Best-of-Class Fair Fudge

Summer makes me think of days and weeks spent working on 4-H projects. I would spend all summer sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, and making several posters as the fair approached. 

I might practice my food projects throughout the summer but it wasn't really until the week of that I would start making most of my foods. I've spent countless hours standing at the stove making jams, butters, and candies. While these foods aren't hard to make, they sure are time consuming! 

Be ready to stand at the stove for a long time if you're planning on making candy!

This fudge is so easy! Smooth, creamy, and chocolatey! The classic fudge.

Don't get impatient while making this! Make sure you have plenty of time to stand and stir while you bring the mixture to a boil on a very low heat. It took me 20-30 minutes of constant stirring waiting for the mixture to boil.

Before starting to make your candy, it's always a good idea to make sure you have everything ready. I like to pre-measure my sugar and have my cans and jars open and ready to go. You especially want to have your pans lined and greased.

You want to use a heavy duty pan. I like to use this old pan when I make candy. It is my grandma's old pressure cooker pan. It's nice and heavy to help prevent burning and scorching.

When you add all of your ingredients stir constantly to melt all of the sugar to prevent sugar crystals in your fudge.

Here the mixture is boiling for 7 minutes. Because you don't have to stir constantly during the 7 minutes, keep a close watch as you can see the pan gets quite full! 

When 7 minutes is up, you remove your pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate. It doesn't hurt it to let the pan sit for a minute and let the chocolate melt. Stir until chocolate is completely blended in.

Pour into your prepared pans and let cool.

Once the fudge has set up you can score the top for cutting later. It's easiest to hold a ruler next to the pan and lightly press the fudge with a knife at one-inch increments. I mark two sides.

The foil is great because you can lift the fudge out after it has completely cooled in the fridge.
Follow your scored marks and you will have 64 pieces from each pan.

This recipe is from the old Illinois 4-H Cooking 101 book. They have changed the recipe since I was a 4-Her.

Fudge Recipe 

1 cup unsalted butter

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow cream

1 can evaporated milk

1 (11.5 oz) package semi-sweet choc. chips

1 (11.5 oz) package milk choc. chips

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine butter, sugar, marshmallow cream, and evaporated milk in a 3 qt. heavy saucepan. Bring to boil over medium to low heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Boil steadily over low heat 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep mixture at a fairly low boil all the time.

Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and nuts, stir until chocolate is melted and blended into mixture. 

Pour at once into two lightly buttered or foil lined 8x8 square pans or one 10x15 jelly roll pan. While still warm, score candy in each pan into 64 pieces. Refrigerate. When cool and firm, cut. Makes about 5 1/2 pounds. Recipe will divide in half.

What's your favorite homemade candy to make?
Comment below!

Megan

Chocolate Strawberry Layer Cake

I enjoyed making this smooth chocolate cake with a mixture of frostings and fillings! This summer-y chocolate cake is perfect for any of your summer gatherings. Chocolate, fresh fruit, and cool whip for a light, cool summer treat.

I did make a few different layers. First, I iced the bottom cake with chocolate icing and layered it with strawberries topping with a layer of cool whip. I added another layer of strawberries and cool whip so the top layer would have something to stick to.

I used the chocolate frosting to ice the top and then used the rest of my thinly sliced strawberries to decorate the top.

I used almost 2 pounds of fresh strawberries for this cake!

Thanks to NellieBellie.com for the chocolate cake recipe!

Chocolate Cake Recipe 

3/4 cup soft butter

3 eggs at room temp.

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa 

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk

Grease pans (either 2 round 9 inch pans or one 13x9) and either flour or coat with cocoa. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Beat butter for 30 seconds or so. Slowly add sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Beat in vanilla.

Add dry ingredients beating after each addition.

Add half of the milk, beat, and then add the other half. Beat just until everything is nicely combined.

Spread batter evenly into pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes for round pans, 5 minutes or so longer for a 13x9 pan. Watch them! A toothpick inserted in the middle that comes out clean means it is done! 

Let cool completely before icing. 

Chocolate Frosting Recipe

1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. milk

Beat ingredients together. Add additional cocoa, sugar, and milk to taste.

Note: I did not ice my whole cake, I left my sides bare. If you are making this to ice the whole cake I would double or triple this recipe to make sure you have enough frosting.

What's your favorite cake/fruit combination?
Comment below!

Megan

Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Nate and I went the entire month of April with no sugar!! We avoided sweets and most refined sugars (we still ate fruit). It was a long 30 days.

The first thing I made was this beauty.

  I love making angel food cake because the mixer does all of the work! The key is to beat the eggs, beat 'em again, and beat 'em some more! You want those egg whites to stand up by themselves! This gives you that light, fluffy, and sponge-like cake.

This was my first time making an angel food cake with a chocolate frosting. It was so simple! A light, fluffy cake with a light, fluffy frosting. Perfect. 

Nate grated semi-sweet baking chocolate squares on my box grater into fine shavings. He did such a good job. :)

Okay let's get to the recipe! This recipe is from the 4-H Baking Project Book. 

Angel Food Cake Recipe

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 2/3 cup egg whites, about 12 large eggs

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Adjust oven rack to lowest position.

In a small bowl, whisk flour with 3/4 cup sugar. Place egg whites in the electric mixer's bowl and beat at a low speed until beginning to froth. Add cream of tartar and salt. Beat on medium speed until egg whites form soft mounds. Add remaining 3/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until all sugar is added and whites are shiny and form soft peaks. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and almond; beat until just blended. 

Sift flour over egg whites about 3 Tbsp. at a time, and gently fold in. Gently scrape batter into a 10-inch tube pan and smooth the top. Give the pan a couple raps on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake until the cake is golden brown and the top springs back when pressed, about 50-60 minutes.

If the cake pan has prongs around the rim, invert pan on prongs over a cooling rack. If no prongs, invert pan over a bottle or funnel so air can circulate. Let cake cool completely, 2-3 hours.

Remove the cake by running a metal knife around the edges of the pan, being careful not to separate the crust from the cake. Slide out of the pan and cut the same way around removable bottom to release. Place the cake, bottom side up on a plate. Cut slices by gently sawing with a serrated knife. 

Chocolate Frosting Recipe

1 small container cool whip, 8 oz.

3 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate, extra for garnish

berries for decoration

In a small bowl mix chocolate into cool whip. Using a serrated knife slice the cake in half longways. Spread some of the frosting on the bottom layer and put the top layer back on. Ice the top and sides. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings and top with fruit. 

Keep in refrigerator. 

A lovely light treat that everyone is sure to love!

What's your favorite angel food topping?

Megan