Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake Recipe

 This is one of my Mom's recipes. It is a decadent chocolate cake that is really easy to throw together. I made it recently for a birthday and it was a hit!

I have also made it without a box mix cake. I will include the "from scratch" recipe, too.

Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake

1 (18oz.) Dark Chocolate Cake Mix

1 (3.9oz.) package Instant Chocolate Pudding

16 oz. Sour Cream

3 Eggs

1/3 cup Oil

1/2 cup Coffee or Cherry Liquid From Jarred Marciano Cherries

2 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. 

Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In large bowl combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, and liquid. Beat until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. 

Spoon batter into prepared pan 

Bake 1 hour. 

Cool 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.

Ice with chocolate ganache if desired.

Stock photo that looks just like 
Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake.

Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake Without Cake Mix

1 3/4 cups Flour

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Salt

1 (3.9oz.) package Instant Chocolate Pudding

16 oz. Sour Cream

3 Eggs

1/3 cup Oil

1/2 cup Coffee or Cherry Liquid From Jarred Marciano Cherries

2 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. 

Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, and liquid. Beat until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. 

Spoon batter into prepared pan 

Bake 1 hour. 

Cool 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.

Ice with chocolate ganache if desired.

Swedish Bullar Recipe!

 This is a very good recipe that a good friend of mine gave me over 10 years ago. She had made this pastry as a 4-h project. I thought they were amazing! For my birthday, the same year, she gave me a batch of Swedish Bullar that she had baked along with the recipe written out on a few index cards. :)

10 years had gone by, and I still had never made Swedish Bullar. What was the hold up? I had never bought ground cardamom. This winter when I bought ground cardamom at the Indian Grocery store to make Tikka Masala, one of my first thoughts was, "Now I can make Swedish Bullar!" 

I have made Swedish Bullar a couple times now. I tweaked the recipe a little bit from the original from my friend: I cut back on the butter in the dough, I added more spices, and fold the layers in an envelope fold because I think it looks pretty.

Swedish Bullar

Dough:

1 tsp. Sugar

1/4 cup Warm Water

2 1/2 tsp. Yeast

3/4 cup Milk

1/2 cup Butter

3 TBS. Sugar

1/2 tsp. Ground Cardamom

1 Egg

3 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour

In a mixing bowl, combine 1 tsp. sugar, warm water, and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast begins to bubble.

Meanwhile, in a sauce pan melt the butter. Add the milk and heat until just warm but not hot. 

Pour the milk and butter into the yeast mixture. Add egg, sugar, cardamom, and flour. Beat with dough hook until combined. Knead on a floured surface for 1 minute. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Filling:

1/2 cup Sugar

2 TBS. Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp. Ground Cardamom

1/4 cup Soft Butter

For The Baking Sheet:

1/4 cup Butter

5-8 TBS. Sugar

In a bowl mix the sugar for the filling, cinnamon, cardamom, and soft butter to form a paste. Roll the dough into a 20×15 inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Spread the filling paste on two thirds of the dough.

Fold the undressed third of dough up onto the filling.

Fold the remaining third of dough down over the folded up section, finishing the envelope fold.

Roll the filled and folded dough with a rolling pin to press the dough together. Cut the dough into 1 inch strips.

Hold one end of each strip and, while stretching, twist in opposite directions. Coil the twisted strip around your finger to create a tightly rolled bun. Tuck the end through the middle hole for a knot type bun.

Meanwhile, melt the 1/4 of butter for the baking sheet in the oven on a large baking sheet with edges. Sprinkle 5-8 TBS. of sugar over the melted butter. 

Place the coiled buns on the baking sheet about 1 1/2 -2 inches apart. Let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in preheated oven at 400° F. for 10-12 minutes.

Icing:*

2 cups Powdered Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

3 drops Butter Flavoring

1 1/2 TBS. Milk

Mix everything together and drizzle over warm rolls.

*I only use a quarter of this icing recipe for one batch of Bullar. 

Visit To The Indian Grocery Store!

We have discovered an Indian Grocery Store close by to where we live. The Tikka Masala Recipe is the reason I had originally looked for an Indian Grocery Store in our area. I needed Garam Masala, a spice blend that I could not find at a typical grocery store.

There are so many interesting things at the Indian Grocery Store. Most of which, I have never seen before, and have no idea how to use or cook. I need someone to help me get started.

That "Someone," so far, has been the Owner of the store. Mr. In the Mid-west started up a conversation with the Owner one day when we were in his store. Once he heard that I eat gluten free he was showing us all around the store to many kinds of non wheat flours and products that are used in traditional Indian cooking. 

We bought a bucket of Dosa batter from the refrigerated section. The Owner Gentleman said it was for making pancakes. I read up on how to cook Dosa on the internet once we were at home. 

Dosa batter is a thin, fermented batter made from rice and lentils. You make pancakes out of it much in the same way you would cook a crepe. The batter bubbles up, kind of like a foam, once it hits the hot skillet. You use the back of a ladle to spread the batter in a circular motion starting in the center and spiraling out to the edge.

 The flavor is very much like real sourdough. I enjoyed the Dosa very much and so did our boys. You have to really like sourdough flavor to think that Dosa tastes good. Mr. in the Mid-west was not a big fan. :)

Their spice section is amazing at the Indian Grocery store! None of the prices were marked. I was very surprised at the checkout counter with how cheap the spices were ringing up. All the spices in the picture above cost about $12! That is nearly 50¢ per ounce. Compare that price to this little tin of Ground Ginger from Kroger: it cost over $3.00 for 1.5 ounces.

Not only are the prices of spices low at the Indian Grocery store, they have a huge selection! 

Another neat thing we have tried from the Indian Grocery store is coffee. The Owner Gentleman spoke with Mr. In the Mid-west about a few different coffee varieties. Some of the coffee selections were blended with chicory root. We picked out one that is 53% coffee and 47% chicory. 

Reading the brewing directions on the back of the package make me think that this coffee is used kind of like espresso. 

For one serving it calls for about 1/4 cup (50ml.)  of boiling water and 2 tsp. of coffee grounds. The coffee grounds are to be steeped 15 minutes and then strained and drank with milk. 

I don't have a French press to properly strain the coffee. But I do have a fine mesh tea strainer that has been working well. 

I heat some milk and foam it with a whisk before adding the coffee to the mug. I put about half and half, coffee to foamed milk.

I generally think coffee is nasty, but this kind of coffee is a real treat! With it being half warm, foamed milk it is not very strong. I can enjoy coffee fixed like this. :)

Do any of you know anything about Indian food? I am going to be learning all that I can.

If I find any good recipes I will share them here on my blog with you all!

"Rag" Doll Dresses

{Click HERE to buy my Rag Dolls or my Rag Doll Sewing Pattern.}

From Rag Quilt to Rag Doll Dresses, I have been finishing a couple sewing projects that have been in the works for a while.

I started all these Doll Dresses over 6 months ago! I wanted to make matching dresses for my little girl and her doll. I didn't finish the doll dresses in time, though. My little girl has already out grown all the dresses that I sewed for her! :) I hope she will be using the doll dresses for many years to come, regardless of whether or not she has matching dresses for herself. :)

The little red plaid dress is made from a true rag. 

One of my shirts that I have been wearing for over 8 years bit the dust this last summer. It became a rag when I ripped a hole in the back on the shoulder area. There was still plenty of good fabric in the back of the shirt to use for a rag doll dress. I even cut the doll dress sleeves out of the shirt sleeves. :)

I have been making rag dolls and dress as a creative outlet. 3 years ago, I was inspired to make rag dolls by reading an adapted version of Little House In The Big Woods to my oldest son (who was only 2 at the time. My, has he grown fast!)

 I had a particular type of doll in my mind to make. When I was a little girl my mom had cut out the pieces of a rag doll for me to sew. I was only about 7. My Mom had used a pattern from a library book. The book was part of a unit study on American pioneers. The rag doll turned out to be a good activity even though it was poorly done. Remember, I was only 7.

 The poor little doll never had any hair. Making hair was beyond any of our capabilities at the time. My Mom had never made a doll before and didn't know how to attach hair. And, this was before the internet made finding out how to do thing so easy.

 I wanted my design to be similarly shaped to the one that my mom had cut out. I looked for patterns and ideas on Pinterest and Etsy. I could not find exactly what I had in mind. So, I made up my own pattern. It has been working great, yielding results that are exactly what I had envisioned.

The way that I construct the dresses is just a miniature version of a human dress.

I finish all the seams and reenforce the sleeves in hopes that I will never have to do any repair work on these dresses. 

I know myself, if one of the dress seams rip out I will not get around to fixing it. I just don't like doing repairs. :)

Did you have a special doll growing up? What do you do for a creative outlet?