King Cake

Happy Mardi Gras! Being from New Orleans, this is one of my favorite times of year, though it's always a little sad when I don't get to go home for it. To make up for it though, I always bake a couple king cakes throughout the season. The Mardi Gras season officially starts on Epiphany, which is January 6, and lasts until the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. (In case you don't know, Ash Wednseday is always 46 days before Easter, which traditionally falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. It's complicated, I know.) Depending on when that is, Mardi Gras day can fall anywhere from February 3 to March 9, giving me anywhere from just under a month to just over 2 months to bake king cakes to my heart's content.

At this point you might be asking yourself, "What is a king cake anyway?" Well, dear reader, a king cake is traditionally served during the Mardi Gras season--in case you hadn't figured that much out already. It's not really a cake per se; it's actually much more bread-like. Flavorwise, it's a bit like a giant cinnamon roll, though don't let anyone fool you into thinking that it is just a giant cinnamon roll because it's not. The differences are subtle, yes, but it's still not a cinnamon roll. A plastic baby is also placed inside the cake, and finding it in your piece is good luck (and symbolizes the wise men finding baby Jesus in the manger). Typically when we would have Mardi Gras parties in school and such, whoever finds the baby also brings in the next king cake, in which case you may not feel it's so luck after all. Also, take it from the voice of experience here, when you go to cut the cake, try to remember where you put the baby so that you don't cut it in half. Nobody likes finding half a baby in their cake.

Chocolate-Marshmallow Whoopie Pies

What exactly is a whoopie pie? Is it a cake? Is it a cookie? Does it really matter? It's delicious, whatever you consider it. I used to make these all the time when I worked at the coffee shop, and the older customers especially would snatch them up, saying that they tasted like childhood. I think that's a pretty apt description no matter who you are. These whoopie pies have a simple, classic taste that almost has the flavor of a homemade Oreo, though the texture is quite different.

Chopped Challenge #7: Apple Cobbler with Peanut Butter-Cinnamon Ice Cream

For our seventh Chopped challenge, Justin decided to give me cinnamon, pancake mix, half-and-half, and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Taking the obvious route, I chose to make a dessert. (We had salads for dinner, in case you're curious.) Cinnamon and peanut butter both made me think of apples, so I settled on making an apple pie. I used green apples because I like the bit of sourness paired with all that sugar, but you can use your favorite apples instead.

Initially I wanted to grind the Peanut Butter Captain Crunch in my food processor to use it in a graham cracker-like crust, but I wasn't sure how well that would work out when baking with a bit of a runny filling in it. Graham cracker crusts are usually used for thicker fillings like pudding or cheesecake, and so I wasn't sure if the crust would get soggy from the apple filling. Instead, I decided to combine the pancake mix and the ground cereal in a streusel-style topping.

Halloween Buttercream Fudge

Before I get to the recipe, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in the past couple weeks. Justin and I were kind of busy for a bit there. Our first wedding anniversary was also earlier this month, and so we were out and about some, including a day trip to Williamsburg to go ziplining. (It was great fun, by the way--sometimes terrifying, but great fun.) Then I had a few recipes that I tried out and intended to post. However, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I didn't want to post anything that I thought was subpar. A lot of things combined to cause my lack of posts. Either way, I'm back now, and hopefully I should be back to posting with semi-regularity.

My first post back is this lovely, simple fudge. It tastes like buttercream frosting, and just for Halloween, I made it in layers that look like candy corn. I've made fudge from scratch before, and I even have a specific pot that I refer to as my fudge pot. It was given to me by my mom, and it's the only pot she ever used to make fudge. (It's a Club aluminium pot with a super thick bottom that makes it a lot more difficult to accidentally burn whatever anything delicate that you make in it.) Still, fudge can be somewhat of a hassle to make from scratch. You have to make sure it gets to the exact right temperature, or it won't set properly. It can't be too humid out, or it won't set properly. You can't look at it wrong, or it won't set properly. You get the idea. This fudge involves none of that. Honestly, the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process was cutting it into triangles. This is seriously the easiest dessert you will ever make. You have no excuse not to make a batch or three.

Amish Friendship Bread

Justin and I went to our 10 year high school reunion this past summer. In addition to getting to hang out with people we haven't seen in 10 years, I also picked up a tasty new recipe. After leaving the official reunion, a few of us went back to a classmate's home where she offered us some Amish friendship bread. I'd never even heard of it, but I'm not one to turn down something that sounds awesome. It may be called bread, but it's really more of a cake--and I've hardly ever met a cake I didn't like. I'm glad I tried it because it really is quite yummy. I immediately asked for the recipe, and when the weather turned cooler this past weekend, it was the first thing I thought to bake.

The reason that this is called friendship bread (I'm not sure about the Amish part, and neither is Wikipedia apparently) is because you're supposed to make several cups of a starter mixture and then share the starter with friends so that they can make their own bread, retaining enough to make some for yourself as well, obviously. You can also just make the starter for yourself, one batch worth at a time, if you don't feel like sharing. I've included the instructions for both versions of the starter below, so you're free to make it however you like.

Ultimate Fall Float

Who doesn't like fall? It's clearly the best season, and if you disagree, I just don't think that we can be friends anymore. The weather here in Virginia can't seem to make up its mind as to whether or not it's fall yet though, which makes this float the perfect dessert right now. Floats are an essential summer treat, but this one gives you all the flavors of fall together in one glass. It's the perfect treat to cool you off from the late summer-like warmth and give you delicious dreams of the weather and wonderfulness fall will bring.

Amaretto Bundt Cake

My mom used to make this cake fairly often. It's simple because it starts with boxed cake mix and also doesn't require frosting. It's also incredibly delicious if, like me, you love amaretto. Mom always used yellow cake and vanilla pudding mix, but I think it's just as good (and maybe better, actually) with chocolate cake and chocolate pudding mix. The recipe is the same either way, so feel free to experiment. I bet that a pineapple cake would be delicious with this recipe actually. I suppose you could also use other types of alcohol, too. You could make a screwdriver cake with orange cake mix and vodka or maybe a strawberry margarita cake with strawberry cake, a bit of lime juice, and tequila. If you give it a try, let me know how it works out.

Snickerdoodles

This has never happened before, but for some strange reason, this season I'm somehow associating football with cookies. I'm not sure why that is, but on Sunday we'll make it halfway through whatever one o'clock game we're watching and I'll get the irresistible urge to bake cookies. It's so weird, but who am I to say no to baking cookies?

Football also makes me want true fall weather so badly that I'll do anything I can to emulate that fall feeling. In this case, that means I'm making the quintessential fall cookie--snickerdoodles! Justin, however, insists that snickerdoodles are a winter cookie because that's the only time he ever got them as a kid, but I told him he's crazy. They're coated in cinnamon; they're a fall cookie.

Frosted Sugar Cookies

Justin's mom makes the most amazing frosted sugar cookies every Christmas. You know those sugar cookies that you can buy in every grocery store in the country? They're basically the homemade version of those but better because they're just a pinch less sweet. (I think that the store-bought ones can taste like just sugar sometimes, whereas these actually have some flavor beyond that.)

Tiramisu

We were having one of Justin's coworkers over for dinner, for which I made my mom's spaghetti and meatballs. I wanted to make something Italian for dessert to go with it, and what's a better choice than tiramisu? It's really great for a dinner party or other special occasion because it seems fancy but is actually really easy to make at home, aside from the part where I had to drive all over town looking for ladyfingers. Additionally, for the best flavor you should make it the day before, also freeing up time to spend cooking the rest of your meal the day of.

Bourbon Bread Pudding

I came across this recipe on Bon Appetit's website while browsing around one day last year. Knowing that Justin's dad loves bread pudding and that we all love bourbon in just about anything, I decided that I would attempt to make this for Thanksgiving. I made it as the original recipe stated with the exception of leaving the crust on the bread and omitting the poppy seeds. It was insanely amazing. Justin's dad declared that I have to make it every time we come to visit. I talked him down to at least making it a new Thanksgiving tradition. It really was that good. (Confession time: I'd never had bread pudding before that. Every restaurant in New Orleans has bread pudding on their menu, but as a kid, why would you want to order a dessert with bread in the name when you could order something with ice cream, cookie, brownie, or cake in the name instead? Having had this as my first one, I judge all other bread puddings based on this one; they have a lot to live up to.)

Bourbon Chocolate Buttercream

It's a proven fact that alcohol makes everything better. Why have orange juice when you could have a mimosa? Why eat spaghetti sauce when you could have vodka sauce? Why eat plain, boring chocolate buttercream when you could have bourbon chocolate buttercream? Alcohol and food are best buds--they love to hang out together. Let's embrace their friendship!

As sad as I know you will be about this, I'm not going to be sharing the brownie recipe with you. I was trying out a new recipe from one of my many cookbooks; this one was supposedly voted New York's best several times (according to the author at least), but I don't get it. Either the people in NYC don't know what a brownie should taste like, or the author is crazy. These brownies had great chocolate flavor, but the texture was absolutely terrible. They were super dry and crumbly and not at all what a brownie should be. The only saving grace was the frosting that I made to put on the top. Therefore, I'm going to share the frosting recipe with you but not the brownie one. (You wouldn't like it if I did. Trust me.) You can use this on brownies, cake, cookies, cupcakes, or whatever else you can think of. This recipe made enough to put a fairly thick layer on top of an 8x8 pan of brownies. If you want to pipe it in big swirls on top of cupcakes, I'd suggest maybe making a double batch.

Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

If you like your cookies crisp and crunchy, walk away now; this recipe is not for you. Sometime a few years ago, Justin found something that said that putting pudding mix in cookie dough will make the cookies turn out more cake-like. Doing that resulted in some of my favorite chocolate chip cookies ever. No matter how long you store them, they're still wonderfully soft.

The other night Justin felt like having dessert and settled on cookies, but we were low on supplies. No chocolate chips. No nuts. Nothing fun. We did, however, have 4 boxes of pumpkin pudding mix. (Justin stocks up when it's available in the fall.) Add in some pumpkin pie spice, and voila, pumpkin pudding cookies. He says they have a nice, strong pumpkin flavor, even though the only pumpkin flavor in them comes from the pudding mix. For a little extra goodness, you could shape the dough into balls and roll them in cinnamon before baking to give them a snickerdoodle kind of feel.

Boozy Wedding Cake Ice Cream

A while back Justin found an article about how Valerie Lum and Jenise Addison had come up with a way to make alcoholic ice cream. Not ice cream with a flavor similar to your favorite alcohol. Not ice cream with a hint of your favorite alcohol in it. We're talking about ice cream that can contain a cup of hard liquor, coming in around 13-proof, which makes its alcoholic content approximately equal to wine. What a genius idea!

No-Bake Cookies

I can't recall ever having no-bake cookies before I moved to Indiana, but in Indiana, they're everywhere. Have a bake sale, and you're guaranteed to have at least one person bring a batch of no-bakes. They're as prevalent as chocolate chip cookies. They're by far not my favorite cookie, but Justin loves them, especially if he can get to them as they're coming out of the pot, before they've had time to actually set. They're warm and runny, all chocolate and oats and tastiness. If he has to eat it with a spoon, he's happy.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Caramel Sauce and Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Yesterday was Justin's birthday, and it's sort of become tradition for me to bake him a cheesecake. The other day I found a recipe for a what I thought would be a great autumn cheesecake, but when I told Justin about it, his eyes glazed over and he started to drool a bit. I knew then that this would have to be his birthday cheesecake. So much for waiting for fall!

I made very few adaptations to the original recipe, though I added the cinnamon whipped cream. I can't tell you from experience how good this cheesecake is because, well, I don't like pumpkin--even the smell grosses me out--but Justin's had three pieces today, so I think that speaks for itself.