Time Flies . . . Playing Catch-Up

Wow!  It feels like just yesterday I posted but then I look back and see that it has actually been almost a month.

Well, last time I posted, I mentioned the new Paula Deen cooking utensils and cookware set.  I have since added a few more Paula Deen utensils . . . a French rolling pin, a frosting spatula, a slotted wooden spoon, and an ice cream scoop.  (My Paula Deen crockery utensil holder is now officially at capacity.  LOL!!!)

Now on to my cooking adventures.

Since my last post, I have cooked a few different things.  One of which was a battered and deep fried cabbage dish with a homemade tomato bacon wine sauce.  I got some photos of it, but I am missing some parts of the recipe.  (I kind of made it up as I went along.)  So I will eventually get around to posting that some day.  I also made a meal of Southern Pasta Carbonara for some visiting relatives from out of state.  I have the recipe for that, but since I was cooking at my brother's house, I forgot to bring my camera along and so I couldn't get any pictures.  Again, I will get around to posting that some day.

So for now we are left with three dishes I made that have two things in common . . . 1.)  They were AMAZING!!!  2.)  They are all my takes on some Paula Deen recipes.  (Yeah, yeah, so I like altering recipes a bit to make them my own.)  And then there is a cake I made . . . let us just start with that.

My older brother's wife celebrates her birthday on October 31.  (I'm a little jealous because I was born exactly 14 days too early to be a Halloween baby.)  So I decided to make her a "spooky" cake.  I used regular Duncan Hines cake mix and frosting, but you throw in some black sugar and chocolate Twizzlers and you get yourself a SPOOKY HALLOWEEN SPIDER CAKE.

I baked a plain white cake, two layers, and frosted it with plain chocolate icing.  Then I used my jumbo muffin tin and baked plain Devil's Food cupcakes.  (I gave away 5 and used one for the spider.)

I frosted the cupcake with white icing then completely covered the white icing with decorator's black sugar. I then piped two dollops of white icing onto one side of the cupcake and used just a dot of black decorating gel on the white to make the eyes.

Next, cut 4 chocolate Twizzlers in half and stick 4 into each side of the cupcake.  Bend them over and stick the other ends into the top of the cake.

Now you have a Spooky Halloween Spider Cake

Moving on . . . I'll post each of my other recipes and pictures in separate posts.  Stand by . . .