Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Upside-Down Cake and Square Cookies. The world has gone mad!

Betty Crocker, you are a crazy, crazy woman. I used one of your iconic recipe cards (seen here) to make Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and it was a trip. People loved it. I did not. It was easy to make but just too sweet. I made a pretty design with fruit and followed the very simple instructions. 

Here's the deal.

All you need is:
  • A box of yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
  • A stick of butter 
  • A cup of brown sugar
  • Sliced pineapples (I used Dole pineapples slices in juice.)
  • Maraschino cherries
Melt the butter in the pan. Make a layer of sugar and create a fun design for the fruit. Pour in your cake batter and TADA!! 26-30 minutes later you have a cake. 

Don't forget! Flip over the cake at least 2 minutes after you take it out of the oven and leave the pan over it for a bit. Everything sets and you can serve it. 

Like I said, not my favorite thing I've baked...far from it. 

Here are a few of my new favorites:

About 2 weeks ago, I decided to go nuts and make chocolate muffins. I was given Sally's Baking Addiction book for my birthday. I love the book and all the recipes. I made Sally's chocolate muffins and holy beans, I never thought I'd like chocolate muffins and I love them! Search her site for the recipe or buy her great book. It's worth it for the pictures.


Now, I needed cookies...I didn't want to bust out my mixture and I wanted something different. I remembered reading about these strawberry cake mix chocolate chip cookies. I googled and found this very simple recipe. It needed more moisture so I added some milk..about say...1/4 of a cup.

I had semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips and wanted to party so I added them both to the batter. I again was pulling the lazy card out of my nonexistent pocket. I decided to smear the batter on parchment paper and bake. My stroke of brilliance still brings a smile to my face. 


Be careful when baking. Since it's one sort of thin homogeneous blob, it cooks rather quickly. Check frequently!!

Slice it with a pizza cutter and viola! It's fake strawberry and chocolate delightfulness. 

Make them soon or now! 


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Post...life

As many of you noticed from my last entry....I've been through a breakup. I am sad, some would say devastated. I wish it wasn't so but it is. I need to move on and put a positive spin on it. A relationship happened and I can smile about that. As A. A. Milne says: How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. That's how I feel about it. I wasn't all good but I am focusing on the good to get me through.

To help me get my mind and soul get into a better space, I am finally going to turn my blog into something!!!!!  Yes, friends...A Decadent Discourse will now be a food blog. I am going to bake stuff and critique it and maybe review restaurant dishes.

Hello..kids..A Decadent Discourse is going to now be an even better and clever(er) pun.

Yes. It's happening. I am excited.

I will finally write more and it will be fun. It may not be every week but it will happen.