German Chocolate Cake Mistake

The story of the German Chocolate Cake is a funny valentine story, similar to one Dustin and I have had before. Let me explain.

One year, for Valentine's Day, Dustin got me a card, some flowers and Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I graciously accepted my gifts, but he still had this weird smile on his face. "Do you like the Ferrero Rochers?" He asked. "Um, yes, thanks honey," I replied. "Because I know how they're your favorite," Dustin went on, still smiling. I was very confused as Ferrero Rochers are NOT my favorite, but tried to play along. Dustin wasn't convinced. He said, "No, remember, you said that when you were in the grocery store when you were little, and you always wanted the Ferrero Rochers, but your mom never let you get them--?" At this point, I could feel the anger starting to bubble up inside of me--"He confused me with an ex-girlfriend??" I could tell Dustin was starting to realize too that I was NOT that little kid at the grocery store begging for Ferrero Rochers. And then he figured it out.

It was his best friend Steve. My husband confused me with his best friend Steve. Awesome.

So, fast forward to Valentine's Day 2012. I decided to make Dustin's favorite cake, German Chocolate.

But it's not his favorite. It's his Dad's. Oops.

But it may be his favorite now, though. The cake was perfectly soft and the flavors were subtle yet delicious, not to mention the homemade pecan-coconut frosting that generously covered the cake. It's definitely become a favorite in the Bank house!

To make your own GC cake, you'll need:

3 eggs

2/3 C softened butter

1.5 C AP flour

3/4 TSP baking soda

1/4 TSP salt

4 OZ sweet baking chocolate

1 C sugar

1 TSP vanilla

3/4 C buttermilk (I use milk with 1 TBS white vinegar)

Separate eggs and allow them and the butter to stand at room temperature for 30 min. Grease and lightly flour two round cake pans. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan combine chocolate with 1/2 C water. Cook and stir over low heat til chocolate melts. Cool.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 sec. Gradually add sugar and beat for 2 min. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each one. Add cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture, beating on  low after each addition is combined.

Wash beaters. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into batter. Spread batter in the prepared cake pans. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, checking with a toothpick for doneness. Remove cake layes from pans, and cool thoroughly before adding frosting.

To make your own Coconut-Pecan Frosting:

In a medium saucepan slightly beat one egg. Stir in 2/3 C (one 5 OZ can) evaporated milk, 2/3 C sugar, and 1/4 C butter. Cook and stir over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 and 1/3 C coconut flakes and 1/2 C chopped pecans.





Happy baking, and happy eating!

The Chocolate Lover's Cupcake

I love chocolate. Most people love chocolate. But I think I love it more than most people. I'm talking, I-need-the-sweetness-every-night-so-I-don't-go-crazy kind of love. So, when  I decided to make a chocolate cupcake, I had to find the best recipe out there.

 Enter this recipe. Oh. My. Goodness. Words cannot even describe how excited I was every night after dinner to eat one of these babies. The texture was so velvety, the flavor so rich, it was hard to stop at one.

I also used a vanilla cream cheese frosting, found from the same blog. I used blue food coloring to give it a little something extra. A perfect topping to a deliciously chocolate treat!

The ingredients: The thing I love about baking is that the ingredients are all stuff I already have!

My first experience using the piping bag! Either those things are messy, or I'm doing it wrong. Either way, I think there was more icing on my fingers than the cupcakes!

What Dustin and I got to eat after dinner every night for a while (and Dustin sometimes even after lunch)! Such a sweet ending to a day!

For the sake of your sweet tooth, make these! I promise you, it will not be a decision you regret.

The only question now is, what should I bake next?

A Sweet Start to the New Year.

I apologize for my lack of sweetness these past few weeks. I was, like most people, swamped during the holidays. Between driving to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, flying to Colorado for Christmas, and ringing in the New Year with fabulous friends, there wasn't a lot of time to stop and take pictures of the things that were going on in my kitchen. But that doesn't mean I wasn't busy...

For Christmas parties, I made:

Chocolate Peppermint Bark. SO Easy, and definitely a crowd pleaser. Ingredients needed: 2 bags of white chocolate chips, 1 bag of milk chocolate chips, and some crushed up candy cane pieces. I will for sure make this again next year! For the "recipe" (I put it in quotes because it is ridiculously easy) go here.

Jalapeno poppers. I made these for three different parties, and for every one, they were a hit. I surprised myself by making these, because I am normally not a hot-and-spicy kind of girl. But I'm glad I did. When you take the seeds out of the peppers (which contain most of the oils in the jalapeno that make it so spicy) you use a lot of the spiciness, yet still maintain the distinct flavor of the pepper. **Note: when de-seeding your peppers, wear gloves. You and your fingers will be sorry if you don't!

Although the recipe I used didn't call for bacon, I would definitely add 1/2 a strip to at least half of your poppers. Make sure that after baking, you broil them for a least 10 minutes to get the bacon crispy and the cheese brown. To make these tasty poppers, go here.

For Christmas gifts, I made:

Dustin and I tried to be nicer to our wallets this year during the holidays, and decided to make something special for our friends and family. And seriously, who does not love a jar full of cookie mix? I got the idea from this website, but changed it from quick bread to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I added all the dry ingredients and printed up cute labels for the recipes (the picture above is NOT my handiwork...like I said before, I didn't take any pictures of my creations). The end result was a pretty, colorful, layered jar of goodness!

As we head into 2012, I am excited for what is in store for me and my baking. I got lots of baking goodies for Christmas (flour sifter, dough blender, springfrom pans, new cookie sheets, baking cookbook, cupcake liners) and can't wait to start using them!

Also, if you live in the Nashville area, and are suffering from an insatiable sweet tooth, let me know! With all my "experimenting," Dustin and I currently have enough treats to feed a T-Ball team!

Keep an eye out for an AMAZING chocolate cupcake recipe coming soon!



No Sweet this Week...

I apologize for the lack of sweetness last week, but let's be honest: Could you REALLY have stuffed a cupcake in your mouth after Thanksgiving? I didn't think so.

But, some exciting news! My dear friend Sara bought me, as a belated birthday present....PIPING BAGS! And tips! I no longer have to use ziploc bags to top my creations, which was always so sad because I knew that had such potential to look AMAZING! I can't wait to show you my beautiful masterpieces soon!

Sweet of the Week: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Round number two....and I was seeing RED! (that was lame, I apologize). I decided to make one of my favorite cupcakes of all time, red velvet, with a delicious cream cheese frosting to top it off. Here's how it all went down:

The ingreeds: Things of note: Recipe called for white vinegar and buttermilk. I use a dry buttermilk mix you can combine with water.

 The dry ingredients: Do NOT mix in baking soda with them like I almost did. That comes at the very end.

 The "Red" paste: Made with cocoa powder, red food coloring, and little water.

 The sugar and softened butter. Add the eggs one at a time, then vanilla.

Add the red paste, then the dry ingredients to the batter.

*Okay so, this recipe instructed that, right before assembling the cupcakes, to combine the white vinegar and baking soda. I did that, it started to fizz, weird me out, and I'm not really sure what effect this had on the cupcakes. I'll have to google it.

(I forgot to put in pictures of them going in/coming out of the oven, but you know how that works anyway.) Bake for 20 min at 350, rotating the pan at 10 min. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool completely and frost!



Since I am still a novice baker, I "piped" my cupcakes using a plastic bag and cut a small corner of the bag at a diagonal angle. It was pretty messy, and I ended up having more cupcakes than frosting, but I was pretty impressed overall with my finished product! They have a sincerely "velvety" texture, and the flavor was amazing. The cream cheese frosting on top was a very simple, four-ingredient recipe (powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and cream cheese) and justs tastes RIGHT on top of that cupcake. I found the cupcake recipe on this blog and the cream cheese frosting recipe from this site. For all red velvet cupcake lovers, these are definitely recipes to try!

Until next time!



Sweet of the Week: Pumpkin Pie Cupcake

I know, I know....sounds a litte ambitious for the first go-round, right? But I was feeling in a rather fall-ish mood today, and I DO love me some pumpkin pie. Here's a little peek at what I was busy doing today:

The ingredients: SUPER simple! All I had to buy was pumpkin puree.

 The dry ingredients. I learned the hard way long ago that yes, you DO have to mix wet/dry separately!

 The wet ingredients. Once blended, whisk in the dry ingredients gradually.

 Ready for the oven! 20 minutes at 350

 Hot out of the oven! Don't worry, it's perfectly normal for them to sink as they cool.

The delicious finished product! I used whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinammon to top of this fabulously fall treat (Because what's pumpkin pie without whipped cream?)

I was so excited with my finished product! It has the "cakey" outside of a cupcake, but the inside is all pie. Perfect for Thanksgiving (and if you're worried about weight, a nice way to control the portion of your dessert!) I cannot claim this recipe as my own, I found this recipe on this blog. Right now, I'm still in the "mastery" phase. Soon I hope to be concocting tasty recipes of my own! Try this one on Turkey Day and I promise you, everyone will be Thankful!

Welcome to My Sweet Life.

 So, here's the deal. I'll kindly spare you a boring intro about myself. I mean, let's be honest, you probably already know who I am because I can't imagine anyone other than my family or friends actually reading this (and it's mostly because I forced you). Instead, I'll give you the bullet points:

•  My name is Sammie.
• I live in Nashville.
• I am a teacher by day.
• Aspiring baker by night.

I have no "formal" baking experience. At all. In fact, I failed my cooking class in high school. I couldn't even make a cake ( there really is a difference between baking soda and baking powder). Yet, for some reason, the baking process brings me such joy. The science behind the precise measurements, the exciting moment when you bite into something you created and find that it doesn't suck all that bad, sharing your masterpieces with others, and finding that they (by some grace of God) enjoy it too....it all gives me an overwhelming sense of pride in myself and purpose in life.

I created this blog to document this adventure I am embarking upon. I'm sure I'll fail, I'm positive I'll make a mess, but I hope that at some point, I will begin to help bring a little sweetness back into this world, one cupcake at a time.