A Halloween Wedding

Long, long ago, on a college campus far, far away, in Indianapolis, two freshmen at the University of Indianapolis decided to attend a "Christian" event (I can't remember the name of it, nor could I find it via google.) that allowed them to move on campus several days early. Woo!
Well not long into this event these two freshmen realized that both sarcasm and wit seemed to be wasted on the vast majority of people at this event. Thus, a bond occurred. The two freshmen were friends through all of the angst ridden drama that comes during the first year of college and some of it that comes from living in an all girls residence hall. Alas! At the end of their freshmen year, one of these two returned to Wisconsin while the other remained in Indiana.

And...roughly five years later, I finally made it to Wisconsin to see Nicki...for her wedding! on Halloween!



Meet the bride and groom: Nicki and Andy. They had a fabulous Halloween themed wedding, how could you do anything else for a wedding on Oct. 31. The seven hour drive was well worth it for me to finally meet Andy and to be there for their wedding. They had fabulous hand carved pumpkins lining the way into the reception. Each table had a Halloween centerpiece and the table numbers were small pumpkins with the number carved into them. The seat assignments were amazing toe tags hand made by Nicki. Not to mention all of the extra Halloween touches and the mini caskets filled with candy at each seat.

All of it was fabulous, but man you should have seen the cake they picked out, three layers, with each layer a different cake/filling combination. Yummmmmm...I was on my way out the door to head back to Indiana right while they were cutting the cake when Nicki's grandma brought me a piece of the delicious cake. She even psychically knew not to give me the cheesecake layer! I held off until about Chicago when I finally broke down and ate every delicious bite:-) Would you like to see the cake?



Isn't it pretty!? Just like them!

Thanks for inviting me Nicki, I was so happy to be there for your special day and to see how happy Andy makes you. The wedding was perfect. Right down to the sounds of trick-or-treating outside the church during the ceremony. Love you!

Happy Birthday to Katie!

While Katie and Jason traveled to Ohio for a DEVO Concert/Obama Fundraiser I traveled to their house to let their dog out and to make some stealthy birthday baked goods. Yes, I baked in their kitchen while neither of them were home. I'm creepy like that.

First up I tried my hand at making my first ever apple pie. I cannot reveal the recipe as it is a shhhh! family secret of some sort that is not mine to reveal, but it is pretty freaking tasty, I can tell you that much. And, hey...not bad for my first attempt at from scratch pie.



Next up is one of the best things I have ever baked and one of the worst photos. When I was at Katie's I forgot to take a picture of the cake, so a week later we took this one, the cake had sank some while in the fridge and a week had not done much to improve its looks or probably its taste either.



The original recipe comes from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes, but I found it via Life in a Peanut Shell. The original recipe included a sour cream triple layer chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese frosting (don't judge until you have tried it..Yum.), and a chocolate-peanut butter glaze that I opted out of.

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Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. Then freeze for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the frosting.

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting.


Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

The surprise didn't work out very well, but we did have a tasty if slow dinner with Katie, Rich, Rob, Susan, Jason, Tracy, Jillian and Allen and then cake and pie at Katie's. Mmm...pie.

Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everywhere you look on baking blogs, websites, food shows and even in the New York Times, people are discussing and fighting over the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. I won't even begin to claim that I have found that. Opinions vary so much that it is an impossible statement. If Jillian shared her grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe, I'd be tempted to call it the best, but she hasn't and she won't, so I'm stuck with this one. Which, actually, I'm pretty okay with as it is freaking tasty and awesome. The honey really ads something to the flavor, even though I just used regular honey flavored honey as opposed to the floral stuff that everyone seems to favor. (Bleck!) I'm in love with honey just the way it is.



This recipe came from Baking Bites, another lovely blog with tons of recipes that you should definitely check out.

Ingredients:
Honeyed Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in honey and both eggs, individually.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. On a low speed, gradually incorporate flour mixture into honey mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
Use a small-ish scoop to create 1-inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie to allow for the dough to spread. (And, these do spread quite a bit, so err on the side of too much space.)
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4-dozen cookies

Not So Outrageous Brownies

This was another one of those baked goods for the Longaberger ladies.
This trip was a whole lot of pain, not to mention the getting up at 4 a.m. post adventures in late night baking.
The recipe came from the Cookie Madness, a virtual treasure trove of cookie and brownie recipes. Most of the stuff I find there turn out pretty well. These, not so much. I don't know what is wrong with me, the texture turned out great, but I just didn't like the added flavor from the instant espresso powder. Of course, I hate coffee in general, so probably you shouldn't judge these based on me.
The Oreos tended towards disintegration, which I didn't appreciate, but the artificially based filling stood up to the test in the oven and was easily discernible in the brownies. I would probably make these again, forgoing the additional coffee flavor for an extra bit of vanilla.



Ingredients:


8 ounces unsalted butter
8 ounces plus 4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (12 oz total)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
8 Oreo cookies, broken up

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a 13×9 inch metal pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray.

Melt the butter, 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

Stir (do not beat) eggs, vanilla, and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir 1/2 cup of flour, the baking powder, salt and espresso powder together in another bowl then add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the Oreo chunks and 4 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with remaining 2 tablespoon of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into pan

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 10 minutes more, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool, then chill brownies. Lift from pan and cut into squares.

Makes about 32 (Or so the recipe said, I ended up with maybe 20, but apparently I make my brownies overly large...it's how I like things.

Doughnut Muffins! = Delicious

Yum. Yum. Yummy. This are much easier than they sound, especially if you come up with a better way to dip them than by burning the tips of your fingers like I did. Robin took several young hoodlums to Longaberger Mecca, Dresden, Ohio, for a Saturday and I was urged to provide some baked sustenance for the arduous journey. I thought these sounded pretty good for a breakfasty type baked good. I chose to make mine into mini-muffins instead of full-sized, which ended up turning out really well, they tasted just like cinnamon sugar doughnut holes and they stayed really moist over the next few days.

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Doughnut Muffins
Ingredients:
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon cinammon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup milk

Topping (I pretty much doubled this)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and flour a mini-muffin pan. Don't use paper liners.
Cream oil 1/2 cup sugar and egg in a medium bowl.
In a seperate small bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together. Alternate adding the flour mixture and 1/2 cup milk to the cremed mixture. Flour-Milk-Flour-Milk-Flour. Spoon the batter into greased mini muffin tins about 1/2 full and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Melt the butter for the dipping mixture in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. When the muffins are done remove them from the tin, and immediately dip them into the melted butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Let rest on a cooling rack or some paper towels.

Coca-Cola Cake!

MMMMM......Cola Cake! If you have ever wondered before, this is my most favoritest cake. Or, if you are into grammar conventions, my absolute favorite. I don't remember a time when this hasn't been the cake I judge all other cakes against.
My grandmother used to make it almost every year for my birthday, but that was a long time ago. She passed away last year, but she had stopped baking or doing much of anything long before that. Several years ago, my friend Katie went to the effort of baking a coca cola cake for my birthday. It wasn't the prettiest (she didn't realize that they never are very attractive.) but it was delicious. The fact that she made the attempt is one of the many reasons that I love her dearly. Earlier this year, Mom #2 made one for me at work. It was fabulous, but it also made me realize something....at this point, shouldn't I be able to make my own freaking coca cola cake? I had been baking all of this stuff, and it never once occured to me that I should attempt it too.

I should forewarn you that this is the most horrible, bad for you cake around. If you aren't looking for that, don't read any further.



This particular recipe came from the Coke website.

The link connects to a list of coca cole related recipes. My favorite and the one pictured is the Coke Cake. Beware the listing for chocolate cola cake. It is a dirty liar and not nearly as tasty as this one.

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Recipe
Cola Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoon cocoa
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
16 ounces = 1 box confectioner's sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together flour and sugar into large bowl. (I'm not sure how important the sifting bit is, I've always done it the way they recommend. I never want to chance messing up my cake.) Add marshamllows.

In a saucepan, mix butter, oil, cocoa and coca-cola. Bring to a boil. (I make sure to melt the butter a bit by itself first, things seem to go more smoothly that way.)

Pour the mixture over top the sugar/flour/marshmallows and blend well.

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk just before adding it to the batter along with the eggs and vanilla extract.

Pour into a greased 9x13 jellyroll pan. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

While the cake is baking go ahead and prepare the frosting.

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Combine buter, cocoa powder and coca cola in a saucepan. (Again I recomment melting the butter a bit first.) Bring to a boil and pour over confectioners' sugar and blend well. Add vanilla extract and crushed pecans.

ICE CAKE WHILE HOT! DIRECTLY OUT OF THE OVEN! (I am using capital letters, not because my caps lock key got stuck, but because this part is important!

ENJOY! (Obviously, this part is also vital.)

**I will also recommend using the 9x13 jelly roll sized pan listed in the recipe. The cake comes out thinner and better and that is, after all, the point. Also if you are a dirty rotten scoundrel like me, you might want to double the frosting recipe. You want to shoot for a roughly 50-50 ratio between cake and icing.**

Butterfinger Bars

It seems like a lifetime ago that I made these. So long ago, I don't even remember where the recipe came from or where it is just now. I remember that it was different from most "butterfinger" recipes in that it actually involved the use of butterfingers, not an attempt at replicating the taste itself. I'll go ahead and post the photos and then add the recipe once I find it.



If you care to take notice, these were baked in my fabulous "new" a.k.a. new to me pans. They are vintage and I didn't even have to go looking for them, just had to ask my grandma! I love the metal pans with the matching slide on lids. Grandma gave me two! :-)

Mom's Cherry Cordials

I too, am alive. I graduated a month ago, and let's just say I needed a short hiatus from just about everything. I did start baking again, but I just need to catch up on the blogs!


My Mom really loves cherry cordials. I buy some for her on almost every holiday that is appropriate. I decided that I would try making them myself this year. I personally like the look of the hand dipped candies versus the molded ones, so that's what I decided to make.

I always wondered how cherry cordials got their gooey center, and now I know! The center is actually a fondant that is wrapped around the cherry. After you coat it in chocolate and let it sit at room temperature for a few days, it liquefies.


Unfortunately, I was too afraid that the chocolate would melt, so I kept these in the fridge. The centers didn't liquefy, but they were still tasty!


I used the recipe found here. I made about 30 cherries (however many were in one jar), and I only used about half of the fondant. I also drizzled on some white and dark chocolate after I dipped them in the milk chocolate. It was hard to drizzle around the stem, but I still think they turned out nicely!

I gave a nice box to Mom and had some extras to share with the family. Everyone loved them! Even some people who haven't liked cherry cordials in the past enjoyed these! Mom especially loved them! She said they were "nummy" and "melted in her mouth." The only problem is that now she might be expecting them a lot more often!