Chocolate Eclair Dessert

I wanted to share a quick and easy dessert idea for your Memorial Day get togethers.  I made this for a cookout I attended this afternoon and it was a big hit!  I didn't think to take photos as I threw this together so you'll just have to use your imagination this time :).  My hubby was sweet enough to take this quick shot of the leftovers from today's cookout.  I originally got this from AllRecipes but I've made several changes over the years.  Just make sure you make it a day ahead of time!

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend!  Thank you to all service men and women who keep us safe!

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Chocolate Eclair Dessert

2 packages of graham crackers

2 3oz packages of instant vanilla pudding mix

3 1/4 c milk, divided

8 oz heavy whipping cream

1/3 c cocoa

1 c + 4 tbsp sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick butter

Whisk together 3 c milk and the two packages of pudding mix.  Pour the whipping cream into the bowl of your mixer and start beating.  As the cream begins to thicken, add the 4 tbsp sugar one spoonful at a time.  Continue beating until firm peaks appear in the cream.  Fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until blended.

Line a 9x13 casserole dish with graham crackers in a single layer.  Spread 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the crackers.  Add another layer of crackers, followed by the rest of the pudding mixture.  Top the pudding mixture with another layer of graham crackers.

In a small saucepan, mix the cocoa and 1 c sugar.  Then add the vanilla, butter, and 1/4 c milk.  Heat this together until boiling.  Continue stirring while mixture boils for a few minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat and let cool down.

Pour the chocolate icing over the top of the last graham cracker layer.  Spread it to cover the entire top of the dessert. 

Place dessert in the refrigerator overnight to give the crackers enough time to soften.

Enjoy!

Birthday Surprise

A wonderful friend and co-worker had a birthday this week and I wanted to surprise her with a little something sweet.  As I surveyed my kitchen to see what I had around, I saw the yummiest local strawberries and blueberries that had just been delivered to our house.  We are lucky enough to live in an area where we can have local produce delivered to our door each week!  I knew I wanted to use the berries, but to make what?

Can you guess where I'm going with these beauties???

YES!  A berry swirl cheesecake.  Usually I would cover a cracked cheesecake like this up with a lovely ganache but not this one  I love the cracks that show just a hint of the berry goodness waiting in this dessert.  It just makes me want to jump right in!

So, we did...

You can see the layer of fruit along the bottom and the top has my homemade strawberry freezer jelly swirled through a lemon cheesecake filling.  So dreamy!

Needless to say, it was a sweet birthday celebration for everyone who joined us to wish an awesome girl a happy day!

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Berry Swirl Cheesecake

1 package of graham crackers

4 tbsp butter, room temperature

4 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 c sugar

3 1/4 tbsp all purpose flour, divided

1/2 tbsp double-strength pure vanilla extract

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 c sour cream, room temperature

zest of 1 lemon

1 c fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half

1/2 c fress blueberries

6 tbsp strawberry preserves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray springform pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.  Line sides of pan with 2 strips of parchment paper. 

Place graham crackers, broken in half, into food processor.  Pulse until all of the crackers are crumbed.  Add butter and pulse until all butter is cut into the cracker crumbs.  Pour into the prepared pan and press into bottom and up the sides of the pan.  Bake for 9 minutes or until golden.  Cool on cooling rack while preparing strawberries and blueberries. 

Arrange the strawberry halves in a single layer on top of the cooled crust.  Then add the blueberries on top of the strawberry layer.

In mixer, with paddle attachment, beat together cream cheese, sugar, and 3 tbsp flour on medium speed until well blended.  Add vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time and mix on low speed until each is incorporated.  Don't forget to scrape the sides of the mixer as needed.  Add sour cream and mix just until blended. 

In a small bowl, combine lemon zest and 1/4 tbsp flour.  Add this to the filling mixture and fold in by hand.

Pour filling into pan over the fruit.  Drop spoonfuls of the preserves over the top of the filling and use a spoon to swirl into filling.  Do not over mix as you want the swirled appearance created.  Use spoon to smooth the surface once preserves are incorporated.

Bake for 65-80 minutes or until center appears nearly set when shaken.  Place on cooling rack until completely cool.  Refrigerate over night.

This recipe is linked up over at Melt In Your Mouth Mondays!

Now linked up at These Chicks Cooked, too!

And at Sweet as Sugar Cookies' Sweets for Saturday

Just for fun...

Half Baked - The Cake Blog has a fun summer giveaway going on through Monday, the 31st.  Be sure to check it out for some cake and cookie decorating inspiration... and a fun bag!

Very Vanilla Excitement

This is going to be a very busy weekend around these parts.  I will be up all night tomorrow night at our local Relay for Life event.  I've been involved with Relay for Life for the past 8 years and it is such a meaningful experience -- the fellowship we share there is amazing!  It's also the last weekend of Sunday School at our church.  We'll be out at Relay, so I'm dropping off cupcakes for the kids to enjoy on Sunday morning.  Since my strawberry modified version of Pioneer Woman's vanilla cupcakes went over so well last week, I decided to use it again.  Only this time, I'll play it safe for the kiddos and make them vanilla as intended.  But not too safe, since cupcakes need to be exciting, I'll throw some sprinkles on top.  What is better to a kid than sprinkles, or to a grown-up for that matter???

How cute are these???

Here's how I made these --

First I measured out the shortening -- do you have one of these gadgets?

They are the greatest!  Fill it with any sticky ingredient and then you plunge the bottom into the top and scrape it off into the bowl.  You get all of what you measured and no mess!

I added the shortening to the sugar in the bowl of my mixer.

In a separate bowl, I sifted the flour and sugar together.

I never have buttermilk on hand so I added a tablespoon of vinegar into my 1 cup measuring cup and filled the rest of the cup up with milk.  I then let it sit to curdle and come to room temperature with the eggs.

When the milk and eggs were ready, in yet another bowl, I added the rest of the ingredients -- the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda and vinegar. 

And I mixed them together -- I love seeing all these bubbles since they translate into fluffy goodness in the cupcakes.

At this point, it was time to flip the mixer on and mix the sugar and shortening until fluffy.

Once it was mixed together well, I added about a third of the flour mixture.  When that became incorporated, I added about a third of the wet ingredients.  I continued alternating adding from these bowls until everything was in the bowl and mixed together.

I put a little under 1/4 cup of batter into each cupcake liner in my muffin pans.  This recipe will make 24 cupcakes this size.  I baked them for 17-18 minutes until golden on top.  I let them cool for about 10 minutes in the pans on a cooling rack.  I then put them on the cooling racks directly.

Once the cupcakes were cool, I iced them and added the sprinkles.  Yummy!

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Vanilla Cupcakes (slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman)

1 c. shortening

1 3/4 c. sugar

2 c. cake flour, sifted

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 c. buttermilk, room temperature

1 1/2 tsp. double strength vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy.

In a seperate bowl sift together the cake flour and salt.  In another seperate bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar.

Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the shortening mixture.  Mix until combined and don't forget to scrap the sides.

Fill each liner with 1/4 c. batter.

Bake 17-18 minutes or until golden on top.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

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Vanilla Bean-Cream Cheese Buttercream

1 stick butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 lb. powdered sugar

Vanilla caviar from 1 vanilla bean

Cream butter and cream cheese with vanilla beans and salt.  Add powdered sugar about a cup at a time and mix until fluffy between each addition. 

Linked Up At:
Chic & Crafty Party
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday

SpongeBob SquarePants Birthday Cake

Who lives in a pineapple, under the sea?

Here's a cute little cake that I made for my son's 6th birthday.  I love working with fondant.  I tell everyone that it's like Play-doh for grown ups.  I didn't get to have all of the fun this time as my 8 year old daughter helped me with this one.  Most of Gary is her work!  The boy loved it -- mainly because he wanted to eat the characters.  Homemade fondant is good for that, store bought is not so much...

This was my second or third time ever using fondant.  I still can't believe how long I waited to try it out.  I have always been drawn to how it looks but turned off by the flavor and maybe a little intimidated to work with it.  What a blessing it was to find an easy recipe and get over it all.  It really is a fun creative outlet!
Not that I so much use the recipe to make it any longer...  These days I just do it from memory and without much measuring.  I'll pay attention to the next time I make a batch and share my method with you.  Luckily it makes a ton and can be stored for a while -- that way I always have it on hand for all those cake decorating emergencies we all have!  (What you don't have those?  Hmmm?  Just me?)

Linked at: Too Cute Tuesday

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

I am so excited to write my first cupcake post.  And it's for a very special cupcake!  I helped to host a Relay for Life fundraiser this weekend and these are the cupcakes that I took.  The recipe is a bit involved but it's been floating around in my head for a while and since strawberries won't be in season around here much longer, it was time to give it try. 

For the cake, I used a recipe for vanilla cupcakes from Pioneer Woman and modified it to make strawberry cupcakes.  I used two toppings -- one, a strawberry-cream cheese buttercream and, the other, a cooked chocolate sauce -- this one is also used as the cupcake filling!  Yum!

Once I had all of my components ready, I used my apple corer to remove the center of each cupcake.  I filled an icing bag with my chocolate sauce and piped it into the center of each one.  Then the cupcakes were topped with a strawberry-cream cheese buttercream swirl, more chocolate sauce and a chocolate covered strawberry.

I'll post the tutorial later.  I'm having a hard time adding photos at the moment.  Here are the recipes -- hope you enjoy!!!

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Strawberry Cupcakes (adapted from Pioneer Woman)

1 c. shortening

1 3/4 c. sugar

2 c. cake flour, sifted

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 c. buttermilk, room temperature

1 1/2 tsp. double strength vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. white vinegar

3/4 c. diced fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy.

In a seperate bowl sift together the cake flour and salt.  In another seperate bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar.

Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the shortening mixture.  Mix until combined and don't forget to scrap the sides.

Remove bowl from the mixer and fold strawberries into the batter by hand.

Fill each liner with 1/4 c. batter.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden on top.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

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Strawberry-Cream Cheese Buttercream

1 stick butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 lb powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp double strength vanilla

Dash of salt

1/4 c. strawberries, mascerated

Cream butter and cream cheese with vanilla and salt.  Add powdered sugar about a cup at a time and mix until fluffy between each addition.  Place strawberries in a sieve and use a spoon to mash out as much juice as possible.  Add strawberry solids to icing and whip until fluffy.

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Cooked Chocolate Sauce

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cornstarch

7 tbsp. cocoa

1 stick butter

3/4 tsp.salt

1 1/2 c. boiling water

1 tbsp. vanilla

Mix the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, salt and 1 tsp. of the butter in a sauce pan.  Stir in the boiling water with a whisk and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and bubbly.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining butter and vanilla.

Linking up at:  Works for Me Wednesday

Sugar and Dots' What I Whipped Up Wednesday

Paisley Passons Thrilling Thursday

The Frugal Girl's Chic and Crafty

Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin It

Alli N Son's Sweet Tooth Friday

Whipperberry's Friday Flair

Screaming Sardine's Month Long Cupcake Party

Talking Dollars and Cents' Muffin Monday

Getting started

This is my first blog post!  Yay!

I've wanted to start this for quite some time but I couldn't come up with a blog title that I liked.  It finally came to me and now I'm here.  I love baking, and cooking in general, and love to share my kitchen adventures with others.  I'm one of those people who has had the joy of watching people glaze over when I get started on the merits of my KitchenAid mixer or how delicious fresh whipped cream is...  Now I have an outlet where I can share these stories and you can read them when you're ready.  Because I know you're all interested, right?