God Bless the 4th of July!

The 4th of July is easily my favorite holiday. I have loved it since I was little. This year we mixed it up a little and started a whole new batch of traditions. After a lifetime of going to the Provo Freedom Festival Grand Parade we decided to bag it.  The arduous task of saving a spot was painful. Someone had to argue all night with college kids on roadside space, only to be too tired to enjoy it the next day. Although me and my siblings loved the parade, our children sat there asking for snow cones every 10 seconds, only to ask to go home halfway through.   I was uneasy with giving up the parade because it was such a steadfast tradition in the family, and I felt it was a real patriotic gesture, so this year we decided to decorate our own float and enter the children's parade. It was a raging success, the children and adults loved decorating it,and they even gave us a trophy (they weren't giving out rankings, so we went ahead and gave ourselves 1st place. We're number one! we're number one!) 

So now that the patriotic gesture was out of the way a week early, all that was left was to party and eat!

The night before the 4th the whole crew came up to my parents house for a camp out in the back yard. We ate my sheesh kabob minus the kabob (which I will post in the coming week) with egg rice Watermelon and corn on the cob of course!
During the camp out we had a talent competition and story telling contest to which the children were very eager to participate in. It was quite a variety show, from a six year old singing "America the Beautiful"  A Capella to a 10 year old lip syncing to Weird Al Yankovich. It was great.

I also cooked for the BBQ lunch the next day which was pulled pork and a bunch of great side dishes (pasta salad, coleslaw, fruit, corn, rolls). That is when I debuted my crowning achievement, the Star Spangled Cake! Feel free to count the stripes, no need to count the stars please. I gave been looking at star spangled cake recipes for a while, but I decided long ago, I am a cake mix girl, so here is what I did.

I mixed 3 cake boxes according to direction but added lemon zest and substituted 1/4 c lemon juice for some of the water.

 I covered 2 cookie sheets (jelly roll) with parchment that I greased in shortening and floured. That way I was positive I could get the cakes out of the pan (it worked perfectly).

I split the batter between the 2 sheets and baked them at 20-25 minutes till they were done.

Meanwhile, I made lemon curd I doubled this recipe, but didn't need it all for the cake.

Lemon curd filling (Paula deans recipe)

3 large lemons, zested and juiced

1 c sugar

1/2 butter melted

4 eggs

Using a food processor, pulse together sugar and zest. Add lemon juice and eggs and blend. Then add melted butter slowly pulsing as you go. Then thicken on the stove over simmering water. (put in a bowl that can sit over a pot of simmering water) Stir often till thicken. Paula's recipe says 5 minutes, but it took me much longer.

Once the cakes and lemon curd were completely cooled, it was time to assemble.  First, you need to wash your berries, and give them time to dry. Also you need to sweeten and whip about 5 cups of cream really stiff. 

Time to assemble:  Liberally add the lemon curd to the top of the first layer (put your first layer on your serving tray) and carefully top it with the second cake. Liberally frost the whole cake with the whipped cream, reserving some cream for piping.

I put on 49 blueberries, spacing them evenly to make a square in the left corner. Next make seven rows of raspberries evenly spacing them down the cake. Put the remaining cream in a bag with a star cake decorating tip and pipe the cream between the red stripes and the blueberries and on the bottom edge of the cake. I gotta say, it was pretty dang fun, and everyone was extremely impressed, but only because I kept fishing for compliments, "have you seen my cake yet?" I made the cake the day before and kept it in the fridge.

Now if you were to use strawberries, from my experience, once you cut strawberries the longer they sit out, they bleed and get soggy. So you can't use strawberries unless you put them on the cake just before serving.

Even with all the food in my belly we managed to go to another BBQ and do some fireworks, it was an amazing holiday, and after cooking for 2 days straight and doing about 8 loads of dishes, I am pooped!

Welcome Summer

Summer is officially in full swing.  Yesterday we had a extravaganza (yes you must fan out your hands like fireworks and say extravaganza with enthusiasm)  for all the kids on the mountain to welcome summer.  My friend Rebecca made the giant sign so the children could break through the sign to start the party and welcome summer. We had food, jumpy castle, pinata, water balloon dodge ball, cotton candy,  and cupcakes.

 and what I was most excited about, we let every kid make their own cup of ice cream with liquid nitrogen. 

The first question is, how do you make ice cream with liquid nitrogen? You put everything into a cup that you would put into ice cream, then you add liquid nitrogen; you stir it up while it bubbles and boils, toils and troubles,  and walaw! Ice cream! 

Now the second question you might be asking yourself is, how the crap did you get liquid nitrogen?  That I can not entirely divulge, but you need to know a chemical engineer who is just a big kid, I happen to know someone like that.

There are all kinds of complicated ice cream recipes, which I intend on trying all of them when I get a conventional, plug it in the socket ice cream maker (my birthday is Aug 23rd hint hint) but we stuck the basics, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla. Or to be more basic, half and half.

Ice Cream Base

6 c half and half

2 c sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

I poured two inches of this into a Styrofoam cup,  add let them put in some mix ins, various candy bars, caramel, chocolate etc.  (of course they all picked gummy bears and marshmallows) Then I poured in liquid nitrogen, some had to come back for a little more nitrogen, but after some stirring, they had ice cream. I saved the best mix in for the mothers, lemon/pineapple, which I will divulge at a later blog post.

So welcome summer! I am in love you! and not just because I can sleep in and tell my kids to make their own cereal!

Another from the Worldwide Cookbook

Sunday's are so lame without Fairb. I can handle the weekdays, but the weekends stink. So last Sunday, I spent experimented with recipes. I made another cinnamon roll recipe from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, "Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls" on page 28. What is cool about this recipe is that it is very simple, and can be made into a "mix" to be given away, the woman who wrote the recipe would use the mix as a young woman fundraiser.  Luck for everyone involved, my brother and sister and their respective families showed up on my door step to enjoy the warm cinnamon rolls. Making Sunday not so lame anymore.

Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls

1 white or yellow cake mix

2 pkg yeast (or 2 tablespoons, I would use instant yeast if you are going the "mix" route. Yeast you know is good)

1 t salt

2 c flour

2 1/4 c warm water

3 c flour

butter (about a stick)

brown sugar 

cinnamon

Combine the first 4 ingredients. Add  water and mix. Add 3 c flour (switch to dough hook) and knead till well mixed and smooth.  Put into a greased bowl and let raise till double.  Push down and shape into a rectangle. Spread with butter then brown sugar, then cinnamon.  Roll into a long loaf and cut into 1 1/2 inch slices.

Let rise until double and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes about 18 rolls.
Now I topped the rolls with my sour cream glaze:

1/2 stick butter melted

big spoonful of sour cream

about a 1/2 bag powdered sugar

splash of vanilla

milk to thin accordingly

If you don't know how to turn the above into frosting, find a movie on youtube.

you can do banana pudding like this, ooh pretty . . .

So early yesterday morning I took Fairb to the airport.  He is going to be gone for three weeks! to make matters worse, my parents are also going to be gone for three weeks. that means I have no one too cook for! (my children don't count, they only eat cereal, candy and dirt) Last night however, I had plenty of people to cook for, about 40 people to be precise. I cooked for ward temple night. Whenever our ward goes to the temple they are shocked by how we can get so many to show up, we offer dinner after, duh!  So I cooked Grecian chicken, with some fresh green beans and watermelon, some marinated cucumbers and watermelon. For dessert I made the magnolia's banana pudding but instead of making a huge pan of it, I dropped the nilla wafers and bananas in the bottom of a plastic cup and topped it with the pudding. Then made is oh so beautiful buy topping it with a strawberry. It worked perfectly!

What can I say, it was a hit. I am warming myself up to cook for 100 people for my brother-in-laws wedding in three weeks.  . .

Krista's Caramel Brownies

Marrying into my family is not an easy thing.  Everyone gets scrutinized, no one is safe. When Lisa brought home Troy he was instantly made fun of because he was a male cheerleader for one year at University of Utah. A cheerleader? Give me a break dude!

Laurie, who was scared poopless to come around our family, was instantly mocked because when she went out to dinner with our family for the first time all she ordered was a baked potato and put ketchup on it.  We all order steak and you are getting a potato, are you serious chick?

When I started to date Fairb, my dad took me to dinner and said, " I wouldn't give this guy a no, but a HELL no."  My grandmother asked the family to fast and pray that I would STOP dating him. I mean he had a tattoo for goodness sake!

Krista had it no easier, we weren't too sure that she was the one for Sonny. Too quiet, too shy. We thought she would turn him into a seminary teacher, and we wanted him to be a doctor.

It wasn't until she brought us these brownies was she accepted into the circle. Now we insist that she bring them to every party. This isn't Krista's first appearance on the blog, she also taught me how to make pizza.

These brownies are easy and delicious.

Krista's Caramel Brownies

1 chocolate cake box mix

3/4 c evaporated milk

50 unwrapped caramels (one bag)

1/3 c evaporated milk

chocolate chips

Small ingredient list huh? Now looking at it, no oil or butter, these are kinda low fat! Sweet! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While your kids are painstakingly unwrapping the caramels, trying not to take a bite out of each of them, you can mix the batter.  The cake mix, and 3/4 c evaporated milk.  Mix it with a spoon, not a whisk, because the batter is extremely thick. 

Spread the batter into you favorite brownie pan that has been sprayed with Pam (I am using my edge pan, thanks Sherrie again!)

Bake in the oven for 6 minutes. Meanwhile, add 1/3 c evaporated milk to the unwrapped caramels and melt till smooth on the stove (use med-low so they don't burn). When the brownies have cooked 6 minutes, pull them out and sprinkle the desired amount of chocolate chips and pour the caramel on top.

Pop them back in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they start to put away from the edges and you poke a toothpick in and don't see brownie batter.

Of course eventually, all the in-laws were accepted into the family.  It turns out our initial instincts were dead wrong on all of them. Everyone married their perfect spouse.

red velvet cupcakes

I have had an absolute obsession with cupcakes lately!  It all started when my friend Kris gave me the Magnolia cookbook. Oddly enough, I tried the vanilla cupcake recipe and hated it! I called for unsalted butter (which I could accept because most baking recipes do, I just never adhere, unsalted butter is just a tease) but there was no salt in the WHOLE recipe. My instincts were telling me no, but the bakery's notoriety was pressuring me to follow the recipe as written. I even followed the recipe for the salt-less frosting.  So in the end I should have gone with my instincts, they were terrible, I threw most of them away.  One day I will try it again with salt. Now I need to go to New York to try their vanilla cupcakes to taste if they are truly making money off these flavorless cupcakes, or if they are jerking our chains.

Now the same friend, brought me red velvet Sprinkles cupcakes ( don't you wish Kris was your friend,  are you cool enough? I could introduce you.) from Arizona. They were incredible! I was dying, they were so good. I wouldn't even let the children look at them.

Next I heard about this bakery in Provo. They were out of red velvet, so I got the vanilla. They were pretty dang good, but they were 2.25 a piece! and these are pretty tiny cupcakes. Holy Moley! Who do they think they are? Just because you were featured on Rachael Ray doesn't make you exclusive! (yes I am still horribly bitter, have you been watching the competition? pulleezze!)

So I returned to the magnolia cookbook to try their red velvet cupcakes (this recipe called for salt), and topped it with cream cheese frosting.

Here is the recipe ( is this legal? I sure hope so)

3 1/3 c cake flour

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/4 c sugar

3 eggs

6 T red food coloring (I used two small bottles, which was about 4 T)

3 T cocoa

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk

1 1/2 t cider vinegar

1 1/2 t baking  soda

Sift the flour (that is the first time I have ever sifted anything in my life, I'm still not convinced it does anything) and set aside. In a big bowl combine sugar and softened butter and cream till fluffy (about 5 min). Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

In a different bowl combine food coloring, vanilla and cocoa, then add to batter and beat well. In a measuring cup combine buttermilk and salt. In a small bowl combine baking soda and vinegar.

Add flour and buttermilk to sugar in parts, by alternating flour and buttermilk. With each addition, beat till just combined.  Next add the vinegar  and beat till smooth.

Put into lined cupcake tins and bake for about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Top with cream cheese frosting.

So they are good, but they weren't sprinkles good. I keep working on it!

strawberry shortcake

Have you noticed strawberries are on? I don't make jam, so you can go ahead and make your own jam and bring me some. Strawberry shortcake is one of my family's favorite desserts, so much so we don't wait around for when strawberries are cheap, thank the world for Costco.

Now when I was a kid, we used to eat strawberry short cake with angel food cake, or those gross twinkie like sponge cakes they always display next to the strawberries. My mother should be ashamed. At least she didn't use cool whip.

So the family has evolved into a REAL old fashioned shortcake.  Here is the ingredient list for the shortcake.

2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 T baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 stick butter (cold and cubed)

2 eggs

1/2 c buttermilk

Using your food processor, combine flour, sugar and salt. Next cut the butter into the flour by pulsing the food processor, it should look like this.

Now add the buttermilk and eggs and run the processor until it forms a ball. Now you can either press this into a cake pan, or drop tablespoon size balls like you would a cookie, like this....
Bake in a 350 degree oven till the tops are lightly browned (about 15 minutes for the cookie size, 20 minutes for the cake pan size)

Now all you have to do is slice your strawberries, and lightly dust them with sugar. Whip a pint of heavy cream with a little sugar and vanilla and you have dessert!

Now this Sunday I experimented with a little addition to the dessert, custard cream. It was an excellent addition! However, I want to tweak the recipe a little, so stay tuned for the perfected custard cream recipe!

My new cookbook

So my good friend Kris surprised me with a cookbook out of the blue.  I was thrilled!  I think it was a hint to bake her something :). I have heard of Magnolia cupcakes before so I was so excited to start trying! Kris told me that the first thing I have to try is the banana pudding.  Mama loves pudding, so I tried it, it was incredible! I don't know if it completely illegal to post someone else's recipe, but it was soooo good,  I can't keep it to myself! So thank you Kris for the cookbook, I will bring you some pudding soon!

Ingredient list

1   14.5 oz  can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 c ice cold water

one small box instant vanilla pudding

3 c heavy cream

1 box Nilla wafers

4 c sliced bananas

The good thing is, it is so easy to make! First combine sweetened condensed milk and cold water. Beat with an electric mixers until well combined and smooth. Add pudding powder and beat some more (about 2 minutes) until very smooth. Refrigerate for AT LEAST 3 hours, or overnight.  When you are ready to assemble the banana pudding, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold cream into the pudding until combined and there are no streaks.

Now get your prettiest deep glass dish and get ready to assemble. Wafers, bananas, pudding, wafers, bananas, pudding, wafers, bananas, pudding. 

Now it has to the be chilled again to let the wafers soak up the pudding. About 4 hours is needed. Now the recipes says, no more that 8 hours, but I ate this pudding for 3 days and tastes all good.

Now Paula Dean would call this a "sugar free" recipe because the recipe doesn't call for sugar. It is really sweet, but I loves me sweet! It has been about a weeks since I made it and just blogging about it makes me want to make some more . . . Think . . do I have nilla wafers ? I got to run to the store and get me some wafters. Stay tuned for when I try the cupcakes!

KITCHEN TOOL OF THE WEEK: this awesome brownie pan

You have admit, you love the sky mall magazine. You look at it on the airplane because you have nothing else to do, and you manage to see a ton of things that you realize you totally need even though 10 minutes before you didn't even know they existed.  Lucky for your bank account you are on a airplane therefore have no way (Internet, phone) to actually purchase those things, and you get off the plane forgetting everything you are dying to have.

This brownie pan I saw in a sky mall magazine when I flew to Seattle and I knew I needed it. However, I did not purchase it from the magazine, but I also did not forget about it.  I still wanted it even though much time had passed. 

We were in Seattle with a nice couple and I mentioned it to my friend Sherrie. Well today the wonderful FedEx lady brought one to my house and it was sent to me by Sherrie! Isn't that sweet? It completely made my day, and I immediately made some brownies (sorry folks, just the box kind, I have no recipe for you, I have never eaten a brownie better than Betty Crocker anyway, if you have, send me the recipe!)! I haven't even thanked Sherrie yet, I just thought it was so kind and thoughtful. 

Anyway, the premise behind the pan is that every brownie will have the chewy edges that we all know and love.  Cool right? It is a standing rule in my house that only mom gets to eat the corners of the brownies,  so now I get to eat the whole pan! Yippie!

world wide ward cook book

I love to read cookbooks. I especially love to read ward cookbooks, because I like to know what people are cooking, and what they feel the best thing they cook is. So if you ever have a ward or family cook book you are getting rid of, give it to me! I love them! So when I saw the "Worldwide Ward Cook Book"  at Costco, I had to get it. Of course I loved reading it, but like most ward cookbooks, there weren't many "winning recipes" I counted 15 recipes that called for a can of soup. Find me another recipe book that has that many recipes that call for a can of soup besides the "Cambells" cookbook. If the recipe didn't call for a can of soup it called for a packet of dried onion soup of a pack of Italian dressing mix. Needless to say, it was terribly cliche with recipes like funeral potatoes, tater tot casserole and hot dog casserole.  I don't think there was an entree that even inspired me to make something new. I can say that dessert and bread recipes got me a little excited. In fact, I made some cinnamon rolls.  I kind of went off a recipe in the book, but it called for margarine, I don't do margarine. I kind of used the recipe on page 33, it wasn't anything special, I am sure there are better sweet roll recipes out there. (send them to me please!) what was good was the icing I invented to put on top!

Cinnamon buns

4 c bread flour

1 T instant yeast (the kind you can mix in with flour without proofing it, its the bomb!)

1/2 c sugar

1 t salt

combine then add .  . .

1/3 c melted butter

2 eggs

1 c warm milk

Combine with dough hook (or by hand) and knead till dough is smooth. Put in a greased bowl and let raise till double. Punch down and roll out into a rectangle about 21 inches wide and 16 inches tall.  Liberally spread melted butter over it, then liberally sprinkle it with brown sugar(I would say double what you do if you were making cinnamon toast) , then sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll it up tight like a sleeping bag and slice into about 12 rolls. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment (you will be glad you did when it comes clean up time) and let rise till double. Bake for about 15 minutes at 375 till nice and browned.

Sour cream glaze

Meanwhile, melt a 1/4 c butter and a big spoonful (1/4 to 1/3 c ish) sour cream. When the butter is melted (sour cream will be softened) add about a 1/2 a bag of powdered sugar. Combine, then thin out with enough milk to make it a little more runny than you would make regular frosting. Frost the rolls while they are still hot!

Don't go buy the cookbook, just come borrow mine, unless you are a BIG cream of chicken soup fan!

What is ganache? ganache is good.

So I was dosing on nitrous oxide at the dentist (good thing my religion prevents me from using drugs and alcohol because I would be an addict, I love me some dentist chair)  All the while watching some random cooking demonstration on PBS.  The woman was making all kinds of wonderful things with chocolate. She made a chocolate cake using the exact modified cake recipe that I always use. Right there I knew we were kindred spirits (its amazing what kind of emotions the laughing gas will evoke).  Instead of frosting the cake with a regular chocolate butter cream frosting, she used ganache. Only a week earlier I was questioning what ganache was when I was watching celebrity apprentice (I how embarrassing to admit, could Donald Trump love himself anymore?)  and I saw some cupcakes filled with ganache and didn't know what it was. So this beautiful woman on PBS was basically  summoning  me to make ganache. I accepted the call.

Unfortunately, my ganache wasn't as pretty as hers was, but boy did it taste good. It blew regular frosting out of the water.

Ganache is basically heavy whipping cream and melted chocolate. I used 2 cups of whipping cream and 3 big symphony chocolate bars that I ran through the food processor till it was chopped up.

So you bring your whipping cream to a fairly violent boil, turn it off and add the chopped up chocolate and stir until smooth. Once it cools you could use it as is to GLAZE a cake. Its pretty runny. Now the beautiful PBS lady whipped hers and it was light and fluffy. I tried to whip mine and it would take much air, it got lighter in color and a little more fluffy, but not as good as I liked, so I still need to work on it. I frosted my three layers with the ganache and served it after sunday dinner. Everyone oohed and aahhed.

One day I hope to meet my kindred spirit, whom ever she may be . . . . 

Late night snack

Smores around the camp fire are not good. You are fooling yourself when you say they are. The marshmallows are usually burned, the chocolate never melts, and they always some how gets a little dirt or ash in it.

Smores in the oven however are sooooo good! It is the perfect "I need a little something" snack. I make them for myself all the time.  What is great about them is that they are fairly small calorically, a small square of chocolate, one marshmallow and 1 graham cracker broken in half. Although it is small, it is very satisfying (satisfying as a dessert should satisfy, not a meal). 

So next time you are at the store, stock up on big marshmallows, symphony chocolate, and graham crackers. I put the graham cracker on a baking sheet, one square of chocolate with a marshmallow on top, and pop it in the oven. I turn it on to 350, and by the time the oven is heated up, it is ready. Top it with the other half of the graham cracker and you are good to go.

Make a whole tray for dessert, and everyone will love you.

Chocolate Bunt Cake

My extended family likes their frost THICK! I am talking 50/50, a little cake with your frosting type deal.  As for myself, I appreciate the cake, and could even do without frosting sometimes. If this resonates with you, make this bunt cake. This recipe may look familiar, it is the same formula I use with pretty much all cake recipes.

Chocolate Bunt Cake

1 chocolate cake box mix

1 small box chocolate pudding

4 eggs

1/2 c oil

1/4 c water

1 c sour cream

1 half bag chocolate chips (optional)

Combine the first 6 ingredients and mix well, the batter will be thick. Fold in chocolate chips. Put evenly into a pam sprayed bunt pan. Cook for about 40 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean. Let is sit for about 10 minutes to cool, then invert onto a plate. Dust with powdered sugar.

note: to dust, put powdered sugar into a sieve and shake over the cake. 

what to do with that lame fondue pot you got at your wedding

For a little family fun, we busted out the fondue pot for the first time.  I actually really like fondue of all types, not just chocolate fondue. However, I would much rather have my sweet heart take me to the melting pot that make my own. The chocolate fondue was fun, and the kids loved it, and so did mom.

Ingredient list:

3/4 c half and half

1/2 c heavy cream

2 big symphony chocolate bars (about 12-13 oz chocolate)

The first thing you need to do is fine chop or shave your chocolate. I did this by sending the chocolate through the shredder with the food processor. The finer you get the chocolate the easier it will melt.  I have the electric cuisinart  fondue pot, I think a crock pot would work pretty good, but you may need to heat up the cream on the stove first. Heat up the cream and half and half till bubbles start to form on the edges, turn it down and immediately add the shaved chocolate and stir. Wala! you have fondue! 

We dipped graham crackers, marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, apples, and gummy worms. I baked some brownies to dip, but they weren't done in time.

Carrott cake with buttermilk glaze

As you know, I go to a lot of banquet type dinners, which means I have had a lot of bad carrot cake. This carrot cake is not bad, it is good. One good thing about it is that it has a little twist. This adapted from a recipe I read in a cooking magazine (I think it was gourmet, I love cooking magazines with all my heart). Their recipe called to make regular frosting, but with the glaze, I thought that would be way too sugary, so I changed it to a cream cheese cream. I also added the nutmeg and clove to the glaze.

Ingredient list:

Cake:

2 c flour

2 t baking soda

2 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 c buttermilk

3/4 c vegetable oil

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple in juice

2 c carrots shredded

1 c chopped pecans

glaze:

1 stick butter

1/2 c buttermilk

1 c sugar

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 t vanilla

dash nutmeg

dash clove

cream cheese cream:

pint heavy whipping cream

half a block softened cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 t vanilla

For the cake, combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, sugar, buttermilk and oil. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat well. Fold in the carrots, pineapple along with the juice, and pecans. Transfer to a greased cake pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Loosely cover with foil, or put a cookie sheet over it (that is what I do) and bake for about 15 more minutes, test it with a tooth pick to make sure its done.

Meanwhile prepare the glaze: Combine everything but the baking soda in a sauce pan on the stove. Bring to a boil and allow it to boil for about a minute. Turn off the heat a add the baking soda (this will make it grow, so do it in a big pot). When the cake is done, poke holes in it all over and pour the glaze over it so it goes down into the holes (I use a chop stick or a bamboo skewer).

When you are ready to serve it, combine the cream cheese cream ingredients and beat them until they become stiff (not too stiff, that is butter!) and serve with the cake.

Encounters with white chocolate macadamia cookies

In the last two days, I have had two good encounters with white chocolate macadamia cookies. The first one was at the Jazz game last night and the second one was a Sundance today.  I thought to myself, I never in my life have made a a white chocolate macadamia cookies! So today I did. These cookies are inspired by the rookie cookies chocolate chip cookies, that I have been meaning to try for weeks but haven't gotten around to. Her recipe intrigued me because it calls for a vanilla pudding mix. I didn't change anything from her recipe aside from substituting the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, and I made them into huge cookies.  

Ingredient list:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

half bag white chocolate chips

1 c macadamia nuts

Now you can cook these just the regular way, golf ball size dough, 375 degrees for 9-10 min. I decided to make ginormous size cookies. I used my big ice cream scoop rather than my mini scoop, (probably about 2 1/2 tablespoons) I baked them for 14 minutes at 375.  I also chilled the dough before I  baked them (heavens sake just TRY chilling your dough first!)

So now that I have made my first white chocolate macadamia cookies I can say,suck it Energy Solutions Arena and Sundance, my cookies were gooood!

valentine cuppycakes

For a little family activity tonight we decorated cuppycakes. I used the same recipe for my chocolate cake but did it for vanilla (using vanilla pudding, obviously) and I halved it. I used the big cupcake tin (has anyone ever bought the big tin cupcake liners? if you have tell me where!) Nothing is more appetizing that seeing a huge cupcake! I make a basic butter cream frosting,

2 sticks butter softened

1 bag powdered sugar

1 T vanilla (don't use dark vanilla or it makes you white frosting poopy color, use clear vanilla)

approx 2/3 c milk

pinch of salt

 Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, slowly add powdered sugar to the butter, add vanilla, now slowly add milk until the frosting is the desired consistency.

Use the gel food coloring instead of the liquid stuff, often they sell it over by the crafts (like at wall mart for instance) instead of the food section.

Kids had a blast, we delivered some to the neighbors, and they tasted good! I could only eat about a third of one, so it will make good breakfast tomorrow morning!

a cake from scratch . . .CURSE YOU!

Looking through a cooking magazine I came across a beautiful lemon three layer cake.  I love, love to frost cake, the satisfaction of the motion, I could do it all day! I have never made a cake from scratch. I am a "modified betty crockers moves" kind of cake maker.  However, this lemon cake was calling my name. So I went a bought some cake flour and was so excited to succeed at this cake, because I'm perfect right?  As you know, I not that good at measuring and following recipes, and you also know that cakes are a science and require strict following of recipes. So I pulled my three round cakes out of the oven, two of them were a little sunk in the middle.  It wasn't too bad, I thought I could still save it. So I go to shake the cakes out of their pan to cool and for the life of me, I could not get them out! Pam wasn't enough! I am assuming when they say grease and flour the pan they mean it! Betty Crocker doesn't really mean it!  So alas, the cake only could come out in pieces. So I made some lemon curd, whipped some cream and turned the cake into a triffle. To which my mother said was the best dessert she had ever had.

The cake tasted really good, but to be honest, with all the grief gave me it tasted pretty much like a modified betty crocker cake. Think about it, what is a box cake? Pre-measured cake flour, sugar, salt and leavening. So I think I am sticking with betty crocker, this is my modified betty crocker cake here.

the super secret family sugar cookie recipe!

So my sweet friend Lori made me and my children some adorable sugar cookies. While I was eating mine, she told me how she came across the recipe. While she was in college her room mate made some wonderful soft, moist sugar cookies. When Lori asked for the recipe, the roommate refused, claiming it was a super secret family recipe. Although annoyed, Lori respected the roommates wished and left it alone. No sooner later that another roommate offered the holder or the super secret family sugar cookie recipe 50 dollars for a copy of the recipe. The greedy roommate agreed, and accepted the money in exchange for the recipe. Lori disgusted by the roommates acceptance of the money, realized the that the recipe wasn't so super secret after all, and decided to sneak into her room and steal the recipe for herself. I guess you could say it was kind of like civil disobedience.

So thank you to Lori and her bravery for sharing this recipe, because they are good!

1 c butter, softened

1 1/2 c sugar

Cream together, add

Add 3 eggs

Cream together

combine:

2 t cream of tarter

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla

3 1/2 cup flour

add to creamed mixture. Then slowly add 2 more cups flour.  Chill till ready to cut cookies.  Roll out and cut in you favorite shapes,  ( I would assume about 1/3 inch thick) and bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

Frosting:

1/2 c butter softened

3 c powdered sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla

2 T milk

3 oz soft cream cheese

whip all together till combined and frost on your sugar cookies!

 

The rookie cookie's cookies

So in addition to loving to blog about food, I have recently loved reading other peoples blogs about food. One blog that has particularly impressed me is the rookie cookie. Anyhow, today I tried one of her cookie recipes, however I changed it according to how I like to make cookies. I want cookies chewy! They have to taste good not just out of the oven, but also the next day. Not to say her recipe isn't good the next day, I just didn't want to take the risk. I also doubled the salt, salt is my secret lover and I can not deny it. I know one of these days I am going to try a recipe exactly the way it was written, must . . . follow . . . .instructions. . . . resist . . . . extra ingredients . . . . . What was the most significant was she told me that kraft has come out with "Caramel Bits", so no more unwrapping caramels! Genius! priceless! So this is her recipe that inspired me. These are the changes I made:

Ingredients:

2 c bread flour

2/3 c unsweetened dutched cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 T milk

2 t vanilla extract

1 c butter melted

half a bag Caramel bits (or you can chop up caramel, but go to wal-mart, buy the bits!)

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl combine, sugar and butter and blend till smooth. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, combine till smooth. Slowly combine flour mixture till combined, add caramel bits. Drop onto two cookies sheets and chill in the freezer till your oven heats to 375 degrees. Cook for 10-11 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet. Enjoy.

They were indeed a hit! Thanks Rookie Cookie!