Bread Pudding Banana Cool Whip Caramel Dessert

Invert the Bread Pudding on the plate.  It's very good and has pieces of apples in it.  Add some slices of banana, then the Cool whip and then drizzle the caramel syrup on top.  It is soooo delicious and takes about 2 minutes to put together........

I Wish You Love,

Mimi 

How We Broke In The Mixer With A "Carrot Cake" by Alton Brown

Making this Carrot Cake was so much fun and using the new "Green Apple" KitchenAid Mixer was a dream come true. We really liked the cake, it was very moist and flavorful. You can find the recipe here. The frosting was good, but we would have liked it a bit sweeter, by adding a little more sugar. We doubled the recipe, so it may have been a miscalculation on our part. But anyway it is a very good recipe and we really enjoyed making it.

The first thing I did was pour me a nice glass of wine,(I know what you are saying about the wine, but I really like this wine), I guess I'm a cheap date. Then I grabbed a beer from the frig for George, because he loves this beer.

Now we can get started.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that there was a "Twilight Zone" marathon going on all day and night, so it was a no-brainer, we just had to watch all the episodes. We had both TV's going.

This is the episode when the doll is talking to Telly Savalas. When I was a little girl it scared me half to death! I know some of you were not even born back then, but The Twilight Zone was a very popular series, and it didn't bother us that it was in black and white. You should watch it if you ever you get a chance. Anyway, back to the recipe.

The ingredients.

This recipe by Alton Brown is for one 9 inch cake pan. We doubled the recipe because we wanted a two-layer cake. The ingredients below are for one, so if you want a cake like we made, just double it.

The Cake

• Unsalted butter, for the pan
• 12 ounces, approximately 2 1/2 cups, all-purpose flour, plus extra for pan
• 12 ounces grated carrots, medium grate, approximately 6 medium
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/3 cups
• 2 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup firmly packed
• 3 large eggs
• 6 ounces plain yogurt
• 6 ounces vegetable oil
• Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Shred your carrots like this in a large bowl and set aside.

Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in the bowl of a mixer bowl and mix on low for until combined.

Add this mixture to the carrots and toss until they are well-coated with the flour.

In the bowl of the mixer combine the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and yogurt.


Mix it. Lookin good.......

Mix some more, until it looks like this. With the processor still running drizzle in the vegetable oil. Better.....

Now start adding the carrots and flour in a cup at a time.

Mix until combined, and then pour into your cake pans.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and bake for another 20 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the middle of the cake and when the toothpick comes out clean its done.

Have another glass of wine or bottle of beer and wait for the cakes to cool.

The Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 ounces powdered sugar, sifted, approximately 2 cups

Note: Remember, we doubled it.

In the bowl of the mixer with paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter on medium until blended. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. With the speed on low, add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat until smooth. Give it a taste for sweetness, you can add more powdered sugar if you want it sweeter.

Don't forget to remove the parchment paper.....lol

Frost with cream cheese frosting after cake has cooled completely. You can see George in the background starting to layer the lasagna.
(That recipe is "Coming Soon", let's get back to "Now Playing".)

Now presenting, "A Very Good Carrot Cake" thanks to Mr. Brown, and George, of course.

Enjoy.................

I Wish You Love and A Little Sweetness in Your Life,
Joyce

Mimi's Flan Recipe Repost

Here you have the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of sugar

8 extra large egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup whole milk

1 cup evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk (14oz.)

1 -8 oz. cream cheese (room temp)

Unsalted butter for pan

The first thing you want to do is caramelize 1/3 cup if sugar on low heat.

While the sugar is melting, butter the bottom and sides of an 8x8 pan. Please excuse my scratchy pan. I promise I will buy a new one. It's just my favorite "flan pan".

Stir it and stir it, so it doesn't burn.

It should look like this.

As soon as it's completely melted (don't over cook) and has a nice color like this, poor it into the pan. Don't try to spread it around, just poor it in and set aside. It's going to get hard right away, but don't worry.

Now combine the egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl.

Whisk well.

In another bowl combine room temperature cream cheese and whole milk. This step is very important because you want to make sure the cream cheese and the milk combine well. You can warm the cup of whole milk slightly so that it helps melt the cream cheese and there's no lumps.

Then add evaporated milk and condensed milk, (do not heat), and combine well.

Now combine the egg bowl with the milk bowl and whisk well.

Pour into pan right on top of hardened caramelized sugar. As it cooks in the water bath the caramelized sugar melts and spreads all over the bottom of the pan. Place pan inside a much larger pan and fill with hot water half way up the sides. Cook at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from the of oven and let it cool. After it cools cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate 3-4 hours or overnight.

Next day invert the flan onto a plate and this how it should look.

Serve in small squares and spoon some caramelized sugar on top. Other toppings you could use would be a dab of cool whip, or a spoon full of sweetened coconut is also very good. One more thing. You can make the flan without the cream cheese. You just combine all ingredients together in one bowl and continue from there. It is also very good!!!!

I hope you enjoy this creamy custard dessert.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I Wish You Love and Happy Cooking,
Joyce

This is a sin........

Me and my grands can't get enough.......just delicious!!!!!!

I Wish You Love,
Mimi

My Favorite Cuban Bakery

This large tray contains little crab shaped pastries "Congrejitos" and are made with meat inside. The smaller tray contains ham croquettes, "Croquetas de Jamon". The Cuban bakery that I shop at is in Hialeah, and on the way home from my mom's house. As far as I am concerned it is the best in town. These trays are always ready and very popular at Cuban parties and get togethers, or just for a weekend treat. Everyone has to take a number and wait to be called, which is a good thing because it gives you time to decide what you want, and believe me you need the time. Everything looks so good. The "Bocadito's" are small sandwiches filled with a ham spread, and are delicious.

And then we come to the real sweet stuff. Chocolate Eclairs, Strawberry Cheesecake, Three Milks Cake(Tres Leches), Flan, and Yellow Butter Cream Cake. Omigosh..........what did I do????

One thing I did not do was make dinner!!!!!!!!

Oh well, you only live once:)

Love ya,

Joyce

Chocolate Cream Pie In A Flash

This is the quickest Chocolate Cream Pie you'll ever make. It won't cost much either. There's really nothing to make except the chocolate pudding, and it only takes a couple of minutes. You can use the cook & serve or the instant pudding. So if you are in a pinch for time and want a quick and easy dessert for when the kids get home from school, or the hubby gets home from work, or maybe you have a desire for some good old chocolate cream pie with whipped topping, this will do just fine. And it tastes real good too.

Ingredients:

1 Keebler Chocolate Ready Crust

1 Jell-O Cook & Serve or Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix

3 Cups of Milk

Whipped Topping

Make the pudding following the directions on the box. Pour into pie crust, cover, and cool in the refrigerator for an hour. Serve with whipped topping. And that's all there is to it. How easy peasy is that????? Enjoy and feel free to have seconds!!!!!

I Wish You Love & The Pleasure of Indulging In Chocolate,

Joyce