So I was sitting on my sofa one afternoon trying to think of something to make for dessert for that evening. I wanted to make something easy; I didn’t want to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. I thought about making cupcakes, but I like to set my butter out hours in advance and I hadn’t done that. So my mind immediately went to thinking about cake batter flavored things. So then I thought about Cake Batter Pudding. I hadn’t seen anyone post anything about that before, but I knew it had to be done by someone. So I googled it and came across a post from Mrs. Happy Homemaker. We must’ve been on the same wavelength since she posted this at the beginning of March.
Cake Batter Pudding
April 2, 2012 by 3 Comments
Oreo Pudding Poke Cake
March 12, 2012 by 1 Comment
Jell-o Poke Cake has always been a New Year’s Day tradition for my family. My Mom would always make one for dessert that day. And the jell-o that my Mom used was almost always either raspberry or cherry jell-o in it. I normally like buttercream icing on my cake, but this is the one exception that I make. Because the cool whip on top of the poke cake is delicious! It just goes with it. So I don’t mess with it.
Now…I love cake. I love oreo pudding. Put the two together and I’m a happy camper! My sister actually emailed me a recipe that she came across that was for an Oreo Pudding Poke Cake. So when I saw it I knew that I had everything on hand so I made it.
Now the original recipe calls for a regular sized box of cake mix and two boxes of instant oreo pudding, but I wanted to half the recipe since I hadn’t made it before. And because having an entire Oreo Jell-o Poke Cake in my fridge wasn’t really the best idea.
[Adapted from this recipe]
INGREDIENTS
- one 9 oz box Chocolate Cake Mix (this is the box that makes 12 cupcakes or an 8 inch cake)
- Ingredients needed to make cake (usually eggs, oil and water)
- one (4 oz.) package of Instant Oreo pudding
- 2 cups milk (2% or higher)
- Crushed Oreo Cookies (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on package. Bake in a well-greased 9×9 pan.
Start to make the pudding. In a medium bowl, add milk to the pudding mix and whisk until it’s a smooth consistency and the milk and mix are combined. Please note that it will be lumpy since there are oreo pieces in there.
Let pudding mixture sit for about 2 minutes. You want it to thicken slightly so it isn’t overly runny but not fully thickened into pudding.
When cake is finished, while still warm, poke holes all over cake (about 1-inch) intervals using a wooden spoon handle or a straw (as seen above). Pour the pudding mixture over warm cake.
Allow the cake to cool for several minutes on the counter then put into the fridge to set up. About an hour.
I like to wait until the piece of cake is on the plate to top with Oreos, otherwise they’ll get really soft.
Top with Crushed Oreos and enjoy!
I thought that this recipe was pretty good! I think maybe the next time I may try mixing in some cool whip with the pudding mixture to “fluff” it up a bit, but it was good the way it was!
Homemade Ice Cream Cake
January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It’s not often that I have spare room in my freezer. So when I noticed that there was a little bit of room, the first thing that came to my mind was that I had to start trying to make Ice Cream Cake! Isn’t that the first thing that would come to your mind too? I didn’t follow any recipes or anything like that. There’s not a whole lot that goes into it. But the most important part of it is the center; the crunchy part! Wouldn’t you agree?
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- loaf pan
- parchment paper
- off-set spatula
- half gallon of ice cream (if you are using two flavors, use half of each container)
- hot fudge sauce
- oreo cookies
ASSEMBLY
I decided that I was going to make mine in a loaf pan. It doesn’t take up a ton of room in the freezer and I figured it’d be easy to slice. So I started out by lining my loaf pan with some parchment paper. I cut a strip for it to go long ways, and then I cut another piece that would fit the other way. This way it would be easy to take it out of the loaf pan to cut.
I let the base flavor (chocolate) of my ice cream soften a bit before starting on the assembly of my ice cream cake. I wanted it to be easy to work with. I used a medium sized cookie scoop (you could use a regular ice cream scoop if you prefer) and scooped the ice cream out of the ice cream container and placed it in the bottom of the loaf pan. I placed one scoop right next to the other scoop so that they were closely touching. Once I was done that I took an off-set spatula and smoothed it all out so that it was a nice flat surface. You want the ice cream to come almost halfway up the loaf pan, but not quite all the way.
I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of the ice cream cake is the middle! 
I put some oreo cookies (maybe like 10 cookies?) into my Vitamix and broke up the pieces. I didn’t make it a fine crumb or anything. They were little round pieces of cookie. I tried getting it as close to those Dairy Queen “crunchies” as I could. It’s hard, though. I took half of the cookies and put them on top of your base layer. I pushed them in a bit so that they would stay kind of glue themselves to the bottom ice cream layer.
Next it was time for some hot fudge sauce! I recommend using some amazing homemade hot fudge sauce, and you can find the recipe here. Take some of your hot fudge sauce and drizzle it over the cookie pieces. It would be easiest to use a squeeze bottle, but make sure it can be heated up a bit so that it’s squeezable (recommendation: pancake syrup bottle that can be heated up!). If you can’t use a squeeze bottle then just take a spoon and lightly drizzle it over the cookie pieces. Once you have an even layer of hot fudge on top of the cookies, take the rest of your cookie pieces and place them on top of the fudge sauce. Push down a bit to make sure it sticks to the fudge sauce.
Take your top flavor of ice cream (in my case it was cookies n cream) and scoop the ice cream and place it on top of the cookie mixture (just like how you did it for the base). You want to make sure you cover the entire cake. Once that’s done take your off-set spatula (rinsed off, of course!) and smooth out the top. Do not cover it yet; place in the freeze for about 30 minutes and let it firm up a bit before covering.
After it’s firmed up a bit, cut a piece of parchment paper that fits right on top (so the length of the loaf pan) of the cake. Then take some saran wrap and wrap up the loaf pan and place in the freezer.
I know that Dairy Queen does that whippy icing on top, but I’m not a fan of that so I left it off. But if I were making a round ice cream cake for someone’s birthday I would probably pipe some real buttercream icing around the edges.
TRIAL & ERROR
Now on my first trial run of this ice cream cake when I was making the middle layer, I combined my hot fudge sauce and the oreo crunchies. That didn’t really turn out all that well. When we went to eat the ice cream cake the center was quite hard. So this is when I knew I had to go back to the drawing board to find “the perfect recipe.” Don’t get me wrong, we ate that ice cream cake! But I knew it needed work. So then I tried doing the cookie/fudge/cookie layer in between the two flavors of ice cream and that worked out so well. It was not hard and it had the right amount of hot fudge to go with the cookie pieces. I was so pleased with how it came out!
This is probably as close to Dairy Queen’s ice cream cake that I’ll get without buying a cake from them. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. There are so many different flavors you can use! I really want to try cake batter flavored ice cream with the chocolate ice cream. I also plan on experimenting with middle layers – like perhaps a brownie batter middle layer. How amazing would that be?!
Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce
January 19, 2012 by 2 Comments
So we’re currently on this Homemade Ice Cream Cake kick in my house. Now that we’re in a tiny apartment we don’t have an extra freezer, so I don’t have a ton of room to store frozen items. An ice cream cake from Dairy Queen is usually quite large (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong!) but I don’t have room for it. So I decided to work with what I do have and I set out to make my own! I’m still working on “the perfect recipe,” but in the midst of it I made an amazing Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce. Once I get the Ice Cream Cake recipe down pat I’ll share that with you all. It’s definitely something that you should make at home as opposed to spending $20 – $25 for one. I made mine for less than $5.
Okay – now let’s talk about this Hot Fudge Sauce! I used up the Hot Fudge that was purchased from the grocery store on the first Ice Cream Cake run. I needed some for my second Ice Cream Cake (since the first one was all gone!) and I didn’t have any more. I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store, so I started looking up some recipes online to make my own. I came across one on Allrecipes called Sue’s Hot Fudge Sauce. It got 4 1/2 stars and looked pretty simple so I figured I’d use that as a base recipe and make a few of my own modifications to it. You can find the original recipe here. The ingredients/instructions below include the changes that I made.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine butter, cocoa, sugar, chocolate chips, espresso powder, marshmallows, and evaporated milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Use a whisk to combine everything. Continue to whisk while the mini marshmallows melt.
Bring to a boil and boil for about 7 – 8 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat; stir in vanilla. Pour the hot mixture into a blender and blend for 4 minutes. I would not skip this step – it’s essential. Some people have used a hand blender – you could probably try that if you wanted. I used my Vitamix and it worked perfectly.
Once it starts to cool it will thicken up. Store in refrigerator.
This Hot Fudge Sauce was amazing. I really loved the addition of the marshmallows – it seemed to make it more fudgy. The espresso powder brings out that rich chocolate flavor. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have the espresso powder. I think it’ll be fine without it. I don’t think I’ll ever buy jarred Hot Fudge Sauce again!
Kelsey Nixon’s Carmelitas
January 10, 2012 by 1 Comment
Over the holidays I made a variety of baked goods to give to some of my family members. I love baking, but I never have anything to do with all of the baked goods, so I don’t get to bake stuff as often as I’d like. Mr. Curly Fry doesn’t like any kind of nut, so if I make something with nuts in it I’m on my own to eat it. And while I’d LOVE to have an entire 13 x 9 baking dish full of Carmelitas for myself, I know it really wouldn’t be a good idea.
The night before I was going to make the Carmelitas, I decided to make the Salted Caramel Sauce. I wanted to give it plenty of time to cool and set up.
SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon gray sea salt, crushed or kosher salt
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. If necessary, use a wet pastry brush to wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.
I transferred it to the fridge once it cooled and let it set there over night. I took the caramel sauce out of the fridge about an hour or so before starting the Carmelitas.
CARMELITAS:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 3/4 cups quick-cooking oats
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup chocolate chips (I didn’t use the chocolate chips)
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- 1 1/2 cups Salted Caramel Sauce
- 2 1/2 tablespoons flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan.
Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and softened butter in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on low until crumbly. Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions.
Press half the crumb mixture in the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and cool slightly.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips, and chopped pecans over the cooled crust.
Mix the salted caramel sauce, and flour together, and drizzle over the chocolate chips, and nuts.
Top with the remaining crumb mixture. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust starts to brown. Allow the pan to cool, and refrigerate it until the caramel filling is set.
Cut into bars and serve.
They were all ready to be delivered to my family members!
I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious these bars are. The Salted Caramel Sauce is so good! The recipe really only made enough for these bars, so if you want some for the Milkshake or something else I’d double the recipe. I really loved the bars straight out of the fridge. They were very good when they weren’t refrigerated too. I highly recommend these and I’m plotting out the next time I can make these! I know it won’t be soon enough!
Cake Batter Cookie Sandwich
December 19, 2011 by 3 Comments
I’m baaaaaaack! I was out of touch last week because I was summoned for Jury Duty and I was picked to serve on the jury for a trial. So I was out of the office all week. This was the first time I was ever summoned for Jury Duty. I was picked for a criminal case and I have to say that I found it to be very interesting. I’m interested in that stuff though – I could watch the Investigation Discovery Channel all day long! So pardon me for my absence – it was not intentional!
As we all know, I love cake. I also love cake batter. I love cookies. Put the two together and you have Cake Batter Cookies! I was catching up on my Google Reader and came across Lovin’ From the Oven’s blog post for Cake Batter Cookies. I knew from the second I laid eyes on them that I had to try them. So I did! I wanted to try them out before making homemade gifts for the holidays. So I did a test run. And I loved how they turned out. I decided to take it up a notch and make Cake Batter Cookie Sandwiches!
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 1/4 cup funfetti cake mix
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 cup softened butter
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- sprinkles (optional)
- buttercream icing
Note: The recipe on Lovin’ From the Oven’s post called for chocolate chips, but I didn’t want to put those in.
Cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the egg yolk, egg, and vanilla until creamy.
Add in the flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Stir in sprinkles.
Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. I used a medium sized cookie scoop.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are golden.
Let the cookies cool on a baking rack.
Place a cookie upside down and pipe some buttercream icing on the cookie. Place another cookie (bottom side down) on top to make a sandwich.
These cookies are also delicious plain if you don’t want to make the sandwiches!
5 Ingredient Friday: Sauteed Peaches
July 22, 2011 by 3 Comments
This week’s 5 Ingredient Friday recipe was inspired by my Fruit Share from the CSA. I got a bunch of Peaches in my Fruit Share this week that have ripened up very nicely, so I wanted to saute some of them to serve with dinner. I love this recipe because it can be used with dinner OR dessert! I’ve served this on top of some chicken breasts before, and let me tell you how amazing it was! This time I served it as a side dish. It’s been so hot here in Philly that I have been trying to use the stove top instead of the oven whenever I can. So I decided to throw this together! It’s so simple and you can use whatever spices you want. I happen to love Cinnamon and Nutmeg, but Allspice and Ginger is wonderful in it as well.
Ingredients
- 3 Peaches; peeled & sliced
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup packed Dark Brown Sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon Cinnamon (I recommend Penzey’s extra fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon)
- 1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg (I recommend Penzey’s Fine Ground Grenadian West Indian Nutmeg)
Directions
If you haven’t already, peel the peaches and slice them up
Melt the butter in a pan
Add in the Peaches and stir around;
let cook for about 10 minutes until softened
Add in the Brown Sugar
Stir the Brown Sugar until incorporated;
Let cook for a bit until the sugar starts to caramelize
Add in the Spices and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Serve!
These Peaches are great served with a Protein (Chicken, Pork, etc), served as a side dish, or even for Dessert! They go great over Pound Cake, on top of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, etc. The possibilities are endless! Be creative and have fun with it.
5 Ingredient Friday: Homemade Caramel Sauce
July 15, 2011 by 2 Comments
One day we took a walk to Franklin Square in Philadelphia. There’s a little Burger Shack there called Square Burger, and they have something called a Cake Shake. Now you know I’m ALL about cake. So of course I had to try one of these bad boys out! The Cake Shake is a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet and caramel sauce blended with vanilla ice cream. And let me tell you – it’s out of this world! It costs $4.75 and I knew that I could probably make this myself at home.
So I set out to try to make my own Cake Shake (recipe coming soon!). I had the vanilla ice cream, the butterscotch krimpet, and the milk. The only thing I was missing was the caramel sauce. I’ve made my own caramel sauce before, and it was pretty simple. So instead of buying caramel sauce, I wanted to make my own. I came across a 5 ingredient recipe for Caramel Sauce, which was definitely an added bonus!
Ingredients
Instructions
Prepare the sugar. Mix the sugar and condensed milk together in medium saucepan, and cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved completely. Set aside.
Mix the sugar and condensed milk together
Prepare the butter. Melt the butter in another small saucepan, and stir in the vanilla and milk. Leave to simmer on low heat until mixture is smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Melt the butter in another saucepan
Add in the milk and vanilla to the melted butter
Finish the caramel sauce. Slowly stir the butter mixture into the sugar mixture and leave to stand 3 to 5 minutes until mixture becomes thick.
Stir the butter mixture into the sugar mixture
Sauce will thicken as it stands
Pour into bowl or small pitcher and cover. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve and enjoy!
My thoughts…
This caramel sauce was very good! I loved that it was so simple to make and I didn’t need to rely on store-bought caramel sauce. I had everything on hand to make this. It thickened up very nicely. I dipped some apple slices in the sauce and it was to die for!
5 Ingredient Friday: Cherry Pie
July 8, 2011 by 2 Comments
This week’s 5 Ingredient Friday recipe was inspired by my Fruit Share from the CSA. I got some sour cherries and I figured the perfect way to use them would be for Cherry Pie. I wanted a recipe that was not very difficult and that didn’t require too many ingredients. I found a recipe on the Food Network’s web site and I saw that it had a lot of good reviews, so I figured I’d try it. For this one I used refrigerated pie dough because I was short on time, but you can feel free to make your own if you want (although this wouldn’t be a 5 Ingredient recipe then! 
) The original recipe calls for an optional ingredient, almond extract, but I’m not a fan of that stuff so I did not include it. So that’s how I got it to be 5 Ingredients.
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh or frozen tart cherries
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- Your favorite pie crust or pie dough recipe for 2 crust pie
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, to dot
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, to sprinkle
Directions
Place cherries in medium saucepan and place over heat. Cover. After the cherries lose considerable juice, which may take a few minutes, remove from heat. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch together. Pour this mixture into the hot cherries and mix well. Add the almond extract, if desired, and mix. Return the mixture to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water, too thin, add a little more cornstarch.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Use your favorite pie dough recipe. Prepare your crust. Divide in half. Roll out each piece large enough to fit into an 8 to 9-inch pan. Pour cooled cherry mixture into the crust. Dot with butter. Moisten edge of bottom crust. Place top crust on and flute the edge of the pie. Make a slit in the middle of the crust for steam to escape. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.
Heat until the cherries lose a considerable amount of water
Add in the sugar & corn starch mixture; It will start to thicken
Prepare your pie crust in the dish
Pour filling into pie shell
Dot with butter
Place top crust on; fold it over and seal
Flute the edges
Cut some slits into the top to allow steam to escape
Bake for 50 minutes at 375 degrees
The middle of the pie; it held together very well
Let me just say how it was so hard to wait until dessert to try this pie. It was sitting there taunting me all day long. The pie was absolutely delicious. I loved how it turned out. It was the perfect sweetness, and it had a wonderful consistency. It was truly a very simple recipe to follow. The recipe online mentions that it’s an intermediate level, but I don’t agree with that. It was very easy! The filling thickened up perfectly and I didn’t have to make any changes to the recipe. I think you could probably use this recipe as a guide for any fruit based pie – I would probably just adjust the sugar. If you’re using Raspberries or Blueberries, they aren’t going to be as tart as sour cherries, ya know?
This is the perfect pie to take to a summer barbecue!
5 Ingredient Friday: Cookies & Cream Pudding
July 1, 2011 by 1 Comment
This week’s 5 Ingredient Friday is something that is quick and easy to put together! It’s a great go-to dessert for the summer when it’s hot and you don’t want to turn on the stove or oven. I love all things Cookies & Cream, so I love this Cookies & Cream Pudding! It’s just something that I threw together in a pinch one time when I knew I wanted something for dessert, but didn’t want to bake anything.
Ingredients
- 1 box Chocolate Instant Pudding (any size, I only had a 5.1 oz box on hand)
- 1 box Vanilla Instant Pudding (I used a 3.4 oz box)
- Milk
- 10 – 12 Oreos
- Cool Whip
Preparation
Make the chocolate instant pudding according to the directions on the package. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Make the vanilla instant pudding according to the directions on the package. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Put the oreos in a food processor or a blender (my Vitamix worked great for this!)
Blend until they are fine crumbs.
This is what it should look like
Reserve 1/4 cup of the oreo crumbs to use when you put everything together.
Right before serving, mix together the vanilla pudding and the rest of the oreo crumbs.
Shortly before you’re ready to serve the dessert, take the chocolate pudding, vanilla + oreo pudding, oreo crumbs and cool whip and layer them in a dessert dish or parfait glass. I spooned in the chocolate pudding, then oreo crumbs, then Vanilla + oreo pudding, then cool whip, chocolate pudding, vanilla + oreo, and cool whip. I sprinkled the oreo crumbs on top. You can do it any way that you want – be creative!
Here’s what the middle looks like:
You can get creative! Use different flavors of pudding. I think a butterscotch pudding would be good with vanilla! Then you can add in some chopped up Heath bar or something like that. Or if you have some fresh raspberries on hand, that would be very good paired with vanilla and lemon pudding!
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