Tartlet 4 walking along Navarre Beach where we picked up great shells

We had a good time in Florida, resting or swimming most of the time. We thought we would make like Boy Scouts this time and be prepared. So, rather than purchase the traditional souvenir bottle of aloe after we were burnt to a crisp, we took several half-empty bottles of sunscreen from last year *and* a bottle of aloe with us. Our first full day we lathered up with sunscreen and went for a bike ride (not long, about 5 miles). When we came back to the condo we basted ourselves in a cocoa butter scented sauce again before setting out for the beach — we were so proud of ourselves for being so smart. When we got back to the condo for lunch it seemed several of us had reddish splotches that looked amazingly like sunburn. What? but we had used sunscreen! That night I decided that maybe our old sunscreen had gone bad and ran out to the store for a new bottle. The next day we could all tell the difference when we put on the new stuff and it worked great. All the old bottles went in the trash, but we were glad we brought our aloe along!

Lemonade Mix Blueberry Muffins

We bracketed our stay in Destin with dinners at The Crab Trap, a beach-side open air restaurant with super cool ceiling fans, great crab, grouper, shrimp and anything else we’ve eaten there. It’s our favorite place to eat. And they serve a decent mango daiquiri. One of the things the kids love best about it is they serve kids meals in a plastic pail with a little beach shovel. They get a lot of use, actually.

The condo had the basics for the kitchen and I bought groceries that I planned for us to use entirely before we left and packed very little, about as close to camping as I like to get (especially with the nice bed and warm shower, toilet, and washer/dryer) . I made blueberry muffins one day but didn’t have lemons or lemon extract on hand and was using the last of my 2 lb bag of sugar, so I added a couple of tablespoons of lemonade mix to the batter and reserved a little sugar for the tops of the muffins. They turned out decently enough. It’s not what I would do all the time, but it worked in a pinch.

Brownies

We had a great dinner of grilled chicken, saffron rice from a package mixed with frozen peas, salad, and a mixture of strawberries and mangoes one night. I didn’t take a picture. That was also the night I cut my little finger with the crappy knife in the condo when the mango slipped out of my hand. The Husband did a great job finishing up dinner for us that night while I sat on the sofa flipping between HGTV and the Food Network, holding my finger in a paper towel. Maybe I didn’t watch at the right times during this trip, but I was really unimpressed with the Food Network this time. I don’t have cable at home so these trips are my only exposure and last year we didn’t have cable so it’s been two years, but I wasn’t as inspired as I was in the past.

Another day I tossed together a brownie/cake-ish dessert — I mixed flour, baking powder, sugar, melted butter, half a bag of melted chocolate chips, vanilla, a little yogurt, and a couple eggs and then stirred in more chocolate chips and baked it for 20 min or so. I made a frosting by heating a little butter, milk, and sugar in a pan and after it came to a boil I stirred in the remaining chocolate chips until they were well melted. It was pretty tasty. Now that I’m back to my fully equipped kitchen, we’ll have to see what I can whip up . . .

please check out the new Daring Bakers Public Forum, which ever so perfectly is in the *kitchen*. I love it! We will not discuss the upcoming challenge in the public forum, but it’s a place to talk about general baking questions, past challenge recipes, and other fun stuff.

Also, you have seen the ‘FoodBuzz Featured Publisher’ badge on the blog for about a month now, I hope you have taken time to check out the good stuff at FoodBuzz. Click on them now——> and check out the foodies and the dining reviews in your area, or where you plan to go on *your* next vacation!

I’ll plan to be back in a few days!

As you may have noticed, I really like the combination of chocolate and caramel, especially with pecans. So it’s a no-brainer that I would like these cookies.

This cookie recipe is another Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe, and it won a $2000 prize in 1990! It appears in several different Pillsbury cookbooks, which is just a sign that Pillsbury knows a good recipe to sell cookbooks. I made these for the men’s retreat, but I made a double batch and saved some for us. In fact, these cookies are so good that I think you should always make a double batch. They freeze well if you don’t put the white candy coating on first so you can have a good supply in the freezer for those sudden cravings and surprise guests and, if you make these cookies, you’ll find that you have more friends who drop by unexpectedly! They are especially good while still warm from the oven, when the caramel is softer.

Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies (from the 34th Pillsbury Bake-Off)

2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 t. baking soda

1 c. sugar
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 c. margarine or butter, softened
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs

1/2 c. chopped pecans
48 Rolo Chewy Caramels in Milk Chocolate, unwrapped
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 oz. vanilla-flavored candy coating, if desired

Lightly spoon flour into measure cup; level off. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking soda; mix well.

In large bowl, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour mixture; blend well. Stir in 1/2 c. of the pecans. If necessary; cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes for easier handling.

Heat oven to 375 F. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tbsp dough around 1 caramel candy, covering completely.

In small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 c. pecans and 1 Tbsp. sugar. Press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place, nut side up, 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 375 F for 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool 2 minutes; removed from cookie sheets. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes or until completely cooled.

Melt candy coating in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Drizzle over cookies.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Today was the farewell for Mrs. V. The astute reader may remember there was a farewell last fall but only Mr. V. left us for TX at that time. Now their house has finally sold and they will be reunited (*yay!*) but we are sad to see them leave (*boo!*). Once again I wanted to make something that would suit her particular list of allergies. I made truffles.

You may be saying to yourself, “That doesn’t seem allergy friendly at all,” but I made several kinds. I saw some recipes online for goat cheese truffles, from several sources so I don’t have a specific link, and decided to play with that concept a little to make it edible for our friend. For the savory batch I simply copied a recipe I saw repeatedly — smooth some goat cheese around a grape and roll it in ground pistachios, all foods Mrs. V. can eat!

For the ’sweet’ ones, I used agave syrup for the sweetener and used both unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder to flavor the cheese. I rolled some of these in pistachios and some in cocoa powder.

In addition, I made some non-allergy friendly cold s’mores. I rolled a large marshmallow (small ones would have been nice, if I had some) in chocolate ganache (heat whipping to simmering and add chopped chocolate, stir until melted and smooth), allowing the ‘excess chocolate’ (is there such a thing?!) to drip off before rolling the marshmallow in graham cracker crumbs. I made some ‘regular’ truffles as well.

And now I leave you for a week while we go play at the beach, my most favorite week of the year! I have a little something in store for you next week while I’m gone, so hopefully you won’t miss me too much.

Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
5 Tbsp. agave syrup
2 Tbsp. canola oil
5 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
12 oz. plain goat cheese

In a small bowl, stir together chocolate, agave syrup, oil, and cocoa until smooth. In a medium bowl, beat the goat cheese for 30 seconds. Add the chocolate mixture and beat well. Roll into balls and toppings of your choice.

When I volunteered to make breakfasty snacks for the men’s retreat last weekend, I made several kinds of muffins (although clearly the bacon muffins were the favorite) and I made orange cranberry scones. I used the same basic recipe from which I made the orange, fig & coconut scones but added dried cranberries rather than figs and coconut. I also didn’t put any frosting on them. The men may not have enjoyed them as well as the bacon muffins, but they are one of my favorites!

Once again it’s time to see what the Daring Bakers have been whipping up. This month our hostesses, Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell, selected Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor.  There were mixed results among the Daring Bakers and mine weren’t among the best by any means.  I had trouble with the cheesecake being too soft, despite a longer baking time than the recipe calls for, and I ended up freezing it to get it to stay on the stick and be able to dip it in the chocolate.  Others I rolled in graham cracker crumbs to get that cheesecake taste and texture.  I really like the idea of these and I might try it again with a different cheesecake recipe to see if I can get a firmer texture.  The cheesecake tasted fabulous, though, and was incredibly creamy.  Go check out the other DBs because there were some great results.

Recipe after the jump.

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

When we first moved to Illinois, one of my favorite Saturday pastimes was auctions. We found all sorts of treasures. Several times there was one particular thing we were waiting for and because they couldn’t get bids on lots, they would just keep adding and adding to it until suddenly the one thing we wanted was added to the pile — sold! $1. But now we have all this other stuff. At one auction I picked up a box of cookbooks as well as two boxes of rickrack and seam tape and some things that went straight to the garbage can without entering the house. Among the cookbooks was this little gem of culinary history:

Inside you can find recipes from the various regions of the US including pickle cured bacon (start with 100 lbs sides of bacon from fresh-killed hogs), curing hams (100 lbs of ham, use only corn-fed hogs), pig knuckles with sauerkraut, or stewed eels. The book was originally published in 1939 and this is the third printing in 1947, the year my mother was born. It’s not a book I turn to regularly, as you can imagine, but it is full of interesting things, like these salads — are these rabbits or rodents? Ewww.

But the book also makes me a little sad. Inside it was stuffed with newspaper clippings of recipes, a few handwritten recipes (in this box of cookbooks there must have been a dozen copies of the same ‘ham and veal loaf’ recipe and it made me wonder — was this a family favorite that was always requested? or the dreaded recipe that Aunt Helen brought to every gathering?). It made me sad that no one in her family wanted these treasures. I’m not exactly sure why, but I keep all the original stuff with the book — I’m an archivist at heart, I guess — including these photos and a personal note written on the back of a train car switching order that reads:

Dearest Helen,

Could you please do me this last favor. Helen I don’t mean to take advantage of you by depending on you cause I know how you stand to.

But as as I told you dear when you least expect it, you have every dime you let me have. Cause I don’t know how to express my thanks to you especially cause you been wonderful to me. But I won’t forget. I hate to ask, but could you spare $5.00 more & this will be it till I pay you back.

Al

Don’t you want to know the rest of the story? My guess is he didn’t pay her back.

Anyway, when The Happy Sorceress announced the next Retro Recipe Challenge (thank you Laura Rebecca for this fun event) with the theme of recipes published before your mom was born, I knew to which cookbook I would refer. In this case, I took a recipe for a filling and used it for the top of a tart.

I made the orange version and made my tart a ‘Dreamcicle Tart’ by putting a sweetened cream cheese layer on the shortbread crust followed by the orange ‘filling’ and then garnishing with whipped cream and mandarin orange slices.

Thanks to our hostess for an opportunity to make use of this cookbook!

When I make muffins they almost always have a little sweetness to them. I like fruit in them — apples, berries, bananas, whatever is on hand, as long as it is sweet. I have made savory muffins, generally to go with soup or some other lunch or dinner entree, but not for breakfast fare.

When the men at our church announced they were having an all day retreat this coming Saturday, I volunteered to make them some snackages. It’s a reflexive reaction for me — someone mentions a gathering and I volunteer to make food! I made them a few sweet muffins and then I saw this recipe for Bacon Cheese Muffins and decided that would definitely suit the manly tastebuds. And let me tell you they suit the feminine ones too! Oh, YUM! What’s not to love about bacon in your muffins?

These are not low-fat diet muffins; they use 1/3 c. of bacon drippings for the fat, but that adds to the flavor. I momentarily thought about lightening these muffins. I think it would be easy enough to do — substitute turkey bacon for pork, canola oil for the bacon grease, use skim milk, use a reduced fat cheese, and the muffin would probably still be tasty and not contribute to a heart attack. But I wanted to try it with the full flavor for the first time, just to see how they were. I have another package of bacon in the fridge so I might have to make more of these, but at some future date I’d like to try them in a lighter version and see if they still seem like an awesome breakfast.

I doubled the recipe and rather than fry the bacon in strips and then crumble, I chopped the bacon first and then fried it. Also, the recipe calls for ‘crunchy nugget-like cereal’, which I assume would be like Grape-nuts, but I had some Fiber One that looks like Purina Rabbit Chow and put it in a bag and crushed it a little with a rolling pin so it wasn’t in such long strings. It worked just fine.

Bacon Cheese Muffins (from The Muffin Cookbook, 1989)

1/2 pound bacon
vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk
1 3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. crunchy nugget-like cereal

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain, reserving drippings. If necessary, add oil to drippings to measure 1/3 c. In small bowl, combine dripping mixture, egg and milk; set aside. Crumble bacon; set aside.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder. Make well in center. Add dripping-egg mixutre all at once to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Batter should be lumpy.

Fold in bacon, cheese and cereal. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake 15 - 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Last Friday morning we were awoken by a rattling sound and a shaking sensation. Concerned that the kid in the room next to us had fallen out of bed, we checked on her — sleeping soundly. Next The Husband checked for an intruder or things falling in the garage. Nothing. I remember groggily saying, ‘Husband, it felt like the whole house shook. What could do that?’ Well, an earthquake could. A few hours later as I sat at my computer, the hair on my arms stood up and my fingers tingled and suddenly my seat and computer desk were shaking. Thing 2 screamed, certain we were all going to die. Seconds after the shaking stopped, the tingling stopped in my fingers. It was really weird. Having no experience with earthquakes, it was a little unsettling.

I’ll blame that unsettled feeling on why I couldn’t follow a recipe and instead created my own after I had dumped a few things in the mixing bowl. It’s probably not the Earth’s fault at all, since I seem to have little capacity for following a recipe normally, but it sounds better than I’m just ‘knot-headed’, as my grandparents would say. I had a bag of Andes’ Candies Bits on hand and wanted to make a chocolaty cookie for them. I started out with something like the Tollhouse recipe in front of me for the base and my failure to follow instructions resulted in this:

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1 c. packed brown sugar
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 t. vanilla
3 eggs
3 Tbsp. cocoa
2 1/3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 pkg Andes Candies Bits

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla and eggs and beat well. Beat in cocoa. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat well. Stir in mint chips.

Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake about 8 minutes or until edges are set and center is still slightly soft. Remove cookies to rack to cool.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

As promised, I’m back with more information on this birthday cake. Ramona’s birthday is on Tuesday and she said what she would really like to have is a steamed sponge cake such as could be found in a bakery in Taiwan, but sadly unavailable in central Illinois. Just knowing that there was a cake that couldn’t be found here, I was inspired to attempt it. What’s the worst that could happen? Dessert in the name of science. Off to the laboratory, Igor . . . er, the kitchen.

Coincidently, La Petite Boulangette selected ‘Asian Invasion’ as the theme for Sugar High Friday (the brilliant blog event created by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess. Although our hostess suggested using Asian ingredients in a typical dessert, I opted for the dessert requested by my Asian friend.

After reading several recipes, I tried this one at Cooks.com. When I got to the actual steaming step, I found that my new 9-inch cake pan was too tall to put the lid on my wok and I don’t have a steamer. What to do? I read a bit online and someone else made their steamed sponge cake in the oven with a water bath and a foil tent. It took over 1.5 hrs for it to finish cooking. The frosting is slightly sweetened whipping cream and there is a layer of strawberries and whipping cream in the center. The final cake was tasty, but the top was a bit chewy from steaming so long; it also wasn’t as tall as I had expected/hoped. After we analyzed that cake, I decided that I would attempt it at least once more, using almond extract as Ramona said that would be the best (the original calls for lemon but I had orange on hand and used it instead).

I also saw another description of making a steamed sponge cake in which the person beat the egg whites separately and I thought that would help achieve the light, airy, delicate texture Ramona described. So I took the recipe I used the first time and separated the eggs and went on from there. But after beating the egg yolks and sugar and folding in the flour, I was left with a thick paste that I couldn’t possibly incorporate egg whites into. So rather than beat the egg whites, I dumped them into the mixing bowl and beat the entire mixture until it was fluffy and looked like cake batter. I steamed it in Ramona’s bamboo steamer for about 45 minutes and ended up with the cake on the left below. Despite its Lilliputian size and obvious birthday cake failure it tasted wonderful, but it used the last 1/2 t. of almond extract I had and I was without a vehicle for the day, so I decided to try again with the orange flavor. I followed the original recipe and method again as I did the first time, but using the bamboo steamer (it took over 30 minutes to steam, rather than the 20 minutes in the recipe). That yielded the cake below on the right.

The third time was a charm, apparently. It still doesn’t have quite the ‘melt in your mouth’ texture Ramona was looking for, though. It definitely tasted better with the almond extract, however, and if I ever made it again I would certainly want to use the almond.

I don’t think this will become the new birthday standard in our house, but it was fun to experiment with a new method. It’s also fun to make special cakes for people, like I did for Crystal (twice, even) and Mrs. V. Happy Birthday, Ramona!

Now I wonder what Natalie, Ellie & Ruth will request . . . 

Sorry to have gone missing for so long! The Husband’s parents came for a week to celebrate Thing 1’s 11th birthday at the beginning of the month. I didn’t have anything to post from that because she requested a lemon torte from the Grocery Store Bakery. It pains The Husband when the kids ask for store-bought treats rather than Mom’s, but I understand. Mom makes stuff all the time; we only buy bakery items on rare occasions like birthdays.

Thing 1 with pink cheeks from running around and playing with her friends during her princess party.

I did make some real food while The In-Laws were here, but I didn’t take photos and I don’t have recipes to share. We did some things like go out to the property and burn leaves and junk, measure out an area which might be the future house site and the garden area, and roast hot dogs/brats and marshmallows over the fire. The Husband played with his tractor just long enough to get it ‘in the stuck’, as he calls it.

After The In-Laws left I made a cake for Ramona, but there’s more to tell about that later, so for now I’ll just tease you with a couple of pictures of the outside. Then, by his special request, I made another Turtle Cheesecake for Jason’s ordination, as well as some Double Apple Bars (I updated that post with a photo today), and white chocolate popcorn.

The kids have been doing CAT5 testing this week and the weather is turning lovely and we want to be outside all the time, but I hope to be back later in the week with more about this cake!

This month the Daring Bakers tackled Dorie Greenspan’s beautiful Perfect Party Cake (p. 250 of Baking, recipe below). As soon as I flipped through the book, I knew I wanted to attempt this cake some day. I rarely have had a white cake come out completely white — there’s always some ‘golden’ edge, much as I’d like mine to turn out like Glenna’s, it never does. So, while I admired Dorie’s cake, I doubted mine would look much like it. However, I was pleased with the final result.

I baked this for Easter dinner, starting it the night before. My first run through, being quite distracted with making dinner, cleaning the house, kids running around, and not having a functional timer, I overbaked the cakes by 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES on a white cake. No, it wasn’t close to white. After the kids were in bed, I started over. The Husband helped me keep track of the time. It wasn’t completely without a little color, but it was probably the whitest cake I’ve made and it didn’t dome at all, which was nice. It did seem particularly thin; I was hoping it would make thicker layers but I knew as I spread it in the pan that it wasn’t going to be very high. The second one was higher than the first and I think the amount of whipping the butter and sugar was the critical difference. Warm butter, lots of whipping, and mine still never achieved a ‘light and fluffy’ stage, but more is definitely better here.

After the cakes were baked, The Husband convinced me we should go to bed and ‘get up early tomorrow to finish’. These are always famous last words in this house. It never works out quite like he plans. I woke up an hour later than ‘early’ and as I scrambled to make the buttercream I realized that I didn’t have the needed *3* sticks of butter. I had one. Boo. And I wasn’t about to run out to the store b/c I didn’t have time for that. So I punted and made a cream cheese frosting with lemon flavor. It was very good. I think the buttercream would have held the structure of the cake much more firmly and the next time I make this I’d like to try that, but I wasn’t going to bake another this week to experiment. Also, Dorie notes that this cake is best served at room temperature, and I can’t stress enough how significant that is. I regrettably served mine from the fridge, but the next day I ate half a slice before a prayer meeting and finished it afterward and the flavor was *SOOOO* much better after it was warm. So, really, serve this at room temp! It makes a difference.

With the first round of overbaked cake, which was still lovely on the inside, I went with an old standby for ‘ruined cake’ and made trifle from it. I used both strawberries and raspberries and it was especially good with a little blueberry syrup drizzled on it.

Thank you Morven for the excellent challenge! Recipe after the jump.
For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

This is my favorite way to have cooked carrots. I like carrots in most of my soups but I rarely cook them alone except this way. The kids aren’t fond of cooked carrots and I don’t think The Husband is either, although he usually won’t say anything negative about food, especially in front of the kids. So I only make them a couple of times a year, like Easter. This post is for M&M who especially enjoyed them. I’m sorry I don’t have a close up of the carrots, just of them on the table with everything else.

Orange Glazed Carrots (from Betty Crocker, 1969)

1 1/2 lbs fresh carrots (sliced, baby carrots, whatever you like)
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 t. salt (optional)
1/2 t. grated orange peel
2 Tbsp. butter

Steam carrots and set aside (for Easter I steam the day before and refrigerate and then glaze and reheat just prior to the meal).

In large skillet, cook and stir brown sugar, salt, orange peel and butter until bubbly. Add carrots; cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or until carrots are glazed and heated through.

I like to add a little juice from the orange too. It makes them less glazed and more saucy, but the sauce is so good over ham!

This is a chocolate overkill dessert! When I make desserts for Easter, I always have a chocolate dessert and several years I have made cheesecake, usually plain with fresh fruit toppings. This year I decided to make a chocolate cheesecake, but not just any chocolate cheesecake, I wanted it to be a real ‘wow’ dessert with plenty of chocolate.

It starts with an Oreo crust. On top of that is a caramel layer and pecans, then the chocolate cheesecake. Covering the whole thing is chocolate ganache. Drizzled on top is caramel sauce and it is sprinkled with chopped pecans, also pressed into the sides, and finished with a little whipped cream piping. It was extremely decadent, rich, and very popular. I’ll definitely make this again for a special event.

For those who look for an exact recipe, I’ll apologize in advance. This isn’t one of them. For those who like to play in the kitchen — this may be right up your alley. I’m trying to give amounts here, but they are guesses at best. For the caramel sauce, Thing 4 and I opened a bunch of caramels and put them in the pan and then I poured some whipping cream from my quart carton and it looked like it wouldn’t be enough, so I popped in a couple more caramels. That’s how most of my baking goes. Your mileage may vary.

This is also my entry in Julia’s (of A Slice of Cherry Pie) Easter Cake Bake Round 2. Go check out last year’s round up and see all the lovely spring cakes!

Turtle Cheesecake

Crust:
24-26 Oreo (or store brand) cookies, crushed
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter

Filling:
30 vanilla caramels
1/4 - 1/3 c. whipping cream

pecans

Cheesecake:
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese
2 (8 oz) pkgs neufchatel cheese
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 c. whipping cream
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Ganache:
1/3 - 1/2 c. whipping cream
8 oz chopped chocolate

chopped pecans
caramel sauce (ice cream topping)
whipped cream

Stir together crust ingredients. Press into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool.

Heat caramels and whipping cream until caramels are melted and smooth. Pour into cooled crust, making sure you don’t spread it completely to the edge of the pan. Leave 1/4-inch band around the edge. Sprinkle liberally with pecans.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cheeses until smooth and creamy, scraping the sides often; don’t leave any lumps. Add the sugar and beat again. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition, scraping the sides and being certain to incorporate any lumps from the bottom of the bowl. Add the whipping cream and melted chocolate and beat until smooth and evenly colored. Pour on top of pecans.

Bake at 325 F for 50 min with a pan of water on the rack below in the oven. Cool completely.

In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream until it simmers. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until completely melted. Spread over cheesecake.

Garnish with chopped pecans, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. Refrigerate overnight or until serving.

You may have noticed the blog looks a little different. There may be more changes coming as I’m still not entirely happy with it, so I hope you’ll bear with me and I’ll try not to make the ride too bumpy!

I hope, if it is your tradition, you had a lovely Easter with friends and family to celebrate the risen Christ. It’s my favorite holiday and I love to have a large table of friends on that day. This year, including our family, we had a total of 16 adults, 7 kids, and 2 infants. My menu stays very similar from year to year with the biggest difference in the desserts. Still, there’s always a chocolate dessert and always a fruity dessert, rarely the same from year to year. This is what we had this year:

Grilled leg of lamb with oregano, cracked pepper, and garlic rub
Baked ham with apricot preserves
Praline sweet potatoes (I never seem to get a photo of it when I make it!)
Mashed potatoes with gravy
Steamed asparagus
Orange-glazed carrots
Green peas
Baby greens salad with grape tomatoes and cucumber
Dinner rolls (I thought about making potato rolls but simplified things for myself and used store-bought again)

Fresh strawberry pie
Turtle cheesecake
White cake with lemon and raspberries

Just as I’m changing things on the blog, I made a change in strawberry pie for our Easter dinner. I did use a ready-made graham cracker crust (I bought the larger size pan) but rather than using the brilliant scarlet-colored gel that has a fake strawberry taste or using strawberry gelatin, I made my own with fresh strawberries.

Strawberry pie

1 graham cracker crust
1 pt. (maybe more than a pint) fresh strawberries, cleaned and whole

3 Tbsp. corn starch
3/4 c. sugar
8-10 fresh strawberries, cleaned and pureed
1 c. hot water

whipping cream

Fill the crust with strawberries, cut a few to fit in if necessary but keep most of them whole.

Whisk together cornstarch and sugar in a small saucepan. Add the strawberries and stir until smooth. Add the hot water and stir over high heat until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Cool. Pour over strawberries. Refrigerate until serving. Decorate with whipping cream.

Best served the same day as the crust gets soggy.

I’m busy with schooling and getting ready for Easter dinner, which will be similar to last year’s meal but with different desserts and maybe a few changes in the veggies. This week is Spring Break for most of this town, but we’re taking our school break later, when the Grandparents come for Tartlet 1’s birthday. Last week Tartlets 3 & 4 had spring parties in their art preschool classes, so I made sugar cookies for the snacks. I used lemon in both the cookies and the frosting.

This batch isn’t my neatest as I was scrambling to have them finished the morning of the class, but my tip for good frosting results is to use a zip baggie with the corner snipped off to pipe icing around the edge and let it sit for a few minutes before you fill the rest. It will keep the frosting from running off the edge and give a sharper result.  These sat a little too long waiting for their filling so they have a more pronounced outline.  The kids especially love to decorate their own cookies.

Sugar Cookie Frosting
3 Tbsp. melted butter
4 c. powdered sugar
1/2 t. lemon extract
milk to reach desired consistency

Mix together until smooth. Dye as desired.

Ha! After coming across all snooty about pudding mix and Cool Whip desserts, I’m back with pudding mix, Cool Whip, *and* cake mix!

I’ve never been fond of the traditional St. Patrick’s corned beef and cabbage, green-dyed foods, or the drunken rowdiness that is typically associated with the celebrations. It’s also my birthday, but we didn’t celebrate when I was a kid and, by the time I did begin to celebrate my birthday, it typically fell during the week of spring break so my college mates weren’t around. I usually eat Chinese food and yesterday we had carry out for lunch — pot stickers and sesame chicken — YUM!! The kids, however, think it’s great fun to do silly things like have green cake. So I made green cupcakes.

There are several recipes out there for making a green cake with cake mix and pistachio pudding mix — some use club soda, some use different amounts of eggs, some use sour cream — so after reading a few of them I came up with this one.

Green Cake

1 box white cake mix
1 pkg pistachio pudding mix
1/2 c. oil
1 c. plain or vanilla yogurt
1 tsp. almond extract
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix all ingredients. Pour into prepared pan or paper lined cupcake tins. I made mini-cupcakes and baked them about 15 minutes.

Frosting:
1 pkg pistachio pudding mix
1 c. milk
1 - 8 oz container Cool Whip

Stir together ingredients and allow to thicken. Spread over cupcakes. Top with pistachios, if desired.

Six families describe their grocery budgets. I spend a lot on groceries, in part because there are six of us, in part because we entertain, in part because I buy lots of meat, fruits, vegetables, and Lactaid milk (at $7.00/gal it’s a lot more expensive than gas but at least I don’t buy 20-30 gal/month!), etc. Anyway, I thought this was interesting, like the photos that show what a family has in their household, etc.

We hosted a student lunch yesterday and I made a couple of desserts for it. This one came from a cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas: The Taste of Home Baking Book and I have to tell you, that I don’t really think it deserves to be on the shelf next to Dorie’s Baking book. I know, many people are huge fans of Taste of Home, but I find most of the recipes are old Pillsbury Bake-Off repeats, nothing new, and what I generally refer to as ‘fake foods’. Not that they are somehow plastic and inedible; this dessert certainly is edible and sweet, but the main ingredients are pudding mix and Cool Whip. And it’s not that I’m so snobby that I would never eat those things, because I’ve clearly posted food with pudding mix and Cool Whip before. And I do think there is a place for a super quick crowd pleaser, but I have to tell you that I really prefer ‘real food’. That’s why, in the future, I’m more likely to make my cream puffs like this again than as a ‘Midwest dessert casserole’.

But this was extremely popular and wins for ‘ooey, gooey, super sweet’ dessert. It was also easy to make it in stages. I made the cream puff crust Friday night and then mixed the pudding on Saturday and topped with the Cool Whip and then refrigerated it until Sunday afternoon when I added the caramel and chocolate toppings and hazelnuts. None of the steps took more than a few minutes and it was called alternately ‘Awesome’ and ‘Spectacular’ by the guests. I actually thought about using pistachio pudding and pistachios on top for a green dessert. So, for Mat, here’s the recipe. I hope you still fit in the tux!

Cream Puff Dessert (from The Taste of Home Baking Book)

Base:
1 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1 c. flour
4 eggs

Filling:
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 c. cold milk
2 pkgs (3.9 oz each) instant chocolate pudding

Topping:
1 carton (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/4 c. chocolate ice cream topping
1/4 c. caramel ice cream topping
1/3 c. chopped nuts (recipe calls for almonds, I used hazelnuts)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil over medium heat. Add flour all at once; stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.

Spread into a greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Bake at 400 F for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

For filling, beat the cream cheese, milk and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Spread over puff; refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Spread with whipped topping; refrigerate until serving. Drizzle with the chocolate and caramel toppings; sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

As for me, I preferred Dorie’s Chewy, Chunky Blondies (p. 109), full of coconut, chocolate, butterscotch chips, Heath toffee bits, pecans, and lots of butter and sugar!

I had mentioned before that I wanted to make Dorie’s lemon poppy seed muffins from her Baking book. I am addicted to Poppy Seed Salad Dressing and have it on a salad with a little chicken or ham, tomatoes, cuke, or sometimes it’s just greens, whatever I have on hand, for lunch at least 3-4 days/week. I probably couldn’t pass a drug test! I also love lemon poppy seed anything.

So I finally got some poppy seeds and made these, without the lemon glaze, because they’re so good they don’t really need any topping. With it, I think they could easily pass for dessert. One of the interesting things about this recipe is she has you rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers. Ooooh, the fragrant result is amazing. In fact, I was thinking that the next time I want to make fresh lemonade and don’t have quite enough lemons for what I want, I’ll bet I could zest the lemons I have and rub it in with the sugar I’m going to use, and then add the lemon juice and water like usual and it would still have enough flavor. Just a thought.

I’m not going to share the recipe because I followed it exactly from her book (p. 10) and, at the risk of sounding like Brilynn or a paid advertiser, this is a cookbook worth buying and I’m not going to post a recipe I didn’t change at all when I expect to post several Dorie baking experiences here.  Since my cooling rack is just like the one in the photo in her book, I couldn’t help but take the pictures on top of my marble board too!

My Grandmother died a few years ago and sometimes I miss her terribly. She and Grandpap made an interesting team, frequently bickering, rolling their eyes at each other, and giving each other little kisses. Grandmother would putter in the kitchen and liked to try new things. She would send me a photocopy of a recipe she found with her comments in the margins, sometimes she tried them first.

In the 80’s it was common for companies to sell recipe cards in which you bought 10-20 recipes at a time and the ‘introductory offer’ included a plastic organizing box and divider cards ‘free’. Grandmother would save the sample cards and, especially if she found some good ones, pass on the duplicates to me. This recipe is called ‘Quick Cherry Dessert’ and came from such a card. These were produced during the fascination with microwave cooking, so all of the recipes *except* the cherry dessert have microwave instructions on the back of the card.

This one is a keeper. It has a dense cake, almost like pound cake, and reminds me of what I call ‘farm food’. It’s not at all like Dorie’s light and fluffy party cake, which I wanted to bake for a special occasion the instant I saw it, but a more rustic, homey cake. It works for breakfast too, I think. This recipe is one of the reasons I keep a can of cherry pie filling in the pantry as a staple. I find it useful for a number of things, but this dessert can be whipped up with short notice and it’s very good.

Quick Cherry Dessert

1 c. butter
1 ½ c. granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder

1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

Powdered sugar to dust over top, optional

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the almond extract. Stir in the flour and baking powder. Mix until smooth.

Butter a 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Turn the mixture into the pan. Spoon the pie filling into the cake, in 16 spots, spacing 4 spoonfuls evenly in each direction.

Bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes or until golden and cake tests done. Filling will sink into the cake while baking.

To serve, cut into 16 pieces. Place bottom side up on serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar, if used. Spoon slightly sweetened whipped cream over each serving, if desired. This is great served warm.

I usually don’t turn them upside down and just put the powdered sugar on top in the pan.

Notes:
Also good with blueberry filling and lemon extract.