burgers and cake for daddy

First off...cheers to me that I finally bought the Baked cookbook. I confess I was being cheap and working off photo copies. But I figured it was silly to have all these recipes in my cooking repertoire and not have the book so now I have it.

Jeff requested burgers for Fathers' Day so I finally made the Turkey Burgers. What a great recipe! I love recipes with veggies and it is comforting to eat a healthy white meat rather than red. I used dried oregano and fresh basil (from my very own basil plant on the deck). Like Danielle, I used ~1.25 pounds of meat so I did 3 cloves of garlic and extra salt. I had plans to grill them, but we were out of propane. I did a combination of browning them in the olive oil on a skillet and broiling them in the oven. The consistency seemed like it would be fine for a grill, however, I realized after I shaped them into patties that I forgot the egg. I think it would have made them a little more moist. I'm going to make them again on Thursday for our ward recipe exchange (theme: 4th of July BBQ...perfect) and I will use the same amount of meat, remember the egg, and grill them. Though I don't think it would hurt to brown them with the olive oil first...I like the flavor of olive oil. Simon loves "cheegugers" so I figured he would eat this. He ate half of it and then said "no like it" to the rest...which he does often. I finished his and with no complaint.

I very seriously considered making Jeff the German Chocolate Cake since that is his favorite kind of cake. However, after reading through the comments I decided I will make it when more than one person will enjoy it. I don't like coconut so I don't like German Chocolate Cake...but maybe I will like this one. Instead I made the milk chocolate frosting and put it on a Devil's Food cake from a box. I had to make a few modifications. I only had just under 1 C of heavy cream so I made it 1 C with whole milk and then I made 2/3 of a recipe. It seemed a little runny even after I chilled it for 15 minutes so I added about 1/4 C powdered sugar. It might have been because it is rather humid here in Northern Virginia...but the kitchen wasn't especially warm or anything. I used Ghirardelli bittersweet baking chocolate and Hershey's milk chocolate chips so I felt like at least half of the chocolate was high quality. In the end I can't say I loved it. I was hopeful, but it was too bitter for my liking...and I'm even a dark chocolate lover. It was better than your usual homemade cocoa frosting. My favorite kind of chocolate frosting is the store bought dark chocolate, but I usually just stick with a cream cheese frosting on cakes. Jeff thought it was an 8 on 0-10 scale. I'd say a 6. I may try again when I am better prepared with all the ingredients. I will only make a 1/2 recipe next time because it makes a ton of frosting.


I hope to make the pasta this week. I was planning to get the ingredients yesterday, but I wrote my list on the back of my Border's coupon which I gave to the cashier at Border's before I went to the grocery store. I am a big fan of the concept of Deceptively Delicious, but I haven't tried a lot of the recipes so I'm looking forward to it.

Has anyone ever "fondanted" a cake? (Did I make up the word 'fondanted'? I guess fondant is a verb because when I google it I get things like "how to fondant a cake.") I'm thinking about it for Jack's birthday on Saturday. I don't think the frosting sounds all that tasty, but they look so beautiful.

Cami's German Chocolate Cake

Okay, I know this is late but I finally found my cable to import pictures. I made this awesome cake yesterday and oh my goodness was it worth it. It took me a lot longer than I expected but it wasn't hard and it turned out perfectly.

Like Melanie (and I assume Danielle) I used hot water instead of coffee. I used two 9 inch cake pans instead of three 8 inch. I am longing for 8 inch cake pans. Maybe I'll put them on my Christmas list. I did the coconut filling between the two layers and on the top. I made the milk chocolate frosting for the outside. That is some good frosting. Seriously. I still have a bunch in the fridge that I can't wait to use on something else. This is probably my new go to chocolate frosting.

I had a group of 9 over for lunch today and they all gave it rave reviews. If you didn't have a chance to make this recipe I think you should. Next time you have a party or want to impress the hubby, make this cake.

Danielle's German Chocolate Cupcakes

Well, as you can see, I made cupcakes instead of a three-layer cake. And besides the fact that these took me THREE HOURS to make, I totally love them! I am not at all disappointed in this recipe. So tasty!

I like how the cake was really light and fluffy, but it was rich and moist too. And the coconut filling was perfect. I ended up using some leftover dark chocolate frosting I had from something else I made, so I can't report on the milk chocolate frosting.

Anyway, super tasty cupcakes and I imagine it would be just as tasty as a layered cake. Maybe I'll try it that way next time.

German Chocolate Cake

When I first flipped through the Baked cookbook the one recipe I thought I absolutely had to try was this cake. Luckily my friend celebrated a birthday so I had the perfect excuse to bake it. I wouldn't normally make it for an everyday kind of dessert since it's pretty pricey and slightly time consuming but it was worth the one time splurge. So worth it.

A few changes I made:
- I used high quality semi sweet cocoa instead of dark cocoa.
- I used a cup of hot water with a few more tablespoons of cocoa instead of the cup of coffee.

I thought making the milk chocolate frosting (pg 60) might make it a little too rich but I liked the look of it from the picture so I made it. It was almost the best part of the cake, do not leave it out.

Sorry this is slightly helter skelter. To sum it up, if you love chocolate and coconut you will love this cake. You might need a little vanilla ice cream to counter balance it's richness. It's completely worth making but you might want to save it for a special occasion. Or at least for a time when you'll have several people to share it with.