Pumpkin Spice Cake

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends! I know we will be celebrating with Matt's family. What are some traditions that you all enjoy every Thanksgiving? For my family it always depended on where we were in the world, however there was one thing that we almost always had and that was my moms Pumpkin Spice Cake. I believe that the recipe is from an ad for Holly Sugar (which is now Imperial Sugar). 

Pumpkin Spice Cake:
2 Cups of Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 Cup of Sugar
2 Cups Pumpkin Pie Mix
4 eggs
1 Cup of Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup of Chopped Nuts
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl mix together
flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl mix sugar, pumpkin pie mix, eggs, and oil.
Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix til combined. Stir in nuts.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8 oz package of Cream Cheese- brought to room temp.
1 stick of Butter- softened
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1-2 Tbsp. Milk
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
 In a large bowl cream together Cream Cheese and Butter. Add  remaining
ingredients and mix until smooth.  

Final Product

Brownies

Hi! I'm still here... just been busy with real life like work, and spending time with my family, and other things that take me away from writing.
But mostly I've just been suffering from terrible terrible writers block. Its an awful thing really. But I have to tell you about these brownies I made!
About a year ago I bought one of those mini cookbooks that plague the checkout stands at wal-mart. You know the ones that have all those nifty recipe cards that you swear you are going to use but never do? Well I made about 50% of the recipes in that one because it was a Christmas one and my friend Jordan and I were doing a baking spree from hell. Literally.

The final product from the baking spree
from hell...

Anyways, we survived it and I love buying those little books. This recipe comes from one of those books- the Taste of Home Brownies and Bars to be exact. They are called Treasured brownies and I have to say they are to be treasured. I made them for the first time on Saturday for a BBQ at my former roommates house. They were a hit so I was a happy camper!
Now, I did not use the icing recipe on the brownies since I didn't have time to make it. Instead, I frosted the brownies with Nutella, and sprinkled powder sugar over them. I think I will do that from now on with them since they were so good. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did...
(Also- sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. I was to busy making these and some chocolate chip cookies.)
Treasured Brownies Recipe

        from the Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 
  ICING:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons hot brewed coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat the butter, eggs and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture. Stir in nuts (do not overmix).
• Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
• In a small bowl, beat the icing ingredients until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies. Cut into bars. Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.

Happy 4th of July

It's July and the one thing I don't want to do is turn on the oven. To bad that I can't go one week without feeling like I need to bake something special. This weekend is no different. Last week I agreed to make a cake for a 4th of July party, when I got the idea that a jello cake is the best way to go.
If you haven't had a jello cake I suggest you fix that. Like yesterday. They are so light and refreshing, and topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit makes this dessert easy and beautiful.

What you'll need

4th of July Jello Cake
1 white cake already made- let cool for 15 minutes then poke holes in it with a fork, toothpick end of wooden spoon.
1 cup of hot water (dissolve 3 oz package of Jello in the hot water) after 2 minutes stir in a 1/2 cup of cold water.
Place in the fridge for 3 hours, then cover with cool whip and cover with fruit (you could not use fruit and it is still amazing).

Cover the cake in the jello

The covered cake

Topped with Whipped Cream

My 50 stars

Happy Fourth of July!!
This fourth of July lets remember why we celebrate.
Happy 235th birthday America!!!!
Thank you to all who have served and protected our great country.
I love you Dad.

Fathers Day and Strawberries

Happy late Fathers Day to all of you dads out there! I have been cooking up a storm these last few weeks and haven't posted anything! Horrible isn't it? So lets talk about strawberries.

My good friend Jordan made these cake stuffed strawberries that are then dipped in chocolate. 

Madness? Absolutely.

Amazing? Yes.

In fact, I am going to go as far to say that you should take everything you know about chocolate covered strawberries and toss it out the window. Those imitators just don't cut it. And these are so easy to make!

Cake Stuffed Strawberries dipped in Chocolate
Recipe inspired by 1fine Cookie

1 cake crumbled- I used a box mix
1 container of fresh strawberries hallowed out
Chocolate for dipping- I used Almond Bark Chocolate, but Wilton's will work as well.
Hallow out the middles of the strawberries, and gently stuff with the crumbled cake around a teaspoon or so. Place the stuffed strawberries in the freezer for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for 15 minutes. While they are in the fridge, melt down the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave stirring often. When all the chocolate is melted (and not scorched!) Gently dip half to 3/4 of the strawberry into the chocolate and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment or wax paper. There will be some cake left and tons of chocolate so I made cake balls and just added some milk and powdered sugar so that the cake doesn't fall apart, then dipped them in chocolate. 

Cake stuffed strawberries after they have
been frozen

Melted Chocolate

The finished product.

Cut in half and totally enjoyed.

I'm still here...

It seems like lately I haven't wanted to cook or bake anything new or exciting. So I figure I will tell you what I am working on right now.
~Writing down recipes.
    ~One of my friends mom's brought his girlfriend a Amish cookbook from PA Dutch country. It is 500 pages long and I want to make so much out of there. However, its not mine so I've been writing down the recipes that I find intriguing. I'm still not done.
~I want to start writing my own recipes starting with Smore cupcakes.
  ~I don't know how well this will turn out.
~We have gone vegetarian for the most part.
   ~I am doing this for me, not because I feel an remorse for eating meat because I don't. Meat is good.
~I've been busy.
  ~Between work, the house and surprising my mom for mothers day I haven't had a moments rest and when I do, the last thing on my mind is doing anything productive.

Rest assured I will be posting new recipes and goodies this week  :)
Rose

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

I love eating cookie dough, in fact I don't think I have ever met someone who does not enjoy eating raw cookie dough. You know that song by the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want"? Well in this case you can. 

Ingredients

Cookie dough truffles

1/2 cup softened salted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

2 1/4 c flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine-  butter, sugar,vanilla, 

and sweetened condensed milk.

 Add the flour and chocolate chips.

mmm... cookie dough...

Instead of walnut sized balls. I used my cookie scoop.

Microwave 12 oz of mini chips and 1 tablespoon of butter
in 25 second intervals. I just used the rest of the bag and just under
1 tablespoon and it worked perfectly.

Using a pastry bag with a small tip drizzle onto the truffles.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Recipe from The Village Cook

1/2 cup softened salted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

2 1/4 cup of flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

So easy:

combine (in a bowl,)  the butter, sugar,vanilla,and sweetened condensed milk. Add the flour and chocolate chips.

Roll into walnut sized balls. Place balls in the freezer for 2hrs.

Melt  12 oz chocolate chips with 1 tbs shortening or butter. To melt, place in a microwave at 25 second intervals, stirring between each. Be careful- overheated chocolate can seize up. Just get it till it’s starting to melt and stir away, the chocolate will continue to melt and smooth out. 

Now, you can dip the balls using a spoon- or fill pastry bags with the melted chocolate and drizzle. 

Nutella

Food is a celebration. Every time I am sitting at the dinner table it is a time to celebrate and come together after a long day of work, or after a lazy day of watching movies, or hanging out with friends.

I believe that the food I make as an adult is the food that reflects directly on my childhood. And my childhood was great and full of wonderful food memories.

 

Nutella is one of those foods that bring so many wonderful memories to me. Walking to school eating my Nutella and peanut butter sandwich is probably the most prominent memory. I remember sitting in my 1st grade class and licking the remaining chocolate deliciousness off my fingers, and inevitably dealing with sticky fingers for the rest of the morning. So when I got my giant thing of Nutella from Jordan the first thing I did was make a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. The second thing I did was eat another spoonful. And the last thing I did was add a couple of spoonfuls to a regular yellow cake mix and marbled it into the batter. It added the perfect hint of hazelnuts to the cake. Top it off with chocolate frosting and I'm in heaven. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!!

Chocolate Croissant's

Growing up I was and still am an Army Brat. With that comes certain privileges such as: living in Germany, and traveling around Europe. By the time I was in 4th grade I had seen some of the most amazing places in the world, my 23 almost 24 year old self is insanely jealous of my 8 year old self. It's a horrible cycle really. 

Anyways, I was semi watching the Food Network this morning during my break when the host of Dessert's First started talking about a trip to Paris as a child and eating chocolate croissant's outside of Versailles, when I was flooded with childhood memories of Germany- running around the "Forest", going to amazing places like Versailles and the Beaches of Normandy, and of course hot warm Croissant's. I am sure that we must have had a variation of these Chocolate Croissant's but my memory doesn't recall such wonderfulness.

Take two sheets of thawed puffed pastry that has
been thawed out for approx. 40 min.
Unfold and run a rolling pin through.

Make indents every 2 inches and cut
into strips then into long Isosceles
triangles. 

Egg Wash

Using a Pastry Brush coat the croissant's with the
Egg Wash, and sprinkle with Sugar.

 Chocolate Croissant's
Recipe from:
Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 (17.3-ounce) package or 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
• Flour, for dusting, if needed
• 2 1/2 milk chocolate bars, each broken into equal pieces (recommended: Hershey's)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• Sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place 1 sheet thawed puff pastry on the work surface like a sheet of paper or portrait (not horizontal or landscape). If the puff pastry is very sticky, very lightly flour the work surface. Using a pizza cutter or kitchen shears, cut the puff pastry in half, widthwise. Using a ruler as a guide, make an indentation at 2-inch intervals (for the base) across the bottom of each puff pastry half. Cut each half into 8 triangles, with the base of each triangle measuring 2 inches. (They will be very long isosceles triangles.) You'll end up discarding the 2 end pieces to get the most out of your puff pastry piece. This sheet of triangles will be reserved for the chocolate croissants. Repeat the cutting for the second puff pastry sheet that will be used for the almond croissants.

 Place 1 (I used 2 since mine were slightly bigger, and I wanted more chocolate) chocolate piece just above the 2-inch edge of 1 pastry triangle, folding the dough over the chocolate as you tightly roll up the dough, enclosing the chocolate. Repeat with the remaining puff pastry and chocolate. Place the pastry rolls on the baking sheet, seam-side down. Cover the croissants with plastic wrap and place the baking sheet in the refrigerator until the dough firms up. (You can make these croissants 1 day ahead up to this point.)

Just before baking, remove the croissants from the refrigerator, brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Bake until the pastries are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

For Sweetie

Sometimes, when I am daydreaming I imagine that I get some of my love for baking from my Great grandmother. I don't know this for sure, but whenever I think of Sweetie I think of Christmas and baked goods. I know that she had a insatiable sweet tooth, and loved chocolate. So this post at the end of March is all about Christmas goodies. Just for Sweetie.

Texas Governors Mansion Cowboy Cookies
Make life amazing.

Pillow Cookies
Make life complete.

 

Christmas without Fudge is not Christmas.

Cranberry Orange Bread

When I was making all this for Christmas I had never baked so much in my life. It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to do it all again next year because it makes me feel that much closer to my great Grandma. I love you and miss you Sweetie.

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

I love love love bacon! Don't you? 

And I love peanut butter cookies. So while I was looking for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe I stumbled upon one of my favorite blog sites- Joy The Baker. Her recipes are so amazing and unique. Anyways, I saw this and had to make these cookies now! They are super easy to make and super delicious! 

Fry up 6 pieces of Bacon.

1 cup of Peanut Butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup sugar

 

Mix Peanut Butter and sugars for 2 minutes

Add in 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda.
Mix for 2 minutes and fold in Bacon.

Folded in Bacon

Roll into Walnut sized balls.
I rolled mine in some sugar as well

  

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. (Don't mind the 2 missing cookies)

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

adapted from Joy the Baker

makes 15 cookies about the size of your palm

1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth peanut butter

1 cup sugar (1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar)

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

about 6 slices of bacon, cooked, cooled and dices

In a skillet over medium high heat, fry up bacon until cooked through and let cool on paper towels until cool enough to dice.  Dice up and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside. In a mixer combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes.  Fold in cooked bacon.   Roll into large walnut sized balls and create a cris-cross pattern with a fork. If you’d like, roll the dough balls in granulated sugar before making the cris-cross pattern. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a baking sheet for five minutes, then transfer to a baking sheet... or your mouth.

Enjoy!

Pizza Dough

Pizza is one of those things growing up that I absolutely adored. Some of my fondest memories is making tortilla pizza's for our birthdays, eating at Anthony's Pizza on post. If you have never had a tortilla pizza you are totally missing out on that. These aren't tortilla pizza's though these are genuine made from scratch pizza dough- the recipe is super super easy. At least so far... I figured that while I am waiting for the dough to rise I would start on this post.
Since pizza is one of my fondest food memories, I am wondering what is your favorite food memory?

The dough was delicious, and so was the pizza! :)

I got this recipe from The Tasty Kitchen:

• Prep Time 1 Hour30 Minutes
• Cook Time    12-15 minutes
• 1 package Quick-rise Dry Yeast

• 1 cup Warm Water, Bath Water Temperature
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

In the bowl of a food processor or electric mixer, dissolve the yeast in the water and let stand for 5 minutes.

Add the salt, flour, and the olive oil and mix until the dough forms a ball.

1 hour later....

Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour or cornmeal and knead briefly until smooth.

Lightly oil a medium-size mixing bowl and turn the dough in the bowl to coat. Cover with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free area for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 

Once dough has risen, knead the heck out of it, roll it out & viola! Pizza dough.

Cover with your favorite toppings and bake til golden brown at 375 degrees.

We Used pepperoni, pineapple and mushrooms. 

Our Pizza's!

Enjoy!