Your favorite prize-winning dessert for office contest, please

[cocoa'smom]

We're having our 2nd annual Halloween Dessert contest at work and I'm looking for a sure fire winner. I won last year with a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Carmel Swirl from epicurious.com (I beat my boss' pumpkin cheesecake and she hasn't let me forget it!). I won't have an oven available. Can you wonderful cooks give me some ideas? Thanks!

[ccooney]

Just need some clarification...I assume from your post you won't have an oven available at home or at work.
What about a stove-top?

[cocoa'smom]

Oops sorry - I will have an oven at home, but at work, only a refrigerator or microwave. Thanks!

[Laurielee]

I have a to die for pumpkin/chocolate swirl cheesecake with a chocolate crust but you probably want to do something different this year


this looks awesome from the applecake thread that Krystlyn1 posted

APPLESAUCE OATMEAL CAKE WITH BROILED COCONUT TOPPING

1 1/4 cups applesauce
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
broiled coconut topping, below

Heat applesauce to boiling in 1 quart saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in oats. Let stand 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 350. Grease botton and sides of square pan, 9x9x2 inches, with shortening. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in applesauce mixture just until mixed. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, scraping bowl once, just until blended. Pour into pan.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Meanwhile, make broiled coconut topping. Spread over hot cake.

Set oven control to broil. Broil cake with top 6 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or until top is golden and bubbly. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm.

BROILED COCONUT TOPPING

3/4 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup butter or margarin, melted
3 tablespoons milk

Mix all ingredients in small bowl.
__________________
SAHM to:

Andrew (Drew) 9
Daniel 6


Laurie

[Tammy2268]

This is such a simple, yet delicious recipe, especially for this time of year. They warm up great in the microwave...heavenly with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream...

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples ( I used Golden Delicious)
2 cans Crescent rolls
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar ( white or brown)
1 tsp. vanilla
10 oz. Mountain Dew or Apple juice
Cinnamon to sprinkle lightly over rolls

Combine butter and sugar in saucepan over low heat, stirring often.
The sugar will not melt completely, but that is okay. Remove from heat
and add vanilla.
Meanwhile, peel apples and cut into 8 slices each.
Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll, starting at the small end.
Place rolled apples in greased 9z13 pan.
Pour sugar-butter mixture over rolls,then add MD or apple juice.
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes, THEN cover with foil, bake another 10
minutes.
Remove foil, and remove from oven.

[tbb113]

The current issue of Cooking Pleasures had a really good apple cheesecake. I can post the recipe if you want it.

[Chelle D]

I made this recently for my dad's birthday and it was VERY good. I doubled the filling, but would only use 1.5x the amount next time (and save the rest to eat myself! :p ) You could decorate it with chocolate leaves and it would look even better.


http://www.epicurious.com/images/recipes/recipe_results/full/photos/103202.jpg

INSIDE-OUT GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

"I had the pleasure of spending a few days in the quaint town of Waitsfield, Vermont, where I stopped at the Bridge Street Bakery," says Morella Dewey of Ramsey, New Jersey. "Owner and chef Mary Laulis was delightful, and her "inside-out" German chocolate cake was absolutely fantastic. I would love to prepare this dessert for family and friends, so I hope you can obtain the recipe."
Active time: 1 1/2 hr Start to finish: 4 1/2 hr

The chef uses Valrhona cocoa powder in her cake, but other Dutch-process cocoa powders work equally well. The filling is made from sweetened condensed milk that is cooked in a water bath in the oven until it caramelizes. While the milk is baking, you can prepare your glaze.

For cake layers
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup boiling-hot water

For filling
7 oz sweetened flaked coconut
4 oz coarsely chopped pecans (1 cup)
14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

For glaze
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
10 oz fine-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Special equipment: 3 (9-inch) round cake pans

Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 350°F and oil cake pans. Line bottoms of pans with rounds of parchment or wax paper. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together whole milk, butter, whole egg, yolk, vanilla, and almond extract in another large bowl until just combined. Beat egg mixture into flour mixture with an electric mixer on low speed, then beat on high speed 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat in water until just combined (batter will be thin). Divide batter among cake pans (about 1 1/2 cups per pan) and bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of pans and rotating them 180 degrees halfway through baking, until a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes total.

Cool layers in pans on racks 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment or wax paper and cool layers completely.

Make filling:
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Spread coconut in a large shallow baking pan and pecans in another. Bake pecans in upper third of oven and coconut in lower third, stirring occasionally, until golden, 12 to 18 minutes. Remove pans from oven.

Increase oven temperature to 425°F.

Pour condensed milk into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and cover tightly with foil. Bake milk in a water bath in middle of oven 45 minutes. Refill baking pan with water to reach halfway up pie plate and bake milk until thick and brown, about 45 minutes more. Remove pie plate from water bath.

Stir in coconut, pecans, and vanilla and keep warm, covered with foil.

Make glaze while milk is baking:
Melt butter in a 3-quart saucepan. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate and corn syrup, whisking until chocolate is melted. Transfer 1 cup glaze to a bowl, reserving remaining glaze at room temperature in pan. Chill glaze in bowl, stirring occasionally, until thickened and spreadable, about 1 hour.

Assemble cake:
Put 1 cake layer on a rack set over a baking pan (to catch excess glaze). Drop half of coconut filling by spoonfuls evenly over layer and gently spread with a wet spatula. Top with another cake layer and spread with remaining filling in same manner. Top with remaining cake layer and spread chilled glaze evenly over top and side of cake. Heat reserved glaze in pan over low heat, stirring, until glossy and pourable, about 1 minute. Pour glaze evenly over top of cake, making sure it coats sides. Shake rack gently to smooth glaze.

Chill cake until firm, about 1 hour. Transfer cake to a plate.

Cooks' notes:
• Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

• For easier handling when assembling cake, place bottom layer on a cardboard round or the removable bottom of a tart or cake pan.

Makes 12 servings.

Gourmet
You Asked For It
March 2000
Mary Laulis
Bridge Street Bakery, Waitsfield, VT

[Chocolate Rose]

Have you tried either the Cuban Opera Cake or the Tuxedo Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting and Chocolate Glaze? They are both awesome cakes and would do well in a contest!

[Missi]

CL's Italian Cream Cake is amazing. I think it could definately win a contest (and NO ONE would know it was light!!) :D :D

[cocoa'smom]

Wow - all those cake ideas sound great. German Chocolate Cake is my absolute favorite, so that Inside-Out one looks intriging - looks kind of time consuming, too, though. I'll have to think about it. I'm not all that crazy about baked apples in things, but a lot of people do love it so I'll have to consider those as well! Thanks everyone!

[swquilts]

What about that pound cake that was wandering around here the last few days? That looked killer!

Gotta go get ready for work, maybe someone can track it down.

[CookinginMO/KS]

Laurilee - any chance you could post the cheesecake receipe? Sounds just what I'm looing for.

[Laurielee]

here it is CookinMO

Marbled Pumpkin cheesecake w/brownie crust


All I can say for this recipe is WOW. I thought I got it off the BB but couldnt find it. But just had to share (It is not light but could be modified to make it much lighter.

CRUST
4 T butter
2 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/4 Csugar
one egg - lightly beaten
1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 finely chopped walnuts

Cheesecake

4 oz bittersweet chocolate - chopped
1 1/2 # cream cheese softened
1 C sugar
4 large eggs room temp
1 1/2 T cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
2C canned pumpkin puree ( 1#)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground)
pinch of ground cloves

1. Make crust preheat oven to 325 - lightly butter 9 inch springform pan. In med suacepan, melt butter with choco over low heat stirring constantly. remove from heat and let cool slightly, then stire in surgar and lightly beaten egg until blended.

In a small bowl, whisk flour with the baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to melted chocoloate. stir in walnuts. Spread batter in pan and smooth surface with spatula. Bake for 10 minutes or until risen and dry to touch. Cool completely. Wrap outside of pan with a large sheet of foil.

2. Make cheescake - In a medium glass bowl, melt chocolate in a microwave oven on high for about a minute, stirring half way thru. In a large bowl using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add egss one at at time, beating weel between additions. Beat in cornstarch and vanilla. Add 1 C cheesecake mixture to melted chocolate, stire untel well blended. Beat in pumpkin puree cinnamon nutmeg and cloves into remaining cheesecake batter.

3. Pour 3/4 pumpkin mixture over brownie crust. Pour chocolate mixture over cheesecake mixture. If chocolate mixture is too thick to pour easily, het in microwave ro 10 seconds. Spoon remaining pumpkin mixture over top of chocholate mixture. use a table knife to make a few swirls. Do not overswirl.

4. set the pan in a medium roasting pan. Add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up side of springform pan. bake the cheesecake in the hotwater bath in the center of the oven for 1 1/2 hours or until it is form around the edges but slightly jiggly in center. Turn oven off, prop oven door open several inches and let the cheesecake stand in the water bath for 1 hour or until it is completely set.

5. Remove the pan from the water and refrigerate intil throughly chilled at leat 4 hours or overnight. Remove foil and springform ring from the cheesecake. Carefully transfer cheesecake to platter and cut in wedges

Can be refrigerated in the srpingform pan for up to 4 days.

NOTE: Mine was almost done cooking at one hour and I only let it sit in the water bath for 15 minutes and it was perfect. SO the cooking time needs to be watched closely.


Laurie