Chocolate Snack Cake

Quite awhile ago now, my dear friend Betty sent me a recipe for a chocolate snack cake that sounded super easy to make.  It's no secret that I'm not a fan of baking, which is both bad and good.  Bad because I really love baked good and good because I really love baked goods.  Not wanting to ever take the time to make them or dirty all the dishes involved (seriously, is it just me or does baking dirty way more dishes than cooking?!) makes it pretty easy to stay away from cookies or cakes or pies that I'm just going to sit and gorge on if I make them.  But, I have two little kids, so some times I have to bake things to appease them.  For one thing they like to help me, and for another, they really love to eat stuff that I bake.  Recently we were having a family fun night, and I decided to make this cake.  I wanted a fun dessert for my family, and this sounded super easy.  And the best part?!  You mix it up in the baking dish, so there aren't a ton of dishes to deal with once you're done!  Jackpot!

Chocolate Snack Cake


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In an 8-inch square baking pan, whisk together all-purpose flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and coarse salt.

Make a well in center of flour mixture and add vegetable oil, pure vanilla extract, white vinegar, and cold water. Whisk until well combined. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

*****

Let me tell you...my family devoured this cake.  The consistency was similar to a cake-like brownie.  It was a little denser than a chocolate cake you'd make from a box mix but not chewy like a brownie, if that makes sense.  It did not last long...like maybe until the end of the movie we were watching.  I also really liked that it was vegan because my brother and his girlfriend are vegan, so it's nice to have options I can make for them when they come visit.  Normally they come for each of my kid's birthdays, and I want them to be able to have cake to celebrate with us.  Anyway, this is super easy, hardly dirties any dishes, and it's stuff I always have on hand.  I kind of wish I'd had this recipe when I was pregnant either time because I bought a lot of chocolate cake mixes and randomly baked cakes both times.

Actually writing this out and seeing the pictures kind of makes me want to whip one up to share with my boys tonight!

Note to self: put away dishes before taking pictures for blog.  A cheese grater in the chocolate cake picture?!  Come on, Claire!  Class things up a bit around here!

Wine Pie

Oh, dear blog, how I've missed you. I have no good excuse for why I've been away (except maybe Candy Crush Saga). As I was scrolling back through pictures in my "Cooking Blog" photo folder, I saw these and giggled and thought it would be perfect, albeit probably not very helpful or interesting or even entertaining to anyone except Jen.

In 2011 Jen and her family came and celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my mom's house. It was a blast. This past Thanksgiving it turned out her family was going to be alone again, so they joined us for 2012 Thanksgiving as well. We were both taking a side dish and pie. Neither of us are bakers, and the husband had plans to go out with a friend the night before Thanksgiving, so Jen came over here and we threw back a few bottles of wine and made our pies together. I don't remember what hers was...something with pudding maybe? At some point (maybe because I had an extra crust?) we had the idea to make a pie with random ingredients and see how it turned out. Wine Pie was born.

We started with taking any potential pie ingredients out of my pantry, fridge, and freezer. I'm not sure if the Goldfish were out as a consideration or had been left out after my kids had a snack. And maybe Jen's pie was pumpkin of some sort, hence the opened can of pumpkin.



We systematically went through the ingredients to figured out what was realistic to use and what wasn't. By process of elimination, this is what we ended up with. Cool Whip, Nutella, Bananas, Puffins cereal, Teddy Grahams, chocolate chips, pudding mix, Cookie Butter (although I don't see it in this picture), almonds, a Toblerone bar. I think that was it. Oh, I think we dug through my kids' Halloween candy buckets, too.



Now, how to proceed. A layer of cookie butter spread on the crust. By the way, if you haven't tried Cookie Butter, I'm really torn on whether or not to advise you to try it. Crack in a Jar is what it could easily be called. My brother bought it when he was here for Boy #2's birthday, and we all ate it by the spoonful. And it's vegan! Or at least I assume it is because my brother is vegan. It's the consistency of peanut butter but tastes like cookies.



Cookie Butter was topped with another crack-like ingredient, Nutella.



Lovely Jen layering on some bananas. The bananas were a delicious addition to Wine Pie, but the husband and I had to run to the store the next morning to get some for fuel before a seven mile run. Oops. We were a couple bottles deep at this point.







Next: vanilla pudding.



Topped with Cool Whip...because what's a pie without Cool Whip on top?



And to really show off how drunk we were, the toppings. Mini chocolate chips, sliced almonds, crumbled Puffins cereal and Teddy Grahams, and to make it really festive: candy corns.



So, the verdict? This pie was AWESOME. Seriously, it was so good!! So don't let the lack of an official recipe for something hinder your kitchen creativeness. Great things can come from randomly combining ingredients you have on hand!

And the last picture...the pie after having been cut into on Thanksgiving:

The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making these chocolate chip cookies since I was in college, and I could not believe that I have never put the recipe here on my blog. These are without a doubt the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever. Well, my friend Kelly makes some tasty chocolate chip cookies, too, but aside from hers these are hands down my favorite. I don't even mind making them, and I generally hate making cookies. The recipe came to me from my college boyfriend's mom. Honestly when he and I broke up I was most disappointed that I would never have his mom's chocolate chip cookies again. Yeah...things had really gone downhill at that point since that was what disappointed me the most. His family also made the most delicious frozen margaritas, but I'd already learned how to make those. Anyway, I eventually put on my big girl panties and emailed his mom asking for the recipe. She was thrilled to hear from me and sent me the recipe. Haha..score! And I've been making them ever since. I used to make them really, really often and had the recipe memorized, but now since I don't make them all the time I have to pull out the recipe each time I want them. And I was reminded yesterday why I don't make them very often...I ate four of them almost immediately. I'm not proud of it, but damn they're tasty.

The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Susan, my ex-boyfriend's mom

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 sticks butter minus about 2 tablespoons
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Put ingredients in a bowl and cream really well. It will look yucky and then look like a thick whipping cream. I always start with everything right out of the refrigerator.

Add
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

I don’t mix this too much, just enough to combine.

Then add chocolate chips (1-2 12 oz bags depending on taste) and pecans or walnuts.

Bake at 375 until done, about 10-12 minutes.

*****

I have found that 11 minutes is the optimal baking time for these cookies. They will look a little underdone at that point, but trust me when I say that's the best time to pull them out. Otherwise they're too crunchy. Not that they're bad then, but they're much better when they're soft in the middle. I don't ever add nuts to mine either, mostly because I don't have those nuts on hand, and I'm not really a fan of nuts in my cookies. I always mix these up in my Kitchenaid mixer because it's super easy to let it do all of the work. I think that's another reason I like this recipe--I don't end up dirtying a ton of dishes, and that's one of the big beefs I have with baking. Why does it seem to always produce more dirty dishes than just cooking?

Oh, and I really like milk chocolate chips in these, although the batch I made yesterday I used a bag of milk chocolate and half a bag of semi sweet chips that I had in my pantry.

Anyway, try these cookies. Now. You won't be disappointed. And if you make them and think your chocolate chip cookie recipe is better, send it to me! I'm down for a taste test!

This is also the only cookie dough I like to eat.

What's a plate of chocolate chip cookies without a glass of milk?!

Julie's Caramel Bars

I'm not making Christmas treats this year in an effort to help mine and the husband's diets. There have been some points where I've regretted this decision and have really wanted to do some baking, but I've held strong. Mostly because I didn't have a lot of baking ingredients on hand. I wanted to make something for the boy's preschool teacher and the aide in his class, and I immediately thought of these. The recipe comes from an old family friend (as in she's been friends with our family for a long time, not that she is old), and I love making them at Christmastime. The only downside is the double boiler, but you can always use the microwave instead. I just decided to be true to the recipe this year.

Julie's Caramel Bars

35 light caramels
5 T. cream
3/4 cup melted butter
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 cup chopped nuts
6 ounces milk chocolate chips

Melt caramels and cream in a double boiler (or in the microwave).

Mix butter through salt and spread half the mixture in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle chopped nuts and chocolate chips on crust. Pour caramel mix over this and sprinkle with remaining crust mixture. Bake 20 minutes. Chill two hours before cutting.

*****

This are insanely good. Like, ridiculously good. Like, sinfully good. I find I use slightly more than half the crust mixture on the bottom, otherwise I can't get it to completely cover the bottom of the pan. I probably do 2/3 on the bottom and sprinkle 1/3 on top. My mom had wondered if she could make these using a jar of caramel ice cream topping, but I don't know if she ever tried it. I really don't know why that wouldn't work. I put the caramels on to melt while the boy and I mixed up the crust ingredients, then I'd go stir it every now and then until it was done.

I was kind of sad to give these all away to the boy's teachers, but I'm sure they'll enjoy them. And the husband and I did sample a couple of them before I packaged them up, so we did indulge just a little. Hopefully next year he and I will both be skinny and can enjoy some extra treats this time of year!

Birthday Sheet Cake

Man...how is it I've fallen off the blog posting wagon again?! what is wrong with me?! Oh yeah, I haven't really been cooking. Last week was a FAIL. We didn't have the stuffed peppers because the husband thought they looked weird and wasn't crazy about the filling, so we pulled some veggie lasagna out of the freezer and had that instead. I had every intention of having the peppers for lunch, but then we ended up eating out for lunch like five days in a row. Weird because that NEVER happens. Friday night we didn't have dinner because he wasn't feeling good, so Saturday night we had Trader Joe's marinated ahi tuna, which ended up being a little mealy since it had been sitting in marinade for 24+ hours. Sigh. Sunday we went to my mom's for dinner, Monday the husband had a meeting at church and had dinner there. It's just crazy when I go through spells like this!

I did do some baking over the weekend for my Barefoot Bloggers group. The first recipe for September was chosen by Susy at Everyday Gourmet in honor of her birthday. Happy Birthday, Susy! This was a recipe I hadn't paid much attention to before (from Ina's Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook) because I don't like to do a lot of baking. It just seems to dirty so many dishes and take so much longer than cooking. But, the boy likes to bake with me, so I do it for him. Ah, the things we do for our kids. Anyway, I read the reviews of this recipe on the Food Network website and was surprised to see that a lot of people didn't like it. I'd never seen that for an Ina recipe before!! I was glad I read through all of them because I figured out how to change mine up so it would be a little better. I'll post the original recipe and then note afterwards how I changed it.

Barefoot Contessa Birthday Sheet Cake
Copyright 2002, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, All Rights Reserved

For the cake:
18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 lemon, zested
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the frosting:
24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Chocolate candies for decorating (recommended: M&M's)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then the sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix well. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until smooth. Finish mixing by hand to be sure the batter is well mixed. Pour evenly into the pan, smooth the top with a spatula, and bake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan to room temperature.

For the frosting, place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chips are completely melted. Off the heat, add the corn syrup and vanilla and allow the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the chocolate mixture and softened butter on medium speed for a few minutes, until it's thickened.

Spread the frosting evenly on the cake. Have the children decorate the cake with chocolate candies.

*****

I really had no need to make an entire sheet cake, plus a lot of the reviews said their sheet pans weren't tall enough, and the cake spilled over. I HATE cleaning my oven, so I wanted to avoid that at all costs. In reading posts from some of the other Barefoot Bloggers, I discovered a couple people had done cupcakes! Perfect, I thought! So I cut the recipe in half and did cupcakes. I omitted the lemon zest because I'm not a fan of citrus and chocolate together, plus a lot of the reviews said it was overpowering. They also advised cutting the baking soda down to 3/4 teaspoon, so since I was halving the recipe I only did about 3/8. For the frosting, I used half semisweet chocolate chips and half milk chocolate chips. Did I think to cut the frosting recipe in half? Nope. Now I have a huge container of frosting in my fridge that I don't know what to do with. got any suggestions? Leave me a comment!

Anyway, I overfilled the cupcake pans, so mine ended up kind of square on top once the cupcakes puffed up while baking. Oops. Just gave me more surface area to cover with frosting! I really liked the flavor of the cupcakes themselves...great texture, great flavor. Denser than cupcakes you get from a boxed cake mix, which I enjoyed. The frosting was really, really sweet. I liked it, but I felt like I couldn't put too much on each cupcake because it was so sweet. Maybe because I added in milk chocolate with the semisweet chips. I don't know. I think I'd make these again but use a different frosting recipe for it. Ha! Who am I kidding...next time I need cupcakes I'll just go get a mix. ;) But, if you like to bake then give this a go!

My zany kitchen helper:


This is why I hate baking...all these dishes for 18 cupcakes?!


My square-topped cupcakes, pre-frosting:


Mmmm...M&Ms on top of cupcakes!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Today is my friend Laura's birthday. Happy Birthday Laura!! Our friend Kelly hosted a lunch pizza party at her house to celebrate. It was so fun--good friends, pizza and watermelon and veggies and breadsticks for lunch. It ended on a low note with the boy having an accident in his underwear (thanks again, Kelly!! You're a SAINT!), but other than that it was quite enjoyable. Anyway, I had signed up to take cupcakes. But when I looked at the Evite yesterday, there were 34 people including kids, so I figured my one box of cake mix wouldn't cover everyone, so I opted for a 9x13 cake instead. I don't like store bought frosting (have you ever looked at the ingredient list on those?! Yuck!!), so I looked up recipes to make my own. I have a chocolate cream cheese frosting that I LOVE, but I didn't have enough powdered sugar for it. Turns out I didn't have enough powdered sugar for any of the frosting recipes I found. So I looked on RecipeZaar.com for one that I could use. I had two cups of powdered sugar, and everything I was finding called for three or more. Finally I found one that got good reviews and used just the amount of sugar I had on hand. It was meant to be.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Recipe #44126
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamy. Add sugar and cocoa, mixing well. Stir in milk in portions, stirring each time. Add vanilla. Spread on cooled cake or other items needing frosting.

*****

This. Was. Yummy. Everyone at the party really liked it. It was super easy to mix together and all the ingredients are things I normally have on hand. The original recipe on the website was for 3-3/4 cups frosting, but you can change the amount you need and it automatically recalculates everything for you. How cool is that?! So I played around with amounts until I got one that matched how much powdered sugar I had.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

We have turned a potty training corner!!! I kept telling the boy that if he pooped on the potty we could make cookies as a reward. Wednesday night he did it!! Of course, it was right before bedtime so I told him that Thursday morning we'd make cookies. I wanted to make something somewhat healthy, so I looked on the Cooking Light website. I gave the boy a couple options and he chose Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (we left out the pecans).

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1 cup regular oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

CALORIES 81 (33% from fat); FAT 3g (sat 1.4g,mono 1g,poly 0.3g); IRON 0.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 10mg; CALCIUM 12mg; CARBOHYDRATE 12.9g; SODIUM 76mg; PROTEIN 1.1g; FIBER 0.5g

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2007

*****

I was not impressed with these. The dough was really dry and crumbly, so they didn't hold together when I put them on the cookie sheet. The cookies came out really hard, too. I didn't even finish making all of them. They were okay right when they came out of the oven but after sitting for awhile they weren't very good. The boy liked them well enough, so at least he felt rewarded. These aren't cookies I would make again.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let me first say that this is not my mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe. I think the sun would have set and risen again in the time it would take me to think of when the last time would have been that my mom made chocolate chip cookies. I'd always ask her when I was growing up why she didn't make cookies more often, and she said she didn't want them around because she'd eat them. I didn't understand it at the time because what kid could possibly fathom not wanting to eat cookies constantly, but now as an adult I completely understand. Especially after having baked these!

This is another recipe from my message board cookbook. I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love making, but these sounded interesting, so I figured I'd try them out. The boy helped me make them. We were talking this morning about making cookies and I asked if he thought that would be fun. His answer totally cracked me up..."fun in my mouth!"

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars. Add next four ingredients. Combine flour and baking soda, add to creamed mixture and mix well. Drop onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

*****

I've had four of them so far. I can't stop eating them!! I think it's the pudding mix that makes them tasty and soft and chewy. Oh, and for the record I did not separately combine the flour and baking soda. Why dirty another bowl, I figure. I'm all about using as few bowls as possible (really I just hate doing dishes). Oh, and I used milk chocolate chips...Trader Joe's brand. I think those are my new chocolate chips of choice. TJ's brand, not necessarily the milk chocolate ones.

I had a yummy pasta dish planned for dinner tonight, but this cold is kicking my butt. I don't know what will happen with dinner. I may end up making it if I can rest a bit this afternoon, or we may go with our universal dinner back-up plan: $5 pizza from Little Caesar's. Regardless, the pasta dish will come sometime soon. It's from the most recent issue of Gourmet magazine. This will be my first Gourmet recipe I'll have made, so I'm pretty excited for it. Don't worry--it's super easy and quick sounding. We'll dive into the world of Gourmet together!

Peanut Butter Cream Pie

I was so impressed with myself for getting those three recipes posted in one day and then never got around to posting the fourth. Sigh. So here it is. It's from a random baking cookbook I got at Costco something like nine years ago. It has awesome recipes in it. I haven't made anything from it that's been bad. Just wait until I make my special brownies sometime. Not that kind of special!! I think I first made this pie for Easter dinner with my friend Gina and her husband Mike. It was awesome. I kind of forget about it, so when I make it it's a huge treat.

Peanut Butter Cream Pie
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 baked 9-inch pie crust
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 package (4-serving size) instant French Vanilla pudding mix
5 peanut butter candy cups, divided
2 cups thawed Cool Whip

Combine peanut butter and powdered sugar with fork in medium bowl. Place evenly in bottom of pie crust. Place milk and sour cream in large bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk or electric beater 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened. Pour half of filling over peanut butter mixture. Coarsely chop 4 candy cups; sprinkle over filling. Top with remaining filling. Spread Cool Whip over filling. Cut remaining peanut butter cup into 8 pieces; place on top of pie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Phew...almost caught up. One more after this. Can you believe FOUR recipes in one day?! I know, amazing. Today is my friend Jen A's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEN!! We're having a lunch party for her today, and I am in charge of bringing the cake. I actually made this same cake for her birthday last year. It was super yummy, and I've been dying to have an occasion to make it again. The recipe is from the "Barefoot Contessa at Home" cookbook, and you know how much I heart Barefoot Contessa.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake
Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

*****

I need to mix up the frosting this morning before we go, but I did the cakes yesterday. I also had a fantastic invention idea...parchment paper that was already cut to the size you need, like an 8-inch round for a cake pan. I hate tracing the cake pan and then cutting it out. The cake batter I sampled yesterday was yummy, so I assume the cake will be, too.

Off to make frosting! The fourth recipe of the day will come later today when I have to make a pie to take to dinner tonight at some friend's. I don't know what I'm going to do with all these desserts!

Fudge Crostata with Raspberry Sauce

Sounds fancy, doesn't it? Fudge Crostata. This pie makes life worth living. My awesome sister-in-law Tracie sent me this recipe years ago, like a few months after the husband and I had met. Then I lost it. Then she sent it to me again. Then I lost it. Then she sent it to me again. Then I lost it. I just recently asked her for it again after sucking up my pride since I had asked her for it so many times before. She willingly sent it again...one of the reasons she's so awesome! And really I did her a favor because she'd forgotten about it and now wants to make it. But there's no way I'll lose it again. For one thing, it's here...immortalized forever.

The first time I made this was for a girl's night I had a looooooooooong time ago. The raspberry sauce was fan-freakin-tastic. We were dipping anything we could find it. I may have eaten it with a spoon. Or drank it from the container...but I wouldn't ever admit that if questioned. Ah the things you can do when you live alone. The last time I remember making it was a few months before the husband and I got married, probably about five years ago. Way too long.

My mom asked me to bring dessert for Easter dinner, and frankly I jumped at the chance so I could make this luscious, tasty, delectable, amazing, chocolatey dessert. I won't keep you waiting any longer...here you go.

Fudge Crostata with Raspberry Sauce
1 pkg semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup ground almonds, optional
1 egg
1 egg, separated

Sauce
1-12oz pkg frozen raspberries without syrup, thawed
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Garnish
whole raspberries, sweetened whipped cream

Prepare pie crust according to package for two crust pie using 10" tart pan or 9 inch pie plate. Place 1 prepared crust in pan, press in bottom and up sides of pan. Trim sides.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips with 2 Tbsp butter, stirring constantly until smooth. In medium bowl, beat remaining 6 Tbsp butter with 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add almonds, 1 egg,, egg yolk and melted chocolate. Blend well. Spread mixture evenly over bottom of pie crust-lined pan.

To make a lattice top, cut remaining crust into 1/2" strips. Arrange strips in a lattice design over chocolate mixture. Trim edges and seal. In small bowl, beat egg white until foamy, brush over lattice. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce temp to 350. Bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cover edge of pie crust with strips of foil after 15-20 minutes of baking to avoid brown edges. cool.

In a blender, blend raspberries at highest speed until smooth. Press through strainer to remove seeds. In small saucepan, combine raspberry puree, 3/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. blend well. Bring mixture to a boil over medium low heat. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool. Serve pie with sauce.

*****

Are you drooling all over your computer? I am...I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm probably drooling more than you because I can smell the pie cooling on my counter. I hate melting chocolate. I hate double boilers even more. So I melt chocolate in the microwave. Just make sure you use a glass bowl. I lost my most favorite plastic mixing bowl melting stuff in the microwave...and had a huge mess in my microwave.

Oh, I left out the almonds. I think I've used them when I made it before, but this time I decided to leave them out and just have pure chocolate.

Darn, I should have taken pictures when I was making the lattice crust. It's pretty easy to do, just weave the crust.

The boy is up from his nap, so I need to make the raspberry sauce. I tried to do it when he was sleeping, but he started making noise. Darn noisy blender. My food processor is much quieter.

I'll report back later how it was, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing.

Oreo Balls

More Christmas treats today!! My MOMS Club does a Secret Sister program, so I made these for my secret sister. The recipe comes from my friend Lindsay, and they are oh-so-yummy!! I thought it was cake or something in the middle, I was shocked that it was Oreos! I changed up this batch a bit, but I'll get in to that after the recipe.

Lindsay's Oreo Balls
1 package Oreos
1 package chocolate almond bark
1 package cream cheese, softened

Chop up all the Oreos and mix with cream cheese. When you cant see cream cheese anymore you're good to move on. Melt your bark as directions say. When that's done you roll the Oreos into balls and dip in bark and get it all over the Oreo stuff and than take it out and put on aluminum foil until cooled. Keep in fridge until time to enjoy.

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I put the Oreos in a big Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Then once the Oreos and cream cheese are mixed together, I form the little balls and put them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper (aluminum foil would work too). I use tongs to dip the balls into the chocolate, much less messy that way.

So for this batch, I had bought a box of Trader Joe's Candy Cane Jo-Jo's (their version of Oreos) and used those instead of regular Oreos. Dear lord are they ever fantastic! The cookies on their own are laced with crack, I'm pretty sure, so mixed with cream cheese and dipped in chocolate...wow. The cookies are basically Oreos but in the filling there's chopped up candy canes. Amazing--and I don't even like candy canes. Thankfully most of these are going to my secret sister and the rest got eaten at our play group this morning. I think I only brought home four or five which isn't bad at all.