Food, Faith, Family & Frugality

Growing up, this was how you made fudge.  I had no idea that some people melted chocolate chips, added marshmallow fluff and assorted nuts.  All you need is a large saucepan, a glass of cold water, a big wooden spoon and the following ingredients:

3 Cups Sugar
2/3 Cup Cocoa
1 1/2 Cups Milk
1/8 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Butter (plus extra for buttering pans)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Mix all your dry ingredients in a large buttered saucepan.  Add milk and stir with wooden spoon.  Heat mixture over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  Once the mixture comes to a full boil put the spoon down and just let it cook.  Watch, as it can boil over and make a major mess.  If you have a candy thermometer continue to cook without stirring until it reaches 234 degrees (soft boil stage).  It's ready when a drop of the mixture placed in a glass of cool water will hold its shape.  Once you have reached that point, remove the mixture from the stove, but do not stir.  Melt butter and add to mixture along with vanilla (yes, without stirring) and let it sit until it is lukewarm temperature.  (about 110 degrees)  At this point, you can pick the pan up and the bottom will be warm to the touch...takes a while, so be patient.

Now...stir with the wooden spoon.  Once it gets to the point where it no longer looks like hot fudge sauce, but more like chocolate frosting, pour it into a foil lined and buttered 8X8 inch pan.  At this point the fudge should set quicklly, so you should go ahead and cut into pieces before it is completely hardened.

Of course, you can add nuts to the mixture before you start beating it, if you like.

The fudge has a completely different flavor from soft fudge recipes, but it is a nostalgic experience for me.  I remember my aunt would always make this when she was feeling blue.  At the time, I thought it was because the sweet candy would make her feel better, but as an adult I know better.

No matter what is weighing on your mind, this is a recipe that takes time and requires that you pay attention or it will not turn out at all!  Therefore, I think she would make the fudge for the whole reason of getting her mind off whatever was troubling here.  Stirring, watching, checking....who can worry when she is so busy?

Try this with your kids.  It is as much a recipe as a science lesson, particularly if you use the thermometer.

Oh yes....and enjoy!

This week is a total contradiction to me.  Last year this time I was just coming back home and getting settled after being in Afghanistan for a tour.  There is nothing to make you appreciate your family like being away from them.  Last year was a great Thanksgiving.  We spent it in San Antonio with my parents, and I ended up doing most of the cooking since that isn't my mom's favorite thing to do.  


This year I am completely by myself.  I'm starting a new job on base tomorrow, so I'm happy about that.  Coincidentally, the kids started asking about seeing their father recently.  My logical mind thought that maybe if they got to visit their father, then they wouldn't be home alone on school vacation while I was working and unable to spend time with them.  I'm glad they will be with their father, but they've been gone less than 24 hours and the house is so quiet I can't stand it.


I should have gone to church this morning, but after Danielle's slumber party on Friday night I had ended up functioning on 1 1/2 hours of sleep and driving almost 400 miles to drop the kids off at a designated spot halfway between my and their father's home.  I woke up around  9:30 this morning, which is really late for me.


So, this afternoon I will go to choir practice and to the Thanksgiving service and therefore, that brings me to what I'm doing today--baking a cake.  Ha!  If the request is to bring food, you're usually going to get a dessert from me.  The food for today's event is a chocolate caramel cake.  Sounds very good, but this is my first attempt.   Of course, I will post everything when I am done...unless it's a total disaster, of course.  

Yummmm.....the cake looked fabulous and tasted very, very good.  I don't really know what regular fondant tastes like, but the marshmallow kind is really good.  My kids were eating the leftover decorations like candy.  The inside held up very well.  Moist layers and the visual of chocolate/vanilla layers impressed the guests.  I'll call this one a success all the way around.  I look forward to doing this again soon!

Since I didn't want to go get a WalMart cake this year, I decided to try my hand at the fondant, which I have to admit is a lot of fun.  Yes, it was a huge pain to get the fondant on the cake in one piece and the sides draped, so I have to work on that, but I just decided it was too late and too much work to  start over.  Of course, that is what my perfectionist mind was telling me to do, but I knew that wasn't the way to go.

Southern cooking.  It's rich in history and tradition.  Also, if you want to talk about frugal...well, it goes hand in hand.  A couple of years ago I was looking for a really simple way to make homemade biscuits and came across recipes for something known as "Cat Head Biscuits".  Having a really close friend that was raised in TN in the most southern environment possible, I asked him about it.  Turns out that Cat Head Biscuits are drop biscuits so named because they rise up in the oven to approximately the size of......you guessed it--cat heads.  

I tweaked the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake and the result was so good.  I think it is better and moister today than yesterday when I made it, which I take as a very good sign.  Anyway, here were my changes:


use 1 cup buttermilk in place of regular milk
raise baking soda to 2 teaspoons
use 3 large eggs instead of two


As with my normal baking habits, I bring the ingredients to room temperature before starting, as this makes the cake cook better and prevents a cake that rises too much in the middle.


I also baked the cake at 325 degrees and extended the baking time for five minutes in yet another effort to have a level cake.  It was absolutely perfect.  Danielle says THIS version is her birthday cake.  I think it is good since I am planning on using the fondant.  The cake is light and rises enough to be delicious but I think it is substantial enough to stand up to the heavier icing.  We shall see.

Well, Danielle is officially having a slumber party  in about a week and I'm going to do the cake.  I don't normally do the cakes, but I'm sort of into baking right now, so I think I'll give it a try.  If I had all the supplies I need, it would definitely be more economical, but I am going to spend some money on some decorating supplies.  Therefore, I need to figure out what cake to make.  I think I am going to try out a few cake recipes I can scrounge up, but she wants chocolate.  To date, the best chocolate cake recipe is Hershey's, located on the outside of every cocoa box they sell.  The batter is extremely thin, but it comes out beautifully.  Since I baked this for the first time I've done a lot of reading and I've learned that the thinner the batter, the higher the cake will rise.  I guess my concern there is will the cake be substantial enough to stand up to fondant?  I think so, but I'm going to look around for a day or so and unfrosted chocolate cake will be the snack of choice around here.

I think I baked it several times before I baked it for Darrin's birthday in October.  Since I let Danielle decorate that one in some basic blue and green buttercream, I wanted to keep the cake white and opted for a white chocolate frosting that I made out of white baking chips, butter, vanilla and a little milk.  Since Darrin was turning 17, the cake was just for us, since he is far too old for a party.  Emphasis was definitely on taste.  It was really good, but I think it would need some tweaking before I try it again.  After a couple of days the cake was holding up wonderfully but the frosting was so hard you had to microwave it a few seconds to really cut it without having the frosting "chip" off and leave little naked cake spots.  I've made it with the Perfectly Chocolate Frosting recipe also on the Hershey box and that is so easy and fantastic (recipe is also below).

I will see what I can come up with, but for the moment, here is the recipe for Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake as found on the beloved cocoa box.  Please note that in all things baking, using butter is the best route to go and, unless specified otherwise, use unsalted butter for best results.


Directions:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water