Chocolate cake w/ strawberries

Back in December, I had a wonderful chocolate cake with strawberries from La Patisserie for my birthday. They are by far my favorite bakery here, though Pticek & Sons' in Chicago blows them away with their atomic cake and pastries any day.

For a long time, I've longed for my favorite atomic cake from Pticek & Sons. Just blogging about it makes my mouth water. Someday I'll tell you about my trials duplicating one. But alas, I've come to the conclusion that the atomic cake cannot be duplicated and I have to have some other kind of cake for my birthday.

This is where the chocolate strawberry cake comes in. However, because I don't know how many eggs La Patisserie uses, or if their chocolate is processed in a facility that also processes peanuts, I don't allow Mr A to eat any baked item, unless I have made it myself. This is the way of life for him. (The Peanut Pickle by Jessica Jacobs, a wonderful story about how careful a kid with a peanut allergy needs to be.). So, Mr A was not allowed to eat any of my birthday cake. I didn't think he was really sad or effected but as we got closer to his birthday, he began requesting a chocolate cake with strawberries for his own birthday. Then I was determined to make that happen.

I began looking for a safe recipe for him. I chose A Taste of Home's Best Chocolate Cake. I used Hershey's cocoa powder, which is not processed with peanuts, and I did 2/3 of the recipe so I would only need 2 eggs instead of 3. I thinly sliced about a pound of fresh strawberries and whipped whipping cream to layer.

Verdict? Not the best chocolate cake I've ever had. Dense, not super sweet or decadent cake, but maybe that's my mistake for choosing a "light" recipe. But for a kid who's never had cake, he was in heaven! He was so excited to make the cake batter, to whip the cream, and to assemble it together. His smile and the pure joy of seeing him eat cake for the first time, priceless.

Best Chocolate Cake

From Taste of Home, 2/3 of recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup 2% milk

1 lb fresh strawberries, thinly sliced
2 c whipping cream
2 T powdered sugar, more or less if desired
Vanilla extract, optional

DirectionsL

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a 9-in. round baking pans with waxed paper; grease and flour the pans and paper. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in
5. vanilla.
6. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating
7. well after each addition.
8. Bake for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Cool on a wire rack.
10. Slice strawberries and lay on a paper towel to soak up some of the wetness.
11. Whip whipping cream with 2 T powdered sugar.
12. Cut cake into 2 layers. Spread a layer of whipped cream on top of the bottom layer. Place a layer of strawberries in the whipped cream. On the underside of the top layer, spread strawberry jam. This goes on top of the strawberries.
13. For the top of the cake, spread whipped cream and place another layer of strawberries.

Pumpkin Waffles

Valentine's Day happens to be waffle day at preschool. Last time, I made homemade banana waffles for Mr A to take. (Why haven't I published that post yet - I don't know.) This time, I saw a can of pumpkin, quite possibly left from Thanksgiving, hiding in my cupboard. Pumpkin waffles!

As always, I turned to Google and found a 5 star recipe from Cooking Light. I don't have a fancy waffle iron so I'm going to attribute soft waffles to my lame waffle iron. But it's just as well because Miss J was able to enjoy her first taste of waffles. Poor thing was fussing because she was hungry and I was ignoring her because I was making waffles. So I took pity on her and gave her a little piece of waffle. Well, she loved it. I think she ended up eating about a fourth of a waffle! I figured, it's got egg and pumpkin - it's kind of substantial. But then I worried because I haven't introduced egg, cow's milk, or pumpkin to Miss J.

She seems fine and loves feeding herself (even though her success rate is about 50%). And did I mention, at almost 9 months, she still has no teeth? I'm struggling with what kinds if finger foods do you feed a baby with no teeth? Waffles. Oh yeah.

* note to self: come back and clean up this post.

Pumpkin Waffles

(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
1 c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t pumpkin pie spice
1/8 t salt
1 c 1% low-fat milk
1/2 c Pumpkin Puree
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 T vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray; preheat.
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in wet ingredients until moist.
5. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter per waffle onto hot waffle iron. Cook 5 to 7 minutes or until steaming stops; repeat procedure with remaining batter.

Enjoy!

Crockpot Butter Chicken

I never had Indian food until grad school. What a loss of time! We now live just blocks from many Indian restaurants and grocery stores. I wouldn't say we're frequent eaters, but we do enjoy Indian food at least every other month. Samosas, chicken tikka masala, naan, fish pakora, dosas, and palak paneer are some of my favorites. We tried dosas once and those were pretty yummy too.

Anyway, I recently came across a couple crockpot butter chicken recipes. I had most of the ingredients... Why not give it a try?  So I did.

The results? Not very pretty but quite yummy! There was a bit of a burnt mess at the bottom of my crockpot. I think it's where the tomato paste met the onions. I think next time, I might just do this on the stovetop. I'll also add the yogurt at the end. I didn't this time because I didn't have yogurt on hand. I'm glad I didn't add any cayenne like the Food.com recipe said.  This recipe was already so full of spices, extra heat would have gone along fine but I think it would have burned a hole in my stomach too.

I added a little water to sauce it up and served it on rice with peas and some wilted spinach.  A perfect winter (or maybe any day) meal!

Crockpot Butter Chicken

(adapted from Food.com and Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
4 large skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t curry powder
2 t garam masala
1 oz can tomato paste
1 14 oz can coconut milk
salt to taste
(1 c plain yogurt)

Directions:

1. Butter sides of crockpot. (In retrospect, cooking spray would probably have been better.)
2. Combine all ingredients, except yogurt, and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. In last 15 minutes of cooking, add yogurt. (I omitted this step and it was still very tasty but not very saucy.)

Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yesterday, we had some fantastic treats at work. There was a tasty breakfast casserole, homemade blueberry muffins, and yummy banana chocolate chip muffins. What?! How have I missed this combination in a muffin?!

Then Mr A just happened to ask about pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and muffins this morning. He happily agreed to banana chocolate chip muffins instead.

It was a perfect opportunity to use some frozen bananas I stuck in the freezer a couple months ago. I kept thinking I would make banana ice cream with them. Of course that never happened but they are perfect for baking too.

I defrosted them in the microwave for 3 minutes, then nuked them for 30 seconds. I tasked Mr A with mashing them with a potato masher. He did pretty good! He also helped pour in the ingredients after I measured them into the bowl and used a whisk to gently stir. I scooped the batter and held it over the muffin cups and he pushed the trigger.

This was probably our smoothest baking project to date. Oh and the muffins? Absolutely delish! We will be making these again. I'm proud of my little guy and a little proud that I was patient enough to make it happen.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
4 bananas, mashed
1/2 c white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 c butter, melted
1/8 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
3. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
4. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

What to do with blueberries and buttermilk?  Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins!  I sent 2 dozen mini muffins with Mr A for his preschool staff as a "thank you for all you do".

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

From Food.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 c sugar
1/4 t salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c canola oil
1 1/2 c blueberries
1 t vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk and oil.
4. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in liquid ingredients, mixing quickly.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups and bake till golden brown.
7. Bake for 20 -30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

Mr A has a gingerbread app where you make dough, roll it, bake it, and then decorate a gingerbread cookie. It was just a matter of time before he wanted to make the real thing. He actually directed me to get his game to look for the ingredients.

I came across this recipe at Food.com. I would have used the 1 egg in the recipe, but we didn't have any egg in the fridge. So I used Art of Dessert's substitution of 8 oz cream cheese for 2 eggs.

Turns out, Mr A liked his Grammy's cookie cutters that had handles on them, so we made bunnies, circles, gingerbread men, hearts, and bats.

  Egg-free Gingerbread Cookies

(adapted from Food.com)
Ingredients:
3 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 T ground ginger
1 1/2 t pumpkin spice
6 T unsalted butter
3/4 c dark brown sugar
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and pumpkin spice until well blended.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and cream cheese on medium speed until well blended.
3. Add molasses and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
4. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.
5. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until hard.
6. Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Place 1/4 of the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll dough to a 1/4-inch thick. (Thinner cookies will be crisper.)
8. Cut out cookies. Space cookies 1 1/2-inches apart on cookie sheet.
9. Bake 1 sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies!).
10. Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.
11. After cookies are cool you may decorate them any way you like..

Enjoy!

Thumbprint cookies, Take 2

The thumbprint cookies went over great. Well, only maybe a dozen were consumed at my staff party but the rest were consumed by yours truly and the husband. Though Mr A could eat them too and I did offer him at most, one a day, he didn't really want them. He'd take a bite, then leave the rest. What??!! He actually asked for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies though.

Should I be proud or offended or flattered?

Anyways, I've been thinking about my mom. She always asks for some baked goods this time of year and I'm happy to oblige. When I was a kid, she made these butter cookies with bits of jam in the middle. She had this cookie press which extruded cookies in shapes of stars, flowers, trees, etc. In some ways, these cream cheese thumbprint cookies remind me of my mom's butter cookies. Her cookies had a hint of almond extract in them, so instead of the standard vanilla, I also chose to go with almond flavoring as well.

Now let's talk toppings... I was considering using the grapefruit marmalade that I got in my September FFP box, but was worried about the liquor component... I think my mom is actually allergic, whereas I simply lack the proper enzyme reaction for alcohol breakdown. My mom breaks out into a rash when she's consumed alcohol. This includes stuff like NyQuil. Luckily, we had some orange marmalade in the fridge, so I went with that.

I also bought these caramel Hershey's Kisses. I love the peanut butter blossom cookies but with Mr A's peanut allergies, I dare not make those, but I thought I could still use kisses with this thumbprint dough. And it worked very nicely! I suspected it would not be a good idea to put the kisses on for the entire back time. Fortunately, I just did one, which melted messily like an erupted volcano. I put the rest of the chocolates on after taking the cookies out of the oven but even then, that was too hot. Some of them melted down too much from the carry over heat. They just didn't look right, but all I did was swirled the chocolate a bit and back to pretty and can't wait to eat you status!

Recipe for thumbprint cookies