Peanut Butter Cake with Fudge Frosting

Oh...My...Gah. This cake is so freakin' good! Made it tonight when Husband complained because I ate the last of the Red Velvet cookies (which after 1 day got kind of sticky, quickly remedied by putting them in the fridge, so much better cold!).

ANYWAY. This cake is awesome! Really moist and the frosting isn't super thick. And it was really easy to make! (If you could hear me now, I just sang that last sentence). So without further a-do, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 9x13" cake pan

• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups white flour
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten

Mix flour and sugar in large bowl (you can use a countertop mixer if you're lucky enough to own one- and I'm jealous of you for that)
Put butter, peanut butter and water in medium sauce pan. Turn burner onto medium heat and bring mixture almost to a boil (stirring pretty much constantly or the mixture will burn). When it sends up whiffs of steam and starts to bubble on the edges, take it off the heat.
Pour peanut butter mixture over flour/sugar mixture and mix it all together. (It's going to look funny, but it'll become creamy when you add the cream and eggs).
Whisk the cream, vanilla, baking soda and eggs together and pour slowly (no one wants scrambled eggs) over the peanut butter mixture. Mix well.
Pour batter into cake pan
Bake for 30-35 min (mine took 30). When cake begins to shrink away from sides and toothpick or knife inserted into center comes out clean, the cake is done.
Let it cool before you frost it (mine was still a little warm, and it was really good that way).
Never Fail Fudge Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

Place butter, sugar and cream into sauce pan. Bring mixture to boil, stirring constantly. Then turn down heat and cook for 2 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips and stir until melted. Remove saucepan from heat.
Stir in the vanilla
Pour frosting over the cake and spread quickly with a spatula.
Top with nuts (if you so desire).

Prince Goes to the Vet

So I had to take our cat Prince to the vet today because of some swelling on his lower lip. And I don't mean a small fat lip from fighting with our other cat, Toulouse, I mean, "hey cat, why are you carrying around that water balloon? whoa! that's your lip?!" After talking to the vet tech on the phone (twice) about it, and her scaring me into believing it might be a tumor, I made the darn appt and took him in. And he was none too pleased, obvs. But neither was I. The vet is expensive! But anyway. He's our fur baby, and I had to do it.

After examination of his teeth & gums and the vet constantly telling me to keep petting him (cause that's going to stop him from hissing at you? Puh-leeeze) he's diagnosed with periodontic (or gum) disease. GAAAAHHHH! My cat has gum disease?! And possibly another infection which is causing the swelling? What kind of kitty mother am I? A bad one, obviously. So now he must eat special food mixed in with his other food, which apparently acts as a toothbrush and toothpaste ("but it's SUPER tasty and your cats will gobble it up!!" says the perky vet tech). And give him antibiotic pills and rub this blue goo on his teeth everyday AND clean his chin and gum line with peroxide and then rub cream all over it. Yay. And then he got some shots which he needed anyway. But he took those like a champ! Good cat!

So a sizeable bill, new food, and antibiotical shit up the hoo-ha, and we're home. And now Prince is napping after such a horrible day. Paws crossed and all. So cute! Oh, and he's totally avoiding me and laying by Husband. Eh. I'll live. He'll jump into my lap later...just waiting for later.

Red Velvet Cookies

Red Velvet Cake is huge in our family. And I mean HUGE. But, for whatever reason we only have it once a year- on Dad's birthday because it's his favorite- or if someone specifically requests it, which never happens. Not sure why.
Anyway...we love when we have the chance to eat it because it's SO delicious (again, why do we not make this more often?). So during my adventures at the library looking for something interesting to read, I stumbled upon this mystery series. The titles of the books are all "insert some kind of food here MURDER." My eye lands on the bright orange one that's entitled "The Carrot Cake Murder." OOOOOOO! Death by carrot cake, SCARRRRRY! So I grab that one and a couple others and check out. Upon closer inspection of bright orange book I see that it has recipes in it. Yay! A dorky mystery novel AND recipes?! It must be fate! Now I'll go ahead and tell you that I own and entire series of books where a Siamese cat and his 50 some year old owner solve crimes. And I love that series. And I'm sad that the author no longer writes those books. *tear*. Moving on!
So it's no surprise that I might like this book. And I did. Not only because it has recipes, but because I'm a dork and it was an easy read. Good beach book. So. Not only was there a recipe for carrot cake (which I'll make one day here and post if it's good) but there was a recipe for Red Velvet Cookies! Aaaaaand NOW you see where I was going with this whole rant. So I made these cookies earlier (mostly to take to my Pampered Chef meeting tonight) and they turned out pretty well so I'm sharing the recipe with you! Aren't you excited?! I know you are. Calm down. They also call for cream cheese frosting (!!!!), which seems kinda weird to have frosting on a cookie, but I think they'd be missing something if they didn't have it. They weren't as chewy as I was hoping they'd be (maybe I cooked them a minute too long) so mine ended up kind of fluffy inside. But still good. Husband said they were an 8 out of 10 (awwww) but he'd eat anything sweet I gave him, so his opinion doesn't count.
So, to make a long story short (too late, they scream!) here's the recipe for Red Velvet Cookies & Cream Cheese Frosting:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, rack in middle position

• 2- 1 oz squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temp
• 2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp red food coloring
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 cups flour, firmly packed
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil (recipe says to spray with Pam, but I don't think it's terribly necessary).
Unwrap squares of chocolate and place in microwave safe dish. Microwave for 90 seconds, then stir until smooth and set aside to cool.
Combine butter, brown sugar and sugar together in a bowl (or bowl of countertop mixer). Mix until smooth.
Add baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
Add the egg and mix until smooth. Add food coloring and mix.
Add melted chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined.
Add 1 cup (the first cup) of flour and mix until combined.
Add the sour cream. Mix.
Add the rest of the flour (that's the second cup) and mix until incorporated.
Mix in chocolate chips.
Use a teaspoon to spoon the dough onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheets (12 cookies to a standard sheet). If the dough is sticky, chill for 1/2 hour. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies rise and become firm. Mine took the full 11 min.
To cool, slide paper off cookie sheet onto wire rack and let cool. Then frost!
Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
• 4 oz softened cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Mix butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Add in powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments until frosting is of proper spreading consistency.
Enjoy! And I'd love to know how yours turned out! Did you like them? I've got more recipes from that book to post...Next up, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. Yum!

Welcome to the "Land of Bliss"

Well hello there! Thanks for visiting my new blog! I've been wanting to do this for awhile now and finally decided to just jump in feet first...Now at this point I don't exactly know what I'm writing about. I'm thinking it's mostly going to be a mish-mash of things at this point, but who knows, maybe one of these days it might make sense (?)

Most people start a blog when they're planning a wedding, you know, so people can check in on their progress and see how the wedding planning is coming along, what's stressing them out, and so on. WELL. I'm a year past that point! Missed that boat, didn't I? But in all honesty, I wasn't thinking about starting a blog then. I wouldn't have had time. Kudos to those who do! I'm feeling that this will be my outlet, to vent my frustrations of everyday life on the masses who bravely choose to read this; share recipes that I either already love, or are new to me and I want share with you; talk about my marriage, albeit, probably guarded because Husband doesn't know I'm doing this (yet...te he he he he). And we have 2 cats who never cease to amaze me in their adorableness, awkwardness and naughtiness. So I'll blog about them too. Something tells me they won't give a hoot what I write about them.

So... here we go!