Category Archives: The Secret Recipe Club

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

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Chocolate Sour Cream CakeIt’s Secret Recipe Club time again. I was really hoping to get a good dessert blog, as the last couple of month’s I have gone savory. As luck would have it, I was assigned Annie’s Noms a mostly dessert blog from The United Kingdom. Yup, I was in luck there were many, many dessert recipes to pick from. As I am a slight chocolate cake addict, and always like to try out new recipes, I decided to go with her recipe for Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake. I had sour cream that needed to be used up, plus I haven’t brought the bundt cake pan out in a while so it was the perfect fit. The cake was moist and delicious, and everyone especially liked the glaze. This is a recipe I will be making again for sure, plus I pinned some other desserts to try at another time too. One of the things I love most about The Secret Recipe Club is finding all these delicious new recipes! On to the cake…

  • 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups sour cream
  • Frosting:
  • 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 Tbsp water

1. Break up 6 oz of chocolate and melt in microwave, or on stove top, watch closely so it doesn’t burn. Set aside to cool.

2. Beat softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy. add eggs one at a time, and vanilla.

3. Combine next 5 ingredients in separate bowl. Alternate this mixture with sour cream, as you add it to butter/egg mixture.

4. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt cake pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes, in a 325 degree oven. Cool for 10 minutes, then flip onto serving plate. Cool completely.

5. To make frosting beat together all ingredients, and gently scoop onto cake. Let set for 1 hour before slicing.

6. Eat and enjoy!



Secret Recipe Club

Citrus Guacamole

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GuacamoleOne of my all time favorite foods has got to be guacamole. This usually ends in me eating way to much. I do love to indulge once in a while and this is one great food to do it on. When I saw this recipe over at Chelsy’s site Mangia I knew we would have a slam dunk, home run kind of recipe. Plus I have never seen a guacamole recipe that incorporated orange juice, so I thought let’s give it a whirl. The results were tremendous, as I knew they would be! Another Secret Recipe Club home run. I used store-bought chips to dip in the dip, but head on over to the original if you want an additional recipe for homemade chips.

Thanks Secret Recipe Club for another fabulous assignment!

Ingredients:
  • 3 ripe Hass avocados, peeled and pitted
  • 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  • juice of 1 orange
  • 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
  • sea salt and pepper, to taste
  • tortilla chips to dip

1. Chop avocados into bite sized chunks and mash with potato masher. I like my guacamole a little chunky, so mash to the way you like it.

2. Stir in onion, jalapeno, garlic, orange, cilantro and spices. Cover tightly with Saran wrap (make sure that it is directly on guacamole, and refrigerate until ready to eat. I like to leave it about an hour to let flavors meld. Serve with tortilla chips.

3. Eat and enjoy!

See everybody else’s pick of the month below:



Croque Monsieur

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Croque MonsieurCroque Monsieur, basically a fancy ham and cheese. Really fancy, and really delicious! Also, this month’s Secret Recipe Club pick. Did I ever enjoy myself looking through my assigned site, Authentic Suburban Gourmet, what a perfect name for this blog, as everything looks gourmet indeed! I had many options to pick from, ranging from Ice Cream to Savory Bread Pudding,(all pinned for later), but I eventually decided on the Croque Monsieur, because it is something I have always wanted to try. It is a pretty quick meal to put together, served with a side salad. Elegant, quick, tasty, put those three qualities together and you have a great meal. I know this is one I will be making the family again and again.

  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • dash of salt and pepper
  • 2 cups shredded Emmental cheese ( I used Swiss)
  • 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 8 slices nice white bread
  • 8 slices deli sliced black forest ham
  • Dijon mustard

1. Melt butter in small saucepan. Add flour and whisk for about two minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk and stir until sauce has thickened. Stir in salt, pepper and nutmeg. remove from heat and stir in parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup of the Swiss cheese. Set aside while you get the bread ready.

2. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place bread on cookie sheet and toast both sides. Spread 4 slices of bread with Dijon Mustard ,top with 2 slices of ham each, top with remaining Swiss cheese. Top with second 1/2 of bread slices to make 4 sandwiches. Top with the Mornay Sauce that you made. Return to oven. Bake for 5 minutes. Broil for 3 minutes.

3. Eat and enjoy!


Easy Baked Taco Shells

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Easy baked Taco ShellsToday you guys all get an extra post! Over in Group D of The Secret Recipe Club they had some orphans. What is an orphan you ask? Well, who ever got this lovely blog, The Saucy Gourmet, was unable to post today. So I headed on over to see what I could make on a short time schedule and lo and behold I found this recipe for Easy Baked Taco Shells! We already had Tacos on the menu tonight, so a slight shift in the menu and Taco Salad is served! This is a fun way to serve your Tacos and a nice change from the usual store-bought Taco shells. I will definitely be making these again. It would even be fun to fill it with a Mexican themed soup, such as Chicken Tortilla, or even chili topped with cheese. So many possibilities! So here you go on to the recipe!

  • flour tortilla
  • aluminum foil
  • warm water
  • 1/4 tsp olive oil

1. Place warm water (just a small amount, about 1/8 cup) in pie plate, mix with olive oil. Place tortilla in and flip to get both sides wet.

2. Take an empty food can and cover with aluminum foil. Drape tortilla over food can, and bake for 5 minutes, at 450 degrees. Repeat depending on how many shell bowls you would like.

3. Fill with your favorite taco fillings, we used lettuce, tomato, cucumber taco meat, cheese, salsa, sour cream and of course jalapeños!

4. Eat and enjoy!

Check out all of the other group D picks here: