Wooden Spoon & Crafts: July 2013

Hi Everyone,
Gosh, it's been quite a while since my last post on here. I do apologize. But now that I'm back, I would like to share with you such a very easy dessert that even your guests for dinner will be amazed by it and (hint: baking no required).
I've always been a fan of this creamy, chocolate spread jar in the grocery stores called Nutella. I would say I'm not a Huge fan of it, but it is very tasty and oh so yummy! I remember first trying it when I visited my cousin in Canada back in the late 80's and had asked what are they spreading over bread? Well, after one bite, I immediately fell in love with the taste of it. I did not know later on that it's a hazelnut spread, thank goodness I had no reaction to it at the time! I always thought it was just plain ol' chocolate spread.. lol

Going back to what I mentioned, it's a dessert that your guests think that you've been in the kitchen the whole day just to do these Mini Nutella Cakes! Did I say it required NO BAKING?
Ok, I bet you want to get started and impress your guests! So here we go:

NUTELLA MINI CAKES (derived from www.thepioneerwoman.com) :

Ingredients:
1 Sara Lee Pound Cake - this particular recipe, I used an all Buttery one (too much butter is good right?)
1 container of Nutella (Hazelnut spread)
Round Cutters
Cool Whip (Optional)

1. Remove the Pound cake from the container and slice it in the middle like so:

2. Next, take your round cutter, and press down the cake and gently remove it from the cutter

For this pound cake, I was able to press about 3 rounds.

3. Next, take the cake that you just pressed and slice again in half like the pic below:

4. By Using a slanted knife, if you don't have one, a spatula or buttered knife will do, spread the Nutella onto the sliced round cake like so:

5. You can stack three on top (pictured below) depending if you want three or 2 stack mini cakes

6. Now that you've seen these cute mini cakes all stacked up, I know it's tempting, but this needs to go in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so until the Nutella settles.

7. In the meantime, you can either make your own version of "cool whip" or if you want to make things easier for you, you can just visit the grocery store and buy Cool Whip. I personally don't like the taste of Cool Whip, I usually make my own. In this particular recipe, I was experimenting on the TJ's whipping cream. As you can see below, all you do is wait for it to be room temp before taking your hand mixer and beating it for about 10 mins.

Note: I did not like the TJ's brand, one I thought it was too light and the whipping cream was too soft. So again, I recommend you buy Cool Whip or make your own.

Once the 30 minutes is up, and guests are ready to have dessert, cover the mini cakes with your Cool Whip! See how pretty these turned out? What do you think my fellow Bloggers? Doesn't that look so delicious?
Note: Since the Nutella can be hard after coming from the freezer, I've noticed that before you serve it, let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving that way when your guests slices it, it's not hard, it should be soft.