my award winning chocolate cake

I entered my city's baking contest during "Cedar Hills Days" about 2 weeks ago and ended up winning 3rd place for my cake. This was kind of a surprise-- to be honest I was expecting my cookies would be the one to place (if I placed at all). The cake is kind of a work in progress, (I don't have it exactly where I want it yet), I didn't start the cake until 11 the night before, so it was very close to being scrapped all together, also- I couldn't find hazelnuts anywhere and I thought they would be very important to a "Hazelnut Cake". I ended up baking it anyway and simply calling it "chocolate cake". Here is the cake and the cookies:The cake looked embarrassing to tell you the truth- it was a little slanted (which happens to me when I put them together at 2 in the morning). Also, the decor left a lot to be desired (especially for someone that has been decorating cakes for a while as I have). Anyway, I entered it even with all my misgivings.
The cookies turned out great. They were exactly how I wanted them. I did get comments from a few of the people that did the taste test that told me that my cookies were their favorite- so perhaps I was in the running for the peoples choice award there. Who knows. Whatever. I was excited to win 3rd place, especially when I opened my envelope on the way home and found an itunes gift card (and Skittles)

YAY!

Here I am in the paper with the other winners:

I've had some interest about getting the recipe from some people- so why not? Here it is:

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

(this is my sister's "Deep Dark Chocolate Cake" recipe. Thanks Amy!- You can call it award winning now (you don't have to tell them that it won (3rd place) in a small baking contest in a small town)

2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 - 1/2 t. baking soda
1 - 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water


In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients, add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Remove from mixer. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into 2 9-inch round or a 9 X 13 greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes for rounds, or 35-40 for 9X13. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing.

Nutella frosting

(this is the work in progress -Amy's cake is excellent- no need
to do a thing with it but bake it and eat it. The frosting started as a recipe I found that had hot fudge in it. I wrote it down because I thought that would be good for an ice cream cake or a cake served with ice cream. I quickly decided to sub the hot fudge with Nutella and the rest is history- I've never made it with the hot fudge). I've tweaked it here and there in addition to the Nutella, but not too much yet- I think it needs something or another before I decide it is exactly what I am looking for.) But this is pretty darn good for now:

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. shortning
1/3 c. cocoa powder
2 c. powdered sugar
2 T. evaporated milk
1 c. Nutella
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter and shortening. Sift the powder's together and add them with the milk, one tablespoon at a time. Add Nutella and vanilla.

So, frost the cake and here are things I would do to make it yummier and fancy (or you can make it as is and just call it "chocolate cake").

1. I put the rest of the Nutella in a pastry bag (you need 8 oz. for the frosting and it comes in 13 oz. jars). For the contest, I just did a big swirl with it in the middle of the cake (around the bottom is just the frosting in a piping bag).

2. Put about eight or 12 generous dots of Nutella around the cake and put a whole hazlenut in the middle of the dot (that was my master plan before it was thwarted by a lack of hazlenuts in my area).

3. A nice touch might be putting a fancy European hazelnut chocolate in the center such as a Ferrero Rocher.

4. I also thought about crushing hazelnuts in a bag and then putting them along the sides of the cake - kind of like some people do with walnuts and carrot cake.

It all depends on your tastes and how much you like Hazelnuts I guess. I thought adding the straight Nutella was a very yummy, rich addition- so I recommend giving that a go.

Apricot Chicken

I made this recipe I found tonight and we loved it, it was pretty easy, so I thought I would share. I didn't get a picture of it, we ate it too fast, but I was able to scrape a few leftovers to give you some idea...

• 1/2 cup apricot preserves
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sherry (I'm sure you could use chk broth)
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

Original recipe included:

• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup salted cashews

But I didn't add them because I didn't have them and also I am not a big fan of bell peppers. (I did have a bag of cashews a few days ago, but they were absently left on the counter and Lola can get anything she wants from off our counter, so bye bye cashews).


I did however make my own additions:

• 1/2 cup onion, cubed into stir fry size pieces
  
• big handful of broccoli florets
• Oh, and I bagged the oil since I cooked the chicken in oil.
  

We were very pleased with both additions, so I highly recommend them

What I am going to add next time:

• cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to taste
• maybe a little more garlic
• I am sure fresh ginger would be better (isn't it always) sadly, I didn't have any.
  

Ok, here is the procedure:

1. cut chicken into strips. Warm up the wok and add olive oil. Cook chicken in oil on high until it starts browning, then add onion and broccoli and turn wok down to medium.

2. While that is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk. When chicken and veggies are cooked, add sauce, turn wok down to low and let simmer a few minutes (about 5, maybe a little less).

3. Serve over rice.

I added a little more soy sauce to mine and it was yummy, Rob thought it was perfect as is. In fact, he called it "the most Chinese thing you've ever made". I try so hard to find recipes that taste like a real Chinese restaurant, and even if it is good, it falls short. Well, Rob thought this time I did it. I added my own twist to the original (as I find myself doing a lot), but this time I really felt it was called for as the original recipe cooked everything in the microwave! Cooking meat in the microwave absolutely horrifies me, but if anyone would like to try it, I would be really interested to hear how it turns out. Here are the original instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Add chicken and toss to coat. Transfer to a shallow microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring once.
2. Add green pepper and cashews. Cover and microwave on high for 2-4 minutes or until chicken juices run clear, stirring once. Let stand for 3 minutes. Serve with rice.

I would also like to know how it tastes with cashews. I would also like to sub the broccoli with snow peas sometime, or I suppose you could do both since I really liked the broccoli in this dish. But, I will definitely be making this again- so I can keep experimenting and tweaking until I have it exactly as I'd like it. I'll let you know what's good- and anyone that tries it, I would love a little feedback as well.

Swiss Chicken

Here is a recipe I came across that Rob and I are just loving, so I thought I would share:

Swiss Chicken

4 Chicken breasts
4 slices of swiss cheese
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/4 C. milk
2 C. Stove Top
3T. butter

1. Take trimmed chicken breasts and pound them just until flat (this wasn't in the original recipe, but I happened to do it the first time I made this and didn't the second time and we both noticed a difference in our enjoyment of the meal- so I really recommend doing so!), then lay them in a glass casserole dish.

2. cover with swiss cheese (I really love my swiss cheese, so I double up on the cheese when I make it- again, I would recommend doing that too!).

3. mix the soup with the milk and then spoon over the chicken and cheese.

4. cover with the (unprepared) stuffing.

5. melt the butter and then drizzle over the top.

6.cover with foil and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Let's face it, this meal isn't going to win any gourmet awards but this is really yummy "comfort food" like stuff, the flavors of the chicken, swiss and stuffing really compliment each other. I also really like meals that only use one pan, so it gets a big plus from me that you don't have to brown the chicken (or otherwise cook it first) and the prep is so simple. It also speaks well for it that Rob really likes it and he is positively ALLERGIC to casseroles (he had some nasty casseroles as a kid due to a creative mom). So, he likes it enough to overlook the fact that it is one.
(He also will eat my chicken tortilla casserole though, because it's yummy too).

Oh, also- totally serve it with green beans. Green beans are the perfect side dish, in fact, I take the extra sauce and cheese stuff that's at the bottom of the pan and dump the extra green beans in there and stir it all up and eat it for lunch the next day or (more likely) as a midnight snack (too much information?) I suppose you could add them to the *whispers* casserole, but I cannot- as it might unlock some of those bad casserole memories from Rob's brain.
Apparently, most of those casseroles involved green beans and I believe him, as we currently house his mother's food storage in our basement and you would not believe the amount of green beans down there. But I digress.

You know what? Don't add the green beans to the dish, that even makes me icky, just serve them along side, but make sure you swirl them in the sauce when you eat them.

Original recipe credited to Carolyn Burdette from allrecipes.com. Let's give credit where credit is due.

Crockpot Lasagna

When I started this blog, I was planning on sharing some recipes and I really have only done it once (a long time ago). So, here is a yummy one I found and we just finished eating it (and loving it) so I thought I would share it. For some reason, my past lasagna attempts have been unsatisfactory, so we were pleased with this very much. Instead of typing it, I am just going to provide the link.

Two things about this I will share: 1) I thought it was too heavy on the salt and would reduce it to maybe even not adding any. I think there is plenty in the cheese. I say this as a salt addict. 2) people in the reviews complained that the cooking time was too long and their noodles were a soggy mess. I checked mine after a little over 3 hours and they were perfect, so I think the 4 to 6 hour cooking time is perhaps too much. Oh, I also bought "Italian style"tomato paste on accident, so I only added a dash of oregano. I liked it that way and will use that kind again.

I would definitely follow the rules of lasagna and serve it with a green salad and garlic bread.

Yummy Homemade bread

I have been making homemade wheat bread for the past few weeks (I know, I'm Donna Reed), I thought I should share the recipe since it has just been so yummy. It's chewy not crumbly like all the other breads I have made and that makes me happy. It has a few ingredients I didn't have on hand (one I had never heard of) but I found them easily at Smiths. These are the questionable ingredients:

The vital wheat gluten was kind of expensive ($6.29), but the recipe is for 3 loaves and it only calls for 1/2 a cup, so that bag will last a long time and it's worth it, I think that is what gives it it's chewiness.
I got this recipe from "allrecipes.com" by the way

Westrup Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 T. active dry yeast (that's 2 envelopes)
2 3/4 C. warm water
3 C. whole wheat flour
5 C. bread flour, divided
1 C. wheat bran
1 C. wheat germ
1/2 C. vital wheat gluten
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 C. dry non-fat milk powder
2 T. sesame seeds (I've actually never added these. It sounds weird.)
1 T. salt (I make it a heaping, it improves the flavor)
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 eggs
I add a 1/4 to 1/3 C. of honey too (We like it sweeter- you can do whatever you want)


1. In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 mins.

2. In a large mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aid) combine the whole wheat flour, wheat bran 3 C. of the bread flour, wheat germ, milk powder, brown sugar, wheat gluten, sesame seeds, and salt; stir well. Mix in the yeast mixture, oil and eggs.

3.Add the remaining bread flour, a half cup at a time stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, start kneading it until it's smooth and elastic. About 8 minutes. (Ok, the first time I did this, I used my Kitchen Aid kneading hook (I may be Donna Reed, but I am not a pioneer), and about a minute and a half my mixer was REALLY STRUGGLING! Then it started to smell bad, so I turned it off and finished kneading by hand. The dough is very tough! I recommend just kneading it by hand. You can skip your bicep workout for the day. I say that like I actually work out my biceps! Or anything else for that matter)

4.Lightly oil a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about an hour.

5.Deflate the dough and turn it out onto the counter and divide into 3 equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into three lightly greased bread pans. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume about 40 minutes. (I let mine rise longer, it makes the bread less dense.

6. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

7. Slice it right away and eat it with lots of honey butter.

I added the last step myself, but it is as important as all the other steps. The first time I made this, I tried to half it and it worked fine, but the bread was gone very fast. I have since just made the full recipe and the other two loaves freeze well, so it's worked out great. Bread is like pie, if you are taking the trouble to make one, you may as well make a lot and freeze!

Here is today's handy work

peace out