Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

From “Hershey’s 100^th Anniversary- 100 years of Hershey’s Favorites” Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, divided

1 cup all-purpose flour

7 tablespoons Cocoa, divided

2 teaspoons baking power

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 ¼ cups hot water

(Optional) whipped topping

Directions:

-Heat oven to 350*

-In large bowl, stir together ¾ cup granulated sugar, flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder, and salt

-Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla; beat until smooth.

-Pour batter into 8- or 9-inch square baking pan.

-Stir together remaining ½ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter.

-Pour water over top. DO NOT STIR.

-Bake 35-40 min or until center is almost set.

-Cool 15 minutes; spoon into dessert dishes; spoon sauce from bottom of pan over top of cake.

-Serve warm with whipped topping if desired

This. Is. So. Delicious!! We weren’t sure if we made it right because it looks nothing like the picture, but then we realized we forgot to let it cool before dishing it out! You might have to make it bake a little longer, but MAKE SURE you let it cool! We also made our own whipped cream with heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar and added orange extract for flavor! It’s super rich, but delicious with a glass of milk! :]

Cupcake of the Month: Red Velvet

Here's the Cupcake of the Month!! :D

Ingredients- Cupcakes:

1 package yellow cake mix

2 tbsp cocoa

5 large eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 bottles red food coloring (1 oz bottles)

Frosting:

1 package cream cheese softened

¼ cup butter softened

2 ½- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions- Cupcakes:

-Preheat oven according to cake mix directions

-Beat cake mix and the rest of the ingredients at low for 2 minutes

-Spoon batter into 24 muffin cups 2/3 way full

-Bake according to package

Frosting:

-Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy

-Gradually add sugar, beating until smooth

-Stir in vanilla until blended

These are soooo delicious! Be careful with the dye though because it will stain your hands/clothes. These are also a shortcut version because we used the cake mix, but you could make legit red velvet for it if you have the time!

Deep-Fried Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots

This was quite an adventure... First, the process::

Ingredients (quantity for all of these is subjective to how much you want to make):

Bacon
Tater Tots
Jalapeno slices (optional)
Cheese
Ranch (also optional)
Toothpicks






Directions:
>Take bacon strips and press grease off of them with paper towels (if using jalapenos- dry these off with a paper towel as well)
>Lay strips out flat
>If using jalapenos, place one slice at the end of the strip
>Place tater tot on top of jalapeno
>Take the end and roll it tightly, secure with toothpick

Once you have the quantity you want, it's time to fry them. This can be complicated as we'll explain later. If you have access to a deep fryer, we HIGHLY suggest that you take advantage of it... if not, good luck. We didn't have access to one, so what we did was use vegetable oil (in a deep pot and fill it enough to cover the amount you're frying). You want to have the oil hot (about medium heat) but make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't get above 350*F. Then:

>Place wrapped tater tot in oil using netted metal (we used a sifter and we only did one at a time)
>The oil should bubble around the tater tot while it's frying
>Leave it in for a short time (depends on how done you want it but they shouldn't look too much different than the pre-fried wraps) but make sure you keep an eye on it
>Once fried, remove and dry on paper towels
>Place on plate, sprinkle with cheese, and enjoy!

Now for our first-time-frying fiasco... We were under the impression that the oil should be boiling before we start trying to fry things... this was definitely not the case, as we soon came to discover. We were sitting across the kitchen talking, waiting for it to start boiling and Emily looked up and found that the entire kitchen was filled with smoke. We opened windows, the door and turned on the fans to try and air out the apartment so the smoke alarm wouldn't go off. We took the pot outside on the balcony where it was still smoking for a good 20 minutes... Caitlin finally had the brilliant idea to pour the oil into a different pot, and that helped stop the smoking, which is when we brought it in and continued frying... BUT- the first time you put anything in the oil, be sure to watch it to see how long it takes to fry... For our first one, Emily dropped one in and this is what it looked like when it came out (in comparison to ones done later...):

Cupcake of the Month: Coconut Cherry

Here is our first recipe for this blog!! Caitlin has a calendar that has a different cupcake recipe for each month, and January's is Coconut Cherry Cupcakes! Enjoy!

Ingredients- Cupcakes:

1 stick butter (softened)

½ cup sugar

2 tbsp milk

2 eggs

5/8 cup self-rising white flour

½ tsp baking powder

2/3 cup dry unsweetened coconut

4 ounces candied cherries (quartered)

12 maraschino cherries

Frosting:

4 tbsp butter softened

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tbsp milk

Directions- Cupcakes:

-Preheat oven to 350*F

-Put in 12 cupcake liners

-Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy

-Stir in milk gradually, gradually add eggs and beat until well mixed

-Stir in flour and baking powder

-Fold in coconut and quartered cherries

-Bake for 20-25 minutes

Frosting:

-Beat butter until fluffy

-Sift in confectioner’s sugar and beat till well mixed, gradually beating in the milk

-Apply frosting and maraschino cherry

Notes::

We couldn’t find candied cherries, so we used canned cherries in water. Drain the water and cut the cherries in half. We also couldn’t find unsweetened coconut, so we just used sweetened, and it’s turned out ok so it’s more of a personal preference thing.

My oven also doesn’t have numbers on the knob, so it was set somewhere between 350*-400*, and they were done after 20 minutes

Welcome!

Thanks for discovering this blog! :]

We decided to start this to share our baking/cooking experiences with you, and we hope that you enjoy them! We're both college students, so we're pretty busy but we will be updating this as often as we can find time to make delicious foodstuffs!

If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or anything, please let us know! :]