Chocolate Chip Caramel Cake

CHOCOLATE CHIP CARAMEL CAKE

This is really moist and yummy. I liked it way better the day after it was made so if you are making it for something I recommend making it a day in advance. Also the second time I made it it turned out a lot better and fluffier.

1 box devil's food cake mix

1 1/3 C sour cream

1/2 C vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 C semisweet chocolate chips

1 C caramel topping

Icing (powdered sugar, milk, vanilla) optional

*Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, sour cream, oil and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds then on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Hand mix in the chocolate chips and pour into prepared pan. Bake 35-43 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 30 minutes. Spray meat fork, or long tined fork, with cooking spray and poke warm cake all over. Pour caramel topping all over cake and cool completely. If desired mix up a little powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Drizzle over the top of the cake. I did it more fro presentation because the cake itself doesn't need anything more.

The first time I made it, I think I took it out of the oven a little too early and the center fell. Then I didn't want to wait for it to cool all the way before I ate it so the caramel hadn't even soaked in yet. I am not a patient person. It was really good, but even better the next day.

Caramel Popcorn

CRUNCHY CARAMEL POPCORN

I needed to make a snack or appetizer for an activity yesterday and looked at what I had and decided to make this caramel popcorn. This is definitely my favorite caramel popcorn recipe. I like the chewy caramel popcorn recipes, but this is way better. It is seriously so addicting.

5 quarts popped popcorn
1 C butter
2 C brown sugar, packed
1/2 C light corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

*Preheat oven to 250. Place popped popcorn in a very large bowl, or I use two large bowls. In a medium large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. After butter is melted stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour a thin stream over bowls of popcorn, stirring to coat. Place evenly on two cookie sheets and place in preheated oven. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

During the boiling process.

I haven't made this for a while so I thought I would be ok using my smaller saucepan. I was wrong. I forgot that it bubbles a lot when you boil it. I made a little bit of a mess since it ran over the pan a little. See this is why I wanted to do this blog so I can remember what I did and what I need to do different. Oh I also forgot to add the vanilla this time. Oops. But it still turned out GREAT! When you pour the caramel sauce over the popcorn, don't worry if it's not totally even, it will soften and melt a little in the oven and you can spread it around when you take it out every fifteen minutes to stir.

After cooking for an hour.

This popcorn is so so simple. It would be easy to cut the recipe in half, but I was making it for an activity so I made the full amount. 5 quarts sounds like a lot, but really it's just about 2 1/2 bags of popped popcorn. I'm sure you could pop your popcorn the old fashioned way but the microwave is so fast. I also like to use butter flavored popcorn because I like the contrast of salty and sweet. You could also add peanuts if you wanted. If you like crunch n munch or fiddle faddle you will like this recipe. It's hard to eat just a little. It's so crunchy, yet the sugars sort of melt in your mouth like candy. It's YUMMY! It doesn't last long in this house.

This is a fun recipe to make this time of year. It's a great snack to make for those Christmas movie marathons.