A Monster Jam Birthday

The idea for this Monster Jam cake came to me while I was planning my hubby's 34th brirthday. For several years, we had talked about going to a Monster Jam truck show. They always come to town in January, right around his birthday, but every year we've always come up with an excuse not to go...money, time, etc. This year I didn't ask him if he wanted to go...I just bought the tickets and surprised him with them the night of the show. Although Monster Jam had been one of his top guesses, he was still surprised and we had a blast.

We brought our 20 month old daughter, and our good friend and neighbor "Unkie Scott" joined us as well. Tampa's own Medusa was awesome in her pink truck. Maximum Destruction won the freestyle. Grave Digger (the front runner) tipped over within the first couple of seconds in the freestyle, but they righted his truck and he was able to put on a great show for his fans.

Here are some pics from that night, followed by the cake inspired by the event...

I used a Paula Deen spice cake recipe (my hubby's all-time favorite kind of cake) and layered it with homemade cream cheese icing. I wanted to make the cake three layers, so I doubled the cake recipe and quadrupled the icing recipe. This amount of cake batter actually ended up making 4 layers (using a 10" round cake pan) which put the cake at daring heights. I didn't use the forth layer in the Monster Jam cake, so we munched on the extra layer the night before his party. There was a lot of icing left over too, so I could have just tripled the recipe.

Click here for the Paula Deen Spice Cake recipe.
If you follow my blog, you've probably noticed that I use Paula Deen recipes a lot. She is an amazing southern cook and I seriously wish I was related to her just so I could come to her parties and eat her food. No, seriously...I actually refer to her as "Aunt Paula".

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe:

You've probably also noticed that I use cream cheese icing a lot. It's the best icing in the world, it tastes good on just about anything, and it's my fave.

Mix together...

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate Cream Pie

My family came down from Gainesville to spend Sunday with us a few weeks ago, and I really wanted to make dinner special. We made pulled pork in the crock pot and Bubba’s Beer Biscuits (a recipe from the great Paula Deen). But the the best part was supposed to be a chocolate cream pie. I followed the recipe word for word (I usually just focus on the bold words), and one hour before their arrival it was still a soupy mess, concealed beneath a perfect meringue topping. Oh well...it was a good try. If anyone can tell me what I did wrong, I would appreciate it.

 

 

 My chocolate cream pie.

I ran out to Publix and picked up this perfect chocolate cream pie from their bakery.

My daughter loved the chocolate crumb topping.

 

Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe:

 

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 C sugar
• 3 TB cocoa powder
• 1 TB all-purpose flour
• Pink of salt
• 3 eggs yolks, beaten
• 2 C milk
• 1 TB butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• one 9-inch backed pie crust

Filling Directions:

• In a sauce pan, stir together sugar, cocoa, flour and salt
• Slowly stir on beaten yolks and the milk
• Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens
• Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla
• Pour filling in to a bowl to cool
• Put waxed paper on the surface of the filling to prevent a crust from forming
• When cool, pour the filling into the pie crust

 

Meringue Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tarter
• 1 TB sugar

 

Meringue Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Beat the egg whites with the cream of tarter until soft peaks form
• A 1 TB of sugar at a time, beating constantly, until the whites form stiff peaks
• Spoon meringue over the pie filling
• Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown

Craving Chocolate?!?

Ok...so my hubby and I were just sitting here watching our Gators get their butts kicked by Alabama, and I suddenly got a major chocolate craving (must be depression...I've always been an emotional eater) so I pulled out my trusty Paula Deen cook book and whipped of some gooey chocolaty brownies called Lady Brownies. I cut the recipe in half because if I made a full-sized pan of brownies, guess how much would get eaten this weekend? Answer: the WHOLE pan. The other modification I made was to add chocolate chips because, as I mentioned before...everything is better with chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!

I took the brownies out of the oven early because we love it when they are super gooey.

I also topped it with whipped cream...cause that's just how I roll!!! Go Gators!

Lady Brownies Recipe:

What You Need:

• 13x9 pan
• 2 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 6 TB cocoa powder (I used a combo of light and dark cocoa)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/2 C self-rising flour (if you only have all-purpose flour, add 1/2 tsp baking powder)
• 1 C chopped nuts (I left this out because hubby hates nuts)
• 1 C chocolate chips

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Grease and flour pan
• Blend sugar, oil, eggs, cocoa and vanilla
• Mix in flour
• Add nuts and/or chocolate chips
• Spread into pan
• Bake for 25-30 minutes