I need a birthday cake… wait, I can make one?!

I grew up in a family of cookers and bakers. Some of my earliest memories are from being in the kitchen with my grandmother and mother making different types of food. Some of my favorite recipes include my mother’s pasta sauce, my grandmother’s chicken tenders, and family recipes of pumpkin pie and Mrs. Deubin’s cake.

My family has been making this one cake for as long as I can remember. It is one of the most DELICIOUS yellow cake recipes and is super, super simple. Just recently I have found out the story behind the recipe and it was not at all what I was expecting. I was under the impression that Mrs. Deubin was a family member, but she was not related in any way. My grandmother had a next door neighbor when my mother was young, her neighbor had a woman who came in to clean and cook from time to time. The woman who cleaned for my grandmothers neighbor also worked for Mrs. Deubin. When Mrs. Deubin passed on the recipe to her house keeper, it was so loved that it was passed to my grandmothers neighbor and on to my grandmother. It has been passed down to my mother and now to me. I decided to include the original wording of the recipe, but I will put notes for any adaptations that need to happen to connect to today’s standard baking measurements.

Mrs. Deubin’s Yellow Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 jar of heavy cream (This is 8oz of heavy cream or 1 cup)
• 1 cup of  sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup self-rising cake flour (self-rising cake flour doesn’t exist anymore so make sure to use self-rising flour)

Substitutions for self-rising cake flour:

For one cup of all purpose flour add 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

For the recipe you would need 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 2 1/4 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Beat eggs, 1/2 jar (1/2 cup) heavy cream, vanilla and sugar together
3. Add remaining 1/2 jar of heavy cream, and the sifted flour. (Normally I’m not one to sift flour, but this needs to be sifted) 
4. Pour batter evenly into 2,  8″ round cake pans
5. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Now comes the hard part, frosting and decorating!

You can just as easily use a boxed cake mix to make the layers of the cake. This is completely up to you as far as flavor or made from scratch or box mix. Any frosting recipe will work as well, as long as it is a thin consistency.

To watch how to layer and stack as well as frosting a cake watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csw6RHG7TW4&feature=youtu.be

Once you’ve done it once it won’t seem quite as daunting. Trust yourself, you can do this!!

Enjoy your cake!

Brownie bottom cookies and cream pie

Today is Pi day. Not only is it Pi day, but it is a very historical one at that. The first few numbers of Pi are 3.141592653 and today’s date and today, well twice today, on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 it will be a Pi day with the date and time coming together to be the first 10 digits of Pi.

All of this math talk about Pi made me kind of hungry so I decided to make a Pie. After browsing Pintrest, with the very broad search term of Pie, I came across one that sounded pretty delicious and I thought I could adapt to make more of what I was looking for. In the original recipe, found here at http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/brownie-bottom-pudding-pie-55715.aspx?cm_mmc=Social-_-Pinterest-_-Ahalogy-_-55715#_a5y_p=2688994, it was a brownie base and chocolate pudding. A chocolate lovers dream, right? Well, as much as I love my chocolate, that seemed like it was going to be a bit to much for my taste. I decided to change the chocolate pudding to the cookies and cream pudding.

Ingredients:

1 pkg.  (4 oz.) BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

1/4 cup  (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

3/4 cup  sugar

2  eggs

1 tsp.  vanilla

1/2 cup  flour

2-1/2 cups  cold milk

2 pkg.  (4-serving size each) JELL-O Cookies and Cream Instant Pudding

1 tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

 

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

ADD sugar, eggs and vanilla; mix until well blended. Stir in flour. Spread into greased 9-inch pie plate.

BAKE 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cool completely on wire rack.

POUR milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 2 minutes. Spread over pie.

TOP with whipped topping; sprinkle with grated chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

Mudslide Cupcakes

With a blog name of lovebythecupcake you would think the blog would be full of cupcake recipes. Well here is one, finally! I found this recipe on Pintrest (www.pintrest.com) and adapted it to make it more my own style. The original recipe came from http://www.thecurvycarrot.com/2011/05/31/mudslide-cupcakes/. In that recipe it has you blending the two frostings on top, but I decided to use one as a filling and the other as frosting. Just a warning if you go to make these at home there is alcohol in them, so be careful of where you are serving them. 

Servings: approximately 20 cupcakes   Ingredients For the cupcakes: 3 eggs, separated and at room temperature 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup light brown sugar, packed 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 cup strong cold coffee 3/4 cup Kahlua For the Kahlua buttercream: 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 3 cups (or more, if needed) powdered sugar 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 4 tablespoons Kahlua 3 tablespoons hot coffee For the Bailey’s buttercream: 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 3 cups powdered sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, shaved in curls Instructions  For the cupcakes:   1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your cupcake pan with your desired liners. 2. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. 3.  Add the granulated sugar to the eggs with the mixer running and continue to whisk, at medium-high speed, until the mixture is thick, stiff, and glossy.  Transfer the egg white mixture to another bowl, and clean out your standing mixer bowl thoroughly. 4. In your clean mixer bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar and mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. 5. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 6. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. 7. With the mixer speed on low, slowly add the flour mixture, coffee, and Kahlua alternately, ending with the flour mixture. 8. Stop the mixer, and gently fold in the egg whites into the batter using a rubber spatula, until well-combined. 9. Fill each prepared cupcake liner about two-thirds full. 10.  Bake the cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely. For the Kahlua buttercream:   1. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and powdered sugar on low speed until smooth. 2. Add the cocoa powder, Kahlua, and coffee, adding more powdered sugar if necessary.  Set aside.  For the Bailey’s buttercream: 1. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or another bowl if you are getting tired of cleaning your mixer bowl out….), combine the butter and powdered sugar until smooth. 2. Add the vanilla extract and Bailey’s Irish Cream, mixing well until combined. 3. Pipe the buttercream (description of how-to above) onto the cupcakes and garnish with chocolate curls.

Putting it all together:

1. Let the cupcakes cool completely.

2. To fill the cupcakes there are 3 options. You can use the bottom of the frosting tip you are going to use to frost the cupcakes to make a small hole to fill with the Kahluha frosting. Or you can use a small spoon to scoop out some of the cupcake top to make a hole for the filling. The third option is to buy the Wilton cupcake filler tip. I chose to do the filler tip because that was what I had with me in my kitchen. 

3. Frost the cupcakes. 

4. Eat and Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

In honor of National Banana Cream Pie Day being this week, (yes it really is a holiday), I made my version of a super easy chocolate banana cream pie. This will be one of the easiest, no-bake, pies that will wow your friends.

Ingredients:

• pre-made graham cracker pie crust
• one package chocolate pudding
• 2 bananas
• squirt whipped cream

Directions:

1. Prepare the pudding following the directions on the box. Mine called for 1 3/4 cups of cold milk.
   
2. Next pour the pudding into the graham cracker crust.
   
3. Once the pudding is in the pie crust, slice the bananas and place them on the top of the pudding. When I made it the pudding hadn’t fully set so some of the bananas sunk into the pudding. 
   
4. Finish it off with dollops of the squirt whipped cream. Any design on top that you like works well.
   
5. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to firm up the pudding. 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Salmon, Snow Peas and Rice

Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

For dinner tonight my boyfriend and I decided to make Salmon with rice and snap peas. I am an avid fish lover and love to find new ways to cook the same fish so it doesn’t get boring. I made this recipe with friends once before so I wanted to share it with you. This recipe comes from myrecipes.com and can be found here: www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pineapple-teriyaki-salmon For the rice we just used Uncle Ben’s 90 second Long Grain Rice, but you could use whatever similar rice you like better.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

1 (6-ounce) can pineapple juice

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

2 teaspoons canola oil

4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Grated orange rind (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine first 4 ingredients and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan over high heat, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 15 minutes). Set aside.
   
2. Preheat oven to 400°.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle both sides of salmon with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Add fish to pan; cook 3 minutes. Turn fish over and place in oven; bake at 400° for 3 minutes. Remove from oven; brush 1 tablespoon sauce over each fillet. Return to oven, and cook 1 minute or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Sprinkle with orange rind, if desired.
   
4. Place salmon fillet and any additional sauce you would like onto the plate. Add rice and snap peas to round out the meal.

Sauteed Sugar Snap Peas

Ingredients:

•  Sugar Snap Peas
• Canola Oil (Sunflower oil is healthier but much more expensive)
• Salt

Directions:

1. Pour about a tablespoon of oil into a saute pan to heat up.
2. Add remaining ingredients and stir occasionally until warmed.
3. Enjoy!

Cookies, Ice Cream and Fudge… Healthy right?

Ice Cream Sandwiches and Marshmallow Fudge

One of my guilty pleasures is dessert. I love anything ice cream and chocolate, so when I started trying to eat healthy again this was one of the hardest things for me to give up. I haven’t done very much giving up of the sweets, but instead have found better alternatives to eating ice cream and such without the guilty after feelings.

This week I found two great Weight Watchers® recipes for Ice Cream Sandwiches and Marshmallow Fudge. Now I know what you might be thinking, Weight Watchers® food is diet food how can that taste good? I thought the same thing when I first started the program. 13 pounds lighter, I realized that the program actually worked. Now that I’m back at it again, it’s helping me balance eating healthy, exercising, and my cravings for desserts. While these recipes are using lower fat ingredients you can always substitute to your heart’s content to make them the way you like them.

 My boyfriend joined me in the kitchen to make these delectable desserts. One of our favorite couple activities is to bake or cook together. He’s usually the chopper and the general knife user, where as I’m more of the stir or mixer. For these desserts we started by making the cookies, then made the fudge while the cookies were cooling, and finished up putting together the ice cream sandwiches. It was nice to have an extra set of hands in the kitchen to stir the fudge mixture while I was taking trays of cookies out of the oven.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

You can find the original recipe at https://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/recipepage.aspx?recipeid=50344

Ingredients:

• Cookies (Whichever kind you wish)
• Vanilla Ice Cream (Or another flavor you like)
• Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Place a scoop of ice cream on one cookie
   
2. Place second cookie on top and press lightly
3. Run the edges of the ice cream in sprinkles
   

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner I decided to use Valentine’s sprinkles. For the cookies I decided that we would use freshly made Nestle® Toll House® chocolate chip cookies (recipe to follow), using the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. This is one of the ways that you could change these to be anything that you would prefer such as sugar cookies or peanut butter cookies. 

Nestle® Toll House® Cookies:

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 large eggs 
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.
   I chose to use light butter to make the fat content in the cookies a little less.
   
   Note: You don’t need to use an electric mixer, but it will make a nice smooth cream of the butter and sugar. 
   
   
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
   I always crack the eggs into a separate bowl because if a piece of shell falls in you can remove it before it goes into the mixture. If you look close to the top right,  you can see the bit of shell that fell into the dish. 

   

4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
   I use a small ice cream type scoop to get them even in size
   

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
We had to use some more flour to make them thick enough after using the light butter so they came out more cake like. With the different consistency the cookies needed to be taken off the cookie sheet immediately after coming out of the oven to prevent them from sticking.

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

You can find the original recipe here at https://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/recipepage.aspx?recipeid=59401

I always love fudge. It’s a sweet decadent treat that you don’t need much of to satisfy your sweet tooth. This was a really nice recipe for not too many points on Weight Watchers®.

Ingredients:

• 1 spray(s) cooking spray 
• 1 2/3 cup(s) sugar
• 2/3 cup(s) fat-free evaporated milk
• 2 Tbsp reduced-calorie margarine, or light butter
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 14 large marshmallow(s)

Directions:

1. Coat an 8 X 8-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, evaporated milk and margarine (or butter); bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes.
   
3. Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
   
4. Stir in chocolate and marshmallows; remove pan from heat and stir until smooth.
   
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Cut into thirty-six 1 1/3-inch squares and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.
   I hope you enjoyed my “healthy” desserts, I know I sure enjoyed them!

Healthy Dorm Breakfast

                 Moving back into my dorm room this past week has gotten me back into thinking of how to keep up healthy eating while living the college lifestyle. While it might be easier to go to the dining hall every day for food that is prepared for you, what you can do with only a few simple ingredients can be just as delicious while being a healthier alternative to dining hall food.

                 One of my favorite meals of the day is breakfast, with dessert a close second. For me I have trouble finding healthy breakfast options that I enjoy to eat. Pancakes might be tasty on special occasions, but they’ll really help put the pounds on if eaten too frequently. It also doesn’t help that I really don’t enjoy eating eggs. This week I decided to get over my dislike of eggs and try something new.

                 It was my first time ever trying to cook an omelette, but I thought it went pretty well. I used peppers, and american cheese, as well as pairing it with an english muffin and some jelly. I chose to use Farmers Cow eggs, because they were on sale, but any eggs your prefer would be just fine. Cooking might seem scary at first but hopefully this recipe will open up the possibility for you to start!

 

Cheese and Pepper Omelette with English Muffin

 

Ingredients:

• ¼ of a red pepper diced
• ¼ of a yellow pepper diced
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• 2 slices of American cheese (I like my eggs cheesy)
• Light, whole wheat English Muffin
• Butter
• Strawberry Jelly

 

Directions:

1. Dice the peppers and set aside
2. Beat the eggs and milk together and pour into a lightly greased frying pan on medium heat.
3. As the eggs start cooking add the peppers onto one half of the pan.
4. Keeping an eye on the eggs, as they start to become fully cooked place the cheese onto the same side as the peppers. I used half slices of cheese to get the cheese on the entire half of the pan.
5. Using a spatula, try and lift half of the omelette up from the pan and fold over the half with the peppers and cheese allowing to cook for a minute more.
6. While the omelette is finishing, place the english muffin in the toaster and set to toast to your desired setting.
7. Using the spatula transfer the omelette to your plate.
8. Spread butter and jelly onto the english muffin.

 

                  This being my first omelette, the final product did not come out to look like an omelette but more like scrambled eggs. Don’t be discouraged, people go to school to learn to cook perfectly right? It will still taste the same even if it ends up being more scrambled than omelette. I accept the challenge to keep working on my technique to create the perfect omelette. Today, I’ll just enjoy my breakfast.

This is what my final product looked like.