Archive for the ‘cook it’ Category

This past Saturday a few friends and I got together to quilt.

My husband packed up the kids early and took them to Park City for a day of skiing.

I had the house to myself to for a few hours and then an afternoon of whirring sewing machines, good food, inspiration, and best of all, great company.

I couldn’t go empty handed, so for a treat, I made a dessert I’ve been craving.  It’s the dessert my mom made just about every Sunday when I was a girl.

Texas Fudge Cake.  Her recipe has buttermilk in the batter.  Which means I LOVE it.

My mom always left the last row of her cake unfrosted.  Can you believe it?  I didn’t like frosting, at all, as a child.  I scraped the white part out of Oreo’s and the frosting off of cakes.  I think back now on all those cakes my mom frosted, carefully leaving that last row just for me.  Even if I didn’t realize it then, that was a way she showed her love.

On Saturday, I was on my way to making a sheet cake, until I thought about plates and forks and a spatula… and so I made cupcakes from the batter instead.

I love frosting cupcakes with a pastry bag.  Since I’m still not the biggest fan of frosting, (unless it’s Key Lime cupcake frosting) I don’t like two or three inches of frosting on a cupcake trend.

Decorating cupcakes with a star or a round tip makes them look really nice, but is still very easy.

If you haven’t done a lot of cupcake or cookie decorating, be sure to add sprinkles to every row or so, before the frosting begins to set up.

Here’s my mom’s wonderful recipe:

Mom’s Texas Fudge Cake

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

1 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. soda

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine butter, water and cocoa in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Add flour and sugar into a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, pour cocoa mixture over and stir to mix.  Add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and soda and beat well.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool before frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup cocoa

5 Tablespoons milk

Powdered sugar

Chopped pecans or walnuts for topping optional

Stir together butter and cocoa in saucepan over medium, until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl or stand mixer.  Add milk and powdered sugar to desire consistency.  Frost cooled cake and top with chopped nuts if desired.

For cupcakes, makes 24.  Pour evenly into cupcake liners in a muffin tin and bake at 400 for 14- 16 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Yesterday afternoon my girls each invited over a friend to make crayon hearts using this tutorial from Martha Stewart.

They were so easy and fun to make.  And once we hung them in the windows, they prettily catch the light.

As an after school snack for the kids I made a plate of Valentine Peanut Butter cookies.  I had seen the idea of using chocolate hearts instead of Hershey’s Kisses on Pinterest.

I used my own favorite recipe… and they turned out deee-licious and very cute.

My recipe comes from an old neighbor, Kim.  When Ben was in Kindergarten, he was over at her home playing with her daughter.  She served them these cookies, with chocolate chips in them, instead of the chocolate on top.  He liked the cookies so much, he asked her if she would share the recipe.  She was highly amused, needless to say, and sent him home with the recipe.

So here is the recipe for Kim’s wonderful Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies:

1 cup Butter, softened

1 cup Peanut Butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2-1/2 cups flour

Chocolate Chips to taste, or Chocolate Hearts or Hershey’s Kisses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together softened butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar.  Add eggs one at a time until well blended.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  With mixer on low, add flour mixture in batches until just mixed.

If you are adding chocolate chips, add them to taste. If you are putting the chocolate hearts or Kisses on top, skip the chocolate chips, but do not press the chocolate on top until AFTER baking.

Scoop cookies onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes.  If making the chocolate heart or Kisses cookies, press the unwrapped chocolate into the hot cookies just after they come out of the oven.  Allow to cool before serving, or the chocolate will be very messy!

Makes approx. 4-1/2 dozen cookies.