Big Fudge Cake with Caramel Frosting

Another year has gone by, and MDS is still 39. For his birthday this year, I made his favorite chicken and this chocolate cake with caramel frosting. The cake is rich and chocolatey like a devil's food cake. The frosting is amazingly easy to make and a delicious caramel taste. The combination of these two recipes is perfect, especially when served with vanilla ice cream.

Although the recipe calls for making the cake into a three-layer cake, but I made a pan cake. Like most cake recipes, you can change up the pan used and adjust the bake time as needed. Also, the recipe calls for using baker's chocolate, but I did not have any on hand, so for each ounce of baker's chocolate needed, melt a tablespoon of butter and blend in three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. For the caramel frosting, it is important to keep stirring while preparing the caramel sauce. After blending in the powdered sugar, the frosting sets relatively quickly, so make the frosting when the cake has fully cooled and is ready to be frosted.

Big Fudge Cake 

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 squares (1 oz. each) baker's chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cup ice water

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add chocolate and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients; add to chocolate mix in thirds alternating with ice water, beating until smooth after each addition. Pour batter into greased baking pans. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until done. Allow to cool.

Quick Caramel Frosting 

• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 to 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar and milk; heat until boiling. Stir constantly and boil gently for five minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Blend in confectioner's sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add additional confectioner's sugar until spread consistency. Spread on the cake. Enjoy!

Jucy Lucy

When MDS and I travel, we love to try out local food. When the Super Bowl was in Minneapolis in 2018, we had to try the Jucy Lucy at Matt's Bar. The Jucy Lucy is simply a cheeseburger with the cheese inside the burger. Why is this so special? I cannot explain, but it might be the way the cheese oozes out of the burger. And the Jucy Lucy at Matt's Bar is worth a stop when in Minneapolis. If you can't make it to Matt's Bar, then you'll have to make your own Jucy Lucy.

When making your own burgers, you can add any sort of seasoning to customize to your taste. When I made these burgers, I added some garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce. But you could  add any sort of seasoning you might like. I recommend using American cheese because it melts nicely, but any cheese could work. You can cook the burgers using any method that you want--grill, pan fry, or oven broil.

Jucy Lucy 

• 1/2 to 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 2 to 4 slices American cheese
• burger buns

In a bowl, mix the ground beef and seasonings. With one half of the meat, create two thin patties, one slightly larger than the other. Cut up the cheese into smaller pieces and place on the larger patty. Then, place the smaller patty on top. Pinch together the edges and press to form a compact patty. Repeat for the second burger. Cook using your preferred method until thoroughly cooked. Allow the burgers to sit for a few minutes. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mint Pizzelles

With another summer comes some more mint recipes to use the mint that is starting to grow out of control in Mom's garden. Luckily, I love all things mint. And mint and chocolate pair so well together that it is easy to add mint to many chocolate-based recipes to create a delicious variation.

For this recipe, I just followed the chocolate pizzelle recipe, but added some freshly chopped mint. You can add as much mint as you would like. I added about a cup of chopped mint, but you could you use more or less to taste. I roughly chopped the mint, but you could chop it very finely, if preferred.

Chocolate Mint Pizzelles

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped mint

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add butter and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder. Add in the chopped mint. The batter will be stiff. Preheat the pizzelle iron. Drop batter by the spoonful into each pizzelle pattern. Close pizzelle iron and allow about bake about one minute. Remove the pizzelles with a spatula and allow to cool on a flat surface. Sprinkle pizzelles with powdered sugar. Enjoy!