Caramel Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze

If you are a caramel lover and love poundcake too, this is the cake for you! Easy to put together a little over an hour in the oven, easy as....well, cake. I can honestly say that I have never made this cake before now, and I am kicking myself in the behind. I should have made it a long time ago!!

Caramel Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed (I only had light brown sugar, so I used 2 cups of it)

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup oil

5 large eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat butter until creamy; add sugar until blended. Add oil until blended. Add eggs 1 at a time beating until yellow disappears. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla. Beat at low speed just until blended.

Pour batter into a greased 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before drizzling with glaze.

Caramel glaze:

1 pkg (16 oz) light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 can (5oz) evaporated milk (I used 2% milk)

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan. Boil, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add baking powder and vanilla. Mix occasionally while mixture cools and thickens. When it is cooled enough to drizzle, pour on top of cake. It took mine about 15 minutes to get to this thickness.

Nothin's Baking

I am ashamed to admit that I have literally baked nothing in over a week! I feel so lost! :) Baking calms me and makes me happy, and I feel like something is out of whack since I haven't baked anything. Not sure what caused it, but I really need to get my baking mojo back!

So, until I have a baked good for you, how about my Mr. Smiley spoon from Megan's Cookin. I was one of the lucky winners from her birthday giveaway! He truly does make me smile every time I see him! Thanks Megan!!

Next, My friend Katherine from Smokey Mountain Cafe awarded me with this award. Thank you so much Katherine! It really did make my day. Sorry it took me awhile to post about it!

And finally, tomorrow is the posting day for the monthly Daring Baker Challenge. Unfortunately, I did not complete it! So, go ahead and check out the other Daring Bakers to see what the challenge was, I am positive that you will be impressed!! A huge thanks to the hostess this month, it was a special month and I am sorry that I missed out on it!!

Fixation Friday....er.....Saturday....

Ok blogland friends, can we just pretend that today is Friday?

So, now that we all have our mind set to Friday, let me go on....

Today is Fixation Friday and you know what that means, time for our chocolate fix chosen by Michelle from My Year to Get Skinny. I have to confess that I did cheat on this. You see, we were supposed to make our own Dulce De Leche, but, since I didn't really make these until Saturday, I used the PBDDL from Blake Makes. Worked out perfectly! The brownies came together fairly quickly, baked up in a short amount of time, and were perfect to munch on all afternoon!

If you are looking for a blog event that is not strict on the rules, and just a bi-weekly thing, oh, and you have to be a complete chocoholic...this would be for you!

Dulce de Leche Brownies
Pastry Chef David Lebovitz
12 brownies
8 tablespoons (115 g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (25 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140 g) flour
optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Dulce de Leche (or Cajeta) (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C).

Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn’t reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Here comes the fun part.Drop one-third of the Dulce de Leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining Dulce de Leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the Dulce de Leche slightly.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely. After they are completely cooled I take the brownies out of the pan by lifting with the foil then I put them in the fridge. It helps the dulce de leche set up.



Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Pour one can (400 gr/14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).

Once the Dulce De Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.

Feeling like a kid again...

Do you remember these? I remember going through the school lunch line and getting these. That was way before they changed the whole lunch menu. That is a whole other conversation..

I loved them! I called them cow pies. Kind of gross, but that is what we called them. I have also heard them called quickie candy or no bake cookies. No matter what you call them, they still taste the same, and make me a happy little girl. Oddly though, my daughter Abby, doesn't like them. Crazy girl!!

These mix up in no time at all, and just put spoonfuls on waxed paper to cool and there you have some cow pies!!

Cow Pies, Quickie candy, No Bake cookies....whatever you call them!

2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
1 stick margarine
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup oats
1 cup peanut butter

Mix the first 4 ingredients in large pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add rest of the ingredients. Mix well and drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.

Let cool completely.

Candy Corn

It is finally starting to feel like fall around here, well, I say that and today it is going to be in the 80's, but at night it is in the 60's. The leaves are starting to change and fall off of the trees. Pumpkins are starting to make their appearances at the farmer's markets and the grocery stores. I love when fall finally rolls around. The air smells cleaner, and it makes me start thinking of the holidays. Halloween then Thanksgiving, I am already counting down the days, and then Christmas. And then at the very end of it all, we start off a whole new year. In less than 3 months it will be a whole other year. It is really crazy when you think about it!!

I found this recipe last year, printed it off and never made it. I think that I found it from you who got it from someone else, but it originally came from the editor's blog at Epicurious. I saw a Halloween special last year on Foodtv that the host visited the shop Boule and they made this candy corn and other Halloween treats. This is supposed to be that recipe.

This was completed in less than an hour, and I will definitely be making it again and again. Since this was my first go around with it, I got about 80 pieces. Next time, I will make them smaller. There is a note in the recipe that said not to roll the ropes too thin or it will break. I now know, that I can go a little smaller than I did. I also did not sift the last 3 ingredients. I will for sure do that the next time. It will make for a smoother dough. I will also divide the colors into 2 or 3 parts and make it in separate increments. That will make for easier rope rolling. Oh, and also, unless you want you hands stained, use gloves to mix the colors!

If you like the store bought candy corn, or even if you don't, make this. It tastes so much better, but be warned that it is addicting! This does not make a huge mess in the kitchen, so that is a plus!

Happy Fall Y'all!!

Candy Corn

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup non fat milk powder
1/4 tsp sea salt (I used regular salt)
Red and yellow food coloring

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil over high heat in heavy large saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Sift powdered sugar, milk powder, and salt into medium bowl. Add powdered sugar mixture to pan; stir to combine. Let mixture stand until slightly warm to touch, about 20 minutes.

Divide dough into 3 equal pieces; place each piece in small bowl. Add several drops of yellow food coloring to one piece of dough. Using plastic gloves to protect hands, knead food coloring into dough until smooth and color is even, about 15 minutes. Repeat using red and yellow food coloring (to make orange) with second piece. Leave last piece white; knead dough until smooth. Roll each piece into a thin rope (don't roll too thin or dough will break.) Push three ropes together to form long rectangle. Using sharp knife, cut ropes into triangles. Using fingers, shape candy corn as desired. Store in room temperature in airtight container, separating layers with pieces of waxed paper to prevent sticking.

**I used my bench scraper to cut the triangles, and this would be a great recipe that your kids could do.

Cranberry Shortbread for a cause

My friend Ley from Cilantro and Lime has decided to host her first blog event, and it is a mighty good one. Baking for breast cancer awareness. She is trying to get the work spread more about breast cancer awareness. There are so many people effected by this disease and it does not discriminate against anyone. It effects, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, friends, cousins and sometimes men. I have lost an aunt to this disease and my grandmother, aunt and cousin are survivors.




I chose to bake Cranberry Shortbread for a couple of reasons, 1) I have never made shortbread and 2) cranberries are supposed to be really healthy for you. I found this recipe from a Martha Christmas cookie magazine from a few years ago and they were cut out like hearts. I will be making this again for Christmas baskets and maybe I will shape them into little trees. But, for this month, they will be for Breast Cancer Awareness.




Cranberry Shortbread

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries


Preheat oven to 325 degrees with a rack in center. Put butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt in large mixing bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.

Press dough evenly into an 8-inch square baking pan. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes. Run a knife around edges; remove shortbread, and transfer, right side up, to work surface. Cut into desired shape.

Pie and a Movie...

I know that you are saying, shouldn't that be dinner and a movie? Normally, yes it would, but not in this case. You see, this is the first go round of You Want Pies With That? blog event. The first round theme just happened to be "I love that movie!" Pick your favorite movie and create a pie from it.

I chose the movie Chocolat starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, my favorite pirate who is coming back for Pirate's of the Caribbean 4!! OK, so back to the movie and pie. I could watch this movie again and again, right after the other. I just love it, but all through the movie, she serves her hot chocolate with a pinch of chili powder. So, I give you Chocolat's Chocolate Chess with a pinch of chili powder pie. I know it is long, but that's OK! Don't want the chili powder added? Just leave it out.

Chocolate Chess with a Pinch of Chili Powder Pie:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted (I used half bittersweet and half semisweet)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
1 tsp chili powder (add more if you want it a little stronger)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and add sugar, mix until combined. Add melted chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, cornmeal, and chili powder. Mix until all combined. Pour into pie shell and bake 50-55 minutes.

I use this pie shell when I need one in a pinch. It is from Gale Gand's book, Butter Sugar Flour Eggs.

Crumbly Pie Crust:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces and lightly softened
1 egg yolk

Put the flour in a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix. Make a well in the center and place the butter pieces and egg yolk in the well. Using your fingers, work the butter and egg yolk together until well combined. Using your fingers, work the butter-egg mixture into the flour mixture until combined but still loose. The dough will be crumbly, but when you squeeze a handful in your hand it should hold together.

Sprinkle the dough into a 10-inch pie or tart pan. Press the dough firmly and evenly onto the bottom and sides of the pan, making sure not to let the crust thicken at the corners. It should make a clean right angle where the sides meet the bottom.

Chill the crust at least 30 minutes or, covered, up to 3 days.