They Came In A Box And They Were Good!

Donuts are a favorite of mine since I was a kid, and Sunday donuts on the table when my kids were little, along with the Sunday paper, was a happening thing in our house. A good coconut donut is heaven to me,  vanilla cake donut, glazed with a white sugar glaze and drowned in sweetened coconut, ahhh.... just thinking about it makes me want one.  

Now, I don't usually make foods from boxes, but these intrigued me.  I've made donuts before from scratch, apple cider donuts, which were delicious by the way.  But while I was out and about, I came across this mix by Stonewall Kitchens and thought I would give them a try.  I already had the donut pan to bake them in, instead of frying, which is better for you anyway.  These donuts were easy to mix, fast to bake and didn't take long to cool so I could frost and decorate them.

Simple directions and ingredients to mix these are on the back of the box.  The box says it makes 10-12 donuts, I did get 12 donuts out of the mix.  I used the Wilton donut pan to bake them. 

 They came out of the pan perfect!

 The frosting mix comes in the box too.  All you need is a little melted butter and milk to mix it up.

 I frosted all but two of them, the hubby likes his plain.  I sprinkled jimmies on a few and left the others just frosted.

Yummy, I can't wait to bite into one of these babies!

Sweet little treats....

 

make the whole house happy.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

My new favorite chocolate vegan cake, just got an update, a new taste.  This cake is so versatile you can do anything you want with it.  It's one cake that I know my vegan son will eat, he loves it!  I know some will say, vegan eeewww!, but this is not the cake you will be saying that too, I promise.  Now, I used regular peanut butter on mine, but by all means try whatever you like, almond butter or cashew butter will work too.

Some ingredients to get this recipe started.

You don't even need a mixer, that is the best part, less cleanup.  This is my old standby for making sure it doesn't stick to the pan. 

Got the cake baked, let it cool, spread on the peanut butter, chill for an hour, then pour on the frosting.  This is so easy!

And D-E-L-I-S-H-I-O-U-S!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients for the cake

Bakers Joy or use canola oil and flour

2 1/4 cups of unbleached four

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 cups of strong coffee, cooled or water (see note)

1/2 cup canola oil

41/2 teaspoons of white vinegar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 cup of peanut butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish or pan with Baker's Joy, set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until all the lumps are gone. With a spatula or whisk, stir in the coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Scrape bowl from the bottom up to make sure everything is combined. Pour the batter into the baking dish/pan.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted, comes out clean. Cool the cake for about 1/2 hour, then spread on peanut butter, refrigerate for 1 hour. While peanut butter is setting up on the cake, make the frosting.

Frosting
1/2 cup vegan butter ( Earths Balance is what I used)
1/3 cup almond milk with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, stir together
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 lb box confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the sifted sugar in a large bowl and set aside. Combine butter, milk, and cocoa in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, while stirring, until the mixture just begins to boil. Remove from heat and pour into sifted confectioner's sugar. Beat until smooth, stir in the vanilla. After peanut butter has set, spread frosting to completely cover the peanut butter on the cake. Makes 12 servings.

NOTE: I use 1 cup of coffee and 1/2 cup of water. The coffee brings out the flavor of the chocolate, but the cake does not taste like coffee.

Short Vacations

The hubby is on vacation this week so we are doing a few little day trips to places we have never visited.  The first day trip stop was to Hershey, PA, who wouldn't want to go to the land of chocolate!  It was a long trip, but we started out at Giannotti's for a great big delicious breakfast that got our day and our ride started. 

Our long trek started at about 8:30 in the morning, traffic was not too bad, and after stopping for breakfast the traffic was gone.  So off to Hershey we went, the hubby hasn't had a whole week of vacation in years.  We don't take vacations, you will all understand if you have children still in college, it just doesn't happen.  We enjoyed our day just being us for a change without anyone else, that also doesn't happen when there are kids at home.  I love my kids, but I have been raising kids for 40 years!  Yes my oldest is going to be 40 this year, and the youngest just turned 21 last week! Who does that?  ME! Crazy life I lead isn't it.  While in Hershey we visited Hershey Gardens and The Hershey Museum. 

Our second stop on the same day was Lititz, PA, a lovely little town with lots of quaint shops and friendly people.  The first store I really had to visit was OLIO.  The whole store, is a feast for your taste buds of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  They also sell scented olive oil soaps and lotions, cookbooks, pottery, pasta, pasta sauces and honey.  I fell in love with the store, too bad it's a long ride there or I would visit it everyday.

We were looking for a great place to have lunch, and the owner of the olive oil store recommended the Tomato Pie Cafe.  Delicious food and great sized portions, I ordered a grilled mixed cheese sandwich on sour dough bread (my favorite bread) and a house salad (that was huge by the way) with a sweet honey mustard dressing.  It also came with an herbed scone and pickles.  My drink was an herbed lemonade that was awesome.  It was homemade and had just the right amount of flavor and sweetness.  The hubby ordered a turkey, cheese, tomato and lettuce sandwich and a mix of spring greens, pear, blue cheese and candied pecan salad with a vinaigrette and a strawberry banana smoothie.  We had our lunch alfresco on their brick patio that was just so cute, I could imagine eating there everyday too!

So upon entering the museum mock factory in Hershey, PA I noticed this sign, one side for men and the other for women.  Boy am I glad times have changed!

 There is a beautiful lake entering the The Hershey Gardens.

And stop and smell the roses, it's allowed.  A huge, huge rose garden on the left of the lake, the fragrance of all the roses is so awesome.  Usually you have to stick your nose in a rose to smell it, but not here, it is in the air and it is lovely! Thousands and thousands of them, all colors and varieties.

The children's garden was beautiful, every child should visit this place, lots to do.  This covered archway leads you to the garden.

Lots of fun things for children to do.

 Chocolate kisses anyone?

 Click on the pictures to enlarge it and you will see two giant praying mantises made out of junk, there are alot of architectural pieces like this throughout the children's garden for eye catching appeal.

This is an alligator, and a watering can with climbing ants, and flowers made out of saw blades.

A dragonfly and a huge spider.

 Then we entered the Japanese garden, a babbling brook led the way....

 Across the bridge and a gnarled Japanese maple tree.

 You will always find a cat and a bunny in your garden, so why not here!

This pagoda was surrounded by all kinds of herbs, household, cooking and medicinal, the fragrances were mesmerizing.

 This owl figurine was very large and so was this tree, the bench is dwarfed by it!

 The hibiscus were the size of large dinner plates.

Then it was off to Lititz, PA, where by surprise I found this signage on the main street.

OLIO, the olive oil store was fantastic!  This is what I purchased, as well as, a cookbook by Ina Garten.  Olive oil, sweet balsamic vinegar, strawberry balsamic vinegar, bread dipping herbs, orange ginger sugar and lavender sugar.  Both sugars I purchased will be used at my annual Christmas Cookie Baking Party, for dusting cookies for a new flavor.

Then of course we couldn't resist and had to stop at the Wilbur Chocolate Factory, for some sweet chocolaty goodies for the ride home.

I took a run around Zest! a cool kitchen store and found some interesting things - birthday napkins, creole seasoning and paella seasoning.  The owner there asked me if I ever made paella, I never had, so she offered me her recipe, so nice of her!  I told you the people were nice in this little town.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Tom Sturgis Pretzel Factory, for a huge box of hard pretzels (my family's favorite snack) and 2 fresh baked soft pretzels to eat on the way home, boy were we full after eating them.  We had a great day just spending time together, it's rarely done as we have a very busy house!  Up next, Gettysburg and York, can't wait!

Chocolate Dessert Cake

HAPPY   MOTHER'S   DAY!

I had a hankering for something chocolate and didn't have anything homemade in the house.  I am not big on store bought bakery items unless I am in a hurry.  I had an old recipe for a chocolate snack cake but wanted to dress it up and give it a punch.  I added strong coffee to the batter instead of water, you can certainly use water,  I like the coffee because it brings out the richness of the chocolate.  I doubled the recipe for the snack cake and added some toppings to make it richer and sweeter.  This is how I made it, recipe below. 

A big bowl and some of the ingredients.  You do not need a mixer for this, a whisk and a spatula will do the job.

Start pouring the measured ingredients into the bowl and whisk them together.

 

Get all the lumps out and it should look like the bowl on the right.

Then pour in the liquid measurements and it will foam a little, that's the vinegar and the baking soda reacting.  Spray your pan with Baker's Joy this stuff is great for baking and no mess, if you don't have that use butter and flour.

 I used walnuts and mini chocolate chips dusted with some sugar to make them sweet and crunchy.

 Baked and ready to be served.  Some like it plain.......

 I like mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce or syrup, it's so good!  The cake is moist, crunchy, chocolaty and sweet, it's a party in a pan and is easy to make, bake and take.  This recipe is keeper!

Chocolate Dessert Cake

Ingredients for the cake

Bakers Joy or 1 tablespoon of vegan butter and flour for dusting the pan

2 1/4 cups of unbleached four

1 1/2 cups of granulated cane sugar

1/3 cup of Hershey's unsweetened baking cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 cups of strong coffee, cooled (can replace coffee with water if you like)

1/2 cup canola oil

4 1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Ingredients for the crunchy topping

1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup Enjoy Life mini vegan chocolate chips

1/3 cup of cane sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with Baker's Joy or butter and flour set aside.  In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until all the lumps are gone.  With a a spatula, stir in the coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Scrape bowl from the bottom up to make sure everything is combined.  Pour the batter into the baking dish.  Mix together the crunchy topping ingredients and sprinkle it over the top of the cake batter, making sure to cover the whole cake.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted, comes out clean.  Cool the cake for about 1/2 hour. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate fudge sauce or Ben and Jerry's Vegan Ice Cream and Hershey's chocolate syrup. Can also be served cold.  Makes 12 - 14 servings.