Oogie Boogie Double Chocolate Dirt Cake

Lucas requested this cake for his special meal, and it turned out to be a huge, tall heavy cake, but wasn't super moist. I am going to document some things here to help make it more moist the next time, but it was still really good, the frosting was excellent, and it would be totally worth it to make this cake again for Halloween or to feed a crowd. The chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate-filled Oreos and gummy worms make it absolutely revolting to look at, but delicious to taste.

Oogie Boogie Double Chocolate Dirt Cake

Ingredients:

For the Chocolate Mocha Cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee
• 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 stick butter at cool room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

For the Chocolate Frosting:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 6 Tbl butter at cool room temperature
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

For the Toppings:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed Oreos (chocolate filled, or white filling removed)
• chocolate sprinkles
• 12 gummy worms (or so)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray at 9x13 pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine coffee and chocolate. Mix until smooth. If coffee is not hot enough, microwave in 15-30 second intervals until you can combine the coffee and chocolate until smooth. Sift your cocoa powder into the coffee mixture and whisk together. Add the buttermilk and whisk again. Set aside to cool.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment, beat butter, brown sugar, oil, and salt on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in vanilla, then add the chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and fold in until just combined or even leaving a few small streaks of flour in the batter which will get combined in as you pour the batter and spread it out into your baking dish. 
4. Once your batter is poured evenly into your baking dish, bake for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting and decorating.

To Make the Frosting:

1. Into the clean bowl of the stand mixer, sift together powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add butter and mix on low until mixture is crumbly. Beat in milk, vanilla and salt on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl and mix again.
2. Spread frosting over the cake, sprinkle with cookies crumbs, sprinkles (if desired), and gummy worms.

Marsha's Notes:

Can you see how dry this cake looks?

It was delicious, but dry. So I read on the Internet where you can sub butter in a recipe for oil and get moister results, so in the future I can try to sub out that stick of butter and instead use 1/2 cup oil (in addition to the oil already in the recipe).

It is also highly recommended that you don't overmix or overbake your cake (which I don't think I did...) and to use room temperature ingredients (which I did), so those are good tips but won't help me with this recipe.

Other suggestions are to add some sour cream (maybe start with 1/2 cup), an extra egg, and some of a pudding mix (or all of a mix, if you feel adventurous). If I try these, I will return and report. I put this in bold so I am more likely to remember to add these to my ingredients when shopping.

It is also suggested that you pour your batter into a larger pan so you can bake your cake faster and then might lose less moisture in the baking process, so I might try pour this cake batter into my largest baking pan (more like a 15x11) the next time.

Last recommendation is to bake at a lower temperature, which would take longer but I guess is more gentle on the cake and the moisture.

Jack Skellington White Chocolate Skull Bowls with Chocolate Mousse- Nightmare Before Christmas

Lucas picked some items from our Nightmare Before Christmas cookbook as his reward meal for summer chores, and these Jack Skellington White Chocolate Skull Bowls with Chocolate Mousse were one of them. These were a bit of a challenge, so I wanted to document some things here if we ever try to attempt them again.

Image from the cookbook

Jack Skellington White Chocolate Skull Bowls with Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients- Skull Bowls:

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 Tbl shortening
• 6 small balloons
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Ingredients- Chocolate Mousse:

• 10 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• whipped cream and 6 whole strawberries for garnish (Santa hats)

Directions:

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, waxed paper or a nonstick mat. Place in refrigerator to chill.
• To make white chocolate bowls: Microwave white chocolate and shortening for short intervals (30 seconds or less), stirring between each heating, until fully melted and combined. Let mixture cool until barely warm, about 10 minutes.
• Blow up six small balloons and knot each end. Grease the lower half of each balloon for easier releasing of the chocolate later, if desired. (Do not use non-stick spray or chocolate won't stick.)
• Remove baking try from refrigerator. Dip each balloon into melted chocolate, covering about 3 inches up the side. Gentle place on cooled baking sheet, bottom of the balloon down, holding for a second or two to make sure it doesn't tip over. Repeat process for all balloon.
• To make your Jack faces: Melt 2 oz of bittersweet chocolate in the microwave, let cool, and place in a piping bag. Snip the end of the bag at the very tip and use the chocolate to draw the face on your white chocolate balloon bowl. Place back in the refrigerator to harden.
• Once your bowls are completely cooled and hard, pop the balloon and remove from the chocolate. Return the bowls to the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• To make mousse: Bring 1-inch of water in a small pan to a simmer over medium-low heat. Put 10 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate and 1/2 cup heavy cream into a metal bowl large enough to put over your simmering water without touching the water (making a double boiler). Heat chocolate in this manner, stirring frequently, until smooth and combined. Let cool completely (To speed cooling, nestle the bowl of chocolate in a larger bowl filled with ice-cold water and stir until the chocolate is room temperature.)
• In another bowl, combine the remaining heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until firm peaks form. 
• Scoop about 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture on top of the cooled chocolate and whisk gently until blended smooth. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the remaining whipped cream into the chocolate until just combined. Do not overwork or you will deflate the mousse.
• Spoon mouse into each of your white chocolate bowls. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
• Just before serving, top each cup with whipped cream, 1 strawberry large end down with a small blob of whipped cream on the tip, making a Santa hat in each cup.

Here I am decorating the faces. You have to hold on by the balloon so you don't melt the chocolate bowl. I felt like the melted semisweet chocolate didn't make for very fine lines and wanted to run a bunch, so it was fiddly to work with. I think it would have been easier to draw a face on the bowls with some black edible writing gel (the kind used for writing on birthday cakes) instead. Something to try for another time.

Opening the fridge to see all these Jack faces looking out at me was super funny.

Our mousse.

Done! I think next time we would blow up the balloons a little less because it made for bowls that were so big we couldn't fill them up to the top with mousse, so our Santa hats look kind of silly, small and not proportionate.

Marsha's Notes:

We tried to spray the balloons with nonstick spray because that sounded easier and less messy than trying to grease them with shortening, but that didn't work at all. The white chocolate simply would NOT stick to the balloon, so we had to wash it and start over. So then we opted to not grease them at all, and the chocolate stuck much better, however, when we tried to release the bowls from the balloons, each one stuck on the bottom, breaking and making a hole. You can't see it in the picture, and in the end, it didn't really matter, but I would try some shortening just on the bottoms the next time and see if the chocolate will initially stick while still releasing later. Otherwise, I would maybe melt a little more white chocolate, and once the bowls were on their serving plates, I could put some more in the bottom to patch them up and then put them back in the fridge to harden. I also don't know if we had just waiting a little longer for the chocolate to completely harden (even though I thought we had) that maybe they would have held together better. Who knows!

With all the cooling time, this entire thing was a LONG process. We started after  lunch and barely had them done and set by dinner. So I would either start in the morning, or else make the bowls the day before and make the mousse the day of.

Also, I read the recipe wrong when making the mousse and added 1/3 of the chocolate into the cold whipped cream (instead of adding 1/3 of the whipped cream into the room temperature chocolate) and so that portion of the chocolate seized up when mixed with the cold whipped cream. In the end, the rest of it mixed together fairly well, so it wasn't any kind of disaster, but next time you really DO need to make sure you add part of the whipped cream to the chocolate to temper the chocolate and not the other way around.

Mummy Boy Dogs- Nightmare Before Christmas

Lucas picked some items from our Nightmare Before Christmas cookbook as his reward meal for summer chores, and these Mummy Boy Dogs were one of them. Fairly easy and tasty, I would make these again.

Image from the cookbook

Mummy Boy Dogs

Ingredients:

• 1 8 oz. sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 lg egg beaten with 1 tsp water for egg wash
• 6 hot dogs or smoked sausages, 5-6 inches long
• 6 small black olive slices

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees convection (or 400 standard). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out puff pastry to about 9x12 inches. Using the 9-inch side, cut 18 half-inch strips from the dough sheet.
3. Using 3 strips per hot dog, dip the ends of the pastry into the egg wash and wrap the pastry around the hot dog, leaving a small slit near the top of one end for the olive eye. Tuck in one olive eye into the gap in pastry and set the hot dog on your prepared baking sheet. Once all hot dogs are wrapped, refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
4. Just before baking, brush each mummy with more of the egg wash and then bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed, golden  and hot dogs are heated all the way through.

Candy Corn Cookies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Candy Corn Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg. (18 oz.) pre-made sugar cookie dough
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• Orange and yellow food coloring*

Directions:

1. Line a 8x4 loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper up over sides of pan.  
2. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms.  
3. On work surface or separate bowl,  place 1/3 of dough.  Knead desired amount of orange food coloring into dough until color is uniform. Do the same for another 1/3 of dough and yellow coloring.  
4. Press orange dough evenly in bottom of loaf pan.  Press yellow dough evening on top of orange.  Press uncolored dough evenly on top of yellow.  
5. Refrigerate about 2 hours, or until firm.  
6. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  
7. Remove dough from pan.  Cut crosswise into ¼ inch thick slices.  Cut each slice into triangle shaped wedges.  Round edges if desired.  Place one inch apart on greased cookie sheet.  
8. Bake 9 minutes, or until cookies are set and edges are very lightly browned.  Cool 1 minute.  Remove from cookie sheet.  Cool completely.  Store in tightly covered container.

Marsha's Notes:

The picture shows a layer that is chocolate.  To make that layer instead of the yellow, just melt 2 oz. of chocolate to mix with the dough.

Spider Web Pumpkin Pancakes

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Spider Web Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup milk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla 
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• maple syrup and whipped cream

Directions:

1. In large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla until well blended. 
2. Stir in remaining ingredients except syrup and whipped cream, just until mixed.  
3. Line a 1 qt. pitcher or bowl with gallon-sized reseaslable food-storage plastic bag.  Pour batter into bag, seal bag, pressing out air.  
4. Heat griddle to 375 degrees.  Oil hot griddle.  
5. Cut a small hole in corner of bag.  For each pancake, gently squeeze bag to pipe about 2 Tbl. batter onto hot griddle, forming spider webs.  
6. Cook 1 to 2 minutes or until pancakes are puffed and dry around edges.  Turn pancakes; cook about 1 minute longer or until other side is golden brown.  
7. Serve with syrup and whipped cream. You can also make round pancakes instead.

Marsha's Spiced Apple Cider (Crock Pot)

I love warm spiced cider, especially around Halloween time and served with fresh glazed doughnuts.  I tried a couple of recipes for our Crock Pot, and I ended up combining a few to make the perfect one.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Marsha's Spiced Apple Cider (Crock Pot)

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks cinnamon
• 2 cups orange juice
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 5 whole cloves
• ½ gallon apple cider
• ¼ gallon water (or so)
• 2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

Mix all together in slow cooker and simmer on low for 4-6 hours.  (Place cloves in a tea ball for easy removal.)