What the Macaroon?

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. Coconut, chocolate, can I get a woo woo?!? (You really should imagine me saying that with attitude or else it sounds stupid!) One of my favorite recipes that my friends beg me to make over and over again. This one will definitely satisfy the chocolate lover in you! Without further ado, I would like to introduce you to the world of Macaroon Brownies!!!

Put in your shopping cart the following:
Brownies:
1 cup butter or margarine softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Macaroon Filling:
1 package flaked coconut (14 ounces)
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, cocoa, cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread half of mixture into a greased 13x9x2 inch baking pan.
2. Combine coconut, condensed milk and vanilla;carefully spread over chocolate layer. Top the coconut layer with the remaining chocolate mixture.
3. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
4. For frosting, combine sugar, milk and butter in a saucepan over medium to low heat; cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients. Cook and stir until marshmallows and chips are melted. Cool until mixture reaches spreading consistency, about 25 minutes. Spread over the cooled brownies. Cut into bars.

Enjoy!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday!

I believe that the best birthday present you can give anyone, is a nice, fat, rich, chocolatey, homemade cake.( well, I can actually think of a few things I might want more, i.e. money, but you catch my drift!) So this cake is a no fail recipe that I promise you will use EVERY time! I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything. Then I just added my personal touch by making the letters out of fondant. So incredibly beautiful, easy and delicioso!!!! This post is a shout out to my precious first born child who turned 5 this week! I cannot believe it! Kindergarten here he comes!



The Best Chocolate Cake
from The Girl Who Ate Everything
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips (you can use regular too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a VERY large bowl (4 qt), mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). You could use this batter to make any kind of cake: sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. For cooking time, use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and add around 10 minutes to whatever it says. Do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.

The Box's Fav. Chocolate Cake Recipe

A talented gal pal of mine just started a cake blog called Catastrophic Cakes. I was thinking of her on Friday when I was putting the finishing touches on a week long project-my first fondant cake. It truly was catastrophic. I felt like anything wrong that could have happened happened. My headboard broke (see pict. The bed, blocks and words are fondant. The toys are toys.) and I had to use the footboard instead. The text "Happy" broke and I had to piece it together like a puzzle for the presentation. Okay it really wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things...especially since it was the first time I have literally EVER touched fondant. The part that was catastrophic was the cake part. I had no clue how to level, fill, etc. (Soon to be resolved...taking a great class in a few weeks and I will share what I learn.) My frosting recipe I chose turned out pretty crusty after spreading it out and you can see little cracks across the whole top. Oh Well! I gave it to them for cost and lesson learned! I should not be overly confident in my capabilities until I take some more classes!

Also, this last weekend, I did some bridal gown cookies that were to die for and these cupcakes. Aren't they cute? I will teach you how to make the stars later this week.

But for both projects...I used this recipe. My fav. chocolate cake recipe by far...and I have tried alot! This recipe stays moist for DAYS! We love it!

The Box's Favorite Chocolate Cake Recipe...so far

Source: My Kitchen Cafe

Makes two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers , 1 9X13-inch pan

Makes about 2.5 dozen cupcakes

Put the following ingredients into your cart...

1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 ½ cups sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Put your apron on and get busy...

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven.

Prepare your cake pans by cutting out a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of the pan. Grease the pans, place the parchment or wax paper in the bottom of the pan and lightly grease again. Dust the pans with flour (or cocoa powder if you don’t want the white dusting on the finished cakes). Set the pans aside.

Using a fine mesh strainer, sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed (with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 32-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes, removing the parchment paper liners from the bottom of the cakes. Let them cool completely, top sides ups, on a wire rack.

Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level.