Pumpkin Caramel Ice Cream Cake

This year for my recipe testers birthday I decided to use the cake I made last year (since it was such a big hit) but really take it up to the next level by making it a ridiculous ice cream cake (yes I know it's winter). This cake was absolutely phenomenal and so impressive looking. It took a good amount of work but your mistakes are easy to hide (via the crumb topping and trimming the cake) and it's definitely a tasty show stopper. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Caramel Ice Cream Cake:
Pumpkin Cake: Recipe Follows, Originally Posted Here
2 quarts of Vanilla Ice Cream (you will have some left over)
Caramel Sauce: Recipe Follows, Orginally Posted Here
20 Ginger Snap Cookies, processed into crumbs

After cakes cool, freeze cakes for 20 minutes, to firm up, then slice each cake in half to create 2 square layers. Line a square pan with parchment leaving a long overhang. Place one cake layer on the bottom, and spread with 1/2 a container of ice cream, drizzle with caramel sauce, top with another cake layer and freeze for an hour. Mix the other 1/2 of the container of ice cream with half the caramel sauce and spread over cake. Top with half the cookie crumbs, and another layer of cake, freeze for 1 hour. Spread 1/2 the second container of ice cream over the cake and top with remaining layer of cake, using a pastry brush, brush with remaining caramel, and coat top with cookie crumbs. Freeze until firm, or overnight. Before serving, trim sides to make the cake even and pretty. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cake:
2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened slightly
2 cups of white sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of canned Pumpkin
1 cup warm of half and half
3 1/3 cups of flour
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter and both sugars in a large bowl, until well combined and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Add in pumpkin and half and half and stir until just combined. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, salt, baking powder, baking soda and 1 cup of flour. Mix until just combined. Add in an additional cup of flour and mix in. Add remaining flour and mix until just combined, do not over mix. Grease two 9 inch square cake pans, and pour batter evenly between them. Bake until a fork inserted in one comes out clean, about 50 minutes to an hour.

Caramel Sauce:
1 1/4 cups of dark brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of heavy cream

Stir the sugar and butter in a small pot, over meduim heat until butter melts, whisk in cream and stir until sauce is smooth and combined, about 3 minutes.

Happy Eating.

Garlicky Shrimp

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012. I know I have not been updating as frequently lately, and I apologize for that, but I think it's going to continue for the time being. Lately the blog has taken a bit of a back seat to some other projects and for the time being that is going to continue. Don't worry, I am still cooking and I will still be updating as often as I can, probably about once or twice a week, so keep reading and keep eating. To start off the year I have some delicious buttery-garlicky shrimp for you. Enjoy!

Garlic Shrimp:
2 lbs of shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of salted butter
lemon

Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees, with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Put shrimp in a glass baking dish and pour olive oil over. Pass the garlic through a garlic press (or mince) and add to the shrimp and oil. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, stir to combine everything. Chop butter into pieces and place on top of the shrimp. Cook until shrimp are pink throughout, stirring the shrimp occasionally, about 6-8 minutes depending on the shrimp size. Serve shrimp with the sauce spooned over it, and finish with a squeeze of lemon

Happy Eating.

SRC Banana Bread

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday! For this month's SRC I had Baking and Creating with Avril and wonderful blog with a variety of deliciousness! She had a ton of muffin and quick bread recipes, and since I needed something to take to Christmas Brunch, I decided her banana bread would be the perfect recipe to pick! It was wonderful This bread is perfectly breakfasty and not too sweet. Enjoy the bread, and don't forget to check out the Secret Recipe Club, and Avril's blog!

Banana Bread:
1/3 cup of butter, melted
2/3 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of almond extract
2 large bananas, overipe and mashed
3 tbsps of milk
1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of raisins, heaping

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar until combined. Add in eggs and almond extract and beat until well combined. Add in milk and bananas and mix together. Mix in flour, wheat, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt until just combined. Stir in raisins. Spray a 9"x5" loaf pan with non stick. Pour batter into the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool before slicing. (adapted from baking and creating with Avril)

Happy Eating.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I always heard that chopping your own chocolate bars into chunks, makes much more delicious cookies than using bagged chips. But, until now, I never felt the reason to experiment with this. Chocolate chip cookies are already amazing, do they really need to be any better? Anything can be a bit better, and these certainly were, high quality chocolate and the un-uniform shape of the chunks, plus the peppering of shavings that sort of melts in give these giant cookies a definite grown-up appeal and sophistication without losing it's everyone friendly, endlessly appealing nature. I know I say this all the time, but these might be my new favorite cookie. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
3/4 cup of unsalted butter, melted
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of salt
1 1/2 baking bars of dark chocolate (like the Ghiradeli bars)

In a large bowl beat together butter and sugars, on high speed until combined and smooth. Add vanilla, egg and yolk and beat until combined. Add in half the flour, and the baking soda and salt and stir until just combined. Repeat with remaining flour. Chop chocolate into small pieces and add chocolate and the shavings chopping the bar produces and stir into dough. Freeze dough for 20 minutes until firm and chilled. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spray with non-stick. Scoop dough by 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) and bake 12 at a time on baking sheet. Refrigerate dough that isn't being used until ready to start that batch. Bake for 8 minutes, then lower temperature to 350, rotate tray, and bake an additional 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Let cool before removing from parchment paper. (adapted from Dishing the Divine).

Happy Eating.