Do you have that one go to dessert that makes a bad day better? I do! Let me introduce you to my secret… Chocolate Cloud Cake
A girl-friend brought me my first Chocolate Cloud Cake one day after I had eye surgery. My family was away for the weekend and I managed to eat the WHOLE THING before they returned. I knew I had to get her recipe. When I did, I realized how simple it was and could not have been happier. Are you ready? Continue reading “Chocolate Cloud Cake”
Regardless of age, everyone needs birthday cake. Whether you purchase an overpriced cake from a specialty bakery, or go for the plain box mix and canned frosting, a cake is a must.
Recently I spent a few weeks with my father in Alabama to help him recover from rotator cuff surgery. Two days after surgery he celebrated his birthday, so a cake was needed. Usually I make a semi-homemade cake with homemade frosting. However, my father is a diabetic so most cakes are out of the question. So I started looking for options. I found that Pillsbury now has a sugar-free cake and frosting. Being a bachelor for many year my dad is not too picky, and it was just the two of us we decided to give it a try.
For the record I do not usually eat anything that is sugar-free. I do not tolerate aspartame (it triggers my migraine headaches) and I have heard so many risk associated with artificial sweeteners so I try to avoid them when possible. I realize that all artificial sweeteners are an acquired taste that I do not have. So that is important to note ahead of time. Both of these contain Splenda.
CAKE: You make this cake like you would any other mix. Add oil, water and eggs and bake. Before I baked the cake I tasted the batter. Before anyone says anything, yes I know that it contained raw eggs, but I wanted to be prepared for how it would turn out. There was a slight after taste before baking, but I did not notice it after it cooked. I baked the batter in two 8 inch pans and noticed that they did not rise as much as usual. The taste was pretty good (not as good as my usual cake) but it was okay. Overall, I would give it a grade of B-. If I needed another “sugar-free” cake I would make it again.
FROSTING: What goes better with yellow cake than chocolate icing. This stuff was so thick there was no way I could but it on the sides without tearing the cake apart. So I decided to only put a thin layer between the two layers and a generous amount on top. After tasting it I was glad I had not put more the cake. For this was the worst frosting I have ever tasted. Besides not being as sweet as regular frosting, it had a heavy, taste. Spreading the frosting was impossible. If I had to give it a grade, it would definitely be an F. I will not be buying this stuff again. My dad and I both ended up scraping as much off as we could and just eating the cake.
Thankfully I will not be needing any more sugar-free cakes for a while.
Where do you go for your favorite recipes?
Once we would go to our trusty recipe box, now we spend hours hunting for them on the internet and pinterest, hoping that when we want them we can find them again. Many of us, including myself still have a recipe box that we use. I spent some time this past weekend trying to update mine with those recipes that my family likes. I am fortunate that my husband and kids like to cook and often do, but they only use the recipe box and without recipes it makes it harder for them/me.
Well this got me thinking… would you like the recipes I shared already typed up onto recipe cards so all you have to do is print them? I spent some time typing them all up for you. All you have to do is print them onto card stock and cut them out. Each page has two recipes the top one is 4×6 and the bottom one is 3×5 so they will fit most boxes that are out there. I hope this helps you. So take a few minutes and go back and look over the recipes that I have posted and print your favorite recipes and add them to your recipe box.
As I posted on May 29th with the help of my family, I have 4 gallons of Strawberries (see here). I used some of them to make strawberry ice-cream topping.
STRAWBERRY TOPPING
2 cups diced strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons water (in addition to 1/3 cup above)
Wash and cut strawberries into small pieces. Combine berries, sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. In a small bowl combine corn starch and 2 tablespoons of water. Add cornstarch to the boiling berries. Reduce heat and continue to boil for 4 minutes until it is thick, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using. Store in fridge until ready to use.
NOTES: Upon researching this I found many recipes that were basically the same. Some say that you can freeze the topping for future use. I did freeze one batch. After I finish the batch in the fridge I will update to let you know how it worked.
Updated on 7/15/2013: here is a printable recipe card Strawberry Topping
OH MY!!! I had no idea how good these were going to be. Yes, I know that chocolate is the answer to all of life’s questions and nothing beats a marshmallow when a sugar craving hits, but who knew these were all that. I could have eaten the whole batch.
Thankfully for my daughter, we made these for her to take to a Father/Daughter Dance with her American Heritage Girl Troop so I was able to contain myself. I had seen these over at Pinterest (my favorite site) but had never actually made them. I figured it could not be that hard so I gave it a try.
The concept seems pretty easy – insert stick, dip in melted chocolate and cover in sprinkles. However, I did learn a few thing.
1) Inserting the craft stick is harder than it seems. To overcome this, I used a toothpick. I inserted the toothpick all the way through the marshmallow first then inserted the stick. The toothpick became quite gummy so for the batch I used a bunch of toothpicks.
2) You don’t want the chocolate to pool at the bottom of the marshmallow when they are drying. This takes a little patience to allow the chocolate to drain back into the dipping bowl before you put sprinkles on them. This also made these take longer than anticipated.
3) This used a LOT of sprinkles. While I realize my daughter was the one putting the sprinkles on more sprinkles is always better, so next time I need a new bottle before I make these.
