Cinnamon-Sugar Cake

I know that I can't make frosting. I have successfully done it once, on the Irish cream brownies I made for St. Patrick's Day, but everything else was too runny.

The caramel frosting on a cookbook recipe required melting butter and I didn't let it cool long enough. I forgot the shortening in the tequila sunrise cupcakes I found online. I don't even know how I managed to make a frosting into flavored water when I tried to follow another book recipe, but I guess even great bakers have problems.

My dad said I just needed to practice, so I looked through all my marked recipes to try it again. This recipe was found in a Taste of Home book my mother found at the checkout back in 2012, 'Cake Mix Treats' on it.

This was my first time making a layer cake, but I knew I could handle the baking part. With the frosting, I messed up in the other direction this time, forgetting the cinnamon and making fondant instead. That was not good for a layer cake, but fortunately, I had my dad with me, and he knew how to fix it.

The result tasted great. It feels wrong to be putting a recipe directly copied from a book online, but I can break the rules just once to show off my first time making a layer cake. I didn't write the directions exactly as the book did, so it's kind of mine. Right?

RECIPE:

(Cake)
- 1 package white cake mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

(Frosting)
- 1 cup softened butter
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all cake ingredients at once.

Spray 2 round 9-inch pans.

Pour cake batter into pans.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Let cake cool.

Fluff butter with a mixer.

Add other frosting ingredients and mix. If you're like me, get someone to help with this part.

Spread frosting between layers of cake and frost the rest.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

This was before I sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, but of course it was after Dad helped with making frosting and showed me how to use an icing knife.

And this is what it looks like inside.

My personal cookbooks are printed and handwritten pages, not my cooking blog. This was something new to me, but I might break my personal rule again sometime.

Even though it did make my post too long.

UPDATE: I made the cake again, and I made perfect frosting by myself. This cake was taken to my grandparents when my mom's cousin and his wife came to visit. Everyone loved it, especially my grandfather. He told me to call it "Grandpa's Favorite."

Pumpkin Maple Cake

After not having any kind of blog post for almost all of July, I found the Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Rum and Maple from cupcakeproject.com.

I'm not a person that likes to make long blog posts, unless it's a recipe my parents and I came up with. But the first time I made this cake, without even tasting it, I decided "Never again." Not because it was a bad cake, but because it was too much stress for me to deal with.

First of all, it started with adding the oil before I was supposed to. Then I forgot the rum, so it became the Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Maple. Then the mixer attacked me with dry ingredients, and was so full it refused to mix, so I had to use my whisk instead. I think I missed some parts of it.

Then the cake actually baked. That went without a problem. But I forgot to make the glaze, so we ate it without.

It's a very heavy cake, and I could only get a good picture here. The taste was fine, but it was still a terror to actually bake.

If you have the rum, the energy, and the patience, I say you should do it. The cake was good even without the glaze, and my mom said it was perfect with coffee. I still don't think I'd make it again, but I'm blogging it with the link, so it's there if I change my mind.

Chicken Burritos

I'm not really a fan of Mexican food. I'm a picky eater, and I don't like peppers, hot spices, cheese, or overwhelming tomato. But there are things I don't hate, and I was willing to try a recipe in one of the old cookbooks my parents had before I started my life in the kitchen.

The first time we tried to make these, we tried to alter the recipe and left out the cheese and onions. The end result tasted like it was just chicken, ketchup, and garlic. So, since my dad cooks the meat around here, he came up with this. It has onion powder instead of onions, and the seasoning gives it a little more flavor without being overwhelmingly spicy.

RECIPE:

- Cooking oil
- 2 medium chicken breasts
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 packet taco seasoning
- 1 pack small tortillas

Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces.

Cook chicken in oil until done.

Mix tomato sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and taco seasoning in a bowl.

Add tomato mix to chicken skillet.

Reduce heat and simmer.

Wrap chicken, sour cream, and any other burrito ingredients you want in the tortillas.

We did have a few parts that got more taco seasoning than others, but most of it just left little tingles in the mouth. Maybe I should have mixed the sauce in a bigger bowl. Either way, it's good food.

Orange Pork and Vegetables

The cookbook said cashew pork, but we forgot the cashews. Since we were already replacing the pea pods with two of the only vegetables I'll eat, we decided to change the recipe.

We started by doubling everything to feed five people, and Dad decided to add some garlic. It took a while to get the recipe ready to post, but I think I've done it right.

RECIPE:
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 pounds lean boneless pork
- 1 cup orange juice
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- Carrots and cauliflower, cut into pieces
- Rice

Trim fat from meat and cut into bite-size pieces.

Stir together orange juice, soy sauce, cornstarch, and ginger.

Pour oil into a wok or skillet.

Preheat over medium-high heat.

Stir-fry half the pork for 2-3 minutes, then remove and do the other half of the pork.

Return the other half of the meat to the wok, and add the garlic.

Cook for 1 minute, then add vegetables.

Push ingredients away from the center of the wok and pour in the sauce.

Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

Serve with rice.

It's not my best, but it's still pretty good. I've discovered that I'm not a fan of orange in my meals, just my desserts. Still, this made it into my personal cookbook, so it wasn't too bad.

Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes

Now that my sister is home from college, I've been looking at recipes for more baking with alcohol. I still prefer the "sweet, girly stuff," as she put it the one time we went to a bar. While searching Pinterest, I decided that the Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes from thecakeblog looked sweet and girly enough for me.

When actually making them, I learned two things. First, I love the smell of grenadine. Second, that the first three times I made frosting didn't lie, I really am terrible at it. It tasted really good, but it only reached a halfway-solid consistency after I got my dad to help me.

The good news about this - there's leftover tequila-spiked frosting, and we always have cake mix in the cupboard. I'm going to see what other cakes like this frosting.

The cake itself was a little too tough, but I might have baked the cupcakes for too long. They tasted fine, but the frosting was what got the recipe a spot in my personal cookbook.

Quick Orange Chicken

Since I took over meal planning at my house, I've been more interested in cookbooks than websites. I found a few recipes that were good without editing, but here's one that my dad and I played with while we were making it.

RECIPE:

- 24 ounces chicken breast, cut into cubes
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- Cut up broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Stir fry vegetables in a wok until they're the right level of crisp.

Stir orange juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and cornstarch in a bowl.

Pour some oil in the wok and cook the chicken until no longer pink.

Push chicken from center of wok and pour in the sauce.

Cook until the sauce is thickened.

Return the vegetables to the wok and coat all ingredients with the sauce.

Stir for another minute.

Serve with rice.

I wasn't that fond of this recipe, but my dad said he wanted to make it himself. I decided to post it in case anyone else wanted to see.

S'mores Brownies

I know it's a little early for s'mores, but I wanted them. I found a recipe for s'mores brownies that used canned pumpkin instead of eggs and oil, and I thought it was a great idea. I made those brownies, had one, and immediately regretted it, because it tasted exactly like you would expect a chocolate/pumpkin fusion to taste.

Severely disappointed, I decided to come up with my own recipe. I took two different recipes and combined them for a better brownie. This is the result.

RECIPE:

- 1 cup softened butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 6 tablespoons baking cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup marshmallow creme
- 2 teaspoons milk
- Crushed graham crackers

Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs one at a time.

Beat in vanilla.

Combine flour, baking cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

Gradually add to the other mixture.

Spread into greased 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch pan.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Cool.

Mix milk and marshmallow creme until smooth and spread it over the brownies.

Sprinkle crushed graham crackers over the frosting.

These were better than the pumpkin brownies, by far. You barely taste the marshmallow, but it's still noticeable enough to make these qualify as s'mores brownies. The frosting doesn't even melt after a day or two, like it did when I tried to make s'mores cupcakes.