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.

Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Chips

April has been a slow month for me. The constantly-changing weather is making my head hurt, literally. Then I've been tired for days due to mental problems, and I have a funeral to go to, and my birthday's this month...

But, since no one cares about that, I'm still trying new recipes. I think I've succeeded with these cookies.

I didn't put in any white chips, and I might have used the 1/4 teaspoon instead of the 1/2 teaspoon for baking powder, because I was tired and my brain wasn't working properly. But these would be even better with them, so I'll put those in next time.

RECIPE:

- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup white chips

Stir together the sugar, melted butter, and vanilla.

Add the eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet.

Stir in the chips.

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes, 8 if you want the center to be a little more like brownies.

For something that might have contained a few mistakes, these cookies are pretty good. Definitely better than the last chocolate cookies I made. I'll try to follow the recipe properly next time, because then they'll be even better.

Teriyaki Salmon

As a cook with a sweet tooth, I'm always looking for recipes for actual meals. As usual, the meals I find that I want to try involve rice and soy sauce. This time, it's not chicken, it's the Teriyaki Salmon recipe from wholeandheavenlyoven.

This is amazing. I didn't have much of it when I tried it the first time, but I put it in the book that night anyway, and had a much bigger piece when I made it again for my mom's birthday dinner.

I didn't make the gingered rice that the blog suggests, but it doesn't matter. I love this meal anyway, and I'll keep the recipe forever.

Banana Cream Cookies

I know it's only been a few days since my last Pinterest update, but I got bored. Boredom leads to baking, and baking leads to blogging, so here's another internet recipe with short commentary.

We always have bananas in the house. Sometimes the bananas are better for baking than eating, but there are so many banana bread recipes that I couldn't decide which one to try.

Then I found these cookies from butterwithasideofbread. They were something that wasn't banana bread, so I decided to try them out instead.

They turned out good, according to my mom. Not something that I would put in my personal cookbook, but if you like banana bread, they're good cookies. I do not like banana bread, but I still suggest that those who do try the cookies.

Irish Cream Brownies

The original blogger of the Irish Cream Brownies from wonkywonderful.com posted them for St. Patrick's Day. I decided to leave my own comments for that same day.

My family has four people over 21, meaning there's a lot of alcoholic drinks. None of us drink much, but we like to have our options for when we do. This means that halfway through March, we still had most of the Irish cream my dad got for Christmas. With my sister having a birthday right before St. Patrick's Day and coming home for spring break at the same time, I decided to give them a try.

I made them a little bit too thin, but my family still liked them, so I call it a success.

I don't like Irish cream myself. I like the sweet girly stuff. But I just thought I'd post this here for St. Patrick's Day, in case anyone decides to read this.

Lemon Basil Chicken Crescents

This was actually something that my mom came up with back in January, because it was so cold and no one wanted to go grocery shopping. She went with 'whatever looked right' for her measurements, and it turned out good.

Naturally, as an autistic person, I needed exact measurements. This is why I learned to cook from books and blogs instead of my parents. But Mom had a lot of lemon basil from her herb garden, and was willing to guess the right measurements to help me get it right.

RECIPE:
- 3 tubes crescent rolls
- 1 12.5-ounce can cooked chicken
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed sage
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon peel
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed basil (or use lemon basil and leave out the lemon peel)
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Mix chicken, herbs, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a bowl.

Spread 1/2 tablespoon in each crescent.

Fold up the crescent.

Bake as directed on the crescent package.

This is something that is now in my personal cookbook, so it's now another meal I can rely on for when I move out on my own. And it's low energy, so I can still do it after work.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

It's been cold out here again, and ovens are warm. So I've been looking for recipes that use things we already have in the house, and baking a lot more than usual. It drains a lot of energy, but it makes me happy, and it's more productive than internet shopping or shutting myself in my room to play video games.

This recipe was from another book that we've had since before I started baking, and it's another recipe that I call mine but is really just leaving things out. But I'll admit, it's a good thing I finally found a use for the pie crusts that have been sitting in the freezer for months.

RECIPE:

- 1/2 cup softened butter

- 3/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1/2 cup flour

- 1 cup chocolate chips

- Unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix.

Add the flour and mix again.

Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

My brother and I both liked the taste of this pie, which is really saying something, because we're the picky eaters of the house. The texture takes some getting used to, though.

This would be a good pie to take to a party. My sister and all of her friends love my raspberry pear pie, but maybe I'll just make them one of these instead. It's easier than cutting the pears.

Neapolitan Brownie Cookies

Cake mix cookies are pretty easy. Boxed brownies are pretty easy. And since I needed something stereotypical for February 14, I combined pink, white, and chocolate into a cookie.

As someone who has never had a date and stands on the spooky side all year, I sometimes think I should be annoyed by all the pink and romance and flowers and just use the day as an excuse to buy sale candy on February 15. Then the day comes, and I get really excited for absolutely no reason.

These were created as a reference to the Strawberry Milkshake Cookies I made back when this was just a recipe review blog. My mom found a recipe for cookies from brownie mix, and, with her help, this was one of the first recipes I took over.

RECIPE:

(Strawberry)
- 1 box strawberry cake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil

(Chocolate)
- 1 box brownie mix
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine strawberry cookie ingredients in one bowl, and chocolate ingredients in another.

Take 2 big spoons and scoop out dough from each bowl, dropping one flavor partly on top of the other.

Bake for about 10 minutes.

When cookies are cool, melt vanilla chips or almond bark in a microwave. Spread on top.

As you can see, these cookies turned out very big. Bigger than the palm of my hand. So big, the spatula I used to remove them from the pan was too small to hold one of them, and it fell apart, and part of it went under one of the coils on the stove.

The cookies are a lot of work, but everyone liked them. Even me.

Orange Chicken Salad

I mentioned before that I've been trying to find recipes for things that aren't desserts, in the hope of having more variety than fish sticks and my ginger chicken when I leave my mom and dad's house. It has not been going as well as I hoped.

Still, this recipe was something that my mom enjoyed, so I wrote a blog post for it despite not really liking it myself. I'll admit, the vinegar in the dressing was a little too much for me, but it looks really nice.

RECIPE

- 1/2 cup orange marmalade
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
- 1 small can mandarin oranges, drained
- Cooked chicken or turkey pieces (I used leftover chicken from a few days earlier)

Blend the marmalade, soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger in a saucepan.

Heat until marmalade melts.

Let it cool.

Mix the lettuce, meat, and oranges in a bowl.

Serve with the marmalade dressing.

It's a way to use leftovers, which is something I'm sure everyone needs to know. I think I prefer to use Ranch without the oranges, but my mom did recommend it for family. Maybe I'll make it with turkey for Thanksgiving next year.

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

When I get bored, I usually do one of three things: write, make jewelry, and look through cookbooks. Since I collect cookbooks like some women collect shoes, I have a lot of them to dig through.

The original recipe for these muffins said we should use plain yogurt. I said that I would rather be able to eat whatever didn't go in the muffins, which led to a few more alterations, which led to this.

RECIPE

- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1 1/4 cups vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon peel
- 1 tablespoon honey

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, mix the eggs, yogurt, butter, sugar, lemon peel, and honey.

Add the dry ingredients.

Put the dough into muffin cups and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

It turned out looking kind of lumpy, but looks don't matter as much as taste. And these muffins taste very good. They do need a little bit of butter, but it's easy to fix.

These muffins are good with soup, or just for breakfast. They will stick to the pan (or in this case, cupcake papers) but again, looks don't matter as much as taste. 

Honey Glazed Chicken

I try to find non-dessert recipes despite my sweet tooth. Every so often, I do find something, and yet, most of the ones that get my attention involve rice and soy sauce. I knew it was my favorite kind of food, but how often this happened surprised me.

This recipe is a Honey Glazed Chicken from allrecipes.com. I knew going in that I wasn't a big fan of honey, but I love chicken and soy sauce, so I decided to give it a try.

I didn't have the red pepper flakes, and I thought it would be too spicy for me anyway, so we left it out. It might have made the recipe better, but it was good anyway.

The result was positive reviews, but not five stars. I said it was "edible" but it wasn't going in my personal cookbook. My brother said it was good, but he liked my personal recipe better. My parents liked it, though, so it wasn't a failure.

Applesauce Bread

When I was stuck inside for weeks, with no car to escape on my own, I went crazy. When I went crazy, I baked three things in one day. This was a recipe I made before then, but it was something that I decided to do because we had all of the ingredients, and because it's technically mine.

I'll admit, just like the butterscotch cake, this recipe is mine just because I left ingredients out. And, again, I am not a big fan of applesauce, but I do like making things.

I recommend using dishwasher-safe mixing tools, because this recipe needs three different bowls, or two bowls and a glass measuring cup.

RECIPE:

- 2 cups flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 2/3 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 cup applesauce

- 1/4 cup milk

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.

Use a mixer to fluff the butter and sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla to the mixer bowl.

Combine milk and applesauce in a third bowl.

Add flour and applesauce alternately, mixing after each addition.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 or 50 minutes.

According to my applesauce-eating test subjects, this is a very good bread. I won't make this without a request, but I had fun and I'm glad they liked it so much.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

It's the middle of January, we're probably snowed in, and I haven't left the house for anything but the most important reasons for over two weeks now. I have complained about this, but without a car, I can't even go to the library to check out old issues of Taste of Home. I was starting to get just a little bit "twitchy" from desperation.

So I went through Pinterest to find recipes that I could make with what we already had in the house. I found these - the Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies from isavea2z.com. This was the first of many things I made, because I'm bored and and using up all our ingredients over one weekend sounds like a fun challenge.

I used chocolate pudding instead of vanilla, and it turned out really good. This recipe is now in my personal cookbook, so I don't have to look through my Pinterest board or my blog to find it again.

Apple Cider Donut Cake

For some reason, probably related to my sister being home for a while, we had apple cider in the house. My brother and I do not like apple cider, and my sister is back at school, so it was up to my parents to drink it before it went bad. When my dad complained, I decided to help him.

I looked around to find some recipes that used apple cider, and decided to use the Apple Cider Donut Cake from marthastewart.com. I knew I wouldn't eat this cake myself, but my parents could take it to work and find people to help.

I replaced the whole wheat flour with another cup of all-purpose flour, and I forgot the cinnamon sugar step, but other than that, I followed the recipe. There's no need to post the same recipe in my style.

Despite my dislike of apple cider and applesauce, I took a bite of this cake. The apple was there while I was chewing, but it really hit me after I swallowed it. My mom said it's a good cake, but it would be better if we added maple and walnuts.

Best Hot Chocolate Cookies

My mother found a hot chocolate cookie recipe online, and wrote it down instead of sending it to me. I changed it before I even made the cookies, so it became one of the first recipes (mostly) from my head, and one of her favorites.

I've made these cookies for Christmas parties, Christmas presents for the neighbors, and other Christmas-related things. I'm posting this in January because they aren't just Christmas cookies, and because I'm relieved that Christmas is behind me for the next few months. Now it's birthdays that I need to worry about.

RECIPE
- 1 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 4 packages hot chocolate mix (with mini marshmallows)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350.

Beat the butter and sugars together.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mix.

Combine the next 4 ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add it to the butter mix. It will probably get stuck in whatever you're using to mix it, but just poke it free.

Use a cookie scooper to drop the dough on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes

These cookies are good alone, but they're even better with milk. I would suggest making these for the new year, but since that's already past us, I'll just make them all winter.