Knead to Make Lots of Dough

We baked some lovely white, butter, and butter pecan cake cookies about a week or so ago for a special event at Sephora! Everyone loved them!

This week is a busy week of baking.  Cupcakes are being made for birthdays, cakes for work surprises, and 200 cookies for a big event in Times Square.  I think I might fall over. Though I have decided to stick with cake mix cookies for the big event, I made some amazing carrot cake cupcakes yesterday for a couple of friends birthdays.  I wanted to share the recipe since I can honestly say it’s the best carrot cake I have ever had.  Amazing.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

.5 tsp salt

3 cups shredded carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat sugar, oil, and eggs until blended.  Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, and salt.  Beat until blended.  Stir in carrots and nuts.  Pour into greased cake pan or cupcake pan.  

My oven is really hot so it only took about 25 minutes per batch, but I would say keep an eye on it.  It could take you 35 minutes.  

Top with a cream cheese frosting.  I make mine with a stick of butter, a pkg of cream cheese, vanilla, and as much powdered sugar as it takes to make it yummy.  :)

For fun, I set aside some frosting that I dyed green and orange to make carrots on top of the cupcakes.  It was cute.  The picture shows a couple of messed up ones since the lid took off part of the frosting.  :( 

As for the cake and cookies, I’ll have to post pictures when they are done.  They are for the same event, and I’m only making the cake if I have time since I’m working overnights all week until then.  Wish me luck!  :)

Arlene here! My bff’s bday was last week and I wanted to make it special. I remember around the time we started becoming really close, we used to play Left 4 Dead all the time. I wanted to commemorate that by throwing a Left 4 Dead theme party.

To create a sort of “Zombie Apocalypse” look to the house, I filled some cardboard boxes with sturdy materials such as DVD cases and books from my bookshelf to use as seats. (Sorry I don’t have too many pictures, my camera is a pain in the butt.) I covered the empty bookshelf with a red plastic table cloth to simulate the “First Aid Cabinet” from the game. Some levels resemble warehouses, particularly the safe houses have cardboard boxes lain on otherwise empty shelves and debris around the area. Well, I chose to keep the house clean for my guest’s sake and just put cardboard all around. XD

For snacks, we had chips and salsa. We made fresh guacamole and made some vegan empanadas. A friend brought beef empanadas for the carnivores and we also had some buffalo wings from the supermarket.

The Medipack Cake:

The cake was chocolate (from a mix) with 2 - 3 batches of cream cheese frosting (click and scroll all the way down for the recipe) and marshmallow fondant. We dyed the frosting black just for kicks. XD XD XD

We used two boxes of Pillsbury chocolate cake mix (one for each layer) and two 9”X13” cake pans. Once cooled and leveled we assembled the cake, filled and frosted it with the cream cheese frosting. Any left over frosting can be frozen and saved for another dessert. (Cream Cheese frosting can last up to 4 weeks in the freezer.)

We seperated a small piece of the white fondant and set it aside. The large piece of fondant was colored bright red; we used an entire jar of the Wilton “No-Taste” Red color gel. Then we dusted the counter with powdered sugar, rolled it out and transfered it on to the frosted cake. Unfortunatly the first piece we rolled out ended up being too thin and started cracking so we rolled out another piece and placed it on top. I used a fork to crimp the edges of the top fondant layer so that the edges would look like seams. Then I took some of the red trimmings and colored them black for the zippers. Finally I rolled out the white piece and cut the name plate and cross with a knife.

We placed it on top of cardboard that was covered in plastic wrap. Then I hot glued the candles on to the section in front of the cake.

We also put on zombie make up… because we fucking rock.

BRRAAAIIINNNNSSSSSS!!!!!

Arlene here again! I was debating on whether this was worth blogging about but decided to anyway! So yesterday was my last pig out day of the weekend and I wanted to make it count! What I wanted to do was make this:

Duncan Hine’s Black Forest Torte.

The cake mixes were on sale at the supermarket the other day (4 for $5.00!!! WUT WUT!) and I went bananas! Unfortunately when I went back to the supermarket, they didn’t have any cherry filling! Instead of giving up I decided to buy some cool whip (on sale!!) and work on my cake assembling skills.

So I took all the knowledge I’ve learned from the internet and went to work! First thing I did was bake the cake! I used a box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix and prepared the batter according to the directions on the box except instead of using vegetable oil I used softened margarine (gives it a buttery flavor but keeps it light). Then I poured it into two heart shaped pans. (Take notes ladies and gents, these are good tips for V-day!)

Once the cakes are done, I let them cool to room temp then put them in the freezer. Yes the freezer! Why am I freezing my desserts you ask? Well, I’m getting to that part. Sheesh, relax!

Leveling your cake!

Most every cake you bake comes out with a bump on it, so what do you do? You slice the bump off like a knife happy plastic surgeon! Every cake has the right to be flat and beautiful! Freezing the cake layers first makes it easier to level and leaves less crumbs so that when you frost your cake the frosting doesn’t get all dirty with cake crumbs!

I left the layers in the freezer while I went to run errands but you only really need to leave them in there for about 15-30mins. Until the cake is a bit stiffer than it was when it became room temp. I’ve read that it is NOT a good idea to put a hot cake in the freezer so please don’t do that. <3

When I got home, I took them out and with a long knife sliced off the top leaving it nice and flat! I shook off the crumbs and transferred my first layer to a plate! On this first layer I spread a large spoonful of cool whip over the top.

Next I sliced off the top of the second layer, shook off the crumbs, layered it on top of the cool whip and proceeded to frost the cake. Some people like to pile all the frosting on top of the cake and let it drop down. I find that this leaves holes in my frosting and looks lumpy. Here’s what I like to do:

Frosting the cake!

• Drop a spoonful of frosting on top to ensure you have enough for the top later and just leave it alone for now
• with the knife, take a few dollops of frosting and spread it on the bottom sides.
• Once you have frosting covering the bottom, take the knife and spread it up to the top layer.
• If you have more than two layers of cake, the frosting may not reach all the way up so spread it up as far as you can without thinning out the frosting too much and repeat from step one on the next bare layer.
• Once the sides are completely covered then you smooth out the top adding more frosting if you need to.
• When the top is smooth, scrape the knife clean on the edge of the frosting container point the knife downward and smooth out the frosting with the flat end of the knife all around the edges.
• Do the last bit gently! We don’t want to scrape off the frosting after all that work. We just want to smooth it out.

Once your cake is lovely and smooth and perfect you can decorate your cake with a piping bag or add little candies or whatever you want to do.

I didn’t. I just wanted to eat the darn thing!

Lo and behold!

The inside!

You know you want some…

By the way, if you’ve never frosted a cake with cool whip, you NEED to! It’s the easiest and cheapest “frosting” out there and it tastes great with any dessert!

We bake, we eat, we blog. Til next time!

Arlene here! I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was filled with lots of love, laughter and fun! Mine certainly was! Two of my very good friends invited me to spend Thanksgiving with their family out in New Jersey. Since I’m vegetarian and this is my first Thanksgiving as one I wanted to make life easier on myself and contribute something to my second gracious hostess of the weekend. I decided to make little appetizers with spinach, cheese and some prepackaged dough. All those prepackaged doughs are for the most part interchangeable in my opinion. It all depends on your taste and of coarse whats available at the supermarket! I used the Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and the Biscuit dough for these appetizers.

For the Spinach!

• 1 can of spinach - 13.5oz (I used the low sodium, you can use the fresh kind or the frozen kind if you like as long as it yields about 2 cups)
• 4oz of softened cream cheese (save the other 4oz for the next recipe)
• 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella (you can use more or less)
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan (you can use more or less)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• A touch of Crushed Garlic

Empty the can of spinach in a colander, rinse it a little and let it drain in the sink while you put together the rest. In a medium sized bowl, mix the cheeses and the seasonings together. Before you make your adjustments add the spinach and mix it all together. If it turns out a little too bland you can add more Parmesan. If you like more Mozzarella then by all means add a bit more! Once you’ve mixed everything together pop open a can of dough and fill away. I ended up using one can each of the Pillsbury Crescent and Biscuit dough.

Here’s with the Crescent dough! They look pretty!

Now for the Cheese Filling!

• 4oz of softened cream cheese (save the other 4oz for the next recipe)
• 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella (you can use more or less)
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan (you can use more or less)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• A touch of Crushed Garlic
• Optional: a tiny pinch of sugar

We’re basically doing the same thing here except add spinach. If the mixture is a little too salty or sour from the cheeses you can add the pinch of sugar to tone down the flavors but its best to mix the first five ingredients and see if you even need it. Make sure its a small pinch we’re not making dessert here!

And now to fill!

Once your appetizers are filled you follow the baking instructions on the particular package you bought. No changes there! Most times you’ll be baking them for only about 10 minutes. These appetizers are great for a last minute get together or a snack. Shoot… I had some cheese filled biscuits for breakfast this morning. Don’t judge me, I know you’d do it too!

We cook, we eat, we blog. Until next time!

  Boy do we have lots to be thankful for! To show our appreciation we created a feast of epic proportions! Well, maybe not epic proportions but we did cook, and bake, and eat. A lot. We ate a lot. I ate a LOT! To the point were I felt my gracious hostesses may have been tempted to have a word with me, lest I eat them out of house and home. Sorry Liz, and Heather. <3 U GUYZ ROK!! :)

Anywho! Aaron made the traditional and always delicious mashed potatoes with milk, butter and salt. No recipes we just eyeballed it, because we’re awesome that way. Heather made an amazing green bean casserole with cream of mushroom, milk, salt & pepper, green beans and french fried onions. Liz took us down south with some chicken fried steak (thin cut steaks coated with a beaten egg and flour then fried in oil) and white gravy (flour, oil, milk, salt & pepper). You Texans sure know what to eat! We made some Velveeta Mac and Cheese. These are some awesome eats we’re talking about here! I didn’t have any steak, I’m vegetarian, but I’m sure if I wasn’t I would have enjoyed it too. :)

On to Dessert!

When I tell you we cooked and baked, I’m telling you we cooked (see above) and we baked like 1950’s housewives. Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out:

This cookie mix is AMAZING! It was on sale at Target and worth way more than the $1.70 it cost. We prepared it according to the instructions on the back. My tummy is happy.

The finished result:

Very festive and all together yummy but we didn’t stop there! Betty Crocker also gave us something to be thankful for: Cinnamon Roll Cake. We took Betty Crocker’s  Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes recipe and kicked it up a notch. 

• 2 Tbs Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• Substituted a box of Duncan Hines Butter Golden Cake mix
• Home made Cream Cheese Frosting

I’m telling you, it was semi-home made but it was no less of a gastronomical success. What I’m saying is that it was good. So good that I had it for breakfast this morning.

Here’s what we did:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix the cinnamon and the sugar together and set it aside.
• Make the cake mix according to the instructions on the box.
• Instead of making cupcakes we made a whole cake so we greased a pan and poured all the batter in.
• After pouring the batter, with a knife Liz swirled the cinnamon sugar mix into the batter and put it in the oven for about 45 mins.

We checked periodically because Liz and Heather’s home appliances are beast. The microwave completely melted cold butter in less than 30 seconds. My microwave doesn’t do that… shoot.

Once the cake is cool, we FROST! Now I’m not kidding when I tell you that Liz makes the best home made frosting I’ve ever had in my life. Woman, you are a frosting genius. We made a home made cream cheese frosting with one 8oz pk of cream cheese, 1/2 a stick of margarine, and estimated between 1/2 and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and about 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar. 

Another happy customer. :)

We cook, we eat, we blog. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

After countless hours of recipe searches and baking, I have decided to start a blog with my baking buddy to document our experiences and recipes we have/want to try. I hope you find some useful tips or recipes among our entries!