Rainbow Jell-O Shot Cake (Adult Party Treat)

Oh my goodness where have we been!?!? We've neglected the poor blog here for a while. We have been busy though. Crazy schedules, summer holidays, no time. No time at all. Back in June I had a track meet for the KC Corporate Challenge and so that took up a good week of June. Prior to that were races and a myriad of other things like trap shooting for KC Corporate Challenge as well.

 So back in mid-April, I ran Color Me Rad 5k, by myself...since my friends are lame and don't like to run. ;)

Color Me Rad: April 2013

Then a week later I ran Warrior Dash 5k Mud Run with 3 great people. Joe and I pretty much stuck together through the race and were ahead of Becca and Amy. Was chilly in the 40's but we did it.

Warrior Dash: April 2013

Then in early May Mom and I walked the Mother's Day 5k in my city. It was Mom's first 5k and a celebration of losing over 100 lbs. :) She rocks!!

Mother's Day 5k: May 2013

Then in late May I competed in the KC Corporate Challenge trap competition at Smithville Lake Missouri. I shocked myself and won 2nd place in my division for the women. How cool is that!!!??? And to think I had only practiced for 3 months. Next year's goal....1st place.

KCCC Trap: 2nd Place May 2013

So then in the first week of June we had the KC Corporate Challenge track and field meets. I competed in the 400m, the 800m, the 1 mile run, and the 4x400m relay. Here is my awesome relay team. We came in 5th in our division but heck, we did awesome in my book.

KC Corporate Challenge

So with me being busy with races, meets, and competitions Mike has been busy running around at work training and covering during the summer season. He, I am sure, is ready for hunting season. We are also looking forward to going to St. Louis to spend time with his family in October for the pig roast. Hope we get to see his folks before then too. Scheduling hasn't worked out quite enough for that recently. He also attended a wedding of a co-worker last weekend. Isn't he handsome?

So all in all it's just been busy and I can't say we have really been cooking a lot of awesome things due to that busy schedule we have maintained for a few months. 

We are also moving in the next couple of weeks so that makes for interesting plans anyway. So we are limited at this point. Soon I will be extremely limited to paper plates and plastic-ware.... 0_o

So, on to the purpose of this post. Jell-O infused with vodka, vanilla ice cream flavored mind you, and then layered upon itself to create a rainbow. 

Of course this requires 7 boxes of gelatin, 6 colors and 1 plain.

Of course this also makes me think, I need a mold - unless everyone wants me to make it in a Power Cat mold. Which of course since all these folks that will be eating it are pretty much from Missouri, it's a resounding "no." So instead, since we will all be at the pool I decided a sand bucket would suffice. Yes, I washed it thoroughly and it was purchased new to boot.

So I have laid out my ingredients all pre-measured to ensure easy start and finish to this monumental task. We have 3 cups of vodka, 4 1/2 cups water, 1 1/8 cup vanilla yogurt, 3 pkgs plain gelatin, 6 packages flavored jell-o in the rainbow colors of ROYGBIV (minus the indigo). Then We have the mold and a saucepan.

So this requires that you go layer by layer. Which I didn't think was terrible. You have a regular red (strawberry) layer, then you have a yogurt red layer, then orange, yellow etc until you reach the last color.

My reds sort of mixed a little, so I knew the top layer was going to look a bit off since I had issue with the amount of time it was taking to set up (20-30 min my patootie).

You have to really do about 2 colors at a time, so make 1, then when you have that set aside, start your next while you wait for your jell-o to set up a little.

Then you end up with 2 or more bowls at any given moment and a measuring cup as well as a bucket full of jell-o firming up....my kitchen was getting a little cramped.

The fun part was when I started the lime jell-o. The smell reminded me of church events and also "Ghostbusters." I know, strange combination of memories, but I can't help but think of Slimer when I see green jell-o with floating globs of vanilla yogurt.

So you alternate layers, plain, then yogurt. It starts stacking up over the course of a few hours like this. Glad I got the big bucket honestly. Didn't think green would be this high already.

By the time I had reached the blue layers I was ready to hit the sack, it was around 11 pm (I always start these things too late, or get the urge to bake at 10pm - why Lord, why!?)

I was getting excited after the blue layer since that meant only 1 layer I had to stay up for. That last vanilla yogurt infused layer I could leave overnight and not worry about.

So upon reaching the purple ending of the night I was ready to leave it in the fridge. I had begun, around the orange layer to set the bucket in the freezer for half of the recommended sitting time for set up so that this would go faster than 6 hours. Honestly it seems to have worked out just fine.

So all in all, it seems to have worked just fine. Once that last purple layer was semi-set in the freezer I pulled that baby out and poured the final layer and placed in the fridge to be forgotten about until morning, where I toted to work to keep in the fridge to prepare for the 1 hour drive out to drop off.

I hope everyone enjoys it.

****NOTE: If you want t make this for kids instead, just substitute the liquor for juice or water instead.***

Rainbow Jell-O Shot Cake

INGREDIENTS:

4 1/2 cups water (divided)

6 - 3 oz pkgs flavored gelatin (6 different colors - remember ROYGBIV)

6 tsp (3 envelopers approx) plain gelatin (like Knox)

3 cups rum or vodka (I used half plain vodka and half vanilla ice cream flavored vodka by Most Wanted)

1 1/8 cup vanilla yogurt (divided)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place bottle of liquor in the freezer for several hours if not overnight before beginning recipe.

2. Lightly spray bundt pan/or chosen mold with non stick cooking spray (get creative with your mold, I used a kids sand bucket purchased new for a pool party - you could use just about any container). Wipe off excess spray with a paper towel. A slight residue should remain, just enough to help unmold the gelatin without affecting the taste or appearance.

3. Pour 3/4 cup water into a saucepan and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the plain gelatin. Allow gelatin to soak for a minute or two. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Whisk in the first package of flavored gelatin. Whisk for at least 2 minutes, or until completely dissolved.

4. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup of the cold liquor, and stir to combine.

5. Pour 3/4 cup of the gelatin mixture into the prepared mold, and place in refrigerator (or in my case freezer for 10 min). Allow to set for 20-30 minutes, until gelatin is a little firm, but still sticks when touched. VERY IMPORTANT - if the layers set up too much, the next layer won't bond appropriately.

6. Refrigerate the remaining gelatin mixture in bowl for about 5-7 minutes or until slightly thickened and cooled. Gradually stir in 3 tablespoons of yogurt and stir until well blended. **This cooling step is also important - the gelatin must be cooled to room temperature before adding on top of other layers, or the layers will not be well defined.

7. Gently spoon the gelatin/yogurt mixture over set gelatin and return to refrigerator (freezer for 10 min). Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until gelatin is set but not firm (again, it should stick to finger when touched). As the layers progress, the setting time will become shorter as the pan and gelatin becomes colder, and the layers become thinner as more layers are added to the mold.

8. Repeat steps with remaining gelatin flavors, for a total of 12 alternating clear and creamy gelatin layers.

9. After completing all the layers, refrigerate the gelatin mold overnight. To unmold, fill a larger container or clean sink with warm water. With clean fingers, loosen the gelatin around the edges of the mold cavities. Next, dip the mold almost to the edge into the warm water for just a few seconds (10 seconds is usually more than enough). Dry the bottom of the mold with a towel and check the edges to see if they are loose. If not, repeat the dip for just a few more seconds. Place your serving plate on top of the mold and invert.

Your masterpiece is now ready to serve.

(recipe courtesy of Just a Pinch)

Now go out and cook!

Million Dollar Pound Cake

Well, 3 posts in a week and all three back to back, yes I know. We are going a little nuts making up for the things we have made and not posted.

Between holidays, which are thankfully over, and now with just being busy with work and more it's been a little challenging to get to posting. We will try to do better. I also can't say I have been baking much let alone has Mike or I been cooking a lot of anything that has been blog worthy. Mostly average food that isn't worth talking about (spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, etc). Just haven't had a lot of new recipes or recipes we have created.

So, now that we are back into the normal swing of things I have gotten my baking bug back. So, the other night I was bored....really bored. I am still on the quest for Mighty Melt bread but have yet to replicated it. So I've been making bread in my bread machine rather than buying a loaf since my local Wonder Bread outlet went out of business with Hostess.

But this is not about bread, not at all. This is about cake. Delicious, moist, and densely delicious cake. There is a reason this recipe is called "Million Dollar Pound Cake." One reason is probably because it require 6 eggs and a full pound of butter. If you notice a lot of pound cake recipes don't actually require a pound of butter anymore.

Much like the loaf pound cake I made after the million dollar pound cake. That one only requires 1 stick of butter (1/4 pound). So maybe it's just the size of the loaf or cake you are making, I suppose. I did make that too, that is what these delicious dense muffins are. That is the basic Pound Cake Loaf which I chose to turn into muffins for ease of eating. Most cakes make great muffins.

This particular recipe required unsweetened applesauce but I only had apple butter. So this cupcake had a stronger flavor of spices (cinnamon and cloves).

Pound Cake Loaf (cupcakes)

Pound Cake Loaf cut in half (cupcake)

In any event, this cake is by far the kind you want to bake when going to a nice dinner party or when the in-laws are coming over.

This is not created in a loaf style either. This is baked in a tube pan (or bundt if you feel like being fancy, like I did below). I have this awesome tube pan that is also spring form. It's a spring form but can be turned into a tube pan that looks like a bundt. It was amazing. I also have a standard angel food pan which I used last time I made this cake.

Million Dollar Pound Cake

I halved the recipe earlier this week because I didn't want to use a pound of butter (all the butter I had) nor did I feel like wiping out half of my eggs on hand. I also have neglected to replace my almond extract so I ended up using rum extract in it's place which has also now run out. I don't care for buying extracts due to the price, but that's what happens when you love baking.

So here you go.

Million-Dollar Pound Cake
Prep: 20 min      Bake: 1 hour 40 min

2 cups (4 sticks - 1 lb) butter, soft
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour, just until blended. Stir in extracts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in tube pan.

Bake at 325 degrees (F) for 1 hour and 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate syrup for an added touch.

Makes 16 servings.

I will warn you, this has 497 calories per slice ;) Just make sure you're ok with that.

Pound Cake Loaf (a lighter option)
Prep: 15 min     Bake: 45 min + cooling

1/2 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (or apple butter if you want more of a spiced cake)
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel (or a squirt or two of lemon juice as I did)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
In a small mixing bowl, cream butter, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the applesauce, vanilla, and lemon peel. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture just until blended.

Transfer to an 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan (or put into cupcake liners in cupcake tin) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 servings

Now these only have around 185 calories.

Now go out and bake something extravagant.

Christmas, New Year, Cheesecake, and Hunting

Where well the heck did we go right? I know. We are not the type of bloggers that have an abundance of things to share over the holidays as we were hither and yon and back again due to family events etc.

So, what have we been up to, well I will start off with food, as in Cheesecake - REAL New York style cheesecake. No graham crackers involved. I hear those gasps out there, yes, I make cheesecake WITHOUT graham crackers, you are allowed to do that you know. Especially if you are going for more authenticity than simplicity.

You can look up traditional New York style cheesecake and it has a shortbread type crust with a standard cheesecake filling with or without the sour cream topping. Mine does not have the topping but still tastes pretty awesome. I like to pair it with cherries on top or strawberries, though this is a cheesecake that can be eaten plain as well. It has a hint of lemon to offset the fact that this recipe has 4 packages of cream cheese in it.

So, to the cheesecake:

Yes a REAL New York style cheesecake :) That's how I put it in the home cookbook with mom and Gramma's recipe. 

4 eggs for the filling, yes 4. There is also almost one entire lemon with rind and juice in the crust and in the filling, this is what cuts the richness of the cake.

Making the filling you have to have 3 packages of cream cheese with sugar, eggs, vanilla, a touch of flour, and some lemon juice and rind.

Of course it's not a cheesecake unless you have a spring form pan. This beauty I obtained through Mike's grandmother. I have this and my 3 small muffin tins from her. 

So to start this cheesecake we had to start with the crust, this is a shortbread crust made with butter AND cream cheese to help make it blend a little better but still be more traditional. 1 pkg of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, and lemon rind. You can also just make the crust and turn them into cutout cookies much like sugar cookies.You can also take a little bit of the crust and make decorations for the top of the cheesecake after you've put topping on it, makes it "fancy."

So we start by par baking the base of the crust, so this went into a 375 degree F oven for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned, much like a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

So next we have a prepared filling, after the crust cooled, I placed the crust up on the sides of the pan to create the side of the cake.

Once I had the sides put in I made sure to seal the seam around the bottom and side of the crust to ensure that the cheesecake didn't leach through, not that it would through the spring form but I like to have things done all the way for this.

Next, if you do not have one of these puppies in your oven, GO BUY ONE AND PUT IT THERE! I'm serious, this thing has corrected me on numerous occasions. Having a gas oven can sometimes cause things to be a bit inaccurate with the dial that comes with the oven. So to have an oven thermometer always in the oven it ensures I have the correct temperature. As you see here, it's at 300 degrees F, perfect for baking a cheesecake.

This pan here if filled with water, putting this pan under the cake will ensure that the cheesecake doesn't crack. You can leave this out if you were putting the sour cream topping on it or if you were just going to top before serving and didn't care but this makes the cheesecake look prettier when it's pulled from the oven.

As you can see, this is going to be a tasty cake. :)

Beautiful cake no? My plate is pretty cute too - polar bear plate with matching bowl (not pictured). Perfect for Christmas and winter time. Speaking of Christmas (you can find the recipe below for the cake). Here is my tree in front of my picture window - lights off of course.

I'm one of those people who has the random ornaments that all mean something to me, I don't do a matchy matchy or color schemed tree and my tree topper is an angel that my mom made with yarn and the plastic canvas. It's old but it means a lot that she gave it to me.

I didn't really bake cookies this Christmas season like I normally do, when doing foodie pen pal in November I received dark chocolate covered pretzel thins topped with crushed up peppermint. Can I just say, DELISH. Also, it gave me an idea, instead of taking cookies to the local fire dept I would take chocolate pretzels. I ended up making chocolate chip cookies (store bough dough) and made those real quick. It's a Christmas tradition in my family to take cookies and/or candies to the local fire dept and/or police dept to say thank you to the people that don't get to go home for Christmas. Of course, police tend to look at you funny when you hand them cookies, thinking they must be drugged or something. So it's generally our fire departments that get cookies because they don't care and want to show you around the station anyway. :)

So to make these pretzels is really super super simple. I went to Sam's Club and purchased a large bag of those pretzel thins. Then bought a large bag of chocolate chips, I got milk chocolate so to satisfy 90% of people. Then I went to Aldi and picked up about 2 packages of candy canes to pulverize with my meat tenderizing mallet. Hehe, I think my neighbor upstairs thinks I'm insane. Between the indoor bike and pounding on my counters, I guess I do make a bit of noise.

So you melt the chocolate down, a double boiler method works best because it keeps the chocolate warm while you dip. My mother had given me a giant bundle of Chinese restaurant chopsticks (she has an elderly Japanese lady at her church that hoards everything), so I used a couple chop sticks to dip each pretzel without leaving any marks on the backs or fronts after dipping. Then after they were dipped I took a pinch of the peppermints and sprinkled them atop the pretzels. I think they turned out quite well. They tasted divine too. I took a small amount to Mike's parents house for the Christmas in St. Louis and his Gramma ate it up and loved them. The fire dept was thankful too.

I didn't go the entire Christmas season without baking homemade cookies, on the left there I have fluffy snickerdoodles, that's another recipe for another time (you can look them up too, I can't remember who I got the recipe from though). Then on the right we have my mom's peanut butter cookies, which I have tweaked by using all butter instead of shortening. I like the chewiness that they have with butter better. I also received for Christmas these silicone cookie stamps that I am eager to try out for Valentine's day. It came with a heart, a snowflake and a jack-o-lantern. Can't wait to experiment.

We spent Christmas day at my folks place after spending 4 days with Mike's parents the week before. The time in St. Louis was fun because his dad will take us to the gun range to shoot in the pits as well as at the skeet range. Love it. It was a nice early Christmas with them, his sister and her hubby and his parents and Gramma. Cozy and I got more presents than expected quite honestly. Was fun.

Christmas day we were at my parents place at 9:30 am and opened presents and lounged around until dinner time. My aunt was supposed to be in Hawaii but due to snow storms all her flights were grounded :( I know she had been excited about that but at least got to spend the day with her, I think the last time we did Christmas with her was years ago. It went well and everyone had plenty to eat. Even after we left Mike was able to be a Good Samaritan and help out at a wreck, he keeps a med bag in his truck for such things. I'm quite proud of him.

Recently we made burritos, seen above there. Hyvee makes their own tortillas from scratch so we picked up some whole wheat tortillas, used the last 1/4 lb of lean ground beef, black refried beans, green pepper, onion, and salsa con queso to create a delicious and surprisingly lower calorie dinner than expected. It really hit the spot that night. Inside the burrito it had about 1 oz of ground beef, 1 Tbsp black refried beans, a few strips of onion and pepper with about a tablespoon of cheese, we then topped with cheese and the remaining beef and sided it with the remaining beans (refried beans made with black beans instead of pinto) and the I topped with avocado and tomato. 

Amazing what you can just piece together sometimes when you are just wandering around the store.

Earlier this year, in October, we had a dear friend take some pictures (no not engagement photos, just photos for the hell of it). I had some of just me for some Christmas cards I sent out as well as some of Mike and I for closer relatives. These are two of my favorites. She is such a great friend and we had a great time at the park that day.

So on to January, I found this picture above online and decided to do it, so I have a jar on my counter for things that make me happy and good things that happen. Mike has already gone and made fun of my midnight kiss for New Year's Eve and hearing "I love you" from Mike. Corny, yes. Still makes me smile and is good.

New Year's Eve our original plans were changed due to a snow storm headed into the city. Well, it was a terrible storm but enough to make us leery about venturing too far into the city on a night where drunk drivers abound. Top that with slick roads and no thank you. So we went to one of our favorite local bars and spent the evening there, free shuttle to and from (though I ended up calling a friend to pick us up because the bar failed miserably on the FROM part) and free pizza bar for anyone with a pre-sale ticket (we got ours that morning). So we people watched and enjoyed that thoroughly since we saw a couple argue about their affair, a lady turn a young buck down with the line "You're not even a man." And Mike saw a man pass out at the bar. It was quite the entertaining night, we even made friends.

So after the holidays were over I had purchased a delightful thing from Cabela's with birthday and Christmas money. (My birthday is the week before Christmas - Mike took me to dinner and we shared a large peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream - delicious but absolutely HUGE). I bought my first really warm coat in a long time. Yes, it's duck blind Mossy Oat and a "hunting" coat but it's warm and I love it. 

So today Mike went hunting. Headed out around 6 and was done by 11am. He and his buddy got their limit (3 geese) each and they got to take the dog (his name is Goose) out too. It was a good day for the mighty hunters. As you can see Mike is happy with the days kill.

He even used his Christmas present from me, face paint. I got him this cool new kind that comes in a mini deodorant like container. Pretty cool and he said it worked great and he liked it. That makes me happy. So as you can see we have been busy busy busy but we are back now. We have a post for tomorrow to, we will show you what we did with the days kill.

Here is the promised recipe though, I'm sure you just skipped down and came straight to this. :)

REAL Cheesecake *New York Style* (Mom's recipe)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Crust:
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, room temperate (DO NOT FAT FREE CREAM CHEESE)
1/2 cup butter/margarine (1 stick), room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour, all purpose
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind

Combine soft cream cheese and butter. Mixing until well blended. Add flour, sugar, and rind. Mix well. Form into a ball. Chill dough thoroughly.

Cookies: On a lightly floured surface, roll 1/4 cup dough into 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with assorted 1-inch cookie cutters of your choice. Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 min or until lightly browned.

Crust: Spread TWO THIRDS of remaining dough onto the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until crust is very lightly brown. Cool. Press remaining dough around sides of pan.

Drop oven to 300 degrees F.

Filling:
3 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh is best)
2 tsp lemon rind, grated
4 eggs

Combine soft cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon juice, and rind. Mix at medium speed, using an electric mixer. Mix until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour filling into crust. Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 hour 15 minutes. Or until center is set.

Loose cake from rim of pan; cool completely before removing rim and cutting.

If you wish, spoon pie filling over the top of cake and top with small cookies made earlier.
**Cherry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, apple, chocolate, etc - let your imagination run wild.

Go out and experiment, take chances, enjoy cooking.

Go out and cook, or bake ;)