apples peaches pumpkin pie

Have You Ever Been Kayaking??!

2008-08-13T22:06:00.007-04:00

Last Sunday, Mark and I took a course on kayaking. It was something I had wanted to do for awhile and I'm so glad we finally got to go. The class is offered by 41 North Coastal Kayaks. Our class was supposed to be held at the Emerald Necklace Marina in the Cleveland Metroparks, but due to the weather and the roughness on Lake Erie, it was held at LaDue Reservoir in Aurora.

There were 6 of us in the class, with 2 instructors. They supplied all the needed gear and the kayaks. Yep, we had class from 9am to 4pm! Here, from their website is the course description, "This full-day course introduces students to the fundamental skills necessary to safely enjoy the sport of sea kayaking. The emphasis is on on-water safety and use of proper technique in basic strokes. Students will also become proficient in a variety of techniques (both solo and assisted) for safe re-entry to your boat in the event of a capsize."

UhHUH! Well we did learn that and more, but I personally can't say I became proficient at getting back in the boat after it overturns. Gotta start doing guy pushups I guess. Mark had little trouble getting back into the kayak in deep water, but it took me awhile and I did need some help to hold the boat steady. Gonna have to practice!

We did have a lot of fun and loved being on the water. The instructors do everything they can to teach you the basics and you can tell they love what they are doing. I'm hoping we can go again on our own in the next week or so.

Bake for our Troops!!

2008-08-06T20:19:00.003-04:00

I am blogging to let you know of a great new baking group, started by Susan of Doughmesstic
called Operation Baking Gals.
The idea is to send homemade baked goods to our troops overseas. Here, in Susan's own words is the plan. "Operation Baking GALS will be supporting our troops every month, once a month, and instead of our soldiers getting deodorant and soap, they'll be getting the one thing they can't get from the canteen - Homemade goodies made with LOVE. We will be assigning a different soldier to certain sub-groups of bakers each month so that we spread the love, and that way, a homesick troop will have a package with HIS name on it, filled with goodies to share."
If you are inclined to help with baking and mailing to our guys and girls serving abroad, check out The Operation Baking Gals blog and read through for instructions.

Butterscotch Cupcakes

2008-08-03T20:07:00.004-04:00

My oldest daughter is such a butterscotch lover that when I made pecan pie she would beg me to put butterscotch chips on the bottom of the filling. When my girls were growing up I didn't have much spare time or interest in baking. Occasionally I would make a pie. It was only after they were done with college that I began to pick up this hobby. (Poor deprived children!) So when she came to visit last week, I knew I was gonna indulge her with some BScotch Cupcakes.

A few months ago I found Mercken's Butterscotch wafers at the cake store. I am now using them in most of my recipes that call for butterscotch chips (except for Oatmeal Scotchies). They have a less "fake" taste than the chips, that's the only way I could describe them. They are sooo good!

The Northern Ohio summer day was quite warm and we were having a busy time but these were really easy since I used a boxed cake mix (doctored up of course). Actually, I used a Cupcake mix. Some people complain and wonder why anyone would buy a cupcake mix when its the same thing as a cake mix. Well, the reason I like it is that it is HALF the size of a boxed cake mix, which means if I just can make a dozen instead of 2 dozen cupcakes.

Anyway, these were ButterScotch all the way- BS cake, BS icing and BS glaze. Here's the blueprint-
Cake- Make cake according to box recipe, but add almost 1 box instant sugar free butterscotch pudding plus 2 tablespoons applesauce.
Icing- Simple buttercream with a bit of the BS glaze added.
Glaze- Heat a small amount of heavy cream, remove from heat and add enough wafers to make an almost ganache like glaze. (I'd guess I used maybe 2-3 T of cream and probably 1/3 C of wafers.)

Oh yeah, I added pecans to some of the batter and topped these with pecans.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

2008-07-27T21:57:00.005-04:00

I made these Chocolate cupcakes with PB chips and topped with PB buttercream and a Reese's PB Cup for a library cakewalk tomorrow.

Since I (like most people) have precious little time to bake in the summer I started with a box of Duncan Hines Dark Choc Fudge cake mix made according to directions, but I added a single serving container of unsweetened applesauce to add moistness. This little tip works so well!

Here is the PB Buttercream recipe

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened 2/3 c. Crisco shortening 3 Tbs heavy cream 2 lbs powdered sugar (about 8 cups) About 1/4 cup Reese's PB Ice Cream Topping a little at a time

Cream together butter and shortening until smooth. Slowly add 2 T. topping and 3 tbs. heavy cream. Gradually add the powdered sugar and scrape down the bowl very well once it's all added. Slowly add topping a Tbs at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Chocolate Cream Filled Cupcakes

2008-07-13T20:56:00.004-04:00

Back in the winter, I posted my Famous Chocolate Cake. And dang, it sure is good. I have been wanting to make the recipe into cupcakes for awhile. Last week I finally made them for work.

This week, since I had left over ganache, I made them again for some workers who are here tearing out our garage floor and part of the driveway and replacing it. (Quite a job!)
Always good to bribe the workers! They seemed really happy and surprised to get cuppies. Of course I was glad to make them!

You can find the recipe for the cake here. Below is the recipe for the filling.

Cream Filling
2 T shortening
2 T Butter
1 C 10x sugar
3 T Hersheys Dulce LeLeche Dessert topping
Milk- to thin
In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening together until smooth. Blend in confectioners' sugar. Gradually beat in topping. Beat until light and fluffy. Add milk as needed to desired consistency. Fill a pastry sleeve and pipe into cupcake.

Blueberry Banana Pancakes

2008-07-13T20:25:00.004-04:00

Some Sundays after church, Mark likes to make pancakes. Now, he is a standard no frills kind of guy, while I like to mix things up a bit. So he has his plain pancakes, and I usually add something to mine.
This morning he actually went wild and added fresh blueberries to his. Of course, I tossed a lil extra in mine- some cornmeal, a little bit of flax seed, a small amount of oats and a mashed banana.
Top with butter and maybe some syrup and dig in!!

Wretched Cakes

2008-07-07T17:55:00.002-04:00

Do you need a laugh??! Well - who doesn't? Check out this website Cake Wrecks. Each post just gets funnier. I especially like the girl/boy cake and the babies on carrots. Funny stuff.

DB Danish Redux

2008-07-04T19:46:00.003-04:00

I made my second danish braid today and it DID come out better than the first. I wasn't so anxious this time I guess. I took the dough from the freezer last night , and when thawed I formed my braid and filled it with this cream cheese filling -
12 oz cream cheese
1/3 cups sugar
1 egg
plus a little raspberry jelly down the middle. I let it rise in the fridge overnight and baked this morning. Much better the second time around!

Danish Braid a la Daring Bakers

2008-06-29T00:06:00.002-04:00

I'm going to start out by saying right off that baking with yeast is not my favorite thing to do. Oh I have made bread in a bread machine with no problem. But this recipe for the June challenge, chosen by our hosts, Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking started out scary because you do not proof the yeast. And it appears to be a recipe that requires patience, of which I have none. This recipe calls for making a dough, laminated with a butter block. No, I have not had the pleasure before.
I made my danish on a Saturday and baked it for a Sunday breakfast. I made the dough recipe as written. It gave me a chance to try my mortar and pestle that my friend Kim picked up for me during an Ikea trip. I opened the cardamon pods and tried to crush the seeds but couldn't get them fine enough so I used my coffee grinder first and then used the mortar and pestle. I didn't have an orange left in my fridge like I thought, so I used water and orange extract instead of orange juice and zest. I had a little fun incorporating the butter into the dough, because it actually seemed to come together like it was supposed to! I did sneek little unbaked bits and it seemed tasty enough.
For my filling I used 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 egg and 1/2 cup sugar. Next time if I fill with cream cheese I will double the filling as it seemed not enough for our tastes.
I think I may have voodooed the dough into not rising to my satisfaction or maybe I was hasty and baked too soon. I also think my dough could have used more flavoring, but maybe more filling would help. I have the second slab of danish dough in my freezer to try again later. I'l try to be more patient!
Daring Bakers are such a fun group. Always something to learn and stretch our cooking skills. Anyway, you can find the long recipe at the hosts' blogs.

Berry Trifle

2008-06-22T20:36:00.005-04:00

I needed a quick dessert for a get together and had no time to bake. ACK! Well, I turned to a solution that many have done before me- a berry trifle.
I forgot I even had a trifle bowl, until I came across it recently while I was searching my cupboards for something else! It used to belong to my mother and I have never used it.
This dessert is light and fairly low in calories compared to others. Fresh berries are layered with angel food cake and sweetened whipped cream. (In my haste, I overbeat the whipped cream.) Calories can be cut further by using a low calorie whipped topping.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

2008-06-17T20:15:00.004-04:00

My father in law is a big PUSD cake fan. So for Father's Day, I baked these cute little cupcakes for our cookout. They are great for a small taste!
My silicone cupcake pan worked great for this recipe. I used this recipe from Crazy Cupcake for the topping, but since I was also making 4 other kinds of cupcakes for the cookout, I used a boxed yellow cake for the cake part.
Sometimes I really think you can't tell it's from a box, depending on what recipe you are doing. Especially with this recipe, since the topping sinks into the cake somewhat.

My first "Wedding" Cake

2008-06-14T22:05:00.005-04:00

My friends, Barbara and Gary were married in a small ceremony at our church last week. We were having our Bible study tonight and it is the first one since their wedding so we had dinner at Gene's home. My contribution was the celebration cake!
I wish I would have taken a picture of the cut cake. I layered my Madagasgar Vanilla Bourbon buttercream inside with fresh strawberries, so it was very pretty. Apparently very tasty, too. All the men had 2 pieces each! :D I love it when that happens.
I used a new cake recipe that I found. It is a cake mix based recipe called White Almond Sour Cream Cake. You can find the recipe here. I used a new recipe for the buttercream icing also. All in all a perfect combination which I am certain I will use again and again. The cake is tasty and perfect in texture for a wedding cake. It can also be flavored differently if you wish. The icing is now my favorite to use for decorating- not too sweet, but just sweet enough with a light butter flavor.
Best Wishes to the newlyweds!

Golly Gee I've been Tagged!

2008-06-09T18:33:00.004-04:00

Tag- I'm it! ;)
I have been tagged for my first meme by Renee of Cafe NayNay! Dang, it has been many years since I've actually played tag and this version means when you are tagged you answer a few questions about yourself. It's a good way to learn a little about our fellow bloggers.

The rules: Each participant answers questions about himself. At the end of the post the participant tags 5 people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged let’s the tagger know when he’s posted his answers. Here we go!

What was I doing ten years ago?
Hmm 10 years ago 1998.... oldest daughter was 15 and involved in travel softball and youngest was 13 and playing rec league softball, so we were sitting at lots of softball games! We lived in our previous house in the same town and I worked in the same place I do now.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
Laundry!
Call the cable company to fix my bill they screwed up.
Call my Dentist.
Plan a cake I have to make for a wedding party for some friends.
Plan our Father's Day picnic.

Five Snacks I enjoy:
Bugles
I LOVE greasy potato chips, but try not to eat them or keep them in my house.
Sour Cherry Jolly Ranchers
Heavily Buttered popcorn.
Utz Special Dark Pretzels (which, alas, I can not get where I live)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Sell our home, move to the mountains near a lake, travel, give some money to family and charity.

Places I have lived:
Northern Ohio
Asheville, NC
Henderson, NC

Jobs I have had:
I grew up working in my dad's grocery.
First real job was folding sheets in a hotel laundry.
Bank Teller
Retail Dept Store
Police Dept Records Clerk
Respiratory Therapist (til we moved in 1983 and the only hospital was 50 miles away- now there are so many opportunities in other venues.)
Insurance Mgr/Lasik Coordinator @ Optometrist's Office

I tag:
Michelle of Cleveland Foodie
Prudence of Glass Slipper Cakery
Pei Lin from Mrs Ergül in the Kitchen
Laura of LOR in the Kitchen
Bunny from Bunny's Warm Oven

Wilton Course 2 Finale- Banana Cupcakes

2008-05-29T20:12:00.006-04:00

Ha Ha Had to post my cake! It actually came out not looking TOO bad.
I baked a banana cake and had to use class buttercream to ice it. I was burned out on chocolate and decided to make banana, but Mark hates bananas so I made just a little cake to decorate. But I chose to make a 3 layer 4 inch cake and make cupcakes to take to work. Yes there are 4 inch cake pans. HeHe So cute. The cake is pictured above.
Anyway, Mark told me no one would eat nasty banana cupcakes. He thinks no one likes banana. Of course he was wrong. I iced the cupcakes with buttercream I made using the recipe from the Opera cake, but flavored with bourbon vanilla. Fantastic! I took a dozen cuppies to work and brought home the empty container! Everyone had more than one! The cupcake and the buttercream combo was really a winner. Here are the recipes.
Banana Cupcakes

1 (18.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz.) box instant banana pudding
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup mashed banana
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with papers.
2. In a large bowl combine cake mix and pudding mix. Stir together and create a well in the center.
3. Add eggs, banana, water and oil to the center. Use a mixer to combine. Scrape sides down, and mix for about four minutes on medium speed.
4. Pour batter into muffin tin, until about 2/3 filled with batter.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tests done.

French Buttercream

2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
½ cup (60 grams) water
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¾ cups (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.) I used Madagasgar Bourbon Vanilla.
Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225^◦F (124^◦C) on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment.
Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass. With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny. At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes). Note-This buttercream will not hold up well in warm weather.

Daring Bakers go to the Opera!

2008-05-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, in the wintertime, I was searching food blogs for something interesting to eat and stumbled upon a post of one of the Daring Bakers. The DB's started as "just a lovely group of ladies who enjoyed baking the same recipe together, as written, and then showing off our finished delights to each other and the rest of the "blogosphere"". ( It has expanded to include men and women from all over the world!) Hmm -I thought this sounded like a way to increase my baking skills and have fun at the same time. Right I was! But little did I know that all too soon I would get to actaully co-host the challenge for May as one of the "newbies". YYYYIpppppEEEEE!
So- this month's challenge is hosted by the the 2 founders of DB, Lis and Ivonne, along with myself and Shea (fellow lucky newbie!).

The Daring Bakers challenge for May is Opera Cake. Opera Cake traditionally is a joconde (cake) of Paris origin flavored with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Our recipe uses light colors and flavors. After much back and forth, I chose to make a coconut version.
We decided to lighten up the cake to reflect partly the time of year, but also to honor those battling cancer for their perseverance. I have a good friend and former neighbor, Cheryl, who is dealing with what began as colon cancer, but has since advanced to other areas. Also, Barbara at Winos and Foodies for has impressed many with her courage.
At first glance, it looks like this recipe is gonna be another all day show. But actually, it was pretty easy! I broke it down into parts to make it even more simple. One night I made the syrup. No problems there, simple as boiling water! The next night I made the buttercream (coconut was my flavor of choice). I got kind of a late start do the the fact that I was putzing around and my butter was frozen. I got started cooking and set to beating my eggs.

Whoops, I let the syrup get slightly higher than 225 degrees. Oh well, keep on plugging through and SLOWLY pour the hot syrup into the egg mixture. All seemed well, except when I stopped beating I had some strings of egg on the whisk even though I was very careful to pour it down the side of the bowl. So I pull off the strings and continue on to step 5, but this is taking longer than 5 minutes, with no sign of cooling down. So I elect to give it some help.
I hold a bowl of ice under the mixer bowl for a few minutes and that works well to cool it down.
I add the butter and beat it in.
But then I tasted it. Holy moly- this has to be some of the tastiest buttercream I have ever had. Coconut buttercream crack!! Hope it lasts to put in the cake.
The next day, it's time to tackle the baking the joconde. Quite a lot of eggs to crack. My jelly roll pans are a tad small, 10x15, so I make a 4" springform with the extra batter. All goes well, and the cakes bake up quickly, a little longer than 7 minutes (check pan size) as the center took longer to set. I lay them on the counter to cool as stated in the recipe.
I had no real issues assembling the cake. I layered as the recipe stated, but added some coconut flakes on top of the second buttercream. But when it comes time to make the white chocolate glaze, I decide , due to my family's objections, to not glaze the cake as stated, except for my little round cake. I finished the top of my square cake with more buttercream. I added a little raspberry syrup on the plate for presentation.
The finished Opera cake is pretty tasty, I should have used a little more syrup brushed on the layers, but I was afraid it would be too soggy. The layers are impressive and look pretty when cut. Of course the buttercream is beyond fabulous.
If you would like a copy of the recipe, please email me- it is 7 pages long!

I'm Fixated here....Almond Buttercream plus more!

2008-05-25T16:06:00.006-04:00

Do I detect some obsession here? Another set of cupcakes???!! Hmm, I am getting so many ideas for new flavorings. Here are the ones I took to my church picnic today. They were getting snatched off the table as I was putting them on! Squueeeeeee!!!
First up, Chocolate CC with my Aunt Mary's Almond Cream Cheese Buttercream. This is Mark's all time favorite combination. The recipe is below.

Next- Chocolate- filled with Choc. Hazelnut Creme -topped with Hazelnut Creme. The filling was made by mixing Nutella with Rich's Bettercreme, about equal parts of both. For the icing, I added Torani Hazelnut Syrup to taste to the Bettercreme. OH so yummy!

Last the flowered one is Chocolate with Choc. Chips topped with Malted Creme. This icing is like CRACK!!! It's so simple. Just add Hershey's Whoppers Malted Syrup to Rich's Bettercreme. Addicting!!!

Almond Cream Cheese Buttercream

4 oz Cream Cheese Softened
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 box (1 lb) 10 x sugar (may need slightly less)
1 tsp pure almond extract
Beat cream cheese and butter together till well mixed, add sugar in small batches and keep beating until fluffy and well blended, add extract and beat 1 more minute. ENJOY!
This tastes really good on your favorite chocolate cake.

Flower Cupcakes

2008-05-23T20:07:00.005-04:00

I am on a serious cupcake buzz. I made these for Mother's Day a few weeks ago for my sister in law and mother in law. I found the decorating instructions here for flower cupcakes. I couldn't get the begonias to look right so I made all carnations. Very simple and fun!

I just used decorator's buttercream but the cake recipe is from Taste of Home.

Cupcakes for Carol

2008-05-11T21:03:00.004-04:00

Last Tuesday, I baked these beauties and took them to work for my coworker,Carol's, birthday (yes, another May BD!). This was the first time I had made cupcakes in a long while and now I've got THAT bug! These Wilton courses are making me fat! HeHe!
I used a doctored Duncan Hines mix, cuz Carol is kinda picky and well dang, it was her birthday so I gave her what she likes. The icing is the recipe from the back of the can of Ghirardelli premium baking cocoa. It's really a good recipe- Mark thinks it tastes like fudge.
Everyone at work ate more than 1, so I will take that as a compliment!!

Uncle John's Plant Farm

2008-05-09T18:44:00.004-04:00

My sister-in-law Marcia, just sent me a video where she was interviewed at their family business, Uncle John's Plant Farm. It really is a great place for plants or gifts- check out the video
of Marcia and get a great idea of what they have. Stop in if you are in the area (Olmsted Falls, OH-southwest of Cleveland).

Polenta with Parmesan

2008-05-04T18:17:00.008-04:00

A Blogging Event to highlight May being National Osteoporosis Awareness month is being hosted this month by Susan of FoodBlogga- I'm in. Yep, I, too, found out last year that I am at the beginning stages of bone loss.
I went for a bone scan because I had begun having joint pain and the technician kinda surprised me mid way thru the scan by questioning whether I had taken certain drugs or had a family history of the disease and was I sure. Now I am not really THAT old, I work out pretty much every day, and there is no history of broken bones by any of the older women in my family.I don't smoke or drink. So I was really very surprised to find I have osteopenia. Osteopenia is the term for low bone mass that is not yet bad enough to be called osteoporosis.

I have no real answers why I have advanced bone loss for my age. I blame it on the fact that I had virtually no calcium when I was growing up. I never had to drink milk, the only green vegetables I remember having was an iceberg lettuce salad every night- our vegetable drawer was filled with Hershey bars. No, really. I am not kidding! That's a story for another day...

Anyway, I urge all of you to learn all you can to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Exercise, get enough calcium and vitamin D, and talk to your doctor about your bones.

Here is my recipe to add more calcium today.

Polenta with Parmesan
1 cup stone ground cornmeal
3 cups water
dash salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup parmesan
1 clove garlic (or more) minced
1/2 tsp. oregano

Mix the cornmeal and milk in a bowl , Set aside. In a saucepan, bring water and salt to a rolling boil. Whisk in the contents of the bowl slowly, to prevent lumps. Add the garlic and oregano. Keep stirring to prevent sticking. When the polenta is very thick and coats the spoon, stir in the cheese and it is done. At this point you can serve it or you can pour it in an 8 inch square pyrex or other container and refrigerate. It can be sliced and reheated later by micro or baking or panfrying as the leftovers are great.
Tonight I served it warm and covered with my favorite spaghetti sauce as a side to grilled salmon and a salad of field greens and zucchini topped with balsamic vinegar.

Janet and Jim's B-Day Cake

2008-05-01T20:53:00.003-04:00

Oh, This was my first time decorating with roses! My co-workers Janet and Jim who have birthdays this week made me feel great by each taking pictures of the cake to show their families! (I should have skipped making the stems!)
It was fun making the roses, even though my icing was a little thinner than I needed. Now thatI am done with Wilton course 1, our class decided to take course 2 together! More fun to come.

Cheesecake POPS!!

2008-04-27T00:06:00.009-04:00

The Daring Bakers Challenge for April was Cheesecake Pops from the cookbook Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy By Jill O'Connor, picked with care by our hosts, Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasm and Deborah – Taste and Tell. This is something I never would have thought of, but now I am a believer! They are just the right size!
The cheesecake itself was easy to make, made even easier by my brand spankin' new Kitchenaid Commercial 475 mixer! Yay! I never thought I needed one because my trusty Cuisianart 7 speed hand mixer has plowed through whatever I have asked of it. But the Kitchenaid was such a great deal, with an extra $35 off at Costco, that Mark talked me into it. So nice to not have to stop the mixer to add something.
Anyway, The cake was easy, but took much longer to bake, partly because I used a 9" springform because I didn't have a 10" pan and it is my deepest pan. Also, reading other posts prepared me for a longer bake. I baked for almost 1 1/2 hours, then cooled and refrigerated overnight. Rolling the balls was kinda messy. We all had fun with the balls- reminiscent of this great SNL skit. Mmmm, balls. Fun and games. And yes, my balls are mis-shapen. I ended up using an ice cream scoop and kinda shaping them. I guess I'll buy a smaller cookie scoop, since I'm sure I'd use it anyway. At the end I just cut some in random shapes, which worked real well, and sent them to the freezer to firm.

I used Mercken's milk chocolate wafers to coat some, and while I was at the cake store, I bought some Mercken's butterscotch, which I had never used before. I wasn't going to use them for this recipe, but Mark and Lacey are big bscotch fans so I decided to make a few butterscotch ones. Mark liked the butterscotch better, so I ended up making 1/2 of each flavor. (Note-blogger doesn't like that picture!!!)

The dipping went pretty well, but on the end of my first chocolate batch the chocolate started seizing, so maybe it was too hot, or maybe the cheesecake started to melt a little. I was working by the stove under the halogen lights, so for the rest of the batches I microwaved the chocolate or butterscotch and kept the balls in the freezer until I need more. After that adjustment, coating worked fine.

Mine are certainly not the prettiest- due entirely to my inpatience about anything- but they are really quite tasty!

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional
Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
By the way, if you haven't checked out the Daring Bakers, founded by Ivonne and Lis, visit our website for more info!

Hello Lover....

2008-04-25T22:58:00.002-04:00

Yes, I too have fallen. It took coaxing, but now I am hooked. I fear I will not be able to live without it. So, so wonderful. I look forward to our time spent together.

Butter Pecan Clown Cake

2008-04-24T19:25:00.005-04:00

I am taking a Wilton cake decorating class and as all good students do in Lesson 3, I made a clown cake. You can't see the whole cake here, but this picture is the top before it was totally done. I'm still in new blog mode and forget to take pictures. I added more balloons and balloons to the side.

The cake itself is from the Taste of Home website, but I cut the recipe in half which still made one pretty tall 9" layer, especially when I cut it in half and filled it with buttercream. The flavor was pretty good, not a real sweet cake, more like a nut cake, which went well with the sweet buttercream.

I used a different buttercream than the Wilton one, since I don't like the way it tastes. My recipe is below. You can find the cake recipe here.

BUTTERCREAM ICING (makes a medium consistency icing)

1 cup shortening

1 cup butter (salted or unsalted)- softened

1/3 cup hot water

1 Tbl powdered coffee creamer

1 tsp popcorn salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp butter extract

8 cups powdered sugar

Using a stand-up mixer, cream together the butter and shortening until nice and fluffy. Measure out the water in a standard measuring cup and dissolve the creamer, the salt in this water. Add the extracts to the cup. Stir well with a spoon.Turn your mixer speed to the lowest possible setting and add in the powdered sugar slowly. Alternate back and forth with the water mixture. Keep the mixer on low until all liquid and powdered sugar are combined. Once combined, turn the mixer up a notch and mix well. Approximately 2-3 minutes.

Not a Good Cake

2008-04-14T20:18:00.007-04:00

OHHH! Tomorrow, Tax Day, is Mark's birthday. His favorite is Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake with my Aunt Mary's Almond frosting. A hit every time.
Of course, as I am wont to do, I decided to make a cake from scratch. The only chocolate cake I ever made from scratch before is Famous Chocolate Cake. We loved the rich, moist cake, but I made it with ganache frosting and it was over the top sweet. So I guess I thought it would be too rich for the frosting and I would try another.
I decided to try Martha Stewart's Luscious Chocolate Cake. It baked up as planned and looked very pretty when iced. Mark couldn't wait until tomorrow to cut it, so tonight we had early b-day cake.
Gotta say, we were really disappointed. The cake itself is not a moist cake, but more like a bakery cake from the grocery store. Not at all what I wanted. Not a cake I will make again. Thinking 'bout pitching the whole thing and starting over!
I will however try my frosting with the famous choc. cake one day. And keep searching for the perfect chocolate cake for my icing.