Nutella Caramel Layer Cake

This is the cake I made for Father's Day. I tweaked a few things from the original recipe to make it more affordable, but in the end I doubt there was a highly noticeable difference. It was absolutely delicious! I thought for sure the cookies around the edge would get soggy in our Houston humidity and with the frosting and caramel inside, but they stayed crisp for days. It's a great cake for beginners because the cookies around the edge help keep everything together so if your layers aren't perfect they won't slide around, and the rosettes on top are so easy and also cover any flaws underneath. As a long-time Nutella lover, this cake scored big points in my book!

Recipe adapted from Rebecca's Sweet Escapes

I used my standard chocolate cake recipe for the layers:

Cake:

Mix together:

2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Bring to a boil:

2 sticks butter

4 Tbsp. cocoa

1 cup water

Pour over the flour mixture and add:

2 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well and pour batter into two 8-inch round pans lined on the bottom with parchment paper, greased on the sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Caramel Filling:

1 pkg. Kraft caramels

1/4 c. evaporated milk

Melt together in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly before using.

Nutella Frosting:

2 sticks butter, softened

2 c. Nutella (I used the Kroger brand substitute--it's almost identical in taste and much cheaper!)

5 c. powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

pinch salt

evaporated milk

Combine all ingredients and whip until creamy. Add in evaporated milk until it is a good frosting consistency.

To Assemble:

Place one cake on a plate and pipe a wide border around the edge of the top to hold the caramel in. The border should be about an inch thick and about 1/2 inch tall. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes to allow frosting to harden, which will create a more sure wall to hold in the caramel. Pour/spread caramel on top of your cake, within the border you created. (If the caramel has cooled down a little bit so it is barely spreadable, it will stay in place better). Place second cake on top and cover entire cake with a thin layer of frosting. Pipe a thin border around the bottom of the cake and insert pirouette cookies (cut to size) around border, pressing into the cake (I used 3 tins of pirouline cookies from Dollar Tree--still wonderful, and again, much cheaper!). Secure with another border of frosting around the bottom when cookies are in place. To create rosettes on top, use a large star tip and pipe spirals all over the surface of the cake.

Homemade No-Bake Granola Bars

These granola bars are delicious! I love the texture of them, and they don't crumble apart like others I've tried. It's so easy to whip up a batch or two and divide them into little ziploc bags to keep in the pantry for easy snacks.

Recipe adapted from Money Saving Mom

2 1/2 c. crisp rice cereal (I use organic chocolate rice crispies, but regular will work too)

1 3/4 c. quick oats

1/4 c. wheat germ, wheat bran, or ground flaxseed

1/2 c. additional mix-in ingredients optional (chopped nuts, raisins, coconut, other dried fruit, etc.)

1/2 c. honey

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

2/3 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. mini chocolate chips

Combine first 4 dry ingredients in a bowl. In a saucepan, mix the honey, brown sugar, and salt. Over medium-low heat, stir until the mixture comes to a complete boil for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Press into a 9x13 pan and let cool for 5-10 minutes before pressing mini chocolate chips into the top. Let cool before cutting into bars.

They also freeze well!

Raw Fruit Pie

This pie is so delicious--and the best part is that you can feel great eating it because there are no added sugars! My friend made this a few months ago and I LOVED it. But unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. So I'm posting this so that Kaitlyn can make it and post a picture. :)

[Picture here]

Crust:

Add 2:1 ratio of walnuts and dates in food processor, and a dash of salt if you desire. (If the crust isn't sticky enough add a few more dates.) Press the crust into a pie pan (a tart pan with a removable bottom works best).

Filling:

Add 1:1 ratio of frozen (semi thawed) banana and chunks of mango. Use ripe fruit if possible (it tastes better). Pour into pie pan; freeze. Let it sit out for several minutes to thaw a little before eating.

This is great with mango and banana but would also be great with lots of fruits (I'm thinking blueberries and mango--yum! Or raspberries and blueberries--you could layer it for a cute 4th of July look).

Have fun with it! And let us know what combinations you try!

Zucchini Salad/Salsa with Corn and Cilantro

The other day my friend invited me over for dinner (she made fish tacos--so delicious!) and asked me to bring something with zucchini. I was a little nervous about this dish because the only thing I ever really make with zucchini is zucchini bread, but this was really good. It can be eaten as a salad or as a salsa dip with chips or crackers, and tastes better warm. (I tried it cold a couple of days later and the zucchini was kind of slimy.)

Original recipe here

1 tsp olive oil

3 1/2 cups cubed zucchini (about a pound)

1 cup frozen corn

1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

2 tsp fresh lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Cook zucchini and corn in oil until the zucchini is crisp-tender (it is better a little on the crispy side--otherwise it gets a little soggy). Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, lime juice, and salt and pepper.

Watermelon Feta Salad with Mint

My friend made this salad for my going away/already gone party in Columbus, and it was delicious! It is so light and refreshing and has so many different surprising flavors (I would never think to pair feta cheese and watermelon, but it works!). This is a great summer dish.

Original recipe here

1 7-8 lb. seedless watermelon

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice from 2 limes

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup chopped mint leaves

1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese

Chop watermelon into 1-inch cubes. Drain the excess juice. 

Whisk together olive oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper to create the dressing. Pour dressing and mint over the watermelon and toss gently. Mix the crumbled feta cheese in to the salad.

This is best if served within an hour of preparing.

Pudding on the Rice

Remember Pudding on the Rice? That eclectic little place just off I-15 on University Parkway in Orem? They had the most incredible concoctions available that they called rice pudding, but really were unlike any other rice pudding I had tried! Their amazingly creamy, cold, almost-like-ice-cream desserts in a huge variety of flavors were so fun! 

I'm sad to say that a few years ago the owners moved to Portland, which meant the restaurant did as well. (Not that I could have taken advantage of it anyway, seeing as how Houston isn't exactly close to Orem...) But I was excited to find a recipe online from Studio 5 that the owner herself submitted. Then I found another recipe, quite a bit different, that also seemed to be from the owner. So I tried them both to see which was the rice pudding I remembered. The first seemed far more fluffy than I had experienced in the past, and the second wasn't what I remembered at all. So I tweaked the first recipe just a tiny bit (I used only half of the cream it called for) and then, in my opinion, it was perfect. Below is my adaptation.

4 cups whole milk
2 cups cooked white rice
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large sauce pan, mix together milk, rice, sugar, and salt. In a seperate bowl crack the egg and let sit at room temperature. Stir mixture in saucepan slowly with a flat wooden spoon at medium heat for 45-60 minutes until the mixture has evenly thickened (I didn't stir continually).

Take pan off heat. Take the room temperature egg and whisk it thoroughly, adding a tablespoon at a time of the hot pudding to tempur the eggs. When you have added equal amounts of pudding to the eggs, slowly incorporate the eggs back into the pudding. Return the pudding to medium heat and slowly stir as you bring the pudding back to a boil.

Take pudding off heat, put in a seperate bowl, cover with saran wrap, and cool in refrigerator for 6-24 hours.

After pudding has cooled, whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 1 tsp. vanilla. Gently fold whipped cream into the pudding until it is fully enveloped. Keep pudding refrigerated for up to 1 week.



Additional Flavor Ideas
Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Pudding (pictured)--mix melted chocolate chips into pudding before adding whipped cream. Stir in peanut butter chips, and fold in whipped cream.

Raspberry Rice Pudding--Add frozen raspberries and mix into the pudding before folding in whipped cream.

Lemon Poppyseed Rice Pudding--Stir in lemon curd and poppyseeds before folding in whipped cream.

Strawberries 'n Cream Rice Pudding (pictured)--Stir in strawberry jam before folding in whipped cream.

Cookies 'n Cream Rice Pudding--Stir in Oreo crumbs before folding in whipped cream.

Traditional Cinnamon Rice Pudding (pictured)--Stir in cinnamon before folding in whipped cream.



Our favorite that we've tried is the chocolate peanut butter. I also loved the lemon poppyseed and just the plain ol' vanilla mixture. I'd love to hear your flavor ideas as well! Jessica (the owner) says you can put pretty much anything in that you might find in ice cream, as long as it won't break down the dairy ingredients.

Asparagus Salad

This "salad" is really not a salad but it sounds better than "asparagus with feta cheese." It's super easy to make and pretty delicious. I found asparagus on sale the other day and bought it on a whim, even though I rarely cook with this vegetable. I looked up some recipes online and, since I also happened to have feta cheese, I went with this one. It was a good choice.

Original recipe here

Asparagus
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Feta Cheese

Chop the asparagus stems in half; mix them in with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake at 500 single-layer on a pan for 8-12 minutes (it took mine about 15) until they are soft when poked with a fork.

Remove from oven and sprinkle on feta cheese.