Chocolate cherry cake.....

Well I'm back from Florida. I worked on Friday and I havent done much cooking since then( I made Robin coal fired wings again). While in Florida, my grandpa had his 97th birthday. My sister and I( thats her in the pic) made him a chocolate cherry cake. We also made him the jam thumbprint cookies and he loved those. This is another one of those cakes that starts with pre-measured ingredients. My sister recently aquired both Cake Mix doctor books( thanks to her generous older sister) and she was anxious to try out a recipe. I've made this cake before but in a milk chocolate version. The recipe is actually called Milk chocolate cherry pound cake, but since it calls for a Swiss Chocolate mix and thats not availble in Florida, we used a devils food mix. You add 1/4 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of water and a 1/4 cup of cherry juice( from the marashino cherries) and the eggs and oil the mix calls for. You also add chopped up cherries and choc. chips and a package of pudding mix. The frosting is supposed to be hershey choc. bars but since we went with a devils food mix, we used choc. chips. Powdered sugar, some milk and more cherry juice. Its a sweet cake, but everyone really loved it. I'm over the whole cake mix phase, but in certain instances(like me on vacation) it works.

Btw, I absolutely loved baking with my sisters insulated cake pan. She said she's had it for years and it came with a cover that she accidentally melted. I need to find one of those pans because the cake baked so evenly.

Holy Cow Cake......

I've been a bad blogger. Its not that I havent wanted to blog, its just that I really havent been cooking. I've been working a lot and my boss is really generous with leftovers. I helped her with a cooking class last Tuesday and she gave me lots of food to bring home. I fed that to Robin and I skipped dinner. I worked with the seniors on Thursday and I ate what I cooked. I ate leftovers on Friday. Truthfully, I havent felt like cooking at home much because I've done so much of it at work. I did make this cake tonight to test out the recipe. I have this planned for the Seniors for May 10th. This recipe comes from The Cake Mix Doctor. Yes, Yes, I know its a cake mix, but honestly, I dont have the time or the inclination to make from scratch cakes for the Seniors. I only get paid for 7.5hrs and I have to plan the menu, shop for and cook a salad, a main, 2 sides and a dessert for 50 ppl.

So, this is your basic chocolate cake mix( with pudding). The recipe calls for poking holes in the top and then pouring over a mixture of sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping. I skipped the milk, because I think it will just be too sweet. Then, you crush up butterfinger bars( I used butterfinger jingelers left over from xmas) and sprinkle those on top. The "frosting" is a mixture of cream cheese and coolwhip. More butterfingers go on top. Verdict: It was good, nothing spectacular but good. I'm going to bring the rest of this cake to the ladies in the agency I work for. I'll see what they say.

Curiosity got the best of me.....

I picked this up back in August when I was in Ann Arbor, MI because I was really curious about it. I mean, come on, who would pay 18.00 for a cake mix? $3.99 sounds more reasonable, and its hard for me to resist what I deem a "bargain". These mixes are manufactured by Nordicware and are advertised as "all natural".

I picked up two more of these mixes at Marshall's last week. Both were on clearance for 3 bucks. One is the infamous tunnel of fudge and a cinnamon swirl. I planned to make one of those last night but then I saw that this butterscotch mix had a use by date of Jan 07, I thought I better make this one instead.

This is the first mix I've ever seen that has a two step recipe, cream butter with a sugar packet, add dry packet alternately with milk. The streusel is mixed with 4tbl of butter and placed in the middle.

I'm please to say this did NOT taste like a mix. NO chemical taste whatsoever. I wont buy them again because for the amount of butter( 12tbls in cake, 4 in struesel) and eggs( 4), I could make a from scratch cake with just a tad more effort. (measuring the flour, sugar, and levener).

I skipped the optional glaze( more butter, brown sugar, rum) and instead just dusted with confectioners sugar.