2012

With the New Year of 2012 arrived at last, I find myself thinking of many, many projects unfinished and some even forever left behind, appointments missed, things I've missed out on and things that will never be forgotten. My New Years Resolution this year? Love stronger, laugh harder, live happier. I'm going to spend more quality time with my children, make sure the Man knows how much I appreciate him and his hard work to support our family, and I'm going to stop sweating the small stuff.


It's been a tough year on top of a couple of "not so great" years. 2011 just about kicked my ass, excuse my language, but that's the best way to explain it. However, its over now; Mr. 2011 has grown and gone and today is a fresh, brand spankin' new year to look forward to. So, that's exactly what I intend to do - look FORWARD. I have goals to fulfill and people to love and cupcakes to bake and chocolate that just must be eaten with a stupendously delicious, hot, steaming cup of the best coffee on earth.


So lift your cups, your glasses, your cans of Monster and Coke, your hands, your hearts, or whatever it is you want to offer up and welcome this new year. Blare it out in your worst singing voice and wear it on your face like a big ol' sign of happiness because life is short and we need to live it up people! 


May you be blessed in all you endeavor. Help those who aren't as fortunate as you - and yes, there is ALWAYS someone less fortunate whether you think so or not. Be glad for the small things, let the hardships land on the ground and not your shoulders, and breathe. Just - let - yourself - breathe.


I love you all. Happy 2012 ♥

Sweet From Milk

Well, it's not the Sweet Potato Cheesecake that I promised, but it is yummy none the less! And I will do the cheesecake - I have to, its a goal obsession.
Now for today's bite of life: Dulce de Leche. Litterally translated, "Sweet From Milk," dulce de leche is a creamy, sweet, almost caramel-like thick sauce that goes well with just about anything from ice cream to pretzels. Several cultures have their own version, but it seems the roots of dulce de leche are Latin in origin. I'm not debating nor supporting that - just sayin'.
Traditionally it is made by slowly simmering milk and sugar (sometimes with vanilla or other ingredients) to reduce the moisture content and create a beautiful, rich, golden sauce. As a true American, however, I'm always looking for the shortcut method.
Using sweetened condensed milk in the can takes out half of the work for you. The most common method for this is to place a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pot of simmering water for about three hours or so, adding water as necessary so the can is in a continuous water bath. Ignoring this step has led to many a can bursting into a fountain of hot, lava-like stickiness which coats everything and everyone in sight. Not pretty. And very dangerous.
After a little investigation, I discovered from another blogger (taylortakesataste) that there is a much easier, and much, much safer way to create this little Sauce from Heaven. (I should note that he also investigated and gained the idea from another site, crockpot365)
Using a slow cooker to create dulce de leche seems, to me, to be a much safer, easier method. Its really so very simple even a child could do it - which I am NOT recommending by any means.
The first step in this little venture is to remove the labels and place the cans, however many you choose to make, in the slow cooker and cover with water. I was a little nervous about placing metal cans directly on the crock, so I placed metal canning jar rings down first - I know, still metal! But it does relieve most of the contact issue of metal on crock. I don't know why it bothers me, it just does.

The beginning of the process.

After setting up the cans on the lids, fill the crock with water to just above the tops of the cans. A water bath is completely necessary - do NOT skip this step! Place the lid on top, set the cooker to "low," and let it rip for 8 hours.

Half way through cooking process - 4 hours.

You can see that half way through the process the water level is still high, typical of slow cookers. No need to do anything - just let it go (with the lid on, of course) for another 4 hours.

Cooking process complete.

Once the 8 hours has passed, remove the cans carefully with tongs onto a towel to dry and to cool to room temperature. This is very important - DO NOT attempt to open the cans when they are hot or even warm. No one needs to get injured over dulce de leche - be safe and leave them alone for a good while to cool down.

I feel I should insert here that no one, and I mean NO ONE recommends heating cans of sweetened condensed milk in any fashion what-so-ever. And I'm not telling you to, either. This is just what I do to get a desired result. All consequences are my own. :) There, disclaimer done.

Terrible photo, but - Oh Heaven!

After the whole process is complete and the cans have cooled, go ahead and grab yourself a piece of really delicious chocolate and dig into the creamy, velvety, rich goodness that is dulce de leche. Or, pour it over ice cream, put some in your coffee, add it to muffins or cake or frosting or just simply do what I like to do and stick your face in it and . . . . um, never mind. Its good. Its really, really, really good.

Hopefully this will tide you over until my promised recipe of Sweet Potato Cheesecake. Its coming - it really is! Perhaps with a topping of dulce de leche. Oh Heavens, I've created a monster!

On Hiatus. . .

I apologize for the long break in postings - I've been taking care of some new situations within my family and it has soaked up all of my time. Just want to get this out there though - coming up in the next couple of days I will be making Sweet Potato Cheesecake. Now, sweet potatoes are one of my very favorite things. They are just yummy no matter what you do to them - sweet, savory, fried, baked, boiled, its all so good! And cheesecake, well, I just can't think of anything better than a creamy, smooth, not-to-sweet, versatile dessert like cheesecake. Mmmmmm, even just saying it makes me melt. Cheese + Cake = Love. :) Photos, recipe, and directions coming soon so please stay tuned! I promise - I haven't quit!!!!!!!

It's A Blog Hop! Enjoy!

A Little On The Lighter Side

Since I've been a Zinger/Twinkie making, cake baking fool lately, I've decided to lighten it up just a bit and post about a salad I made the other day - it was so yummy and so guilt free. I was inspired by a Cashew Chicken Salad offered by Milwaukee Burger Company that I recently had the pleasure of experiencing. A risk is not something I usually take when it comes to salad. I'm more of a purist - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, dressing = salad. Once I ordered a salad and they had put strawberries on it. I remember looking at the plate and thinking, "What kind of new-fangled idiocy is this?! Can't I just order a salad and get a SALAD?!" I bit my tongue, not literally, forged ahead with the salad anyway. Not gonna lie, it was gross. Since then I totally turned off the whole "experimental salad" switch and left it at that.
In recent years, however, I've noticed that (for reasons unknown to me) my taste buds are craving new and different, more flavorful things, so back into the quagmire of salad fixins I went. There have been some good, some really good, and some really bad experiences along the way, but for the most part I'll step out of my comfort zone to try a new-fangled idiotic salad.
Which brings us to this:

Chicken Almond Apple Salad

It may not look like a professionally assembled salad, but it was really, really good and bonus: It was good for me, too.
Two handfuls of washed spinach; one cooked chicken breast, cut up; three tablespoons slivered almonds; one green onion, diced; one Roma tomato, diced; 1/4 c. craisins; 1/4 Washington apple, diced, two tablespoons fat free balsamic vinaigrette. Simple, yummy, light. I'm having another one for lunch tomorrow, because after those Flingers, I need to lighten up!

Under Construction

Some elements of this blog will not be working for a bit - I am trying to set up different areas with a tab index and such and it is currently under construction. Please forgive me and please be patient with me. Should you have any ideas for me, please post them below in a comment. Thanks!

Cake Man Raven Makes Me Look Good Every Time

Red Velvet was never a real big interest of mine until my sister wanted to serve it at her wedding and I was making the cake. I thought, "What's the big deal? It's just chocolate cake with a bunch of red food coloring, right?" Wrong. So, so wrong.

Red Velvet cake has been a southern favorite for generations. It has crept its way into the hearts of many a northerner since then, including me. Red Velvet does have cocoa powder in it - but it is by no means or definition a chocolate cake. It is a flavor unto its own. When paired with the cream cheese frosting, it is a little bit of heaven on earth. And Cake Man Raven's version is so very delicious.


For those of you that do not know, Cake Man Raven is a bakery in Brooklyn, NY, owned and operated by Raven Dennis III. He has been featured in articles and television shows such as "Throw Down with Bobbi Flay" and "Good Morning America," and has been cake maker for many stars to date. He's a very busy man, and the Southern Red Velvet is his signature cake. With good reason.


Let's get to the business, shall we?

Start out in the usual fashion: Sift all of the dry ingredients together and mix in the wet until you get a smooth cake batter.

Bake off in the oven and let the pans sit for 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH THEM! This is where everyone makes the mistake of taking them out of the pans too soon and they end up falling apart. Let them rest. They need it.

 Once the cakes have cooled and you have flipped them to cool completely, if there is a bump on the top, now is the time to "shave" it off with a serrated knife. Then you have scraps to give the scrappers, like this:

 How on earth could you possible resist that face?!
And this is what happens when you cut  your cake into layers and it almost falls on the floor when you try to flip it:

Love my cooling system - - - so do my neighbors.
When the cake is cooled completely, start assembling the layers, placing a small amount of the icing between each. I say small because if you put too much of this yummy goodness between the layers, you are going to end up with a completely overpoweringly sweet cake. Not what you want.

 I do my Red Velvet cakes in two 8" rounds and then divide each cake into two again, so I have four layers. I just like the look of the cake with so many layers, very pretty:

Back to the assembly - Once all the layers are stacked and the cake is completely iced, you can add the nuts to the side.

 I like to add a little decoration to my cakes, however small. The red on the top is crumb from the scraps that I trimmed off of the top of the cake after it cooled. Makes a pretty little representation of what's inside I think.

And there you have it, Cake Man Raven's Southern Red Velvet Cake. Yum! This particular specimen was for my sister's birthday - which is actually the second one I made for her. I was supposed to travel with the first one to her home, which is 1 hour and 45 minutes away from mine, and take her out to dinner for her birthday, but a snowstorm in the middle of March in Minnesota/Wisconsin put the kibosh on that little venture. I could have kicked Mother Nature in the shin that day. Can you tell I'm still a little mad? Didn't think so - I cover it pretty well.

One week later, however, I was able to deliver a second one and see my Uncle Tom & Auntie Joyce from Louisiana at the same time as they were passing through on a mission to buy an antique car. A Nash Metropolitan. Cute little thing. Anyway - it was a wonderful day. A very, very, very long, wonderful day.

Cake Man Raven's Southern Red Velvet Cake  *There are some slight changes by me in baking process!
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. fine salt
1 t. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 T. red food coloring (1 ounce)
1 t. white vinegar
1 t. vanilla
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
crushed pecans for garnish


Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare two 8" round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.


In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Using a stand mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined and a smooth batter forms.


Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake starts to separate from the side. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes in the pan. Flip cakes out onto a cooling rack, and then onto another cooling rack so that the top of the cake is upright. Let cakes cool completely, then level the tops, setting the scraps aside for decoration.


Cut both layers into two more layers. Place bottom layer on a circle cake board that is about 1/4" larger than the cake round. Spread enough frosting on the layer to cover completely but not thick. Place second layer on top of first, and spread with frosting same as the first layer. Repeat until last layer is placed on top. Frost entire cake with frosting.


Placing your hand under the cake board and tilting slightly, take a handful of the crushed pecans and "wipe" the nuts up the side of the cake gently to cover the side completely in nuts. Repeat as you turn the cake to cover the entire outside of the cake but not the top. Using a fork or just your hands, crumble the cake scraps saved from leveling the cakes. Place the cake on a cake plate and sprinkle the cake crumbs around the outside edge. Using larger slices of pecans, make a decoration in the center of the cake and dust lightly with additional crumbs. It is best to let the cake set for just a bit before serving so that the icing has a chance to set up a bit. This will make the cake easier to cut.


Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 lb. (2 - 8 oz. bricks) cream cheese, room temperature
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (I use salted and its just fine)
1 t. vanilla extract
4 c. confectioners sugar


Place cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in bowl and whip on high until light and creamed together. Add confectioners sugar and beat again until light and fluffy. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to let the icing stiffen slightly before frosting cake.