Easy Tomato Soup Spice Cake

Recently I was looking online for quick and easy dessert recipes. I found one for a spice cake that uses tomato soup instead of oil. Not a bad idea... I am going to give it a try. Here is how to make it, via allrecipes.com:


Ingredients

* 1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can Condensed Tomato Soup
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans.
2. Mix cake mix, soup, water and eggs according to package directions. Pour into prepared pans.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until done.
4. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
5. Fill and frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.

Pre-Thanks: Bananas Fosters Fingers

Years ago, I worked at a French Restaurant as Pastry sous-chef - skills which have proven very useful. One evening, I was staffed alone and we ran out of many of our selections. I was forced to come up with something that could cook fast, taste gourmet and look pretty. The Bananas Fosters Fingers were born. Although I believe we called it something much prettier in French.

High level overview: firm banana's sauteed with cinnamon, nutmeg, butter and rum that are wrapped in filo dough and served with a rum anglaise sauce. and caramel ice cream if you're not watching that figure.

Directions for 2 dozen fingers:

1. Make the filling: Peel 6 green bananas, then slice in half the short way and each of the halves again the long way so you have 4 similar sized slices per banana. On med-low, heat 1 - 2 tbls butter, add a tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of salt and pepper, mix well. Add the bananas (likely in batches), cut side down for 1 min until brown, turn over, add 4 oz of dark rum, let cook for 1 - 2 min until just tender. Remove from pan onto a plate. Also get out 1 cup of raisins and 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.
   
   
   
2. Wrap it up: For each of six, pre-thawed filo dough sheets, cut into 4, the short way. Melt 4 tbl of butter. Start an assembly line: brush a piece of filo with butter, add a banana slice, wrap once. Sprinkle on raisins and nuts, continue to wrap until the end. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet (or best to use a silpat!). Repeat for the rest of the pieces.
   
   
   
3. Bake it for ~15 min in a 425 degree oven until the filo dough crisps up
   
   
   
4. Make the sauce: beat 2 egg yolks heavily. heat 1/2 c of milk, 2 tbl of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla until hot, but not boiling. while whisking, add heated mixture to egg yolks, continue to whisk as fast as possible until mixture cools down (otherwise you will have scrambled eggs!) and then add in 2 oz of dark rum and whisk.
   
   
   
5. Serve: two banana fosters finger smothered in rum anglaise. At the restaurant we also served it with a scoop of caramel ice cream sprinkled with chopped pecans.
   

Apple Cinnamon Bread Pudding

Feed the birds, tuppen’s a bag? No! Make bread pudding instead!

It seems that my posts usually end up being baked goods, but to be sure, when I have the opportunity to make something new it usually tends to be a sweet treat. This time of the year, too, I'm all about comfort foods.

This is a fairly standard recipe for bread pudding, which is good for not wasting old hardened bread that you would normally pitch out to the pigeons. Bread pudding is also wonderfully versatile. You can add other fruits instead of apples (pears are good alternative), or try a coconut/banana version using coconut milk instead of moo juice and sliced bananas. Or everyone’s favorite – chocolate – by adding 2 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate into the 1st step and omitting the apples and raisins.

Ingredients
3 c. milk
4 tbsp. (half stick) unsalted butter
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
½ c. plus 1 tbsp. sugar
Pinch salt
Leftover hardened bread, slices or torn into chunks (old baguette or challah is the best)
2 eggs
1 c. peeled, grated and drained apples
¼ c. raisins

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Over low heat in a small saucepan warm the milk, butter, half the cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves, ½ cup sugar, and salt until the butter melts.
2. Grease an 8” glass baking dish, and place the bread chunks inside.
3. Pour the hot milk mixture over the bread in the dish, let sit for a few mins for the bread to soak up the liquid. Beat the eggs briefly and stir them into the bread mixture, adding the apples and raisins too at this stage.

4. Mix the remaining 1 tbsp. of sugar with the rest of the spices and sprinkle over the top of the dish.
5. Set the baking dish within a larger baking pan and pour hot water in within an inch of the top of the dish.
6. Bake 45 mins to 1 hour, until a thin knife into the center comes out clean (or nearly so; the center should be somewhat wobbly).
7. Serve warm or cold, best with a few fresh berries and whipped cream.

Workout Queen's Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving!!! After running and running so many miles (back to Mexico) since my last post (lol) I'm back and ready to crack the whip on healthy dining. Just so that you all know these diets and foods work, I've lost 14lbs and it's still coming off...and with that I share with you a Thanksgiving Treat which may or may not be on the diet (but all within reason and portions, right??)...this is a spin off of regular cheesecake. DO try this at home!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 2 Ready Made Crusts

For the Cream Cheese Filling

• 1.5 bars of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup of sugar

For the Peanut Butter mixture

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

I had to do a little substitution here because I didn't have powdered sugar. But for all you novices out there...just take the granulated sugar and put it in the blender. And there you've got powdered sugar. Also, regular sugar works instead of brown sugar. So, the recipe is rather easy.

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Put all the ingredients of the Cream Cheese Filling into a blender (YES, a blender). Mix well. Set that aside.
3. Combine the two different sugars for the peanut butter mixture.
4. With a fork, measure out the peanut butter and put it into the sugar mixture. Begin to cover it with sugar and mush it around.
   
5. After a few minutes, you'll start to see that little balls are created from the mixture. That's what you want!
6. Grab your Ready Bake Crusts.
7. Take the Peanut Butter Mixture and pour all but about two teaspoons into the crusts. Set the extra aside for now.
8. Get your cream cheese filling and gently pour it into the crusts. You'll see the peanut butter mixture mixing with the cream cheese.
9. Put your crusts into the oven. Bake for 35 mins and cool for 3 hours.
   
10. Sprinkle the extra Peanut Butter mixture on top. It will melt right into the cake, but also be a little garnish.
    
11. Then SERVE!

The cooling time is what helps it congeal, so don't be too nervous about the consistency as it comes out of the oven - it's okay. Just let it do its cooling thing and it should definitely smell and taste awesome. Now just remember, we did put TONS of sugar in here, so portions are what REALLY matter to the Workout Queen. Taste it, enjoy it. Just don't gorge! Eat your heart out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :)

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Just in time for the holidays. This 'bread' is more of a loaf, and a sweet one at that. Resembling a pound cake, it is heavy on the butter, eggs and sugar. Best served with and afternoon tea cup of Barry's in hand.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup (60 ml) milk

1 ½ cups (210 grams) flour, sifted

¾ cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. grated lemon zest (outer yellow skin of the lemon)

3 tblsp. (30 grams) poppy seeds

13 tblsp. (184 grams) (about 1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

Lemon Syrup:

1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar

Preheat oven to 350* F / 180* C. and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease and flour the bottom and sides of a loaf pan. Line the bottom with the paper wrapping from one of the sticks of butter (greasy side up). Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract, and milk. Set aside.

By hand or with a mixer, blend the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and poppy seeds until combined. Add the softened butter and half the egg mixture, mixing until moistened. Beat well for about 1 minute (this aerates and develops the cake's structure), scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining egg mixture in two batches (beating about 30 seconds after each addition to strengthen the structure of the batter).

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You may have to cover the bread with buttered foil after about 30 minutes if you find the bread over browning.

Bring the sugar and lemon juice to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

When the bread is done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Pierce the hot loaf all over with a wooden skewer or toothpick and then brush the top of the loaf with about half the hot lemon syrup. Cool the loaf in the pan for about 10 minutes then invert onto a wire rack. Brush the remaining syrup onto the bottom and the sides of the loaf. Re-invert the bread so it is right side up and then cool the bread completely before wrapping.

Store at least overnight before serving to allow the lemon syrup to distribute throughout the loaf.

Makes 1 loaf.

NOTA BENE: For coeliacs and gluten-free diets, a good substitute is a blend of soy, white rice and tapioca flours. Add an extra tsp. each of baking powder & soda to the flour mixture.

For those with a wheat intolerance, barley flour is good for baking.

Easy Berry Pie

We've been thinking about this pie ever since trying it at a dinner party last summer. Aside from being impressed with the taste, we were blown away that someone actually made their own pie crust in a Brooklyn kitchen. And though, like many people, making a pie from scratch struck fear into our hearts -- the mess, the cracking, and oh, the lattice crust! -- we begged for the recipe.

And it's really freaking easy.

The dough didn't stick, the crust didn't tear, and the fruit stayed sweet and not-mushy. Perfection. This is our new every-time crust recipe, and we figure it would be easy to substitute four cups of any fruit you want -- we're thinking next time some seasonal strawberry rhubarb goodness might be in order.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups blackberries
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup quartered strawberries

Wash and dry the fruit; toss it in the sugar and flour. Then, the crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup Crisco

Mix the flour and salt. Cut in Crisco (a potato masher works well) until the lumps are pea-sized. Move the dough over to the side, then add cold water one tablespoon at a time, moving the wet dough to the other side (mixing large and small lumps) until it's all moist. (About 10 tbsp; add flour if it's too damp.) Flour your hands; knead until it doesn't stick.



Form two balls, one bigger than the other. Roll out the larger ball for the bottom crust and place in pie pan. Roll the smaller one and cut into long strips. Then just layer them on top of each other, or feel free to weave them through to make the lattice extra perfect (the crust will probably hold up enough to do this without much trouble). Crimp the edges with a fork; trim the crust at the edge. Slide a few small corners of butter under the lattice.

Cut a circle in tinfoil and pinch it around the edges of the crust. Bake for 20 minutes at 375, then remove the foil and bake for 20-30 more until the edge is golden. Brush on some warm water.

Irish Car Bomb ice cream

Happy St. Patty's Day! We've been trying to think of a dessert to celebrate this holiday of imbibing and claiming faux-Irish heritage. Green beer cupcakes would just be disgusting, so we developed this little number from a couple festive recipes.

It seems that the most popular Guinness-flavored ice cream is the Guinness-Milk Chocolate ice cream from The Perfect Scoop, which we found on Chow. Emeril also has a Guinness ice cream, but it seems unnecessarily hard and doesn't contain chocolate, which helps cut the strong stout flavor (and let's be honest, it's just tastier that way).

For an Irish cream swirl, we made a classic sauce that usually tops bread pudding. We used Paula Deen's recipe because it calls for the most Irish cream out of all the ones we found. It definitely does the trick and cuts the Guinness/chocolate with a great Irish cream flavor, but if we made this again we'd use a little more Bailey's, a little less cream, and maybe a dash more sugar.


Guinness-Milk Chocolate ice cream

7 ounces (205 g) milk chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
3/4 cup (180 ml) Guinness Stout
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Put the chocolate pieces in a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.
2. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
3. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer over the milk chocolate, then stir until the chocolate is melted. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the cream, then the Guinness and vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.
4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.


Irish cream sauce
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Water, to dissolve cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat heavy cream, Irish cream liqueur and sugar. Mix cornstarch with about 1 tablespoon of water. Stir into the cream mixture and heat until thickened. Add vanilla.

When the ice cream is almost at it's desired consistency, pour the sauce into the ice cream maker while it's spinning. You can also put the soft ice cream into a container, then pour the sauce in slowly and swirl it around manually with a spatula.


Our accompanying cocktail? We just bought Guinness and Baileys for this. Do you have to ask?

Trail Mix Muffins and Sloe Gin

In preparation for a late-winter snowstorm (and we former scouts have learned to always be prepared), we holed ourselves up with some Trail Mix Muffins, a hike-worthy muffin variation from Baking Bites. It's a different flavor than some of the more ordinary muffins.

Trail Mix Muffins (yields 24)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats (plain oatmeal)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt
2 large eggs

2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups trail mix

*You can use any kind of trail mix you want, so we used a combination of three.  That means our muffins are full of peanuts, almonds, cashews, cranberries, raisins, golden raisins, chocolate chips, yogurt chips, and sunflower seeds.  It's a mouthful, but we like being inclusive.  Coconut would also be pretty delicious here.

Preheat oven to 400F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. 
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
 In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.  Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Stir in trail mix.
 Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Each cup will be about 3/4 full.
 Bake for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out clean.
 Cool on a wire rack.

These would be perfect to make for a quick breakfast treat, since we usually have most of these ingredients in our kitchens anyway.  They're extremely unique, with a different flavor in every bite, and we really like that.  Even the sunflower seeds don't get lost in the taste.  It's a little like eating bird food, and we mean that in the best way possible. 

If by some chance we can't finish all of these before they get stale, we're all set to turn them into muffin biscotti, also courtesy of Baking Bites.

(We meant to illustrate how the muffin explodes with Trail Mix flavor, but doesn't it just look like it threw up?)

While we were baking, outside the apartment the snow started falling for what we'd been warned would be New York's worst storm of the winter. Sloe Gin Fizzes may not seem apropos for a blizzard, but Shake would disagree. A few years ago, before the cocktail obsession, he waited out a storm at a Park Slope bar with a friend, drinking what the bartender had testified were "Sloe Gin Fizzes" -- a highball made of gin, Rose's Lime juice, and soda. They were good drinks (more like a Rickey) to have while contemplating the white streets outside, but nothing like a real Sloe Gin Fizz. Unlike regular gin, flavored with juniper and other herbs, sloe gin is a liqueur flavored with sloe (blackthorn) plums. With the snow coming down outside, it seemed like a good opportunity to correct that old error.  

We picked up a bottle of Plymouth Sloe Gin at the closing of the beloved Red Hook liquor store LeNell's. The first thing to try, of course, was the true Sloe Gin Fizz: combine 1 1/2 oz of sloe gin, 1 oz lemon juice, and 1 tsp sugar. Shake with ice and strain in a highball glass (or a mason jar, if you're classy). Fill with ice and soda. 

This goes down like a Jones Soda on a summer -- er, blustery March -- day.  Very light and sweet, it could almost be a brunch drink. The low alcohol content -- just 52 proof, not the usual 80+ of most spirits -- means you could be looking into a very long brunch.

The Sloe Gin Cocktail is just the opposite -- sweet and thick, with more of an alcoholic taste.  The taste isn't bad in and of itself, but the drink overall seems a bit like cough syrup.  If you've got a scratch in your throat and want to try it: 2 1/4 oz sloe gin, 1/4 oz dry vermouth, dash orange bitters, stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass.

Similar but better is the Tip Toe Cocktail, which is helped by a bit of lemon juice.  Mix 1 1/2 oz sloe gin, 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1/2 oz lemon juice with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Ring Ring Ring: Banana Cake!

This banana cake is a birthday favorite, and we'll go as far as to say that it's the best banana cake we know of. In fact, after a different recipe yielded dense, banana bread-like layers, Bake's roommate was compelled to try this one to make up some baking karma (with Bake as an attentive sous-chef).

Check out his commentary (under the pseudonym Aunt Betty) and the recipe (from The Weekend Baker) below, plus a -- er, different -- take on the experience here.

I have to say, my friends and family just simply LOVE bananas! In fact, you could even say that they go BANANAS for them!! Now, I’ve always been somewhat of a banana purist myself. The thought of defiling a beautiful banana with any unnecessary additions seems like a sin against deliciousness. A banana split? I’ll take mine minus the split, thank you very much. So, as you can imagine, I was somewhat skeptical when one of my dearest girlfriends Martha told me I had to try banana cake. If it had been anyone other than her, I would have thanked them kindly, and then gone home and permanently removed them from my Christmas card list for ever suggesting such a culinary abortion. But this was Martha, and she has always had exquisite taste (she was the one, after all, that turned me onto Mary Higgins Clark) – so I thought I might as well give it a shot.

My first attempt at banana cake was a disaster, and I should have expected as much. It was doomed from the start, as I mistakenly decided to employ the use of Satan’s instrument – the internet. Now Pastor Mike has repeatedly reassured me that the internet is not only for the homosexuals and Presbyterians, so I have made it one of my New Years resolutions to start using it more (along with losing a couple pounds in my mid section and trying to stop giggling at church). I searched online for a recipe that looked appetizing, and found a seemingly good one on the Food Network website. The recipe was one of Paula Deen's, and though I firmly believe that if you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all – I have to say that this recipe was just the worst! I don’t know why I was surprised. That woman’s love of mayonnaise errs on the side of inappropriate. The cake was hard and chewy, and simply not bananany enough. After one bite, I threw the whole cake in the trash can. You should have seen the looks on my children’s faces. They really shouldn’t have been surprised though - I demand perfection from them as I do myself. Why, I would have done the same thing if they brought home a report card that was any less than straight A+’s – right in the trashcan it would go.

I immediately rang Martha, and in the nicest tone possible suggested that she was going straight to hell for wasting my time with such a terrible suggestion. Yearning to redeem herself, she said she would drop off the recipe she used post haste. One for forgiveness, I decided to give both Martha, and banana cake a second chance. The next morning, she dropped off a cookbook called “The Weekend Baker,” by Abigail Johnson Dodge. Although I found the pictures in the book to be garish and a bit flashy for my liking, Johnson Dodge’s anecdotes about her husband and children warmed me up. I found the book marked recipe and for banana cake, and banana cake – take two – was under way!!

The recipe was – well – a PIECE OF CAKE to follow!! And a lot of fun too! One fun suggestion Johnson Dodge recommends is using sour cream in her vanilla frosting instead of cream cheese to give it a tangy zing. And tangy it was! Well played Abigail! One little addition I would like to recommend is to thinly slicing a banana after frosting the cake, and use the slices to decorate the top. I put rings of banana in concentric circles on top, and it was just simply adorable. It’s the little things like this that make my husband love me.

In the end, I was glad I was strong-armed into making a banana cake. It was a huge hit – fluffy and moist and packed full of flavor. Martha sure may be on to something, and I look forward to defiling more healthy snacks by covering them with sugar and butter. Chocolate covered strawberries, here I come!!

Banana layer cake
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

16 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 c sugar

3 medium, very ripe bananas, peeled

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 c buttermilk

3/4 c chopped, toasted walnuts (we didn't use these, but they're optional)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour two round cake pans. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth, then add the sugar and beat until combined. Add the bananas - no need to chop - and vanilla and beat until blended and only small bits of banana remain. Add the eggs two at a time, beating after each addition. Here is where the difference between blended and just blended seems important, probably to keep the cake from getting gluten-y: Add half the above flour mixture and mix until just blended. Add buttermilk and mix until blended, then add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until just blended. Stir in those walnuts now, if you're so inclined.

Pour into pans evenly and bake about 30 min, until the tops are light brown. Let them cool in the pans on racks, then out of the pans on racks. Make your frosting (below)

Brush away loose crumbs from the layers and place one on a serving plate. Cover with about one cup of frosting, then place the other layer on top of it, flat/bottom side up. Make sure the sides are lined up and press down gently on the top. This makes it look much much better than that rounded mound of cake we all learned to frost as kids. If you do the presentation well here, it makes you think that you just might be able to start a job with Duff of Ace of Cakes.

Tangy vanilla frosting
16 tbsp butter, at room temperature

3 c confectioners sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c sour cream

Beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then add the sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat until very smooth and creamy. Add the sour cream and gently stir with a spatula until blended.

We used the vanilla frosting, but this fudgy frosting is especially fantastic, so we'll include this alternative too.

Fudgy frosting
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 1/3 c sugar

1 c evaporated milk

6 tbsp butter, cut into 2 pieces

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Meanwhile, combine everything else in a blender. When the chocolate is melted, remove it from heat, stir, and scrape into the blender Blend until the mixture is very thick (not pourable), about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool, then frost the cake as above.

Bleeding Heart Cupcakes

Posting this recipe was a bit of a debate. On one hand, they're a little too sweet and Yumsugar omitted the baking time (though we've added it below). On the other, they still taste pretty good, and are fun for Valentine's Day.

The cake itself is good and not too sweet, but stuffing it with jelly and topping it all off with frosting makes it go from 0 to 60 in about 30 seconds. Eating more than one might induce diabetic shock, but moderation is key, and at least they look cool - especially if you can fashion the anatomical topping on this post. We suggest a cream cheese or mascarpone frosting to cut some of the sweetness that comes with the jelly, but we've included the original buttercream recipe below.

White Cupcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

20 glass marbles or small balls of tinfoil
2 to 3 cups strawberry jelly or smooth strawberry jam

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.


2. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar, creaming until light and fluffy.


3. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition.


4. In a small bowl, combine the milk and vanilla.


5. To the butter mixture, add about one quarter of the flour mixture and mix well. Add about one quarter of the milk mixture and mix well. Continue alternating the flour mixture and milk mixture, beating after each addition until smooth.


6. Line cupcake tins with paper liners. Fill the liners two-thirds full with the batter. Place 1 marble or tinfoil ball between each liner and the tin. This will make a dent in your cupcake when it bakes to make it heart shaped.


7. Bake about 20-25 minutes at 350. If you are using marbles, be careful when removing the cupcakes from the tins because the marbles will be very hot.


8. When the cake is cool, with a small paring knife, cut out a circle about the size of a dime in the center of each cupcake, going about two thirds of the way in. Pull the little plug of cake out. Cut off the top of this piece (about 1/2 inch thick) and eat the bottom. Use a teaspoon or a squeeze bottle to fill the hole partway with the strawberry jelly "blood." Put the little cake plug back in. Continue with the rest of the hearts.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth.


2. Add the powdered sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy.


3. Put one-third of the frosting into two separate bowls. Color one bowl of frosting with the red food coloring. Tint the other bowl of the frosting blue. Tint the remaining two-thirds pink.


4. Frost the cupcakes with the pink frosting. Make it super smooth by dipping a butter or frosting/palette knife in a bowl of hot water and smoothing it over the top. With a pastry bag or a knife, use the red and blue frosting to make veins on the hearts (as you'll see below, we skipped these steps).

Beach Themed Cupcakes

Recently, I went to a Cupcakes and Champagne party. Clearly, this was a great reason to make themed cupcakes. In the dead of winter, what theme is most desirable? You got it: Beach themed cupcakes. I was inspired by yogi_lo's beach themed cupcakes on flickr and decided to create my own.

For the cupcake, I made both cappuccino brownie and vanilla funfetti bases. For the frosting, I took some "white" whipped frosting and added some blue food color until I got the desired sea blue. I used graham cracker crumbs for the sand and Teddy Grahams as my beach-goers. The rest of the elements were hand formed out of marzipan and tinted accordingly with food coloring.

I made a variety of scenes. I made happy swimming and surfing scenes, and also some shark attack and red tide scenes. I had SO much fun making these... maybe too much fun.

Frosted Angel Food Cake

Does anyone eat this stuff anymore? I can't recall a time that I saw it on a restaurant menu, and honestly I've not ever had the craving for one. Mostly it's the packaged angel food cakes in disposable tube pans I see for sale at Safeway, and even there, it's in places like Sun City West (an old folk's community in Arizona where my grandfather lives) where I see them. Angel Food is my grandfather's favorite cake, and he requests it most years for his birthday. He tells me that his mother used to make it with a dozen egg whites, and then a pound cake with the leftover egg yolks. While angel food cake recipes still call for a dozen egg whites, I've not found a pound cake that calls for so many yolks; we are getting very creative trying to find uses for them.

This year I charged myself with the task, as I came to celebrate my grandfather's birthday with him. It's not a difficult cake, but you must know what you're doing. Beating the egg-white/meringue to the right consistency just takes patience and a careful eye. I would have used this recipe verbatim had I not forgotten the extracts, which I made up for in the frosting.

Did I not mention the frosting? This is Grandpa's other unconventional request. (Ha--and you thought you were getting away with a low-fat cake batter!) Frosted angel food cake is something I have never encountered except at the households of my own family, and perhaps it's just my own conditioning, but I think it's kind of good.

Frosted Angel Food Cake

(Adapted slightly from The Best Recipe and then adapted from “Baking Bites”)

• 1 1/2-cups egg whites (10-12 large), room temperature (separate the eggs while they’re cold; it’s much easier)
• 1 1/2-cups superfine sugar (also called “Baker’s Sugar”), divided
• 1-cup sifted cake flour (measure it after you sift it)
• 1-tsp cream of tartar

• 1/4-tsp salt
• Almond cream cheese frosting (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4-cup sugar and the cake flour. Set aside.

Using a handheld or countertop mixer with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until frothy. Add the add cream of tartar and salt, and then beat until fully incorporated. Begin to add the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar in small additions. When sugar has been added, beat egg whites to soft peaks. The soft peaks will look like rolling prairie hills; not stiff jagged mountains. If the batter falls off the beaters in ribbons, it isn’t at the soft peak stage yet. Feel free to turn up the speed on the mixer; it may take a little while, five to seven minutes.

Sift the flour/sugar mixture over the egg whites in small additions and, in gentle strokes, fold it in. The idea behind folding is that you preserve all the air bubbles that were just whipped into the batter.

Carefully pour batter into an ungreased nine-inch tube pan with a removable bottom. Smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until your finger leaves no indentation when lightly pressed.

Remove from oven and invert the pan over a bottle. (I thought this was strange, but it actually works really well if you can find a bottle with a neck narrow enough for your tube pan. If not, rest the inverted pan over a cooling rack.) Allow to cool completely.

Gently run a thin knife around the sides, then around the bottom, of the pan to release the cake when you are ready to frost it.

This is a difficult cake to frost because the crumb is so light; if your strokes are to broad or if you’re too jabby, you’ll take part of the cake off. The best way, I think, is to start with big dollops of frosting and then just smoosh them down on the cake by making small circles with your spatula, and do this until all the smooshed spots connect. Then lightly touch it up with a pastry knife or your spatula so that the frosting is uniformly spread.

Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2-pound butter, softened
• 8-ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 1/2-cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2-teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2-teaspoons pure almond extract
• (This would also probably be good with citrus zest and a bit of citrus extract instead of the almond.)

Beat butter and cream cheese together until combined. Add the powdered sugar in three or four portions, beating just until combined after each addition. Add the extracts, and beat for one to two minutes, until light and fluffy.

kitchen katastrophe: vin chaud and puppy chow

each year, my extended family gets together to celebrate christmas. in a new twist this year, everyone was asked to bring something to eat or drink - a christmas potluck, if you will. my aunt (hosting the event) agreed to take care of the turkey and main dishes with the family (28 of us in total) bringing appetizers, desserts, deliciously drinkable alcoholic drinks, etc. my original goal was to make the ULTIMATE christmas dessert: the buche de noel. this might just be the most complicated thing i have ever heard of. i chickened out at the last minute. instead, i opted to get my family drunk with vin chaud (hot wine, direct french translation) or as we know it in the US, mulled wine, and feed them with puppy chow.

i was at the grocery store when i made my decision and having only ever made vin chaud one other time, did not know a recipe off the top of my head. so, i called my dear friend, JaBootaay, who happily looked up a random vin chaud recipe online and read me the ingredients. this was chosen for a number of reasons: 1) easily found online and 2) not a ton of ingredients. so, here is the very basic mulled wine recipe:

Mulled Wine (Vin Chaud)
Ingredients

• 2 (750 ml) bottles merlot
• 3 cups orange juice, freshly squeezed
• 3 cups pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 cups lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 36 whole cloves
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 3/4 cup water

Directions

1. In a large stainless steel stockpot, combine all ingredients.
2. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
3. Reduce heat to very low and keep warm for about 30 minutes to let the flavours blend.
4. Strain out the cloves and the cinnamon before serving.
5. Ladle in to heatproof cups.

sounds easy, right? in fact, it wasn't too bad. a few things, though: i only had one bottle of merlot on hand, so i combined it with a bottle of cabernet sauvignon. i have always heard that if you have a bottle of red wine you don't like, make mulled wine to mask the taste. i think this is still true. in addition, it's kind of hard to find nice, squeezable oranges at this time of year in north dakota, so i used 100% pure orange juice and lemon juice from a bottle.
JaBootaay suggested i use north dakota snow as water, but it took too long to melt, so i just used tap water (drinkable here, no one uses brita). the only other issue i had with this was the transporting of it. we filled two thermoses (thermi?) and brought the rest in a slow cooker. it went fast, so it almost wasn't worth it. if you're making this for a party of 8+ people, you could easily double the recipe.
apologies, i forgot my camera at home, so i don't have a final picture in a glass. but pretty much it looked like above. but in a glass. mmmmm...

in addition, one of my brothers made puppy chow - this is a great meal that almost everyone likes.

Puppy Chow
Ingredients

• 9 cups Corn Chex® cereal
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2. In a pot, melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter until smooth.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.
5. Pour into paper bag.
6. Add powdered sugar. Close bag; shake until well coated.

you may notice that the above recipe is slightly altered from that on the chex website. this is because my mom cut out the chex mix recipe from about 15-20 years ago to put into her recipe box and that is the actual recipe we use - no microwaving here (although i am sure it would work), but i wanted to give the good folks at chex their claim to the recipe.

so you can measure your success, here is our melting on the oven:
then we poured the completely smooth (not burnt - be sure not to melt at too high a temperature, this will entail lots of stirring and monitoring) over the cereal in a turkey roaster, quite appropriate.
this allowed us to shake the mix, rather than stir it. i feel this gives it a better coating.
finally, we pour the chocolatey cereal into a brown paper bag with powdered sugar as below.
then shake it like a polaroid picture. you can put into the fridge or walk-in cooler to harden and then enjoy. again, no final pictures, although you can click on the puppy chow wiki link above to see a nice picture. the powdered sugar is important. i once lugged a huge box of chex all the way to europe to make this for my friends. catch was, they don't have powdered sugar in france (that we could find), so we used regular sugar to coat. no go. it was horrible and everyone thought i was crazy for even liking the idea of this meal. anyway, made properly, this is enjoyed by everyone! AND this, combined with the wine, is a fully-balanced meal: carbs, dairy, fruits, alcohol, and chocolate!

since it's the holidays, i believe the kitchen gods have smiled down on me in making a fabulous few meals for my family: no huge katastrophe here. however, there are still a few things one can learn:

1. bring a camera to all family events.
2. no matter what, you will always underestimate the alcoholic needs of family members when forced to spend 6 hours together.
3. this type of puppy chow is NOT for dogs unless you want to clean up you-know-what...
   

Pumpkin Pie Jello Shots

For a pot-luck party we decided to save time and combine the dessert and the cocktail together. Though most of us equate "Jell-O Shots" with "Fraternity Hazing" these are much more adult. Of course, no one ever said adults don't do shots...

Pumpkin Pie Jell-O Shots

from Tasting Table

1 or 2 Crumbled Graham crackers
1 envelope Knox gelatin
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 tablespoon cold heavy cream
Fresh whipped cream, for serving

1. Arrange the mini cupcake cups on a baking sheet. Place 1 cup cold water in the top of a double boiler and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let stand for three minutes.
2. Heat the gelatin mixture over a gentle simmer until the granules have dissolved. Add the pumpkin, sugar and spices and heat, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin and sugar are completely melted. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the vodka with 1/4 cup cold water and the heavy cream. Whisk in the pumpkin mixture and immediately divide it among the cupcake cups. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours. Sprinkle each with crumbled Graham crackers, top with whipped cream and serve.

Southern Style Honeybun Cake

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 Yellow or Butter sytle cake mix package
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 8oz sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla flavor
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbls ground cinnamon
  

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla flavor
  
• 4 tbs carnation milk (or half/half, whole milk)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 350 deg
   
2. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar and cinnamon
3. In a large bowl mix together cake mix, oil, sour cream, eggs and vanilla flavor and beat until well mixed
4. grease your cake pan
5. pour half of the cake batter and half of the sugar/cinnamon mixture into your greased pan and lightly mix in pan until evenly mixed then repeat with the rest of both mixtures (don't over mix! you don't want the sugar to dissolve into the cake batter.)
6. bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife can be inserted in the middle of the cake and removed without cake batter sticking to it
7. mix glaze ingredients into a small bowl making sure everything is well blended
8. pour glaze over hot cake and let cool for 15-20 minutes before serving

Commentary:
I love this cake! The first time I had it was at Thanksgiving '08 at my cousins house. My dad and I almost devoured half the cake before dinner was served. My dad liked it so much he guilted my cousins into making him another cake so he could bring it home with him. Needless to say that once it was cool enough to eat half of it was gone before he could put tin foil on it! Everyone should try it because it is SOOO GOOO! Enjoy!

Peppermint Bark

So this is a super easy recipe that you can experiment with and it makes a great holiday gift for co-workers or for those that didn't "make it" on your actual shopping list. I experimented and made 4 different types of bark.

Ingredients:

• 18 oz (which makes about 1 cookie sheet) of chocolate (milk, white, bittersweet, or dark)
• Peppermint candy (I used about 22 candy canes for 4 trays of bark)
• Peppermint oil

Directions:

1. Use a double boiler to melt down chocolate
2. Add peppermint oil to taste
   
3. Line a cookie sheet with borders (or any baking pan will do) with wax paper
   
4. Use a food processor to pulse peppermint (if you don't have a food processor, you can put the peppermint in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush candy)
   
5. Pour chocolate onto wax paper and sprinkle crushed peppermint over chocolate (you can also put the peppermint on the bottom of the pan but it will be "eaten up" by the chocolate and you won't be able to see it well)
6. place in fridge to chill (about 10 minutes)
7. Remove from pan and separate from wax paper. Break bark into pieces (any size you want) and you can place in cookie tins, use cellophane wrapping, or any other way you want.
   

Note: I made a milk chocolate bark, a raspberry milk chocolate bark, a dark chocolate orange bark, and a dark chocolate raspberry bark. I added raspberry truffle cocoa powder (about 1.5 teaspoons) to get the raspberry flavor. I added orange juice to get the orange flavor, but it made the bark too thick and lacked enough orange flavor. I would probably try grating orange zest to get more of a citrus flavor. I also melted down white chocolate, added peppermint oil to it, and drizzled it over some of the bark. You can really be creative and use any flavors you want and just experiment. Be creative and enjoy!

kitchen katastrophe: fudge

every year for the holidays, my father makes homemade fudge to give to his customers. growing up, i used to "help" him make this delicious diabetic-coma inducing goodness. [helping in my family includes opening jars, licking spoons, and sneaking marshmallow fluff without anyone seeing or noticing the jar has been opened.] this year was no different; however, i tried to take a bit more control so i could document any plunders for others to avoid.

in my family, we are not skilled enough to "create" our own recipes - those printed on the backs of boxes and packages have always suited us well. to this end, we make "Never-Fail-Fudge" from the back of the marshmallow fluff container. i could write a whole other post about the deliciousness of fluff, but since fluff can be polarizing (you either love it or you hate it), i won't. for now, anyway. for now, enjoy this recipe and pictures. (i have copied the recipe from the internet below, although our recipe is slightly different - explained with the pics)

Never-Fail-Fudge
2 1/2 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 5.33 oz. can evaporated milk (3/4 c.)
1 Jar (7 1/2oz) Marshmallow Fluff
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1 12-oz. package semisweet-chocolate pieces

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan; set aside. In large saucepan combine first 5 ingredients. Stir over low heat until blended. Heat to a full-rolling boil being careful not to mistake escaping air bubbles for boiling. Boil slowly, stirring constantly, 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and chocolate until chocolate is melted. Turn into greased pan and cool. Makes 2 1/2 pounds.

I actually really dislike the smell of melting butter. If you are the same, make sure someone else is around to stir (in this case, my father). We have a slightly different recipe (copied from an older version of fluff) which indicates that one should melt the butter in the pan first

then add the sugar and evaporated milk and bring that to a boil for at least 5 minutes as seen below.
we then remove the mixture from heat and stir in the chocolate chips until melted. at that point, we add the fluff and vanilla. (we don't actually add in the salt as called for in this recipe from the internet.)
continue stirring quickly until all ingredients are mixed in.
then pour into greased cookie sheet
slightly different than the directions on the website, but this one works well. mmmmm... delish!

rather than explain ALL that went wrong, as is always the case when i stand for too long in the kitchen, i thought i would put together some things we've learned or could've learned (you can guess which actually happened in this kitchen katastrophe and which didn't):

1. when asking someone to stir, make sure he / she knows for how long he / she is expected to stir. a constant stir for five minutes should be clearly noted as a CONSTANT stir rather than OCCASIONAL or OPTIONAL.
2. do not use a plastic spoon to stir unless the stirring is occasional. in any case, do not leave an unattended spoon in the pot. if you only have a plastic spoon, try not to use one that is the same color as your mixture. for example, if mixing chocolate, do not use black or brown. if mixing blueberries, do not use a blue plastic spoon. if the spoon melts to the bottom of the pot, it is hard to separate the "food" from the "plastic" if it's all the same color.
3. melted chocolate is hot hot hot. do not spoon onto partner's hands. if this is some sort of fetish of yours, make sure that it is between (or among, if that's your thang) consenting adults.
4. our recipe says to cool "at room temperature." do not try to speed up the cooling process by putting the cookie sheet on the deck in the middle of a blizzard. i don't know how to begin to describe the problems this could lead to.
5. do not try to sneak some sugar free vanilla syrup into the mixture, no matter how much you like vanilla-flavored things. the recipe does call for vanilla extract.

in any case, enjoy!