Milky Way Cake

A few months ago Pioneer Woman had a recipe on her blog featuring a "Milky Way Cake"
The cake she made looked REALLY gooey and yummy

A friend of mine used to make a cake by the same name but hers was a Bundt Cake....and DEEElicious!!!
I wanted to try to make it similar to how I had eaten it before so instead of using Pioneer Woman's recipe, I searched for another.  (Sorry PW....)  But if you would like to make both and do a taste test...by all means then check out Pioneer Woman's website. 

I found a cake recipe that looked fairly easy on Cooks.com and tweaked the icing with one I found on Allrecipes.com. 

So first you start with your milky way bars....

And melt them in a pot with some butter....sounds yummy already and smells good too!

Then separate your eggs....yolk in one bowl, whites in another...
Mix the yolks with some buttermilk and baking soda
And in another bowl place the flour and salt

By now there are bowls EVERYWHERE!!

And don't forget to keep mixing your melting yummy candy bar mixture (I kept my heat on medium low so I wouldn't burn it)
When that's melted to perfection turn off the heat and add your sugar and mix

The egg whites need to be beaten with a mixer until "stiff but not dry".  I think I did this right.  Have never beaten my egg whites like this but it was pretty neat to watch as they went from runny to fluffy to airy....

OK.... back to the melty mix.  Add your buttermilk mixture and your flour mixture in 3rds....and mix well....
I just mixed with a spoon...turned out great.

Then fold in your egg whites.  Mix with spoon until it looks uniform.

Then pour into a prepared pan (greased and floured)

And place in a preheated oven (325 degrees) for 1 hr 15 minutes....I only baked mine for an hour.  I guess my pan was thin and it cooked faster....just keep an eye on your cake when time gets somewhat close and judge "doneness" for yourself....I do the fork test.

Isn't that pretty....

I let the cake cool for a while but it was probably a tad bit warm still when I made and drizzled the icing on top..

For the icing I used some semisweet chocolate morsels, butter, corn syrup and vanilla....all melted and drizzled on top.

YUM!!!!  It certainly was a big hit with everyone!

Cake Recipe from Cooks.com
Again, the last 2 ingredients on this recipe are for the "icing" and I omitted that step because I didn't want a hard shell.

Icing recipe from Allrecipes.com
This as tasty.....

Hope you enjoy and if you do the taste test be sure to let me know which way is best.

Smiles,
Bronwyn

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Football Theme Birthday Cake

My Drew turned 12 last Friday and since he loves football, I thought this cake would be great.  I was inspired by cakes seen on http://www.cakecentral.com/

If you ever want to spend hours just looking at cakes and getting tips from others, check it out!!

Anyway, I the cake I made was inspired by two seperate cakes, I just used the components I liked.

Here was my timeline (in case you are wondering How long does it take to make one of these cakes!)

On Friday I made 2 batches of marshmallow fondant. (took about an hour....give or take....more time is spent on the clean up process)

On Saturday I baked the cakes...

On Sunday I made the buttercream icing ad coated the cakes with the crumb layer and then added the fondant.
The whole process took me about 4 hours....my brown didn't cooperate the first time around and I had to scrap and restart.

I covered the bottom cake with green and the top with brown fondant.

Then I cut strips of white fondant for the field markers and the laces on the football.

I wrote the numbers and Happy BDay message with buttercream.  I will claim that I was running late to my sons bday party and thats why I left the "D" out of Happy Birthday Drew......

Well, thanks for looking and enjoy this splendid fall weather.

Smiles,
Bronwyn

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Toffee Bars

I haven't baked anything yummy lately so I was browsing cook books on my book shelf.  I have many cookbooks but don't always cook from them....
for instance, this Betty Crocker cookbook.....I've probably had it for 5 years or more and have made ZERO recipes from the book!!

So I was looking and found a recipe for Toffee Bars....

Well, I love toffee...and I had all of the necessary ingredients so I thought why not!?  Plus we are going to a cook out later and I can take these yummy bars along so they don't sit in my house and call my name....

My food does that to me sometimes, calls my name....says complete sentences such as "Bronwyn, come have some of me....I am so tasty....so what if you eat too many calories today, you've been doing good and you can always go for a walk/run later"

I know other people hear their food too which is why I haven't sought professional help.

Back to the bars....I gathered my butter, vanilla, flour, salt and brown sugar (I just love brown sugar) and chocolate chips....

Mix the butter, sugar, egg white ( I accidentally used the whole egg...oops)  and vanilla....mix it until creamy and then add the flour and salt

Spread the mixture into an ungreased baking dish and bake

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top....the recipe called for 2/3 rd cup of chips....but I thought Really!!??  That's not enough chocolate so I just dumped the whole bag on top.

Let the chips soften and then spread them all over the top of the cookie base.

Doesn't that look YUMMY?

The recipe also says you can sprinkle with nuts...that would be tasty but I was also thinking some Heath Bar crumbles would be delish.....Alas, I had neither!

Once cooled enough so I could hold the pan comfortably, I put the whole thing in the refrigerator....I want the chocolate to be hard....

Ok I couldn't wait for the chocolate to harden and had to cut a piece to taste.  Have  I said YUMMY yet in this post.....wow...the base is so buttery and tasty and the chocolate....well is chocolate so enough said...

Recipe...(Adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook)

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg yolk (or you could just use the whole egg like I did...)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3rd cup chocolate morsels (I used a whole bag of semi-sweet)
nuts or heath bar crumbles or any variety of items....mini M&M's would be colorful and tasty

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla & egg yolk, add flour and salt and continue to mix until creamy.  Spread the batter into an ungreased rectangular baking pan (13x9x2).  Bake for 25-30 mins.  Upon removal from oven, sprinkle the chocolate morsels on top and when they get gooey, spread them across the top of the cookie base.  Then you can add any topping you would like.

Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day weekend and to all my Biggest Loser competition......EAT UP!!!


Smiles,
Bronwyn


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