Category Archives: Desserts

Raspberry Amaretto Poundcake

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Raspberry Amaretto Poundcake

Raspberry Amaretto Pound Cake



Not a fancy looking cake, is it? Trust me; you won’t care. I’ve never been a huge fan of layer cakes, even with the sweet tooth I have. I make them for birthdays and whenever I get a strange craving for one, which isn’t often. Then I eat one slice and no more, reminded of the fact that I don’t care for them. Too messy, too darn sweet. But give me a pound cake and I can chow down on that bad boy… or girl. I’ve never been proficient at identifying the gender of my pound cakes.

Totally off the subject of pound cakes and gender, I had a…fun…experience the other night. My husband and I were checking the pool the other night (we haven’t yet opened it for the year) because my son Jordan had said that it was full of tadpoles. Went up there with a flashlight and yep, our pool has become a froggie resort. I am pretty sure I heard some lively Caribbean style music and saw one frog with a Mai Tai. Well, we looked, we got sad thinking of all the tadpoles who were going to have to die for the sake of cleaning the pool and then we left. Russ went first down the stairs. No problem. Then me. I got two stairs down the five stair deck, hit the third and “CRAAACCCKKK!!”. Suddenly, I was half airborne. I say half because as I was flying, I was also falling as that crack was the sound of the old poorly made staircase breaking. The stair went down, I followed, my bottom half slamming into the side of the stairs, my top half slamming into the next stair down as I tried to prevent myself from hitting head first into the next stair. Talk….about…pain. My R.N. husband was convinced for a bit that I had broken my leg. But it’s not. I do however have one whopper of a huge bruise on my right thigh and I walk like someone who has been hit by a bus… or a staircase. I feel about 95 years old right now lol.

So what’s my cure? Back to cake 😀 I had seen an Amaretto Pound Cake on Southern Living and wanted to try it. But I also love using fresh fruit any chance I get this time of year. I have a MAJOR love of Blueberries and Raspberries. Blueberries aren’t quite there yet in the stores; still expensive and still being imported from Chile. Raspberries are looking pretty good, though still not quite up to par in the way of sweetness. Baking takes care of that though (and pigging out on pound cake makes me forget that I am in pain). Baking fruit concentrates the sweetness plus you have the added sweetness of whatever is with it, in this case a moist, love almond scented and flavored pound cake. The raspberries do tend to break down in the batter, leaving holes, but again, you won’t care. This isn’t a fancy party cake, not something to serve to the Queen. This is a homey, comforting sort of cake to have with coffee, tea, as a midnight snack, after school treat, you name it. This is a nice densely crumbed cake, very moist and the almond flavor is wonderful.  Then you run into a nice tart raspberry with that almond flavor and oh my gosh, it’s yummy.

My changes from the original are the almond extract, the Fiori Di Sicilia (which I list as optional), the raspberries and the original called for scattering almond slices on the bottom of the pan before baking, but I didn’t want those, so I skipped it. I also changed the amounts for the glaze as when I made it, it made far too much and a good portion ended up dumped.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Raspberry Amaretto Poundcake

  • 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temp
  • 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 tablespoons Amaretto
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon Fiori Di Sicilia flavoring (optional)
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups fresh raspberries
  • Amaretto Glaze-
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
  • 1 tablespoon water
  1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat at medium speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl once if needed.
  3. Gradually add the sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the Amaretto and the extracts, beating well afterward. Gradually add the flour to the mixture, keeping the speed at low speed so you don’t end up looking like Casper The Ghost. Beat just until blended.
  4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until blended after each one. GENTLY fold in the raspberries. You can’t avoid crushing some, but you can minimize the damage. Gently spoon batter into the prepared pan. When you have it in the pan, firmly bang the pan on a countertop to help remove any air bubbles.
  5. Bake at 325 for 65 to 95 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  6. When the cake is almost done, make the glaze- in a small pot, combine the glaze ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat and set aside until the cake is finished.
  7. Set the cake on a rack. Spoon the glaze over the top, a little at a time, letting it soak in each time. Use about half the glaze. Let the cake cool completely on the rack, then turn out onto a serving dish. Reheat the glaze and spoon the rest of it over the cake, again letting it soak in each time before adding more.

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Chocolate Malted Milk Mousse

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Chocolate Malted Milk Mousse

Chocolate Malted Milk Mousse




When I was 13, I worked at a small ice cream shack (shack is a fairly fitting word, too) called “Frosty Hut”, also called Frosty Slut, but we won’t go there. I worked there for a dollar an hour. I had had to get a work permit to even work at that age and I guess the owner, Mr. A, figured a buck an hour was sufficient even though minimum wage was $3.35. One of the perks of the job was, of course, the free ice cream. Since this was privately owned and we were paid slave wages, there was no “you have a 30 minute lunch break and can eat one small thing from the menu” rule. Nope, my sister and I (she also worked there…we were the full line up of employees that Summer) ate like pigs lol. One of my favorite things to do was work my shift, then make 2 of what were called Boston Shakes, one for me and one for my brother Steve. These were HUGE shakes that also had a about 73 pints of soft serve on top of them. I have absolutely NO idea how I didn’t weigh 500 pounds by the end of that Summer. Mine was the same each time; a chocolate malt with extra malt syrup. The flavor is still a favorite. I don’t drink shakes often but when I go to say, Sonic and get one, it’s still chocolate malt with extra malt. I’m a creature of habit 🙂

Since I also love Whoppers Candy; they are malt flavored after all, I was tickled to find this recipe in the same Better Home And Garden Cookbook/magazine (it’s one of those they keep on the shelves for a few months, then retire) that my last post came from. I am slowly working my way through all the recipes in there that I have tabbed. It was a good find; a cookbook that you actually want to make multiple recipes from. I have about a dozen pages tabbed and plan to get to them all.

This is a perfect Spring dessert; it’s rich yet light and not overwhelming. Mind you, it would also be great for a Christmas dessert or heck, any time of year lol. I don’t want to limit it. But Easter is tomorrow and if you still need just one more dessert, this would work wonderfully. It can be ready to go in less than 90 minutes and that includes chilling time. The mousse itself is sweet and creamy with a nice malted milk flavor. The topping is only very lightly sweetened and a wonderful foil to the sweeter mousse. And the crushed malted milk balls in the mousse and the topping add a nice light crunch.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Chocolate Malted Milk Mousse

  • 2/3 cup malted milk balls (plus extra for garnishing)
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 4 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1/3 cup chocolate malted milk powder (I actually used the plain kind, not the chocolate kind)
  • 2 tablespoons amaretto, chocolate liqueur or cream (I used Kahlua cause I’m just a rebel :-p )
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (this is for the topping. Don’t be tempted to add more sugar. The small amount of sweetening is excellent against the sweet mousse)
  1. Put the malted milk balls in a large bag and crush them using a rolling pin…or a hammer…or a neighbors head, whatever works for you; no judgment here. Set aside.
  2. In a small saucepot, combine the chopped chocolates and 1/4 cup of the cream. Over low heat, stirring constantly, heat until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla, the malted milk powder and the liqueur (or cream) Cool to room temp. Stirring speeds this up.
  3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whip 1 3/4 cup of the cream until stiff peaks form. Stir 1/2 cup of the cream into the cooled chocolate mixture. gently fold the rest of the cream into the chocolate. Then gently fold in the crushed malted milk balls. Spoon the mousse into either small dessert glasses or a 1.5 to 2 quart glass serving bowl. Cover and chill for one hour at least and up to 24 hours.
  4. When ready to serve, whip the remaining one cup cream with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder until stiff peaks form. Spoon the topping onto the mousse and garnish with more malted milk balls.

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Lemon Layer Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

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Lemon Layer Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Layer Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting



I could have SWORN Spring was here. The calendar says so, the Farmers Almanac says so, the fact that I had (key word…had) pretty Hyacinths blooming said so. But obviously God and Mother Nature are a wee bit confused. That or they were bored and figured playing a practical joke on all of us would be a good way to pass the time. I guess eating chocolate and watching reruns of House aren’t popular up there when you’re bored. Here in Kentucky, we had to cover all our budding fruit trees and plants in the hopes that the low temps of mid twenties we are supposed to get tonight won’t kill them. My Hyacinths were a lost cause though. The cold of last night already got them *sobs*

I was all prepared for warm weather baking however. Yes, I know that many of you think baking is insane in warmer weather but 1) I’m kind of warped that way and 2) it’s kind of my job… I can’t go on hiatus from April till October 😛 So I still bake… I just change the theme. Pumpkin goes away (well, off the blog anyway. I love it so I still use it here at home), cranberries stay in the freezer and citrus, fresh herbs, and lighter foods (relatively speaking… I’m still me, after all) get made. So I had my mind set on lemon and I’ll be darned if I change it because God didn’t want to watch House or maybe play Rummy with Gabriel.

This is one yummy cake. The recipe in it’s original form comes from a Better Homes And Garden magazine I have. I didn’t change much, just added vanilla, almond and lemon extracts to both the cake and two of those to the frosting, used my own lemon curd recipe (theirs called for a cornstarch custard and to me, that’s just not the same) and didn’t do the caramelized lemons they called for. I just used sugared lemons. Easier, still deliciously edible if one swings that way and did I mention easier?

You know the drill…. 🙂

Lemon Layer Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cake-
  • 1 batch of Lemon Curd or one cup of store bought lemon curd (but I’ll cry if you use store bought. There is NO comparison.)
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 1/3 cups flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon Boyajian Lemon Oil (or an equivalent amount of lemon extract)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • Frosting-
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 4 to 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon Boyajian Lemon Oil
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • Garnish (optional)-
  • 2 thinly sliced lemons
  • 1 cup sugar (you won’t use it all, but it clumps from the moisture of the lemons so you need extra. The leftovers go great in tea.)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 9 inch cake pans. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add in the sugar, extracts, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat until well combined. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one, scraping the bowl as needed.
  4. Alternate adding in the flour and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour), beating just until combined after each addition. Divide the batter between the 3 prepared pans.
  5. Bake at 350 for 25 to 28 minutes. The tops should be golden brown and spring back when touched. Cool in the pans for ten minutes, then carefully loosen with a butter knife and invert onto a rack to cool completely.
  6. While cake cools, make frosting- Combine the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat well until smooth and creamy, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the extracts and beat until combined. Add in the powdered sugar, a cup at a time (unless you fancy looking like you just drove through a sand storm), beating well after each addition. Add just enough to get a good spreading consistency. When done, stir in the lemon zest.
  7. To assemble, lay one cake layer on your serving plate. Spread it with 1/2 cup of the lemon curd. Top with another layer; again spread with 1/2 cup of curd. Carefully place the top layer on, pressing down LIGHTLY to hold them together. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the frosting.
  8. For the garnish, JUST before serving (the sugar starts to melt and drip after while, so don’t do it until ready to serve), toss the lemon slices with the sugar until lightly coated. Do a few at a time or the sugar clumps and you get too thick of a coating on the lemon slices. Arrange them on the top of the cake. Serve.

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Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

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Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups




We all know I am NOT a fan of peanut butter. Well, to qualify again, not “normal” peanut butter. I do have a soft spot for Peanut Butter & Company’s Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter and Jifs new Salted Caramel Hazelnut is pretty amazing as peanut butter type spreads go. You’ll notice I did NOT say it was “to die for”. I believe I’ve mentioned before that that is one of those phrases that makes me want to gouge my eardrums out with a spoon. That one along with “EVOO” and “Sammy”. Damn you for your evil influence, Rachael Ray, damn you. But back on tangent, as much as it possible for me, no “to die for”…. I will only die for medium rare ribeyes and roasted brussel sprouts. I have my standards.

But every once in a while, cause I love you all so much (“I just cain’t quit you” 😛 ), I have to make something peanut buttery for all of you. I realize how peculiar I am with my dislike of PB.  I realize how peculiar I am for many reasons and that that is but one of many, but lets not go there.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with these. Yes, they have a strong peanut buttery taste so those of you into that will love that aspect, but they are also fudgy/chewy enough and of course, chocolatey enough, that even I enjoyed them. They have a perfect, shiny crackly top crust, which I personally love. I found myself, after cutting off the edges, picking up stray bites here and there. Sooo chewy and yummy. 😀 Oh yeah, just for good measure, I threw in a bag of Heath Chips, so that added yet another level of crunchy, salty/sweet goodness. You can thank me later. 😀

You know the drill… 🙂

Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten (use a large bowl)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 8 ounces mini peanut butter cups (I used Trader Joes Brand)
  • 1 bag (12 ounces) Heath Bar chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 11×7 glass pan (I used a standard Pyrex) or a 13×9 inch pan. If you use the 13×9, be more aware of your cooking time as these will cook quicker.
  2. Melt your butter in a medium pot over medium high heat. Add the chocolate, stir once, then remove the pot form the heat. Let it sit for five minutes then stir for about 2 minutes to finish melting the chips.
  3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.
  4. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture over the beaten eggs, whisking the whole time. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat well.
  5. Pour in the flour and beat JUST until combined. Fold in the peanut butter cups and heath chips.
  6. Spoon into the prepared pan. bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes or until the top is shiny, firm and crackly looking and inserting a skewer in the center shows only a few moist crumbs, not a loose or liquidy batter.
  7. Let cool in the pan on a rack until thoroughly cool before cutting. You cut them before this and you will get goop. Tasty goop, but goop nonetheless. If you have these room temp, they are creamier and silkier in texture. If you chill them, they take on more of a candylike fudge texture. try it both ways to see which you prefer. 🙂

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Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

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Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake



I haven’t made a foodie confession in a while, so I guess it’s time for a new one. Well, I did mention to a friend the other day that I like Spam, but since he is from Hawaii, where they very wisely love the canned meat, it didn’t really phase him as it would have many other food bloggers 😛

On to the confession. It’s no secret that I used to love Twinkies and Ho-Hos when they were owned by the original company. Now however, they are pretty bad. I’m still mourning and have been blocked from the Hostess site because of my insistence on periodic candlelight vigils lamenting the passing of the REAL Hostess products. One other thing I loved? Those horrid, dry, overly sweet crumb cakes. I can’t recall if they were Hostess or Dolly Madison. All I know is that every couple of months, I had to go to a convenience store and grab a pack. We won’t discuss how I also would buy a Little Debbie Brownies that was topped with fake M&Ms.

But, me being me, when Hostess became “Hostess Wanna Be” (and yes, I’m astute enough to realize they weren’t exactly gourmet in the first place), and they AND Dolly Madison products disappeared, I knew it was time to make my own goodies. I never really got around to the Twinkies and Ho-Hos, but I CAN make a killer crumb cake. Does it taste like theirs? No and this is a good thing lol. The one I make is better. The original recipe is from Food And Wine and while it was good, it was rather plain. I wanted to give it some flavor and I think I succeeded quite nicely.

You know the drill… 🙂

Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

  • Crumb Topping-
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and sliced thin
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Cake-
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups good quality cherry preserves
  1. Make your topping first- combine the flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut the chilled butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small crumbs. Then get in there with your fingers and smoosh together the mix between your fingers to heat it up a bit and make larger pieces. Refrigerate while you make the cake batter
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch springform pan well with baking spray (the kind with both flour and oil in it) and put the pan on a baking sheet. This will protect the bottom of your oven from possible leakage. Put the butter into a medium pot and cook over medium heat until it has turned a golden brown color and has a nutty scent. Do NOT turn away form it as it begins to color as it can go from browned and delicious to burned and garbage very quickly. Pour into a bowl and set in the freezer for 15 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom.
  4. In another bowl (remember, always have someone nearby who has dish duty 😀 ), beat together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, eggs and egg yolk and beat until well combined.
  5. Alternating the flour and the sour cream (start and end with the flour mixture) add them to the butter/egg mix. Beat just until combined after each addition.
  6. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Spread to the edge of the pan. Cover with dollops of the cherry preserves and spread them to within a half an inch of the edge of the batter. Top with the other half of the batter and spread it carefully to the edges. Sprinkle the chilled crumbs over the top of the batter.
  7. Bake at 350 for 45 -60 minutes or until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, with a few moist crumbs, but no loose batter.
  8. Cool on a wire rack, still in the pan. When completely cool, open outside of pan carefully then gently slide a butter knife under the bottom of the cake to loosen it and carefully lift it off of the bottom of the pan and transfer to a plate.

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Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies




My husbands favorite cookie is a plain old fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie. While I like them, they aren’t my favorite and because of that and cause my husband is diabetic yet would eat every single cookie made, I don’t make them often. But I had been craving some the last week or so and decided to see what I could do to change them up a bit. I love using browned butter in baking so that was one thought. It adds such a delicious nutty flavor to foods. But then I decided to take the nuttiness one step further and I toasted the oats for these cookies.

These turned out wonderfully. They have a yummy, toasty, almost butterscotch flavor due to the browned butter and toasted oats. The edges have that sought after crispness with nice soft chewy middles. I was rather tickled with myself on how these turned out and can’t think of anything I would change next time I make them. I wasn’t sure what to name them so I asked my facebook readers to help me. Unfortunately, though they made some awesome suggestions, none quite resonated with me so the above name is what we ended up with.

You know the drill… 🙂

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ (I used the honey crunch flavored type)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries (you can obviously sub out all of one or the other if you prefer)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 cups oats
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Place the butter in a medium pot. Over medium to medium high heat, let the butter melt and cook, swirling the pot periodically, until the butter is a dark golden brown and has a nutty scent. Do NOT turn our back on it once it starts to color. This can go from browned to a smelly burned mess quickly. When done, set it aside to cool.
  3. While this cools, toast your oats. Pour the oats onto a cookie sheet and shake to settle them into a single layer. Toast them until they are a light brown color, stirring and spreading again a couple of times,  about 20 minutes. Cool for about ten minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, orange zest if using and vanilla and beat well. Dump the raisins and cranberries in there and just let it sit while the butter cools. This gives the fruits time to soften a bit.
  5. In a large bowl, combine the cooled butter and the two sugars. Beat well to combine. Add in the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. Beat on medium speed to combine. Add in the egg/fruit mix and beat just until combined.
  6. Fold in the oats. Make balls of dough about 2 inches in diameter (you can make smaller or larger but adjust the cooking time accordingly) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 8 to a sheet.
  7. Bake at 350 until the tops are firm and cookies are a medium golden brown, about 13 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Let cool on pan for a minute then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

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Cherry Garcia Pudding

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Cherry Garcia Pudding




I love ice cream. It’s my go to treat on nights when I allow myself dessert. Well, sometimes I’ll mix it up with something else, but 99% of the time, it will still resemble ice cream in that it will have a creamy texture. I’m one of those people whose downfall is creamy and rich, whether it’s something sweet or something savory. Creamy is my friend. But Ben & Jerry are even better friends. Have any of you tried their new “Core” flavors? I tried the salted caramel one (of course) and I have to admit it, I was rather disappointed. It was….boring. The best part was the little chunks of Blondie but even that wasn’t enough to make it worth the calories.
I DO however, love many of their other flavors. My favorite will always be Phish Food. It used to be that running a close second was Cherry Garcia, but now for strangely personal reasons, I don’t eat it anymore. It brings back memories I prefer to forget because they make me mentally queasy; one of those “omg, did I really get involved with someone that disgusting” memories. Yep… from an ice cream lol. I’m strange that way. Doesn’t take much; a smell, a flavor, a sound and I’m transported to other times, some good, some bad.
But I still love the flavor combo, that creamy texture, the cherries, the chocolate and that slight almondy background. I eat other brands of ice cream with it and have *gasp* even found brands that are better than Ben & Jerry’s. But I also love a dessert I began making about 9 years ago that has the same flavor profile. I usually call it “Cherry Garcia Wanna-Be” mousse. But for the sake of brevity, Cherry Garcia Pudding works also lol.

This is a cinch to make. The most time consuming part is chopping the chocolate and cherries and that’s still pretty quick if you have a decent knife. You can have this knocked out and chilling inside of 20 minutes. Then you just let it chill and serve it. This is oh so good. Creamy and rich with all those lovely flavors meshing into puddingish (yes, that too is now a word) perfection.

You know the drill…. git to cooking 🙂

Cherry Garcia Pudding

 

  • 8 ounces semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 16 ounce jar Maraschino Cherries, drained, syrup reserved, cherries coarsely chopped (redrain and pat dry the cherries after chopping as they will let off more liquid)
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2  teaspoon almond extract (I love the almond flavor so I tend to use more)
  • 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
  • 1 8 ounce container Cool Whip (you can sub sweetened whipped cream, but this is one of those rare cases where the flavor and texture of cool whip works)
  1. In a large bowl, on low speed, beat together the sweetened condensed milk, 3 tablespoons of the maraschino cherry juice (You don’t need any more of it, but it makes an awesome cherry coke, thus why I said to reserve all of it 😛 ), the lemon juice, vanilla extract and almond extract
  2. Gently fold in the cool whip and whipped cream, then the chopped chocolate and chopped cherries.
  3. Cover, then put the mixture into the fridge and chill until thickened, at least 3 hours.
  4. Pour the filling into individual glasses. You can then lightly cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until ready to serve or serve now. Garnish with some extra cherries and chopped chocolate.

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Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

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Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding




When we get to this part of Winter, that time when you have some warm days then Winter has a hissy fit, backpedals and becomes cold again, I start having major cravings for fresh fruits. Citrus is always a good bet since it’s still in season, but I want berries, darn it! Problem is, what I can find in stores around here, besides being outrageously expensive, has been shipped either from the other side of the U.S. or from another country altogether. So it’s no longer very fresh and it just doesn’t have the flavor that in season berries have. So I compromise. I buy frozen berries. Believe it or not, they are a damned good substitute. With any company worth buying from, the berries are frozen within hours of being picked so you are still getting something that is extremely close to fresh. You may not be able to use it in ALL the same ways you can fresh ones, but in baking, so long as you remember the rule of thumb to use it still frozen, not thawed, you can use it in a LOT of recipes.

You may know I love bread pudding. I used to hate it, but have come to love it since I began making it myself and realized it didn’t always have to be an insipid nursery food with no flavor. Like I mentioned to my husband the other day, I like foods with strong flavors and that includes in bread pudding. This one definitely satisfies. I have made bread pudding enough now that I have no need of a recipe; I just change up the basics to go with whatever add ins I’m doing. This one turned out wonderfully. You have a mild lemon tang and peel taste in the pudding with a bit of smooth white chocolate in there. Then practically every bite, you get some nice tangy berries. It’s bright and fresh tasting and perfect for this time of year. I loved this both warm and chilled. Warm, it’s softer and the flavors are more intense. Chilled it has the texture of a firm mousse, which I love. So far I’ve had it only with some cream poured over it, but I can see this going quite nicely with a berry sauce or custard sauce.

You know the drill… 🙂

Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

  • 6 cups cubed Kings Hawaiian Bread (about 12 ounces or 3/4 of a 16 ounce round loaf)
  • 11 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • zest of two lemons (about 3 tablespoons zest)
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
  • boiling water for the water bath
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 4 quart baking dish or 2 2 quart ones. I used 2 2 quart souffle dishes. Place the baking dish/dishes into a large pan. An 11×15 works well.
  2. Place the bread cubes in a large bowl and set aside.
  3. Put your chocolate and lemon zest into a medium bowl. Heat the cream up in the microwave until very hot, but not boiling. Pour cream over the white chocolate in the bowl, stir once, then let sit for five minutes. Stir well to combine the cream and chocolate and complete the melting process.
  4. In a large bowl (I know; lots of bowls. Have your kids, neighbors, stranger off the street or husband or wife do the dishes 😛 ), beat together the 6 eggs and the vanilla until frothy. Add in the 1/2 cup sugar and beat well.
  5. Slowly pour the warm cream into the egg mixture. Make sure you spoon out any lemon zest that may have sunk to the bottom and get it in there too. Beat in the lemon juice.  Let this mixture sit for about an hour so the bread can soak up the custard. When ready to bake, carefully fold in the frozen berries.
  6. Pour the pudding mix into the buttered dish and place it in the middle of the oven. Pour boiling water in the outer dish to reach about a third of the way up the sides of the dish the pudding is in. Carefully push the oven shelf back in to avoid sloshing.
  7. Bake at 325 degrees for about 75 minutes or until the top is nicely browned and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding doesn’t come out liquidy and no liquid wells up in the hole left behind.
  8. Cool the pudding at room temp for about an hour. Then you can either serve it warm or chill it for later.

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Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

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Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting




I remember the first time I tried Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls. It was at a mall in Louisville Kentucky. I immediately loved them. I also started to buy them far too often. We went bankrupt, had to live in a cardboard box on a street corner with me holding a sign that said, “please help support my Cinnabon habit. Oh yeah, and help us get a new home too.”  My husband wasn’t pleased with me. But I was happy with all the nice people who dropped Cinnabon money in my tin cup. We eventually got a new place to live. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near a Cinnabon store. The closest one was across the state. So I had to learn to make my own. Which I did. And yes, I’ll post those someday too. So when the idea occurred to me to mix one of my favorite desserts, pound cake, with cinnamon rolls, I ran with it. Of course, upon googling it, I found that a lot of other people had also run with the idea lol, but that’s ok. I’ve come to realize that it is very hard to have a totally original idea in cooking anymore. All you can do is put your own spin on it. And that I have done. I used my favorite pound cake recipe, turned half of it into a cinnamon flavored cake and covered it all with half a batch of the icing I use on cinnamon rolls. This is far from my prettiest photo ever. The light stunk, I was having a crap photo taking day and I’m still sick. But you know what? The cake tastes good. 😛 It has that nice crispy crust that is so good on a pound cake,  a delicate vanilla flavor in half the cake and a tasty cinnamon flavor in the rest. All of that is smothered in a thick cream cheese frosting. All in all, this is a good rendition of a cinnamon roll that had a sex change operation and became cake.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cake-
  • 3 cups cake flour (yes, it makes a difference)
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 12 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 6 eggs, room temp
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • Frosting-
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10 cup bundt cake pan with a flour and oil non stick baking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, on medium speed, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
  3. Add the flour in and beat on LOW speed just until thoroughly combined.
  4. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Add the cinnamon to the other half of the batter and beat well to combine. Spoon the cinnamon batter on top of the plain batter and smooth it also.
  5. Bake at 325 until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean with no loose crumbs and the top is a nice golden brown, about 75 to 85 minutes.
  6. Let cool in the pan on a rack for ten minutes, then carefully turn the cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.
  7. Meanwhile, make your frosting- combine all the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
  8. Spread over the cooled cake. You can also thin it down some with cream or milk and drizzle it over the cake.

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Triple Lemon Bars

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Triple Lemon Bars

Triple Lemon Bars



There are times when you just need comfort, usually in the form of some sort of food or drink. Whether your idea of that is a bag of chips and a beer and old reruns of Andy Griffith, some chicken & dumplings and a cold glass of milk, sitting under a warm blanket reading Little Women while you sip at some tea or anything involving chocolate, or downing a bottle of Smirnoff, going clubbing dressed in only a thong and high heels and then spending the night over a toilet (which btw, if that’s your form of comfort, I have some numbers you may want to call for help 😛 ) you just have to have some form of comfort. For me, it always involves baking and usually not something new, but something tried and true, something that brings back good memories, which for me would mean when my kids were little. One of the things I baked often then was lemon bars. I mean, who (other than my 17 year old and he’s strange) doesn’t like lemon bars? Well, except for (also) those strange people who just don’t like lemon desserts at all. personally, I think they are aliens come to destroy our world. but I also watched War Of The Worlds last night so I may still be caught up in bad 1950’s movie effects.

Lemon Bars have always been one of those quintessential “you need to know how to make these” sort of recipes to me. SO when I realized that after almost 3 years of blogging, I hadn’t yet posted my go to lemon bar recipe, I knew I needed to change that. These are the ones I have been making for about 20 years, though with some changes form the original, which came from (again) one of those monthly Pillsbury cookbooks. You will notice however, the addition of Boyajian Lemon Oil . I have always added either lemon extract (back in the day) or lemon oil (when I realized it was better than extract) but it’s just been in recent months that I have gained an extreme fondness for their specific brand. Give it a try. You can omit the lemon oil but it does definitely add to the overall flavor.

These have a lemony crust, a tart lemon filling and a glaze that I make using lemon zest and lemon oil, but very little lemon juice so that it can offset the tartness of the filling. These have been worked on over the years to make, what I think is, the best lemon bar around. These make a nice thick bar so cut the pieces small unless you’re trying to send everyone, even your healthy friends, into a diabetic coma 😀

You know the drill… 🙂

Triple Lemon Bars

  • Crust-
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon water, if needed for crust to come together
  • Filling-
  • 6 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon Boyajian Lemon Oil  (if you don’t have it, these will be almost as delicious without it; just not quite as lemony)
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (use room temp lemons to get the most juice)
  • Glaze-
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Few drops of lemon oil
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with non-stick foil. That is of course optional, but I highly recommend it.
  2. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer on low speed, combine all the crust ingredients until mixture is crumbly and holds together when pressed in your hand. if you need to add more water, add a little at a time to get it crumbly and not dry.
  3. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and then bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown.
  4. Meanwhile, make your filling- combine the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla extract, lemon oil, flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined. Add in the lemon juice.
  5. When the crust is browned, pour the lemon mixture over the warm crust. Return to the oven and bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the filling is firm, lightly browned and set. If you insert a skewer halfway to the center, it should come out just moist, not liquid, rather like a thick lemon curd. It will set up more as it cools.
  6. Cool the bars completely before glazing. For the glaze, simply whisk all the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over the cooled bars and spread gently.
  7. Cut these into small squares or triangles and you can either store them, covered, on the counter for a day or two, or in the fridge for about a week. The fridge is a better bet because they become quite soft and hard to handle when left out.

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