Tag: Christmas Cakes

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Holiday Fare · Uncategorized

Gingerbread Latte Cake with Vanilla Whipped Cream Frosting (taken from Southern Living)

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When I said I was going to finally get the chance to sit down by the Christmas Tree and look for recipes in my new magazines, it was so fabulous to see this cake pop off the page. Every year, the anticipation of Starbucks making their gingerbread frappes and lattes,just begin the Christmas season off so tastefully. When I saw this beautiful gingerbread cake recipe, visions of sipping a gingerbread latte while savoring every bite of this cake did me in. Thank you Southern Living for continuing to “wow” us with exciting and luscious recipes.

Cake Layers
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
1/2 cup chopped crystalized ginger
2 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1 teas salt
1 teas ground cinnamon
1/4 teas ground ginger
1/4 teas ground nutmeg
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups hot strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup molasses

Espresso Simple Syrup
3/4 cup hot very strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Vanilla Whipped cream Frosting
3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teas vanilla bean paste (or 2 teas vanilla extract)
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Prepare cake layers; preheat oven to 350. Process flour, crystllized ginger, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a food processor util crystalized ginger is finely ground, about 1 minute. Set aside.
Beat salted butter with a electric mixer on medium, until creamy. Gradually add light brown sugar beating unit light and fluffy.
Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Stir together coffee and molasses in a glass measuring cup. Add flour mixture to the mixture alternately with coffee mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating on low speed just until blended after each addition.

Place egg whites in a glass bowl. Beat with a electric mixer on high until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites, in thirds into batter, folding just util incorporated after each addition.

Spoon batter into 3 greased (with vegetable shortening) and floured 9″ round cake pans. Bake in preheated oven until cake tests done in the middle, about 19-22 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the Espresso Syrup. Bring coffee and granulated sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium high. Boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1/2 cup, 5-6 minutes.

Remove cakes from oven when done and cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Transfer from pans to wire racks; brush evenly with warm espresso syrup. Cool completely. About 1 hour.

Prepare frosting while cake layers cool.
Beat cream and vanilla bean paste (or extract) with electric mixer on medium high speed until foamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar beating until stiff peaks form. Do not over beat as it will turn to butter.

Assemble cake by spreading frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Gently press crushed ginger cookies around the bottom of the cake sides, if desired or sprinkle some caused ginger cookies over the top of cake.

Cakes

French Vanilla Orange Raspberry Cake

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

One of my Bff’s is having a dinner party for her work friends tonight and I volunteered to make the dessert for her party as she is not one of that loves to spend time in the kitchen…other than putting a frozen TV dinner in the microwave. When I began to describe a few of the new recipes that I had found this season, she choose this one. It turned out just awesome. Combined the flavors of orange and raspberry.

1 Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix

1 envelope of Dream Whip

4 eggs

1 cup cold water

Mix above ingredients and bake according to directions on box for the 2 layer cake. But beat for 4 minutes instead of 2. The addition of the Dream Whip gives you a much fluffier cake layer.

Frosting

1 (1 lb) box of powdered sugar

Zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

Blend the softened butter, cream cheese, zest and powdered sugar and beat until well combined and smooth. Place one cake layer on serving plate and spread 1/3 of the frosting. Spread the raspberry preserves over the frosting. Place 2nd layer on top of preserves. Frost sides and top with remaining frosting, (saving about 1/2 cup to decorate the top) Using your cake decorator, use the star tip and decorate top with stars to place fresh raspberries around the edge. Keep cake in fridge and take out about 30 min before serving.

Orange Raspberry Vanilla Cake
Orange Raspberry Vanilla Cake
Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Five Golden Ring Recipe: Cherry Date Pecan Cake

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How did it get to be 5 days before Christmas? The days just go by so quickly before I make it halfway down my “to do” list of grand ideas to make this Christmas more special than ever. I haven’t even had time to sit by the fire and look through Christmas magazines yet this year to see all the great new recipes. Last night, I actually went to pick up our Christmas cards and addressed them and mailed them this morning.. I am so proud. The salon where I get my nails done had an open house today. They had trays of egg rolls, spring rolls,meat pies and cookies and invited all the customers to come by to say Merry Christmas. It was a very nice gesture and makes it feel like Christmas. Enjoying the festivities today made me want to do something nice for someone so I am going to really try to do something nice for someone these next 5 days. Someone who could never repay me and someone who would never expect it. .

The next 5 recipes are what I would call “golden” and have become very special through the years. They just make it feel like Christmas. This first one is Cherry Date Pecan Cake which I use to watch my mom make for years, before she passed it down to me. When I saw her buying dates and cherries, I knew it was Christmas baking time. Have just finished mixing this cake and is in the oven as we speak. Am using them as hostess gifts for several open houses we are invited to attend. My favorite way to eat them is with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream.

1st Golden Ring Recipe: Cherry Date Pecan Cake

1 lb chopped dates

1 lb candied cherries ( I live my whole, but you can chop them if you like)

3 cups chopped pecans

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, separated (works better at room temperature)

1 cup flour

2 rounded teas of baking powder

1 teas salt

2 teas vanilla

Cream sugar and egg yolks until creamy. Add vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt. to creamed mixture. With clean beaters, (no grease on them as egg whites do not whip up stiff if grease is on bowl or beaters) whip 4 egg whites until they are still, around 4-5 minutes. Add fruit  and pecans to batter with heavy spatula. This is hard to mix but keep folding until fruit is distributed into batter. Add beaten egg whites and fold in to mixture until it is all folded in. Pour into individual greased loaf pans or a greased bundt pan . Bake until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in middle of cake. Baking time depends on size of pan you use. The batter made 4 small loaf pans and 1 long loaf pan. When finished baking, cool and wrap as gifts. These little cakes keep for a long period of time in the fridge. So make them this weekend and eat on them all through Christmas.

Uncategorized

Red Velvet Christmas Cheesecake

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Red Velvet Christmas Cheesecake

This cake is so picturesque that Southern Living made it their December Cover shot. What a grand dessert to serve your family and friends. Taken from SL, this combines red velvet cake with cheesecake. Theirs is a homemade version. To simplify and quicken the procedure, I am going to make my Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake, (substituting cream for water) and layer it with the cheesecake recipe that they give in their magazine.
1 Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake mix, baked according to directions on box, using 3 8″ cake pans.
Cheesecake layers:
5 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 (12 oz) package white chocolate morsels
2 (8″) round disposable aluminum foil cake pans
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Bake your red velvet cake according to directions on back of box, dividing the batter between 3 (8″) round cake pans, Set aside.
To prepare the cheesecake layers:
Line bottom and sides of the 2 disposable pans with foil, allowing 2-3″ to extend over sides; lightly grease foil.
Microwave white chocolate morsels in a microwave safe bowl according to directions on package; cool 10 minutes.
Beat cream cheese and melted white chocolate at medium speed with mixer until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition.
Stir in the vanilla. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake in preheated 300 oven for 30-35 min or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecakes stay in oven, with door closed for 30 minutes. Remove from oven to wire racks; cool completely about 2 hours. Cover and chill 8 hours. Layer the cheesecakes and red velvet layers like you see in the picture.
Frost with the following:
2 (4 oz) white chocolate baking bars, chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
1 (32 oz) package of powdered sugar
Wisk together the chocolate and boiling water until chocolate melts. Cool 20 minutes.
Chill 30 minutes.
Beat 1 cup butter and chilled chocolate mixture at low speed 1 minute.
Increase mixer to high and mix 2-3 minutes.
Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat until frosting is fluffy. Frost tops of red velvet and cheesecakes as you assemble the cake. Frost sides and top last. Decorate with Christmas sprinkles, white chocolate leaves.

Breads · Breakfast · Cakes · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Cranbery Christmas Cake

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Christmas Cranberry Cake
Christmas Cranberry Cake

I have taken this cake to about 10 different friends since making it this past week. Everyone has loved it and most have requested the recipe. I actually found it on Face Book and since the picture looked so good, I decided to give it a try. So glad I did. It is just really a great cake. So easy and so pretty.

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 teas vanilla (I am going to use almond extract next time)

2 cups flour

12 oz fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350. With a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5-7 minutes. Do not skip this step, as the eggs serve as the leavening agent in this recipe. The mixture should almost double in size. This mixture should be a ribbon when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.

Add the butter and vanilla (or almond extract); mix two more minutes.

Stir in the flour, (I used the very lowest setting on the mixer) until well combined. Then hand stir the cranberries and stir to mix well.

Spoon the mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake for about 30-35 minutes. (actually, I cannot remember exactly how long I baked it, but it was a light golden brown when I took it out.) Do not over bake, you do not want this dry.

The recipe didn’t call for a glaze, but I added one. I mixed up a cup of powdered sugar and enough milk to make it thin and spreadable. I added 1/2 teas almond extract to this and while cake was hot, I poured the glaze over the cake. The sweetest of the glaze was so nice with the tartness of the cranberries. A nice compliment to the fruit.

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Holiday Fare

Red Velvet Marble Bundt Cake

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Just returning from seeing some of our kids in Florida, I am feeling in the Christmas spirit. This cake is in the new SL magazine and will certainly be just the perfect dessert after you have finished decorating the tree.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups flour

1 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

3/4 cup milk

1 teas vanilla

1 tables unsweetened cocoa

1 tables red food coloring

Snowy White Vanilla Glaze

Garnish: mint sprigs

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

Stir together flour and next 2 ingredients. 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 vanilla.

Transfer 2 1/2 cups of batter to a 2 qt bowl; stir in cocoa and food coloring.

Drop 2 scoops of plain batter into a greased and floured 10″ bundt pan, using a small cookie scoop. Top with 1 scoop of red velvet batter. Repeat around entire pan, covering bottom completely. Continue layering batters in pan, as directed until all the batter is used.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 mins. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely.

Drizzle with Snowy White Vanilla Glaze.

Snowy White Glaze

Wisk together 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 3 tables plus 1 teas milk and 1 teas vanilla until smooth.

*Or you can use your favorite cream cheese frosting to drizzle over cake. Just warm in microwave for 15 sec intervals until you are able to drizzle cream cheese frosting over the cake.

Uncategorized

English Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake

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 A friend and I just went to Beckham Grill for lunch. They ask if we would like to see the dessert menu. Why do they even bother to ask 2 women that question when they know the answer. We decided to get out of our comfort zone of always ordering chocolate molten cake or crème brule and opted for the English Toffee Sticky Pudding cake. Since this was new to both of us, we decided, why not.  Oh boy, were we in for a surprise. The waitress assured us that we would like it. She didn’t lie.

This is the most delectable yummy, amazing, wonderful, delish dessert I have had in a long time. When we ask what it was, she went to ask the ingredients, but came back telling us that they had a company make it just for them. We immediately Googled (are we not the most hip women in Pasadena) English Sticky Toffee Pudding cake. This one popped up and it looked just like the one we were having. When I read the list of ingredients, my lunching friend was shocked. “You mean I loved something that had dates in it?”  She couldn’t believe it, since she said that she hated dates. Apparently she doesn’t. I had to fight tooth and nail to get my half of the cake.   But the waitress assured us that it did, in fact have dates in it. So I am home and headed to the kitchen. I have got to make it tonight. Truly a great Fall, Winter, (Spring, Summer) Holiday Dessert that will knock your Christmas stocks off!  (or your Easter Bonnet)         

INGREDIENTS

Pudding

  • 1/4         cup         (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan    
  • 1 1/2         cups         sifted all-purpose flour plus more for pan    
  • 1 1/2         cups         chopped pitted dates (about 6 ounces)    
  • 1         teaspoon         baking soda    
  • 1         teaspoon         baking powder    
  • 1/2         teaspoon         Sea salt    
  • 1         cup         sugar    
  • 1         teaspoon         vanilla extract    
  • 2                  large eggs    

Sauce

  • 1 1/4         cups         (packed) light brown sugar    
  • 1/2         cup         heavy cream    
  • 1/4         cup         (1/2 stick) unsalted butter    
  • 1         teaspoon         brandy (optional)    
  • 1/2         teaspoon         vanilla extract    
  •                   Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream    

         

   

Pudding

  • Preheat oven to 350 °. Butter and flour Bundt pan. Bring dates and 11/4 cups water to a boil in a medium heavy saucepan with tall sides. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda (mixture will become foamy). Set aside; let cool.
  • Whisk 11/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend (mixture will be grainy). Add 1 egg; beat to blend. Add half of flour mixture and half of date mixture; beat to blend. Repeat with remaining 1 egg, flour mixture, and date mixture. Pour batter into mold.
  • Bake until a tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 40 –45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert pudding onto rack. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.

Sauce

  • Bring sugar, cream, and butter to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in brandy, if using, and vanilla. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm gently before using.