Cake Batter Ice Cream (and Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches!)

So recently I discovered that I'm lactose intolerant.  Actually, let's go with "lactose sensitive."  A. Because I haven't gone to a doctor to diagnose this and B. Because I want to eat lactose anyway, which means I'm not "intolerant" to it.  I will undoubtedly tolerate a horrendous stomach ache for food.  Hell, on Cheat Day I'll wolf down deep fried whatever covered in cheese and dipped in ranch with a side of an entire large pepperoni pizza and follow that up with bacon and cookie bars and regret.  How do you think I feel after eat all that?  I feel awful.  But I'm a trooper and eat it all anyway.

So since Cheat Day is all about eating everything I can't during the week, I somehow determined that eating dairy on Cheat Day is ok.  Plus it's really flippin hot outside.  So I figured that ice cream had to be on the agenda for the day.

Was this a wise decision?  Probably not, considering how awful I felt afterwards.  But do I plan on making ice cream again next weekend?  Yes, sir!

I'll never learn...

Cake Batter Ice Cream Sandwiches

The glorious thing about making this was that it was so incredibly easy.  I should have broken out the ice cream maker much earlier in the season!

Start by whisking 3/4 cup white sugar into 1 cup of whole milk.  Pour 2 cups of cream into a measuring cup, and add 2 tsp of pure vanilla into it.

Yes, I took a picture of a measuring cup full of cream.  Wouldn't you?  

Whisk together your cream mixture and your milk mixture.  Turn on your ice cream maker and pour it in slowly.  I suggest a funnel at this point.

5 minutes before your ice cream maker should be done (use the instructions for your machine.)  Add in 1 cup of yellow cake mix.  Let it incorporate in.  Grab spoonfuls and taste.  

When the ice cream has reached your desired consistency, pour into a freezer safe container and cover tightly.  I put a layer of saran wrap directly on the surface of mine.  You'll want to let it set in the freezer for at least an hour before you serve it up, or in my case make ice cream cookie sandwiches.  This would be a good time to go see the Harry Potter movie.  Go ahead, I'll wait...

...

...


... annnnnnd we're back.

So you can go ahead and serve it up as it, and be extremely happy, becuase it is extremely amazing. 

Two wee little bowls for hubby and I.  Just to taste!

But since Cheat Day is all about excess, I couldn't leave well enough alone.  It's cookie time, baby!  My husband's absolute favorite cookie is just basic Chocolate Chip cookies.  For an ice cream cookie, I think I'll try something else next time.  Once frozen, these aren't particularly soft and the chocolate chips are rock solid.  BUT, when you just assemble and eat- they are fantastic.  So I feel like that is just a fantastic excuse to eat all of these as you prepare them.

PS: If you make a whole recipe of the cookies, you'll have extra.  This problem is exacerbated when you down half the ice cream before you start assembling sandwiches.  Oops!

Cookie time!  Soften your butter and cream it with your sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.  

Add in two eggs, one at a time, incorporating into the batter after each.

Mix in your flour, baking soda and salt. 

Next, it's time for your mix ins.  If you do flan on freezing the cookies, I suggest mini chocolate morsels or mini M&M's.  I did full size and I think this would be much better.

Mix your add ins into your dough, and you are good to go!

Drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and cook for 8 min at 375 (or until done.)

Let cool.  Sample.  Enjoy. 

These have M&M's.  Because they are delicious. 

Line em' up and get them ready to be made into sandwiches. 

Try to pair up like sized cookies for the pretties looking sandwiches. 

I used a mini ice cream scoop to pile on about 2.5 scoops onto each cookie.  Smash the top cookie on, and run your finger around the side for a clean edge.  You can also rim these in sprinkles or mini chocolate chips, but I liked them as is. 

Next?  Take lots of pictures. Eat lots of ice cream sandwiches.  Be happy.

Verdict?  Perfect little summer treat!  The ice cream was perfection- I am going to have to have many more ice cream experiments throughout the summer!  Next up?  Who knows, cookie dough?  Brownie batter?  I'll come up with something.

The cookies are great as is, but like I said before, I'm not a huge fan of  once they are frozen.  I suggest assembling and eating immediately.

Recipe time!

Cake Batter Ice Cream

Recipe adapted from: Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Recipe Book

Ingredients
3/4 cup White Sugar
1 cup Whole Milk

2 cups Cream

2 tsp Pure Vanilla

1 cup Yellow Cake Mix (like Betty Crocker)

Directions

Whisk sugar into milk until dissolved.  Pour vanilla into your cream.  Combine milk and cream.  Freeze according to your ice cream makers directions.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from: Original Nestle Cookie Recipe 

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) mini chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375

Cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.

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

Gradually beat in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in morsels.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake for 8 min or until done.

Forgiving Cookie Bar Recipe

So we all need those recipes in the house that you can bake up even if you are short on ingredients.  Because lets face it, when it comes to baking, I some times don't have the best luck.  Having all the proper ingredients around when I haven't gone to the grocery store is pretty rare.

Heck, having everything I need AFTER I get to the store is still a stretch for this one.  Especially when I tend to make complicated recipes that call for the same ingredients over and over, and then I have to add in my head, and then I fail because math is hard. 

And you know those bakers that can rattle off how many cups are in the pint and exactly how much a "smidgen" is?  Yeah, I'm not one of those.  Thank goodness for my droid.  I'm that frazzled woman wandering around your local grocery store with her nose buried in her phone and a basket brimming with butter, eggs, butter, cream, more butter, unsalted butter, chocolate, and caffeine.

And I'm also the person who always thinks its a good idea to grab a basket, not a cart.  Especially when my husband is there to carry it.  I have this strange idea that if I have a basket and not a cart, I'll buy less and save money.  In all actuality I just cram everything in and annoy the husband.

Ok, I've seriously gotten off topic.  So I wanted to used up partial bags of chocolate chips and nuts, so I decided to make some cookie bars!  I also ran out of flour, so they became oatmeal cookie bars!  And no matter what you do, they are delicious.  So grab you half eaten bags of Reese's pieces, your handful of peanut butter chips from a recipe long forgotten, and all those crumbled bags of various kinds of chocolate chips in the back of your cabinet.  Check expiration dates.  Double check by sampling a few.  Might want to check a couple more times.  Annnnd- it's time for some bars.

Cookie Bars that even I cannot screw up
If you are feeling fancy, go ahead and sift together your flour, baking powder and salt.  I am not fancy.  I am lazy.  So I skipped this part.


I started with creaming together your butter and your sugar.  The entire pound of brown sugar.  Good times.


Add in your eggs, one at a time, until just combined. 

Add in your vanilla followed by your dry ingredients (flour or flour and oatmeal)

Finally, add in your mix ins!


Pour your dough into a greased 13 by 9 cookie sheet and pat it down, like so.

Honestly, since this is the forgiving recipe, I didn't worry too much about proportions.  I added the flour I had and then added in oats until it reached the right consistency.  I listed what worked for me below.

Bake at 350 for 30 min or until done. 

Yum.

PS: I don't like edge pieces, so I cut them off.  Like so.  Also using a pizza cutter is the easiest way I've found to cut up cookie bars!

These are nummy- as always.  I've made this recipe a bunch of times!  I love mixing it up and adding in whatever I feel like.  These + glass of milk = heaven.

Recipe!!


Cookie Bars
Recipe adapted from: http://www.bakerella.com/i-hope-you-have-chocolate-chips-handy/

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour (If you want oatmeal, you can do what I did and used 1 3/4 cup flour and 1 1/2 cup oats- add more or less to reach desired consistency)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Any mixin's you want!  I used about 11.5 ounces of various chocolate chips and 5 ounces of nuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  You can sift together your flour, salt and baking powder as the original recipe calls for, but I did not do this step.

Cream together butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

Grease a 13 x 9 pan and spread batter into dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

So Happy (belated) Fourth of July!  So like pretty much every other holiday or special event that crosses my path, I somehow managed to make this about food.  Fireworks schmireworks- the only thing I care about blowing up are the seams to my patriotic red, white and blue bikini.


Ok, I didn't actually buy one of those bikinis- but I saw them at Walmart today and I was seriously tempted.  What says "I love my country" like cutting up a flag and covering up your naughty bits with it.  Yay America!


Nor do I really want to gain enough weight to blow the seams out of my clothing. 


Moving on.  My family for some reason decided to rent a pontoon boat to celebrate. This is actually pretty laughable.  With the key exception of my husband, the only one of us who actually know hows to drive a boat, we aren't so much "sit on a boat eating hotdogs and drinking beer" kind of people.  We are more "sit in the air conditioning eating scones and drinking mimosas" kind of people.  Regardless- we have a boat, and I need to make boat food.


Problem: I want to make flourless chocolate cake.  1.  It's delicious, 2. I had it when I went out to eat for my anniversary and now I can't get it out of my mind 3. It doesn't have flour- so it's already half way to being Atkins friendly for my sister (I'll tell you more about my sugar free attempt below.)

...But flourless chocolate cake isn't boat foot.


Solution: Make it into cupcakes!

Flourless Chocolate Cake 
This recipe is so simple- one of the main reasons it's so freaking fabulous.  It sounds all fancy, but it was really quick to whip up!

After preheating your oven to 375, start off by cutting up two sticks of butter.  Place that in your double boiler with 10.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate.  Stir until melted, and take off the heat.









Butter and chocolate.  So far so good!

Next, cream your sugar with your eggs and egg yolks.  Slowly pour in about 1/4 of your mixture, as well as the rest of the ingredients, and fold it into the eggs.  Add in the rest of the choco-butter mix and fold in until combined. 

Pour into 12 muffin tins and bake.  Voila!

Daw- aren't the flowerdy cupcake wrappers adorable!  One of many cake related anniversary gifts from my hubbers.  He knows me so well.

You can do all sorts of filling and frosting with these babies.  I did caramel and pecan topping, strawberry filling, ganache and whipped cream frosting.  All sorts of fun stuff!

Verdict?  These were pretty great!  Honestly, I feel like flourless chocolate cake loses something in cupcake form.  I would have much rather had a small slice with the raspberry drizzled over, but that's just me.  This is very a dense, very rich, almost brownie like cupcake.  Love it!

Ok- so, remember how I said one of the reasons why I wanted to make these is because I have a sister doing Atkins?  Yeah, I thought to myself- well, it's already half way there- no flour!  Just get rid of the sugar and this will be a fabulous Atkins friendly treat.

Um, I'm going to do with a no on that one.  Picture dense, dry, black, shriveled cakes literally floating in all the butter that oozed out of them during the baking process.  Apparently the sugar in this recipe did a whole lot more than sweeten the cakes- it is a structural component, not to be replaced with splenda.  It was awful.  I guess today baking really is a science...

So what was my solution to this?  Make Atkins friendly truffles using my ganache recipe!  Woot!

(Make the ganache recipe below, chill until hard, scoop into balls, and roll in cocoa)

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Recipe From: http://penniesonaplatter.com/2009/02/12/ultimate-flourless-chocolate-cupcakes/

Ingredients
10 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder (Or whatever you have on hand- I used dark cocoa powder)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

Put the chocolate and butter in a double boiler and stir until completely melted. Set aside to cool.

In large bowl, cream the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer. Gently fold in 1/4 of the melted chocolate and remaining ingredients.  Add the reamining chocolate and butter and blend.

Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. 

Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling (Top with Whipped Cream frosting, below)
Taken exactly from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chocolate-ganache/Detail.aspx

I did not change this recipe, so you can follow the instructions here.  I do not add the optional rum. For these, I let this filling cool for about 45 min and then spooned it into the cored cupcakes. 

Raspberry Filling (Top with Whipped Cream frosting, below)
Taken exactly from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/raspberry-sauce-recipe/index.html

Whipped Cream Frosting
Taken exactly from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whipped-cream-frosting-2/detail.aspx

I did not change this recipe, so you can follow the instructions here.

Turtle Topping
Top cupcakes with chopped pecans and caramel (I used the same recipe that I did for the shortbread bars.)

Chocolate Dipped Caramel Shortbread Bars

So Monday marks my two year wedding anniversary with the sweetest, most patient, most tolerant man I've ever met.  For serious.  He brings a lot to our relationship:


- Adorableness
- Cooks me dinner so I don't end up eating egg beaters and oatmeal every night from here until infinity
- Ability to smile and nod when I'm on a tirade about something that is not important
- Allows me to go to the gym for hours on end when there are much more practical things I should be doing
- Brings me coffee when I'm cranky
- Brings me a pug when I'm REALLY cranky
- Brings me cinnamon rolls and fruit juice when I'm SUPER cranky/sick
- Fixes things when they are broken
- Pays bills that I forget about
- Loves my crazy family
- Does dishes
- Drives me places


And here is an inclusive list of what I bring to the relationship
- I bake


So- in order to keep my man happy, I set out to bake him up something delicious for our anniversary.  So of course, I ask him to think up any sort of amazing, delicious, complicated dessert his little mind can fathom.  If I were presented with a scenario like this, my dreams would be filled with visions of dancing scones and cupcakes in a river of ganache with lined with truffles and rainbows.


His first answer?  "I want you to not have to bake!"


Does this man not know me at ALL?  No baking for a cheat day is like summer without sunshine!  It's like Starbucks without caffeine!   It's like Christmas without presents Jesus. 


So I nixed that.


His second answer?  "I don't know- chocolate chip cookies?"


Really?  I mean- I like chocolate chip cookies like the rest of America.  But if I could have any dessert known to man, I most certainly would set my sights a little higher.  So it looks like this one was going to be up to me.


I started brainstorming things my husband really likes:
- S'mores
- Smoked meats
- Cereal
- Lasagna
- CANDY!


He always comments when I make my awesome shortbread that he wishes I could turn it into a homemade twix bar.  I had it- not the most inspired, amazing dessert known to man... But fun, a step up from chocolate chip cookies and most importantly: delicious.

Step One: The Shortbread
I've made my fair share of shortbread in my day, and I've come to learn that there are two key ingredients to make one kick butt shortbread.  Rice flour, and butter.

 Mmmm... butter.  

My husband wanted regular butter, but I've used Irish butter in the past which was freaking phenomenal. 

First, preheat your oven to 350 and then cream your softened butter with one cup of sugar until it's nice and fluffy. 

Slowly add in your flour (one cup of rice flour, 3 and a half of regular all purpose flour) in slowly until combined.

Turn your batter out onto a well floured surface and kneed slightly until it forms into a ball.

You know what's the great thing about this cookie recipe?  No eggs.  Sample by the handful for all I care!

Ok- next is my patented, freaking awesome way to making some awfully perdy cookies.  

Pat your dough into a 10 x 15 inch pan that is lined with parchment paper.  

Next, grab a floured rolling pin, and roll over your cookie dough so they are nice and flat.  This is how you avoid bumpy, ugly cookies that are sad.  This is especially important if you are not going to be covering them in caramel and chocolate.... too bad that's exactly what we are going to do.

Ok, next you will want to score your cookies and pierce them with a fork before baking, like so.

Bake.... cool... inform your husband that no, they will not be done tonight even if he was "saving his carbs" so he could eat them.  

So when you are ready to make your caramel, make sure the sides of your pan are high enough to prevent any caramel spillage.  If not, transfer cookies over to pans (lined with parchment paper) that do have high enough sides.  This is what I did, because I ended up making two varieties of bars in two different pans.  I'll get into that later.

See- different pan.  Good times. 

Step Two: Caramel

Ok, next it's caramel time.  Otherwise known as happy time.  I love caramel.  So flipping much.  I also love shortbread a lot.  And they both remind me Christmas.  Caramel, shortbread and Christmas.  If somehow the making of this recipe also caused there to be a litter of puppies delivered to my front door, I would be the happiest woman alive.

Combine a cup of butter, a cup of light brown sugar, 1/4 cup corn syrup and a cup of sweetened condensed milk in a pan.  Heat over medium heat until it boils.  Stirring constantly, boil for 5 min and then remove from heat, still stirring, for 3 minutes.  

I cannot stress how important the stirring part is. Put the damn camera down and stir.

Sorry- that wasn't meant for you. 

You'll end up with something like this:

Pour the caramel over your pan and let it cool.  I left mine in the fridge over night.  That seemed to work well.

Step Three: Chocolate Time

So if you are in a rush, you can take a shortcut here.  Melt 2.5 cups of chocolate (I used milk) in the microwave and pour over the top of your bars.

This way, your caramel can still be kind of hot and your don't have to go through the dipping process.

But, they aren't as pretty when you cut them and you get less chocolate per bar, which is why I suggest you do the following.

Since your bars are already cut on the bottom of your pan, you'll want to flip the whole thing out onto a cutting board.  (First, cutting along the sides of the caramel.)

Oh yum

Next, leaving them upside down, you can cut along the lines, through the caramel, getting nice little, happy cookie bars. 

Yay!  They are turning out so nice!

Once they are all cut, dust the suckers off and start melting your chocolate (about 2 lbs) over a double boiled.

The reason I scored the bars before baking, and then after baking, and then cut them again once they've been covered in caramel is that shortbread has a tendency to crumble.  This process takes care of that.  

Ok, so your bars are ready and your chocolate is melted.  Dipping these is pretty easy- just grab them one by one, dip the caramel side into your chocolate, and place the completed cookie bar on parchment paper to cool.

Look!  An action shot!

 

And then you are done!  Oh my gosh, these guys were fabulous.  I will never buy a regular twix again.  Why would you, when you can have something like this!  I suggest serving them at room temperature- the caramel will be soft and yummy that way.  

 For some reason, shortbread makes me think of tea parties.  So I whipped out the floral china for these guys.

Fancy.

So I bet you are wondering what happened to that other pan.  You know, the one that I just poured the chocolate on top of?

Yeah, I didn't forget about those.  It's bonus recipe time!

Bonus Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Caramel Shortbread Bars with Coconut!

Because seriously, doesnt adding coconut make everything better?

So make the shortbread and transfer it over to a pan with higher edges.  Before you do the caramel, add a layer of coconut.

For the coconut mixture, just add 10 ounces of sweetened condensed milk to 6 ounces of sweetened, shredded coconut. 

Then top with your caramel followed by the chocolate.  The coconut layer will make the entire bar an ooey, gooey delicious mess.  Fabulous.  Super sweet- but fabulous.

And there you have it!  Two recipes, for the price of one.  And just so you know, hubby loved his anniversary cookie bars.  And I loved making them for him.  Happy Anniversary, husband.  Best two years of my life.

Recipes!

Shortbread Cookies

Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/shortbread-cookies-iv/

Make cookies exactly as directed in a 10 by 15 pan lined with parchment paper.  If you do not have a pan this size with tall sides, transfer the cooked, cooled cookies over to several taller pans lined with parchment.

Optional Coconut Layer
Ingredients
10 ounces sweetened condensed milk
6 ounces sweetened coconut


Directions
Combine milk and coconut and spread over the shortbread before making your caramel.  If you do this, you shouldn't attempt to dip the cookies.  They will be too moist and it would be messy.


Caramel and Chocolate Layers

Recipe from:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/caramel-shortbread-squares/detail.aspx

Ingredients

1 cup (salted) butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup sweetned condensed milk

1/4 cup light corn syrup

 2 lbs of chocolate chips (2.5 cups if you aren't dipping)

Directions

In a large saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes.  Pour over cookies.  

If you aren't dipping the cookies- melt 2.5 cups of chocolate in the microwave and pour over the top of your caramel.  Let cool completely and flip entire batch onto a cutting board to cut. 

If you are dipping the cookies, let caramel cool and flip recipe onto cutting board.  Cut into bars along score marks.  Melt 2 lbs of chocolate over a double boiler and dip cookies.  Place on parchment paper to cool.

Boston Cream Cupcakes

So I think I am going to rename this blog, "Caketastrophe."  I've realized that I spend far more of my time describing what NOT to do instead of providing helpful, thought out, tried and true methods provided by an experienced baketress.  


But instead of this experienced baketress you get me- the woman who just spent 30 minutes cleaning red food coloring off of her tile floor.  Little tip- when adding red dye to whole grain strawberry muffins, don't accidentally spill a drop of coloring on the floor and then step in it and then walk everywhere.  

Little red smears and blotches everywhere...  It looked like a freaking lilliputian crime scene in my kitchen. 

Alright, so on to the little life lessons I learned from the cupcakes I made for this weekend.  First and foremost- don't promise to make a complicated recipe if you havne't in fact, planned out when you are going to make said recipe.  I offered to make my dad some Father's Day cupcakes, and promised that Boston Cream Pie cupcakes would be no problem at all!

1.  I've never make Boston cream pie.
2.  Excluding ganache, I've never made any of the components of Boston cream pie.
3.  I didn't even really have a full understand of what goes into Boston cream pie.  (What, "yellow cake, puddin' and chocolate" isn't a valid description?)

So I did a little research, and started plotting out my pound cake and pastry cream recipes.  Ganache- totally got that covered.  I also decided I'd add some whipped cream frosting garnish.  What didn't I plan?  When to freaking make these little buggers.  Long story short, I had one day to make these guys, and I wasn't going to get home from work that day until around 7:00 pm.

Well, let me tell you how well THAT went...

Pastry Cream Calamity
So I'm not what one would call a custard aficionado.  In fact, the closet I've ever come to making a custard is lemon curd.  And those aren't close at all. 

So here's how this went down:
- Go to grocery store over lunch to quickly grab all the ingredients for everything
- Run home and throw my milk on the stove for a double batch of pastry cream.

That was my first error.  Ok- in NO WAY did the recipe require a double batch of cream (even though I was making a double batch of cupcakes.)  Lesson learned: One batch = OK

- Start heating 7 flipping cups of milk
- Realize milk will never boil fast enough for me to get back to work on time
- Split milk into two pans
- Put eggs, salt and sugar in food processor
- Realize all the milk will not fix in food processor either
- Split egg mixture into two batches
- Pour one pan of milk into the eggs and sugar
- Overflow
- Pour second pan of milk into new batch of eggs and sugar
- Overflow again
- Yell a lot
- Return both batches (with the added cornstarch and flour) to one big pot and stir like crazy over the stove
- Cry
- Look at the horrible mess that is your kitchen
- Try to tidy
- Don't mix it enough leading to slightly grainy consistency
- Boiling commences
- Too much boiling
- Splatter ultra hot custard on arm
- Swear
- Finish boiling custard
- Pour in bowl and cover with saran wrap, put custard in fridge

I don't suggest you follow my route unless you want to start tearing your hair out.  With my luck, that hair would have ended up in the damn custard. 

Freaking custard.  I hate you.

But you're delicious.  So I'll forgive you.  Only a little though- because I didn't stir enough and the consistency was off.  A good whip in the stand mixer fixed all this!  I wouldn't suggest doing this normally- as that will thin it out a little, but since this is going inside cupcakes and not supporting a cake, all is fine.

Pound Cake Debacle
Well, as you may or may not know, I'm a firm believer that boxed cake mixes are amazing and can accomplish almost anything.  So after a little research, I tried a new recipe that is much denser than the typical white cake I make (which calls for whites, not whole eggs.) 

A resounding HECK YES on this recipe.  Delicious!

Does that mean I didn't screw up this portion of the recipe?  That's a solid HECK NO on that one.

It's 7:10 pm and I'm returning to the house to spend the evening whipping up some deliciousness.  I've got two batches of custard in the fridge.  I've got two sets of all the ingredients I use to doctor up my boxed mix.  I've got one box mix.

Damn it.

So after my impromptu Dahls run, I make two batches of pound cake cupcakes.  I then proceed to stick all four pans in the oven at the same time, because I'm impatient and frazzled and stupid. 

I ended up with about 75% of the cupcakes being golden and delicious, and about 25% charbroiled and sad.

 But thankfully, the golden delicious ones turned out to be hubby's new favorite cake recipe- so my little pound caketastrophe ended up having a silver lining.

Assembly Mayhem
So when the cupcakes are cooled, it's time to start filling them.  Of all the compenents of the recipe, this was the part I was most concerned about.  Should I inject the filling or core them?  If I inject them, will I get enough of the filling in?  If I core them, how can I top them with ganache without causing a horrible mess?

I landed on coring them, filling them with custard, and putting just the top of the cupcake back on to cover the custard.  I thought after everything that had happened, this was probably going to end up a disaster.  And ironically, this was the step that went swimmingly.

How perfect do these look?  

Next, once they were all filled, I made some ganche and immediately started spooning it over each of the cakes.

This also went surprisingly well.  I just went slow and steady and made sure not to let any drip over the sides. 

So at this point, it was about 9:30 or 10:00, my husband was back from his boys night out and was aghast at the horrible mess that was in his kitchen.  And then he saw all the dishes and gave his mess of a wife a big hug and offered help.  What a saint.

But despite all this- these little cakelettes needed some extra oomph, so I quickly got my google on and found a good whipped cream frosting recipe.  Apparently the one I had saved in my future recipe arsenal called for reduced fat cream cheese- so I immediately distrusted the recipe and anyone who would make it.  I located a recipe that called for full fat everything and went on my merry way whipping it up. Quite literally.

So after only spilling one ingredient all over the floor (the salt!) I filled up my pastry bag and ended up with something that looks like this...

Alright- after all this, you cupcakes better be the best damned best cupcakes I've ever eaten.

You got lucky.

These are SO good.  SO FLIPPIN BANANAS good.  The custard, after fixing the consistency, was rich and creamy.  It paired perfectly with the slightly lighter than typical pound cake.  The ganache, as always, was intense and fabulous and the frosting cut that intensity with a final touch of sweetness.  While I might have felt like a failure countless times while making this, the final product was totally winning.

Recipes, baby!

Pound Cake Cupcakes
Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grandmothers-pound-cake-i/detail.aspx

Ingredients
1 package yellow cake mix (I used "Moist Deluxe")
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water
4 eggs
1 teaspoon butter flavored extract
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients and pour into lined cupcake tins.  Bake according to box.


Pastry Cream Filling
Recipe from: http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/boston-cream-pie-recipe.html

Make a half recipe of the cream detailed here.


Dark Chocolate Ganache 
Taken exactly from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chocolate-ganache/Detail.aspx


I did not change this recipe, so you can follow the instructions here.  I do not add the optional rum. 


Whipped Cream Frosting
Taken exactly from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whipped-cream-frosting-2/detail.aspx


I did not change this recipe, so you can follow the instructions here.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake

So Reese's Peanut Butter trees are the reason I gain weight over the holidays.  It's pretty much an unwritten rule in my family that for the secret Santa style stocking exchange, you give your designated recipient a ridiculous amount of Peanut Butter trees.   That way, you avoid the shame of leaving Wal-Mart with a stack of seven 6-packs of trees, excusing the gluttony by telling yourself "they are gifts!"  And when you receive your very own pile-o-trees in your stocking... Well, it'd just be rude not to devour them.


Confession: I bought some extra trees for myself before Christmas.  I had a reward system: wrap a gift, unwrap a tree.  I have two sisters, one brother in law, parents, parents in law, four cousins, four grandparents, and four aunts and uncles.  They all got gifts, or multiples.  And what did I get?  A tummy ache.


So when I stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, and peanut butter dark chocolate ganache, I knew I had to make it.  All that was left was to wait for the appropriate occasion.  Well happy Birthday, grandma, it's cake time!


Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake
This cake has three elements- all of which I changed from the original recipe that I found.  And the end result was freaking spectacular.

You start with two, moist, delicious 8 inch round chocolate cakes (I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe) choc' full of peanut butter and semi sweet chocolate chips.

Next, layer with delicious, creamy peanut butter cream cheese frosting, and you'll end up with something like this.

Frost the entire cake, and leave about 3/4 cup of the frosting to decorate.

The great thing about this frosting is that, despite containing cream cheese and peanut butter, it's not all that tacky.  Once you frost your entire cake and get it as smooth as you can, let it set up in the fridge for a few hours.  When you are ready to top with your ganache, you can pull it out and treat it like you would a butter cream.  Grab a moistened paper towel and smooth down any imperfections.

Once that's taken care of, get your cream on the stove so you can make your peanut butter chocolate ganache!

Pour your chips into a bowl and once the cream is just about to boil, pour it into the bowl.  Whisk (or use your mixer to whisk it) until combined.  If you are using a mixer, keep it on a low speed in order to avoid bubbles from forming.

Wait a few minutes for it to thicken up and slowly drizzle over the top of the cake letting some of the ganache drop down the sides.  Let it set up in the fridge before decorating.

Do you think Grandma would be mad if it had a slice taken out of it?

Now it's time to tap into your inner cake artist (cause that's a thing, right?) and make it look all pretty.  I went with the peanut butter frosting dollops with Reese's cups smashed into them. 

I'm sure you can come up with other significantly more creative ideas.

I'm less about the creativity, more about the eating. 







Lastly, take a picture of the final product, artistically avoiding showing your pathetic attempt at "Happy Birthday" written in the middle.  Who am I kidding?  Written slightly to the right of the middle of the cake.  It would be less pathetic and embarrassing had it been poorly written but centered.  Couldn't even manage that. 

Ok- so final verdict: SO FREAKING GOOD.  I was a little worried that a simple cake would pale in comparison to some of my recent endeavors (See: putting an entire cheesecake in the middle of the cake) but it didn't.  This recipe reminded me that simple ol' cake and frosting go together like peanut butter and jelly.  No no!  Like peanut butter and cake!

And it's recipe time!


Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips
Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/too-much-chocolate-cake/Detail.aspx

Ingredients
1 package dark chocolate cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (8 ounce) container of sour cream (full fat)
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup peanut  butter chips
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix everything but the chips until combined.  Add in the chips and pour into two greased 8 inch round cake pans.  Bake as directed on the box.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted from: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/
This is the blog entry that inspired the entire creation! 

Ingredients 
10 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
5-6 cups powdered sugar (I used one full 1 lb box plus two cups)
7 ounces smooth peanut butter (I used skippy)
1.5 tsp vanillla

Directions
Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy.  Add the sugar one up at a time, scraping the sides well reserving 1 cup for the end.  Beat until fluffy, about 4-5 min.

Add the peanut butter and the vanilla and beat until smooth.  Add the final cup (or a little more, or less) until the frosting reaches desired consistency. 

Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chocolate-ganache/Detail.aspx

Ingredients
One half pint heavy whipping cream
3.5 ounces peanut butter chips
5.5 ounces bitter sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

Directions
Place chips in a bowl with mixer handy.  Heat cream on the stove over medium until it just about boils.  Pour over the chips and whisk until combined.

Cake Batter Popcorn and Chubby Hubby Popcorn

So once upon a time I decided to prematurely reinstate Cheat Day after being on probation, clearly disobeying my well intentioned nutritionist and letting my cravings for cinnamon rolls and beer prevail.  Shoot.  Oh well.  I was a pretty epic day, in more way than one:

Woke up at 4:00 in the freaking morning.  Husband was altogether too chipper.  Felt urge to knock him down a couple pegs/kick him in shins.  Drank coffee instead.

Much stretching and coffee drinking and aspirin taking occurred in next half hour.

Kathy (running buddy, friend, ride) shows up and hauls my butt downtown to park the car near the finish line of the impending race.

Bus (smelly, hot, full of more chipper people) takes us to the start line.  There is something about sitting on a bus for a half an hour that is extremely unsettling, when you know that your own way back is to run.

But we did it- we ran the 12.4 miles back to the finish line!  It was hot, and humid, and kind of really awesome.  My three awesome running buddies and I finished and actually had a pretty darn good time people watching, chatting, and accomplishing something pretty amazing.  We trained together, started together and finished together.

So after all this, and about an hour of locating my family in a crowd of thousands of sweaty, disoriented people throwing back the free beer, the whole "no cheat day thing" went out the window.  And it went something like this:
- Cinnamon Rolls and coffee after the run
- Almond Bars from freezer
- A rouge Cadbury Egg that somehow had managed to avoid being eaten until now
- Salami
- Chicken Salad wrap
- Philly Cheese Steak
- Sweet Potato Fries
- Nachos
- Apple Crisp with whipped cream that my mom forgot at my house and is now gone

Annnnnd popcorn.  But not just any popcorn.  Popcorn that was totally not my idea that I stole from another blog! Cake Batter Popcorn!  And, since I was popping up some pop corn anyway, I decided to dig through the pantry to see if inspiration would strike.  I ended up making up some "Chubby Hubby" popcorn which was great, but I found so many things that I could have put in the popcorn, but I had to hold myself back.

Also, I think I might have a hoarding problem.  It's not normal to have 3.5 packages of Ghiriadelli chocolate chips on hand the weekend after you made a recipe aimed at using up the chocolate chips in your pantry.  I also neglected to include the toffee I found, several packages of girl scout cookies, as well as both Christmas AND Easter candy (ok- I used a little of the Easter Candy.)

So here's my journey into the wild world of pouring melted white chocolate over candy and popcorn.  In no way could this recipe NOT turn out delicious.

Cake Batter Popcorn and Chubby Hubby Popcorn
Start by gathering up your mix ins.  For this recipe, that'll be sprinkles for the Cake Batter popcorn, and for the Chubby Hubby you'll need Reese's candy along with chocolate covered pretzels filled with peanut butter.  Chop up whatever needs to be chopped up:

Next, pop your popcorn and pour it into a bowl.

I first poured mine onto the counter top and transferred it into the bowl, avoiding any unpopped kernels.




Start melting your white chocolate over a double boiler.

As the chocolate is melting, throw half of your mix ins into the bowl with the popcorn.

If you are doing the cake batter kind, once the chocolate is melted, wisk in 1/4 cup cake batter and sprinkle another 1/8 cup over the popcorn itself.

Pour the white chocolate over the popcorn and mix until coated.  Pour the mixture onto some parchment paper to let it harden up.

Sprinkle the rest of the candy over the top and you are done!



You can drizzle some dark chocolate over the popcorn if you'd like.  I'd be ok with that.

Yum.

So this was way easy, and way fun.  You can be creative and throw in whatever kind of candy you like.  I took out about half the cake batter kind all on my very own, and a good portion of the chubby hubby.  This is pure salty sweet perfection.  It's recipe time!

Cake Batter Popcorn

Recipe adapted from: http://buddingbaketress.blogspot.com/2011/05/birthday-cake-popcorn.html

Ingredients:

One bag butter popcorn

3/8 cup yellow cake mix

8 ounces White Chocolate

4 tbsp sprinkles

Chocolate for drizzling (optional)

Directions

Pop popcorn and sift out unpopped or burned kernels.  Put into a large bowl and top with 2 tbsp of the sprinkles and 1/8 cup cake mix.  Melt white chocolate and pour over popcorn mixture.  Stir until coated and pour mixture onto parchment paper.  Top with remaining sprinkles and drizzle with chocolate if desired.  Let cool and break into pieces.

Chubby Hubby Popcorn

Ingredients

One bag butter popcorn

8 ounces White Chocolate

2.5 ounces of Reese's Candy's (about 4 peanut butter eggs)

3.5 ounces chocolate covered, peanut butter filled pretzels 

Chocolate for drizzling (optional)

Directions

Chop candy.  Pop popcorn and sift out unpopped or burned kernels.  Put into a large bowl and top with half of the mix ins.  Melt white chocolate and pour over popcorn mixture.  Stir until coated and pour mixture onto parchment paper.  Top with remaining candy and drizzle with chocolate if desired.  Let cool and break into pieces.