There are a lot of baking purists out there who believe baking cakes with a box mix is THE DEVIL. Okay, maybe not the devil, but definitely an amateur move. The thing is, I am not in a real bakery and sometimes a baker needs to save some time. Plus, a lot of people find box mix cake to be far tastier than cakes from scratch!
WOW… it has been an insanely busy year. I wrote a little about the first half of my year in my previous post but the second half has been very hectic as well. First off, My boyfriend and I became officially engaged during our Truro, MA, Cape Cod vacation. (Yay!) And I am slightly ashamed to say that I’ve been fully consumed/obsessed with all things wedding-related ever since. However, I’m making a significant effort to not be one of those girls who talks about her wedding non-stop. I’ve spent years finding those girls so ultimately annoying (perhaps a little envious) and I’ve been pretty good about only speaking the wedding talk when someone asks me about it. But since this is my blog, I’m just going to indulge myself in a little wedding talk for a bit…
There’s been a lot going in 2012. Earlier this year, my office acquired the responsibilities of another country. I was also a Maid of Honor in my friend’s April wedding. And then the big one: shortly after my last post, my brother, A, had a lump on the left side of his face checked out and it was confirmed as cancer.
I am not from French descent, but boy do I appreciate this traditional French dessert. A flourless chocolate cake, a creamy, smooth chocolate mousse filling and covered with chocolate ganache. Not everyone uses mousse, not everyone covers with ganache, so this is somewhat of a combination of many different recipes found online. (Therefore, I’m not certain how “traditional” this creation really is – but very certain that it’s DELICIOUS.) I strongly suggest doing the ganache and log carvings. If you’re going to go to the trouble to put this log together, why not make the extra effort to make it look like an actual log? Presentation is everything, bloggos!
I was researching chocolate cream cake fillers for a holiday yule log and thought… why use a regular cream filling when I could do a chocolate mousse filling?! And then found this recipe online. Someday, I may go for her whole cake recipe, but for now, I borrowed the chocolate mousse for my holiday treat. The chocolate mousse came out of the fridge so smooth and fluffy, my boyfriend and I were tempted to fiercely take a spoon to that bowl. But alas, we needed to save for the yule log. I may create this again and put in fancy glasses for my next girl dinner.
My boyfriend, today’s guest chef, makes Christmas Bark every year for his family, friends and co-workers. It’s super easy and we are here to show you how.
My boyfriend’s birthday happened to fall on the day after Thanksgiving this year. After making all that homemade caramel earlier that week for my apple pie caramel cupcakes, I asked him if he’d like a snickers cake for his day. He was delighted to oblige.
This is going to be one of your most favorite posts and you will want to Bookmark, add to your Favorites List, etc. I see a lot of caramel desserts around the internet that simply require you to buy some hard caramel and melt it down. Or just put actual hard caramel candy inside cookie or cake batter so they melt in the oven. This is not how we do caramel here in The Smiley Kitchen.
I am really irked by the influx of pumpkin dessert advertising as of late. I don’t know what it is, but it makes me mad that every cooking email and blog that I’m subscribed to is flooding me with pumpkin desserts this season. It’s like everyone needs to put a pumpkin spin on their existing product. There’s pumpkin coffee, pumpkin puddings, pumpkin chiffon, pumpkin cookies – you get the idea (don’t want to Forrest Gump you with all iterations of pumpkin).
