Tag Archives: dessert

Mr. McGregor’s Carrot Patch Cake

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Spring has sprung in the Northeast and I totally forgot to post this adorable cake I baked for Easter Sunday.

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Inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest, I’m naming this dish after my favorite springtime story: Peter Cottentail. In the book, Peter and his siblings sneak into Mr. McGregor’s garden to steal a few of his delicious carrots.

Ingredients:
- 2 boxes of chocolate cake
- 1 box of vanilla cake
- Red and yellow food coloring
- 1 tub of chocolate frosting
- Betty Crocker’s green decorating frosting tubes
- Chocolate sprinkles

Directions:
1. Mix the vanilla cake according to the boxes directions. Add in 2 or 3 drops of food coloring, or until you reach the level of orange you’d like.
2. Bake the orange cake on a sheet pan per the directions on the box and let cool.

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3. Slice the orange cake into small triangle. Let me be the first to warn you–you’ll have a lot of cake leftover. I suggest making cake pops or else you’ll be tossing the leftovers (a rookie mistake I made). Place all the triangles onto a cookie sheet and place in the freezer–yes the freezer–for about 30 minutes or more.

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4. In a greased loaf pan, place all the orange triangles inside.

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5. Mix up the chocolate cake mix and pour it over the orange triangles.

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6. Bake the cake per the directions. When you text it with a toothpick–use the outside of the chocolate cake, as you don’t want to test the already cooked orange cake. Flip the cake over to cool on a sheet of wax paper. It’ll look something like this:

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7. Once the cake is cooled, frost the sides and top with chocolate frosting. Sprinkle the chocolate sprinkles on top. You can also use crushed Oreos or chocolate cookies. This will look like “dirt.”
8. Use the leaf tool from the Betty Crocker kit to create carrot leaves along the middle of the cake spreading outwards.

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When the cake is sliced, it will look like little carrots are growing in the dirt! Just like in Mr. McGregor’s carrot patch! I hope you enjoy this unique little cake :)

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Death by Dessert

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Collin called me this week while I was driving home from work. We don’t speak on the phone very often and frankly I was surprised at his call. But he surprised me with a new recipe challenge.

“My co-worker,” he said, “made these phenomenal cookie-brownies things and I think you need to make something similar to it for your blog.”  He explained there was a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, with Oreo’s and then topped with brownie batter. “Delicious,” he explained.

So here is our rendition: Death by Dessert.

FYI–Collin, affectionately known as “Collskis” or “He Who Shall Not Be Named” and I met on Semester at Sea in 2009 while we were studying abroad in college.

Ingredients:

  • Sugar cookie base
  • Fudge Brownie mix
  • 1 c. butterscotch chips
  • 1 bag snickers mini bars, chopped 

For the cookie base-

  • 1 1/2 c. flour
  • 1/2 c. butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tbsp milk

For the brownie mix-

  • 1 1/4 c. flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tbsp. Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder
  • 12 oz. chocolate
  • 1 c. butter
  • 1 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 c. mini chocolate chips

Directions: 

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a standing mixer combine all the ingredients for the sugar cookie base. I opted for a sweeter-style sugar cookie–feel free to add lemon zest or orange zest for a slightly tangier base.
  3. Spread the dough out on the bottom of a 13×9 in. pan. 
  4. Layer on the butterscotch chips and chopped Snickers bars. You can really add whatever types of candies you’d like here–I went for Snickers because I was craving the sweet/salty combination that the peanuts and caramel provide. In Collin’s original suggestion, he had whole Oreo’s in the center. 
  5. In the standing mixer, add all the brownie ingredients and blend well. Pour on top of the cookie/candy combination. 
  6. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

In retrospect, I think this recipe turned out pretty damn smashing and we’ll see how they’re received by friends, family and co-workers. It kind of reminded me of the Candy Bar Cookies I made in September, but with a twist.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the original posting that Collin was explaining to me on Pinterest. What layers would you add?