Category: Fruit

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Lemon Blueberry Trifle

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photoYesterday I said that I was going to serve the Blackberry cake for dessert tonight, but I have to say that it was not what I thought it would be. It is like a banana loaf cake or spice cake loaf and that was so different than what I had pictured in my head. So this morning I got a lemon layer cake out of the freezer (see how useful those extra cake layers are when you need something at the last minute?), made some instant lemon pudding and wa la, decided to make individual trifles for dinner guests tonight.

4 pretty glasses with stems

1 can blueberry pie filling

1 small package lemon instant pudding

1 lemon cake layer (Or if you don’t have this, you could use crumbled up shortbread cookies)

1 cup of heavy whipping cream.

Make your instant pudding according to directions. Set aside.  Using a round biscuit cutter, cut the cake with the cutter that will allow you to place the cut cake inside the glass you are using. Divide the pudding between the 4 glasses. Place one of the cut cakes on top of the pudding. Put about 2 tables of the blueberry pie filling on top. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Mix the cup of  whipping cream with 2/3 cup powdered sugar or granulated sugar. The reason to use powdered sugar in place of granulated sugar is that the powdered sugar has corn starch in it which helps keep the cream “whipped” a little longer and you don’t have to be sure that all the granulated sugar is dissolved.  (I know some of you are better than I am at watching calories and will use Cool Whip and that is “cool”)

Before serving the trifle, top with about 2 tables whipped cream. Will post a picture of the trifle without the whipping cream as I don’t want to put it on until right before serving.

Cakes · Fruit

Blackberry Jam Cake

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Anytime I see the word “jam” alongside a cake, my eyes take notice. I just returned from going to Whole Foods, (do I not sound like a real Californian now; next you will be hearing me say, “I bought my first pair of Birkinstocks”, ha, don’t think that will happen unless they come in pink with cute little sparkles or ribbons on them) where I bought the 18 oz jar of seedless blackberry jam to make this cake. Will be making it tonight for dinner guests tomorrow night.

Preheat oven to 350

1 cup buttermilk

1 teas baking soda

1 cup butter, softened

4 large eggs, at room temp

1 teas vanilla

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teas ground cinnamon

1 teas allspice

3/4 teas ground cloves

1/2 teas salt

1 (18 oz) jar seedless blackberry jam

1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans

Powdered sugar, optional

Stir together buttermilk and baking soda.

Beat butter at medium speed with mixer until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating until light and fluffy and stopping to scrape bowl as needed. “Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Stir flour, and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; gradually add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended afar each addition. Add preserves, and beat at low speed just until blended. Stir in pecans. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 10” tube pan.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 1 hour, maybe a few more minutes, maybe a few less, depending upon your oven. Using a long toothpick, insert in middle of cake to test doneness. Remove from pan after about 15 min onto a pretty serving plate and dust with powdered sugar if desired. If you really want to add a southern punch, top it off with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla for those of you who live in Blue Bell Country. If you are not able to buy BB, use the Sweet Cream Ice Cream from Cold Stone or Marble Slab. Yum….my mouth is watering, just picturing this in my mind.

Cakes · Fruit

Strawberries & Cream Cake

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Taken straight from the new Southern Living, this cake will absolutely “WOW” your guests as it should be the centerpiece of your Easter table.

2 cups sifted cake flour

2 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas table salt

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

4 large egg yolks

8 large egg whites

1 teas cream of tartar

Strawberry jam filling (use either Smuckers strawberry jam) or use the recipe given from SL which is:

4 cups mashed fresh strawberries

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 (3 oz) package strawverry-flavored gelatin

Stir together strawberries and sugar in a large saucepan; let stand 30 min. Bring strawberry mixture to a boil over medium heat; boil 5 min. Remove from heat, and stir in gelatin until dissolved; cool completely. Cover and chill 8 hours

StraPreheat oven to 350.  Stir together first 3 ingredients and 1 cup sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of mixture and add oil and next 2 ingredients, and 1/4 cup water. Beat at medium high speed with mixer 3-4 min or until smooth.

Beat egg whits and cream of tartar at medium high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tables at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir 1/4 of egg white mixture into flour mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon batter into 6 greased and floured 8″ round cake pans.  (you can buy disposable aluminum 8″ cake pans)

Bake at 350 for 2-15 min or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 min; remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.

Place 1st cake layer on a pretty serving plate. Spread filling between cake layers leaving a 1/4″ border around edges. (this is about 2/3 cup jam on each layer. Do not put jam on top layer. If you use the cooked SL recipe, you will need to cover the cake and place in fridge at least 8 hours.

Strawberry Frosting:

1 tables strawberry-flavored gelatin

2 tables boiling water

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 (8 oz) container sour cream

Stir together first 2 ingredients in a small bowl. Cool completely for about 20 min. Beat whipping cream and geletin together at high speed with mixer until foamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Stir in sour cream, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring just until blended after each addition. Cover sides and top of cake with Frosting. Decorate with colored sugar or edible flowers or any garnish that you desire.

Cakes · Fruit

Robert E Lee Bundt Cake

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My neighbor, Nancy and her twin sister, Sally (if you read An Era Gone By a few months ago on the blog, you will remember they are 80 year old twin sisters, who are just the cutest and dearest things, ever, and love cooking magazines.) I come home quite frequently to find the magazines they have finished going through on the table outside my front door. It is such a favorite thing of mine to just sit and look through different recipes. One that they buy and share with me is called, Southern Living Comfort Food, which is a take off from Southern Living Magazine that comes out with special issues. This cake intrigued me. Is it called REL Bundt cake because he made up the recipe?, or because it was one of his fav’s? or just because someone in the south made up this wonderful pound cake, or someone whose dream was to be REL?  Which ever the reason, it is a great cake for our Easter season with it’s fruity theme and gorgeous garnishes.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)

3 cups granulated sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups flour

1/2 teas baking powder

1/8 teas salt

1 cup milk

4 teas orange zest, divided

2 teas lemon zest, divided

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tables fresh orange juice

Garnishes: fresh raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries (I always want to type goosebumps), fresh mint sprigs

Preheat oven to 325. Beat butter and shortening with mixer until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Stir together: flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in 2 teas orange zest, 1 teas lemon zest and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10″ bundt pan.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 5 min to 1 hour and 15 min or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not over bake. Watch closely the last few minutes of baking. Cool in pan on a wire rack about 10 min and then remove from pan. Cool completely. Whisk together the powdered sugar and rest of lemon and orange zest and orange juice. Spoon over cake, Garnish with fresh fruit on platter to serve.

Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit

Strawberry Pie

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

The sunshine that is so gorgeous this time of year just makes me think of strawberry pie. Tonight several young moms are coming over here for dessert after they go for a massage. This is the MOPS ladies (mothers of preschoolers) that sit at my table on Wednesday mornings and I have just grown to love them and appreciate their efforts to grow as Christian wives and moms. They were wanting a night out so I told them to come over here for dessert after they go for massages. What better way to end their night out than with a wonderful strawberry pie and hazelnut brownie cups, with coffee or tea. These pies make wonderful endings to your Easter dinner. Top them with fresh whipped cream and you will be the hit of the day.

2 pie crusts, baked and cooled

2 quarts of fresh strawberries (washed, trimmed and sliced, saving some for top to place on top)

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups water

4 1/2 tables corn starch

6 tables strawberry jello (not sugar free, it won’t work)

Place the water, sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan. Stir continually being sure to break up the cornstarch so they don’t lump together. When mixture begins to boil and becomes thick and clear, take off the heat and stir in the strawberry jello and stir until well blended.

Fill each baked and cooled pie shell with strawberries, dividing between the two pie shells. Pour half of the jello mixture onto each pie, being sure each strawberry is covered with some of the jello mixture. Place in fridge to cool and top with whipping cream, right before serving.photo

 

Desserts · Fruit

Houston’s Key Lime Pie

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We hit a home run. Yesterday, I had said on FB that we wanted Houston’s Key Lime pie, which is our top favorite pies in the world and because it was Valentines and I just knew I would earn more points if I was showing my “thriftiness” by trying to make one at home instead of going and buying 2 slices which would cost about $17, I came home and googled “Houston’s Key Lime Pie” and ding dong, there on the page was a recipe that I tried last night and we sat there just in Key Lime Pie heaven…apparently, there is a chef that goes around and calls himself the CopyCat Chef by trying to duplicate different famous recipes from restaurants that people want, but cannot get…so he had one for Houston’s Key Lime Pie…I did tweak it just a little, because I totally believe their crust has cinnamon in it, plus ground up pecans or walnuts, so I did change the crust he had listed…so will give you my version of the crust, because I feel like it is closer to the real thing than what he had…so here it is!

Make your regular graham cracker crust but add 1 teas cinnamon and substitute light brown sugar for the granulated sugar. Because I was at Trader Joe’s I ended up buying their cinnamon graham crackers which are really good and then just had to add the brown sugar and crushed pecans. I made my crust in a food processor which made the crumbs really finely crushed…I also put the pecans in it at the same time plus the brown sugar.  Add the amount of butter the recipe calls for. Put crumbs mixture into a 9″ pie plate and be sure that you have pushed some up the sides of the pie plate also..bake at 350 for about 8-10 min. Cool completely.

For Filling, I used 2 cans Eagle Brand Milk, 2/3 cup lime juice and 6 egg yolks. Put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until light and all ingredients are blended well. I think using the food processor and whipping the mixture well, made it so much more light and fluffy than a normal key lime pie you get at restaurants. Pour into pie shell and bake for 15-18 min until the middle feels almost firm to the touch.

Cool completely and frost with the real thing, whipped cream that you have sweetened, but no vanilla. It will tastes just like Houston’s Key Lime Pie.

Desserts · Fruit

Baked Peaches with Almond Frangipane

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When I began this blog, I promised myself I would never share a recipe that I couldn’t pronounce. But……this one just looks so delicious and really enticed me to go buy almond paste and make.  I still cannot pronounce “frangipane”,  so let’s just call it Baked Peaches with Yummy Yummy Flling! Plus you can make the “Yummy Yummy Filling” up to 2 days ahead and just keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.

8 oz almond paste, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3 tables sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

4 large fresh, ripe peaches

Put the almond paste, butter and sugar in the bowl and beat on high until well mixed, 1-2 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until egg is blended before adding the other egg.

Scrap down sides of bowl and reduce the speed to low. Mix in the flour and blend until the “yummy yummy sauce” becomes a thick, wet paste. This just keeps sounding better and better, doesn’t it. Nothing better than a thick, wet paste to whet your appetite.

Preheat oven to 400. Cut the peaches in half and take out pits. Put the pitted peaches cut side up in a shallow baking dish the will hold them snugly. (now there’s a great invention, a peach snuggy)

Bake just until heated through, abut 10 mins. Spoon 2 tables of the paste into the hollow of each peach half and bake until the filling develops a golden crust, 10-15 min. As it bakes, the sauce will spread over the cut surface of each peach. Serve warm with whipping cream or ice cream, if desired.

Desserts · Fruit

Twinkie Dessert

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Unbelievable, I really cannot tell you how surprised I am that I actually found this recipe in a very good recipe book. But there it was in black and white. Randy use to tell me about this and how he and his roommates use to buy Twinkies and make this back in college. So that tells you how old this recipe is. He has informed me that I should try it, because he loved it. He  is thrilled that I have agreed to make it. So, here it is….Twinkies, I still cannot believe I am going to the store to buy Twinkies. Think I will go right before the store closes when no one is in there. I’m afraid that if people see me buying them, they will think, “poor lady, she obviously cannot control her eating habits and had to run into the store to stock up on sweets to get her through the night.” They will probably picture me, sitting in front of the TV, watching soap operas with unwrapped Twinkie packages all around me on the floor. But, anything for my man, so here it is.

1 large box Twinkies

1 can Eagle Brand

1 large box vanilla instant pudding

1 large Cool Whip

2 packages frozen strawberries

Cut Twinkies in half and put in a 9×13 inch dish. Slice strawberries on top. Mix pudding according to directions on box. Stir in Eagle Brand and Cool Whip. Spread on top and chill several hours before serving. (And please don’t tell your company or family where you got the recipe) Just tell them you saw this on-line and it sounded interesting…I owe you!

Desserts · Fruit

Apple Cobbler

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In the 70’s, my neighbor Cam, who was the best cook and would always bring us samples of her goodies, made these and brought them to us one night. I had forgot about them until I saw the recipe posted on JustAPinch.com…..they are just so different. Easy, even if you don’t like to make pie crust, you can do this, I promise….so great to take to dinners and have to serve company…the perfect way to begin your Fall season of apple recipes.

INGREDIENTS

APPLE FILLING
– 6 c apples, peeled and sliced
– 1/2 c cup flour
– 1 c cup sugar
– 1 tsp tsp cinnamon
CRUST
– 3 3/4 c flour
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 Tbsp sugar
– 1 1/2 c shortening
– 2 eggs yolks plus water to equal 1 cup , reserve 1
egg white.
ICING/FROSTING
– 1 c powdered sugar
– 2 Tbsp milk or light cream approximately
– 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS

1.   Mix apple slices, sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 1 tsp cinnamon for the filling. Set aside.

2.   Mix the remaining ingredients as pie crust, reserve 1 egg white. Divide dough in two pieces. Roll out 1/2 of the dough to fit a 10×15 inch jelly roll pan with sides.

3.   Cover with apple mixture. Roll out top crust. Cover with top crust. Brush top with egg white. Slit crust. Bake at 350 for 45-60 min.

4.   Mix 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla with enough cream or milk to make thin frosting. Mix well and spread over hot crust.

70’s my neighbor, Cam, who was the best cook and would always bring us samples of her goodies, made these and brought them to us one night. I had forgot about them until I saw the recipe posted on JustAPinch.com…..they are just so different. Easy, even if you don’t like to make pie crust, you can do this, I promise….so great to take to dinners and have to serve company…the perfect way to begin your Fall season of apple recipes.

 

Desserts · Fruit

Lemon Strawberry Trifle

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Since I needed two trifles for tonight, I decided to do a completely different flavor one for those who might not like chocolate. (Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t like chocolate?)

Bought an angel food cake, quart of strawberries, strawberry jello,  lemon flavored instant pudding mix and whipping cream.

Clean and slice strawberries and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring to boil: 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar and 4 tables cornstarch. Stirring continually till thick and clear. Take off heat and add 3 heaping tables of strawberry jello (you cannot use sugar free for this, won’t work) Stir till gelatin is dissolved. Be sure mixture is completely cool before layering it with the whipping cream.

Beginning with a little of the strawberry glaze in the bottom of the bowl, layer cubed angel food cake, lemon pudding which you have made according to directions on box, strawberries and glaze, then whipping cream. Repeat layers ending with whipping cream.