Chocolate Cream Pie

I'm drooling right now just looking back over these pictures.  I made my daddy a chocolate cream pie for Father's Day, and it was declared by him "the best pie he's ever had."  I couldn't believe how perfect it turned out.  It was so, so, so easy to make - yet tasted sinfully rich.  The crust is just a basic, flaky pie crust; I wouldn't use any other crust on this if you mainly want to taste the chocolate layer.  This layer is rich, fudgey, silky, and oh-so chocolatey.  It's also kind of thin, but you definitely won't mind because it's so rich anyways.  And even though it is very rich, it doesn't fill you up like a cheesecake would (since it's a thin layer) - so you will definitely want to go back for seconds(:  This pie was over half way eaten the first night I made it!  And that's just between my mom, dad and I, and it was right after we'd gone out for Father's Day dinner. This is definitely the only chocolate cream pie I will ever use from now on!

Yield: 1 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Thawed Cool Whip or home made whipped cream

Chocolate shavings, toasted coconut, or chopped candy bar pieces

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. In a medium bowl, beat milk and egg yolks until smooth. Gradually stir into sugar mixture. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil. Boil and stir for one minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla. Stir until melted.
3. Pour into pie shell. Place plastic wrap over filling to prevent skin from forming and chill for several hours. Top with Cool Whip or whipped cream and toppings if desired.

Tres Leches Cake

If you've never had Tres Leches Cake before, you HAVE to try it!  And if you've never even heard of it before, it's a common Mexican dessert and it's literally made with what the title is: three types of milk.  And of course, the three types of milk it uses are the sweet, fatty types.  The cake is chilled and soaks up all those delicious milks and creates a sweet, melt-in-your-mouth, refreshing dessert like no other. I had it for the first time at a Cuban restaurant and I fell in love with it.   I made it for a Spanish presentation a few days ago and everyone wanted the recipe.  I definitely want to make this for a party/celebration/holiday sometime soon because it's my new favorite cake.  I did use a box..which I usually never do because I'm a "scratch is best" girl, but since I had to make it for school and I had never made it before, I really didn't want to mess up.  It is semi-home made because of all the things you add to it, though(:

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix

1 1/4 cups water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 can (15 oz)sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

1 cup evaporated milk or whole milk

1 cup whipping cream

1 tub of Cool Whip

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease and flour or spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan.

2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

3. Bake as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking.

4. In large bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, whole milk and whipping cream. Carefully pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is absorbed into cake. Top with desired amount of Cool Whip. Store covered in refrigerator.