What's Cooking March 3, 2022

 I've only made Apple Strudel once and it was wonderful. Problematically, I fused together parts of two different recipes, and I'm not sure I could reproduce them.

Here, from Janet's Appalachian Kitchen, an Apple Strudel Recipe that just needs a little glaze.  She writes out her recipe right on her Facebook page, so I'll direct you to that, and you'll just need to scroll down.  You're looking for this picture :)

 

https://www.facebook.com/JanetsAppalachianKitchen/

 

Is there anything more adorable than Easter Peeps? I love the diorama's people make with these pastel cuties. I just don't like eating them.  Even so, when I saw Butter with a Side of Bread's Easter Peep Krispies, I was ready to load up on the sugary little things to make these.

https://butterwithasideofbread.com/easter-peeps-krispie-treats/

My desire for chocolate cake has once again proved my undoing. I’ve been wanting to make a recipe from the latest version of my Bettey Crocker Cookbooks. Simply called Chocolate Cake. I just want to say I followed the recipe exactly. I did a good job of greasing and lightly flouring the pan (I usually skip the lightly flowering part).  Good start, right?

Once baked and cooled however, neither cake layer would come out of the pan. I ran a butter knife along the edge. I tapped the bottom of the pan.

Finally they came out but a thin top of each later remained in the pan.

Better yet, I made the suggested Fudge Frosting with it.  Whoa. It made a lot of frosting, but it would not thicken up to be spreadable for anything. I finally just poured some between the layers, then poured some over the top. Like chocolate lava it slid over the sides of the cake and pooled up.

I haven’t had the nerve to try it yet.

What's Cooking still lives!

What's Cooking Wednesday

Natasha's Kitchen Banana Bread

As a change from pumpkin bread this week, a hearty banana bread that looks all golden and has raisins and walnuts, making it extra rich.




Brown Eyed Baker's   Chocolate Dump-It Cake

As always I'm lured by a chocolate cake recipe.  Good thing I don't make and eat all the ones I bookmark.    The whole "dump-it" cake concept rather than calling it a single bowl recipe is slightly off putting.   We're talking chocolate cake with lots of frosting though, so away we do dump.



Food 52's Best Chocolate Cake Recipes and Other Desserts

More chocolate, you say?    I liked the looks of most of the recipes on the list.   I was relieved to see a few I wasn't interested in.   Even your imaginary stomach hasn't room for all of this.  There's even another dump cake, but made in an angel food cake pan rather than a 9x13 pan.
 
19 Deeply Chocolate-y Desserts, Because It's Been a Long Day

Give yourself a giant hug, in dessert form.

From Parade Magazine, and gathered by Facebook's Noble Pig, take a look at   25 Christmas Cookies you need to bake this year

I do try some new recipes each year.   They are sometimes wonderful, sometimes there's no resemblance to the pretty cookie pictures.   The Grinch Cookies come to mind (sigh).

From the list, Mom on Timeout's Chocolate Mint Cream Cheese Buttons looked like a really nice addtion to a holiday display.   The recipe makes six dozen, so I'd at least halve the recipe.

From 12 Tomatoes, a Caramel Apple Dump Cake, for fans of Caramel Apples.  That would be me!

Another sweet treat from Brown Eyed Baker, Poppy Chow

I love popcorn, and like Muddy Buddies.   These "chocolate and peanut butter popcorn"   snacks seem pretty perfect.

From King Arthur Flour, a recipe for Peanut Brittle, which should really be made and eaten year round.     The Best Nut Brittle You'll Ever Make

Grandma's Cooking


32 degrees.  Aerna wrote she may be here tomorrow, I'm baking buns and bread.


 Grandma would have made a plain loaf of white bread.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/traditional-white-breadhttps://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/traditional-white-bread

For rolls, simple pans rolls are likely, since that's what my mom always, always made.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/homemade-pan-rolls/https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/homemade-pan-rolls/

This Week I Liked...

Here's another weekly roundup!

I looked at Instagram, thinking if it had fun ideas and inspirations I might sign up.  Lots of the crafting blogs I follow have Instagram accounts.  They often say sometimes they post more regularly there because they can just take a few pictures, put them up without comment, and voila! content and updates.   It was started as an IOS phone photo sharing app, that's the intended audience.  I personally prefer to use a camera for pictures when I can, that I'd like to save.  So I think Instagram isn't for me at this time.

Pinterest!  Another site that comes up often when I'm searching for recipes, how-to-do-it information, and gardening ideas is Pinterest.  I thought because Facebook made me kill off my DOA account that Pinterest access was gone as well.  Ha, no, DOA lives!  I just never did anything with it.  Therefore, I'm willing to spend time finding things in my categories of interest, and use those things here in the future. Whoo hoo!

Onward.


Crafting

From the Cypress Textiles Blog, 8 Crochet Joining Methods for Square Motifs.  Believe it or not, I am approaching the point of joining on several projects, and these join methods can make a blanket look just that bit more beautiful.

The ever clever Polka Dot Chair has a timely post, More Than 25 Halloween Sewing Projects for those of you who can sew, or those who would like to get started with one of these projects.   I love the...

Witches Silhouette Pillow

...and the Black Cat Embroidered face pillow

From the Itsy Bits and Pieces blog, a post called Thrift The Look, where she and several other bloggers look at an inspiration photo from Country Living Magazine, then try to recreate it from thrift store finds that match the look and feel of the original.   Quite a fun idea.  Itsy Bitsy (can we call her that?) is very clever and has some artistic and crafting talents that make her effort pretty great.  She tells how she did it all.  This might inspire you to try to recreate something you see in a magazine.

The Original

Itsy's Re-creation

Cooking

My mom made wonderful Chicken and Dumplings, but very rarely.  I've tried recipes over the years, and the dumplings and I never meshed.  They were balls of weird dough, or the dough dispersed into a liquidy mess once dropped in with the chicken.  Very sad.   Two Peas and Their Pod have a tasty looking recipe I may try.

I've come to like Chicken Caesar salad while dining out (though last night I had one that was gross and bore no resemblance to any other I've had).   This recipe from The English Kitchen looks really nice.    https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com/2018/09/grilled-chicken-caesar-salad.html

She also posted a Maple Cake  that reminded me of a cake with a Brown Sugar Penuche frosting I used to make, but this seems richer and yet more delicate.  https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com/2018/09/maple-cake.html

I'm still craving chocolate cake, and may try this one next.  Another nice 8x8 pan recipe.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/king-arthur-flours-original-cake-pan-cake-recipe

Mystery

The wonderful Mystery blog The Rap Sheet has a list this week called Taking in the Sites.  It's his yearly list of the best mystery and crime blogs out there.   I have some of them on my blog list, and will be adding more to the Books and Authors section of my blogroll.



CrimeReads has many great reading lists.  This week I noted https://crimereads.com/mystery-in-the-age-of-empire/   

I always mean to read David Liss, and I love Lyndsay Faye.    I like other works by Robert McCammon.   Was unable to read The Alienist past the first few pages.     Anne Perry's The Cater Street Hangman is excellent.    I'll be most interested to look at some of the others.


 Beauty and Humor

Gardeners Two Women and a Hoe know their stuff.   I look like this with or without mascara.

https://www.facebook.com/TWOwomenANDaHOE/photos/a.254163565069/10156606813480070/?type=3&theater

Chocolate Craving Cake From I Am Baker

This week's new recipe for me is one I've had printed out for a couple of years, I think.  No need to rush in!  It keeps popping up on I Am Baker's Facebook page and I "like" it every time.

I made it this morning.  It doesn't look like the original picture, but it is wonderfully, intensely chocolatey.   The 8 x 8 pan size means I may be able to eat it all by myself.  I did have a tester lined up, who could help eat it, but they were unable to make it.  We shall see what next week brings!

https://iambaker.net/chocolate-craving-cake/


I used 2 % milk rather than whole.  I don't mind getting buttermilk for a recipe, because you can always use buttermilk in pancakes or something, but whole milk....nah.    This is one of the few recipes for chocolate cake you'll find these days that doesn't ask for coffee.   Coffee is for sipping with your cake, not going in the mixing bowl.

Her directions have you taking the cake out of the pan, no doubt using the parchment paper from the instructions to lift it to a cooling rack.  Then of course you need to get it on a plate for frosting purposes and eating purposes.  I think I'll leave it in the pan next time.

My cake may be extra chocolately because I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, which I use for everything now.

I should have used my frosting spatula instead of a butter knife to spread the frosting, of which there is a generous amount.  Without further ado, my Chocolate Craving Cake.

A little cake disaster-y looking, but really good.

Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake

We were in NYC last week and had cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery in Grand Central Station.

Heaven in a bite sized bit of frosted cake.   I couldn't stop thinking about the taste and ordered a couple of Magnolia Bakery cookbooks when we got home.

What lovely chocolate perfection.

Chocolate Cake of the Month

I've been craving chocolate cake and meant to try a new recipe each month.  Slow starting, but we're off!

I'm writing on my iPod as usual and will post the link to the recipe later.

This is the I want Chocolate Cake Cake from Smitten Kitchen.

I had problems.  My powdered Buttermilk didn't mix in well.  

Although my butter was properly soft, my mixture of butter and dark brown sugar never got "fluffy" by any stretch of the imagination.

The cooking time was 18-22 minutes but the cake was floaty in the pan by the end of that time so I cooked it till a toothpick came out clean.

The cake is a single layer which is nice. It wasn't the nice nice moist cake I'm looking for.  My buttermilk may have made all the difference.

The frosting is light and chocolatey and just right.

Not the chocolate cake I'm looking for, but nice with a glass of milk.

Mrs. Mary Dow's Dark Cake

I'm cleaning up my picture files.  I'm endlessly fascinated by old recipes and I see this among things I've collected.  If I were way cool, I would have made the cake and had a picture to accompany this but nooo, I am a fool.