Giant Oreo Cookie Cake

Awhile ago my mom saw and had to have this giant cookie cake pan.



This past week was her birthday! So I made her a ginormous Oreo cookie cake!



This cake is devil's food with a whole bag of crushed up Oreo cookies mixed in. The filling is a homemade cookie filling from Martha Stewart that tasted pretty damn close to the real Oreo filling. Of course if you don't have the cookie cake pans, I'm sure this cake would be just as awesome with normal round cake pans, and sprinkled in a ton of Oreo cookie crumbs!

Oreo Cookie Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

For the cake

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 package crushed Oreo cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Coat two round cake pans with cooking spray.
3. Whisk together cocoa powder and hot water until smooth.
4. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
   
5. Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
   
6. Remove from heat, and transfer to a mixer. Beat on medium-low speed until cooled, 4 to 5 minutes.
7. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
   
8. Beat in vanilla and cocoa-powder mixture.
   
9. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour. Beat until just combined.
10. Fold in crushed up Oreo cookies.
11. Divide batter between pans, and bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
    
12. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before turning out of pans

For the filling

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
7 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and shortening until well combined.
   
2. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
   
3. Add the vanilla, and beat to combine.
   
4. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Mini Nutella Donuts

Donuts usually make people happy, and mini things are extra cute so in my opinion these mini Nutella donuts are pretty much perfect. ;o) Plus they're baked so you can sort of feel good about eating them. You do need a mini donut pan though, I bought mine at amazon.



Baked Mini Nutella Donuts
Adapted from Squirrel Bakes

Yields 24 mini donuts, or 8-10 regular sized donuts

For the donuts

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter, chilled
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease donut pan.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk together to mix.
   
3. Using a pastry cutter or two forks cut the butter into the dry mixture till a course texture is formed.
   
4. In a small saucepan heat milk till simmering, set aside.
   
5. In a medium bowl combine egg, Nutella, vanilla, and warmed milk. Mix together as best you can, the Nutella caused me to have a little trouble with this.
6. Add dry ingredients to wet and blend just until incorporated. NOTE: If you think you need a little more liquid to make the batter spoonable or pipeable, add a bit more milk just to thin it out a touch
   
7. Spoon mixture into donut pan or transfer to a piping bag and pipe into pan.
8. Bake for 6-8 minutes for minis or until a toothpick entered in center of a donut comes out clean. Or, 8 - 10 minutes for regular sized donuts.
   
9. Remove and let cool in pan for 5 minutes
10. Flip pan over and let donuts cool completely on wire rack.

For the glaze

1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Nutella
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. In a medium saucepan combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla.
   
2. Whisking as butter melts, heat over medium until butter is completely melted and mixture is combined
   
3. Remove from heat and add Nutella. Whisk mixture until Nutella has melted in.
   
4. Add the confectioners' sugar whisk until smooth.
   
5. While glaze is still hot, dunk the tops of donuts into the glaze and set on a tray lined with wax or parchment paper until dry.
6. Add sprinkles if desired and let cool till dry to the touch.

Lemon Chiffon Layer Cupcake on Can It Cupcake?

I attempted to see if lemon chiffon cake could work out as a cupcake!

These are lemon chiffon cupcakes with a layer of lemon curd topped with vanilla glaze and a homemade candied lemon peel!

Please check them out at Can It Cupcake?!

Mango Sorbet

Well, I made some mango sorbet. And I'm not too sure how I feel about it!



It's yummy...refreshing, has a nice mango flavor. Texture is pretty good, not frozen solid. :o)

Except for me, I do not like biting into a slice of mango. The flesh is made up of all these fibers, it's a very fiberous fruit in texture...if that makes sense. I really don't like that!

So I knew that going in, but I went ahead and pureed up my mango and in the end, well, it still has these fibers in it...I'm wondering if I can strain it? On the plus side, it was SO easy to make, I'll certainly try it again, and let you know how it goes!

Mango Sorbet
From Razzle Dazzle Recipes

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 ripe mangoes, about 1/2 lb. each
Juice of 1 lime

1. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and place over low heat.
   
2. Whisk until the sugar dissolves completely and the syrup is clear.
   
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
4. Cut the mangoes and remove as much pulp as you can
   Before you try this, I encourage you to check out this step by step guide to cutting a mango...I wish I had...
5. Juice your lime
   
6. Combine the cooled syrup, mango pulp and lime juice in a blender or food processor.
7. Blend until completely smooth
   
8. Cover and refrigerate until cold
9. Process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions
   OR
   If you don't have in ice cream maker, but you do have some time on your hands, you can try this method, which I've used successfully for sorbet!
10. Transfer to a freezer safe container and store in freezer!

Peach Stawberry Coffee-Cupcakes at Can it Cupcake?

Dear readers,

I have started a new blog! It's called Can it Cupcake? and it will answer just that! I'll be taking non-traditional cupcake recipes and turning them into cupcakes and baking up cupcakes inspired by treats that are not cupcakes at all! Sangria and angel food cupcakes are in the near future, so please go ahead and follow!

I have plenty of baking adventures in mind to go around though, so I will continue to post here as well!

To kick it off I just posted a recipe for Peach Strawberry Coffee-Cupcakes where I thought I'd try out how coffee cake handled being in a cupcake wrapper. Please check it out!



Hope you drop by!

Best,

Kim

Mexican Cocoa Ice Cream for Cinco de Mayo

I discovered a wonderful new shop, the Savory Spice Shop in Westfield, NJ. It's so much fun. The first time I went there I was overwhelmed and I walked out with only a few things, but I recently went back and bought a whole bunch of fun stuff!

Among my spoils was a bag of Mexican cocoa which I made Mexican cocoa ice cream in honor of Cinco de Mayo with!



I'm still learning how to make ice cream well. I have issues with my custard separating and that seems to make it freeze hard as a rock after processing. But this time I went very slow and I think it came out pretty good!



Mexican Cocoa Ice Cream
From Savory Spice Shop

Yields 1 quart
Note: If you don't have an ice cream maker you can use this method for processing!

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tbsp. Mexican cocoa
1/4 tsp. cinnamon extract
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together.
   
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, slowly heat milk to boiling point, stirring occasionally.
3. Slowly pour egg mixture into milk and thoroughly mix together.
   
4. Turn heat to low and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and forms a thick film on the back of a wooden spoon. (Do not let it boil or the mixture will separate)
5. Remove pan from heat and let cool to room temperature.
   
6. When cool, transfer mixture to a bowl. Add cocoa and mix in thoroughly.
   
7. Mix in extracts and cream.
   
8. Refrigerate until cold, 1-2 hours.
   
9. Process the ice cream in an ice cream maker for about 25 min, or make sure you have a lot of time and use this method

Happy Cinco de Mayo!