Category: Desserts

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Blueberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

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Love, love, love blueberries! This recipe is taken from Food Network Summer Favorites!

Cake:

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp, plus more for the pan.

3 cups plus 2 tables all purpose flour

2 1/2 teas baking powder

1 1/4 teas salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs, at room temp

1 teas vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups fresh blueberries (about 1 pint)

For the toppings

1 pint strawberries, halved or quartered

1 to 2 tables sugar

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tables unsalted butter, at room temp

4 to 5 tables milk

To make the cake, preheat oven to 350. Generously butter a nonstick 12 cup bundt pan.

Whisk 3 cups flour, the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat 2 sticks butter, the granulated sugar and the oil with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and half of the buttermilk, beating until incorporated. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and the remaining buttermilk. Beat, scraping down sides as needed, until all is combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat 30 seconds. Finish blending the flour to avoid overmixing.

Toss the blueberries with the remaining 2 tables flour in a bowl. Spoon 1/3 of the batter evely into the prepared pan. Sprinkle in half of the blueberries, then top with another 1/3 of the batter. Scatter the remaining blueberries on top and cover with the rest of the batter, smooth the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and tests done by inserting knife in center of cake and it comes out clean. It will bake about an hour to hour and 5 min. Transfer to a rack and let cool 30 minutes in the pan. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the toppings; Toss the strawberries with the granulated sugar in a bowl; let stand 30 minutes.

Just before serving, make the glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar, butter and 4 tables milk in a bowl. If glaze is still to thick, add up to 1 more tables milk. Pour the glaze over the cake. Serve with the strawberries and their juices over cake.2015-07-03 10.01.44

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

Brown Sugar Fudge Cake

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Summer is suppose to be all about the fresh fruit, cool ice box pies & ice cream. But in my world, any season is perfect for chocolate. The combination of the brown sugar with the unsweetened cocoa, makes for a moist, delicious flavor that creates a great chocolate cake.

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teas baking soda *see below

3/4 teas salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 teas vanilla

3 eggs

3 envelopes (1 oz each envelope) Nestle Chocolate Unsweetened Bake (If you cannot find these, use 3 squares of 1 oz each unsweetened chocolate, melting as per directions on box)

1 cup buttermilk

*If you don’t use your baking soda regularly, test it to be sure it is still good by dropping in about a 1/2 teas in a glass of warm water, if it doesn’t fizz up, replace the baking soda)

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the melted chocolate.

Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9″ round or square pans. Bake 30 to 32 minutes  or until cake tests done. Cool on wire racks. Fill and frost with your favorite frosting.

It is wonderful with browned butter frosting or the chocolate frosting that is on the blog. Just put in chocolate frosting in the search engine.  The browned butter frosting is under the Fresh Apple Cake post, so just put that in the search space.

Chocolate · Desserts

Nestle Tollhouse Heavenly Cream Cheese Pie

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Taken from a Tollhouse Cookbook from 1980, this chocolate cream pie is a great and a little different pie. Just finished making the Fresh Peach Miracle Pie for family tonight, but as soon as it is gone, will be making this pie…

Chocolate Nut Crust

1 6 oz package (1 cup) Nestle Toll House Semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tables shortening

1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

Filling

1 (6 oz) package (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1/8 teas salt

2 eggs, separated *(If you worry about the egg yolks, buy imitation eggs for this recipe but you will still need 2 egg whites)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 teas  vanilla

Chocolate crust:

Line a 9″ pie pan with foil. Over hot (not boiling) water, melt 1 cup of the semi-sweet chips with the shortening, stir in nuts.

Spread evenly on bottom and side of prepared pie pan. Chill in fridge until firm, about an hour. Lift out of pan, by the edge of the foil.

Remove foil and place back in pan. Chill until ready to fill.

Filling

Melt the other 1 cup of the chocolate chips over hot (not boiling) water; cool 10 min. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and the salt. Beat until creamy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Stir in cooled chocolate. Set aside. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Set aside. In a small bowl, beat cream and vanilla unit stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream and beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture. Pour into chocolate crust and place in fridge for about 4 hours. Garnish with more sweetened whipping cream.

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Key Lime Coconut Angel Cake

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I have a cookbook from the ladies of First Bapt.,Jacksonville, Florida. A friend gave this to me years ago and it is still one of my favorite books to sit and look through. This recipe had not popped off the page at me until now. As much as I love Key Lime anything, I cannot believe I have not noticed this. But I have now and am buying an angel food cake next trip to the store.

Summer is here and all that is sounding good is cold desserts, full of lemon, strawberry or lime! This one is totally up my alley.

1 round angel food cake (store bought so you don’t have to heat up the kitchen)

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated) ex: Eagle Brand

1/3 cup key lime or regular lime juice

12 oz frozen whipped topping, thawed, such as Cool Whip, Extra Creamy (or use real whipping cream, which you would only need 2 cups whipped)

1 cup flaked coconut

sliced kiwis and strawberries, if desired

Using a serrated knife, slice cake horizontally into 3 layers with a sawing motion, or use an electric knife, if possible.

Beat milk and lime juice in a large bowl with a wire whisk until smooth and thickened. Fold in whipped topping. You may use a little more juice for added flavor, but be careful not to make it to thin.)

Frost layers of cake as you assemble. Sprinkle with coconut and garnish with the fruit.

Place in fridge for several hours, to enhance flavors…Enjoy and be cool!

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Princess Payton Cupcakes

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Last week, our daughter in law, Mandy had ask if I would make the cupcakes for our granddaughter’s 1st birthday party. All the relatives would be coming into town from near and far and it was a joyous occasion. Of course, we wanted everything to be pink so the cupcakes were going to be strawberry. I began to look for cupcake pics that would go with the theme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and found these precious pink netting with glitter piks at Hobby Lobby and then made star pics for some cupcakes as well.

Thought a post of some of the ideas that helped might be helpful to you, if you are so inclined to be giving a party for a princess in the near future.

Cupcakes: Made from a strawberry cake mix, substituting strawberry juice for the water that the mix called for. Also, buy a package of Dream Whip and make the cupcakes according to the recipe on the Dream Whip Box. They will be so much lighter and fluffier.

1 envelope of Dream Whip (it is boxed whipping cream which is found on the baking good aisle at grocery store)

4 eggs

1 cup cold water (I used cold strawberry juice)

1 strawberry cake mix

Beat on medium for 4 full minutes and pour into cupcake lined cupcake pans. Bake about 13 minutes or until they test done. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1 stick butter

1 box or 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teas vanilla

Enough strawberry juice (I got the juice from thawing out frozen strawberries that you get in a container in the frozen food aisle and just draining off the juice after they have thawed)

Beat all until creamy adjusting the powdered sugar and juice until the frosting is able to hold its shape when placed in a cake decorator to be piped onto cupcake. *I doubled the amount of frosting, as I was making 48 cupcakes! Had just enough after doubling recipe for frosting.

Take about 1/2 cup of the frosting and place in a glass bowl. Place it in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds, until it is melted. Take each cupcake and turn them upside down, dipping the tops in the melted frosting. This seals the cupcake and keeps it fresh longer. Then, using your star tip cake decorator, fill tube with frosting and make a big enough swirl to put a cupcake pic in the middle of it.

Repeat until all cupcakes have been frosted. If you have a container that will hold the frosted cupcakes, cover them and place in fridge until about an hour before serving. This also helps to keep them moist. Then remove from fridge and place a pic in each cupcake. The cupcake stand also came from Hobby Lobby!

Princess Payton Cupcakes
Princess Payton Cupcakes

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Fruit

Neapolitan Cheesecake

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Leave it to Taste of Home to publish a great and different cheesecake. I had never seen a recipe for this and it sounds quite good. Will be the next cheesecake I make. The recipe has won several first place ribbons at fairs and is from a lady who lives in Canada.

1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

5 tables butter, melted and divided

3 packages ( 8 oz ea) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teas vanilla

5 squares (1 oz ea) semisweet chocolate, divided

2-1/2 (which will be equal to 2 1/2 oz) white baking chocolate, divided

1/3 cup mashed sweetened strawberries

2 teas shortening, divided

Combine crumbs, 3 tables melted butter; press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9″ spring form pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree  preheated oven for 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Add vanilla. Divide into 3 portions, about 1 2/3 cup each.

Melt 2 squares semisweet chocolate; stir into one portion of batter. Melt 2 squares of white chocolate; stir into second portion. Stir strawberries into the 3rd portion. Spread semisweet mixture evenly over crust. Carefully spread with white chocolate batter, then the strawberry mixture on top of that. Place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated 425 oven for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300. Bake about 50 minutes or until center is nearly set. You want it to jiggle slightly. Remove from the oven; immediately run a knife around the edge. Cool then remove from pan.

Melt remaining semisweet chocolate, remaining butter and 1 teas shortening; cool for 2 minutes. Pour over cake. Melt remaining white chocolate and rest of shortening; drizzle over the chocolate glaze. Cool in fridge at least 4-6 hours.

Serves: 12-14

Breakfast · Desserts · Fruit

Wonders Never Cease

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By glancing at the title, you might be thinking, ‘wow, this must be a post of something really important”…and it is, if you like chicken salad like I do…and individual desserts. I learned a couple of things this week. (Besides the fact that I cannot eat a donut for breakfast, cookies with ice tea in the afternoon and a huge slice of pie after dinner and not expect to be able to fit in anything but a MuMu)

On Tues, I was at a friends house for a lunch and she served chicken salad. As we commented that it was really so very good, she told us to try to guess what was in it. Usually I’m pretty good at guessing different spices..(.yes, that is one of my talents, spice clarification!) but couldn’t figure out what made this salad taste so different. When no one could guess, she told us that besides the combo of using Greek yogurt, sour cream and mayo, she sprinkles in Lemon Pepper and dry Ranch Dressing. I just made it for Randy and take my word for it, it was so great!

Also, this week on Facebook I saw that someone posted individual apple pies, made with crescent rolls. So I immediately bought what was needed and that was out lunch dessert today.

I found a little can that has 4 crescent’s in them, (which yea, gives us two each) bought an apple and came home and put them together. Took 5 min of prep time and baking time of about 12 minutes. If you are looking for a simple yummy dessert, try this.

Just unroll the crescents and tear them apart where they are perforated. Spread softened butter on each roll. Sprinkle some cinnamon and brown sugar over the butter. Peal and slice an apple and cut into 4 wedges. Place a wedge on each roll and roll up, placing the large side up. Sprinkle a little more butter, cinnamon and brown sugar on top. Bake at 375 for about 12-14 min. or until tops are golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream or just plain. Individual Apple Tart

Cakes · Desserts

Summer Fruit Cake

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Going through a old spiral notebook that I began when I married in 1973, I found this recipe which my neighbor gave me when she moved in a few houses down from me. She was from Lampasas, Tx and was a really good cook. We would sit in the yard watching the kids play and talk about recipes we loved and what our kids would eat. This recipe was handed down to her from her grandmother and her family had been making it ever since. I am not a big fruit cake lover, but this one sounded like something that I would enjoy, with a big scoop of whipping cream or ice cream during the summer. Give it a try. It is so different from a traditional fruit cake. Here’s hoping you like it also.

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

6 eggs, at room temp

1 can flaked coconut

1/2 cup milk

1 large box vanilla wafers, crushed in a plastic bag or blender

1 cup of chopped pecans

8 oz candied cherries, or dried apricots, cut up, or 1 cup of golden raisins

In mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add coconut and blend. Add the milk. With a spoon, add the crushed vanilla wafers, 1/3 at a time until all is incorporated.

Add the nuts and fruit (cherries or raisins or apricots). Put in a greased and floured tube pan. Bake in a preheated 250 oven for about 2 hours. Cake can be frozen.

*Depending on your oven, Jo told me that she usually baked hers about 2 1/2 hours, although her directions said 2 hours. When cake tests done, remove from oven and allow to cool before transferring out of pan onto a platter to serve.

Desserts · Fruit

Summer Sweets

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A friend of mine has asked me to contribute a easy summer recipe for her blog. I thought it best to give her a choice of 3 great refreshing desserts. This first one, the Cheesecake Filled Strawberries, I found on Pinterest. They look so pretty and they are so easy to put together. Can’t wait to have ladies over to make them.

1. Cheesecake Filled Strawberries

1 lb large strawberries

8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tables powdered sugar
1 teas vanilla
Graham cracker crumbs *(I added a little about 1 teas sugar to crumbs to make them taste more like graham cracker crust)
Directions:
Rinse strawberries and cut around the top of the strawberry. Remove the top and hollow out with a paring knife, being careful not to cut through to the outside of the strawberry. Prep all strawberries and set aside to dry, covered with a towel, so they don’t dry out.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy. Put cream cheese mixture into a piping bag or a ziplock bag which you will cut the tip of the bag to allow you to fill strawberries with the cream mixture. Fill each strawberry with the cream cheese mixture. Once all the strawberries are filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately, place covered in fridge until ready to use. Better if eaten the same day.
Recipe #2
Frozen Fruit Mallow
1 (9 oz) can crushed pineapple
1 (3 o) pkg cream cheese, softened
1 (7 oz) bottle lemon-lime soda (*I used Sprite)
2 (10 oz) packages frozen sliced peaches
1 cup halved green grapes
1 cup heavy cream, whipped (until stiff peaks form, but be careful not to whip it till it becomes like butter)
1 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
Blend undrained pineapple and cream cheese. Stir in Sprite (or 7 Up); add fruits. Freeze until partially set. Then fold in whipped cream and marshmallows. Pour into 9″ square pan or a 2 qt dish. Freeze until firm. Yield 6-8 servings.
Recipe #3
Lemon-Strawberry Trifle *Taken from Taste of Home
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup vanilla yogurt
2 cups milk
1 package (3.4 oz) instant lemon pudding mix
2 teas grated lemon peel
2 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries, divided (or use a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)
1 tables orange juice or water
1 tables powdered sugar
1 prepared angel food cake (8 to 10 oz)
In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and yogurt. Add the milk, dry pudding mix and lemon peel; beat until smooth. In a blender, process 1/2 cup strawberries (or mixed berries) with orange juice or water and powdered sugar and blend until smooth.
Tear cake into 1″ cubes; place a third of the cake cubes in a trifle bowl or 3 qt serving bowl. Top with a third of the pudding mixture and half of the remaining strawberries. Drizzle with half of the strawberry sauce. Repeat. Top with remaining cake then pudding mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. * I topped mine with sweetened whipping cream (or Cool Whip if you prefer) Decorate with whole berries before serving if desired.
Yield 12-14 servings.
Desserts · Fruit

When Words Fail You, Pies Never Do

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I just saw those words in a Taste of Home magazine over an advertisement for Lucky Leaf Blueberry Pie filling. As I sat there and pondered (and yes, I know, I need to get a life more than dissecting and trying to find meaning through recipes)

that statement, I remembered that all the years growing up, the nights when I got stood up (thankfully there weren’t TOO many of those), or didn’t make the grade I wanted, or having a bad hair day,( which there were so many of those, living in a humid windy city) walking into the kitchen and finding a homemade chocolate, cherry or buttermilk pie…well, I didn’t need to hear any words from my Mom or Dad, I just had to sit down with a great big glass of sweet tea and a piece of pie. It just made everything seem a little better. Pies just always seem to say, Welcome Home, I’m glad you are here.

When I was leafing through this old Taste of Home magazine, I came across this cream cheese stuffed blueberry pie. It sounds delish so think I will make it this weekend, you know, just in case I miss the 12 hour sale at Stein Mart or find that after stepping on the scale, that I have obtained a muffin top on top of the one I already have. I don’t know why I keep gaining a few pounds every year! Must be all the carrot sticks I keep munching on; note to self…give up the carrots so I will have more tummy space for pie!

Blue Ribbon Stuffed Crust Blueberry Pie (substitute cherry or apple, if you like)*If you use the apple, omit the almond extract)

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1 teas grated lime peel

1 teas lime juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teas almond extract

2 (9″) pie crusts (if using refrigerated crusts, let them get to room temp)

1/4 cup slice almonds

1 (21 oz) can Lucky Leaf Premium Blueberry Pie Filling or Cherry

Preheat oven to 425. Beat cream cheese, lime peel, lime juice, sugar and almond extract until creamy. set aside.

Unroll one pie crust and press into sides and bottom of the pie pan. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and press them lightly into the crusts. Top with 3/4 of cream cheese filling.

Unroll second crust; place on filling. Flute edges to form double crusts; pierce with fork. Spread Pie Filling on top of crust.

Add remaining cream cheese filling over the fruit filling and swirl with a spoon, being careful not to disturb the crust underneath.

Bake at 425 for 15 min; reduce oven to 375 and bake 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden around the edges. Cool and refrigerate before serving.