Elle's New England Kitchen

You are all going to LO-V-E this one. If this is the first time you dip your toe into the raw food waters, then let this recipe be the one you try. You will not believe how good this is. It’s from Ani Phyo’s new book, Ani’s Raw Food Desserts: 85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats.

Think of the most fudgy, chocolaty, rich cake, covered in a delicious, dark ganache.

Are you thinking of it? It’s a nice thought, right? Now, think of all of the cream and chocolate, butter and sugar. Do you really want to eat those things? I’ve got to be honest, if you’re like me, you do! But you don’t want to feel the guilt after you do. You also most likely don’t want all of the empty calories and bad fats. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Ani Phyo, by way of Crazy Sexy Life:

“Let’s take my Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake as an example. The cake is made with walnuts, considered a super food by the FDA for it’s high levels of omega-3. Walnuts provide amino acids, vitamins E, A, calcium, iron, and have been found to keep our blood cholesterol levels in check. Walnuts are mixed with raw cacao powder, which is defined as a superfood by the FDA for it’s high levels or antioxidants, which fight free radical damage, premature aging and illness. I use dates, a whole food fruit, to sweeten and to bind together the nuts and cacao powder into a flourless cake texture. Dates are full of fiber, potassium, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. All of the ingredients in my cake are good for you super foods.

On the other hand, the baked version uses bleached white flour that’s been stripped of any nutrient value. It’s sweetened with refined white sugar and empty calories, and uses eggs and butter, which contribute to high cholesterol levels. The baked version doesn’t offer much nutritional value.”

Plus, avocados are good for you. So you don’t have to feel one bit of guilt eating this icing!

I only had to make one substitution, and that was in the icing. I had just enough cacao to make the cake, and had to use regular cocoa for the icing. But the rest of this cake is completely raw. In the recipe, they don’t specify raw walnuts, but that’s what I used. If you don’t use raw, it’ll still be delicious, but technically not raw.

Do you remember that dark, rich chocolate cake covered in ganache that I asked you to think about? Guess what?! You can have that cake! And you can eat it without an ounce of guilt, because Ani’s version is packed with things that are good for you. But when you’re eating it, you may feel that “knee-jerk guilt” reaction like I did. Because it’s that good. I’m serious!

This recipe got eight thumbs up from the kids, and four more from my husband and I. I hope you’ll try it! You won’t be disappointed.

Oh! For easy serving, and no messy cake slicing, I made this recipe into eight cupcakes. Just divide the “batter” into about eight equal portions, and press into a cupcake pan. A little chill in the fridge (about 5 minutes), and a nudge with a knife, and they easily come out. And while we’re on the subject, when mixing this up in the food processor, let it go until you can’t see bits of the nuts anymore. I also gave it an extra squirt or two of raw agave. You may see some of the walnut oil coming out, but just go with it, and press them into the pan, or into 2 cake layers. **For these photos, I stacked two cupcakes like a layer cake, with icing between. Find the recipe by clicking here! And in case you’re wondering, you can’t taste the dates, or the avocado.

This is the most decadent chocolate cake you’ll ever “uncook!”

You know you want these! When you have that first bite, you’ll know it was meant to be. When you bake them, you’ll thank me. Or, you may hate me--because these are hard to stop eating.

I bought this tub of little cookies at Trader Joe’s months ago. In fact, I made these months ago, but I’m just getting around to posting them now. You know how it goes. You make something, take the photos, eat or give away all of the goodies, and the cycle begins again. Before you know it, you have a bunch of recipes and photos sitting around, waiting their turn. Plus, life happens and you’re busy, maybe you can’t get to your blog as much as you’d like. My train of thought has left the station…

Back to the cookies! I can’t remember what the Trader Joe’s cookies were called, but oh my gosh, were they good! Bits of cashew, pockets of caramel, crunchy cookie. I’d guess they were called something along the line of Caramel Cashew Cookies. See how I made that connection? ;)

I wanted to try to make them at home, and figured it couldn’t be too difficult. And as it happened, I’d picked up the April edition of Everyday Food. There was a recipe in it for Pecan Sandies that had all of the flavors I was looking for in the cookie base, so I ran with it. And don’t believe the reviewer on the site that said the recipe needed an egg, it doesn’t. It’s basically a shortbread cookie, which doesn’t need an egg. (Yes, I know, my mom’s shortbread does use an egg, but it’s an old family recipe, and I’m not messing around with that one. It’s untouchable, like most treasured family recipes are, right? Plus, my mom loved it, and she’d be thrilled that I shared it with all of you.)

I didn’t change much in the recipe, but I did double it. Because if you’re making cookies, why would make only 18 of them? And I increased the salt, to play off the sweetness of the toffee bits. mmmmm….

Bonus! There’s no egg in this, so if you’re inclined to eat raw cookie dough (and seriously, who isn’t?), then this one’s for you.

Cashew Toffee Sandies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cashews, coarsely chopped
1 cup toffee bits (like Heath)

Heat oven to 350. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla and salt.
With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour, mixing until combined.
Fold in cashews and toffee bits.

Roll the dough (it's really easy, not sticky!) into 1 1/2 inch balls, and place them on parchment lined sheets.
Wet the bottom of a glass, and lightly flatten the dough balls. (you'll need to re- wet the glass a few times.)
Bake 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown. If you put more than one sheet at a time in the oven, rotate them halfway through baking time.
Cool on wire racks, and store in airtight container.
Makes about 36 delicious cookies.

 

Time for the monthly Royal Foodie Joust!  What’s the Joust, you ask?  It’s a monthly contest started by Jenn, The Leftover Queen.  Who also runs The Foodie BlogRoll.  And if you have a food blog and haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for?  They have giveaways happening all the time, and all you need to do to enter is join the BlogRoll.  Plus, there are forums that are a great way to network, meet other bloggers, and find lots of great information.  So get on over there and check it all out!

Last month’s Joust was won by Peter and Christey at http://fotocuisine.com/, and they won with their entry for Almond Crusted Asparagus Rolls with Lemongrass Hollandaise.  How amazing does that look?   Well, everything they have posted does, right? 

 

The winner of each Joust gets to choose the three ingredients for the next Joust.  And this time, instead of choosing specific ingredients, Peter and Christey chose Red, White, and Green.  I loved this idea, because it leaves the Joust wide open to interpretation.  Feeling sweet, savory, traditional or daring?  Doesn’t matter—as long as you use some red, white and green.

This past Saturday, I was having a short chat with Michele, at Life, Lightly Salted.  She’s a real sweetheart and has an outstanding blog, so please go and say hello to her.  We were talking about ice cream, and she was saying she was going to try making some avocado ice cream.  I swear, I almost saw the light bulb go off over my head.   I love guacamole, and what if I could make avocado ice cream, but make it look like the dip I love so much? 

It all fell into place.  Since I’d always wanted to try avocado ice cream, I knew this would be fun—plus my ice cream maker was growing far too lazy.  I decided to use diced strawberries instead of tomatoes, shredded coconut in place of diced white onion, and mint would stand in for cilantro.

I used a basic recipe for the ice cream from Alton Brown.  You just can’t go wrong with his recipes.  I didn’t let the mixture chill for 4-6 hours, though.  More like 30-40 minutes, and I had no problems.  Damn my lack of patience!  And toward the end of the cycle, I tossed in a few small handfuls of coconut, and about 6 large diced strawberries.  I almost forgot the mint until my husband reminded me.  Whew!  I’d have hated to have forgotten that.  I just folded that in myself and them tossed it all in the freezer to set better.

I should have taken a photo before scooping some out, though, because when it was in the container, it looked just like guacamole!  My daughter came in and said, “gross, mom, that ice cream looks like guacamole!”  Good!  that’s what I was going for!  ;)

My “tortilla chips” would be played by shortbread cookies.  This recipe is from my grandmother, and we made it almost every year for Christmas.  The cookies are so pretty with red and green sugar on them.  We usually make them into individual cookies, but since I was trying to get the tortilla chip thing going, I split the dough into two portions, and patted it out into two circles on a parchment lined sheet.  Lightly score the dough into wedges, then bake.  After baking, you can separate the wedges.  (They take a little longer to bake this way—about 10 extra minutes.  they should feel set on the top.)  I know, most shortbread recipes don’t use any eggs, but I adore this recipe.  They seem lighter, and not so heavy.

Mom's Shortbread Cookies

To print this recipe, click here.

This is my mom's tried and true shortbread recipe. She got it from my grandmother. These are great any time of year, but especially nice for Christmas gifts. You can sprinkle them with green or red sugar before baking. The flavor of these cookies improves with age, so make them a few days before you plan to give them away.

2 cups    flour  
1 cup    butter, softened  
1/2 tsp    baking powder  
1/2 cup    sugar  
1    egg  
1    fresh lemon rind, of grated 

 

 
Sift flour and baking powder together in a small bowl. 
Cream butter, add sugar slowly, mixing well. 
Mix in egg and lemon rind. 
Add flour/baking powder mixture, mix in well. 
Shape into balls about the size of a golf ball, place on pan, flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. 
Bake at 300° for 15 to 20 minutes, just until a bit golden on the edges. 
These last well if kept in a tightly covered container, and actually taste even better after a day or two as the flavors develop.

Yield: 48-60 cookies
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 30 minutes

 

And that’s it—that’s my entry for this month’s Royal foodie Joust.   Wish me luck!  And avocado ice cream?  Let’s just say it’ll be in regular rotation this summer.   Because, yum!       

 

Cravings. I’m one of those people that can’t stop thinking about them once they hit me. I have to satisfy the cravings to get them out of my head. And they’re for all kinds of things, like the rest of you, I’m sure. A very common one for me is spaghetti and meatballs—I crave that all the time! My family is lucky they don’t eat it every week. Though, I don’t suppose they’d mind…hmmm…I know I wouldn’t!

But that’s not what this post is about! Cravings, yes. Spaghetti and meatballs, no. I had a craving for a Chocolate Glazed donut. Could not stop thinking about them. But do I really want a deep fried, full of fat, greasy donut? Well, maybe, but should I have one? Hell, no! So I went for the next best thing.

Yes. Cake for breakfast. Also known as Muffins. My friends, muffins. I love them! These are no exception—they were so. Damn. Good. And very easy to make—a bonus!

Chocolate Glazed Donut Muffins

To print these recipes, click here!

makes about 9 muffins

2 cup flour
scant 1 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Cake Spice + 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Mix in the eggs, oil, butter, milk and vanilla.
Grease the muffin pans. Divide the batter between the muffin cups--an ice cream scoop works great!
Bake for about 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for about 5 minutes, then turn on out on rack to cool.
Cool completely before glazing.

And here is the recipe for the glaze, from King Arthur Flour. King Arthur is the only flour I use, ever. It’s such great quality and never lets me down. And have you checked out their site? Bakers Heaven!

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup (I use Golden Syrup)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often. Add extra corn syrup if needed to make a smooth, shiny glaze. Yield: about ½ cup glaze.

If you’re using sprinkles, get them on there right after glazing the muffins so they’ll stick. And then let the muffins sit for a bit so the glaze can set up. The easiest way (for me) to glaze them was to put the glaze in a bowl that’s kind of narrow at the bottom, so the glaze isn’t too shallow. If it is, you’ll be bumping the muffins on the bottom of the bowl and won’t get a pretty glaze.

I'm sure that some of you remember my obsession from this past spring and summer. Some of you may not, but guess what? It's still an ongoing obsession. I can't help it! The combination of raspberry and lime is irresistible to me! It's always popping up to rear it's tasty head and I go off on these tangents every once in a while. As a winner of one of the Royal Foodie Jousts, I got to pick the three ingredients for the next one, and guess what they were? Click here to see, lol. But let's just say it was like having my own minions creating recipes to feed my obsession. How cool is that??

This pound cake is from a recipe I found years ago on a yogurt container. Easy, not too bad for you, and so good! And like any pound cake, it gets better every day. This one I just made lasted three days. The first piece was delicious. the last piece, even better.

It's a not-bad-for-you pound cake because it doesn't use the traditional one pound of butter. Just 1/2 cup! Because you add moisture with the yogurt, you don't need all that butter. And it's still moist and tender.



I used the same recipe from this previous post, but used vanilla yogurt, frozen cherries (about 1 1/2 cups after chopping) that I quartered because they were large, 1 tsp almond extract, and no zest. But truth be told, I *almost* made it cherry lime with some lime zest. I'm glad I left it out, because cherry vanilla was a winning combination.

To print this recipe, click here!

The combinations are endless when you look at the variety of yogurt flavors available, so experiment and see what you can come up with!

Jenn, The Leftover Queen. The Foodie Blogroll. The Royal Foodie Joust. This cupcake recipe.


These four things are all connected. Jenn is not only The Leftover Queen, she's also the Queen of the Foodie Blogroll. And every month on the blogroll forums, we have the Royal Foodie Joust. For each joust, three ingredients are chosen, and members that want to participate come up with dishes using them. This month's joust has a Caribbean theme, and the prize up for grabs is a Caribbean cookbook! If you haven't joined the Foodie Blogroll, yet, what are you waiting for?


The three ingredients for this month are rice, coconut, and bananas. I had quite a few ideas knocking around my head, but this is the one that came to be. Banana cupcakes are great, but what about Bananas Foster Cupcakes? With mashed up Bananas Foster instead of plain old bananas? And oooh, buttercream frosting topped with toasted coconut? Yeah... And the rice shows up in the form of brown rice flour.




Yep! I made Bananas Foster--first time ever. It was extremely easy, and so delicious. And yes, we took a couple of bites, then I mashed it all up for the cupcakes! Well, I did save the sauce. I wasn't sure what for, until I was making the buttercream. It was meant to be. Caramelized brown sugar, rum and spices--poured into the icing, along with a nice dose of salt. Perfect!


I'll get to the recipes, because there are three--but they're all very simple! The cupcake recipe is adapted from a recipe passed along to me by one of my best friends, Shaye. Here it is, with my changes:



Bananas Foster Cupcakes
makes about 17 cupcakes

To print this recipe, click here!


1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 recipe for Bananas Foster, bananas mashed, sauce set aside
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in bananas, then eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt and add alternately with buttermilk to mixture.
6. Beat just until blended.
7. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
8. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.




Bananas Foster
recipe adapted from Alton Brown

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tbsp water
4 under ripe bananas, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup light rum

Isn't that cool? This was done under the supervision of Fire Marshall Bill, aka my husband.


Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over low heat.
Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir
until sugar dissolves.
Add water and bring sauce to simmer.
Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side, carefully spooning sauce over bananas as they are cooking.
Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish.
Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum.
If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own.
If not, using stick flame, carefully ignite and continue cooking until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
If sauce is too thin, cook for 1 to 2 minutes until it is syrupy in consistency.
Immediately spoon the sauce over bananas and serve. Or smash up to make cupcakes!





Bananas Foster Buttercream
adapted from Gale Gand

The added salt in this really adds a nice touch and cuts the sweetness.

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
sauce from Bananas Foster


In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter.
Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
Add vanilla and sauce and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more.



Make your Bananas Foster, bake your cupcakes, make the frosting, toast some coconut, and you're all set! These are really delicious. If you don't want to use the rice flour, go ahead and use whatever you prefer. The cupcakes themselves aren't sweet at all, so the big old heaping pile of icing is very nice, not to mention the toasted coconut!



And that's my entry for this month's Royal Foodie Joust. Check out my past winning recipe--it was my first joust ever, too!

Mmmmm, mint and chocolate. As good as, maybe even a little better than peanut butter and chocolate? I don't know, that's a tough one. Given a choice with chocolate--I'll almost always go with mint.

I was grocery shopping and saw that they had Andes Mints on sale. Pass those up? No way. I knew I wanted to bake something with them. It was either that, or be faced with eating all of them. Cookies immediately came to mind. I did a search and found that there was pretty much one Andes cookie recipe. The one where you place a whole candy over the hot cookies and let it melt there, which looks good. Then there's this one, from Erin. That looks great too, right?

But I wanted to do something different. I started with a basic chocolate cookie, but instead of chocolate chips, I chopped up the mints, coarsely, so you get chunks, and added those to the batter. The result? Delicious cookies! You can immediately taste the mint in them, which is good. Some of the chocolate melted directly into the cookies. They are a cakey cookie, which isn't my first choice, but still, they're very good--almost like little brownie bites. Everyone still loves them--I can see right now that our supply of them is almost gone, so that's a good indication of yummy cookies.



Next Time:

I'd definitely leave larger chunks of the mints. I cut each one into roughly three pieces, so maybe just cut them in half next time.

I'll probably search out a chocolate cookie base that'll be chewier, since that's my favorite kind of cookie.

All in all, I'd make these again for sure, just tweaking the cookie part. But if you like soft, cake-like cookies, you'll love these!

To print this recipe, click here!

makes approx 60 cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 (28 piece) boxes Andes Mints, coarsely chopped



Heat oven to 375.
Beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in mixing bowl until fluffy.
Combine the flour, cocoa, soda and salt, then add alternately with the milk--blend well.
Stir in the mints.
Drop by teaspoons on parchment covered baking sheets.
Bake 8-10 minutes--don't over bake!
Cool for a minute on the sheets and remove to cooling racks.

So, I had all of these good intentions for making cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. I even looked around and found a recipe I was going to mess around with and change up. Made my T-Day grocery list, and headed off to Trader Joes...

Wouldn't you know, they had their own cranberry sauce in the refrigerated section--regular and cranberry-orange. So yeah, good intentions and recipes went right out the window, and I picked up a container of each. Ingredients? Water, cranberries, sugar, orange--pretty much it. And one less thing to make on T-Day. Woo!

We opened the plain one first, and dear Lord, it was perfect! It didn't need spices, or alcohol, or nuts--it was amazing in it's simplicity. I could have eaten that entire thing myself! We didn't get around to the orange one, though, so back in the fridge it went.

I knew I wanted to make something with the sauce, and a quick search brought me to this recipe from King Arthur Flour: Yogurt Cranberry Coffeecake. You know me, I love using yogurt in baked stuff! I read the reviews, and it seemed the consensus was to add more cranberries, so of course I did. More fruit filling? Um, yeah, I'm all over that one! I used about 1 1/2 cups, which completely covered the bottom layer. So now you get fruit in every single bite, like it should be, right? That's a no-brainer. The streusel topping is fantastic--cinnamony and not too sweet. The cranberries add their signature tart/sweet flavors, and the bottom cake layer is moist and just right on the sweetness. Don't forget, there's yogurt in there, so it's anything but dry.



This is my dream coffeecake. Fruity, tender and moist, and not too sweet. It doesn't need a glaze over the top to cover up dry cake on the bottom. AND, it makes a lot. A whole 13x9 pan. So you can share--or not, lol. I don't know how it freezes, but I don't see why you couldn't cut the recipe in half. And I also think this would make amazing muffins, which I'm definitely trying soon!
Click here for the recipe, and after you get that, have a look around and try not to add $200 of stuff to your shopping cart. But the best part--it's all useful stuff, so you can totally justify it. ;)

Yes, I'll be Mrs. Chocolate Cake, ok? Think my husband will mind? He can be Mr.- Mrs. Chocolate Cake.

This cake. This cake....oh my goodness. Anyone that knows me, knows that my favorite kind of cake is chocolate. So for my son's birthday, I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. Is it wrong that I totally steered him toward chocolate cake with chocolate frosting? (Don't worry. He loved. This. Cake.) We had the idea of making a giant sort of Ring Ding cake. I know, some of you might not know what a Ring Ding is. Poor souls, hehe.



Anyway, I had the killer cake recipe, and I had the killer frosting recipe, but I needed a filling recipe. I was in a hurry, and looking back, wish I took more time to find a good recipe for that, too. Don't get me wrong, the one I used is delicious, but not great for layering between two big cake layers. I used a whoopie pie filling that I'd used before...for whoopie pies, of course. It didn't hold up well to the cake layers, and before I knew it, I had a cake slide going on. Damn.

But I kept on. I poked a couple of chopsticks through the top and stuck it in the fridge to try and set it more. After 20 minutes or so, I frosted the sides with the chocolate frosting and set it back in the fridge. When I frosted the top a little later, it was still sliding, so the chopsticks went back into the top.

And you know? When it was time to serve it, it was a little lopsided, but it was for family, and they don't really care. Thank goodness, right? lol!

The cake recipe is from Epicurious. I can't even say enough good things about the cake. It's easy to make, it's dense and chocolaty, it's moist, and most important, the taste is out of this world! It's my new official chocolate cake recipe. It's my new best friend.



The filling is also from Epicurious. I've made these whoopie pies before and they're another great recipe. Unfortunately, the filling just doesn't hold up to heavy cake layers. Whoopie pies? Yes! Cake filling? No!



And you can't have cake without frosting, can you? I don't make frosting very often, but when we do have frosting, it's this one. It's perfect, like the recipe title says. I got this recipe from a friend a few years ago, and haven't made another one since. It's incredibly simple, but homemade--so it tastes great. It's dark and chocolaty, and nice and creamy--good for spreading on cake. Please don't skip the sifting the sugar step--you don't want to have lumpy frosting, do you?



Perfect Chocolate Frosting

6 oz. semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup butter, cut into tablespoon sizes
2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Place a large bowl, filled halfway with ice, in the sink (a bowl that is large enough to hold the pot that you will cook the frosting in).
In a medium size pot over med low heat; melt chocolate, cream, and butter.
Stirring constantly, cook the mixture until all of the butter and chocolate melts and thickens, about 5-6 minutes. Do not boil.
Remove pot from heat.
Whisk in the sifted confectioners' sugar until mixture becomes smooth (approximately 1 minute). Put the pot on top of the bowl of ice. (Be careful to not allow any ice from the larger bowl to get into pot with the chocolate mixture.)
Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 4-5 minutes until frosting becomes smooth, thick, and fudgy. Remove from ice.
Spread onto cooled cake layers.
The frosting will thicken as it sets up.
If the frosting gets too hard to spread, put back on low heat and stir constantly until you get the spreading consistency desired.



So even with the leaky filling, this cake was awesome. My son kept thanking me for making him such a great cake for his birthday, and my other son has requested the same one for his birthday. Hopefully I'll find a sturdier filling by then!

That's it. No more talking. I'll show you how good this cake was.

**Warning! The following images may not be suitable for those of you with good table manners. Notice that one kid isn't even bothering with the formality of a utensil.




I think if I'd tried to get a bite of that slice, I'd have lost a limb. That was the last slice of cake, by the way. I had a flock of vultures hounding me the entire time I was taking photos, one even had a fork at the ready! That last series of pictures happened over a period of about 45 seconds. Piggies.