Italian Cream Cake

As I mentioned in my previous post, I baked twice last week during the great move.  I somehow forgot that the first official day we could move in to the new place was also the date of my boss' Pampered Chef party, that I'd offered to bake for.  Silly me.  But, I do love a challenge and that's what this was.  Despite having moved a good portion of the kitchen to the new place, I managed to hang on to a few essentials and made this last thing in the tiny kitchen's homicidal oven.

I haven't ever made a layer cake before.  I know it seems crazy, since I kind of bake all the time, but I usually stick to a 9x13 or cupcakes.  The fact that I didn't (until this Christmas, thanks Mrs. Jann!) have 8 or 9 inch round cake pans didn't help the matter but, as Anna pointed out, if I'd wanted to make a layer cake I would have made it happen by now.

I was presented this particular challenge by my boss' friend, who is also my former professor (no pressure there, right?).  She said that she's always loved Italian Cream cake and I stupidly agreed to make it, because I didn't have my calendar in front of me and didn't bother to look up the recipe before agreeing to make one.  I used Billie's Italian Cream Cake recipe from Tasty Kitchen, because I love the Pioneer Woman and anything related to her.  It's an illness that I'm (not) seeking treatment for, don't judge.

I only made two 8-inch round cakes because I only had two pans, even though the recipe calls for three layers, and had enough batter left over for seven cupcakes.  In the future I'll just go ahead and use all the batter for the two cakes.  Even though the cupcakes were delicious, I think the cake would have been prettier if I'd filled the pans more.  I halved the frosting recipe and still had more than enough to put between the cake layers, frost the cake (ok, so Anna frosted the cake while I got changed for the party), and frost the cupcakes.  

Overall the cake was a success, people seemed impressed that it was all from scratch and it was also an excellent marketing opportunity for Crystal and Kristi, since I used Pampered Chef pans to prepare the cakes.  Unfortunately, in the rush to get this cake out the door, I didn't take a picture of it intact.  Here's what I managed to snap at the party.

Pretty and delicious!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

I haven't posted in a long time. Well, at least it feels like a long time.  In the grand scheme of things it really hasn't been that long.  Not long in the way of the Earth (name that movie!) or anything, that's for sure.  Here's what happened though, I moved.  Normally, this raises people's stress levels and is cause for much wailing, the rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth.  Not for me though. I've been looking forward to moving for 11 of the 12 months I lived in my previous place. Remember, I talked about the tiny kitchen and the homicidal oven?  Those things are no more!  This new kitchen has SPACE, and lots of it.  I can't really express how excited I am about this.  Really.  The only downside was that it's taken me a while to get around to writing about the two things I baked last week.  Yes, I baked TWICE in the week I was moving.  I'm a sucker for a challenge.  And birthdays.

It was Bartender/Quiz Master Devin's birthday two weeks ago, and he managed to not tell me in time to bring something for his actual birthday.  What a little jerk, right?  Devin loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I decided to make peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.  The recipe can easily be adapted to use whatever kind of jelly you have on hand and I've made them before, so I knew I'd be able to make these on Thursday night after work/before quiz.  Here's a picture of me and Devin a million years ago; before I lived off-campus and discovered my love of baking and definitely before he became everyone's favorite Quiz Master at Murphy's.
 

The cupcake recipe is called Vanilla-Strawberry Cupcakes and comes from my Baking Bible, but I generally reduce the amount of jelly in the cupcakes because of an unfortunate incident the first time I made them.  Something about jelly being all over the muffin tin, oven, and stove made me think a reduction was in order.  There was also a request to not stir the jelly into the batter next time, just drop the jelly in the batter and let it sit there for more of a "punch" of jelly flavor.  I'll take it under advisement though that does make it a bit more like a jelly donut, no?

Jelly Cupcakes

2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 Cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 egg whites
1/2 Cup strawberry preserves

Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; mix well and set aside.  Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl with electric mixer for one minute.  Add milk and vanilla, beat for 30 seconds.  Gradually beat in flour mixture, beat for two minutes.  Add egg whites, beat for one minute. 

Spoon batter into muffin tin, filling half full.  Drop 1/2 teaspoon preserves on top of batter; swirl in to batter with toothpick.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpicks inserted into centers come out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans to wire racks, cool completely.


This frosting is not from the Baking Bible, I actually discovered it when I was researching Guinness cupcakes for another friend's birthday last April (beer and peanuts, get it?).  After finally locating the piece of paper with the recipe on it, I've figured out it came from How to Eat a Cupcake.  Anyway, since it's debut last April this recipe has gotten heavy use.  Everyone loves it!  The texture is really nice and the peanut butter flavor takes center stage.  I won't lie, I'd knock down a small child for it, including Shelby.  It's that delicious and Aunt Courtney needs her frosting.  Just don't tell my sister.   Luckily for all involved this recipe makes plenty, so there's no need to harm anyone.

Peanut Butter Frosting

2 Cups powdered sugar
1/2 Cup butter, room temperature
Pinch of salt (can be omitted depending on how salty your peanut butter is)
1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons milk

Beat sugar, butter, and salt until creamy.  Add peanut butter, beat until combined.  Add milk, beat until smooth and creamy. 

Smores Brownies

My good friend Cara loves smores.  So much so that, the last time she came to visit, we made smores in the tiny kitchen of the apartment I lived in.  This was also my first experience with Sterno, but that's a story for a different day.  When making smores inside, I generally prefer to toast marshmallows over the coil of a hot stove because I don't like burned marshmallows.  Cara, on the other hand, totally enjoys the crispy texture of a blackened marshmallow. *Shudder* I haven't seen her since then, and that's a downer.

Here we are at her wedding two years ago...

Looks like a fun group, right?  We have such good times when we're all together and so I have decided that she and her lovely husband, The Daryl, should come see me. As a method of enticing her to visit again, I decided to make some sort of smores dessert.  I looked and looked and saw so many different methods of combining chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker that my head began to spin just a little bit.  I saw these two recipes on Tasty Kitchen and decided that, by combining the two, I would have a winner.

For the crust:
Take one package of graham crackers and crush them up.  I used the Mix'n'Chop to do this, I think you know how I feel about it already.  Add 1/2 stick of melted butter to the graham cracker crumbs and line the bottom of your brownie pan (I used a 9x12 glass pan) with them.  Bake at 350 for 5 to 8 minutes. 

For the brownies:
¾ Cups Shortening (I used butter)
1-⅓ Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1-⅓ Cup Flour
½ teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Tablespoons Cocoa
⅓ teaspoons Salt
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla
Marshmallows
1 Cup Chocolate Chunks

Mix the brownie ingredients (shortening, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt and vanilla) in the order given. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Take brownies out of the oven and cover with marshmallows and chocolate chunks. The marshmallows will get puffy, so they don’t have to touch each other, but you do want the brownie covered. Put back in the oven for 3 minutes or until a toothpick/cake tester comes out clean.

In the future I'll probably just line the bottom of the pan with graham crackers.  I didn't much care for the crust, that might have something to do with how I underbaked the crust and it totally moved around when I was putting the brownie batter in the pan but we won't talk about that right now.  I will also be sure to add the chocolate chunks to the top like she suggested in the original recipe.  This version was really good, but I think those two changes would have made these AMAZING.  For serious.  So Cara, if you're reading this, make a trip back.  I promise it'll be worth it!!

Strawberry Banana Streusel Muffins

It's difficult for me to imagine not eating breakfast in the morning; I just can't skip it.  I've been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that's not the entire reason I need to have a meal when I wake up...  For some reason, I get irrational and a little crazy when I don't eat regularly.  I'm aware that this makes me a weirdo, but I have heard of other people with similar issues, and regardless of that, it really can't be helped.  The only way to avoid the crazy is for me to eat at regular intervals.

Since I'm normally running crazy late in the morning, I've been eating breakfast bars along with my morning coffee.  These are a heck of a lot tastier and, since they contain fruit, I convinced myself that they're actually healthy.  I really like this recipe because it comes together really easily and makes just enough batter for 12 perfectly sized muffins.  Normally the yield count is wildly inaccurate for me, apparently I fill muffin cups too high, but this one is dead on.

This also marks the first time I was able to put together a streusel that struck the proper balance between sugary goodness and crumbly deliciousness.  My previous attempt involved a food processor and it was not pretty.  My suggestion to you, if you're making streusel and don't happen to have a pastry blender and don't want to use a fork or knife, is to get one of these.  I got mine for Christmas last year and have used it to crush candy canes, mash bananas, blend streusel ingredients, and all sorts of other things (not all at the same time of course). So buy one, if you've got the space in your kitchen, because it'll make your life so much easier.  Promise!

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 Cup sugar

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 Cup buttermilk (I used a tablespoon of lemon juice in enough milk to make 1/2 a cup)

1 egg

2/3 Cup (about 2) mashed bananas
5 or 6 strawberries, washed and cut into small-ish pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla

Banana Streusel Topping

Ingredients

1/2 Cup flour

1/3 Cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons shortening (I substituted butter and it worked fine)

1 Tablespoon mashed banana

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line a muffin tin with paper liners.

While the oven is preheating, make your topping: Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl.  Cut shortening (or butter) into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in the mashed banana and set aside.

For the batter: Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl whisk together sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk, egg, bananas, strawberries, and vanilla.  Pour flour mixture into banana mixture and stir until batter is just combined.  Try to stir this as little as possible or your muffins will be super dense and not really good.  Remember that scene in Charlie's Angels (the new one) where Lucy Liu's character brings in muffins and they start throwing them at each other because they're so hard?  She stirred too much, guaranteed. 

Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter and top with the crumb mixture, I had plenty of streusel leftover but I'll figure out what to do with that later.

Bake for 18-21 minutes or, if you've got a possessed oven like I do, until a tester comes out clean and the muffins spring back when gently touched.

My honest opinion is that these were ok, nothing terribly special.  I've got a muffin recipe that includes honey and I think I like it better; definitely worth trying with the strawberries and bananas!

Oatmeal Cookies

They're gone, the holidays are over.  I've found it difficult to get back in to the routine of going to work and being productive.  There's just something about the holidays and not working a full five-day week in the office until the end of January that really messes with my ability to concentrate.  Funny how that happens.  Anyway, the scatterbrain even extended into deciding what to bake, that never happens to me! Finally, on Thursday, inspiration struck.

You see, after every holiday the candy that goes along with it is put on sale.  I'm not so much a sucker for candy corn after Halloween, or Necco hearts after Valentine's Day, but after Christmas they put M&Ms on clearance!  Who doesn't love that kind of thing?!  Anyway, I bought three different kinds of M&Ms (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and mint) for half price, then there was a ton of Christmas candy, and even marshmallows left over from the holiday festivities.  The endless possibilities flooded my brain and suddenly it was Wednesday night and I still hadn't made a decision.

For some reason, after getting an H1N1 immunization (it was the nose thing instead of a shot, free and I didn't even have to wait in line so I figured it would be a good use of an afternoon), I felt inspired.  I would make oatmeal cookies with various mix-ins.  I knew I could use the rest of the toffee bits from the chocolate cake cookies but wanted to have another option, just in case.  I myself have yet to decide whether or not I like toffee, so people should have options.  "What people?", you ask?  I don't know what people really, since it's not like I bake for a demanding audience, but just in case someone was picky?  I really enjoy the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies at Potbelly, but didn't have any chocolate chips at the house so I substituted my discounted M&Ms (don't judge).  The substitution sparked some discussion because I wasn't sure if the candy shell would interfere with the texture of the cookies.  I honestly don't know why I worry about these things, it's a stupid cookie, but I'm weird like that.

I used the oatmeal cookie recipe in my Baking Bible.  Seriously, that's the title of the book.  It's pretty amazing and for the life of me, I can't find any more copies of it. It's part of a series of "bibles" that Barnes and Noble carried for a while and, thanks to my working at a B&N College for far too many years, I was able to snag one for a ridiculous deal several years ago. 

Ingredients

1 1/4 Cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 Cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 Cups quick or old fashioned oats

Mix-ins: I used about half a bag of M&Ms for half of the dough and about 1/3 of a bag of toffee chips for the other half.

Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

  In a large mixing bowl beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until combined.

Gradually beat in the flour mixture (rather pretty, isn't it?). 

Stir in oats and mix-ins.  Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies, or 9-10 minutes for crispy cookies.  Or, if you have a crazy oven like mine, check the cookies after 6 minutes and remove them from the oven only to find that they are crispy.  Let cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

These ended up being pretty good, even Anna wasn't terribly opposed to them and she said she's not generally a fan of oatmeal in cookies.  I think she may be converting to a sweets lover, if only just a little bit.