The Baking Redhead

Tahiti Blondies

2010-06-20T16:47:00.002-05:00

If you are a regular FoodNetwork watcher of the show Throwdown you might have heard of this Blondie by another name. In this particular Blondie episode, the challenger made Tahiti Blonde Sweeties. Ring a bell? I had wanted to make this dessert for a long time but never took time to find the recipe. I found this copycat recipe on cookiemadness.net a few weeks ago and just had to make it for Mr. Man’s family birthday party. Can you believe he is one? I know, me either. Anyhoo, these were really wonderful right out of the oven. Made me feel like I was sitting on a beach in a sunny destination. If you put one up to your ear you can hear the ocean.:)
Things to note. The description in the recipe for the toothpick test was brilliant. Very accurate. Next time I will not press so much juice out of the pineapple. I got a little over zealous and I guess I thought I was dealing with frozen spinach instead of canned pineapple and it was a little too dehydrated and got lost in the flavors. Finally, now you might want to brace yourself for this one, it had too much coconut. I know, such a shocker coming from the coconut queen but it was leaning too much towards macaroon for me. So I suggest loosely packing it in the measuring cup. Other than that I give it two thumbs up!

Tahiti Blondies
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup macadamia nuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup Hershey’s white chips
8 oz can of unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained, and pressed dry
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment or non-stick foil.
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture, then the coconut, nuts, pineapple, and chips. Do not over mix or the blondies will be more like chocolate chip bars.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick test gives a moist crumb. Do not over bake. Let cool, lift from pan, cut into bars.

Mandarin Orange Pineapple Cake

2010-04-30T15:46:00.005-05:00

My mother went to a baby shower last month and had this cake which she raved about for 10 minutes or so on the phone to me the next day. Now, just because my mother raves about something for 10 minutes doesn’t really mean anything. She can go on and on about nothing for at least a good half hour. What can I say, it just one of her many talents. I have never tried the cake until now for two reasons. First, mandarin oranges rank up there with raisins on my husband's very short list of foods he does not like. Secondly, I have made an attempt on this cake before, different recipe, and it was simply awful. So, my first thought was to get the recipe that she tried but I did not have time and instead went online and did the best I could.
When I asked my mother what the cake was like she told me her piece was the size of her plate, the cake was light and soft and the frosting was very light and fluffy. So, from these clues I knew a few things. 1. The cake must have been made with at least 4 eggs because the layers were tall. 2. Oil must have been the fat used instead of butter because oil makes a cake mix light, fresh tasting and soft. Finally, the frosting must have been made with Cool-Whip because sweetened whipped cream would have had a hard time remaining stable for that long.
Funny thing, all the recipes I found were pretty much alike but different from what I tried before. My mistake was going the self-rising flour route before which will mess you up every time if you are looking for something light and airy. Self-rising flour should be reserved for hearty things like bread, coffee cake, and cobbler in my opinion.
The cake was wonderful! Just as my mother had described it. I will say that it needs to sit in the refrigerator at least a day before serving. It was much better the second day once all the flavors had time to meld together.

Mandarin Orange Pineapple Cake
from COOKS.COM
1 pkg.yellow cake mix
1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges with juice
3/4 c. oil
4 eggs
FROSTING:
1 (13 1/2 oz. or 16) Cool Whip
1 (3 oz.) pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple
Mix cake mix with mandarin orange with juice and oil. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Grease and flour 3 (8 inch) cake pans. Divide batter evenly into 3 pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes minutes. Cool thoroughly.
Mix Cool Whip, pudding and crushed pineapple with some juice. Return to refrigerator for 10 minutes. Frost cake and keep in refrigerator.

Hill Country Peach Cobbler

2010-01-10T14:46:00.001-06:00

Even though I don’t take the time to blog anymore, I felt the need this weekend to join that crazy little thing called Facebook. I know, it caught me in a weak moment. I said I never would because I’m not a clutterbug and a blog and Facebook would be too much for me. I did it anyway. I have found it to be a blessing and a curse. If you are a Facebook person you will know what I mean. I’m not sure that living in a perpetual high school/family reunion is such a great idea but it is fun to see people all grown up. Let me just say, the “Wall” thing is very scary and overwhelming and jumbles my mind. I think that is why I like blogging, it is very peaceful. I’m the only one who gets to talk.

So, speaking of blogging, let us get down to today’s business, Hill Country Peach Cobbler. I have made this recipe for about 9 years now. How do I remember such an odd number? Well, I have been married for 9 years as of last week and I made this our first year together because my husband is a lover of peach cobbler with a pastry crust. This is a good and easy recipe. The only drawback is the price of ingredients. If you shop where I do, you will have to buy 4 bags of peaches. Once you finish taking out a bank loan for your grocery bill you still have to go home and make it. That is the easy part if you follow one simple rule. Use a BIG pot. Now, don’t go crazy and pull out one so big that you have to use an oar to stir it but make sure it is a proper size. I did not use a big enough pot the first time and peaches went flying. I felt like a failure. The rest is very straight forward. The result is a lot like a yummy peach pie in the summertime. I found this recipe in the Texas Ranger Cookbook. At the time it was only one of three cookbooks we owned. We have added a few more over the past 9 years!

Hill Country Peach Cobbler
INGREDIENTS:
8 c peeled and sliced fresh peaches or frozen peaches, thawed
2 c sugar
3 Tbsp flour
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 c melted butter
2 - 9-inch unbaked pie crust
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
In large pan, combine peaches, sugar, flour and nutmeg. Bring to a boil and cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until tender. Remove from the heat and add butter. Spoon half of the peaches into a 9x13 inch buttered baking dish and top with a pie crust. Bake for 12 minutes or golden brown. Remove from oven and spoon remaining peaches over baked crust. Cut remaining pastry crust in ½ inch strips. Arrange in lattice design over peaches.
Brush strips with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes. Serves 8.

Chocolate Chubbies

2009-12-17T18:46:00.002-06:00

Chocolate Chubbies

6 (1-ounce) semisweet chocolate squares, chopped

2 (1-ounce) unsweetened chocolate squares, chopped

1/3 cup butter

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
Combine first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan; cook, stirring often, over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat; cool slightly.
Beat eggs and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; add chocolate mixture, beating well.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to chocolate mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in chocolate morsels, pecans, and walnuts.
Drop batter by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake at 325° for 12 to 15 minutes or until done. Cool cookies on baking sheet 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool. Yield: 3 1/2 dozen

Cake Balls

2009-12-17T18:40:00.005-06:00

Cake Balls

1 boxed cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)

1 can frosting (16 oz.)

1 package almond bark (regular or white chocolate)

wax paper
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.

2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can of frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)

3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50.)

4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)

5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.

6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
Melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

2009-11-21T13:22:00.007-06:00

Here is a fun treat I wanted to try from Taste of Home. I thought I would be so prepared for Thanksgiving with a kid friendly goodie but ended up not using it this year. Hope you enjoy. Easy to make!

Pilgrim Hat Cookies
1 cup vanilla frosting
7 drops yellow food coloring
32 miniature peanut butter cups
1 package (11-1/2 ounces) fudge-striped cookies
32 pieces orange mini Chiclets gum or orange candy (Reese’s, orange part of candy corn, mini M& M’s, etc.)

In a small shallow bowl, combine frosting and food coloring and put in a ziploc bag with one corner cut. Remove paper liners from peanut butter cups. Holding the bottom of a peanut butter cup, squeeze out a quarter size amount of yellow frosting in the center of the cookie to create a hatband and add peanut butter cup to make the crown. Add a buckle of candy. Repeat with remaining cups and cookies. Yield: 32 cookies.

Williams-Sonoma Sandwich Cookie Cake Pan

2009-10-22T16:44:00.004-05:00

Hi! I'm not really ready to come back, but I will be baking for a least the next two weeks. Maybe a few things will end up here for you to see.

Thought I would start out with something simple since I have a very good excuse for my four month absence. "Mr. Man" has been keeping me very busy since his arrival on June 18th and so has BabyGirl. However, I am going to pat myself on the back for making 2, count them, 2 cherry pies when he was only 3 weeks old for a family event that I did not get to attend. I'm not bitter and I hope my pies were not either!

Moving on. So, Sister-In-Law needed a cake this week for a Cake Walk. Can you believe I have never been to one? Crazy. I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my new pan I got for my birthday. Oh yes, I celebrated a birthday during my maternity leave. Too tired to bake myself a cake this year, but I did enjoy some Key Lime Pie Cheesecake along with a few other tasty treats. Anywho, I pulled out my new cookie cake pan today and got busy.

I read reviews and tips on this pan until late in the night and decided that either it was going to be a disaster or just fine. I decided to throw caution to the wind this morning and spray the thing with a tremendous amount of Baker's Joy and hope for the best. Worked great. I don't know why all those reviewers had such a problem. I decided just to use a box cake mix and a simple buttercream frosting, 2 cups. When the cake came out of the oven I put the pans on the cooling rack for ten minutes and flipped them over. Said a short prayer and lifted the pans carefully. I looked over at Mr. Man, who was sitting next to me in his seat, hoping for a smile of encouragement, but instead he stuck out his tongue and made a raspberry sound. So no encouragement from my little helper. However, the pan lifted fine and I moved on to the icing. It took about 2 cups and I did scoop out a bit of cake from both layers to make sure that I got a good amount in between. If I had not been making this cake to package up I would have put the icing closer to the edge to look more like an Oreo. The final thing is taste. I'm not exactly sure, but who could go wrong with a cake mix.

Banana Bread Sandwiches with Pineapple-Coconut Filling

2009-06-17T12:20:00.005-05:00

My sophomore year of high school I took Geometry like most 10th graders in the state of Texas. However, I went to a very small school with a class of only 13 people. During this particular year my school had a hard time keeping a geometry teacher. I think we went through 3 of them. The first one quit either before school or as soon as it started, the second one found out she was pregnant on her first day, and the third one finished the year but did get married. Needless to say, I’m not the person to call when you a question about “proofs”. I thought of my crazy year of geometry as I was making this dessert. Why you might ask? Well, I will tell you.
The third teacher I had that year was the most memorable to me because she incorporated desserts into her geometry lessons. It was brilliant. I will never forget the shape of a parallelogram because of her. Every time we had a new shape to learn she would bake something and cut us each a piece in the new shape. For our final exam that year, we each got our own shape cut out of a pan of Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies. Mine, a parallelogram. Very exciting. So when I was cutting my 36 bars that were 3x1 out of a 9x13 pan. I thought of her.
So second question. Why was I making 36 bars? Well, my parents had a “Block Party” in their neighborhood and ask if I would make a few things. I thought I would give these treats a try. It was enough motivation for me to get in the kitchen since I have not had much lately. I picked this recipe out of Paula Deen’s magazine because I always have too many bananas and loved their luncheon style shape.
To me, this was a standard banana bread with a cream cheese filling full of textures from the coconut and tang of the pineapple. Very tasty and excellent for a shower or party. I have never heard of pineapple preserves before and was curious if it would be in my variety lacking grocery store. Well, no need to fear, Smucker’s makes it! I just knew my husband was going to have to scout out some for me in the Big City.
Using Baker’s Joy to spray the pan was very helpful. The cake came out with no problem. Also, 2 ½ cups of bananas was equal to 6 standard size ones. Finally, if you are good at filling celery sticks with cheese spread or making “Ants On a Log,” you will not find this treat hard to assemble.
BabyBoy will be arriving tomorrow! So, this is not good-bye, but see you later....much later.

Banana Bread Sandwiches with Pineapple-Coconut Filling
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
¾ cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (about 6)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13x9-inch baking pan with nonstick spray with flour (Baker’s Joy).
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.
In a medium bowl, combine oil, eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, beating at a low speed until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 23-27 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely. Cut cake into 3x1-inch slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise. Spread filling evenly over bottom halves of bread. Cover with top halves of bread and refrigerate.

Pineapple-Coconut Filling
1 -8oz. pkg of cream cheese softened
½ cup pineapple preserves
¼ cup coconut
¼ cup finely chopped pecans

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and preserves at medium speed until combined. Stir in coconut and pecans. Cover and chill until ready to spread.

The Garden Cake

2009-04-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

BabyGirl turned 3 years old this month and to celebrate over the weekend we had a Garden Party. I debated for awhile over what kind of cake to make and decided that a chocolate cake that looked like a fenced in garden would do the trick. I took a couple of different ideas for garden cakes off the internet and came up with this creation. It was the Official Killer Chocolate Cake baked in a 9x13 pan cut in half and stacked. I then iced the cake with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting and topped it with crushed Oreos for the dirt. I fenced in the garden with Pepperidge Farm's Pirouette French Vanilla Crème Cookies and went with fake flowers this time. I was not confident nor had time to make flowers out of rolled gumdrops but still would like to try someday. My husband did not think one cake was enough for 15 people so I made the same cake minus the decorations in a two layer 9 inch round. To our surprise, the one garden cake fed all 15 people. Chocolate cake a plenty around here!

The Official Killer Chocolate Cake

from grouprecipes.com
1 pkg chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 C water
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C sour cream
1 small pkg instant pudding (chocolate or butterscotch)
1 large pkg chocolate chips
Frosting:
1 lb box of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Decorations:
15 Oreos-minus filling; crushed
1 can of Pepperidge Farm's Pirouette French Vanilla Crème Cookies
Flowers-real, fake, or candy
Directions:
Pre-heat oven 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 pan. Mix ingredients in medium to large size bowl. Pour into pan and bake 40-45 minutes or until done. Cool completely before frosting. For frosting, mix, with mixer, sugar and cocoa together. Mix in melted butter. Add milk, and vanilla. Frost cake and decorate.

Carrot Cake Cheesecake

2009-04-06T12:55:00.005-05:00

Two of my favorite things combined. How great is that! I was looking through my March issue of Better Homes and Gardens and came across this prize-winning recipe. I immediately pulled it out of the magazine to put in my file, but before I did I made a few changes. This weekend I decided that it was time to make this little beauty. I looked online to see if anyone had any comments or suggestions on how to improve its appearance. However, much to my surprise, not many have had much to say about this cake except for a few newspapers. I took some suggestions from a Seattle paper and finalized the recipe below.
So what is different? Well, in the original recipe it had a step and a lengthy list of ingredients for caramelized walnuts. Not worth my time. Instead, I traded the raisins in the cake for 1/3 chopped walnuts. The newspaper's baking time was 70-80 and the original recipe put it at 90-105 minutes. I settled on 90 because I did not want a dry cheesecake. Finally, I drizzled the entire cake with the powdered sugar glaze instead of each individual piece. But, it was still kind of ugly. So, to solve this problem I pre-cut each slice and put it on a serving platter to avoid having to show the ugly center.
Overall, this was the easiest cheesecake I have ever made and also one of the biggest. I got to pull out my 10-inch springform instead of my standard 9-inch. You do have to babysit it a little. The baking time is long and then there is 45 minutes afterwards of tasks and then complete cooling and finally chilling in the refrigerator. It is an amazing thing to watch in the oven. The carrot cake comes up out of the center and runs down the sides much like a volcano. That is how you get the cheesecake in the center and the cake on all sides.
Taste is great, reminded me of Cheesecake Factory’s version of Carrot Cake Cheesecake. I think that next time I will not use the glaze and go over the top with some sweetened whipped cream. Wow, I can’t wait!

Carrot Cake Cheesecake
1 2-layer-size carrot cake mix
1 cup water
½ cup cooking oil
6 eggs, divided
½ cup walnuts
3 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 tsps. vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
3 to 4 tsps. milk
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch springform pan; set aside.
In a large bowl combine carrot cake mix, water, oil, and 3 of the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Fold in raisins. Pour into prepared springform pan.
In another large bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in granulated sugar and vanilla until smooth. Beat in remaining 3 eggs just until combined. Slowly pour over carrot cake layer. Use a thin metal spatula to gently swirl the batters. Place cheesecake on a baking sheet. Bake for 80-90 minutes or until top is set except for a 1-inch circle in the center. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Using a small sharp knife, loosen the cake from the sides of the pan. Cool for 30 minutes. Remove sides of pan; cool cheesecake completely on rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours before serving.
In a medium bowl combine 1 cup powdered sugar and enough of the milk to make drizzling consistency. Cut cheesecake into wedges and place each wedges on a serving plate. Drizzle each serving with some of the powdered sugar icing. Serves 16

Chocolate Upside-Down Cake

2009-03-27T15:33:00.006-05:00

My mother turned another year older this month so as always I made her a cake. Well, I made her 2 cakes. The first one was the famous Coconut Poke Cake with the sweetened condensed milk and the cream of coconut. My mother is not in the least choosy when it comes to desserts. Real food, yes. If it has sugar in it, around it, under it, it is for her. So I knew that my choice would not matter that much. I had never made the poke cake before so therefore, I have not had a lot of experience with cream of coconut. To my dismay, I opened the can and half of it was green. I quickly assessed the situation which was something like, “would I want to put that in my mouth.” The answer was no! So I turned it into a Tres Leches Cake instead. Now, if it had not been her birthday I would have brought her the cake and moved on. However, I felt bad that I had to substitute ingredients and was not just really happy with my selection. So, I made this cake. A Chocolate Upside-Down Cake.
Very fun to make, but it looks like a disaster in the prep. You make this brown water mixture that looks like beef broth on the stove and pour it into the pan. Throw in a bunch of ingredients consistenting of all different kinds of textures. Then you mix up a cake mix and pour it over the soupy mess. Fun stuff! Reminded me of my childhood when I would have pretend cooking shows.
The taste was great! A lot like a German Chocolate Cake but more chocolaty. I was not really happy with my picture of this cake. To me, it looks a lot like meatloaf with onions on top. It was difficult to plate this one up. I would scoop this into bowls with vanilla ice cream while it is still warm much like you would Chocolate Cobbler. Yum.

Chocolate Upside-Down Cake
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 (18 1/4 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix
Directions
In a small saucepan, heat water and butter until butter is melted. Stir in brown sugar; mix well. Pour into a greased 13x9 inch cake pan. Sprinkle with coconut, chips, pecans and marshmallows.
Prepare cake batter according to directions; carefully pour over marshmallows. Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minute or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minute before inverting onto a platter.

Can’t Leave Alone Bars

2009-03-19T13:41:00.003-05:00

Another recipe name that lacks creativity. A few months ago I decided to join an online club called the Cookie Club. Very simple, they send you a dozen recipes a month by email and if you use one you must give them credit. No problem. Today’s recipe is one that I received but the name did not draw me to it, the ingredients did. Very moist bar cookie with a thick fudgy layer of chocolate topped off with a cookie crust. Chocolaty.
I do have some suggestions for this easy dessert. If I were going to make this bar again I would leave out one egg. You see, the crust would become the recipe for a cake mix cookie minus one egg. This would give the dessert more of a cookie crunch to compliment the fudgy filling. Also, dropping the mix on top is always such a problem. My mother, of all people, suggested that I roll the remaining dough and make a lattice-like design or just stripes. I liked this suggestion. I think that would look much better than the strange polka dots that I had on mine. Finally, nuts. I think that would be a personal choice. If you a nutty fudge person than I would say go for at least a ½ cup of finely chopped pecans in your filling.
I feel like with all my suggestions I have a totally new recipe. Hmmm, if I changed the name and used all my suggestions would I have to still give Cookie Club the credit? I don’t think so.

Can’t Leave Alone Bars
From: cookieclubrecipes.com

1 package (18 1/4 ounce) white cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 can (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk

1 c. (6 ounce) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 c. butter, cubed

In a bowl, combine the dry cake mix, eggs and oil. With floured hands or spatula, press 2/3 of the mixture into a greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set remaining cake mixture aside. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the milk, chocolate chips and butter. Microwave for 45 seconds, stir. Microwave 45 to 60 seconds longer or until chips and butter are melted; stir until smooth. Pour over crust. Drop remaining cake mixture by teaspoonfuls over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

Ambrosia

2009-03-12T14:22:00.002-05:00

I have made a few things this week, but I have been forgetting to tell you about them. One was not so great, so I think I will skip it. Another one has not had its picture made yet, so it is not ready. I think, today, I will tell you about the sweet salad I made for a funeral because I did capture its image before I headed out the door. Ambrosia. Sounds so Southern. You either love it or you hate it and it has a lot of ingredients that people hate in it. Doesn’t that description make you want to run to the kitchen to give it a try? I should be in sales!
I got the call yesterday to make funeral food. Of course I didn’t get the dessert option. Hey, salads can certainly be sweet. So, I pulled out my big notebook of recipes and picked one that I like. Full of sweet fruits, nuts, coconut, and marshmallows. I think this salad recipe was created with me in mind. Yum.
Very simple to make, but slightly boring looking. I always try to put some of the bright red cherries from the fruit cocktail on top with a little extra coconut and walnuts to make it look a little less like leftovers.
Now, if you see something in the ingredients list that you might turn your nose up at don’t think you can just leave it out. All items are necessary for that classic Ambrosia taste.

Ambrosia
2 (11 oz) cans mandarin orange segments, drained
2 (15.25 oz) cans fruit cocktail, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 (8 oz) container sour cream

In a large bowl, mix together the oranges, fruit cocktail, walnuts, coconut, and marshmallows. Fold in the sour cream. Chill for at least an hour, and stir again before serving. Yields 10 servings.

Cherry Crunch Cake

2009-03-03T14:11:00.005-06:00

Here is one that I got out of a magazine and modified it slightly. At first glance, you might be saying, “isn’t this just an old Dump Cake.” Well, I did until I made it and found that it has way more ingredients that really enhance the taste. I have made this twice and the first time I started taking stuff out of the pantry and noticed that I had made the cake without really concentrating on what I was doing.
I think the Dump Cake gets a bad wrap. Number 1, it is simple so somehow even if something taste good, if a lot of effort was not put into it people turn their nose up to it. Silly. Number 2, the name is horrendous. I mean, it fits the recipe, but really someone could have worked a little bit harder and come up with something, I guess like what we have in today’s post.
I love the fact that you can pick a fruit to use and cherry seems to be a family favorite. Blueberry was in the original recipe, but peach would be tasty too. The nuts on top give it a great crunch and set it apart from the old recipe. Very cobbler like and quite a speedy recipe to make. I did have to bake mine for about 55 minutes. I would like to have gone a whole hour but my nuts were burning! What a problem.

Cherry Crunch Cake
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice
1 (21 ounce) can pie filling*
1 (18 1/4 ounce) box butter recipe cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour pineapple with juice into a 9 x 13" pan. Spread evenly over the bottom. Spoon pie filling on top evenly. Sprinkle dry cake mix and level with a fork. Sprinkle pecans over the cake mix. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake 50-55 minutes until browned and bubbly.
*You may also substitute strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches or raspberries.

Honey Bun Cake

2009-02-24T15:54:00.004-06:00

I love to iron. (Yes, getting out more would help this, and please don’t send me your clothes.) I love my iron. I love my built-in-the-wall, hung to my height, ironing board. I find ironing to be very therapeutic, and it is one of the only things in my life that I can block out everything else and concentrate on one thing. However, today I found that ironing has become hazardous to my health. My mind forgets that I’m not the size I once was and now I must not stand so close to my ironing board. You see, I ironed myself today. With my sleeping child in the next room I had to quietly complain to myself but no major harm was done. It was just what I needed, one more battle scar. What does this have to do with Honey Bun Cake? Nothing. So I will move on now.
I have made this cake before, but in a chocolate version and found it to be a bit dry. Not this cake. With 16 oz of sour cream and 4 eggs, there is no way! Due to those ingredients, I was a little fearful that it was going to be too custard like, and to me it was a little eggy on the start but was much better when just slightly warm instead of hot out of the oven. I did double the amount of glaze but would use the recipe given if making this in a bundt pan. The bake time was perfect. Exactly 45 minutes and the job was done. The filling was very sweet and brown sugary and a good ratio to the amount of cake. Great for a brunch or potluck.

Honey Bun Cake

1(18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 (16 ounce) container sour cream

1 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 3 teaspoons hot water

Mix cake mix, oil, eggs and sour cream and pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch glass baking pan. Pour one-half mixture into cake pan.Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and spread evenly across batter. Pour other half batter on top and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes to one hour. (Check after 45 minutes - middle should begin to pass the wooden pick test.)Mix confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon warm water, adding more water if necessary to make glaze thin enough to spread on warm cake.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

2009-02-16T10:20:00.004-06:00

My Valentine’s Day Report. We decided to eat at home this year instead of fighting the crowds at the restaurants. My husband made us my favorite meal, Chicken Picatta, and I made him a pie. I usually make a cheesecake on Valentine’s but he loves pie, so pie is what I made. Trying to make things festive I went with a Chocolate Pecan Pie. Yum. Make this. Wow. Can you believe that I found this recipe on the back of a piece of junk mail? A free recipe and it was great! My husband tends to be more on the quiet side and I’m more of a Chatty Cathy, he couldn’t stop talking about this pie. Make this. Have I said that yet?
Let me describe it. You know those Chocolate Pecan Pies that you get at BBQ restaurants? Yeah, not this pie. You know those Chocolate Pecan Pies that is a Pecan Pie with chocolate chips in it. Still not it. You know those Pecan Pies that have pockets of chocolate in them made with chocolate chunks. Nope. So what is it? Glad you asked. It is a Chocolate Pie with a pastry crust with a thick layer of chocolate coated, caramelized pecans on top. Wow.
Things to note. It baked up very nicely. Mine was set at 48 minutes but could have gone just a bit longer. Make sure that your chocolate is not steaming hot when you pour it into the mixture. Don’t want scrambled eggs! You might want to spray your pie dish with cooking spray or this pie will stick.

Chocolate Pecan Pie
½ (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
3 large eggs
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup light corn syrup
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 (1-oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups chopped pecans
2/3 cup pecan halves (garnish)

Unroll 1 piecrust and place in a 9 inch pie plate. Fold edges under, and crimp.
Whisk 3 eggs in a bowl. Whisk in brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, chocolate, vanilla, salt; stir in chopped pecans. Pour filling into pastry shell. Arrange pecan halves around outer edge of filling (garnish).
Bake at 350 degrees on bottom rack for 48-50 minutes or until filling is set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

How Sweet!

Mudslide Brownies

2009-02-12T14:36:00.009-06:00

Happy 150th Post!

Mudslide brownies. I found this recipe on the FoodNetwork site, but I made a few changes. I used chocolate milk instead of Mudslide mix and I used less coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker so I cut it to about half thinking it would take on more of a chocolate flavor than a bitter taste. I think I achieved this, maybe. I think the coffee could be left out all together if you have an aversion to the hot stuff. If you are not like me and more like my Mom whose most famous line besides, “It’s Showtime,” is “this would be great with a cup of coffee.” Go for it. Use the whole tablespoon. Half of a tablespoon gives it a slight coffee aftertaste but is not overwhelming. The brownie itself is very moist and fudgy and has more of a chocolate cake flavor than a boxed brownie mix. I loved the chocolate chips in the topping. They made for a great edition and were not hard.
Things to note. When swirling the cream cheese mixture, make sure you cut through to the bottom of the pan. Otherwise, you will not get the marbled top. I baked mine for 42 minutes but an even 40 would have been fine too. Make sure not to overbake or the cream cheese will be too gummy and hard to cut.
Overall, I enjoyed it and think it is fun for Valentine’s.

Mudslide Brownies
Adapted from here
1 (18.3-ounce) box fudge brownie mix
3 eggs, divided use
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup chocolate milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee crystals
1 tablespoon hot water
1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (regular size, chopped, works fine)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine brownie mix, 2 eggs, vegetable oil, and chocolate milk. Mix well to combine. Transfer to prepared baking pan and set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine instant coffee and 1 tablespoon of hot water (can use less coffee mixture). Stir together until all the coffee has dissolved. Add cream cheese, sugar and remaining egg. Using an electric mixer beat on low speed until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips. Spread over brownie mixture. Use a butter knife to cut cream cheese mixture into brownie mixture for a marble effect.
Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Dr. Pepper Cake

2009-02-05T19:11:00.003-06:00

Here is a cake for all the Dr. Pepper lovers out there. A friend, and loyal Baking Redhead reader, sent this cake to me today from a friend of hers. Not only did she give me the recipe, but a picture of the cake she baked! How wonderful. This is a take off of a Coca-Cola Coke but with fewer ingredients, a milder chocolate cake, and a chocolate cream cheese frosting. Yum. I have not had this version, but have made the Coke Cake several times. I love it. I love Cracker Barrel’s version the best but I don’t like having to pay $20 for ingredients every time. Hey, call me cheap, wouldn’t be the first time today.
So, if you are a lover of Dr. Pepper and Chocolate Cake why don’t you give Jane’s Dr. Pepper Cake made by Priscilla a try!

Dr. Pepper Cake
1 box German Chocolate Cake Mix
1- 3.4 oz box of vanilla instant pudding
¾ c. oil
4 eggs
1 ½ cups Dr. Pepper
Mix and bake in 3 layers for 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and frost cake.

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
3 T. cocoa
1 box (3 /12 cups) powdered sugar
Sift cocoa and sugar together. Add softened butter and cream cheese. Beat until smooth and frost cooled cake.
(May be baked in 9 x 13 pan. Half the frosting recipe for this size of cake. Freezes well!)

Southern Praline Pecan Cake

2009-02-02T11:37:00.007-06:00

This past week I did do some baking but had a few flops. I really hate flops. Comes from a fear of failure I guess; plus a waste of time and money. So, after flops I try to make something foolproof and not from scratch to help my self-esteem. Today’s recipe was the one I selected to lift my spirits.
Very easy, but a little odd. I have never baked with canned frosting in my life. I have had this recipe for a little while but was scared. I have always been fearful of the canned coconut pecan frosting because it looks like it has already expired. But, I decided to go for it and if there was anything wrong, a 350 degree oven would take care of the problem.
The smell while it was baking was like what Butter Pecan ice cream taste, yum. I was very excited to give it a try. However, I must admit that my sense of taste goes crazy about once every 3 weeks now and it just happened to be on that day. Therefore, I’m not a good judge of the taste, but my husband and others in my Sunday School class really enjoyed it. Very praline like and extremely moist.
Also, just for grins, I mixed up a thin glaze of 1 cup powered sugar and 3-4 tablespoons of milk to top the cake. It gave the cake a bit of shine and a little added sweetness, like the cake really needed to be any sweeter.

Southern Praline Pecan Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) box butter pecan cake mix
1 (16 ounce) container coconut pecan frosting
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9- or 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.Combine the cake mix with the frosting, eggs, oil, water and 1/2 of the pecan pieces. Mix until combined. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 of pecans in the prepared Bundt pan then pour in the cake batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.

2009-01-27T19:38:00.002-06:00

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and roll it and mark it with a "B"
And put it in the oven for a Baby BOY and me.

18 weeks and counting…….

Easy German Chocolate Cake

2009-01-22T15:41:00.003-06:00

As I was cleaning out my pantry today, I discovered that I had 13 boxes of cake and brownie mixes. Thinking that was a bit excessive, I decided to use one of them. The recipe I came up with was for German Chocolate Brownies from scratch. But, I wanted to use a cake mix. So, I modified the recipe. I did away with the directions for the “from scratch” brownies and doubled the topping. Not only did I want to use a mix, I also wanted to use a new muffin/cupcake pan. So, I made an 8-inch square pan of cake and 12 cupcakes. I’m not a huge fan of the cupcake, and I’m not really sure why they have become so popular in recent years. I guess because they are small and cute. That’s all I can come up with. I find them to be top heavy, messy, and the frosting gets on my nose and makes me angry. But hey, other people love them and that’s great. If everyone was like me there would be very few cupcakes and way too much cream cheese and coconut in the world. However, I would like to try a Hi-Hat and a Black Bottom Cupcake at some point. Not today.
Things to note. Drop the topping in very small amounts all over the cake or cupcake completely sealing the edges. Do not let the cake show through very much or the broiler will burn the top of the cake. Also, this topping does not spread well with a knife before going in the oven and does not spread when inside the oven. Where you put it is where it stays.
I liked the taste. Very traditional German Chocolate Cake taste to me. Wonderful gooey, caramelized, toasted coconut and pecan flavor without a lot of work.

Easy German Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 18.25 oz German Chocolate Cake mix
1 ¼ cup of water
1/3 cup of oil
TOPPING:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
4 tablespoons corn syrup
4 tablespoons milk
Directions:
Prepare cake mix as directed. Pour into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan (or 2-8 inch pans or 24 cupcakes). Bake at 350° as directed on box or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. For topping, combine butter and brown sugar in a bowl. Add coconut, pecans, corn syrup and milk; mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto warm cake; spread evenly. Broil 6 in. from the heat for 2-4 minutes or until top is browned and bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

2009-01-14T12:30:00.006-06:00

On Saturday I made a Blueberry Coffee Cake from scratch and shared it with family and friends. I think it was well received by all. I found this recipe in a Christmas book from a local mega-chain store during the holidays that I just had to buy it. It contained recipes, crafts, and decorating ideas for the holidays.
This recipe was not hard in the least. The most difficult thing was the lengthy list of ingredients that had to be measured out.
Things to note. I do suggest making the streusel first in a separate bowl so as not to feel rushed after making the cake. I personally enjoy eating and baking with the little Wild Maine blueberries instead of your standard big old berries. I find them to be too large, messy, and bitter or lacking in taste.
Speaking of taste, what the heck does this taste like? Glad you asked. Great! The cake was soooo, extremely fluffy and not too sweet. In fact, you could taste just a hint of salt. The blueberries gave it an extra kick. The streusel was not too thick or thin and had just the right amount of sweetness. Finally, the glaze made it pretty and worthy of a coffee cake.
So that brings me to the best part of all.....the baking time. 40 minutes. The recipe said 40 minutes and 40 minutes was perfection. It was so wonderful not to have to guess between 35-40 minutes like what would be written in most recipes. No guesswork, what a great day.

Blueberry Coffee Cake
from Gooseberry Patch Christmas 10th Anniversary
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 c. milk
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 egg
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 ½ c. blueberries (I used frozen; thawed slightly)
Beat all ingredients, except blueberries, in a large bowl on a low speed for 30 seconds. Then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes scraping the bowl occasionally.
Grease a 13x9 pan. Spread half the batter in the pan. Sprinkle blueberries over batter; then, top with remaining batter. Add Streusel Topping and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Can be inverted onto a serving plate or left in pan. Drizzle with Glaze. Makes 16 servings.

Streusel Topping:
½ c. chopped walnuts or pecans
1/3 c. brown sugar, packed
¼ c. flour
½ t. cinnamon
1 T. butter, softened
Mix all ingredients together until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of cake.

Glaze:
1 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk
¼ t. vanilla
Combine all ingredients; drizzle over top of cake.

Cheesecake Cookies

2009-01-07T13:25:00.003-06:00

Oops! Yesterday was our 8th wedding anniversary, and I forgot to bake anything to celebrate the occasion. I told myself that I would take a week off from baking but I only made it 5 days. So in honor of the anniversary, and the fact that I was trying to get a smell out of the house, I made some easy cookies. I know, you are thinking, a week off? She has not been posting very much. Well, I have been making a lot of non-desserts and repeats from the past year. Today’s recipe is almost a repeat from the Gooey Butter Cookies, just slightly different.
I found the recipe on Recipe Goldmine last week and was drawn to it for its simplicity, number of ingredients, and what I imagined the taste might be. To me, it was like the top of a Neiman Marcus Cake/Bar that you could fit in the palm of your hand. I baked mine for 12 minutes giving it a gooey center and slightly brown bottom. I think the only drawback is that they are kind of boring looking which I’m not sure how to fix that problem. Perhaps it is not a problem. I’m also curious how other cake mixes would taste. Maybe chocolate or lemon? Interesting.

Cheesecake Cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow butter cake mix

Blend first four ingredients. Add cake mix. Drop by spoonsful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. Do not overbake. Yields 3 dozen.

III Forks Off the Cob Cream Corn

2008-12-31T12:28:00.006-06:00

My husband and I went to his company Christmas Party this year at a restaurant called III Forks. It has been around for a long time and is known for steaks. I was looking forward to going to eat there, but I was not looking forward to having to eat steak. You see, I am not a lover of red meat. I like chicken. What do they not have on their menu-chicken. What? No chicken? Not even a piece of grilled chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies? What? Crazy. So I sucked it up and went anyway. Due to the fact that the party was a sit down meal for 45 people they gave us an abbreviated menu of one fish and 3 kinds of steak. This menu was read aloud to us and a team of waiters came and took our order. Oh dear, what pressure. You see, when going to a new fancy restaurant I like to be prepared ahead of time on the menu. I was prepared alright, for their regular menu. The choices that were given were not on my cheat sheet. So, I quickly made a decision of Filet Mignon. I liked it as a child so I thought I would like it that day. My biggest problem with steak is simple. I’m a lazy eater. I don’t like to chew much. Steak equals lots of chewing and that’s just not my thing. The meat was good but the sides were even better.
This brings me to today’s non-dessert post. III Fork’s Cream Corn. Yum. Everyone at our table loved it. Trust me, this ain’t your Grandma’s boring cream corn. So, after talking to someone the next day that also had recently been to the restaurant, I found out that they had a cookbook. I knew right then that the corn would be a lovely side dish for Christmas. I looked online for the recipe and came across my new favorite copy cat website called Recipe Goldmine. Wow. Lots of restaurant recipes. The cream corn popped up right away. Success. Then I read the recipe and told my husband that he could take on the challenge. At first, it seemed rather daunting for a corn side dish. After going through it with him, it was not that bad. We even cooked the corn the day before and used frozen ears of corn instead of fresh. It was wonderful and tasted just like what we had that night at the restaurant. My husband even used the leftovers to make corn chowder a couple of days later. Give this a try if you want a super creamy, seasoned, buttery, creamed corn at your next dinner.

III Forks Off the Cob Cream Corn
10 ears fresh (or frozen ears) corn, shucked, cooked and off cob
1 cup heavy cream (used whipping cream)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (used black)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Accent seasoning
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic (used garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme (used 1/4 tsp of ground thyme)
4 ounces unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons flour
In a large saucepan, combine the first 10 ingredients. Slowly bring it to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer for three minutes. In a separate pan, melt the butter until it begins to pop, then stir the flour into the butter. Add the butter and flour mixture to the simmering corn. Stirring occasionally, allow to simmer for three more minutes. Keep warm until served.

White Chocolate Macaroon Cookies

2008-12-27T16:34:00.003-06:00

This to me is not a great name for these cookies. Macaroon. If you remember back, oh say, a few months ago I gave you a boring book report on Macaroons. Remember, how that they are not a cookie but rather a confection. That only in the United States do we put coconut in ours and other nations just throw together whatever they find or have on hand and call it a Macaroon. Okay, so I don’t like this name but we will go with it because today I do not feel rather witty or creative for some reason. Must be the weather, cause we have had every kind of weather today except for snow, but the day ain’t over yet.
Moving on quickly, so I made these cookies not once, but twice last week because they were loved by others so much. I personally think that they tasted like a Coconut Cream Pie in cookie form. Imagine with me, a pre-baked pastry crust, with a coconut cream filling, topped not with meringue, but rather whipped cream and toasted coconut on top. Yum. This was my favorite pie growing up. Now, there are too many to be a favorite.
The original recipe was from Betty Crocker and I decided to change it some. I did not put the melted white chocolate icing on top because IT DIDN'T NEED IT. That would have been so unbelievably sweet. Oh my, the center of a Valentine Chocolate comes to mind. You know the ones that have the pink or white creamy filling that you take one bite and if you are me you throw it away or some people put it back with a bite out of it. Never understood that. So, I skipped the icing and the sprinkles. The recipe itself was very easy since it used a packaged cookie mix as the base. Mine took about 11 minutes with 16 on each pan. Oh and I did not have to get out the mixer. Just elbow grease!
So go out there and make this cookie that I think needs a better name. If you think of one, just let me know. And if you need more sugar in your diet, you can find the original recipe here.

White Chocolate Macaroon Cookies

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup white vanilla baking chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg, coconut, 1 cup of the baking chips and the extract until dough forms. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet; cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Cinnamon-Pecan Pull-Aparts

2008-12-22T13:22:00.003-06:00

This weekend I made this tasty loaf. However, somehow when you call it a loaf it just does not sound as good. But, when I tell you my husband ate almost half of the loaf for breakfast, it sounds like he thought it was good.
I don’t know if I have a desire to work for Pillsbury or perhaps I’m just destined to look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy if I continue to keep up this pace of making so many different kinds of Sticky Bun/Monkey Bread/Dough Ball recipes. However, you must notice that this one is “low fat,” only 2 tablespoons of butter. Can you believe that? Not a whole stick! However, my husband did notice the difference and we agreed that a half a stick might have been better. You can decide for yourself.
Very simple to make and fun as always to open those wonderful exploding cans. I could not tell a difference between the regular Grands cinnamon rolls and the Flaky Supreme myself. Also, I just used vanilla extract for the flavoring instead buying maple flavoring. If I had used the maple then I would have included the entire name that the people at Pillsbury intended. Finally, while the loaf was hot I dropped big spoonfuls of the icing on top and let it cascade down the sides. Yummy, yummy.

Cinnamon-Pecan Pull-Aparts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon maple flavor or vanilla
1 can (17.5 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Supreme refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 8x4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix all ingredients except cinnamon rolls with icing.
2. Separate dough into 5 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into quarters; add to pecan mixture, tossing gently to coat. Spoon roll mixture into pan.
3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate or platter. Spread with icing. Serve warm.

Special Dark Chocolate Kisses

2008-12-17T11:46:00.003-06:00

Yet another recipe from the cookie swap a few weeks ago. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Kisses. There are lots of dark chocolate lovers in my family however; I am not one of them. Nope, milk chocolate for me. Dove milk chocolate. Mmmm, my favorite. I found a bag of Special Dark and a recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie Magazine and decided to give this cookie a try. From what I have heard, Special Dark is hard to find. It must be seasonal. I have never looked for it before; so this was not a concern of mine. I say I found a bag, well the bag found me. I picked up the wrong one and with 90 kisses you have to do something with them.
This would be an excellent recipe for 2 children to do while being supervised. One child could dip the balls in milk, and the other could dip them into the sprinkles and place them on the pan. Now, I have no idea how you would work out the kisses on top. But, that would be for you to decide or find a random third child to step in at the end of the recipe.
Finally, another thing I have trouble with dark chocolate is how it “blooms” more often than not. You know, it turns somewhat gray with white running through it? Well, I did not think that it looked very pleasing to the eye so I took the time to wipe each piece with a paper towel before I put them in the center of the cookie. I prepared them in advance. You would not have time to wipe each one before the cookies cooled off. My husband thought that this was very unnecessary and that I was wasting my time. So I did a little test. His engineering brain is usually right, but not always when it comes to BAKING! That’s my area. I left 3 kisses gray and put them in the center of the cookies like all the rest. I was right! I did need to take the time to polish them if I wanted them to be picture perfect. Oh, sometimes it is hard being me.

Special Dark Chocolate Kisses
1-16 ½ oz. package refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (or half of the Toll House Recipe)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup chocolate flavor sprinkles
2 tab. Milk
40 Special Dark or dark chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine cookie dough and cocoa powder. Seal bag; knead with your hands until dough is well mixed. Remove dough from bag.
Place chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl. Place milk in another small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip balls in milk to moisten, then roll balls in chocolate sprinkles to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are firm. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into center of each cookie. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. Yields 40 cookies.

Sopaipilla Cheesecake

2008-12-12T14:24:00.004-06:00

Just another 2 for 1 deal day at the Baking Redhead. Sopaipilla Cheesecake and Chocolate Crinkles.
Last night, I had a family dinner to attend and my job was to bring a dessert. I know, so hard to imagine. I needed a quick dessert that was a little different from oh, I don't know say, Chocolate Cake. I thought of shortgirl’s recipe. I have made this a couple of times in years past, but I had forgotten the taste. The dessert came together very fast and was in and out of the oven in no time at all. I took the pan and put it in a tray for easy transport and covered it with foil. Dinner was not served promptly, so the dish had to sit and stay warm. Here is my BIG warning. Don’t tightly cover this with foil right out of the oven and let it sit for an hour or two. BIG mistake. Don’t get me wrong, it was still wonderful, but it lost its crunchy topping of buttery, sugary, cinnamony, crescent roll goodness. It was a bit chewy. It reminded me of the time a few years ago when I made gingerbread. I took the cake pan out of the oven and plopped it on a towel and went to church. What a terrible mistake I had made. The gingerbread was a gooey, soggy, mess because the towel that it had been sitting on trapped the heat. So, that is when I went out and bought some really good wire cooling racks. Problem solved.
Give this recipe a try. You will love the smooth creaminess of the cheesecake topped off with the sugary crunch of the buttery pastry.
Chocolate Crinkles. This is one of the cookies that I made for our Cookie Exchange last week. I found the recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Special Edition Cookie Magazine. I thought they looked festive and I really loved the name. Ranks right up there with Fudge Puddles. Isn’t that the cutest? I don’t make fudgy things much, but I might have to make those just because it is fun to say. To me, it was a dark chocolate brownie bite topped with powdered sugar. Not very sweet, but still enjoyable. Simple to make and the recipe made so many that I finally just stopped assembling them before the dough was gone.

Sopaipilla Cheesecake
By shortgirl
2 pkgs. Pillsbury original crescent rolls
2 (8 oz.) boxes cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
Cinnamon

Mix cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and vanilla. Spread 1 package of crescent rolls in a 9x13-inch pan. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of rolls. Spread 2nd package of crescent rolls over cream cheese mixture. Mix melted butter and ½ sugar and pour over top layer of rolls. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Chocolate Crinkles

2008-12-12T14:22:00.002-06:00

Chocolate Crinkles
4 eggs
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
½ cup cooking oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, melted chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Gradually beat in flour. Cover and chill dough for 2 -24 hours or until dough is easy to handle.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet; set aside. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake cookies in a preheat oven for about 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry but not overbaked. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. (Cookies will deflate slightly upon cooling.) Yields: 36 cookies (or more).

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

2008-12-06T14:15:00.004-06:00

Today was our Sixth Annual Cookie/Ornament Exchange. It went very well this year, and we had lots of good food too. One item that I made was this Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake that I had wanted to try for several weeks. I had all the ingredients on hand but no motivation until today. Very, very simple and the crowd loved it. To me, the worst part was opening those silly exploding cans. I scream every time. I will be glad when BabyGirl is old enough to open them herself. Maybe she will find it more fun that I do.
I left the orange out of the recipe this time because of allergies in our crowd. However, I can see where that would be delicious. Or, perhaps a little orange extract would work just as well. Mine did take the full 25 minutes and was not doughy in the center like Monkey Bread. Everyone was on an even playing field this time in a 9x13 pan.
Oh yes, we had cookies too. I will get to those at another time.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I made this optional)
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cans (17.5 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® cinnamon rolls with icing, refrigerated

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. In small bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and orange peel (optional). Pour butter mixture into pan; top with 1/2 cup of the pecans.
3. In small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 10 rolls. Cut each into quarters. Place dough pieces in sugar mixture; toss to coat. Arrange in single layer in pan.
4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Drop icing by teaspoonfuls over top of coffee cake; sprinkle with remaining pecans. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Cut into squares. Serve warm.

Sweet Potato Casserole

2008-12-02T14:00:00.001-06:00

I’m gearing up for another event, and this one is at my house this year. Our Annual Cookie/Ornament Exchange is less than a week away. One of my favorite things all year. What a haul! I decided to have it at my house this time to motivate me to clean, decorate, and bake, a lot. Too many ideas are racing in my head right now, and I’m not sure which ones I will be able to do this time. Afterwards should be lots of fun blog entries!
But, lets go back to that little food holiday we had last week. Thanksgiving. My husband and I made 9 dishes for that fun day and I thought I would share a few with you. Since I have not been by recently I will include 2 items. First, is my sister-in-law’s recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole. It is not the kind with marshmallows but rather a praline type topping. Yum. Very simple to make and I chose to double the recipe this time and I baked it for about 35 minutes. That was about how long it took for a knife stuck in the center to come out clean. Very smooth and creamy sweet potatoes topped off with a brown sugary almost streusel like layer.
The next dish for today is not sweet at all but there is sugar in the recipe. My Dad’s Pea Salad. This is the vinegary, peppery, pea salad. Not my favorite thing in the world but it does cut through all the heavy starchy foods at Thanksgiving. It would also be wonderful for Christmas because of all the festive colors. I will warn you, make this first and then bake something sweet to kill the boiled vinegar smell. At Thanksgiving, I always cook this salad first and then make all my pies. Smell is gone instantly. Also, this salad keeps very well and for several days when stored in the refrigerator.

Sweet Potato Casserole
1 large can sweet potatoes, drained
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. margarine or butter, melted
2 eggs

Mash potatoes in mixer and add other ingredients. Put in 9-inch casserole dish.

Topping:
1/4 c. margarine or butter, melted
3 Tbsp. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecan

Mix and sprinkle over top of casserole. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Pea Salad

2008-12-02T13:32:00.005-06:00

Pea Salad
1 14 oz. can early green peas (very small), drained
1 11 oz can shoepeg corn, drained
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small jar pimentos, chopped and drained
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup Apple Cider vinegar
1 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt

In a small sauce pan, boil together sugar, oil, apple cider vinegar, pepper, and salt. Remove from heat and pour over first five ingredients that have been prepared and mixed in a medium sized bowl. Chill completely in the refrigerator, preferably overnight, and drain before serving.

Southern Chocolate Pecan Pie

2008-11-25T19:26:00.002-06:00

Here is something else for your Thanksgiving table.
Tonight, our church had its annual Thanksgiving Stew Supper. All you have to do to attend is to bring either pie or cornbread. Of course I picked a pie. I have brought this pie for several years now, but at first I did not think it was such a winner. I took my Dad’s favorite Pecan Pie recipe and added chocolate to it. The first time I made this I did not take it because I thought that it had too much of a medicinal taste to it. So I made a different pie and left this one at home. Some people came by the house that night and saw the pie on the counter and asked if they could have some of it. I told them to eat it at their own risk because it was just not up to my standards. They went nuts over it and said that it was even better than the pie I took. So, I tried another bite. You know, they were right. I think I like this pie more room temperature than super hot. How do you like yours?

Southern Chocolate Pecan Pie
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 Tab vanilla
1 ¼ cup pecans
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 pie shell (I use Marie Callenders Deep Dish Pie Shell)

In mixing bowl, slightly beat eggs and sugar, corn syrup, evap. milk and vanilla. Blend well. Stir in pecans and chocolate morsels. Pour into unbaked 9 pie shell. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 30 to 40 minutes or until filing is puffed in center and is well browned. Let pie cool.

Pumpkin Dip

2008-11-25T09:31:00.005-06:00

So just where have I been? I know, it is not like me to be gone for a week but life got in the way. About this time each year I head up two ministry projects at my church. The first one is called Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child. This organization collects gift-filled shoeboxes from all over the United States and 9 other countries to give to children in over 100 disadvantaged nations who would otherwise never receive anything for Christmas. My group collected 92 boxes this year which seems small in comparison to the 7.6 million that are collected annually. However, I simply look at it as 92 more smiling faces.
My second project is happening this week and it involves food. This tradition actually started back in high school when a group of youth got together at church to prepare Thanksgiving meals for the elderly. I enjoyed this opportunity so much that I wanted to do it again as an adult. For several years now, a group of us from our Sunday School class do this same project, however we give our meals to families who are in need in our city. A simple, basic, traditional menu cooked as a group, and delivered in teams to those who might not have Thanksgiving this year.
Since my week is a bit hectic, I will share with you someone else’s work. My cousin Jill sent this recipe to me recently that she makes for Thanksgiving. I can just imagine that it tastes like a wonderful pumpkin pie with a hint of orange. I thought that it was extremely creative and showed great attention to detail to take the time to carve out a pumpkin in the shape of a turkey as a serving dish. If you are looking for a last minute treat you might give this one a try.

Jill's Pumpkin dip
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon frozen orange juice concentrate

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gradually mix in the pumpkin. Stir in the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and orange juice until smooth and well blended. Chill and serve with gingersnap cookies.

German Chocolate Bars

2008-11-18T14:25:00.003-06:00

As I am gearing up for Turkey Day, I thought I would make something not related to a pumpkin. I know, shocking. I will have plenty of those to come. I have not made Magic Cookie Bars in a long time, but I think that the two recipes are about the same. However, I enjoyed this one better because it was more like a brownie than a bar.
My Dad liked these cold and my Mom liked them hot. Me, well, somewhere in the middle I would say. Very gooey and rich, wonderful textures of coconut and nuts. The sweetened condensed milk and egg took on a cream cheese like taste and appearance to me. Give these a try; you’ll thank me for it.

German Chocolate Bars

1 18-ounce box chocolate cake mix

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan well with butter. In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, butter and egg, and press into the bottom of the prepared pan. The crust should not come up the sides. Bake for 7 minutes and remove from the oven. The crust will not look done.

While the crust is baking, in a medium bowl mix together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, egg, nuts and coconut. Pour evenly over the warm crust, sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips, and bake for 24 to 30 minutes, until the top is a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares.

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

2008-11-13T14:10:00.005-06:00

This really is not my Mama’s Banana Pudding. I can’t imagine what hers would be like. She never made pudding but it does conjurer up memories of elementary school when one time my mother really thought that the standard Scooby Doo Lunch Box thermos would keep ice cream frozen until lunchtime. Boy was I surprised when I opened the container and saw little floating marshmallows in a thick, chocolate milky substance. It was Rocky Road by the way. I was so embarrassed that I quickly closed it up and stuck it back in my box before the big mean girl that sat next to me could make fun. It took me a long time to figure out why the big mean girl had to sit next to me every year until I realized that, silly me, we sat in alphabetical order!
Moving on. I made this dessert for my brother-in-law’s birthday. I knew that one of his most favorite desserts is chocolate pie. However, I have yet to find a recipe for chocolate pie that I really enjoy. So, why not a little BP? This is very thick and rich and you can cut it into squares instead of using a spoon. That thick. To me, it tastes a lot like cake batter without the worry of raw eggs. But, I seem to be the only person with that worry.
I sometimes use only one bag of cookies because two can be overpowering. The pudding itself is rich enough without all the extra cookies.

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding
By Paula Deen
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
6 to 8 bananas, sliced (I use 3)
2 cups milk
1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream
Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top. In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon Bundt Cake

2008-11-10T14:32:00.003-06:00

I made a few desserts this weekend for different events. I started out by making Sally’s Carrot Cake which has become a go-to dessert when I need to send a cake to something that I am not attending. I made this Lemon Bundt Cake for church on Sunday; however I didn’t know if there was going to be any left by the time people got to class since my husband ate 3 pieces. It was very good and very lemony. The pudding made it extremely moist and rich. If you are not a huge lemon fan than I do not suggest trying it, but if you are, go for it. I made my simple standard glaze of 2 cups powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons of milk that I mixed up and poured on the cake while it was still very warm. The recipe did not call for an icing, but I always think it is necessary.

Lemon Bundt Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix, then stir in the oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the lemon-lime soda.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Yield: 14 servings

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

2008-11-05T11:06:00.003-06:00

I have made this dessert for several years, and I am always delighted at its consistency of flavor. Yes, it is another version of Paula Deen’s Gooey Butter Cakes that I make so often, but it is one of my favorites. However, I think I say that about everyone.
Making sure not to overbake this dessert is the secret to success. I did overbake this one a little. The center should be gooey as the name implies.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake
Crust:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.
Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Finally, BabyGirl is sad today because her candidate for the highest office in the land did not win last night. I would never use the The Baking Redhead as a political platform; however BabyGirl wanted people to know that she still is a.....

Crunchy Topped Apple Pie

2008-11-03T11:46:00.004-06:00

My husband worked for a tree doctor during college at A&M. (He would insert something like, “Whoop, or Go Ags” here.) Needless to say, the man knows a few things about trees. One of his most favorite fruit trees is an apple tree. He has books on them, enjoys doing research about them, talks to people at nurseries, etc. His most favorite apple is called a Honey Crisp. Ahh, the honey crisp, let me tell you I have heard a lot about this apple. Its name gives away the taste. A juicy, crisp apple that seems like it has been injected with honey. One of the saddest days was when he found out that you can not plant them in our part of the world. So, about this time every year you can find this apple in grocery stores. It is like Christmas to him. To me, it means shelling out big bucks for at least 6 apples to make an apple pie.
I do not mind making this pie when my husband does all of the apple chopping. My knife skills are horrendous. I love this recipe because of the topping which is has a caramelized, crunchy, nutty flavor, wonderful. It is also the only time that I use the blue label Karo syrup. You see, this recipe came from one of my most favorite church cookbooks, the Park Street Baptist Church 1972 edition. Love it. If you have, use it. Great stuff in there. The first time I tried this dessert, I had to do some research on the “Blue Label Karo”. I even called the company to make sure that in the 70’s the blue label had the same meaning as it does today. It is not unusual for me to call or write companies. I think I probably do it more than the average person. Don’t even get me started on the Libby’s pumpkin people and a recipe for a Pumpkin Trifle I had trouble with one time. Okay, so bringing this topic back to the recipe, my big warning to you is, this pie is a MESS! Taste great, looks kind of ugly. Unless you enjoy cleaning harden gooey stuff off of the bottom of your oven, put this pie on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Also, it is almost impossible to cut a proper piece. I gave up a long time ago and just started using a big spoon and told myself that it was cobbler in a round pan. The recipe says to put the pie back in the oven after you spread the topping for 10 minutes. Put it back in and stand there and watch it. I have made this pie in a couple of different ovens and they all varied greatly. Finally, you do not have to use a Honey Crisp apple. Any good baking apple will be great.

Crunchy Topped Apple Pie
2 9-inch pie crust (I use Pillsbury Rolled Pie crust)
6 medium sized apples, sliced thin
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup Karo Blue Label Syrup (dark)
Topping:
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp Karo Blue Label Syrup (dark)
2 tbsp softened butter
¼ cup chopped nuts

Unroll one crust and place in the bottom of pie pan. Fill bottom crust with apples. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, sugar, butter, and syrup. Pour over apples.
Cover with top crust and bake in a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes or until crust is browned and apples are tender. (Pie should be placed on a cookie sheet to protect oven.)
For topping, mix brown sugar, flour, syrup, butter, and nuts in a small bowl. Spread over top of pie and return to oven for 10 minutes or until topping is bubbly (watch carefully).

Tortilla Roll-ups

2008-10-31T13:43:00.005-05:00

About 15 years ago, my Dad started making a tasty appetizer called Tortilla Roll-ups for parties and events at work or church. He found the recipe in our church’s cookbook, but made a few changes to fit his taste. The recipe was a hit and became very much requested by others. So much so, that I actually kept a copy of the recipe in my purse for several years. There are many versions out there but this one is still my favorite because it does not turn pink, taste like ranch dressing, or become soggy tortilla balls.
A few tricks. Do not use the entire can of black olives, just use most of it. Otherwise, your filling will be too black. Spread the filling evenly to the edge of the tortilla or you will have lots of “ends”. The roll-ups cut the best when they have sat in the refrigerator overnight. Finally, do not sit things on top of the roll-up logs in the refrigerator or you will have flat rolls. Not pretty.
Serve these spicy, cream cheese treats with your favorite salsa and people will keep asking you to bring them over and over again. I speak from experience.

Tortilla Roll-ups
½ (8 ct.) pkg. large tortillas
3 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 small bunch green onions, chopped
1 (3oz) can chopped green chilies, drained
1/2-3/4 (3oz) can chopped ripe black olives, drained
1 small jar diced pimentos, drained

Combine cream cheese, green onions, green chilies, black olives, and pimentos in a medium size bowl. Spread cream cheese mixture on tortillas and roll with ends opened. Be careful not to over fill tortillas. Wrap rolled tortillas in plastic wrap and chill 4 hours to overnight in refrigerator. Cut into half inch slices and serve with salsa.

Lucille’s Sock-It-To-Me Cake

2008-10-29T13:09:00.003-05:00

When I was about 6 years old my Mimi decided to take me to see her sister Lucille. Lucille lived a little less than an hour from Mimi’s house, but it seemed like a very long drive to a 6 year old. In order for me to become a more patient waiter my Mimi turned to bribery. She told me that if I was good and quiet I could see Aunt Lucille’s bird. (I do not recall his name, so we will call him Oliver.) As soon as we got out of the car and rang the doorbell, the first words out of my mouth were, “where’s Oliver.” My Mimi explained the arrangement to Lucille and she told me that he was asleep so I had to be very, very, quiet which was apparently difficult for me. You see, Oliver slept in a birdcage with a cover over it. As a means of defense, he slept with a seed in his mouth. As Aunt Lucille lifted the cover off of the cage, Oliver woke up, made a noise, I screamed, and he spit the seed in my eye. Needless to say, I HATE BIRDS! I’m sure Oliver was a very sweet bird, but on that day he changed my way of thinking about our little feathered friends (enemies). The cover was put back on Oliver’s cage and I never saw him again. I know, what a great introduction to this recipe. There are many other wonderful stories about Aunt Lucille, but this one was the most dramatic and let's face it, drama sells!

Now, on to her cake....
This cake did not seem familiar when I tried it. I just assumed that I had had it before. It was very moist and did not have a butter or yellow cake mix taste because of the French vanilla pudding. The icing made it wonderful. I liked that the cinnamon was not overpowering unlike some sock it to me cakes. I needed some work on my swirling technique as it was a little random.
Lucille’s Sock-It-To-Me Cake
1 Butter Cake mix (don’t add butter)
4 Eggs
½ C. Oil
½ C. Water
4 oz. Sour Cream
½ Small Pkg. Instant French Vanilla Pudding
¼ C. Sugar
2 rounded tsp. cinnamon
Mix first 6 ingredients together in a medium size bowl. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.
Put half of cake mixture in a greased and floured Bundt pan, sprinkle half of the cinnamon mixture on top of cake, swirl around. Pour in the rest of the cake mixture and add the rest of the cinnamon mixture, swirl. Bake at 350 for 40 min. Test for doneness. Glaze after cake cools.

Glaze:
¼ stick margarine
1 C. Sugar
1 small can of Pet milk
Cook until it begins to thicken. Drizzle over cake.

Very Easy Peanut Butter Brownies

2008-10-27T13:20:00.004-05:00

My marathon baking weekend has come to an end and I have a lot to share with you over the next few days. Since it is Monday, I thought I would start with a very easy recipe that looks like Halloween to me.
When I was in high school I came up with this easy recipe. The internet was not around, well not many had it, cooking shows were not popular, and therefore, I thought I was the originator of this recipe. I made it all the time because certain friends, mil10, requested it a lot. Friends still ask for it years later.
To me, it has a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup like flavor to it. The ingredients are almost always in your pantry which is a great reason to give it a try today! Some people love this brownie so much that they have even had it for breakfast.

Very Easy Peanut Butter Brownies
1 box of your favorite 13x9 brownie mix (plus ingredients to make it)
1/3 cup peanut butter

Mix brownie mix according to package instructions and pour into a 13x 9 greased pan. Place peanut butter in a microwave safe dish and heat in microwave until melted. Pour peanut butter over brownie mixture in 4 long ribbons down the length of the pan. Run a knife along the length of the pan; as if you were cutting the brownies to make a marbled effect. Bake as directed.

Pirate and Pumpkin Surprise Balls-I made these for my niece and nephew for our Family Pumpkinfest. They are considered to be "personal pinatas with a twist." The kids unraveled their surprise balls to find fun gifts hidden in hundreds of feet of crepe paper.

Frosted Banana Bars

2008-10-22T13:53:00.006-05:00

Is it me or do I make a lot of banana desserts? My family loves bananas and we usually have some in the house at various stages of being ripe. Therefore, I always have several on hand for Banana treats. This particular recipe had a wonderful smelling batter that was just like banana pudding. Yum. It was excellent slightly warm from the oven with gooey cream cheese frosting on top. BabyGirl asked for more which was a little like, “more, please, thank you, you’re welcome.” She likes to say everyone’s lines not just her own. The recipe was very straight forward with no surprises that might require a warning.
This weekend is shaping up to be a baking marathon with 3 events and 7 dishes so far. Should be interesting and a lot of fun!
Oh, I forgot to add that I made mine in a 13x9 pan instead of the one stated in the recipe. It took 33 minutes in the oven.

Frosted Banana Bars
1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
FROSTING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-3/4 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in bananas. Spread into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool. For frosting, in a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Gradually beat in enough confectioners' sugar to achieve desired consistency. Frost bars. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 3-4 dozen.

Mini Cinnamon Crescents

2008-10-18T17:12:00.006-05:00

On my list of things that I don’t suggest doing is something I did today. I went to a Grand Opening of a Major Toy Store with a 2 year old on a Saturday morning at 10 am with a 1,000 other people with their small children. Oh my. Why? Why would I do that to myself? I hate crowds. Really hate crowds. That is the reason I do my Christmas shopping in October. Hints the reason I was at the toy store which just happened to coincide with their Grand Opening. The two silver linings to this story would be, number 1, I got all of my shopping done for the kiddies in the fam. Number 2, I got a nice coupon for so much off of my purchase for being at the Grand Opening. I also learned that my child is very afraid of people dressed up as characters with abnormally large heads. This will go on BabyGirl’s short list of things she is afraid of right now. The only other thing on that list is fireworks. Since it is not 4th of July or New Year's Eve, we are good to go.
I had a tube of crescent rolls in the refrigerator that I was tired of looking at so I decided to make some little cinnamon rolls. I found a good recipe from a Pillsbury Bake Off from 1972. I did make a raisin adjustment to the recipe by swapping them out for pecans. I chopped up the nuts, but I did not measure the amount. I would say I used about ¼ of cup. The most difficult part of this endeavor was cutting up the logs into five pieces and even that is not a challenge when you have a good knife. Too bad I do not.
The taste was wonderful. Reminded me a lot of Monkey Bread a.k.a. Sticky Buns. I could see this at a brunch, on a Saturday morning etc. The only bad part was there just wasn’t enough. Keep in mind that this recipe only yields 20 half dollar to silver dollar sized rolls. If I made this again for a crowd I would do two pans.

Mini Cinnamon Crescents
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ refrigerated flaky dough sheet
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pecans (optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon apple juice or milk

Heat oven to 375°F.
If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough; separate dough into 4 rectangles. Firmly press perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.
Spread 1 tablespoon butter evenly over each dough rectangle. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over rectangles. Sprinkle each with raisins and/or pecans. Starting with short side of each rectangle, roll up; pinch edges to seal. With serrated knife, cut each roll into 5 slices. Place slices, cut side down, in ungreased 8- or 9-inch square pan.
Bake 17 to 23 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix powdered sugar and apple juice until smooth. Drizzle over rolls. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Spice Cake With Honey Frosting

2008-10-15T09:49:00.006-05:00

As I’m writing this post, finally, BabyGirl is sitting next to me on the floor looking at a cake decorating book signing, “Happy Birthday to Me.” Two things come to mind, number 1, her birthday is 6 months away, and number 2, I wonder where she heard that version?
We must talk about Pumpkin Spice Cake. I love pumpkin. I have said this before. I love Pumpkin Pie, Frost on the Pumpkin, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Bread, etc. Well, is there a dessert that I don’t like? Hmmm, thinking.....Wait, wait, will have to get back to you on that one.
I made this dessert for church on Sunday thinking that people would either love it or hate it. Pumpkin is just one of those ingredients, like coconut, that people have a love/hate relationship. I was correct in my thinking. Some were excited and others hated being in the same room with this harvest time treat.
I made the cake as the recipe stated, but I made one major change. The frosting. I gave the Honey Frosting a whirl. Oh, no. Terrible. The honey even separated from the rest of the frosting. People who would like it probably enjoy Clotted Cream too. Oh, my. Anyhoo, I quickly whipped up my favorite Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. Very simple. 1 stick of butter, 1 package of cream cheese, 1 lb of powered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla. All was well. The cake itself was very dense and more bread like than cake like. Based on the recipe I thought that might be true so I did not use a mixer and simply used a whisk. I gently stirred the ingredients until incorporated making sure not to over mix. Don’t want to produce too much gluten. No, no.
Well, this has been fun. Did you enjoy recipe number 119? What a thought I just had, I wonder how many pounds of butter I have used this year? I guess I would say at least 40 and holiday baking hasn’t even started yet!

Pumpkin Spice Cake With Honey Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice (or 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon each allspice and cloves)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin puree
FOR THE HONEY FROSTING (or see cream cheese frosting recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 bar (8 ounces) regular (or reduced-fat) cream cheese, very soft
1/4 cup honey
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin-pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, and pumpkin puree until combined. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, and mix gently until smooth.
Turn batter into prepared pan, and smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes in pan, then turn out of pan, and cool completely, right side up, on a rack.
Make Honey Frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk butter, cream cheese, and honey until smooth.
Spread top of cooled cake with honey frosting. Cut cake into squares to serve.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

2008-10-09T14:38:00.003-05:00

Here is a recipe that I made recently from Taste of Home. I have noticed that I make more Blondies than I do Brownies for some reason. I also noticed that Redheads have been discriminated against in the Brownie baking world. What is the deal with that? I looked for a Redhead recipe and could not find much on the subject. I did come across a cookie called Redheads made in England that uses cinnamon and ginger. They said it gives it a fiery taste just like a Redhead’s temper. Oh yes, the redhead stereotype, we all have bad tempers which is simply not true. Now what was I talking about, oh yes, today’s recipe.
I baked a half of a batch of Blondies at the same temp and time as a full batch. To me this bar was not very different from a big chocolate chip cookie. I did add about ¼ cup of chopped pecans which would be ½ cup for a full batch. The 18-20 minutes bake time is the gooey end of the spectrum so you must keep that in mind. The absolute greatest thing was that I did not have to get out a mixer and I counted that only 5 things had to go into the dishwasher. Some people clip coupons for fun; I see what few dishes I can use for one dessert. Good times.

Chocolate Chip Blondies
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla just until blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to brown sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 3 dozen.

Callie's Sock-It-To-Me Cake

2008-10-06T13:44:00.004-05:00

When I was growing up, there was a man in our church who loved to make children’s toys out of wood. I was the recipient of many alphabet puzzles, counting puzzles, a puzzle made out of my name, and wooden bracelets. His wife was a very tiny woman who enjoyed cooking and baking. I do recall listening to my Mimi on the phone one day with another lady from our church talking about a recipe. She told the lady that it was one of Callie's recipes so it had to be good. Today's recipe is one I found of hers last week.
I followed the recipe almost exactly and had two problems. The first problem was my fault. I did not chop my pecans enough. I buy pecans that are almost halves because you can take away but you can't add too. That is my theory. My second problem was the filling, which she called, “icing". I think that you should make it as directed and before you put it in the oven poke the batter with a knife to swirl the filling. Otherwise, you have a big tunnel of filling in the center which is only good in the case of a Tunnel of Fudge Cake or when you have cream cheese in the center, not nuts and cinnamon. So that would be my suggestion. I have a feeling that it was left out of the recipe by mistake. Other than those items I found it to be very easy to make. The glaze was beautiful and looked very much like snow covered mountains. I think this would be great wrapped up as a gift for Christmas or at a bake sale.

Callie’s Sock-It-To-Me Cake
½ cup oil
¼ cup water
4 eggs
1 yellow cake mix
8 oz. sour cream
¼ cup sugar
“Icing”
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
¾ cup nuts, chopped
Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tsp. milk
Mix oil, water, and eggs. Add other ingredients. Mix well. Pour 2/3 of batter into a greased bundt pan.
Mix “icing”. Pour on top of cake mix. Pour remaining cake mix on top. (I would swirl with a knife just a little.) Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
Mix glaze. Spoon on top of cake while hot. Cool until glaze has hardened.

Lemon Crème Bars

2008-10-02T10:42:00.003-05:00

Today’s recipe is one that I forgot to post from Sunday that I made for church. I found this off of the Betty Crocker website, and it again uses those packaged cookie mixes. I have used so many of them lately that one would think I had stock in the company. I don’t. I did read that Campbell Soup is one of the only stocks that has gone up in recent days. I have always heard that people eat a lot of soup when things are down. Soup makes me sad, so I do not eat it very often.
As I’m gearing up to watch the debate tonight, I think I will need a nice treat. First, I should tell you about this one. Very simple to make. The most difficult part of this dessert was squeezing the lemons, which took 3 small ones by the way. People in Sunday School have started trying to guess the ingredients in my baked goods. This week they were not so good at their game. One thought it had coconut in it, and another was sure the filling was made with cream cheese. Both were wrong. I will say this, given the types of desserts I make they would normally be correct. I will give them that. That’s all I will give them. Funny how this recipe took on so many different flavors.
I thought it tasted like a Key Lime Pie with a lot of crust. Generally, a Key Lime Pie will have a 90/10 filling to crust ratio. In this dessert, I would say the ratio would be 60/40 crust to filling. The crust had great texture with a caramel brown sugar flavor, and the filling was very lemony and thick. A little tricky to cut right out of the refrigerator, so be careful. I usually tell people that I’m stouter than I look, but I think I pulled a muscle doing this. Oh, well, there goes my image.

Lemon Crème Bars
1/2 cup cold butter
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1 egg
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
2. In large bowl, cut butter into cookie mix, using fork or pastry blender. Stir in egg until mixture is crumbly. Press half of cookie mixture into bottom of pan; bake 15 minutes.
3. In small bowl, stir condensed milk, lemon peel and lemon juice until thick. Spread over baked crust. Crumble remaining cookie mixture over top. Bake about 25 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 5 rows by 5 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Bars

2008-09-29T10:02:00.009-05:00

We were inside a lot this weekend because my husband was well, we will say he was under the weather and I needed to bake. We did venture out to a friend’s house for dinner and I brought this. See picture. I found this over at Picky Palate awhile ago when I discovered her blog.
When I was at the store collecting the ingredients for this dish I started thinking about the last time I had a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I am not a big candy person unless it is Dove chocolate. Love it. I have a cookie jar on my counter full of Dove chocolate, not cookies. But, that is where my candy knowledge ends. Don’t get me wrong, if given a test of random candies, outside of their wrappers; I think I would pass it. So, I was standing in the candy aisle looking at the Reese’s and thinking to myself that they did not look large enough. However, probably the last time I held one was when I was a child and my hand was smaller. But, not too much smaller because I’m an adult with hands the size of a fourth grader’s. Really annoying.
This dessert was good, but I baked mine too long. The recipe says 30-40 minutes and she said it took 30 minutes for hers. At 30 minutes I did a check and it seemed too gooey so I kept it in for 5 more minutes. Too long. I think 30 minutes would have been better. Mine was a little dry on the bottom for my taste. The cream cheese layer was excellent but a little hard to spread with the Reese’s in it. They liked to clump together. Some people got a lot and some got a little. Chocolate cake, cream cheese, salty peanut butter, with melted chocolate on top, you really need to give this one a try.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Bars
from Picky Palate
1 box devils food cake mix
1 egg
1 stick softened butter

8 oz softened cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 Cup sugar
10 regular size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, cut into little pieces

1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips
4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with tin foil. Spray with non stick cooking spray. Mix cake mix, egg and butter together then press into baking dish.
2. Mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Stir in egg until well combined then stir in peanut butter cups. Pour over cake layer and bake for 30-40 minutes or until cheesecake is cooked through (it only took 30 minutes in my oven). Remove and let cool completely.
3. Carefully lift bars out of dish using ends of foil. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals until melted through. Stir in heavy cream and stir until glossy smooth. Spread chocolate over cheesecake layer, cut into squares and serve.

Martha Stewart's Cowboy Cookies

2008-09-26T17:07:00.005-05:00

Texture, texture, and more texture. This cookie is full of them.
So the other day I made the long walk to the mailbox and saw that my Martha Stewart magazine had arrived. The first thing I always do is flip to the last page to look at the Cookie of the Month. Cowboy Cookie? So not Martha. I ripped it out of the mag and put it in my file. This week she did a segment on her show on how to make this cookie. The first thing she did was turn her nose up at the name. I’m not surprised. I can’t believe she didn’t rename it. *Someone’s slipping.* Anyhoo, once I saw her make it with her guest on the show it got moved out of the file and put front and center for Friday’s Cookie.
Like a lot of Martha’s cookies, it turned out flat. When she makes them they are not flat. When the average person makes them they turn out flat and a lot of people complain about this problem. Her reason is always that people do not have fresh baking powder which is true for some. I can assure you that mine is fresh. I use buckets of the stuff and it does not have time to expire in my pantry. The picture of the cookie in her magazine is misleading to me. Her cookie looks very fluffy and full of flour, when really it is more of a praline, buttery, cookie. I don’t know what makes the difference. I personally prefer a buttery cookie over a flour cookie. Yum. I did make only a half of a batch which was a wrong decision because these are so tasty I wish I had more to share with others.

Cowboy Cookies
from Martha Stewart

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks (1 cup)
3 ounces (3/4 cup) pecan halves
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray, line with parchment, and spray parchment. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder into a medium bowl.
Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
Reduce speed to low, and slowly add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Beat in oats, chocolate, pecans, and coconut until combined. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a small spoon, drop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
Bake until edges of cookies begin to brown, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire rack, and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool. (Cookies can be stored up to 3 days.)

Banana Cream Cheesecake

2008-09-23T14:57:00.007-05:00

When we go to the Cheesecake Factory I always ask my husband which cheesecake he is going to choose and it is the same every time. Banana. I don’t really know why I ask anymore. I myself do not have a favorite unless it is the two weeks out of the year that you can get Pumpkin. Yum. I’m a fan of pumpkin. You will see by my recipe selections this fall. Aren’t you excited? I know I am. So back to Banana Cheesecake. He loves banana flavored things which is interesting to me cause I don’t see him actually eat any bananas. But, I made this cheesecake yesterday with him in mind.
There are a few things to note. Number 1, make sure the sides of your crust do not clump up in the edges of the pan or it will be too thick and hard. You need even amounts of crust all over the pan. Number 2, the lemon juice is important for flavor. I did use a drop of lemon extract for extra flavor. It needed it. Number 3, the cheesecake cracks! (30 minutes after it comes out of the oven.) Yes, I hate when that happens, and no one took the time to warn me so I could guard against it. By simply putting a shallow pan of water on the lower rack of your oven you will create steam which will keep the cake from cracking and drying out. This works the majority of the time however, since I was not warned I did not get to try this out. My big clue should have been the small amount of Cool Whip topping.
The brown sugar in the crust and cake was excellent. The bananas baked very well and did not look strange afterwards. I did enjoy the creaminess and simplicity of this dessert; a lot less fuss and cost of a normal cheesecake in a springform pan.
If you find yourself at the Cheesecake Factory and you want real food, give the Chicken Piccata a try. It is the best!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

Banana Cream Cheesecake
1 (18 1/4 ounce) package white cake mix, divided
4 eggs, divided
3 tablespoons oil
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed, divided
2 bananas, sliced
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, Philadelphia, Softened
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups whipped topping, Cool Whip, thawed
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Reserve 1 cup of the dry cake mix. Mix remaining cake mix with 1 egg, oil and 1/3 cup sugar with mixer (mixture will be crumbly). Press onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan; top with bananas.
Beat cream cheese and remaining sugar with mixer. Add reserved cake mix, remaining eggs and lemon juice; beat 1 minute. Blend in milk (batter will be thin). Pour into crust.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with whipped topping, Refrigerate leftovers.

Chocolate No Bake Candy

2008-09-19T13:39:00.004-05:00

When I was growing up my Mimi made two kinds of Chocolate No Bake treats. The first one was called Cathedral Windows. I’m sure you have heard of them. They are made of chocolate, pecans, and colored mini marshmallows rolled into logs, chilled, and cut just before serving. Sometimes they are referred to as Stained Glass Windows but not to be confused with Stained Glass Cookies which are shortbread with melted hard candies in the center.
Back to my story. Mimi would only make the Cathedral Windows at Christmas because she said that it was the only time of year you could buy colored marshmallows. What?!?! Hard to believe, but it works as an excuse for a seven year old.
The second treat is everyone’s favorite and a staple in church cookbooks, the No Bake Cookie. Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Butter, etc. Very tasty too. When I was around eight years old it was somehow over looked that I did not eat dinner one night, but instead only ate a rather large amount of this particular cookie and great misfortune soon followed. Needless to say, I did not partake of this treat for a long, long, time.
This all brings me to today’s recipe. The Chocolate No Bake Candy. It is much like the Chocolate No Bake cookie but a little different. Easy in that you heat it on the stovetop and simply spread it in a baking dish. The taste is very different to me. If you are a lover of dark chocolate and nuts, my, my, this is the recipe for you. I myself was thinking with every bite that it needed peanut butter. Maybe something as small as 3 to 4 tablespoons would have made a difference.
Hmmm. Cathedral Windows sound good. Guess I will just have to wait until Christmas.

Chocolate No Bake Candy
Ingredients:
3 cups miniature marshmallows (about half of 10 1/2 ounce package)
1 cup (6 ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter
2 cups quick or old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or rum extract
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
Preparation:
In saucepan over low heat, melt marshmallows, chocolate chips, and butter, stirring frequently, until smooth. Stir in oats and flavoring. Spread mixture into a buttered 8-inch square pan; sprinkle with the chopped pecans. Chill thoroughly until set.Store candy in a cool dry place in covered container.

Monster Cookies

2008-09-16T18:39:00.006-05:00

A couple times a year my church prepares food for college students. Each time they put the word out that they need cookies for their luncheon. I’m always excited to see a "want ad" for baked goods. Since I needed to make them on a non-baking day I looked for an easy recipe. I am still trying out a few Betty Crocker ones using cookie mix pouches, so this seem like a good idea.
Very easy, tons of dough, and a wonderful mixture of tastes. Chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, and an add-in, you can’t go wrong. I made a few large cookies as the recipe stated and realized that it was fun to try but not practical for this event. I scaled down to my smaller cookie scoop and baked them for 9 minutes. It was perfect. I was able to get 4 mega cookies and 48 smaller cookies from this one recipe.
I think the large size cookie monster would be great with seasonal colored M&M’s to give as gifts. You know, Halloween is just around the corner.

Big or Small Monster Cookies
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate candies
1.Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir all ingredients except candies until soft dough forms. Stir in candies.
2.On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 1/4 cupfuls dough about 3 inches apart.
3.Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely. Store in covered container at room temperature. Yields 18 big cookies.

Alternative: For smaller cookies, place tablespoonfuls of dough on ungreased cookie sheets for 9-10 minutes. Yields 5 dozen small cookies.

Strawberry Streusel Bars

2008-09-14T14:00:00.005-05:00

During the storm last night I decided that I would go ahead and make something for church. However, I did not think that there would be anyone there to eat it due to the weather. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see the sun shining. BabyGirl was excited about this also. She kept asking me yesterday where was the sun. Which in her words was more like, see sun? * she points to the sky* No, no, sun. Then we go through the whole thing again with the moon. Riveting stuff here at our house. Aren’t you glad you stopped by to read this?
I pulled several recipes out from a Betty Crocker book that involved those packaged cookie mixes. I have not really ever used those before, but I think I might like them. I did have to change a few things to fit my taste. The original recipe called for raspberry jam, but I’m not a fan. I’m also not a fan of almond extract which was in the recipe. It tastes too medicinal in my opinion. Otherwise, I baked it as stated. Very fast, very easy. The most challenging thing about this dessert was crumbling up the dough for the top layer, and of course, waiting for it to cool before tasting.
The taste was like a sweet biscuit with a bit of a crunch and jelly in the center. Great breakfast treat.

Strawberry Streusel Bars
adapted from Betty Crocker
1 pouch (1 lb. 1.5 oz) sugar cookie mix
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
½ cup seedless jam of your choice (i.e. strawberry, raspberry, apricot, or blackberry)

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, flour, almond extract and egg until soft dough forms. Press half of dough into bottom of pan; bake 15 minutes. Spread jam over base. Crumble remaining dough over jam.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 2 hours. For bars, cut into 5 rows by 5 rows.

Cake Mix Cream Cheese Brownies

2008-09-12T13:13:00.004-05:00

Instead of buying batteries and securing things such as patio furniture and the grill; I thought a better idea would be to bake something. I would hate for the cream cheese and eggs to spoil when the tropical storm force winds knock out our power from Old Ike. Since I have not been to the grocery store yet with the masses I had to make something with items I had on hand. This recipe came from the Houston Chronicle but there are tons like it out there on the internet. I found it to be very easy to make and it did bake for exactly 50 minutes.
When you have made as many different Gooey Butter Cakes as I have it is hard to make Cream Cheese Brownies where the ratio of cake/brownie to cream cheese is very different. I did like the fact the brownie was the star of this show with the cream cheese in a supporting role. I love watching cream cheese topping in the oven. After about 20 minutes of baking I like to see how shimmery and pure the topping appears. I also love the color of the inside of an eggshell. Take a look next time you crack an egg. I know, I’m spending too much time looking at ingredients again. It’s either that or listen to the political junk on TV or the hurricane that is about to take out the bottom half of my state. So I’m admiring the beauty in food. I need to get out more.

Cake Mix Cream Cheese Brownies
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 stick melted Butter
3 eggs, divided
1/2 C. chopped nuts, optional
1 - 1 lb box powdered sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Combine dry ingredients, butter and 1 egg. Add pecans if desired. Spread in greased pan. Beat powdered sugar, cream cheese and remaining 2 eggs together and spread on top of the cake. Bake for 50 minutes or until cake tests done.

Boston Cream Pie

2008-09-08T20:26:00.006-05:00

Yummy.
So I was wondering two things when I was preparing this dessert today from Kraft's seasonal publication. Number 1, why is it called a pie? Number 2, what does Boston have to do with it? I found answers to my questions from whatscookingamerican.com.
It is really a cake, not a pie. Two layers of sponge cake are filled with thick vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze or confectioners' sugar. It is cut in wedges like a pie. Cooks in New England and Pennsylvania were known for their cakes and pies and both were very thin. This cake was probably called a pie because in the mid-nineteenth century, pie tins were more common than cake pans. The first versions might have been baked in pie tins. Boston Cream Pie is a remake of the early American "Pudding-Cake Pie ."
The Parker House Hotel in Boston, claims to have served Boston Cream Pies since their opening in 1856. French chef Sanzian, who was hired for the opening of the hotel, is credited with creating this dessert.
The Boston Cream Pie was proclaimed the official Massachusetts State Dessert on December 12, 1996. Other choices included the Toll House Cookie and Indian Pudding.
Now we all know.

Boston Cream Pie
from Kraft
1 round yellow cake layer (8 or 9 inch)
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1-1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
1 square BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate
1 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. cold milk

Bake cake as directed on box in 8 or 9 inch pans. (Will only need one layer for this dessert.) CUT cake into 2 layers with serrated knife. Beat 1 cup milk and pudding mix with whisk 2 min. Stir in Cool Whip. Let stand 5 min.
STACK cake layers on serving plate, spreading pudding mixture between layers.
MICROWAVE chocolate and butter on HIGH 1 min. Stir until chocolate is melted. Add sugar and 2 Tbsp. milk; mix well. Spread over cake. Refrigerate 1 hour. Refrigerate leftovers.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

2008-09-05T15:59:00.005-05:00

I have been so caught up in the political hoopla that I forgot to bake! Well, not really.
Since it is Cookie Friday, I decided to make an easy one for today. I looked through many cookbooks and settled on this recipe. I loved the fact that I was able to use up some open packages of chips that had been staring at me for a few weeks. White chocolate chips are not my favorite. I think they have an odd taste to them, but they were necessary in this recipe for the color and to complete the name. I think peanut butter chips would have been good in the place of the white chocolate.
Unfortunately, I had to use a mixer for this one. But, I did get to use my new cookie scoop. I realized as I was using it for the first time that it was meant for a right-handed person. Being a lefty has no advantages. If you know of any, please comment.
This cookie is a lot like a brownie with a ton of add-ins. Mild chocolate flavor in the cookie's base with pops of different kinds of chocolate hitting you all at once. It is wonderful and so easy. I did have to bake mine for 12 minutes, but I think that my rounded tablespoons were a bit large. This is a good one!

Triple Chocolate Cookies
1 pkg Swiss Chocolate Cake Mix
½ cup butter, melted
1 egg
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine cake mix, melted butter and egg in large bowl with a mixer. Stir in all 3 chocolates and pecans. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 9-11 minutes. (Mine took 12 minutes.) Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet and remove to cooling rack.
Yields 3 ½ to 4 dozen

Kittencal's Cinnamon Flop

2008-09-02T13:49:00.012-05:00

What a week this has been. BabyGirl had two milestones, I did not bake on a holiday, there was a hurricane, and the Republicans just became interesting. Wait, I’m not political(well, maybe a little). Never supposed to eat and talk politics. Hmmm, wonder if Sarah has a cookie recipe?
Anyhoo, moving on to what I made for Sunday morning. I was going through some recipes in my mind but none of them I liked. I decided to go through my file instead, and came across this cake I found last week on recipezaar.com. The only thing that attracted me to this one, at first, was the name. It seemed fun to say. Then the ingredients looked good. There are a lot of options here so you first must decide how you want to go about this one. I decided to make a half of a recipe of cake in a 9 inch pan with all of the topping and I baked it for 30 minutes. I later read that I could have added things such as fruit, chocolate chips, etc. Very versatile recipe.
The topping is really misleading. It sinks. I used all the topping on half of a batch of batter so my topping sunk to the bottom and made an upside down cake. If I had used half of a recipe of topping it would have sunk to the middle of the cake. I think. My opinion is based on a few photos I saw. I waited 10 minutes before I flipped the pan and plated the cake. A lot of the topping stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to scrape it off and put it back onto the cake. This was all a risk because I did not want to wait too long and have all the topping stick to the pan.
Also, I used one whole egg. I have a hard time halving an egg. However, if you would like to do so it equals about 2 tablespoons. Now, I thought the cake was a little eggy. The people in Sunday School, number 1, were not clear on this phrase and number 2, I did not have a good definition. It was a little heavy, seemed like it had a scrambled egg in the batter. But, that was my fault, I should have halved the egg.
In a nutshell, the things I personally thought were wrong with the recipe were my fault. If I would have used the correct amount of topping and halved the egg it would have been as Kittencal intended it to be. A moist coffeecake with a gooey brown sugary, nutty center.

Kittencal's Cinnamon Flop
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar (add in more for a sweeter taste)
1 1/4 cups milk or half-and-half
1-2 teaspoon vanilla (optional) or almond extract (optional)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 large egg (optional; will give it a cake like texture)
TOPPING
1/2 cup brown sugar, more if desired
1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter
chopped walnuts (optional) or pecans (optional)

Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare a greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish, or two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans (although the batter will seem like it will fit into only one 8 or 9-inch pan, this flop rises very high and will run over the sides if baked in just one pan).
In a bowl mix the 2 cups flour, 1-1/4 cups white sugar, milk, vanilla or almond extract, baking powder, pinch of salt and egg (if using) until just combined careful not to overmix. Pour into prepared baking pan/s.
Generously spread brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
If desired sprinkle chopped walnuts or pecans over top.
Drizzle melted butter over top.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes for 8 or 9-inch round cake pan, and about 30 minutes for a 13 x 9-inch

Congo Bars

2008-08-29T12:45:00.008-05:00

The other night, I’m watching TV and the phone rings. I saw on the screen that it was one of the Funeral Food ladies from church. As I’m walking to the phone, I’m already coming up with a tasty dessert that I could make for an upcoming funeral. I answered the phone to hear her ask if I would make a dish, and of course I said yes. I asked her what I needed to make just hoping it would be a cake. In my mind I’m still thinking of cake recipes as she was talking. Well, low and behold, she said, “vegetable”. Vegetable! That’s not a cake. Hmmm. Well, I was going to make a Carrot Cake so there would be a vegetable in the cake. Does that count? Guess not. Perhaps one day I will draw the cake card again. Oh well. Boring Potato Casserole it will be.
Today’s sweet recipe is Congo Bars. I received another cookbook for my birthday. This one is the Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies. Great book. Love all the traditional recipes and lovely photographs. They do have a unique way of writing recipes. The ingredients are all throughout the recipe instead of listing them in the beginning. This cuts way down on redundancy, but if you are use to the standard you do have to retrain your brain. But, for continuity sake, I rewrote it in the standard form.
Here’s the thing, Congo Bars to me are a combination of a Brown Sugar Brownie mixed with a gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie. These were very tasty. For years, I thought Congo Bars had bananas in them for some reason. The name just sounds very tropical, or jungle like which makes me think of monkeys; which makes me think of bananas. See my pattern of thinking? No bananas, but they did have a great caramel/brown sugar flavor, loads of chocolate and nuts, with the thickness of a brownie. Excellent.
Three Things. Number 1, no mixer required. Just use a whisk or a spatula. Yea! Number 2, oh how it needed salt. Just a ½ of teaspoon. I read over the recipe 3 times thinking that I missed the salt somehow. No, they chose not to include it. I have a few other Congo Bar recipes and every one of them had a ½ teaspoon in their recipes. So keep that in mind. Number 3, too gooey. They needed to cook about 3-5 minutes longer. I took them out and tested them just like the recipe stated. I know that gooeyness is important, however these needed to be eaten with a spoon and plating was terribly difficult. Keep this in mind also. So, if you like Brown Sugar Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies you will love these little tasty treats.

Congo Bars
2 sticks of butter, melted (unsalted)
2 1/3 cups packed dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder
(1/2 teaspoon salt; I would)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
1/2 cup coconut, optional
Preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter a 13 x 9 inch pan or line with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla, breaking up any lumps in the sugar. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, (salt) and baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then stir in the chocolate and nuts.Spread the batter as evenly as possible into the prepared pan.
Bake until firm when lightly tapped and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out slightly wet, about 25 minutes. (I would go 3-5 minutes longer) Cool completely before cutting.

Sticky Buns

2008-08-24T15:27:00.005-05:00

Sticky Buns? Looks like Monkey Bread to me.
Due to the popularity of the Monkey Munch post last month I decided to see what other Jon & Kate Plus 8 recipes were out there from their reality TV show. Not a lot and very few sweet ones. I did stumble across the Sticky Bun recipe from their Christmas Show off of a fan blog which, allegedly, came off of the Gosselin’s family website.
I made this before church on Sunday for Sunday School so that it would still be warm. The recipe was easy and a lot of fun to make. No mixer required. Just like the Monkey Munch, it is another treat that involves a Ziploc bag. Make sure you have a good one because 16 Grands biscuits are heavy, and what a messy accident that would make if you had plastic bag failure. As always, I did not include the optional raisins since they are not allowed in desserts in our house. After you allow time for the bread to rest in the pan, be prepared when plating the dessert. A very hot gooey syrup will run out as you are lifting the bundt pan off of the bread. I knew it would probably happen, but my coordination was a little off that early in the morning and I lost some of the syrup as it fell on the counter.
Taste. Thick, rich, buttery, brown sugar syrup on top of mounds of cinnamon-sugar dough balls. Those would be words I would use to describe it. You can come up with your own definition when you make yours!

Sticky Buns or Monkey Bread
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired
1/2 cup raisins, if desired
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan. In large plastic food-storage bag, mix sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 16 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts and raisins among the biscuit pieces. Mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center.(I would bake it for 37-40 minutes.) Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Blue Ribbon Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-08-21T19:41:00.002-05:00

So as the story goes, a lady won a local county fair with this Peanut Butter Cookie recipe sometime in the 1950’s. She gave the recipe to her daughter as a wedding gift. Many years later the daughter posted it on the Internet for the world to see.
Ever wonder why you make the crisscross pattern on the top of Peanut Butter Cookies? I have been told that this particular type of cookie is very dense and does not bake evenly. By making the pattern with the tines of a fork you are creating a well balanced surface for baking. Now you know.
Straight forward recipe with no big surprises. Golden peanut butter taste. There is an extremely fine line to calling a Peanut Butter Cookie done. For me, it was 9 ½ minutes. Not too chewy, not to crispy. If you like yours chewy I would go for 9 minutes. If you like crunchy, choose 10-11 minutes.

As I was removing a batch of these cookies from the pan, I saw a little hand on the other side of the counter reach up and swipe one from the plate. Apparently, BabyGirl is a fan. You see, this was interesting to me because BabyGirl does not eat any of my baking unless it is for an occasion. Yes, I am terribly mean. Before I could take it from her hot little hand she decided to claim it as her own by what else? She licked it. You would think she came from a big family.

Blue Ribbon Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (to roll cookie balls in)
Directions
Cream butter, peanut butter, both sugars, egg and vanilla. Sift together all the dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. Shape in 1 inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a ungreased cookie sheet. Press balls with a fork making a crisscross on top or press a peanut half into the top of the balls.
Bake at 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. (I baked mine for 9 1/2 mins.)
Cool slightly; remove from pan.

Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake

2008-08-19T12:57:00.006-05:00

I watched a new episode of Paula Deen’s show Best Dishes this week. I think it was Best Dishes? I know it was because I cannot tolerate Paula’s Party? Have you watched this show? Not my thing. Anyhoo, I looked up some of the recipes from the show I caught, but was not really impressed with them. So I moved on to one of her old recipes. I think this is the first official Gooey Butter Cake I have made for you; however the Chess Cake was a lot like this one. It is a very simple recipe to make and one of Paula Deen’s signature desserts. You do not even have to use a separate bowl to mix up the crust and the topping. How simple is that?
The taste is delightful. It reminds me of a Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownie. Yum. I made sure to use 4 tablespoons of the cocoa powder and baked mine for 50 minutes. It stays warm all by itself for hours which aids in its gooeyness.
Relatively short post today. Don't know if that makes you happy or sad?

Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake
2 sticks butter, melted, divided
1 (18.25-ounce) package chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and 1 stick melted butter, and stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan and set aside.
In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs, and the cocoa powder. Lower the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 1 stick of melted butter, and the vanilla, continuing to beat the mixture until smooth. Stir in nuts with a rubber spatula. Spread filling over cake mixture in pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake; the center should still be a little gooey when finished baking. Let cake partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.

Starbucks Coffee Cake

2008-08-16T21:05:00.015-05:00

Here’s the thing, I do not drink coffee therefore I do not go to Starbucks. However, when it gets really cold outside, which is only about 2 weeks in February; I will drink a tall hot chocolate, no whip. (The whipped cream takes up too much room in the cup, and cools down the hot chocolate too quickly.) My husband on the other hand was an everyday customer of theirs until he got a Keurig. All to say, I have no idea if this coffee cake tastes like their coffee cake since I am not addicted to their brew. My husband has tried their cake before, but at the time of this post he had not tried mine.
This is another recipe from Picky Palate who received the recipe from a friend. Apparently, the recipe below was trimmed a bit because a whole recipe makes a lot of cake. I found the measurements to be puzzling at first because I was a little leery of the quantities. I will assure you they are written correctly. I first thought that the topping was not going to come out having so much flour, cinnamon, and vanilla. Nope, it was right. I did also have to use the longest length of baking time that was given. I was troubled by the fact that the topping was so heavy, while crumbling on the surface of the cake, some of the batter seeped through and caused the top of the cake to have a strange appearance when it was finished. The solution for that was to go ahead and pre-cut all the pieces before serving.
Finally, if you are like me and never go to Starbucks to drink something that requires a college degree to be able to simply place an order. Or, perhaps you have been there but have not had a one of their tasty treats; let me describe this to you. You have your standard yellow cake as a base. Then on top you have a thick, thick layer of streusel topping. The streusel is extremely heavy causing the cake to fall slightly and be very moist. However, even in the moist parts you still get a bit of a crunch. The cinnamon and vanilla really shine through all the different layers and textures. I think I would have preferred it baked in a round pan because the cake has a tendency to rise to high along the edge taking away from the moist, almost gooey, crunchy center.
So, what have we learned today from The Baking Redhead? Save some money! Buy a Keurig and make this cake.
Oh and two more things. Number 1, if you only have unsalted butter add 1/2 tsp of salt to the topping mixture. (1/4 tsp per stick)
Number 2, BabyGirl said,
"Happy Birthday Mia and Granddad! "

Starbucks Coffee Cake from Picky Palate
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (plus ingredients on back of box)
Topping:
2 Sticks cold salted butter
2 1/4 Cups flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 ¾ Cups sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
PREHEAT oven to 350.
PREPARE cake mix in large bowl according to directions on box. Spray 9X13 pan with non-stick spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until center is just barely set.
WHILE cakes are baking, prepare crumb topping. In large bowl of electric mixer combine, butter, flour, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla until all crumbly.
IMMEDIATELY after cake is removed from oven, break crumb topping into marble size pieces with fingers, sprinkling over top. Put back in oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes (topping will begin to look a little less wet/raw). Let cool fully then dust with powdered sugar, using a sieve.CUT into squares and serve.
*You can double the recipe by using an 8 or 9 inch baking dish in addition to the 9x13 inch dish, feel free to double it to make more if desired. 2- 9X13 inch baking dishes would also work fine.

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies

2008-08-14T14:34:00.005-05:00

The Ear Infection Fairy came to visit us for the first time ever this week which is funny cause I didn’t think she had our new address. Hmmm. All is better now because we quickly sent her packing. Didn’t want her to take up residence in our spare bedroom. You know, the room where we keep all the “spare.” This little girl, RD, at church told me that once when I was taking a tour of her house. So cute.
So, Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies, interesting. I found this recipe over at Picky Palate. This lady really loves to take two recipes and put them together. She has some unbelievable combinations. Found a few other cookie recipes I will have to try from her blog.
Pretty straight forward recipe. The 6 tablespoon thing is always a little annoying to me. Too much for a ¼ cup, not enough for ½ cup, almost but not really 1/3 of a cup. Okay, the broken pieces of Oreos thing. How big of a piece? Well, I broke mine up into about 6 pieces each. Then I debated for about 30 seconds. I decided to pour them into the bowl and throw caution to the wind, so unlike me. The pieces were fine because they are OREOS people, they fell into a million pieces in the batter. No need to fear. Finally, the parchment/silpat thing. I just baked mine on my regular old cookie sheet lined with foil, no need for cooking spray.
Now that we got that out of the way, what do they taste like? Glad you asked. Okay, so imagine if you will, a bowl of Cookies 'n Cream ice cream in one hand and a Chocolate Chip Cookie in the other hand. Now eat them at the same time. There you go, if you had this cookie and a glass of milk then you would have what I just described. A very thin, chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie with Oreos as an add-in. If you are a fan of Oreos, go for these. If you have ever found yourself twisting the top off of an Oreo and enjoying it, this is for you. If you have a package of Oreos in your kitchen right now, make these.

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies from Picky Palate
1 stick softened butter

6 Tablespoons sugar

6 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ Cup flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

8 broken pieces Oreo Cookies

1 Cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla until mixed well.
2. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients then stir in oreos and chocolate chips until just combined.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cooked, but still soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Yields 3 dozen.

The Official Killer Chocolate Cake

2008-08-11T21:07:00.004-05:00

I went to a wedding shower on Sunday and had a chocolate cake that I could not get off my mind. I have had this recipe in my file for about a year now, but I kept thinking I would have an event that this would be perfect for that never came to fruition. So instead of waiting for the perfect time I just decided to make it. I'm so glad I did. This chocolate cake is going to the top of my list of "favorite chocolate cakes." Oh....my.... goodness. So incredibly moist. It is as if I took the time to make a simple syrup and drown the cake in it before frosting. That moist. It was so easy too. I mean, please, cake mix is the base. I could see this for a potluck, family event, a gift, etc. It is a very flexible type of cake. The recipe did not call for a specific frosting so I thought a simple chocolate buttercream would do the trick. I think it was a winner. Another suggestion would be a Peanut Butter Frosting. Hmmm interesting.
Everyone should make this cake today. I mean it. What are you doing still sitting there reading this? Run to the kitchen!

The Official Killer Chocolate Cake (grouprecipes.com)
1 pkg chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 C water
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C sour cream
1 small pkg instant pudding (chocolate or butterscotch)
1 large pkg chocolate chips

Frosting (homemade or in the tub)
1 lb box of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c nuts (optional)
Directions
Pre-heat oven 350 degrees. Grease Bundt pan. Mix ingredients in medium to large size bowl. Pour into pan and bake 50 - 60 minutes. Cool completely before frosting. Mix sugar and cocoa together. Mix in melted butter. Add milk, vanilla, and nuts (optional).

Katharine Hepburn Brownies

2008-08-08T13:47:00.007-05:00

So a friend called this morning and wondered if I had any baked goods that I might want to share. I was planning on making cookies or brownies today but my day was not quite on schedule. While I was waiting for some delivery people I quickly made the recipe below. So simple. So, so simple as long as you have the ingredients on hand. I keep different kinds of baker’s chocolate in the pantry but I rarely use them. I have no idea why. I love how they are wrapped up like little treats.
Here is my take on brownies made from scratch. Number 1, I find them to be lots of fun to make. Number 2, they taste nothing like a mix. They have a much milder chocolate flavor and they taste very fresh. These particular ones have a caramelized top and a very fudgy, nutty center.
I found this recipe from an article about a 1975 interview that Katharine did for The Ladies' Home Journal. She said that she liked this brownie because of its small amount of flour giving it a chewy, mild taste. I would tend to agree.
Finally, today my favorite niece turns 6 years old.

Happy Birthday Fancy Nancy!!!
Her name is not Nancy, but yes she will be Fancy.

Katharine Hepburn Brownies
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more for greasing or use cooking spray
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (2 squares)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1⁄4 cup flour
1⁄4 tsp. fine salt
1. Heat oven to 325°. Grease an 8" x 8" baking pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper; grease the paper or just use cooking spray. Set the pan aside.
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate together in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to make a smooth batter. Add the walnuts, flour, and salt; stir until incorporated. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40–45 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Cut and serve.

Chess Cake

2008-08-06T21:11:00.003-05:00

I started several times today trying to come up with a recipe to make. I thought I might make a cobbler, too hot, and then a cheesecake made in a crockpot, too hard to get out. So I pulled one of the new cookbooks I got for my birthday. This one came from shortgirl’s hometown. I love community cookbooks. Easy recipes that people enjoy. Like with any public cookbook you must first wade through the waters of Cake Mix Cookies, “Mom’s” Pecan Pie, and something called “Donkey Balls,” which was a first for me. Anyhoo, I found something that caught my attention, Chess Cake. Got the ingredients out, stirred up the cake, poured it in the pan, turned on the timer, and then the thought occurred to me. I’ve made this before, wait, I’ve made this several times in several different flavors. Well, low and behold, this is a Gooey Butter Cake. Well, I’ll be ding dang. However, this cake had more eggs in it causing somewhat of a difference. The crust was thicker and the top was richer. Very tasty. I personally like a thinner crust; more of a 50/50 ratio. If you have never had one I suggest going with the original first which is what I made today. Once you have that one under your belt jump on over to my favorite, a Pumpkin Gooey. I recently heard that there is a new Coconut Gooey Butter Cake recipe out. I know, I know, give the coconut a rest.

Chess Cake
1 box of yellow cake mix
2 sticks of butter, melted and divided
4 eggs, divided
1 box of powdered sugar or 4 cups
8 oz pack of cream cheese, softened

Preheat oven to 325 and spray the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray.
Beat together the cake mix, 1 stick of melted butter, and 2 eggs in a medium sized bowl until mixture is like dough. Spread in the bottom of prepared pan.
In the same bowl, mix 1 box of powdered sugar or 4 cups, 1 stick of melted butter, 2 eggs, and softened cream cheese until smooth. Pour over crust mixture. Bake for 1 hour. Cool and cut.

Butterfinger Blizzard Ice Cream Pie

2008-08-03T13:47:00.004-05:00

Happy 100th Post!!!

Yesterday was our Annual Sunday School Class Ice Cream Fellowship. I do not have the equipment, ability, or “want to” to make homemade ice cream, raw eggs, therefore I made a pie! My favorite flavor of Dairy Queen Blizzard is Butterfinger. I thought that since I have watched the little high school girl at the window make a blizzard so many times in my life, and then turn it upside down, that it does not take a lot of knowledge and experience to make my own. I looked up a few recipes to get the right ratio of cream to Butterfinger and came up with this simple formula. Now, some would argue that the ice cream is a little too stiff and might require about of 1/3 cup of whipping cream to make it more like soft serve. It tasted good to me! Come on at 104 degrees outside you really do not have to worry about your ice cream being too stiff. However, if you find that yours is now you know how to fix the problem. The graham cracker crust was just a vehicle for the pie and aided in the name, not the taste.

Butterfinger Blizzard Ice Cream Pie
6 (2 1/8 oz.) or 1(12.5 oz ) pkg. of fun size Butterfinger candy bars, crushed
1 half gallon vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
1 graham cracker crust

Reserve 3 fun size candy bars or a half of a regular size bar for topping. Crush remaining bars with a hammer or meat mallet. Place ice cream in a heavy stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix until ice cream is smooth but not melted. Pour crushed butterfingers in with the ice cream and mix just until incorporated. Spoon ice cream mixture into crust and smooth with a spatula. Cut up remaining butterfingers to use as garnish for the top of the pie. Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer until ready to serve.

J's Coconut Cake with Lime Curd Filling

2008-07-30T14:16:00.004-05:00

“You put the lime in the coconut....” Everyone sing with me now.
This was the second coconut cake I received for my birthday from my sister-in-law. I like to call it a coconut cake with a lime twist, and a wonderful Seven Minute frosting. Yum.
I remembered the texture shot this time.

J's Coconut Cake with Lime Curd Filling
This cake can be baked and assembled a day in advance, then stored under a cake dome at cool room temperature.
Ingredients:
2 1⁄2 cups cake flour
2 1⁄4 tsp. baking powder
3⁄4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cups milk
2 1⁄4 tsp. vanilla extract
12 Tbs. (1 1⁄2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 jar (11.5 oz.) lime curd
1 batch Seven-Minute Coconut Frosting (see link below)
1 1⁄2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions for cake and frosting recipe are located here.

Shortgirl's Worth-the-Wait Coconut Cake

2008-07-29T18:40:00.004-05:00

This was the first coconut cake I received for my birthday. Very, very, moist.

Sorry, I do not have a texture shot of this one. It is all gone now.

Worth The Wait Coconut Cake
Ingredients
1 18.5 oz yellow cake mix; plus ingredients

2 tsp coconut extract (optional)
2 cups (16oz) light sour cream

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract
16oz. container fat-free nondairy whipped topping, thawed

14 oz. bag of coconut
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour 2 round cake pans.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions, adding coconut extract if desired. Mix well and pour into the cake pans. Bake as directed. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
In a mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, coconut, sugar, and vanilla. Reserve 1 cup of the mixture and spread the remainder between the cake layers. Stir the whipped topping into the reserved coconut mixture and frost the top and sides of the cake with it. Place in an air-tight container and refrigerate for 3 days before serving. Garnish with additional coconut at serving time.

My Birthday

2008-07-28T14:43:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday to Me! Today is the start of a new decade in my life. The weekend was full of celebrations due to my Monday birthday. I was simply showered with coconut this year. Word got out that I like coconut. Wonder where? Just racking my brain trying to figure out how people knew. Hmmm. I also received a Lemon Raspberry cheesecake from my husband.
The first coconut cake that I received was on Saturday. Shortgirl made me a cake called Worth the Wait Coconut Cake. Very, very, moist. You know coconut cakes are notorious for being dry. I have had two Coconut cake failures because of this. I told myself that I was not going to try a new coconut cake recipe until I was sure it was good because of my three strike rule. You don’t see me making fudge now do you? Do you see a fudge recipe in my list to the right and you won’t. It got the third strike about 2 years ago. Why am I talking about my failures on such a happy day. Shortgirl’s cake soaks up all the creamy goodness in the cake. There is absolutely no chance for this one to be dry.
My second coconut cake that I received was from my sister-in-law. Very tasty too. It was totally different from the first cake. This cake had a refreshing, tart lime curd filling and a Seven Minute Frosting which is almost the same as an Italian Meringue. Seven Minute Frosting usually has corn syrup while the Meringue has cream of tarter. However, there are variations for both.
Thanks to those who worked so hard for my big day. I will be posting both cakes with pictures separately.

Banana Cake

2008-07-25T20:16:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago a cookbook showed up in my garage. I think I know where it came from, but it is still a little odd to come home and a cookbook just appears. So I put it on my shelf and thought I would look through it today and make something interesting. Well the interesting thing about this recipe is number 1, it was a cookie recipe, and number 2, the book was called Christmas Cookies. It must be Christmas in July around here.
As you can see, I did not make cookies, I made a cake. What? The original recipe was called Banana Cake Cookies. I have a feeling that the original, original recipe was a cake and someone got fancy one day to win a prize. You have your options here with this one.

Double the recipe and change the butter to shortening, bake for 12 minutes, and you have the cookie form that makes 3 ½ dozen.
Double the recipe below and bake it in a 9x13 or bundt for maybe 40-50 minutes and you have a larger cake suitable for a potluck.
Double the recipe below, bake it in two 8 inch pans and frost with a basic cream cheese icing and you have a layer cake that would be great for a family reunion or funeral.

Look at all these choices. This is a very flexible recipe, and I’m glad I found it on the floor of my garage. Aren’t you?
The taste. It is your basic banana cake or bread flavor with a bite. The bite is cloves. I love cloves. I love the smell and the taste in moderation. But, I do have a fear of them when in their whole form and stuck in oranges. I was deeply traumatized as a child with a whole bowl of those things. Don’t ask, long story.

Banana Cake
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 eggs
1/2 cup mashed bananas (1 large banana)
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ cup chopped pecans

Icing:
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter; add brown sugar, beating well. Add eggs and banana; beat well.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add to creamed mixture; mix well. Stir in pecans.
Pour into a greased 8 inch square pan and bake for 25-28 minutes. When cake is slightly warm, pour icing over the top and allow to setup before cutting.
To Make Icing: Combine confectioner's sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Add milk to yield desired consistency (you may need to add a little extra), beating until smooth.

Mimi’s Peanut Butter Pie

2008-07-22T19:56:00.003-05:00

When I was growing up we had two brands of peanut butter. Skippy for the first half of my life at home and then one day it transitioned into Peter Pan. Don’t know why the switch. Was Skippy no longer any good? Did it suddenly cost too much? Were they out of Skippy one day and Peter Pan was the alternative? Don’t know.
When I got married I started doing the grocery shopping and learned that for once in my life I could choose whatever brand of peanut butter I wanted. I felt empowerment on aisle 7. But, I’m me. I enjoy ruts. Ask my husband. So instead of choosing a new peanut butter I went with the old standby. In the house that my husband grew up in they were loyal to Jif. You know, because choosy Moms choose Jif, I guess. I don’t know. So as time went by my husband did not tell me that he preferred Jif until about a year into our marriage. Peter Pan, Jif, doesn’t really matter. I listened to his request and did what any reasonable person would do. I bought both. So we became a two peanut butter household. Don’t even get me started on creamy or crunchy. Oh, the thought of debating that makes me tired. So on went our marriage of dueling peanut butters. That brings us to I would say about 3 years ago when my husband discovered a love of natural peanut butter. The kind you have to mix yourself and it runs down the side of the jar and makes a mess. He did not want to give up his Jif, no sir, and I was certainly was not going to give up my Peter Pan. At this point in the game we are up to three. Three! Three brands in one house. All the hungry children in the world and we have three brands for two people. (This post is way to long. Almost done.) Then it happened. You know where I’m going with this one. Don’t jump ahead in the story. *Doom and Gloom music plays in the background* February 2007. Peter Pan Recall. Oh what a tragic day that was. My Peter Pan had let me down. All they talked about on the news was “2111”. Everyone was a buzz about the “2111”. Long lines to turn in your “2111” lids. But, there was no need to fear cause I have Jif. My new favorite brand. You know, cause I’m a choosy Mom now.
To finish this quickly because I have taken too much of your time today; this recipe came from the 1980’s newspaper article about my Mimi’s baking that I have talked about before. It is extremely light and fluffy like Peanut Butter whipped cream. Serve it super cold on a hot day.

Mimi’s Peanut Butter Pie
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup milk
1 carton (8oz) frozen whipped topping
1 graham cracker crust or baked pastry crust

Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and milk with a mixer until creamy. Fold in whipped topping with a spatula. Pour into graham cracker crust or baked pastry crust. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

The Ring

2008-07-21T10:55:00.001-05:00

Note: All names have been changed to protect the innocent or the guilty whichever may apply.
Remember I told you I was a detective last week? Here is the story.
My husband bought a 1980 truck (“Diamond in the Rough”) five years ago in Corsicana, Texas, and had a mechanic restore the engine and fix the air conditioner. While it was being serviced, the mechanic discovered something in the truck. Inside the dash/air conditioner was a 1978 Spring High School class ring! The inscription inside the ring said, “Larry Taylor” and it was in excellent condition. The mechanic thought that it had probably fallen through the vent on top of the dash at some point. My husband tried unsuccessfully to locate the owner, and simply threw it in a drawer several years ago. I found the ring again while I was rolling coins this month, and decided to try to locate the owner through the Spring High School office. I thought that since the ring was 30 years old that they might be having a class reunion this year. I emailed the school thinking that if my email made it through the spam blocker that it might have a good chance of being believable. Linda, the high school registrar received the email and just happened to be the ring owner’s former classmate. She just happened to work with Dawn Taylor, one of the school’s secretaries and his cousin! What a small world. I finally got to speak with Larry on the phone last week and found out that he lost the ring in 1979 while hauling hay. He thought it was lost forever. Can you believe that it had been in there all this time? Needless to say, the ring is on its way to Mr. Taylor.

Oh, I hope it doesn’t get lost in the mail!

Cheesecake Bars

2008-07-19T21:20:00.007-05:00

Update: The bars were a success! One thing that I forgot to say in the original post was that I did not use real lemon juice. I did not feel it was worth the effort for 2 teaspoons. Obviously they were looking for taste not liquid. I simply used an 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon extract. Worked great.
They asked me why? You are doing what? That will cost a lot of money. Aren’t you going to gain weight? But, 6 months and 89 recipes later I’m still here.
It has been a big week of Ebaying, fancy things, some baking, and a little detective work on the side. I have an excellent story for you later that has absolutely nothing to do with baking, but one you will think is simply amazing. Well, I thought it was amazing, but I tend to be overdramatic about little things. I’m not going to tell you now because I would like to share it with a few other people in person.
So what is the recipe for Sunday School? Glad you asked, Cheesecake Bars. I asked for a few requests today and cream cheese was one of them. I don’t really like going to other dessert blogs to get my recipes because I feel like a copy cat. However, I ran out of time and jumped over to Cookie Madness for some help. One of the ways I try to challenge myself when baking a new recipe is to see the least amount of bowls and utensils I can use for one dessert. This one today was a one bowler and I used a sheet of wax paper to set aside my topping. Very easy. The recipe was simple and it did not take that long to bake so my oven did not heat up the house very long. Another thing I liked about this dessert is the bake time is very exact. No guesswork. yea.
Taste? Good question. Okay. You know what a moist cheesecake tastes like? Now, instead of a crumb crust, substitute a crumbled up Mexican Wedding cookie minus the powdered sugar. Wow. Excellent and I tried it before it chilled. I can't imagine how good it would be after sitting in the frig for two hours!

Cheesecake Bars
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped, toasted nuts (pecans or almonds)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square metal pan or line with non-stick foil. Beat butter, brown sugar and salt together until creamy. Add flour and stir until it is fully blended – batter will be thick and crumbly. Stir in the nuts. Measure out about 1 cup and set aside. Press remainder into bottom of pan. Bake crust for 15 minutes .Beat cream cheese and granulated sugar until creamy. Beat in lemon juice and vanilla, then add egg and milk and beat just until smooth. Pour cheese mixture over baked crust. Sprinkle reserved crumb topping over top. Return to oven and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, then transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. Makes 12 bars.

Where did those come from?

Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

2008-07-16T13:29:00.002-05:00

Here’s a good one. Today I felt like a nut. Why not add a blondie too it. This recipe came from Martha Stewart’s website under her Cookie of the Day section. I was there for something else and stumbled on these yesterday.
The absolute most wonderful thing about this recipe was that I did not have to get out the mixer. Got to use a whisk and we all know how much I love to whisk. Yea! The ingredients came together very nicely. The house smelled of toasted nuts and baked goods. Yum.
I did skip the part about brushing the pan with butter and lining it with parchment. Who has time? I just sprayed the thing with Pam and kept on trucking. They went in and came out just fine.
Let’s talk taste. Now, in the past, I have made a few blondie recipes for you. They all had one thing in common, they were gooey. Not these, they are more of a semi-fluffy brown sugar cake. More like a brownie texture, less like a praline and loaded with add-ins. If you are not a huge nut fan make sure you cut back on them by half because they are tremendously full of nuts. I think I will go see if there are any left.....

Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.
In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup each chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.
Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Trisha Yearwood’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-07-11T16:09:00.005-05:00

When I was growing up my Mimi would only bake during the summer on special occasions like say for example, my birthday. Very special. Heating up the oven made the house too hot. I have learned this fact more than ever this summer. In our new house the kitchen is in the center which makes the whole house hot instead of just one end. I guess you could say the kitchen is the center of our home. Isn’t that sweet? Anyhoo, so I have been limiting my baking a bit if you hadn’t noticed.
I recently bought a copy of Trisha Yearwood’s new cookbook, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen. I saw her promote the book on several morning talk shows and thought it might be worth a try. I love Southern cooking.
I thought I would start off with something simple out of the book today because we are going out of town for the weekend. I’m very excited about leaving. We have not been away since 07-07-07, easy to remember. But, oddly enough we have lived in three houses since that time which was hardly a vacation. I’m never moving again. Wait let me think, yes, I’m never moving again.
The cookies were very straight forward. I did have to think for a second on how they noted the amount of butter. I tried to simplify it when I copied the recipe. I used my trusty scoop to drop the cookies and mine took 10 minutes to bake. They did not spread like I thought they would so I was able to fit a lot on a pan. The cookie I tried had that sweet/salty thing going on. The salt really brings out the chocolate. They differ from your standard Toll-house recipe in that there is less of a caramely brown sugar taste and more chocolate flavor. They are chewy once they cool. The chewiness can depend on how much you work your batter.

Give these a whirl. You never know, they might just become your favorite chocolate chip cookie.

Trisha Yearwood’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 cup butter (10 2/3 tablespoons), room temperature

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (6-ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips

Place the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.
Using the electric mixer, beat the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together until smooth.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together and, with the beater running, slowly add to the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Carefully remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container. Yields 3-4 dozen.

Coconut Squares

2008-07-07T13:31:00.003-05:00

We had a very busy weekend with the holiday and the enormous Family Reunion. BabyGirl learned what it was like to watch fireworks in her backyard, run through a water sprinkler, and play in a kiddy pool with her Daddy cause Momma can’t swim. Good times.
Well, I know I promised a non-dessert today but I will get to that at another time. Today’s recipe came from the 1972 Park Street Baptist Church WMU Cookbook. Lots of goodies in this book, and I have made a few things in the past. Anyhoo, I had coconut starting to fill up my pantry so I thought I should use some of it today.
I made a few adjustments for my taste. I started off by dividing the recipe in half and baking it in an 8 inch square Pyrex pan. I cut the baking time down to 18 minutes. I used butter instead of shortening. Why? I have no idea. I like butter. However, since I have never had this dessert it was a lot like playing with fire changing such an important ingredient. If I were to make this again I would use the Crisco to make a comparison between the two and I think the Crisco would win.
The taste was great. Very, very gooey. Almost praline like. Buttery, nutty, brown sugary goodness. The coconut does not standout nor is it overpowering. This dessert is like a very gooey brown sugar brownie with the extra added textures of nuts and coconut.

Coconut Squares
½ cup shortening (melted)
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
Mix well and add:
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 can or 1 ½ cups coconut
¾ cup nuts, chopped

Mix well and bake in greased 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool and cut into squares.

Apple Pie Spice

2008-07-04T16:32:00.005-05:00

Well, I don't have anything baked yet for today because I'm baking for a Family Reunion tomorrow. I have 3 things to take but two of them you have already seen. I will post a non-dessert soon. However, I have a story.
So I'm in the baking aisle today, I know hard to believe, and this lady stops me. Let me first say, I do not own a shirt that says I'm the Baking Redhead, ask me a question. I think people see me in there so much that they think I either work there or since I take so long on that aisle, that I'm just as confused as they are. So back to my story... This lady asked me if I have ever heard of Apple Pie Spice. I told her I had heard of it but I had never purchased it at that store. She asked me if I knew the substitute. Well, I thought I knew what spices went into it, (cinnamon, nutmeg, and maybe cardamom) but I did not know the quantities off the top of my head. She asked one of the checkers and of course they had no idea if they had ever carried the product.
This all bugged me very much so I immediately came home and looked up the recipe for the spice. *Drum roll* 4 teaspoons ground Cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground Nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon ground Cardamom. Sometimes companies add Allspice or Cloves to the mix. However, the cinnamon and nutmeg are standard and the cardamom is usually the wild card of the group. So now you know and I wish the bewildered lady in the store knew also. I refrained from giving her my card.

Happy 4th of July!

Monkey Munch

2008-07-03T16:41:00.009-05:00

Update: See comments section for the "Official" Monkey Munch Recipe.

I DVR several shows because I am not disciplined enough to catch shows when they originally air, and now I do not like to watch live TV because you cannot skip past the commercials. Well, I do make an exception for the shows Lost and Boston Legal. I will watch those at their proper time with commercials because I love them so much. Anyhoo, one of the shows I DVR is the chaotic, conflict/resolution show, Jon and Kate plus 8. Do you watch this? I’m not really sure why I like to watch people’s daily lives. I think it stems from wondering if I’m normal. Maybe? Well, of course I’m not. I have a website that is a shrine to sugar. That is definitely not normal.
On the show they rarely talk about anything sweet because they fill the hour with discussions about Organic Food. Last night I was going through my DVR’d shows and overheard something called “Monkey Munch”. I first heard the words “1 cup” which got my attention. As the show went on I realized that Monkey Munch was really just Puppy Chow. I looked for a recipe called Monkey Munch but could not quickly find anything. Apparently, other people out there watch the show and wanted to know more about this Monkey Munch because several bulletin boards where full of questions.
I settled on the recipe below and simply divided it in half because we did not need 2 gallons of the additive treat in our house over the holiday weekend. The taste is yummy. The sweet and salty flavors are encased in a powder sugary envelope. This is an easy one for kids to help prepare and they will love the name if you can settle on one.

Monkey Munch or Puppy Chow or Muddy Buddies
(12 oz.) box Chex or Crispix
1 (12 oz.) semi-sweet morsels
1 c. peanut butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter
1 lb. powdered sugar

Put cereal in a large bowl and put aside.
Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter into a quart-sized microwavable bowl.
Stir the ingredients together. Microwave the mixture uncovered for a minute on "high." Stir the mix again and continue to zap in thirty second intervals until it mixes smoothly.
Add the vanilla and stir. Pour over the cereal while stirring. Put combination into a 2-gallon, Ziploc freezer bag. Add powdered sugar, seal the bag and shake until distributed.
Spread Monkey Munch out on wax paper to cool and dry. Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for storage.

Chocolate Cobbler

2008-06-30T16:03:00.003-05:00

The Two Day Family Fun Garage Sale was a huge success in my book. We sold the majority of our old stuff and had money in our pockets to go buy new stuff. It was 100 degrees both days, but amazingly enough I almost got use to it by the end of the second day. I do not recommend having a sale when it is that hot, but I might do it again in five or ten years. Thank you for being patient with me last week. I just could not bring myself to bake anything. However, today is a new day.
I found a recipe in my file from another baking blog called Bake or Break. This dessert was titled Chocolate Cobbler which always makes me think of Cracker Barrel’s Chocolate Cobbler. I just had to see if they were similar and thought you might like to see also. No eggs in this dish. How odd. Make sure that you look in the directions to get the correct measurements. They are all together in the ingredients list and divided in the paragraphs.

So what about the hot water? I debated. How hot is hot? I decided to make it as hot as I would drink hot chocolate since I did not have a point of reference. Normally, when hot water is added to a chocolate cake it requires boiling water. However, it did not say anything about it in what I read.
The taste? Great! It is a lot like Cracker Barrel's Chocolate Cobbler. The sauce really makes it wonderful. I might add a touch more salt and a little cinnamon to spice things up.

This was so easy. I can't believe I have not made this until now.

Chocolate Cobbler
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 cup flour
7 tablespoons cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 350°.
Stir together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Pour into an ungreased 8-inch square glass baking pan.
In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, and 4 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour hot water over the top. Do not stir.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Let stand for 15 minutes, then serve. Use the chocolate sauce in the bottom of the pan to spoon over servings. Garnish, if desired, with ice cream or whipped cream.

Double Iced Chocolate Cake

2008-06-23T14:01:00.004-05:00

Remember last week when I made that delicious Mississippi Fudge Cake? Well, I decided to make it for my sister-in-law’s birthday this past weekend because she is such a fan of anything chocolate. My mother-in-law thought it might be good with a layer of cream cheese instead of marshmallows. Why not? So I gave it a whirl. It was good. I have made double iced cakes in the past and I have eaten them made by professionals. They are always very good, but it is very hard to distinguish between the two layers of frosting. The cream cheese layer aided in the over all flavor but it did not stand out. I am a lover of both marshmallows and cream cheese so I am torn in which way I might go next time. I do think that if I was out of marshmallows this would be an excellent alternative.
This week is going to be hectic for us because we are having a Garage Sale! We have been getting ready for this since 2005. I know, way too long. Back about a month ago we decided what date to do this and I had lofty dreams of baking for the sale. I thought that would be so much fun to have baked goods at our garage sale. Now that the sale is a few days away I guess we will just see how much baking takes place. So if you live in the area make sure you stop. I can’t wait to see people carrying our old stuff away and me holding their money in my hand.

Double Iced Chocolate Cake
2 sticks of butter, melted
1/3 cup cocoa
Melt butter. Add cocoa a little at a time and cool.
4 eggs
1 ½ cup flour
2 cups sugar
Combine butter mixture with the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Pour into greased 9 x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Cake will be soft. Frost when cake has cooled completely.
Variation: ½ cup of chopped nuts may be added to the batter.

Frosting 1
4 ounces cream cheese at room temp
½ stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Mix ingredients and spread over cooled cake. Allow frosting to set up in the refrigerator.

Frosting 2
1 lb box of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 /2 nuts (optional)
Mix sugar and cocoa together. Mix in melted butter. Add milk and vanilla. Spread frosting over cake after first layer of frosting has chilled in refrigerator. Sprinkle with nuts on top if desired.

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake

2008-06-21T15:23:00.005-05:00

So I was in the kitchen today making my sister-in-law a cake for her birthday. (I have not given it to her yet so I will not reveal it until later.) I decided to make something for church tomorrow when an idea struck me. I had some muffin mix so I thought I would make a coffeecake. If I had two packages I would have used them both to make a thicker cake. A simple streusel on top and the cake was finished well, once it was baked of course. Very easy. I guess you could call this Kelli’s Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake. I like the sound of that.

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake
Cake:
1- 7oz package Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix (i.e. Martha White)
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon water
Prepare the mix as directed on the label. Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9-inch round cake pan. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly, and sprinkle over the batter.Bake the coffeecake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-32 minutes, until the topping is slightly browned and the cake springs back when lightly touched with a finger. Cool slightly before serving.
Variation: To make a thicker cake, use 2 packages of muffin mix with the same amount of topping. Increase baking time to around 42-45 minutes. Also, another idea is to use Blueberry Mix instead of Apple Cinnamon.

Giant Sugar Cookie

2008-06-18T13:23:00.005-05:00

My Mimi turned 90 years old yesterday and to celebrate with her friends and family we decided to make a giant decorated cookie. We thought it would be less messy than a cake, and we did not know how many would be attending her party because formal invitations were not sent out. The party went very well and my Mimi had a happy day.
This recipe is actually the base for a cookie pizza. You know the ones with the cream cheese frosting or dip with the fruit arranged in a circle on top. The cookie was crisp and buttery rather than soft and chewy. The recipe was very easy and a lot of fun to make something giant. I simply made a quick buttercream frosting and added hot pink food coloring for my icing. I lined my pan with a buttered parchment circle cut smaller than the pan for easy transfer. When the cookie came out of the oven I used a plastic knife to cut the edge off for a neat appearance. Final step was just some standard piping on top to finish. Not bad for a lefty with poor handwriting.

Giant Sugar Cookie
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
In mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, eggs, oil and extract. Blend together. In separate large bowl, add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add to creamed mixture and blend together. Spread dough into a greased pizza pan (16 inch). Bake at 375 degrees for about 17 minutes. (Ovens will vary; keep a close eye on it after 12 minutes.) Cool cookie and decorate as desired.

Mississippi Fudge Cake

2008-06-17T13:03:00.002-05:00

What a busy Father’s Day weekend. Whew. Well, let’s see, I started off by making my Dad a Pecan Pie on Friday which I talked about earlier. I made my husband Apricot Fried Pies on Saturday, which were not pretty enough to show, but he requested them. Again, I’m the Baking Redhead not the Frying Redhead. Don’t leave me alone with a pot of oil. I tend to start fires that way. Sunday, I got to enjoy a dessert for my father-in-law that I did not make. Yea! It was very tasty.
Today’s recipe is another one of my grandmother’s that was featured in our local newspaper in 1987. However, as much as I love her cake, I decided to make a different frosting that I found in our church’s cookbook. My decision was based on the fact that the newspaper did not print her frosting recipe correctly, and I was out of evaporated milk. The cake layer was so incredibly simple. Oh my. I kept looking for more things to do. So simple, wow. The only hard part was spreading the frosting over the marshmallows. I was glad to see that the other recipe I used gave instructions on length of time to wait before spreading. I remember watching my grandmother make this as a little girl, but I do not recall watching her do the hard part of spreading the frosting.
This would be an excellent potluck dish or good for funeral food. The cake is soft with a mild chocolate flavor. However, the frosting is very sweet with lots of chocolaty goodness. Next time I will put nuts in it and on top. It needed the little pops of protein. Today just happens to be my Mimi's 90th birthday, and soon you will see what I made for her party.

Mississippi Fudge Cake
2 sticks of butter, melted
1/3 cup cocoa
Melt butter. Add cocoa a little at a time and cool.
4 eggs
1 ½ cup flour
2 cups sugar

Combine butter mixture with the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Pour into greased 9 x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cake will be soft.
Sprinkle ¾ of a 10 oz. package of miniature marshmallows over hot cake and return to the oven for 10 minutes or until melted.

Frosting
1 lb box of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c nuts (optional)
Mix sugar and cocoa together. Mix in melted butter. Add milk, vanilla, and nuts. Spread frosting over cake after it has cooled for 1 hour.

Happy 90th Birthday Mimi!!!

Southern Pecan Pie

2008-06-13T17:04:00.005-05:00

For Father’s Day I decided that along with a gift for my Dad I would bake him something. Imagine that? Anyhoo, I first thought that I would bake him a cookie recipe I found that was naturally sweetened with fruit instead of white sugar. Sugar is not his friend therefore; he is supposed to stay away from the stuff. However, on occasion he will eat dessert. All my life I have heard about a certain Pecan Pie which is my Dad’s favorite treat. Three years ago I finally got the right combination on this particular style of Pecan Pie. There was a relative in his family that made Pecan Pie this way, and all Pecan Pies were from then on compared to her recipe. I was so excited that I found the recipe on the back of a package of pecans. However, I could never make it the same way as I did the first time. It would be too grainy or too runny or overcooked. But, I’d soldier on every time hoping that one day I would make it correctly. Today's was almost perfect.
The pie is creamy because of the evaporated milk, and strong because of the large amount of vanilla. Often times I will add ¼ to 1/3 cup of chocolate chips for a slight variation and too guard against graininess. You must use a deep dish pie shell such as Marie Callender’s or you will need to clean your oven at the end.

Southern Pecan Pie
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 Tab vanilla
1 ¼ cup pecans
1 pie shell

In mixing bowl, slightly beat eggs and sugar, corn syrup, evap milk and vanilla. Blend well. Add pecans and pour into unbaked 9 pie shell. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes or until filing is puffed in center and is well browned. Let pie cool.

Light Rocky Roads

2008-06-10T13:25:00.004-05:00

In my short time of food blogging I have learned that dessert bloggers love two bakers, Dorie Greenspan and Maida Heatter. They talk about them all the time. I have not made anything by Greenspan, but I know that there is somewhat of a following of her recipes on a certain day of the week. They call it “Tuesdays with Dorie.” (Get it? Like “Tuesdays With Morrie,” the book.) Funny thing is she didn’t start it. She learned about it by reading someone else’s blog and saw her name. How flattering. People learn what to make of hers on Tuesdays by checking a website. Then there is Maida Heatter. She is not blogged about as much as Dorie but there is some chatter. I kept seeing her name and then thinking to myself, “why do I know that name?” Well, low and behold, I have one of her most famous cookbooks in my collection. It is called, “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies.” This is a companion to the “Book of Great Desserts.” Her claim to fame was being the creator of prize- winning New York Times recipes. Cooks love her work because she gives incredible detail in her instructions. They say it like having her right beside you as you are making one of her recipes. To me, it looks like she was getting paid by the word. Her recipes are so lengthy in directions that I tend to get lost now and then. What she says in two paragraphs about cutting a pan of brownies could be said in two sentences in my opinion. That’s just me. Below you will find one of her recipes. I tried my best not to paraphrase anything except for a couple of paragraphs at the end about how to cut the Rocky Roads into 18 pieces. Just do your best.
A few things to note: The word “light” is only used to describe the brown sugar cake and not the lack of calories. Double-acting baking powder-if you use Clabber Girl, you’re covered. I chose to use dark brown sugar myself only because I had an opened bag. Finally, after I did the spreading of the melted chocolate, I thought it looked a bit messy so I sprinkled a few finely chopped nuts on top.
What about the taste? Oh, wow. When the bars were slightly above room temperature I decided to cut a piece to try them. Ooey, gooey bites of marshmallow and nutty bliss would be the words I’d use to describe them. The cake is very thin and full of nuts. The topping is warm, sticky and messy like chocolate and marshmallow should be when mixed together.
More things to note: Serve them while they are still a bit warm. Make sure that the nuts that are in the cake are finely chopped. The chocolate can be a bit over powering. Don’t use a heaping cup of chocolate chips; make sure it is just a cup.

Light Rocky Roads
By Maida Heatter
¼ cup sifted all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1/3 cup dark or light brown sugar, firmly packed
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter, melted
½ cup walnuts or pecans, finely cut

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat to 350. Butter an 8 inch square cake pan.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a small bowl beat the egg lightly until it is foamy. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and beat just to mix. Mix in the butter and then the sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts.
Turn the dough into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. It will be a very thin layer.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
Meanwhile line up the ingredients for the topping
Topping:
1 cup miniature marshmallows
2 ounces or ½ cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
6 ounces or 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately cover it with a layer of the marshmallows, then with the nuts, and then place the chocolate chips on top.
Raise the oven rack to the top position and bake the cake for only 2-3 minutes, no longer, just until the chocolate is softened but no long enough to melt the marshmallows. Immediately, with the back of a spoon spread the chocolate light and unevenly over the marshmallows and nuts, letting some the marshmallows show through in a few places.
Cool the cake to room temperature and then chill it briefly to barely set the chocolate. Cut into 18 pieces.
If chocolate because spotty, dust light with powdered sugar.

Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

2008-06-07T19:59:00.003-05:00

Hold on a second, just stuck a big gooey bite of a Banana Bar in my mouth. Sorry, you will have to make your own.
So I have wanted to make these Banana bars for a long time. We always have bananas in the house but BabyGirl eats them so quickly that they never have time to really ripen. So I deprived my child of a banana yesterday so I could make the bars today. I know, what a bad Mom. I wanted to make them last week but we received a plague of fruit flies on our house. Apparently, newly constructed houses tend to have a problem with fruit flies. Who knew? They love new drains. They also love homemade traps of vinegar and sugar which I made and left around the house. Just a tip in case they come to visit you in the future.
The bars are wonderful. Very mild banana taste. If you have ever had an Italian Cream Cake these bars will have a familiar flavor. Let me tell you, I have had my share and your share of that kind of cake. It was my Mimi’s favorite to make.
I got the recipe off of Cookie Madness a few months ago but I changed a few things for convenience. I baked mine in an 8 inch Pyrex pan and it took about 30 minutes. The cake came right out of the pan with no problem. She used Mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese and walnuts instead of pecans. Mascarpone can be pricey so I would just rather use good old Philadelphia cream cheese. Oh and by the way, 2 ounces of butter equals 4 tablespoons, and one large banana equaled a ½ cup mashed.

Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from cookie madness
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 ounces butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup toasted nuts
Frosting
3 ounces cream cheese at room temp
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 inch square metal pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray.
Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Using medium speed, beat in the egg, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Add the bananas and stir until well mixed.
Fold in the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Fold in the nuts. Pour batter in the pan, spread to the edges and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The bars might not appear very brown, so make sure to use a toothpick test. Cool on a rack. When cool, prepare frosting.

Baked Donut Muffins

2008-06-06T14:41:00.005-05:00

Not sure if I'm going to bake today, but I just had to tell you, Happy National Donut Day! Two holidays in one week, wow. Apparently, a lot of other food blogs are reporting on this day so I have decided not to go all out for it. You can check out Slashfood.com for more information. Here is a recipe for you that I have not tried, but it sounds easy and good. I'm not really a muffin person. I will bake them if someone makes a request, but I never just get up and say to myself,"muffins sound good." I guess because my least favorite pan is a muffin pan. Ahhh, hate to clean them and I'm not on the silicone bandwagon yet. I usually just make a coffee cake out of a muffin recipe and save myself the cleanup.
And as always, if someone makes this recipe please send me picture. I will hang it up on the post for everyone to see your work instead of mine. scarlet28[at]hotmail[dot]com

Baked Donut Muffins
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups flour
cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
Beat in the egg.
Add the dry ingredients and then the milk.
In a greased 12-muffin pan, fill each cup 2/3 full with batter.
Bake 20-25 minutes until done.
When done, but not completely cooled, roll each muffin top in the cinnamon sugar.

My Boxes

2008-06-04T17:00:00.003-05:00

Know anyone moving!?!?!?!
Don't you just love when I use my baking blog as a means of advertising things that I can't get rid of easily. At least I spare you the stuff I have on Ebay right now. My blog advertising is always last resort because you are here for baked goods not boxes necessarily.
But what the heck....

I have:
12 new medium size boxes; 2 new large size boxes; 1 new small size box
At least 60 used boxes of assorted sizes
At least 26 used banker style boxes
At least 12 used moving blankets
2 used wardrobe boxes filled with various packing
Used bubble wrap and tissue paper
All for a price

No picture. Boxes are boring.

Interested? scarlet28 [at] hotmail [dot] com (The brackets and words keep the spam away.)

Applesauce Cake

2008-06-04T15:15:00.004-05:00

Happy National Applesauce Cake Day!! I know, how specific of a food holiday. Just wait until December. You’ll see. Anyhoo, I have just been dying to use a funny cookbook I have from 1955 called, “Cakes Men Like.” Can you believe that title? There are only 14 recipes in this book; so I guess they are trying to say that men are picky eaters or they don’t really like a large variety of cakes. I was glad to see that they had an Applesauce Cake in the ones that they selected for the book.
I’m not sure this is the best example of a cake for today’s holiday, but it was still good. Very strong flavors of nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice which it reminded me a lot of Gingerbread. The loaf pan made it very easy, and aside from the sifting it was a simple recipe. A couple of things: I used 2 little ½ cup snack packs of applesauce which equaled one cup. I do prefer Santa Cruz Organic Applesauce over all the others out there. It is just like eating a fresh apple. Plus, I decided to make a quick icing. I chose to do a simple Powdered Sugar Icing because of the cake's Gingerbread like quality. I was in a hurry to get to my niece’s Kindergarten Graduation and did not have time to let things cool properly. The icing was drizzled over my piece of cake in the picture but it soaked it right up. You will notice that the cake either does not look done or is too moist. Neither is the case.
So here is your opportunity to make a cake from my funny cookbook. You can see if the man in your life really does like it.

Applesauce Cake
1 ¾ cups sifted flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
Sift together first 7 ingredients. Cream shortening. Add sugar gradually; continue beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Stir in applesauce. Add sifted dry ingredients; stir only enough to blend. Pour into pan. Bake 50-60 or until cake springs back to touch. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Frost if desired.
Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tab butter, softened
2 tab milk
¼ tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients and pour over cooled cake.

Mimi’s Japanese Pie

2008-06-02T19:49:00.007-05:00

A friend of the family was going through some old things that belonged to her mother and found an article from our local newspaper from 1987. Cooks/bakers in our area were being spotlighted by friends and family for their talents and recipes. My grandmother was one of the bakers chosen. This was news to me! I do not remember this article and the absolute most unbelievable thing to me was of all the recipes that she selected to go into the paper I had only had 2 of them. I went through the list of recipes and selected one that I just had to try today. Japanese Pie? What? The only one in our family that remembers this pie, vaguely, was my mother. So with that said, I had to find out something about this recipe.
My research of course started with the Internet. The only thing I could really find out was that it is more commonly referred to as Japanese Fruit Pie, and it has raisins and nuts in it instead of dates. It is considered to be as popular in the South as Pecan Pie. Okay, I’m going to have to disagree with that statement since I heard the name of it for the first time last week. Given the list of ingredients, nothing screams Asian to me. It is a mystery. If anyone knows the real origin of this recipe, feel free to comment.
It is very simple to make as long as you have the strange ingredients. The filling looks curdled and smells like pickle juice when you pour it into the shell. When it comes out of the oven it smells like cheese. Not to worry. That’s normal.
Let’s please talk taste. I’m sure you are just dying to know after that description. It has the filling of a Pecan Pie, the texture of a Coconut Pie, and the flavor of a Fruit Cake. Crazy? I know. If I chose to make this again I would reduce the vinegar to 2 teaspoons, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and ½ cup of nuts. My family, on the other hand, thought it was excellent and would not change a thing except for a few nuts.

Mimi’s Japanese Pie
1 stick butter or Margarine, softened to melted
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vinegar
1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c chopped dates
dash of salt
Beat butter, sugar, and eggs. Add the rest of ingredients. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 deg. for 40 mins – 50 minutes until done.
Note: Raisins may be substituted for the dates.

Sally’s Carrot Cake

2008-05-31T13:09:00.004-05:00

Update: The cake was a hit! People tried to come back for another piece, but it went very quickly.

As I have stated in the past, a simple truth, my mother does not cook. For some reason my mother’s name was put on the list of cooks/bakers for “funeral food” at our church. It must have been a joke on the “Funeral Food Ladies” or maybe on my mother, but they called her anyway! They needed her to make a cake of all things for a funeral today. My father took the call and listened as one of the ladies laughed her way through asking if my mother would make a cake. (It is not a secret to anyone that she can't cook which was the reason for the laughter.) My father said yes knowing that I would end up baking the thing. Of course I do not mind this; it is one of the things I can do and I don’t really know why I can. There were only, let’s see, 2 times in my life that I ever saw my mother bake anything. With her exhaustive list of recipes and culinary expertise, she decided to bake for the first time in the 1980’s when my Dad got a video camera. My Mom thought she had a cooking show at Christmas and made burnt cookies. She was more interested in putting on a “show” for the camera than actually baking a quality product. The second time was about 10 years later after we got over the first cooking experience and she made a bizarre low-fat, green key lime pie. It was interesting, no cameras that day and lucky for us the recipe yielded 2 pies! If one was not enough we had a second one to enjoy. I do remember calling my friends to come over and watch my mother cook. I think I should have sold tickets and made a little cash off her “cooking extravaganza.”
Now, on with today’s recipe. Baking for “something” is always a lot of self –induced pressure. I wanted to try a new recipe of course, but I wanted it to taste good. A Baking Redhead reader named Sally, who owns her own café and catering establishment, sent me this recipe. I do love Carrot Cake. Hmmmm. This recipe is loaded with so many goodies that I knew it had to be good. The unfortunate thing was I could not cut the cake and try a piece since I had to take it somewhere. However, there were some bits in the pan that I did get to sample and I decided I would have to make it again so I could cut a proper slice. It is a very moist cake with a lot of textures. To me it was like a carrot-pineapple salad, in cake form, with a hint of cinnamon and topped with cream cheese frosting. I know this does not do it justice so you must try it yourself. A half of a pound of carrots was enough for 2 cups and make sure your pans are well greased. I had to administer a little first-aid to one of my layers.
Thanks Sally!

Sally’s Carrot Cake
2 C sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 c finely shredded pared carrots
1-8 ½ oz. can crushed pineapple
1-3 ½ oz. can flaked coconut
2 cup sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 ½ c salad oil
4 eggs

Sift together first dry ingredients then add sugar, oil and eggs. Beat at medium speed one minute. Stir in carrots, walnuts, pineapple, and coconut. Turn into 3 greased and floured 9” round cake pans. Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling. Fill and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup butter
1-8 oz package cream cheese (softened)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar.

Mix all ingredients in order given. Fill and frost completely cooled cake. I double the recipe, as we like more frosting.

Here is a picture of one of the layers to show the different textures.

Easy Peach Cobbler

2008-05-29T15:22:00.005-05:00

I make two different kinds of Peach Cobbler depending on my mood and the amount of time I have in a day. The first and the more difficult/ more costly recipe involves 8 cups of peaches and a pastry crust. The second kind of cobbler is this one below. Now, I love them both but they are two very different creatures. The hard one is like a peach pie, and the easy one is like, well, a syrupy peach coffeecake? Maybe. Both are very yummy and rank high on my peach list. My husband would always vote for the pastry crust one because he loves pie. His love of pie and my love of cake brings variety to our kitchen.
Moving on. A few things to note. I don’t think you can over cook this dessert. Well, I’m sure you could, but I have made this before and forgot to reset the timer. I have no idea how long it cooked but it was fine. It says 30-45 minutes but I cook mine longer than that, more like an hour. The cakey part is very gooey and should be brown on top when you take it out. Serve this with vanilla ice cream when it is piping hot. The cream really adds to the flavor and cools the cobbler down a bit so that you do not burn yourself. Another thing to note, eat as much as possible the first time you serve it. This is not a recipe that reheats well.

Easy Peach Cobbler
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup milk
1 (29 ounce) can peach slices in heavy syrup, undrained
cinnamon, for sprinkling (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place butter in oven in a 2-quart baking dish to melt. Stir sugar and flour together and mix well. Slowly add milk and continue to stir to prevent the batter from lumping.
Being careful not to burn yourself, remove hot baking dish containing melted butter from oven; pour batter directly over butter in baking dish (DO NOT STIR).
Spoon fruit on top of batter, then gently pour syrup on top (DO NOT STIR). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if using. The most important part of this dish is not stirring the mixture.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Your batter will rise above your fruit, producing the most wonderful of crusts. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Coconut Macaroons

2008-05-27T20:30:00.005-05:00

Happy National Macaroon Day! It is really on May 31th, but better early than late. Well, to be totally honest, I looked at my calendar wrong and thought it was today. But, now that you have the recipe then you can celebrate on the actual holiday.
My husband asked me something interesting as we were testing out the cookies today. He wondered if a Macaroon is always coconut. I did not have an answer for him, but now I do. No. Macaroons can be made with ground or powdered nuts, coconut, cocoa, potato starch, corn starch, peanut butter, poppy seeds, toasted sesame seed paste, etc.They are cookies or confections, or crosses between the two, depending on where they are made. North America prefers coconut over the other choices. The macaroon is a close relative of the meringue which is another tasty treat. So now we all know more about this wonderful baked good. Don’t you feel a little bit smarter? As you can see, BabyGirl is nuts about coconut!

Coconut Macaroons
1 14 oz package sweetened coconut (5 1/3 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in egg whites (not whipped) and vanilla extract until well blended. Drop by tablespoonful onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake 325F for 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to wire racks. Cool completely.

Sweet Hands.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

2008-05-25T13:37:00.003-05:00

It has been awhile since I have chosen to get out the old loaf pan to bake some bread. I had another dessert to make last night so I thought this would be easy and good for church. I found this recipe a few months ago on another food blog called “Bake or Break.” I’m not sure if this is an original recipe of hers or she might have found it somewhere else. It was easy to make, but I did learn a few things during assembly. I toasted my pecans in the oven on a cookie sheet lined with foil while the oven was preheating. Three minutes was too long for such few nuts. Also, my nose did not tell me when they were done as the famous Rachael Ray likes to say. So keep a close eye on the nuts. Also, this bread is hard to test for doneness with a toothpick because of the cinnamon sugar swirl in the middle. So, 50 minutes should about cover it. One more thing, I did not have a loaf pan of those measurements. My standard Pyrex loaf pan worked just fine and it was a ½ inch smaller all the way around than the one stated in the directions.
The top of the bread is very crunchy, and the entire thing is not very messy. It would be a good one to wrap in cellophane and tie on a bow to give to someone. The taste is a lot like a cinnamon coffee cake but in an easy to carry loaf.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/flour/spray the bottom and sides of a 9″x5″x3″ loaf pan. Combine 1/3 cup of sugar, pecans, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Combine 1 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Then, stir in milk and oil. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not overmix.
Pour half of the batter into loaf pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon mixture. Repeat. With a wide rubber scraper or spatula, swirl mixtures together with a down and up circular motion.
Bake for 50 minutes or until done. Cool.

Cinnamon Shortbread

2008-05-22T17:36:00.004-05:00

This morning’s recipe was rather awful which always sets a tone for my day. Who wants to start their day being a failure? Note to self, “Swiss Chocolate” cake mix will not work if the recipe calls for “Devil’s Food” cake mix.” Ah, live and learn.
This afternoon I quickly looked through an old church cookbook and I found a recipe for shortbread. I enjoy shortbread from time to time when I’m tired of chocolate. This was very easy to make and had a good flavor. Keep in mind that shortbread is not very sweet. It is a lot like the inside of those Snowball Cookies, Wedding Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies, whatever you like to call them. The cinnamon and sugar top gave it a bit of a sweet crunch. I do not think I baked mine long enough because there was a little hint of dough, but still good. Traditional shortbread can be complicated. There are a lot of rules in mixing it up and using 10x sifted superfine sugar. You must then dock the dough a certain way with a fork in a complete circle in the center of the pan and make a certain number of marks coming out from the circle. Really, come on, who cares? Cut it with a knife and move on. You know I say this now, but some rainy day in October I will have a post titled, “Traditional Shortbread” with all the docking and the circles.

Cinnamon Shortbread
2 c flour
½ c confectioner’s sugar
1 c butter, softened
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
2 tab sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together flour, confectioner’s sugar, butter, salt and baking powder in medium bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Press into the bottom of a 9 inch square pan. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cut into bars while still warm.

Blackberry Dessert

2008-05-19T14:06:00.006-05:00

A few days after we moved into our new house a couple of kind souls brought us dinner and dessert. I could go on and on about the wonderful dinner, but my topic is always the dessert. It was blackberry. At first I thought to myself that I was not going to like it because I typically do not go for tart fruit recipes. However, with age, I am learning to expand my horizons on this matter. As I have said many times in the past, I grew up on cake, not fruit pies or cobblers. My experience with them is limited to the past 10 years because of my husband's love of fruit. With all that said, for two days I picked the recipe apart each time I ate a serving. Asking for the recipe was just too easy. The challenge would have been over at that point.

Yesterday, I decided to make the recipe.

It was very simple....

Dump and spread one can of blackberry pie filling in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.

Dump and spread a 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the pie filling

Dump and spread one yellow cake mix on top of mixture

Cut up 1 1/2 sticks of butter into small pieces and place on top of cake mix.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350.

So if you have not figured it out by now, it is a version of a Dump Cake. I have never had one or made one. Can you believe that? Well, it is true. Do you know the painstaking research I did on this dessert. Do you realize that I almost made my own pie filling from frozen blackberries. Or, the fact that I tried to figure out all the ingredients to the cake mix. And then, all of a sudden I was looking through an old cookbook and started seeing all the ingredients I had figured out from my taste testing. *Hallelujah chorus played in my head.* Life is a song you know.

Bottom line, it was wonderful. Great fruit filling, buttery caramelized crust, quick and simple steps. It opened my eyes to a new taste.

Blondie Brownies with Icing

2008-05-18T12:53:00.004-05:00

Tuesday? My last post was Tuesday? Just where have I been? I really don’t know. I do know that one day my internet did not work. Does that count? Well, I guess I could give lots of excuses, but really I have just had an equal combination of being busy decorating the house and too tired to bake. But enough about me...
I love a good blondie brownie. It is something about brown sugar. Hmmmm, good. These particular blondies are easy to make and taste like liquid brown sugar. The icing is so good that I am going to have to use it on something else. It has more body to it than your normal powder sugar icing. Plus, no need to get out the mixer. You can simply stir these up by hand with your utensil of choice. The batter looks like a praline when all combined.

The creator of this recipe must have had a very hot oven. This is not the first recipe that I have made by her. So, my guess is her oven was too hot or she likes really gooey baked goods. My oven is a true-temp oven and 20 minutes was not long enough. I would go with 25 minutes unless you like to eat your brownies with a spoon. Your decision.

Blondie Brownies
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 ½ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla in medium bowl. Sift flour, baking powder, soda and salt into sugar mixture and stir well. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Ice while hot.

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tab butter, softened
2 tab milk
¼ tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients and smooth over hot Blondie brownies.

Strawberry Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

2008-05-13T15:57:00.010-05:00

In Paula Deen’s most recent magazine publication I found a new Gooey Butter Cake recipe. I love her butter cakes, and there are so many different varieties. I had some fresh strawberries in the refrigerator from our Mother’s Day celebration and thought why not make something with them before they expire. You only need about 10 or so for this dessert.
I also love the smell of strawberry cake mix. I think they should bottle the stuff. The recipe came together easily however; I had an unusually messy time with the powdered sugar. I keep big old bags of powdered sugar in the pantry instead of little boxes. The little box would have made this baking experience way more organized. If you too do not have any little boxes of sugar just use about 4 cups of packed powdered sugar instead of a box. But, try to be neater about it unlike me.
The taste is like a gooey strawberry cheesecake with a strawberry flavored crust instead of say a graham cracker crust. I think the strawberry flavor in the crust is a bit overpowering but still good. I’m not sure there would be enough strawberry flavor if you were to use a plain cake mix. I also thought the pretty pink color looked like visions of springtime in my kitchen.

Strawberry Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
Ingredients
1 (18 1/4 ounce) package strawberry cake mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 large egg, divided
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (16 ounce) box confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberry
sweetened whipped cream, garnish
strawberry, garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, and 1 egg. Press mixture into bottom of prepared pan.
In a separate large bowl, beat cream cheese and 3 eggs at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioner’s sugar until combined. Stir in strawberries. Spoon mixture over cake mixture; bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely; cut into squares to serve.
Garnish with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries, if desired.