Classic Brownies

 

What day is it? I totally have lost track. Everyday seems like it is the same as before and they all run into each other nowadays. Haha.

We are just starting November and the weather has gotten colder and we are all inside hibernating once again. I have been trying out some new recipes, the fluffy muffins from last time for example, and now I have tried out another, classic brownies. These are the brownies that are similar to the ones from the box that we are all used to having in our childhood. They are fudgy on the inside and crackly crunchy on the top. Take a look and make a batch to have on a cozy day inside with a nice big glass of cold milk.

Classic Brownie Recipe

You will need…

1 ¼ cup of flour

¾ tsp. of baking powder

½ tsp. of salt

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

12 tbsp. of butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1tbsp. of vanilla

Butter a glass baking dish, 13x9 in size.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a large glass measuring cup or bowl in the microwave, stirring often.

Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mix and then the eggs.

Then fold the flour mix in this mixture in three separate additions.

 

Give the batter a good stir and then spoon into the glass dish.

                                                               

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Cool completely, about 2 hours and then cut and serve.

Big Fluffy Muffins

 

As the Fall settles in, I have been wanting to try out some new recipes while we are all hibernating inside again. I felt like having some muffins, so I found a muffin base recipe. It is a nice, fluffy, moist base that you can add so many flavour combinations to. I tried a basic blueberry muffin, but you can really try anything. Some suggestions are blueberry lemon, raspberry orange, mocha chip, apple cinnamon, banana chip, banana nut, lemon poppy seed, orange, or banana blueberry and those are just a few ideas I came up with. Now I made these muffins thinking that they would be just an average muffin and to use up some of my frozen blueberries that were going to expire so I didn't think to take pictures as I went along. However, they were so good so I'll make them again and make sure to take pictures. 

Basic Fluffy Muffin Recipe:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

½ tsp. of baking soda

1 tbsp. of baking powder

½ tsp. of salt

1 ½ cups of plain Greek yogurt

2 eggs

8 tbsp. of melted butter

1 ½-2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare your muffin tins with liners. I did all my muffins big as opposed to mini muffins. It made just over 24.

Whisk the flour, soda, powder, salt, and sugar.

Melt the butter in a glass measuring cup. Cool slightly.

In another bowl, whisk up the yogurt and eggs until smooth and then fold into the dry mix.

Then fold in the butter.

Lastly, stir in the blueberries.

Now it’s time to scoop. Usually I use spoons and scoop my muffins that way but these are supposed to be big fluffy muffins so I used a 1/3 cup and filled those muffin tins up. They may look full but they won’t overflow or cause a mess while baking, I promise.

Put into the oven for about 25 minutes; they may need a few minutes longer. You want them to be golden looking and to be able to insert a toothpick and it to come out clean.

Cool the muffin slightly on a wire rack and enjoy!

These were so delicious. One of the best muffins I ever had. They were so moist and not overly sweet or heavy. I will definitely be using this as my go to muffin base and try adding different things in the future.

Better than Robert Redford Part 2

Alrighty, today it’s part two of our Robert Redford dessert.

So when we met last, we had made the crust and puddings. Today we start off by making the cream cheese layer. Beat one brick of cream cheese (8 ounces) along with 1 cup of icing sugar. Whip up until smooth. Fold in about 2 cups of Cool Whip (that’s half of a 500ml container).

Spread this cream cheese mixture over the baked and cooled crust.

Now give the vanilla pudding a stir and spread that over the cream cheese layer.

After that, stir the chocolate pudding and spread that over the vanilla pudding layer.

If you plan on eating this right away you can do the final layer and topping now, if not, you can wait until you are ready to eat it. I made this over three days so I waited.

When you are ready, spread a nice thick layer of Cool Whip over the top. The remaining container from the cream cheese filling wasn’t quite enough so I actually used almost half of another 500ml container.

Finally use a vegetable peeler and peel a block of semi sweet chocolate. I used Bakers squares. Cut and serve. This was delicious. People had seconds and even thirds! Divine. 

Better than Robert Redford Cake

I bet you are intrigued by the title. Before we get to that, Happy October. September flew by as has all these months and weeks, haha.

This week we’re trying a new recipe. My mom found it in her recipe box. She first made this about 20 years ago and it is a recipe of my grandmother. We are making Better than Robert Redford cake. This cake involves pudding, chocolate, and whipped cream. It also has five layers of goodness.

I’m making this cake a little differently. It does take a little while as there are a few steps so I started yesterday and will show you what I have so far and then share with you the rest and the finished product next week. I want to have the cake ready for Friday so two days in advance is pretty good for timing.

So here we go…

For the crust part of the cake you will need…

1 cup of flour

1 cup of crumbled graham wafer crumbs or chopped walnuts (your choice; we have a nut allergy)

½ cup of melted butter

Mix all these things together and then press in a buttered 13x9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

                                                         

Allow to cool and cover before refrigerating.

I also did the pudding in advance. It is instant pudding that you have to use but I always worry about things setting.

So you’re not going to quite follow the box instructions.

Make the puddings in two plastic sealable containers.

                                                      

For the vanilla, use two of the big 153 gram boxes and add two cups of milk. Whisk for two minutes then put in the fridge.

                                   

                                             

The chocolate pudding comes in a 170 gram box so use two of those and add the same amount of milk and whisk and put that in the fridge as well.

                                              

That’s part one. Come back next week to see the finished product. 

Extreme Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hello, it’s Nicole here! So, it was my birthday not too long ago…now, my husband hates shopping at the best of times, let alone right now with everything that is going on. So being the thoughtful husband that he is (albeit, with some ulterior motives :P), and knowing how much I love chocolate, and cake, and chocolate cake, and spending time with him…but mostly chocolate cake…he suggested that we bake a big multi-layer chocolate cake together for my birthday. Of course I said yes, and thought I’d share it here too.

 There used to be a restaurant in town that my parents like to go when I was growing up, and they had this delicious 7 layer chocolate cake that my dad absolutely loved. The restaurant shut down, and years later my dad finds out someone he knows used to work there and gave him the recipe! The original recipe was for 12 cakes, but has been cut down for one so that’s why some of the measurements may seem a little funny.  (I also included the measurements we used to make two ¼ sheet pans).

 We decided that this was the chocolate cake we were going to bake, and frost it with my favourite chocolate frosting recipe from my mom (we doubled it), and fill between the layers with Samantha’s chocolate mousse, which we have blogged about here. Since we wanted more than two layers, but only had two cake pans, we decided to do two sheet pans (took 3 single recipes) and cut them both in half for a rectangular four layer cake.

 

Without further ado…here’s our cake:

 

Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10” round cake

(Amounts in brackets, for two 12”x17” sheet pans)

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar (3 cups)

¼ cup + 2 tsp. Cocoa Powder (¾ cup + 2 Tbsp)

½ cup + 2 Tbsp. Oil (1¾  + 2 Tbsp.)

½ cup + 2 tsp. Hot Water (1½ cup + 2 Tbsp.)

2/3 cup Mayo (2 cups)

1¾ cups Flour (5¼ cups)

1 tsp. Baking Powder (1 Tbsp.)

1½ tsp. Baking Soda (4½ tsp.)

2/3 cup Buttermilk (2 cups)

3 Eggs + 1 Egg White (9 Eggs + 3 Whites)

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the sugar and cocoa, until blended. Add the oil and blend until smooth, then add the hot water and mix well. Add the mayo and blend until smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk.

Mix on low until all dry ingredients are wet – make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now mix on high to get rid of any lumps – do not over mix.

Add eggs and mix on medium speed until well blended – do not over mix.

Pour batter into greased & lined 10” pan put in the preheated oven right away (do not let them sit out). Bake for 50-60 mins.

Let cool before filling and frosting.

Mousse

(We made 1 1/2 recipes)

Recipe here

 

Chocolate Frosting

(We doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:

½ cup Sugar

½ cup Water

¼ cup Cocoa Powder

6 oz Dark Chocolate

6 oz Unsalted Butter

 

Directions:

Heat sugar, water and cocoa in a saucepan, stirring until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and butter to the pan and whisk until both are melted and mixture is smooth.

Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Mix on high speed in mixer until fluffy.

 

Once all the components were ready, we trimmed the edges of the cake then measured and cut them both in half so we had four equal sized layers. We decided to build it on a sheet pan because we didn't have any other plates or trays that were big enough! We split the mousse into three equal parts. Put the first layer of cake down an covered it with mousse, followed by the second layer of cake, then mousse then cake, then mousse, then cake.

    

We then put this in the freezer to harden up the mousse a bit before frosting it. 

We had a bit of a mishap when layering the mousse on. The second layer of cake broke in half when we put it on, and then when we put it in the fridge to harden the mousse up a bit, it slid and the top layers started falling off and getting mousse everywhere. We were able to fix it, but next time we would probably surround each layer with an frosting ‘dam’ along the edges to hold the mousse in. The weather was also fairly warm, so that probably didn’t help. In the end, we put it in the freezer once we fixed it, so that it would be easier to frost. This also made the tray messy, but thankfully that doesn't change the flavour!

It was delicious, and chocolatey…and GIANT…and heavy! Now I understand why in all those cake shows on TV they talk about how heavy their fancy cakes are!! There was so much cake that we shared some with my family, my husband's family and still had extra that we put in the freezer so we could enjoy it again later.

Birthday Card

 

Another week already!

This week I made a Birthday card for a friend so I thought that I would share it with you.

As Summer wraps up, I thought I would go with a bright and fun card.

I used the regular size that we do for cards, 6 ¾ x4 ¾. I picked a bright green as my base and then layered a 6 ¼ x 4 ¼ bright pink layer on top.

Before doing that I stamped the pink layer with beige ink and then used white embossing powder over it to make for bright white words. I left some space under the words, an inch or so. Then I flattened this layer.

                                   

I punched some bright green hearts, three to be exact. Then when the layer was flat, I glued the three hearts under the words.

                                                       

Then finally I glued the layer onto the card and then a bright cheery Birthday card was created!  

                                                       

Craft Time

 

Time sure flies by lately. I have missed a few weeks but in general I feel like I have missed a few weeks of life as work has been so busy. I miss crafting and sleeping and baking. It all feels like one big haze since mid August.

I did do a little craft. I made a painted letter. Way back when, we painted letters like this at a Birthday party that I had. Everyone came up with their own designs and used the colours of their choice. I quite liked the one I made. I still have it. It would look perfect on the door of a nursery or little kid’s room and I have a perfect little sweetie to make one for so take a look at the creation that I made.

First of all you will need a wooden letter. I picked an S which I got from the craft store. The one I got was painted white.

Next choose your colours and design. I went with a soft bright purple and I decided on a lady bug crawling design so I also needed red and black paint. I based this off a another S I painted at my Birthday party. I basically used a lady bug stencil and I traced out a path for my lady bug to follow.

You want to completely paint your letter with a few base coats and allow to dry before you start marking out your design.

                                   

Once it’s all dry then you can trace out what you want to paint or you can free hand it. I plotted out where I wanted my lady bug to go (three points) and then with a pencil I made a little dotted line path for it to follow.

I painted the lady bug in red with a thick coat which I let dry overnight and used black for the antennae.

Next I painted over my sketched dotted line with black ink.

Lastly after everything was dry, I sprayed it with a sealer so that it would last longer.

Now all I have to do is wrap it up and give it away!