03/09 Update: I have found a yellow cake that I like better than this one.  It is moister and sweeter and can be found here.

Nothing in the world transports me back to childhood like the combination of sweet yellow cake and thick, creamy chocolate frosting. My middle child always requests strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting for her birthday. There were going to be multiple baking opportunities for this particular birthday so for the obligatory classroom cupcakes (princesses for the girls and batman for the boys-my kids always require gender specific cupcakes) I went with the gender neutral, always perfect, combination of yellow cake and chocolate frosting.

Basic Yellow Cake

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• couple drops of yellow food coloring (optional, but what’s a birthday without some yellow #5)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 13×9 pan or place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.
2. Combine and cream butter and sugar.
3. Mix in milk, vanilla, and eggs. Beat for 2 min.
4. Combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt, in a bowl. Add dry ingredients and food coloring, if desired, to wet ingredients and stir just to combine.
5. Pour batter into cake pan, makes about 16-18 cupcakes depending on size. I got 16 but I tend to overfill my cupcakes.
6. Bake for 15 min for cupcake or up to 30 min for sheet cake, or until tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 2 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

1. Cream butter.
2. Beat in milk, vanilla, and corn syrup.
3. Beat in sugar and cocoa.
4. Add additional cocoa by the tablespoon as needed for thicker consistency or deeper flavor.

Store frosted cupcakes in the fridge until set, then keep covered at room temperature.

So you’ll notice I have been making a lot of not-from-a-box cakes lately. I really like making cakes from scratch and it isn’t any harder than making a boxed mix. My three-year old (actually the four year old) will tell you that to make cake you need eggs, sugar, butter, and flour-and that makes me happy. But I have noticed all of the cakes come out drier than boxed mixes. No matter how diligent I am about removing them the instant the centers are set, they still seem dry. So what’s the deal internet?

They aren’t really bite sized (I guess it would depend on your bites) but they are smaller than the huge danishes you get from the store.  These little pastries are sweet and delicious.  A great treat to bring to a brunch as you don’t want these babies sitting around your kitchen-tempting, calling, whispering, screaming eat me I’m sweet and buttery and flaky and creamy.   The easy in the title comes from the fact that I am using puff pastry dough rather than making fresh danish pastry dough.  Although I called this project: operation destroy the kitchen at nine o’clock at night, I wasn’t so crazy as to actually attempt danish pastry dough at that time.  I’m no daring baker.

This recipe was originally intended to be used with refrigerated crescent roll dough but I think the pop can dough tastes weird so I wanted to make them with puff pastry instead.  If you like crescent dough it is even easier-just slice the dough into 1/4 inch disks (don’t unroll the dough) and make an indention in the middle, fill with your preferred flavor and bake. The puff pastry dough works a little differently so after a few experiments I determined you have to make them jelly roll style.  Spread your danish filling over the puff pastry dough then roll up, slice and bake.

Individual Mini-Danish

• 4 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp water
• 2 8oz. packages of cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• best quality fruit preserves or curd
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp butter, soft

1. Set puff pastry out to thaw.  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper (I recommend this over greasing them because they get pretty sticky, but you could just grease them really really well). Beat egg and water for brushing over pastry.
2. Make your cheese filling by combining cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and sour cream with a mixer until fluffy and smooth.
3. Once puff pastry is soft, work with one at a time storing the other sheets in the fridge. Lay sheet out on a large cutting board with short side toward you, brush sheet with egg.  Spread the bottom 3/4 of sheet with about 1/4 of cheese mixture. For fruit danish: add dollops (several tbsp or about 1/4 cup total) of fruit preserves or curd evenly about mixture.  Roll pastry sheet tightly but without pressing out all of the filling. Place roll in the freezer and continue with each sheet.
4. Remove first roll and quickly slice and place slices on parchment lined baking sheet. Place sheet straight in the oven or refrigerate to keep cold.
5. Bake cold sheet for 15 min. Cool danish on sheet about 1-2 min them remove to a rack. Chill sheet for next batch, continue from step 4 until all are baked.
6. With a hand mixer or whisk, combine confectioner’s sugar, milk and butter until smooth. Start with 1 tbsp of milk and add more until drizzle-able.  Drizzle danishes lightly with icing.
7. Enjoy with strong coffee! These get sticky so keep them covered and make them as close to serving time as possible.  I made mine the night before and they did fine.

One of my favorite uses for leftover cooked chicken or turkey is a warm, comforting pot pie. You don’t have to use the pie crusts for this if you don’t like it that way. You can just use a top crust, a biscuit topping, puff pastry, or no crust at all-however you like it-but I really like the buttery pie crust and the textures it lends to each bite.  I also use this recipe to make Chicken Pot Pie Soup which is just a thinner version served without the crusts.

If you don’t have any leftover chicken or turkey just brown one pound of boneless, skinless breast meat in a little butter, then add 2 cups of water and bring to a simmer.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken to a plate to cool and pour the cooking water into a measuring cup to use in place of the chicken broth called for in the recipe (if needed).

Chicken Pot Pie

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8 oz mushroom, sliced (optional)
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen crinkle cut carrots
• 1/4 cup frozen petite peas
• 1/4 cup frozen thin green beans, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 prepared pie crusts
• butter, milk, or egg wash

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare pie crusts for double crusted pie.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet. Saute onion and garlic until soft.
3. Stir in sliced mushrooms and sprinkle with flour.
4. Cook flour mixture until flour is golden and mushrooms are beginning to brown.
5. Add broth and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thick.
6. Add chicken and vegetables, cook until hot and thick.
7. Pour into a prepared bottom pie crust, cover with a top crust.  Brush top crust lightly with butter, milk, or egg.
8. Cut vents in the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes.
9. Allow to cool 10-15 min before cutting, if you can wait that long.

Adding 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese along with the chicken and vegetables is also delicious!  We serve chicken pot pie over a big pile of white rice, but you can also serve the filling over egg noodles for a great chicken and noodles. Use whatever veggie combination you like, I can’t stand the bagged frozen veggie mix so I use my own combination that suits us. You can use whatever frozen veggies you like, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups worth.

This was my first year making chocolate pie and how I wish I had known sooner. I wish I had known how rich and luxurious it would be. That it would be creamy and thick and that, topped with light and fluffy whipped cream, it would feel silky and delicate in my mouth. The chocolate pudding in this pie is delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Thank you to Jan for sharing her family recipe with me. It was absolutely wonderful and I will be making it every year from now on.

Gundy’s Chocolate Pie

• 1 pie shell prepared and baked
• 2 cups milk, any (I used 1%)
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp butter, chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine milk, egg yolks, sugar, salt, flour, and cocoa in a cold saucepan.  Stir thoroughly to combine.
2. Turn heat to medium, stir constantly until thick but do not boil.
3. Once thick, remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla.
4. Let mixture cool slightly and pour into baked pie shell. Chill.
5. This is how Kelly likes it, of course-straight chocolate. I, however, like it topped with fresh, just barely sweet, velvety whipped cream.

This combination of thick chocolate pudding and light airy whipped cream would also be delicious layered in custard cups or parfait glasses-no pie crust needed.  For tips on making this just as pudding-here.