Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake Mix: Don't fix what's not broken.

Ok, I have attempted to bake a chocolate cake from scratch 3x now. One of them turned out good. The other two not so. I bought a box of Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake Mix just in case they didn't turn out. Since it was just sitting in the pantry, I decided to bake some cupcakes out of the box. Boy, were they good! I had them before, but haven't had them in a long time. They're rich, moist and very chocolaty. They're perfect! I don't care what anyone says about cake in a box because nothing beats this chocolate cake especially when you eat it a few moments later right from the oven. I hate store bought frosting though. It just has a very artificial flavor to it. I bought this new glaze from the store and didn't like it. So, I made up my mind. I'm not going to attempt to make a chocolate cake from scratch again because I like this one as it is. Why go through all that trouble and $$ just to make one when there's nothing wrong with this one?

Yum, yum. So moist and yummy:

Semi-Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite desserts especially during this time of the year. Some people don't like it, but I always liked it. The best pumpkin pie I've had is the one from Baker's Square. This one I baked recently is pretty good too; it's almost as good as Baker's Square. I think. That is if I could remember my taste buds correctly. I actually put a half cup of (white) sugar more than what the original recipe called for and it's pretty sweet, but I remember the pie from Baker's tasting pretty sweet as well. I would go with 3/4 cup next time. It's the cream cheese that makes it taste different than regular pumpkin pie. I like this recipe, however, after I put it in the fridge overnight and ate it the next day again, it didn't taste home made anymore. It tasted pretty commercial to me. I wondered if using fresh pumpkin puree and making my own pie crust would've made a difference. Oh well, too much work! I always thought eating pumpkin pie was healthier than having other desserts because I never bothered to look at the ingredients, but now I know!

Original recipe from Food Network:

Ingredients
For Pie:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 large eggs
1 (9-inch) frozen pie crust shell, removed from foil tin and placed in glass pie pan
For Brown Sugar Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and arrange a rack in the bottom third of the oven.

In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, pumpkin puree, cream, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Using electric hand mixer, add the eggs, 1 at a time incorporating completely between each addition.

Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake on a sheet tray until the filling is mostly set and the crust has browned, about 50 to 60 minutes. The center will still look slightly loose. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

For Whipped Cream:

In a chilled bowl, beat the heavy cream with a hand mixer until beginning to thicken. Add the brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the pie and serve immediately or hold in the refrigerator for up to 2 hours before serving. .

Ran out of whipped cream...


I was actually going to attempt this recipe from Food Network, but didn't feel like doing everything from scratch. It sounds so much better since it uses fresh pumpkin puree and a homemade pie crust. Can you tell I love the Food Network? I used to watch it while exercising and then wonder why I was so hungry after my workout was done. :p

Zucchini Bread

The only times I've had zucchini bread was when I was still working and some coworkers would bring some in. The idea of zucchini bread didn't sound pleasing, but when I ate it, I thought it was pretty good. For some reason, I had a craving for some this past weekend, so I looked up recipes. This is the first time I made it and it was good! I seem to find a good baking recipe after a disastrous one. I did read the reviews and used 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar. I forgot the applesauce so I ended up using 1 cup of oil after all. Okay, after eating all this food, I decided I'm going to go on a raw and organic vegetarian diet. Really.

Original Recipe:

Ingredients
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Cupcakes from Scratch

I suck at baking. :( I know I've said that before. I attempted to bake these cupcakes from scratch and the frosting as well, but the cake did not taste so good. They were okay. I think they just had too much flour in it. Baking is not forgiving at all. Ever since I started this blog, I have learned that cooking (including baking) is as much or even more of a science than it is an art form. And the frosting? It tasted better than the cake, but let me tell ya...frosting is one of those foods that I can not eat after I have seen how it's made. Yesterday, I made the frosting and after whipping all that butter, I just couldn't eat it. I just think to myself how gross it is that I'm really just eating a stick of butter. I have the same problem with mayonnaise. I don't eat mayo because I know how it's made. Oil, eggs, etc. all mixed together. Yuck. Sometimes (like today) when I "forgot" how it's made, then I'll eat it. The frosting I made didn't taste so bad, but it's not the best. I love the cream cheese frosting that's put on the pumpkin bars by Taste of Scandinavia in Minnesota.

Hmmm, should I even bother posting the recipes? I'll post the recipe for the frosting. I would give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5. It wasn't too sweet, but it really wasn't that special and I could still taste the flour from it. Maybe it's just me, but it really wasn't the best frosting I've ever had as the PW claims.

Frosting recipe here. This is the frosting that's made with flour.

Shoot, I just realized that I made the cupcakes from an adjusted recipe from another blog. No wonder it tastes like it has so much flour. It does! Here is the original recipe from Ina Garten. Maybe I'll try the original recipe one of these days. It's much different than the adjusted one. Argh.

My Attempt at Making French Macarons

I wish these were mine. They're actually from the site mytartelette.blogspot.com. I attempted to make French macarons. Twice now. The first ones were chocolate, the second ones just a plain recipe with pistachio middle like my favorite ones from Cocoa and Fig. The chocolate ones I had no problem whatsoever removing them from the sheet, but the second ones I could not move a centimeter without messing them up. They tasted so good though. I didn't throw them away. I scrubbed them off the baking sheet and ate them as is. They weren't cookies anymore, but some odd shape. lol They also turned out flatter than what I've seen. I think it's because I just didn't' have the exact measurements. The recipe I used was in grams, but I don't have a food scale to measure in grams. I tried converting it, but it's too off. Baking is not like cooking. If you're off by one speck of flour, then the recipe is ruined. At least that's what it seems for me. So, as soon as I buy my scale, some powdered food color and other things, then I will attempt these again. I know I can get these right! Darn it! I was so excited when I put them in the oven and they formed feet.

Look how flat and ugly mine looks :( :

French Macarons

Have you ever had a French macaron? I just had one today and I fell in love. I love sweets especially chocolate, cakes and cookies. There is a cute little store that opened up in downtown Minneapolis in the Gavidae common area called Cocoa & Fig. They have cute cupcakes, tarts and even those cake bites I made once. This was the 3rd or 4th time I stopped by and always noticed these sandwich-looking cookies (sometimes I just stop by to look :P). They had interesting pastel colors and flavors like pistachio and caramel. Today I tried the caramel and it was very yummy. I wanted another piece, but I only bought one cookie because it was $1.75 a cookie! I then looked up recipes for French Macarons and it clearly says, "Not for the beginner baker." Forget it then. :P I won't even attempt to or will I? Well, perhaps one of these days I will.

I made some more food, but just haven't felt like posting them. I've been too busy doing other things. I have such big dreams and ambitions that I just don't have enough time to do them all, but I really want to. I'm working on something else that's very exciting to me! I will probably post some more recipes this weekend.

"God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die." Yup, oh well. Maybe that's why I procrastinate because I don't want to die yet. :P

Cake Bites

I have been sorta busy, so I haven't been able to do my usual weekly experiments and posting. I plan on posting some more recipes on Hmong food as soon as I get to make them.

I made these cake bites back in December for Christmas. I think they are too sweet for my taste, but a lot of people seem to like them. I would recommend using less frosting and see if that helps make it less sweet. I would also recommend using a higher quailty of chocolate and not the chocolate bark. These were time consuming, but I thought they turned out nice and it was fun to see that others enjoyed them. I would make these again for a fun event.

Original recipe for cake bites from bakerella.com.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Ok, I said I was going to attempt to make a cake from scratch one of these days because I felt it wasn't me and just the recipe. I chose to make the recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.com. I love her blog. I made this cake today and it was pretty good. Just a little too sweet. I'll probably add less powdered sugar to the frosting next time. It was so sweet that I had to have a piece of fruit to balance it out (and to make me feel less guilty). This cake was very moist and it was very easy to make. The previous cake took me forever and was very disappointing. Somehow, I still prefer Duncan Hines' devil's food cake though. I guess it's just my preference. I tasted some other home made cakes before too and I still didn't like it as much as the Duncan Hines. The best chocolate cake I ever had was at a restaurant called Cattle Company. We used to go there every now and then and order their four course meal (soup or salad, appetizers, prime rib and dessert). I think this is when I started gaining weight too...haha...no wonder... I could never make it to dessert, but since it was already included in the price, I always took it home. The first time I ate it I was in chocolate heaven. I even went back one time and ordered a whole cake for my birthday (I like to use my bday as an excuse to buy myself a cake and eat it too). It's normally like $5 a serving, but the lady sold it to me for $40. That thing served at least 20 people. Too bad they went out of business in Minnesota and I haven't found a chocolate cake that I like as much since then.

My 1st Made-From-Scratch Cake

I am not a baker. After several times of trying to bake cookies and this cake from scratch I think I just wasn't meant for baking. It just never turns out, BUT I haven't really given up yet. I'm still convinced that it's not me and just the recipes that I've tried. Well, I hope so. It has to be because even the box cake I bake turns out. lol And the cobbler I made was good if I just added less blueberries. I don't know what I did wrong in this recipe. This cake may look good, but it was quite tasteless. Not moist at all and not sweet. The frosting was good even though it wasn't that sweet. I had to add more powdered sugar and it didn't make enough to cover the whole cake. After this, I was just craving for some Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake with the frosting I just made. One of these days, I will post a successful baking recipe from scratch. I am determined to do so. Maybe I'll try Ree's chocolate sheet cake since her other recipes have not failed me.

Anyway here's the recipe. I originally found this in the GH magazine while I was in the bookstore and snapped the recipe with my iPhone camera. That's what I've been doing when I find something interesting. I take a picture of the page or article instead of buying the magazine. Hey, saves me money.

Blueberry Cobbler

I made this on Sunday. It's good, but it was very mushy or soggy. I used blueberries instead of blackberries, so maybe that's why. Next time I would only use one cup of blueberries. I especially loved the sugar on top when it was cooked. The crust was crunchy and sweet. Tasted great with a glass of orange juice.