Happy Birthday Ginger!

Today is one of my older sister's birthday so I thought this would be a great time for a new post! Sadly the most recent picture I have of her is from my wedding in 2012. She is the one on the far right. Don't worry, you will get to meet the other siblings soon:)

A few things about Gin: She is married and has 4 stinking cute kids; she is the 3rd out of 5 kids in our family; according to her kids her favorite things to do are shop and tan by the pool. I asked Ginger what her favorite birthday treat was and she was torn between Texas sheet cake or a chocolate bundt cake. I have to admit I was surprised because I was sure it would be the sheet cake, but a chocolate bundt cake with chocolate frosting is birthday tradition in our family. The dilemma was choosing which to make. I tend to stay away from anything with nuts and I do love a good bundt cake, but I decided to take the challenge of making the Texas sheet cake since I had never done it before.
I searched the internet and asked Ginger for her favorite recipe. I was nervous to use hers because I have never tried it when she brings it to family functions due to all the nuts , and the recipe uses sour cream.  I have made a chocolate cake with sour cream before and it was awful. In my internet search I found an interesting blog post by a girl from Texas which gave a few rules.
1. You cannot substitute the pecans for any other type of nut.
2. Do not use a 9x13 pan because the texture will be wrong.
3. Don't experiment with flavor.
She also gave Texas approved variations:
1. You can add toffee to the frosting
2. You can substitute coffee or Dr. Pepper for the water.
3.  You can add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the cake batter.
As I read her recipe she really peaked my interest by using dark cocoa powder rather than unsweetened cocoa powder.  I am a big dark chocolate fan, but I don't know about a dark chocolate Texas sheet cake so I decided to make 2 cakes.  I used my sister's recipe and the Texas Approved recipe.

 I did add chopped pecans to a third of my sister's recipe just cuz some people like them. They both looked delicious and I was anxious to have people try them! I made myself wait until my co-workers (my favorite guinea pigs) tried them before I took my first bite.  I was curious to see if the cinnamon would make a difference in the flavor of the dark chocolate and I have to admit that for me it didn't.  Other people didn't seem to notice the cinnamon flavor, but that was all I could taste. The general consensus was that both are good but as far as Texas sheet cake goes my sisters recipe won! My dad told me that he liked both but felt like he might get tired of the dark chocolate one really quick.  Here are both so you can try them yourself!

Texas Sheet Cake Recipe - Texas Approved

Ingredients

Cake
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup full fat buttermilk
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Frosting
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup Hersey's Special Dark Cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter, browned until golden
• 3 3/4 - 4 cups of confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups toffee

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease a jelly roll pan and set aside.
3. Melt the butter until it is a golden brown in a heavy pan. Do not let it burn.
4. Add the water and the cocoa and stir until smooth.
5. Bring to a boil, stirring.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
8. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.
9. Stir in cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
10. Spoon into jellyroll pan, smoothing out evenly.
11. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Frosting
12. When there is about 10 min left for the cake melt butter in saucepan until golden brown.
13. Add the milk and the cocoa.
14. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until mostly smooth.
15. Remove from heat and add the sugar, toffee, and vanilla.
16. Spoon over warm cake.
17. Cut in squares to serve.

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Original recipe from http://texaswellseasoned.com/texas-sheet-cake-cause-its-the-friendly-thing-to-do/

Ginger's Texas Sheet Cake Recipe 

Ingredients

Cake
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Frosting
• 6 Tablespoons milk
• 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 3/4 - 4 cups of confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup toffee

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease a jelly roll pan and set aside.
3. Melt the butter until it is a golden brown in a heavy pan. Do not let it burn.
4. Add the water and the cocoa and stir until smooth.
5. Bring to a boil, stirring.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
8. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and sour cream.
9. Stir in slightly cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
10. Spoon into jellyroll pan, smoothing out evenly.
11. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Frosting
12. When there is about 10 min left for the cake melt butter in saucepan until golden brown.
13. Add the milk and the cocoa.
14. Bring the mixture to a boil for 1 minute.
15. Remove from heat and add the sugar, toffee, and vanilla, stirring until mostly smooth.
16. Spoon over warm cake.
17. Cut in squares to serve.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

I have thought a lot about what my first food post would be since it really needs to make an impression and I though to myself what is better than chocolate and peanut butter? Nothing!! So I decided to post my award winning chocolate peanut butter pie.  Ok, so it only won a church pie contest but everyone has to start somewhere! It really is delicious and it can easily be made with less calories if you so desire. A few notes...This recipe is a combination of two i found online but can't seem to find the pages again. I will keep looking so I don't steal anyone's ideas! I used both an Oreo and chocolate graham cracker crust.  I liked the Oreo better but my husband preferred the chocolate graham because to him it didn't overpower the pie like the Oreo. For the pie in the picture I used the chocolate shell stuff instead of cutting up the Reese's because I ate more of them than I thought and didn't have enough left to make it pretty. :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese 3/4 cups powdered sugar 1.5 cups peanut butter 1 tablespoon vanilla 16 oz whipped topping, thawed 2 (9in) graham cracker or Oreo Crust 1 (5.85 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix 1.5 cups cold milk 4 peanut butter cups, cut into 1/2 inch pieces Directions: 1. Beat together cream cheese and sugar. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Fold in 1/3 the whipped topping.  Pour half of the peanut butter mixture into each crust. 2. In a second bowl, stir pudding mix with the milk until thick.  Immediately stir in 1/2 of the  remaining whipped topping. Spread mixture over the peanut butter layer in each crust. 3. Scatter peanut butter cups over the top of the pie.  Cover and freeze until firm.  Allow pie to thaw  for 30 minutes and top with dollop of whipped cream before serving.

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New kid in town

I have been wanting to do this for a long time and I am so excited to start my very own food blog! I will start off by simply saying that I LOVE food!  I love to try new things but I am a little picky.  I do not like cooked nuts very much, avocados, seafood or fake sugar.  I do like to eat healthy but I bake full fat because it tastes better and as long as you eat treats in moderation there is no harm in indulging.  I have loved to cook and bake most of my life and I am told that I am pretty good at it. Lately I love to experiment with recipes and techniques and sometimes it gets a little crazy! Hopefully the recipes I post will be as enjoyable to you as they are to me:)