Magic cake you guys! It’s actually magic! Or it’s science, which is kind of like magic to those of us who don’t understand science (i.e. me). You mix up one cake batter, pour it into a pan, bake it and voila – you have three separate layers when it’s done. A dense, chewy layer. A creamy custard layer. And a light sponge layer. It’s magic!! I’m very excited about it!
Happy Monday guys! It’s a particularly happy Monday for me because I’ve been dogsitting for my mum over the weekend and she’s home now! I’m not a dog person okay, don’t hate me! I don’t dislike dogs, I feel the same way about dogs as I do about kids – I love hanging out and playing with them, but I don’t want any of my own! The weekend was pretty exhausting though, dogs are hard work and the miniature dachshund is real mama’s girl, she spent the whole weekend pining after my mum!
I’ve got a nice simple recipe for y’all to start of the week. I said a while ago I was going to post one savoury, dinner type recipe a month and this bacon avocado grilled cheese recipe is October’s. Grilled cheese’s are an ultimate comfort food for me, they’re particularly good on these cold autumn evenings. I love to have them with tomato soup instead of bread, so yummy. When I was craving a grilled cheese one night but didn’t have any tomato soup to pair with it, I thought I’d kick it up a notch and add some tasty extras!
I’m a new convert to avocado, for the longest time I was convinced I didn’t like it but oh how wrong I was! Now I eat it any chance I get! And who doesn’t love bacon? When people go vegetarian, bacon is usually the thing they say they miss the most! It has to be the real thing for me too, turkey bacon just feels so wrong! The crispy saltiness of the bacon paired with the mild and creamy avocado is just a perfect match, and let’s be honest – cheese makes everything better! You can, of course, use any cheese that takes your fancy – personally I like to go with a nice, strong cheddar for my grilled cheeses. I also add a little lime to my avocado and a sprinkling of paprika in the cheese – heaven!!
Yep, you heard me right. This mint chocolate chip ice cream frosting tastes exactly like mint choc chip ice cream, it is amazing! This is the kind of frosting that you can just eat straight out of the bowl, it doesn’t even need a cake to go with it! It’s so light and fluffy and extremely creamy! The key is the high butter to sugar ratio (which makes it’s extremely creamy and not overly sweet) and to whip up the butter for a minimum of 10 minutes (which makes it so light and fluffy), it also has cream in it to give it that ice cream taste. Now, I know you’re probably thinking it can’t taste that much like ice cream but you’re wrong! You have to try it to believe it!
Oh my god you guys, Oh. My. God. It’s is Fiesta Friday #20 and I have brought something really special! This brown sugar & pecan caramel pound cake, it is amazing. You NEED to try it. It’s a pound cake but it’s so, so light and moist, and the brown sugar combined with the toffee and caramel is to die for. I will be making this cake again, several times.
Leah’s mum has been asking me to make her this cake for a while now after she saw a photo of one on Facebook and I finally got around to doing it for her. I wish I hadn’t waited so long, so many missed opportunities to enjoy this cake. Luckily for me I made enough batter for two bundt tins so I got to have one too!
There is a lot of sugar in this cake, mostly brown sugar. And it has chopped pecans nestled inside and lots of yummy heath toffee bits! Then it’s topped with a very generous helping of caramel sauce. So much sweet, caramel flavour in this cake it’s like heaven… and definitely not for the health nuts! But everyone deserves a treat every now and then right?
Father’s day is this weekend too, and if this isn’t a perfect father’s day cake I don’t know what is! Who needs hallmark when you have this much caramel to indulge in!
And the best part? It’s so easy to make! You just beat the butter, cream it with the sugar, beat in the eggs and add the dry ingredients and the milk. Stir in your pecans and toffee and bake! Then the caramel sauce is just as easy to make, just heat the condensed milk with sugar, whisk in the butter and vanilla and you’re done. You want to pour on the caramel sauce while it’s still hot as it does harden a little as it cools.
I’m not sure what else I can say about this cake that isn’t just me gushing about how much I love it! So instead I’ll let you guys try it out for yourselves. It is Fiesta Friday after all, this week’s is co-hosted by Fae and Suzanne so make sure you go check them out! And, of course, a big thanks to Angie for bringing us this wonderful party every week!
I recently updated this recipe with new photos and made it gluten free, make sure you check it out here!
[recipe title=”Brown Sugar & Pecan Caramel Pound Cake”]
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Ridiculously gooey, fudgy brownies swirled with rich cheesecake, there’s only one word for these – AMAZING!
These cheesecake swirl brownies have to be my favourite brownie creation so far, if I had to eat one brownie for the rest of my life it would be these ones, no contest! I think I perhaps underbaked these a little and that’s why they were so decadently gooey but I wouldn’t change a thing and you shouldn’t either! The texture is perfect and melts beautifully with the creamy cheesecake
The brownie base for these is an adapted version of the cocoa brownies recipe, they’re still made with cocoa but I upped the eggs to make them moister (is that a word?!). I also added baking powder to give them a little rise and increased the butter to keep them fudgy! They’re then stuff full of chunky chopped chocolate, meaning they just ooze chocolate with every bite! I think I like this adapted recipe even better, but maybe that’s the cheesecake talking!
The cheesecake is a nice simple cheesecake mix, very rich and creamy making it the perfect brownie partner. And all you need to do is mix up the cheesecake ingredients and swirl it into the brownie batter. I find the best way to do this is run the back of a dessert spoon in lines down the brownie batter making little trenches, pour the cheesecake into the trenches and then use a knife to run lines in the opposite direction. Then you bake them until you have cheesecake brownie heaven! I adore this cheesecake swirl brownie recipe and I hope you will too!
[recipe title=”Cheesecake Swirl Brownies”]
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