Dare to try someone else’s favorite | Chocolate cake with fudge frosting

It’s time for us to try another family’s favorite recipe. It might mean stepping out of our chocolate cake comfort zone because if you’re like me, you have your own favorite way of making chocolate cake and cupcakes. And your favorite frosting.

Since I’m not much of a cake eater anyway, the only one I make is heavenly chocolate cake with snow frosting. It has Miracle Whip in it which keeps the cake nice and moist. My favorite frosting is the white, sticky, marshmallow-like frosting that we call snow frosting (you may know it as 7-minute frosting). But last fall at the Minnesota Blogger Conference, my friend Michelle shared with me her recipe for margarita cupcakes and we got to talking about chocolate cake. She told me that her family’s favorite is a chocolate cake that she makes with sour cream. The dense, fudgy frosting is her favorite part.

In the picture below, I baked a dozen in my tiny tart pan and piled three into a cupcake tower topped with shaved white chocolate and mini chocolate chips.

I was skeptical. Everyone thinks their chocolate cake is the moistest — kind of like how every fisherman thinks he guts and debones a fish better than anyone and that there are “no bones in fish that he cooks” but there are always bones. (My dislike for bones is reflected in “Buffalo chicken dip for people who don’t like bones or blue cheese“.)

The cupcakes were a hit! I brought them along on our Easter weekend to Minneapolis and the kids (and moms) ate them up. I actually liked the frosting better the second day so it was a perfect treat to bake and frost the day before we left. Thank you, Michelle Hals, for sharing your family favorite with us.

Chocolate cake with fudge frosting

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (4 one-ounce squares)
1/4 cup butter
1-2/3 cups boiling water
2-1/3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a small saucepan over low heat melt chocolate, butter, and boiling water. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a small mixing bowl, beat eggs with a whisk and then whisk in the sour cream and vanilla until smooth.

Slowly add the melted chocolate mixture to the dry ingredient mixture. Stir until combined.

Now add the egg mixture to the cake batter and stir until silky smooth.

Pour into a 9×13-inch cake pan and bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes. You can also make two round cakes (bake for 35-40 minutes) or approximately 2-1/2 dozen regular cupcakes (bake 25 minutes).

The frosting is extremely generous so go crazy especially on the cupcakes!

FROSTING
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
1 (12-oz.) package semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
2-3 tablespoons milk

Over low heat, melt the chocolate chips. Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat shortening and butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar. Once the chocolate is cooled a little (just make sure it’s not hot), pour into the frosting mixture. Add milk as needed to get to your desired spreading consistency. Frost the completely cooled cakes or cupcakes.

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Busy weekend. Lazy weekend. | Peanut butter KISSES cookies

Certainly there are fancier, more homemade baked goods that come out of our ovens. But let’s not kid ourselves. Even though we crave fresh-bakes cookies, on some weekends we are just too busy, and on some gray cozy Saturdays we are just too lazy, to spend more than half an hour baking and cleaning up the kitchen.

The good thing is that even as classic and simple as these are, I’ve never known a kid, or any human for that matter, to refuse a HERSHEY’S KISS surrounded by a soft peanut butter cookie. That’s why these used to be the perfect classroom or 4-H party treat. (B.P.A. – Before Peanut Allergies)

And I love that I can use my new bowl that I got from my mom last Christmas. It’s from the General Store of Minnetonka in Minnesota — an incredible shopping experience.

Another one-bowl peanut butter and chocolate recipe that makes a couple dozen pop-in-your-mouth goodies is Reese’s P.B. Poppers. Basically, your pantry shelf should always hold a package of peanut butter cookie mix and either HERSHEY’S KISSES or miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Peanut Butter KISSES Cookies

1 package peanut butter cookie mix and the ingredients to make them

1/4 to 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, optional

approximately 36 HERSHEY’S KISSES milk chocolate candies, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350˚. Make the cookie dough according to package directions; stirring in 1/4 to 1/2 cup peanut butter to dough if desired.

Place dough by tablespoons on a cookie sheet. I make the cookies really small because my favorite part is the middle bite that has a chocolate KISS with a little bit of soft peanut butter cookie stuck on the bottom. If you make them really small, you’ll get approximately 36 little cookies from one batch.

Bake according to package directions. Do not overbake. Remove from oven. Immediately place an unwrapped HERSHEY’S KISS in the center of each cookie, pressing down gently. Cool 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

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Yes! Yes! | Everyone deserves a gooey caramel brownie recipe

You may be as surprised as I was to learn that there are people who don’t have a gooey caramel brownie recipe. Shocking, I know. But if you are one of them, let me share my Yes! Yes! brownie recipe with you. In under 45 minutes, you’ll have a hot pan of gooey, caramel-stringy, could there be more chocolate, brownies on your kitchen counter.

The summer of 1990, I was just out of high school and I worked at 3M as a plant manager. Literally. Besides sorting smocks for laundry, I cleaned bathrooms, refilled vending machines in the cafeteria, and watered the plants around the offices and lobby areas. So they jokingly called me the plant manager. It was during this stint that a co-worker, Judy B., shared these brownies and I’m pretty sure I begged for the recipe.

Years, and years, oh my gosh, 23 years and 50 extra pounds later, my recipe card is bent and crinkled and the plastic protector is melted on the entire left side. When I bring these bars to work now, they disappear. But I never really thought there are people who don’t have their own recipe for caramel brownies. So I never blogged it. I assumed people would be like, “What?! As if I don’t already have a recipe like that.” Boring.

Then one morning I almost fell off my couch when I was watching my favorite T.V. show and Ree from Food Network’s Pioneer Woman showed the world how to make Knock You Naked Brownies. And I was like, “What?! I’ve been making those for years!” Not boring. And then I felt like there was no place for me in the blogging world anymore because anything I had to offer had already been done.

A few months later at work, my friend Mary said she was still waiting for me to blog my caramel brownie recipe. I told her I hadn’t blogged it because I figured everyone had a similar recipe and didn’t need mine. Mary didn’t. She needed my recipe. And for you chocolate lovers out there, you know I really mean needed.

So now, I share it with you. And when you bake them for your friends and they beg you for the recipe, you will say, Yes! Yes!.

{Yes! Yes! Caramel Brownies}

50 caramels (I buy a bag of Kraft caramels and use them all, minus the few my kids run away with.)

1 package chocolate cake mix (Any flavor will do – milk chocolate, chocolate fudge, german chocolate, etc.)

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 small can evaporated milk, divided into two portions, 1/3 cup each

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I cover the pan of brownies so who really knows how much that is.)

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, mix melted butter, cake mix, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and nuts. This can be done by hand. Spread half of this mixture into a lightly greased 9×9-inch or 13×9-inch cake pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Take out of the oven.

Melt caramels with 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Stir until creamy.

Cover the hot crust with the chocolate chips, then pour the caramel mixture over the chips. Top with the remaining batter and bake the 9×9 pan for 20-25 minutes and for the 13×9 pan, bake 15-18 minutes.

Cool completely before cutting. Store in an airtight container. Share with everyone you know.

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Your IT guy knows how to make monster cookie bar strips

He’s been holding out on you. No, it’s not about monster (strip) bars, your IT guy knows how to bake! His secret is out – and from one big, bad batch, you can make a 10-pound pan of golden brown monster bars and at least two dozen Monster cookies easily mistaken for small pizzas jammed with M&M’s, oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.

For the sake of privacy, we’ll call him Rich. Ok, maybe it wasn’t his idea to cut the bars into strips and triangles, but Rich was the one who brought these to work in 2007. And I’ve only used his monster cookie recipe since.

I recommend you use a sturdy, wooden spoon toward the end of the mixing process in this recipe. If you try to whip these up with nothing but your electric mixer, it’ll start smoking like a hot summer night’s fire pit.

I like to make a pan of bars and roll the rest of the dough into big cookie balls and put them in the freezer to bake another day. (Use a cookie scoop so you are making similar sizes.) Line the balls of dough on a large cookie sheet(s) and put them in the freezer. Don’t let the cookies touch each other. Once they are frozen, you can put the cookie balls in plastic containers or plastic freezer bags. When you want fresh-baked Monster Cookies, grab how many ever you want from the freezer and thaw. Then bake as usual at 350° for approximately 12-16 minutes, depending on how large they are.

Monster Cookies, Bars and Strips

2 sticks softened butter

2-1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 teaspoons baking soda

6 eggs

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

1 Tablespoon vanilla

9 cups quick-cooking oats

2-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

3-1/4 cups plain M&M’s

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pans. If you want to use all your cookie dough at once, you can make one 13×9 pan of bars (baking time takes about 20-25 minutes) and at least two dozen large cookies (baking time takes about 12-16 minutes). Or, you can make two 13×9 pans of bars. Or, if you only want cookies, you can make at least six dozen large cookies or even a few more dozen if you make them smaller.

1. In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream softened butter and peanut butter together.
2. Add white sugar and brown sugar, beating until well combined.
3. Add baking soda.
4. Add eggs and beat well.
5. Pour in the corn syrup and vanilla. Continue mixing until everything is incorporated well.
6. At this point, you should be able to add at least a few cups of the oats and still use your mixer. But once the dough gets too heavy, stop using the mixer and continue adding oats stirring the batter with a wooden spoon. Use your sexy arm muscles.
7. Stir in the M&M’s and chocolate chips.

If you are making bars, spread half of the dough into a 13×9-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until nice and golden brown. If you take the pan out before they turn golden brown, the middle will not be done.

For cookies, baking time depends on how large you make them. Place on cookie sheet. Using the back of a spoon, gently push down the dough a little but so that they spread out instead of baking in one mound. Bake at 350° for 12-16 minutes, or until golden brown. I like to sprinkle just a tiny bit of pink Himalayan salt or sea salt on mine when they come out of the oven.

That’s it! Now you’ve got enough monster cookies, bars, and strips to share with your favorite IT guys. And gals.

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Kiss my orange chocolate brownies

A teaspoon of zest and the juice of an orange turn a bowl-full of powdered sugar into a creamy kiss from the sun on top of these chewy, chocolate brownies.

I recently purchased the Better Homes and Gardens Brownies & Bars magazine and the first treats I made were Orange-Kissed Chocolate Brownies.

They are worthy of making again so I’m keeping track of this recipe, with a note to serve with ice-cold milk or steamy coffee. The only thing I might add next time is a dash or two of Grand Marnier^® to the brownie batter.

Next on my list from this magazine are:

1. Toffee-pumpkin pie bars
2. Apple-cinnamon streusel bars
3. Goat cheese brownies with honey swirl
4. Pistachio and cream cheese sugar cookies

Speaking of orange and chocolate desserts, here’s a good recipe for orange-chocolate cheesecake from KFAFT. It’s the one I photographed for the title header at the top of my home page. Of course, I add Grand Marnier^® to that recipe too. I’m one of those parents who’ll notice their liqueur missing from the baking pantry, not the liquor cabinet.

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They Ate All But Three | Chewy Cocoa P.B. Chip Cookies

It’s not clear to me how it happened, but somewhere between the pumpkin pie, washing the dishes, opening presents, and setting out all the goodies, all but three of my chewy cocoa peanut butter chip cookies disappeared.

And I faintly recall what sounded like a Food Network cookie review behind me as we washed dishes. There was talk of “they’re so soft,” “I like the crunchy edges,” and “there’s a perfect ratio of chocolate and peanut butter.”

Speaking of Christmas cookies, we can’t be the only family that’s overly ambitious with our Christmas baking. Between the bakers in my family, there are six ovens, six mixers, and countless pounds of sugar involved in the making of our annual goodies feast. Of course, we eat a traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, too.

And this table is not an accurate account of how many sweets we really had because there are more in the refrigerator and a big stack sitting on my entryway bench that hadn’t made it to the table yet. Luckily, we all pack up containers of our favorites and enjoy them for a few weeks after Christmas.

Chewy Cocoa Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10-ounce package (1-2/3 cups) peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir together and then gradually add to the butter mixture; beating until well combined. Stir in the peanut butter chips until they are distributed evenly into the cookie dough.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. The cookies will not look like they are done but they will puff up a little when baking and then they’ll drop when they are cooling. They are soft with a little crunch around the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.

Forget about cooling completely. Start eating them after they’ve cooled 15 minutes or so. Store in an airtight container. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

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Minty Cream Cheese Cookies

It’s a cookie that swerves completely off the track from traditional chocolate chip cookies. You’ll grab a cookie thinking you’ll eat just one. You take a bite, roll your eyes back in delight as you chew the lightly crisp edge. With the next bite comes the soft, dense center that’s dotted with minty chocolate chips. A few more bites and you don’t even realize it but your hand is reaching for another.

1 cup butter-flavor shortening

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-3/4 cups mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add shortening, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well combined.

About half a cup at a time, mix the flour into the cream cheese batter on low speed just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. The cookies don’t spread so they are about the size that you place them on the pan.

Bake 8 minutes or until just lightly browned. Don’t overbake. Cool a few minutes in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

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You know how most cookies are best warm out of the oven? These are good then too, but they seem even better after they’ve been sitting around a few hours or a day or so. What’s even better is if you make the dough, refrigerate it a day or two and then bake them. But keep your eye on the dough. Once the kids find out it doesn’t contain eggs, they’ll be sneaking spoonfuls when you’re not looking.

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What’s in the layers? | Marshmallow chocolate cream cheese bars

You may recognize these treats from childhood potlucks in your church basement or from family reunions with people you didn’t really know. And unless your mom shared the recipe with you, the secret layers in these marshmallow chocolate cream cheese bars have long been revealed only to those who bake them.

Each bite holds four layers of cake-like brownies, sweet cream cheese, chewy chocolate, salty pecans, sticky marshmallows, and soft, almost flaky, chocolate vanilla frosting. You will wear a path in the floor to the refrigerator.

Prepare yourself — you’ll use three mixing bowls, a small bowl, and a saucepan to make these bars. But trust me. I would never steer you down a dishwashing path if it weren’t absolutely, without a chocolate doubt, worth every squirt of dish soap.

Marshmallow chocolate cream cheese bars

Brownie base:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (do not substitute margarine)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 (1-ounce) square unsweetened chocolate, melted and set aside to cool slightly

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup pecan pieces or chopped pecans

Cream cheese layer:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/4 cup butter, softened (do not substitute margarine)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup pecan pieces or chopped pecans

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 cups miniature marshmallows

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter

2 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 (1-ounce) square unsweetened chocolate

2 tablespoons milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, melted chocolate, and vanilla; mix well on medium speed. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Gently stir into chocolate mixture. Fold in the pecans. Pour into a greased 13 x 9 pan and spread evenly.

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter and beat until well combined. Beat in the sugar, egg, flour, and vanilla until creamy. Fold in the pecans. Spread evenly over the chocolate layer. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the cream cheese layer and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Edges will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Do not overbake or the brownie layer will be dry.

Remove the baking pan from the oven. Sprinkle the marshmallows over the chocolate chips. Bake another 2 minutes or until the marshmallows become puffed. Remove from oven. Gently spread the marshmallows over the layer of chocolate chips. Cool on a wire rack.

Frosting:

In a small saucepan over low heat, cook and stir the butter, cream cheese, unsweetened chocolate and milk. Slowly melt and stir until smooth. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time, beating after each cup. Beat in vanilla. Spread over the cooled bars. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen, depending on how large you cut them.

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The mint candies will be gone soon | Mint Pretzel Kisses

We’ve all seen them, probably even eaten a few — pretzels with melted candies gently pressed into their salty crevices. With all the different flavors people have created, I still go back to my favorite that my mom started making a few years ago. She uses Mint M&M’s candies. They’re the white, green, and red milk chocolate candies that have only been available around the Christmas holiday. So stock up, because they will be hard to find soon.

A few fun recipes I’ve seen for different pretzel snacks are Rolo Pretzel Turtles from Steamy Kitchen, Rolo Pretzels with Pretzel M&M’s from Two Peas and Their Pod, Candy Cane Pretzel Kisses from Cookies and Cups, Peanut Butter M&M Pretzel Kisses from Simply Scratch, and Dark Chocolate Mint Pretzel Kisses from Cookin’ Cowgirl.

Mint M&M’s Pretzel Kisses

Bag of mini pretzel twists or squares

Bag of HERSHEY’s Milk Chocolate Kisses

Bag of Mint M&M’s Chocolate Candies (They are usually in the Christmas candy isle.)

Preheat the oven to 200°. Place pretzels on a cookie sheet. (The number of HERSHEY’s Kisses you have determines how many pretzels you need.)

Unwrap the Kisses and place one in the center of each pretzel. Bake in the oven for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes. The Kiss will not look melted. Remove the pan from the oven. Immediately and gently push one mint M&M into each melted kiss. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. If there’s any left after sitting out all day.

If you haven’t made these before, here’s a tip. If you don’t bake these long enough, the kiss will be melted only on the top half. When you try to push the M&M into it, it won’t really stick well. On the other hand, if you bake these too long, the chocolate and turn hard again and when that happens, there’s no going back. You can’t reheat them to fix it. My suggestion, bake at 2-1/2 minutes and then remove the pan and try an M&M. If it works right away, great, you are done. If it seems to only push down halfway, stick in the oven for another 30 seconds. Check again. It only takes a few seconds too long to over-bake.

What kind of pretzel snacks do you make?

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{I Can’t Bake at 350 | No-bake S’mores Bars}

No-bake goodies are a hit in the summer when we don’t want our ovens to heat up the house. Like these S’mores bars. But now it’s fall and kitchens everywhere are heating up with warm nutmeg, spicy ginger, and creamy pumpkin sweets.

Except at my house. My oven is broken. So, to prevent myself from going into a serious I-can’t-bake-depression, I’m flipping through my recipe box for recipes that will satisfy my need to preheat to 350°. Gooey, chocolatey S’mores bars do the trick.

The key to making S’mores bars taste like the real campfire deal is to use HERSHEY’S chocolate candy bars.

S’mores Bars

3/4 cup light corn syrup

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips, preferably HERSHEY’S

2 (4.4-ounce each) HERSHEY’S chocolate candy bars, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

9 cups Golden Grahams cereal (12-ounce box)

3 cups mini marshmallows, plus a handful to sprinkle over the top if desired

Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with parchment paper or non-stick foil, or grease pan lightly with butter.

Microwave the corn syrup, butter, 1 cup milk chocolate chips, and 1 HERSHEY’S candy bar in a large bowl, uncovered, on medium-high for 1-1/2 minutes. Stir until almost smooth. Microwave again, uncovered, until large bubbles form on the surface, about 2-1/2 minutes longer.

Stir in vanilla. Pour the cereal in the bowl and toss until coated with mixture. Fold in the marshmallows. Chop the other HERSHEY’S candy bar and fold into the cereal mixture. Dump into the pan and press evenly with the back of a large metal spoon sprayed with cooking spray. Toss a handful of mini marshmallows on the top and tap down so they stick. If you have a kitchen torch, lightly toast the marshmallows.

Let cool completely. Cut and share.

See more of my no-bake recipes.

What other treats could I make while I wait for my oven to get fixed? The stove top still works.

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