Umm..yeah, I’d say that’s chocolatey! So what makes it a “breakfast cake,” you ask? Well, this cake is actually a pound cake. When I was growing up, my Granny Flash would often eat sliced and toasted poundcake for breakfast with coffee. So, in a round about way, this cake is perfect for breakfast.

You can also eat it any other time of the day. Got it? Good.

German Chocolate Breakfast Cake

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray two 8-inch loaf pans with cooking spray, then dust with flour. Shake out any excess flour and set pans aside.
2. In a large bowl, blend cake mix, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer on low speed for about a minute. Increase speed to medium and beat two more minutes. Stir in pecans and coconut, then divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing out with a rubber spatula. Place pans in the oven side by side.
3. Bake loaves for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely before removing from pans.

Makes two large loaves

Now, you know this would make the perfect breakfast.

Hope you enjoy! Have a great Thursday. The Duchess

There is a restaurant along 30A (a beautiful scenic highway that runs right along the Gulf) that hosts trivia every Friday night. Tables compete against each other, so it gets really crazy. Each person at the winning table is entered to win a trip to Vegas to be given away at the end of the summer. I’ll let you know if I win.

Jessica, Laura and Damon were on our team.

Jessica is one of my best friends…she was in our wedding. Isn’t she gorgeous??

Before the competition really heated up, Jessica, the Duke and I split some fried pickles.

These bad boys were perfectly seasoned, but pretty greasy. I could only handle a few, since they main course was a good ‘n healthy PIZZA!

The Duke got pepperoni on his half, while Jess and I split the veggie side (which only consisted of green peppers, olives and mushrooms).

After three rounds of trivia, we were the top team. We sent Jess and the Duke up to go head-to-head with another team. There were a few tense moments with some serious questions (i.e. Who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird?)

We won!! Way to go, Jess and Duke!

After the competition, we headed back to Laura and Damon’s for games. We played a few rounds of Scattergories before breaking to make S’mores. Laura has a nice gas range, so we roasted marshmallows right there on the cook top. Genius!

It was such a fun night! It’s time to hit the books hard today. Only three more weeks of my LAST classes for teacher certification. Woohoo! Lots to do between now and then, though. Have a great weekend.

The Duchess

Since everything around me is baby blue and pale pink, I’ve been feeling cutesie. Keeping in line with the precious and tiny theme, I stumbled upon a Wilton mini brownie pan at Michael’s and snatched it right up. It’s a silicon pan that makes 24 baby brownies. Too cute! The story gets better…I asked the check out lady if they offered discounts for educators and she gave me 50% off the $10 pan. Gotta love that!!

Now, down to business. I chose to fill the teeny tiny pan with extra dark chocolate brownie batter. Oh, yes I did.

The cute factor is nearly out of control here. And, the best part is, these brownies are quite small, so you can certainly eat more than normal brownies.

The batter of these brownies is amazing by itself (it’s the Duke’s mom’s recipe), but the finished product? Fuggedaboutit!!! You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.

Have a great weekend! I plan on hitting the beach or the boat…that’s if the oil hasn’t taken over
The Duchess

We visited Betty Owen’s twins’ school for their 8th grade awards ceremony.

Shout out to Ben…he wanted to be on the blog!

And sweet Sarah, too.

Uncle Bill cooked Indian food…a family favorite!

Mom and I were able to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, along with our friend Margaret (it was Margaret’s first time in NYC).

No trip to Manhattan is complete without lots of great food. We found an awesome (and inexpensive) Thai restaurant in SoHo, then of course ended the day with sweets.

And finally, I towed a Crumbs cupcake (caramel apple…to die for) all the way home to Florida for the Duke to enjoy. Am I the best wife or what?

These pictures took forever to upload! I hope you enjoy. And if you’re the praying kind, please send up a few for my aunt. She needs a miracle to recover…doctors don’t know what’s going on, but are saying her brain is basically “asleep.”

Enjoy your week, and thanks for stopping by.
The Duchess

Other things that make me happy? My puppy. How cute is Ruby??

She looks like such a ferocious beast in this picture, but really I caught her mid-yawn.

Yet another thing that makes me happy- Oreos. Oreos are by far the best store-bought cookie ever. Ever. Ever. Ever! So I did what anyone would do and threw the American snack-time classic into a bar cookie. Voila:

I’m very proud to announce that I didn’t eat a single bite of these bad boys, so I don’t know how they taste. I’m bound and determined to get back to 130 pounds (I’m hovering around 135), and a thick and chewy cookie bar stuffed with Oreos and chocolate chips won’t help me reach that goal. Who would have guessed?

The Duke said they were awesome, though. He ate about 5 bars, so he would know.

Serve these with a big cold glass of milk for a post-pool treat on these hot summer afternoons.

Have a great week! Remember to stay hydrated, friends. The Duchess

So, if I were a truly awesome blogger, I would have been giving you a minute by minute account of my NYC trip while I was actually there. Since I’m too lazy to lug my laptop across the country and stay cooped up in my hotel room writing posts, I’m now bringing you the goods a few days late. I sincerely hope you don’t mind.

Let’s start at the very beginning…a very fine place to start.

The Duke and I arrived in NYC last Thursday evening. We were starving by the time we arrived and decided to go to Cuba Cafe for some latin spice. We visited this place the last time we were in NYC (in 2006) and remembered the killer mojitos.

We shared a tamale that was topped with pulled chicken and peppers in a spicy broth, which was really good. It tasted like cuban comfort food.

Friday morning we made our way to the Lower East Side in hopes of finding the Clinton St. Baking Company.

This modest breakfast joint was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay for their pancakes. I remember drooling during the episode, and knew we had to go.

The wait was really long, but this cute little pup kept us company.

After our hour-long wait, I ordered a biscuit with homemade raspberry jam while our breakfast was prepared.

This was seriously the BEST jam I have ever tasted. I would have eaten an entire bowl of it. For my main course, I had the huevos rancheros with chorizo and the Duke ordered the famous banana nut pancakes.

Both meals were delicious! The Clinton St. Baking Co. was definitely worth the wait. This was probably one of our best meals.

After breakfast, we walked around the American Museum of Natural History while we digested. This place was huge! We were in there a good two hours and walked at least a mile or two.

Since we were already in the Upper West Side, we ventured to Levain Bakery for a mid-afternoon treat.

I’d seen their gigantic cookies on Food Network, and put them at the top of my must-eat list. HOLY COW. Best. Cookie. Ever.

I ordered the chocolate with peanut butter chips and the Duke picked the oatmeal raisin. Each cookie was as big as my hand and worth every penny of the $4 that they cost!

After this large dose of sugar, I was one happy Duchess!

We dined at the swanky Fig & Olive Friday night, but I didn’t snap any photos I was too busy catching up with my friend Hunter. I’ve known Hunter since Kindergarten, and he now calls Manhattan home. He joined us for dinner and we had such a great time!

Stay tuned for the Grand Central Station Market, Bar Americain, Little Italy and so much more! The Duchess

I’ve heard a lot of talk about gluten-free lately. I know it’s nothing new, but I’d never experimented with gluten-free recipes until the other day. I know a few people who must avoid gluten for health reasons, and some have requested that I post some recipes. It must be a pain to live a gluten-free lifestyle…it’s in most everything! On the bright side, there are plenty of gluten-free products in most grocery stores these days, which surely makes things easier.

I found a recipe for gluten-free brownies in a recent issue of Taste of Home and decided to give them a try.

Can you guess what the star ingredient was (other than chocolate, of course )??? Garbanzo beans! That’s right. You can make brownies or hummus with chickpeas. Who knew??

For not containing any flour, these brownies were pretty darn good. I mean, it wasn’t the best thing I’d ever eaten, but if I couldn’t eat gluten, I’d be happy with these chocolatey treats.

I know what you’re wondering…do they taste like garbanzo beans? I mean, who wants brownies that taste like beans? I promise, you cannot taste the beans. All you can taste is chocolate and coffee. Kinda like a mocha brownie.

Here’s a quick shout out to our friends Laura and Patrick. Hey guys!

They came over for dinner Saturday night and made an awesome appetizer. It was an Asian shrimp wonton with cucumbers and ginger on top. YUM!

I hope you enjoy the gluten-free brownies. They’re a great healthy alternative to the boxed stuff, even if you aren’t avoiding gluten. Give ‘em a try soon. The Duchess

Ok, this cookie is out of control good. If there is one food that I can’t live without it’s peanut butter. I eat more of the creamy concoction than anyone I know. I just adore it. I eat it for breakfast with toast or swirled into oatmeal. I eat it for snacks with apple wedges or carrot sticks. I even eat it for dinner with chicken satay. Nothing beats a peanut butter cookie, though. There’s just something so right about a peanut butter cookie that makes me feel nostalgic.

How does one improve upon a classic peanut butter cookie? Stuff it with a chocolate bar, of course! Since all of the Easter candy was on sale at the grocery store, I picked up a bag of fun size Snickers. I knew these little chunks of peanutty and caramelly goodness would be great nestled into a peanut butter cookie.

Boy, was I ever right! These cookies nocked my socks off. I used a recipe from Paula Deen that calls for bread flour. The cookies were thick and chewy…just perfect.

I took a batch of these to school and the teachers devoured them! They could not stop talking about how good the cookies were. It’s nice to have so many coworkers to take my baked treats to…that way I can get them out of the house.

Make these soon, and be sure to have plenty of milk on hand. You’re going to want to chug down an icy cold glass of milk with these sweet treats. Have a great day! The Duchess

Just in time for St. Patty’s day, here are some super cute and ultra decadent Creme de Menthe cookies for you. I think mint and chocolate were meant to be together. I seriously can’t get enough of this awesome combo. If you have a Publix grocery store near by, make sure you pick up a carton of the store-brand mint chocolate frozen yogurt. It’s unbelievably good!

But back to the cookies…

Since we’re getting close to the ultimate green holiday, I thought it would be fun to dye my cookies green! Remember when I dyed some blondies pink?? I just get such a kick out of vividly colored treats. They’re so unexpected. Green or not, these cookies are outrageously good. I used an entire bag of Andes Creme de Menthe chocolates and boy, did they do the trick!

I think the green cookies are great for St. Patrick’s Day, but you could certainly omit the color for a delicious mint cookie year-round.

I almost forgot to announce the winner of my first give away! I only had a few entries, but I still had fun hearing from you guys. The winner is….
#3: Mark “That is too cool! Congrats! How did they find you? Twitter?? A girl at work is constantly eating Oikos and I’m always meaning to try it. I just always forget! It looks absolutely yummy.”

I’ll be emailing you soon Mark, so be on the lookout.

I hope you guys have fun making these cookies! I gotta run…we’re selling our house and we have another showing this afternoon. I need to make myself disappear for the next little while. Wish us luck!The Duchess

At any rate, the Duke and I had a fabulous weekend. We celebrated his 31st birthday on Saturday with food, food and more food (and a little karaoke with friends ). We went to Ruth’s Chris with our parents for dinner, but unfortunately I don’t have any photos to share My camera was malfunctioning. But let me tell you, it was a darn good meal. I rarely eat red meat, so when I do, I make sure to make up for lost time. I ordered the ribeye and the Duke ordered the petite filet. The waiter that brought us our steaks thought he had it mixed up. I didn’t even eat a quarter of the steak, but it was so delicious. There’s nothing like a salty, fatty steak. Oh yes.

I didn’t make the Duke a birthday cake this year, but I did make him a fabulous Paula Deen recipe that he took to work on Friday. It’s another gooey butter cake. Paula make lots of different varieties and they’re all sinfully good. We’ve tried lemon, pumpkin, and now, German Chocolate. Since this version has pecans, it’s perfect for this week’s My Girl, Paula! challenge for nuts.

Believe it or not, this recipe also starts with a box of cake mix! The bottom layer is a wonderfully chewy chocolate cake, and the filling consists of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, pecans and coconut…need I say more?

OK, I have to brag on myself here. I didn’t have one single bite of this cake! I’ve really been doing well with my Lent fast (no desserts). I almost had to get the Duke to cut it for me, because it was just too tempting. But, I rose above the urge and was able to cut the cake without sneaking a single taste.

The Duke’s coworkers really enjoyed this funky spin on a classic cake, and I’m sure you will, too. With that, I hope you have a wonderful week. Can you believe it’s already March??? Crazy!The Duchess