Cake a la Crockpot

I have discovered the most wonderful website, Pinterest. It was described to me by a coworker as the female version of fantasy football. It is absolutely fantastic. Basically it allows you to create virtual bulletin boards and link things from all over the Internet (or things you create) to your boards. You also link with friends and you can see what they pin to their boards and repin it to your own and visa versa. It did not take me long to have well over 1,000 pins and lots of neat ideas I wanted to try. That's where this next cake came from.
I saw this recipe and though there is no way it will work, it was for a crockpot cake, specifically a Rocky Road Cake. It involves a box mix, pudding mixes of different flavors, vanilla, milk and other such stuff that I like alone so it should be good together right? I followed the directions which can be found on my Pinterest food bulletin board, which links you to this blog, and plugged that crockpot in. I must admit as I watched this cook, I got a bit panicked. The lid started rising up and I was sure there was going to be a tremendous mess. Alas no such mess (until I drove it around in my car-not such a good plan by the way, at least not until it is done cooking). I have to admit there were some recipe changes. Not being a nut fan or German chocolate cake fan I adjusted to use a chocolate cake mix and left out the nuts. I had everyone's attention when I added the last two ingredients. Although we were all sure it looked not nearly as good as sheep snot might, my friends, being true friends say serve me up a little piece. A little piece here and there turned into larger helpings and taking some home. I tried a little and must admit it was warm smooshy chocolaty goodness like no other and very easy to make.
It may be ugly but many I suggest indulging, it will be a desert you will never forget.

Monkey'ing Around S'More

Yes, I am one of those people who has reciepes sent to them on line. On any given day, if I have a second I will read through to see if there is anything interesting. This reciepe was not only eye catching it made me open it, click on a link, read, re-read, print, read again and then share. So you know that this reciepe had to have been more than an eye catcher. As a matter of fact, after work I went to the grocery store and picked up all the ingredients so I could make it tonight.
S'More Monkey Bread was the title of the reciepe, which to me has some of my favorite things, choclate and marshmallows. That alone was enough for me to try it but when I read the steps I had to go ahead and give it a shot. Long reciepe short; you quarter the biscuits in four cans of large biscuits, stick them in a zip bag with sugar and graham cracker crumbs and proceed to shake like shake and bake. Then you layer the biscuit quarters in a tube pan with chocolate chips and marshmallows. When you get done you take a melted concoction of butter, vanilla and marshmallow creme and pour it over the top. The entire pan goes in the oven and bakes for 35 minutes. One word of warning marshmallow expands when heated so you need to be prepared for run over. When it comes out you let it cool for a few minutes in the pan and then turn it upside down on a plate. The first words said when the finished product was served was, "holy moly that's a lot of something." Mind you it is ooey and gooey but delightfully warm and wonderful as you tear off chucks of this sweet goodness. Best served when hot and if you are looking to dress it up think about drizzling hot carmel or choclate sauce across it, or using them as dipping sauces for those with strong sweet tooths.

MMM mmm Good!

There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. You have heard of comfort foods, well this is a comfort smell for me. Thanks to my sourdough starter it is one that I will get to smell about once a week.

You may remember my post last year about the Sourdough bread I was making. Sourdough bread was a favorite of my dad's and something that has always been coveted in our family. The key to this is making sure the starter stays alive. If you don't bake with the starter once a week you must feed it (discard a certain about of flour and water and add more). Sourdough is not an easy bread to make. It requires patience. A great deal of patience. Usually what happens is that on Friday night after I get home from work and have dinner I get the starter out and start making sponge. By Saturday morning the sponge is usually ready and I am making dough. It takes all day Saturday for the dough to rise. Right before I go to bed I punch the dough down and put it in a greased bread loaf and let it rise overnight and most of Sunday. When it has reached the top of the loaf pan it is time to put it in the oven for an hour. After cooling in the pan, and dump it out on the cooling rack. Suddenly, I have a loaf of Sourdough bread. Doubling the recipe doesn't take much, it just requires twice as many ingredients and bowls for rising. Wait time can happen all at once.

I make this once a week, but don't expect a post every week concerning bread. Of course if it is an interesting situation I am likely to post about it. Just know that if you smell that most wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread over the weekend chances are it is coming from my little oven in between cakes and other baked delectable. If you are interested in purchasing a loaf of sourdough please feel free to contact me at customcake4you@aol.com. Time to go slice a piece and watch the butter melt on my fresh out of the oven warm bread. YUM!

Don't You Love the Smell of Fresh Baked Bread?

Yes, it smells so good in my kitchen right now. I love it. There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread, and there is something especially sweet about this loaf. Growing up my father's favorite bread was sourdough. To make it involved a special starter, that is kind of high maintenance, you have to feed it once a week to keep it going. I was under the impression that it required a very special yeast to make this batter so imagine my surprise when I found out with a little effort each day over a week I could create my own sourdough starter. I got the perfect glass container (sourdough starter does not do well in metal) and got started mixing flour and water in proportion until a wonderful sour bacteria started growing (no joke).

I have tried several times going through the steps and I don't know if the temperature was to cold or if the batter was just not quite right but I had several failed attempts. My bread just did not want to rise. Finally this weekend all the elements came together and the bread started to rise. On the second rising it took overnight to get it the size of the loaf but it finally worked. Baking the bread was not only aromatic but satisfying because it turned out to be what it is supposed to be.

Santa Needs Cookies

I realize it is after Thanksgiving and baking Santa's cookies might be a tad early. However it is tradition in our home that the day after Thanksgiving the tree goes up (it's artificial so no problem with it drying up by Christmas). Along with that a mass of elves descend and decorate the whole house for Christmas. The issue is that most of my Mom's stuff is still packed away so there are just a few things she has to get out at Christmas. One of these things is a Santa Claus cookie jar that she got last year at an after Christmas sale. Of course a cookie jar is in need of cookies.

Thanks to all the baking I was doing as part of Thanksgiving I had chocolate chips, eggs, sugar, flour, etc. In other words I had all the makings for chocolate chip cookies. You know, the toll house kind. The kind of cookies that everyone should experience, and usually does at least once in their lifetime. I baked about two dozen cookies (and of course tested a few along the way) for the famed Santa cookie jar. I'm not sure what happened to the cookies after I left, but it did mark the first baking assignment for the holiday season. Who knows what is next? Stay tuned for more holiday fun.

Saying Thanks for the Oreos and Cheesecake.

I must admit I like to bake. I bake lots of things not just cakes (or at least decorated cakes). This year for Thanksgiving my mother and I had the privilege to share a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with another family who are friends of my mothers. To make sure we kept up our end, mom wanted to invite everyone to her house for dessert. First request from my mom, an Oreo cheesecake.

For those who like cheesecake it is great. For those who like Oreos, it is a great way to get non-cheesecake eaters to try cheesecake. For those who like both...this is heaven. However, it takes an hour to bake and overnight in the refrigerator before serving so I made this two days before Thanksgiving (knowing after driving I would not want to stay up and try to mix and bake this). I must also admit that the recipe calls for regular Oreos but I use double stuffs and I add a few more than the recipe calls for to make sure it is chalk full of the good stuff.

The cheesecake transported really well. I must admit it seemed to make our special guest pretty happy too. We had enough left over for a family gathering a night or two later and seemed to put a lot of smiles on faces. So I am thinking it kept fairly well.

Oreo is not the only cheesecake I make. There is also strawberry (second highest seller) and a chocolate chocolate Oreo cheesecake. Not to mention the regular cheesecake, Bailey's cheesecake, chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip cakes. If you can come up with a flavor...I will see what I can do about making it for you.