Pioneer Woman chocolate sheet cake

baking, dessert 11 Comments

It’s time to speak the truth about the Pioneer Woman:

She is out to make us all overdose on chocolate.

And I love her for it.

The Yankee bought me her cookbook for Christmas and it’s fantastic. This chocolate sheet cake (also on her site here) was the first recipe I tried out of the book and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Try it yourself.

Pioneer Woman chocolate sheet cake

Ingredients

For the cake:
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 4 heaping Tbsp cocoa
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • 2 whole eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the icing:
  • ½ cups finely chopped pecans (I omitted; Yankee is not a fan)
  • 1 ¾ sticks butter
  • 4 heaping Tbsp. cocoa
  • 6 Tbsp milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) powdered sugar

Instructions

Make the cake:
    1. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl
    2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add cocoa and stir
    3. Add boiling water to saucepan and boil mixture for 30 seconds, then remove from heat. Pour this mixture over the flour mixture and gently stir to cool it off.
    4. In a separate boil, mix together buttermilk, beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla; stir this mixture into the chocolate mixture
    5. Pour batter into a jelly roll pan (I used a 9×13 Pyrex for thicker layers) and bake at 350F; a jelly roll pan will take about 20 minutes; add about ten minutes onto that for a 9×13
While the cake is in the oven, make the icing:
  1. Finely chop pecans, if using
  2. Melt butter in a saucepan (same pan from earlier is fine) and add cocoa, stirring to combine
  3. Turn off heat, then add milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir, and then stir in pecans if using

Nutritional information: one bazillion calories (roughly) per serving. And worth it.

Homemade Irish cream

drinks 23 Comments

St. Patrick’s Day is coming! Why not celebrate with your own Irish cream? This is kind of cobbled together from a bunch of different recipes, adjusted for what sounded good to me.

I used:

  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1  cup heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cups Irish whiskey
  • 1 packet VIA instant coffee (or 2 Tbsp. strong brewed coffee or espresso)
  • 2 tbsp chocolate syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Your goal here is to blend this all really, really well — I used an immersion blender, but just tossing it all in your regular blender will work fine too. Store it in the fridge in a container that can be shaken up because the chocolate will settle to the bottom as it sits. Serve over ice or in coffee. Enjoy!

Flourless Nutella cookies and crisps

baking, dessert, kids 14 Comments

I came across a Food & Wine recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies in The Tennessean over Christmas and jotted it down. Then I thought — hey! NUTELLA! Because, you know, it’s Nutella. How could it NOT be good?

Because these are flourless they crisp up a lot as they cool. You can control the thickness with cooking time; around 10 or 11 minutes gets you a thicker cookie; more than 12 minutes gets you a crisp, thin wafer. Both are crispy after they cool, and both are fabulous. Make a tray of each and see what you like.

Flourless Nutella cookies and crisps

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Nutella
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients together and drop by tablespoon on parchment lined cookie sheets
  2. Bake at 350F, but don’t go far! These go from cookie to crisp in seconds, so watch for when they rise and start cracking on top
  3. Take them out just after cracking for a thicker result, or let them rise, crack and fall for thinner crisps.

Blue velvet cupcakes

baking, dessert 186 Comments

Ohai, cupcakes.

I’m kind of at a loss for words with these. Can you imagine how good they were by looking at the pictures? Because let me assure you… they were BETTER than whatever you’re thinking.

Kiddo and I wanted to do something lovely for our local police force because they are awesome. They always take the time to say hi to Kiddo and all the other kids when they’re cruising our neighborhood, they do all they can to help with the issue of our neighbor’s dog that will. not. quit. barking. ever. and they solved both lame crimes of which we’ve been a victim in the last year. They’re awesome. So what better for the boys in blue than blue velvet cupcakes?

I found this recipe at the incredible Sprinkle Bakes. Aren’t those great? She was SO helpful in helping me adapt the recipe to the food coloring I had to that perfect Cookie Monster shade of blue she showcases. It’s exactly what I wanted them to look like! She adapted her cupcake recipe from Paula Deen’s recipe; I adapted it with Sprinkle Bake’s help only to use all gel food coloring. The frosting is all Sprinkle Bakes.

A note on gel food coloring: this Wilton gel is what I used; I got mine at Joann, and I believe I’ve seen it at Michael’s as well. The ready to use gel icing for cookie and cake decorating (like this) is not the same thing, and will not get you the color you’re looking for.

Blue velvet cupcakes

Yield: I got 26 cupcakes out of this

Ingredients

For the cupcakes
    • 2 cups sugar
    • ½ pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
    • 1 Tbsp Wilton royal blue gel food coloring
    • 1 small dab of violet gel food coloring (I dipped in a toothpick and used that much)
    • 2 ½ cups cake flour
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 cup buttermilk
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • ½ teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 tablespoon vinegar
For the frosting
  • 1 pound cream cheese, softened
  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (I hate sifting; I whir it up in the food processor instead to aerate and get lumps out)

Instructions

Make the cupcakes
    1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and line cupcake pans with liners
    2. Cream sugar and butter in mixing bowl till light and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg
    3. Mix cocoa and food coloring together to make a paste — this took a while to mix thoroughly with all gel, but it came together nicely; add this paste to sugar mixture and mix well again
    4. Sift (or buzz in food processor) flour and salt, and add to creamed mixture a bit at a time, alternating with buttermilk, then mix in vanilla
    5. Combine baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl and add to cake batter; mix just to combine
    6. Scoop thick batter into cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 full, and bake for probably 25-30 minutes, but start checking at 20 — mine were done at about the 22/23 minute mark; watch for toothpick inserted in center to come out clean
    7. Remove cupcakes from oven and allow cool completely on a wire rack
Now make frosting!
  1. Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla with electric mixer until nice and smooth

Frosting time! I use a giant star tip from Bake it Pretty, or The Place I Could Spend All My Monies (and the stardust). I dusted on a little edible blue glitter on top because hey, why not.

Creamy crockpot chicken

lunch, supper 5 Comments

You know what I hate? When a recipe tastes SO GOOD but photographs SO POORLY. Le sigh.

Shall I just spare you the picture? Because really, it doesn’t do it justice. Just try this (it’s so crazy easy — you just have to try) and then come back and tell me what you thought.

Creamy crockpot chicken

Ingredients

  • What you need:
  • A slow cooker
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 1 jar of salsa
  • 1 block of cream cheese
  • frozen chicken breasts — I used 2 but you could do up to 4 or 5 without adjusting ingredients and be fine

Instructions

  1. Put chicken breasts, corn (drained), beans (drained and rinsed) and salsa into the slow cooker and stir it up a bit
  2. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through
  3. Add in block of cream cheese and cook another 30 minutes
  4. Stir up mix to make the whole thing creamy, then serve chicken and sauce together

Do you see how easy that is? And that you must try it? Please do. Make it, eat it, love it, and agree with me that a picture of it is no indication of its actual greatness.