Sunday, November 30, 2008

Invisible cakes and pies

Okay, here's the thing: I HAVE been baking over this past month. However. It's been for work parties and such so I haven't been able to take proper pictures and cut them open, etc. Unless I cut a piece out and took it to work that way. 'Happy Birthday! Oh BTW, I already had a piece. That's cool, right?'

So I've made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing which was pretty all right. I'd make it again (and might so I can post about it and someone other than my coworkers can taste it). I also made a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving that was an experiment that I didn't love. It involved a crumb topping that didn't work out. I won't make that again.

Then I made a chocolate pecan pie which is a Thanksgiving tradition in my family. It's very rich and very sweet but we love it; we have it every year. It might look like a lot but trust me, if your tastes run decadent, this pie is definitely for you.

SOUTHERN CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus more for drizzling on top)
1 to 1/2 cups pecans
1 9-inch deep dish pie shell (unbaked)


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix sugar and butter well in mixing bowl. Add syrup, salt and vanilla. Mix again. Add eggs one at a time and mix after each.

3. Spread chocolate chips over bottom of unbaked pie crust. Spread pecans over chocolate chips. Pour mixture on top of both chocolate and pecans.

4. Bake until top is brown and pie set (about 45-55 minutes). Toothpick stuck in center of pie should come out almost dry.

5. When pie is completely cool, drizzle melted white and dark chocolate on top (easiest way is to slowly microwave in a Ziplock freezer bag and cut small hole in bottom corner of baggie).

Monday, November 3, 2008

Spider Cake

This is getting to be a THING, methinks...

I made this for the cake walk at my work and the woman who picked it was very pleased! She had a gathering the next night and said all her friends enjoyed it and asked for the recipe! It was awesome!


It was just my usual chocolate cake in two layers and vanilla buttercream (recipe here). The lady who took it really liked the frosting. lol. I thought, who doesn't??

The black is the premade Wilton tube frosting; I didn't want to mess with trying to color my own because black is never as good as Wilton's makes it. And it tasted fine!

It didn't come out perfect; if I were to do it again, I'd use a thinner tip for the web and I'd make a GIANT spider (possibly with balloons...)