Raspberry-Laced Vanilla Cake

Your brother will come home and accuse you of doing nothing all day and call you an unemployed lazy bum. But that’s okay, when dinner is over, he will be sorry. You’ll tell him he doesn’t deserve a piece of this raspberry laced vanilla cake and he’ll apologize.

Warning: you will confuse the baking powder and baking soda portions by interchanging them. Fortunately, you’ll catch yourself and start over. The broken flour will stay on the counter for a week before you decide there’s nothing you can do with it and end up throwing it out. Despite the saved failure, the cake will still come out a bit dry. So be careful not to over bake. This cake comes out with quite a yellow taste so next time I'd like to make it with a very white recipe. I just think that flavor combo would dance on the taste buds.

As is tradition, you won’t be able to find seedless raspberry jam, so you’ll go through the trouble of straining it. It's worth it. We all know crunchy raspberry seeds ruin everything.

Apparently raspberry syrup is hard to find too, so you’ll end up making a batch of your own raspberry sauce: combine 12 ounces of frozen raspberries, 1/3 cup sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until all the raspberries are broken up and the sugar is dissolved- about 5 minutes. Strain the seeds.

Deluxe Triple Chocolate Cookies

Another Pillsbury bake-off recipe that had to printed out and used at the first opportunity to bake cookies. Goodness, there is a reason why these are the winning cookies out of hundreds. Subtle flavors  of peanut butter, hazel nut, and oat blend with the star ingredient- chocolate. I love these. Don’t skimp on the hot chocolate! But if you do, just know that you’ll have to sweeten that cocoa powder.

Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake

You’ll make this recipe during your quest to conquer the cheesecake factory’s flavor and luscious texture. Their cheesecakes have a light, creamy feel to them but still have an unexplained denseness that makes them rich but not heavy. 

This recipe has the right rich flavor but not the Cheesecake factory’s texture. Still good none the less, but the quest continues. I do love this recipe’s crust. It doesn’t taste overly nutty, despite 3 different kinds of nuts. They balance each other well and taste divine with the graham crackers and butter. 

Don’t be scared of the lemon juice- it does not make it taste lemony. Just adds needed freshness. It did not taste eggy, but had that egg richness so if you’re not into that, you could use one less egg. I’d say this recipe’s texture was a combination of Hershey’s, Junior’s , and Tyler Florence’s with a medium denseness. I made whipped cream and raspberry sauce to top it off.  

Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake

Crust
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
3/4 cup finely chopped graham crackers
3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions
You can process all the ingredients in a food processor or blender to finely chop. Mix all ingredients together and press into the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a springform pan. Set aside.

Cheesecake
24 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cup sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
16 ounces sour cream, room temperature
1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. All above ingredients should be at room temperature before you begin for a lump-free, creamy cheesecake.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low speed, beat in sugar gradually until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg is added. When the eggs have been fully mixed into the cream cheese, add flour, vanilla and lemon juice, mix well. Then add the sour cream and mix until smooth. Pour cream cheese into the prepared springpan.

Tap the pan lightly on the counter to release any trapped air. Bake for one hour and 15 minutes. Cheesecake will be just slightly jiggly in the center. Open oven door and turn off the oven. Allow to slowly cool inside oven. Then remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. When fully cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator. 

Banana Cream Cheesecake

In your failed quest to find a recipe to duplicate the Cheesecake Factory’s Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake, you will stumble across this recipe and decide to give it a try for Sabrin.

The texture is not like the cheesecake factory’s. This one is much denser but still yummy. The flavor is a wonderful balance of banana and cream. Top it off with fresh whipped cream. This recipe is missing that luscious bavarian cream.

The crust is great because it uses vanilla oreos and gives it that banana cream pie flavor. For the crust: use 1 cup of crushed vanilla oreos and 2-2 ½ tablespoons of melted butter.

I topped my cheesecake with both fresh and caramelized bananas.

Frozen Key Lime Pie - Fail

I overlooked the word frozen. Who eats a key lime pie completely frozen? I would not make this again. It has to stay frozen or it turns into goop. A frozen crust is not tasty. A frozen pie is not creamy. The flavor was not great either- too limey, too bitter, too tart, not sweet. I guess Ina Garten likes her key lime pie in popsicle form.

Fried Oreos

Golden Oreos dipped in pancake batter, fried, then, dusted with powdered sugar when still warm.

I had always wanted to try these. Rabbia and Samrena would constantly talk about them, so I finally made them. They taste just like a donut! Like a mini donut.

Paula Deen's Cake

I’ve heard many names for this cake. Paula Deen really sold it because that’s when I decided to make it. Actually, watching her show always has that effect.

Yellow cake filled with vanilla pudding, crushed pineapple and homemade whipped cream, topped with coconut and walnuts, and frosted with a cream cheese buttercream.

Tiramisu - Two Ways

I had been holding it off long enough- attempting my first tiramisu. It’s about time! But with so many recipes out there, which to choose from? So I decided to start with the face of Italian elegance- Giada De Laurentiis. I made both of her recipes at the same time to taste them side by side and see which one I like better.  

Giada's Chocolate Tiramisu has five stars and 118 reviews. It has a light chocolate flavor. The filling was lighter and fluffier than the proceeding recipe, and a lighter coffee flavor. Basically, it was a lighter version, and didn’t really taste like your classic tiramisu you’d eat at a fancy restaurant. Then again, I omitted the Marsala but I don’t think that would have helped the texture.






Giada's Tiramisu has four stars and 199 reviews. This one tasted more authentic. I loved how you could still taste the sweetened mascarpone because it wasn’t flavored with chocolate. Instead of rum, I used a combination of vanilla and almond extract. It had great flavor. This tiramisu was a little denser.


Here’s what the recipes did not tell me: they both taste 200 times better after 48 hours. In fact, I didn’t like them at all when trying them for the first time. They had chilled for probably about 8 hours. The next day, the flavors melded more and it tasted better. Finally, the next day, when there was only one little piece left to try- yum.

Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Box calls this recipe Chocolate and Vanilla Creams. That’s fine, but what does that mean? Its not whipped cream. And it’s not exactly mousse either because it’s not light and airy like mousse. But it deserves a suave name like mousse.

It looks like pudding but it’s much more decadent. It's heavier, dreamier, and more intense in flavor. Don’t expect it to be the same if you use vanilla extract. You must use a vanilla bean.







Chocolate and Vanilla Creams

2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean
¾ cup sour cream
2 tsp powdered gelatin
3 tbsp water
2 oz. semisweet chocolate

Place the cream and sugar in a saucepan, then add the vanilla bean. Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and take out the vanilla bean. Stir in the sour cream.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small heatproof bowl and let it get absorbed, this takes about one minute. Then microwave the gelatin for 30 seconds on high heat. It should come out dissolved in liquid. Cool. Stir into the cream mixture. Pour half of this mixture into another mixing bowl.

Put the semisweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water until melted. Stir the melted chocolate into half the cream mixture. Pour the chocolate mixture into four individual glass serving dishes and let chill for 20-30 minutes, until just set. While it is chilling, keep the vanilla mixture at room temperature.


Spoon the vanilla mixture on top of the chocolate mixture and let chill until the vanilla is set. Decorate with chocolate shavings.

Deep Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake + Chocolate Whipped Cream + Chocolate Ganache

Do it now.

The recipe on the Better Homes and Gardens website is not the same as the one I have in my magazine. So look at this website, because it has the correct one. So, I adapted this recipe because I have never been fond of malt. It was a sad day when your mom came home with Ovaltine instead of Nesquick. Just omit the malt.

Also, for the cake, instead of 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate- just use sweetened chocolate. You know you want to. Semi-sweet or even milk chocolate will do. For the frosting, set aside a cup of it before you start whipping with your electric mixer. This will be our ganache for the top.

This cake was dense with a bittersweet chocolate taste. It wasn’t rich and fudgy, but not dry either. I assume it would go great with coffee- if you drink that stuff.  

For Asiya and Shanada <3