Apple Cider Pudding Cake

This cake was soooo good!! It was a nice change to have something without chocolate in it. The spice mixture was just right and I loved the texture. A nice gooey pudding layer topped with dense, moist cake topped with a crunchy, sweet streusel. What more could you ask for? Eat it warm with ice cream and it will instantly feel like fall, instead of the cold, bleak, middle of winter we're experiencing. Oh, sorry this is not the best picture. We had already helped ourselves before I remembered I had to document this yummy cake. I found the recipe on mykitchencafe.blogspot.com. Enjoy!


Cake:
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped Granny Smith apples

Boiling Mixture:
1 cup apple cider (apple juice can be substituted if apple cider can't be found)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar

Streusel:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter

Butter an 8x8 inch square baking dish. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, 1 cup brown sugar, milk, melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Gently fold in apples. Spread in prepared pan.

In a small saucepan, bring apple cider, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 cup brown sugar to a boil. Pour slowly and carefully over the batter. Bake for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, put streusel ingredients in food processor (you can use a bowl and cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork) and pulse until butter is cut up and mixture is crumbly. After the cake has baked for 35 minutes, sprinkle streusel topping evenly over the cake and bake 8-10 minutes more (until a toothpick inserted into the top layer of the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs).

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (don't let the cake sit too long or some of the pudding will be absorbed in the cake topping - I would recommend eating it within 20-30 minutes of it being baked).

Peanut butter and chocolate anyone?

So my new goal is to really only make and eat a treat one day a week. I'm going to go with Mondays for FHE......because family home evening is just better with treats. And since I'm only eating a treat once a week it's gonna be a good one. This cake was delicious!!! It was really easy since it uses a cake mix. Mine fell apart while I was trying to move it onto a different plate..... that's why it is in a bowl. If you want to see what it should look like you can check out bakerella.com.

1 box devil's food cake mix
3 eggs
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. oil
1-2 c. chopped peanut butter cups, plus more to put on top (I only put about a cup in the batter and it was still really good)
8 oz. chocolate (semi-sweet or dark), chopped (I used chocolate chips)
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. peanut butter

Beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Fold in the peanut butter cups. Pour into two greased and floured (and waxed papered) round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until done. Let sit in pans for 15 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool all the way. Heat the cream to just boiling and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts and then add the peanut butter. Stir until melted. Pour about 1 cup of frosting over the first layer of the cake. Top with other layer and pour rest of frosting on the top. Let it run down the sides of the cake and smooth the top and sides with a spatula. Top with more chopped peanut butter cups. Keep in the fridge.

Oatmeal Chocolate Caramel Bars

This is yet another really good recipe from My Kitchen Cafe. These were really good..... buttery and caramely and oatmealy. I shouldn't have made these today. I'm only supposed to make a treat once a week but I saw these yesterday and wanted to try them. I told myself, "Self, you don't need to make these today. No treats, remember? You want to lose weight don't you? Don't you???" But the next thing I knew I had melted some butter and mixed in some brown sugar... and then it was just too late. I gave most of them away so that makes it a little bit better. Sort of.

1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. melted butter

14 oz. bag of caramels
1/2 c. whipping cream or milk
1 pkg. chocolate chips

Mix the first 6 ingredients together. Sprinkle half of the mixture into a 9x13 pan. Press down lightly. Bake 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Melt caramels and milk, stir until smooth. When the bars have been removed from the oven, sprinkle with chocolate chips and then pour the caramel over the top. Sprinkle the rest of the oatmeal mixture over the top. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let the bars cool all the way before eating so they can set up.

Baked Oatmeal

I've made this for breakfast a few times and we really like it. I think it would be really good in the summer with some nice berries. I tried putting frozen berries on it but it just wasn't the same. It is kind of like oatmeal cake...... and anything that is like cake is delicious..... and it's guilt free cake because it's really oatmeal, right? This recipe came from mykitchencafe.blogspot.com.

3 c. oatmeal
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1 c. skim milk
2 eggs
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Mix everything together. Pour into 8x8 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I've put raisins and apples in it before and it's really good!

The Best Wheat Bread Ever

I'm not good at making bread. I've tried really hard and tried many, many recipes but it just would never turn out right...... until I found this recipe. This is the best wheat bread. Either I've finally figured out how to do it or this is just a really good recipe that even I can't mess up. The only problem is that it is too big for my mixer so I have to knead it by hand, which gives you a nice upper body workout but also makes a big mess. It's worth it though because it's so good or you could just cut the recipe in half. I've been using white wheat and I think it makes a big difference. It still has all the fiber and good things wheat does but it tastes a lot less wheaty.... too bad wheaty isn't a real word.

3 1/2 c. hot water
1 can evaporated milk
3 Tbsp. yeast
2/3 c. oil
1 c. honey
1 c. white flour
3 Tbsp. gluten (can sometimes find at Wal Mart)
2 Tbsp. dough enhancer (can buy in Utah or see first post on this blog for a recipe)
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
12 c. white wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water until foamy. Add milk, oil, honey, white flour, gluten, dough enhancer, and salt. Add 1/2 of wheat flour. Slowly mix in the rest of the flour. If the dough is still really sticky you can add more white flour. Knead for 8 minutes. The original recipe does not let the dough rise at this point but I have, just for about 20-30 minutes. Shape the dough into 4 loaves and place in pans. You can push the dough down around the edges into the pan so that the top is nice and round. Let rise 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Don't over bake! Brush loaves with melted butter. Let cool in pans for a few minutes and then remove to cool completely on wire racks.

Big Fat Chocolate Cake

Ryan makes me this cake every year for my birthday. And let me tell you, it tastes as good as it looks. Ryan and I think this cake gets even better after a day or two. We're not sure why, maybe the butter from the frosting soaks into the cake, or maybe we just become addicted to it. The recipe came from our ward cookbook in NC but we have made a few changes to suit our tastes. Our recipe actually uses half the frosting recipe it calls for (and we made it chocolate instead of white frosting). So if you really like frosting you can double the recipe. This is how we make it:

Big Fat Chocolate Cake
Cake:
3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1 1/2 cup water

Frosting:
3 sticks butter
1 lb. powdered sugar (about 3.8 cups)
1 Tbsp vanilla
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp milk (may need a little more for desired consistency)

Ganache Topping:
1 cup chocolate chips
2 1/2 tsp corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy cream

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9" round cake pans (or use wax paper, which helps a lot in removing the cakes). Mix sugar and oil with a mixer. Mix in eggs. Let rest while sifting flour, soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix milk and vanilla. Bring water to boil and pour over cocoa. Whisk cocoa till smooth. To egg mixture alternately add flour and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape sides of bowl. Add cocoa and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Pour into pans. Bake about 27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with dry crumbs). Cool cakes completely. You can either frost the 3 layers as they are or slice each layer in half to make a 6 layer cake. You probably want to double the frosting if you slice the cake layers as the original recipe calls for double our frosting recipe.

Frosting: Mix ingredients in a large bowl until smooth and creamy.

Ganache: Place chocolate chips and syrup in a bowl. Bring cream to a full boil. Pour over chips and whisk. Pour ganache over cool and frosted cake.

Enjoy, and try not to eat too much cake in one sitting. Easier said than done.