Coconut Cream Cake

Happy Easter everyone! Today's recipe is courtesy of a woman I used to work with. It's a light cake that is served cold which makes it a perfect dessert after eating hot Louisiana boiled crawfish! Most people in South Louisiana have boiled crawfish for Easter (I can't imagine having ham or something!!) so it's nice to have a cool, sweet treat. This hit the spot!

Coconut Cream Cake

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix, along with whatever it calls for on the box to bake it
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can coconut milk
whipped topping

Method

Bake cake as directed in a 13x9 pan. While cake bakes, mix together the condensed milk and coconut milk. As soon as cake is baked, remove from oven and use a fork to poke holes all over the top. Pour on the milk mixture while the cake is still hot and allow to settle. Cover and refrigerate. When ready to serve, spread whipped topping over the top of the cake.


The ingredients (minus the tub of whipped topping, which I forgot to include in the picture)


Cake baked with holes poked all over it


Milk mixture poured over it


With the whipped topping, ready to eat

The Verdict: Well I should have taken a picture of the empty pan! There was NOTHING left. Need I say more?

Crack in a Cup

As I write this post, I'm enjoying the latest delicacy known as "Crack in a Cup." No, crack is not involved and it doesn't mean chipped china either! Crack in a Cup is something I came across online one day on a message board for new moms (I'm a new mom). It's sort of a make at home version of the instant one-serving microwave desserts mass-produced and available at your local supermarket. Only you have the stuff to make this at home, it's simple and I'm sure variations could be made. Unfortunately I forgot my camera behind on my latest trip home to visit family, so I am unable to take pictures at this time. I think you can imagine the beauty of it though. Ready to get addicted?

Crack in a Cup

Chocolate mug cake = crack in a cup

1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
Sprinkle of baking powder
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon oil
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well .
Pour in the milk, vanilla and oil and mix well.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 1 minute on high.

If you're feeling wild, go ahead and add a squirt of whipped topping or a scoop of ice cream.

Verdict:
Oh.My.God. For a cake that takes less than 1 minute to make in a coffee mug, it's pretty darn good. Sure it's not as good as that sinful dessert all of us Carnival Cruisers enjoyed so much, but it's pretty darn good. I went crazy and added the whipped topping. I'm thinking interesting variations would be to maybe add some chocolate chips, some of those Andes chocolate mint pieces or even peanut butter chips. Super delish for stuff you had laying around the house anyway!

First post! Mint Chocolate Cookies

Welcome to the first post of Cooking With Christen! I've always LOVED to cook and share recipes with other appreciators of yummy food so I figured this is the perfect way to do that.

Today's recipe is one I acquired while at a cookie swap with some girl friends in Baton Rouge. Thanks for the recipe, Tiffany! To me it tasted just like a Girl Scout cookie and I couldn't wait to try making it myself. She had made about a million of them for the cookie swap, so I cut her recipe in half, which is below.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant devil's food pudding mix (couldn't find it so used chocolate)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag Andes Mint chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the Andes Mint chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown. Mine made 4.5 dozen.


My oven is set to 350 degrees.


This is what my dough looked like (two dozen had already been baked by this point)


This is what they looked like before baking...


And this is what the finished product looked like!

Verdict: Absolutely delicious and pretty easy to make! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!