Author: Chocolate Castles

Welcome to Chocolate Castles, a blog about food, family and stories that hopefully will bring a smile to your heart. Thanks for reading chocolate castles and may the recipes and stories help bring your family and friends a little closer around the table! Remember that Princess On The Porch is still available on Amazon! Makes a great gift for anyone who enjoys being in the kitchen and needs a little laughter in their lives.
Breads · Breakfast · Cakes · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Cranbery Christmas Cake

Chocolate Castles2 Comments
Christmas Cranberry Cake
Christmas Cranberry Cake

I have taken this cake to about 10 different friends since making it this past week. Everyone has loved it and most have requested the recipe. I actually found it on Face Book and since the picture looked so good, I decided to give it a try. So glad I did. It is just really a great cake. So easy and so pretty.

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 teas vanilla (I am going to use almond extract next time)

2 cups flour

12 oz fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350. With a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5-7 minutes. Do not skip this step, as the eggs serve as the leavening agent in this recipe. The mixture should almost double in size. This mixture should be a ribbon when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.

Add the butter and vanilla (or almond extract); mix two more minutes.

Stir in the flour, (I used the very lowest setting on the mixer) until well combined. Then hand stir the cranberries and stir to mix well.

Spoon the mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake for about 30-35 minutes. (actually, I cannot remember exactly how long I baked it, but it was a light golden brown when I took it out.) Do not over bake, you do not want this dry.

The recipe didn’t call for a glaze, but I added one. I mixed up a cup of powdered sugar and enough milk to make it thin and spreadable. I added 1/2 teas almond extract to this and while cake was hot, I poured the glaze over the cake. The sweetest of the glaze was so nice with the tartness of the cranberries. A nice compliment to the fruit.

Daily Thoughts

Creative Christmas Cuties

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Have seen several new ideas that I am going to use this Christmas season. It is fun to go through all the new magazines that arrive and see things that make me wonder, “why did I not think of that?”

One of the things that caught my attention is this:

When you don’t want the added calories of wrapping veggie sticks (such as carrots, green beans, green onions, zucchini) together, cut a yellow squash in 2″ slices. Cut out the middle, leaving only a 1/2″ shell. Collect the veggie sticks and place the squash ring around

I just took a picture of it, but for some reason it is not downloading to this post. Will work on that. Just use your usual seasoning and bake until veggies are tender.
Another idea I read, when you are wanting a really moist brownie, make the recipe for chocolate sheet cake in a jelly roll pan. When it is cool, turn upside down on waxed paper. Cut the cake in half. Make the frosting and put half the frosting on the bottom half, then top with the other half of cake then top with frosting. This will give you an amazing moist brownie with scrumptious frosting. Sprinkle with colored sugar.
Next, use your cookie cutters to shape your fruit for that Christmas morning buffet. Slice your cantaloupe, watermelon or pineapple to 1″ slices. Using a Christmas tree cookie cutter, or snowman, cut the fruit into Christmas shapes.

Last one for today, when you are serving a rich soup to company, use your Christmas mugs instead of bowls.

I forgot to post last week who won the Thumbie I was giving away to the person who sent me the best thumbprint cookie recipe. Rose sent me a great recipe for cookies and I have already made them twice. Thanks Rosie from Houston, hope you enjoy the Thumbie…..

Cookies · Desserts · Holiday Fare

Chocolate Thumbprint Rasperry Cookies

Chocolate Castles5 Comments
Chocolate Cream Cheese Thumbprints
Chocolate Cream Cheese Thumbprints

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Two weeks ago, I posted this recipe for a few minutes, but quickly deleted it when I realized that I wasn’t suppose to put it out on the blog before sending out these cookies made from this recipe. I have made these twice now and have taken them to several people and these cookies get lots of ahs and “wow, these are really good”. So wanted to be sure and put it out there again. I won’t be taking it off again, so enjoy with a giant cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

2 cups flour

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 pkg (8 oz) softened cream cheese

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided

1 egg, room temp

1 teas vanilla

1/3 cup red raspberry jam

Heat oven to 375. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl for 2 minutes; stir until all chocolate is melted. Whisk in cream cheese. Add 1 cup sugar, egg and vanilla; mix well.

Stir in flour mixture. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to 1 hour.

Roll dough into 1″ balls. Coat each ball by rolling in remaining sugar. (I mixed red sugar and white to make them look more festive)

Place 2″ apart on ungreased baking sheet.  Using your Thumbie (remember you can order them from me for $6.00) or your own thumb, make an indention in the center of each ball. Fill each indention with about 1/4 teas jam.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. (because they are chocolate and hard to tell when “lightly browned” I baked them for 9 minutes and they came out perfect.)

Cool completely.

Daily Thoughts

Blogger’s Cookie Swap

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

Just received my first dozen cookies from a food blogger. Ginger cookies, with fresh candied ginger. AMAZING!!!! From a blogger in North Carolina and oh how I wish she would have included her info so I could thank her for sending some of the best Christmas cookies EVER!!!! I sent my 3 dozen off today. It was such fun to send cookies to 3 strangers who enjoy blogging about food. I knew when the return address was North Carolina that the cookies would be divine. I mean, food from the South is well, there is just something about Southern food. So am off to a great start with this Cookie Swap. Can hardly wait for the other 2 dozen cookies to arrive.

Because I was in the mood earlier in the afternoon to bake a fresh cranberry cake, which I had seen on Face Book and couldn’t wait another day to try, I whipped up the cake and while it was baking, my neighbor brought over a box that had arrived while we were out of town. I opened it to see the tin of cookies. So tonight, we are sitting, watching The Voice, with a piece of cake in one hand and a cookie in the other. Oh the scents of Christmas, not cedar trees, hot chocolate or pine, but ginger, cakes baking and hot chocolate. Those are the scents that make memories which remain long after the Christmas tree is taken down.

Will post the cranberry cake recipe tomorrow, if I can put these ginger cookies down long enough to type.

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Holiday Fare

Red Velvet Marble Bundt Cake

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Just returning from seeing some of our kids in Florida, I am feeling in the Christmas spirit. This cake is in the new SL magazine and will certainly be just the perfect dessert after you have finished decorating the tree.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups flour

1 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

3/4 cup milk

1 teas vanilla

1 tables unsweetened cocoa

1 tables red food coloring

Snowy White Vanilla Glaze

Garnish: mint sprigs

Preheat oven to 325. Beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Stir together flour and next 2 ingredients. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Transfer 2 1/2 cups of batter to a 2 qt bowl; stir in cocoa and food coloring.

Drop 2 scoops of plain batter into a greased and floured 10″ bundt pan, using a small cookie scoop. Top with 1 scoop of red velvet batter. Repeat around entire pan, covering bottom completely. Continue layering batters in pan, as directed until all the batter is used.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 mins. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely.

Drizzle with Snowy White Vanilla Glaze.

Snowy White Glaze

Wisk together 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 3 tables plus 1 teas milk and 1 teas vanilla until smooth.

*Or you can use your favorite cream cheese frosting to drizzle over cake. Just warm in microwave for 15 sec intervals until you are able to drizzle cream cheese frosting over the cake.

Uncategorized

A Florida Thanksgiving

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We are here visiting our kids in Orlando. We Probably won’t be asked back until their memories allow them to forget what it’s like to have seniors come for the holidays. I feel like we are living the Griswalds Christmas Vacation movie, minus the Christmas tree.
Since our arrival on Wednesday evening, we have witnessed a cat with diarrhea,vomiting throughout the house. We got stuck in a parking garage when we went to have our Thanksgiving meal, only to have Tim and Randy looking around the parking garage trying to find any ticket that would allow us to exit. Tim had folded our ticket to put in his pocket and the machine kept spitting it out as “unreadable” thus the arm would not raise to let us out. So there we were, driving around the garage trying to figure out how we were going to ever get out. On no!!!! What if we weren’t out in time to make the Old Navy 50% off sale that was starting at 7!!!! We began to panic. Christi and I offered to get out and try to force the arm up so Tim could make a run for it, but Randy reminded us that his 3 yr old granddaughter was in the car and didn’t want her witnessing that kind of behavior. So we drove around until we found a ticket that someone had apparently thrown away. After we finally were able to escape, we realized that all we would have had to do was have one of us get out of the car, walk to where you enter the garage and push the button that would have given us a ticket. But I guess we were still trying to digest our lunch and our brains weren’t quite up to par.
After we treated ourselves to chocolate cream pie, Christi and I made a run for it. We almost got out of the house, heading to Old Navy, when Scrooge, I mean Frosty announces that he wants to go with us. Really? He wants to go to an Old Navy 50% off sale? Ok. We will let him go, but I don’t think he realizes what is about to happen. We arrive and there are people who have been standing in line for two hours, just waiting to get in the door. We get our track shoes on and walk right in. Finding a few items we cant live without, we go to get in line. Two hours later, we check out. I think Frosty won’t go with us anymore, he found out what women are willing to do to get a shirt for $9.00. Exhausted, we drive to Starbucks to treat ourselves to a gingerbread latte. They didn’t have any. Depressed, we head home. We are Starbucks deprived, our feet will never be the same and we are too tired to even think about waking up early for Black Friday. As far as we are concerned, they could be giving televisions away, we aren’t going near a store tomorrow.
Today we wake up to Tim’s feet sticking out of the kitchen cabinet. The plumbing has been leaking all night so a new faucet is needed.
After Tim and Randy replace (Tim read on-line how to replace a faucet) the faucet, we head to have lunch. We return home only to find a man sitting in a clunker of a car with no hubcaps, in their driveway. When we drive up he looks at us and speeds away. So now we are locked in the house afraid that he was casing it. So glad we got our shopping done, we’re afraid we might come home to an empty house if we leave. Ah yes, Thanksgiving memories,I think tonight we might watch Christmas Vacation. It will remind us of what we have to look forward to in 3 weeks.

Uncategorized

Frosty Cancels Storage Unit

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Frosty Cancels Storage Unit

Frosty has decided that if we just line up the boxes that hold all of our Christmas treasures, all along the walls of our house, we can save money by cancelling our storage unit.
Right now, I’m not feeling like Frosty is one of my blessings!
if our house gets broken into, the burglar would just turn around and leave. They would break a leg trying to just get in the door.

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Pumpkin Cranberry Cheesecake

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Quite a few years ago, at a bookstore in Dallas, there was this little paperback titled, “Holiday Celebrations Cookbook” on a table for $1.00. I bought all they had. I’ve given all of them away except I kept one as the recipes in it are really so good and some of them very unusual. This one caught my eye and I have made it to serve during the holidays. It gets great reviews, so here is the recipe.

Crust

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed (about 33 wafers)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 finely ground pecans

1/4 cup melted butter

Filling

1 (8 oz) softened cream cheese

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teas lemon juice

1 teas ground cinnamon

1 teas vanilla

1/2 teas ground nutmeg

1 (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed

Cranberry Sauce

1 1/2 cups whole cranberries

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 teas cornstarch

Toss vanilla wafer crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, pecans and melted butter in a large mixing bowl. Press mixture into bottom and 2″ up sides of an 8″ spring form pan.

Bake in preheated 350 oven for 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, pumpkin, 1/2 cup sugar, the brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. After ingredients are well blended, Fold in Cool Whip. Turn mixture into cooled crust and chill for 4 hours. Combine cranberries, water, 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Cook until mixture boils, stirring constantly. Cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Cool to room temperature, then chill. Spoon over cheesecake. Garnish servings with additional whipped cream.

Daily Thoughts

Thanksgiving Observance

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As Thanksgiving Day quickly approaches, kitchens will be busy, tables will be filled with loved ones (and maybe a few not quite as easily to love) and families will be gathering. Remembering those who live miles away, and those we serve our country and cannot be gathered together with families, this poem will remind us that we have so much to be thankful. In a world that seems to be more and more less thankful for all we have, reflect not just this week, but throughout the year, on how God has truly blessed us.

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gain instead of your losses.

County your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

County your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

Author Unknown

Give thanks to the Lord; HIs love endures forever. Psa 107:1

Daily Thoughts

Caution…Storage Trips May Lead to Divorce

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

I am not saying that when you and your husband or wife go to storage you will automatically get a divorce, but let’s just say that if your marriage isn’t real solid, you might want to stay away from getting Christmas decorations from storage units. Don’t make the trips together…trust me on this, your marriage will suffer.

We decided that since we have several Christmas events coming early, this was the only weekend that we had free to get all the decorations out of storage. We began our morning on a positive note. I even made my man eggs, bacon and pancakes for breakfast. We drove both cars so that hopefully we could get this dreaded chore over by noon, making only 2 trips instead of 4 or 5. We arrive at storage, riding up the elevator, Frosty keeps reminding me that this is the year we are going to “refine” our decorations. I thought I had done that last year when I got the decorations to fit in 29 boxes instead of 40.

We began to pack both cars and needed to head back up for another load when he reminded me to lock my car since my purse was in the front seat. I gave him a dirty look and told him that I most certainly had already done that. Hello, I’m not that blond. We went up, loaded up the dolly again and arrived at our cars. When he told me to go around and unlock my car to open the front door, I sheepishly looked at him as we both saw that I had pushed “lock” on the key, the only problem was that I had left the car door wide open, right by my purse. Frosty is now starting to have a melt down. As we are pushing the dolly, two of the boxes fall off and I hear glass breaking. That did not do our mood any good. I immediately call him a bull in a china closet. Maybe we need to take a break and listen to some Christmas carols.

When we are carrying boxes up the stairs, (yes all this has to be carried upstairs) one of the metal chairs that sit one of my Santa’s falls over and cuts my lip open. Now my lip is swollen and we aren’t singing carols anymore. We get everything from this trip upstairs and I tell him that I will NOT carry anymore boxes upstairs until after dark.It is just to embarrassing to think that neighbors might be watching us and wonder where in the world would all this stuff go. We ran into one of our neighbors who quickly ask if we were moving, when he saw us carrying up all the boxes. He wishes. I sent a picture of all our décor to our daughter and she told me that she thinks I have a problem. My problem is that I can’t force myself to throw out all the things that bring back memories when I take them out of the boxes. Besides, if I threw all this stuff out now, what in the world would the kids have to do when we pass? All these boxes of “treasures” assure us that our kids will be working for their inheritance. It serves them right for continually buying us more knick knacks. They say, “oh we had to get it for you, it just had your name written all over it”. Really? Is my name really on 38 angels? On the last trip home from storage, I envisioned us having a lovely dinner tonight, maybe chile and cornbread all the while listening to Christmas music as we begin to unload boxes and Frosty is putting the tree up. Reality hit. We are so exhausted from carrying all the boxes upstairs, we ordered pizza. Forget the music, we aren’t in the holiday spirit right now. All we can think about is taking some aspirin and going to bed. We are giving all our kids Gift Certificates for marriage counseling this year. We want their marriages solid before they decorate for Christmas.