Ice Box Cake

  So this is another fast post, so much happening in my life that I have not really had any time to do any baking.  If you ask Hubby he would be all "it's about time!!"  And he would be right, sort of.  You see, as of Tuesday I will have a new job.  I finally found a job close to home, which should allow us to save some money.  Which I plan to spend on candy, or pay bills.  I prefer candy, just so you know.  

 I have been working a long way from home for my day job for almost 11 years, this job has been the one I was at just before I got married, I had Pork Chop while I was here and lots of other stuff.  I am so nervous. Do you think my new co workers will like me?  What if I shared my candy?  Well either way, it is happening.  Tomorrow, and I am so ready!

  I will still keep my part time job, because I really like it, and any extra money will put us that much closer to having our debt paid down.  Or you know, allow me to buy more sugar to bake with.  Also I think this will mean I may have to cut my posts down.  I aimed to do two posts a week, and sometimes that was just not possible.  And so I am going to aim for one post a week, if I get two in, it will be a bonus.  If not, well, I am still here, and you have to admit, I am awesome.  And humble, don't forget, humble.

These were right on the end cap at wal mart, so I grabbed them, and then Hubby put them away and I almost forgot about them.

 So this simple treat was due to the fact I was really wanting something like cake, but didn't want to actually have to make it.  Or leave the house to buy it.  I have heard about ice box cakes for years, and I was all "seriously ice box cake, isn't that just a cold cake?"  And obviously like most things, I was wrong.  I went on Pintrest and found out that an ice box cake is basically wafer cookies and whip cream.  And you have to let it sit in the fridge for about 4 hours for it to be ready.

  Not sure if I should point out it would have taken me 10 minutes to drive to the store and buy some cake, but whatever, I didn't even have to get out of my pajamas to make this, so it was worth it, sort of.

This was my little bowl to try, I didn't realize how little you got out of the ingredients I had.  

 I wanted to make this to share with my co workers and I had this plan of doing cake in a jar, but when I pulled out the jars I had, they were the bigger ones.  But I figure that would be fine, more cake never hurt anyone.  So I cleaned all 12 jars and got to work.  And I totally just made this recipe up.  Because I am smart like that.

Ice Box Cake
by me

-2 cups cold whipping cream
-1/4 cup sugar
-1-2 TBSP vanilla bean paste
-sleeve of chocolate wafer cookies

You can use any sort of container, I made one in a little cup so I could try it.  All you have to do it whip your whipping cream with the sugar and vanilla.  Then either spoon or pipe some cream into the bottom of your container, add a cookie and just layer it.  You want enough whip cream so that the cookies will have enough moister.

Yep that is just a big blob of whip cream, it was so good.

 Once you have done that, make sure to cover your cake and let it set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  I couldn't wait and tried after 3, the cookies were not soft all the way through by that point.

So after all that I got three jars people.  Not enough to share at work.  I put one aside for one friend there, she is never there and always misses the treats.  But then I got sick and didn't go in the one day she was there.  So I may have eaten them. Maybe.

So I think this was really good, those cookies are very rich and chocolaty and I think the sugar in the whip cream was a must, or it would have been weird.

 Anyway, I bet I will be back soon, well I have other posts ready to go, so no worries there.  I just cannot believe I am going to have such a short commute, I used to spend over 2 hours on the road a day.  Now, maybe 30 minutes.  Maybe.

Cake Mix Review, and Cupcakes in a Jar

How can you beat a cake mix that looks that good?

  So it's about that time again.  The time to make a box mix cake, and review it so it makes me feel better about using box mix.  You know, I love a box mix, but some people don't.  I really like finding new ones so I can try something different out without the hassle of a real recipe.  So here you go, and I promise you will love it.

  I found this at the larger grocery store last week, we usually do our groceries at Walmart, but we were there for something else so I got it.  I have no control, I see it, I want it.  Now this mix cost almost $5, but it was all chocolate so it was worth the gamble.

This is the fudgy filling, I was very good and didn't lick the bowl.

  Just like the other two I have tried out, there were two pouches in this mix.  I did not read the box, like usual, and did not realize that there was no icing glaze.  The mix was cupcake mix then a fudgy middle, so you know not all bad.  I even had one tub of icing left over, so I was all good.

  So to start I wanted to make cupcakes, but wanted something a little different.  My friends at work have not had my cupcakes in a jar, I don't think.  I cannot remember, really my life is one big blur.  So I got out the canning jars I have and washed them.  Then I got to baking.

  I mixed up the first pouch, which was the fudge filling.  It was not too hard to do.  Then I mixed the cupcake mix.  It said you can bake it in a 9x13, but I ended up with about 16 cupcakes.  I wanted them a bit bigger as I was only going to put one in each jar.

See I hardly slopped any on the muffin pan.

 Firstly I filled my cupcake liners with the cake mix.  I always use liners so it is easier to get the cupcakes out, and it saves you lots of time in cleaning.   Once that was done, I went back and put a TBSP full of the filling in the middle.

The fudge didn't really sink into the cupcake.

  The box did not have directions for making cupcakes, which is fine.  I just did my own thing, but the box said to swirl the filling into the cake batter.  So I did, but it was so sticky it really didn't do much.

But it did when I tried to swirl it all together.

 They baked in a 350 oven for about 13 minutes, then I let them sit to cool in the pans for a while.  I took then out and let them finish cooling.

At this point, they look gross.  This is the real reason we use frosting, to cover the ugly cupcakes.

  I wanted this to be like chocolate over load, like sex in a jar.  If there is such a thing, and if there is, I so don't want to know.  Anyway, when I was thinking about icing, I needed enough to do a nice swirl in each jar, but I only had one tub of icing.  So I mixed it with a cup or so of Nutella and a bit of icing sugar to thicken it up.  I put a bit too much icing sugar as it was way too hard to pipe, but it turned out to be like a nice thick ganache.  Yummy!

The cupcake tops sort of pulled a bit going into the jar, but I didn't care, I had frosting.

  I also wanted to add some texture, so I used three types of chocolate covered rice crispy pearls.  I have a huge bag of milk chocolate ones and a little bag of vanilla and dark.  So I just took the wrapper off the cupcakes, pushed the cupcake into the jar. Then put a big swirl of icing.  And then covered it with chocolate pearls.  If the cake was not so rich and did not have filling I would have layered another half cupcake on top.  But as it was, this was plenty.

I managed to frost all but one before my stupid plastic pipping bag exploded.  Lesson learned, less sugar, or just use an ice cream scoop and the back of a spoon to spread it around.  Oh and sprinkles, lots of sprinkles.

 I think this mix was well worth the cost, although I would have liked the picture on the box to not have shown the cake with the chocolate glace.  Because I bet most people like me won't read it until they are home.

See, all those chocolate pearls and you cannot even tell I did a nice swirl.

  So to take them to work I just got some plastic forks, because I was out of spoons, and tied them on.  Pork Chop even got in on the action and tied one on.  And no I don't mean he "tied one on"  he tied a fork on the jar.  I may be a bad parent, but I am not that bad.

Getting ready to "Tie one on"  

  So the verdict at work was good.  The few people that I know that don't like sweet things just avoided them.  The girl who hates chocolate actually liked it, and one guy told me that "that cake in a can was good."  And there you have it people, cake in a can.

 Sigh.

All done, and no need to put it in the fridge, as they keep great and were moist for a few days after.  Well so I would think,they really didn't last that long.