Yummy, Chocolate Kahlúa Cake!

Thursday, I was taking my son to school; they were talking on the radio, about most irritating and the most pleasant sounds to people. One of the most irritating sounds is people who smack their lips when eating. This is one of my personal pet peeves.

One of the most pleasant sounds is bacon frying. I was surprised; when my son said hearing birds, chirping in the morning is the most pleasant sound for him. I have to agree with him there, waking up on a sunny day with birds chirping outside your window, is a good start to a day.

This topic of course started us on a conversation of other things like favorite smells. A favorite smell in our house, especially if it is a birthday, is chocolate Kahlúa cake.

My children do not like a traditional birthday cake with frosting. When asked what they want for their cake, they always request Kahlúa cake. Recently for my husband's birthday, he requested not only a Kahlúa cake, but also the death by chocolate brownies. Yes, I did make both for him, how could I refuse?

The death by chocolate brownies with Kahlúa whipped cream was my first post on this blog. The Kahlúa whipped cream can be made to top the Kahlúa cake. I also suggest if you can, make the Kahlúa cake one day before you serve it.

I make this cake in a Bundt pan, if you have a mini Bundt pan this recipe works well for those. You can give mini cakes as presents for coworkers or friends. When using a Bundt pan to make a cake, you have to butter and flour the pan. I would suggest you use a product like Baker's Joy pan spray. With this spray you do not have to flour and butter the pan, it does it all for you. If you do not have this type spray. Butter your Bundt pan, instead of using flour, reserve about a quarter cup of dry cake mix and use it to flour your pan. The reason to use the dry cake mix is when you remove the cake from the pan, you will not have any white residue from the flour on your cake.

Ingredients:

1 box of chocolate cake mix, I suggest Betty Crocker's pudding in the mix, chocolate fudge cake.

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 6 ounce box of chocolate pudding, I suggest Jell-O Brand

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups Kahlúa liqueur

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons of Kahlúa liqueur

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Combine the first five ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend well.

Pour into buttered and floured 9 ½ inch Bundt pan. Bake 45 minutes

While the cake is cooking, combine 6 tablespoons of Kahlúa and 1 cup sifted powdered sugar.

 After removing cake from the oven, do not remove from pan.

Powder sugar mixture, soaking into cake

 Take a knife I suggest a slicing blade and poke holes in the cake.

Pour the Kahlúa and powdered sugar mixture over the cake. If the Kahlúa mixture is pooling on top you probably need to add more holes.

Allow cake to cool for two hours in pan before removing.

If you are, making little Bundt cakes after they are cooled, wrap them in colorful cellophane and tie with a festive ribbon to give as gifts.

Smokin Hot Sauce!

Believe it or not, I cannot stand anything that's very spicy. My husband is another matter, he likes things as spicy as he can find them. A few weeks ago at the farmers market, I purchased a pound of cayenne peppers.

 Usually, when I get fresh cayenne peppers, I will make either hot chili oil or dry them for the crushed red pepper flakes. This time I decided I would try something a little different!

With the fresh cayenne peppers, I decided to make it my own hot sauce. The inspiration for this hot sauce came from Frank's red-hot and Srirach hot chili sauce.

 I have to be very honest with you; I think Srirachi has met its match. This hot sauce is not for the faint of heart. I took a tiny taste of it and my tongue literally felt like it was sizzling for 5 minutes.

To make the hot sauce:

1 pound fresh cayenne peppers

2 cups white vinegar

Directions:

Wash and rinse your peppers. If you have rubber gloves, I would suggest that you wear them.

Cut off the tops of the peppers and place peppers into a medium saucepan.

Add vinegar to the peppers simmer on medium heat until the peppers are soft.

Remove from heat, cover and let set for 10 minutes.

Place peppers and vinegar mixture into a food processor or blender.

Run your machine until all the peppers are liquefied.

The next step can be a little tricky; you need to remove the pepper seeds from your hot sauce. You want to make sure you use a strainer that has holes that are small enough the seeds won't go through. I tried two different items; the first was a mesh tea strainer. Since the tea strainer is very small, it took a very long time. With a spoon, I pushed the liquid through the strainer.

 After fussing with this way for a while, I decided to use my flour sifter, this actually worked quite well. I was able to place the liquefied mixture in the sifter then use the sifting blade to move the liquid from around the seeds. If I was to try this again, I think what I might do is get some cheesecloth and double or triple it, to gently squeeze sauce from the seeds.

Once you have removed the liquid, do not throw away what is left over. I took what was left over and put it into a mason jar. I then added extra virgin olive oil. You want to stir the olive oil to make sure you're getting it down into the seeds. Make sure the olive oil covers the seeds; place a lid on the jar. Store in the refrigerator, use these any time you have a recipe that you need add crushed red peppers.

Place the hot pepper sauce in a jar. I had a glass maple syrup jar I put mine into. You can use a canning jar, left over salsa jar, spaghetti jar anything that is glass. Store the sauce in the refrigerator and use as needed.

If you like buffalo wings, in our house we do buffalo chicken breasts. This sauce will be perfect for it. I would add to a small saucepan, a cup of the hot sauce that we just made, one stick of butter, half a cup of rice vinegar, and quarter cup of honey. Heat on medium low until the butter is melted, stir making sure the ingredients are well blended. Pour over your chicken and serve.