Daring Bakers' Challenge April 2012 - Armenian Nazook and Nutmeg Cake

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake. 

Ack!  I lost track of time, so this Daring Bakers' Challenge is a little overdue.  We'll call this better late than never.  I finished a tasty batch of nazook and can't wait to play around with different fillings.  Since this was my first attempt with a new dessert, however, I stuck with the recipe Jason provided - with just one twist. I added the seeds of half a vanilla bean to the filling.

rolled out the dough

sprinkled the filling

rolled up tight

ready to pop in the oven

YUM!

Crisp Rice Treats with Nutella Fudge

Sometimes sweet and simple is best, especially when life gets to be a little too much.

To keep this post sweet and simple I’ll skip the litany of work, life, and electronics run amuck issues that have kept me from blogging lately.  Instead let’s just dive into this simple (heat, mix, spread) and sweet (Nutella – yum!) recipe.

Crisp Rice Treats with Nutella Fudge

(Nutella Fudge recipe from Cookin’ Canuck)

8 c crisp rice cereal, divided

8 c mini marshmallows, divided

7 ½ T butter, divided

7 oz. sweetened condensed milk

½ t vanilla

4 oz. chocolate chips

½ c Nutella

Grease a 9 x 13 pan. (For easy clean up, I lined the pan with foil before I greased it.)

Melt 4 c marshmallows and 3 T butter in a large pan.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 4 c rice cereal. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan.

Slowly melt together 1 ½ T butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, chocolate chips, and Nutella. (I used the microwave – 30 seconds, stir, then about 20 more seconds.)  Spread mixture over the rice cereal treats.

For the top layer, melt 4 c marshmallows and 3 T butter in a large pan.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 4 c rice cereal. Spread mixture over the Nutella fudge.

Let cool completely and cut into 24 squares.

Happy Easter!

This time I’ll let the cake do the talking.

First, I made some decorations. For the chubby birds - malted milk eggs for the body, a teeny, tiny triangle of fondant for the beak, and a food coloring marker to draw the eyes.

And some chocolate fondant bunnies.

Then it was time to whip up a batch of orange crush mini cupcakes.  Those little babies have been popular.

A bed of grass . . . 

. . . a chocolate bunny and some eggs (technically sprinkles, but use your imagination) . . .

. . . a nest for the birds . . .

. . . and a Happy Easter to everyone!

Craziness and Extra Devilish Chocolate Cake

Sometimes life is just plain annoying. In the same fabulous week, both my camera and my laptop died. For 17 l-o-n-g days, the computer repair people had my connection to Pinterest, my favorite blogs, online shopping, etsy, etc. held hostage. It was brutal. (Yes, I may have a wee bit of an Internet addiction.)

Fortunately, my Kindle arrived around day 8, so I wasn’t completely isolated from the electronic world.  And not to veer too wildly off topic, but I just love my Kindle. As an avid bibliophile and English lit major, I was convinced nothing could replace the joy of curling up with a real book and turning paper pages. Then I saw one of the books I recently oversaw and edited (during my day job at a publishing company) on an iPad. It just took a few moments and I was hooked.

Okay, I could gush all day, but back to the cake. Thanks to the Kindle, I was able to do a little research on the musical my niece performed in last weekend. The show is loaded with elaborate dance numbers and many of my favorite Gershwin songs, so my cake thoughts immediately turned to art deco. Most of the action, however, takes place in the Midwest. This is how I blended the two themes.

I played around with the basic Pilsbury devil’s food cake recipe. I added a hint of coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor and filled each split layer with raspberry jam.

Extra Devilish Chocolate Cake (adapted from Pilsbury Kitchen’s Cookbook)

1 ½ c flour

1 ¼ c flour

½ c dark chocolate cocoa

1 ¼ t baking soda

1 c buttermilk

⅔ c oil

1 T instant coffee

1 t vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease two 8-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients at a low speed until combined. At medium speed, mix for 3 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes or until cake bounces back from a light touch. 

Bragging time. Once again I was blown away by my niece’s talent – singing, dancing, and obviously enjoying her role as the spoiled, overbearing, and highly amusing jilted fiance. I’m proud of you, Becca/Irene!