Mocha Snack Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

“Snack cake” is probably one of my favorite terms in all of food. Just the idea of a cake that was made for snacking is sort of hysterical to me. I mean, who really snacks on cake? Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have cake for a snack, but grapes and almonds are a much healthier 2 PM pick-me-up.

I would define a snack cake as one that is baked in a 9 x 13 pan, is simple to make, and can be kept on hand for a while to cut into squares for snacking dessert. There’s nothing fancy about a snack cake. It’s just no-frills, simple deliciousness. This mocha version with its yummy peanut butter frosting fits that definition on all fronts. The cake itself is incredibly moist, and the addition of the coffee highlights the flavor of the chocolate and makes it taste so rich. Although I wouldn’t typically pair peanut butter with coffee, the peanut butter cream cheese frosting adds a sweet tangy quality and works perfectly with the cake.

The only thing I’ll do differently next time I make this (which I definitely will) is double the frosting. I only had enough for a very thin layer of frosting, and I’m a girl that likes a pretty thick glob of the stuff. This cake would also be delicious with coffee buttercream. Yum!

Mocha Snack Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
slightly adapted from Taste of Home

For the cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brewed coffee, room temperature

For the frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

2. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes. Stir in coffee (batter will be thin).

3. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

4. For frosting, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter in a bowl until smooth. Beat in sugar, milk and vanilla. Spread over cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator.

Mexican Spinach Dip

I mentioned in my meal planning post a couple of weeks ago that a group of my high school friends and I have started a cooking club. The plan is to get together once a month and have a themed sort of dinner, with each of us providing one component (appetizer, main dish, dessert, etc.). For our first meet-up, we had an amazing Mexican fiesta, including blood orange and pomegranate margaritas, fajitas, tres leches cake, and this delicious sopapilla cheesecake-like dessert that I cannot wait to make at home. We had a blast, and there may be a picture of all of us circulating on Facebook wearing Mexican mustaches. That might have happened. We’re all moms, and spending an evening together, reflecting on life and motherhood with women who have known me for so many years, was good for my soul.

My contribution to our fabulous meal was this Mexican spinach dip, which was suggested to me by a lovely reader named Jessi (who is blogless) when I solicited for Mexican appetizer ideas. You guys, this dip is so incredibly delicious. And it’s addictive, too – even after my friends and I had finished our meal and our dessert, we were still eating it. It’s creamy, just a little bit spicy, and has that great earthy spinach flavor. Definitely a winner, and something I’ll be making often in the future! Thanks for sharing this one, Jessi!

(P.S. March’s theme is Italian food, and I’ve been assigned the dessert course. What’s your favorite Italian dessert? Link ’em up in the comments! So far you guys are 1 for 1!)

Mexican Spinach Dip
adapted from Allrecipes

1 16-ounce jar salsa, medium or hot
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, diced and softened
1 8-ounce carton sour cream
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a medium baking dish, mix together salsa, chopped spinach, Monterey Jack cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.

3. Bake mixture in the preheated oven 12 to 15 minutes, or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.

Greek Beef Tacos

New favorite dinner alert! We had these on Saturday night, and I just couldn’t wait to share them with you. This simple, delicious, Greek version of tacos was a huge hit in our house and has skyrocketed right to the top of the list of my most favorite dinners, ever.

The meat mixture itself is ground beef, garlic, diced tomatoes, Greek seasoning, and spinach. We topped our tacos with cucumbers, olives, feta cheese, and a tzatziki-like sauce that I made with sour cream, shredded cucumber, and red wine vinegar. The result was very similar to a gyro and equally as delicious, in my opinion.

I don’t really know what else to say about these. They’re just delicious, and you should make them ASAP.

Greek Beef Tacos
adapted from Taste of Home

For the tacos:

1 pound lean ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 teaspoons Greek seasoning
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups fresh baby spinach
Splash of red wine vinegar
Whole wheat flour tortillas

For the sauce:

1 cup sour cream
Half of a medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and shredded
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

For topping:

Black olives
Feta cheese
Diced cucumber
Minced red onion

1. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomatoes, Greek seasoning, garlic and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until thickened. Add spinach; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Add a splash of vinegar, if desired.

2. To make the sauce, squeeze as much liquid out of the cucumber as you can. Combine sour cream, cucumber, and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Spoon some of the beef mixture into each flour tortilla. Top with sauce and desired toppings.

Weekly Meal Planning, Week of 3.5.12

It's March!! Although this isn't notoriously the best weather month for Ohio, it does happen to be my very favorite month of the year. My birthday is this month. Adding to my excitement this year are a baby shower I'm throwing for my sister-in-law, and the release of The Hunger Games, a movie I've been anticipating for I don't even know how long.

With the arrival of March, it also seems as though I've regained my enthusiasm for cooking. I made some delicious meals last week that I can't wait to share with you, and I'm really excited about everything on our meal plan this week, too.

Monday: Grilled balsamic chicken with mozzarella and pesto, noodles with roasted cherry tomatoes, steamed asparagus. This chicken looks absolutely delicious. For the noodles, I'll just toss some thin spaghetti with butter, parmesan cheese, herbs, and the roasted tomatoes.

Tuesday: Buffalo chicken quesadillas. Jury's still out on what I'll serve with these, but I'm sure no matter what I decide on, these quesadillas will be the star of the meal.

Wednesday: Crock pot ranch pork chops, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli. These pork chops are simple, delicious and flavorful -- a perfect Hump Day meal!

Thursday: Chicken and broccoli pockets, rice pilaf. I knew I'd be making these as soon as I saw them on Leigh's blog. We definitely have a mutual love of crescent rolls.

Friday: Salsa chicken taco salads. Everyone makes salsa chicken, it seems, and I'm eager to use it in a taco salad.

Saturday: Not-so-dirty dirty rice. I have a roll of spicy sausage in the freezer just waiting to be used in this rice. My friend Allison tried it and loved it, so I'm sure we will too.

Sunday: Burrito chicken enchiladas. We haven't had enchiladas for a while, and these look absolutely delicious.

Banana Coffee Cake with Toffee Crumb Topping

I have a lot of cookbooks, arguably way more than one person should own, and definitely more than one person needs. The truth is that I find most of the recipes I make online, so my cookbooks don’t get used nearly as much as I wish they did.

That’s why I love this little habit of Will’s. Nearly every night, he picks one cookbook from the shelf, flips through it for a little while, and then brings it to me when he’s finished. Usually I’m in the middle of something else, so I’ll just return the cookbook to the shelf, but occasionally I’ll stop and flip through it for a while. One night recently he brought me A Passion for Baking, and I promptly lost at least 30 minutes of my life looking through it, drooling over and bookmarking nearly every single recipe.

I decided to make this coffee cake first, both because it sounded delicious and because I already had everything on hand. This was a delicious coffee cake. It looks like it would be dense and heavy, but it actually has an airy texture and a mild, pleasing banana flavor. The sweet toffee topping provides a nice crunch, and the toffee flavor works perfectly with the banana. And it makes for such a pretty presentation, too!

Banana Coffee Cake with Toffee Crumb Topping

from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

For the toffee crumb topping:

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup toffee bar bits

For the coffee cake:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed banana

1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray a 10-inch springform pan or a 13 x 9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place pan on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

2. For the toffee topping, in a small bowl, blend confectioners' sugar and flour. Using our fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture to make a mealy crumb mixture. Stir in toffee bits and set topping aside.

3. In a medium bowl, hand-whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and blend well, scraping bottom of bowl occasionally to ensure there's no unmixed butter or sugar. Add banana, sour cream, and dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until thoroughly blended, about 2 to 4 minutes, scraping mixture on sides and bottom to ensure all batter is blended.

5. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Distribute topping over batter.

6. Bake until cake is done, springs back when gently pressed with fingertips, and see set, about 45 to 50 minutes for a 13 x 9-inch pan or 55 to 70 minutes for a springform pan.

7. Let cool about 15 minutes before gently unmolding onto a serving plate.