Cakes

I stole this recipe from my mom's collection...we'll she knows I took it, so I guess it's not really stealing but she doesn't know that I want to keep it forever because it's so good.  It's such a great sour cream coffee cake recipe but I slightly modified it (when do I not change the recipe?) by adding crushed up Iced Oatmeal Cookies within the cake and on top of the cake.  The addition of the cookies adds an extra sweetness factor and a nice crunchy texture that goes well with the moist, soft cake.

Cookie Crumb Coffee Cake

20-30 crispy cookies, crushed up by hand (so you have both big and small pieces)
2 Cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Large eggs
1/2 Cup shortening
1 Cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Cup sour cream

1) Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9" spring form pan
2) In a large bowl, mix together sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
3) In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, shortening, sugar and vanilla until smooth
4) Separately add both the sour cream and flour mixture into the shortening mixture in two equal parts alternating.  (Add half of the sour cream first, then half of the flour mixture, then the remaining half of the sour cream, then add the rest of the flour mixture blending each time after adding each addition to the shortening mixture and until smooth.)
5) Evenly spoon half of the cake batter into the prepared pan, then sprinkle with half of the crushed cookies
6) Add the remaining cake batter on top of the crushed cookie layer evenly (the batter is a bit sticky but try your best to cover the cookie crumbs), then sprinkle the remaining cookie crumbs on top of the cake
7) Bake for 34-45min or until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean
8) Cool 10min before removing the cake from the pan, then enjoy!

I had the mother's over last week for a Mother's Day dinner.  Since it was such a nice day out, I thought for dinner we should BBQ and for dessert we should have something fresh and fruity!  I got this recipe for stawberry shortcakes from my boyfriend's cookbook called 'Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics', my boyfriends mom got this for him before we had met and she inscribed it saying 'A man who knows how to cook can always attract someone to share a meal with!'  Looks like it worked on me ;)  This recipe was very simple and fun to make.  The biscuits were like mini scones cut in half and I served them with sugar soaked strawberries and lots of whipped cream (I also sprinkled a few almond slivers on top for a little something extra).  The combination of the sweet strawberries, the soft biscuit and the creamy whippped cream was just perfect.

Strawberry Shortcakes

2 Cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 Cup shortening
3/4 Cups milk

For Strawberries:
4 Cups of washed and cut strawberries
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup water

Whipped cream (and almond slivers) for serving

1) Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2) In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
3) Cut shortening into flour mixture with a pastry blender or two sharp knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
4) Stir milk into crumb mixture and mix until just blended and dough forms (if mixture does not completely moistened, stir in an additional 1 - 3tsp milk)
5) Spoon mixture onto prepared baking sheet into 6 equal parts
6) Bake for 10-12min or until evenly golden brown on the bottoms, then let them cool to room temperature (or you can serve them warm out of the oven)

For Strawberries:
7) In a large bowl mix together strawberries, vanilla, sugar, and water and stir until evenly mixed
8) Cover mixture and let sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving, mixing mixture at least once again while in the fridge

9) Cut each shortcake in half and serve with a spoonfull of strawberries, whipped cream (and almonds), then enjoy!

I know this recipe doesn't technically fall under the 'baking' category but this cake was too good not to share with you.  It was my boyfriends birthday a few weeks ago and his favorite type of cake is ice cream.  His mom usually gets a DQ cake (because they are the best!) but this year I decided to challenge myself and make him an ice cream cake of my own.  I decided to go with a coffee and chocolate combination but you can change it up with any type of flavoring you like.  The cake was surpisingly easy to make and really, really, really good. 

Side Note:  I tried putting chocolate fudge sauce between the layers of ice creams but the kind of sauce that I bought didn't freeze very well and oozed out the side of cake when I prepared it.  I decided to leave this part out of the recipe below because it was messy but feel free to give it a try!  Enjoy!

Coffee Crisp Ice Cream Cake

3-4L Vanilla Ice Cream (I bought one of those big buckets of ice cream from the store and used almost all of it)
4 Coffee Crisp chocolate bars, food processed
1/4 Cup very strongly brewed coffee, at room temperature (the strongest coffee you could ever make X 10)

For decoration:
Chocolate fudge sauce
Slivered almonds

1) Cover the inside of a springform pan with plastic wrap entirely, even allowing excess to hang over the edges of the pan
2) Let vanilla ice cream sit at room temperature for 10-15min until just soft enough but not melting
3) Scoop 1-2L of ice cream into a large bowl and add food processed chocolate bars and stir until evenly combined, then spoon ice cream mixture into prepared pan evenly
4) In a second large bowl spoon 1-2L of ice cream into bowl and stir in room temperature coffee and mix until evenly combined, then spoon ice cream mixture into prepared pan on top of other ice cream mixture
5) Using the excess plastic wrap cover the top of the ice cream cake and place in the freezer overnight
6) When ready to serve, remove pan and plastic wrap from cake and cover with Chocolate Fudge sauce and slivered almonds, then cut and enjoy!

It was my mom's birthday this week and I let here choose the type of cake she wanted for her birthday.  As I've mentioned before in my previous posts my mom is a big chocoholic, so it wasn't very surprising when she asked for a chocolate cake for her birthday.  I have a few good chocolate cake recipes that I have made before but I never like to make the same thing twice so I decided to try out some new recipes for this birthday cake.