Scrap That!! {Cake Scraps Pudding}

I am a “waste not, want not” kind of gal so here’s an idea for using those extra cake scraps that you might have from a baking project. Like many of you, whether you have children or not, we live on a budget.  We do what it takes.  We cut corners to make sure that “ends meet”.  We sacrifice.  We shuffle. We save money for a “rainy day”.

And I always thought that expression was interesting, by the way.   “A rainy day…”.   So, if it rains, I can go spend money?  Can I buy shoes??  ;)  I think the translation means that we save up in case things don’t go our way, but I’m really not quite sure.

There are many ways to save money, of course.  One way that I now save about $400/ month for our family is that I coupon religiously and The Husband & I have gotten our weekly grocery bill down to about $80 / week (including meat & veggies) for the five of us.  That’s down from $150/week or so just a couple of years ago!  And that sure didn’t happen overnight.  I worked really hard at it and, after a few months of effort and some great advice, tools and tips (which I am going to post about later this week),  I was able to accomplish it. And now we only spend a couple of hours a week dealing with it so I don’t want anyone to think that is taking up some major time that they think they don’t have.  I am happy to say that I am  coming up on the two year anniversary of what I like to call “serious couponing” (as opposed to “dumpster diving – clearing the shelves – straight up WHACK” couponing).

I mean, a “lady” must maintain her dignity, right?  Even when surrounded by muddy hand prints and Play-Dough and Legos spread all over the floor!  So… let’s just step over those for now, shall we?  Into the kitchen we go.

Needless to say, when you put that much effort into saving money, the last thing you want to see is food go to waste!  Heck, no!!  Aside from myself, I have four perpetually hungry people over here, so throwing away food just doesn’t make sense.  And throwing away dessert?

What??? (did you just hear the tires screech to a halt like I did??)

Well, that’s just sacrilege right there.  Straight up fightin’ words.  So let’s not do that…

You might recall I made some little Ombre style Valentine’s Mini Heart Cakes recently.  Well, I had those leftover cake “scraps”…

So I  set them aside in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for a few days until I figured out what I wanted to make with them.   I mean… cake pops are cute and all, but I am plain “cake-popped” out.  Not to mention, they make me want to eat like TEN of them.  So if you ever have a good amount of cake scraps left over from trimming or cutting a cake,  don’t throw them out!   Just freeze them until you are ready to use them.  Here are two ideas.

First, I decided to make a little “bread pudding” using my cake scraps instead of the bread.  A link to the full recipe is at the end.

I took my cake scraps and divided them into 4 well greased ramekins (I still ended up with another handful or so and we’ll get to those in a bit).

Ramekins are SUPER handy for all sorts of things and not very pricey at all so if you can grab a few, you will use them quite often.  If you do not have any, you might have 4 other little bowls that are oven proof that you can use for this recipe.

Next, I added the custard mixture  into each ramekin over the cake, letting it soak in for a second and continuing to fill until each was topped off.

I ended up with a few spoonfuls left of the custard.  Ok, you got me. I threw that away.  But, if you see the recipe, I have a tip for what to do with the leftover mixture if I had thought about it before putting it in the sink.

I placed the ramekins several inches apart into a 13 x 9 baking pan and then prepared a water bath (no, not for ME, but that sounds good right now!!) for the filled ramekins by bringing a pot of water to just under boiling and filling the pan until the ramekins were covered halfway with the hot water.

Carefully place the ramekin / water filled pan into the oven.

These will bake for 45-50 minutes, depending on your oven. So check ‘em because you want them to be lightly browned like this:

Here’s the fun part (it may entail some eating, yes).

Carefully remove these little sweeties from the water bath and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.  Using a butter knife, loosen the puddings and invert onto your serving plates.

(Make ahead tip:  These are best served warm, but if you are making them ahead of time, once cooled, you can store these up to 24 hours or so in the fridge and microwave them for about 30-40 seconds, top and serve). 

I topped mine with a little sweetened condensed milk, chocolate sauce and a few raspberries.

I even played around with a toothpick to try and make a pattern but the sauce was a little too thin or warm for it to really stick – will have to work on that.  Sooo I decided to just eat one.   Made short work of that!!   Now let’s see if those Legos picked themselves up of the floor.  ;)  The full recipe is HERE.

One more cake scrap idea:

If you freeze your cake scraps until needed, you always have a handy little dessert ready to go.  Simply remove as much as you would like and place into a small bowl and microwave until warm.  Top with a scoop of ice cream, your desired sauce and a little whipped topping.  Instant little “cake sundae”.

Unexpected guests arriving?  ”Let them eat cake!!”

Do you have any other ideas for cake scrap recipes?  Make sure to tell me all about it in the comments!

xoxo,
Claire

Linking up to:

Alderberry Hill, A Diamond In The Stuff,  The Girl Creative,  This Gal Cooks, Frugal Foodie Mama, The NY Melrose Family,

Tagged as: Bread pudding, Cake scrap recipes, ice Cream Cake Sundaes, Valentine's Desserts