Cola and Baking; The Forbidden Love Story

Hello Sweets,

Well with Monday under our belts it's only four more days until the weekend, but who's counting lol?!  I hope y'all had a wonderful day, mine was less then enjoyable and that is because I had a doctors appointment.  I know what you're thinking "doctors aren't that bad" and it's true, he's super nice and very personable which makes him really approachable.  My problem is the type of appointment it was, I had to get injections in my shoulders, neck, mid back, base of the skull, forehead, and temples :(  I know it sounds like a lot and it is, but it helps my quality of life while waiting for surgery.  I wouldn't wish this treatment on my worst enemy, that's because it is very very painful and I cannot wait for surgery so I never have to get them again :D  My doctor speculates that I will be one of few patients he will never see again, and as much as we like each other we're okay with that.

So yesterday I told you today's post will be a recap of a friends birthday we celebrated while I was in Texas, and as the title of the post shows there will be a very unusual ingredient involved.  I've talked about Dave before and would normally link you to his blog but he hasn't posted in eight months lol (finally someone worse than I haha jk), and he is also responsible for the cute little caricature of me specifically made for my blog.  This last trip Dave asked if I would make his birthday cake for the celebration he invited us too, and of course I said yes but I told him I had a new recipe that I think he'd enjoy and not to mention possibly the best chocolate icing I have EVER had.  I came across this recipe on Facebook (although I don't remember how) and as soon as I saw the title it had me intrigued, and now y'all ;)

Double Chocolate Cola Cake

Ingredients

1 can of cola (not diet)

1/2C oil (I used olive)

1/2C butter

3Tbs cocoa

2C all-purpose flour

2C sugar

1/2Tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/2C buttermilk

1Tsp baking soda

1Tsp vanilla

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  In a sauce pan; mix cola, oil, butter, and cocoa and bring to a boil.

2)  In another bowl combine sugar, flour, and salt.

3)  Pour the boiling cola mixture over the flour mixture and beat well.

4)  Add the eggs, buttermilk, baking soda, and vanilla making sure to mix well.

5)  Pour the mixture into a greased and floured 13"x9" pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from pan, cooling for about 10 minutes before frosting.

 I did a test run and made cupcakes first, needless to say they were yummy

Superman colors for the birthday boy :)

Chocolaty Frosting

Ingredients

1/2C butter

3Tbs cocoa

6Tbs cream or milk

1Tsp vanilla

3 3/4C confectioners sugar

*I must apologize for the lack of pictures, I only have the final product :(*

Directions:

1)  In a sauce pan combine the butter, cocoa, and milk.  Heat until the butter melts.

2)  Beat in the remaining ingredients and spread on the cake while it's still warm.

So as I am sure you noticed this is not your typical chocolate cake recipe, this was actually the first cake I ever boiled any ingredients for.  It's a really light and airy cake, which I think is caused by the carbonation in the cola.  It's not too sweet but it's very chocolaty (in a good way), this is definitely a keeper and will be made again most likely for Nathan's birthday (he loves chocolate cake).  The frosting is soooo good, I couldn't believe how delicious it was as I have made other chocolate icing before.  Needless to say these two recipes take the cake, see what I did there lol?

Well I am slowly getting through my back logged recipes that need to be posted, and I am really excited for the next few posts.  Why you may ask, well I am finally up to my fourth of July treats and I am really proud of one.  That one recipe forced me out of my comfort zone and to try something new, and I am proud to say it was a success but I will not be supplying clues to that one ;)  All I will say is that if you're afraid to try something new do it anyways, you'll thank yourself later.  Until next time........................

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

Little Bites of Love for My Monkey

Hello Sweets,

Ugh I've been having one of those weeks that makes it tough for me to get anything done, including my passion of creating in the kitchen, but let's take a detour for just a moment shall we? One good thing that happened to me this week was I got a new bed! Lol I know it seems like a mundane thing to be excited about, but with my health (and everyone else for that matter) a good night sleep makes a world of a difference. I went from having an old small , no make that tiny bed (not by my choice GRRRR), and now I have a over sized double bed with an extra mattress topper to make it that more comfortable! The funny part of this whole story is that as a child my mother always read and referred to me as "the princess and the pea", and now I have a bed that I may need to buy a step stool since its so much higher lol. You make think I'm over reacting but I'm 5'8" and when I sit on the side of the bed my feet don't even touch the ground lol, true story :)

Okay enough of my comfy new bed lets get to the tasty and fun stuff, as I mentioned in my last few posts I have been given the honor to create signature cookies for my sisters wedding. Now Nathan will confirm I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my baking, and you could imagine the pressure I'm putting on myself for this. I'm not sure if I explained what my vision is for the cookies with all of y'all so I'll do so now ;) My sister wanted them done with their initials, so I took it even further and this is my game plan by making the cookies their favorite types;
The letter A (for Asha my sister) - chocolate chip cookies
The letter J (for Josè my brother in-law) - peanut butter cookies
The letter M (for Miguel my cutie nephew) - banana cookies
The letter Z (for their last name) - I'm doing a combination of all three to signify them coming together in marriage.

I know I'm going a little crazy but it's my little sisters wedding so I wanted to do something nice for them :) The one cookie I was slightly worried about was Miguel's cookie, as I have never had or seen a banana cookie, but divine intervention worked its magic and on my news feed on Facebook (I think :/) was a recipe for cookies known as banana bites ! Now I know one of my nephews favorite snacks are bear paws which are basically soft banana cookie breads, so I figured I would make some tweaks to the recipe and hopefully it would be kid and bride approved :) I'll share with you my take on the recipe, and show you how difficult it was to make the dough cooperate in to the letter "M".

Banana Bites

Ingredients

1C sugar

1/2C butter

2 eggs

1 1/2C bananas, mashed (I used 3)

1Tsp vanilla

2C all-purpose flour

1Tsp baking soda

1/4Tsp salt

1 1/2Tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1)  Preheat oven to 350F.  Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray (I used coconut oil).  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2)  Add eggs and beat thoroughly.  Beat in mashed bananas and vanilla until well combined.

3)  Gradually blend in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Mixing until just combined.

4)  Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls on to baking sheet.  I used my "m" cookie cutter and spooned the batter into it.

5)  Bake for 10-15 minutes (mine were closer to 10), or until lightly golden.  Remove to wire racks to cool.

As you can see my "m"'s actually look like crazy blobs of cookie, and of course I was panicking, so I threw the remainder of the batter in the fridge to see if that would help them hold more.  It didn't :( so I decided to sleep on it and think about how I was going to remedy the problem.  The next day I decided to go over them blobs with the cookie cutter again and it cleaned them up perfectly :D

 

aren't they perdy lol 

All that was left to do was the taste test.  Tereza my roommate tried them the night I made them and she said they were good and different.  Normally when someone hears different you think it's not that good, but I knew exactly what she was talking about.  If banana bread and cookies had a baby this would be it lol!  Next I texted my sister to come and try them to see if she liked the taste and look, and of course she brought the real judge along too Miguel :)  She liked the look and she even liked the taste (success!), and when we went to see if Miguel liked them too we saw that he had gobbled the cookie up.  I think it's safe to say that this will be the recipe to represent my cutie nephew, so that's one down only three more to go!

I am very happy that this turned out exactly like I had envisioned it :) now to create the others and make sure they are just as spectacular as these were.  So I am in full on research and creating mode, how much am I into this you ask?  So much that I am in full on study mode with my chic geek glasses lol.  Until next time.................

hehe cutest nerd around ;)

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo