Showing posts with label jar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jar. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2013

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.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Mudslide cupcakes in a jar - week 8 of the 12 weeks blog hop

These are the perfect portable treat!  Oh and there is booze in there!

  So I am really enjoying this blog hop. I have been so lucky to be able to join, even though I have not made a cookie yet.  I hope this week is no different because I have been wanting to make these for a very long time.

  I first saw the cupcake in a jar on Glorious Treats and was smitten with them right away.  I did attempt them once, and it did not end well.  I bought the wrong size jars and didn't figure it out until I went to put my cupcakes in the jars.  Sigh; I was upset, but not upset enough to not make them.  They tasted great, looked bad, and I ended up with about 2 dozen jars and no reason to use them.  I did eventually figure out that the jars were perfect to put itty bitty cookies in.  So I was really just being prepared for making little jars of cookies.  See I am smart.

Any guesses as to the secret ingredient?


  Anyway, on with the treat for today. I had been thinking about what I could make that was different and sort of sinful and you know, over the top.  Then it hit me, Mudslide Cupcakes.  My theory being that a mudslide is decadent and chocolaty and full of alcohol.  I was so excited because I had a bottle of Irish cream in the pantry.  But like every other bottle of liquor in my home, it was old.  But I figured it would still be good, it's alcohol, that doesn't go bad right?  Well I was wrong, it was past due, a year past due.  What kind of person lets liquor go to waste like that?  Well I do, we got lots of stuff when we first got married and the first few years after.  But we are not drinkers.  Not because we are against it or anything, we just don't drink. Hubby will have the rare beer now and then.  I used to, trust me Hubby has a few stories he could tell, but he won't.  If he knows whats good for him.  Anyway my plan was almost lost, but I decided that this blog could not go on without some sort of booze, so I made the hubby go with me and I got another bottle, a smaller bottle. But still, I got booze!

I used a little bit of milk, like 1/4 cup, then 2 TBS vanilla bean paste, and the rest was Baileys. Lot's and Lot's of Baileys.


    So to start I bought the right jars this time, the little ones, and washed and dried them. Then I got to making the cupcakes for them.  I used a cake mix.  Again.  I know.  But I like the texture and I really wanted to use what I had on hand.  So I had box mix and worked with it.  For each jar you need 1 1/3 cupcakes.    I baked them in wrappers because if you don't then you have to grease and flour a muffin tin and then you have to wash it after.  So, your welcome, cupcake wrappers it is.

  I baked and cooled the cupcakes and then got to making the icing.  I had planned to make it with all Baileys, but that would have been wrong.  So I put in a little milk, just to make it not too boozy.  It turned out really boozy, but I don't think it's enough to get you drunk.  I mean I am still typing this after eating a cupcake right?  Well there was not as much icing on the cupcake as in the jar, so maybe don't drive right after eating this. (I am a cheap drunk)

Mudslide cream cheese icing
(I just sort of made this up as I went)

2 packages of cream cheese
1 cup butter
icing sugar*
2 TBSP vanilla bean paste or just vanilla
milk or Irish cream or half of each **
Irish cream flavouring to taste (if you are not using the real stuff, and if so replace the booze with milk)
1 cup chopped malted milk balls

*as much as you need to get the amount and consistency you need
** same as the icing sugar as much as you need

  Mix the cream cheese, butter and vanilla bean paste until light and fluffy, then add a little milk.  I then added some icing sugar to thicken it up.  Now I just started dribbling in the Irish cream, and I put in a lot. I wanted the flavour to really come through.  I added enough to make the mixture really sort of thin, almost like tooth paste, then I just kept adding icing sugar until I made it thick enough to hold when I piped it.

  I had enough for 12 jars (I used 16 cupcakes) and I also had enough for 3 large cupcakes ( for me) and 2 dozen mini cupcakes to give to the elevator guys at work and there was still about 3 cups of icing left over.  So you can half this if you are making less, which is probably the case.  I just like to make lots then use the extra later, I froze it, so I can use it whenever I like.

  Then just to go over the top a bit I wanted to add some crunch, but not a lot of crunch, so I took some malted milk balls I had from Halloween and crushed them up .  I put them in a freezer bag and used my meat tenderizer to crush them, they where hard!

All set up to go, I made three at a time.


  To get set up, put your icing in a piping bag with a large star tip.  I use disposable bags, of course and I used a lager tip, the kind you would use to frost large cupcakes.  I cut my cupcakes and got my jars lined up to put them together. I worked 3 jars at a time

From the left, the first layer, then icing, then crushed milk balls.

  First put 1/2 of a cupcake into the bottom of the car, then pipe on a layer of icing.  Now you can sprinkle a little bit of the malted milk balls if you like, and I like, so I did.  Then put another 1/2 cupcake and repeat.  At this point depending on your jars you may put in another layer or stop now.  It's all up to you. I ended up putting 1/3 of a cupcake on for the 3rd layer. When you are done, make sure you make the top swirl of icing nice and sprinkle the malted milk balls to make it look like the top of a nice cupcake.
All done!

  Now a few things I found.  The tops of the cupcakes don't drop into the jar like the bottoms, just push it in a bit.  Then as you layer you may need to push down your cupcake layers to make it all fit in nicely.  No worries it works great.
All ready for the fridge, with a spoon tied on.


  Then you just put the lids on and they are done.

  I got a little crafty here, and made tags.  I used some of my scrap booking stuff to cut out two shapes.  I punched out flowers then some circles.

I used my die cutter and my sticker maker to make it easy to attach my tags.  I wrote with  a glitter pen.

You can either tie this on or make it easy and just stick them on the lid.
  Once you are done you can just leave them as is, or like I like to do, tie a spoon on with a ribbon.  Makes it the perfect one serving treat.


I had a few extra cupcakes so I made them for me to eat at home.  Also for the guys at work who are busy I made 2 dozen mini ones so they could eat them faster.  Also a little less booze so they can keep on working, just kidding not enough for regular people to get a buzz, just me!


  Now these need to be kept in the fridge due to the cream cheese.  They taste like a Baileys cheesecake, they are so rich and the little crunch of the malted milk balls really adds something.  I will make these again for sure!
  Hope you try it out and check out Glorious Treats, she had done a lot of different jar treats.