Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

A moist, fluffy peanut butter cake. Frosted with chocolate buttercream. Peanut butter and chocolate, a match made in heaven.

Ingredients: Cake (adapted from here)

2 cups granulated sugar

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1/4  cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup boiling water

Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk

Recipe: Cake

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour, and parchment paper three 6-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour,  baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, butter milk, oil, peanut butter, almond and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Frosting

Whip butter until very pale and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Mix until slightly crumbly. Blend in the milk until smooth. Frost!

Enjoy!

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A Liebster Award!

A few days ago, Shatarupa from Calorielicious nominated me for the Liebster award! Thank you, Shatarupa! Her blog is fantastic and you should really visit it. 🙂 The Liebster Award is awarded to new blogs.  Here are the rules for acceptance.

1.  Thank the person[s] who nominated me
2.   Answer questions given to be by the person[s] who nominated me
3.   Nominate 5-10 people for the award
4.   Ask about 10-11 questions the nominees have to answer
5.   Comment on the nominee’s blog to let them know they received the award

Here are my answer’s to Shatarupa’s set of questions.

1.           Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I really love to bake and wanted to share my recipes. It also seemed like fun to connect with other bloggers/bakers. 🙂

2.         What do you consider comfort food?

Mac n’ Cheese. I’m not sure why, it might be because of all the cheese.

3.         Fruit or chocolate?

Chocolate. Always. I am a baking blogger after all 🙂

4.         Are there any foods that you hate? If so, what?’

I hate mushrooms. I think they taste reminiscent of dirt.

5.         What is your current favourite TV show?

My favorite TV show is definitely Chopped. I especially love the dessert round and seeing what they create.

6.         Do you have a food idol? Who and why?

I don’t really have a food idol but I like pretty much everybody on FoodNetwork/Cooking Channel.

7.         What is your favourite spice?

My favorite spice is….. cinnamon! It goes so well with a lot of desserts.

9.         Besides cooking, what are your other passions?

I love the movies and writing.

10.       Summer or winter?

Winter! The best foods are in fall/winter. Like peppermint.

11.       Your biggest fear?

Getting buried alive 🙂

My nominees are…

The Not So Creative Cook 

Giraffes Can Bake

My Year of Cupcakes

Goan Imports

Cook AZ I Do

My questions!

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. What is your favorite dessert?
3. Chocolate Chip Cookies or Brownies?
4. Do you collect anything?
5. What is your favorite color?
6. The beach or mountains?
7. If you could be any animal…?
8. What’s the last movie that made you cry?
9. What’s your birthstone?
10. Favorite quote?

Thank you so much! 🙂

Sunshine Award

I’ve been nominated for not one, but two awards! Today I’ll do the Sunshine Award, the Liebster Award is for tomorrow 🙂 I was so surprised and happy to be nominated for this award. It’s awarded to bloggers by other bloggers who “positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.” Yay!

The Rules of the Sunshine Award are…

1. Display the award on your blog

2. Show your gratitude and link back to the person who nominated you.

I was nominated by Mrs. Choux of The Recipe Box. I happen to love, love, love her blog and the recipes she posts on it. Thank you so much for nominating me, Mrs. Choux!

3. Nominate ten of your favorite bloggers and let them know they’ve been nominated. There were so many blogs I could’ve picked. It was a hard decision!

I nominate:

Sweet Simple Stuff

Mom-Makes

Cooking with Aunt Juju

The Old Crone

6 or Less

Katie at the Kitchen Door

eAsybAKED

Chez Chloe

A Pug in the Kitchen

Anna’s Cuisine 

The fourth rule of the Sunshine Award is say ten interesting things about myself

1. I’m a twin

2. I hate writing bios

3. I love fluffernutter sandwiches

4.  I have a very crazy border collie

5. My favorite things to bake are cookies and cupcakes

6. I really, really, really love going to the movie theater

7. The only shoes I wear are combat boots

8. My favorite animals are lions and horses

9. I prefer rainy days over bright and sunny ones

10. I’ve never read Harry Potter

 

 

 

Mini Meringue Mango Tarts

Mini tarts filled with creamy mango curd and topped with fluffy meringue. Aren’t they adorable?

Ingredients: Mini Pies

2 premade pie crusts (I used Pillsbury)

Filling (from here)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup mango puree 

3 tablespoons lime juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

4 tablespoons butter

Meringue

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

4 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

Recipe: Pie Crust

Grease muffin tin. Preheat oven to 425F.

Roll out pie crusts until very thin. Using a 4×4 cup or cookie cutter cut out 14 circles. Press into the muffin cups making sure the dough doesn’t bubble. Make sure your dough is at least to the top of the tin. Crimp the edges if you’d like. Fill each crust halfway with uncooked rice (to prevent bubbling)

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Mango Curd

Combine  sugar, mango puree, lime juice, salt and yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened. About 8-10 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in butter 1 piece at a time until fully incorporated. Put mango curd into a bowl and cover in plastic wrap. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Before filling pie crusts whip on high for a few minutes.

Meringue

Whip the cream of tartar and egg whites until soft peaks form, then add sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe (or spoon) onto tarts. Place tarts under a broiler on low for about a minute or until brown.

Enjoy!

 

 

Easter Egg Coconut Nests

Green colored coconut macaroons with Cadbury eggs in the middle. Yum. These are perfect for Spring (or Easter)

Ingredients: (Makes 8) Recipe from here.

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 and 1/2 cup shredded coconut

green food coloring

24 Cadbury Eggs

Recipe:

Grease a baking sheet and line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Starting at low speed, beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until they start to foam. Then turn the speed to medium speed, beat until the egg whites form stiff, glossy peaks. Add the extract and food coloring.

Fold in the powdered sugar and coconut with a spatula. Try to mix as little as possible.

Use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to scoop the batter on the pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the edges start to brown slightly.

Immediately when they come out make an indent with a spoon. Let rest for 5 minutes and the finish cooling on wire racks. Fill with Cadbury eggs.

Enjoy!

 

Sweet and Salty Brownies

Fudgey brownies topping with pretzels covered in caramel. Mmmm.

Ingredients: Brownies (Where I found the recipe)

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 rounded  teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Salted Caramel from here

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons salted butter, cut into 6 pieces

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

Recipe: Brownies

Preheat the oven to 325F. Make sure there is an oven rack on the bottom third of the oven. Grease, then line with parchment paper the bottoms and two sides of an 8×8 pan. This helps when you lift the brownies out of the pan.

Add 1-2 inches of water to a medium saucepan. Heat the water until it’s barely simmering. Mix butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium heat proof bowl. Rest bowl over saucepan, make sure the bowl’s bottom does not get wet. (If it does remove some water)

Stir mixture occasionally until the butter is melted and everything is combined. Don’t worry if the batter if gritty.

Remove bowl from heat from 5 minutes until the batter is no longer hot. Stir in vanilla and then add eggs one at a time, beating hard after each one.

When the batter is shiny and well blended, add the flour. Stir until fully incorporated, then continue beating for at least 60 strokes. The batter will be very thick. Spread in lined pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave brownies in pan until fully cool, then remove from pan. Before making the ganache keep brownies in the fridge. Before putting on caramel, lay pretzels across the brownies.

Salted Caramel

Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.

Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-colored liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn.

Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added.

Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes.

Very slowly, drizzle in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Since the heavy cream is colder than the caramel, the mixture will rapidly bubble and/or splatter when added.

Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down for about 5 minutes before pouring over the pretzels. Then add more pretzels to the top (it doesn’t matter if they’re broken or not.)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

A moist, fluffy, chocolate cupcake with a sweet caramel buttercream frosting. What could be better?

Ingredients: Cupcakes (Makes 30- I suggest halving it) from Hershey’s.

2 cup granulated sugar

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 cups caramel bits, melted with 1 teaspoon milk

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Recipe: Cupcakes

Heat oven to 350°F. Line muffin cups with paper cups and lightly grease.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Cream butter for 3-5 minutes or until very light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and mix until slightly crumbly. Beat in melted caramel. When crumbly add milk and beat until smooth and creamy. Frost cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Cookies N’ Cream Cookies

Everybody likes cookies n’ cream right? And everybody likes cookies. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that these cookies are amazing, especially because they’re pudding cookies. Amazing.

Ingredients: (Makes 26 Cookies)

3/4 sticks of unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 egg yolks, room temperature

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4.2 ounce cookies n’ cream pudding mix

1 bag Hershey’s Cookies N’ Cream Drops (8 oz)

Recipe:

Cream butter, vanilla, and both sugars until light and fluffy; about 3-5 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolks in one at a time, mixing after each one.

In separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Add dry mix to wet batter in three batches. Beat until combined then stir in the cookies n’ cream drops. Refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350F and grease two baking sheets. With a medium cookie scoop, put about 13 cookies on each sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to racks.

Enjoy!

COOL DESSERTS I LIKED

Mini hamburger cupcakes? Awesome!

S’mores muddy buddies! Looks delicious!

These bars are so cute! I love the marshmallows, chocolate, and m&ms!

I love lemon meringue and these mini cheesecakes are amazing!

So awesome! Fluffernutter forever 🙂

Lemon Lime thumprints? Count me in.

Yellow Cake with Raspberry Filling

Here’s a soft yellow cake with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache filled with raspberry frosting. It’s amazing, the combination of the yellow cake, bright raspberries, and chocolate. The yellow cake comes from Smitten Kitchen, so of course it’s delicious 🙂

Ingredients:

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons self rising cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon table salt

1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Filling

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 cup raspberry puree (find out how to do that here)

Whipped Ganache (because it’s a ganache it will harden on the cake)

1 cup heavy cream

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 345F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans (I don’t have 9 inch pans, but if you use 9 inch pans you won’t have leftover batter, but you may not have enough frosting) and line with parchment paper, then grease again.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and combine. Add eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each one. While mixing at low-speed, add buttermilk.  The mixture will look curdled. Don’t worry.

Slowly beat in flour mixture in 3 parts, beating until each part is just combined.

Spread batter evenly in the cake pans, then rap the pans on the counter several times to pop the air bubbles. Drop the pans from a few inches up. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (35-40 minutes.) Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a rack and then, run a knife around the edges, invert, discard parchment, and completely cool (about 1 hour.)

Filling

Cream butter by its self for about 5 minutes. You want it to be very light. Slowly add the powdered sugar.  When the mixture is crumbly, add the raspberry puree and beat together. Spread on top of one of the cakes.

Frosting

Put chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium-high until boiling. Immediately pour over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is melted. Let cool in the refrigerator until slightly cold, then whip until lighter in color, about 5-8 minutes.

Enjoy!