Stick To It

After all of the frivolous grocery shopping that Glenn and I did (spending 40 dollars, but saving 50, on nothing but soda, cream cheese, butter, and all sorts of baking chips) I decided it would be a good idea to put some of that cream cheese to use. At my bridal shower, what feels like a million years ago, my wonderful Gma gave me the Taste of Home Cookbook. While I do not cook, ever, the book contains a wealth of knowledge. It tells you all about different kinds of spices, cuts of meat, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes I just sit down and read all the random facts. Suffice it to say, I really only use the sections that have baking in them. Ever since I first opened the book though, I have wanted to make the Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake that is accompanied by a nice picture.

Well my friends, today I made that coffee cake. I even got to bust out my awesome food processor to make the crumb part, and that was fun. However, when I finished making the batter I was instructed by the all knowing book to put the batter in a greased springform pan, and spread the batter around and 2 inches up the sides. This was not good. The batter is SUPER sticky. I even put on some rubber gloves and greased 'em up with a ton of shortening, and still, it stuck to me. Then I thought to myself, there is no way I am going to get this batter to stick 2 inches up the pan. So I mushed and I mushed and I mushed until I had what sort of resembled crust going up the side of the pan. We'll see.

*** Update - This is really really tasty. However, the bread part of it cooks much faster than the cream cheese part. It oozes everywhere, but it tastes better all runny. I am going to adapt this into a muffin recipe so it is easier to handle and enjoy.

Here is the recipe for your own enjoyment, but don't say I didn't warn you about the stickiness.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

2 1/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
3 T packed brown sugar (I added this in for personal reasons)
3/4 C cold butter

Mix flour and sugars together until well blended. Cut in cold butter until mixture forms crumbs. Remove 1 C and set aside to use as topping.

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, extract, and egg to the crumb mixture and mix well until a very thick batter forms. Pour into a greased 9 inch springform pan and push batter 2 inches up the sides (I will be impressed if you can actually manage that.) Set aside.

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1/2 C preserves (raspberry in this case)

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and egg together in a small bowl until very smooth. Pour over the batter and smooth. Spoon preserves over cream cheese filling and spread. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over cake. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes.

I'm Getting Published!

I WON!!!!!! Yay. It was really exciting. There were about ten or so entries into the contest, a few of which looked very good and/or interesting. There were three judges, City Councilman Mike Nowakowski, Sweet Pea Bakery owner Danielle Librera, and Monica of MacAlpines.

They said my combination of flavors were really interesting and that they worked very well together. I got lots of compliments and congratulations that night. I also won a $3o gift certificate to MacAlpines restaurant as well as my picture taken with the lovely judges and my recipe is going to be published in the Coronado Dispatch magazine. How exciting!

It was doubly nice because my mom and dad decided to show up to support me. Even cooler that they got to see me win! Anyway, I am just being self-congratulatory here, so humor me.

I Cheated

Ever since watching one of those episodes with that Guy Fieri dude (or however you spell it) I have been determined to both make an authentic Philly Gooey Butter Cake as well as try one. I don't live in Philly, so I have convinced myself I will not taste an authentic one until next summer when we make a stop in Philly. As far as making one goes, I have weeded out all of the "cheater recipes" that use a cake mix and found one that seems authentic, at least to me based off of what I saw on the show. I know it at least has to have yeast in it.

Anyway, last night I discovered that Hulu has added the food network. I promptly watched anything and everything that sounded good to me. Also, for the first time I watched Paula Deen in action. What an interesting woman she is. The particular clip I watched was for Gooey Butter Cake, but the cheater way. Glenn was bugging me to make him something sweet, but we didn't have much in the house that would be quick for me to put together. It was 8:00pm. I asked him if he wanted the Gooey Butter Cake and he agreed. Well, I didn't have yellow cake mix so I used Devil's Food Cake mix instead. (I keep one of those in reserve at all times in case I get a craving for a certain, amazing cake.)

I cheated. So shoot me. I made the cake, which was super easy. It was boring though, mostly because I do like somewhat of a challenge. At least cleanup was easy. Here is the recipe as presented by Paula Deen. She encourages creativity in the way of adding random stuff to the filling, and in that particular clip she added a small can of pumpkin puree. Yum.

Gooey Butter Cake

Crust
1 box (18 1/4 oz.) cake mix (any flavor works)
1 stick (8 T) butter, melted
1 egg

Filling
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 stick (8 T) butter, melted
1 box (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 pan. To make the crust, combine the cake mix, butter, and egg in a medium bowl and mix with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined. Press mixture into the greased pan and set aside. For the filling, first beat the cream cheese (you can use the same bowl) until it is smooth. Add the eggs, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix with electric mixer until very smooth. Pour filling over the crust. Tap the pan on the counter a couple times to get out any bubbles. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. It will still be a little jiggly when it is done. Do not overbake or your crust will dry out. Wait about 20 minutes before cutting and serving.

Desserts in the Desert

On the first Friday of every month, Downtown Phoenix has an event called First Fridays. This is where all sorts of local artists and vendors come together in the heart of Phoenix to show off their craft. Glenn and I participated a while back with me selling jewelry and scarves and him selling his fantastic photos. It was our very first time, but we each sold something and made 50 bucks. Sweet! Since then, Phoenix has cracked down on it's vendor laws and what not, so First Fridays has become less of a free for all for everyone, and more of a centralized gathering. It's still really great, but I do miss the absolute mayhem of the older ones.

Anyway, that being said, there is also an event going on at that same time called 7th on 7th. There is going to be a dessert contest, to which Glenn "suggested" I participate. I am never one to back down on a competition, especially when I am working on getting my name out there so once I get my bakery up and running, people already know me. OH! By the way, here is my site for my soon to be bakery, location TBD, name: Seventh Inning Sweets. Cute huh? Glenn actually created the site, I am so proud of him. He's a stud.

Aside from that, my creation for this dessert contest is a chocolate cupcake with a pumpkin mousse filling and a dulce de leche frosting. I really hope this all tastes good together. I have no idea, it just sounded like a good seasonal idea. I went to the farmers market today in hopes that they would have pumpkin so I could boast that I used a local ingredient, but alas, they did not. Boo. The dulce de leche is cooking away and I just made the "mousse" and it is so yummy! I will share the recipe with you, that way you can say that you knew me way back when I was getting my start winning dessert contests. The winner gets their recipe published in one of our local magazines along with a gift card to a local business.

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 C salted butter (the added salt is a nice complement)
1/2 C + 1 T Hershey's Special Dark cocoa sifted (this kind tends to clump, A LOT)
3/4 C water
2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C buttermilk
1 1/2 T vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with liners and set aside. Over low heat, melt butter in a medium sized saucepan. While butter is melting, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside. When butter is completely melted, add in cocoa and whisk until very smooth. Add in water and whisk again. Turn off heat and whisk in the sugar until the batter has a smooth appearance. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla extract, whisking again. Add in one egg at a time, whisking until thoroughly combined after each addition. Very slowly add in the dry ingredient mixture, whisking very well after each addition (this batter tends to clump up, and it is essential to get it as smooth as possible). Fill each muffin cup 1/2 full (flat tops) to 2/3 full (domes) and bake for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake will come out with a few crumbs clinging to it or completely clean when they are done. Allow to cool on a wire rack completely before filling and frosting.

Pumpkin Mousse Filling
1 C pumpkin puree
1/4 C milk
1/4 C vanilla pudding (about 1/2 a packet in a 3.4 oz pacakge)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
8 oz container cool whip, thawed

In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin puree, milk, pudding, and spices. Mix well with an electric mixer on medium for 1 minute. Spoon the cool whip on top of the pumpkin mix. Very gently fold cool whip into the pumpkin.

Dulce De Leche (store bought works as well as caramel ice cream topping)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

Empty can of sweetened condensed milk into a pie plate or shallow baking dish. Place dish in the middle of a larger baking dish (a roasting pan works best.) Fill outer pan with water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the center dish. Tightly cover the center dish with aluminum foil. Bake at 425 degrees F for 60-75 minutes. When finished it will be a caramel brown color. (the longer it "caramelizes" the deeper and richer the flavor)

Dulce De Leche Frosting
1 stick butter (I prefer salted for this job)
1/3 C dulce de leche
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 T milk
2-2 1/2 C powdered sugar (you may use more or less depending on how you like your frosting)

In a medium bowl, combine butter, dulce de leche, vanilla, and milk. Mix until well blended with an electric mixer. In half cup increments, add the powdered sugar until completely mixed in. Do this until the frosting is at the desired consistency. Spread on cooled cupcakes.

Bwah Ha Ha Ha!

Again, yes, I am excrutiatingly late on the posting. But hey, I'm still doing it right? That get's me credit. I just wanted to post these darling little creations that I made the night before Halloween. They took FOREVER to make, but they are just too cute! It was my first attempt, so some parts are a bit shoddy, but I am pretty proud of myself for getting them to even look this good. As the night wore on though, I apparently skimped on some details in an effort to get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. I don't have any recipes to share for this because I honestly don't remember which ones I used. The cupcake is just a chocolate cake and the frosting is a simple buttercream (the kind with powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and butter... and cocoa). By the way, this idea came from the Wilton Cupcake Fun book. There are so many cute ideas in there. You should pick it up sometime if you get a chance.

Happy Halloween... A Few Days Late

I have no idea what is happening to me, but I am so overwhelmed with pretty much everything at the moment. I am waaayyyyy behind in blogging! Anyway, I made Halloween sugar cookies the day before Halloween. They are my absolute favorite recipe in the entire world. They are soft, light, just sweet enough, and thick. Yum. I hesitate sharing it because I would hate if someone defiled my mom's delicious recipe. I will be a good blogger though, and share it with you. Proceed with caution.



Mom's Sugar Cookies

(1)
1 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1/2 C sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

(2)
4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Frosting
3 C powdered sugar
1/3 C very soft butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 T milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix all of (1) together in a large bowl. Add all of (2) gradually. Refrigerate dough for an hour or 2. Roll out dough very thick, about 1/4 inch, and cut into shapes. Bake for 8-11 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Mix all frosting ingredients until very smooth. Frost and decorate cooled cookies.

I Am NOT On the Bacon Train

My little brother's (well not so little anymore, he's 17) birthday was November 2nd, and I decided to finally make the Bacon Chocolate Cupcakes that I have been dying to try. What better person to experiment on than my own bacon loving brother? I actually bought him a whole box of bacon stuff for Christmas last year... bacon wallet, bacon bandaids, bacon bacon bacon. So yeah, my bro loves bacon.

These were fairly simple cupcakes to pull together, requiring only 15 or so minutes of my time in preparation. The batter is amazing, and quite possibly the best chocolate batter I have ever tasted. While I was doing that, Glenn was cooking the bacon for me and dry heaving over the thought of chocolate and bacon. I didn't taste the batter post bacon addition though. They baked up absolutely beautiful. They had nice round domes and were quite springy to the touch. I think I have a winner here.

The frosting, oh the frosting... Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa is my new best friend. That stuff makes the most INCREDIBLE chocolate frosting I have ever had. So rich and chocolate and sinful. I loved it. I was kind of in a rush to finish and frost the cupcakes, so I didn't really get to play with the frosting and tweak it like I usually do, but followed exactly, the recipe is amazing.

I finally bought one of those awesome little 1M tips for frosting and I love it. Those swirls are just so pretty, I cannot get over it. After I frosted the cupcakes I put an assortment of plastic "toys" on the tops of them. I wanted all piggies but the cake decorating shop was all out and only had the combo farm animal bags. I stuck a nursing mama pig on one, a lizard on another (to represent my Bro's iguana), a fish (his love of fishing) and then a Happy Birthday pick of course.

Once we finally got around to giving Jeff his cupcakes, he took a bite and we all stared. A little weirded out by this staring, Jeff started to laugh and became overly cautious about eating these "mystery cupcakes." I forgot to add I didn't tell them what kind they were. When we asked them if he could taste something special in them he said "I dunno." When directed to take a hint from the pig on the cupcake, he said "milk?" Needless to say I about died from laughter after hearing that. Finally he crunched into a hearty piece of bacon and exclaimed "Bacon!" I'm not sure if he really liked them, if he ate it beacuse he eats anything, or if he was just being polite. My mom spit a bite of hers out. She was disgusted. I tried one a couple days later at lunch and did the same thing. I'm sorry, that combo is revolting.

I wanted so badly to like bacon and chocolate. I love bacon. I love chocolate. How could they not be great together? Sadly, I cannot board the chocolate bacon train with everyone else. I guess I will remain boarded on the peanut butter chocolate boat with the rest of the world. Here's the recipe in case you are interested. I found it on a blog called A Good Appetite. The frosting recipe is awesome and the chocolate cupcakes are super moist and lovely. I will certainly make these again, sans bacon of course.

Dark Chocolate & Bacon Cupcake

8 slices good thick-cut bacon
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
3/4 c water
2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 c well-shaken buttermilk
2 T vanilla
2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 24 muffin tins.
Chop bacon into about 1/2-inch pieces. Cook over med-high heat in a skillet until bacon is brown & crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to drain. Pat any remaining oil off the bacon. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (it will be a little bit lumpy). Stir in bacon.
Fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. It's a moist cake, so don't worry if a few crumbs stick to your tester.
Allow cupcakes to cool.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c unsalted butter
2/3 c Hershey's Special Dark
3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c milk
1 t vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

About 2 cups frosting.