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!!