A Few Of My Favorite Recipes

This one's for my fellow baking fiends, but feel free to peruse even if baking isn't your thing.  I accept no responsibility if you are left feeling hungry after reading this blog though. 

Have you ever gone to the internet in search of a recipe and then wondered if anybody had tried it before?  Here are some of the dessert recipes I have tried with great success.  I have modified some of them just a little bit to suit my tastes.  Here goes. 

I would have to begin my list with a recipe for Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Chocolate Chip Cookies that has pretty much everything in it.  I make a few substitutions.  Instead of all the spices listed in the recipe, I use 1 tsp five spice powder, and I use dessicated coconut instead of flaked coconut which I find too sweet.  I use Guittard Chocolate Chips which I buy in bulk at PCC Natural Markets.  I've also used the Ambrosia brand that is available at Costco.  The Nestle brand and store variety just doesn't cut it for me.  Once I have the batter ready, I use a wooden spoon to stir in the other ingredients.  Toward the end of the recipe I have to stir in the ingredients using my hands.  Instead of corn flakes I use the Fred Meyer store brand equivalent of Grape Nuts cereal.  This is the only cereal that holds its crispness even after baking.

I often wonder what life would have been like without Martha Stewart.  Love her or hate her, one thing is clear: she knows her food.  Her recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting is a favorite at work.  The recipe can also be used for a standard cake.  I have used cake flour before, but it is quite expensive.  I have found an excellent substitute which I have used often.  I have heard that pudding mix works even better than cornstarch, but I haven't tried that before.  For chocolate cupcakes I use the recipe posted by Trophy Cupcakes.  I have never made the Mint Buttercream or Mint Chocolate Ganache because I feel that mint-flavored food tastes like toothpaste.  I have used the ganache recipe with vanilla extract.  I sometimes make these cupcakes filled with the Cream Cheese Frosting from Martha Stewarts's recipe (above).  You only need half the recipe to fill 24 cupcakes. 

I love making cakes with bits of fresh fruit stirred into it. I found this recipe for an Orange Cake. I add two teaspoons of fruit extract to this recipe to kick up the flavor. I use this as my base recipe and have successfully substituted other fruit for oranges. I try to stick to fruits for which I can find a flavoring/extract, like strawberries, pineapple or mango. You can fill and top this cake with whipped cream and stack it up with some fresh fruit, preferably the same fruit as you use in your base cake. A word of caution: Bananas don't work with this recipe!

If you are looking for a good Chocolate Cake recipe, look no further than the back of a box of Hersheys Cocoa.  The chocolate cake is rich, moist and simply delicious.  If you don't have a box of Hersheys Cocoa in your pantry then shame on you (Just kidding!).  But if you have a better, fancier cocoa in your pantry, you can still find the Hershey Chocolate Cake receipe here.  I have tried this recipe using either Hershey's Regular, Dutch Processed or Special Dark Cocoa.  The chocoholic in me rates the Special Dark as the the winner hands down.  I have used this recipe as a base for Black Forest Cake or a very rich, decadent Death by Chocolate Cake with a Cream Cheese Filling and Chocolate Ganache Frosting. 

Here's my most favorite dessert recipe I've found on the internet and it isn't a recipe for cake.  Go figure!  It's a recipe for Caramel Flan.  It's such a simple recipe with amazing results.  I will admit to having messed up this recipe by using hot tap water for the water bath.  You don't want to do that.  You want to use boiling water.

So there you have it.  Recipes off the internet, tried and tested and really good!