tasty tuesday: salted caramel pretzel mocha cake (aka: an incredibly late birthday post)

I am more than a little bit ashamed at how late this post is.

This ladies and gentlemen, is my birthday cake........from way back in October.

So yeah, procrastination for the win.

And I'm sure you're extremely surprised that it involves salted caramel, pretzels, and chocolate.  Ha!  Basically my favorite three food groups.  Really, the only three food groups there are.  Although maybe popcorn could be a fourth...

Anyway, this was my birthday cake, and it was pretty rad.  Thanks goes to Jordyn for being the master baker of this one, and complying to my every wish.  She's a pretty darn good sister!

I knew that I wanted chocolate cake, and our mocha cake recipe is simply the best.  And since I always want salted caramel on everything, that was a given.  We added pretzels in just for fun, since we had just made

this ice cream

, and were still pretty obsessed with the caramel pretzel combo.

The result was pretty delicious...although you must serve immediately and eat the whole thing, otherwise the pretzels get soggy due to the caramel.  Or you can just leave them out.  I do suppose it's a bit weird to have pretzels in a cake!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Mocha Cake

mocha cake recipe from: the 

Food Network

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 Eggs

3 tsp Vanilla

2/3 cup of strongly brewed coffee or espresso

1 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1 1/2 cup hot water

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients.

2) Add in eggs, vanilla, coffee and oil, and mix until batter is smooth.

3) Slowly add in hot water, until well mixed.

4)  Fill three, greased nine inch round pans about 3/4 full (you'll have enough extra batter to make a fourth round cake, or some cupcakes!)

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

Directions

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

Buttercream

Ingredients

1/4 cup Butter (or margarine), at room temperature

1 1/2 cups Icing Sugar

1/2 tsp Caramel flavoring (or Vanilla)

1-3 TBSP Cream

Directions

1)  Begin by beating your butter on medium-high until well mixed.

2)  Add icing sugar, vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of cream.

3)  Beat on medium until combined.

4)  Adjust the taste and consistency by adding any of the above ingredients!

Ganache

Ingredients

4.5 oz of good quality dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

Directions

1)  In a small sauce pan, heat cream over medium heat and bring just barely to a boil.

2)  As soon as it comes to a boil, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate.

3)  Whisk until smooth.

4)  Wait for the ganache to cool for a bit before pouring over your cake.

Cake assembly:

1)  Start by leveling off the top of each cake so that you have a flat surface to work with.

2)  Place your first cake on a cake plate/serving dish, and apply a generous layer of buttercream just on top.

3)  Press pretzels into the icing, and pour cooled caramel over top.

4)  Add your second cake on top, and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5)  Add your third cake, and pour ganache over it all just before serving!

*You can also double the icing recipe to cover the cake, and do that instead of making a ganache.

Please forgive all the grain in these photos.  The sun had long since set when I was taking these outside, so the iso was cranked super high!

Happy Birthday to me....again, kind of.

Also, sparklers are my favorite.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey (& jordyn)

tasty tuesday: hunky bills

Now Hunky Bills are actually something we make at Christmas time, but since I'm an excellent procrastinator (and life was nuts around Christmas), I'm just blogging about them now!  Really they would be a delicious treat all year round, we just happen to only make them once a year.  Which is probably good for my waistline!

Funny story:  their real name is definitely not Hunky Bills....but rather: Uncle Bill's Cuban Lunch.  Somehow, someway, over many many Christmases.....they slowly morphed into Hunky Bills.  

My family all knows it's not right, but we can't help that we call them that!  It's pretty hilarious.

Moving on.  These babies are another easy peasy recipe, where all you do is melt chocolate and stir deliciousness into it!  (Deliciousness being chips and peanuts....yum.)  

Man, I'm such a sucker for anything  sweet and salty!  Just so darn good.

Hunky Bills

from: my Auntie Bobbi

Ingredients:

3 cups chocolate chips

3 cups reese's peanut butter chips

200 grams plain Ripple Chips, crushed (these usually come in a 200 gram bag, so measuring is easy!)

2 1/2 cups salted peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1)  In a very large saucepan, first melt the peanut butter chips.  Add chocolate chips once the peanut butter chips are melted.  Stir together.

2)  Allow mixture to cool slightly, and then add crushed chips and chopped peanuts (you want the chunks of chips and peanuts pretty small).

3)  Line a mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake papers, and spoon the mixture into the papers.  Let them cool until firm enough to remove from pan.  

*We always pop ours in the freezer for a few minutes until hardened, remove the hunky bills, and then do another pan until all of the mixture is gone.

Soooo....once you've finally caved on your healthy New Year's Resolutions, you know where to find this recipe.  Ha!  They're totally worth it.  Promise.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: caramel apples

Caramel apples are just one of those classic Fall foods that I honestly can't get enough of.  We always sell them during September and October during our apple festivals on the farm, so I'm spoiled with a steady supply of them.  A farm down the road makes them for us, using our own apples, and they are so wonderful.  Due to this, I had never actually made my own caramel apples from scratch!

I can now cross that off my bucket list though, because these beauts were completely homemade.  Not even halfway homemade with store-bought caramels. No way.  Although the ingredient list might make your teeth hurt by just looking at it.....hehe.  I will tell you that these are hands down the best caramel apples I've eaten!  The only thing that is keeping me from making them every day is because they take quite a bit of patience for your caramel to reach the right temperature.  And if you know me....you'll know that patience is one of my strong suits.  Ha!

This caramel has a beautiful colour, and is so creamy and rich.  It went so well with the tart Elstar apples that it covered, and made many mouths quite happy.  The extra caramel was used for dipping apples in over the next couple of days....and we also made some homemade turtles with it.  Delish.

---

Caramel Apples

recipe from:Sprinkle Bakes

Ingredients:

12 small/medium tart apples (I used Elstar apples)

popsicle sticks (I used cake pop sticks, which got a bit soggy and then weren't quite strong enough!)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

*you will need a candy thermometer for this recipe!

Directions:

1)  First, place a large sheet of parchment or wax paper on a work surface that will be able to hold all of your apples without them touching each other.  Set aside.

2)  Clean and dry your apples (the caramel won't stick if they're wet at all!).  Remove the apple stems, and punch a guide hole for your stick using a metal skewer or skinny knife.  Insert stick into each apple, and make sure it's secure.

3)  For the caramel: in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup, stir together the sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream.  Set aside.

4)  In a large pot, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar.  Bring to a simmer over high heat.  When the mixture boils, add the butter.  Stir until the butter is melted, and reduce the heat to medium-high.

5)  Add milk mixture in a small steady stream, whisking continually.  You want the caramel to keep boiling slightly.

6)  Reduce heat to medium, and attach a candy thermometer to your pot.  Be careful that the candy thermometer does not touch the bottom of your pot, as it will give you a false temperature reading.

7)  Bring to 250 degrees F.  This will take approximately 15 minutes or so.  So be patient!

8)  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

9)  Wait until the bubbling stops, and the caramel has a smooth glassy surface.  Tilt pan slightly so that caramel is deeper on one side, and start dipping apples.  Cover apples completely in caramel, and twirl and gently tap the stick on the side of the pot to help excess caramel drip off.  Place on parchment to set for about an hour.  Serve and enjoy!

[Optional]: Immediately after dipping, roll your apple in chopped nuts, chocolate, skor bits, coconut, etc.

Keep extras in the fridge until you're ready to eat them!

You may have noticed the mini caramel apples in a few of these pictures.  We used a melon baller to carve out some mini apple balls for dipping.  While this idea was great in theory, they ended up being a bit too wet, and the caramel slid off most of them.  Sad day.

My favorite combo of flavors was definitely the pretzel covered apples.  Sweet and salty will always get me.  The extra crunch from the pretzels was also a lovely addition!

So, be creative and make these yummy treats!

♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: roasted butternut squash soup with rosemary cheddar biscuits

I really love making soups in Fall and Winter.  They're just so warm and cozy, and the combinations of flavors are endless.

It was a chilly afternoon a couple days ago when I decided that I just had to have butternut squash soup.  Nothing else would do.  And thus, this soup was born.  

My momma helped me out, and we made it up as we went along.  I knew that this soup wasn't quite complete without biscuits, so of course that needed to happen.  We decided to spice up our regular biscuit recipe with a couple handfuls of cheddar, as well a few sprigs of freshly picked rosemary.  There are so many Fall flavors going on in this meal, and they came together beautifully.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

by: Kelsey {from p.s.heart}

yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

4 lbs Butternut squash, peeled and chopped (or 1 large Butternut squash)

2 medium sweet onions, chopped coarsely

6-8 cloves garlic, halved

oil

seasoning salt

black pepper

8 cups chicken stock

1/4 tsp black pepper (to taste)

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

[optional]: toasted, chopped walnuts for topping

Directions:

1)  First, peel, remove the seeds from, and chop up your Butternut Squash.  We used a kitchen scale to measure out four pounds, but you don't need it to be exact.

2)  Chop up your onions coarsely (don't dice them finely, otherwise they'll burn when you roast them).

3)  Halve your garlic cloves,

4)  Place squash, onions and garlic on two cookie sheets (or a large roasting pan).  Drizzle with a little bit of oil, sprinkle with seasoning salt and pepper, and then roast in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes (until squash pieces are soft).  Be sure to stir every 10-15 minutes.

*We used 2 cookie sheets in our convection oven, but a large roasting pan will be fine, they just won't get as brown!

5)  In a large pot (we used our large le creuset, or a dutch oven would work nicely), add roasted squash, onions and garlic.  Add 8 cups of chicken stock, black pepper, curry power and cayenne pepper, and bring to a gentle simmer.  Be sure to keep tasting your soup and adjust spices to your own taste.

6) We used an immersion blender to puree everything, although you could also use a plain old blender and blend the soup in a few batches.  Once the soup is heated through, it's ready to serve!

7)  Top with sprinkling of toasted, chopped walnuts right before serving.

Rosemary Cheddar Biscuits

yields: ~12 biscuits

Ingredients: 

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped (ours measured about 4" long - note: dried rosemary will

not

 work well here)

1 cup milk

Directions: 

1)  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

2)  Using a pastry cutter, or fork, cut in margarine.

3)  Stir in cheddar and rosemary*.

*Remove rosemary from stem by sliding fingers down the stem towards the base gently.  Discard stem, and chop the leaves by using a rocking motion with a chef's knife.

4)  Add in milk, and stir together.  Be careful not to overmix here.  As soon as the dough starts to come together, use your hands to pull it out onto a lightly floured surface.

5)  Gently pat the dough down until it's about 2" thick.  Cut into squares, or you can use a cookie cutter to do this as well.

6)  Place on a cookie sheet, and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes (bake time depends on thickness).  If you're unsure whether or not they're done, just break one open to check!

Serve warm!

Do you have a favorite Fall/Winter soup?

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: apple streusel coffee cake

Coffee cakes are one of my favorite cakes.  Second only perhaps, to chocolate cake.  Depends on my mood I suppose.  And coffee cakes in Fall are just plain delightful.  There's something so cozy about them, and the fact that they usually contain cinnamon makes them even more wonderful.

This recipe came from my friend Rachel, and I am so in love with it.  You've got cinnamon, apples, and a streusel topping....what more could you ask for?  So much goodness.

Make this on a crisp Fall day, and serve with hot coffee!

Or hot chocolate, or milk, or whatever.  For those of us that aren't really into coffee...

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used elstars)

Streusel topping:

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, cold

Directions:

1)  In a large liquid measuring cup, combine milk and vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes to sour.

2)  Next, mix together streusel topping: Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a small bowl.  Cut in butter until you have coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

3)  Now you can start getting the cake batter ready.  Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy.

4)  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5)  Add vanilla and mix well.

6)  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

7)  Add flour mixture to butter mixture in four additions, alternating with the milk mixture in three additions. (You want to start and end with adding the flour mixture).  Mix together until just combined.

8)  Spread about half the cake batter into a greased, 9x13 pan.  

9)  Place apple slices close together in a single layer over the batter, and then sprinkle with about half of the streusel topping over the apples.

10)  Spread the remaining batter over everything, and sprinkle the remaining streusel topping on top.

11)  Bake at 350 degree for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: pumpkin pancakes

Some days it's just not your day.  And you have three epic recipe fails in a row.  

Let's just say that last Sunday was not my day.  It was a very humbling experience to have so many catastrophes in the kitchen....and looking back on it, I can finally see the humour in it.  Pumpkin pancakes were one of these fails, and I actually made 3 different batches until I was finally happy with the end result!

So, I now present to you....pumpkin pancakes!  These are delicious, cozy, and are absolute perfection on a crisp Fall morning.

I've been trying not to overload you guys

too much

 on pumpkin and apple recipes, but I have stopped resisting...so be prepared!  And let us know in the comments if there are any recipes in particular you'd like to see.

In the meantime, you should probably make these for breakfast tomorrow, or lunch, or supper....or heck, just for a snack!  You can always stick them in the fridge for the next day, or pop them in the freezer for later.

Pumpkin Pancakes

adapted from:

allrecipes.com

yields: about 12 pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp white vinegar

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp brown sugar (packed)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground allspice

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

[optional]: 1 cup chocolate chips (or chopped pecans)

Directions:

1)  In a large bowl, mix together milk, pumpkin, egg, oilk and vinegar.

2)  In a small bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, allspice, cinnamon and salt.

3)  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just mixed.

4)  Heat a greased frying pan (or griddle) over medium high heat.

5)  Pour batter onto the pan, flipping when bubbles appear on one side.  Brown both sides, and serve hot.*

*I used a 1/4 cup to ladle out the batter, and then used the back of a large spoon to spread out the batter a bit.  

And you don't need to grease your pan/griddle after every pancake.  Do it before you start, and then again every 3 to 4 pancakes (or whenever you notice them start to stick!).  Not greasing your pan will give you nicer, more even colouring on your pancakes!

Also, it's a good idea to cut open the first one or two you do to make sure they're not gummy inside.  If they are, just turn down your burner/griddle slightly.

Oh yes, I topped them with chopped pecans and they were perfection!

Now go!  Make pancakes!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: bombshell brownies

These are hands down the best brownies I've ever had in my life.  They're perfectly dense and gooey (separating it from cake definitively), and have a slightly crackly top.  So so good.  

Now, honestly, I'm not the

hugest

 brownie fan...despite my great love for chocolate.  I'm not sure why, but I don't crave them very often.  But when I do....I want these brownies, and only these.   Preferably warm out of the oven.  With ice cream.

Basically I want to eat all desserts warm out of the oven with ice cream on top.  Is that too much to ask?

Onwards chocolate lovers!  Bake, eat and be happy.

Bombshell Brownies

from:

Brooke via allrecipes.ca

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (melted)

3 cups white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1)  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.

2)  In a large bowl, mix together your melted butter, sugar and vanilla.

3)  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

4)  In a small bowl, mix together flour, and cocoa powder.  Gradually stir this mixture into the wet ingredients until just blended.  Try not to mix more than necessary!

5)  Stir in chocolate chips.

6)  Spread batter in your greased 9x13 baking dish, and bake for 35-40 minutes. 

*We like to take our brownies out when just a teeny bit of batter sticks to an inserted toothpick, as this ensures the middle brownies are the perfect amount of gooey-ness.

Since these brownies are very sweet, we choose not to frost them, and love to eat them plain, or with a bit of icing sugar dusted over top.  And with ice cream....don't forget the ice cream.

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey

tasty tuesday: apple crisp

Oh yes...more apple recipes!  It started with

pie

last week, and it's not going to stop for a long time.  

More apple, pumpkin, and squash recipes will be coming at you like crazy for the next few weeks.  What can I say?  We love Fall, and it helps when you live on an apple/pumpkin farm and have an endless supply of delicious fall fruit!

Crisps are definitely one of the easiest desserts in the world...and yet they're so dang delicous!  You just throw fruit in a pan, top it with crumbs, and bam...you have a mouthwatering creation on your hands.

Oh yeah...don't forget to add ice cream!

Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

8 cups chopped tart apples (we used Elstar)*

2 tsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/3 cup butter (cold)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled quick cooking oats

Directions:

Fruit Layer:

1) Mix together chopped apples, cinnamon and flour.  Place in a greased 9x13 pan.

Crumb Topping Layer:

1) In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.

2) Then, cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3) Stir in brown sugar and oats.

4) Sprinkle crumbs over fruit evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and the apple pieces are tender.   Cook time will depend on how big your apple chunks are....so just keep checking it!

(If your crumbs are brown, but your apples are still crunchy, just loosely place a piece of tinfoil on top of the pan to keep the crumbs from getting any browner while it cooks a bit longer!)

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Fall treats!  We'd love to hear them.

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey