The BEST Carrot Cake EVER!

A Happy Easter to you, my friends! In this Saturday edition of Two Hot Buns...I'll be sharing the BEST carrot cake recipe that I have ever had. I got it from Food Network. I don't know why I was hunting for it or how I found it...but as my mom might say..."It was a God thing."

 Haha... seriously though,

it's called Spring Celebration Carrot Cake. You can find it here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spring-celebration-carrot-cake-recipe/index.html

I've made it about 5 times and every time, I am tempted to eat the whole thing! This would be perfect for an Easter celebration or Mother's Day!

Start by buttering and greasing two square pans. Oh yeah, and put parchment paper in there and butter that too!

Make sure you put a generous amount of flour in there and swirl it all around the bottom and sides. Like this...

No sticking here! Okay, now take 1 1/2 C of freshly grated carrot, 1 C of walnut pieces, 1/2 C freshly chopped pineapple, and 1/2 C of flour and mix them around in a bowl. I must pause in order to tell you of the importance of FRESH carrot and pineapple. I mean, honestly...it DOES make a difference. It will just send this cake over the moon, around Saturn, over to Jupiter....you get the idea. It is awesome. No exceptions.

Now in another bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 C flour, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp baking powder.

Like so!

In ANOTHER bowl....yes, this recipe is bowl intensive. 

Also...I did NOT get sore grating the carrots. Did you hear me? This soreness in my arms is from my 3 hour workout yesterday. Oh wait...no, that was probably a workout that my fitness model friend did...

not me.

 (She works sooo hard! And has the bod to prove it. If you want a bod like hers...you probably shouldn't be eating this cake all the time...you should probably go look at her recipes and tips!)

So, like I said...I'm sore for some unknown reason. 

Okay, so where was I...

In another bowl, mix 4 eggs and 1 1/2 C sugar until fluffy. (Around 5 min.)

After you've beat the eggs and sugar...while slowly mixing...add 1 1/4 C vegetable oil and your secret weapon: 4 oz. of pureed carrot baby food. It will keep your cake moist and yummy. Also, you could probably cut down the oil a little...but I do not take any risks because this cake was just the perfect cake the first time I made it. I am a rule follower, people.

Almost ready to bake it! Oh! by the way...set your oven to 350 degrees. You're almost there! Now scatter the dry ingredients over the wet ones. Don't worry if your batter seems runny. It will be. Gently fold them in and then fold in your pineapple/walnut/carrot/flour mixture.

Told you it was kinda runny...

Evenly pour the batter into the two pans and hit them against the counter to get any little air bubbles out. 

Now bake at 350 for about 35-45 min. I did mine for 35 and I thought they came out a little dark. But, my oven is weird. Also, they should be pretty dark because of all your spices and stuff. 

See...pretty dark....don't worry. It is tasty! Let it cool for about 10 min. in the pan. Then flip them out onto a rack to cool completely.

Okay, don't hate me...but I totally forget to take pics of the vanilla/lemon/cream cheese frosting. Let's pause for a moment of silence....

YUM! May this icing be the best vanilla/lemon/cream cheese frosting you've ever had. Amen.

Beat 2 pkg. of cream cheese (room temp) until fluffy. Add in 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter. (room temp) Mix it in really well. Scrape those sides people! Now, add in 2 C of powdered sugar. Beat it until it's mixed real nice and smooth like. Now add the zest of two lemons and 1 tsp of vanilla. Whip it together until light and fluff-tastic.

Let it chill in the fridge for at least 20 min.

To assemble this masterpiece:

- Place one cake on the stand...add half the frosting.

-Add some chopped pineapple on top of the frosting.

- Lay the other cake layer on top of that.

- Add the last of the frosting and more pineapple.

- Serve.

- Let others compliment you and tell you this is the best cake ever...even if they never liked carrot cake.

Seriously.

Enjoy!

Spicy Baked Captain Crunch Chicken Fingers

   Okay, this is one of my favorite recipes and technically...it's not a "baked good"....but I do bake it in the oven, so I figure that's good enough. (Especially since I haven't posted anything in about a year! Yikes...sorry about that!)
    I don't know when I discovered this recipe, but it's been a few years. The following is my version of a few that I've found on the web. Before you start, let me tell you... it's the perfect mixture of sweet, crunch, savory, and spicy. Without further delay, I present Spicy Baked Captain Crunch Chicken Fingers!

First, you need 2 1/2 - 3 C of that good 'ole, cut-up-the-roof-of-your-mouth cereal: Captain Crunch.

To that, add in about 1 1/2 C of Corn Flakes to that and crush it up. You could use a food processor, if you're fancy like that. I use a bag. So there!

In a bowl, mix together 1 C flour, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of black pepper and some crushed red pepper (depending on your heat tolerance...remember that the sweetness will help cut the heat too).

While you're preparing your ingredients, go ahead and preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Also, find one of your baking sheets. I don't really know if you're supposed to put a cooling rack in the oven, but thefatlete and I have been baking on ours for over a year now. No harm here! Plus, it really helps make your baked delights stay crunchy.

In another small bowl, mix one egg and about 1 C of milk.

So now you have your flour dredge, your egg dredge, and your cereal dredge. Now,  wait a dredge minute! I want to warn you that you might want to go back up and, instead of mixing the spices with the flour, mix them with the cereal. I think I did this last time and I liked it better. It's up to you though. It'll taste good no matter what!

So...I forgot to take a picture when I was dredging the chicken. Or maybe I didn't forget; maybe my hands were covered with eggy mush. Yeah, that was it. Anyway, I used about 1 lb. of organic chicken tenders. Yes, I used organic chicken AND Captain Crunch. Maybe I'm a contradiction...but at least I'm trying! Dip the chicken in the flour, then the egg, then the cereal mixture. Lay it on your baking sheet.

Bake them in the 325 degree oven for about 15-25 min. Pull them out and prepare to meet the juiciest, crispiest, sweetest, spiciest, most wonderful baked chicken finger. If your tenders aren't super crispy on the bottom...don't fret, you won't notice that much once the tops start to cut up your mouth.

This is a relatively healthy meal since you can control the amount of cereal, flour, egg, etc. I think Hungry Girl even has her own take on the recipe. I made mine with green peas and a recipe for microwave potato chips! What?! Yes, you heard me. Microwave! I found it on Pinterest....go figure.

Happy Eating!

Potato Doughnuts, Friends, and Spring Break!

Being a teacher, I have to admit that having a Spring Break when most of the other adults in our country are working...feels quite nice! After a short trip to Arkansas to visit some of my relatives, My "Two Hot Buns" cohort came into town for some Spring Break fun...and of course we had to do some baking. Not only that, but the other musketeer to our two, the photographer, showed up at my house too!!

Anywho, while in AR, my Aunt Missy let me rummage around through some of my grandma's old church cookbooks. Here's an adaptation of a recipe I found there.

Potato Doughnuts

1/2 Tbs butter

1 C sugar

1 C mashed potatoes

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 C milk

2 1/2 C flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Oil

Okay, first I should tell you that I halved the original recipe, so what you just read is HALF the original...I'd say it makes about a dozen donuts and some holes.

First, cream the butter and sugar together.

Next, add the salt, egg, and mashed potatoes. Mix well. (Side note...I cheated. I really wanted to try this recipe along with several others that night...so we made mashed potatoes using potato flakes and the stove. These worked like a charm, but you could surely mash your own boiled potatoes and use those...because I'm sure you have the time....note the sarcasm.)

After you've mixed that in, alternate the milk/baking powder mixture along with the flour until you have a sticky batter/dough. The original recipe wasn't specific about the texture of the finished product...but mine was really sticky. Flour a hard surface (and your hands) and roll that sucker out to about 1/4 inch thick. I just patted mine out and it worked. Also, I just have to say that this dough is SOOO soft...and it's really going to help make a crispy, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth work of art.

Now, use that handy dandy doughnut cutter you bought about a year ago. Oh, wait, you don't have one?? Well, just get one from Ace Mart, your neighborhood restaurant supply store open to the public! But really, if you don't want to go to all that trouble...you could use some cookie cutters or a cup or just roll them all into doughnut holes.

Now, if you're on a strict diet you might not be able to do this next step...well, let's be honest. If you're on a strict diet...you're probably not going to find this recipe useful at all. Unless, of course, you are looking for a recipe to sabotage your diet. Then, you may have come to right place!

Hey! Everything in moderation right??? Right??

Okay, heat about a bottle of oil in a deep pan. I used vegetable oil. You could use the same. Or lard. Or whatever fat you want. The recipe specifically said, "Deep fat"...mmmm! 390 degrees but I didn't really pay attention to the temperature. If it cooks too fast, just turn your heat down.

When you've tested the oil (by throwing in a little piece of dough to see if it sizzles) put in your first doughnut VERY carefully. We don't want any grease burns! We tried putting it in with chopsticks and then a metal spatula. I thought the spatula worked better.

Make sure you turn it once after it's browned on the one side. I had to flip mine several times and even put them back in the pot b/c some were a little doughy inside still. They need to be BROWN! Then, just gently pick them up with chop sticks or a metal spatula and transfer them to a cooking rack.

It helps if you've got Two Hot Buns working together!

We also made a cinnamon sugar mixture to dip some in. You know me and my cinnamon!!

And there you have it. Crispy, light, fluffy rounds of yumminess! Thanks Grandma!

Cinnamon...Again???

Yes, folks...you read that right. I have made another cinnamon concoction. Well,  actually, before I made my cinnamon sweetness...I made these...

Then...I made this...

 I sure can get a lot of baking done when I'm iced in my house for 3, going on 4, days! The top picture is a recipe for country dinner rolls that I found at the last minute for an impromptu family potluck. Did I mention I live on the same street as my brothers and sister-in-laws? It's pretty nice being able to walk to people's houses and have a nice meal and get out of the house, even in dreary weather. The second pic, I'm calling Rumbleberry Cobbler. It's a mixture of rhubarb (my fav!), blueberries, blackberries, and granny smith apples. Oh, and don't forget the cinnamon, oat topping. It's loosely based on this.

But, after all that baking, I still wasn't tired. I posted my cinnamon rolls a few days ago...and that got me thinking about my favorite spice. You guessed it...cinnamon. I saw this recipe on the pioneer woman's site, so I just had to try and figure it out for myself. So...here it is.

Cinnamon Bread

First, collect all your scrumptious ingredients: yeast, eggs, milk, butter, flour, sugar, salt....mmm, already sounds good...wait, don't forget the cinnamon! Oh, and pull them out of the fridge a few hours beforehand to get them at room temperature. ( Like my last recipe, this one is adapted for a bread machine. If you don't have one, you could just check out the Pioneer Woman's site. She's not a cheater, like me.)

Melt 3/4 cups of butter with one cup of milk. I had skim milk...and it worked just dandy.

Now, for cheaters like me...just pile everything in there. My machine calls for wet ingredients first. People, I'm tellin ya...if you don't have a bread machine..go here and find a cheap one. I'm fairly new to all this bread-baking mischief, so it's helpful. So yeah, that's the warm milk/butter mixture.

Now, add those two room-temperature eggs.

Next, it's 3 1/2 cups of bread flour.

Add 1/3 cup of sugar. (No, you're seeing that right...I almost added in WAY too much sugar! I checked the recipe again right before I added it, only to find it was 1/3 of a cup... not 1 1/3 cups. Yikes!)

Next, 1 tsp. of salt. I added a little more because my butter was unsalted. Yep, that's salt...in a syrup dispenser. You could have one too, if you married someone like thefatlete.

Lastly, 2 1/4 tsp. of Bread Machine yeast. I always get a little nervous when a recipe calls for active yeast. I have Bread Machine yeast...which from my research tells me that I need to used a little less. Not really sure if that's true or not, but I did anyway.

Okay, so then I just put it in my machine, set it to the dough cycle...and went to catch up on Facebook.

After about 1 1/2 hours, scoop it out onto the counter (floured) and roll it out into a nice rectangle. Don't make it too wide though. Also, I sprinkled on a little more flour as I rolled it. 

Mix another 1/3 cup of sugar with 2 Tbs. of cinnamon. Heaven!

Smear the other 2 Tbs. of butter over the dough. You can even melt it first, if you're feeling sassy. Then, sprinkle the mixture evenly on the dough.

Roll it up nice and tight. Or, at least tight. Mine...not so nice lookin.

Looks more like a grub worm.

Plop that little grub worm down in your well-buttered bread pan. Make sure to place him seam side down!

Okay, wait...now I'm picturing more of a caterpillar...about to become a beautiful, yummy cinnamony butterfly! Now wrap him up (in his plastic wrap cocoon) and keep him warm for about 2 hours...so he can rise! A little trick: I kept my oven at 170 then turn it off and let the bread rise in there.

Well, he rose...but not very pretty sir! Oh well. Put an egg wash on that sucker. 1 egg + smidgen of milk. Then, put him in the oven at 350 for about 30-40 min. I think it's supposed to get pretty brown.

Yea! Brown and delish!

Now, set your lovely creation out to cool. Mmm...tell your mouth to stop watering. You can wait just a few more minutes!

Now is the time...now is the best time...now is the best time of your life...Does anyone else remember that ride from Epcot? It was a ride about the future with animatronic people singing about the inventions of the future. No?? Oh well, this is still going to be the best time of your life. Okay, maybe just the best time you've had while eating cinnamon swirl bread. Ahh...the fruits of your labor. It's not perfect...but food doesn't have to look perfect. It just has to taste perfect, right? And man...this sure does taste pretty close to perfection for me!

I hope you'll try it. Or, at least come back and try something else real soon!
-Meg