Pie + Cake = Pake

There's a silly little show I watch on the Lifetime channel called Drop Dead Diva. The main character's friend tried to make a pie, but the cookbook pages stuck together and she made a cake in a pie shell. Thus was born the pake. A lot of people expressed interest in making their own pakes, so they came up with a recipe (originally posted here):

Classic Pake Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Store bought frozen pie crusts
Store bought cake mix of your choice (we recommend Red Velvet)
Store bought frosting of your choice (we recommend Cream Cheese)
Eggs (as needed on cake box)
Vegetable Oil (as needed on cake box)
1/2 cup White or Dark chocolate chips (if desired)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Leave the frozen pie crust out to thaw while you are mixing the cake batter. [I made 2 pie crusts from scratch; they worked just fine.]
3. Prepare the cake batter per the instructions on the box.*Note: This will make enough filling for two Pakes. [I made a chocolate cake from scratch, adding 1 box of instant chocolate pudding so it wouldn't be too dry.]
4. Gently poke a few small holes in the bottom of the pie crust, being careful not to poke through the tin.
5. Pour half of the cake batter into each pie crust, approx. 1/2” below the edge. *Note: the cake mix will raise above the edge of the pie crust during baking.
6. Mix in chocolate chips if desired. [I wish I had done this.]
7. Place the Pake on a cookie sheet, and place in the oven on a middle rack.
8. Bake for approx. 35 minutes at 350°F. After 35 minutes, turn oven down to 325°F and continue baking for another 12-15 minutes or until cake is finished. (You can test the cake by sticking a toothpick in the center and pulling it out. It should be relatively clean with very little cake crumbs stuck to it.) [My pake needed another 10 minutes, totaling 25 minutes at 325° F]
9. Let the pake cool completely.
10. If desired, cut the top section of the cake off and place a layer of frosting (or filling of your choice) on the lower half of the cake. Replace the top section. [I did not do this and didn't miss it.]
11. Scoop the remaining frosting onto the cake and frost to the edge of the pie crust. [1 can of frosting is the perfect amount for 2 pakes.]
12. Garnish with dollops of whipped cream around the edges, sprinkles, candy pieces or a cherry (as desired). [Whipped cream would have been good on it. I used sprinkles on one, and pecans, mint chocolate chips, and drizzled caramel on the other.]

Here are my results:

One plain, one frosted

Samuel said, "Delicious!"

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

These cupcakes are amazing so I had to share! Plus, they are chocolate! I got this recipe out of Relish, a magazine insert in our local newspaper.

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
4 ounces chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 cup buttermilk (I used a cup of milk plus 1 Tblsp lemon juice that sat for 5 min.)
2 tsp vanilla (oops. I forgot that part!)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 6-cup muffin tins or line with papers.
2. Combine peanut butter and powdered sugar, beat until light and fluffy.
3. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and slat together in a medium bowl.
4. Combine butter and granulated sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add chocolate and beat until combined.
5. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture and beat to combine. Add vanilla and mix well.
6. Fill muffin tins half full with batter. Spoon about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter mixture on top of batter (don't spread). Spoon remaining batter over peanut butter. Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool and frost with your favorite peanut butter icing.

*Note- the recipe only makes 12 so double if you want more. Mine needed the full 20 minutes to bake through because of the peanut butter center.
*I don't have a favorite pb icing recipe so I used a combination of softened butter, milk powdered sugar and pb. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Delights

When there's a chill in the air, I have a strong desire to make pumpkin recipes. This year I wanted to break away from my usual pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. My search yielded muffins and shakes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a 12-count muffin tin.
2. Put the dry ingredients, from flour to salt, in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar and oil, mixing until combined. Then mix in the pumpkin and water. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients; beat just until moistened. Mix in the chocolate chips.
4. Fill the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.


A typical can of pumpkin holds about one and a half cups of pumpkin puree. So I found a recipe that uses up the rest of the can of pumpkin. However, it only makes about 2 cups. That was not enough for the whole family. So you can either make this after the kids go to bed, or double the recipe to share with everyone. Of course, it's so yummy that you can double the recipe, pour it in a graham cracker crust, and chill in the freezer for a frozen pumpkin pie. Mmm . . . frozen pumpkin pie.


Pumpkin Pie Shake
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup milk, non-dairy creamer or water
~1/2 cup (or the rest of the can) pureed pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla
cool whip for garnish (optional)

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend. Add an extra 1/4 cup of milk if needed. Pour into your cup(s) and top with cool whip, if desired.

Fun with coconut milk

Sometimes we have coconut rice--which is just jelof rice (I've told you about that one before) with a little coconut milk added. But Uchenna likes only a subtle coconut taste, meaning we use only about 3 or 4 tablespoons of said milk. That leaves me with most of a can to use before it goes bad. So I've been experimenting, and here are a couple of results.

Chocolate coconut cookies

Basically, I just make chocolate cookies and replaced the oil with coconut milk, rolling them in shredded coconut rather than in powdered sugar. Also I cut the recipe in half, since it originally made 6 dozen--too much for me.

I was concerned that the coconut milk would add too much fat, but it actually has a lot fewer grams of fat than the oil it replaces. There's that whole saturated vs unsaturated thing, but I just don't think about that.

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup shredded coconut

Mix cocoa powder and sugar. Add coconut milk, eggs--one at a time--and vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill several hours or overnight (I tend to skip chilling in other cookies, but in this case the dough is pretty thin so it's necessary).

Heat oven to 350 deg. Pour shredded coconut into a small bowl. Drop spoonfuls of dough into the shredded coconut and roll them around until they form a coconut-covered ball. Place about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes about 3 doz cookies.



Coconut-Curry Chicken Salad Sandwiches

One time I made coconut-curry chicken, but the cooked chicken I used shredded as it mixed into the sauce and looked completely unappealing. Unwilling to waste it all, I strained the chicken back out of the sauce and sauteed new chicken that obediently stayed in docile little chunks. But what to do with the curry-flavored shredded chicken? It made lovely sandwiches! So here's the recipe in a less roundabout way.

1/4 onion, diced

1/2 clove garlic, minced

1 - 3 tsp yellow curry (depending on your taste)

1/2 Tbsp lime juice

1/3 c coconut milk

1/4 tsp chicken base or bullion granules

salt and pepper to taste

2 lb cooked chicken, shredded

lettuce

wheat toast or toasted croisant

mayonnaise, if desired

Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add curry, lime, coconut milk, chicken bullion, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in shredded chicken. Chicken should be moistened enough to hold together without being overly saucy.

Use as chicken salad on toast or toasted croissants with crisp lettuce and maynnaise, if desired. Makes 4 sandwiches (I think).

Easy Truffles

Many of you are familiar with Martha Stewart's truffles, which are delicious, but a bit temperamental. I found this recipe in a tea party book I bought for my girls. It is really easy, very stable, and pretty good.

Easy Truffles

1 c. chocolate chips--buy Guittard or Ghiradelli--I like semi-sweet
1/4 c. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla (or flavoring of your choice)

Topping--choose one or be creative
melted chocolate for dipping--about 1 c.
3 Tbsp cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp powdered sugar mixed together for rolling

Microwave the chocolate and butter together on medium power for 1 minute, stir. Microwave in 30 sec. intervals until the chocolate has melted, stirring between times. Stir in the vanilla. Spread the mix out on a parchment lined plate if you want square truffles. If you want round, just leave it in the bowl. Put the chocolate in the fridge for one hour--don't leave it much longer than that or it will be too hard to work with. Cut your truffles into squares or form into balls. You should have around 12 truffles. Put the truffles back in the fridge for at least another hour. You can also freeze them. Dip the truffles in melted chocolate or roll them in the cocoa/powdered sugar mix.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Peppermint Bark

Okay, so this is less of a recipe and more of a funny story. I was at Costco the other day and they had all their yummy Christmas food out. It was hard to keep from drooling on everything. They had some peppermint bark and I thought, "I have got to make some of that." It's Halloween though, so I wanted to make it look seasonal. I put some green food coloring in the white chocolate and called it Monster Mash-up. We had it last night for FHE. Maggie says, "This is so yummy, Mom. We should have it again." Aaron says, "Yeah, with a more seasonally appropriate name." I'm thinking, "Sure, peppermint bark." And then Hannah comes in with "Elf Disaster." I laughed so hard. I'm still laughing just thinking about it. Maybe we should pass it out as our neighbor gifts this year.

Here is what I did in case you need to make some Monster Mash-up or Elf Disaster--just for giggles. I melted 1 cup milk chocolate chips and spread them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and put it in the freezer to cool. Then I melted 1 cup white chocolate chips and added 1/2 tsp mint extract, green food coloring and 1/4 c (ish) crushed peppermint candy. I spread it on the milk chocolate and sprinkled more crushed peppermint candy over the top. I put it in the freezer again to cool and broke it up into pieces to serve. It was pretty good, but I think Emily's is better.

Fudge (need I say more?)

On a recent trip to California, I realized that I kept buying fudge at the sweet shops. Although I enjoyed the variety, I was always a little disappointed with the fudge itself. Then I thought, "I have a great fudge recipe. Why not make my own variations?" So I did. In August, no less. My family has a tradition of making fudge only at Christmas time. But it's not written in stone, so I broke the tradition! Mwahahahaha! (sugar induced maniacal laughter)

Abbott's Fudge
my great-grandma's recipe

2 1/4 cups sugar
6 oz (or 1/2 a can) evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 pound Hershey chocolate bar
7 ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 cup chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

1) In a large bowl, break up the chocolate bar into small pieces. Add the marshmallow creme. Set aside.

2) Combine sugar, milk and butter in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil. Turn down the heat to medium and boil for 4 minutes, stirring constantly.

3) Immediately pour over the chocolate and marshmallow. Stir thoroughly.

4) Add chips and vanilla; mix until smooth.

5) Pour into a well greased pan (large pan = thinner fudge; smaller pan = thicker fudge). Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before cutting. For easier cutting, dip a knife in hot water.

Variations
Toffee: During step 4, mix in 1 cup Heath bits. After it's poured in the pan, sprinkle a bunch on top.

Mint: Add 1 cup Andes mints bits in step 4, mixing until smooth. Sprinkle some on top, also.

Peanut Butter: Mix about 1 cup smooth peanut butter into step 4. Sprinkle mini Reese's pieces on top.

Rocky Road: Stir in 1 cup chopped walnuts in step 4. When it is mostly cool, gently stir in a couple handfuls of mini marshmallows and pour into the pan.

Snickers: Add 1 cup chopped peanuts during step 4. Pour half the fudge into the pan, followed by a thin layer of caramel (like the ice cream topping), and then carefully add the rest of the fudge. Sprinkle with diced peanuts and mini chocolate chips, then drizzle with caramel topping.

Turtle Cake

This is one of Dominic's favorite cakes, which translates to very rich and chocolaty.

Note: For ease of transcribing recipes, I'll just write milk. For those with a milk allergy or intolerance, I replace the milk in all my recipes with a non-dairy coffee creamer, which works fine.

1 chocolate cake mix
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
5 T butter
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel topping
1 cup pecans, crushed

1) Bake cake mix according to the package directions, using a 9x13" pan.
2) Toast pecans on a cookie sheet in a single layer @ 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. Put chocolate chips in a bowl; set aside.
3) In a small saucepan, mix sugar and milk over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add butter and bring to a boil; pour over chips. Stir until smooth.
4) Spread warm chocolate mixture over the cooled cake. Drizzle caramel over the chocolate. Sprinkle with pecans.

Serve warm or cooled.