Chocolate Candy Cake

I first fell in love with this cake at a baby shower. The recipe is flawless and simple. The cake is moist and thick. The frosting is decadent and delicious. It's a beautiful marriage!

Recipe for Cake:
1 package devils food cake mix (yep, serious cheating!)
1 1/2 c. Milk
3 eggs
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1 (3.5 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
Combine ingredients and mix on medium speed for 4 minutes.
Use 2 - 9" cake pans lined with parchment (or 3 - 8" pans).
Bake at 325 for 25 minutes.
Let the cakes cool completely IN the pan on cooling racks. When completely cooled wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 1/2 hour and up to a week in the freezer.

Recipe for Frosting:
I doubled this and enough leftover for cupcakes the next day
3/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. water
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. clear imitation vanilla (or use real vanilla, it just wont be white frosting)
1/8 tsp. butter flavoring
4 c. confectioners sugar
1 c. pecans, chopped (substitute nuts for skor bar or toffee bits)
2-4 (1.5 oz) milk chocolate candy bars, chopped (try substituting candy bars with oreo cookies)
Blend until well combined

To curl the white/dark chocolate:
Use Bakers chocolate bars (they are thicker and easier to shave). Warm the squares up (20 seconds) in the microwave. Shave with a vegetable peeler. They will curl nicely. I used 100% cocoa, unsweetened, dark chocolate. It tastes terrible alone, but with the sweetness of this cake, you would never know it!

After the cake is completely cooled, layer the cake with a nice thick layer of frosting. Add the top layer and put a crumb coat of frosting on. Refrigerate for 15/20 minutes then frost the rest of the cake. Lightly press the chocolate curls into the sides and top of cake. 

Slice and enjoy with ice cream!

Lefse

Do you have leftover mashed potatoes? It's amazing what you can do with them. This day we made lefse.

It's best to use a potato ricer to make your potatoes light and fluffy. Lefse is hardy recipe and you really only need a few ingredients. My recipe includes salt, heavy cream, sugar, butter and lots of flour. Since I already had salt, whole milk and butter mashed into the potatoes, I just added a little sugar and enough flour to make them like dough, then rolled them into walnut size balls.

Once we rolled them out REALLY thin, we threw them on my griddle and cranked the heat to 400. Once they browned and bubbled up a little, I flipped them and cooked the other side for about 1 minute. They cooled nicely on a damp towel. I covered them with another towel.

A little History about Lefse

It's hard to say when lefse originated but Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800's, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge, griddles, mashers and rolling pins. The result is a delicacy that's part of a special tradition replicated in every Norwegian-American town for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again. Here is a version of Lefs's history by Jim Berg from Albert Lea, MN. Now Den, vot you know bout dat.... Did you know that lefsa was invented by the norweigen Vikings... Von day, dey vent and was going to raid Ireland..... Vell they got over der, but they couldn't suprise dem Irish people cause they were making too much noise coming across the Nort Sea from Norway. When they got to the shores of Ireland, they tried to land But couldn't. You see the Irish heard them coming and began throwing their potatoes at them darn vikings so dat the cud not land. Vel by golly, do you know vat. They load that ship with all the potatoes dat got trowed at dem, pulled out their oars and finally got back to Norway. When they got there they played aroung with those potatoes and came up with a bread, and called it LEFSA. They had a big party that night, day got out that old foul smelling fish and put it on Lefsa and that is where the Lutefisk Supper vas born...........My Grate, Grate, Grate, Grate, Granfodder was on that ship that raided Ireland. I'm sure glad they brought it to America other wise we would not have Lutefisk Suppers Today. My Lena makes the best darn lefsa in Minnesota. Corse I have to help otherwise she'd eat it all up while she was cooking it and we would not have any for supper that evening.... I'm sure glad they have Lutefisk Suppers around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. My mother Palma, made all the lefsa by herself. They wern't very round, but then she always said you could not taste the round...... Your Friend.......... Ole Story taken from lefsetime.com where you can find recieps and equipment to make your own!

Homemade Noodles

It's almost too easy. We received a pasta machine for Christmas - $20, TJ Max. Cheap investment for what it can create. Great for soup fans or Moms who make noodles at least once a week for the kids.

 

Recipe:

2c. wheat flour

5 eggs

1. Pour the flour into a bowl and the eggs into the middle of the flour. Mix the eggs with a fork until they are blended with the flour. Knead the mixture with your hands until smooth. If it's too dry, add water. If it's too soft add flour. 
2. Cut into small, fist sized balls. Roll out on a floured surface. 
3. Pull through pasta machine. 
4. Hang over chair or drying racks to dry a bit before adding to boiling water  

Tips:

• A good mixture shouldn't be sticky. You can't really hurt the dough by adding too much flour.
• Do not use eggs straight out of the fridge, best at room temp. 
• Noodles will keep in the fridge uncooked for up to a week. 
• All purpose flour can be substituted. 
• If you do not have a pasta maker, roll out dough really thin and cut into strips with a knife.

I used these noodles in our chicken noodle soup, also just cooked a few up to eat for snacks with red dipping sauce.