Silence That Sweet Tooth

Good morning, Kitschies!  And happy Summer to you!  Can you believe it's already the middle of the year?  It is officially the first day of Summer and the longest day of the year.  I remember, as a kid, being mad about having to go to bed when it was still light out.  Now I get that same complaint from Nate.  Oh, it's rough being a kid.

Speaking of being a kid, this recipe kinda reminds me of that.  It's super easy and super rich and pretty sweet.  Got a sweet tooth?  This will definitely kill your sweet craving!  I can't eat a whole cup - but I bet Nate could (if I let him)!  I found this recipe one day while surfing blogs and now I can't remember which one I went to and, of course, I can't find it now.  But, I found the same recipe on another site. 

Nutella Mug Cake

4 Tbsp self rising flour
4 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbsp Nutella
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients in a large coffee mug.  Whisk well with a fork until smooth.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 3 minutes.  Top with whipped cream, chocolate sauce or whatever else you'd like.

NOTE:  Use a LARGE coffee mug - it will overflow if you use a regular mug.  To make self rising flour, add 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt to all-purpose flour.  Cooking time varies depending on the wattage of your microwave.  Mine only took 1:45.

Apparently, the recipe I found called for an egg.  You can probably omit it without problem, but I think it makes the cake more moist and less microwave-y.

Here's a mug size comparison.  I used a mug that my grandma gave me for soup.  It's gigantic and the perfect size for a mug cake!

Looking at this picture makes my teeth hurt!  And I say that in the best way possible.  LOL  We didn't have any whipped cream or chocolate sauce, so I ate it plain.  Could you imagine this with caramel sauce on top?  OMGosh.  Now I want one of these for dinner tonight.  *giggle*

What's your favorite thing (pre-made or recipe) to cure your sweet tooth?

Velvety Goodness

Good morning day, dear readers.  I was going to post this in the morning, but I didn't have the pics on my flash drive, so I postponed it to the evening.  I'm tired.  Don't judge. We've almost made it through another week. Has it been a good one for you? My week has been pretty much the same as it usually is: busy. BUT!! I've been secretly obsessing over the fact that my 21-month-old, Mason, hasn't started talking. OK. Maybe not so secretly obsessing, but obsessing nonetheless. We'll hear an occasional *hi*, or what we think is a word, but we can't get him to repeat it with any sort of consistency. Then yesterday, Nate saw a hot air balloon in the sky. We turned the corner and Mason pointed up to the sky and said: "I see it!" WOOT!! So, we don't get a *first word*, we get a first PHRASE!! Finally. Little turd was driving me crazy!

I know I've been slacking on posting good-for-you recipes and I apologize.  Kinda.  Everybody needs a good dessert every now and then - just view these recipes as good-for-your-soul.  K?  K.  Anyway...I made this awesome cake for a co-worker's birthday at the beginning of February.  I asked her what kind of cake she wanted (she could choose anything) and this is what she picked.  I ended up staying home for a couple days because of the snow, so it sat in my garage until I made it in to work.  It was just as good a couple days old as it would've been that first day. 

Red Velvet Cake 
1 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
White frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the shortening, eggs and sugar. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa and food coloring. Add the paste to the shortening mixture. Sift the flour and salt together over parchment. Add to the batter alternately with the buttermilk in 3 additions. Add the vanilla extract. Fold in the baking soda and vinegar. Pour the batter into 2 greased 9-inch cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling rack. Invert the cakes from the pans.

White Frosting
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Over medium heat, cook the flour and milk until thickened. Let cool. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture.
Frost the top of the first layer with frosting and set the second layer on top. Frost the entire cake with remaining frosting.

NOTES:  This was the first time I'd ever made red velvet cake.  I was *shocked* at how much red food coloring goes in to the recipe - 2 ounces!  That's 2 *entire* (small) bottles!  I didn't care for this frosting.  I don't know if I didn't mix it enough, but it was kinda...I don't know how to describe it...it just wasn't what I expected.  Not bad, but not perfect.

This was also the first time I'd ever bought buttermilk.  Little did I know I would find my ultimate pancake recipe as a result.

Now *that* is RED!  It's like bright arterial splatter blood.  Got the visual?  No?  How 'bout this?

Now you got it?  Good.  Anyway, it was *bright* red, and one of the docs said...well...I won't go in to that.  After all, this *is* a post about cake.

See...it kinda looks like cottage cheese.  Or paste.  Either way, it didn't look like frosting should look.  Maybe I didn't mix enough.  It was edible, and I guess that's all that matters.

Now in this picture, the frosting definitely looks like paste.  Or stucco.  LOL  Don't get me wrong...it got the job done, but next time I'll find another recipe for the frosting.  Maybe cream cheese frosting or vanilla buttercream.  

This was so good (even as much as I'm bitching about the mediocre frosting)!!  My coworker loved it.  And so did the rest of the office.  For some reason (yeah, I can't imagine why), I'm the baker of the birthday cakes (or pies, or cookies, or whatever).  I asked who was going to make *my* cake when my birthday comes around...somebody already volunteered.  Now, we'll see if she's still around come August.


So, it's a good thing I had to wait to post this because I was going to give you the wrong recipe!  I *knew* the frosting recipe on the other link didn't look right and now I know I was right.  Ugh.  I'm tired! 

Now Made With Real Girl Scouts!

Good morning, Kitschies!  I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  Most of mine was spent cleaning up around the house, doing laundry and all that fun kind of stuff.  We did get out of the house for a little bit to celebrate my nephew's 7th birthday.  The boys (the hubs and I) had a lot of fun!  Unfortunately I have to work today (it's President's Day here in the US), but I'm not complaining - at least I have a job.

On to the goodies, shall we?  The hubs and I were doing some cleaning in the kitchen last week and we realized we had an unopened box of Thin Mint cookies hiding out on top of the fridge left over from last year(blasphemy, I know)!  I didn't want to eat the cookies plain because they probably would've been pretty stale, but I had heard somebody mention they've made a Thin Mint cake before and I started on a quest to find said recipe.  Because who wouldn't like them in cake?!  And since Girl Scout cookies will be available starting later *this week* (WOOT!), I thought I'd share this recipe with you now so you can make this awesome cake for yourself!


Thin Mint Cake
1 box Duncan Hines dark chocolate cake mix
1 cup finely chopped (about 1 sleeve of cookies) Thin Mint cookies
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp Creme de Menthe Liqueur
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup water
Ice with your favorite icing (recipe to follow)

Pre-heat oven to 325*.

Line bottom of cake pan with parchment paper & spray sides of pain with a flour/oil mixture.  Place all wet ingredients in bowl first including eggs, then add cake mix & mix until thoroughly blended.  Add 2/3 cup of the crushed cookies in to the batter.  Pour into the pan(s) and back 40-45 minutes.  Remove from oven and dump cake onto waiting Glad Press 'n Seal wrap (sticky side up).  Wrap the warm cakes tightly and put in the freezer.  You can freeze for as little as 3 1/2 hours but for best results, freeze overnight.  This adds moisture to the cake and straps in the flavors.  After removing from freezer, allow to sit for about 10 minutes.  Mix the remaining cookie crumbs into your favorite icing recipe along with a Tbsp of Creme de Menthe Liqueur.

Chocolate Mint Buttercream Frosting
(for Thin Mint Cake)
6 Tbsp butter
1 cup powdered sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
2 to 3 Tbsp milk
1/3 cup finely crushed Thin Mint cookies
1 Tbsp Creme de Menthe Liqueur

Cream butter.   Add sugar and cocoa mixture to butter.  Add crushed Thin Mint cookies.  Add milk to butter mixture, starting with 2 Tbsp.  Add Creme de Menthe Liqueur to mixture.  Blend until frosting consistency.

NOTES:  I used Devil's Food cake mix.  There are two kinds of Creme de Menthe liqueur: clear and green.  We used green, but only because it was a couple bucks cheaper.  It says to line the pan with parchment paper, but that's a big pain in the butt, so I spray it liberally with non-stick cooking spray and then dusted with cocoa powder.  No sticking issues.  The recipe calls for the cake to bake 40-45 minutes but in two 9-inch cake rounds, that was WAY too much time - I just followed the time listed on the cake mix box and it turned out perfectly!  I've never made frosting before and was afraid it would be hard to do, but it wasn't.  I doubled the recipe and had just enough for frosting between the layers and to cover the cake.

Looks like some sort of alien concoction.  Oil, eggs and green liqueur.  Yum!

I had an eager little helper!  He did really good until it came time to take the cakes out of the oven...then he lost interest.  LOL

Stir in those cookie crumbs!  He got a little bugged at me that I didn't let him have a cookie.  Poor Natey!

The best part of baking a cake with Mom is getting to lick the scraper!  He got the beaters, too.  If I had eaten that much uncooked batter, I would've gotten a stomach ache.

The middle of each of the cakes was a little sunken, but I leveled them out and they were fine.

Ready for wrapping with the Press 'n Seal - kinda strange, but it worked.  The cake was super moist even though the edges got just a tad over-cooked.

Straight out of the freezer.  Unless you want super cold cake, let it sit out a bit before you serve it.  I didn't mind, and actually, I think I liked it a just a little better when it was still a little frozen.

YUM!!  I want to make another!  Nate doesn't usually eat a whole piece of cake - he'll eat the frosting for sure and *maybe* a bite or two of the actual cake.  He asked for a second piece of this one!

SOOOO GOOD!!  Super moist and super rich.  I saved about half the cake for home and took the rest to work.  Everybody loved it!

Happy Girl Scout cookies!  I hope you try the cake, and if you do, let me know how it came out.

Have Your Cake *pic heavy*

And we ate it, too!  Happy Tuesday.  It's been a good day here at the clinic.  My co-worker, who I've worked closely with for the last 7+ years, found out that she's going to be a grandma!  I've never seen her so excited and happy!  I'm so happy for her and her daughter.  But I'm also glad it's her and not me.  LOL  Other than that...we had an awesome thunderstorm last night!  It rained and hailed and lightninged (is that a word?) for over an hour last night.  There was so much rain - you should see all the dirt on the roads this morning.  The area I live in isn't completely developed so there's lots of open land.  When we get a lot of rain like we did last night, it causes flooding - I can't imagine the mess there must've been last night!

As I mentioned before, the bestie and her gang came over on Sunday evening for an early birthday celebration.  The hubs asked what kind of cake I wanted.  He asked this *after* he'd already decided on what he was going to make, so my want wasn't really relevant at that point.  Anyway, since I didn't get much of a choice, he told me what kind of cake it was going to be (red velvet) and I told him I wanted a skull cake.  I wasn't much more specific than that.  LOL  Well, if he was only going to half-ask what I wanted, I was only going to half-help him with the rest.  Fair?  I think so!  So, sit back and relax - I have a lot of pictures to share with you.  He said he'd document the experience so I could make a blog post.  He did a good job taking the pics (and there's a lot of them)!

It started off as your basic run-of-the-mill red velvet box cake.  One round cake pan.  There was extra batter so he made 6 good size cupcakes.

He had a helper!  You've seen Mr Nate helping me in the kitchen - now it's Daddy's turn.

We have a bench along one edge of the kitchen.  It's perfect height for Nate to help with the mixing.  Daddy must be braver than me - I practically stand on top of him when he's using the electric mixer.

I guess he's supposed to be pointing at the batter in horror because it "looked like blood".  LOL  I love the look on Nate's face.

Double thumbs up!  Nate loves to help us in the kitchen and usually we're in such a hurry that we shoo him away.  He gets excited when we actually ask him to help.

All finished baking!  They did all this (and cleaned up) while I was away at the grocery store.  Daddy even let Nate stay up late until I got home (he didn't get to bed until around 9:30 that night) - partly because he was being good and partly in the hopes that he'd sleep in the next morning.  He did.  A little.  He got up around 7:20 the next morning. 

Hmmm.  It seems I'm missing a picture.  *sigh*  Anyway, this is the round cake with a wedge cut out of each side to create the mandible.  The hubs frosted it all with cream cheese frosting.  Yum!!

Do you know how hard it is to find black icing when it's not Halloween?  It's hard.  Luckily, I found some dark chocolate "brownie topping" that was so dark brown that it was black enough.

The finished decorated cake.  It looked even better than I thought it would.  The hubs really is quite he artist!

Doesn't this look great?!  I almost didn't want to eat it.  Almost.

The hubs with his creation.  I think he looks rather proud of himself.  He wanted to tilt it up a little more to show off the cake but he was afraid it would slide off the plate.

And what's a good skull without little minions?  I love the little cupcake skulls!  The cupcake on the bottom left reminds me of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas.  LOL  The kids were happy to have their very own skull cake.  Pretty cool, huh?

I missed out on PHD's weekly nail challenge this time around - first time in 10 challenges! - but here's a link to this week's gallery: Song Inspiration.  She's going on vacation next week so there won't be a challenge this week.  I get a little break so I'll be back on the game for the next challenge.

Listening to: Forever by Kenny Loggins (OMG look at that hair and beard!)
Mood: workin'

Strawberry Fields Forever

If you haven't seen Across the Universe, you should definitely check it out!  I grew up listening to the music of the Beatles and I sang along to this entire movie.  I didn't think I'd like it, but I really did.  OK - the end of that one is a little gory, but it kinda fits with the cake at the end.  LOL  Now you HAVE to read on to see what I'm talking about.

Happy Monday, Kitschies!  Yep - it's Monday again, but this Monday is a little bit different than the routine for me.  Both my docs are out which means NO PATIENTS which also means I don't have to be in clinic today.  WOOT!!  I got to sleep in just a little bit and then I hit the ground running.  I've gotten quite a bit done and I still have time left in my day.  The only bad part is that my back is bothering me.  As soon as I'm finished doing my stuff around the house, I'm going to set myself up in bed with an ice pack and a book.  I can't leave my readers hanging, so I'm doing my post despite the pain (this is where you feel sorry for me).

I was really wanting to try a new recipe this weekend.  And I was craving something with strawberries, but not a pie.  Then I happened on a recipe for strawberry cake that used fresh strawberries.  Perfect!  On Saturday, my son and I baked up this cake. It's a near FAIL and you'll see why toward the end.

Strawberry Cake

1 package white cake mix
1 package (3 oz) strawberry-flavored gelatin powder
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup mashed strawberries

Icing
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/4 cup mashed strawberries

Combine cake mix and gelatin powder in a large bowl. Beat in oil, eggs, water, and strawberries. Pour into 2 9-inch round greased and floured cake pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool and frost with strawberry icing.

For icing, beat the butter and confectioners' sugar together until smooth. Add strawberries. Spread between cake layers, then frost top and sides.

NOTES:  You might think that a cup of vegetable oil seems like a lot, but it wasn't.  The cake wasn't oily - it was nice an moist.  I started with 3/4 cups mashed berries, but I think I ended up using about a cup.  I increased the amount of berries in the frosting, too.

I don't have a food processor, so I used a potato masher - it worked perfectly!

My little helper, Nate.  He loves to help me in the kitchen.

Ready for the oven.

Half the fun is the clean up!

OK.  Here's where it almost goes wrong.  It's been SUPER humid here the last 3 or 4 days.  Saturday was no exception.  On top of the external humidity, we have an evaporative cooler which means it's humid inside, too.  FUN!!  So, I don't know if it was the high humidity or what, but the frosting did NOT turn out very good.  It tasted fine, but it looks like pureed vomit.  Seriously.  UGH!

How disgusting does that look?!  I can take it - just tell me.  I even threw the remaining "frosting" in the fridge to see if it would firm up.  Yeah.  Notsomuch.  *sigh*

At least it doesn't look so bad when it's being served.  A little side note - there is no food coloring the cake.  The red of the strawberries made the white cake that pink.

Nate showing off his piece of cake.  He really is a good helper.  And he's always so proud that he helped Mommy. <3

Well, dear readers, I'm off to get some more stuff done around the house.  I hope you're enjoying the start of you week.  It'll be back to work as usual for me tomorrow.  OH!  And before I forget...check out From the Kitchen of: Mrs. Bettie Rocker.  She's hosting a link party for the next week.   I'm throwing this recipe in the mix (I don't know why).  She's got some AWESOME recipes on her site (two of which I'll be posting soon).  She is vegan, but the rest of her family isn't - we benefit from the best of both worlds here!

Listening to: New Born by Muse
Mood: ouch

When life gives you lemons

You make lemon Bundt cake, of course! Today I bring you an awesome lemon cake. I took this to work with me on Friday and got rave reviews. It's super easy, super moist and it tastes great!

Lemon Bundt Cake
1 (18.25 oz) package lemon cake mix (without pudding added)
1 (3.4 oz) package instant lemon pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix, then stir in the oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the lemon-lime soda.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Glaze: 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 2/3 cup powdered sugar. Mix together until powdered sugar has dissolved. Once cooled, drizzle over cake.


Bonus picture spam. :) My beautiful boys, Nate and Mason. We took a quick trip to the park before we went grocery shopping this morning. I think it's funny that Nate kinda looks like the face on his shirt!


PS: It's *almost* giveaway time. I only have one more (yes, ONE MORE) follower to reach 15! Thank you to everybody who follows my blog. It's nice to know you like what I have to offer/say and I hope you've enjoyed my noob blog as much as I've liked creating it. Have a great rest of the weekend! I hope the weather in your neck of the woods isn't too hot...yet!

Listening to: DH & Nate playing Star Wars Legos
Mood: headache!

Dessert first?

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. Judith Viorst


I had grand ideas for my second post, but having just completed a butt-kicking 25-minute circuit workout, my brain is pretty much mush. I've made this horribly delicious chocolate Bundt cake more than a couple times and every time, without fail, it gets rave reviews. The only down part? There's never any left over to bring home. So...here ya go! And be sure to see the glaze recipe that follows. I've found that it makes WAY more than enough for the cake, but it can be saved to be used for dipping fruit, etc. (Pardon all the junk in the background of the picture. What can I say? Baking usually takes place in the middle of about a million other projects.)


Chocolate Lovers' Favorite Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix (not with added pudding)

1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

2 cups sour cream
1 cup melted butter

5 eggs

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in sour cream, melted butter, eggs and almond extract. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape sides of bowl and beat on medium for 4 minutes. Blend in chocolate chips. Pour batter in to prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 - 55 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out to a wire rack and cool completely.

Once cooled, glaze with chocolate glaze (see below).

Easy Chocolate Bundt Cake Glaze

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips. Cook, stirring constantly, until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Do not allow it to bubble. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla. Cool slightly before drizzling over a cake. If you want to make this ahead, it can be cooled and reheated in the microwave.

Listening to: Breakdown by Breaking Bejamin
Mood: Wiped OUT!