DAY 58 RECIPE: MOCHA CARMEL COCONUT CAKE

Well, here is the delicious treat I will be sharing with my dear friend tonight! Hope you all enjoy as much as we do!!!
DAY 58 RECIPE:

MOCHA CARMEL COCONUT CAKE


INGREDIENTS:
CAKE:
1 Pkg Butter Pecan Cake mix, prepared according to package directions. (2- 8" round pans)
ICING
1/2 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Butter or margarine
4 Cups Icing Sugar
2 Oz  Semi Sweet  Chocolate squares, MELTED
1 Tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Prepared Coffee, cooled
FILLING
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Egg Yolk
2 Tbsp Milk
2 Tbsp Butter or Margarine
1 Cup Sweetened Flaked Coconut

DIRECTIONS:
CAKE:
Prepare cake according to package directions, in two 8" round cake pans. Let cool.
ICING:
In a large bowl, beat together shortening and butter. Add icing sugar, and beat until fully incorporated. Should look crumbly. Add melted chocolate and beat .Pour in coffee and vanilla, beat until light and fluffy. About 4 minutes.
FILLING:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Put on low low heat. Stir every 1 minute or so, for about 35 minutes. Then mix in butter, egg and milk. Stir constantly and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and add coconut. Mix well.
ASSEMBLY:
Put a thin layer of icing on top of first cake layer. Now pipe an icing rim (like a little reservoir) around the Outer edge of this layer. Now fill the reservoir with about 1/2 of the filling. Drop a blob in the middle and gently spread towards the sides.
On the bottom of the second layer spread a thin layer of icing and place on top of bottom layer.
Now ice the entire cake with icing. On the top the layer pipe an icing rim or reservoir in a small circle in the middle. Fill this with the remaining filling.
Using remaining icing, make decorative piping edges on top and bottom of cake.

Ready for some CAKE Oprah!!??

Tonight I am going out with my wonderful dear friend Heather. We have a dinner date, so I will not be putting up a dinner recipe tonight. Instead I thought I would make a delicious cake for a treat. Heather is pregnant and ready to have the baby any day, so I thought it would be good for her to have some very bad for you but delicious treats while she still can!
I came up with a new and interesting cake for us. I will post that recipe on here shortly.
I have to tell all of you, I generally DO NOT use  cake mixes, but I just didn't have time to make one from scratch today, so I thought I would use one for this today! You can use any cake you wish, mix or from scratch, but this Better Pecan one seems to have a really nice flavour to compliment the other components.
I really thought this would be a cake that Oprah would also enjoy, so one step closer right!!?
Anyhow, check out the recipe, it will be up shortly!

DAY 57 RECIPE: BRAIDED BREAD

Well, today I made some very delicious bread. It is NOT a quick task. Well worth the wait though! If you have some extra time or really want some wonderful smelling amazingly delicious bread, give this a try!

DAY 57 RECIPE:

BRAIDED BREAD

INGREDIENTS:
PART 1
1 Cup Lukewarm water
2 Tbsp Sugar
4.5 Tsp Yeast
PART 2
2 Cups Lukewarm Milk
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Butter, melted
1 Tsp Salt
3 Cups Flour

PART 3

4 to 5 Cups Flour
2 Tbsp Oil
PART 4
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Water

DIRECTIONS:

PART 1
In a small bowl, dissolve sugar in water. sprinkle yeast over top. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
PART 2
In a large bowl, whisk eggs. add butter, mix.
Mix in yeast mixture, then milk. Now mix in flour and salt. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 1 hour.
PART 3
With a wooden spoon, mix in 3 more cups of flour. Now, knead the remaining flour in. Continue to knead until dough is smooth. Form a ball with dough. Pour oil around the sides of the bowl. Roll dough ball around in the oil until it is all lightly coated. Cover and let rise 1 more hour.
PART 4
Punch down dough. Separate dough into 3 equal sized balls. Of each of those balls, make three more. You should have a total of 9 little balls. Make each of these balls into a worm like rope about 10-12 inches long.
Take three worms, braid them together, starting from the middle, and tucking the ends under. Repeat two more times, to use up all the worms.
Lay each braid of worms onto a butter sheet pan.
To make this bread extra nice, let the worm braids rise for up to another hour before baking.
Prepare egg wash by whisking together egg and water.
When they are fully risen, Brush the tops with egg wash bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes.

SHOOTING FOR THE STARS: OPRAH!!!!!

Hello there folks! I really wanted to thank all of you who stop by and check out my blog! I am having a really fun time sharing! I have had a goal in my head for awhile now. Two actually. Now it seems, these goals of mine are being broken down into smaller goals, all in order to achieve the big ones!
Being that you readers are all wonderful and amazing people, I know that you would all be willing to help me out!
This blog was actually started as a way to record all of my recipes, so I can make them into a keepsake type book for my kids. My goal has become to make/write my book and get it published. (Big goal number 1). My second big goal is to get a copy of this book to Oprah, and have her invite me on her show before she retires!(Big goal number 2).
So, I am calling to all my favourite people to help me in my endeavor! Pass the word around, get your friends, family and co workers to come check out the blog!I am trying to get even more fabulous readers here on my blog. The more the merrier right?  More followers+more visitors=more success on the blog= a better chance of getting a book deal/Oprah!
Thanks for doing such a great favour for me everyone!
I would also invite and greatfully welcome any comments with tips or advice on getting the word out there!
A million thanks and all my gratitude!
I will keep everyone up to date on my goals!
This weeks goal: get my blog hits up to 3000!