Recipe : Ovarian Chocolate Cake

This, my friends, is what happens when your hormones demand satisfaction!
You have heard of Bavarian Cream Pies? Well, this is the Ovarian Chocolate Cake.

By nature I am not a chocolate lover. That is not to say that I do not enjoy chocolate, but I am more of a liker than lover. Every now and then though, particularly when I am ovulating I crave sweets, usually in the form of chocolate. And about a year ago, I was craving it pretty bad so I made this cake. It has become a family favourite and I love to make it for special occasions like Father's Day (My dad is a chocolate fiend!) and like yesterday at my (not so)little brother's birthday dinner.

It is a devil's food cake with pudding between the layers, a mousse frosting and cookie crumb coating. It is a fairly involved cake, but totally worth it! Would you like to make one too? Oh goody! Let's begin.

Ovarian Chocolate Cake

Devil's Food Cake Ingredients/Directions

2 cups sugar
½ cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 eggs, separated
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water
1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease two 9 in cake tins.
2. Put cocoa in small bowl; add boiling water and mix until smooth. Let cool.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for approximately 5 minutes. Add egg yolks and mix well.
4. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add cocoa mixture, sour cream, and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the cake mixture. Transfer to the cake tins trying to keep them as equal as possible.
6. Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. Let the cakes cool.
7. Slice each cake through the middle to make four layers. Let each layer cool before icing.

Now, the easy parts. Filling and icing.

Ingredients (I guess you could call them that)

1 box chocolate pudding (Fudge flavour works really well)
1 cup (250ml carton) 35% whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs sugar
1 box Oreo cookie crumbs (You won't use the whole box, closer to half but I didn't measure this step)

Prepare pudding according to package directions. Spread a thick layer to the edges on three cake layers. And stack to form four layer cake.

To prepare whipping cream put cream, sugar and vanilla in a bown and whip until stiff peaks form. (You can also substitute Dream Whip here if you so choose)

Add remaining chocolate pudding to whipped cream and ice cake top to bottom.

Now, the part that requires a little bit of patience. Adhering the cookie crumbs to the sides without making a giant mess. To do this I poured the crumbs around the cake on the cake platter and then with a knife slowly 'pulled' (for lack of a better word) them up the side of the cake until I was satisfied with how it looked.

And it really does look fantastic doesn't it? But, never mind that how did it taste? Like a little piece of heaven! The combination of fluffy chocolate cake and pudding make for an almost brownie like consistency that is the good kind chewy. Now, there is one little sliver left and I am going to claim it before my chocolate fiend of a father gets it!

Bon Appetit!

Recipe : Tortilla Lasagna Pie

This is one of my most favourite dishes. It is also one of my favourite vegetarian dishes as I make it with beans and veggie ground round. It is so simple and so good I cannot believe I have not shared it before now. It has become one of my comfort food dishes. It is also a fantastic way to use up pantry items and/or left over chili.

Tortilla Lasagna Pie

Ingredients

Tortilla shells 8" work well but if you have a pan big enough you could use 10"
1 pkg Veggie Ground Round or browned ground beef (1lb)
Can of your favourite canned bean (We like black)
1 Green or red pepper diced
1 Onion finely chopped
1 tbsp Cajun or chili seasoning + tsp cornstarch
2-3 cups shredded cheddar

You can also substitute one can (Or two cups of leftover) of vegetarian (like Stag Four bean Veggie) or meat-itarian chili for the beans, veggies, onions and seasoning.


Modus Operandi

Heat 2tbs oil in a pan and add peppers and onions. Saute until soft. Add veggie ground round (or pre-browned ground beef) and beans. Saute until heated through.

Mix spices and cornstarch with a cup of water. Add to bean mixture and cook until reduced to a saucy mixture.

Add 1/2 cup shredded cheese and stir until good and cheesy/gooey. Remove from heat.

Layer:
Tortilla
Bean Mixture
Tortilla
Bean mixture
Tortilla
Bean mixture
Tortilla
Remaining shredded cheese

Pop in the oven @ 350 degrees until cheese is bubbly and brown on top.

Pull out and let rest a few minutes before serving.
Serve with salsa and roasted garlic sour cream (or plain sour cream).
A 9" pie feeds four adults, you could feed more with smaller slices (Like the one pictured) if you served a side like cornbread muffins or something similar. I love this dish though and I chow down on a big piece to myself!

Super simple stuff! Have fun with it and bon appetite!

How To - Baking With Toddlers

This is sort of a combination post. It is both a how to and a post for my MMmmm Good Mondays series. A few weeks ago I had a friend asked me how I was able to bake like I do with the help of a toddler. So last week when Wednesday and I made Whole Wheat Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins I took some process pictures to share with you. You'll have to forgive the quality of the photos, my kitchen gets really poor light so I am playing with the exposure levels some were over exposed and so I had to touch them up. On to the how to though. Before i go on to the instructions though, I would like to point out the obvious. Do not choose a super complicated recipe that takes precise times and measurements and methods like something from Martha Stewart Cupcakes (Heck, I still have trouble with her icing recipes!)instead, pick simple recipes like oatmeal muffins or chocolate chip cookies. That way you and your babe get the most enjoyment out of the exercise from start to finish. Ok, now on to the instructions.


First things first. Measure everything (And I mean everything) before hand. Toddlers have little patience for you while you level of your quarter teaspoons of baking soda. I advise you to measure all big measurements like flour and milk into their own cups and combine the smaller measurements like baking powder and salt in single cups. Crack and fork beat any eggs that are called for in the recipe too. Toddlers love eggs but have yet to acquire the fine motor skills of not getting shell pieces in the goop.


Let them pour everything. So long as it is all pre-measured, you need only direct now. They can do just about everything all by themselves.


They are pretty good at stirring but you might have to take the wheel here just for good measure. Notice the tongue sticking out? That makes the whisk work better.


Now here is tip, one I learned while making these very muffins. If you have to do things in two separate bowls like mix dry with dry and wet with wet, you need to put the current bowl in front of them. It is not enough to say "In THAT bowl!". By that bowl I mean the clear glass one at the end of the counter in the photo. Thankfully, these were not an uber exact recipe and it was okay that the eggs went in with the oatmeal.

Now, we made mini muffins and as a rule I do not use muffin cups with mini muffins, it is one of the reasons I love them so much. That and come on...they're MINI! But, if you choose to make big muffins or cupcakes and do opt for paper cups, you would let your little one put each one in the tray. This was the first thing I would let Wednesday do when I baked. I would separate those tricky little cups and she would put them in. If she crushed them out of excitement, I would just replace it when she was not looking.

I do not advise letting little ones fill the cups though, this is messy even for an adult with leverage over the tray.


While you wait for your muffins/cookies/cupcakes etc. to bake, eat bowl of the filling. In this case we ate a bowl of frozen blueberries. Wednesday has loved frozen blueberries since she was a babe. And she still makes just as much mess while eating them.


Enjoy the fruits of your labours. Who doesn't love some mini muffys? I made the mistake of keeping these close to the counter edge where she could just grab one at will. But they were uber healthy so I was happy she liked them.


Oh yeah, this is how they turned out. Not bad for a two year old eh? She has skills. I let her help me whenever I can. And more importantly I am learning when is and isn't a good time for her to help. By knowing both of our limitations we are able to have much more fun together when we do bake.

I would like to thank Joy the Baker for the very delicious Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffin recipe. They were awesome. Especially with a cinnamon sugar sprinkle that I put on all of my muffins.

Bon-Appetite!

Linked to Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Recipe : Mini Goat Cheese & Onion Quiches

Look pretty darn good don't they? They were! I have to say, I was really proud of myself when these were done because not only were they my first quiches of any kind, but it was my own recipe inspired by what was in our fridge at the time. I had recently bought the goat cheese after reading Eating Animals because it said on the label it was vegetarian cheese, meaning no stomach lining was used to make it. I have had goat cheese before but this stuff was wonderful. We put it in everything for about a week. I wish I could tell you the brand but I have since thrown away the package. If you haven't tried it though, go, do that, right now, I mean it.

Now, if you have never made quiches before, they only sound fancy. I think the biggest pain in the but is the making of the pie dough, and if you already have a recipe you love like I do it is no sweat. In the interest of full disclosure, these were made with defrosted frozen pie dough leftovers from Christmas. Which helped because there are a few steps to these. All are super easy and super tasty though.

Ingredients

Enough pie dough for a double crust pie You can use the guaranteed Tenderflake recipe here or your own.

2 large yellow onions sliced super thin
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp sugar

2 eggs
1/2 cup cream
salt & pepper

1/2 cup fresh goat cheese (a nice feta would probably work too if you have to substitute)
Fresh cilantro (or herb of your choice)

Modis Operandi

For the quiche cups:

-Divide dough in half and roll into balls.
-Roll balls out as thin as you can. (About 1/8-1/4")
-Using a drinking glass or circular dough cutter cut approx 2.5" circles from the rolled dough and place over cups of a mini muffin tin.
-Lightly press sides into cavity.
-Prick with fork on bottom.
-Bake @ 425 until edges are golden brown, remove from oven but leave oven on.

While quiche cups are baking:

-Melt butter in pan.
-Stir in sugar until dissolved.
-Add onions and stir until coated.
-Cook stirring occasionally until onions are a nice dark brown and even a little crispy in places.
-Remove from heat.

After you have removed quiches from the oven and onions from heat:

-Mix together eggs, cream and salt & pepper.

Assembling the quiche:

-Remove dough cups to a baking sheet.
-Cover the bottom of each cup with a couple caramelized onions (depending on how small they cooked down too).
-Add 2 tsp of egg mixture (don't worry if it leaks out the bottom, you can always go back and add more before the next step)
-Add a tsp of goat cheese.
-Top with one or two cilantro leaves.
-Pop back in the oven for about ten minutes. This is just to cook the egg so keep an eye on it.

Shampoo, rinse and repeat for any remaining batches. Two pie dough recipes did almost two full (24) mini muffin tins. You may get more or less depending on how thick your dough is and how heavily you fill your cups with ingredients.

The beauty of these is they taste good the day you make them, the next day warmed up in the oven and even on the third day warmed up in the microwave.

Bon Apetit!~

Lemon Joy Cake

Ahh, blogger how I have missed thee! But I am back now. And with lemony goodness from above! T'was my youngest brother's birthday on Tuesday so we had a dinner for him yesterday. The siblings were supposed to come down from the city but the weather did not cooperate so we had a lot of Leftover Lasagna (to be shared with you next week) and leftover Lemon Joy cake. So I managed to snag a couple photos to share with the recipe(s).



The cake was inspired by the Lemon Meringue Cupcakes I made on Christmas day from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Book. Those were incredible. So tasty, but messy (My icing kept sliding off the lemon curd) but when Matt asked for a non-chocolate cake, I thought this was as far from chocolate as we could get.

The cake is a combination of three different recipes in the Joy of Cooking cookbook. The first is the Lemon Chiffon Cake (pg. 710). I doubled the lemon zest amount and substituted a half cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice for a half cup water. If you have never made a chiffon cake I urge you too. So light, so airy so wonderfully moist. I made it the day before and left it in the pan with plastic wrap to seal it and it was still super fresh when I pulled it out to fill.

The filling is a simple lemon curd recipe (pg. 687) made mostly of cornstarch, water and a bit of lemon juice and zest. I may have doubled the zest called for in this recipe as well, but maybe not. Super simple though. To fill the cake, I slice of a layer off the top, cut a channel with a serrated knife, pulled out the spare cake and filled with curd. Replacing the top piece was easier than getting it off in one piece and once done, you would never have known I hollowed it out.

The icing is Seven Minute Icing (pg. 790). Let me tell you, Joy of Cooking's recipe is super simple compared to the recipe in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. I managed to screw that up on Christmas day, but this one was easy peezy lemon squeezy. It is super sticky, and hardens super fast though so you need to work quick on a light and delicate cake like chiffon. I found the trick was to dollop generously, then spread with a wet spatula and 'slice' the icing off the spatula with a butter knife. After making the cake I realized a video tutorial would have been helpful. Next time, I promise.

The reason I used Seven Minute Icing was so I could brown it with my kitchen torch like meringue. The cake had so many lemon elements I thought a meringue like topping was fitting. It looked wonderful. It tasted wonderful too. It was rich though. The chiffon cake was the perfect base for the lemon curd and super sweet icing. You definitely wouldn't have wanted a sweet buttermilk vanilla cake under that.

Army Tank Birthday Cake Tutorial

This edition of Mmmmm Good Monday is construction instructions for an army tank birthday cake like this one!



There are lots of images of army tank cakes to be Googled. There are even some tutorials out there, but I found that they were all just smidgen vague for my liking. So, forgive me if I break it down too much I am not making any assumptions about your intelligence, it is more a reflection of mine! :)

Note*** I made this from a carrot cake bundt recipe. I cannot see why a regular double cake recipe would not suffice.

Materials:
For tank body:
Cake batter, your choice.
9x13" Cake pan (I used a glass lasagna pan)
4" Ramekin or oven proof dish with straight sides.

For accoutrements
Licorice cigar (cannon) You could always use a tube shaped biscotti)
Licorice pieces halved (tracks)
Circular sweets, I used chocolate covered mint patties (wheels)
Green plastic army guy(s)

Icing:
Your favourite icing recipe. (I used cream cheese because it was a carrot cake.)
Light green or yellow and light blue colour pastes to make a bright light green.
Black (or purple) icing colour paste.

Construction Instructions

Bake cake recipe according to instructions, but watch times because of the rammekin dish. Cut and assemble as pictured below.



Here is a picture of mine pre-icing. Mind the wooden skewer, I broke a corner off whilst removing the cake from the pan.



After the cake has cooled and you have cut and assembled it to something at least resembling the one pictured it is time to ice! First mix your green. Mine looked this at first (It was actually left over from those every cupcakes). Once you are happy with the green, add a little bit of dark purple (I used black) food colouring paste at a time. A little goes a long way and you want your icing to be army green, not grey (I assume.). You don't have to mix it all the way, it will blend itself as you apply it to the cake.

Spread it as evenly as possible. Leave the top of the turret until last. Cut a little hole out and insert a toy army man. Ice around him.I would have liked to smooth mine more but I didn't have the proper tool and really, I just got excited at how awesome the cake looked.



After you are satisfied with your icing job you can apply the wheels, tracks and cannon. I would take care to either leave the cannon as long as you can or insert it almost half way. It saves it from sagging down to the cake. (The cigars are a bit heavy.)

Last but not least, I have made up some cake flags. Cut out and glue together with toothpicks in between. These are great. This way you don't have to find somewhere to write on the tank. (But feel free as it is YOUR cake.)



Happy Baking!

Buttertart Awesomeness!

Mmmm good Monday already! For this edition I bring you Butter tart Mini Muffins! These are so good you will have to give them away to stop eating them. For realz.
I have been on a buttertart binge (well not binge but my butt was paying the price) because the local tartery (Rachel's Tarts) makes the most delish deep butertart with a homemade super flakey crust. But at 160 calories a tart I coudn't keep up the habit. So when I was at one of our local farmers market and a woman had butter tart muffins I thought hey! this might be the answer. Alas, her muffins were just too much. Mostly too much sugar. But I thought hey, if I tone down the sugar and make them in a mini muffin tin we just might have something.

That was weeks and weeks ago. The muffins were baked on Friday. I ate little else for two days. Thank goodness they are gone! But ow I have another gift I can make for Christmas Presents. I found the recipe through a google search and it was perfect. You can find it here at Chatelaine.com. But, I like to give the recipe text for linkaphobes.
Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups ( 375 mL) raisins
• 3/4 cup ( 175 mL) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup ( 125 mL) butter, cut into chunks
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup ( 125 mL) milk
• 1 tsp ( 5 mL) vanilla, rum or butterscotch flavouring
• 1-1/2 cups ( 375 mL) all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ( 10 mL) baking powder
• 1 tsp ( 5 mL) baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup ( 125 mL) walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup ( 75 mL) corn or maple syrup

1. Place raisins, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot, slightly thickened and just beginning to bubble, from 4 to 5 minutes. Cool slightly, uncovered, in the refrigerator, while continuing with recipe.
2. Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Grease 12 muffin cups or coat with cooking spray. Stir flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in centre and pour in warm raisin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in nuts until evenly mixed.
3. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake in centre of preheated 375F (190C) oven until golden and a cake tester inserted into centre of muffin comes out clean, from 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately pour about 1 teaspoon (5 mL) syrup over top of each muffin. Cool in cups for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Muffins are wonderful served warm. Store in a sealed bag at room temperature for up to 2 days or freeze.

* If you make mini muffins like I did, cook for 8 minutes and just drizzle a smidgeon of corn syrup on the top.

Peanut Butter Goodness!

For today's edition of Mmm Good Monday I bring to you two wonderful peanut butter treats! Ron's favourite baked goodie is peanut butter cookies so when I baked him up a batch I had to bake myself something so that I wouldn't eat his cookies. I found a great peanut butter oatmeal bar that was awesome.

The cookie recipe is from Kraft's website and only bakes up a dozen, not enough in my book. But it is fairly low in sugar and high in awesomeness.

1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter (Kraft or a nice natural works well)
1/2 cup sugar (White works best but I like brown too)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 325º F.
MIX peanut butter, sugar and egg.
ROLL into 1-inch balls. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets.
Flatten with fork.
BAKE 15 min. (Do not overbake.) Let stand on baking sheets 5 min. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

And you get twelve of these delectable goodies!



The peanut butter bars were found through a google search for peanut butter and oatmeal. Unfortunately I forgot to bookmark it and I can't seem to find the one I used so for now you just get a picture of the uber tasty bars.



These lasted a few days and were perfect for snacking and taking places when we were in a hurry. I hope I can find the recipe (I printed it out at least just can't find that either.)

As the days get cooler I am hoping to use our crockpot more, maybe next week I'll have a chili recipe to share. :) (Or you could share yours with me!)

Bon Appetit!~

Blueberry Pie made to order...

Happy Monday my fellow foodies!

Mr. Sweet and I were invited to a birthday dinner this evening and a blueberry pie was requested. At first I was a little trepidatious about making a pie because my experience with pastry is nil. The last pie I made was when I was seventeen, a bittersweet 14 years ago. A cherry pie incident that never really faded from memory. But I digress. I thought it is now or never, if I really want to call myself a baker (and I do, I really do) than I must take on...the pastry.

So, remembering a conversation with my mom about lard and shortening (shortening makes a great crust for those that are experienced crust makers)I bought a pound of Tenderflake (lard) and two bags of frozen wild Canadian blueberries.

The crust was so easy I thought I must have screwed it up. Seriously, I think I had the crust for both pies rolled out in a matter of tennish minutes? Maybe fifteen. The filling was equally easy since it was just sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch and...blueberries. Four cups per pie!

The crust recipe is from the box of Tenderflake, I made the three double crusts and froze one of them.

Ingredients........
5 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1 lb of Tenderflake Lard
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 egg, lightly beaten
Water

Mix together the flour and salt

Cut in Tenderflake Lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal or peas.

In a 1 cup measure, combine the vinegar and egg. Add water to make the 1 cup measure full. Gradually stir liquid into the flour/lard. Add only enough liquid to make dough cling together. I used my hands, and had no remaining liquid but I like to keep my surfaces floured.

Gather this into a ball and divide it into 4 portions. Be sure to cover whatever you are not using at the moment with saran wrap to keep from drying out.

Roll out each portion as you need it on a lightly floured surface.

For the Pie Filling I used the recipe from Joy of Baking.

4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Egg Wash:

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream

In a small bowl mix together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest. Place the blueberries in a large bowl. Add the sugar mixture to the blueberries and gently toss to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell. Then, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and cream. Lightly brush the rim of the pastry shell with the egg wash. Starting at the outside edge of the pie, place the cut out pastry stars in a circular pattern on top of the blueberries, making sure the tips of the stars are touching. Once the top of the pie is completely covered with the pastry stars, brush the entire surface with the egg wash, making sure that it does not pool. Place the assembled pie back in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Remove the chilled pie from the fridge and place on a larger baking pan, lined with parchment paper, to catch any spills. Bake the pie for about 20 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Continue to bake the pie for about 35 - 45 minutes or until the crust is a deep golden brown color and the juices are bubbling and thick. If the edges of the pie are browning too much during baking, cover with a foil ring.

Place the baked pie on a wire rack to cool for several hours. The pie needs time for the cornstarch to thicken and leaving it be (or putting it in the fridge) for a couple to three hours is recommended. We tried to eat it warm and it was good but the juiced leaked out where we sliced into it. We then put the second pie in the fridge to cool completely and just warmed it in the oven at the party and it was perfect. We also chilled the pie we sliced into and waited till evening to eat it and it turned out great as well.



This pie is super simple and super tasty. I am so happy with it that I intend on making tarts with the renmaining frozen dough. I am really happy though because now all those recipes that call for crust (quiche for example) can now be added to the to-do list. Also, with Thanksgiving next week I am now adding pie to my roster of treats to bake! For serious I think Mr. Sweet fell in love with me all over again today. ♥

Mmmm Good Monday on Tuesday...

I am a day late and dollar short I know. But the weather here has been sub par to say the least and when the weather is dreary so is the lighting in this apartment. But, today I managed to get a picture of a piece of the delicious cake I made yesterday.



I have been holding on to this recipe all summer wanting to try it but with all of the birthdays to make cakes and cupcakes for it kind of got put on the back burner (no pun intended). With the dreary weather and no birthdays in sight yesterday I was able to buckle down and bake it. Even Wednesday gave me the breathing room I needed to bake up a storm. Gosh that kid is great. The result was a very tasty Berry Coconut Cake from Canadian Living Magazine's website. Recipe and nutritional information to follow.

Berry Coconut Cake

1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened
3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
1-1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) sour cream
3/4 cup (175 mL) each raspberries and blueberries
(I used a frozen mix totaling almost two cups)
Topping:
1 cup (250 mL) shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
2 tbsp (25 mL) butter, softened
1 tbsp (15 mL) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp (1 mL) cinnamon

Preparation:

Topping: In small bowl, combine coconut, sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until crumbly; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time; beat in vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt ; stir half into butter mixture. Stir in sour cream. Stir in remaining flour mixture.

Spread in greased 9-inch (2.5 L) square cake pan. Sprinkle with raspberries and blueberries. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 60 to 75 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack.

Nutritional Info
Per serving: about -
calories 425
protein 5 g
fat 21 g
carbs 54 g

A couple notes:
I don't know if my oven is baking hot these days but I used frozen berries and still baked it for 15 minutes less than the recipe called for (55 minutes instead of 60-70).
The same thing happened with the lemon loaves I baked last week so it could be my oven. But it could have been the glass cake pan I used for the cake. All I can say is watch your cake and start checking it at 55 minutes. (I use a wooden skewer.)

I only had sweetened coconut and was not about to go out to buy a lowly bag of unsweetened. So I halved the brown sugar amount in the topping. It was good, maybe a little sweet but not too sweet. Good. But if you have unsweetened I would probably recommend it.



There is one last piece sitting in the pan on the counter as I type this and it will take all of my will power not to eat it.

Bon Appetit ~!

Dad's 50th Birthday Meatitarian Feast

For this weeks edition of Mmmm good Mondays I bring you Cheeseburger Cupcakes and a feast fit for any carnivore!

We themed the party "Meatitarian" after the Wendy's commercial. Ron and I are raising Wednesday vegetarian and we ourselves only eat meat rarely and when this commercial was released we recieved a couple phone calls from our family making reference to it. We decided to use it as the them to the dinner because my dad is always complaining about the lack of meat at dinnertime these days and I thought he would be able to appreciate a meat buffet.
The buffet consisted of dry rubbed and marinated for two days in a homemade sauce by Ron and then slow baked in the oven ribs, meatballs slow cooked in a crock pot in the same homemade bbq sauce, Sweet and spicy Thai chicken wings, two coleslaw (another homemade ginger sauce by Ron) type salads, bake potatoes, cheese bread, mac n' cheese bake and the Cheeseburger Cupcakes for desert.

The cupcakes were almost as big a hit as Ron's ribs. I got a lot of oohs and aahhs but Ron's ribs were eaten into extinction. I tried a couple meatballs and although the sauce was wonderful I cannot stand ground beef and it's meatballs counterparts. Give me a meatless meatball any day! I did manage to fill up on a bake potato with sour cream and some mac n' cheese. After the entire day in the kitchen making the cupcakes, I really was not that hungry anyway.

The cupcakes were inspired by this flickr tutorial set. I tweaked them a bit using brownie hamburgers (inspired by Martha's brownie cutouts from her Cupcakes book) and buttermilk in the vanilla cake mix (it was a *gasp* box mix) and I made my own vanilla icing recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. A tip: Dust your cookie cutter with cocao to cut out browine 'burgs. I used icing sugar without thinking first and well...you can see where I am going with this.
Topped with some killer 5-0 shaped sparklers they were worth all of the effort.

Better than all of the cooking and baking though was having my family here. My sister and brother were here from Toronto for the night and my other brother came in from Kingston the day of the dinner. Very close friends of the family made it in from out of town for dinner and cake and it was great. Said friends even bought dad a t-shirt that went perfectly with the theme it said "There is room for all of God's creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes." I was sad when everyone had to start heading out hoping to beat the Sunday night traffic but I was exhausted at the same time. After battling that cold this month, having a child who now rises with the sun (literally) and company, visiting and baking I am truly exhausted. I slept like a rock last night and I just might nap with Wednesday in the next hour.

Then again, I might start another craft project because I am a glutton for punishment.

Mmm good Mondays!

Happy Labour Day my fellow North Americans! And a very happy Monday to any readers from other parts of the globe!

It has been a whirlwind time here in Sweet Home Ontario and so I have a lot of posts to post and yet not enough time. As a way to help me organize my thoughts I thought I might give a theme to a few days of the week starting with today. Mondays are officially Mmm Good Mondays! and as a premier post I bring to you Pineapple Banana Muffins!



Mmmmmm good right?

I recently had a lot of fresh pineapple around the kitchen that needed to be used up before it went to rot. This was a perfect way to use it up (that and dried pineapple flowers ala Martha Stewart). They took no time to make even without the help of my handy dandy Kitchen Aid counter top mixer. The muffins turned out perfect and lasted a couple days (I made two batches) tasting fresh(ish) right until the last muffin. Here is the recipe text copied from the Cathlin Cooks blog.

½ cup olive oil
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons rum
3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup pineapple


Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a muffin tin. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and rum. Combine the mashed bananas and eggs in a separate bowl and add to the sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir it into the banana mixture. Chop up a cup of fresh pineapple and add to batter. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let cool in the tins before removing to cool completely.

***

As you can tell from the photo they turned out perfect and perfectly delicious. I would also like to point out it was tricky finding a recipe calling for fresh not canned pineapple and this one was worth the search.

Side note: As a child growing up i thought all pineapple tasted like that from a can. Was I surprised when I had my fist taste of fresh, perfectly ripened pineapple. I haven't been able to consider, let alone bake/cook with and or eat. But for at least twenty years prior I had no idea the deliciousness of a fresh pineapple. Crazy isn't it?!