This might just be my favorite cake recipe. Not only has it served me very well as a moist, dense foundation for several of my cake creations, but it’s crazy delicious too, with layer upon layer of chocolate flavor that just won’t quit.
Some Cake Bible beaters might say starting with a boxed mix is cheating.
Their loss.
I’ve got some favorite brands that I always use in this cake. I think it makes a big difference in the final result.
1 (3.4 oz.) package instant dark chocolate pudding mix
16 oz. sour cream
3 eggs
⅓ cup vegetable oil
½ cup Kahlua coffee liqueur, or strong brewed coffee
10 oz. dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350°. Spray a bundt pan with non-stick baking spray.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, and Kahlua or coffee. Beat until ingredients are well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon into the prepared pan.
Bake for 1 hour, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
nprivetteDessert, Frozen Desserts, Fruit Desserts, Recipes0 Comment
After I posted the recipe for my Caribbean Sunrise Smoothies yesterday, I was literally tipping back the glass to gulp the whole thing down when I caught a glimpse of my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker on the top shelf of my pantry. The clouds parted, and the angels descended to earth and shone a halo of light around the Cuisinart as if to say, “Halt, mortal! You know not what you do!”
So I mixed up another batch of smoothies without the ice and gave it a spin in the ice cream freezer.
And I saw that it was very good.
As I’ve discussed before, there’s a very practical reason for adding a smidge of alcohol to your frozen non-dairy treats. Namely, it keeps it from freezing hard as a rock. So I highly recommend adding the optional rum unless you plan to serve it straight out of the ice cream maker.
Caribbean Sunrise Sorbet
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Total time
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
2 oz. frozen whole strawberries (about 5)
2 oz. frozen mango chunks (about 5 medium chunks)
½ banana
1 cup cold pineapple juice
2 tablespoons cream of coconut
1 tablespoon honey
Pinch of kosher salt
1-2 oz. light or coconut rum (optional)
Instructions
Add all the ingredients to your blender, then mix on high until smooth.
Transfer the mixture to your ice cream freezer and allow it to freeze until the mixture reaches the consistency of soft-serve ice cream (about 20-25 minutes).
Transfer to an air-tight container and store in the freezer.
3.2.1215
Cookie Icing
nprivetteFrosting & Glazes, Recipes0 Comment
Most people pull out a recipe for royal icing when they want to decorate rolled cookies. Royal icing’s claim to fame is that it is smooth, easy to work with, and it hardens as it dries. And when I say “hardens”, I mean “becomes a practically impenetrable shell”. There are advantages to this – for example, royal icing is easier to transport without damaging it. But to me, a soft, sweet cookie needs a soft, sweet icing. It’s a personal preference. I want something that would just firm up a little as it dries, not put me at risk of chipping a tooth. This icing accomplishes just that, so it’s a great accompaniment for sugar cookies.
I used a line-and-flood technique to make the bunnies pictured above. First, put some of your icing in a piping bag or decorating bottle fitted with a thin round tip. Then take some more icing and thin it out a little with corn syrup. The thicker icing should hold its shape when you pipe it, while the thinner icing should spread a little (but not go all over the place). Put the thinner icing in a piping bag or bottle with a slightly larger round tip.
Outline the area of the cookie that you want to color with the thicker icing. Then use the thinner icing to “flood”, or fill in, the outline. You can use the tip itself to help spread the icing evenly, push it into corners, etc.
Cookie Icing
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Ingredients
2 cup confectioners sugar
4 teaspoons milk
4 teaspoons light corn syrup
½ teaspoon pure almond or vanilla extract
Instructions
Stir together the sugar, milk, and corn syrup until smooth. Stir in the extract.
Keep covered tightly until you’re ready to use or it will harden.
Add more sugar or corn syrup to adjust the thickness of the icing. To see if your icing is the right thickness, drag a rubber spatula through the icing, then count how many seconds it takes for the surface to become smooth again. It should take about 10 seconds – if it’s more or less, adjust accordingly.
Is there a family activity that’s more fun than decorating cookies? Few things satisfy my inner domestic goddess quite as fully as baking up a batch of whimsical holiday cookies to decorate with my boys. Although, truth be told, since they’re five and two, more icing ends up on fingers and faces than on the cookies. But who cares, right?
A few years ago I bought the Wilton 101-piece giant box of assorted cookie cutters, and as I was going through them I realized there is no occasion that can’t be celebrated with an appropriately-decorated cookie. But to churn out those perfectly-shaped cookies, you can’t use the same recipe that you use for drop sugar cookies. That dough will do what regular cookie dough is supposed to do – spread out and brown. No, rolled cookies need to hold their shape as they bake, keep their even pale-blonde color, and of course be soft and delicious. This recipe, which I’ve adapted from the wildly popular Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe on Allrecipes.com, fits the bill perfectly and comes out right every time.
Check out my recipe for cookie icing!
Rolled Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients
1½ cups butter, at room temperature
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
In your mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well-blended.
Add the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.
Add the vanilla and blend.
Add the flour mixture in three batches, blending well after each addition.
Roll the dough into a big ball, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour. (You can keep it in the fridge for up to one week, or freeze it for up to three months.)
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle a little flour on a large work surface, then roll out the dough to about ¼-inch thickness.
Put a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay your cookies out, leaving at least an inch between them. Put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so.
Bake for exactly 8 minutes. They may not look done, but they are. Do not overbake or allow cookies to brown.
Cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before decorating.
3.2.1215
Best Ever Cake Frosting
nprivetteFrosting & Glazes, Recipes0 Comment
I love, love, LOVE cake frosting. It’s a good thing frosting is generally designated for special occasions, or I’d spend most of my time in a diabetic coma. (You know those people who scrape off the frosting and just eat the cake? You shouldn’t trust those people.)
Early in my cake-decorating years, I worked with Wilton’s basic recipe for buttercream (yes, I know, cake purists, that’s not actually buttercream). Since then I’ve rarely made a batch of frosting without tweaking the recipe a bit, so over time I’ve invented a recipe that I’m proud to call my own.
You can find Wilton Clear Vanilla in hobby stores, or in the cake decorating section in most big-box stores.
To get pure white icing, you can use a full cup of Crisco and leave out the butter. If you don’t need white icing, you can use regular pure vanilla extract. I like Nielsen-Massey’s Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, but McCormick’s Pure Vanilla is also good and much more widely available.
Best Ever Cake Frosting
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Ingredients
½ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons Wilton clear vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
½ teaspoon table salt
4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and butter with a mixer on medium speed.
Add the confectioners sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well on low-to-medium speed after each addition.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix thoroughly. The mixture will be thick.
Add whipping cream, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. You may need to add a little more sugar or cream to get the consistency you need. The thickness of the icing will vary depending on the humidity on the day you make it, so it’s a little different each time.
Continue mixing on high speed for 3-5 minutes to incorporate air and make the icing fluffy. You can store in an air-tight container for up to 1 week.
It’s January, and I say there’s no better time for a frosty treat!
Well, actually, it’s the only time for this particular frosty treat, because clementines, those bright orange jewels that crop up in the otherwise bleak midwinter, are only in season in the weeks before and after the holidays. Also sold under the brand name “Cuties”, these mini oranges/tangerines are pretty much the perfect fruit as far as I’m concerned – they’re sweet, mild, juicy, and the exact right size for a snack. My kids love them because they’re completely seedless, and they’re so easy to peel, my two-year-old can do it insists on doing it.
I don’t know why people don’t go crazy over clementines during their relatively short growing season. Enjoy it while you can with this yummy sorbet.
The vodka isn’t there because it’s party time – there’s so little, you can’t even taste it. Vodka (or any other alcohol – feel free to experiment) lowers the freezing point of the fruit mixture, so it keeps the sorbet from freezing hard. You’ll have a scoopable sorbet even after a night in the deep freeze. If you want to leave it out, though, it won’t affect the flavor, but you may need an ice pick when it’s time to serve. I’m just saying.
Clementine Sorbet
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The amount of juice you get from a batch of clementines can vary quite a bit. I’ve gotten anywhere from 2 cups to 4 cups from a three-pound bag, so you may want to buy a few extra. You can’t have too many – they’re great for snacking!
Ingredients
2 cups clementine juice (see note)
1 cup simple syrup (see note)
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon vodka
Instructions
Strain the clementine juice through a sieve to remove any pulp.
Stir the juice together with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and vodka.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and let freeze until thickened, about 25 minutes. It should be about the consistency of soft serve ice cream.
Quickly transfer the mixture to a plastic container and put it in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.
Notes
A simple syrup is just equal parts sugar and water, brought to a boil and then cooled. You can buy it in the coffee section of your grocery store, located with the flavored syrups. But why buy it when it’s easy and cheap to make a big batch at home and keep it in your pantry.
Cheesecake. It’s creamy, dense, sweet, and smooth as silk. And unfortunately, it’s more temperamental than your crazy ex-girlfriend. One wrong step and you’ll end up with an unpleasant dessert that’s gritty, coarse, uneven, and/or cracked….. just like your crazy ex-girlfriend.
But really, cheesecake is easy if you understand three simple things: temperature, temperature, and temperature. Although the cream cheese gets the star billing, it’s really the eggs that are backstage making the magic happen. Cheesecake doesn’t have flour in it, so 100% of the structure of the cake comes from the binding power of eggs. You need them to be happy if you want them to work for you. But eggs get unhappy when you change the temperature on them too quickly. So the trick to cheesecake is to very gently raise the temperature to cook them (with the help of a water bath), then very gently lower the temperature back down.
This recipe is a little bit of a process, but you and the cheesecake can learn to be friends if you’ll just use a little gentle finesse. Just like your crazy ex-girlfriend! Wow, that metaphor works on so many levels…
You’ll need a springform pan for this one – no getting around that. Be careful not to overmix the batter because too much air will create bubbles on the surface.
You know where you can find the best gingersnap cookies in the universe? Trader Joe’s. Their Triple Gingersnaps are a little sweet, a little spicy, and dotted with tiny chewy bits of candied ginger. I don’t even particularly care for ginger, and yet my mouth is watering just thinking about those cookies. If there’s a Trader Joe’s in your area, go.
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
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Total time
Serves: 8
Ingredients
10 oz. gingersnap cookies
⅓ cup sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 oz. butter, melted
3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Spray the bottom and sides a 9-inch springform pan with baking spray. Take a large sheet of aluminum foil and wrap the bottom of the pan and up the sides.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Process the cookies in your food processor to make fine crumbs. Add the sugar and cinnamon and pulse to combine. Add the butter and process until evenly blended. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and about halfway up the sides of the prepared springform pan. (Press with the bottom of a large scoop measuring cup to get an even crust and squared corners.) Bake the crust in a the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then set aside. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the sugar, pumpkin puree, vanilla, and the spices and salt. Mix to combine, but do not overmix. Pour the mixture over the crust and spread evenly.
Put the springform pan, the bottom of which should be wrapped in foil, into another pan that is at least 2 inches deep and big enough for the springform pan to sit in flat. Open your oven, pull out the rack, and put the pans on it. Pour enough water in the larger pan to go about halfway up the side of the springform pan.
Bake in the 325-degree oven until the cheesecake is almost set in the middle, about 60-70 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit for another 10 minutes, then open the oven door halfway and let it sit ajar for 30 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the oven (don’t try to move both pans – it will be heavy and easy to spill). Slide a sharp knife around the edge of the cheesecake to separate it from the pan, then allow it to cool to room temperature. Chill the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving; overnight is even better.
To serve, cut a slice and top with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.
3.1.09
Too Easy Fruit Dip
nprivetteAppetizers, Cold Dips, Dessert, Fruit Desserts, Recipesappetizer dips, fruit dip, sweet dips0 Comment
I have a handful of recipes that I’m a little embarrassed to share. Why? Because they’re too easy.
Here’s how it goes: someone tries your food, goes nuts over it, tells you you’re a fabulous cook, says they wish they could be more like you, and asks how in the world you made it. Then you give them a recipe that a trained monkey could make. It’s like pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.
This is one of those recipes. This stuff is flippin’ delicious. And every single time I make it – every single time – someone asks me how I pulled it off. I blush a little, then gladly share.
Too Easy Fruit Dip
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It’s really important that the cream cheese is at room temperature. Otherwise the dip will be lumpy.
Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
14 oz. marshmallow cream
3 tablespoons juice from a jar of maraschino cherries
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and marshmallow cream with an electric mixer until combined.
Stir in the cherry juice.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
That’s it. That’s all the steps. Enjoy your free time.
There’s some kind of mysterious symbiotic relationship between coffee and chocolate. A little chocolate in your coffee adds richness and deepens the coffee flavor. And it’s the culinary world’s worst-kept secret that a smidge of coffee in your chocolate desserts can really turn the chocolate flavor up to eleven. What is is about coffee that makes chocolate taste so much more like itself?
The world may never know, but it’s no big surprise that the most decadent chocolate desserts have usually found a way to sneak in a little coffee. Like this recipe, adapted from the winner of Cook’s Country magazine’s June/July 2007 bar cookie contest.
Mmmmm…. wouldn’t that be good with a cup of coffee?
Oatmeal Fudge Bars
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Serves: 36
Ingredients
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon table salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chopped
3 large eggs
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×9-inch baking dish with baking spray.
Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the butter until well-combined. Reserve 1½ cups of the oatmeal mixture, and press the rest of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned. Allow crust to cool completely.
To make the filling, combine the flour, sugar, instant coffee or espresso powder, and salt in a bowl. Melt the chocolate chips and butter, then whisk in the eggs. Add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well-combined. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust. Sprinkle evenly with the reserved oatmeal mixture.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the center doesn’t giggle if you shake it a little. Cool to room temperature before slicing (at least a full hour). Cut into square and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
I’m a sucker for marshmallows. And the ooey, gooey, sticky, nutty deliciousness that is toasted marshmallows? Well that’s just proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.
So when I came across this recipe while flipping through an old Southern Living magazine, I didn’t even try to resist. Enjoy!
Mississippi Mud Brownies
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Total time
Ingredients
For the Brownies:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter
4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups sugar
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon table salt
1 (10.5 oz.) package mini marshmallows
For the Frosting:
½ cup butter
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
⅓ cup milk
4 cups (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Spread the pecans evenly on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes, or until toasted and fragrant.
Put the butter and chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir, then heat again for 30 seconds, and stir again. Repeat until the mixture is completely melted and smooth. Stir in the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, eggs, vanilla, and salt.
Spray a 15x10x1-inch jelly roll pan with baking spray. Pour in the batter and spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
Remove the brownies from the oven. Turn the oven to broil. Spread the mini marshmallows evenly over the brownies and put them back in the oven. Broil until the marshmallows are golden brown, then remove from oven. (Watch them very carefully – they will brown and then burn quickly.)
To make the frosting, stir together the butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan. Melt over medium heat, then continue cooking, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla, stirring vigorously for 1 minute.
Drizzle the warm brownies evenly with the chocolate frosting. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.
