Key Lime Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Stephanie and I have been best friends since the sixth grade. It was the first week of middle school and while we had the lunch class (Mr. Brown's Math Class) together, we had our own set of friends that had already been established in elementary school. So, one day (burrito day), somehow the two of us ended up at the end of the cafeteria line and by the time we got out... the tables where our friends were sitting were completely full. We kind of hesitantly looked around... both of us contemplating the embarrassment of having to sit alone for lunch and somehow (the details are fuzzy) we ended up sitting together at the end of a long table that had some 7th and 8th graders at it. And that was all it took.

We took to each other immediately. We were very similiar... we both liked books and movies, both a little shy and nerdy, both boy crazy and awkward. Luckily, we outgrew the awkwardness... all the other similiarities are still mostly the same though.

We grew up and remained the best of friends. We went to different colleges and even though we were 500 miles apart, and we might not talk for 3-4 weeks at time, nothing was ever different. We always picked back up where we left off. After college, we lived together for a year... it was funny, because it was something that we always said we'd do when we were in middle school. It wasn't quite as glamourous as we had imagined it would be, but it was still really fun.

We've had our ups and downs... in life and in our friendship, but we've always remained there for each other and I know we always will.

So when Steph moved to Oregon back in July... a little piece of me went with her. I've never been more than a long car ride away from her and though I'm not worried at all that the geographical distance will translate into relationship distance (because it won't), it's just sad that I can't call her up anymore for some assisted retail therapy when some stupid boy has done something... well... stupid. We can't meet up at Mellow Mushroom for some pizza, or go to breakfast or brunch on Sundays... Sure... I can do these things without her, but it's not the same. It's not the food or the shopping that I miss... it's the company.

Steph's birthday was August 22nd and this was the first time she's been away for her birthday. Luckily, she had made plans to come into town a couple weekends after... (this past weekend) for a long weekend to visit with her family and friends. She and I made a plan to go to our 10 year high school reunion on Saturday night and she would spend the night with me that night and we'd hang out together on Sunday. It was the perfect plan... I knew immediately that I'd want to make her a mini-cake for her birthday, since I didn't think that cookies shipped across the country in August would be very tasty once opened... I would just wait until she was here last Saturday and make a cake!

Picking a recipe for her was pretty easy... I know that she loves Key Lime. And initially I thought about a key lime pie. Except... she makes a really good key lime pie... So, I found this recipe from Paula Deen for a Key Lime Cake. I quartered the recipe and made a mini-cake. It came out pretty well, although, we both agreed that a cream cheese frosting would have been better. Also, the sugar sprinkles annoyed the crap out of me. They were so crunchy and hard. I will definitely leave sprinkles off cakes from now on...

As far as the texture of the cake went... I thought this cake had a great texture! It wasn't too dry or dense (like a lot of white cakes I make turn out to be). And it definitely had a full key lime flavor to it. Cream cheese frosting would have made this cake awesome.

Happy Birthday Steph! I love you and miss you!


Key Lime Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
Paula Deen (I found it on recipezaar)

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons key lime zest
3 eggs
1/4 cup key lime juice, fresh
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

White Chocolate Frosting
6 (1 ounce) white chocolate baking squares
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 340. Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) cake pans.

In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and lime zest at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in juice until combined.
In medium bowl, combine cake flour and baking soda; sift. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour evenly into prepared pants, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread white chocolate frosting in between layers, and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with Key lime wedges, if desired.

White Chocolate Frosting:.

In medium bowl, combine chocolate an dcream. Microwave on high in 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted and smooth (about 1-1/2 minutes total); let cool completely.

In large bowl, combine white chocolate mixture, butter, and vanilla. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners sugar until fluffy.

TWD: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

This is a redux recipe for me. Last year sometime, I started seeing these cookies on other blogs and I thought... wow... now that's an exciting cookie. What a great idea, right? Chocolate and malt in a cookie? I expected this wonderful chewy explosion of malty chocolatey goodness in my mouth but instead I wound up with gummy hardness in my teeth. They didn't taste chocolate-y enough, they didn't taste malt-y enough. Basically... they were merely a figment of what I thought a true malted chocolate chip cookie could be. Sigh.

So, when Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie I looked at this as an opportunity to make this cookie work. Maybe I did something wrong the first time?

I remember when I first bought Dorie's book and I was skimming through it, I noticed that the pictures she had of these particularly cookies didn't look anything like my first attempt (which I had made from a printed out recipe from a blog). So, i started thinking about what I needed to do to make my cookies better. First, I decided to lower the oven temperature. I felt like the malt in the cookies hardened too much initially and secondly, I decided to use dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of regular. Maybe that would boost the chocolate flavor.

These ideas in mind, I started to whip these cookies up. I wanted to pre-heat my oven while I was mixing the cookies and when I looked in the book I didn't see an oven temperature listed. I looked and looked and finally decided that it must be an error. There was no oven temperature listed. Hmph. I pulled out the old recipe that I had printed out from the internet and it listed 350 as the temperature (but, I wonder... how did they know?) so I decided that that was a safe temperature to start from and with my decision to lower the original temperature, I set my oven to 325 degrees.

These cookies are easy to make.

Well, except for chopping up the Whoppers. Jeez. That's time consuming alright.. Especially when you end up eating every third or fourth Whopper and especially when your Whoppers are wrapped in packages of 3. So, you have to open a new wrapper every 3rd Whopper. (Do yourself a favor and buy the box of whoppers and not the candy bar bag).

I also decided to pop the dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes before I put them in the oven. I just thought that maybe firming up the dough a bit would make for a sturdier cookie.

These cookies turned out much better this time around. They are chewy (not gummy) and they are definitely prettier than my earlier attempt. These are like a grown up malt cookie. It's like... they are too salty or something. Maybe I should have upped the sugar since I used dark cocoa. So, if you like a slightly salty chocolate cookie, you'd probably like these. For sugar fiends like myself, though... they still didn't live up to my original expectations. (Aside from the texture and the whoppers, I barely tasted malt!)

Check out Rachel's Blog for the recipe!

I've arrived...

Woo hoo.. check me OUT. I just got a freaking award!

Lori over at Luscious Food just gave me an award! Thanks Lori! She has a great blog with awesome pics, you should definitely go check her out.

I think we are supposed to like perpetuate the award by giving it away to others, but it's too hard for me to pick just a few blogs, because there are sooooo many awesome ones!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

I realize that I've gone on and on about how much I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. It's the ultimate in sweet and salty. So, I expected to LOVE these cookies chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. Unfortunately, I did not love these cookies.

First complaint: Not enough peanut butter. When you name a recipe and the first words in the recipe are PEANUT BUTTER, I expect to be able to taste peanut butter when I bite into the dish. Could I taste peanut butter? Nope. I mean, why add the freaking peanut butter if you can't taste it? It's not like it's a health food or something...

Second complaint: Too much other shit thrown into the cookie recipe, like cinnamon and nutmeg. Now, if you know me (and I think you do by now), you know that I don't like nutmeg, so of course I eliminated that ingredient (thank god), but against my better judgement, I did throw in the cinnamon. I mean, I love cinnamon! I thought it sounded a bit odd to go with chocolate chips and peanut butter, but whatever I didn't want to rebel too much. But, I should have gone with my first instinct. I mean, these cookies are like cinnamon chocolate cookies. That's all you can taste, cinnamon and chocolate. It actually made me wish that I had subbed raisins for chocolate chips (shocking, I know)! I mean... the cinnamon is so powerful in this recipe and I think it's probably one of the main reasons that you can't taste the peanut butter.

So, yeah, these cookies are edible and everything and the texture is great... but I'm just not a fan of cinnamon with chocolate and peanut butter. Now, if you love cinnamon and chocolate, give these cookies or try, or sub raisins for the chocolate chips. But, if you're looking for a delicious peanut buttery, chocolate chip and oatmeal cookie try these, they're delicious (but I'd still add more peanut butter to that recipe, too).

TWD: Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

The great thing about belonging to Tuesdays with Dorie is that every week (nearly), I’m making something that I most likely wouldn’t make on my own. Seriously. I’m not a super adventurous person (particularly when it comes to my sweet tooth) and if it’s not something that contains chocolate, cream cheese, peanut butter, caramel, or pecans… I’m not initially drawn to it. So, this is a great way to not only learn new baking techniques and get practice in the kitchen… but to also stretch my culinary brain.

Granted, I may not love every recipe, but I can assure you, I do love making every one of them.

That being said… this week’s recipe was chosen by Amy of Food, Family & Fun

She chose the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte. Which is basically ice cream with frozen ganache layered in it.

I do love ice cream. And I have no problems sitting down with a bowl of ice cream, but I just don’t generally eat a lot of ice cream. So, this isn’t really a recipe that I would ever make on my own. My thoughts would be…. Why don’t you just buy some ice cream and pour some fudge sauce on it… voila… lazy man’s Ice Cream Torte. And then I tell myself… well, Amy… you don’t do that because that’s just not as pretty and interesting, that’s why. (Although, yes, my looks like crap… but more on that to come).

I found myself, grocery list in hand, wandering the frozen treats section of my grocery store (a section I never venture into, because I never buy ice cream). My intention was to buy a generic-y pint (hopefully) of vanilla frozen yogurt. Which apparently doesn’t exist. Seriously? People don’t buy pints of vanilla frozen yogurt? Ugh. I vowed to try another grocery store later in the week and walked out of the store sans frozen treats.

Later in the week, I got the idea… hey… why don’t I just make my own ice cream! I had just made my first batch of ice cream a few weeks ago and found how easy it was even without an ice cream maker. Since I didn’t care for the blueberry ice cream and threw it out, I thought this would be a great opportunity to try the homemade ice cream again in a flavor I would enjoy.

This is how you know it's the right consistency...

I made Dorie’s Vanilla Ice Cream recipe and to kick it up a bit, I added some crushed Oreo’s and some Bailey’s Irish Cream once the ice cream was softly frozen. I called this frozen concoction… Cookies and Irish Cream. The ice cream turned out delicious and it was pretty initially (until I tried to soften it to use in the torte with a hand-mixer and it quickly turned from a black and white marbled look to a muddled grey).

Everything's a little better with booze, right?

Now it was time to make the ganache. It’s funny. I sit down every week with my Baking: From My Home To Yours and read through the next recipe and write down all the ingredients that I need to buy… somehow… it completely slipped my mind that I didn’t have anymore chocolate chips until I was getting a bowl out of the cabinet to start the ganache. Crap. Obviously, I could run out and pick up some… but I rummaged around my baking cabinet for possible substutions… The first thing I thought of was that I could do a white chocolate ganache instead. And then I thought that it would not only be too sweet with the ice cream I made, that the color would just look disgusting with the grey interior… I dug futher in my cabinet and spotted some unsweetened baking chocolate. At first I thought it might even have some kind of conversion chart on it for adding sugar to make it semi-sweet, etc… but, it didn’t.

I decided to just go with it anyway and I used a boatload of corn syrup to sweeten it (maybe I could have used sugar, but I thought that corn syrup would be better for the consistency).

The rest of the recipe came together easily. I got lazy with the freezing and re-freezing (I mean, heck.. when you make your own ice cream without an ice cream maker and THEN you start all this additional ganache freezing you feel like you’re in and out of the freezer about zillion times) and omitted the middle layer of ganache. I halved the recipe and used a quart size glass mixing bowl to make it in.

It’s good. The ganache is tasty and the ice cream is awesome…. But, honestly… next time I’ll just scoop out some ice cream and pour some fudge sauce on it.

Check out Amy’s blog for the recipe.

I like to think of it as... rustic!

Peach Galette

Oh friends...

Can I be honest with you? Ever since I made the Peach Galette a few weeks ago, the glorious memories of it's taste has been occupying my thoughts on a daily basis. I would find myself reminiscing and daydreaming about the moment when we would be reunited.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long. My dad bought a slew of peaches at the farmers market last week and gave me a sackful... and what did I do with those bad boys?? That's right... I made a peach galette again. And not just a half recipe this time... oh no... I made the full recipe and it was spectacular.

There was something funny about those peaches though... I mean, I think they had somehow been magnitized or something, because my fork just wouldn't stay out of it... Strange, huh?

Do yourself a favor and buy some fresh peaches, some cherry perserves and make this. You won't be sorry.

If loving you is wrong... I don't want to be right...

Ok, so you know it's damn good if it makes me sing a Barbara Mandrell song.

TWD: Granola Grabbers

So, I always think that I hate raisins. Always, always, always. And then they’ll wind up in a cookie or a cake and I’ll be like… damn… that’s what a raisin tastes like? I remembered them tasting grosser than that. This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe called for raisins. Granola Grabbers was the recipe chosen this week. A granola based cookie with raisins, nuts and wheat germ thrown in for good measure. Initially I thought that maybe I’d sub out the raisins for some dried cherries. Cause, I’m a fool for dried cherries. But, I didn’t anticipate liking this recipe… and I didn’t want to use my prized (and expensive) dried cherries in a recipe that might just get thrown out.

Yeah, it seemed like a LOT of ingredients...

So… I used up some golden raisins that I had lying around.

I also made a couple of adjustments to the recipe… I added some vanilla extract to the whole batch and then after the first batch came out of the oven, I decided to throw in some cinnamon to the remaining cookies and that was a great decision, because that really made them delicious.

These remind me of like a breakfast cookie. Very delicious. Moist and chewy, with just the perfect crunch from the nuts. I highly suggest adding vanilla and cinnamon to yours, though. They make these cookies irresistible.

For the recipe check out Michelle's Blog... Bad Girl Baking