Sherry Lemon Bundt Cake

Years and years ago, my mother came across a recipe that we have been baking for the family almost every holiday since then. The cake takes on the subtle tang of the included cream sherry and the spices enhance the overall flavor. If it lasts more than one day, it gets better with a little age. Top it with a lemon glaze and people will think you spent hours in the kitchen. Just don’t let them catch you putting the cake mix in your grocery cart!

Sherry Lemon Bundt Cake

1 package yellow cake mix
1 four-ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cream sherry
4 eggs
Grated zest of one lemon

In a mixing bowl, add the cake mix, pudding mix, spices, oil, sherry, eggs and lemon zest and blend with the mixer until blended. Pour batter into a vegetable oil-sprayed bundt pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes or until top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted toward the center comes up clean. Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes and then turn out onto serving plate.

Glaze:
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

Ideas:

If you don’t care for the taste of the sherry, you can use juice, water, or milk.

Not crazy about lemon? Substitute orange for the lemon in the cake and glaze recipe.

Want to add some mini chocolate chips? Well, no one will stop you.

½ cup of finely chopped nuts can only add to the ‘health’ factor, right?

Don’t have a bundt pan? You can bake the batter in cake tin rounds or in an oblong baking pan.

With this basic recipe, you can use any flavor cake mix or pudding you like. This is the basis for some very creative cake inventions.

Christmas Baking . . . It is Never to Early to Plan!

The weather is finally getting cooler in the evenings and, hopefully, foretells the coming of an Autumn season with some chances of having a reason to heat up the oven and begin some holiday baking. My first baking of that season is usually fruit breads. My favorite came about when I had leftover yams and I try never to let a leftover go to waste. My husband insists that everything we eat has roots way back to the first meal I fixed for him. I like these substantial loaves full of everything but the kitchen sink that stand up to a slather of butter, toasting, or just slicing and eating straight from the oven. There is also a lot of latitude for creativity and anyone who knows me, knows that I always find a twist in everything from my sewing to my baking. My husband’s only complaint in life is that I can never exactly replicate a favorite meal or baked good as I tend to stray off the printed pages of the cookbook . . . when I use one!

Besides the yam bread, I’ve included some ideas for making several other types. And, remember, as with ‘icing on the cake’, it never hurts to put a lemon glaze to soak into a tasty loaf of sweet bread when it comes out of the oven.

Yam Bread

2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups cooked yams
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cups coarsely chopped nuts
2/3 cup raisins (optional)

Whip up the yams until fairly smooth.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of two loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches.

Mix shortening and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, yams, and water. Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking power, cinnamon, and clovers. Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans. (If batter seems too dry, you can always add bits of juice or water but go slowly as you don’t want it runny.)

Bake about an hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove and cool completely before slicing.

Pumpkin Bread
Substitute yams for 2 cups of canned pumpkin.

Zucchini Bread
Substitute 3 cups shredded zucchini. Blend in 2 teaspoons vanilla with the clovers. Decrease baking time to under 60 minutes

Banana Bread
Substitute 3 very ripe, smashed (and it ain’t easy getting them drunk!) bananas

Cranberry Walnut Bread
One cup roughly chopped fresh or frozen cranberries and ½ cup toasted, chopped walnuts.

Peanut Butter Brownies

Summer wears on and using the oven can compromise your air conditioning and the tempers of the family. However, one-pan bar cookies can get a batch of brownies in and out of the oven quickly and all will be forgiven.

Peanut Butter Brownies

½ cup crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup dark, brown sugar
3/4 granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and creamy. Beat in eggs and extracts. Blend in dry ingredients. Spread batter in greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Scatter the chocolate chips over the top and bake for three minutes. Remove from oven and run a knife through the chocolate and peanut butter batter in swirls. Return to oven and bake approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Cut in squares when cool.
Makes approximately 2 dozen bars.

Summer Orange Cupcakes

If you have such a thing as spare time in the cool of the morning these days, this is a pretty quick recipe to put together either for that evening’s dessert or to spoil children between dips in the wading pool possibly giving you a few minutes of respite.

Summer Orange Cupcakes

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Grated zest of one orange

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Add melted butter to sugar in a mixing bowl and beat to incorporate and smooth out the sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Blend in the orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Beat to just blend the dry ingredients, stir in the zest and spread into cupcake paper lined cupcake tins.
Depending on size of you cupcakes, you can get 12-18 cup cakes.

Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Enough fresh orange juice to form a spreadable icing.

Vanilla Lemon Drop Cookies

Summer and lemonade go together perfectly. Here is a way to make that summer taste spill proof and portable in lunch boxes. A very, very simple cookie with a lot of lemon taste and no drips! Not a fancy, show stopper but goes great by the handful or along side a dish of vanilla ice cream after dinner. You have a front porch then that’s the way to have it while you watch the world go by in the cool of the evening.

Vanilla Lemonade Drop Cookies

½ cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon extract
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment

Cream together the butter, sugar, salt, lemon juice, zest, lemon extract, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Drop small spoonfuls of dough on the prepared cooking sheet leaving some space for spreading. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges. Cool on a rack and serve. Makes approximately 2 ½ to 3 dozen cookies.

Hint: Invest in a cookie scoop to insure equal measurement of the dough. They come in small to large sizes and will never leave your sight once you discover how fast the get your cookies into the oven and you out of the kitchen.

Reason why: When baking or making anything lemon that require fresh lemon juice, the addition of some lemon extract seems to mellow out the sharpness into an amazing flavor.

Sunday Carrot Cake

When I make dessert, it is usually on Sundays because calories don’t count on Sundays, right . . . and please do not take away my illusions on this. Anyway, I was making a birthday cake for a friend and forgot how easy it is to get a carrot cake into the oven or how good the house smells while it is baking. Thought I’d share my recipe.

Sunday Carrot Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups finely shredded carrots
2 medium green apples, peeled and finely shredded
6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

This recipe will fill a couple of 15×9 1/2-inch baking pans, three 9-inch round pans, or make over three dozen cupcakes. If making cupcakes like with cupcake papers. For the cake pans, spray lightly with vegetable oil spray, line with parchment paper and give the paper a light spray to insure a smooth removal after baking.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until just mixed and all ingredients are smoothly incorporated. Spread batter into your prepared pans.

Bake for 35-45 minutes depending on the size of the baking pans used. Cake should be golden and spring back to the touch when done. Cupcakes will take a lot less time.

Cool for 15 minutes and remove from pans. Completely cool before icing.

Most people seem to prefer cream cheese frosting but I’m a fan of lemon butter cream frosting.

Lemon Buttercream
2 sticks of butter (margarine is not an option)
6-8 cups of powdered sugar
zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon

Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add about five cups of the sugar, the lemon rind and the lemon juice and beat well. If the icing is too thin, add spoonfuls of powdered sugar until to attain a spreadable consistency. Don’t forget some colored sparkles and small candies for decorations!

Quick Budget Friendly Muffins

Pay day is today but shopping won’t happen until the weekend so I’m getting very creative with what’s left in the cupboards and refrigerator. I hate going to the store for only one or two things because I usually come home with two bags full of bargains I just couldn’t pass up. Nope, payday shopping requires a list that I usually can keep to without too many extra expenditures . . . usually! This one recipe looked good for either a fast breakfast treat or something to go with stew or soup for dinner.

Quick Budget Friendly Muffins
1 cup whole milk
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan with sprayed vegetable oil. This recipe should make 12 muffins.

Mix together milk, egg, and butter in a mixing bowl. In another bole, combine the dry ingredients. Lightly combine the dry and wet ingredients being careful to not
over beat the ingredients. Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until raised and golden. Serve warm from the oven or at room temperature.

*King Arthur Flour came out with a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour which I’m anxious to try in place of the wheat flour used in this recipe. To date, I’ve been a huge fan of Better Batter but, according to King Arthur, you can substitute this gluten-free flour in your regular recipes.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Cookies

We eat gluten-free so when I see I recipe that appeals to me, I have to study it a bit to see if I can turn it into a gluten-free version. Success today! This is the recipe in it’s original ‘format’:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chocolate-hazelnut-cookies-recipe

In order to make it edible for my gluten-free husband, I had to omit the flour and substitute. I took a leap of faith in myself and used the recipe, as is (except for the wheat flour) and used BetterBatter. I’ve tried many brands and this has become my go-to flour for baking these days.

The cookies didn’t turn out quite as thick as shown in the picture on the link but they are thin and chewy . . . which is what I like in a cookie. The mixture of hazelnut spread, unsweetened cocoa powder, and some powdered espresso provided a very tasty cookie.

So, you see, this is a ‘two-way’ cookie! If you are avoiding wheat products, it is possible with this recipe. If gluten-intolerance isn’t a problem for you, just follow the recipe as stated.

Although my husband is the only one with celiac tendencies, the whole family joins in the new diet. Much to our surprise, it is relatively easy, we still get to enjoy our favorite treats and such with the necessary tweaks to avoid the gluten, and all feel better. One problem that we have learned to contend with is reading and then re-reading product labels as wheat and gluten can hid under many names. I looked around, did some research, and found this link which is very detailed and even surprised me with some of the items listed. For all the gluten-free readers, I’m happy to share the following:

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=52

Brownies – Pure and Simple

I have an abundance of brownie recipes but when I need something for dessert and time is of the essence, anything that goes together quickly and bakes in one pan is just what I need.

Brownies – Pure and Simple

1 cup granulated sugar
12 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped nuts, your choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Vegetable oil spray a 8×8 or 9×9-inch baking pan.

Cream together the sugar, cocoa, and butter. Mix in the remaining ingredients to thoroughly combine but not over mix. Spread in the prepared baking pan and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Brownies should be slightly firm and not bring up wet crumbs if you insert a toothpick in the middle to test. Let cool to just warm and cut into
preferred serving-sized pieces.

*If you want a fruity chocolate version, add a fourth cup of dried cranberries to the batter with the nuts. Adventurous? Soak the cranberries in warm water with a teaspoon of brandy for 15 minutes before using. Remember to drain off the water and brandy before using.

*The zest of an orange, finely chopped will add a fresh note to the brownie.

*Use chopped peanuts instead of the nuts. While the brownies are baking, whip up 1 cup of smooth peanut butter with 3/4 cup powdered sugar until smooth and fluffy. When the brownies are cool, thickly frost the brownies and refrigerate to set.