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.
Desserts

Fabulous Fall Friday

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Was this not a picture postcard awesome day? It just amazes me how we prayed for beautfiul weather for our sale, and it was. God is so very good!….We sold lots of cakes and casseroles and have been home making more cakes for tomorrow. The Paula Deen Pumpkin Gooey Butter cake was a hit, so am going to put it on my blog. You will love it. It is going to take the place of pumpkin pie for Turkey Day at the Cox household.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Cake:

1 Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

1 egg

8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

1 teas vanilla

8 tablespoons butter, melted

1 16 oz ounce box of powdered sugar

1 teas cinnamon

1 teas nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To make the cake, combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Pat the mixture into a lightly greased 13,9 pan. (I used 3 8″ round pans)

Prepare filline:

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter and beat together.

Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and mix well.

Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 min. (this will vary if you use the different size pans. probably about 30 min is all it will take, maybe 35). Make sure not to over bak as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with whipped cream.

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Pre Mistletoe Market

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Well, tomorrow is the big day. We open at 9 a.m. and it looks like the Lord has answered our prayers regarding beautiful weather. I have baked and packaged abou 30 cakes and am ready to sell………I will post the Pumpkin Gooey Butter cake tonight when I get home from setting up……we had a sample last night and it was just absolutely delicious. A winner and will be on our table all during Pumpkin Season……..add whipped cream and it is just so good…….please pray that we have good crowds and that we will sell. We want this next two days to be about more than selling. We want to make everyone feel welcome and maybe if they just need a smile or some encouragement, we want them to feel wanted and loved.

Desserts

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

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Ingredients

1 cup butter ( I use one stick of margarine and 1 stick of butter, that gives you the flavor of butter, but a little less greasy and less expensive to make)

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 lb of light brown sugar

5 large eggs

3 cups flour

1/2 teas baking powder

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Cream room temperature butter with shortening. Add sugars and cream again. Add eggs (which you have brought to room temperature for about 30 minutes). Sift all dry ingredients together; add alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the milk. Add vanilla. Pour into greased and floured bundth pan. Bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees for about 1 hr.

I usually just sprinkle powdered sugar over the top, but sometimes I frost with a caramel frosting which is listed below.

Caramel Frosting

1/2  cup butter (no exceptions for great butter flavor)

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup milk (it is so good if you use whipping cream or half & half)

1 3/4 to 2 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in pan and add brown sugar. Boil over low heat for 2 mins, stirring constantly. Add milk; continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and cool for about 15 mins.  Add powdered sugar and beat until thick enough to spread over cake. Let it drizzle over sides of cake.

Meats

White Turkey Chili

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Ingredients

2 tables olive oil

1. 2 lbs Honeysuckle White 93/7 Lean ground turkey

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon  chilli powder

2 cans (15 oz ea can) great northern beans

3 cups chicken broth

1 4 oz can diced green chiles (I use mild)

1 14.5 oz can fire roasted adobo seasoned petite-diced tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper and garlic to taste

In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add turkey, salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes or until no longer pink, stirring occasionally to break up turkey.

Add onion, flour and chili powder. Cook about 5 minutes.

Add beans, chicken broth, chiles and tomatoes. bring to a simmer and cook, covered about 30 minutes. Stir in cilantro

Serve with warm corn or flour tortillas and sour cream.

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Monday Holiday

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What a day. We took our grandboys to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs! They enjoyed it so much, but all it did was make me hungry. I came away wanting pizza, hamburgers and ice cream. We had spent all our money on getting into the show and popcorn, candy and cokes, so I was forced to come home and eat a can of chicken noodle soup. Bummer!.

I did take Randy for his first visit to Sur Le Table. He was actually impressed. Bought some cookie cutters, a new cake pan and cannot wait now to bake tomorrow.  The bake sale which we are preparing for is this weekend. so red velvet cake, lemon pound, chocolate pound and pumpkin, brown sugar pound cake, is what will be in my oven this week.

Tomorrow will post the recipe for the brown sugar pound cake and also a new recipe which we picked up today for turkey white chile. It was delicious. Talk to you tomorrow. Be sure to check back for two new recipes tomorrow. Have a great drizzly Monday evening.

Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Super Saturday

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You just gotta love this weather! We began our morning going to watch Jaden, (our 8 yr old grandson) play football. Took a Starbucks with us and wrapped up in a blanket with Jodi, (our daughter). After the game, which we will not say who won, we all went to Scottie P’s for hamburgers. Then Randy and I ran around all afternoon buying more containers for more food items which we will sell next weekend. We bought another cake pan which had a recipe for Margarita Cake. It must be Baptist Margarita Cake, because it contains no liquor………it sounds so good, thought I would share it. I know it doesn’t sound very “fallish” but with our weather, it could be sporting in the 90’s again by the end of the week. So here goes,

1 package white cake mix (I don’t know if I have shared this with you already, but I tend to always get the french vanilla by Duncan Hines, as it has such a great flavor, more than just the plain white)

1 can (10 oz) frozen margarita mix, thawed and undiluted

3 egg whites

2 tables vegetable oil

3 tables finely chopped lime zest, divided

1 cup powdered sugar

lime juice, as desired

Mix all ingredients except powdered sugar and lime juice.  Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into a fluted tub pan which you have sprayed with Pam or greased. Put into a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake at 40-45 min. Cool in pan for 15 min. Remove from pan and cool completely. In small bowl, combine powdered sugar and 1 table lime zest and enough lime juice to make a glaze. Pour over cake…..serve with Cool whip……..

Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Melt in Your Mouth Cobbler

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Wow, autumn really is here. It is almost cool enough to turn on the fireplace (not really for warmth, but for coziness). For that southern living feeling. So of course it makes me want to bake. I just finished putting together 55 casseroles to sell next weekend. Green Chile Enchiladas, Chicken & Dressing, Chicken Spaghetti and Bistro Beef. But now, Randy walks in with hot tamales, so we are going to melt some cheese with Rotel tomatoes and dip the tamales into that. BUT…….cobbler for dessert. Came across this recipe and it really is so easy and so good. Thought you might like to try making it yourself!.

Wisk together 1 cup sugar, 1 cup self-rising flour and 1 cup milk, just until blended; whisk in 1 stick (1/2 cup butter) of melted butter. Pour batter into a lightly greased 12 x 8 in. baking dish; sprinkle 2 cups of fresh fruit and remaining 1/4 cup remaining sugar evenly over batter. (if using peaches or apples, I add about 2 tables cinnamon to the 1/4 cup sugar before sprinkling over fruit)

Bake cobbler at 350 for almost 1 hr or until golden brown and bubbly. Top with ice cream, if desired. Makes 6 servings.

Daily Thoughts

After Fair Day

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Just shoot me if I even mention going to the fair again next year! We drove at record speed down the tollway trying to get home to the Rolaids. I forgot to put them in the car before leaving. We “ate” our way through the tents, sampling on anything they poked in front of us. Here is a summary of the food ingested in the 5 hours we were there:

Corny dogs, cheese melted in a flour tortilla,  little smokies, marinated chicken, which we watched being cooked on a grill that we “just had to have”, pizza, from the cooking demo, which, actually I did learn a lot about tomatoes, which I will share later, my FIRST funnel cake, ever, YUM, Texas nachos and ending the night right before we climb on the 221 ft Texas Star, the infamous cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting……..I sit here thinking that we paid good money to feel this way. You would think by the time we were this age, that we would know better. BUT…..isn’t that just part of living in Texas. We have the largest state fair, with the most fried food. And it would just really bother me to hear people talking about their visit to the fair and I would not be able to join in with my experience. We did not taste the “fried butter” That is really nothing new to this family. Randy tells people that I have a cube melted for him in a cup to drink on his way out the door in the morning, just to be sure he gets his quota of butter each day. We are Plano’s answer to the “Butterkin Family”………As soon as one of my kids come over to show me how to download pics from my phone to the computer, I will post a couple of pictures of our day, wandering around, trying to sniff out what we would try next!  I did however decide to have my picture taken with Big Tex, it made me feel so small, I loved it!

Daily Thoughts

FYI

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Have heard back from a few of you who have made the meatloaf and have gotten great positive reviews, this really is a great recipe, try it! A great fall night easy meal…….

Casseroles · Chicken

Chicken & Dressing Casserole

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8 chicken breast

4 cups chicken broth

2 pkgs Stove Top corn bread dressing

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans cream of chicken soup

butter

You can divide this recipe into two 8×8 buttered aluminum pans and freeze until needed.

Boil chicken until done and tender. Cool and debone. Reserve broth. Place 1/2 of the dressing mix in buttered casserole. Next, layer 1/2 of the chicken. Combine broth soup and seasonings from dressing mix. Pour 1/2 of this over chicken. Repeat layers. Dot with butter.

You can either bake at 350 for about 25 to 35 min. or you can wrap with foil and feeze until company surprises you and you don’t have anything made, Oh Yes, you do, you have a casserole that is delicious and all you would have to do is thaw, cook a pot of green beans with bacon and oninons and but Owen’s packaged garlic mashed potatoes. Sister Schubert’s wonderful frozen rolls and you have a great meal…….by the way, if you are having coming and you don’t have time or energy for baking dessert, Pepperidge Farm frozen cakes are so good and so cheap….About $5.00 and the coconut cake is just delicious. We can finish one of those cakes on in two episodes of watching “24”….