Chocolate Rum Cake

I had never eaten a rum cake until two months ago.  We sell them at the store I work at, and one day I was able to try it when we set out samples for the customers.  They’re absolutely delicious!  It tasted like a lighter, moister pound cake with a lot of rum flavor. 

Then, Tim, my friend and co-worker, brought in two chocolate rum cakes on separate occasions.  They were even more amazing!  The cakes were rich, full of chocolate, and heavenly.  I asked him for the recipe and he told me it was an adapted recipe of Epicurious’ Mocha Rum Cake.

I baked this chocolate rum cake for Eric’s family’s Thanksgiving.  I thought chocolate cake would be a good dessert option for non-pie eaters.  I used the Epicurious recipe as a start, and then adapted it.  This cake is half the size of the original, and it doesn’t have coffee in it.  It has lots of butter in it, lots of melted chocolate, and a moderate amount of spiced rum.

And then I brushed more rum on top of the cake, after it was done baking.  You prrrobably shouldn’t serve this to little kids.  You probably shouldn’t bring it to a Thanksgiving dinner where there are little kids who love to eat chocolate cake.

I was running low on ingredients, so I made up an impromptu glaze for the cake using butter, cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar and corn syrup.  It was good, and did the trick, but when I bake this cake again, I think I’ll use a dark chocolate ganache instead. 

Thanks, Tim, for the inspiration and recipe!  Be sure and check out Tim’s blog –  Worst Beer Blog Ever.  He started writing it a month ago, and posts frequently about beer, restaurants, and food.

Chocolate Rum Cake

3/4 cup unsalted butter
4 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat inside of a Bundt pan with butter.  Lightly dust with flour.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Remove pan from heat and whisk in chocolate until melted.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together brown sugar, eggs, milk, rum, vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture until well combined - about 2 minutes.  Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture and chocolate chips until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 300 degrees F., and bake an additional 20-25 minutes or until well risen, set, and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with moist crumbs attached.  Cool 30 minutes on a wire rack before running a knife around outer pan edges and inverting onto a platter.

To make the glaze, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat; whisk in cocoa powder, confectioners's sugar, corn syrup and vanilla until well combined and smooth.  Cool glaze enough for a good "drizzling consistency", and drizzle on top of cake.

Makes 8 servings

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

 

I’m experimenting with using Windows Live Writer, so things might seem a little wonky on here until I figure it out.  I’m hoping the pictures look okay, because I don’t think I’m going to renew my Flickr account this year.  Also, our Internet has been painfully slow for the last couple of days.  If this post gets published, it’s a miracle.  This chocolate milk I’m drinking is a little distracting, too.  It’s just so darn delicious. 

I’m thinking about upgrading my camera now.  I’ve used my Nikon D40 a little over three years now, and I think I’m ready for a new one.  But I’m sort of clueless on what I should get.  It seems like there are a ton of DSLR’s and lenses out there.  It’s so confusing!  I’d appreciate any advice you could give.

Anyway, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  Did you do any Black Friday shopping?  Eric and I drove by some stores and looked at the lines wrapped around the building, but we didn’t actually do any shopping.  No possession is worth waiting in line outside in the cold! 

Our Thanksgiving was good.  Good, but uneventful.  I baked a chocolate cake and this pie that I brought over to my parents’ house.

I think you officially become an adult when you decorate your house for the holidays.  I’m not quite there yet.  My mom is….

She did most of the amazing cooking.  Look at her sprinkle those onions on the green bean casserole!

This is Eric’s corn casserole he made.  It was delicious.  Good job, boyfriend.

These are my mom’s famous sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  My fav.  This is what did me in.  I went back for seconds and made myself sick.

We headed over to Eric’s family’s house a little while later for more food.  His aunt made these little turkeys out of Oreos, peanut butter cups, mini marshmallows, candy corn and frosting.  Too cute!

Mmm smoked turkey legs.

They play a lot of croquet at his family’s house.  I didn’t partake because I’m a wimp and couldn’t take the cold.  It had nothing to do with my awesome croquet skills, I assure you.

The highlight of my Thanksgiving was eating this pie.  I thought it was really, really good.  I gave myself a pat on the back for baking it.  The crust recipe is my own, but the pie filling recipe is my friend Tim’s recipe(husband of friend Tina. ).  Hey look at that!  I can add little smiley faces using Windows Live Writer.

Tim acquired the recipe from his mom sometime in the late eighties, but we don’t know the original source.

I did make a few changes: I toasted the pecans and browned the butter for a little extra flavor.  Other than that, the recipe is the same.  It’s perfect!  I’m going to bake this pie every single year because I love it so much. 

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Pie Dough
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
4 tablespoons cold cream cheese

2 cups pecan halves
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1 cup corn syrup (1/2 dark, 1/2 light)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

To make the pie dough, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor; pulse until combined.  Add butter and cream cheese, and pulse until just combined, and a dough ball forms.  Shape dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Thinly roll out dough on a lightly floured surface; transfer dough to a pie dish, and crimp edges.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place pecans on a cookie sheet; bake 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook 2-3 minutes, whisking frequently, until butter foams and turns light golden brown.  Cool 5 minutes.  Whisk in chocolate chips until melted.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, bourbon, vanilla and salt until well combined; whisk in chocolate butter mixture until well combined.  Whisk in pecans until combined.  Pour filling into pie shell.  Bake 50 minutes, or until well risen, set, and golden brown.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 9 servings

The Hunt for Dark Karo Syrup

I actually like Tofurky. But I eat tofu and faux meal products sometimes.

I've been looking for dark Karo syrup for a week now. Who knew you had to buy this stuff a month in advance? I was foolish to think I could buy it a week before Thanksgiving. I've been to four different grocery stores and they've all been wiped out.

It's really starting to make me mad. I had to buy light corn syrup... ugh. I always thought light corn syrup was more popular than dark. I thought wrong. So my pecan pie will be without dark Karo this year. Sigh. This is going to be the WORST Thanksgiving ever!

I'm only kidding, of course.

Thanksgiving isn't about Karo corn syrup, pecan pie, the mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce.

It's about giving thanks. Yes!



Giving thanks to your wonderful mother who made mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. (No cranberry salad this year, though. Cranberry salad is whipped cream, cranberries, sugar, pineapple, pecans, and mini marshmallows, and yes, it gives you the diabetes.)

Giving thanks to your dad who made a turkey and a ham. (Oh dear lord, haaam!) I get weird cravings for ham sometimes. And goat cheese.

Giving thanks to your sweet sisters who are always there for you.

Giving thanks to your sweet, perfect boyfriend.

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for many things. I'm thankful for my wonderful family, new friends and old friends, my family and friends' health, my own good health, a place to live, a car that runs, food on the table, and a new job I love.

And eggnog, yoga pants, and Honey Bunches of Oats.

I'm thankful for all of you! Thank you for being you! Thanks for stopping by and reading every day! Or maybe you don't, which I competely understand, because wasn't this post kind of a waste of your time?

What are you thankful for??

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Be safe and don't drink too much Beaujolais Nouveau.

Bananas Foster Peanut Butter Pie

So I'm guessing a lot of you already have your Thanksgiving desserts planned. But, if you don't, I have another pie recipe for you.

My baking plans aren't set in stone... they could change at any minute. I like to decide what I'm going to bake the day before. Or possibly even the day of. I like to live life on the edge, as you can see.



This pie recipe comes from Taste of Home's Christmas 2011 cookbook

Taste of Home sent me a copy, because this recipe of mine is in it! Except they changed the name to "Bananas Foster Pie", which I think is misleading because it has peanut butter in it. Bananas Foster doesn't have peanut butter in it.



I've been published in magazines before, but this is my first time being published in a cookbook! I was pretty excited when I found out.

Did you know I love bananas? I do. Favorite fruit, right here, ladies and gentleman.



What we have here is basically a spiced peanut butter banana cream pie. The crust is made up of ground up vanilla wafer crumbs or shortbread cookie crumbs, butter, and sugar. The filling is a custard made with egg yolks, milk, brown sugar, spices, rum and peanut butter. In the original recipe, the custard is poured on top of the bananas in the pie shell. When I made the pie last week, I blended the banana into the custard. I kinda prefer it that way. I think it tastes better... although the custard isn't as pretty. Bananas + peanut butter custard=gray



I was in a hurry when I made this and took the pictures, so it's not the prettiest pie I've ever made. Don't let that prevent you from trying it. It's really, really good! Also, I could not get the whipped cream fluffy when I was beating it with a mixer. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. I have no idea what the problem was.

Anyway, then you just drizzle some caramel syrup and sprinkle some peanuts on top to make it a little prettier. If you have peanuts, that is.


Bananas Foster Peanut Butter Pie

1/4 cup unsalted butter, plus an additional 2 tablespoons
1 1/2 finely ground vanilla wafer cookies or shortbread cookie crumbs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark rum
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 medium ripe bananas
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped salted peanuts
1 tablespoon caramel syrup

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 1/4 cup butter; stir together melted butter and crumbs until well combined; press into a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven and cool.

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, melt additional 2 tablespoons butter; cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Whisk in milk, brown sugar, flour, rum, cinnamon, ginger and salt; bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Whisk egg yolks together in a medium bowl, and gradually whisk in half of hot milk mixture until combined; whisk the egg mixture back into saucepan containing remaining milk. Heat mixture, whisking frequently, until it just comes to a boil, starts to thicken up, and coats the back of a spoon - about 1-2 minutes; strain into a large mixing bowl. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla until combined.. Cool bowl over an ice bath for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Peel and diagonally slice bananas 1/4-inch thick, and layer into bottom of crust. Pour peanut butter filling over bananas, lightly cover, and cool completely in the refrigerator, about 1 hour, or until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, make the whipped cream: combine heavy cream and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on high speed, and beat until stiff peaks form - about 1-2 minutes. Spread or pipe whipped cream evenly on pie.

Sprinkle peanuts over the top, drizzle with caramel syrup, and serve.

Makes 8-10 servings

Peanut Butter-Toffee Chocolate Chip Cornflake Cookies

I've been doing some thinking about what I want to bake in the future, and I've come to a conclusion. I want to only bake and blog about cookies in the month of December. Can you imagine a whole month of cookies?! It's going to be great, I tell you.



I will try and have some creative and different cookie recipes for you; hopefully ones you've never heard of before. Right now I'm baking a small, experimental batch of cookies. Cross your fingers they turn out okay! They're malty, chocolatey, crispy, and filled with a flavored buttercream. That's all I'm giving you right now.

Just a few fun ingredients makes these Peanut Butter-Toffee Chocolate Chip Cornflake Cookies unique. I guess I really don't have to tell you what's in these cookies now; it's all in the title!



Toffee bits, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and corn flakes. Using corn flakes in a cookie is different, but not unheard of. You might have heard of ranger cookies?

I love the texture of the cornflakes in cookies; they make them crispier. Plus I love the corn-flavor they bring to the party.

You could SUBSTITUTE corn chex cereal, as well. Mmm chex mix. That's one of my favorite snacks. I filmed my mom making chex mix at Christmas time one year. She pretends she's Martha Stewart. It's hilarious. I'd show you but she'd kill me.


Peanut Butter-Toffee Chocolate Chip Cornflake Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely ground corn flakes
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup toffee bits
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook 2 minutes, whisking frequently, until butter foams and starts to turn golden. Pour butter into a large mixing bowl.

Add brown sugar to mixing bowl. Mix, using a mixer on medium speed, for 2 minutes. Mix in peanut butter, egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt until well combined - about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in corn flake, flour, toffee bits and chocolate chocolate chips until just combined. Chill dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool.

Makes about 10-12 big cookies

Layered Amaretti Apple Pumpkin Pie

One week until... well, one week until Thanksgiving Eve. Haha. I'm getting very excited. How about you? What are you making for your big feast? I'm baking a bourbon chocolate pecan pie, possibly another pie or pumpkin roll, and maybe some rolls. My parents usually handle everything else. Everything they make is always amazing. I'm pretty excited about the sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows.

Would I chose the sweet potatoes over the turkey? Absolutely. I would chose the stuffing and mashed potatoes over the turkey, too. I love turkey, but my mom's cornbread stuffing is amazing; she uses sage from her herb garden.

I don't want to speak too soon, but I *think* I don't have to work next Thursday! That's good because I have a lot of eating on my agenda that day.



I'm sure a lot of you are planning your Thanksgiving menus this week. If you're looking for a dessert that's different than your typical pumpkin and pecan pies, then you might try this Layered Amaretti Apple Pumpkin Pie.

It all starts with a homemade, buttery, cream cheese pie crust. You could definitely use a frozen pie crust, though. Last week I tasted a pie crust made from Pillsbury's refrigerated pie dough rounds, and it was really good! I'm not going to hate on their pie crusts, because it tasted homemade to me.



Anyway, after making your pie crust, your make the pumpkin filling by whisking up pumpkin puree, brown sugar, cream cheese, egg, and cinnamon, and placing it into your pie crust. <-- Easy as pie.

The pumpkin layer gets a quick bake, and then is topped with the apple filling made out of sliced apples, spices, and brown sugar. I usually use Galas for baking. They're always a reliable apple.

Next comes the amaretti topping, which I think we can all agree on, is the best part of the Layered Amaretti Apple Pumpkin Pie. Can I tell you something important? I had never eaten an amaretti cookie until a month ago. They are good! You have to try them if you haven't already. They are little Italian meringue cookies made from egg, sugar, and ground up almond or apricot kernels.

The amaretti topping is delicious; it's a combination of ground up amaretti cookies, almonds, butterscotch chips, oats, brown sugar and butter, all mushed up together before being sprinkled on top of the apple layer.

Bake for 1 hour and you have pie!! I had trouble resisting this one. I kept picking off the topping and eating it.

That's all I have for today. Are you making any unique pie recipes this Thanksgiving?


Layered Amaretti Apple Pumpkin Pie

Crust
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces chilled cream cheese
8 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
2 tablespoons shortening

Pumpkin Filling
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Apple Filling
6 cups thinly sliced apples (Gala)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove

Amaeretti Topping
1/2 cup coarsely ground amaretti cookies
1/2 cup coarsely ground almonds
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

To make the crust, in a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar and salt until combined. Add in cream cheese, butter and shortening, and pulse until combined and a dough ball forms. Shape dough into a flattened disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes before rolling out.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough (using a rolling pin) on a floured surface, into a round – about 1/8-inch in thickness. Transfer dough round into a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish; fit into dish, and pinch and crimp dough edges (This doesn't have to be perfect because most of the crust will be covered up anyway.).

To make the pumpkin filling, in a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar, egg, cinnamon and vanilla until well combined. Pour into pie crust. Bake 15 minutes; remove from oven.

To make the apple filling, in a large bowl, stir together apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove until well combined; place apple filling on top of pumpkin filling.

To make the amaretti topping, in a large bowl, stir together amaretti, almonds, butterscotch chips, oats and brown sugar until well combined; knead in butter, using your fingertips, until well incorporated and mixture starts to clump together. Sprinkle amaretti topping over apples. Bake pie 30 minutes, cover with foil, and bake an additional 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

Maple Nut Blondie Sundaes with Warm Cinnamon Syrup

Friday night was fun, because I got to see Big Smith, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils in concert. It was the Daredevil's 40th anniversary party. Eric's dad bought our (Eric and me) tickets to the show. That was so nice of him! I had to give him a little shout-out. Thank you so much!

Big Smith puts on a great show. They might have been my favorite all night.



The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band played some of their big hits. Fishin' in the Dark, anyone? How about Mr. Bojangles?



The Ozark Mountain Daredevils were last. I loved If You Wanna Get to Heaven... That's just good music right there.



Nothing like some good old hillbilly music on a Friday night! The best part was probably watching all of the drunk people "dancing" to the music.



I have no way to tie all of that in with this blondie recipe so I'm not even going to try. I made these Maple Nut White Chocolate Blondie Sundaes the other day, and they were pretty delicious. The blondies are a little cakey, and a little gooey.



The delicious goo is made from browned butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. I added some chopped toasted pecans to the batter, along with chopped white chocolate. I sprinkled oats over the top of the bars before baking.

These blondies are great as they are, but if you wanted to make something even more decadent, you could top the blondies with vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of cinnamon-maple syrup. Yum!

*I forgot to mention, I ended up throwing in some chocolate chips, too! Only because I knew I could get Eric to eat them if I did that. Haha.*


Maple Nut Blondie Sundaes with Warm Cinnamon Syrup

10 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup pure maple syrup, plus 1/2 cup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
4 ounces coarsely chopped white chocolate
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with foil; coat foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook butter, whisking frequently, for 2-3 minutes, or until butter browns and starts to foam.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together melted browned butter, brown sugar, 1/3 cup maple syrup and vanilla until well combined - about 1 minute. Beat in eggs for 2-3 minutes or until well incorporated. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined; beat in pecans and white chocolate until combined.

Spread batter evenly into pan, and sprinkle with oats. Bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into blondies comes out with moist crumbs attached; cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before lifting out foil and slicing blondies into bars.

To make the warm cinnamon syrup, whisk together remaining 1/2 cup maple syrup and cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat, until warm.

Serve blondies with a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of cinnamon syrup.

Makes 12 servings

Friday

I'm loving...

these cake-truffle pops I made. Remember that disastrous chocolate volcano cake I mentioned the other day? Well I took the rich, chocolate cake batter, rolled it into balls, and then coated the balls in melted Hershey's candy cane kisses, and Hershey's mint chocolate truffle kisses. I topped the candy cane pops with red and clear coarse sugar, and the mint chocolate with chopped pistachios. Ta da! I was feeling crafty. I even wrapped and tied them with red ribbons.



these shoes. They look like little-man shoes, and I knew I just had to have them. I feel like dancing when I wear them.



this squash. This is my new favorite squash. It's delicata squash. I was told it tastes similar to a sweet potato. I didn't think it tasted like a sweet potato, but it was very, very good. It tasted like a sweeter acorn squash. I sliced it into rings, roasted it, and topped it with a little butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt and pepper.



this book. It's good! I can't believe it took me so long to read it. I love that a lot of the writing is about food.



this plum tote. At first I thought it was too big, and then I realized how much stuff I need to haul around all of the time. I can fit all of my normal purse stuff in there, a magazine, a lunch box, a jacket. It's crazy. It's like that bag Mary Poppins carries around.



this band. I get to see them tonight! :)

Happy Friday!