Dishing Out Dessert

I finally had some time to post a recipe that I had waiting to share with everyone for a year.  Since it is fall, it is the perfect time for pumpkin recipes and a favorite is pumpkin cheesecake bars!  I brought this to last year’s pchem picnic (gathering of really cool scientists…to eat food and play kickball).  It was a hit!

These bars combined the awesome fall comfort of pumpkin and spices, like nutmeg and cinnamon, with the creaminess of cheesecake.  I added a touch of homemade caramel, mostly because I did something stupid and put the bars in a smaller pan then the recipe (from Celebrations) called for so my bars were thicker and took longer to cook through.  Unfortunately, the extra time kind of singed the crust.  But the caramel was a good fix.  Now that it is pumpkin/squash time again, embrace the fall season and make some pumpkin cheesecake bars!  Plus bars are a lot easier to manage than a full out cheesecake. Continue reading →

Hi everyone…things have been a little busy but I got a little bit of time to squeeze in another post.  This is kind of part 2 of the Tres Leches birthday surprise for my friend (explained in previous post).  While thinking about how I could alter Tres Leches to include chocolate I remembered another cake that I have been making since middle school.  This cake involves a German chocolate cake soaked in a mixture of caramel and sweetened condensed milk, topped with whipped cream and heath bar pieces.  Yup…you guessed it!  The other cake I brought to my friends birthday was Better Then Sex Cake.

I guess right now maybe a few red flags might be going off from the previous paragraph…yes, I said middle school.  In fact I got this recipe from my neighbor who was actually trying to hide the name of the cake with her had as I was copying down the ingredients.  Eventually, I was told what the name of the cake was…

While there are many versions of this cake, some involve devils food cake, pineapple, chocolate fudge; I always come back to this version.  Maybe I’m a little bit biased, but I think this is the best combination that I have seen or tried that carries the title “Better then Sex.”  Lots of other versions of this cake are overwhelmingly sweet and anything more than a 1 in square piece will put you in a sugar coma for days.  However, this version is quite light, chocolaty, a little buttery, while still packing enough sugary deliciousness that will satisfy any sugar craving.  I swear the secret to the cake’s awesomeness is Mrs Richardson’s Butterscoth Caramel, oh man…soooo good, that is one ingredient you should pay the extra money for.  This is one cake recipe that you have to try! Continue reading →

Ooooo…happy to be out of the kitchen tonight.  Lately, it has been in the upper 80’s and being on the 4^th floor without air conditioning means that we (Aya and I) are roasting.  It seems like the only comfortable places in the apartment is in front of one of the three fans I have constantly running.  Part of me flinches every time I turn the dial on the oven.  But I have a good friend who celebrated his birthday a few weeks ago so on the oven went.

A few weeks ago, I had asked my friend what birthday treat he wanted and after a bit of nudging he replied the “Alexis version” of tres leches cake.  WHAT?!!  What does that even mean?  I am guessed he wanted me to see if the recipe inspired some kind of alterations.  After thinking about it for a few days, I did get inspired.  I was really proud and envisioning some kind of coconut version because I have used coconut milk before and thought it might be a good substitution.  So I did what I usually do and searched to see if someone had already thought of it…of course someone had.  While it made changing the recipe a little bit easier I was kind of bummed that it wouldn’t be a novel dessert.  Either way the dessert was delicious.  Light, super moist, almost custard-like, and really addictive.  I think I inhaled three pieces of cake before I had to cut myself off and call that dinner.  The great part is that this cake is SUPER easy to make. Continue reading →