Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

The sky is gray and I just heard some thunder. You know what that means? This day has lots of cookie baking potential! Here is a very easy, soft Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe that would be just perfect for this gloomy looking weather.

Chocolate Chippers

1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour (I used Spelt)
1/4 Cup Cornstarch
3/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add vanilla. Mix dry ingredients (excluding chocolate chips) in a separate bowl, and then gradually add to butter/sugar mixture. Finally add the chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake in at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on size. Do not over bake. The recipe makes around 5 dozen depending on size of cookies.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake

Hi Everyone! Sorry its been so long. I got locked out of my own blog for some unknown reason, and just finally managed to log in today. But, seeing as that doesn't really matter, here is a beautiful cake that you need to make!

I'm sorry, the pictures aren't very good today, but you at least can sort of get the idea. Here is a side view:

Well sort of a side view I guess. Here's what it looked liked on the inside:

And here is what it looked like on my plate with ice-cream:

Yummm.... Now that your tired out from all the pictures here is the recipe:

Chocolate Cake Recipe

1 Cup Milk
3/4 Cup Cocoa
1 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups Sucanat
1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Sea Salt
4 Large Egg Whites at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9 inch round cake pans (You can also use one 9x13 inch pan if you would like) with olive oil and dust with whole wheat flour.

2. Heat the milk in a medium saucepan until barely simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa until thickened and almost smooth (some clumps will remain). Let stand 2-3 minutes to cool slightly. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla extract.

3. Mix the flour, 1 1/4 cups of the sucanat, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

4. Beat the egg whites in a medium sized mixing bowl with an electric mixer until thick and foamy. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 Cup of sucanat and continue beating until still peaks form when the beaters are lifted.

5. Pour the cocoa mixture over the whole wheat flour (and other dry ingredients). Stir just until blended.

6. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in about a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolatey flour mixture. Gradually fold in remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.

7. Pour batter into prepared pans (or pan)

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes (this depends on the pan or pans you are using), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

9. Cool completely and then decorate!


For the cake I made I used this recipe using the two pans. When they were done (cooled and out of the pan) I made my own icing, using whipping cream, vanilla pudding mix, and strawberry jell-o mix. The icing was my own concoction so I don't really have a recipe for it, but it's something along these lines.

Pour a about 1 litre of whipping cream in a medium sized bowl, Whip until it gets quite foamy, but still rather runny. Add a bit of vanilla pudding mix and whip just until mixed in. It should be pretty thick. Add a bit of strawberry jell-o mix and finish whipping until rather firm and spreadable. I added the Jell-o mix until it had a nice color and a nice flavor.

I'm sorry if the recipe isn't very clear, I really should have written it down while I was making it, but in all truth, I wasn't sure if it was even going to work out.

Now, I finished up the cake by icing the top of the bottom cake, adding sliced strawberries, then staking the other cake on top. I then iced the whole cake and had fun putting strawberries on. For the strawberry in the middle I dipped it in chocolate, for the chocolate drizzled strawberries I piped melted chocolate on them. As for the flowers on the sides, I piped them onto waxed paper, froze them for about half an hour and then carefully peeled them off and put them wherever I wanted. I have never piped chocolate before, this was just kind of an experiment, but all I did was melt chocolate, but it in a plastic bag, cut off the corned, and then piped. Now the plastic bag ripped a few times, do I would recommend using a piping bag if you have one. I just don't think the plastic stands up to the heat very well. Here is a website that tells you more in depth on how to pipe chocolate if your interested. And here my friends is the chocolate I piped:

This cake may look intimidating, but trust me, it's easier than it looks and it's a whole heap of fun!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Monster Cookies

Here in beautiful Whitecourt, Alberta, it is finally warming up. I am finally able to wear shorts and they other day I even brought my younger brothers to the park.. In my opinion this calls for a celebration! How about we head out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine and when we get back, we can reward ourselves with some delicious monster cookies.

Monster Cookies

6 Eggs
2 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Tbsp. Vanilla
1/2 Tbsp. Corn Syrup
4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Cup Butter
3 Cups Peanut Butter
9 Cups Oatmeal
1/2 lb Chocolate Chips (I just add until I think looks good.I don't measure)
1/2 lb Smarties (The same goes for the Smarties, I don't measure, I just add)

Mix in order given. Bake at 350 Degrees for 12 minutes (The time depends on how big you make them. I did mine for 8 minutes) Make sure you do not over bake. Not that these do not contain flour.