As I mentioned previously, I love Mondays because I get to bake a treat for FHE. Last night John and I decided that the baking should be done Sunday night so we can enjoy the treat sooner. :) This week I made a recipe called "Heavenly Candybar Cake" because I have been SO excited to try this cake. The cake has melted Milky Way candybars in the batter, a chocolate marhsmallow frosting, and is garnished with chopped Milky Way bars. How awesome is that?!?! The Milky Ways in the batter added a great depth of flavor to the cake and the frosting is one of the best chocolate frostings I've ever had. And the Milky Way garnish just sets it over the top, seriously. So good! I'm excited for this week because I get to bake a lot...a Red Velvet cake for our anniversary, cookies for my visiting teachees, cookies for my friend who is having a baby, and something...not sure yet what...for our Relief Society Lunch Bunch. Hooray.
8 comments:
Your delicious looking creations have been taunting me the last two weeks, so I decided that I'd made Monday's our special treat day so I made cupcakes. (Mostly because I don't have round cake pans yet.) I went for a quick and easy recipe and while it tastes pretty good, it's still a little drier than I would have liked and lacked something in savory sweetness and taste. (Plus, I just cannot find a good recipe for frosting that I like.) You have to let me know a few of your tips for achieving great taste and flavor. I'm intrigued by melting candy bars into the batter. I should try something like that sometime....
That sounds really really good. Once again I'm lamenting our not-neighbor status. How do you suppose it would come out with Snickers? I guess the peanuts might not be great for the batter, so maybe melt the Milky Ways and sprinkle with Snickers? Hmmm. These posts are making me nuts because all I want to do is bake!!
Mmmmm, cupcakes. I just found a peanut butter cupcake recipe where you drop a Hershey's Kiss in the center...how yummy would that be? Anyway, I look for cake recipes that have sour cream or buttermilk in them, they're almost always guaranteed to be super moist (especially ones with sour cream). Aside from that, I'm drawing a blank on tips...I tend to follow the recipe the first time and then adjust the recipe as needed after that. Oh, when you get your cake pans, DON'T get dark nonstick, they tend to overcook the bottom and edges of the cake. Oh, and the BEST way to get cakes out of the pan without them falling apart is to grease the pan, then take a 9" round of wax paper and put that down in the pan, then grease on top of that and THEN flour the pan. Does that make sense? The cakes practically fall right out of the pan, and I've never had cake fall apart using that method.
I love melting the candy bars into the batter, it was so tasty. Emily, it's funny you mention the Snickers because John and I had a discussion about how the cake would probably be really tasty with a Snickers garnish. Yum. The cake is gone now, I gave away a big chunk of it because we were on the verge of polishing the whole thing off in less than two days, which is disgusting. :)
So do you leave the wax paper in the pan while you cook the cake? Or is it only for flouring the pan? Thanks for the tips! I'm definitely wishing I'd thrown some sour cream into the batter, but the pictures always fool me into thinking the cake will turn out absolutely moist and delicious when it inevitably doesn't. Dropping a Hersey's kiss into a cupcake does sound like a great idea. I really want to make lava cakes next. Mmmmm. I'm also trying to perfect some ice cream recipes because my sister got me the ice cream mixer attachment for my KitchenAid.
Just curious, Kara: do you buy the rounds of wax paper? I always see that in recipes, that you should grease, line with parchment or wax paper, and then butter and flour again... but I never do because I'm WAY too lazy to sit there and cut out a perfect circle! Half the time I'm really bad and don't even butter or flour. You're amazing for being able to adjust a recipe. I'm always afraid I'd mess it up, especially when baking. Oh, and I'm with you on the sour cream thing. I know buttermilk is also good, but I never have buttermilk on hand whereas I usually have sour cream, so I love baking recipes that have sour cream in them (which means I don't have to waste money on something I'll inevitably only use half of before it spoils). I love how moist it stays.
Adrian went to the store late some night last week because we were both craving junk, and brought me home a king size Snickers bar. I was in heaven. It had been a long time. At least I have the pregnancy excuse! I looked at them longingly yesterday at the checkout, but somehow I resisted. Amazing.
Emily, I agree about the sour cream/buttermilk thing. I always have sour cream on hand but you can make buttermilk very easily. To make one cup of buttermilk, pour 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into a 1 cup measuring cup and then fill the remaining with milk. Let it sit for a few minutes and then you've got a fairly decent and close match for buttermilk. I don't think it's quite the same but I haven't noticed any huge difference. It's what I do whenever a recipe calls for buttermilk.
I'm going to make some banana bread today (on account of bananas that are going bad) but I need to buy a bread pan first. And some wax paper. And a wire rack. I used to have a lot of these things, but over the years, I just haven't bothered to move all my cooking supplies with me as I've moved all over the country. I really miss my old cookie sheets with a rack and cover. If I'd known how hard it was to find them, I'd have packed them into my suitcase. Oh well...
I’ve never seen wax paper rounds anywhere, I just make them myself. Once you’ve done it a few times, it’s pretty fast and easy. It’s definitely worth it.
Emily, how can you resist Snickers? Wow. I need some willpower when it comes to chocolate.
Liz, it’s sad you have a hard time getting the stuff you need. Part of being in Hawaii? John’s sister would always mention how incredibly expensive everything was too…
It is ridiculously expensive to live here. I don't know how non-military people survive. If I couldn't shop at the commissary and the Navy Exchange (NEX), we wouldn't be able to eat. For instance, at the Safeway right across the street from our condo (which I only go to if I need one or two things), a bag of chocolate chips cost me nearly $4, while at the commissary, a bag of chocolate chips is only about $2.30. I can find certain supplies, but not with any consistency and it takes forever to get in new shipments of supplies to the stores. Sometimes the NEX has lots of good stuff, and other times it doesn't. Plus, there aren't very many speciality stores out here. (Not to mention no Targets although they have Target commercials on TV. Makes me tear up a little every time.) I spend a lot of time at Costco and Wal-Mart, but they only offer so much. But what I can't find here, I can order online. Amazon is a godsend, especially with its free shipping on orders over $25. I told David yesterday that I wanted a cake decorating set but I don't know if I can wait until Christmas to get one.
Post a Comment