Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

They're a family favorite, a classic in our clan. From lazy Saturdays to rushed Tuesdays they are the cookie we all grew up learning how to make. Simple easy and always delicious, unlike many other recipes however, there is no wiggle room. Do it wrong, substitute ingredients or leave something out and like throwing acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate together, all you've done is created a bubbly wet mess with house hold ingredients. 

Cookie Ingredients:
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp Vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup Coconut (optional)

Cookie Directions:
In a medium saucepan mix sugar, cocoa, milk and butter. Stir constantly with wire whisk till it reaches a low boil. Boil for one minute (no less, no more) stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add Peanut butter and vanilla stirring till they are fully incorporated. Use a wooden spoon to stir in oatmeal, mix thoroughly. (If adding coconut remove 1/4 cup of the oatmeal from the recipe, making the final ingredients added 2 and 3/4 cup oatmeal and 1 cup coconut mixing thoroughly). Before the mixture cools, using two spoons drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto wax paper. As they cool they will harden and become firm.

These Chocolate No-bakes freeze really well, making them perfect to make and freeze. So they can be pulled out whenever needed. These are always a great hit that take only about a half an hour total for prep cooking and cleaning up afterward. Small secret to how I make them and reduce my waste in the process. Instead of using wax paper, which then makes its way into the landfill I use a clean thin bendable cutting board  Allowing the cookies to cool and harden as well as providing an easy surface to peal the cookies from when hardened. Saving our world's resources one batch at a time (I'm being deliberately facetious).

Cold Curing Homemade Chicken Soup

Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to chicken soup. Its one of those comfort foods. Nobody likes any version better than the kind their Mother made them on cold winter evenings, and sick days. Be it Campbell's canned chicken noodle or one from scratch, comfort food is comfort food.  We all like it the way we like it, my oldest brother for example can't stand carrots in his soup, whereas my father prefers rice to noodles. If however, one would like to branch out, try something new or simply has never made chicken soup before, I encourage them to embark on this endeavoring to create the healthiest most nourishing chicken soup possible.

Chicken Soup ingredients:
1.5 to 2 lbs Chicken Thighs
4 large Carrots
3 Celery stalks
1/2 large Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
2 chives
2 cups uncooked Brown Rice
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Black pepper
1/2 cup spinach, (cut into 1 in pieces)
12 cups of water

Spinach in disposable tea bags right after water was added

Soup Directions:

In a large sauce pan put ten cups of water and chicken thighs into boil. Boil for about ten minutes or until the thighs are just slightly pink in the middle, (slightly under cooked). Pull cooked chicken from the water to clean and cut, make sure to save the water this will be your chicken broth. Add the rice to saucepan with the water. In glass measuring bowl put cut spinach into either disposable loose leaf tea bags or a tea ball and pour two cups of boiling water over them, letting the spinach steep. While rice cooks clean and chop carrot, celery, onion, chives and garlic. Add chicken, chopped carrot as well as the finely diced chives, onion and garlic into the pot with the rice. At this point the rice should be soft but not fully cooked. Let ingredients simmer for about ten minutes this will ensure the chicken and rice are fully cooked without being over cooked. The spinach water should be a bright green by this point, remove and dispose of the spinach, leaving you with the vitamin rich spinach water. Pour water into pot as well as adding all remaining ingredients (celery, cayenne, paprika, and black pepper).

Vitamin rich spinach water

Everyone makes their soup differently, but this is how I make my Cold Curing Homemade Chicken Soup and this is why: boiled vegetables lose large amounts of their vitamins and nutrients. This is one of the reasons behind adding the water from steeping spinach in boiling water.   Spinach when boiled loses 10 to 15 percent of its A,  B-6 and B-12 vitamins as well as antioxidants lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin, 60 to 65 percent  of its Vitamin C and Folate and 15-20 percent of its Iron. So in using the water from the steeped Spinach I am  introducing those health prompting vitamins into the soup.  I used Chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, because thighs are a lot fattier than breasts. If you boil chicken thighs it produces a richer broth, therefor making it unnecessary to add extra chicken stock or bouillon both of which can be very high in sodium.  Every ingredient used has its own properties that make it beneficial. Chives, onions, and celery are all diuretic, which helps flush the system.  Also Onion, garlic, Cayenne, paprika and black pepper are all expectorants, which in layman's terms means they promote the expulsion of phlegm, mucus and other matter from the respiratory tract. So if you're trying to kick a bug or simply trying out new healthy recipes  as far as Chicken soup goes, this one is pretty good with its anti-hypertensive promoting garlic and its all around vitamin rich goodness.

Marble-Chocolate Fudge Shower Cake

Nothing says "Baby Shower" like a shower. I'm not talking about rains, I'm talking about a real honest to goodness shower... or at least a cake version of one.  For the baby shower I created this three to four layer cake complete with rubber duckies and a cardboard subway tile shower wall, and of course the aluminum foil faucets and fixtures can't be over looked as well.  

• Marble Cake Ingredients:
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups Sugar
• 6 eggs, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 and 1/2 cups flour
• 4 Tsp (or 1 Tbsp and 1 Tsp) baking powder
• 1 and 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 Tbsp boiling water

Marble Cake

Cake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, generously butter a 9x12 inch cake pan set it aside to pour the cake batter into. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and add eggs, one at a time, beating until fully combined after each addition. In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture in small batches, alternating with buttermilk. Set aside approximately 2/3 of the batter. In a separate bowl mix cocoa and boiling water mixing till it is smooth and combine with the remaining 1/3 of cake batter stirring until it is well combined. Spoon cocoa mixture and the reserved cake batter, alternating spoonfuls To create the swirly look or the "marbling" run a butter knife through the batters in a swirling motion. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. 

When baking the cakes cut a piece of wax paper the size of the bottom of the pan and place it in the bottom after greasing the pan. Pour the cake batter in and bake. The wax paper works as a liner so when the cake cools and you're ready to pop it out of the pan merely run a knife around the edges and turn upside down the cake will come right out. Just don't forget to peal the wax paper off the bottom of the cake. 

Filling Ingredients: 

4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 and 1/2 cups cocoa
1 cup boiling water 
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla

Filling Directions:
Combine sugar and cocoa blend in butter and  boiling water, add in vanilla.  let cool a little and then fill between layers of cake.

The is rich and moist but the filling is the crowning piece, it is sweet and exceptionally rich so use sparingly, sometimes less truly is more. However like all creations, it is completely and totally at your own taste and discretion. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces unsalte butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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• Frosting Directions:
• In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup stopping occasionally to scrape the sides and the bottom  continue adding powdered sugar  until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and frost. 
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Strawberry Volcano Cake Scrap Dessert

Strawberry Volcano

Every once in a while we have a cake that requires shaping. Be it a wedding cake, a birthday cake, or in the case of the cake scraps used in this dessert, a baby shower cake. If your like me, you hate to just toss those cake pieces in the compost/food waste bin, but what do you do with them. Its not as though you can present the as a full fledged dessert. How would your guest take it if you handed them a bowl and said enjoy its my cake table scraps? Well if it was one of my brothers they'd eat it an love it regardless, but not everyone is a treat loving older brother. So here is a use for those delicious but slightly unseemly cake trimmings. 

Cake trimmings

Strawberry Volcano. Its unbelievably easy and absolutely delicious. Take the slightly unseemly cake scraps and place them in the bottom of a bowl. it doesn't matter what pieces you use or what it looks like. Using fresh strawberries  cut one large one into quarters or eighths, but take special care to make sure it stays together, place this strawberry in the center of the cake scrap mound. This strawberry will be the volcano. using other strawberries slice them and place them all around the "volcano" strawberry. make sure to cover the entire cake surface with strawberries. When completed no cake should be visible only what appears to be a bowl of cut strawberries. Finally using either a chocolate sauce or simply melted chocolate pour a small amount at the top of the volcano strawberry giving it the appearance of an erupting volcano. Then lightly drizzle the surrounding strawberries with the chocolate and Voila. You now have beautiful, fun and unique dessert for friends and family of all ages, and added bonus you were able to us your extra cake scraps constructively.

Strawberry Volcano Pre-Chocolate eruption.

Chocolate-Rasperry Baby Blocks Cake

My brother is expecting his first child, who will also be my first nephew (first kid to make me an aunt for that matter). As a special surprise for my brother and his wife at their Baby Shower I  made the cakes. Two blocks of which are chocolate cake with a raspberry filling, the same exact recipe I used when making their wedding cake as a matter of fact. 

Cake Ingredients:
3 egg slightly beaten
1 & 2/3 cup sugar
1 & 1/2 cup milk
3 one-ounce squares of bakers unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

 In a medium saucepan, combine 1 egg, 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup milk and 3 ounces of bakers unsweetened cooking chocolate. Stir constantly over medium heat  till chocolate melts and mixture comes just to boiling, set aside and let cool.

sauce pan mixture

In a mixer cream 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and remaining 2 eggs, one at a time,  beating well after each addition. Sift flour and soda together and add to creamed mixture alternately with remaining 1 cup of milk, beat well after each addition. blend in chocolate mixture and pour into a large 8x11 inch rectangle cake pan or two 9x9 square pans. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes.

When baking the cakes cut a piece of wax paper the size of the bottom of the pan and place it in the bottom after greasing the pan. Pour the cake batter in and bake. the Wax paper works as a liner so when the cake cools and you're ready to pop it out of the pan merely run a knife around the edges and turn upside down the cake will come right out. Just don't forget to peal the wax paper off the bottom of the cake. 

Filling:
Take one can of Organic Oregon Raspberries, drain as much liquid out as possible (save liquid for frosting). Add one cup of nestles mini morsels to raspberries and spread between cake layers. If the filling has a little liquid that is fine, it'll just seep into cake and be delicious, if its too watery however it may make the cake too mushy, so be careful.

 Due date (back) and  "Kyan" (front)  building block cakes

• For the baby shower I wanted to go with a baby theme for the shape of the cake. So I made blocks. Little building blocks  that would spell out his name. Since I was cutting the cakes down to make the block shape it inevitably left scraps and trimmings to be either composted or consumed (for an ideas of how to use the cake scraps see my "Strawberry Volcano" post). What makes cakes great is even though there is a distinct recipe you must follow, after its out of the oven you can do whatever grabs your fancy from blocks to bath tubs and diapers to dinosaurs it is completely up to your creative whim. 

Whip Cream Frosting Ingredients:

8 ounces reduced-fat Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract 

1/2 Teaspoon Almond extract

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Whip Cream Frosting Directions:

Combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond in a large mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. mix on medium speed until smooth and creamy. once it is smooth, while the mixture is still mixing slowly pour about half of the heavy whipping cream into the bowl. let blend completely and stop and scrape bottom and edges. Continue whipping and add remaining cream when completely blended scrape bottom and sides once more. Whip frosting again until  it can hold a firm peak.  then frost and enjoy. Frosting can be refrigerated, frozen and left at room temperature without melting, (however for health safety always store in a refrigerator for no more than five days).

Cake after round one of consumption

Frosting an decorating is always an adventure. Especially today since as of eighteen hours ago I had literally never used a frosting piper before in my life. Risks are taken, adventures are embarked on and decorating endeavors underwent. And really the only thing that matters when all is said and done is; Was it good?

Lemon-Lemon Curd Baby Blocks Cake

baby shower building block cakes

We as children had a relatively minimal amount of input in what was for dinner or dessert we either ate what was made or didn't eat that night. So as a general rule me and my brothers weren't very picky eaters. But on our birthdays, now that was special. We could choose whatever we wanted for dinner and dessert and that was what everyone got whether the liked it or not, we generally did. It usually got a little tricky when it came to my sister and I's birthdays. Since they're only two days apart we typically celebrated them together; so it would usually end up being a surf and turf kind of meal, or such. Without fail however my older brother Jared would always request homemade lemon meringue pie for his dessert. So for his son's shower I made a cake version of it. This lemon cake has a lemon curd filling and a whip cream frosting. Making it as close to lemon meringue pie in flavor as I could get in cake form. 

• Cake Ingredients:
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2  cups  sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup grated lemon zest (about 4 lemons)
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 
  
• Cake Directions:
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch) loaf pans or 1 (8 by 13 by 2-inch) pan. You may also line the bottom with wax paper, if desired.
  Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon zest.
  Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl. In another bowl, combine lemon juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.
• 
  
• When baking the cakes cut a piece of wax paper the size of the bottom of the pan and place it in the bottom after greasing the pan. Pour the cake batter in and bake. The wax paper works as a liner so when the cake cools and you're ready to pop it out of the pan merely run a knife around the edges and turn upside down the cake will come right out. Just don't forget to peal the wax paper off the bottom of the cake. 

• Curd Filling Ingredients:
• 6 large egg yolks
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• 12 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 
  
• Curd Directions:
• Prepare an ice bath fitted with a medium bowl; set aside. Whisk together yolks, zest, juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, stirring until incorporated. Pass through a fine mesh sieve into prepared medium bowl. Stirring frequently, let stand until cool. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on surface of curd to prevent skin from forming; wrap tightly. Refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
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lemon cake trimmings and scraps

• For the baby shower I wanted to go with a baby theme for the shape of the cake. So I made blocks. Little building blocks  that would spell out his name. Since I was cutting the cakes down to make the block shape it inevitably left scraps and trimmings to be either composted or consumed (for an ideas of how to use the cake scraps see my "Strawberry Volcano" post). What makes cakes great is even though there is a distinct recipe you must follow, after its out of the oven you can do whatever grabs your fancy from blocks to bath tubs and diapers to dinosaurs it is completely up to you creative whim. 

cake blocks after frosting and before decorating

Whip Cream Frosting Ingredients:

8 ounces reduced-fat Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract 

1/2 Teaspoon Almond extract

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Whip Cream Frosting Directions:

Combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond in a large mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. mix on medium speed until smooth and creamy. once it is smooth, while the mixture is still mixing slowly pour about half of the heavy whipping cream into the bowl. let blend completely and stop and scrape bottom and edges. Continue whipping and add remaining cream when completely blended scrape bottom and sides once more. Whip frosting again until  it can hold a firm peak.  then frost and enjoy. Frosting can be refrigerated, frozen and left at room temperature without melting, (however for health safety always store in a refrigerator for no more than five days).

Decorated "Kyan" building block cakes

Frosting an decorating is always an adventure. Especially today since as of eighteen hours ago I had literally never used a frosting piper before in my life. Risks are taken, adventures are embarked on and decorating endeavors underwent. And really the only thing that matters when all is said and done is; Was it good?

cakes after the first wave of consumption