Banana Nutella Swirl Cake

No picture sorry. My sister Katie found this recipe on a blog (http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/) It is DELICIOUS and even better the second day!

For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose Gold Medal flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (to equal 1 cup)
1/2 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth, about 3 min. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix in the mashed bananas.

Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until flour disappears. Spread cake batter evenly into the prepared pan. Swirl the Nutella into the cake using a knife or toothpick.

Bake for 20 to 25 min (mine took closer to 35-40), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely.

For the frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup Nutella
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp hazelnut extract, optional (I didn't have any so I didn't use it)

Beat the butter and Nutella on high until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk and beat on high until powdered sugar is incorporated. If you need to add more milk, add a little bit at a time to get to desired consistency.

Frost the cake with the Nutella frosting, cut into squares and serve. (Very important: keep some in the pan for yourself for breakfast the next day!!)

"Favorite" Chex Treat

This is another one from the Favorites recipe book.  I loved it and it was popular at my office.  One of my friends suggested making it as a "neighbor gift" for Christmas, etc.  It makes a ton and I had to use our big stock pot and a biggest mixing bowl to mix it all together.

1 (12 ounce) box Corn Chex
1 (13-ounce) box Golden Grahams
2 cups flaked coconut

Mix together cereal and coconut in a large bowl - or stock pot :-)

1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup butter
1 (4-ounce) package slivered almonds (if you like almonds, you may want more)

Mix sugar, corn syrup and butter in saucepan and boil 3 to 4 minutes.  Pour over cereal mixture and coconut and toss to coat.  (Will be hot, be careful!)  Then add slivered almonds and toss again (if almonds are added first, they stay on the bottom of the bowl).  Spread out on waxed paper to cool.  (I just spread it on a greased cookie sheet because we were out of wax paper, at it worked just fine.)

Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Bars

This recipe comes from a book my friend Jen Purdy put together for me, of all her favorite recipes. It was an awesome wedding gift, I love it! She's a wonderful cook.

1 C shortening

¾ C sugar

¾ C brown sugar packed

2 eggs

1 t vanilla extract

2 ¼ C flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 C miniature marshmallows

1 C chocolate chips

(¾ C chopped nuts)

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in marshmallows, chips (and nuts, if desired).

Spread into greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350° F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

"Too Much" Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze

I made this for Spencer's Birthday. The cake is a recipe I found and adapted from Allrecipes, then I finished it off with chocolate frosting and a peanut butter glaze (recipe also found on Allrecipes).

Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix (I used German chocolate because I had it on hand, but I'm sure devil's food or any other form of chocolate cake would work just fine)

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups peanut butter chips

Peanut Butter Glaze

4 teaspoons water

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon peanut butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the peanut butter chips and pour batter into a well-greased 12 cup bundt pan.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in the pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate. While cake is cooling, make peanut butter glaze. Frost the cake with chocolate frosting then drizzle with peanut butter glaze, I doubled the glaze recipe for this cake. You will most likely need to heat the glaze up slightly to be able to drizzle it.

Root Beer Float Cake with Root Beer Glaze

I had a yellow cake mix that I needed to use soon, but I wanted to do something different with it. I found this recipe last week and decided to try it at Richard's request for his and Ben's birthday party on Sunday. I'll give you the recipe as written and add some comments onto the end.

Ingredients

1 (18.25 once) package yellow cake mix

12 fl. ounces root beer

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons root beer

Root Beer Glaze

Combine the confectioners sugar and 3 tablespoons of root beer in a small bowl. Beat until smooth.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. *I greased and "sugared" our Bundt pan instead and I recommend this because it adds a lovely caramelized crunch to the outside.

In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, 12 ounces root beer, oil and eggs until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes before inverting on to a wire rack to cool completely. Poke holes in the cake with a skewer at 2 inch intervals. Pour Root Beer Glaze evenly over the cake.

Serve with vanilla ice cream to make it a "root beer float." Serves approximately 14, or one, 10-inch Bundt cake.

***Here are some things I noticed and did differently and some other suggestions given by reviewers of the original recipe:

• Many people complained online that the cake didn't have enough of a root beer flavor. If you'd like a little bit more of a root beer flavor, I suggest adding 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon root beer extract to the cake batter.
• We tripled the root beer glaze. This made the cake nice and moist and gooey and increased the root beer flavor. I suggest at least doubling it. If you add more root beer it will be more of a sauce, if you add more confectioners' sugar, it will be more of a frosting.
• One reviewer suggested removing the cake, pouring the glaze in the pan, then putting the cake back in the pan (up side down) and letting the cake soak up the glaze. To increase the distribution of the glaze, I poked about 2-3 times as many holes in the cake as the recipe suggested and I thought this worked really well.
• Instead of a glaze, one reviewer adds root beer to whipped cream.
• The person who submitted the recipe online crushes up root beer candies and sprinkles them on the top when she serves her cake.
• Nutrition Information: 240 calories, total fat: 9.3 g, cholesterol: 46 mg.

Liege Waffles

There is a restaurant called Bruges Waffles & Frites here in Salt Lake City that makes these waffles.  They are to die for, but kind of expensive so I decided to learn how to make them myself.

What makes these waffles extra special is the pearl sugar (also known as nib or hail sugar).  Pearl sugar melts at a higher heat so it doesn't burn as quickly as regular sugar and is often used in baking.  I found pearl sugar at The Old Dutch Store here in Salt Lake.  It is imported by Chicago Importing Co. and this link lists the stores that carry their products.  You can also find it at some specialty baking stores, Scandinavian or Dutch stores (just do a search for your area), and I've also heard about people who have been able to get it from IKEA and Whole Foods.

Belgian pearl sugar (about .7") is larger than Swedish pearl sugar.   Belgian size is traditional for these waffles, but I would like to try the Swedish sugar next time (tried it and it wasn't as good, stick with Belgian pearl sugar).   The Belgian sugar makes yummy pockets of caramelized sugar, but be warned: it is very very rich!
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 (1/4 oz.) package dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 sticks melted butter (8 oz.)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla or 1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla sugar (optional)
cinnamon (optional)
1 to 1 1/2 cups pearl sugar

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. Put flour in the bottom of a large bowl and make a well in the middle.  Gradually add all ingredients to the flour, except the pearl sugar. Let dough rise until it doubles in size (approx. 30 minutes).  Gently kneed in Belgian pearl sugar.

Divide dough into small patties about 3 to 4 oz. each.  Bake in heated and greased waffle iron.  It is better to grease the waffle iron with butter rather than Pam because the waffle will be dry with Pam.  Any waffle iron will work, you don't need anything special.  Caution: the melted sugar can be on the surface of the waffle and is very hot.  Be careful when removing the waffle and wait a minute before serving.
Serving Suggestions:
The Belgian pearl sugar box says, "In Belgium, sugar waffles are eaten at any time of the day - breakfast, coffee breaks or dessert.  Sugar waffles taste great and remain crispy either cold or warm.  Serve plain or drizzle with warm melted chocolate or caramel.  Also try them with a dollop of whipped cream."

My favorite way to eat them is warm with homemade whipped cream and fresh raspberries.  The tart fruit is perfect with the sugar.

Creamy Banana Berry Ice Cream

This was so creamy and delicious! It was a perfect treat for summer and so yummy with all the fresh summer fruit.

3 ripe bananas

Juice of 3 oranges

Juice of 3 lemons

5-6 cups fresh strawberries or raspberries, clean and hulled

3 cups of sugar

4 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

Ice

Rock Salt

Place first 5 ingredients in bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade (or use blender and blend the bananas and orange juice; then blend the lemon juice, strawberries and sugar then combine in a bowl). If you like chunks of fruit in your ice cream, process less, if not blend/process until smooth. If using raspberries, leave whole and do not process.

Add cream slowly, then add milk. Pour mixture into a 6 quart ice cream maker and freeze according to directions. Makes 1 gallon.

When the ice cream maker goes off, it will look like fluffy mashed potatoes. To make hard packed ice cream, freeze it for 2-3 hrs. minimum, but overnight if you can wait. :)

*Next time we think we'll add a dash of vanilla and maybe cut out 1/2 cup of sugar. Also, we have a 4 quart ice cream maker and when pouring this into the container, it came to just under the "fill to this line" mark. I wouldn't expect this to fill a 6 quart ice cream maker.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

Filling

1 package (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon milk

Batter

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup water

1 cup milk

1/2 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

6 tablespoons baking cocoa

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and milk until smooth; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, water, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened (batter will be thin).

Fill paper-lined jumbo muffin cups half full with batter. Drop "scant" tablespoonfuls of peanut butter mixture into center of each; cover with remaining batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes of until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

In a large bowl, combine frosting ingredients until smooth; frost cupcakes. Store in the refrigerator. Yields: 1 dozen jumbo cupcakes.

*Ok, there are a couple things I should point out:

• The batter will be very thin and runny.
• I guess when they say "jumbo cupcakes" they mean Costco muffin size cupcakes. I used my regular large cupcake tins and instead of 12 cupcakes I filled 24 cups with batter.
• I have no idea what a "scant" tablespoonful is really supposed to mean, but I used at least a tablespoon-sized scoop of filling for 13 cupcakes (and wouldn't suggest using any less). I just baked the rest of the batter as plain chocolate cupcakes. If you make these and use regular large muffin tins--and want them to all be peanut butter-filled--I would double the filling.
• My cupcakes were done around 20 minutes (probably because they weren't "jumbo") so I would time them for 20 minutes or less at first.
• 1 jumbo-size cupcake had 509 calories in it!

Traditional Irish Breakfast

Here it is, The most traditional Irish Breakfast you could ever imagine! How can you go wrong with a little bowl o' Lucky Charms? Top of the mornin' to ya!

Ingredients:

Lucky Charms Cereal

Milk

Bowl

Spoon

Enjoy!

** Ironically, they don't even have Lucky Charms in Ireland. Also, the Irish think we are silly for celebrating this Holiday!