Baking for the Bach: Here's Comes Katie

The end of last season came with a ton of contentious feelings and stress, but the great thing to come out of it is the double bachelorette announcement from Michelle Young and Katie Thurston. Both fan favorites in their own rights, Michelle was said to have been offered the spot first, but wanted to finish out the school year with her students before filming, so to fill the gap in timing, the production team decided to give the people what they want in more ways than one, still providing Michelle with an, albeit later, season while filling time with another fan favorite contestant.

Katie was known for her infamous entrance with her vibrator, which had Matt and most of BN cracking up, but has since overshadowed that persona in favor of an anti-bullying sweetheart who's social media game is very strong. As someone who follows her, I can say one of the best things I've noticed is how relatable she is, constantly posting pictures with her cats and late night fast food, and from what I've seen others in Bachelor nation who have met her, Matt included, have only the kindest things to say about her.

And despite the niceties, her promos and past behavior indicate she's not afraid to speak her mind if someone crosses her or does something out of line. That combined with the fun side we've seen should make for an exciting season!

Now one of the things I can relate to most about Katie is her McDonald's habit. She's posted several videos of her late night McD's snacking and I'm here for it (especially as a big fan of their fries myself). So since the first episode just features the entrances and getting to know you portion of the show, I decided to make the first dessert all about some of what seems to be the newest Bachelorette's favorite eats.

To make this dessertified McDonald's meal, you'll need to work with a few recipes. When done in conjunction it took me about 3 hours total (under an hour per dessert with time for assembly). First I started with the cake. I went with salted caramel cake (using this recipe), partly because its an irresistibly delicious flavor and partly because the color worked well in meshing with the color of a burger bun. After it finished cooking and cooled a bit, I put it in the fridge to cool down completely and more quickly.

While the cake was in the oven I got to work on my Oreo truffles. These are by far the easiest, but also messiest, part of your workload, but they're a staple in my dessert repertoire and a constant requested item from friends when I host or am hosted. To make the truffles, combine a full pack of double stuffed Oreos (crushed by hand or blended in a blender or food processor into fine crumbles) with about 4 oz of cream cheese. Once they're fully incorporated, you can shape them. While I usually shape into golf ball sized truffles, I mostly made burger shapes this time around and the color was actually pretty close. These will be really soft when freshly formed so be sure to put them in the fridge so they can fully take shape and harden a bit.

Next I got to work on the fries, which I was most excited and nervous for. I used this recipe from Just a Taste, which was much easier than I expected and came together, as promised in the post, in under 30 minutes. Instead of piping and cutting the churros as the instructions noted, I just let the dough cool a bit then hand rolled it into fry-like shapes before popping into the hot oil. These were phenomenal and not too hard to bite into like I thought they might be.

Next came assembly. I made the little fry bucket myself and added some parchment paper before stacking the churro fries to look like a McD's serving would. Next I took the cooled down cake out of my fridge and cut out some bun shapes then halved them to look like a hamburger bun. Taking the Oreo truffles out of the fridge, I layered them in the buns. I left out the "toppings" this time around, but some coconut shavings dyed green would make great "shredded lettuce" and white chocolate dyed red would be great "ketchup" for dipping the "fries" or topping the "burger".

While I may have taste-tested my way through the baking process (that caramel cake-truffle combo was irresistible), I am very excited to indulge in more faux burgers and fries while Katie meets some guys. Who's with me?