The Treat Diaries

Night and Day Brownie Bites

2010-09-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today I was torn between making snickerdoodle cookies or cinnamon toast cupcakes. After finally settling on snickerdoodles, I opened the fridge and discovered I didn't have enough butter. So I decided to go with plan b - cinnamon toast cupcakes. I opened the pantry and discovered I didn't have any yellow or white cake mixes. So on to plan c, which previously did not exist. I had a brownie mix in the pantry and remembered that my Cake Mix Doctor Returns cookbook has a section on brownies. I flipped through and spotted the perfect recipe...one that combined three of my favorite things - chocolate, cream cheese, and cinnamon. Plan c!

First you fill mini cupcake pans with the brownie batter, then you top each mini brownie with a cream cheese & cinnamon mixture like so (I added some cinnamon sugar on top of that):

Pop them in the oven, then pull them out and let them cool in the pan for 10 agonizing minutes:

Then you remove them from the pan and let them cool for 5 minutes:

Ha! Who am I trying to fool - I ate one immediately:

I wanted to take a picture of it without the wrapper, but it stuck to the wrapper. Later on, after I actually let them cool, I sacrificed and ate another one. But just for photographic purposes:

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

Yum!
The "night" and "day" contrast would be more striking if I didn't add the optional cinnamon to the cream cheese topping. But then the brownies wouldn't be nearly as delicious.
The coffee in the brownie batter just intensifies the chocolate flavor. In other words, you'd probably never notice the coffee if I didn't just mention it. You can certainly make it with water if you prefer.
An easy recipe that is yum. Did I mention yum?

Night and Day Brownie Bites (from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns")

For the brownie batter:

1 pkg (about 20 oz) brownie mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup cooled brewed coffee

1 large egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the cream cheese batter:

8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tbls all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly mist mini cupcake pan with vegetable oil spray or line with paper liners (the recipe says it will make 24, but somehow I ended up with 40 mini brownies...terribly unfortunate).

2. Brownie batter: place brownie mix, oil, coffee or water, 1 egg, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are well incorporated, 40 strokes. Set bowl aside.

3. Cream cheese batter: place cream cheese in medium mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and 1 egg and continue beating on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

4. Spoon a tablespoon of brownie batter into each cupcake well. Then spoon a tablespoon of cream cheese batter over top.

5. Bake until the edges have set and the centers spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 22-26 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in pan 10 minutes. Run knife around edges if you baked without liners, or just lift out if you baked with liners. Let cool on wire rack 5 minutes.

Lemon Curd Icebox Cake

2010-09-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

Brett and I were talking about his upcoming birthday. It's not til Oct 24 - he likes to plan ahead. I wonder who he gets that from? Anyhow, he mentioned that he'd like me to make a lemon cake for his party. Wha?! Is this the same boy who requests peanut butter-flavored anything whenever he can? I'm really not sure what to make of this. But I figured I oughta try out some lemon cake recipes so I can find the perfect one for the Falzone family party.

First up: Lemon Curd Icebox Cake from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns. It doesn't get much easier than this - add 1/3 cup lemon curd to your usual ingredients for the cake mix. Yep, that's it.

It's not too exciting to look at - just a cake covered in Cool Whip.

Cake. Covered in Cool Whip.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

The recipe calls for you to mix 2/3 of the lemon curd in with whipped cream. But I wanted to separate the two to boost the lemon flavor. So I spread the lemon curd over the cake right after I pulled it from the oven (spooning it on, then spreading it out with a spatula after it melted a touch). I'd definitely do it this way again.
I don't like lemon cake mix (I always feel like it has a weird chemical taste), and I didn't have a yellow cake mix. So I substituted a white cake mix. Worked just fine.
Chuck's review: this cake tastes like summer. Brett's review: "mmmmm. Lemon." My review: "holy crap, that was easy to make...oh and it tastes good."
Probably not the front runner for Brett's bday cake (which I've decided must have buttercream or cream cheese frosting), but great cake nonetheless.

Lemon Curd Icebox Cake

For the cake:
1 pkg (18.25 oz) plain yellow or lemon cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup lemon curd (from a 10 oz jar)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

For the topping:
10 oz cool whip (or...you can be fancy and whip 1 cup heavy cream + 1 tbls powdered sugar)
2/3 cup lemon curd (remainder of lemon curd)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour 9x13 pan.
2. Place cake mix, water, 1/3 cup lemon curd, oil, and eggs in large mixing bowl. Beat on low speed 30 seconds til incorporated. Scrape down side of bowl if needed. Increase mixer to medium and beat 1 1/2 min til batter is thick and well combined. Pour batter into pan and place in oven.
3. Bake til cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 30-35 minutes. Transfer to wire wrack and let cool to room temperature, 25 minutes.
4. When the cake has cooled, fold lemon curd in to Cool Whip or whipped cream. Spread over cooled cake with spatula. Cover and refrigerate to chill at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.

S'mores cake. I mean, trifle.

2010-08-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

This week I joined my co-workers at a Cubs game. I'm sure it comes as absolutely no surprise that my favorite part of the game was when a dessert cart came to visit our suite. It was loaded with deliciousness, but one treat jumped out at me immediately: a smores layer cake. As I was digging in, I was thinking, "I bet I could make this." And over the course of the next 10 minutes, two co-workers wandered over to tell me I should make a smores cake this weekend. Never one to back down from a dessert request (though honestly, it felt a little more like a demand than a request), I set off to the internet and read dozens of recipes to find the perfect one.

Once I settled on a recipe, I stopped off at the store to pick up some supplies. And then I read dozens more recipes, and bought additional supplies. (Insert your own "boy, Katie sure has OCD" joke here.) It's possible I bought more than necessary...

First up - mixing up a graham cracker cake & adding cocoa to half of it:

Placed those in the oven & moved on to the milk chocolate ganache, which started like this:

And then sat around for 5 minutes looking like this:

A few seconds into whisking, it looks terribly wrong:

And then with a few more spins of the whisk, it magically turned into this:

Why am I showing you so many pictures of ganache? Because it was the most successful part of this recipe. But more on that later...

Pulled the cakes out of the oven:

After letting them cool for 5 minutes, turned them out of their pans to cool completely - everything seems perfectly normal:

And then...disaster strikes. I decided to split the cake layers so I could make my creation look as fancy as the dessert cart version. And that's when I learned that the recipe I chose made an incredibly crumbly cake. For those who have never split a cake layer, crumbly = bad. One half of the plain graham cracker layer split in three pieces. And then pieces of the chocolate layer started to fall off. I sighed a few times.

Plan A: leave the split layers together as if I had never cut them in half. Spread marshmallow fluff over top. Fail.

Plan B: remove the top half of each layer and try to make a cake with the remaining half. Fail.

Plan C: ditch all hope of making a beautiful, fancy layer cake and dump everything into a bowl instead. Fail? No. Success! You know why? Milk chocolate ganache. It makes all things perfect and wonderful.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I'm not even going to bother typing up this cake recipe. No one should use it. Ever.

2. Despite multiple disasters, Brett declared the cake "yummy!"

3. Smores trifle sounds ever so much nicer than, "yeah, the cake was all messed up, so I dumped everything in a bowl. Just eat it."

Yellow cake with butterscotch and chocolate ganache

2010-08-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

We had a pal over for dinner last night, and Chuck mentioned that he's been wanting to try a recipe for homemade butterscotch from one of his favorite books - Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. I suggested we also make some chocolate sauce, so he thumbed through the book and found a recipe of chocolate ganache that can be used as a sauce when warm. We picked up some vanilla ice cream, and were set.

Delicious! But we barely made a dent in the nearly 4 cups worth of dessert sauce. So then came the question...what on earth are we going to do with all this sauce? Naturally, I immediately thought of how I could incorporate them into a cake. And here's what I came up with - yellow cake topped with butterscotch and ganache.

Butterscotch slowly soaking in

Covered with ganache - I like to leave half without nuts for those who hate them :)

The butterscotch soaked in perfectly

I couldn't wait for the ganache to set - I dug right in. A lovely, rich cake.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

Ganache sounds fancy, but it is one of the easiest things I've ever made. I'm pretty sad that it took me this long to discover it was so simple. I might have to come up with an excuse to make it weekly.
Store-bought butterscotch and homemade butterscotch are two entirely different beasts. Good lord - the flavor was just amazing. Another simple recipe that I will definitely be making again.
It is a really good idea to make either of the above. It's probably not a good idea to make them together. Unless, of course, you have an office full of people to feed them to.

Here's how I pulled this cake together: I baked a yellow cake and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then I poked holes all over the cake with a fork. I spooned the butterscotch over the cake and let it soak in. Once the cake cooled, I microwaved the ganache to soften it a bit, then poured it over the cake. Simple!

Basic Ganache:

8 oz cream
8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Bring the cream just to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate, wait 5 minutes for the chocolate to soften, then whisk the cream and chocolate until they're completely combined. Serve immediately or chill until you're ready to serve. [Can be used as an ice cream sauce, chilled and rolled into truffles dusted with cocoa powder, or as a fudgelike icing on cake or brownies.]

Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Sauce

4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick)
8 oz dark brown sugar
8 oz cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or an enameled cast-iron pot, combine the butter and sugar over medium heat and cook until the sugar has melted completely and the mixture has taken on a thick and frothy lava-like appearance, 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Whisk in the cream until it's thoroughly incorporated. Let it cool for 10 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Fluffernutter Brownies

2010-08-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite treats when I was a kid was fluffernutter sandwiches. I had a jar of marshmallow fluff in my baking pantry & was inspired to try to recreate fluffernutters in brownie form.

I started with a brownie mix, to which I added a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of peanut butter chips

Fresh out of the oven, I poured a bag of peanut butter chips over top

I let that sit for a few minutes, then spread the peanut butter chips with a spatula

I nuked a jar of marshmallow fluff for 20 seconds to soften it, then spread it on top the peanut butter

I was thinking our butane torch would be perfect for toasting the fluff. Chuck suggested I use the broiler instead. And that's how I learned that marshmallow fluff is extremely flammable. That's right, the fluff actually caught on fire. It was pretty awesome.

I scraped off the burnt layer of fluff (it was actually yummy - tasted like a campfire) and then used my torch

Brett declared the fluffernutter brownies, "So yummy!"

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Marshmallow fluff + broiler = raging fire.
2. Brownie mixes are supremely delicious when you replace the oil with a stick of melted butter. Even better when you add chocolate chips & a splash of vanilla to the batter.

Fluffernutter Brownies

Family size brownie mix (19.8 oz)
8 tbls (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup water
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
3 cups peanut butter chips (1 1/2 bags)
1 jar marshmallow fluff

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 9x13 pan
2. Place brownie mix, melted butter, water, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are incorporated and the batter lightens in texture, 50 strokes. Stir in chocolate chips and 1 cup peanut butter chips. Pour into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with a spatula.
3. Baking brownies until the outer 2 inches have formed a crust and feel firm, 23-27 minutes. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack.
4. Immediately pour 2 cups peanut butter chips over brownies. Let set 2-3 minutes til chips soften. Spread over brownies with spatula.
5. Microwave marshmallow fluff 20 seconds to soften. Spread with spatula over peanut butter layer.
6. Place back in oven to brown, watching closely; or use a butane torch to brown the fluff.

Pina Colada Cake

2010-08-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

A couple months back, Amazon.com suggested a book I might like: Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked with Spirits, Wine, and Beer. Amazon knows me well. I'm fully expecting Amazon to start suggesting I'd like cases of vodka. Anywho...

Brett Jr. headed off to a YMCA sleep-away camp this morning, so I figured this was the perfect time to make the pina colada cake I spotted when the book first arrived. What I failed to realize was I didn't have enough flour to make the cake. I didn't feel like driving four blocks to the grocery store, so I moved on to plan B - finding a recipe that used a cake mix as the base.

I searched the internet and found a few recipes that looked promising, and then I pulled out a stack of my baking cookbooks to see if there were any other worthy candidates. Lo and behold, I discovered The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book had a section of recipes that start with mixes...and one of those recipes was for pina colada cake. Huzzah!

Toasted coconut fresh from the oven

Problem: I bought too much cream of coconut. Solution: make pina coladas

After downing a pina colada, I frosted the cake and covered it with crushed pineapple & coconut

I declare this cake yum

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I usually follow baking recipes exactly the first time I make them. But recipes made with cake mixes tend to be pretty forgiving. So I made a few modifications: I substituted coconut rum for the dark rum, and a white cake mix for yellow (only because I discovered I was also out of yellow cake mix...seriously, what's going on with my baking pantry?!). And since I was too lazy to drive to the store for flour, it probably comes as no surprise that I was also too lazy to drive to the store for fresh pineapple or sliced canned pineapple. I had cans of crushed pineapple, and figured those would work just as well.

2. I didn't feel like making a layer cake, so I used a 9x13 pan and increased the baking time to 40 minutes. I also toasted an extra 1/2 cup of coconut so I'd have enough to cover it. This cake batter was very thick, which resulted in a rather dense cake. I think it would have come out a little lighter had I baked it in the 9 inch pans the recipe called for. Regardless, it was good. :)

Pina Colada Layer Cake

7 oz sweetened shredded coconut (toast for 6-8 minutes, stirring regularly)
1 (18.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
1 (15 oz) can cream of coconut (like Coco Lopez; NOT coconut milk)
1/4 cup dark rum
3 large eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
6 tbls (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 pound peeled and cored fresh pineapple, sliced into 1/4 inch rings (can substitute one 20 oz can of sliced pineapples, drained and patted dry)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Toast coconut in a rimmed cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes, stirring regularly, until golden brown. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper. Measure and reserve 1/2 cup of the toasted coconut for garnishing.

2. Process the remaining coconut in a food processor until very finely ground, about 15 seconds. Transfer the processed coconut to a large bowl and sift the cake mix over the top (note: I just placed the cake mix in the bowl first and whisked it a bit to break up lumps). Whisk in 1 1/4 cups of the cream of coconut, rum, and eggs until incorporated. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking.

4. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the edge of the cakes then flip them out onto a wire rack. Peel off the parchment paper, flip the cakes upright, and let cool completely, 1-2 hours.

5. Meanwhile, mix the remaining cream of coconut, cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Refrigerate until reach to use.

6. Place one cake layer on a platter, spread half the cream cheese frosting over the cake, leaving 1/4 inch border at the edge.

7. Place the second cake layer on top and press lightly to adhere. Spread the remaining frosting over the top (leaving the sides of the cake bare). Arrange the pineapple rings attractively over the top of the cake, then sprinkle with the reserved toasted coconut.

Year 2 begins: Chocolate Peanut Butter Marble Cake

2010-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

My pals at work and those who follow my blog probably know that chocolate and peanut butter are a regular theme. It's my favorite combo, as well as Brett Jr's favorite. Today's project combines them simply and beautifully. Just look at how pretty this cake is!

On its way into the oven

Fresh out of the oven

Frosted and covered with mini Reese's peanut butter cups

Right before we devoured it

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Brett Jr's review: "Is it my birthday? I love this cake!"

2. Taken from one of my favorite baking cookbooks (The Cake Mix Doctor Returns), this is one easy cake.

3. While it may feel intimidating to make a stove-top frosting, this is a really, really easy frosting. If you can melt butter and stir, you can make it! And it is seriously delicious - would be great on pretty much anything (including a spoon; not that I ate it with a spoon...really, I didn't).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Marble Cake

1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow or vanilla cake mix
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbls powdered sugar
2 tbls butter, melted
2 tbls warm water

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350. Lightly mist a 13x9 pan with cooking spray and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour.

2. Place the cake mix, peanut butter, oil, eggs, vanilla, and 1 1/3 cups water in large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed til blended, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl again if needed. The batter should be well blended.

3. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the cake batter and place it in a medium-sized bowl (note: I measured and left it in a 4-cup pyrex measuring cup that had plenty of room for the remaining ingredients). Set the bowl aside. Pour the remaining batter into the prepared cake pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula.

4. Make the chocolate marble by stirring the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter, and 2 tbls warm water into the reserved 1 1/2 cups of cake batter until well combined. Spoon tablespoon-size dollops of this mixture on top of the peanut butter batter. Swirl with a knife to marble the cake, but be careful not to touch the bottom of the pan. Place the pan in the oven.

5. Bake til the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 30-35 minutes. Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool while you make the Chocolate Pan Frosting (10-15 minutes).

6. Pour the warm frosting over the cake, spreading it with a spatula so it reaches the edges of the cake. Work quickly because the frosting goes on best while still warm. Let set for 15 minutes, then slice and serve the cake.

Chocolate Pan Frosting

8 tbls butter (1 stick)
4 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup milk
3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over low heat, 2-3 minutes. Stir in the cocoa powder and milk. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and just begins to come to a boil, 1 minute longer. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in 3 cups powdered sugar, adding more if needed, until the frosting is thickened and smooth and the consistency of hot fudge sauce.

2. Ladle the warm frosting over top of the cake, then spread to the sides. Frosting will harden as it cools.

Weeks 36-52: Wow, really?

2010-07-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes, I am so far behind on my blog that I've forgotten many of the things I've made. Sorry, pals. I'm still baking every weekend, and have made a variety of brownies, cakes, and other treats the last few months. I can't believe it's been a year since I started my weekly baking habit. Time sure flies when you're eating sweets.

Here are a few pics of random treats from the past few months:

Cherry Blueberry Crisp

Bourbon Brownies with Chocolate Bourbon Frosting

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Chevre

And here are recipes I've promised to type up for a group of folks:

Sex in a Pan

Crust:
1 stick butter (melted)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups graham cracker crumbs

Filling/topping:
8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
12 oz Cool Whip
small box chocolate instant pudding
small box vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk
Optional - unsweetened cocoa powder and/or cinnamon
Combine crust ingredients and press into 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Blend cream cheese and powdered sugar til smooth (1-2 minutes with hand mixer). Stir in 4 oz Cool Whip. Spread over cooled crust. Mix puddings and milk, beat 2 minutes with hand mixer. Pour over cream cheese mixture. Top with 8 oz Cool Whip. Optional - sprinkle cinnamon and/or cocoa powder over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Variations:
1. Add a layer of sliced strawberries between cream cheese and pudding layers.
2. Swap out chocolate pudding for other flavors (e.g. butterscotch, banana, pistachio)

Cherry dump cake

1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained

1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling (can substitute peach, apple, or whatever else you like)

1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix

12 tbls (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted

1/2 cup grated coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350.

2. Spoon the pineapple evenly over the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Cover the pineapple with pie filling. Pour the dry cake mix evenly over the fruit mixture so that it reaches all the sides of the pan. Drizzle the entire pan with the melted butter. Sprinkle the coconut and pecans over the top of the cake. Place the pan in the oven.

3. Bake the cake til it is deep brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake topping comes out clean, 55-60 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

Aztec brownies

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs
1 tbls instant espresso powder
1 tbls vanilla
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 13x9 pan with cooking spray. Linea pan with foil and spray foil (I skipped this step).

2. Place chocolate chips and butter in medium microwaveable bowl; microwave on high 30 seconds. Stir until mixture is smooth. (If lumpy, microwave 10 seconds and stir again.

3. Whisk eggs, espresso powder, and vanilla in medium bowl til well blended. Stir in warm chocolate mixture; set aside to cool 10 minutes. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, chili powder, and salt in large bowl; stir in chocolate mixture until well blended. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake 15 minutes; remove pan from oven and sprinkle with almonds. Bake 20 minutes longer or until top is no longer shiny and toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean. (Do not overbake.) Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting into squares or triangles.

Key lime pie

Filling:

4 large egg yolks
4 tsp grated fresh lime zest
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (4-5 regular limes or 20 key limes)

Timing is important for this recipe; make the filling first, then the crust.

Graham cracker crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
6 tbls melted butter

Mix all ingredients and press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 325.

1. For the filling: Whisk egg yolks and zest together in a medium bowl until the mixture has a light green tint, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the condensed milk until smooth, then whisk in the lime juice. Cover the mixture and set aside at room temperature until thickened, about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare and bake the crust. Transfer the pie plate to a wire rack and leave the oven at 325. (The crust must still be warm when the filling is added).

3. Pour the thickened filling into the warm pie crust. Bake the pie until the center is firm but jiggles slightly when shaken, 15-20 minutes. Let the pie cool slightly on a wire rack, about 1 hour, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the filling is chilled and set, about 3 hours.

Week 35: Oreos!

2010-03-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

A couple years back, one of my cowkrers told me about a homemade Oreo recipe that was delicious. She passed it along, but I never got around to making it. Reading through my Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook, I discovered she had a recipe for homemeade Oreos as well (though she calls them "Cream-Filled Sandwich Cookies). I call them yum. I planned ahead and made a double batch so I'd actually have some to take to work tomorrow.

Check out this crackly goodness:

And even better, with cream filling!

And better yet...a table full of cookies!

The first batch I put in the oven were HUGE. I decided that no one would eat them if I created sandwich cookies out of them. Well, I would eat them. But I suspect quite a few of my coworkers would shy away from eating a giant cookie sandwich. So instead, I made some open-faced Oreos. Mmmm.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Do not substitute a 2" ice cream scoop for the 1 1/4" the recipe calls for. Unless, of course, you want giant cookies. If so, carry on.

2. Oreos are great. But homemade Oreos are amazing.

3. I know I sound like a broken record, but this recipe is EASY.

Martha Stewart's Cream-Filled Chocolate Sandwiches

Ingredients

Makes about 30.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Into a medium-size bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat to combine. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture; continue beating until dough is well combined.

3.Using a 1 1/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Dip bottom of a glass in sugar; press to flatten cookies to about 1/8 inch thick. (You may need to carefully remove dough from glass with a thin metal spatula.)

4.Transfer to oven, and bake until cookies are firm, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

5.Place cream filling in a pastry bag fitted with a coupler, and pipe about 1 tablespoon filling onto the flat side of half the cookies. Place remaining cookies on top, and gently press on each to squeeze filling to edges. Filled cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Ingredients

Makes about 1 cup <--- I did the math, and it's impossible for this recipe to only make 1 cup. I made just a single batch of the filling to go with my double batch of cookies, and it was plenty.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and shortening until well combined. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, and beat to combine. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Weeks 30-34: Lots of baking, not much typing

2010-03-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

I knew I was behind on my blog, and coudln't quite remember what or when my last post was. I laughed out loud (yes, lol) when I realized that my last post was the chocolate hazelnut disaster zone cake. Not to worry, that disaster didn't prevent me from baking the next weekend. Or any weekend since. So here's what you've missed:

Week 30: Mardi Gras cupakes (yellow pound cake cupcakes with a simple glaze & SPRINKLES!)

Week 31: Ginger cheesecake bars (silly easy recipe, and a great one for ginger fans - check it out at http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/ginger-cheesecake-bars)

Week 32: Chocolate Rum icebox cake (oh my lord...so delicious & pretty! And I redeemed my whipped-cream-based filling disaster from hazelnut week! Surprisingly easy to make.)

Week 33: Cinnamon streusal cake (holy crap, this might be one of my favorite cakes ever. EVER! It's basically a yellow cake with cinnamon streusal on top each layer and a generous coat of cream cheese frosting. YUM. I know I keep saying this, but this really was an easy recipe. Here's a pic of what was left after the Falzone clan dug in at my father-in-law's birthday party. This hunk made it's way into the office.)

Week 34: Smores bars (I was feeling tired & lazy, and didn't want to make anything that required effort. Huzzah, this was perfect! Very few things are easier than this. Seriously...make a double recipe graham cracker crust & press on bottom of pan, then add a cup of chocolate chips & a cup of chopped nuts, pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over that, and then bake for 25 minutes at 350. Drop marshmallows on top & bake for another 2 minutes or til browned. I told you it was easy!)

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I've typed too much. All of the above = yum.

If you want any of the recipes, let me know!

Week 29: Chocolate hazelnut disaster

2010-02-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

I got a new cookbook a couple weeks back (The Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-Make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look), and one of the recipes immediately caught my eye - Hazelnut cake with nutella whipped cream filling. I love nutella, so wanted to give this one a try.

Disaster #1: our grocery store does not carry hazelnuts.

Plan B: bake a chocolate cake with nutella whipped cream filling and a nutella buttercream frosting.

The assembly was going great for the first layer. I created a nice dam of nutella buttercream around the edge of the layer, then filled it with nutella whipped cream. "This is easy!" I thought to myself. But I also thought..."huh, I used less than half of the whipped cream. Maybe I should put extra on the next layer."

Disaster #2: layer 2 was cracked. Usually not a big deal if your filling is a nice, firm buttercream.

And now we're at disaster #3: if you put extra whipped cream and then press another layer of cake on top, everything will ooze out the side. Everything.

Disaster #4: if layer 2 has cracked and part of it is no longer attached to the rest of the layer, it will ooze out in the "everything" ooze.

Disaster relief plan #1: use buttercream to pull the cake back together. Fail.

Disaster relief plan #2: cut off the half of the cake that is broken and oozing, and push it onto a plate. Plate cake = we'll just eat this at home.

And now I'm tying to sort out exactly what to do with the cake on the left. It looks really bad. No, seriously...it's bad. Just look at it!

The sad part is, this cake is ridiculously delicious. But I just don't know if I can bring myself to take it to the office.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Don't put extra whipped cream between layers.

2. I think part of the issue is that my whipped cream wasn't stiff enough. Next time, I'll whip it a little longer.

3. This might work better as a two-layer cake.

4. Sigh.

Week 28: Peanut Butter Surprises

2010-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

One of Brett Jr's favorite foods is peanut butter. He eats it with just about everything. And he loves it even better when it's combined with chocolate. So when I saw this recipe for peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting, I knew I had to make them.

Brett's review: "Mmm...I'd like to eat these again someday."

My review: "Holy smokes, these are yummy!"

So you start with a super simple peanut butter cupcake dough (a yellow cake mix with peanut butter added to the list of usual ingredients). Before popping it in the oven, you drop a Hershey's kiss on top of each cupcake like so:

After they've cooled, you top with a chocolate buttercream, and then chopped peanut butter cups:

The Hershey's kiss drops to the bottom of the cupcake and makes a lovely little chocolate surprise:

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Super simple cupcake recipe.

2. A great one to make with kids (they can place the Hershey's kiss on top of each cupcake, and help decorate the tops with chopped peanut butter cups).

3. Did I mention this recipe is super simple and delicious?

Peanut Butter Surprises (from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor)

Makes 22-24 cupcakes

24 Hershey's Kisses
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (.75 ounce each)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside. Unwrap 24 Hershey's Kisses and set them aside.

2. Place the cake mix, water, peanut butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping down the sides again if necessary. The batter should be well blended. Spoon or scoop 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two-thirds of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Gently place 1 Kiss on top of each cupcake. Do not press the Kiss into the batter. Place the pans in the oven. Meanwhile, place the Peanut Butter Cups in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Buttercream. Remove the Peanut Butter Cups from the freezer and coarsely chop them.

5. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or metal spoon, taking care to cover the tops. Garnish with chopped Peanut Butter Cups. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Store these cupcakes in a cake saver or under a glass dome at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze them wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Chocolate Buttercream

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter; at room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar; sifted
3 to 5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the butter and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is soft and well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons more milk if the frosting is too stiff.

Week 27: Stout Cupcakes

2010-01-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

I had a cold back in week 26, and Chuck suggested that my coworkers might appreciate it if I didn't bake that weekend. He's a smart man. On to week 27 and a recipe that I've been wanting to try for a while now - Martha Stewart's stout cupcakes. Chuck's a fan of Guinness, so I thought this was a cupcake he'd enjoy.

True story: I hate beer. And I'm not a huge molasses fan. So I was a little worried about baking a cupcake for which both beer & molasses play key roles. Now I know I shouldn't have worried...I love these cupcakes!

They're not especially pretty...but they sure taste good.

One step Martha recommends is placing a cookie sheet below the wire rack before spooning glaze over the cupcakes. This is what happens if you fail to do that:

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I've never tried Guinness, but Chuck says he never would have guessed it was in this cupcake if I hadn't told him. So if you're hesitating to make these because of the whole Guinness thing...don't be.

2. This cupcake was the perfect texture - moist & delicate.

3. A relatively easy recipe to make.

4. Next time, I'll place cookie sheets under the wire rack.

Stout Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

•3 3/4 cups flour
•1/2 t plus 1/8 t baking soda
•1 3/4 t baking powder
•1 1/4 t salt
•1 T cinnamon
•1 1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
•1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
•1 1/4 cups unsulfered molasses
•1/2 cup plus 1 T light brown sugar
•2 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
•1 T plus 1 t orange zest
•1 1/4 cups (10 oz) Guinness, poured and settled

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350°. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners.

2.Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3.With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat oil, molasses, brown sugar, whole eggs, yolk, zest, and stout until combined. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just until combined.

4.Pour batter, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins half way through, for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Place onto wire racks to cool completely before adding glaze.

Glaze

•2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
•1/4 cup Guinness, poured and settled

Whisk together until combined. Use immediately (spoon over cooled cupcakes and let set).

Week 25: Eggnog cake with spiced cream cheese frosting

2010-01-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

I made this cake for the Falzone Christmas Eve gathering, and this moist, delicious cake was a huge hit there. I have been craving it ever since. Despite receiving several new baking cookbooks for Christmas, each of which is filled with new treats I could bake, I decided to make another triple-layer eggnog cake. This time, I doubled up on the bourbon that I brushed on each layer.

This is a very easy cake & between the egg nog, bourbon, and nutmeg, it is full of holiday goodness.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. The original recipe calls for apricot preserves as the filling, but that didn't sound good to me (though I might try it next year). Instead, I made extra frosting & filled the layers with that. But I didn't make quite enough extra. Next time, I'll fully double the frosting recipe.

2. This is a really easy cake. Seriously, you drop everything in a mixing bowl & mix it. If you're intimidated by layer cakes, you can just as easily make this in a 9x13 pan. Just increase the baking time to 35-45 minutes.

Recipe (from the Cake Mix Doctor Returns):

INGREDIENTS:

•1 package (18.25) yellow or vanilla cake mix, plain or with pudding
•1 1/4 cups eggnog
•1/4 cup vegetable oil
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (1 tsp if freshly ground)
•4 large eggs
•3 tablespoons bourbon (optional), for brushing the tops of the cake layers

Apricot filling:
•1 jar (10 ounces) apricot all-fruit spread
•1 tablespoon bourbon or water

Spiced cream cheese frosting:
•4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
•4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
•3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
•Heaping 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (1/2 tsp if freshly ground)
•1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

PREPARATION: Place rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist three 9-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray, then dust them with flour. Shake out the excess flour; set pans aside.

Place the cake mix, eggnog, oil, vanilla, nutmeg and the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for two minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl again, if needed. The batter should look well blended. Divide the cake batter evenly among the three prepared cake pans, about 11/2 cups of batter per pan, smoothing the tops with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven. If your oven is not large enough to hold three pans on the center rack, place two pans on that rack and one in the center of the rack above.

Bake the cake layers until they are golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 18 to 20 minutes. The cake layer on the higher rack may bake faster, so it for doneness first. Transfer to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each cake layer and give the pans a good shake to loosen the cakes. Invert each layer onto a wire rack, then invert it again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. If desired, brush the cakes with the 3 tablespoons of bourbon, using 1 tablespoon for each; set aside to cool, 15 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Place the fruit spread and 1 tablespoon of bourbon or water in a small bowl and stir until well combined.

Make the spiced cream frosting: Place the butter and cream cheese in a medium-size bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the confectioners’ sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon and beat with the mixer on low speed until the ingredients are well incorporated and the frosting has a spreading consistency, 1 to 2 minutes.

To assemble cake, transfer one layer, right side up, to a cake plate. Spread half of the filling to the edge of the first layer, about 1/2 heaping cup. Place a second cake layer, right side up, on top of the first and spread the remaining filling over it. Place the third layer on top, right side up, and frost the top and side of cake, working with smooth, clean strokes. To make slicing easier, place the uncovered cake in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes.

Store in a cake saver or loosely covered with waxed paper in the refrigerator for up to one week. Freeze the cake, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to six months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Make 12-16 servings.

Weeks 23-24: Ekhardt Christmastime Again baking extravaganza

2010-01-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

Brett Jr. usually spends Christmas day in Minneapolis with his stepmom's family. Several years back, Chuck & I started a tradition of spending Christmas day baking cookies. It's quickly become one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Chuck & I both come from families for which massive amounts of Christmas cookie baking was an annual event. Chuck's family made dozens & dozens of cookies that they shared with extended family members. When I was a kid, my family had an open house every year on December 23 & invited the entire church over. We usually had 150+ people come through our house for food & treats. For a couple days beforehand, we baked non-stop. Each year on Christmas, Chuck & I bake some of my favorites from the open house days.

This year on Christmas day, Chuck & I made peanut blossoms, 7-layer bars, and lemon bars (all three of which we had at every open house). We also made Oreo bon bons (a new recipe that my friend Jon sent me) and cornflake clusters (a recipe we found in Chuck's mom's recipe box).

Our total for Christmas day: 19.25 dozen cookies. Here's 14.25 dozen of them:

And here are some of the Oreo bon bons (you'll notice that I found good use for all those Christmas sprinkles I've been hoarding):

The day after Christmas, Chuck & I donned our aprons and made 21.5 dozen more cookies. We pulled out another Falzone recipe - Italian pineapple cookies (yum!), made buckeyes for the first time (YUM), and made Chuck's mom's chocolate chip cookies (for half of them, we added in some peppermint bark). Here's the chocolate chip & pineapple cookies - look, more sprinkles!

Here are the buckeyes pre-chocolate:

And here they are post-chocolate:

We took half these treats to the office for our co-workers, and packed up the other half for the Ekhardt Christmastime Again gathering. Every year, we drive to Iowa to spend the week between Christmas & New Year's at my brother & sister-in-law's house. And my parents fly in from California for the week as well. Brett Jr. named this holiday "Christmastime Again" after the lesser-known Peanuts holiday special.

While in Iowa, my sister-in-law, Tracie, and I made cookie dough cupcakes with frowny faces. She added a brilliant touch - one surprised/worried cupcake:

We also made sugar cookies, which we slathered buttercream frosting on & then handed them over to the kids to cover in sprinkles. I was too busy applying frosting to take pictures, but good times and good cookies were had by all!

Weeks 20-22: Falzone Christmas baking extravaganza!

2010-01-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law, Tracy, told me that I'm falling behind in my blog. I thought, "huh, it hasn't been that long since I posted, has it?" Turns out she's right - it's been 5 weeks. Sheesh. It's not that I haven't baked anything during the past 5 weeks...it's that I've been so busy baking that I didn't have time to stop & write about it. Yes, that's it. It's certainly not that I've been too lazy to write about it.

Here's a recap of the Falzone Christmas baking extravaganza that filled weeks 20-22:

Week 20: I took the weekend off baking because Chuck & Brett Jr. made a great yellow cake with chocolate frosting for my birthday. Thanks, guys!

Week 21, part 1: Chuck's dad & Aunt Marie came into town to help us make traditional Italian Christmas cookies. Aunt Marie has perfected these recipes over the years, resulting in delicious cookies. Here's Aunt Marie, Chuck & Brett rolling the chocolate spice cookies (one of Aunt Marie's secrets for these - rub a little olive oil on your hands to prevent the dough from sticking):

Next up were fig cookies. They're pretty labor intensive, but they are seriously good. Here's a shot of Aunt Marie carefully placing the filling on dough she's just rolled:

I took over rolling and filling for a while, and Aunt Marie giggled and made fun of how big my cookies were. She said it reminded her of the days when she'd bake these with her mom - the longer they spent rolling and filling cookies, the larger her mom's cookies would get (because her mom was getting tired of rolling). Aunt Marie would then yell at her mom, "You're making them too big!" Aunt Marie's cookie philosophy is that you should make them small so that people can eat several. My philosophy is that you should make them large and still eat several.

In the end, we had 17 dozen cookies. Whew!

Week 21, part 2: Chuck & I made Giugiulena, an Italian sesame cookie. He's made these many, many times with his dad & Aunt Marie, but it was my first time. Far less labor intensive than the fig cookies, for these you just dip them in egg & roll them in sesame seeds. We made quite the mess while preparing these...perhaps it had something to do with those bottles of wine & the wine glasses in the background of this pic:

As was the case with the chocolate spice, these cookies spread more than when Aunt Marie makes them. She smiled & told me they were 'Mericanu cookies (which, as you might guess, is a slur for American). Still, they turned out delicious:

Week 21, part 3: my sister-in-law, Julie, asked us to bring a dessert to Christmas Eve dinner. I have been wanting to try this recipe I found for a triple-layer eggnog cake, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity. It was a huge hit:

Many of the cookies in this post made their way to assorted Falzone families, some headed into the office for our co-workers to enjoy, and a few dozen made their way out to Iowa for the Ekhardt family gathering we refer to as "Christmastime Again" (more on that soon...).

Week 19: Chocolate-covered cherry cake

2009-12-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

I buy a jar of cherry pie filling every November when we are up in Door County (they're known for their cherries). I always dream of baking a cherry pie, but I never get around to it. And twice now, I've ditched the pie plans to make a chocolate-covered cherry cake. I despise chocolate-covered cherries, but I love this cake.

The icing has a lovely chocolateyness to it. Choclacality? It tastes like chocolate because it's made from chocolate.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. A very simple cake recipe.

2. Despite the simplicity, I managed to foul it up a bit. The jar of pie filling I buy in Door County is 32 ounces, but the recipe calls for 21. Last year I just eyeballed it. This year I decided to get fancy and spoon it into my pyrex measuring cup, which has handy ounce markins on it. I told Chuck that I thought the Door County folks lied about the pie filling because it took more than 2/3 of it to get to 21 ounces. Then he asked me if the recipe called for fluid ounces or actual weight. Sigh. The extra pie filling appears to have had little impact on the recipe, though.

3. I like to toss dried cherries over top the icing.

A New Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake by the Cake Mix Doctor

Cake:
Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) chocolate mix with pudding
3 large eggs
2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling
1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly mist a 13x9" baking pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust it with flour. Shake out excess flour and set the pan aside.

2. Place the cake mix, eggs, and almond extract in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on medium speed until the ingredients are incorporated, 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber sptatula. Add the chocolate chips and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides down again if needed. Add the cherry pie filling and beat on medium speed ntil just blended, 20-30 seconds. The batter will be thick. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

3. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack, and let the cake cool slightly while you prepare the icing.

Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 package (6 ounces, or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

Place the sugar, butter, and milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips. When the chips have melted and the glaze is smooth, pour it over the warm cake so that it covers the entire surface. The glaze will be thin but will firm up. Cool the cake for 20 minutes more before cutting it into squares and serving.

NOTE: Store this cake, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze the cake, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight on the counter before serving.

Week 18: Sprinkle habit

2009-12-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Chuck and I travelled up to Door County last weekend to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. We stayed in the same suite at the same B&B we've been going to every year since our honeymoon. If you're heading up to northern WI, I highly recommend checking out the Chanticleer Guest House.

So why am I talking about all of this on my baking blog? Our travels meant that I didn't bake anything this week (insert gasp here).

To make up for not baking last week, I decided to bring out the big guns and make a double batch of sugar cookies with buttercream frosting this coming weekend. And that means one thing...SPRINKLES!!!! I decided to take stock of my sprinkle collection tonight to make sure I had enough to get me through the weekend. Here's what I found:

Chuck suggested I build a tower of sprinkles. So I did.

I wasn't very happy with the stacked arrangement, so I decided to organize them by holiday. Halloween - over to the left. Christmas - you head to the right. Easter - I've never used you, so you're heading to the back. Hey there, chocolate jimmies & white nonpareils - you work with every season, so front & center with you.

And now it's time for my shocking confession: I am a sprinkle-holic. There. I said it. I openly admit that I have and will purchase every new holiday-themed sprinkle I happen across. It does not matter that I have dozens of different types of sprinkles in my cupboard. Seriously...dozens. Check out all these bottles that have 6 varieties in one bottle. SIX!

After reviewing the photographic evidence and shuffling the non-Christmas sprinkles back to the cupboard, I turned to Chuck and said, "I really thought I had more sprinkles than this. This isn't so bad."

Week 17: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

2009-11-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make something seasonally appropriate this week, so turned to Martha Stewart's Cupcakes in search of a pumpkin recipe. Despite the ridiculous marzipan pumpkins she added, this recipe sounded perfect to me. I'm actually disgusted by the texture and flavor of marzipan, so I skipped the toppers. And, you know, I really didn't want to spend my entire weekend creating little pumpkins to top my cupcakes.

Here's Martha's version:

And here's my version:

Do you suppose any of my co-workers will ask where the marzipan pumpkins are? Now that I think about it...I sort of hope they do. I have plenty of answers to that question.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. The cupcake batter was thicker than I was expecting. I was very happy to have my trusty old-fashioned ice cream scoop on hand for dropping batter into each cupcake liner.

2. To save your kitchen from looking like you dropped a bag of flour on the counter, cover your mixer with a kitchen towel after each addition of flour.

3. To prevent the buttermilk from splashing out of the mixing bowl, use a spatula to lightly stir it in before turning your mixer back on.

4. I wish I had thought of 2 and 3 before my first addition of flour and first addition of buttermilk.

5. I continue to have great love for my Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook. I've now tried three recipes from this book, and have yet to be disappointed.

Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Patch cupcakes

4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2-1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternative with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until just combined. Add pumpkin puree; beat until just combined.

3. Fill cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown, 15-18 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored in fridge up to 3 days in airtight containers.

4. To finish, use an offset spatula to spread frosting on cupcakes.

Martha Stewart's Cream-Cheese Frosting
Makes 4 Cups

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Week 16: Old-fashioned fudge cake

2009-11-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

My friend Jenny Vellon made this one day for our group of friends back in grad school, and we begged her to make it for every gathering after that. Jenny is a generous and thoughtful gal, so she obliged. She also told us it was very easy to make, but none of us believed her.

Jenny gave me the recipe for Christmas one year, and I quickly added it to my book of hand-written recipes. And yet, I continued to worry that it'd come out terribly wrong if I attempted to make it. It wasn't until a few months into my baking obsession that I pulled out the recipe and decided to try it out. And boy am I glad I did - it tasted exactly as I remembered it, and it brought back great memories of fun times shared with grad school friends.

If you've always been intimidated by baking a cake from scratch, I'd say this cake is reason enough to break down and give it a go. It's deliciously moist and, yes, surprisingly easy to make. And how could you not want to eat this??

Honestly, look at all that chocolatey goodness!

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. A great beginner's cake - as long as you can measure ingredients and mix them with a whisk or spoon...you can handle this one.

2. After my many disastrous attempts and making chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies & discovering that I had never allowed the mixture to come to a complete boil (see Week 7 post), I was a bit reluctant to trust that my frosting was at a boil. Sadly, I pushed it too far & it broke. How, you might wonder, do you break frosting? If you cook this frosting too long, the butter will start to separate out from the milk and cocoa & you'll have the milk and cocoa together & melted butter swimming around them. Here's a sign that it's about to happen - you'll see dark specks & then dark streaks in the frosting as you're stirring. And if you ignore those signs, well it'll separate. Lucky for me, I happen to have far more baking ingredients on hand than anyone should, so I just dumped the mess in the trash can & started over. Second attempt came out perfectly.

Many thanks to Jenny for giving me the a-ok to share this recipe with my pals.

Jenny's Old-Fashioned Fudge Cake

2 C flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 C oil
1 C buttermilk
3 eggs, beaten
3 tsp vanilla
3/4 C hot water

Frosting:
4 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tbls milk
1 stick butter
3/4 lb powdered sugar
1 tbls vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan.

1. Sift together flour, sugar, soda, salt & cocoa. Add oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and hot water. Mix well. (Seriously, that's all there is to it.)

2. Pour into 9x13 pan and bake for 30 minutes.

3. Start making your frosting about 10-15 minutes before cake is done baking. For frosting, make a paste of cocoa and milk in a saucepan. Add butter and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla, Beat well. Pour over still hot cake in baking pan.

4. Serve warm; especially wonderful with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Week 15: Rum Cake

2009-11-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend debating whether I felt like making & eating old-fashioned fudge cake or rum cake. As you can see from the title, rum cake won. Sorry, old-fashioned fudge cake & fudge cake lovers. There's always next weekend.

I've used this recipe for years & love it. The cake is always moist & extremely rummy. Is that a word? If not, it should be.

I made use of my new bundt pan that I previously tried out with my margarita cake. But something didn't go quite right this time. Here's how the margarita cake looked:

And here's how the rum cake looked (it pulled away from the sides of the pan & didn't come out with the same scalloped edges):

Also, (borrowing a joke from Chuck) the rum cake came out of the oven with a few pieces missing...

The glaze also came out a little funny this time around - runnier than I'm used to. It seemed like more of it ended up on the cake plate than on the cake.

Regardless, I love this cake. And Chuck's bandmates seemed to like it too.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I suspect there are two reasons the cake is misshapen: 1) I used 1/2 the amount of pudding mix it called for (because that's all I happened to have in the cupboard) and 2) the recipe is designed for a 12-cup pan & I used a 10-cup pan.

2. I might have to make this a few more times in the coming weeks to perfect this glaze. You know, for the benefit of the people to whom I serve it.

3. I had intended to place whole pecans in the pan before pouring in the cake batter, but completely forgot. So I might have to make this recipe again very soon. You know, for the benefit of people who like pecans.

4. Make sure you remove your saucepan from the heat before adding rum. Otherwise, you'll have a sputtering mess.

5. If you pour in all the rum into the glaze at once, you'll be surrounding by a cloud of rum. That's not necessarily a bad thing...just be prepared.

Bacardi Rum Cake

1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

1 (18 1/2 oz.) pkg. yellow cake mix
1 (3 3/4 oz.) pkg. instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 c. cold water
1/2 c. Wesson oil
1/2 c. Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10 inch tube pan or 12 cup Bundt cake pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix all ingredients together and pour over nuts. Bake 1 hour. Cool. Invert on serving plate. Prick top. Drizzle smooth glaze evenly over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until all glaze is used.

GLAZE:

1/4 lb. butter
1/4 c. water
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. Bacardi dark rum

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Week 14: Triple-layer chocolate peanut butter cake, take 2

2009-11-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

Back in week 6 I took on my first from-scratch cake. Brett declared it his favorite cake, and requested it for his birthday. Being the great mom that I am, I immediately agreed. Not because I desperately wanted to eat this cake again...no, it was for Brett. Brett also requested that both Batman & Spiderman be represented on his cake. Hmm...okay, then.

Final result:

Brett regularly ponders what would happen if Batman & Spiderman got into a fight. He has decided that Spiderman would win (because he's fast). So I carefully positioned Spiderman so it'd look like he was kicking Batman off the cake. Because, again, I'm a great mom.

I also carefully positioned the Batmobile to cover up a frosting tragedy...the glaze was a little too warm when I poured it over the cake, and the cream cheese frosting started to melt off one section. The brilliance of my decorating prevented anyone from knowing.

Brett was very impressed with his final cake, as were my in-laws.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. The first time I made this, I cooked the glaze in the microwave. While it tasted just fine, it was a little too thick for pouring and spreading. This time, I cooked it over a make-shift double-boiler (a glass mixing bowl placed over a pan of simmering water). It had much better spreading consistency, and also prettier drips down the side of the cake.

2. The first time I made this, I refrigerated the cake for 30 minutes in between adding the frosting and pouring on the glaze. I wanted to see what would happen if I skipped that this time. Answer: the frosting melted. Next time, I'll stick with refrigerating in between the two steps.

Check out my post from week 6 for the recipes.

Week 13: Chocolate Buttermilk Halloween cupcakes

2009-11-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

I have a...slight problem with sprinkles. I tend to purchase far more than a normal person can make use of in a lifetime. Anytime a holiday rolls around, I find new sprinkles and drop them in my cart. Chuck's job is to remind me that I already have enough sprinkles (just like I remind him that we already have enough canned tomatoes). Sadly, Chuck isn't always with me at the store. All of this is a long way of explaining this:

And these are just my Halloween-themed sprinkles. I haven't been brave enough to pull all of my sprinkles out at the same time, but I'm fairly certain I have at least twice this many Christmas-themed sprinkles.

So I figured I'd bake up some Halloween-themed treats and see what I could do about using some of my sprinkle stash. I frosted the cupakes & then handed them off to Brett for sprinkling. Here's what I learned: Brett preferred using one type of sprinkle on every cupcake. After he covered 6 cupcakes with purple sugar, Chuck gently encouraged him to shift between some others. And we ended up with a nice collection of cupcakes:

My favorite cupcake of the bunch is the one on the right corner of this pic - yeah, the one upon which Brett dumped the black sugar. This shot was after I shook a good chunk of sugar onto other cupcakes.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Quick & simple recipe that makes a nice, moist cupcake.

2. I use powdered buttermilk (mixed with water) in place of fresh - you can store it far longer, and it's easier than running to the store to buy buttermilk when I'm baking.

3. Everything is better with sprinkles.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes (from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns)

Makes: 22-24 cupcakes (2 1/2 inches in diameter)
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: 20-25 minutes
Cool: 20 minutes

24 paper liners for cupcakes pans

1 package (18.25 oz) chocolate cake mix, plain or with pudding
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Line 24 cupcakes caups with paper liners and set the pans aside.

2. Place all cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase teh mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bow. again if needed. The batter should look well blended.

3. Spoon or scoop a heaping 1/4 cup of cupcake batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. (You will get 22-24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.)

4. Place the pans in teh oven and bake the cupcakes until the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 20-25 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of the cupcake cups, lift the cupcakes up from teh bottom of the pans using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the pans carefully with your fingertips. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes longer before frosting.

5. Prepare frosting of your choice (I used a basic buttercream and tinted it orange with gel paste food coloring).

6. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of frosting on top of each cupcake and swirl it with a short metal spatula or spoon to spread it out, taking care of cover the top completely. Serve.

Week 12: Sour Cream Apple Pie

2009-11-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

Every October for the past 5 years, we've made our way up to Apple Holler for some apple picking. And every year we pick WAY more apples than we can actually eat. This year, I decided to chop up a good portion of the apples to make a couple pies. I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I've been baking it for years now. And it seems like each time I bake it, someone ends up asking for the recipe. So here it is for all to enjoy!

We had Chuck's bandmates over for dinner to help us knock out part of the pie bounty. And the second pie made its way into the office for my coworkers.

I usually peel the apples before chopping & adding to the pie. But I decided to leave them on this time around. I really like the color these Jonathan peels brought to the pie, and it gave the apples a nice tangy flavor.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. One of these days, I'm going to break down and make my own pie crust. Til then, I'll keep picking them up from the freezer section of the grocery store. Marie Callendar's makes a particularly nice frozen pie crust.

2. I've tried this recipe with a graham cracker crust before & it was very good...but also sweet. If you're into sweet, go for it.

3. I've made this pie dozens of times & it always comes out perfectly. This makes me suspect it's a relatively forgiving recipe. It's certainly an easy one to throw together.

4. I prefer this pie warm, so I always warm up my leftover slices in the microwave.

Sour Cream Apple Pie
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbls flour
3-4 cups apples, chopped
1 unbaked 9" pie shell

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 450

Beat egg. Add sour cream, vanilla, and salt, mixing well. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and flour. Add to sour cream mixture, beating well. Stir in apples. Pour into shell and bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 30 minutes more.

Mix topping: combine flour and brown sugar, cut in butter until crumbly (if you don't have a pastry blender, you can use a fork or a pair of knives). Sprinkle on pie and bake 10 minutes more.

Week 11: Pumpkin Pie Crumble Cake

2009-11-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

10 years ago, one of my friends brought this dessert to my baby shower. I've been craving it every Fall since. It's got the flavors of a yellow cake and a pumpkin pie all rolled into one, and it's especially delicious while still warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

You end up with three basic layers in this cake - the crust, the pumpkin pie filling, and the streusal topping. YUM.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. A wonderful alternative to pumpkin pie, particularly if you're feeding a large crowd (and/or if you don't know how to make a pie crust...).

2. Very fast, easy preparation. Just make sure you plan ahead for the baking time.

3. I absolutely love the flavor that the pecans bring to the streusal.

4. Another easy-on-the-kitchen recipe, as the crust & filling can be mixed in the same bowl without cleaning in between. Triple bonus points for that.

Pumpkin Pie Crumble Cake from The Cake Mix Doctor

This recipe comes from Margaret Neblett of Nashville, who got it from a friend, who got it from a friend in Chicago, and so on. Word spreads when there's a great recipe! This dessert is much like a pie in that it has a cinnamon-enhanced pumpkin filling, but much like a cake with a soft crust. And the crunchy topping is the best of both worlds. Don't be concerned that 1 cup of the cake mix is reserved for the topping. The filling bakes up firm and creamy without it.

Serves: 18 to 20
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 70 to 75 minutes
Assembly time: 5 minutes

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pan
Flour for dusting the pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter or margarine, at room temperature
4 large eggs
2 cans (15 ounces each) pumpkin
1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, chilled
1 cup chopped pecans

Sweetened whipped cream for topping

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

Measure out 1 cup of the cake mix and reserve for the topping. Place the remaining cake mix, the butter, and 1 egg in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 1 minute. Using your fingertips, press the batter over the bottom of the prepared pan so that it reaches the sides of the pan. Set the pan aside.

For the filling, place the pumpkin, evaporated milk, 1 cup sugar, remaining 3 eggs, and cinnamon in the same large mixing bowl used to prepare the batter and with the same beaters (no need to clean either), blend on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the mixture lightens in color and texture, 1 to 2 minutes more. Pour the filling over the crust in the pan, spreading to the sides of the pan with a rubber spatula. Set the pan aside.

For the topping, place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the chilled butter, and the reserved cake mix in a clean medium-size mixing bowl. Rinse and dry the beaters. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined and crumbly, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stop the machine and stir in the pecans. Use your fingers to thoroughly knead the pecans into the topping mixture. Distribute the topping evenly over the filling mixture. Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until the center no longer jiggles when you shake the pan and the pecans on top have browned, 70 to 75 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack, 20 minutes.

Prepare two recipes of the Sweetened Cream. Slice the cake into squares and pass the Sweetened Cream to spoon on top.

* Store this cake without the Sweetened Cream on it, covered in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

RX - The Cake Doctor says...
Originally, this recipe called for margarine, but I think it benefits from the taste of butter.

Week 10: Margarita Cake

2009-11-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

You heard that right - a Margarita Cake! Basically, you take all the ingredients for a margarita and you dump them in a cake. What's not to love about that? One of my favorite cookbook authors, Anne Byrn, recently released a new book: The Cake Mix Doctor Returns. Her books are great for weeknight baking when time is limited, or when you just don't feel like the whole to-do of baking a cake from scratch.

Baking geek that I am, I pre-ordered this book from Amazon and got it the day it was released. And then I read it cover-to-cover. You know, so I could make sure I knew what all of my options were before I chose a recipe to bake. This recipe really jumped out at me, as I'm quite the fan of margaritas. And as an added bonus, it gave me an excuse to try out the new bundt pan I purchased with a fancy 40% off coupon for Michael's crafts. But I digress...on to cake.

Here it is in all its glory:

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. Extremely easy recipe & a yummy cake!

2. I used the lemon cake mix, then later wished I had used the yellow cake mix. I forgot that there's a very slight chemical flavor to lemon cake mixes that I don't especially like. Chuck reassured me that there was absolutely no chemical taste in my cake. Chuck lies. But he means well.

3. Although the garnish sounds cute & nice, I skipped it. I did, however, use the glaze.

4. I use (and love) the vegetable oil + flour spray they sell these days. Much less mess than dusting with flour. And here's a handy tip I read recently re: spraying pans - open your dishwasher & hold the pan over the open door while you spray. Nothing to wipe or clean that way.

5. Co-worker quote of the week: "this is the first liquor I've had since my baby was born!" Me: "given how little alcohol is in this cake, it's a little sad that you're this excited about it."

Margarita Cake (from the Cake Mix Doctor Returns)

Ingredients: cake
Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pan
Flour, for dusting the pan
1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow, vanilla, or lemon cake mix
Half of a package (3.4 oz) of vanilla instant pudding mix (4 tbls)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup fresh lime or key lime juice
1/4 cup tequila
2 tbsl triple sec
1 tsp grated lime zest
4 large eggs

Ingredients: glaze and garnish
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbls tequila
1 tbls triple sec
1 tbls fresh lime juice or key lime juice
1 lime, cut into thin slices
1-2 tsp coarse sugar

1. Make the cake: Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Lightly mist a 12-cup bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust it with flour. Shake out the excess flour and set aside.

2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, granulated sugar, water, oil, 1/3 cup lime juice, 1/4 tequila, 2 tbls triple sec, lime zest, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter should look smooth and thick. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula, and place the pan in the oven.

3. Bake the cake until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 42-47 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cake cool for 10-15 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edges of the cake, shake the pan gently, and invert the cake onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely, about 25 minutes longer.

4. Meanwhile, make the glaze: place powdered sugar, tequila, triple sec, and lime juice in a small bowl and whisk til smooth.

5. Slide the cake onto a serving plate. Using a long wooden skewer, poke 12-16 holes in the top of the cake. Spoon the glaze over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Garnish the cake with the lime slices and a sprinkling of coarse sugar. Let the glaze set for 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

Note: Coarse sugar is this cake's version of the coarse salt that sticks to the rim of a glass filled with a margarita. It is often called sanding sugar and you can buy it at stores that sell cake and cookie decorating supplies. To make sure that the sugar sticks to the cake, sprinkle it on while the glaze is still wet.

Week 7: Huzzah! Chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies

2009-11-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite cookies growing up was the simple but delicious chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookie. My dad made these countless times for us, and it seemed like every church potluck had at least one batch on the dessert table.

And yet, I have never been able to make these without them being a total gloopy mess. I've tried at least a dozen times over the past 20 years, each time hoping that I'd figure out the tragic flaw in my preparation...and each time, failing and ending up with runny cookies (which I still ate, of course - with a spoon). How could I fail at a recipe that just about everyone on the planet can make?

After my successes at baking cupcakes & cakes from scratch, I thought I'd try my hand at this recipe one more time before kicking it out of my cookbook. Reading through it, I finally realized what I had been doing wrong all these years - I didn't let it come to a full boil before starting the timer on the 1 minute boil. D'oh!

So after 20 years of failure, I had a bright shining moment of non-baking brilliance & ended up with these delicious treats:

Words can't capture how absolutely thrilled I was with this success story. Nor can Chuck's expression.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Now that I realize what I've been doing wrong all these years, I'm officially declaring this an easy recipe. :) And easy on the kitchen as well - just a single pot & spoon to clean afterwards.

2. Part of the reason I made these was so I could tell my co-workers that I took a weekend off from baking. You know, because they are no-bake cookies. Co-worker quote of the week: "you have a problem."

3. If at first you don't succeed, keep doing it the same way a dozen more times. And then read the recipe and do it the right way.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-bake Cookies:

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
4 tbls cocoa powder
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tbls vanilla
3 cups oatmeal (I used quick-cooking)
waxed paper

Directions:
In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil (an actual full boil) the sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal. Drop mixture by spoonful onto waxed paper and cool til hardened.

Week 6b: Cookie dough cupcakes

2009-10-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

There's a great family-owned bakery a block away from our office - Bennison's Bakery. We regularly get treats from them for the office. The thing I like purchasing more than anything else is their frowny face cookies. They have a way of making everyone smile & laugh, no matter how rough the day is going.

I thought I'd give a go at recreating the frowny facy cookies in cupcake form. And I also thought it'd be a good opportunity to try out a recipe for Cookie dough cupcakes.

These couldn't be easier to make - cake mix base, store-bought cookie dough...ta-da!

And with a little help from yellow food coloring and some melted chocolate bark in a squeeze bottle...

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. I got more comments about this recipe than just about anything else I've made. My fave: "These are effing unbelievable!"

2. If you serve these to someone who is not familiar with the frowny face cookies that inspired them...expect confusion. One co-worker came into my office & said, "your cupcakes are so angry today."

3. Super-simple recipe that makes me want to try variations (e.g. chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter cookie dough).

From Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor

Makes 22 to 24 cupcakes (2 1/2 inches each)
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Baking time: 23 to 27 Minutes
Assembly time: 10 Minutes

24 paper liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 package (1 pound) frozen cookie dough (see "the Cupcake Doctor says" below)

Chocolate Buttercream (see below)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well blended. Spoon or scoop a heaping 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Cut the frozen dough pieces in half to make 24 pieces. Place a frozen cookie dough piece on top of each cupcake. Place the pans in the oven.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 23 to 27 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting. They may sink a bit in the center.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Buttercream.

5. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Store these cupcakes, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze them, wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

The Cupcake Doctor says...

If you use the 18-ounce logs of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (instead of the 1-pound packages of frozen dough), cut them into 24 equal pieces and freeze them before using them in this recipe. It's important to use frozen dough, because you don't want it to bake completely and become a cookie. You want the center to be gooey when you bite into it.

Chocolate Buttercream

Makes 3 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes (2 1/2-inch size) generously

Preparation time: 10 minutes

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 to 5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place the butter and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is soft and well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons more milk if the frosting is too stiff.

5 Tips for Making Buttercream Frosting

About 3 cups of confectioners' sugar produces the right amount of buttercream frosting for a batch of 24 cupcakes.
Use 1 tablespoon liquid to 1 cup sugar to 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons butter.
Sift the confectioners' sugar to prevent lumps in the frosting.
Begin with soft butter. If needed, soften the butter in the microwave.
For a white buttercream frosting, begin with unsalted butter. Beat it on medium-high with an electric mixer to lighten the color. Use milk as the liquid.

Week 6a: Triple-layer chocolate peanut butter cake

2009-10-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks into my weekly baking kick, I was chatting with a co-worker about how I felt intimidated by the idea of baking cakes or cupcakes from scratch. He sent me a couple cake recipe links that his wife swore by, and I filed them away. After successful attempts at baking cupcakes from scratch, I felt up to the challenge of baking a cake from scratch. So I pulled up those recipe links, and discovered that one of them was just about the best sounding cake ever: a triple-layer chocolate peanut butter cake.

Here's the basic idea - make three layers of sour-cream chocolate cake, frost them with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, and then pour a chocolate peanut butter glaze over top. Seriously.

The cake was actually quite easy to make; no mixer required - just a single bowl & a whisk:

Peanut butter cream cheese frosting...AMAZING. And also easy to make (with the help of a mixer):

I was very tempted to just leave it alone and eat it like this...

But I went ahead and covered it with the glaze

And then it turned into this thing of beauty

It's even prettier sliced up (notice the diet Sprite & plate of carrots in the background...who were we trying to fool?)

Recipe thoughts and lessons learned:

1. This cake is SUPER rich. Definitely best to cut extremely thin slices.

2. Thanks to Chuck's action shot, I discovered that I was holding my offset spatula at an angle...resulting in a nice dome of frosting & glaze in the middle of the cake. Not that it's such a bad thing...

3. This frosting recipe is a keeper for chocolate cake or cupcakes.

4. After bringing this cake to work, one of my co-workers asked me if I bake wedding cakes (not that he was planning a wedding...he was just curious). Another asked if I was planning to leave my job and open a bakery. I'm actually surprised how often that question came up in the first month of weekly baking - no one asks that now.

The original recipe is from Sky High: Irresistable Triple-Layer Cakes (which I purchased after reading the ridiculously yummy-sounding recipe at SmittenKitchen.com). Here's the full scoop from SmittenKitchen, along with her helpful tips:

Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze

Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake; serves 12 to 16 (the book says, I say a heck of a lot more)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanut brittle (I skipped this)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cakepans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. (Deb note: These cakes are very, very soft. I found them a lot easier to work with after firming them up in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll defrost quickly once assembled. You’ll be glad you did this, trust me.)

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (Deb note 1: Making a crumb coat of frosting–a thin layer that binds the dark crumbs to the cake so they don’t show up in the final outer frosting layer–is a great idea for this cake, or any with a dark cake and lighter-colored frosting. Once you “mask” your cake, let it chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm, then use the remainder of the frosting to create a smooth final coating. Deb note 2: Once the cake is fully frosting, it helps to chill it again and let it firm up. The cooler and more set the peanut butter frosting is, the better drip effect you’ll get from the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze.)

5. To decorate with the Chocolate–Peanut Butter Glaze, put the cake plate on a large baking sheet to catch any drips. Simply pour the glaze over the top of the cake, and using an offset spatula, spread it evenly over the top just to the edges so that it runs down the sides of the cake in long drips. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes to allow the glaze and frosting to set completely. Remove about 1 hour before serving. Decorate the top with chopped peanut brittle.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably a commercial brand (because oil doesn’t separate out)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

8 ounces seimsweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half

1. In the top of d double boiler or in a bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm.

Week 5: Red Velvet Redemption

2009-10-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

You may recall that my plan way back in Week 1 was to bake Martha Stewart's Red Velvet cupcakes, but that my perfect plan was ruined when we discovered that our local stores didn't carry Dutch-processed cocoa (a key ingredient for the chemistry of these cupcakes). You may also recall that I am ever so slightly OCD. So naturally, I spent several weeks scouring every grocery store within a few miles of our house in search of Dutch-processed cocoa. After giving up on local sources, I searched on Amazon.com. As luck would have it, I recognized one of the brands (Droste) as one I had seen while searching through Whole Foods. So I high-tailed it back to Whole Foods & acquired the elusive Dutch-processed cocoa. FINALLY!

Chuck decided to pick up the camera & document the occasion, so I have more pics of the baking process than usual. But seeing as how this was the one cupcake recipe I desperately wanted to bake, that feels right to me.

As you can see, this recipe indeed makes RED cupcakes. Not mauve.

This recipe also involves this uber-cool chemical reaction between baking soda & vinegar.

I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm filling liners...

Glorious!

Piping action shot

Finished cupcakes!

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. So, so much better than the Mauve Velvet cupcakes I made in week one. And surprisingly easy to make.

2. Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting recipe is really delicious. However, it is too soft for piping.

3. It is infinitely easier to fill cupcake tins using an old-fashioned ice cream scoop than it is with spoons or other devices. Far faster, and makes for simple portion control.

Recipes available at MarthaStewart.com: Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Week 4: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, Cappuccino Chip Cupcakes

2009-10-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I find a recipe that is so simple I feel like I should keep it to myself. But I can't help but share Martha Stewart's recipe for Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes. This is a perfect recipe to make with kids, who will enjoy placing whole Oreos in each cupcake liner...but will mostly enjoy eating these cute little cheesecakes. :)

Whole Oreos as the crust? Pure brilliance.

So I typically try to avoid baking more than once a week, for fear that all of these calories will catch up with me...but also because my co-workers are starting to question my sanity. But I came home one night mid-week and just felt like baking something else. So I pulled out my quick-and-easy Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook and decided to whip up some Cappuccino Chip Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream Frosting. Oh my good lord...this frosting is amazing. The cupcake texture wasn't perfect...seemed a little too fragile...but it was a perfectly yummy carrier for the frosting.

Did I mention that I decided to put all my Wilton Cake Decorating course lessons to use this week? That's right...this frosting was piped with a pastry bag and decorating tip.

Guess what I discovered? It takes FAR more frosting to cover cupcakes when you're piping a giant swirl on top. So some ended up with just a cute little smear of frosting & some sprinkes.

Slightly out of practice on the cake decorating front...but I managed to get one perfect swirl.

Lessons learned and recipe thoughts:

1. Make twice as much frosting if you want pretty, piped swirls.

2. Oreos make a perfect cheesecake crust.

3. If you bake treats twice in once week, co-workers start to ask whether you are thinking of leaving your job and opening a bakery.

Martha Stewart's Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Makes 30

Ingredients:
42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor: Cappuccino Chip Cupcakes

24 paper lines for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)
1/3 cup water
4 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Mocha Buttercream Frosting
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or cracked roasted cocoa beans for garnish

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

Place the water and instant coffee in a small glass liquid measuring cup and microwave on high power for 40 seconds. Remove and stir until the coffee is dissolved. Set it aside to cool for 5 minutes.

Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and coffee in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. Place the pans in the oven.

Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger. 18 to 20 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottom of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wine rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Meanwhile, prepare the Mocha Buttercream Frosting (see below).

Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or the back of the spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely. Garnish with the remaining 1/3 cup chocolate chips or roasted cracked cocoa beans. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Mocha Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup milk
1 heaping teaspoon instant coffee granules
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 ounces (1/2 bar) German's sweet chocolate, grated
3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 Tablespoon water, if needed

Place the milk and instant coffee in a small glass liquid measuring cup. Plan in the microwave oven on high power until the milk is hot enough to dissolve the instant coffee, 30 to 40 seconds. Remove and stir until the coffee is dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Place the butter in the large mixing bowl and add the coffee and grated chocolate. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture has softened, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon water if the frosting seems too stiff.

Week 3: Triple-Citrus Cupcakes

2009-10-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Now that the leaves are changing colors and it's getting cold outside, it feels funny to talk about this wonderful, perfect-for-summer cupcake recipe. But that's what I get for starting this blog weeks after I started my baking habit.

I'm smiling remembering this adventure, as it was my first time baking cupcakes from scratch. This recipe convinced me that I should stop feeling intimidated about baking cupcakes or cakes from scratch because it's really not that difficult. Also, they were silly delicious. They were very moist with a delicate crumb. The original recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes calls for a citrus glaze, but I decided to make a citrus buttercream instead (basically, replacing the milk with freshly-squeezed lemon juice).

YUM

When my dad saw this picture, he said the basil frosting looked good. Sigh...that's lime zest on top.

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. Cupcakes from scratch are surprisingly easy.

2. These tasted best the first couple days, but dried a bit by day three. Lesson learned: eat faster.

3. A perfect summer cupcake.

Week 9: Maple-Pecan Disaster Zone

2009-09-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, I made this ridiculously rich, yummy cake from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes (story coming later). It was the first time I had ever baked a cake from scratch. It was such a success that I thought I'd try another recipe from this book: Maple-Walnut Cake. Except I hate walnuts. So I substituted pecans.

Despite the disaster zone issues I detail below, this cake is delicious. And with the toasted pecans & maple syrup in both the cake & frosting...it just sings fall.

Disaster #1: I managed to put 2 rounds of parchment in pan one, 1 round in pan two, and 0 rounds in pan three. How could I make such an error, you might ask? Seriously, how can you tell the difference between buttered parchment and a buttered pan? In any case...guess which pan ended up on these plates?

Brett Jr. was extremely concerned as I turned out this layer. "Mommy! What are you doing to the cake?!" I was able to turn it around by suggesting we have upside-down cake (frosting on the bottom of our bowls, topped with cake chunks and crumbs). Brett was suspicious. But then he ate a bite & gave his standard seal of approval: "It's so good, I can't stop eating."

This what the other layers looked like coming out of their parchment-lined pans:

Disaster #2: this frosting was WAY too runny to set. I could tell the texture was wrong just looking at it, so added an extra 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar to try to thicken it up. I also tried refrigerating it for a bit. I could have easily added another cup or two of powdered sugar without making it too thick, but it definitely would have been too sweet. So I stopped & used it as-is. And here's my final 2-layer Maple-Pecan cake with runny maple cream cheese frosting.

You may have to look very closely to detect the subtle differences...but here's what the cake is supposed to look like according to the cookbook:

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. Adding 2 rounds of parchment to one pan does not make it easier to remove cake from that pan. However, it does make it impossible to remove cake from the pan that has 0 rounds of parchment.

2. Easy cake recipe.

3. Something is very wrong with this frosting recipe. Or perhaps the recipe is perfect and something is very wrong with the way I made it. Sigh.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups walnut halves
3 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup, preferably light amber
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup milk

Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake; Serves 12 to 16

Maple Cream Frosting:

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup maple syrup
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted after measuring

Makes about 4 cups

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Spread out the walnuts on a small baking sheet and toast in the oven until fragrant and lightly toasted, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a dish and let cool. Leave the oven on. When the nuts are cool, set aside 1/3 cup for garnish. Finely chop the remaining toasted walnuts.

3. Combine the chopped walnuts, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low, blend well. Add the butter and maple syrup and beat until blended. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, and milk. Add this liquid to the batter in 2 or 3 additions, beating until blended and scraping down the sides of the bowl well after each addition. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans.

5. Bake for 32 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks, gently peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely.

6. To assemble the cake, place one cake layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup frosting over the layer, spreading it evenly right to the edge. Repeat with the second layer and another 2/3 cup frosting. Set the third layer on top and frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting, swirling the frosting decoratively with an offset palette knife or the back of a spoon. Garnish with the reserved toasted walnut halves.

Maple Cream Frosting:

1. Place the butter in a wide medium saucepan and melt over low heat. Add the maple syrup, raise the heat to medium-low, and boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so the syrup does not burn.

2. Pour the hot maple butter into a heatproof bowl and let cool to room temperature.

3. Place the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and beat well with an electric mixer to lighten. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until smooth. Scrape down the bowl well and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the maple butter and mix until completely blended.

Week 2: Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes

2009-09-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm heading back in time to week 2 of my weekly baking obsession. I was so pleased with the flavor & texture of the mauve velvet cupcakes from week 1, and so intrigued by some of the other recipes* that I decided to try another recipe from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.
(*I'm sure this will come as absolutely no surprise to those who know me - I had read the book cover-to-cover before picking which recipe to try. You know, just in case there was another recipe in the cookbook that was even more delicious.)

I picked a few that sounded interesting, but couldn't decide which one to make. So I left it in Chuck's hands - and he picked Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes. Aside from marrying me, that may have been the best decision of his life. Good lord, these were delicious.

How could you not fall in love with these?

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. I'd say the only thing that might push these cupcakes above & beyond perfection would be topping them with the chocolate cinnamon cream cheese frosting from week 8's Chocolate Snickerdoodle cake.

2. These cupcakes resulted in several coworkers accusing me of being evil.

3. Another super simple recipe.

Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (1 Tbsp sugar + 1/4 tsp cinnamon)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and blend 1 1/2 to 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it 3/4 full. (You will get between 20 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans side by side in the oven.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 22 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners. Lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.

5. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely. Sprinkle the frosting with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place these cupcakes, uncovered or in a cake saver, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Store the cupcakes in a cake saver or under a glass dome at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 3 cups

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, blending with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute. Add the cinnamon, then increase the mixer speed to medium and blend the frosting until fluffy, 1 minute more.

Week...8?: Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cake

2009-09-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

So I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands - I started baking weekly treats 7 weeks before I started this blog. The historian in me wants to keep everything in neat chronological order & gradually catch up to the current week's baking project. Alright, it's not entirely the historian in me...it's also the OCD tendencies I inherited from both sides of my family (thanks Mom & Dad). Here's where the dilemma comes in: I worry that if I wait to write about the current baking project until after I've written up all previous projects, I'll forget all the little details that I want to remember the next time I bake this cake.

Enter Chuck, my practical husband. His suggestion: "how bout you alternate posts between previous & current projects." Brilliant! Well, maybe brilliant is too strong a word. Let's just say, I think that's a great idea. Let's also just say I'm unlikely to strictly alternate between the two. In other words: I'm going to write about baking projects in whatever order I feel like. And you're going to read about them in whatever order you care to.

So - on to week 8: Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cake with chocolate cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Cinnamon is one of those spices that makes just about every dessert taste better. And it pairs especially well with chocolate. I'd like to say that's why I decided to bake this cake. But here's the real reason - it was Monday night, I felt like baking, but I didn't feel like going to the store to purchase ingredients. So I opened my pantry & discovered that I had 2 cake mix options: white & devil's food. I then pulled out two of my go-to quick & easy cake cookbooks: The Cake Mix Doctor and Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor. One of the things I really appreciate in these books is that the author indexes her recipes by name but also by the type of cake mix you're using. So I flipped to the index of both books & picked a recipe that sounded good. A couple hours later, I had this:

And 30 minutes after that, I sliced into it:

And 1 minute later, I ate this:

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. This is seriously one of my favorite frostings ever. I am already thinking through every other cake & cupcake I've made and pondering whether they might taste better with chocolate cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

2. I only had a "pudding-already-added-to-the-mix" type of cake mix on hand, and it definitely seemed to impact the texture of the final cake. It was a little crumbly & ever so slightly dry for my taste.

3. As long as layer cakes don't intimidate you (and they shouldn't), this is a very easy recipe. If you're not up for layer cakes, you can also make this cake in a 9x13 pan. Just add 3-5 minutes to the baking time.

4. I am very excited to have finally tried out the 99 cent Wilton cake decorating comb I purchased a couple years back while taking the Wilton Cake Decorating Courses (1 through 3!) at my local Michael's craft store.
Here's the recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor:

Ingredients

•1 pkg dark chocolate fudge cake mix (can substitute Devil's Food)

•3/4 cup milk

•3/4 cup oil

•3 large eggs

•2 tsp cinnamoon

•1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:

•1 pkg (8 ounces) light cream cheese, at room temp

•1 stick butter, at room temp

•1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder [KATIE NOTES: you can substitute regular unsweetened cocoa powder; I prefer to sift my cocoa to remove any lumps]

•1 tsp cinnamon

•1 tsp vanilla

•4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour 2 - 9 inch cake pans.

2.Place cake mix, milk, oil eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla in mixing bowl. Blend with mixer for 1 minute. Scrape down sides and beat 2 minutes more.

3.Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.

4.Bake 28 - 32 minutes.

5.Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert ont a rack, then invert again onto another rack----so both are right side up. Allow to cool 30 minutes.

6.Meanwhile, place cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl. Blend on low speed 30 seconds. Add cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla and 3 3/4 cups sugar. blend with mixer on low speed until all ingredients are moistened, 30 seconds. Add more sugar if frosting seems too thin. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 2 minutes more. [KATIE NOTE: I prefer to blend my butter & cream cheese for 1-2 minutes before adding other ingredients - makes for a fluffier frosting.]

7.Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake.

8.Place this cake, uncovered, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. The store at room temp for 3 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Week 1: Mauve Velvet Cupcakes

2009-09-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Several months back, my husband (Chuck) found an amazing cake & cupcake bakery that is less than 5 minutes from our house: Le Sucre Cakes & Cupcakes. How he managed to discover it before me is a total mystery. Nevertheless, I quickly became addicted to their cupcakes. After weeks & weeks of shelling out $2.50 per cupcake, I decided it was time to start baking my own. I was a little trepidatious, as I'd never had much success baking cupcakes in the past (they always stuck to the wrappers and were never as moist or flavorful as I'd like). But I bought a couple cookbooks & took the plunge.

One of my faves at Le Sucre is the red velvet cupcake - a deliciously moist cupcake and a rich cream cheese frosting. So naturally, it was my first victim. Chuck was heading out & about to purchase groceries, and I sent a long cupcake ingredient list with him. I was determined to make Martha Stewart's recipe from her fabulous new cookbook - Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. A couple hours later, Chuck called in dismay - one of the key ingredients (Dutch-processed cocoa) is apparently not sold. Anywhere. Though disappointed, I told Chuck not to worry. I decided to switch over and make the Cake Mix doctor's version from her cookbook - Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.

Here's my final result: Mauve Velvet cupcakes (sigh)

I decided to Martha Stewart-up my cupcakes by using Martha's cream cheese frosting recipe, and made them extra appealing by topping with mini chocolate chips (who doesn't love a little extra chocolate?):

Final result: yum

Lessons learned & recipe thoughts:

1. Add more red food coloring than you think is edible.

2. Not a fan of the mini chocolate chips in the cupcake batter - some drifted to bottom of cupcakes and added a slightly burnt chocolate flavor to the cupcake.

3. Super simple recipe.

Here's the recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcakes
24 paper liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2 -inch size)
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain German chocolate cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream (see "the Cupcake Doctor says")
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 bottle (1 ounce) red food coloring
3 large eggs
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
White Chocolate Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, food coloring, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon or scoop N cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the White Chocolate Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting.

5. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely. Place these cupcakes, uncovered or in a cake server, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Store the cupcakes, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze them, wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

The Cupcake Doctor Says
Use reduced-fat sour cream, and you'll sacrifice only fat and calories, not flavor. If you can't find plain German chocolate cake mix, buy the pudding in the mix version and forgo the added pudding. For more chocolate flavor, use chocolate pudding mix instead of vanilla, but the cake won't be as red in color.

White Chocolate Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 3 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes (2 1/2 inch size) generously
Preparation Time: 10 minutes

6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces (half an 8-ounce package) reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 to 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. Place the white chocolate in a small glass bowl in the microwave oven on high power for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it is smooth. Set the chocolate aside to cool.

2. Place the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the melted white chocolate and blend on low speed until just combined, 30 seconds. Add the peppermint extract and 2 cups of the confectioners' sugar and blend on low until the sugar is incorporated, 30 seconds more. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 1 minute more, adding up to 1/2 cup more sugar if needed to make a spreadable consistency.

Feel free to fold in up to 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy for a crunchy and creamy frosting!