Cooking.com is no more. And it had all these great recipes. Including this fruitcake recipe that people ask me to make again.

YEAH, FRUITCAKE. Apparently when you don’t use candied cherries and cement in your fruitcake, people like it!

So, I’m totally reprinting it here, copyright be darned. The Recipe is by James McNair’s Cakes. James McNair’s Cakes is a book. By James McNair.  Here’s a link to it on Amazon:  LINK TO IT  I mean, it’s out of print.  If you find it for sale somewhere, let me know.  I WANT IT.

Note:  This is a different James McNair than the James McNair that shows up when you just google James McNair.  

Read the rest of this entry »

Except instead of Apple pie it’s:

Red, White*, Blue and Chocolate Cake

nom nom nom Read the rest of this entry »

♥burn Cake Balls

Red Velvet: Pretty, Blah

I find red velvet cake to be one of the most interesting features of moving to the south.  Mostly because it can be used to make a bleeding armadillo cake (here’s someone else’s post about red velvet, with a pic of a bleeding armadillo cake), and nextly because of a perfectly suitable reason for cream cheese frosting.  But, frankly, other than it’s red and cream cheese, Red Velvet mostly bores me.  I mean it’s super moist (with a slight acid hint) because of the buttermilk, making it a great combo with cream cheese, but it usually contains such a ludicrously small amount of chocolate that no one would ever call it a great chocolate cake, but other than that it’s blah.  Pretty, blah.

I don’t admire Pretty, Blah.  I want my cakes to be interesting, to have levels of taste and I don’t care as much about pretty, but as long as it’s as easy as dumping a bunch of red food coloring in it, I’m game for Pretty.

♥burn Cake: Pretty, Dangerous

I want chocolate like it’s going out of style.  I want this southern specialty to acknowledge that chocolate was often considered savory before the Europeans found it, and by that I mean spicy.

I want sexy cake. I want Pretty, Dangerous.

And that means the ♥burn Cake’s full name is:  Triple Chocolate Chipotle Red Velvet with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.  And when I make cake balls out of it, it’s full name is:

Triple Chocolate Chipotle Red Velvet with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting in Dark Habenero Chocolate Cake Balls

Read the rest of this entry »

Bagels ‘n’ Lox ‘n’ Cranberries Cheese Ball

Nothing says traditional Thanksgiving like a cheese ball.  It’s all the other stuff that makes this crazy.

Read the rest of this entry »

I met a lot of really great people that promised to vote for my cupcakes.   As I was too beat to stick around for the results of the contest, and no one  has told me differently, I’ll just assume that I won.

I’d like to thank my fellow bakers for really bringing it this year.  Winning a contest such as this means nothing if you are only competing against crappy competitors.  I’m only as good as better than everyone else around me.

I’d also like to thank my loyal assistants:  my stove, my dishwasher, my KitchenAid, my measuring cups and spoons, my bakeware, the lovely people at Central Market and HEB for providing me with the raw ingredients to produce such magnificent cupcakes, and Marla.  She helped just by being there for me.

Edit: I have been informed that I have a trophy with my name on it somewhere.  I do not know which trophy, but I assume the Gold Medal Trophy.  Will keep you updated.

Edit 2: I have heard that someone else has one “1st and 2nd” prizes.  I can only assume that I have therefor won “Best Overall” or some other such prize that is better than “1st and 2nd.”

So, the next week or so will be a blur of faces, panels, movies, dancing and food I really shouldn’t eat broken up by brief and insufficient bouts of sleep. Or as most call it South by Southwest. I live in Austin, TX and have for long enough that I call myself an Austinite. But it was only recently that I started attending SXSW.

The first night has me cooking.  The Second Annual Pastries and Pasties.  I’m only in for the Pastries, specifically Heart Burn Cupcakes.

Read the rest of this entry »

printscreen(“Hello World!”);

Yeah, that was no language in particular.  I’m just happy it looks more like the languages I learned in CS and EE classes than the MIS classes.  Because I’d still be typing if I tried to make that in COBOL.  *shudder* COBOL.

This is the New JustMichelle site.  New interface, new posts, new everything.  Well, same domain.  I think I’m just going to scrap all of the Old JustMichelle, except the granola bars recipe.  I don’t want to lose that.

Mix and Match Chewy Granola Bars

Read the rest of this entry »