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Crispy Deviled Chicken Breast

September 20, 2017

Do you like your chicken crispy? If you do, then I have good news for you! This recipe for Crispy Deviled Chicken Breast will be your new favorite!

For classic recipes like this one I always like to refer back to Cook's Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking Cookbook to be sure I follow their steps to create that perfect golden and crispy chicken breast.

Once you learn the basics of cooking, you'll be able to take that and go off and do your own thing. I always like to know "the whys" and "the hows" of a recipe, and here are some for these Crispy Deviled Chicken Breast.

Tips for creating that perfectly crispy chicken breast

One thing I always do is pound out the chicken so that it cooks evenly. Usually 1/2-inch is a good thickness.
Moisture can cause your breading to fall off your chicken. Always blot your chicken with paper towels. No need to rinse your chicken. Dry that chicken up and soak up as much moisture as possible.
Now this one was a new one for me. Beaten eggs alone are too viscous and tend to form a heavy layer on the meat, making the bread coating too thick. Thinning the eggs with oil and/or water allows excess egg to slide off the chicken more easily, leaving a thinner and more delicate and tender coating. Thinning the eggs with oil helps the breading brown a bit more without adding more moisture. I love learning new things!
Once you've coated the chicken breast, let them rest for 5 minutes. I won't go too far into the science so lets just say it helps things adhere.
My last thing is to never crowd your pan. The breading tends to get greasy and will brown unevenly due to too much steam. Cooking 2 chicken breast at a time will give you a crisp-browned coating every time!

For the crispy coating I used a mix of Panko bread crumbs and Angelic Bakehouse Bread Crisps. Angelic Bakehouse Bread Crisps remind me of a yummy crouton just in chip form. If you can't find them you can substitute croutons. This recipe allows you to get creative with your flavorings with spices and flavor of croutons you choose. I'd love to hear what flavors you come up with. Let me know in the comments.

Maple-Bacon Cinnamon Cupcakes

September 13, 2017

I'm ready for all things fall! And that includes these Maple-Bacon Cinnamon Cupcakes! These heavenly little cakes are light and fluffy with a hint of maple flavoring inside.

I'm ready for all things Fall! And that includes these Maple-Bacon Cinnamon Cupcakes! These heavenly little cakes are light and fluffy with a hint of maple flavoring inside. Next, is that wonderful sugary bakery-style frosting flavored with maple extract and ground cinnamon which pairs perfectly with the maple flavored cupcakes.

Last but not least, for that finishing touch we topped it off with a piece of candied bacon! TIP: Be sure you make the bacon the same day you plan on serving the Maple-Bacon Cinnamon Cupcakes. It's a good idea to make a few extra pieces of bacon so you can choose the best looking bacon pieces to top your cupcakes with.

What are some of your favorite Fall desserts? Let me know in the comments. You can also follow The Cake Chica on these social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

September 6, 2017

Mississippi Mud Cake is a bit of a nod to the Mississippi River.

This cake is extra dark and chocolaty with toasted pecans and chocolate chips baked inside; sort of like the murky waters of the Mississippi River.

The story is that after the World War II era women were on the hunt for desserts that could be made with readily available pantry ingredients and did not require any special equipment or cooking tools.

There have been so many adaptations of this indulgent dessert, from pies to cakes and brownies too! These Mississippi Mud Cupcakes will surely feed your chocolate craving!

The process of making the marshmallow frosting can be a little tricky, just due to timing. If you have a helper that would be great but not impossible to do on your own like I did.

Looking for more recipes like this one? Try Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel-Espresso Frosting Buttercream, Chocolate Cream Cupcakes and Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes with Glossy Chocolate Icing. Feel free to follow me on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Browned Butter Chocolate Candy Cookies

August 22, 2017

These Browned Butter Chocolate Candy Cookies may look like your average chocolate chip cookie but they are not! The browned butter provides an amazing toffee flavor. So if your palate is more on the sophisticated side, I recommend you give these cookies a try. They might just become your new favorite recipe for the all american chocolate chip cookie!

Letting the browned butter, sugars and eggs sit for a few minutes not only helps the toffee flavor develop, but also helps to achieve those crispy edges and chewy centers.

The beautiful colors in this cookie got me thinking about Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving will be here before you know it and it's never too early to start planning your Thanksgiving menu! And I think these Browned Butter Chocolate Candy Cookies would go perfectly on your Thanksgiving table this year.

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Grandma's Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake

August 15, 2017

You could say blood, sweat and tears went into this one. Okay not literally but I was up against some crazy obstacles when making this recipe for Grandma's Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake.

The recipe comes from...well you probably guessed it...my Grandma. I've never made it before but I sure do remember eating it when I was young and still to this day during holidays.

Round 1: So a power line behind our street fell down the day I was supposed to finish and take pictures of this cake. With the power out for a few hours, the cake was pretty much done for. But this was actually a blessing in disguise. I realized I didn't use enough ice cream filling for the ice cream layers and I also used baking soda instead of baking powder for the cake 🙁

Round 2: After my failure the day before, I was determined to get it right! The next day (Sunday) I started all over. With the power back on, I was ready to tackle the challenge. Or so I thought. Ice cream cake should never be rushed!!!! My mistake on the second round. Talk about melting ice cream everywhere. Not only that, but I hadn't made the proper adjustments in my freezer for a cake this tall in stature.

Round 3: Yes!!! The final round! Having learned from all my mistakes I now have the perfect, show stopping ice cream cake ready for it's debut on The Cake Chica.

As mentioned above, don't rush the ice cream cake. So here is what my schedule looked like when making this amazing ice cream treat:

Friday:

Make the sponge cake
Make the ice cream layers
Assemble cake and cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in the freezer overnight to set up.

Saturday:

Prepare for any garnishes: set up piping bags, make Magic Shell, get sprinkles ready, get cherries all cleaned up and get the ice cream cone pieces prepped.
Make whipped cream.
Cover cake with whipped cream and decorate with garnishes of your choosing.

I have some tips on this cake that you should be made aware of before tackling this recipe:

Be sure you have enough freezer space in your freezer for this cake. It gets very tall! If you have a bottom loading freezer this recipe will be difficult to do.
Use a marble or granite serving platter and store the cake on top to keep it as cold as possible in the freezer. I used a marble lazy Susan which made it a breeze to store and frost the cake.
Don't rush the ice cream cake!
You can use 9 inch round cake pans to make the cake a little shorter and wider if that fits your storage space better. Just be sure to adjust the baking time on the cake.

Lucky for you I have made all the mistakes for you :). This is my Grandma Mary's recipe and I wanted to do it justice! So no matter how many times I had to redo it until I got it just right, then that's just what I was going to do. Thankfully the third time was the charm. I had to put my own twist on this recipe just a little by adding homemade whipped cream, Magic Shell, sprinkles and some crushed up ice cream cone.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. And now I have the recipe down to pass on to future generations. You can follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Strawberry Sun Tea

July 25, 2017

It's crazy hot and humid in H-town, also known as Houston. The dog days of summer are here. And one memory I have as a kid was during the summertime my sister and I would stay with my grandma and when the sun was bright and blazing hot, she would put a chair out in the back yard and place a large jug of tea on it and just let the tea steep for hours in the sun.

With it being crazy hot right now it made me crave a nice glass of cold sun tea. This recipe for Strawberry Sun Tea is inspired by my grandma. She never put strawberries in it but that's my spin on it. Plus strawberries are plentiful in the summer so why not?

It's up to you if you would like to add sugar to your tea. I originally made it without sugar but I feel a little sugar is necessary to really bring out the flavor of the strawberries.

So what is your favorite cold drink in the summer? Is it iced tea like mine? Or maybe a nice cold soda, or float? Or maybe even snow cones! Those are pretty amazing when it's 100 plus degrees outside. Comment below what your favorite drink is, I can't wait to read them.

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Fruit Tart

July 10, 2017

This was a fun recipe to make, and I learned a few things too! When I was little fruit tarts were my favorite dessert. I remember getting excited when my mom said we were going to La Madeline's to eat because I knew I wanted to get a fruit tart from the bakery case. Then I would eat the fruit and filling and leave the crust. To me it was more of a dish that the yummy filling and topping came in, not meant to eat because it just didn't taste all that great. But this Fruit Tart is different! The crust is like a dessert all its own. Made by browning the butter to give a warm nutty flavor and baking it until just browned. It could be it's own cookie all by itself.

The pictures above show a clever way of decorating your fruit tart, by using the peaches as a slicing guide. A big thank you to the awesome people at Cook's Illustrated for this neat and useful idea. Here are a few tips and tricks I learned while making this Fruit Tart:

First things first, the crust. The first one was not up to my standards so I scrapped it and made another one. (It's so easy it wasn't a big issue having to remake it.) This time I used one of my 8-inch round cake pans with a piece of parchment paper on the bottom and gently pressed the dough into the tart pan. I found this helped spread the dough out evenly and made for a picture perfect crust!
This one is VERY IMPORTANT. Use white chocolate baking chips for the filling, not white chocolate chips. To be sure you have white baking chips, look at the list of ingredients. If it lists cocoa butter on the ingredients list this is not what you want. If you use real white chocolate your filling will not set up properly and will be loose.
Depending on the size of your peaches you may just need 2 or 3 slices for decoration.
Use a light hand when dabbing on the glaze. If your glaze starts to harden, reheat in the microwave for 5 to 10 seconds to loosen it up.
You want to be sure you have all your fruit topping prepped and ready to go once you pour the filling in the crust. Once the filling cools it will be too firm to hold the fruit topping properly so you want to be sure you decorate your tart while the filling is still warm.

Don't let this Fruit Tart's good looks fool you, this is incredibly easy to make. It only looks like you slaved all day in the kitchen for it. 🙂

If you try this one let me know in the comments below. You may also like: Peach Strawberry Shortcakes, Strawberry Shortcakes and Strawberry Shortcake. Follow me on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies

July 4, 2017

Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies!!! Yes they exist!!! I used my tried and true chocolate chip recipe Best, Big, Fat Chewy, Chocolate Chip Cookie and substituted about have of the chocolate chips with Snickers Bites.

I admit these were a bit of an impulse buy. There I was looking for white chocolate chips in my local grocery store for this Confetti Cookie Cake recipe and in jumped the Snickers Baking Bites right into my basket. 🙂 Snickers are probably my favorite candy bar, it's right up there with Whatchamacallit.....ooh another cookie idea!

If you can't find Snickers Baking Bites you can chop up a Snickers bar and use that instead.

Get ready for these Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies to be a hit at your next party. I took these to a family gathering this past weekend and they were a hit! I got several compliments on them and people went back for seconds. If you're a Snickers lover like I am then these must be on your "to make" list.

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Confetti Cookie Cake

June 26, 2017

Why You'll Love This Confetti Cookie Cake:

It's incredibly easy to make and tasty too.
With the different types of sprinkles available now, it's super easy to match your special event.
It's two of my favorite childhood sweets together as one!

What a perfect pairing right? A cookie and a cake put together! When I was younger I always loved getting cookie cakes instead of the typical birthday cake.

This Confetti Cookie Cake tastes like something you would have to order from a professional bakery. But lucky you, you now have an awesome recipe to impress your guests and when they ask "where did you get this from" you can say proudly "I made it!" And I'll leave it up to you if you want to tell them how simple it was to make 🙂

Tip: Be on the look out for real white chocolate chips! There is a time and place for the fake stuff but no room for it in this recipe. The fake stuff will say something along the lines of "baking chips". Legit white chocolate chips will have cocoa butter listed in the ingredients section.

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Spiked Shirley Temple

June 23, 2017

Don't toss out that empty jar of Maraschino cherries just yet. Save that juice! It goes great with cocktails, such as this Spiked Shirley Temple. A traditional Shirley Temple is made with ginger ale, a splash of grenadine and garnished with a Maraschino cherry.

My adult version uses lemon-lime soda, with gin, cherry liqueur and Maraschino juice. Yum! I still remember when I had my first Shirley Temple. I was maybe 10 years old and I was at a steak restaurant waiting at the bar with some family for our table to be ready and my step-father's dad said to the bartender "Get these girls a couple of Shirley Temple's" I thought to myself, "What is that?" Then when the bartender brought me and my sister our drinks I was like WOW it looked so grown up! And it tasted so good from that point on, for almost the next 10 years I always ordered Shirley Temples when I was out at a restaurant.

Now that I am older, I have cut back on the sodas. But every now and then I like a good cocktail after a long days work and I love that this Spiked Shirley Temple satisfies my craving and takes me back to that time when I was around 10 years old and had my first Shirley Temple. This one really hits the spot.

And don't forget to follow me on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest

Homemade Bacon-Ranch Tator Tots

June 12, 2017

No store bought frozen tator tots can compare to these Homemade Bacon-Ranch Tator Tots!

Sure there is a little work involved but it's worth it! They're flavorful and super crispy! You won't get that from the frozen kind.

These Homemade Bacon-Ranch Tator Tots are perfect for a special dinner. You can make them ahead of time which is always a plus. Once the tator tots are done, let them cool, then place in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month. To reheat, place an oven rack in the middle position and heat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the tator tots on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until heated through, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Here are a few tips when making this recipe:

If you have a few large pieces of potato that remain after processing, chop them coarsely by hand.
To make handling the uncooked tots easier, use a wet knife blade and wet hands. This will help you shape the tots.
When you drop the tots into the hot oil they may stick together. Be sure not to stir them until they have browned and set.
You may end up with a few tots that have fried together. Once they are cool enough to handle, gently pull them apart.

Now you've gone through all the work of making homemade tator tots from scratch, and let me tell you these probably don't really need any sort of condiments; but if you simply must have something like ketchup to dip these little nuggets of fried crispy-ness in, then be sure you choose a high quality ketchup like Sir Kensington's ketchup.

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Strawberry Shortcake

June 5, 2017

This one took a few tries to get it just right, but I'm happy to report it's finally perfected.

Well at least in my opinion. Why don't you give it a try and tell me what you think?

Strawberry Shortcake is perfect during the Summer months when strawberries are in season. This cake bakes up a wonderful sponge cake, that's soaked in a sugar syrup to give the cake a little extra moistness. Then top those moist cake layers with homemade whipped cream! Next, you'll top the whipped cream with fresh sliced strawberries. Yum! I think your gonna love this light and fluffy Strawberry Shortcake.

And because this cake is so fluffy and light, if you're planning on taking it somewhere, I strongly recommend setting up this cake when you get to the event location. I brought this cake to a family gathering at my mom's house just a few weeks ago. I sliced the cake layers and wrapped them up in plastic wrap and stuck them in my cake storage container. Next I packed a wooden skewer, strawberries, a container of soaking syrup and another container of whipped cream. Once I got to my mom's house I assembled the cake there. Don't forget to pack a pastry brush for your soaking syrup and an offset cake spatula to spread on your whipped cream.

I'd love to hear from you on social media. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

I hope you enjoy this Strawberry Shortcake as much as I did. I'll talk with you guys next week!!!

Adapted from Layered: Baking, Building, and Styling Spectacular Cakes by Tessa Huff.

Tips for creating that perfectly crispy chicken breast

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I have some tips on this cake that you should be made aware of before tackling this recipe:

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Why You'll Love This Confetti Cookie Cake:

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Here are a few tips when making this recipe:

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