Well, I finally got around to making a cake and this one is a winner. I don't usually have time to make cakes, mainly because I'm such a perfectionist that I'll spend hours making sure the icing is just right or the layers are perfectly aligned. After making this one I am reminded of another reason: cakes are dangerously addictive (I had a piece for breakfast every day that it was around our house). But I was also reminded of what a hit they are and how they are almost always well worth the effort they take to prepare.

This cake is honestly one of the best I've had in awhile (maybe ever). The layers kept their moisture even four days later, and the flavor on day four was just as incredible as day one. While the process is a bit time consuming, there is no part of this recipe that is overly challenging. The best part about that is that the appearance is so beautiful people will assume it either a) is professionally made or b) took considerably more effort than it actually did. 

I could go on for hours, but to sum it all up I'll just say that this cake is a must-try. Everyone loved it. I loved it. I miss it already. I wish I had a piece now. Would it be excessive to make this fancy of a cake twice within a week? 

Tuxedo Cake

Recipe from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:
4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

For the chocolate topping:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup light corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
To make the cake layers, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line three 9-inch round cake pans (or two 10-inch round cake pans) with parchment paper.  Butter and flour the inside edges of the pan, shaking out the excess flour.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, water and canola oil; heat until the butter is melted.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, and flour; whisk to blend.  Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk.  Add the baking soda, salt and vanilla to the bowl and whisk just until incorporated.  Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of each cake layer and invert onto a wire cooling rack.  Allow the cake layers to cool completely before frosting, at least 2 hours.

To make the frosting, add the heavy cream to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Whip on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.  Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip until thoroughly combined and stiff peaks form.  Be careful not to over-beat!

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cake platter and spread a layer of the whipped cream frosting over the top.  Top with a second cake layer, more frosting (and the third cake layer, if using).  Frost the top and sides of the assembled cake.  Refrigerate until the frosting has stabilized, at least 1 hour.

To make the chocolate glaze, place the chocolate in a medium bowl.  Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until simmering.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit 1-2 minutes.  Whisk until the mixture is smooth and homogenous.  Blend in the corn syrup and vanilla.  Pour the glaze into a pitcher or measuring cup and let cool for 10 minutes.  (Do not let the glaze cool longer or it may become difficult to pour over the cake.)  Slowly pour the glaze over the cake, ensuring that the top is covered and the glaze drips over the sides.

Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least 1 hour.  Slice with a long, sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between slices.

Once again, I have broken my camera. I really should not be allowed to have electronics. I like to say that I always get the duds, so of course they end up breaking, but truthfully, it's probably just me. I won't go into my long, unfortunate past with cameras, phones, computer issues, etc., but I honestly don't think I did anything wrong to cause this one to bite the dust. The others, maybe. I feel like every camera I get is just a "lens error" waiting to happen. Luckily, I've already solicited a few friends to loan me cameras until I save up to buy a new one. Hopefully I won't get too much more behind on posting in the meantime.

These cookies are incredibly easy to make (boxed cake mix), and I have never seen a cookie with this long of a shelf life. I used to eat them all the time when I was little, and found the recipe in a family friend's cookbook. It was originally from my grandma (if she reads this she'll be embarrassed that I'm calling a cake mix recipe an original), but somehow despite the simplicity of the recipe she still always managed to make them even better than mine turned out. I love the pecans with the yellow cake, and these are great because they are so small you can grab one or two and get your cookie fix. I'll salvage some new food pictures soon and post them as soon as I can!

Yellow Cake Oatmeal Pecan Cookies
(I have no idea what the real name is, so a descriptive name will have to do!)
Yield: 5 dozen

1 package yellow cake mix
2 cups quick cooking oats, uncooked
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine cake mix, oats and sugar in a large bowl. Combine oil and eggs. Add to dry ingredients, stirring well. Stir in pecans and vanilla. Drop dough by small rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Is it odd that until a week ago I had never heard of or tried eclair cake (yes, those two need to be separated in my book because I have an awful memory)? I thought this was some new, brilliant concept, but after sharing the cake with friends I realized almost all of them had tried some form of eclair cake in their lives.

Well, basically now I know that this cake is still brilliant, but definitely not new. It's also incredibly easy to make. I think I've said that about pretty much all of my recent posts, but this is what happens when I don't have time to bake. The good news is, my birthday is Monday and I plan on making myself a dessert that's a bit more fancy. It's my 21st, so I'd say that's deserving of something good. Any suggestions?

For the eclair cake, I chose to make homemade chocolate icing instead of using store-bought . I didn't have any store-bought laying around anyways, so I figured mixing up a batch of this was just as easy. It was delicious. The graham crackers lose all of their crunch, but keep all of their flavor. What you end up with is a creamy, dreamy eclair-tasting cake. I wish I had taken prettier pictures, but as you can imagine eclair cake isn't the most photogenic of cakes. If you can stand to keep something this good in your fridge for 24 hours without touching it, you have to put this on your to-make list!

Chocolate Eclair Cake
Recipe from Baking Junkie

1 Box graham crackers (not all will be used)
2 large boxes (5.1 oz) vanilla instant pudding
2 ½ cups skim milk
16 oz reduced fat or fat free cool whip
1 container chocolate frosting

Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan with graham crackers. You will need to break some up to fit the edges. In a medium sized bowl combine pudding, milk and cool whip. Spread half the pudding mixture over the graham crackers. Cover with another layer of graham crackers, the remaining pudding mixture, and top with final layer of graham crackers. Remove aluminum top of frosting and place in microwave for 45-60 seconds, until it becomes melted and thin. Pour over top of cake. Refrigerate for 12 hours before serving.


Chocolate Frosting*
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2/3 c sugar
5 oz evaporated milk
dash salt
1 t vanilla
Melt butter w/ chocolate in sauce pan – add sugar then milk and salt. Boil for 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool a bit then pour over Eclair Cake.

*If you choose to sub out the store bought variety.

I know what you're thinking: this looks nothing like a breakfast pizza. You're right. It's more like a breakfast casserole the way I made it. I felt like I couldn't justify using 12 eggs for something I was just making on a whim, so I halved the recipe and used an 8x8 pan. I posted it anyways because in hindsight I'm not sure why those extra six eggs were so precious to me. So here is my first tip for the "pizza": make the full version. It wasn't really a problem that I made it smaller, but I also halved the bacon and I immediately decided that was a poor decision. I actually wouldn't have skimped on it, but I used the majority of my bacon stash for bacon chocolate chip cookies the night before.

But as for the breakfast pizza, I love how easily it came together. I have been reheating little squares of it for snacks here and there over the past few days. I'm used to grabbing a square of brownie or a cookie (healthy, right?), but it's a nice change of pace to actually have some real food to munch on. It's also good because I'm trying to wean myself off of the pizza sticks I wrote about a few weeks ago. I kept making them over and over again, and I think I was beginning to develop a slight addiction. One last tip is that I used mostly mozzarella for these because that's what I had on hand, but I think sharp cheddar is the most flavorful so that's probably your best bet. 

I promise this will be the last post from Southern Plate for a few weeks. I just can't get enough of her recipes. Nothing fancy, no hard to find ingredients, no completely unnecessary steps that you can't figure out how on earth make that much of a difference–she's just a true home cook. I love it. I promise you'll feel the same way if you take a look around her site.

Bacon Breakfast Pizza

Recipe from Southern Plate

• 1- 8 count can crescent roll dough
• 3 cups shredded hash browns (can used cubed)
• dozen eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 6 slices bacon (more or less, depending on what you have on hand)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Optional: Other toppings of your choice. Examples are: Onions, mushrooms, other meats, other vegetables, etc

Cook bacon and set aside. Spray a 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray. Place crescent roll dough in the bottom of the pan, pinching seams together to seal. Spread frozen hash browns over dough. Salt and pepper to taste (I start with 1/2 tsp of each). Beat all eggs in a bowl and pour over hash browns. Sprinkle crumbled bacon over. Place in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until set in center. Sprinkle cheese over top and return to oven just until melted. Serve warm.

As promised, here is the amazing icing recipe I fell in love with a few weeks ago. I honestly wish this icing came standard with all brownies. I must confess that I used boxed brownies for the base, but it didn't matter in this case. I'm all for going the homemade route, but I don't see any reason not to take a shortcut on the brownies when the icing is the star of the show here anyways. I'm somewhat picky about my boxed brownie mix, and I'm definitely partial to Ghirardelli brownies. The Baked brownies are my favorite homemade. However, you could put both in front of me, and I would spend hours trying to decide which I liked better. Then again, you could also put a random batch of the cheap stuff in front of me and I'd most likely enjoy that too.

If you have time and feel up to it, by all means make the homemade brownies. But I'm telling you now, this icing will be just as impressive and just as good regardless of whether you put it on cheapo brand brownies, Ghirardelli or homemade. I'm still swamped so can't write much, but I figure you all come here first and foremost for the food! I couldn't pry myself away from these. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Fudge Iced Brownies

Recipe from: A Southern Plate

• 1 box brownie mix, prepared according to package directions*
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 7 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoos shortening
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Prepare brownies according to package directions and allow to cool completely before beginning icing.

To make icing: In heavy saucepot combine the sugar, milk, shortening, margarine, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil while stirring constantly. Once it reaches a rolling boil stop stirring and let boil for two minutes or until it reaches soft ball stage (I don’t use a thermometer, I just let it boil for two minutes). Remove from heat and quickly stir in the vanilla and peanut butter. Beat until smooth and quickly spread over the brownies.

*This recipe works fine for a 9×13 or 8×8. If making an 8×8 pan of brownies, I’d still use this same amount of icing and just let it be thicker.

You know those charts that show a breakdown of what people think about by parts of their brains–I'm pretty sure mine would have a giant section for food. I may be the only person who struggles with this, but I always feel somewhat conflicted when anyone asks me about my favorite food. While I thoroughly enjoy my daily bowl of cereal, and I don't think it gets much better than a grilled PB&B sandwich, there are other foods I adore as well: eggs benedict, funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing, a fresh toasted bagel loaded with cream cheese, milkshakes, croissandwiches (is that weird?), etc. 

But the other issue is that I never want to list off something that's too normal. Pizza is too normal. Everyone loves pizza. But favorite food or not, pizza didn't get so popular for being average. And yes, I do realize normal people never put this much thought into the "What's your favorite food?" question. Not surprisingly I've gone over this dilemma with many friends and family members, none of whom seem to understand.

The reason I bring this up is that I've been on a pizza appetizer kick recently. This one is by far the best of them all. In fact, it may be one of my favorite things I've ever made and posted on this blog.  I declared yesterday a baking day and made three things. Everything was good, but I think this pizza overshadowed the others. I kept it simple with just cheese, pepperoni, sauce and minced garlic. Many of you may omit the garlic for the sake of your breath or because you don't think it's necessary, but that may have been my favorite part of the bread. The whole thing comes together so easily that I have a feeling I will be making it a lot in the future. After just now eating two pieces (to serve as inspiration for this post, of course) I can also say that it reheats fantastically. Two posts in a row from A Southern Plate, and I've got another on the way that I'm equally obsessed with. Thank you, Christy Jordan!

Pizza Sticks

Recipe from Southern Plate

• 1 Loaf frozen bread dough, thawed*
• 1 Jar Pizza sauce (some for bread some for dipping)
• 1-2 Cups Mozzarella
• Your favorite toppings (Be creative and make this for your family’s taste!)*

*This is best when you only use a few toppings because they stay inside the sandwich better

*I happened to have a batch of regular (unfrozen) pizza dough on hand and that worked well too! 

Thaw bread dough completely. Roll out on floured surface until it is a rectangle approximately 14 inches wide by eight or ten inches tall (this is just to give you an idea, just eyeball it and you’ll be fine). Spread with 1/3-1/2 cup pizza sauce. Sprinkle with pizza toppings and cheese. Wet the edges and fold up sides and ends to seal into a loaf. Place seam side down in a lightly greased baking dish and lightly spray top of loaf with cooking spray. Cover with cling wrap and place in warm place to allow to rise for 1-2 hours, or until doubled.

Remove plastic wrap and place in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly and then slice in 1-1/2 inch segments and serve with the remaining pizza sauce.

My amateur photography skills and limited plate options made it tricky to do justice to this. Think giant calzone.

I'll start by apologizing for two things. First, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last post! Time flies when you're having fun...or just when you're so busy that you haven't had time to go to the grocery store to buy sugar and bake. But even though my life just got exponentially busier I promise I'll be better about keeping up with my posting. I have a ton of recipes I love, but I don't love the pictures I've taken of the final products so they fall into the abyss that is my iPhoto collection. I've decided there's no use keeping a good recipe from you, bad picture or not. That brings me to my second apology: banana crumb cake.

I sincerely apologize for keeping this cake all to myself (and those who live in my vicinity) these past few weeks. It's not like in the 15 times I've made it in the past month that I couldn't photograph it again to get decent pictures. So, here it is – my new obsession. I have ditched every other banana recipe I thought I was loyal to for this delicious, easy cake. It's become a house favorite in such an extreme way that last time I made it I made two 9 x 13-inch pans of it because I knew we'd go through the first so quickly. Yes, 9 x 13 in just a little over 24 hours. Four college girls.

My favorite part is the brown sugar topping/filling. It's the perfect touch to add to the cake's otherwise simplistic flavor. I admit that I've never met a crumb topping I didn't like, but this one, with this recipe, is just perfect. I ate my usual peanut butter and banana sandwich today and honestly was upset with myself for wasting a banana that could have gone into this cake.  I can't decide which is worse, the fact that I combine bananas with mass amounts of peanut butter and call it lunch, or the fact that I now combine bananas with mass amounts of sugar and call it breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Banana Crumb Cake
Recipe from Christy Jordan's Southern Plate

Ingredients

3 bananas, peeled
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine - I used butter
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped nuts, optional - I opted out
2 cups self rising flour*
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Crumb topping
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine - Still used butter
! cup brown sugar (dark or light)
1 cup flour (self-rising or all-purpose, whatever you have on hand)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray two 8 x 8 inch pans with cooking spray (or one 9 x 13-inch).Place the bananas in a large bowl and add the sugar. Mix until the bananas are liquefied. Add the margarine and mix until creamed together with the banana mixture. Add the remaining ingredients and blend well.
In a medium bowl, combine all the topping ingredients. Cut together with a long-tined fork until well-blended. Pour one quarter of the batter into each pan and top with 1/4 of the crumb mixture (or half of the batter/topping into the pan if you are using the 9 x 13-inch). Pour the remaining batter over and top with the remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve from the pan.

*If you don't have self-rising flour you can make your own! Add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for each cup of all-purpose flour.

I will refer to these cookies from now on as the quarter-pounder cookies. It's a dangerous thing for cookies this good to even exist. Not that I ever think twice about eating a quarter-pound burger. I'm a bring on the half-pounder kind of girl. That's not really a good thing, but hey, what can ya do? I like food. However, a quarter-pounder cookie? I'm in heaven, but to be honest even I found it difficult to eat a whole one of these. I don't think I have ever had a problem eating a whole cookie in my entire life. Again, this is not really a good thing. Maybe with these it's because their presence alone is overwhelming.

I wrote a few days ago about my love for giant muffins and cupcakes...well, here's a shocker: cookies also fall into that category. Chocoholics, you must make these now. I have a feeling these are going to be my new go-to cookie recipe. I won't even begin to list the reasons having a go-to cookie this large is a terrible, terrible thing–that's pretty self-explanatory. I can only imagine how good these would be heated up and served with vanilla ice cream. Is it acceptable to start making all cookies four ounces?

Giant Double Chocolate Cookies
Recipe from Annie's Eats

Yield: 12 very large cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup dark cocoa powder
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Mix in the cocoa powder until well blended.  Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.  Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead briefly by hand to be sure the ingredients are well combined.

Divide the dough into 4 ounce portions (or divide into 12 equal pieces).  Roll each portion of dough into a ball and flatten just slightly into a disc.  Place on the prepared baking sheets, a few inches apart.  Bake 16-20 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I doubt I will ever stop trying new blueberry muffin recipes. I'm on an eternal search for a recipe that makes blueberry muffins like the ones you can find at coffee shops and bakeries. Sadly, the recipes I've tried have never compared. They're great, but I want the big honkin', this will keep me full for hours muffin. I'm sure it helps that bakeries make their muffins twice the normal size. Same thing with Costco cupcakes and muffins. Is there a reason they make them as large as a small child's head? No. Do we appreciate that they make 4,000 calorie cupcakes and muffins? Yes.

Ok, ok. 4,000 may be a bit of an exaggeration.

But I found something the other day that might shed some light on how bakeries do it. It's called a crown pan, and it creates those giant muffin tops (in more ways than one) that bakery muffins are marked by. I may be a little behind in learning this is the trick, but I think I will make this my next baking purchase. Has anyone ever tried this kind of pan? 

All of that may seem like I'm inferring that these muffins aren't great, or that I wasn't completely satisfied with them. That is definitely not the case.  I really liked these. The lemon zest in the batter and the sugar sprinkled on top are what really set these apart from some of the more standard recipes. They are very light and not surprisingly didn't last long in my house. Until I find my dream muffin, looks like I'll stick with these. I'm ok with that, but if anyone has a great blueberry muffin recipe feel free to share!



Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from: The Guy Who Cooks

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cups + 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract/emulsion (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (all stems removed)

Directions:

1.) Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin pan or line with 12 muffins cups.
2.) In a separate side bowl mix the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3.)  In your mixing bowl beat the eggs and sugar until evenly combined, about 1 minute. Continue beating and slowly pour in the melted butter and mix until well combined.
4.) Add in extracts and mix until evenly combined.
5.) Add the flour, salt and baking soda mixture alternatively with the sour cream (or yogurt) and mix until just combined (a few dry specs of flour is ok).
6.)  With a spatula fold in blueberries.
7.) Pour batter into muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
8.) With five minutes left, sprinkle the sparkling sugar on the tops of the muffins and bake for another 5 minutes (so that means a 20 minute bake time in total).
9.)  Take out of oven and allow to cool in the muffin pan for five minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
10.) Enjoy! (note: as with most baked goods, these are even better the next day)

It's snowing here today...actually, let me correct myself. Last night it snowed, today everything has turned into ice. All classes before 11 a.m. were canceled this morning, but I had one at 11 that I couldn't miss. Unfortunately grace is not something I possess in any significant quantity, so I really shouldn't go outside in conditions like this. I didn't factor in the ice when I opened my front door, so proceeded to fall down all of the front steps and tumble over the side of the steps into the bushes. Just one of those days I guess!

But the cold made me think of these delicious hot chocolate sticks I made around Christmas. I never posted them because time slipped away and they are pictured next to a "ho ho ho" mug. With this weather I've decided these are a necessary (and easy) thing to have around. Once they're finished you just heat up a glass of milk and stir them right in. Voila! Rich, velvety hot chocolate in seconds. My brother preferred to eat them plain (he didn't understand why I had taken perfectly good fudge and deemed it "Hot Chocolate on a Stick"). Truthfully it is fudge on a stick. I'll take it either way.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Recipe from What's Megan Making (originally from King Arthur Flour)

½ cup heavy cream

14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
3 cups (18 oz) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips)
3/4 cup (4 oz) unsweetened baking chocolate
wooden sticks

Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper. Heat the cream and condensed milk over low heat until steaming. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; allow it to gently melt. After about 10 minutes, return the chocolate mixture to low heat to completely melt the chocolate. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is thick and shiny. At this point you could ddd a few drops of flavoring oil (such as hazelnut, coffee, or vanilla). Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan; shake the pan gently to level. Sprinkle with cocoa, if desired. Set aside overnight to slowly harden.

Run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn out onto a clean cutting surface. Slice into 1 ¼" cubes (or size desired for serving). Heat a knife in hot water and wipe dry before each cut, for smoothest cuts. Stick a wooden stick into the center of each block. Roll in cocoa or crushed peppermint candy, if desired. Wrap in waxed paper, parchment, or plastic wrap to store.  (I'm storing mine in a tupperware in the freezer, with layers separated by waxed paper)  These will keep at room temperature 3-4 days, in the fridge about 10 days, in the freezer up to 30 days.

Yield: about 3 dozen blocks.