Blogger's Block

Hello to my 9 readers.  Maybe you have noticed a lack of posts coming from this blog.  For some reason, I have not had a whole lot of motivation to blog lately.  I have still been baking, but I either:
1. Forget to take pictures
2. Take pictures and let them sit in my mobile album for days and then completely forget about them
3. Make something that I don't really feel is "blog worthy."  I mean, anyone can make chocolate chip cookies, right?

So, this blog is going to be changing a bit. There will still be recipes, but less deserts.  Best friend is complaining about Pinterest and this blog making him gain weight, and I am complaining too.  Therefore, the blog is getting a facelift.  It will still be called Keck's Cakes (yes, I realize I have only posted one cake, and it was a total failure) but only because I don't know how to change the title of the blog without completely making a new one, which just sounds like a lot of hassle. 

Coming soon to this blog ...

1. A 25 things to do before I'm 25 list.
2. Everything you can make with a food processor. Let me tell you, I have owned one for less than 2 weeks and I have used it 4 times.
3. More about me and my best friend.  We don't have the most exciting life, but I still love it.  I don't have the money to scrapbook, so I'm turning this blog into a scrapbook of sorts.  If you don't like reading about people who are madly in love with each other, maybe you should stop following me. Haha. But really.

I'm challenging myself to post at least once a week.  Keep me motivated, people!

Love,
Kenzie

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

I went to Colorado last week for a friend's wedding, and while I was there, my mom found out I had a cooking blog.  She asked me to make the family something for desert.  I had recently seen this recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to try.  It is originally from a blog called "Scrambled Henfruit." Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this because my cell phone was dead and I didn't have my camera.
These are the perfect fall treat!

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets (I found this in my grocery store near the hot chocolate mixes.)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups all purpose flour

1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Trust me, you need it!  

In a medium sized bowl, mix the butter, sugar, salt, and all 10 packages of Apple Cider mix.  Then beat in eggs, one at a time.  Next mix in the vanilla.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture.  Mix until the the dough is the consistency of normal cookie dough.  

Scoop out the cookie dough into balls that are about 1 Tablespoon.  Flatten each ball, and place one unwrapped square of caramel in the middle.  Cover the caramel with the cookie dough.  Make sure it is completely covered.  If it isn't, it will stick to the cookie sheet, and when you go to pick the cookies up, the caramel will completely fall out.  Trust me on this one. 

Bake cookies for 12 minutes.  Do not overcook!  It is hard to tell when these cookies are browning because the dough is already pretty brown, so be careful!

This makes about 3 dozen depending on how big you like your cookies.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

One of the current trending topics on Pinterest is Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.  I looked up a recipe online and it wanted you to use Philadelphia Cheesecake Mix.  I knew that I could just make my own cheesecake mixture, with ingredients that I already had.

P.S. If you don't have Pinterest yet, but you like cooking DIY crafts, cloths, baby ideas, actually ideas for EVERYTHING under the planet, you seriously need to get an account.  

Anyways, the first thing you need to do is mix up some cheesecake mix!  You will just need one block of softened cream cheese (8oz), 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Once that is mixed up, put it in an icing bag, or just use a ziplock bag if you don't have one one of those.  Stuff all the mixture into one corner of the bag and cut off the corner. 

Next, cut the tops off of a box of strawberries.  Then, use the smallest, sharpest knife you have to hollow out the strawberries. 

Then, using your pastry bag, fill the hollow centers with cheesecake. 

The recipe I looked up on the website, wanted you to dip the tops in crushed up graham cracker so that it would actually seem like you were eating cheesecake.  I decided to make chocolate covered strawberries instead.  I just dunked the bottom of each strawberry in a bowl of melted chocolate chips.

Mmmmm....delicious. 

Peaches and Cream Muffins

I married a peaches lover.  I've always been kind of "meh" about peaches, until I discovered the Edmond Farmer's Market.  Now I can't get enough of them!  They are so delicious. They are a little more expensive than a grocery store, but taste 100 times better. We have been visiting the market once or twice a week to buy peaches.  I have made several peach pies already this summer, so today I decided to see what else I could make with them.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/2 a cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl mix together one egg, 1/4 cup of canola oil, 1/3 cup of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.  Fold in 1 cup of diced peaches (about 1 large peach).

Line a muffin tin with cooking spray or cupcake holders.  I used cupcake holders because I can never seem to grease my muffin tin well enough, but next time I'm not going to use them.  The batter is very thick and sticky.  It sticks to the liners which makes it difficult to spoon batter evenly into them.

Anyways, fill each muffin holder 1/2 full with batter.

Next, mix together 4oz of cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Spoon a small amount into each muffin tin.  

Cover the cream cheese with the rest of the batter.

Cook in a 400 degree oven for 17 minutes.

See how my cream cheese is really close to the top?  I put too much batter in the bottoms of the muffin tin, and then didn't have enough to cover up the cream cheese.  Oops. :)

Chocolate Pudding Cake In A Jar

I have recently become obsessed with cooking things in a 4oz Mason Jar ... it's a perfect serving of something delicious and you don't have leftovers sitting on the counter begging you to eat them.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of cocoa, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder together in a bowl.

Add 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of canola oil or melted butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the dry ingredients. 

Spray 6 4oz mason jars or ramekins with cooking spray, and then divide the batter equally between the 6 jars. 

Next, stir together 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 a cup of cocoa together in a small bowl.  Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the jars. 

Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of boiling water into each jar.  

Put the jars onto a cookie sheet and cook for 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  

Top with vanilla ice cream!

Bacon Meatballs

Yes, you read the title correctly. This is the recipe for bacon meatballs.
Best friend LOVES bacon. He actually loves the way it tastes, not just the awesome way it smells. (Best friend can't smell, by the way.)  So when I found this recipe for bacon meatballs, I knew I had to try them out.  The original recipe can be found on evilshenanigans.com, but I made a few modifications.

First, you will need a pound of bacon.  If you have a food processor, put the bacon in that after cutting it into one inch squares.  Process it until it looks like ground beef.  I don't have a food processor, so I just cut it with kitchen shears.  It definitely didn't look ground, but the pieces were small enough.  Just remember that you will eventually be rolling this up into a ball.

Mix the bacon with 6oz of ground beef, 8oz of ground Italian turkey (Walmart's version of Italian sausage),  1 egg, 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 teaspoons of paprika, 2 teaspoons of oregano, 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper, 2 torn up slices of bread, and 1/2 a cup of Parmesan cheese.  Honestly, the best way to mix this up is to just stick your hands in it.  Yes, it's as gross as it sounds.  Once it's all mixed up, roll the meat into one-two inch balls.  If you have a cookie dough scooper, it's just about the perfect size.

Next, wash your hands six bajillion times.

Next, put a few of the meatballs in a skillet on medium heat.  Cook until they are browned on all sides and then put the balls on a greased cookie sheet.  Cook for 10-15 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees.

We served ours on hoagie buns topped with our favorite spaghetti sauce and some Parmesan cheese.

I didn't take any pictures because, well, it's ground up meat.  It's not that pretty.  But these meatballs were seriously DELICIOUS.

Rhubarb Crisp

Yesterday, for the first time since moving to Oklahoma, I found rhubarb at the grocery store!  My mom used to make rhubarb crisp when I was a kid; we had some in our garden and we also had some growing wild in the field behind our neighborhood.  When I saw it at the store, I immediately texted my mom and asked her to send me her recipe.  

For those of you who are like the cashier at Crest and have no idea what rhubarb is, this is it:

I actually tried it raw last night - it's extremely sour.  I thought that it would be a lot like eating celery, but the texture is totally different.  Because rhubarb is so sour, most recipes containing rhubarb also call for a lot of sugar. :)

For rhubarb crisp, you will need 6 cups of chopped rhubarb.  You will have to buy 8-10 stalks.  Once it is chopped up, pour it into a shallow 6X10 baking dish.  

(I halved the recipe ... hence the smaller dish)

Then sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon over the chopped rhubarb.

In a separate bowl, combine 6 tablespoons of butter, 3/4 of a cup of sugar, 3/4 of a cup of oats, and 3/4 of a cup of flour.  Work together until crumbly.  Pour over the rhubarb. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  It's really good served with vanilla ice cream!