Frosting Post #2

I meant to update this blog regularly, twice a month, and here I just let more than three months pass between updates. I have three ready to go right now, though.

Here's Frosting Post #2

Caramel Frosting

1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar

In a saucepan over low heat, bring butter, milk and brown sugar to a boil. Boil for two minutes in a rolling boil. Cool in a pan of water. When saucepan is cool to the touch, blend in powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Milk can be added for thinning. Perfect for caramel or spice cake, or add shredded coconut to make a German Chocolate Cake.

I cannot stress how important it is to follow these instructions to the letter. I have *never* made this recipe right because I don't wait long enough, I boil for too long, etc. But my college roommate Elisa always made it right without any problem - because she followed the directions.

And it's worth it, I promise you!

Variation on a (Pumpkin) Theme

When I was in college, I went through a pumpkin obsession phase that I never really grew out of. I made all kinds of pumpkin cookies, breads, bars and pies. (Yes, pies. That's how I know I will never like homemade pumpkin pie.)

So last weekend, I was *craving* the reduced-fat banana mini-chocolate chip bread from Starbucks. (If you haven't tried, do! It's delicious!) But I was a little too lazy to go out to buy it and I didn't have bananas to make it myself. But I did have canned pumpkin, so I decided to pull out the following favorite recipe from my college years but make muffins instead of bread.

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 to 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips (optional)

Cream together the butter and eggs. Beat until light. Add canned pumpkin and vanilla. Add the sugars, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the flour and the optional ingredients.

Divide into two (sprayed) loaf pans and bake at 350*F for 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. OR spoon into sprayed muffin tins (makes about 30 muffins) and bake at 350*F for 25-28 minutes.

When life gives you cherries...

I've been taking a cake decorating break. It's been nice: I've had time for my other hobbies, I've had time to relax, so on and so forth. I'm going to start up again shortly (Janelle and I are planning on an entire Saturday to make our first wedding cake), but I think I need to confess something first.

I'm not a big fan of cake.

Cakes you buy at bakeries have too much frosting on them and that frosting is usually too sweet for me. And then the cake, well, it usually doesn't taste that great without any frosting. So I stay away from cake when I can. I don't have birthday cake these days; I have pie. (In fact my next two - at least - entries will be about pie.)

I also stay away from cherries when I can. Not that there's anything wrong with the way cherries taste, I just happen to have had an unfortunate incident in my youth when the cherries in my stomach ended up in an obliging front yard after a long and winding car ride.

I've confessed all of this because I need you to understand that the next thing I'm going to write is the absolute truth: My favorite kind of cake in the world is Chocolate Cherry Cake, as introduced to me by my college roommate Natalie, and this is how you make it.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

1 chocolate cake mix
20-21 oz. can of cherry pie filling
2 eggs
1-1/2 c. chocolate chips
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. milk
5 tablespoons butter or margarine

Mix the cake mix, pie filling and eggs together and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 350*F. (Check the cake at 25 minutes)

After the cake is done baking and cooled down, in a sauce pan, boil the milk, butter and sugar for 1 minute. Remove from the burner. Stir in the chocolate chips until melted.

Pour the glaze over the cake and chill in the refrigerator until the frosting is set. Best served cold.

Paltry Devices

I'm going to have to ask that we keep this post on the down low. You know, just between you and me, because I would hate for the following to be well known. And you shall see why shortly.

My last two months of my college experience, I was roommates with a girl named Stacey. And it was Stacey who shared with me the following recipe. It's called several different things: when I bring it in to work, I call it "Caramel Oatmeal Bars". At home, we call it "Death by Caramel".

The name Stacey called it was... "Man Catching Brownies." Now, how valid that name is, I will not say, never having made it for a man I wanted to "catch".

Who resorts to such paltry devices?

Er... Anywhoo, I make them for me and my girlfriends. These bars are, after all, meant to be shared. And then stories about sharing need to be shared.

Man Catching Brownies

1-1/2 cups Flour
1-1/2 cups Brown Sugar
1/3 tsp Salt
1-1/2 cups Oats
1-1/8 cups Butter
2/3 tsp Baking Soda

Mix the above ingredients. Pour half of the mixture in the bottom of baking dish (any size). Bake for 10 minutes at 350*F.

48 Caramels
7-1/2 tablespoons Whipping Cream
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Melt the caramels and stir in cream. Pour on top of crust. Pour the other half of the mixture on top of the caramel. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for another 10 minutes at 350*F. Let cool before serving.

Don't stop me if you've heard this one before...

When I was in college, I may have loved this boy who may or may not have been called "George Thurmond" who loved my chocolate chip cookies. He used to devour them, with sound effects of rather a pornographic nature. "Herbal Essence commercial" is a politer way of describing it. Unfortunately, if he had known me better, he would have known that at the time I could not make a good batch of chocolate chip cookies to save my life. [I have since mastered the art: put the dough in the refrigerator for a hour or so. It's amazing how it helps!]

Yes, the secret comes out: the Pillsbury doughboy was a personal friend of mine.

Like boys that I may have loved, he fell to the wayside and he and I are no longer friends. I may have been hung up on him for a very long time. About a year after "George Thurmond", my roommates and I became friends with a group of boys who were everything to me: brothers, friends, neighbors, teachers. Every Monday night (and nearly every other night of the week) for two years, we would congregate together and sometimes I would make a special dessert.

One of my roommates at the time was Janelle, my best friend who will be featured frequently in this blog, who knew about the whole "George Thurmond" business.

One night I made an Apple Cinnamon cake, as an experiment, and received rave reviews. Of rather a pornographic nature. I was the first to notice: "Phil" *really* loved it. The words "Yipee ki yay" were used. And soon "Aaron" let me know that he loved it, too, although not so animatedly. Janelle, being the good-friend with-the-memory-of-an-elephant that she is, turned to me and said "Aaron just Thurmonded that cake."

To which I replied, "Phil also Thurmonded that cake like no one's Thurmonded that before."

Later on, this cake became known as Thurmond Cake, the food of legends, and now I will share the recipe with all of you.

Thurmond Cake

1 box spice cake mix (Betty Crocker is a personal friend, too)
21 oz. can apple pie filling
3 large eggs (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
3 Tablespoons cinnamon sugar
Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour 9x13 cake pan. Mix the cake mix, pie filling and eggs well. Pour half of mixture in cake pan, sprinkle with 1/2 of cinnamon sugar. Pour rest of mixture in pan, sprinkle with rest of cinnamon sugar. Bake for 28-30 minutes (check at 25 minutes). Let cool, and serve with dollop of whipped topping.