She Fudged Me Up

Wallene is the culprit.

Lil' stinker has kicked her Momma's behind in the delicious creativity in the kitchen department.

I raise 'em right. ::grin:: Or it's genetic.  Okay, okay. The child can read. I digress. . .

Now, before I get to the reason #2 why I am never going to have to complain about gaining weight again, I am going to give you the damn Danger Cake recipe.

Y'know, before one of y'all hangs me in effigy.  Bah. Needy froglets.

This is a version of the original that I made because the original contains a lot of the sodium free baking supplies I happen to have hoarded here in the pond, and I assumed not everyone bakes with those.  They also react different than their sodium laden counterparts so I can't simply swap out one for the other.   Besides, this one is waaay easier.

Never say I don't love you guys.

Skippy's Danger Cake or Orange ya' Glad I Made Cake

 

1 box vanilla or French vanilla cake mix
1 box vanilla instant pudding

3/4 cups orange juice
1/4 cup oil*
1/4 cup applesauce*
4 large eggs
2 tsp orange extract
1 HEAPING Tbsp orange zest [The more the merrier on this ingredient. You can never have too much zest. Don't skimp. Trust.]

*You may use all oil or all applesauce.  A bit of oil makes it a bit better, but if you never use any, you'll never know the difference, right?

Grease 10 cup bundt pan or two 9 " cake pans or line cupcake trays.  Your pick.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer put first 2 ingredients.  Stir until incorporated.
Make a well in the middle and add remaining ingredients.
Beat on low for 30 seconds until moist and mixed. Scrape bowl.
Beat on med/high for 4 [yes, that does say FOUR] minutes.  Whip it good ::channeling DEVO::

Pour into bundt pan and spread evenly. Don't press too hard as you want to keep the air that you have whipped the eggs into IN the cake. Fluff gang, fluffffff-eeee.  You will have to watch your own oven as mine is old and cranky, but I baked it for 20 minutes, spun it around 180 degrees, and finished baking an additional 20 minutes.  It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the top is a deep golden going towards golden brown.

Same for the cake, but less time, depending on your oven. It took me 32 minutes. [I turned at the 15 minute mark.]

Regular sized cupcakes can be filled 3/4 full with [I kid you not] an ice cream scoop. Yes! This batter is so insanely thick that it is almost like scooping soft serve ice cream.  Do not overfill, you just want them to crown, otherwise they burn on the underside. For the regular cupcakes it was 26 minutes, turning trays around half way through. Again, skewer/toothpick test them.

Mini cupcakes can be filled just as easily with a Tbsp sized cookie scoop. Squee! So easy. Really don't over fill these because they are so darn cute when they slightly rounded with no muffing top. These took 14 minutes total - and blah, blah, blah - as above.

Three choices on glaze and frosting.

I am sooo giving today. Yeesh.

Glaze:  Melt one 1/4 cup of [un or] salted butter in saucepan, add 1/3 cup white sugar, dissolve. Add 2/3 cup orange juice.  You may also add orange zest [more the better, say 1/2 Tbsp] and 1 tsp orange extract. There can never be too much orange flavor. I know.  Bring to a boil and let boil slightly until thick.  About 2 minutes.   After you have cooled and flipped your bundt cake out take the aforementioned skewer and poke a gazillion microscopic holes in the top.  Pour cooled glaze over the top and let that baby soak.   It will harden faster in the fridge - first because it is cold in there, but secondly, and more important, it will be out of your line of sight and you won't be tempted to eat the whole honker thing before it sets up.

Alternatively you can add 2 tsp orange extract to a can of prepared vanilla frosting.  Microwave in 1 minutes increments until runny. Pour that over the cake and well. . .

Yeah. THAT.

heehee This is fun.

I made two types of icing/frosting. Sort of.  I made my regular butter cream frosting which is unsalted butter and powder sugar whipped into airy delightness to which I added the 2 tsp orange extract and some zest.  I also colored this orange because well, butter is yellow and I wasn't making a lemon cake. Besides which orange is such a happy color.  This is my favorite because it is sodium free and light as air. 

Or for the "sort of" recipe you can use the canned vanilla frosting, 2 tsp extract and some zest, whip it and not microwave it. Viola. Easy peasy ain't nothing measly about these cupcakes. Oh, yeah. ::grin::

Now, about Wallene and the Fudge.  Or I should say THE Fudge.

Aww hell, Tadpoles.  You don't even want to know how good this stuff is.  Really. Knowing some of you, I know you are going to say "Yeah, well Skip here's the thing. I never liked fudge." I respect that.  I understand. The texture, the chew, the chocolate. Oh, wait. Forget the chocolate part.

This stuff is CONVERT fudge. ::laughing:: 

I thought I had cornered the market on the "Yes it is humanly possible to eat 5,000 calories in one afternoon" dessert with that cake.

Nope, suuuure didn't.  Not.even.close.

Pooldad and I had a date night during the day yesterday.  A date night if you want to call looking for our next home in the mountains of Virginia a "date", which I do, and we left Wallene at home.  Before I left I noticed a lonely bag of very favorite butterscotch morsels on the counter and offered them to Wallene to concoct something while we were gone.

Saturday's Roadtripping

Little did we know.

 





Like I said, she can read and she found the recipe for what I consider the best fudge I have ever eaten.  Yes, I used to be one of those people that really didn't like fudge, but what are you supposed to do when your daughter greets you at the door, holding a square of Butterscotch Chocolate Fudge  and behind her you see the rubble of what used to be your kitchen dismantled from the epic fudge making? I told her that I only wanted a little taste because dinner was in the crockpot and I had to eat first, but I would try.  She cut me 1/2'' inch square.

And then another.

And another. . . .

Soup?  What soup? 

Fudge.

It's what's for dinner. [No hypepole whatsoever in that sentence.]

My blood sugar is still somewhere north of my roof.  Gawd this stuff is good.

I am most proud of her because she made her own marshmallow fluff to add to it.  We didn't have any in the house, we never do, but she found a recipe for that and made it.

This stuff is Christmas present worthy.

I can honestly see this becoming a tradition at Christmas time and the whole family clamoring for it.  We are just going to have to come up with a great name for it that doesn't include her blogname, Wallene. [She hates her nickname on here. oops. Who knew? Sorry kiddo, I wasn't the one that ran into a WALL, hence your nickname.]

Now - go hassle HER for the recipe. I'm kidding. As soon as she divulges it I will send it along for those who would like it. You won't be sorry. Your family won't be sorry. And your friends will simply move in with y'all.

And on that I gotta' go. Sorry for any typos - leave any questions in comments and I will email the response, 'kay?

Take care Tadpoles. And thanks for being so patient with me. See ya' on the flipside! Love, Skippy