A Cake and a Fire

Well, I'm a little late with my first Daring Baker's challenge. I kept thinking I had more time to get it done and all of a sudden the deadline hit! I ended up making it tonight.

Well, I bought the ingredients and was skeptical because I don't like lemon flavoured things unless it's lemonade. I also wasn't sure I would like the coconut and the raspberry jam either. The whole point of this blog and joining the Daring Baker's was to try new things so I stuck with it and didn't do any of the allowed changes.

Well, making the batter went well. While it was cooling we had a bit of excitement when an apartment across the street caught on fire! My former roommate called me to see if I was smelling the smoke and hearing sirens. I didn't, but opened my window. I hear the sirens sounding like they turned onto our apartment's street. I was hoping they would keep going, but they stopped and I noticed it was top floor apartment across the street and was part of my former roommate's building! Five fire trucks showed up, although it didn't seem the fire spread. I think they just wanted to be safe. My former roommate grabbed her cat, laptop, and important papers and came over for a bit. I don't even what to think about how my cat would react, she's feisty when scared!

Well, baking the cake took a break during the excitement. Luckily, everything is ok and the fire didn't spread, but it was still a little scary for her and we felt lucky that our building wasn't affected. I am now planning to call and find out about renter's insurance!

After the fire, I got back to work on the cake. The buttercream was easy to make, although I have never make it that way before. It took a lot longer than the other recipes I've tried.

I did end up liking the cake, but only want to eat small slices. My boyfriend loved it! I think I'll try this again sometime in the future with different flavours that I might like better. The cake itself was a perfect texture that was moist and not very crumbly.

This month's challenge was hosted by Morven. You can check out the recipe at her site.

Bangers and Mash

Tonight I had hoped to do a traditional Irish fare in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, I was sick and didn't get out to the store to get food and didn't have all the ingredients on hand. I'll do some Irish food tomorrow, a day late, but hopefully well worth the wait.

Tonight, we went with Bangers and mash. I left my boyfriend, the Brit, in charge of this meal. He said he always eats it with ketchup. I know the essentially, putting ketchup on mashed potatoes isn't very different from putting it on French fries, but it just didn't seem right to me. I thought it would taste better with some gravy on top. I was thinking a thick, sausage gravy like the one used in biscuits and gravy, but I did a search online and found that bangers and mash is traditionally served with an onion gravy. I'm not sure why my boyfriend didn't do that, but I would have much preferred it that way. I didn't have any gravy left over from last night, so I asked him to make some instant brown gravy for this and it helped a lot.

I just called him over to ask him about it and he said he has had the gravy on bangers and mash, but he didn't realize it was compulsory, he thought it was just an option.

I'm not sure how he made these, he just baked some plain breakfast sausage (thicker ones would be better, but not Italian sausages), and made some mashed potatoes.

I want to try this again with a proper onion gravy and see how it tastes.

Chocolate Decadence

I love Rice Krispy Treats. Cocoa Rice Crispy Treats are even better. The best of all were the Cocoa Krispy Treats made with chocolate marshmallows!

While at Target buying some goodies for an Easter basket for Lee, I saw some chocolate marshmallows. I also bought some coconut ones, but I didn't buy those. I couldn't resist the chocolate marshmallows and bought a bag. I just knew I had to try them as Rice Krispy Treats with Cocoa Krispies. Boy, am I glad I thought of that!

I wasn't feeling well, but I did want my new food for the day and the roast dinner I was making wasn't something new, so I asked my boyfriend to make the treats. He was nervous about it since he says he can't cook (he seems to do just fine if he follows directions, I think he just needs some confidence). Anyway, after him asking me every 5 seconds what to do and me thinking it may have been easier to do it myself, he got it right and we had some delicious treats!

I did get to try a chocolate marshmallow on its own before he made the Cocoa Krispy Treats and it tasted like a hot chocolate that had gone cool to room temperature. It was delicious!

Extra Chocolatey Cocoa Krispy Treats

3 tablespoons butter
1 package chocolate marhsmallow puffs
6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal

1. Melt butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
2. Add marshmallows, coat in butter, and return to microwave until melted.
3. Add cereal and blend thoroughly.
4. Line a pan with parchment paper and spread mixture to cool.
   

Warning: These are highly addictive and won't last long!

Rogan Josh

On Saturday, I tried Rogan Josh curry. I used the leftover chicken from Wednesday night and added it to the curry sauce. This was a mildly spicy curry that was just hot enough to make me wish for a soda instead of water!

I forgot to take a picture.

Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

We went out with my family for Lee's birthday. We had the worst service ever! We didn't get our drink orders for a half our, and only got our appetizers after being seated for an hour!

The food wasn't as good as usual either. I had the shrimp and scallop scampi and, while it tasted good, it felt like it was missing something. I took home leftovers and on Saturday, for lunch, added a clove of garlic and some Parmesan cheese. The extra garlic and cheese made a big difference!

The Rock-Hard Birthday Cake

Well, I tried to make a birthday cake for my boyfriend, but it just didn't work out. I'm not good at folding and the cake turned out to be a rock-hard solid slab. The batter did taste good, though.

Spicy Crock Pot Chicken

This was a delicious recipe I choose for the Australian/New Zealand recipe swap on Recipezaar. It was really easy, except for me cutting my finger while chopping the onion! The meat turned out tender and juicy.

I used 4 large bone-in chicken breasts (I saved 2 for a curry) instead of a whole chicken because that's what I had and I figured it would work just fine. For maximum flavour, marinate overnight.

Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 large roasting chicken
1 cup onion, chopped

1. Combine spices in a small bowl.
   
2. Remove giblets from chicken and clean thoroughly. Pat dry with paper towel.
3. Rub spice mixture over chicken. cover with plastic wrap or place in a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.
4. When ready to cook, chop onion and place in bottom of crock pot.
5. Add chicken.
6. There is no need to add liquid, there is plenty of liquid that will come from the chicken and you can even make gravy from it!
   
7. Cook on low for 4-8 hours (depending on your crock pot).