Butter Pecan Cake

Frosting:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

12 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter ( 1 stick), room temp

1 lb powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Cake:

6 oz white chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

 4 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

3 cups sifted cake flour

To make the frosting:

  Melt 2 tbsp of butter in pan, add pecans and cook over medium heat until toasted.  This may take approx. 10 minutes.  Be sure to keep an eye on those suckers! They can go from raw to toasted to burnt very quickly!  Remove from heat and cook completely.

   Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter until creamy.  Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy.  Stir in buttered pecans and vanilla, cover and chill at least one hour.

To make the cake:

  Put chopped white chocolate in bowl and pour boiling water over the chocolate.  Stir until smooth and set aside to cool.

  Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease three 9 inch round pans and line with wax paper.  Then grease and flour the wax paper.  If you don't do this, you may end up with cake crumbs.

  Combine buttermilk and baking soda and set aside.

  Beat butter until creamy.  Gradually add sugar beating until fluffy.  Add egg yolks one at a time until incorporated.  Stir in chocolate and vanilla.  You may now add the cake flour to the mix alternating with buttermilk.  Make sure to begin and end the flour.  Mix on low until all blended together.

  In another bowl, beat the egg white with stiff peaks form.  Gently fold it into the cake batter.  Evenly distribute the batter to the three cake pans.

  Bake 20-23 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pans for about 10 minutes.  Then you may turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  This may take approx.  30 minutes to 1 hour.  Frost and enjoy the delicious taste of Butter Pecan Cake.  Store in fridge.  

I only made my cake with 2 layers.  I had a little accident with the third layer.  Oh well, I prefer a higher frosting content on my cake anyway!!

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Flipping through the channels one rainy day, I came across Good Eats.  Alton Brown has a wacky way of explaining the science behind cooking.  He captivated me with his buttermilk pancakes and here we are...  I tweaked it a little and let me tell you, these are the fluffiest melt in your mouth pancakes I have ever tasted.  You'll never go back to the box stuff again!

Dry Ingredients

2 cups AP flour

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients

 part 1: 4 tbsp melted butter and 2 egg yolks, mixed together

 part 2: 2 cups buttermilk and 2 egg whites, mixed together


Preheat a griddle pan to 325°.  Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Once the griddle is preheated, you can mix parts 1 & 2 of the wet mixture together.  There is a reasoning behind this.  Trust me and just do it!  At this point, I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the wet mixture.  Now you may add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Stir until just mixed.  Warning: Do NOT over mix your batter! Unless you want hockey pucks for breakfast.  Add a little shortening or butter to the griddle or pan and ladle the batter in.  Flip when little bubbles begin to appear.  Throw some on your plate with butter and maple syrup.  If you're from Louisiana, a little Steen's works too.

Enjoy!

chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

•  2 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups chocolate chips (any combo)

1.  Preheat oven to 375°.  Stir flour, baking soda and salt in bowl, set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy and creamy.
3. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time until incorporated.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips ( I use half milk and half semi-sweet).   
5. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Cool on wire rack.  Eat and enjoy!

makes 2 1/2 dozen large cookies