Fresh Strawberry Bars

When I got the May 2009 issue of BHG and saw Fresh Strawberry Bars on the cover I knew they were right up my alley. Recently I've become a sucker for anything strawberry. I also knew I needed to make sure they didn't stay around my house long. I wanted to bring them into work, but one of my coworkers is allergic to Strawberries so I kept putting them off.

Last week that coworker was out of town so it was my chance to make them. The dense peanut butter base of the bars is the perfect compliment to the sweet strawberries. It almost tastes like the freshest, gourmet PB&J sandwich you've ever had. I got a TON of compliments on these. They were everything from "Oh this reminds me of the pastries I used to eat in France" .... "Oh wow this is the best Peanut Butter and Jelly I've ever had" ...."Wait, you MADE those??" "Oh my gosh, this is delicious"... and last but not least "scrapescrapescrape" (The sound of people scraping every last bit off their plate.) Matt was also a huge fan of these and exclaimed "WOAHHHHOMYDISOGOD!" (That's Woah! Oh my gosh this is so good! With his mouthful.) I really appreciated all the compliments and they made me laugh because the recipe is incredibly easy. All in all I say this is a perfect summer time dessert. I highly, highly recommend it!

Fresh Strawberry Bars
Source: Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup strawberry jam (I ended up not measuring and just eyeballing how much jam was needed)
4 cups small whole strawberries, halved or quartered (I think quartered is the best bet, I ended up sprinkling mine with brown sugar to make them extra sweet)

Heat oven to 350°F. Line 12×9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil beyond edges. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter on medium to high for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

Spread dough in prepared pain. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool completely on rack. Remove from pain by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries. Cut into bars. Serve at once or refrigerate up to 6 hours. Makes 24 bars.

Make ahead: Wrap the peanut butter base in foil; store at room temperature up to 24 hours. Before serving, top with jam and berries or freeze the peanut butter base in a freezer container up to 3 months. For individual servings, cut the base in portions and freeze. Pull a portion from the freezer, thaw, and top with jam and berries for a last-minute dessert.**

**What I did was made the base and cut and topped 4 individual bars to take my pictures. I wrapped the rest in foil and the next morning before work I spread jam on the remaing base and topped with strawberries. I took it to work and cut individual squares and then kept it in one of those pyrex carry cases with the compartments for icepacks so it stayed cool all day.

Where do I begin?

It's hard to believe my last food related post was March 22nd. It sounds like a cop-out to say I've been super busy, but I honestly have. I work for the Layoff King in KC and when we went through the last round of layoffs a massive chunk of my group was laid off leaving the rest of us to do our work and all of theirs. So between all the OT, school, trying to workout, and everyday "stuff" I haven't been very connected to the world of blogging or even the internet in general. Today though, I am back! I spent the morning lying in bed and watching 90210 reruns on Soapnet. I haven't just lounged around in months. It felt great.

My back to blogging recipe is one I got from my coworker Eddie. I know I've mentioned before that I'm not a cake person, but this cake could be reason I'm slowly coming around to the stuff. Back in February Eddie brought some into work and I accepted a piece to be polite, thinking I'd have a bite and bring the rest home for Matt. I quickly ate my words and gobbled up the cake in no time. I asked what kind of cake I'd just inhaled and found out it was Italian Wedding Cake.

I assumed it was some sort of secret family recipe and went home and scoured the internets for what I thought could be the recipe. I found one on All Recipes and bookmarked it to make sometime. Before I had a chance to make it Eddie brought the cake in again. This time I asked her if I could have the recipe, she said sure and started to look it up online and told me it’s just so easy. I was shocked to learn that this recipe came from an episode of Sandra Lee Semi Homemade. Eddie laughed at me when I told her I thought the recipe was top secret. She said one day she was home from work watching the food network and she saw good old Sandy whipping this cake up. Eddie makes a few changes to the recipe which I decided to follow as well.

The first time I made this for my Aunt Ann’s 60th Birthday. The girls (I use the term girls to describe those of us age Twenty-Something to age Eighty-Something) in my family decided to surprise Ann with a Girls Weekend. We spent the day at a winery, a micro-brewery, and ended the night just hanging out at the hotel. It was so much fun and everyone loved the cake. The second time I made this was on Easter and my in-laws all loved the cake as well. The cake itself is incredibly delicious, dense, moist, rich, and did I mention delicious?

It has coconut, walnuts, and pineapple both in the cake and in the frosting. Both my husband and brother in-law dislike coconut, walnuts, and pineapple but loved the cake. I know my description of the cake is very vague, but it’s been so long since I made this I’m having a hard time thinking of descriptors. I would make it again but it’s VERY dangerous to keep around the house! The bottom line is this recipe for Italian Wedding Cake is phenomenal. I'm not even sure I'll ever give Allrecipes a shot.

Italian Wedding Cake
Source: Adapted from Sandra Lee

Ingredients
1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 (20oz) can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
1 cup sweetened flake coconut, divided
2 cups chopped pecans, divided
2 (16-ounce) cans cream cheese frosting I made my own homemade cream cheese frosting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat 3 9in cake pans with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, buttermilk, egg whites, and extracts. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in 8oz crushed pineapple, 1/2 cup coconut, and 1 cup pecans. Divide batter into 3 prepared cake pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 31 to 36 minutes or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1 cup pecans and frosting. Frost the top of each layer with 1/2 cup of frosting and stack on top of the next layer. Use remaining frosting to frost the entire outside of cake. Slice and serve. If you make homemade frosting, add remaining coconut, pineapple, and pecans to the frosting, frost the top of each layer and entire outside of cake. Slice and Serve (I made my frosting usig 1 8oz cream cheese 4ish cups of powdered sugar, 2 sticks of butter and the pineapple, pecans, and coconut and it was enough frosting for 2 cakes)

And just for fun...

All of us at at the winery with some of our loot (yes, thats frost on the already bloomed trees on March 28th)

Sorry my spacing is messed up... I guess I'm just getting used to this blogging stuff again :)

White Cake with Strawberry-Lime Frosting

I had the urge to bake a cake the other day despite the fact I don't normally care for cake. I was going to go with Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake, but then decided I wasn't in the mood for chocolate. (I know, I know, what on earth got into me!?) I found a few different recipes but ultimately settled on Classic White Cake that Baking Blonde posted about a few months ago. I distinctively remember this post because it was a change up from the chocolate/peanut butter/cookie goodness I find so often on her blog. I was confident the cake would be delicious because everything I've tried on her blog has been wonderful.

I wanted a layer cake, but only have one round baking pan. (Isn't that odd?) So, I improvised a bit.... I baked the cake in a 9x13 glass pan that I had COATED with butter. When I pulled the pan out, the cake had pulled itself away from the edges a bit. I also took a Spatula and ran it around the edge of the cake. After it cooled, I flipped the cake upside down and gently shook the pan so the cake kind of worked its way out onto a cutting board. I let it cool completely and then I cut the cake in half so I had two squares.

Then, I started on the frosting. The other night we went to Matt's cousin's house and had delicious strawberry short cake. Ever since then strawberry desserts have been on my mind. I had strawberries in the fridge and thought I'd make a strawberry butter cream frosting. I ran the idea by Matt and he told me he wanted cream cheese frosting. I did a little research on strawberry frosting/fillings and found one similarity in all the recipes. I had to put the strawberries in a saucepan, bring them to a boil and crush them. When I went to the fridge to pull out the strawberries, I saw lovely limes looking me in the eye and decided they needed to be used too. The result was an amazing Strawberry-Lime Cream Cheese Frosting. A frosting that I will make again and again.

I definitely need to practice my cake decorating skills, but over all I was happy with how my cake looked and very happy with how it tasted. The cake was moist and dense with a very subtle flavor and the frosting almost tastes like a Strawberry Daiquiri. The strawberries are nice and sweet, but then the sweetness is cut by the lime flavor - it's very refreshing. I have some left over frosting that I'm going to use on sugar cookies.

When I asked Matt if he liked it, he told me he did and said this, "You know honey, you're baking skills and my home remodeling skills are pretty similar. Every once in a while something turns out bad, but mostly the results are good things. This cake is a great thing". Men and their compliments. :) He keeps getting himself massive pieces so there isn't enough for him to take to work tomorrow... sneaky, sneaky.

White Cake with Strawberry-Lime Frosting
Cake Source: Baking Blonde
Frosting: Me

Classic White Cake

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 large egg whites

3/4 cup milk

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Butter two 9-inch diameter by 1 1/2-inch deep layer pans or 1 (13 by 9 by 2-inch) pan and line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. (I was out of parchment paper so I just buttered the pan really well. There was no way I was using waxed paper, I had a bad experience with that once!)

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5-7 minutes, until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture then add half the milk mixture. Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture.Scrape bowl and beater often. Pour batter into prepared pan (s) and smooth top with a metal spatula. Bake cake (s) about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

Strawberry-Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter, very soft

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, very soft

2 tsp vanilla

3-4 C powdered sugar

8oz strawberries, hulled and chopped

1/2 - 1 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

zest from 1 lime

Combine strawberries, brown sugar, and 2 tbsp lime juice in a small saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly and crushing strawberries with the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Cream butter, cream cheese, and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer. Add 1 C of powdered sugar, mix well. Add the second cup and mix well. Add the strawberry mixture, lime zest, and remaining lime juice and (oh wait, you know what's next..) mix well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. I ended up adding about 1 3/4 cup more powdered sugar. This made a ton, I had enough to frost the cake, use it as the filling, and still have some leftover.

Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze

Disclaimer: I'm well aware at how bad the pictures are. Don't let that stop you from making this cake though. It was divine.

The other day I was sitting here procrastinating and decided to google Chocolate Bundt Cake. One of the first search results was from Food and Wine Magazine... Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze. I saw the picture (much better than mine) and read over the recipe and decided it would be what I do on my break from writing my paper on Sunday. I followed the recipe almost to the T. I did double the glaze and add some white chocolate to the top. I was slightly nervous because it required 1 cup of strong-brewed coffee. I know that coffee intensifies the chocolate flavor, but 1 cup seemed like a lot. I soon found out I was wrong and 1 cup of coffee wasn't too much.

The flavor of this cake is amazing. It's incredibly moist and has a rich chocolaty flavor. The glaze on top is to die for. Matt and I both loved it. It was the perfect dessert for our Sunday meal. I decided I didn't need this hanging out at my house (this bad boy is most definitely NOT diet food!) so I brought it into work for my coworkers. They all absolutely loved it. I got many compliments on how moist it was and the glaze. Even 3 days later my SIL had a slice (I saved a piece for her) and she commented on how moist it was. I will definitely be making this cake again and again!

Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze
Source: Food and Wine Website


I wish I would have been more careful with my white chocolate.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil spray
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong-brewed coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
*note: I doubled the cream, corn syrup, butter and added additional chocolate. The amounts above are from the original recipe.



Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray. In a small saucepan, melt 2 ounces of the chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Scrape the chocolate into a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with 1/2 cup of the coffee and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. I first checked my cake at 30min and it was no where near being ready. I decided to check it 5min later and it was done. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely.

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.

Pour the ganache over the cooled cake.Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving

Make Ahead
The glazed cake can be stored in an airtight container for 3 days.

Zucchini Cake

In my quest to find some ways to use up all my zucchini I came across this recipe on Pamela’s blog. After trying Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies this summer I just knew I would love it. The cake has a Caramel Frosting and (side thought: I wonder if people are reading this saying car-a-mel or car-muhl, I’m the latter ) Anywho, Pamela is right when she says the Caramel Frosting on this bad boy is S-uh-uh-WEET! I loved it!

The cake would be fine without, but it’s amazing with! As I was pouring the batter in the pan, it seemed to have the appearance of cookie dough rather than cake batter. I was pleasantly surprised when it came out of the oven in cake form. If you find yourself with an abundance of zucchini, you should definitely give this cake a shot. A warning though, it makes a ton. Luckily, (Lucky for my hips, not so much for my taste buds) I gave a bunch to Matt’s friends and my mom.

Caramel Frosted Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake
Source: Cookies With Boys

For the cake:
3/4 c. butter, softened
2 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips (I used a cup of regular sized)

Caramel Frosting
1/2 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c milk
1 1/2 c confectioner's sugar



Cream butter, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs in a bowl. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until combined. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.

Spread in greased 15 x 10 jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

For the frosting, bring butter, brown sugar and milk to a boil in a saucepan. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in confectioners sugar. Spread over cake.

Pamela's Notes: This is the type of frosting that hardens, so you shouldn't take your time in the spreading step. 13 x 9 works. Bake for approx. 35 minutes.

Apple Season!

The first time I had this cake was 3 years ago. One of my coworkers baked it and I politely passed because I didn't "do" hot fruit. She insisted I try it so I sucked it up and prepared myself for a nasty, mushy apple dessert. What I found though was heaven.

I've made it a few times since and I swear it gets better each time. I laugh thinking back to the first time I made it. There weren't any specific directions on the topping, so I poured the melted butter on top of the partially baked cake followed by a mixture of brown sugar/flour/cinnmon. Little did I know it was supposed to be a crumb topping. Oh I've come so far....

This cake may just be the perfect fall dessert. In fact, someone even said this cake "tastes like fall". It would be prefect for breakfast with a Chai Tea Latte or Caramel Macchiato. I've also served these as Apple Bars. We had it for dessert the other night after our Mac and Cheese. The cake is moist with a nice hint of cinnamon and cloves and a fabulous baked brown sugar crumb topping. The house smells amazing when you add the crumb mixture to the top. Oh and I should warn you, it's so easy to devour this. Take it into work, your coworkers and waistline will thank you.

Apple Cake


*I'm so bummed my pictures don't look very good, they do the cake no justice. The stupid sun didn't want to cooperate today. Oh how I miss summer.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup oil
1/3 cup orange juice
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup flour
1tsp each:
cinnamon
salt
baking powder
baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
3 cups chopped apples (I used granny smith and fuji)

Topping:
3 TBSP melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
Dash Cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Beat oil, OJ, eggs, and sugar until well-blended. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in apples.

Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes Prepare topping (mix topping ingredients until crumb mixture forms). Sprinkle topping on top of cake and bake an additional 20 - 30 minutes.