Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

J & I went to his grandma's house the other day and her son had brought back a heap full of fresh picked strawberries. Of course, she gave us a heap. They were Delicious! I pondered on what to make with the ingredients I had on hand. I found this recipe for an old fashion type of shortcake. I read many mixed reviews on it and decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did.

Ingredients:
(For the glaze) Chop up strawberries and put in container with 1/2 cup of strawberries. Set aside in the fridge for later.

For The shortcake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder (Reviews said to cut down to 2Tbsp)
2 tablespoons white sugar (Reviews said to up the sugar to 1/2 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk


Directions:
First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease & flour one 8" round cake pan.

Next mix the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. Once mixed together place the shortening(or butter) and cut into ingredients. I used a fork but you can use a pastry blender. Blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack. You can slice partially cooled cake in half, making two layers. Place half of the strawberries on one layer and top with the other layer. Top with remaining strawberries and cover with the whipped cream. I just made the cake and sprinkled it with a little powder sugar and sliced as we ate it and topped with strawberries & ice cream.

Chocolaty Cherries Jubilee Cheesecake

Wow, it's been awhile eh? Ive not blogged anything Ive cooked recently for some unknown reason. I thought to myself since I've never done a cheesecake I'll blog about the one I recently was asked to make. My mother saw this recipe in a magazine ( I think it was Women's First) and asked if I would make it for Mothers Day. I said sure I like a challenge and my mom wanted it so off I went to the store to gather the ingredients.

Ingredients:

10 Chocolate wafer cookies (I only found them at Ingles)

1 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/4 cup melted butter

1 envelope (.25g) unflavored gelatin. (I used Knox)

3 Tbs. Cherry-flavored Liqueur (I didn't have any so I used some grenadine & cherry syrup)

10 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & divided (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips)

3 pkgs. (8oz each) Cream cheese, at room temp.

1/2 cup sour cream

1 container(8oz) Cool Whip

1 can (21oz.) Cherry pie filling, drained.

1 8" well greased spring form pan

I forgot to lay out the cream cheese when I got home from the store. So to help move the room temp. along I cut up the cream cheese so the surface area wasn't so large :) Oops

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 Degreed F. In food processor, pulse cookies until they're fine crumbs. The directions said about 20 cookies. Once crumbs are formed stir in 1/2 cup of sugar and the melted butter. Press into the bottom of a WELL GREASED 8" spring form pan. (I totally forgot to grease the pan... and yea it stuck like crazy. I was so nervous about making it turn out right) Bake for 12minutes and let cool.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine gelatin and 1/2 cup water; let sit 2 minutes. Then stir in liqueur. Microwave for about 30seconds or until the gelatin is disolved. Once disolved stir in 8oz melted chocolate.

In a bowl ofelectric mixer (I used my KA Mixer, thankgoodness for this invention) on medium speed, beat the cream cheese for about 1 minute. Add remaining sugar and sour cream. Beat another 1 min. Add gelatin/chocolate mixture and beat 1 min.

Pour batter into prepared crust and chill for 4 hours. Top with whipped topping, melted chocolate, and cherries. Cut, serve, and enjoy. I'm glad this was such a hit. Simple & a great dessert. I'm not a fan of cheesecake but this was pretty good. The Ghiradeli chocolate brought out the flavor of the cherries.

Tie Dye Cupcakes & Valentine's Day Cupcakes

While searching on the the web I saw where someone had posted a lady's blog, The Omnomicon that contained the following recipe for a tie dye cake. It looks amazing and so fun. So with J at work today and knowing that he MAYBE got 3 hours of sleep before he had to be at work I decided to bring him cupcakes and the rest of the crew as well.

I made two batches of these. The tie dye version and red/pink/purple version for Valentines Day coming up. Ingredients:
1 Box of Betty Crocker's White Cake Mix (sure go ahead and make it from scratch if your heart so desires.. mine didn't :)
2. Sprite Zero You'll Need 16oz (I never knew you could cook with soda :/ It was strange to me but then I found out a lot of people do it to cut out fat and such.. I bought a 2L because it was more cost effective and lets face it $1.98 for a L is cheaper than paying $6.00 for the 6pk of 16ozs)
3. Food Coloring (Recipe suggests gels but I had the liquid kind so I used it and didn't have a problem.
4. Cupcake Sheet (I used a 12 silicone cupcake pan & a 12 metal mini cupcake pan.)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. If you have a KA Mixer, use it. First dump the cake mix into large mixing vessel. Second add 16oz of the Sprite Zero. (You can def. omit this and follow the cake mix's directions to add the 3 egg whites, 1/3 cup of Veg. Oil, and H2O.) Mix together. Mixture will be lumpy, that's okay.

After batter is prepared have 4-6 different small mixing bowls ready to portion out the batter. Portion about 1/2 cup into each small bowl. I had 5 Colors, Red, Blue, Green, Orange, & Purple.
Purple: Red & Blue Orange: Red & Yellow.. FYI.

Spoon about 2tblspns of 1st color into each cupcake hole. Then use the next and use less of that color, spoon next color using less than 2nd color..etc..



Follow baking directions on box. If you are using the soda method then add 5-10 more minutes to baking time checking every few mins. I used a silicone baking pan and for the large cupcakes it took about 23mins.



Here Are The Pictures Of My Valentine's Day Cupcakes.




To make chocolate designs just melt semi sweet chocolate in microwave for 30seconds and then 15second intervals until melted. Place in piping bag, cut small tip and draw designs on wax paper. Let cool and place :)

Devils Food Cake Balls

I love trying new recipes, especially desserts. I was on a food forum and found this wonderful recipe for Devil's Food Cake Balls. Her name is Cathy and I owe it all to her for these wonderful little delights. Check out her wonderful blog at Cathy's Kitchen Journey for her pictures/comments/and other wonderful recipes. (She made her frosting from scratch and has that lovely recipe on her page)

Ingredients:
1 Box of Devil's Food Cake (Prepare as directions say)
1 Can Chocolate Frosting (because I was in such a hurry to make these I admit I used store canned frosting)
1 Package Chocolate bark (I used 1/2 package of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Almond Bark)

Directions:
Prepare cake as instructed on the package. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl and add can of frosting. I used my KA Mixer to blend the cake and frosting together and it worked wonders.

When everything is mixed evenly shape the balls and place on cookie sheet. I used an ice cream scoop since I didn't have a cookie scoop. Roll into balls and placed on cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill for a few hours (you can place these in the freezer if you need them quicker).

Once these little balls of joy are chilled, melt the chocolate almond bark as the directions instruct. I just placed the choc. bark into a glass bowl and put in the microwave and it worked for me. Watch very carefully so the chocolate doesn't burn. Once melted, top your goodies with the melted delight.

The Beloved Oreo Truffles

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 Package Oreos

1 Package of Choc. Almond Bark

1 Package of White. Almond Bark

Grind Oreos to small bits in your food processor. With a mixer ( I use my hands it works better), blend cookie crumbs and cream cheese until thoroughly mixed (there should be no white traces of cream cheese). Roll into small or large balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet.

Chill 45 minutes.Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. In double-boiler, melt milk or dark chocolate. Dip balls and coat thoroughly. With slotted spoon or fork, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off. Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.

In separate double boiler, melt white chocolate. Using a fork, drizzle white chocolate over balls. Let cool.Store in airtight container, in refrigerator. For special occassions or holidays melt different colors of candies. Ex: Christmas (Red & Green) ,4th of July (Blue, Red, White), Etc.

Image from Blurred Lines Blog

Pepermint Sticks

My mother gave me a few cooking magazines when we bought our first home and I remembered that I had made these over the Christmas holidays and they were a huge hit. All you take is the soft peppermint stick candy and in a heavy small sauce pan, combine 4oz chopped bitersweet or semisweet chocolate and 1 teaspoon shortening. Heat & stir over low heat until melted. Chop up any type of nuts you desire and/or sprinkles. Dip the peppermint candy into the chocolate and then roll in the topping. Place on waxed paper & let stand until set. Recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications "Holiday Cooking."

Tres Leches Cake

Okay, so I would have NEVER known about this recipe if it wasn't for a friend of ours. Shane & Andrea invited us over to their house for dinner, we had an amazing dinner, and then Shane brings out this cake, dessert type thing. J & I thinking it was just cake until we cut into it were perplexed about the texture and look of this cake. Let's just say don't judge! It was absolutely delish. I asked Shane what it was called and he spit out this gibberish Tr es Leches Cake. Okay... right.. yea um it was great! So we went home stuffed and pondering this amazing cake. A few weeks later I wanted to make it so I emailed Shane and asked for the recipe. I then googled it and read about it. Tres Leches translated means 3 Milks Cake. You'll see why.. (Easy Tip if you don't want to make your cake from scratch is to use a boxed yellow cake mix)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
5 eggs, large
1 teaspoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1/2 cup milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup plus 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon rum
1 pinch salt
optional garnishes- fresh berries, Cinnamon, or chocolate (I used choc. shavings)

Combine flour and baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add the eggs to the sugar mixture one at a time until well combined. Stir in the 1/2 cup of milk, then gently fold in the flour mixture a little at a time.
Pour batter into a lightly greased cake pan or baking dish and bake at 325 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until it feels firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool until it feels room temperature. Turn it over onto a platter with raised edges. Pierce cake with a fork 20-30 times. Let it cool in the refrigerator for an additional 30 minutes.

Whisk together 1 cup milk, 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup heavy cream and rum. Slowly pour over cooled cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Occasionally, spoon the milk runoff back onto the cake.

In a mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Beat until peaks form. Spread a thin layer over the cake. Garnish, eat & enjoy!