Love Cake

So, normally I don't make desserts.  I leave that up to my sister because mine always turn out not quite right.  This cake ended up being delicious, but I will say that the layers are supposed to flip flop during baking and mine half-heartedly flipped.  It was still delicious, but the layers didn't look as pretty as Paula Deen's did.  Oh well!

Love Cake

Love Cake

Ingredients:
1 package chocolate cake mix and the ingredients needed to make the cake according to the package
2 lbs. ricotta cheese
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 (3.9 oz.) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup cold milk
8 oz. Cool Whip

Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 350F and spray a 9x13 inch pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, mix together your cake mix according to the directions on the box. Set aside.
In another bowl, using a hand mixer, beat together the ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish. Spread to fill the pan evenly. Once the cake batter is in place, carefully pour the cheese mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter. Spread to cover the cake batter as best as you can.
Bake the cake at 350 for 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
Once the cake is cool, stir the pudding mix and milk together with a whisk until combined. Carefully, fold the Cool Whip into the pudding until combined.
Spread the pudding mixture over the top of the cooled cake. Cover the cake and refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving. It tastes even better the next day.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Chew Nibble Nosh

Coffee Brownies

Usually I am not one for making desserts, hello, my sister is in pastry school!  However, I was cooking dinner for our friends, and decided to bake some brownies to complete the meal.  Now, normally I would make box brownies, (I know!) but I was feeling extra bakey, so I decided to whip up a batch of these babies.
I liked them, though the coffee I used wasn't ground as fine as it probably should have been, so they were a little grainy.  They were however, moist, chewy, and rich.  Plus, the extra kick from the coffee was a great surprise!

Coffee Brownies

Coffee Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
15 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. finely ground coffee (I used Kona)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 medium eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray 13x9 pan with nonstick spray.  Combine sugar, butter, cocoa, coffee, and salt in a large metal bowl.  Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water- creating a double boiler- and whisk until blended (it will be grainy).
Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Fold in flour.
Spread batter in pan.
Bake 24-25 minutes, or until tester inserted into middle of brownies comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

These cookies are vegan!  This was one of the deserts we made for our dinner party!  (Good thing, they offset my Bacon Cheeseburger Dip!)  I was a little skeptical about vegan cookies... I mean how could we make them without eggs or milk?  However, these turned out much better than I expected!  Yum!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

All right, so these look gross in the picture, but I promise they're delicious!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

Dough:

3/4 Cup flour

6 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. cocoa powder

scant 1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. agave nectar

2 Tbsp. soy milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. oil 

Filling:

3 Tbsp. pureed pumpkin

3 Tbsp. peanutbutter

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 330 degrees

Combine all ingredients for dough in a bowl and mix well.  

In separate bowl, combine filling ingredients. 

Roll dough into small balls and flatten.

Place a small scoop of the filling in the center of the dough and fold up the sides and fold around the filling.  Bake for about 10 minutes. 

Let stand 10 minutes.  

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Shape Magazine

Twix Cupcakes

Today my sister and I made a joint effort to make Twix cupcakes.  My sister, Alyssa, is much better at baking than I am, so I decided to consult her on this post.  First, we whipped up the batter; we cheated a little bit and used box chocolate cake mix, but we made the frosting so it's okay.

First cupcake going in!

 Then we baked the cupcakes; they turned out super moist!

So many cupcakes!

While we were baking the cupcakes, we made the frosting, salted caramel!  It turned out really yummy, but next time I would add a little bit more caramel and a dash more salt.  It ended up tasting like a very good, slightly salty, slightly caramely buttercream.
The cupcake recipe also called for a chocolate ganache, so we figured we might as well make that too!  After we frosted the cupcakes, we started by spooning the ganache on top of the cupcakes, but it was kind  of going everywhere.  Alyssa suggested we dip the cupcakes into the ganache as they do on all the baking shows, and that worked perfectly!  After the ganache, we topped each cupcake with a mini Twix bar.  Yum!

Twix Cupcakes

Twix Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix, or your favorite chocolate cake recipe
24 fun size Twix bars, unwrapped
Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks room-temperature salted butter
5 cups powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3-5 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup caramel syrup topping
Chocolate Ganache
9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Preparation:
Ganache
In a small pan, heat one cup cream over medium heat until it reaches a simmer.
Remove from heat and add semi-sweet chocolate and corn syrup.
Whisk until smooth.
Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or until it is completely cooled.
Cupcakes
Prepare according to directions on the box.
Frosting
Beat butter on medium speed until it is fluffy.
Beat in powdered sugar, salt, 3 Tbsp. heavy cream, and caramel syrup.  If frosting is too thick, add more whipping cream.

Once cupcakes are cool, top with caramel frosting.
Dip each cupcake into bowl of chocolate ganache.
Place one Twix bar on top of ganache.
Enjoy!


Recipe adapted from Mini Baker