Recipes Discovered

What’s Easter without a cute little bunny cake? My mom and I used to make this when I was little, just using a regular white cake mix with vanilla frosting and coconut. I updated it a little, using a coconut cake with coconut frosting. The decorations, aside from some tinted coconut, can be anything from M&M’s (like I used) to jelly beans or chocolate chips. I used string licorice for the whiskers. The cake it cute and a lot of fun for kids, or even Seth for that matter.

Every Easter since I can remember, I have helped my Mom make candy Easter eggs. Along with the traditional peanut butter eggs, we also made cream cheese, cherry, cherry walnut, and coconut eggs. The coconut eggs are my favorite, especially with a handful of chopped cherries add to them. I usually got to mix everything together, while she added the ingredients and dipped the eggs in chocolate. This was the first year I made the eggs by myself, which I found out wasn’t quite as fun as making them with my mom, but I still managed to successfully make 22 dozen eggs. It’s a lot of work, but one taste of these homemade eggs reminded me of why my mom always went though the effort. They are delicious, rich, and creamy – better than any candy egg bought at the store. And for those of you wondering about the difference between the peanut butter eggs, it’s simply this. The original recipe peanut butter eggs are a lot sweeter and have a more “melt in your mouth” texture. The updated recipe peanut butter eggs, which includes cream cheese, have a richer taste and are a bit more creamy. Both are excellent, and it is just personal preference which is better.

Cream Cheese Easter Eggs Recipe

Cherry and Cherry-Walnut Easter Eggs Recipe

Coconut Easter Eggs Recipe

Original Peanut Butter Easter Eggs Recipe

Updated Peanut Butter Easter Eggs Recipe

Moussaka Parmesan Recipe

Moussaka, a traditional Greek dish, is a layered casserole consisting of sauteed eggplant, ground lamb-tomato sauce, and a white bechamel sauce. The lamb-tomato sauce is usually cooked with onions and garlic, and seasoned with oregano and cinnamon. The dish is baked until the top is golden brown. On the other hand, eggplant Parmesan is an Italian dish made with layers of breaded and fried eggplant, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Although both dishes are delicious, they are rather heavy. I recently came across a recipe for Moussaka that used feta cheese instead of the typical bechamel sauce. About the same time, I saw a recipe for roasted eggplant Parmesan. Using techniques from each recipe, I made a very light dish that I call Moussaka Parmesan. >> Read more

Apple Dumpling Recipe

Cinnamon Ice Cream Recipe

One of my favorite things to get at the Bloomsburg Fair is the apple dumplings from Bissinger’s. They are served fresh from the oven with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. Unfortunately with Seth’s travel schedule, 2007 was the first I was actually at the Bloomsburg Fair in quite awhile. The apple dumplings were still as good as I remember though, and I have been craving them ever since. To put an end to this, I was determined to make my own. I asked my mom for an apple dumpling recipe, which she got from her friend, and found a recipe for Cinnamon Ice Cream in a ice cream cookbookwhich has yet to let me down.

Since the ice cream had to freeze overnight, I started with that. It’s a standard custard recipe that is infused with cinnamon sticks. I didn’t have any whole milk, so I substituted 2 cups of half-and-half for 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of cream. Since half-and-half is a combination of whole milk and cream anyway, it didn’t make much of a difference. Once the half-and-half, sugar, salt, and cinnamon sticks were warm, I covered the pan and let it steep for an hour. Once infused, I rewarmed the mixture, removed the cinnamon sticks, and then slowly poured the warm liquid into the egg yolks, whisking it constantly. It’s importantly to do this slowly so the eggs don’t scramble. Once combined, I poured the custard back into the pan and continued to cook it until it thickened, which took maybe 5 minutes. Then I poured the custard through a strainer, into a large bowl that had the cream and vanilla it it. I stirred this mixture over an ice bath until it cooled down, about 10 minutes, and then put it in the refrigerator it for 2 hours to chill. Once chilled, I froze the ice cream in my ice cream maker and then stashed it in the freezer. Of course, I did taste the ice cream while transferring it, and it was amazing. >> Read more

Double Chocolate Cake Recipe

Although I love chocolate, I don’t usually like chocolate cake. It’s always too dry, too bland, or too sweet. Seth’s mom makes a chocolate cake she calls an Old Black Joe that includes coffee in the cake batter. The cake is good, but I’ve found a similar recipe that adds chocolate to the coffee, which creates the most amazing chocolate cake I’ve ever had.

The cakes comes together differently than other cakes as well. All of the dry ingredients – sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt – are sifted together. Similarly, all of the wet ingredients – eggs, coffee with melted chocolate, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla – are combined before mixing in the dry ingredients. As for the cake pans, the recipe calls for two 10-inch cake pans, but my pans are 9-inch. This recipe easily makes enough batter for three 9-inch cake pans. The batter is thin, but it raises a lot while baking. I have also made this into a 9×13 cake, and there was enough batter left over for one 9-inch cake. However you divide up the batter, just remember that the cakes rise quite a bit. I also increase the baking temperature to 325 and the cakes usually bake in about 30 minutes.

The result of this recipe is so amazing, I could probably eat the entire cake in one day. It’s rich, chocolatey, and moist. The cake is easily good enough to eat on it’s own, which I often do, but it’s also good with an array of frosting. My favorite combination is probably peanut butter icing, but it’s also very good with a chocolate-raspberry ganache or mocha buttercream frosting. It really doesn’t matter what is on top though, because this cake is absolutely incredible.