardamom. I love that stuff!

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the mashed bananas and sour cream.

Cream up your butter then add the oil, and sugars.

Mix in the eggs, one at a time.

Then add the vanilla.

Now add in the flour mixture in 3 additions...

Alternating with the banana mixture in 2 additions. Stir in your chocolate chunk and nuts if you are into that kind of thing. Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 of the liner full. Then bake them up and cool them down.

Make your buttercream frosting and frost the cupcakes.

Serve and enjoy!!!

Banana Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes
Adapted from The Cake Book

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream
11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 Tablespoons safflower oil, or other neutral vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (11.5 ounce) bag chocolate chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with liners. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Set aside.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas and sour cream. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium high speed until creamy, about 30 seconds.
Add the oil, granulated, and brown sugars and beat on high speed until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Reduce speed to medium and mix in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Beat in the vanilla extract.
Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the banana mixture in 2 additions. Mix until just blended.
Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chunks by hand.
Scoop batter into cupcake liners, filling each liner 2/3 full.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes then place cupcakes on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Top cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.
Serve and enjoy!!

Chunky Monkey Birthday (Baby N's First Birthday)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:36:00 +0000

See that guy? He's one now!! I can hardly believe that an entire year has passed since this little guy came to us.

He even opened his own presents!! He's such big boy!

For his birthday, I made this monkey cake (I know the picture quality isn't great, sorry). The inside was this chocolate cake.

I also made Baby N his own individual cake. It was a 6 inch banana cake with chocolate chunks in it. I loosely used this tutorial to make the cake.

I had a bunch of batter from the little cake leftover that I also made banana chocolate chunk cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting. (I'll blog these soon)

At first, Baby N was scared of his cake. But I put some frosting from it in his mouth and he got over his fear quickly.

He liked it so much, in fact...

That he ended up wearing it!

I would definitely say he enjoyed himself! Happy birthday my big boy!!

Nutella No-Bake Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Today is my baby boy's birthday. He is one year old.

It is crazy to me how fast this year has flown by! One year ago today, I had no idea what was in store for me. See, I wasn't expecting to have a boy. Not when I got pregnant anyway. I thought for sure I would have another girl. I believed Little Butt needed a little sister.

After a few months I started to have doubts about having a girl. I wasn't sure the baby was a girl but I wouldn't come out and say I thought it was a boy. I just kept insisting I wasn't sure it was a girl. When I found out for sure the baby was a boy, I cried. I had no idea what to do with a boy! I mean, boys bring bugs!

After a year of getting to know this little guy, I am completely smitten. He has such a funny personality. He is truly a goofball and I can already see him being voted class clown. He has a huge smile with just one dimple. It's absolutely insane how swiftly and completely he won me over.

My only complaint is that he is not easy to bake around. He gets into EVERYTHING. He is so curious that he rarely sits still. He hates to be strapped down for very long so sticking him in his highchair while I bake or cook is nearly impossible. He must be moving.

Enter in the perfect cookie. No-bake cookies are a busy mom's best friend. I got this recipe from my BFF. This recipe is always a crowd pleaser and takes about 15 minutes to throw together. All you need is a couple hours in advance to let them cool.

Let's [no] bake!

In a saucepan, combine your milk, sugar, cocoa powder, and butter. While stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla and Nutella until melted and well combined.

Quickly stir in the oats until evenly coated.

Immediately drop the mixture in 2 Tablespoon dollops onto parchment or waxed paper. Allow to cool completely.

Serve and enjoy!!

Nutella No-Bake Cookies

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup Nutella
3 cups old fashion oats

Directions:

In a medium saucepan over medium high heat combine the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder.
While stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium low and, stirring continuously, allow to boil for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat. Add vanilla and Nutella and mix until well combined.
Quickly stir in the oats until evenly coated and mixture is thoroughly mixed.
Immediately drop the mixture in 2 Tablespoon dollops onto parchment or waxed paper.
Allow to cool completely.
Serve and enjoy!

Mango Cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Today is kind of a difficult day for me.

Today is The Hubble's birthday. He's 34 today.

Today, I miss him...a lot. Although, 'a lot' doesn't even begin to cover how much I truly miss that guy.

He's missed so much this year. And he will continue to miss important events.

He missed Little Butt's 5th birthday. He missed her entire year of Pre-K. In a couple weeks here he's going to miss her first day of Kindergarten.

He's missed a lot with Baby N as well. His whole life really. He wasn't here for the birth. He wasn't here when he started rolling over, when he started crawling, and now he's not here as Baby N is mastering the whole walking thing. Baby N's first birthday is coming up next week and The Hubble won't be here.

He's also going to miss our 10 year wedding anniversary next month.

But this is the life we have chosen. I do feel a sense of things coming to a close soon though. Now that we are into August, I know that this deployment is ending in about 3 months. Though he has missed so much, I know we will more than make up for it when he gets home and we start our next adventure...in Florida!

When The Hubble was here for R&R back in June, we were able to do a lot of things together as a family. We went to the San Antonio Zoo and Sea World. We got family pictures taken. Little Butt and her Daddy went horseback riding. And The Hubble and I went on a few dates.

One of the first things we did, just the two of us, was go to my favorite Indian restaurant in Austin for a friend's birthday celebration. As my friend walked in and we told the waiter that it was her birthday, he quickly asked "chocolate or mango?" So I said mango.

After our meal, they brought her a birthday dessert: mango cheesecake with a raspberry simple syrup drizzle on the plate. Of course, being a great friend, she let us all try her cheesecake. It was one of the most amazing cheesecakes I've ever tasted! And The Hubble loved it so much she let him finish it!

I decided then and there I was going to try to recreate the mango cheesecake. Luckily, the restaurant had the recipe posted in the front waiting area. Within days I had made our own mango cheesecake.

The cheesecake is light and fluffy, with just the right amount of tang from the mango. The raspberry simple syrup gives the cake an edgy sweetness that I love! But the cake can be enjoyed without it for sure.

Today, I'm posting this recipe and wishing The Hubble a very happy birthday. Though we are separated by an entire planet, you are no less in our hearts today. We love you!

Let's bake!

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until evenly moistened.

Press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of a springform pan. Bake it until set. Let cool completely before using.

Place your mango into a processor and puree until smooth. Set aside 2 cups to use in the cheesecake filling.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth and well combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Add the mango puree and beat until well combined.

Pour the filling over the cooled crust into the pan. Bake it up then let it cool. Refrigerate overnight .

Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Mango Cheesecake
Adapted from Clay Pit

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

For the Crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling

3 large very ripe mangoes (about 13 ounces each), peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Lightly butter a 9 inch springform pan (I used butter flavored cooking spray).
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup sugar.
Add melted butter and stir until well moistened.
Press graham cracker mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared springform pan (not up the sides).
Bake crust for 12 minutes or until set. Cool completely.
Place chopped mango into a food processor and process until pureed and smooth. Set aside 2 cups of the mango puree.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition.
Add the 2 cups of mango puree and beat until well combined.
Pour filling into the pan over the cooled crust.
Bake 1 hour and 25 minutes or until the center of the cake barely jiggles and the edges are puffed and golden.
Cool cake until room temperature and refrigerate overnight.
Run a small knife along the edges of the pan before unmolding to release the cake from the pan.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and a Giveaway Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:06:00 +0000

The giveaway winner is announced at the end of this post.

Before last week, I had never truly appreciated the memories I had from my grandma's house.

I mean, I knew that those memories were special. I just didn't realize *HOW* special. Until all of your lovely comments.

I absolutely LOVED reading all of the wonderful memories each of you had from "back in the day." Several stories made me laugh and a few brought me to tears. Thank you all for sharing such special moments with me. As each email came in and I read your stories, I felt honored to be reading them. Seriously, if y'all get a chance you should go back and read all the stories and memories everyone shared!

I've also now decided that I love the idea of tradition. From all the memories, I have been inspired to start cookie decorating at Christmas time with the kiddos and making pizza every Friday night. We'll see how long that lasts! LOL! But it sounds super fun. Especially during the school year. Going to the grocery store after school on Fridays to pick out toppings. Little Butt will love that!!

Speaking of Little Butt. She's enjoying her Summer at her grandma's house. It being her first time there without me (for this long) she is definitely homesick. But we get her back in a little under 2 weeks. I can't wait!!

My sister in law sent me this picture of my baby girl a few days ago. Dang that girl loves her some chicken wings. Hahaha!

While Little Butt has been gone, Baby N has been getting into all kinds of mischief. He pushed that toy shopping cart up against the couch so he could climb up to get to the window and play with the Christmas lights around the window. Yes. I am aware that it's August now and I still haven't taken down my Christmas lights. I'm okay with this.

He has also decided that this chair that is acting as a barrier to the cords under the television is now a great option for climbing to get to the cords behind the television.

He has been discovering new headgear. He loves to put this bucket on his head and shout "ba ba!" Then he giggles and does it again. I think he likes the echo inside. Or how hollow it sounds. I don't know but he does it several times a day.

He has also taken to rearranging my cabinets. That's all in between him walking like he has walked all his life. The boy is ridiculous.

While I'm on ridiculous things, let's get back to this hummingbird cake. I've made another hummingbird cake in the past. That is when I discovered how delicious this cake is. I've talked about this type of cake so much that when my mother saw the recipe in The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook she requested I make one.

I made the cake and we snacked on the trimmings from it. Then my mom asked if I wanted to go to a birthday celebration with her. I figured why not? I have a cake! Unfortunately, the party went so long that we left about half an hour before the cake was cut!

Luckily, I made the cake again yesterday. This cake is another winner from this cookbook. It is so moist. I told my nephew that Hummingbird cake is like banana bread on crack. The texture of the cake is dense because of the 5 mashed bananas in it. Little pockets of sweet pineapple are studded throughout and chopped pecans give the cake a little texture.

The frosting is out of this world. Cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. What more can a girl ask for?? I found the frosting a bit difficult to work with right after mixing. I needed to refrigerate it a bit to get it to hold any type of shape and not melt off the cake. But that was my only hiccup.

This cake is big, beautiful, and would make a stunning addition to any dinner table. The next time you have friends or family over I suggest you place this cake in the center of your spread.

Let's bake!

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt.

In a stand mixer, beat together both sugars and the oil until smooth.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. After all the eggs have been added, beat for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla, bananas,and pineapple until just combined.

With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, until combined.

Fold in a 1/2 cup of pecans.

Evenly distribute the batter between 2 prepared pans. Smooth with a rubber spatula. Then tap the pans firmly onto the counter tops to release any air bubbles that formed in the batter.

Bake the cakes then let the cool.

Mix up the frosting and frost the cake. Then decorate the sides of the cake with the remaining cup of pecans.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 5 large bananas)
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
1 recipe cream cheese frosting, recipe below

Directions:

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9 by 2 inch round cake pans (I used 8 by 3 inch pans) with baking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat both sugars and the oil until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla, banana, and pineapple, mixing until just combined.
On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, and beating until combined.
Fold in 1/2 cup of the pecans
Divide the batter evenly among the 2 prepared pans, smooth the tops with a rubber spatula, and tap the pans firmly on the counter tops to remove air bubbles that may have formed.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Then invert onto wire racks and allow to cool completely.
To assemble the cake, level the top of one layer and place cut side down on a serving platter.
Using an offset spatula, evenly spread a large dollop of frosting on the top of the cake layer. Top with the second cake layer, right side up.
Frost the top and sides of the of the cake with the remaining frosting.
Press the remaining cup of pecans into the sides of the frosted cake.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
5 to 6 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes.

AND THE WINNER IS!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:145Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The MommyCollapse

My favorite food/baking memory would be making Christmas cookies with my Grams. She taught me how to put a little love in it and it always tastes better! To this day, I bake to relieve stress - probably because that's when I can feel the love!

Congratulations The Mommy! Please email me your address at mannadonn@msn.com

(You have one week to reply before I pick another winner)

Strawberry Icebox Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE!

As some of you already know, the 20th of each month is dedicated to The Cake Slice Bakers.

Any detective can easily deduce that I'm just a bit late this month. Actually, I didn't make this month's cake.

The top voted cake this month was a White Chocolate Espresso Icebox Cake. Sounds amazing right??

I was super excited about this cake. In fact, I voted for it as well. I mean, it sounds like the perfect cake for me right?? Yes, I know...I only think it's perfect because it contains espresso. You know I love my coffee!

So I was totally pumped to make the cake but I hadn't gotten to the store yet. However, I had run across this strawberry icebox cake recipe and I did have the stuff for that one. So I whipped it up. Get it?? "whipped" it up??? Because icebox cakes contain whipped cream?? LOL! I totally crack myself up!

After I made the strawberry icebox cake I swiftly decided I was not going to make the white chocolate espresso icebox cake. Let me tell you why.

No one in my geographically close family (besides me) enjoys anything coffee related (I am definitely the black sheep here). So why make a huge cake that only I would eat?
I discovered upon trying the strawberry icebox cake that I don't like icebox cakes. Therefore, if I'm the only one who would eat the cake and I don't like it, why make it?

Why don't I like icebox cakes you ask? The whipped cream. I don't like whipped cream. Never have. I guess I never will.

I'm the type of person who tries something a million times hoping that the next time I try it I'll have changed my mind. People also think I'm weird because I try to force myself to like certain foods because I think I should. I won the war on chicken wings and I love them now (how could anyone NOT love a food that is drenched in Ranch dressing???). Right now, I'm working on forcing myself to like avocado. It's so good for you! Shouldn't I like it?? I'm trying...

But whipped cream? I guess not. I can only focus on one thing at a time and right now it's avocado. I was hoping that the whipped cream nestled between layers of graham crackers and strawberries would be subtle. But it's not. Not to me anyway.

However! If you ask my family, they will tell you that this cake was amazing! I went with a white chocolate drizzle on top of the cake. I even considered adding some amaretto to the white chocolate because I love white chocolate amaretto fondue with strawberries. But I erred on the side of kid friendly. You can use any type of chocolate for the drizzle.

If nothing else, this cake was fun to make. It was easy. Pretty. And definitely a crowd pleaser. I'm an oddball so my opinion doesn't really count.

Before Summer is over, you should make this cake, if you are into whipped cream that is. It would be great for a dinner party or family BBQ.

If you are interested in the white chocolate espresso icebox cake, head over to The Cake Slice Bakers page and check out some of my fellow groupies posts.

Let's "bake!"

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and whip until combined.

Spread a small spoonful of whipped cream at the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish. Arrange 6 graham crackers on the whipped cream.

Spread whipped cream over the graham crackers.

Then top with sliced strawberries.

Repeat 3 times to make a total of 4 layers.

Heat the remaining cream and pour it over the chocolate. Let sit then whisk until smooth.

Drizzle over the cake. Refrigerate the cake for 4 hours or up to overnight.

Garnish with extra strawberries. Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Strawberry Icebox Cake
Adapted from The Kitchn

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
3 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
24 sheets of graham crackers, 3-4 sleeves
2 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped (can substitute another chocolate if desired)

Directions:

In a large, metal mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, whip 3 cups of the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.
Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whip to combine.
Spread a small spoonful of whipped cream in the center of a 9x13 inch dish.
Arrange 6 graham crackers on top of the spread whipped cream.
Top the layer of graham crackers with whipped cream.
Top the whipped cream with slices of strawberries.
Repeat the graham cracker, whipped cream, strawberry layers 3 more times for a total of 4 layers.
Place the chocolate in a small mixing bowl. Heat the remaining 1/4 cup of cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the cake.
Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Garnish with extra strawberries. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Lemon Pie Bars, a Review, and a Giveaway {CLOSED}

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Note: ~~The giveaway is at the end of this post~~. {GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED}

Have you ever heard that some people are really good at one or two things and some other people are pretty good at a number of things?

Well...I'm the latter type. I have many, many different interests. Mostly, my interests reside on the creative side of things. I like drawing and doing makeup. I've taught myself to knit. I've made wreaths. I've toyed with the idea of writing but figure I'll leave that to people who enjoy it. I've considered interior design. I have a degree in Psychology.

Okay. That last one isn't so much creative. But is it not? I wanted to be a therapist for a very long time. Now I don't think it's for me.

The one thing I haven't swayed on is baking. I love to bake. Baking is in my soul, it's in my blood. It's my history, my heritage, my inheritance.

As a young child, I would sit at my grandma's aged, formica topped table and watch her roll pie crust and form apricot fried hand pies. I remember the smells, the tastes, everything. Thinking of that wonderful, simple time brings me a sense of joy that not much else can.

When I picked up a copy of The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook I thought that it looked like a cute cookbook for which I could do a review and a giveaway. I had no idea what was really in store for me.

This cookbook brings back the thoughts of love and warmth that I used to feel at my grandma's kitchen table. The book provides a sense of love, family, community. I found myself on the verge of tears during the introduction.

This book pulls you in and makes you feel like you are home. At the beginning of each recipe are a few words by Cheryl about why the dish is special enough to be in the cookbook. There are stories of celebration and community hidden among the pages. Introductions to each section take you back into the childhood memories of Cheryl and Griff and make you nostalgic. There's even a poem written by a customer about a favorite cookie they sell in their shop.

The book is full of stunning, vintage like photos. The recipes are simple and easy to understand. There are no big words, the recipes are written as if you were explaining to a friend how to make a beloved recipe.

The book is broken down into 9 chapters:

Breakfast
Coffee Cakes, Quick Breads, and Sweet Yeast Breads
Cupcakes and Cakes
Pies, Cobblers, Crisps, and Tarts
Puddings and Custards
Cookies
Brownies and Bars
Confections
Savories

I have so many recipes on my to make list from this book. Seriously. It's bad. I want to make just about everything in this book.

I will admit. I have tried a number of these recipes. So far I've tried the snickerdoodles, cinnamon biscones with vanilla glaze drizzle, the hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting, and of course, these lemon pie bars. Not one thing on this list has disappointed.

My dear friend Monica came over the day that I made these lemon pie bars. She decided to make the Drunk Blondies and we ended up trading bars with one another (so I've tried these too. That's 5 recipes so far!). I won't spend a lot of time on these bars because she is blogging about them today. After you are done here, you should pop over and read about these bars as well!!

These lemon pie bars were absolutely amazing. The perfect amount of tang and sweet. The crust was buttery and felt like it melted in your mouth as it gently crumbled upon each bite. The first [few] bars I ate were just the bars by themselves. However, I made some whipped cream for the pictures and fell even more in love with the bars than when they were naked! And I don't even like whipped cream!! But the sweetness and cloud like texture of the whipped cream just enhanced the lemon pie bars and made them extra special.

So without further ado, let's bake!

First, mix together some graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar.

Press the mixture into a pan and bake it up. Take it out to cool.

While the crust is cooling, whip up the filling. Toss together some cream, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sweetened condensed milk and whisk it until thoroughly combined.

Pour the filling over the cooled crust.

Place in a water bath and bake it until it no longer jiggles. After it has baked, remove the bars from the water bath and let cool to room temperature. Place the pan in the fridge and allow to get really cold.

Slice into bars and top with whipped cream if you are into that kind of thing.

Serve and enjoy!!

Lemon Pie Bars
Adapted from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

For the Crust

3 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 24 crackers)
12 Tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 Tablespoons sugar

For the Filling

1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice
2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
6 large egg yolks

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan and line with parchment, allowing the ends of the paper to hang over two opposite sides of the pan.
In a medium mixing bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar with a fork until evenly moistened.
Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan until level.
Bake the crust for 8 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool while preparing the filling.
Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks until well combined.
Pour filling over the cooled crust and level with a plastic spatula.
Place the baking dish into a larger pan and pour water into the larger pan until the water reaches about halfway up the sides of the smaller pan.
Bake about 20 to 25 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles and the edges are puffed.
Remove pan from water bath and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate until cold.
Cut bars into squares, top with whipped cream if desired.
Serve and enjoy!

And what good is a cookbook review without a giveaway?? I loved this cookbook SO much that I want to share it with the world. Unfortunately, I can't afford that, so I'm giving one lucky person a copy of this wonderful cookbook. Here are the rules:

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

To enter this giveaway you MUST answer THIS question in the comments:

1. What is your favorite food/baking memory from back in the day?

For additional entries please leave a comment for each entry:

2. Follow Jolts & Jollies through Google Friend Connect or RSS feed

3. "Like" Jolts & Jollies on Facebook

4. Leave a comment on Monica's drunk blondies saying I sent you (If you are here from Monica's blog, leave an extra comment saying so)

This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry) and will close at 11:59pm CDT on Tuesday, July 31st.

The thoughts and opinions given in this review are strictly my own. I have not been compensated in any way for this review and am paying for the giveaway copy myself.

Brioche Loaf

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Did you know that carbs make the world go 'round?

Well...they make my world go 'round anyway.

I'm not sure I've ever met a carb I didn't like.

That age old saying comes to mind... "If you like carbs so much, why don't you marry them?"

Okay. Maybe it's not an age old saying. I first heard it from PeeWee Herman on PeeWee's Playhouse but that's old enough for me.

I would definitely marry carbs if I could. Like that guy on the commercial who married bacon. I just don't know how that would go for carbs. Or myself really. It would be a volatile relationship.

Anyway. Enough about that.

Let's talk bread. One of the greatest carbs out there.

Many times I have tried my hand at making bread. I have made rosemary olive oil bread, French bread loaves, no fuss focaccia, and my first ever bread baking experience, the French baguette. I've always found my bread skills to be a bit lacking.

I have the desire to produce beautiful loaves of bread. I want the outer shell to crackle as you gently squeeze it. I want the inside to be soft and chewy brought to perfection with the generous smear of butter. But alas, it hasn't been meant to be. Until...

Until I made this loaf of brioche.

I had read reviews of different brioche recipes in the past. I must admit, I was heartily intimidated by the lengthy process of this delicate bread. However, I recently made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough bread pudding that I believed would only be enriched by using homemade brioche.

So I set about researching recipes to find the perfect one. My Google-fu was strong that day and I ran across a recipe that boasted authenticity and simplicity. Could it be? Was this the one? The reviews for the recipe increased my excitement. So I pushed up my sleeves and delved into the process.

Though it took me the better part of a day to make these loaves, I was extremely pleased with the outcome. The dough was smooth and breathtaking. It's beauty could not be denied. Once baked, the loaves were a delicious golden brown and light as air.

As I mentioned before, I made the bread to be used in another recipe. Well...that didn't happen. My family and I couldn't keep our greedy little fingers away from the slices of this delectable bread. Needless to say, it didn't last long enough to become dried out for a bread pudding recipe.

Whether making this bread with the intention of using in another recipe or sharing with loved ones, this recipe is definitely a keeper. The directions were thorough and easy to follow. And the results are easy enough for an novice like me to attain, meaning anyone can make fantastic bread using this recipe!

Let's bake!

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and yeast.

Add in the milk and some eggs.

As the ingredients start to come together, switch to the hook attachment. Beat about 4 minutes then scrape the bowl and hook.

Beat another 4 minutes then scrape the hook.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead a few times Then form into a ball:

Fold the dough into the center from the top...

Right side...

Bottom...

And left side.

Flip it over and tuck the bottom into itself as you turn it and smooth out the top.

Place the dough, folded side down, into a clean, large bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, smooth side down, and repeat the forming it into a ball process.

Place back into the bowl, smooth side up, and let rise another hour or overnight in the fridge.

I tried to put mine in the fridge overnight but after about an hour and a half it looked like this so I finished it up that same day.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Fold the top, right, bottom, and left into the center of the dough and cut it into 2 even pieces. Cover one half with plastic wrap as you work with the other.

Cut each half into 8 equal pieces, 16 total. Form each little piece into a tight little ball.

Place the dough balls into some loaf pans, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise another hour.

Once risen, gently brush on some egg wash then pop into the oven.

The bread should be a dark golden brown when done. Let it cool in the pan for about 25 minutes before removing.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

PS. If you are feeling generous, eat one loaf and share the other with a friend.

Brioche
Adapted from Fine Cooking

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Ingredients:

4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt, plus a pinch for egg wash
6 large eggs plus one large egg yolk, divided
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened, cut into 16 pieces

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on low speed, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt until well combined.
Add for of the eggs and the milk, mix to combine.
When the dough begins to stick together (before all ingredients are combined), switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
Using a plastic dough scraper or strong rubber spatula, scrape the bowl and dough hook then continue to mix about 2 minutes more, until the dough becomes firm and elastic. The dough will continue to stick to the hook, scrape the dough off the hook again.
Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add half the butter pieces, a few at a time.
Scrape the bowl and dough hook again then knead the dough by hand a few times to fully incorporate the butter.
Replace the dough hook, turn the mixer on medium low speed, and add the remaining butter, a few pieces at a time.
Once the butter has been added and incorporated, increase the mixer speed to medium and mix for 4 minutes. Scrape bowl and dough hook.
Mix 4 minutes more. Dough should be smooth, soft, and shiny and should slap the sides of the bowl as it mixes.
Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured (too much flour will toughen the dough) work surface. Knead by hand a few times then form into a ball by folding the edges from the top, right side, bottom, then left side. Turn the dough over and tuck the bottom into itself as you turn the ball of dough and smooth the top.
Place dough, fold side down, into a clean large bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a warm area for about an hour, the dough should double in size.
Turn the dough out of the bowl, smooth side down, onto a lightly floured work surface and repeat step 10 above, folding the dough and working it into a smooth ball.
Place the dough, smooth side up, back into the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise another hour, or place in the refrigerator overnight. Dough should double in size.
Butter two 9.25x5.25x2.75 inch loaf pans (I used butter flavored cooking spray).
Turn the dough out of the bowl, smooth side down, onto a clean work surface.
Form the dough into a ball by folding it into the middle from the top, right, bottom, and left. Cut the dough into 2 equal parts. Wrap one in plastic wrap while working with the other.
Cut each dough half into 8 equal pieces, 16 total. Roll each piece of dough into a tight ball.
Arrange balls of dough into 2 rows of four pieces into each of the prepared loaf pans.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise about 1 hour. Dough should be almost doubled in size and should spring back when lightly poked with a finger.
Halfway into the rise time, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.
In a small bowl, beat together the remaining 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, and a pinch of salt.
Gently brush the tops of the dough with the egg wash being careful not to let the egg wash drip into the pan.
Bake loaves for about 25 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. Tops should be dark golden brown and edges should be golden in color.
Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 25 minutes.
Remove loaves from pan.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Strawberry Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:41:00 +0000

My goodness! Time sure flies when you are having fun no??

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for us over here. We have been doing a bunch of traveling.

We went out to College Station to see a friend one week. The next week we headed to Houston for a couple days to see family. And we just got back this past weekend from a trip to El Paso. Phew!

Not only have we been driving all over the state of Texas, there has been some sickness going on. I ended up taking Little Butt to the ER and I found out she was working on a little case of pneumonia. Poor baby! She looked awfully cute in her little face mask though.

With all the driving around I've been doing, I haven't been in the kitchen much. However, I did make this strawberry cake several weeks ago and I figured it was high time I share it!

This. Cake. Was. Perfect! The crumb was moist and fluffy at the same time. It was sweet and buttery. The punches of sweet strawberry throughout each slice was intoxicating.

The only problem I had with this cake is that I didn't use the whole box of strawberries the first time I made it. It was so good that I had to make it again and I used the whole box that time. Stack those strawberries on top of each other if you have to. Make it work. It's worth it.

Not only was this cake super scrumptious, it was also incredibly easy to prepare. Honestly, let me show you.

Let's bake!

Hull and half your strawberries. Try not to eat them all in the process.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the egg, milk, vanilla.

Then mix in the flour until just combined.

Scrape the batter into your pie plate and top with strawberries and sprinkle with sugar. Obviously, this was NOT enough strawberries. I missed the part about them being real close together and overlapping and such. The second time around I did it up right!

Bake up your cake and let it cool a bit. If you can anyway...the cooling part was the hardest part so we dug in with it still warm.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!! This may just be me...but that cake seems to be smiling at me. ;-)

Strawberry Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart via Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pie plate
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 10 inch round cake pan or pie plate or a deep dish 9 inch pie plate.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium high speed, cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
With the mixer on low speed, mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla until combined.
Gradually add in the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix until just combined.
Scrape batter from mixing bowl into pie plate or cake pan.
Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter, overlapping strawberries if necessary.
Sprinkle the remaining 2 Tablespoons sugar evenly over the strawberries.
Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 325 degrees F and continue to bake about 50 minutes. Top of cake should be golden brown and a tester inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.
Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Pokemon Birthday Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:19:00 +0000

For my family, I am the resident birthday cake maker.

It wasn't always this way. I only started baking and decorating cakes within the last couple of years, and I don't decorate cakes as often as I would like. But that's neither here nor there.

My Older Sister has 3 kids. One girl, 2 boys. Both of her boys have birthdays in June. We celebrated her older boy's birthday last weekend and her younger boy's birthday this past weekend.

The ages between her 2 youngest children are kind of funny. Her older son just turned 17 and her younger son just turned 5!

As you can imagine, the birthday cakes were decidedly different.

My little nephew decided he wanted Pokemon for his birthday. And since I'm the resident cake maker, it was up to me to figure out what to do. My sister gives me full creative license. LOL!

Luckily, her oldest (my niece) is a lot like me so we brainstormed together. This is what we came up with. A Pikachu cake with Poke-ball cupcakes.

The cake was a two layer chocolate cake with buttercream icing rippled through the center and enveloping the cake layers. I printed a picture of Pikachu off the internet and used that to make the outline.

For the cupcakes, I found a white cake recipe to try. I colored half of the batter yellow and the other half blue. I layered the batter in the red cupcake liners and baked them up. Each cupcake was yellow and blue inside and topped with the same buttercream icing I used for the cake.

The Poke-balls were made from red and white fondant. My niece made the Poke-balls and I think she did an amazing job! She took equal amounts of red and white fondant, matched up the edges, and evenly rolled it out. She then took a small cookie cutter and made the rounds. I bought some black edible ink for the "seam." It was pretty runny and some of the seams melted in the 100 degree F Texas heat on the way to the party place. Oops. Oh well.

My little nephew seemed pretty pleased with the cake. He said it was "awesome!"

The chocolate cake is my go-to chocolate cake so it was, of course, delicious.

My niece and I were unhappy with the white cake. It tasted too eggy to me. But everyone else said they were great. Of course, this could be because I messed up when making the batter. AND the batter ended up getting over mixed due to having to color it. It was most likely my fault that I didn't like the taste.

This was my first time using this buttercream recipe as well and I must say, I have found a winner. It was easy to work with and held its shape quite well...even in my hot house and the Texas heat!

I was able to snap a quick picture of the inside of the cake. Sadly, I didn't cut it so it was pretty messy. But whatever, it's birthday cake. This was my piece. After I took this picture, I was standing next to a table enjoying my first two bites and my Baby Sister walked by and accidentally hit my plate with her arm. Everything went in slow motion as my plate leaped from my hands and landed face down on the floor as I tried to catch it. She quickly turned and realized what happened. She started apologizing and all I could do was laugh my head off! What can you do??

I didn't get a picture of the inside of the cupcakes. But they were pretty fun.

All in all, everyone seemed happy with the cake and cupcakes. I was pleased with how they turned out. And the birthday boy was happy so that's all that matters.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Sky High via Lick the Bowl Good

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 cup water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans with baking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
Add the oil and 1/2 cup of the water to the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.
Add the remaining 1/2 cup water, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
Evenly divide the batter between the prepared pans.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Basic White Cake

Adapted from The Cake Book

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups cake flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large egg whites
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups milk

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin tins with cupcake liners (24 cupcakes total).
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium-high speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 30 seconds.
Gradually add the sugar. Increase speed to high and beat until light, about 2 minutes.
Reduce speed to low and add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Stir in the vanilla.
At low speed, alternating between the flour mixture and the milk, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions. Mix just until incorporated.
Evenly distribute batter into the 24 cupcake liners. Each liner should be about 2/3 full.
Bake 16-18 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pans for 15 minutes then cool completely on wire racks.

Classic Buttercream Icing

Adapted from Savory Sweet Life

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add 3 cups sifted powdered sugar. Place kitchen towel over bowl and mixer and turn mixer on low speed. Wait 30 seconds, remove towel and increase speed to medium.
Add vanilla, salt, and 2 Tablespoons of cream or milk. Beat for 3 minutes.
Turn off mixer and text icing. Adjust to desired consistency as needed. If icing needs to be stiffer, add remaining sugar. If icing needs to be thinner, add remaining cream one Tablespoon at a time mixing thoroughly and testing before each addition.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:34:00 +0000

Life.

Life is messy.

It is hard.

But it's the messy and hard things that get us where we need to be.

Nothing that is worth having comes easily right??

My life feels a bit of a mess lately. The Hubble was home for a couple weeks but now he's gone again. We won't see him for another 5 months (hopefully).

Currently, the kids and I are struggling to get back into our groove. Little Butt has been a bit wild and Baby N has been a bit whiny. To me, it feels like it's been weeks since he left instead of days. Has it only been days? Or has it been weeks? Who even knows anymore?

You want to know what else is messy? Baking.

Or at least, baking this cake was messy.

This cake and I?? We have this love hate thing going on.

I hate this cake because it is messy...and hard and ridiculous. I had to bake the cakes twice because the centers on the first batch sank so low there was no way to make layers. I dropped chocolate all over the floor when I was making the pudding. When I assembled the cake, it was slipping and sliding all over the place because the pudding center is soft instead of firm.

I love this cake because it's messy...and rich and forgiving. Yes, I made the cakes twice, but that meant I had sunken cakes to cut up and make into a trifle for Father's Day. Yes, I dropped chocolate all over the floor, but it was easy to clean up and the pudding didn't suffer for it. Yes, it was slipping and sliding all over the place and when I frosted it the pudding mixed with the frosting in some parts, but I didn't have to worry about the pudding showing or a crumb coat because you cover the whole thing in crumbs anyway!

This cake was the top pick for June for The Cake Slice Bakers. It is a 3 layer cake with a chocolate pudding filling and chocolate frosting smothered in chocolate cake crumbs. The cake itself is dense and fudgy, almost like a brownie. The pudding filling was smooth and creamy. The chocolate frosting was fluffy and rich. The whole thing was a chocolate lover's dream (though I was asked where the chocolate syrup was, the syrup made it onto the Dad's Day trifle).

Personally, I thought it was too rich and only had a bite or two. I don't believe my opinion should count though since I don't really care for chocolate. Give me lemon or pumpkin over chocolate any day and I'll be happy.

However, I didn't really make this cake for me. My nephew recently turned 17 and he asked for something chocolaty and fudgy. So, I obliged. And I didn't hear any complaints from the many chocolate lovers in my family (I've always been the odd ball in my family so there are a lot of them).

If you are looking for a rich, delicious, messy, forgiving cake to enjoy and share with the chocolate lover in your life look no further. I have the recipe you need!

Let's bake!

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients in a steady stream.

Then mix in the hot coffee until just blended.

Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture up from the bottom to make sure it's thoroughly combined.

Evenly distribute among your 2 prepared pans and bake them up. Then cool them down.

Now we move on to the pudding filling. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water and cream then bring to a boil.

Whisk half the cream mixture into the yolk mixture...

Then turn around and whisk that all back into the saucepan. Whisk constantly and bring the whole thing back to a boil and whisk and boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate until fully melted.

And of course, stop to take a picture of the huge mess you made while dumping the chocolate all over the floor and table.

Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl. Then stir in the vanilla.

Cover the surface of the pudding with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight. You want this to be thoroughly chilled.

And finally, the frosting.

Melt some chocolate then cream your butter and add in the powdered sugar. Beat that up until light and fluffy...

Then beat in the vanilla and chocolate. Viola!

Now to assemble the cake. Cut the 2 cakes horizontally to make 4 cake layers. Set one layer aside.

Place one cake layer on a serving platter, cut side up. Top with half the chilled pudding mixture. Add a cake layer then spread remaining pudding on that layer. Top with the third layer and frost that 3 layer cake with the frosting.

Place half of the fourth cake layer (eat the other half) into a food processor and process until you have cake crumbs. Press the cake crumbs into the sides and top of the cake.

I made this cake for my nephew's 17th birthday. I mean, what's messier than a 17 year old boy anyway?? LOL! He loved that it was chocolate cake with chocolate pudding with chocolate frosting with chocolate cake crumbs. The only thing missing was the chocolate syrup!

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!

Brooklyn Blackout Cake
Adapted from The Cake Book

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

For the Cake

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup hot brewed coffee

For the Pudding Filling

4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Frosting

4 ounces unsweetened or semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

MAKE THE CAKE: Position rack to the center of the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9-inch round baking pans with baking spray.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar until blended.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients in a slow, steady stream.
Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula then mix on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute.
Add the hot coffee and mix until just blended.
Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and, using a rubber spatula, stir the batter up from the bottom of the bowl a few times to thoroughly blend. (The batter will be quite runny by now).
Evenly distribute the batter into the cake pans and smooth tops if needed.
Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.
MAKE THE PUDDING FILLING: In the clean bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until pale, about 1 minute.
In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine the water and cream, bring to a boil.
Remove pan from heat and whisk about half the mixture into the yolk mixture then whisk the yolk and cream mixture back into the saucepan and the remaining cream mixture.
Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until mixture reaches a boil. Continue to whisk constantly and boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until completely melted.
Pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl then stir in the vanilla extract.
Cover with plastic wrap making sure the surface of the pudding mixture is well covered.
Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
MAKE THE FROSTING: Place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Microwave chocolate, stopping to stir every 10-15 seconds, until fully melted. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, cream the butter about 1 minute.
With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar until just blended, increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
Beat in the vanilla and chocolate until well blended and creamy, about 1 minute more.
ASSEMBLE THE CAKE: Using a long, serrated knife, cut each cake in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Set one layer aside.
Place one cake layer, cut side up, on a serving plate. Stir the chilled filling until smooth then spread half of the filling over the cake layer.
Top with another cake layer and spread the remaining filling over it. Top that with the final cake layer, smooth side up.
Take the fourth cake layer and break it in half. Place half of this layer into a food processor and process until it becomes crumbs (go ahead and eat the other half of that layer, you know you want to).
Using a small, offset metal spatula, frost the top and sides of the cake with frosting.
Pat a generous amount of cake crumbs along the side of the cake, pressing the crumbs lightly into the frosting. Then sprinkle and pat the crumbs onto the top of the cake.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!