Well, I couldn’t do it. I could not figure out how to post the picture of the cake. So right now, take my word for it, it is a beautiful cake and makes a gorgeous presentation on your dessert table for any occasion.
3 cups sugar
3 sticks of butter, melted
4 eggs
1 tables almond extract
1 tables vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teas salt
1/4 cup raspberry jam (I used a little more than this)
1 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup sliced almonds (optional)
Preheat oven to 300. Mix sugar and melted butter on low. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add the extracts. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the batter, mixing until smooth. Pour about 1/3 of the batter into a greased and papered spring form pan. (Spray the wax paper also before adding batter to pan). Carefully smooth out a thin layer of the jam. Top with chocolate chips and half the slice almonds if using nuts. Carefully cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining sliced almonds, if desired. Bake for 1 hour and 45 min to 2 hours. Cool cake in pan for about 30 min and then remove and place on serving platter. Decorate with fresh raspberries and a mint leaf to make it look extra special or spindle on a little powdered sugar to the top….

Well, I have found my “go to chocolate cake” when I am wanting something chewy and chocolatey (is that a real word?) This is such a great brownie/cake and needs no frosting, it has such a wonderful middle that oozes chocolate chips and raspberry jam that goes perfectly with the almond flavoring that is in the cake. I didn’t use the almonds, but if you like crunch, add the almonds to it.

Am going to try to post the picture so will post the recipe in a min when I figure out how to get the picture on this site. I wish the computer came as easy to me as baking….would be a whole lot easier to live in this tech world. But for now, will just stay in the kitchen…smells better!

Our daughter who lives in Orlando texted me yesterday and told me that she had just made these muffins and they were just “delish”! I immediately ask her to send me the recipe and she did. Just went to the store to buy a jar of Nutella and after I post this recipe, am heading to the kitchen to bake them. You can tell just from reading the ingredients that this will be one of those recipes that you will hang on a magnet on the fridge so you can quickly pop some in the oven to have when the fire is lit this winter and you are wanting something just a little sweet to nibble on while you read and enjoy the fireplace….let me hear from you what you think of these. I will probably just sprinkle powdered sugar on them to have with a cup of tea, but if serving them for dessert to guests, will most definitely serve them with cream cheese frosting…

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teas cinnamon
1 teas nutmeg
2 teas baking soda
1 teas salt

Nutella cheesecake filling:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup Nutella
1 whole large egg

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add in sugar, pumpkin and oil and beat thoroughly. Add in remaining dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese, Nutella and egg until smooth. Place paper liners in a muffin tin. Place about 2 tables of pumpkin batter into each liner, then 1 tables of Nutella batter, topping with 2 more tables of pumpkin batter. Bake for 18-22 min. These are best served completely cooled. Makes 20 muffins.

1 can (15 oz) solid pack pumpkin
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teas ea: baking powder and ground cinnamon
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt

Filling:
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
Powdered sugar (optional) or Your favorite vanilla frosting (don’t you dare use canned frosting, you know better than that)
In large bowl, beat the pumpkin, sugar, oil and eggs until well blended. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into pumpkin mixture until blended.
For filling in another small bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and add egg. Beat on low just until combined.
Fill paper lined muffin cups 1/3 full. Drop filling by tablespoons into center of each cupcake. Cover each cup with remaining batter, dividing batter between the 24 cupcakes.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the pumpkin portion comes out clean. Cool for 10 min before removing from pans. Dust with powdered sugar when cool, if you desire or cool completely and frost with vanilla frosting. (that’s what I do, since I’m a frosting addict)

It is so good to be home. Being gone for a little over 3 weeks to attend my mother-in-laws funeral in Dallas and then go to Corpus Christi to take care of my mom in putting her in the same nursing home as my dad, emptying out their apartment was not only very emotional, but physically draining as well. It was good to come home. Randy was so glad to have his wife back and I was so glad to be back in my own house, especially my kitchen. It showed me that truly home is where your heart is and seeing that my heart is with Randy, it was good to walk off the plane and into his arms, which only last week, helped me to unload all my parents apartment. He just left Texas a few days before me to get back to work.
Since I had a few hours in the airport, most of you know that I use that time to scan the little Hudson News stands for new cookbooks and boy did I find a good one this time. It is Taste of Home Fall Baking and it is loaded with so many scrumptious recipes that I am starting today to bake the ones that caught my eye. The first one is Pumpkin cupcakes, which I will have ready when Randy walks in the door tonight. This weekend I will make Gingerbread with Crunchy Topping, which I will post after I sample it. I have not posted in a couple of weeks, due to the fact that I didn’t have use of a computer in Corpus. It is great to be back posting and cooking. The weather is cool today, rainy and calling for the fireplace to be lit. So tonight, that’s what we will do, light the fire, sample these wonderful pumpkin cupcakes and curl up on the couch to watch a movie. Is there a better way to spend a fallish Friday Night