Finally, a Cake Success!

Last weekend my sister asked me to make a cake for her fiancé's birthday. Obviously from the last few birthday cakes I've made (mine and my husband's), I have been having bad luck with cakes. So I was determined to do whatever it took to make this cake right! And oh man, was it ever right.

It did start off with my favorite cake recipe, but I made a full cake instead of halving it like I tried previously. I made it the day before, and it was still very very moist- so moist that it would have crumbled like the others. So unlike last time, where I covered the cake in saran wrap and put it in the fridge overnight, I left this cake out overnight with just some saran wrap mostly covering it. I don't know if that helped, or if it was just the fact that I didn't have to unwrap plastic wrap that was stuck to a crumbly cake, but it stayed together!

(The chocolate buttercream from Savory Sweet Life. So delicious and easy to work with!)

For the frosting, I used my favorite chocolate buttercream from Savory Sweet Life. (Am I allowed to have a favorite if I have only tried one recipe? :D) I was very careful to make it whipped frosting and super spreadable, so it wouldn't tear the crumbly cake. For the filling, I just searched for different cake filling ideas, since I knew I wanted something that wasn't plain chocolate frosting. I ended up making a regular buttercream, and then adding half a packet of vanilla pudding mix so it tasted like vanilla. The filling was a little gritty because of the pudding mix, so maybe next time I will mix it with milk and make it actual pudding first. But it was still delicous!

(My cake. Not the best picture, but the best cake I've made yet!)

Overall, this cake was a huge success. It was rich, moist, chocolate-y, and a small piece was just enough! I don't think I will ever make another cake recipe- this one is just too good! Oh, and even though this cake was cooked through, it was still so crumbly. So I might try baking it even longer and see if it becomes more stable without overbaking. We'll see!

Oh, here are some pictures of our new apartment too. I love how open and big it is! 

(I made those two wall paintings on the right. They were a labor of love, and although they're a little bright for the room, I think I'll add more touches that will make it all work together!)

(I also made these blackout curtains. They're a little....stiff. Okay, really really stiff. But it's nice to have curtains that completely block out our neighbors at night!)

I promise I've been domestic!

Wow, the last month has been crazy. But I promise I have been creative- just lazy at blogging. Here are a few things I've made in the last month while we moved:

I made sugar cookies for a baby shower. The recipe is supposedly the best on on All Recipes, and I used the comments to add another 1/2 cup of sugar and some more vanilla. I made a half recipe and it still made about 50! They were surprisingly soft even though I did them so thin. Next time I will surely use this recipe again, but will make them thicker. I liked that they weren't the thick bready kind of cookie, but weren't too crisp either.

Oh- and I had like 40 left over, so they're all in the freezer. I need another party to bring them to!

We were craving sweet and chocolate one night, so I made cookie dough brownies. The brownie recipe was really good (I made a half batch again :D), and the cookie dough was perfect! However, I only had semisweet chocolate chips instead of milk ones, so I tried to make a chocolate frosting using cocoa powder and regular sugar......bad idea. I melted it in the microwave, and the sugar didn't melt, so it was very grainy. Next time I should remember to melt the sugar on the stove- or just be smart and make a regular chocolate buttercream! Oh well- these brownies are also in our freezer, with most of the chocolate glaze scraped off. 

These were the first of my "use up the freezer food" desserts. I had coconut milk, which I found out I actually don't like coconut milk in curry! So I really was craving a coconut dessert, but the only main ones I could find used coconut cream or coconut oil instead. These cupcakes were the perfect thing with coconut milk in the batter (even though you couldn't taste it much after baking), coconut milk in the frosting, and toasted coconut on top! I quite liked them, and they were the perfect mini size.

This isn't a dessert, but I loved this meal. We saw it on a youtube video, so I don't have a recipe really. I just cooked bacon until it was tender, put it in a sprayed muffin pan, loaded one non-scrambled egg in each cup, and covered with cheese, more bacon, salt, pepper, and green onions! I think we baked them at 400 degrees for 8 minutes maybe? I actually didn't have one, but next time I'll do a scramble egg one for me!

This was another attempt at cleaning the freezer. We had frozen cherry pie filling, and I had been wanting to make these cherry bars ever since I saw them. I personally love cherry pie, so these were amazing in my opinion! I probably ate a few more than I should have....but it was all in the sake of getting rid of food. :D

On a whim I bought a donut pan, thinking that I could make baked donuts any time we were craving them! Once I bought it though...I realized many baked donut recipes are yeast ones that you cut into circles like biscuits! Oh well, these are still way faster. This first recipe was not really anything like a Krispy Kreme (do you think I set my sights too high? :D) but we'll try again. The problem was that the donuts were more like cinnamon donuts, with nutmeg as well, and they were very cake-y. Also, the glaze was too chocolate-y and not thick enough. Since my first attempt, I have now found a donut recipe in a pan that requires a little yeast, which will make them lighter and fluffier. I also found a tip to dip the donuts in a basic sugar glaze right after baking, then cover them in the chocolate glaze. With these new tips, I can't wait to make donuts again!

Lunch Saver!

I used to eat salad for lunch at work. The same salad. Every day. But I loved it! It was just a spinach or romaine salad, with pecans, feta, and cranberries. I kept my bottle of raspberry vinaigrette in the work fridge and it was perfect every day! Then one day the fridge got cleaned out and my beloved bottle of dressing was thrown out! Sure it was practically empty...but with salad dressings, perfectly empty really means I have a whole week left!


So for weeks I drifted between leftovers, sandwiches, and boring salads that I tried to swallow without tasting. Until I finally decided to get back in my salad groove! I found this recipe for Santa Fe Chicken Salad from Point-less Meals and it sounded like the perfect heading-into-summer salad!

(Point-less's beautiful salad!)

Here was what really saved me though: I decided to prep a whole week's worth of salad at once! I wasn't sure if all the veggies might go bad, but I gave it a shot. And I was so impressed! Now each day I just grab a scoop of my "santa fe veggies," a bit of mozzarella cheese, some romaine, and finally some crumbled chips. I even made Point-less's dressing and I now keep that at work too. :D Overall, this salad is perfect for a healthy and filling lunch, and it only takes a bit of preparation to last all week!

(My veggie mix. Delicious!)

I included corn, olives, green onions, cucumbers, and carrots in my veggie mix. But I would love to try peppers and beans too, or anything! I also didn't use chicken, since I have enough chicken at dinner every night. I love this salad!

(Just a bit of this each morning. Perfect!)

Here is the dressing recipe:


Dressing
(From Point-less Meals)

• ¼ c. low-fat buttermilk
• ¼ c. light mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 T. cider vinegar
• salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate until serving.

(My dressing. Yum, I can taste it now!)

Wings, Cake, and Cookies!

I just cleared my camera pictures and realized I have several cooking adventures I haven't posted yet! (Don't worry, my March skirt is finished and I promise to post pictures eventually..when I get around to wearing it again...).

First, we had my husband's birthday. It was great! Much less stressful than my birthday (probably because he has lower expectations than me :D). I made hot wings for the first time. I do not like chicken on the bone, but for his special day I figured I could be brave. I didn't have any anyway, but he really liked them (ate 18 of them in 2 nights dinner!). The wings sauce is The Pioneer Woman's, which is fantastic. We don't have Tabasco, but I am going to get some for next time! I also did fruit salad, veggies, and cheesy fries (homemade and baked to deliciousness) just for fun. This meal was only missing one of our favorite foods: bacon!

His birthday cake was (of course) a failure, because I made it. This time at least it stayed together enough for me to put on chocolate frosting! I had dreamed up a chocolate ombre cake, but it just didn't happen, so oh well. Next time! Here are the frosting and cake recipes.

And last but not least, I made these fruit loops cookies! I had bought fruit loops for a fun breakfast treat since we were sick of our regular cereal. However, we were not getting through it fast enough! So I googled recipes for cereal cookies and found a great one that works with any old cereal.

My favorite part was the dough. Oh, the dough! I could eat it all day. The cookies were okay, but they were a bit crunchier than I wanted. I was hoping for soft sugar cookies or snicker-doodle-esque texture, but these might have been a bit overdone. However, this is definitely a recipe I will use whenever I have anything to use up. (Or maybe just make the dough and eat it all the time.... :D)