March 25, 2010

How many of us remember precious homemade Easter Bunny Cakes from our childhoods?  SisMama has made Bunny Cakes over the years, and they're always seriously adorable and a big hit with everyone…not just the kids!

This is the one SisMama makes.  It's the Kraft Easter Bunny Cake.

Kraft's Easter Bunny Cake

If you want to make the super simple version, you just need cake mix, Cool Whip and coconut.  Oh, and decorations like gumdrops, licorice and jelly beans.  But if you have a little more time on your hands and want to fancy it up a bit, use a homemade cake with good homemade frosting.

Betty Crocker also has an Easter Bunny Cake that's way cute!  Again, use a cake mix if you want to.  Betty recommends a carrot cake mix with her canned frosting.

Betty Crocker's Easter Bunny Cake

I am so in love with this last cake that I can't stand it!  It does require the purchase of a Wilton Bunny Pan, but take a look at this Easter cuteness!  Wilton calls it their Landing Feet First! Cake.

Wilton's Feet First Easter Bunny

So pick your favorite, and surprise your family and friends with a cute Easter Bunny Cake this year.  I bet they'll remember it for years to come!

~BigSis

October 12, 2009

I made the grievous error of going to Sam's Club the other day when I was really hungry.  You know how that goes…you buy everything you see.  Weird thing is that this time I was just buying massive quantities of produce instead of the junk that usually calls your name when you're shopping hungry.  So I ended up with – among other things – a nice big bag of 8 Fuji apples.  Could I ever in my life eat 8 apples before they went bad?  Heck, no.  I don't know what I was thinking.

I did have to get thinking about how to use all those apples when it became clear their number wasn't diminishing on the counter.  The first thing that came to mind was an apple cake since it's fall now.  I grabbed my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and chose their Apple Cake.  Bad thing is it only took 2 of the apples; good thing is they didn't have to be peeled!

The cake is gone now, and I'm still not sure if it came out right or not.  I really need to email the folks at KAF.  The recipe called for a little over two cups of flour and a couple of sugar, but the only moisture was from 2 eggs and a soft stick of butter.  When the recipe said to turn the batter into the pan, I didn't have batter.  I had a sandy sugar/flour mixture that looked more like a shortbread crust than a cake batter.

I scoured the internet, looking for a clue as to what might have gone wrong, if it did.  I couldn't find any online recipe corrections, or anyone discussing any issues with this recipe.  So, not knowing what else to do, I went ahead and baked the apple sand, hoping for the best but expecting a mess.

Apple Cake…as it should be?

I baked it for 45 minutes as directed since I had no idea of what it should look like once it was done.  As the apples cooked, they gave off some moisture of course, and the pan did start to look a bit like a cake.

In the end, when it was done and cooled, the cake was gooey and I presented it to my coworkers as an “Apple Cake/Cobbler/Sort of a Thing” that should be nuked for a few seconds and eaten warm.  The flavor was really good, but the appearance was a little…ummm…rustic?  The whole cake was eaten, but in all honesty, some of my coworkers would eat cat food on a cracker.

I'm still wondering what happened.  I did leave out the crystallized ginger since I don't like it, the raisins since I'm allergic, and the nuts since I was out, but I don't think any of those changes could have caused the weirdness I experienced.  Other than that, I'm 100% sure that I followed the recipe exactly.  If I messed this up, or if it's supposed to be this way, that's ok.  I just want to know!  Have any of you tried this recipe?  If so, how'd it come out?

Super Gooey Apple Cake

BTW, if you do the math, I still had 6 apples to deal with so I made a batch of crockpot apple butter last weekend.  Guess how that came out…

~BigSis

May 27, 2009

I have to admit it, I have a confession to make.  My name is BigSis, and I'm a baking-from-scratch snob.  If I'm going to go to the trouble to bake something, I think it's better if it's made from scratch.  It's always felt like it's cheating to use a mix.  It's not that I think I'm Miss Pastry Chef 2009, and that everything that emerges from my kitchen has a halo above it's head.  I don't think that at all.  So I don't know why I have this snobbery about baking mixes, I just always have.

However, I recently entered a baking contest that required the use of a cookie mix, and I also used a brownie mix in another contest.  And guess what?  They were pretty darn good!  I was pleasantly surprised!  Now I've had to reevaluate my prejudice toward scratch baking, and admit that some mixes are worth using, and that there is no shame in using them!  Truth is, (gasp) you sometimes can't even tell when a mix has been used.  For example, the Kahlua Bundt Cake I made recently used a mix, and so does this Triple Chocolate Cake I made for a co-worker's birthday last week.

In my opinion, “doing things” to these mixes is the trick.  Add some vanilla, some coffee, some puddin, some licker…you get the idea.  For this cake, I took a tweak from the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor, and jumped off from there with some changes of my own.  One important note is that the original recipe called for baking the cake 58 to 62 minutes.  When I checked mine at 50 minutes, however, it was already done and I think it might have been done a minute or two before that, so keep an eye on this bugger.

Triple Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing
(adapted from Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor)

For the cake:

1 pkg Devil's Food or Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 3.9 oz pkg Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1/2 cup canola oil
4 extra-large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus extra for garnish if desired (I used the swirled chocolate/white chocolate chips)

For the chocolate icing:

1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
Dash salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with flour-added non-stick spray, or grease and flour the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, coffee, oil, eggs and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for about a minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for 2 or 3 minutes.  The batter will be very thick.  Fold in the chocolate chips, mixing well to evenly distribute them.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth out.  Bake in the preheated oven until the cake begins to pull back from the sides of the pan, and a tester comes out clean, about 48 to 52 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.  Carefully run a long thin-bladed knife around the perimeter of the cake to loosen it, and invert it onto the rack to continue cooling.  Meanwhile, make the icing.

In a medium-size saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, and coffee.  Stirring constantly, bring it to a boil over medium heat, 3 or 4 minutes.  Continue stirring for an additional minute to ensure the sugar is dissolved completely.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla and salt, and then the chocolate chips.  Stir to melt the chips.  Icing should be smooth and shiny.

Pour the warm icing over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.  Sprinkle additional chocolate chips over the top of the cake if desired.

Happy Birthday, Chocolate Lovers!

This cake was rich, and very very chocolaty!  I'd make it again, and start checking it for doneness around 45 minutes.  The icing is really unusual, and good but pretty sweet.  I think the bittersweet chips were a good choice in it; I absolutely wouldn't use milk chocolate chips in it.  They'd be way too sweet.  Oh, and don't worry about a strong coffee flavor in this cake.  I didn't taste coffee at all actually; the coffee just brought out the rich flavor of the chocolate.  I might also add some cinnamon to the batter next time since I love that coffee-cinnamon-vanilla-chocolate combo.

So would I use another cake mix?  Sure, I would.  But would I rather make a cake from scratch if I had the time?  Oh, yeah!  There's something so satisfying and fun in that experience.  But if time is short, I think a doctored-up cake mix still shows someone that you cared enough to fire up your oven, heat up your kitchen and get chocolate batter all over your favorite shorts, rather than drive to a bakery!

~BigSis

March 21, 2009

Happy Caturday, friends!  I hope you had a great week, as I did.  We had St. Patrick's Day and the first day of spring; all in one week.  Plus we've had great weather all week here in Big D, AND SisMama and I booked tickets to go see LilSis and her boyz soon!

The other good thing about this week was that my friend Mojo Jojo had a birthday on Friday.  I've been looking for an occasion to try out the Irish Cream Bundt Cake ever since LilSis reported seeing it on RecipeGirl, and then Noble Pig made her version.  It looked so delicious and easy and moist that I had to try it.  With all this buzz around one cake, it just had to be good, right?

Only one problem…I'm not a huge fan of Bailey's Irish Cream so I don't have it and didn't really want to buy any.  I do have a bottle of Kahlua from my last trip to Mexico a long time ago; bought in the airport because the bottle was really cool!

Kahlua Bundt Cake

I used Noble Pig's recipe, but just substituted milk for half of the liqueur in the batter and Kahlua for the other half.  I reduced the amount of liqueur in the glaze by a tablespoon or so and added a touch of milk.  The substitutions came out great, and we all liked the cake.  It truly was moist and tasty, with a beautiful brown crust.  The Kahlua flavor didn't scream “This cake is full of booze!”.  It just added a depth of flavor to the vanilla cake, and the pecans were perfect in it.  Will I make this again?  Oh, yeah!

After the attack of the knife and forks at the office!

Thanks for the recipe RecipeGirl, LilSis and Noble Pig!  And happy birthday, Mojo Jojo!

~BigSis

December 12, 2008

Lots o' baking is going on in my itty bitty kitchen this week!  I've tried to choose recipes that have universal appeal, and that are holidayish.  Most are pretty easy to make, with a decent “profit margin” but I've thrown in a few that are a bit more challenging and expensive to keep me on my toes!

I thought you might like to see what's coming out of my kitchen, since this IS the primo baking season and perhaps you're in the market for a good sweet recipe.  So far, just since last Saturday, I've already prepared multiple batches of each of these:

• Gingerbread from Cooks Illustrated.  A subscription is required to access this recipe, but don't be put off by that.  Cook's Illustrated is the only food site that I pay a fee for, and to me it's totally worth it.  Their product reviews alone are invaluable, and their recipes always work.  They have total credibility with me.
• Chocolate Sheath Cake – it's a classic recipe that you can find lots of places, including on RecipeZaar.  Moist, chocolaty, delicious!
• Super Moist Pumpkin Bread with walnuts (vegan) from AllRecipes.  This is a unique recipe with coconut milk but no eggs and no dairy.  It's fabulous!  I made lots of them for our last bake sale.
• Cranberry Pumpkin Bread from RecipeZaar. I first found this recipe when my freezer went on strike recently and I had to use up a giant bag of thawed cranberries.  It's very easy, extremely moist, and the combination of flavors is surprisingly good.
• Strawberry Bread.  I've been making this forever, and don't know where I originally got the recipe, but this version from RecipeZaar is similar to mine. In this bread, the pecans are non-optional in my book.
• Root Beer Bundt Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. This was a new recipe to me, and I'm glad I tried it.  It's really really moist and deeply chocolate.  I don't get that much root beer flavor without the icing, but it's wonderful regardless.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from the back of the Nestle's package.  You can find the recipe on RecipeZaar too.
• Texas Pecan Pie Bars from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather. This recipe makes a ginormous batch of these wicked bars, but I still made a second batch.  They were that good.

Still on the agenda for this weekend:

• Almond Toffee from CookieMadness.net.  Absolutely an A+ recipe!  I made bunches of it last year, and got rave reviews.  You MUST have a thermometer to make this!
• Soft Peanut Brittle from CookieMadness.net.  Another great one from Anna!  I don't usually care for traditional peanut brittle, but this is nothing like that.  It's flavorful, tender, and just delicious!
• Pralines from The American Family Cookbook by the Culinary Arts Institute. I think this cookbook is out of print, but I've seen it on ebay.
• Outrageous Oreo Crunch Brownies from Culinary in the Country.  Christmas Oreos and brownies together in a recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa?  How bad can that be?  I'll also do some without the Oreos.
• Chocolate Fudge from the back of marshmallow cream jar.  You know the one.
• Mrs. Busch's Caramel Bars – a finalist in the Dallas News' cookie contest a few years ago.  The recipe's been taken offline, darnit.  I'll post it another time if these come out as good as I remember them.
• Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars from CookieMadness.  I've never made these, so I'm trusting the Cookie Queen that these will be incredible.  I'm doing them with my homemade cranberry jam instead of raspberry since that's what I have.

That's it!  I've already eliminated 2 or 3 things from the weekend's list, and I still have more than one little elf can do!  I better eat my Wheaties this weekend, you think?  All of the expense and all of the work will be SO worth making some money for this incredible charity!

~BigSis