Alexandria, Va

Had dinner with a few friends from college tonight. The plan was that I would make dinner, and my friend Chucklebum and I would bake together for the blog. This is what actually happened:

Dinner: Kona chicken with rice and steamed veggies

Start making dessert

"Let's have some wine!" "YAY!!!"

"Let's slosh our way through dessert making!" "Gyurrrggghhhh..."

Result: Ice cream cupcakes

We tried four different kinds of ice cream for our cupcakes: strawberry, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and banana. Considering that it was messy, and the brownie bottoms baked a little too long, the result was pretty fantastic! It was easy and tasty! Check out the link above for "Joy the Baker's" recipe.

The chicken was just as effortless and tasty, although I omitted the honey and baked it instead of using a slow cooker. It was such a relief to be cooking/baking again after eating out every day for a week! I really, really missed being able to choose my ingredients and be part of the cooking process...isn't that sad?

Chocolate cake x 2

I recently posted about a chocolate cake recipe that I modified to be butter/oil free. I frosted with an easy peanut butter frosting that I found on allrecipes.com. It was a nice cake, but it wasn't *bam-doodily* fantastic, so I'm not sharing that recipe. (Although it had a dark chocolate flavor, it was kind of dry.) Do check out the pb frosting recipe though!

Later that week, I made some chocolate cupcakes for a friend's birthday, and used PIONEER WOMAN'S CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE recipe. Instead of making it fully free of butter, I substituted half of the fat for mashed bananas, and the result was moist, chocolate-y, and bladow, ALL up in your face.* Please please please try this recipe today. My family and friends loved it at half fat level, so I'm guessing that a full butter batch can only be abso-freaking-lutely incredible.

  I love you too, my little lovecakes.

I did not use PW's frosting, but half ass(embl)ed my own. Combine: 1 can cream cheese frosting, softened cream cheese (I used neufchatel), baker's cocoa, confectioner's sugar, room temp. milk, vanilla extract, and dash of cinnamon. All of those amounts will vary by your taste and texture preferences, so just add a little bit at a time, and then whip it until light and fluffy.

Found these little star shaped sprinkles at Fred Meyer.

 Candy letters also from Freddie's.

* Translation: It was delicious.

Bavarian Apple Torte from Joy of Baking

So those apples that I referenced in the last post? I've made a few things with them, but am still looking for that WOW, THAT'S ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTLEY FANTASTIC apple recipe.

Bavarian Apple Torte

 I burned the top just a bit in my quest for a golden look. Luckily, it didn't affect the taste.

So it's not really a true to the recipe, since I didn't have almonds or a spring board pan. I also didn't have any confectioner's sugar, so I just whirred some white sugar around in the food processor until it was powdery. My next step to halve the recipe. It's usually dessert for only 2 people, so I didn't want the torte to sit out for longer than necessary if we didn't finish it immediately. You'll notice that in the pictures, the apple slices extend to the edges of the baking dish. That's because they're in little ramekins...our apples are not gargantuan here in Washington.

I enjoyed working with this recipe. It was really easy to make, and the shortbread crust was my favorite part. If I make it again, I'll probably take the skin off the apples (I forgot then got lazy), and more cream cheese. Always. More. Cream. Cheese. Considering that I lacked some of the ingredients/utensils, baked them in ramekins (which was more than enough for 2), and burned the top, it was a success because it was still edible (and tasty).