Guest Post: In the Pink & Green

Today is the 3rd guest post for my vacation week.  Enjoy the sweet treat Jane has cooked up for y'all!

Happy weekend to all you fabulous Sweet Tea readers! My name is Jane and I'm thrilled be to guest posting here while the lovely Delaney is on vaca. I write a blog called In the Pink and Green. It basically chronicles my travels and adventures with my hubby and our puppy as we move around the country, as well as my attempts to try and balance my desire to be healthy, fit, and eco-friendly with my need to shop, collect beauty products (Sephora is my weakness), follow celebrity gossip and consume sugar like it's a food group.

Oh yeah, that's my puppy Lola...she's pretty much the greatest thing ever :)

Speaking of which, my guest post today just happens to be about dessert! (What a coincidence...) More specifically, both of today's treats have a common ingredient that is pretty much one of the best things ever invented: Nutella. Now if you've never had Nutella, stop reading this post, go to the store, and buy some. Eat it. Thank me for changing your life. Seriously though, Nutella is just so creamy and delicious, but what I really love about it is that it's so versatile. It pairs perfectly with salty pretzels, it's divine on crepes, heck it can even make your morning toast taste like something truly special. Basically Nutella is like peanut butter's much cooler European cousin, the one that wears leather jackets and red lipstick and looks fabulous all the time.

So now that we're all on the same page about Nutella's awesomeness it's time to get cooking! This past week, my husband and I were both out of town, so I asked our neighbors to water our plants. I wanted to bake them a little something to show my appreciation, and I thought that this Nutella Swirl Pound Cake seemed like the perfect thing. (Ok, I just really wanted to make this pound cake and didn't want to eat the entire thing myself and I needed a reason to give some away...) I found this recipe on live love pasta, which I found via foodgawker. I adore pound cake, and the thought of it swirled with Nutella sounded like the perfect combination.

Butter and sugar getting ready to be creamed together...definitely want to make sure you beat well so the mixture becomes light and fluffy!

My eggs were not at room temperature which is key for a good pound cake, so a quick solution is just sitting the eggs in a bowl of hot (not boiling) water for a few minutes.

It honestly took all my self control not to eat all this batter by itself...so delicious.

Layering the batter with the Nutella...also at the end when you swirl the layers, don't worry if it gets a little messed up because I was worried mine was going to look weird...just smooth over the top and bake!

Finished product! (It's a smidgen darker then I'd like, but oh well!)

 Since the post over at live love pasta has really excellent step by step photos, I've only included a few photos from my attempt to make this recipe because it really is extremely straightforward. Overall, I thought it turned out really well, and it tasted just as delicious as I had hoped. I don't typically make up my own recipes on my blog, I usually just try out other recipes and then review them to let people know whether they're actually worth the effort or not, and I have to say this pound cake definitely is!

Yum.

My only issue with it was that I'm still learning how to adjust my recipes to accommodate for the high altitude out in Colorado. Everything I read always says to increase the oven temperature, however, because I did this my pound cake got just a tad burnt on top. But it still tasted delicious, and other than that I had no problems with the recipe. It would be a perfect dessert or even breakfast, and I'll definitely be making it again.

On to my next Nutella recipe...this one is so easy peasy but tastes amazing, so I'm really excited to share it with all of you. Nutella Ice Cream. I know right, sounds delicious doesn't it? I decided to make this recipe to surprise my husband since he had been out of town for a business trip, and well, he loves both Nutella and ice cream! I also realized that this is the first time I've made ice cream all summer and it's almost August (eek I need to get on the ice cream making stat!), and I'm SO glad I gave this recipe a try. What I love about it is that it only has two ingredients. That's right, just two. When I saw the recipe on Galley Gourmet, I was definitely a little skeptical, but also intrigued. You basically just take one container of Nutella and one can of evaporated milk (I used 2%), blend them together, refrigerate, and then pour into your ice cream maker. I blended mine for about a half hour before sticking it in the freezer to harden, and let me tell you, the flavor and consistency were amazing! Something about it reminds me of a Wendy's Frosty, so rich and thick and cool and chocolate-y!

I used a hand mixer to blend the evaporated milk and the Nutella, and then refrigerated it overnight...also, how cute is this heart shaped bowl?! I got a set of three heart bowls at Urban Outfitters of all places and they were only like $10 for the set! Gotta love good deals like that :)

I use the ice cream maker attachment with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and it does a great job! You just keep the bowl in the freezer, and I love that it means one less appliance hogging space in my kitchen!

Consistency of mixture after approx. 30 mins in the ice cream maker...

(Soft) finished product ready to go in the freezer! :)

So whether you're in the mood to bake or to ice cream make, you can't go wrong with either one of these delicious Nutella treats. Thanks again to Delaney for having me over to Sweet Tea Serendipity, and I hope that y'all have a "sweet" weekend! xoxo

Thanks to Jane for such a sweet guest post!  Definitely go check out her blog & show her some sweet love.