Trying Some New Recipes

In my ongoing quest to shake up the menus around here, I recently tried a couple of new recipes.  One is a soup that appeared in the March 2015 issue of Country Living.  It's a lemony chicken orzo soup.  Since I love Panera Bread's version, I figured it was well worth a try.

It's light, yet filling.  The fresh dill adds a nice touch.  You can find the recipe on the Country Living site here.

An even better success was a scrumptious mini chocolate chip Bundt cake.  It was a big hit with me and our son.  I found this recipe in one of those compilation fundraiser cookbooks -- love those.

My cake stuck to the pan a little bit, as you can see in the photo below.  The topping is put in the pan first, and is maybe a little too buttery.  Tastes great, but leaves the fingers a little greasy if eating out of hand.

Nutty on top!

Imminently snackable

Toll House Bundt Cake

from A Cookbook by Sunset House Auxiliary Toledo Ohio (1991)

2 3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 cup less 1 Tablespoon milk

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Nut Topping:

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/3 cup chopped nuts

For topping, combine butter, sugar and nuts; mix until crumbly.  Spoon into well-greased and floured 12-inch Bundt (or tube) pan.  Chill in refrigerator while you prepare cake batter.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.  Place vinegar in 1 cup measure, fill with milk to 1 cup line; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Turn mixer to low.  Gradually add flour mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with milk.

Gently fold in chocolate mini chips with a rubber spatula.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 50 minutes.  Loosen edges of cake with spatula.  Immediately invert on cooking rack.

Printable recipe

Mrs. Haggard's Divine Coffee Cake

In the fall of 1981, Mrs. Haggard made the best coffee cake I had ever tasted.  I was in my first year of graduate school. Mrs. Haggard (did the woman have a first name?) was the wife of the department chairman.  The Haggards invited all the first years over to their home one evening early in the year to mingle with the faculty.  I was kind of nervous, and I don't think I actually talked to any faculty, but I did discover the most amazing coffee cake.  At the end of the evening, another student (Tracy) and I begged Mrs. Haggard for the recipe.  She very kindly sent it along with her husband the following week.  I have been making that cake ever since.  I expect Tracy, who was from South Dakota, probably still makes it too.  These days, my daughter is in grad school, and she bakes this cake for her friends.  It is always a big hit, and not just with starving graduate students.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup margarine or butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Cream margarine/butter and sugar together.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well. 

Sift together dry ingredients and add them, together with sour cream, to butter mixture.  Beat well.

Spoon half of batter into a greased Bundt pan.  (If you do not have a Bundt pan, a tube pan will work.)  Add half of topping.  Then remainder of batter.  Sprinkle on remaining topping.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50-60 minutes.  Turn upside down immediately.

Printable recipe

Spring and Summer Strawberry Cake

Nothing says warm weather to me quite like fresh strawberries.  I know they are available year round, but I really like strawberries when the weather is nice.  I like them plain, with cream, or mixed into a fruit salad.  So back in July of 2004, when Country Living featured a strawberry cake on the cover, I was intrigued.  I tried it, and it became a popular summer choice at our house.  This year, I celebrated spring by making strawberry cake for Easter weekend.  To make it extra festive, I tinted the whipped cream pink.

I apologize for the quality of the picture.  It was late evening by the time we whipped up the cream and assembled the cake, and our dining room is notorious for bad lighting in night-time pictures.

The neat thing about this recipe is that it makes two layers, but you serve it as a single layer, so you can freeze the other layer for another time.  The recipe is available on Country Living's website, even though it appeared in print eight years ago.  I see that it didn't get great reviews there, but we've always liked it.  Frankly, whipped cream makes even an ordinary cake extraordinary, and pink whipped cream -- well, it just doesn't get more special!

Frosting: The Tunic Top of the Cake World

A tunic top may not be the height of fashionable clothing, but it can serve as camouflage for figure flaws.  Baked goods, unfortunately, don't have the luxury of clothing to hide their flaws.  That's what frosting is for!

Chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting is a popular birthday cake choice at our house.  Our son chose it this year to celebrate leaving his teenage years behind.  Wouldn't you know it, for the first time, the cake stuck to the pan.  It was not a full-blown disaster stuck to the pan, but both layers stuck on the sides a little bit.

My son, bless him, said it didn't matter.  He was right, of course.  I just made extra frosting and filled the damage with whipped cream.  Works for me!

The recipe comes from the May 2005 issue of Country Living magazine.  The issue featured cakes from a reader recipe contest.  I have changed the recipe only slightly.  This moist and delicious cake is not overly sweet, and the whipped cream frosting means you can omit ice cream and not miss it at all.  The recipe for another of our favorite birthday cakes, Praline Turtle Cake, comes from the same issue of Country Living.

Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake

Adapted from Country Living May 2005

Cake:

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups sugar

12 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Frosting:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar

1/4 plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.  Line bottoms with parchment paper.  Grease the paper as well and dust with flour.  Set pan of water or kettle on to boil.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in large bowl.  Whisk in sugar.  Beat in oil, milk, eggs and vanilla using a mixer set on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and add 1 cup boiling water.  Batter will be very thin.

Pour batter into pans and tap to remove air bubbles.  Bake until pick inserted in each cake comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.  Cool pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool completely.

Frosting:

Beat cream and confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form.  Gently fold in granulated sugar and cocoa (add cocoa through sieve to prevent clumps).  Mix gently until combined.

Place about 1/3 of the frosting and ½ of the mini chocolate chips between the layers.  Frost top and sides of cake and decorate the top with the remaining mini chips.  Store in the refrigerator.

Printable recipe

Cake of the Gods

On a down day, there's nothing like playing some loud music and doing some cooking.  Yesterday, to take my mind off things, I cranked up Cary Ann Hearst on the iPod and made this rich and scrumptious almond-saffron cake.  Eating a slice warm from the oven doesn't hurt either!

Can you see the bits of saffron?

the tastes that make it special

I clipped the recipe from the now-defunct Cottage Living magazine years ago, but you can find it on myrecipes.com where it was posted by its creator, Kim Sunee.  My daughter and I love this cake so much, we say it is what the gods would eat if they got hungry.  We are absolutely crazy for it but, strangely, my husband and son don't much care for it.  Maybe it's a girl thing.  Saffron, orange zest, almond, butter and sour cream.  I say, what's not to like?  The recipe suggests dusting with powdered sugar or even topping with an orange juice glaze.  I prefer it in its unadorned, straight-from-the-oven state.

batter before and after adding saffron-zest-milk mixture

the luscious, golden finished product

The Ultimate Fall Cake

I finally got around to making a cake with the apples we picked at the orchard two weeks ago.  This cake is very popular in my family.  It is my mother's recipe that I have tweaked just a little.  And because it contains apples, it must be healthy, right?  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Fresh Apple Nut Cake

3 cups flour (I use 2 ½ cups unbleached and ½ cup whole wheat)
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½  teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 ¼ cups oil
3 cups pared, chopped apples
1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans, but walnuts work well too)
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, and spices; set aside.  Beat eggs, then gradually add sugar and beat in dry ingredients and oil.  Stir in apples and nuts.
Put mixture into lightly greased tube pan and bake at 350 for 1 ½ hours (check when there's 15 minutes left just to be sure you don't overbake).  Cool about 5-10 minutes in pan; remove and cool on wire rack.

This also tastes great warm.  Just sayin'.

Printable recipe

Simple Pleasures

On this Labor Day weekend, I'm reminded that often the best things are the simple ones.  Being with family, a brat from the grill, and simple, old-fashioned cakes.

I've had a hankering for this pound cake for a couple of weeks, so I decided to make it for this weekend.  It's an old recipe from my mother, called simply "Wonderful Pound Cake."  Which it is!

Wonderful Pound Cake

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (can omit)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cup milk
2 1/4 cup sifted flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs




Preheat oven to 300 degrees.


Stir the butter or margarine to soften.  Gradually add sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.  (Beat about 3 minutes on medium speed.)  Add lemon peel, if used, and lemon juice.  Add milk and mix enough to break up creamed mixture.


Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until smooth (about 2 minutes on low speed).  Scrape down at least once.


Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each (low speed).  Beat additional 1 minute at the end.  Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.


Bake in greased and floured 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 2 3/4 loaf pan at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

And because a little chocolate never hurts, I also made this easy chocolate pudding cake!


Happy Labor Day!


Printable recipe for pound cake