Salvaging a baking disaster

I wanted to make mini cupcakes for a fundraiser at work. I had a box of orange cranberry muffins, that I decided to go with. But, after they came out of the oven, they were just stuck to the little paper cup thing and I hated that wouldn't come away clean. So, I took them and did this:

Then, I got a container of cream cheese frosting and some Wilton melting chocolate and did this:

 

Then, I got the mini cupcake holders and did this:

They sold out at the fundraiser. So, something yummy and good came out of my baking disaster.

Re-organization

So, our Super Fresh declared bankruptcy and closed down (I think all of them in MD did). Very sad, because one, the store was right across the street from us and well do I really need a 2?

But, during their closeout sales, I went a little crazy in their baking aisle. And my pantry went a little crazy trying to accommodate all of my purchases, and I went crazy with not having an organized pantry.

So, I remembered something I read on somebody's bog a long, long time ago and got myself to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought one of those hanging plastic shoe organizers.

And, voila! Behold what is now a usable, easily identifiable set of ingredients and not getting on nerves-falling out of the pantry when I open the door stuff:

Another step forward in the cake pop making

As you can see, I got my dipping technique down pat. I used lollipop sticks and used baking chocolate bars instead of chips.

Now, my problem is how do I get the chocolate to not pool at the bottom?

This recipe was: carrot cake mixed with walnut coconut frosting covered in white chocolate.

As I love everything in these pops, I thought they tasted delicious!

Second attempt at cake pops

Banana nut cake with cream cheese frosting

covered in peanut butter chocolate

And I am ready to buy a dipper, something like this. Because my microwave melting is not really helping with the dipping. I made some more cake balls/pops (I want to call them balls since I haven't put the lollipop sticks in them) yesterday. This flavors this time were banana nut cake with cream cheese frosting covered in a chocolate and peanut butter mix. They are delicious and I don't even like banana bread. But, the dipping once again sucked. It actually came out looking worse than before. I used chocolate chips this time which was what was used in many recipes I saw online. As you can see in the photo, it's not a smooth covering. (Sorry about the sucky iPhone photo, am at work or I'd use my Nikon for a better photo). I think I'll stick with bark or baking chocolate bars in the future and use a small fondue pot to do the dipping.

I am trying another flavor this weekend: carrot cake with walnut coconut frosting covered in white chocolate. Wish me luck.

Cake Pops

Ingredients

I have been fascinated by cake pops, ever since I had the Tiramisu ones at Starbucks. I saw some simple recipes online and decided to try my hand at it last weekend. I used Butter yellow cake, baked as the box suggested, mixed with a whole box of strawberry frosting.

Rolled into balls and refrigerated for a few hours.

Rolled and cooled

 Then, I microwaved the chocolate bark and rolled the cake balls in it. I need to get better at this, as you can see.

Dipped in melted chocolate

They might not have looked good but they tasted yummy. Pardon the terrible photos!

 I'm already thinking of the next flavor combination: carrot cake mixed with a walnut coconut frosting, covered with white chocolate.

Kheer

What you need:

• Gallon whole milk
• 1 cup white rice
• 1 can condensed milk
• raisins
• blanched almonds
• pressure cooker

What you do:

• Rinse rice really well and place in pressure cooker
• Add about 3/4ths of the milk
• Cover and cook for an hour (or till the pressure cooker starts whistling milk is coming out the top - that's what I wait for)
• Uncover, make sure the rice is cooked. It's probably gotten thicker, so add more milk till the consistency is what you like
• Add the condensed milk, raisins and almonds
• Let it cook on low heat for another 30-45 minutes till the almonds are soft, the raisins are plump and the house smells yummy

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can use a regular pot, you just have to keep an eye on the rice while it's cooking or you could have a huge mess on your hands. It is important to not use cooked rice and milk. You want the milk to cook the rice so it tastes cohesive and not separate from each other.

Chicken tortilla casserole

Cooking, what't that? I could count on 2 hands how many times I've cooked from scratch in the last month. I cannot stand to look at another pizza slice or hamburger so yesterday, I looked up an easy recipe involving cream cheese, chicken and tortillas.

What you need:
3 tortillas - 8-10 inch rounds
shredded chicken - about 3 cups (I used 2 cans of cooked chicken total 25 ounces)

1 can diced tomatoes drained

1 can black beans rinsed and drained

the recipe asked for 2 green onions chopped but I didn't have any so I used 1 medium white onion chopped

1 container Kraft Philly cooking creme (for future, I think cream cheese blended with some sour cream, salt, pepper, and any spices you like would be good too)

3/4 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

What you do:
Mix the chicken, beans, tomatoes and onion well. Add 3/4 of the spread to the mix.

Spread 1/3 of the mix into a pie pan, cover with 1 tortilla.

Spread another 1/3rd of the mix on top of the tortilla and then spread 1/ cup of the shredded cheese and cover with 1 tortilla. Repeat this step again.

Cover with remaining Philly creme and then the cheese.

Bake at 375, covered, for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 5 minutes.

Cut into pie wedges and enjoy!

You can see their image at the site; here are mine. It tasted pretty good, I would have added hot peppers to the mix. A salad would have been nice because the meal itself is very rich ad heavy.