Butter Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

This is like special occasion cake. Or cake made with sad tears because you know you are going to sit and eat all of it alone while watching a Korean soap opera where the mean mother hates the girl and the boy is rich and someone always ends up either dying tragically or in the hospital and then some unexpected lost love or sibling appears and throws a wrench in everyones plans and the stock market crashes around the family business and a soldier appears from the 14th century to rescue the girl from the hospital. In either 16 episodes or 54 episodes. Have kleenex on hand.

Eat it. Alone or with friends. It's delicious and it came from the inside of a Land o Lakes butter box.

Butter Cake

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened 

4 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

In separate bowl mix:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Have ready:

3/4 cup half n half

Mix sugar and butter until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Mix well. Beat while gradually alternating and adding the flour mix and half n half. Batter will be thick. Divide into greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes then remove from pans and cool on rack. Make frosting. (or a 13x9 pan bake for 25-30 minutes)

Frosting

1/4 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3-4 TBS milk

In 1 quart saucepan melt butter over medium low heat until lightly browned. 4-5 minutes. In small mixer bowl combine butter with sugar and vanilla. Mix well then add milk slowly until frosting is spreadable. Eat some frosting to make sure it tastes okay. Use a cookie or a vanilla wafer to test it. It's okay, just do it. Then frost your cooled cake if you have some frosting left. 

Sweetened Condensed Milk, pancake syrup, tidbits

Sometimes you just don't have stuff on hand. So you have to compromise. I've learned in my 30+ years of cooking how to make some things from scratch that you have to. Like these things. If you have a newborn, a toddler, two preschoolers and no car, you do what you have to. Thanks to an abundance of cookbooks and the internet, I can pool this stuff together for us. But you have to have your staples like dry milk, dry buttermilk, sugar and butter always in your larder.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

version 1

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup plus 2 TBS powdered milk

Combine in saucepan. Heat to boiling. Simmer until thick, about 20 minutes. Equals one can.

version 2

1 cup dry milk

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

3 TBS softened butter

Combine in blender until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled and slightly thick. 

Pancake Syrup

version 1

3/4 cup water

2 cups dark brown sugar

maple flavoring

Boil water. Add sugar. Turn heat down and stir until dissolved. Add 1/2 tsp maple flavor. 

version 2

2 TBS water

1 TBS butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup Karo

Boil 2 minutes. Add 1 tsp each vanilla and maple flavoring.

No butter? Got whipping cream? Pour whipping cream into blender. Blend until it becomes a soft chunk. That's butter. The liquid is buttermilk. You are welcome.

Self Rising Flour:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking POWDER

1/2 tsp salt

Bacon Surprise!

Not to be confused with Pickle Surprise! Where's the pickle? That's the surprise!
Seriously, it's Bacon Surprise!
Bacon Surprise is actually an overcooked carbonara that I used to make with noodle-roni boxes of parmesan noodles. I don't know if they make those anymore but you don't need them to make plenty of bacon surprise.

It's fattening and has loads of carbs and BACON and CHEESE. What more do you need? Here we go:

Ingredients: cooked spaghetti broken into half or thirds before cooking. Drain your pasta, add 1/2 stick of butter and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Mix well while hot. Make sure it's in a big bowl.

1 lb of bacon cooked crisp, save the grease
parmesan cheese
garlic either a few minced cloves or 1/3 tsp granulated
dried basil about 1 tsp
salt, pepper
8 eggs
1/2 cup half n half or milk
some white wine (kind you would drink, if it's nasty to drink it's nasty to cook with)

In a bowl mix all the eggs, half n half, the garlic, basil, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated. Mix it well so there are hardly any lumps in it at all.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook 2-3 TBS bacon grease with a dash of white wine. When it starts to splatter quickly add the egg mixture. Let it sit for 20 seconds then start mixing and cooking fast. Mix it well until it starts to curdle and chunk up. When it "looks" just right quickly pour it over your pasta. Mix it all together and there you are. Bacon surprise. It's even better the next day. Feel free to tweak the recipe with more or less garlic, basil or salt n pepper until it's just right for you. Enjoy!