Challah French Toast Breakfast Bake

With Easter around the corner, I thought I'd share one of my yummy Sunday brunch concoctions. I had a loaf of challah bread that I'd pretty much forgotten about, and Ky was in the mood for french toast, so I decided to whip together a caramel-sauced, challah bread breakfast bake.

You can make this the night before if you want to just wake up and pop it in the oven.

Challah French Toast Breakfast Bake with Caramel Sauce

serves 5-6 (or 4 ridiculously hungry people)

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf challah bread (I prefer the kind without raisins, but get whatever you like.)
• 2 cups milk (I used skim, but you can use whatever you like)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 Tb sugar
• 4Tb sugar (set aside for carmel sauce.)

Directions:

• Place a small saucepan on medium-low heat.
• Put the 4Tb of sugar in the small saucepan with 3Tb water.
• Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until golden.
• Once golden, turn off heat. (by the time the caramel is done, the prep for the challah should be done and it should be ready to be poured on.)
• Preheat your oven to 350- degrees
• Slice the challah bread into thick slices.
• Place in a 9x11 or 9x13 rectangular cake pan.
• Whisk all of the ingredients together and pour over the bread. 
• If you aren't making it the night before, allow the mixture to soak into the bread for at least ten minutes.
• Pour the caramel sauce onto the bread.  It may get hard.  Don't worry about that, it'll be yummy and gooey when you take it out of the oven.
• Put the bake in the oven and cook for twenty minutes, or until your challah is a nice golden brown (and your house smells like heaven!) *trust your nose.  If it smells done, it usually is.

As I've said before, holidays are about spending time with your family- not about losing your mind trying to prepare something amazing, while missing out on family time.  Enjoy your holiday!  (and impress them with this super easy meal at the same time!)

*I don't think this is a bacon necessary meal.  HOWEVER, some might.  If you do feel that way, you can bake the bacon at the same time as the bake, and it will all come out ready at about the same time (depending on how you like your bacon).  Cooking both in the oven at the same time will save you time and clean up.

Post Holy Week Food Coma

This year's holy week was a doozy! We had an amazing Sader dinner at my best friend's mother's house, seafood fest on Good Friday, a fun family pre-Easter pizza party, a delicious Easter brunch prepared by yours truly, and a fantastic traditional ham dinner with friends. Needless to say, my family needs another sweet like they need a hole in the head, but I can't help but thinking of...



What is that delicious concotion, might you ask? Do you see some delicious chocolate peanut butter cups on there? Could it be? Why yes, yes it is, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake! Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, chocolate fudge buttercream, and peanut butter cups galore! I don't think there are many things better in this world than the chocolate and peanut butter combo.

This is my go to cake for Father's Day. It's one of my favorites to make because it reminds me of when I first became a baker, and had to make hundreds of the same boring chocolate cake with peanut butter as the filling with some Reeses slapped on. I hate making cakes like a factory worker, and I hate the idea of beautiful peanut butter being treated so poorly with it's dear friend, and partner, chocolate. I invented a delicious peanut butter buttercream so that the peanut butter isn't overwhelming. The peanut butter buttercream dots give that extra punch of flavor to enhance the chocolate fudge icing and chocolate cake, and as my Daddy says, it's "just wrong it's so good".

I can't wait until Laela is old enough to help me make her Daddy and Grandpa's Father's Day cakes with me! In the meantime, I'll keep trying to think of fun new ways to knock their socks off!

Easter Cupcakes

I don't know what you were like as a kid, but I loved Easter almost as much as I loved Halloween. I knew that my family would stock me up with enough goodies to keep me in sugar shock for at least two months. My favorite part about the entire holiday? Not family dinner, or the Easter egg hunt, but these amazing cupcakes my Grandma would bring me from the fancy schmancy bakery down the street from her house. (Only I would love real French buttercream in elementary school haha.) They were that gooey, fabulous, melt in your mouth kind of cupcake that's so fluffy and perfect that it doesn't even get a chance to stick to your fingers.

So in honor of my favorite Easter treat, I'm making a boatload of my favorite cupcakes- done Caracakes style- Easter bunnies jumping into the bunny holes, grass with jumping beans, and of course, Easter Eggs. It took me years to get even close to that fabulous bakery of my youth's recipe, but I've finally done it..and I can't wait to share with my friends and family this weekend.

Have a great holiday everyone!