So my husband’s birthday was Monday.

And, as with all the projects in my life lately, I was late making his cake.

I suck.

I mean seriously. His favorite cake is SOOOOOOOOO easy to make! It’s like, 5 ingredients and costs less than $10.

I really suck.

Anyway, here’s his cake:

Here’s what you need to make it:

1/2 cup warmed Hot fudge sauce. I used Hershey’s Hot Fudge, in the jar. It’s the best, and I should know. I have tried just about every ice cream topping know to man!

1 tub of Cool Whip (2 tubs if you want to pipe it on pretty as I did)

1 pkg Chocolate instant pudding

8 Oreos chopped/broken into “chunky” pieces

12 Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yep.

That’s all you need.

Whisk together hot fudge sauce and 1 cup of the whipped topping. Add dry pudding and stir (if it seams too thick add 2 – 4 tbsp of milk)

Stir in chopped Oreos.

Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches side by side on your serving tray. Top with half the pudding mixture, the another 4 ice cream sandwiches, then the rest of the pudding mixture, then the last 4 ice cream sandwiches.

Cover with a thin layer of whip cream and freeze for an hour then pipe on the rest of the whip cream using a no. 21 tip, starting at the base and squeezing gently as you move up the side of the cake.

I used hot fudge to write Happy Birthday, but you could use frosting or decorating gel. Just be warned that decorating gel in the tube (for writing on cakes) can bleed when it’s on whip cream, thanks to the condensation.

And there you have it.

 

It looks fancy when you cut into it so it’s perfect for company.

Or you can eat the whole thing by yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s very rich, so 1 slice nearly put me into a sugar coma. But it was worth it.

Happy Birthday Miguel.  You are my everything and I love you.

Sorry I suck.

~ Sandy

 

 

 

Last week I mentioned to you that I was on vacation visiting my parents in Virginia.

I got to spend a lot of quality time with my parents.  Living in IL makes quality time with them a rarity, so it was nice to spend a few days simply relaxing and talking and watching the kids play.

While I was there my Mom gave me a stack of magazines. In particular, Food Network Magazines. Yay me! We flipped through the pages together, commented on the pictures, talked about our favorite Food Network shows.  My Mom is a huge fan of Chopped, I prefer the cake related Food Network Challenges and Cupcake Wars.  So I asked my Mom how many of the recipes she has tried making (in one issue alone I had already picked out about 5 things I couldn’t wait to try when I got home), she said none.

Wait.

What?

You love Food Network, you have their magazine, and you haven’t made a single thing?

Yeah, that’s not going to work for me.

So I challenged her.  I told her that I would pick a recipe from one of the issues, and we would both make it.  And since I was going to write my blog post about it she wouldn’t be able to back out.

Here’s what I chose for us:

Lady Marmalade Chicken Salad

Courtesy of Aarti Sequeira, Food Network Magazine (April 2011)

Aarti: “This salad will woo you with it’s golden hue, slightly bittersweet bite and buttery cashew crunch”

Mom:

Okay. Let me start with the how much I enjoy the Food Network Channel, my favorite program being “Chopped”. When challenged from Sandra to make a new recipe “Lady Marmalade Chicken Salad” by Aarti Sequeira I jumped at the chance to try something different(*HA! she totally fought me on this).

While shopping for the ingredients I found that there are things I’ve never cooked with and two of them were shallots and cilantro leaves. Hey, what do I know, I’m the type that gets the ‘all-in-one’ seasonings, a mixture of wonderful herbs selected for specific dishes! After getting the help from the produce clerk, I went home feeling quite confident!

Today was the day and I met my challenge. Although I followed the instructions and it looked quite good in the bowl, “I’ve been CHOPPED”(*isn’t she cute with her Food Network references). My husband and I tried a plate full and quite honestly, would not recommend this dish. We found it lacked flavor and had a more pasty consistency. I’m confident that Sandra won this time round!

Me:

My take was a little different.  First of all I had help (thank you Jennifer for showing me the difference between a head of garlic and a clove of garlic. Disaster averted). There’s something about friends in the kitchen, preparing food and chatting, that takes all the pressure off.

I will also mention that I used regular, plain, non fat yogurt instead of Greek non fat yogurt.  Greek yogurt might have made a slightly thicker dressing to the salad, but it does have a pasty, gritty consistency that I am sure is what caused my Mom not to enjoy her dish.

And while there was quite a bit of preparation, and it was definitely different that any chicken salad I’m used to (which is mostly just chicken, mayonnaise, and celery), I enjoyed it.  The initial bite took some getting used to.  Both Jennifer and I agreed that it was a perfectly cooked piece of chicken (and would be great by it’s self) but it felt like something might be missing.  It wasn’t quite curry and it wasn’t quite a chicken salad.  But honestly, the more I eat of it, the more I like it.  Though I am wishing I had a piece of naan bread to serve with it.

I guess I did win this round, but my Mom get’s to pick the next recipe.

Bring it on!

~ Sandy