Eat me.

I imagine this is what my carrot cake would say if it had lips. I don’t usually love anything I make because well, its me. I have a tendency to be a bit hard on myself because most of the time I think I can do better. I have to say thought that I think I have perfected my carrot cake. Its really the first cake I came up with where I didn’t use a base recipe. I was curious one night and wondered what would happen if I just made my own amounts up and threw everything in a bowl. Apparently what happens is yummy goodness. I will warn you that this cake is neither low calorie or healthy. But it is delicious!

And of course, what is a carrot cake without the cream cheese frosting? Well, I don’t know what but definitely not as good. A couple of weeks ago I was at Panera and my daughter chose a big carrot cake muffin…..it was really good and it had cream cheese in the middle. My husband really seemed to love this idea so I thought I would try it out. Delicious! If you are looking for a good cake or muffins to try out or bring to an event you won’t be sorry.

I couldn’t find any good muffin tins so I decided to make it as a bundt cake. It came out moist (sorry, I hate that word!) and full of flavor. The original recipe can be found under “carrot cake” ….I made a couple adjustments. Yes you are reading it right….there is cayenne in it. It brings out the flavor and gives it a kick but its not too spicy.

Carrot Cake

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsps baking soda
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 1/2 cups raisins (optional)                                                                                               I imagine this would be good with chopped walnuts or pecans but I haven’t tried that yet.

Cream Cheese Filling:

1 8 oz package cream cheese

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese (8oz)

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 a spray a bundt pan with cake release spray, or grease and flour.

Cake:

Mix together the eggs ,vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla. Add other ingredients in order one and a time until well mixed. Spoon 2/3 mixture into bundt pan.

Filling:

Cream together cream cheese and sugar and then add other ingredients until well mixed. Spoon onto carrot cake mixture.

Add remaining carrot cake mixture and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick or fork comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool before frosting. I suggest letting cake cool for at least an hour and then putting in freezer for about 45 minutes. When cake is completely cool, ice the cake.

Frosting:

Using a mixer, blend together the cream cheese and butter until well mixed. Add vanilla and keep mixing on low. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until it gets the consistency of icing. I don’t have a good measurement for this since it depends on a few factors….but maybe 1/2 a bag. If you use too much, thin it with a little milk.

Oh and one more thing. I took terrible pictures of this cake so please don’t judge on looks alone. I was way too lazy to get the good camera out and worry about lighting. I took them from my phone and I was lucky to get a picture before it was gone.

This is a pic of the filling spooned on….before the final mixture was added.

Still no coffee……but a fun new project!

Two weeks of no caffeine.  I feel much much better than when I started. The headaches are gone and I’m starting to get a little bit of energy back. I’d like to say that all sorts of magical things happened once I quit coffee, but sadly that is not the case. I don’t really feel all that different than when I was drinking coffee, but its only been two weeks. 

I will be starting a new project soon – a coffee shop! Yes, I see the irony I’m hoping it will be done and ready to go by early summer. I may also be selling pastries, cookies, etc. I’m really looking forward to this new adventure – and I will have new things to blog about. I’m thinking I will be able to work on the cookbook and run the coffee shop at the same time. Or maybe I will be so slammed with customers that I won’t have time for both. Either way is fine with me!

Now I’m off to find some good recipes for Easter dinner…..and maybe a cheesecake for dessert. Oh wait, I gave up sugar too. Damn.

 

Time to make the cookies…..$%^&!

I don’t think I’ve gone into a full rant about cookies on here before….I guess you are in for a treat. I can’t stand those little mothers…..I’m not talking about the chocolate chip or peanut butter or oatmeal raisin. No, I’m talking about those stupid little cut out sugar cookies decorated in royal icing…..you know, the perfect looking ones that are so pretty and would be perfect for gifts. It just so happens that there is a certain holiday coming up and of course teachers gifts and what did I decide to make?…..oh I think you know.

In the last six years I can only remember one time where I’ve made these decorated cookies and they’ve turned out good…one! I believe it was when I made snowflake cookies for my daughter’s teacher in the 3rd grade….she’s now a freshman in high school. My son is in 3rd grade with the same teacher and I’m going to give it a go. Why, I have no idea. I fail at this more times than I can count….I curse, cry, stomp around and pretty much turn into a whiny baby, but I’m going to do it anyway. Damn you Pinterest for making it seem like I can do this!!

I have eight teacher gifts to make….which is crazy by the way, but I figured all I need is two pretty cookies each, then I will put them in the clear cookie bag, tie with a ribbon and maybe put in a gift bag with some hot chocolate and chocolate dipped spoons or marshmallows. Easy peasy right?

Just tune in tomorrow for either my success story with pictures or my disaster rant….still with pictures.

Update:

Ok, so I didn’t end up making the mittens since I forgot I lent the cutter to my sis, but I did make some round cookies with snowflakes that I will hopefully post about later. I’m still debating getting the mitten cutter and making some today but the gifts are for tomorrow so that might be cutting it a bit close…..although I do like a challenge.

 

Chocolate Spoons!

I’m making up some Christmas baskets this year to sell and I’m trying to come up with some cute ideas. I know for sure there will be a coffee mug, a bag of yummy coffee, and for sure some chocolate dipped spoons. You can use them to stir your coffee or hot chocolate or do like my 2 year old does and just eat it off the spoon.I used to make these years ago when I had the coffee shop and people really seemed to like them. I know that you can probably buy them at the craft stores but making them is less expensive and very easy.

What you need:

Spoons – either plastic, wooden or if you are doing something a bit fancier you can use a real spoon….maybe a small decorative one.

Chocolate to melt – I used both white chocolate and chocolate almond bark

Double boiler, or measuring cup and microwave or you can make your own double boiler like I do. I get a sauce pan, fill it half with water and then put a measuring cup in it. Then turn the burner to medium high and add the chocolate and keep stirring until melted.

Sprinkles, small candies or marshmallows(optional) – I didn’t use these with the batch I just made because I was just experimenting but the next batch will probably be made with some sort of candy.

The Method:

Melt the chocolate in which ever way you decide, dip the spoon until its coated, add candy or a swirl of other chocolate and lay on wax paper until dry. Then you can put a ribbon around and use them in baskets, gifts, etc.

I will show the final result when I’m all done and have some baskets made.

Cakes!

I was just going through some of my old pictures and came across some cakes that I’ve made in the past. Some of them I’m ok with showing and some of them make me cringe to look at! But I’ve said from the beginning that I will share the good and the bad alike, so here they are. I have many many more but can’t seem to find them at this moment(probably a good thing).

Enjoy & I hope you have a good laugh like I did….especially at Fiona & her plumped up lips!

Pumpkin Rolls (Part 1)

What can I say about pumpkin rolls? They are yummy, easy to make, perfect for Thanksgiving side dish or Christmas present and they are usually devoured within minutes….or at least in my family. A lot of people are intimidated by these tricky little things but honestly they look more difficult than they are.

If you haven’t made these before, definitely give them a try this year….I promise it will be worth it!

I apologize for the sucky final picture( I was lazy remember )….I couldn’t cut these since they were for someone else, but I will be making these again soon and I will get a good pic of the inside. I do however have step by step instructions so you can do them yourself.

 

 

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2/3 cup pumpkin (pure not pumpkin pie mix!!)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

powdered sugar for dusting

chopped walnuts(optional)

Filling

1 8oz package cream cheese

4 tbsp butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a jellyroll pan and line with either wax or parchment paper. Grease paper. Beat eggs & sugar with electric mixer on high for 5 minutes. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla.  Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in small bowl and stir into pumpkin mixture. Pour evenly into pan(you may have to spread around with spatula). If you are using walnuts, sprinkle over mixture. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. I almost always bake mine for 15, but every oven is different.

While the cake is baking, get a tea towel or any clean dish towel – but make sure its not terry cloth or any material that will stick to the cake!! Dust the towel with powdered sugar.

When the cake is done, take out of oven, lift wax paper and flip the cake immediately onto the towel. Do not let cake cool!! Peel off the paper and roll the cake up in the towel. Cool in fridge for at least 2 hours. I usually cool for 4-5

While the cake is cooling, beat cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Set in fridge.

When cake is COMPLETELY cool, unroll carefully and spread the filling. Reroll the cake(not in towel), dust with powdered sugar and either cut into pieces and serve or cover with saran wrap and let chill in fridge.

 

Oreo Cheesecake!!

I do not have the best track record with cheesecakes. At all. They either crack and then sink, burn or are too underdone or once, I actually baked a paper towel into one. I have many talents.

My sister’s birthday was yesterday and I really wanted to make a good cheesecake. I had a ton of Oreos(thanks Sam’s Club) so Oreo cheesecake it was. I looked up many recipes before I settled on this one. Its supposed to be the copycat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory…..I’ve never had theirs so I really can’t compare. It just looked like it would be decent.

It came out really good! The only thing I would do different is baked for 1 hour instead of 1 hour and 15 minutes and then leave in oven(turned off) for an hour. The texture was nice, it came out of the springform easily and it was delicious. Everyone seemed to like it a lot so this is definitely a keeper!

I didn’t have sour cream so I used a cup of plain Fage greek yogurt – I will probably do this from now on. Its a bit more tangy than sour cream, but the texture is perfect.

Also, I used a 10″ pan instead of 9″ and it worked just fine.

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We all know that I can’t stand fussy recipes and while this one isn’t too bad, there are a few things I did differently:
- My cream cheese was not room temperature….it was still quite cold and I beat it in the mixer on low to medium for awhile (at least 15 minutes) and it was fine. I know every recipe says not to use cold cream cheese , but I’m a rebel

- I didn’t chill the crust(mostly because I forgot) and it came out awesome

- I threw as many oreos as I thought I should instead of following exactly ….use your judgement. The ones for the filling and on top I just crushed with my hands

- I didn’t grease, nor do I ever grease my springform pan and it was fine. The ring came off without a problem. Make sure you let it cool for at least 15 minutes, run a knife around the edge and then open.

Now for my tips:

- I really think 15 minutes less in the oven would have made this perfect…..but every oven is different so if you are more comfortable, stick with the recipe

- The most important thing(I think) is making sure you beat the cream cheese until fluffy and make sure there are no lumps

- Do not overbeat the eggs!

- Don’t overfill the pan(trust me!)

- Have fun!!

OREO CHEESECAKE

1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 18 cookies finely chopped)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 lbs cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup flour
8 ounces sour cream (I used greek yogurt)
5 Oreo cookies (coarsely chopped for the batter)
7 coarsely chopped Oreo cookies, for the top of cheese cake

Directions:

Mix melted butter with Oreo crumbs and press in the bottom of a greased 9 inch springform pan. Cover bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides with crumbs. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
All ingredients need to be at room temperature before beginning.
Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Keep mixer on a low setting during the mixing and beating process. Add sugar gradually and continue beating cream cheese until mixed through. Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat until blended.
Stir vanilla, salt and flour into cream cheese and egg mixture.
Add the sour cream.
Turn off the mixer and gently stir in the 5 coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with a spoon.
Pour mixture into springform pan; top with the 7 remaining coarsely chopped cookies.
Place pan on top rack and in the middle of a preheated oven at 325 degrees and bake for 75 minutes. Turn off the oven, prop the door open several inches and let the cheese cake stay in the oven for one hour.
Cool on wire rack.
When cool, refrigerate.

I almost forgot….I made a chocolate whipped topping.

Put your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for a few minutes. After you take those out, pour in about a half a quart of heaving whipping cream. Beat on medium until it starts to thicken. Add about 2 tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp cocoa powder. Mix well. Turn mixer up a speed and whip until a peak forms. When you lift the whisk attachment up, the whipped cream should stand up a bit and form a peak. Do not over mix! The mixture will separate and become butter-like! Add to cheesecake and enjoy!

Carrot Apple Upside Down Cake

Yes I just made that up. Yes its a real thing.

I’ve neglected working on the cookbook the last few months, but I was looking through it today and found a great recipe for zucchini bread. Then I had this great idea that I would turn it into zucchini bundt cake.  It would have helped tremendously if I had bought zucchinis instead of cucumbers. They look the same right? Don’t judge me.

I already had it in my head that I was making a bundt cake and wasn’t going to let the fact that I didn’t have the main ingredient stop me. I looked in the fridge and almost considered cucumber cake, but wasn’t feeling that adventurous. I did however see granny smith apples and some baby carrots. Perfect.

I’ve been dying to try out the Ninja Pulse my dad just got me. That thing is amazing! It grated up my carrots and apples in like 10 seconds. I may never use a hand grater again.

CAKE

2 Cups Sugar

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 tbsp vanilla

4 granny smith apples, chopped or blended

15 baby carrots, grated

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 apple, sliced for top of cake

1 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Blend sugar and eggs. Add oil, vanilla, carrots and apples. Add in dry ingredients and blend until well mixed. Pour into greased bundt pan. Place sliced apples on top of batter, sprinkle with melted butter and cinnamon. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until fork comes out clean.

I didn’t have any powdered sugar for a glaze so I just poured some granulated sugar in small saucepan, added water and heated on medium until it simmered. Let cool for a few minutes and drizzle on cake.

Yummy yummy in my tummy! This turned out really well and would taste great as a muffin or quick bread.

Bad Ass Brownies

These brownies kick all my other brownies asses.

I was really uninspired today and when I was looking through some of the brownie recipes I had, I decided to play. I love adding cayenne pepper to cookies, brownies, cakes, etc. That combined with the cinnamon gives it a nice kick and keeps it from being that same old been-there-done-that brownie.

These are really good….spicy, fudgy and thick. They might not be for the kids, but would be perfect for the holidays or Superbowl parties or sneaking into a closet and eating by yourself.

Do yourself a favor and make these now.

Caliente Cayenne Brownie

3/4 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all dry ingredients together and then add the oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips. I made mine in a 8×8 because I wanted them to be thick, but they took about 50 minutes to bake and the edges are a bit dark. This would probably work with a 13×9…..start off at 30 minutes and check. Brownies are done when whatever you stick in them comes clean:) I love the thickness of my brownies so I may try cooking them at 325 for longer.

I do not fuss with sifting dry ingredients or adding them in bowl separate….and you don’t need a mixer of any kind for these. Just stir them by hand until they are well blended.

UPDATE: We went through the first batch so fast, I had to make them again. This time I baked them at 325 in my 8×8 pan for about 50 minutes and they came out perfect! I put tin foil around the edges for the last 15 minutes to avoid burning. My family is going crazy for these brownies. My teenage daughter took a bite and called them beautiful. My husband keeps telling me how great these are and sneaking back for more. I really need to stop eating these! But how good would they taste with a cup of hot coffee in the morning……I may have to put Jenny Craig on my speed dial.

Ok update to the update……the younger kids really wanted to try these so I gave them one today. I figured they would taste too different or too spicy, but I got raving reviews on them. These are officially my go-to brownies and will definitely make it to the cookbook.

I chose this post to be featured on One Good Thing By Jillee

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Boredom + Cake Mix = Snickerdoodle Cookies!

I’m bored and that is never good……never. Trying to cure my boredom usually ends up with a huge mess and weird concoctions. I’m not sure why I bake when I’m restless and bored but I do ……and its usually something I’ve never tried before. And its not like I don’t have anything to do because I really do, but making a big mess and making something funky just sounds better than cleaning and paying bills.  So, tonight I had a cake mix but no frosting and of course ran a search to see what I could come up with. I’ve tried the cake mix + can of pop before and it came out pretty good so these cake mix snickerdoodles I found have to be yummy! I’m not a big fan of making regular snickerdoodles…..they are the Goldilocks of my cookies – either too mushy, too crunchy or too chewy. But these looked so easy and delicious that I had to give them a try.

Cake Mix Snickerdoodle Cookies

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together 1 white cake mix (I used yellow), 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg until it forms kind of a dough. Combine 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon in a bowl. Form a ball with the mix, roll in sugar mixture and bake on ungreased baking sheet for 10-12 minutes.

I have to say that to me they were just ok, but everyone else is loving them. In fact, I barely got a picture before they took them all! Very fast and easy cookies to make…..its a fun thing to do with the kiddies.

The “dough”

Heading into oven….

Straight to the coffee….yum!