New Orleans Double-Chocolate Praline-fudge Cake

"This cake was the best cake I have ever eaten", that's what my mother in-law said after eating this yummy cake for her Birthday. And I must say it was up there on my top 10 best cakes I have ever eaten as well. Super moist Chocolate cake with Chocolate Ganache in between each layer mmmmm.....and Praline frosting dumped on top, you cant get much better than that! A little rich but soooo good. Making this cake is a little time consuming, so be prepared to spend a little extra time in the kitchen on this one ladies but the end result is timeless....

Cake Ingredients

1 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

Grease bottoms of 3 (8") round cakepans; line with wax paper.Grease and flour wax paper and sides of pans.

Cook first 3 ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts and mixture is smooth; remove from heat.Cool.

Beat buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.Add butter mixture to buttermilk mixture, beating until blended.Combine sugar, flour, and salt; gradually add to buttermilk mixture, beating until blended.(Batter will be thin.)Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake at 350º for 20 to 22 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.Remove from pans; immediately remove wax paper.Cool completely on wire racks.(Layers will appear thin.)

Chocolate Ganache

2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter or margarine, cut into pieces

Microwave chocolate morsels and cream in a glass bowl (50% power) 2-3 minutes or until morsels are melted, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes; whisk until smooth.Gradually add butter, whisking until smooth.Cool, whisking often, about 25 minutes or until spreading consistency.Yield: about 2 cups.

Praline Frosting - Do not prepare this candylike frosting ahead because it will harden very quickly.

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring often; boil 1 minute.Remove from heat, and whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.Add toasted pecans, stirring gently 3 to 5 minutes or until frosting begins to cool and thicken slightly.Pour frosting immediately over cake.Yield: about 2 cups.  

Spread about 1/2 cup ganache between cake layers; spread remainder on sides of cake (do not frost top of cake).Chill cake 30 minutes.Pour Praline Frosting slowly over top of cake, spreading to edges, and allowing some frosting to run over sides of cake. 
 
I love hearing your comments and would love to hear if anyone try's my recipes! Please feel free to email me with any questions/comments you might have. :)

Sourthern Style Pumpkin Crisp

This Pumpkin Crisp is amazing! I first tried this at my sister in-laws house on Thanksgiving, and immediately I  fell in love! It is so easy to make and travels very well if you are in need of a last minute dish to take somewhere or even a last minute dessert for those dinner plans your hubby forgot to tell you about. The best thing about this dessert is that most of the ingredients are in your pantry so there is no stress in making it. I recently took the Crisp to a Christmas party and had no leftovers to take home with me, I love it when that happens :).

Ingredients

• 1  (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 1  cup  evaporated milk
• 1  cup  sugar
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1  (18.25-ounce) package butter-flavored yellow cake mix
• 1  cup  chopped pecans
• 1  cup  butter, melted

Preparation

Stir together first 5 ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture; sprinkle evenly with pecans. Drizzle butter evenly over pecans.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with Whipped Cream, if desired.

Heading into the oven.....

Above is a picture of the Crisp when it was done. It got a little browner than I wanted it to on the top and a few of the pecans got burned. I picked them off before taking to the party. My oven for some reason cooks a little hotter than I would like it to so about half way through the cooking time I put a piece of foil on top to protect it.

Hope everyone is enjoying this Holiday season!

Bummed :(

I have 2 really great recipes to share with everyone that I just made, the bad news is my computer has been getting fixed since the Wed before Thanksgiving and the computer guy called tonight saying he dropped my computer and broke another part! Thank goodness I dont have to pay for it or I would be soo angry. So keep checking back! Here are my next two recipes to share with pics! They are great for Christmas parties or for special occisions.

New Orleans Double-Chocolate Christmas Praline-Fudge Cake (I made this cake for my mother in-law for her Birthday recently, she said it was the best cake she had ever eaten!)

Sourthern Style Pumpkin Crisp, I took this to a Christmas party on Saturday everyone loved it and its a super easy last min dessert to make with some simple things in that are in the pantry.

Who's getting ready for Christmas?

How was every one's Thanksgiving? Mine was great as always, I love spending time with family and friends and enjoying good food!

Sooo I am already decorated for Christmas and I am ready to start my annual baking for the holidays. I have a few new recipes to try this year and I am pretty excited about it. I also have some fun homemade gifts that are really great to give during the holiday season that a super cheap to make. One of the items I made so far this year is a Hot Cinnamon Milk mix, its really yummy and its nice to switch it up from the normal hot chocolate. I will list the recipe for it at the bottom of my post. I am also going to be making a few of my family's favs this year for the first time. They are my great grandmothers recipes so I am excited to try them out I am sure I have a big bar to live up to but that's what makes it fun. So stay tuned for all of my up coming baking Holiday adventures and for some great recipes to start in your family.

Hot Cinnamon Milk Mix Recipe

2 Cups powdered Milk
1 Cup French Vanilla Powdered Creamer
1 Cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon Cinnamon
Mix together and put into a container

To use: Fill mug 1/3 cup full of mix, fill with hot water.
ENJOY!