I've been on an ice cream kick recently. I like to make at least one container of homemade ice cream every week. It's cheap to make. It can be made ahead. Varieties are endless... What's not to love? Well, the answer is that I make a container of homemade ice cream every week, and I eat a container of homemade ice cream every week (with a little help from my friends). I've determined that I'm a diet-killer for anyone around me. 

A few weeks ago I shared the amazing Double Oreo Ice Cream that I've declared my all-time favorite ice cream. I love the Jeni's bases, so the Oreo layers just really took it over the edge. Since I make that ice cream all the time, I began wondering how I could mix it up in other incredible ways. Then it hit me: Butterfinger Ice Cream. Let me tell you, the Oreo has some stiff competition with this recipe.

The key is to have a candy that can crush up easily and is still very flavorful. Butterfingers are my all time favorite candy. I don't even really know what they are. What is the flavor of a Butterfinger? "Crispety, Crunchety, Peanut Buttery!" ...their tagline is obviously no help. Anyways, I started with the Jeni's ice cream base, infused it with crushed Butterfingers, put the base in the ice cream maker, and then when it came out, layered the Butterfinger base with more crushed Butterfingers. It was crushed Butterfingers, Butterfinger ice cream, crushed Butterfingers, Butterfinger ice cream, etc. 

I'm not sure it's even necessary for me to tell you this was heaven in ice cream form. Every scoop has swirls of Butterfinger combined with the already flavorful, smooth, creamy Butterfinger base. Sorry for being a diet-killer, but you need to make this as soon as possible. And once again, if you don't have an ice cream maker, it's a fantastic investment!

Double Butterfinger Ice Cream

Recipe made using ice cream base technique from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

2 cups whole milk

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 ½ oz. cream cheese softened

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

2/3 cup cane sugar

1/8 cup light corn syrup

3-4 king size Butterfingers (3.7-ounce each) bars or 5-7 regular sized Butterfingers (2.1 ounce)

Crush up all Butterfingers and place in bowl. Butterfingers should crush easily, so you can do this by breaking them up while in the wrappers, or placing in a plastic bag and crushing them in there.

Fill a large bowl with ice water. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch. In another large bowl, whisk together cream cheese and salt.  Set a fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.

Combine the remaining milk with heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  Bring milk mixture to a boil.  Cook over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves, 4 minutes. Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

Gradually pour the hot milk mixture through the sieve into the cream cheese. Whisk until smooth.  Place 1/4 cup crushed Butterfinger in the bowl with the hot milk mixture.  Steep for 30 minutes to dissolve candy and impart flavor.  Whisk to incorporate.  Set the bowl in the ice water bath and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly (at least 4 hours or overnight). Once chilled, whisk ice cream base to break up any remaining candy pieces.  Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Sprinkle a layer of crushed Butterfinger into a plastic container (or other container for ice cream) and lightly spoon a layer of ice cream on top.  Continue to alternate layers of candy and ice cream until the container is full, topping with a sprinkle of candy pieces.

Place plastic or parchment over ice cream (to prevent ice crystals) and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

I can think of few things better than the smell of something cooking in the crockpot all day. Crockpot Chicken Tacos are by far the most popular recipe on my blog. Besides the fact that they're delicious, there's something to be said for a recipe that only uses three ingredients yet feeds 12. That goes for most crockpot recipes. They're usually pretty straight-forward and feed a crowd. So, you can imagine how excited I get when I find another great crockpot recipe. This is one of those. I may like it even better than the Crockpot Chicken Tacos because it is THAT good. 

Of course I used North Carolina BBQ sauce (Sticky Fingers). I know there are various regional preferences, but this seemed like a given to me. Disclaimer: this is not the vinegar vs. tomato vs. mustard pork BBQ sauce debate. Obviously vinegar-based is where my heart lies on that one. This BBQ sauce is the thicker red sauce that is made for BBQ chicken. I used Sam Adams Summer Ale for the beer portion since I'm a big Sam Adams fan, and I wanted the rest of the six pack for myself.

The chicken is incredibly flavorful and rich with the sauce. I served it in warm kaiser rolls and popped a piece of cheese on top. I'm not big on slaw, but I imagine that would be good for those slaw lovers out there. I added sweet potato fries as a side because...well they're sweet potato fries. Does that even need an explanation?

I really can't imagine anyone not loving this recipe. It will absolutely be one of my new go-to recipes for summer cookouts. It also makes a giant serving so I was eating BBQ beer chicken sandwiches for my lunch for multiple days in a row. Despite eating this for multiple meals within the course of four days, I was still upset when I ate the last serving.

Enjoy!

BBQ Beer Shredded Chicken

Recipe from The Dainty Chef

Ingredients:

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 large)
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp paprika
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup beer (any kind you like)
3-3 1/2 cups of barbecue sauce
Add all the ingredients, other than the chicken into the bowl of a crockpot and stir to combine. Add the chicken and cover with the sauce. Cook on low for about 6 hours.

Directions:

Shred the chicken, and serve on toasted kaiser rolls. Top with cheese or cole slaw.

*Freezer-Friendly Tip* – Freeze extra chicken in ziplock bags to use for pizza, quesadillas and baked potatoes.

I'm all about any excuse to justify chocolate with breakfast. Truthfully it doesn't take much, as I usually have some sort of chocolate stashed in my desk that I eat before 10am anyways, but that's neither here nor there. There's something about biting into a muffin or piece of coffee cake that seems to start the day off right. I'd be in trouble if I kept either around the house on a regular basis because I love breakfast sweets so much I end up eating them all day long. I don't know how some people skip breakfast. It's literally the first thing I think about every morning. 

I brought these muffins into work today and everyone kept calling them cupcakes because they are chocolate...with chocolate chips. I've always thought muffins and cupcakes differed in two main ways. I'm sure Google could answer this question as well, but I won't bother looking it up. The first is that muffins don't have icing. It doesn't matter this muffin is rich and chocolatey. It doesn't have icing. It's a muffin! The exception: coffee cake muffins with any sort of glaze. It can still be a muffin even with a sweet glaze. Go ahead and eat it for breakfast. No one's judging. The second is the way in which the ingredients are combined. Here's where these delicious chocolate muffins tip toe the line.

I got this recipe from Dough Puncher, and though she originally combined the ingredients according to a standard cupcake method, she suggested that she might like it better if she switched to the cake method next time. Well, she may not have tried her recommendation yet, but I'm here to vouch for these muffins mixed according to the cake method. These are so good I see no reason to go back to the original method next time. They are most certainly muffins, but they're sweet enough that you wouldn't imagine spreading a piece of butter or jam on them like some people do with muffins.

The flavor is rich and chocolatey. The texture is denser than some of the lighter muffins (which, let's be real, we could eat like five of anyways), but lighter than most cakes. They stayed moist (sorry) beyond the first day and a half, and that's a big accomplishment with muffins. You will LOVE these. Make them and find any way to share them..because keeping them around the house is a dangerous thing!

Double Chocolate Muffins

Recipe from Dough Puncher (adapted from Barbara Bakes)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk (skim, 1%, 2%, whatever you have works)

1/3 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners to make 12 muffins.

2) Cream together the butter, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated between each addition.

3) Stir together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with the milk, in 2-3 additions each (so add a third of the flour, half of the milk, another third of the flour, etc.).

4) Divide batter between 12 muffin cups and bake 24-27 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean (a little melted chocolate is fine - the toothpick may hit a melty chocolate chip). 

There are few things better than a bowl of great guacamole. It seems like an unwritten rule of life that almost everyone loves guacamole. We love it so much that we're willing to pay $2 to add a tiny dollop of it to a burrito bowl at Chipotle. I've also never seen anyone complain when someone orders it as an appetizer. Since it turns brown if not eaten, we justify eating ridiculous quantities because "it will go bad if it's not eaten now."  I personally judge Mexican restaurants based on two things: 1) margaritas 2) guacamole. If they pass with both of those, I really couldn't care less about the rest of the food. I'm a happy camper.

Guacamole is easy to make, but it's also easy to add too much of one ingredient and accidentally ruin the entire batch. It then becomes a desperate attempt to even out the flavors, and this almost always backfires because unless you have spare avocados you're probably out of luck (and the avocados from the store are never ripe right away). This is my go-to guacamole recipe. It's based on Alton Brown's guacamole, which has a five star rating and 634 reviews. Let's take a second to think about that. More than 630 people of all culinary backgrounds have made this guacamole and it still has a five star rating?! That's rare. It makes perfect sense when you try it, though, because it's amazing. It has the perfect amount of everything, and then a few random additions like cayenne pepper.

I always adapt his recipe slightly, omitting the cumin, using an entire jalapeno (be sure to completely seed it), and bumping the cilantro up to two tablespoons. If I have an extra lime or a lemon I also squeeze a bit more lemon or lime juice on top before serving. Alton Brown also recommends leaving it out for an hour before serving. While I'm sure this does help the flavor, if you're in a pinch for time I guarantee no one will complain about eating it before an hour has passed.

Enjoy!

Go-To Guacamole
Recipe based on Alton Brown's Guacamole

Ingredients

3 Ripe Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled

1 lime, juiced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 medium red onion, diced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and almost all of the lime juice, leaving about one tablespoon for use later in the recipe. Mash together gently with a fork until lime juice is integrated into the avocados. Next, add the salt and cayenne pepper, mash together until mixed. Then, fold in the onions, jalapeno, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add the rest of the lime juice*. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve. If you run out of time, go ahead and eat it before the hour. It'll still be delicious!

*A lot of people may know this, but a really great way to juice a lime if you don't have a citrus juicer is to use a fork. Simply press the fork inside the center of a lime half and squeeze while moving the fork from side to side. Easy peasy. 

I have a really bad habit of making food to post on my blog and then accidentally eating it all before taking pictures. This is especially true when I make something that I love...like this ice cream, which is my favorite ice cream of all time. The base comes from Jeni's Ice Cream, so of course you know it's good. The Oreos take it up a notch. First, a few Oreos are infused into the ice cream base to add to the flavor while it's cooling over an ice bath. Then, so that you get swirls of crunchy Oreo pieces in the scoops, you layer the freshly made Oreo ice cream with layers of crushed Oreos. It's perfect. 

Now, here's the bad part. I've made this ice cream five times, and I've never posted it. Sorry for holding out on everyone. The good news is that now you have it, and it can quickly become your favorite ice cream recipe as well! My favorite time to try ice cream is right when it comes out of the ice cream maker. I always make myself a big bowl of it at this point because it tastes like soft serve. The great thing about this recipe is that it stays relatively soft and easy to scoop. If you don't have an ice cream maker I highly recommend investing in one. Homemade ice cream is a game-changer.  Enjoy!

Also, I finally, after three and a half years, made a Facebook page for my blog. I'll be populating it with all of my new posts, as well as any fun food articles or thoughts I have. I'd love it if you all would share things with me on my wall as well! Check it out: www.facebook.com/chocolatetherapyblog

Double Oreo Ice Cream

Recipe from Scoop Adventures, made using ice cream base technique from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

2 cups whole milk

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 ½ oz. cream cheese softened

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

2/3 cup cane sugar

1/8 cup light corn syrup

12 to 14 Oreo Cookies

Fill a large bowl with ice water. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch. In another large bowl, whisk together cream cheese and salt.  Set a fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.

Combine the remaining milk with heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  Bring milk mixture to a boil.  Cook over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves, 4 minutes. Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

Gradually pour the hot milk mixture through the sieve into the cream cheese. Whisk until smooth. Break up 6 Oreos and put in the bowl with the hot milk mixture.  Steep for 30 minutes to dissolve cookies and impart flavor.  Whisk to incorporate cookies.  Set the bowl in the ice water bath and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly (at least 4 hours or overnight). Once chilled, whisk ice cream base to break up any remaining cookie pieces.  Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Break up remaining cookies and sprinkle a layer of cookies into a plastic container (or other container for ice cream) and lightly spoon a layer of ice cream on top.  Continue to alternate layers of cookies and ice cream until the container is full, topping with a sprinkle of cookie pieces.

Place plastic or parchment over ice cream (to prevent ice crystals) and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

I'm sure I've mentioned before how I'm not usually a huge fan of blondies. I love the flavor, but I think that most of the time they're just too dry. I can never decide whether they're more cookie or brownie, but I almost always find myself wanting them to be one or the other, and not a blondie. My usual fix for this is just slightly under-baking them. With some recipes even this doesn't help, but it's a step in the right direction. 

On the other side of this is that I love how blondies are so easy to make. You almost always have all of the ingredients on hand, and they're perfect when you're pressed for time. Despite what seemed like my blondie-hating above, these blondies are a prime example of everything that's great about blondies. I had everything I needed already in my cabinets, and they took me almost zero time to put together. When they came out of the oven I ate way too many because I was convinced they were about to get dry like most blondies. They didn't! The shelf-life is shorter than brownies because they will get a bit crumbly and dry as the days go on, but you probably won't have a problem finishing these off before that time comes anyways.

Enjoy!

M&M Blondies

Recipe from A Zesty Bite

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter, unsalted
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup m&m candies
1/2 cup white chocolate chip morsels

Directions:

Add butter to a medium size sauce pan over low/medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter has melted then remove from heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is well coated. Set aside until it becomes room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs and vanilla. Then add the butter and brown sugar mixture.
Slowly add the flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk until everything is combined.
Stir in the m&m candies and chocolate chip morsels.
Line a 8X8 baking pan with parchment paper and drop the mixture into the pan. (It may seem thick so you will have to work with it to go all around the pan.)
Cook for 25-30 minutes and then remove. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before cutting into pan.

I feel like there are certain foods people expect you to grow out of at some point. In this category I'd place things like Iced Animal Crackers, Fruity Pebbles, Pop Tarts, Totino's Pizza Rolls, all things Little Debbie...you get the picture. What's so wrong with preferring your frozen chicken nuggets be shaped into something somewhat resembling a stegosaurus? (If you're sitting there thinking to yourself that the initial issue is that I'm 23 eating frozen chicken nuggets, that's beside the point.)  I don't buy into that logic.

I'd also say anything with an excessive amount of sprinkles somehow gets placed in that category. Thankfully I have no plans to ever outgrow sprinkles. They remind me of birthday parties. 

So, it's no surprise that when it comes to funfetti I always turn to the funfetti queen, Sally, over at Sally's Baking Addiction. She does funfetti Friday's. That's a girl after my own heart right there. These cookies are a breeze to make. I made mine a bit smaller so I could do my usual 'justify eating four cookies because they're not quite as big' thing. I also like mini desserts. These are perfect. They're slightly crisp around the edges (crisp, not crunch), but chewy in the middles. I'm sure if you make them in regular sized portions you can get even more of the gooey sugar cookie type thing going on. Amazing.

Funfetti away!

 

Soft Baked Funfetti Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature*

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 cups spoon & leveled all-purpose flour*

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (can not be omitted)

1/2 cup sprinkles, plus more for sprinkle on top before baking

Instructions

In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed. Get it nice and smooth, then add the sugar on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides as needed. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cream of tartar. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 different parts. The dough is quite thick and you may have to stir the rest by hand. Once combined, fold in 1/2 cup sprinkles.

Scoop a large sections of dough (about 2 Tablespoons of dough each) and roll into balls. Make sure the balls are taller, rather than wide. Add a few more sprinkles on top of each ball dough.

Chill the balls of dough on the cookie sheet for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours in the refrigerator. This step will prevent spreading in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Bake chilled cookie dough for 8 minutes, no more. The cookies will appear undone and very soft. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes and move to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes from Sally:

If you're in a pinch and need to soften your butter quickly, cut 1 stick of butter into 5 different sections. Microwave for 10 seconds. 

*Room temperature egg is required. To bring the egg to room temperature quickly, place in a warm glass of water for about 10 minutes as you get the other ingredients ready.

 *Recipe retested on 4/29/13 to add 1/4 cup more flour to resolve spreading issues. Use 1 and 1/2 cups total flour, which will aid in the spreading issues.

This might be the best dessert I've ever made. I don't usually make statements like that, but I also don't remember the last time I had something that was this amazing. It's shockingly good. So good, in fact, that my roommate and I finished off the entire thing in just over 24 hours. We were ashamed. I also was working from home the day after I made it, which meant I was sitting at home with it in the fridge just calling my name. You'd be surprised how many times I can justify eating dessert in a day. As I was copying over the recipe I just noticed it says it yields 12-16 servings. Good lord. Let's move on, shall we?

Here's what always gets me: it's the easiest recipes that are the best. I'm not sure I can even call this homemade because it's just an array of pre-made ingredients layered on top of each other. You don't have to be even a slightly good cook to make this. It's also one of those recipes that is guaranteed to make you friends. Unfortunately, Brooke (roommate) and I only shared a small bit with one other friend, so we didn't test this theory out, but I'm pretty certain of it. Again, I admit that we were ashamed.

The concept is simple. It's a layer of Oreos and butter, a layer of a peanut butter, cream cheese and cool whip blend, a layer of chopped Reese's Cups, a layer of a chocolate pudding, confectioner's sugar, milk and cool whip blend, and more crushed Oreos. I don't know what my favorite part was about this giant parfait of sorts. The chocolate pudding/cool whip complements the Oreos and the Reese's Cups complement the peanut butter/cool whip. It's honestly just heavenly. I've forbidden myself from making it again until I have a crowd because obviously I have zero will-power. Make this dessert. Now.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Yum
Recipe from Taste of Home
(Originally seen on Through A Country Mother's Eyes)

Ingredients

20 Oreo cookies, divided
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter*
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
1 carton (16 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
20 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped
1 cup cold milk
1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
 
Directions
 
Crush 16 cookies; toss with the butter. Press into an ungreased 9-in. square dish; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread over crust. Sprinkle with peanut butter cups.
In another large bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix and remaining confectioners' sugar on low speed for 2 minutes Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in remaining whipped topping.
Spread over peanut butter cups. Crush remaining cookies; sprinkle over the top. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours. Yield: 12-16 servings.


*Even though I love JIF, I prefer Peter Pan Creamy for this recipe because it's not as thick as JIF. This helps the Cool Whip layer be light and airy. Also, in case the ingredient list makes you feel like this recipe is diabetes just waiting to happen, I use reduced fat pb, 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese and reduced fat Cool Whip.

I always find it entertaining to hear what people did for their first jobs. Usually this occurs somewhere around 16, since parents generally want their kids to have jobs but don't want to play chauffeur to and from their places of work. I'm sure I've mentioned before that my first job was at Ben and Jerry's. It was a perfect job for me because a) I'm an ice cream fanatic b) I thought the tie dye was cool c) I genuinely enjoyed making sundaes and d) I never had any issues getting friends to come visit me at work. I ended up getting carpal tunnel at an unusually young age that still bothers me to this day from scooping, but all-in-all I loved working there. Who gets carpal tunnel at 16 from scooping ice cream? Only me. I feel like my life is made up of those sorts of odd stories.

One thing I really enjoyed was making ice cream cakes.  I'll go ahead and mention that ice cream cakes are much easier to make when you have a giant freezer that is significantly colder than a normal freezer, but it's not an impossible task even with a regular freezer..it just takes a bit more patience. I prefer to give myself a few days and just casually go through the steps at my leisure. Rushing this process will just leave you with a sloppy mess. I also strongly recommend buying ice cream that is a bit softer. The double churned fall in this category. For this cake I used one carton of Turkey Hill ice cream, and for some reason was cheap and wanted to save $1 so used Safeway brand for the second carton. The cake was easy to slice until I got down to the generic layer. When you're thinking about what falls in this category think of when you first scoop into a new thing of ice cream--if you have to let it sit out to even remotely get the spoon in there that's not going to work for the cake. See below for my tips of cutting into the cake. Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cake
2 Cartons Ice Cream of your choice
10 Oreos, crushed

Whipped Cream Topping
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup Confectioner's Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Spray two, 8-inch cake pans generously with nonstick cooking spray. Line the sides with strips of parchment paper about two inches wide. I usually cut these strips smaller so that when I curve them around the edge they don't bubble up at all. The key is to make it smooth so that the edges of the ice cream cake will be flat and smooth as well.

Let ice cream soften for roughly 30 minutes, or until soft enough to spread evenly into pan. When ready, spread ice cream into prepared pans (one flavor per pan), and smooth out the top. Give the pan a few soft taps on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles. Cover pans with nonstick wrap, pressing wrap against the ice cream. Freeze for at least 2 hours.

Prepare whipped cream by combining heavy whipping cream, confectioner's sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beating until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Remove first pan from the freezer. At this point I usually turn the cake pan upside down, keeping my hand underneath, and run warm water over the top of the pan. As you feel the cake start to give, gently twist the pan around the ice cream layer. Do not do this for too long, as this will just leave you with a melted mess. Invert ice cream layer onto cake plate. Put cake bake in the freezer for roughly 15 minutes. Pull out and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle crushed oreos over the whipped cream in an even layer. Add second layer of ice cream cake and put the entire cake back in the freezer for another 15 minutes. Remove and coat with whipped cream. You'll find that the cake melts quickly as soon as you remove it from the freezer, so if you want to make sure you have a clean, smooth coating of whipped cream you can add multiple coats and just throw the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes or so between coats.

To serve, warm a sharp knife or serrated cake server under hot water for five seconds. Dry with towel and immediately cut into cake. This will help the cake cut easily and will also make the layers look better! Store in freezer.

Enjoy!

As you can see, using two different brands of ice cream will leave you with two very different looking layers. Stick with one brand!

Carrot cake is one of those cakes that's full of potential, but somehow people always seem to mess with perfection. I mean, really, who decided that adding pineapples and raisins to carrot cake was necessary? No one sits around eating pineapples and carrots together. It makes no sense. I also personally only like the pecans on the outside of the cake, but that's not a deal breaker. Don't even get me started on people who use buttercream instead of cream cheese icing for carrot cake. Admittedly, all of these things are extremely trivial... Sometimes I surprise even myself with the amount of useless thought I put into food.

I'm sure you've all noticed that I'm a huge fan of Jaclyn over at Cooking Classy because her pictures are always beautiful and everything she posts is absolutely amazing. This cake is a perfect example because, well, this cake is perfect. It is hands down the best carrot cake I have ever made or tried. The only thing I changed is the amount of cream cheese icing (I did one and a half of the recipe). The recipe itself is flawless. I wanted to savor this cake for as long as possible, but it was so good I found myself cutting a piece every time I walked by the fridge. I have zero restraint. I hope you enjoy!

Best Ever Carrot Cake
Recipe from Cooking Classy

Serving Size: 12 Servings

Ingredients

4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 cups lightly packed finely grated carrots*
1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
2/3 cup chopped pecans



Cream Cheese Frosting*
12 ounces (1 1/2 8 ounce packages) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar

*This is 1 1/2 times the original recipe. Scale it back if you like a bit less frosting.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 9" round cake pans with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on two side. Grease foil and dust with flour, set aside. (This cake can also be made in a 9x13 dish just increase baking time to 40 - 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, I have even halved the recipe and baked it in and 8x8 dish).
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, combine vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla. Slowly stir in dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Stir in grated carrots. Divide mixture evenly into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake cakes in preheat oven for 35-39 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes in cake dishes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Lift cakes out of pan with foil overhang and allow to cool on wire rack completely before frosting (once cool I cut about 1/4" off the tops to even them out before frosting, you'll notice the centers don't rise as high as the rest). Flip cakes upside down when frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Store cake in airtight container.
• *Grate carrots on small grate of a grater. This is usually 6-7 medium carrots.
Cream Cheese Frosting
• In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in powdered sugar and mix until well combine.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com