72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

I recently became involved with a wonderful organization Operation Baking GALS, which is a group of volunteers who stir, pour, and bake homemade treats to be sent oversees to our heroic military men and women.  We GALS, which stands for Give A Little Support, bake to show support and send a little bit of the USA to remind them how much we appreciate all they do for us everyday.

For my first package, I included some store bought goodies as well as Brown Sugar Cookies and a loaf of homemade Zucchini Bread. (I even made another loaf with chocolate chips for J!)

Both turned out fantastic!

Yummy cookie batter.

All the cookies - packed and ready to go.

Packed and ready to go - Zucchini Bread, cookies, 

trail mix bars, tuna packs, oatmeal, and hot chocolate packs.

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

One random Friday over the summer, I decided to make a treat to bring into work.  I ended up making strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing!  They were too good - and I must admit - fewer made it to work due to my appetite for sweets!

They were a big hit with the co-workers!

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

Yesterday was J's Birthday - so I attempted to recreate one of J's favorite desserts (and overall favorite aspects) from our past cruises....

Allow me to introduce, The Chocolate Melting Cake.

Hello Friendly Chef! Two orders please!

Warm, melty, delicious, calorically extravagant, cake. J and I had taken a tour of the kitchen on our past cruise and at the end, we were rewarded with this pure gold recipe.

• Carnival's Chocolate Melting Cake:
• 
  
• 8 ounces of semisweet chocolate
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
• 7 eggs, divided use
• 6 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 
  

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Melt the chocolate and butter and cool for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix four eggs with sugar. Whisk. Then add flour and whisk. Add the remaining three eggs and add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture. Pour this entire mixture into individual ramekins. Bake until just done, about 15-20 minutes (interior will be melting). Serve with vanilla ice cream.

I have no pictures from the preparation process as it was a quick one.  Between the melting chocolate, whipping eggs, and frantic stirring - we were just happy the batter eventually made it into the cups.  I cooked it a bit too long - resulting in more cake vs. melting - but we enjoyed it just the same.

Served with some butter pecan ice cream and candles - it make the perfect birthday cake for my love.

Happy Birthday J!

Blowing out the candles!

First bite. total win.

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

This past weekend our good friend M and J came for a short visit.  We didn't really do anything other than eat really yummy diner food and bake - both of much made for great catching-up activities. 

Since M has celiac's disease - we needed a batter that was gluten free.  Since I don't readily have potato starch or soy flours in my cupboards - it was Target to the rescue.  Surprisingly there were a lots of gluten-free cake batters to choose from - but I went with my girl Betty.

I am so glad I did - because these bad boys turned out wonderfully.

If no one had told me these were gluten-free - I would have no idea.  They were that good.  

Needless to say there were no leftovers from this batch. 

72. Bake 10 kinds of sweet treats.

Truthfully, I have made plenty of new recipes since I started down my "1001 Days" journey.  For one of two reasons that have not been posted here.


1. I forget to document the process and halfway through dinner (which I am ravenously eating after arriving home starving after work) it dawns on me that I could have put it in the blog.
2. Sometimes, I'm just lazy.


But today I decided to be all domestic-y and make mini-pecan tarts for a work Thanksgiving party.  (ok, technically it's a staff meeting too)

Recipe:
Mini-Pecan Tarts
Makes about 24

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 cup sifted flour
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt
2/3 cup chopped pecans



Combine cheese and 1/2 cup butter.

 J: "Anything that starts out with those two things involved has got to be good."  I would also agree.

Slowly add flour while mixing. Mix thoroughly and chill, covered, 1 hour. Preheat over to 325F. Divide into 24 small balls (at this point I lightly grease the tin for help later on) and press into sides and bottom of 2 ungreased minature muffin pans. 

Combine egg, brown sugar, vanilla, salt & remaining 1 tablespoon butter; beat until smooth. 

Sprinkle 1/3 cup pecans equally into 24 tart shells. Divide egg mixture equally among 24 tarts, pouring on top of pecans.

Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup pecans on top of tarts. Bake 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

so good.

After this was presented to me from bakery heaven (aka my oven)- I immediately scrounged around to find enough of each ingredient to make another batch just for J and I.

yumm-o.