teacher by day - chef by night
Rich LOVES Whoopie Pies. His mom picks them up for him every time we have a trip to the lake & she gets them from a small Amish Bakery stand. The stakes were high so I have avoided making him Whoopie Pies for quite a …
A few years ago my aunt gave me Death by Chocolate Cakes – and wow is there good stuff in there (great cookbook for those chocolate addicts – get it, seriously), so I knew thats where I had to go to find this cake (which I had sticky-noted immediately after receiving the book).
I went strawberry picking (twice) last week. I knew it was late in the season so I wanted to get as much out of it as possible.
On Saturday we picked about 8 pounds: about 3 pounds went into refrigerator jam, I froze about a pound for smoothies (gone already) and I’m not really sure where the rest went – I guess we ate a lot! So just four days later on Wednesday I dragged Mom out to the fields and brought home about 5 more pounds. I had found this Buttermilk Strawberry Cake and knew that I wanted to make it so made sure to put some berries aside. Besides this cake, we ate (and drank in smoothies) a lot more berries again the rest of the week.
I’m telling you – you just can’t beat the taste of fresh-picked berries. Strawberries from the store have a super strong yummy taste but the fresh berries are super sweet and have a more subtle and natural flavor! This year the strawberries in our area were very tiny because of the super wet spring. The smallness of the berries made it a little harder to pick and prepare: but did nothing, in my opinion, to the tastiness of the berries!
I decided to make this cake for my parents who were babysitting the pups while we were away with friends/family for the weekend. While I had all the ingredients out and the oven heated up, I decided to whip up another cake to bring to the beach with us to go along with the other breakfast goodies.
My dad said this cake was awesome warmed back up with some of the strawberry jam I had given them over top (and just for good measure – he put some vanilla ice cream between the layer of strawberry cake and strawberry jam).
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Dad was not the only one who enjoyed this cake.
I had the cake (and Snickerdoodle Muffins AND Banana Carrot Whole Wheat Muffins) all cooling on the table. Upon walking toward the kitchen I heard some “slurping” and walked in to see Donner (our Flat Coat Retriever) with his head tilted in a perfect angle to get his tongue to the side of the cake….
He immediately stopped when I screamed at him (and I guess we should be happy that at least all 4 legs were on the ground and he wasn’t hopping up on the table)! The cake which we brought south with us ended up arriving with a slab cut off the side in order to protect everyone from dog slobber (except for Rich who decided it is his dog and the cake was too good to let some slobber ruin it).
SO, this cake is: dog, father, boyfriend, & friend approved – enjoy!
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And I leave you with this classic Beatles Quote: “Let me take you down, ‘cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields. Nothing is real and nothing to get hung-about. Strawberry Fields forever.”
Actually: come to think of it, there may have been some smacking of hands as the boys tried to sneak these the night before and I yelled at them that they had to play fair & that they were for breakfast. I guess that just goes to show how yummy these are!
Think “Blondie Brownie” with all sorts of goodies added in! I guess these are called “Congo Bars” – but I had never heard them called that (I do not think I have ever had them before either). These bar cookies are a perfect way to …
“Please sir, may I have s’more”
Welcome to the summer season! There is nothing that screams summer more than some warm roasted marshmallows (ok – maybe grilling screams summer pretty loudly too, but I grew up in a house where dad grilled in a winter coat). There are so many awesome S’mores inspired recipes out there (none of them for that winter-grilling father of mine who hates them) and I finally had to pick one and make them.
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We went to a BBQ with some friends and I decided these would be perfect to bring (especially after my amazing baker co-worker made some a few weeks ago for us). These cupcakes were voted “best dessert at the bbq” (which I think is a pretty big compliment since almost everyone there is very into mountain/road biking and very health-conscious, so these can even convert your ‘healthy friends’ to the ‘dark side’)
adapted from 6 Bittersweet’s as she adapted it from lots of other places
as adapted from Creative Loafing
Now that these cupcakes are done, I came across Domestic Fits Smore’s Cheesecakes which I look forward to brining to my next (indoor) summer event – not sure how well cheesecakes would do outside. I wonder if maybe even my cheesecake loving but s’mores hating father would like these!?
I leave you with a question to ponder… One of the joys of S’mores is their simplicity, whereas these cupcakes take them to a different level of preparation and difficulty – which do you prefer!?