Royal Wedding Groom's Cake Bites

I am SO intrigued by the McVities Biscuit Chocolate Cake that Prince William had for his Groom's Cake. I had been watching coverage of the Royal Wedding all week and they kept mentioning this cake and how it is a secret palace recipe, that Prince William loved as a child, made with McVities Rich Tea Biscuits. It sounded SO yummy. So I searched the internet and found a copy cat recipe that I thought I could modify using ingredients from my grocery store (which sadly does not have McVities Biscuits). So this is the recipe that I came up with. My goodness it was fantastic. These little bites are... Heavenly. Blissful. Naughty. Delicious.

Royal Wedding Groom's Cake Bites

3/4 cup butter, cut into cubes (that's 1 1/2 sticks)
15 oz semi sweet chocolate (use good chocolate - I used Belgian chocolate chips)
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons light corn syrup (or Lyle's Golden Syrup if you can find it)
1, 7.05 oz pkg Le Petite Beurre butter cookies (or McVities Rich Tea Biscuits), coarsely chopped

In a double boiler, melt chocolate with butter. Remove from heat and stir in cream and corn syrup until smooth. Add chopped cookies and stir. Now from here there are 2 methods: bites made in a mini-muffin pan or a flat round cake made in a spring form pan. I have a Demarle mini-muffin form, which is kind of like a silicone mini muffin pan, so I used that. Scoop chocolate mixture into the mini muffin cups, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 3 hours. You could also place parchment in the bottom of a 9" spring form pan and butter the sides and put the mixture into that, smooth mixture evenly, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 3 hours. When chilled serve in thin slices. Either way is great.

This is the actual Royal Wedding Groom's Cake. Isn't it pretty?! And I bet it was SO delicious!

Royal Wedding Celebration Dinner

I loved watching the Royal Wedding yesterday!! Didn't Kate look beautiful?! Last night we had a fun English dinner to celebrate the Royal Wedding. I don't really have a recipe for you, but I thought I'd share our dinner for kicks. We had bangers (beef brats), mash, peas, and jelly. I couldn't bring my self to mush up the peas for mushy peas so we just had buttered peas. Oh and then we had Royal Wedding Groom's Cake Bites for dessert based on Prince William's Groom's Cake which was a secret recipe Chocolate McVities Biscuit cake. I'll list that recipe separately because those little bites were SO darn good!!

Crockpot Bowtie Pasta Bake

This is a great crockpot pasta dish. The sauce simmers all day so it is nice and flavorful when you add the pasta right before you serve it. Also it is a great way to sneak spinach into your kids. Feel free to reduce the meat amount to 1 lb if you would like.

Crockpot Bowtie Pasta Bake

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1, 15 oz can tomato sauce
1, 15 oz can diced tomatoes or stewed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
salt/pepper
couple big handfuls fresh baby spinach
1 lb bowtie pasta, cooked
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Brown ground beef and onion. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Drain fat. Put cooked ground beef mixture in crockpot. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, oregano, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Stir. Cook on low for about 6 hours. During last 1/2 hour of cooking add spinach, cooked pasta, grated Parmesan, and mozzarella. Serve with extra Parmesan for topping if desired.

Crockpot Split Pea Soup

When I have a left over ham bone (like I did from Easter dinner) I like to make either ham and bean soup or split pea soup. This year I went for split pea. This is an easy crockpot recipe and it tastes great. Split pea soup is not very photogenic, but it is hearty and yummy and tastes great with French bread or fresh rolls.

Crockpot Split Pea Soup

1 lb dried split peas
5 cans or 8 3/4 cups chicken broth
4 carrots, chopped
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped small
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
left over ham bone
about 2 cups diced ham
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt (less if you use table salt)
1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove bay leaf and ham bone. Serve.

Best Bites Key Lime Tarts

Whoa. These are tart little tarts! Scrumptious, but they make you pucker. I think I'm going to add 1/4 cup sugar and a little lime zest next time, to suit my taste, but if you are a fan of tartness these would be great as is. My family loved that this dessert is made in mini-graham cracker crusts. Anything mini goes over well around here.

Best Bites Key Lime Tarts

5 egg yolks
1, 14 oz, can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lime or key lime juice (I used key limes)
2 drops green food coloring, optional (the tarts will be yellow without this)
10 mini graham cracker tart shells
whipped cream


Preheat oven to 350. Combine eggs yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and food coloring. Whisk well to combine. Pour into tart shells and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 11-16 minutes or until filling just starts to set up. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp, then refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with whipped cream.

Southern Plate Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole

Here's another Funeral Potatoes recipe. This one is from The Southern Plate cookbook. It is very rich and cheesy and yummy. We had it on Easter with ham and asparagus and it was delicious. I might top it next time with the ubiquitous buttery cornflakes, because I love that, but as is it's still great.

Southern Plate Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole

1 can cream of chicken
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 lb bag frozen shredded hashbrowns, thawed

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine soup, onion, melted butter, salt, and pepper. Stir well. Add cheese and hashbrowns and mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes or until bubbly and starting to brown.

Savory Pull Apart Bread

This is a great bread recipe! I got the recipe from my friend Carolyn over at Carries Cooking Corner and it is awesome. I did change it just slightly by cutting up the dough into squares rather than strips, just so that it would be easier to pull apart. I bet this recipe could be adapted to use different herbs with great success - maybe finely chopped fresh or dried rosemary or garlic bread seasoning.


Savory Pull Apart Bread

1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
dried dill (or other herb/herb blend of choice)

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine water and yeast and let stand for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl combine 1 cup of the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons of softened butter. Add to the yeast mixture and mix. Add egg and beat for 3 minutes with dough hook. Add remaining flour until a soft dough is formed that pulls away from sides of bowl (you may use more or less than 1 1/2 cups flour). Knead with dough hook for another few minutes then turn out dough onto a floured surface.

Roll out dough into rectangle shape. Cut long strips of dough and then cut the other way to create lots of squares. Place a layer of dough squares in the bottom of a greased bundt pan. Drizzle the layer with melted butter and then sprinkle generously with dill. Do another layer of dough squares, then butter and dill, repeating until you use up all the dough ending with butter and dill. Cover with non-stick sprayed plastic wrap and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours, or until it has risen almost to the top of the bundt pan.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-23 minutes. Turn out onto a plate and serve.