Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Business on the outside, party on the inside

I feel like I don’t need to say anything about this because the pictures say enough, but since I know you are reading this for my witty commentary I will grace you with my notes and banter.

This is another one of those cakes that weighs an uncomfortable amount of weight. Like the uncomfortable amount of weight where you eat one slice and automatically are like, “Hmmm..I just put one whole pound of food into my body which means my body is now one pound heavier.” This is a concerning feeling. Unfortunately, the best things in life are made with butter. And LOTS of it.

I can’t blame anyone but myself for making 300lb cakes because I don’t know when to stop. This recipe was originally just a cinnamon swirl cake. In the beginning there was cinnamon and cake. And then Meg said let there be streusel. And so there was. And then Meg said let there be cream cheese. And so there was. And then Meg looked upon her work and smiled. And gained five pounds. Enjoy!

*Please note that my rash last minute decisions call for me to make up my own recipes where I don’t use exact measurements. I have done my best to estimate what I used exactly to make this cake unnecessarily over the top J

INGREDIENTS: FOR THE CAKE

1 cup butter p 2 3/4 cups white sugar 4 eggs 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sour cream 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease one bundt pan.
2.	In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and 2 cups of the sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs one at time beating mixture well after each egg.
3.	Combine flour with baking powder and baking soda. Add alternately with sour cream to egg mixture. Beating just enough after each addition to keep batter smooth.
4.	Spoon ½ of the batter into the pan. Add cream cheese mixture. Pour the rest of the batter over the cream cheese. Sprinkle with the streusel.
5.	Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until center is done. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove pan and let cake continue cooling on a wire rack.

You don't want to over-mix your batter or your cake will be chewy. Keep your OCD tame and embrace the flour bombs!

INGREDIENTS:FOR THE STREUSEL

1/2 cup butter (slightly softened) 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup flour 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Cut the butter into small cubes (to make easier to crumble) and add to a small bowl
2.	Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour to butter cubes. Mix carefully with your hands or a dough mixer until ingredients are thoroughly combined. The mixture should be crumbly but hold shape if squeezed in your hand. Sprinkle on top of the second layer of the batter.

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Call me Drake 

INGREDIENTS: FOR THE CREAM CHEESE MIXTURE

1 package of cream cheese softened 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Cream all the ingredients with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.                        Cream cheese goodness!

I promise this isn't burnt.

White Chocolate Cheesecake teaser!!

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My mom made this white chocolate cheesecake a few weeks ago for Anthony's birthday per my request (as Anthony likes to remind me, this is my world and he is just living in it :0)   ) I don't even have the recipe for you and I am not sure if I would even share it if I did....just wanted to post this picture to make you drool. And yes-it was as good as it looks. THANKS MOM!! Bravo bravo we want an encore!

Quick Italian bread and Spaghetti Squash

I have always wanted to learn how to make bread from scratch. I have used a bread making machine several times and while it is of course delicious, I don’t ever feel accomplished that I made it. It also is certainly not as fulfilling to throw ingredients in a bowl and forget about it than to get your hands all dirty and sticky in flour and warm dough. My aversion to make bread is always the timing of it. I am very impulsive with my cravings and when I want something, I want it now. When I found this recipe for a homemade Italian bread that only took an hour from start to finish I was shocked at how something could be so enticing and plausible and leaving me to fulfill my fantasy of living in the 1950’s all at once. I got to work on this right away and figured it would complement the spaghetti squash that had been sitting on my counter for two weeks waiting to be made.

So now that I have hyped everyone up with my excitement let me say that when something is too good to be true it usually is…and this bread recipe might fall under that category. I was a little weary about the recipe taking only an hour from start to finish because my idea of baking bread is smelling the yeasty air of an Italian bakery from down the street as the bread rises in the warm sun. (In my mind I live in Venice and am in love with a handsome  Italian man named…..Anthony…ahh la bella vita!) In reality, this bread was just okay. The bread came out very dense and heavy – which is a good thing if that is what you prefer, but I was looking for a more soft and Wonderbread  airy texture. I also think the recipe may have been affected since I chose to use whole wheat flour rather than all-purpose. This added a gritty texture which was delicious but I felt the bread as a whole was a bit dry. I didn’t actually ever get the chance to toast the bread since I gave it away but I think if it had been I would have probably enjoyed it more.

 Overall, this is certainly a nice little recipe to have in the bag if you ever want your house to smell like an Italian villa or to satisfy those carb cravings in a pinch. I think next time I will try a bread recipe that takes a bit longer to prepare because everything that is good is always slow to make J

Quick Italian Bread

• 2 1/2 Cups Warm Water (this should be warm..NOT HOT OR YOU WILL KILL THE YEAST!)
• 2 tbsp Yeast
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 tbsp Oil
• 5 1/2 -6 Cups Flour (I used whole wheat)

First:  Add yeast and then sprinkle the sugar over the 2 1/2 cups of water.  Let it sit for about five minutes until you see the yeast get all bubbly on top.

Next:  Stir in the salt, oil, and flour.

Then:  Knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and pulls away from the bowl.

Then cover your bowl with a warm wet towel and let the dough sit for about 15 minutes.

Next, divide the dough into two long loaves (rolling like a jelly roll and tucking in the ends). Place both loaves side by side on a greased cookie sheet. Then take a knife and slash the tops of each loaf diagonally. Allow the loaves to sit for a few minutes while you preheat your oven to 375. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

I also thought I would add spaghetti squash in this blog since it isn't worthy of its own post. Basically - I just wanted to share that I was really excited that spaghetti squash is already spaghetti'ed. I always thought you had to bake it and then shred it with a fork to get the noodle like meat of it but IT ALREADY COMES THAT WAY! I had more fun taking it out of the squash than actually eating it since I undercooked it and it was crunchy like a raw potato...but none the less always an easy way to sneak those veggies in. And for those of you who are unfamiliar how to prepare, you just cut the squash down the middle, remove the seeds, and bake face down on an oiled cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about an hour. 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Potlucks always stress me out because I am so indecisive. I consider myself to be a pregnant lady at all times because there is just no way to guess what I am going to crave in the next five minutes. You are probably pretty safe with anything rhyming with shmocolate though.

But I digress... We do a potluck here and there at work and last time I made Paula Deen's banana pudding which is SO. GOOD.  I didn't want to bring in the same recipe again (even though I wish I did because I had lots of people ask me about it....*blushing*) so I went with a pretty easy request for yellow cake with chocolate frosting from one of my co-workers. I also was craving coconut rice pudding for whatever in god's name reason so I made a huge pot of that too. Which I of course accidentally left at home. Also I made all of these things at 11:30 at night. See below what happens when you cook tired..

Just roasting my oven mitts on high! 

The cupcakes are simple yellow boxed cake mix but the best part is the frosting. This frosting is my go-to frosting recipe. It is beyond delicious and beyond terrible for you! This was my first time making it chocolate since I usually prefer vanilla buttercream frosting and it actually came out pretty good. I still prefer the original buttercream though! Also a trick I use when making box cupcakes is to fill the muffin cups up to pretty close to the top with batter. Usually they say one box makes like 24 cupcakes but they end up being flat and your cake to frosting ratio is thrown way off. I'd say when I make a box of cupcakes I only produce about 15 or so. This makes it seem like I am eating less cupcakes when 15 are gone instead of 24. I should also note that when I make my frosting I really just kind of wing it. I have included the best estimate of what an actual handwritten recipe will look like. And trust me...you will want to remember this one. You will never buy Duncan Hines again!

                  BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

2 sticks of butter softened (NOT MELTED!)

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons of milk or heavy cream

Cream the butter. Add the powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla. Cream until well mixed. Beat in the milk. You may need more or less depending on the consistency of the frosting. You ideally want your frosting to be thick and heavy so that when you stick a spoon straight up in it, it does not lean.

To make this frosting chocolate I added about 1/2 cup cocoa powder. You could also add different flavors like almond extract, lemon extract, mint extract etc. I find that the rich buttery taste is best left alone though!

Chocolate Almond Overnight Oats

So sorry I have been a bad blogger lately. HOW AM I GOING TO BE FAMOUS ONLY POSTING ONCE A WEEK!!?

Now that I have that off my chest...this was a recipe I sort of threw together last minute. I guess I visited Pinterest too many times that day because they have 94872984739 recipes for overnight oats. Essentially, preparing oats by soaking them in milk overnight helps the oats retain much of the nutritional value that is lost when cooking them. I just really hate the taste of instant oatmeal packets and am thrilled about having anything involving chocolate for breakfast so naturally this was a perfect fit.

I have to admit that I do not really have a recipe for this breakfast idea because everything I did was eyeballed. Basically, the simple recipe for this would be to put a portion of instant oats into a cup and pour enough milk over the oats to almost cover them. I felt that I may have added too much milk because it was a little watery so next time I would add less for my own taste preference since I like my oatmeal thick. Then, I added about a tablespoon of almonds, a tablespoon of mini chocolate chips, a teaspoon of cocoa powder, and a small packet of stevia. Leave the oats in the refrigerator overnight and wa-laaa..breakfast is ready when you are running out the door in the morning. (PLUS you make it in a cup and this fits in your cupholder which should be a requirement for any breakfast food)

I admit next time I would add coconut to this and probably use a chocolate almond milk or something to give it a bit more flavor. It was a very dessert like treat that is relatively healthy which kills two birds with one stone. The good thing about these oats is that they are incredibly versatile. You could really add just about anything to these. I have seen several recipes for pumpkin, maple, peanut butter and jelly, etc..Certainly worth looking into!

Triple Chocolate Cake

So remember how I admitted I love box cake? Here is a recipe that takes box cake to the next level and will trick people into thinking that you made it from scratch. I have actually made this one before so I knew how delicious it was. Sometimes I like experimenting with healthy alternative recipes because I like to have my cake and eat it too. As in, I want to be skinny but still eat cake. This is unfortunately not one of those recipes. No matter which way you spin it…greek yogurt will never produce the same dense,thick, and fudgy chocolate cake that I want. (PS I don’t know how to spell fudgy.Fudgey? MS Word keeps telling me they are both wrong. I hate misspelled words and that squiggly red line is really ruining my day but I can’t use any other word to describe it!)

This cake is best made in a bundt pan but I could also see this being made in a bread loaf pan. I suggest this only because there is so much flavor to the cake, you will not want to frost it. Bundt pans make pretty cakes and I feel professional when I have good presentation instead of just taking bites out of the pan with a plastic fork. This is a very rich and heavy cakes so don’t be surprised when you take it out of the oven and it feels like you are picking up a small child. Speaking of children…if you do want to add something sweet to the cake, I suggest using warm raspberry jelly. I actually learned this trick from my friend who had a cholic baby so she could not have dairy. She used to use heated jelly instead of frosting on cakes and breads and it was surprisingly tasty. Except eating dairy free food all the time is certainly not tasty. Remind me again to never have kids please!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (18.25 ounce) box devil's food cake mix 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix 1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil 4 eggs 1/2 cup warm water 2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2.	In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
3.	Bake for 40 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake thoroughly before removing from the pan.

Easy Chili

Git in my mouthhhh

So not much to say about this but it was the lowest maintenance thing I could make in a rush. I feel like I never have the time of day to actually cook and bake as much as I would really like to. I’m pretty much a single mom over here – I cook and clean. Because of that, I like cooking things that produce big portions so I can eat them for 3 days straight. It gets a little unrefined when I eat things like chili for breakfast but when in Rome…

Anyways, this is the simplest chili recipe in the world. It is pretty mild for a chili and that is how I like it but obviously you can doctor it up with more heat if needed. I also use cannellini beans instead of red kidney beans out of preference but really any variety of beans would do.  It is  also the most basic chili could ever be but I appreciate simple so please don’t judge me for using a packet of spice mix from CVS. What's a Barbie to do? You could really take this recipe to the next level by adding chopped onions, peppers, sausage, and a variety of beans...but why fix what isn't broken?

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground beef 1 large can crushed tomatoes 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 1 cup water 1 packet of chili seasoning 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large saucepan cook ground beef completely. Add 1 cup of water and packet of chili seasoning. Simmer until the sauce thickens.
2. 3.	In a separate saucepan on low heat mix the tomatoes, rinsed beans, and garlic. Add the ground beef to the saucepan. Simmer on low for 30 minutes with a cover on the pan.

Spinach Bacon Stuffed Chicken

Got hungry and ate a potato

So this is not baking but I did make it from scratch and itis my blog so I will do what I want. Hmmph. As much as I love to bake, I realized I can only do so many baking blogentries a week before I have a whole bakery sitting on my counter. Even thoughI started this blog for baking, I decided I would throw some home cooked mealsin there too to keep it interesting and also to keep me from turning diabetic.

I also enjoy cooking but not nearly as much as baking. Ioften shy away from cooking with meat because I am freak who is unnecessarily paranoidof food-borne illnesses. I think I have taken one too many serve-safe coursesin my restaurant days and think I am going to get trichinosis every time I trya pork chop.  (*Please let me clarifythat I have no problem with eating raw cookie dough though)

I made this dish for Anthony for Valentine’s Day since itseemed easy enough to throw together quickly after  work but pretty and fancy enough to trick himinto thinking I am Cat Cora from Iron Chef.

The whole thing really came out delicious! I alwaysexperiment with new ideas not knowing what to expect. I appreciate theversatility of this dish. I really could have stuffed the chicken withanything. The original recipe did not have bacon inside but I thought it addedflavor to the strong spinach filling. I think a cheesey broccoli bacon fillingwould have been just as delish. I also used Monterey jack cheese in my pieceand pepper jack in Anthony’s piece because I am a baby and he is not.

My only recommendations are that I would have probablyenjoyed breading the chicken in a parmesan /bread crumb crust a little morethan the plain chicken to give it a little extra something. Also- I wish I hadpulled a Paula Deen and cut up a stick of butter for the fingerling potatoes tobrown in.  The dish was not by any meansbland, but there is always room for improvement and that usually entails addingsome caloric intake.

Spinach Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breast with Fingerling Potatoes

INGREDIENTS:

1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup shredded pepperjack cheese 4 cloves garlic, minced

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness 1 pinch ground black pepper 8 slices precooked bacon Fingerling Potatoes

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
2.	Place spinach in a large glass bowl, and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every minute or so, or until unfrozen. Squeeze out the water. Stir in sour cream, pepperjack cheese, and garlic.
3.	Lay the chicken breasts out on a clean surface, and spoon some of the spinach mixture onto each one. Roll up chicken to enclose the spinach mix  and arrange in a shallow baking dish. Surround chicken with fingerling potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.
4.	Bake uncovered for 35 minutes in the preheated oven

Fudgy M&M Cookies

Can I just say that these cookies are the bomb? I have been trying to replicate an M&M cookie like those from my favorite bakery for-ev-er (Sandlot style) and I have finally found it! These are thick and fudgy and perfect! The original recipe just had these as dough for sugar cookies, but I am glad I added M&Ms because the dark crunchy M&Ms perfectly complement the rich, heavy, and sugary dough.   The secret to the fudgy dough is in the cream cheese. I have never really used cream cheese in a cookie before so I was pleasantly surprised to see the difference it made in the overall taste and texture. It is weird because you only use 2 oz though which I thought was a mistake because 2 oz is only a quarter of a bar of cream cheese. I neurotically searched the internet to make sure I wasn’t crazy. I read all the comments to the recipe for this and everyone else agreed that it seemed weird too.  I was apprehensive and ended up adding a little extra cream cheese anyways though. It was like that feeling of  having 6 questions in a row on a test have the letter “C”, but going back and changing an answer because there is NO WAY someone would ever put 6 Cs in a row…right??? RIGHT???

It was really hard choice to actually bake the cookies and not just eat all this


Anyways, take my word for it. These cookies are perfect. 

Fudgy M&M Sugar Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus a little extra for rolling

2 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks (room temperature or it will be chunky)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and still warm

1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1 1/4 cups M&M's

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar and cream cheese in a large bowl (no need to stir them together yet).

Pour the warm butter over the cream cheese mixture and whisk to combine - the mixture won't be completely smooth yet, that's fine.

Whisk in the oil then the egg, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

4. Use a rubber spatula to start folding the dry ingredients into the wet. When the dry ingredients are

partially incorporated, add 3/4 cup of the M&M's to the dough. Continue mixing until a soft dough

comes together. (Don't wait to add the M&M's until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated

- you'll end up over mixing.)

5. Use a batter scoop (aka a tiny ice cream scoop) to get perfectly portioned cookies. Roll the dough balls in sugar.  You can also place extra M&Ms on top of the cookies when they come out of the oven. If you put them on top before baking, they will crack in the oven!

6. Bake the cookies for approximately 9 minutes. The cookies should not brown at all or they will be crispy. You will know when they are done when they have cracked around the edges.

Gooey Butter Cookies

I found this recipe from another food blogger and immediately had to try it. You are going to be hard pressed to find me passing up a recipe with the word gooey in the title, so I obviously immediately dropped everything I was doing to drive to the store in the blizzard and get the ingredients. The recipe is actually super simple and uses a box of cake as the base.


While I was heating up the oven, Anthony was baking takeout food in a Target bag. He thinks its appropriate to leave leftover food like pizza in the oven.  This is why we can't have nice things.

 

The cookies actually came out pretty good considering the extra ingredient of toxic plastic fumes. They are VERY rich and buttery and do not taste like a typical chocolate chip cookie. I would definitely make these again but I would play around with the flavor of cake mix. Next time I would probably try chocolate cake mix with white chocolate chips. Overall, it is an easy recipe to throw together and the cookies are still gooey the next day. I would know because I ate them for breakfast. Wooops!

Gooey Chocolate Chip Butter Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 stick  butter, softened 1 egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 (18.25 ounce) package golden butter cake mix 2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.	In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add cake mix, and stir until well blended. Add chocolate chips. Use a batter scoop to make small balls. Place 1 inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
3.	Bake for 10  minutes in the preheated oven. Be careful not to overcook...the top should be soft and the batter should still look raw when you take them out!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I had leftover cream cheese frosting from a baking disaster earlier in the week so I wanted to use it up.I tried a lemon blueberry muffin recipe and it came out terribly. I blame the recipe because it obviously could not have been my baking skills. Duh. Regardless, I refused to waste a whole bowl of home made cream cheese frosting so I just kind of threw these together.

I admit as much as I love baking, I am a sucker for boxed cake mixes. I have made regular cakes before but for the effort and time it takes to do it from scratch, the quality is really not that much better especially if you are doing a basic chocolate or vanilla cake. I wouldn't dare try to make a boxed carrot cake or banana cake though. No chance you are going to find a Betty Crocker mix that produces a rich carrot cake.

ANYWAYS...my point is these are just boxed devil's food cake cupcakes and I am embarrassed to admit it. I think there is a certain amount of pride it kills when someone likes something I bake but it isn't a unique recipe I started from scratch. Like anyone can add two eggs and some oil and bake these and it will be the same.

Whatever. At least the frosting is real.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

1 Box Devil's Food Cake mix - follow the recipe and make cupcakes
1 Box Oreos - (I split an oreo in half and placed the side with the creme face up on the bottom of the cupcake tin before baking for a surprise...crush the rest up and dip the frosted cupcakes in them)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.