So I’ve turned into a food blogger rebel. I don’t cook or bake, and when I do its favorites I’ve alreadypostedrecipesfor. Also, I’ve been eating a lot of Taco Bell. Bad food blogger!
Speaking of Taco Bell, I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep it under wraps for so long, but I think I might have ITBES. I may or may not drink the sauce packets to get me through to my next Taco Bell fix. I even put the sauce on my hard boiled eggs and I can almost pretend I’m eating real Taco Bell when I’m snacking at work. I feel a Taco Bell intervention coming my way, so I’m packing my bags, ready to flee to the nearest Taco Bell to set up permanent residence. Pretty sure the employees will protect me from you crazy non-ITBES people. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME QUIT TACO BELL!
So while I’m totally out of control when it comes to doing all the things a good food blogger should do, I at least have a few photos saved from the days when I was a good girl and taking photos of things I’d baked and cooked. Such as this Raspberry Zinger Poke Cake.
I made this for Den’s birthday last December, right about the time the last Raspberry Zingers were disappearing off store shelves. Sad times for Raspberry Zinger lovers. Well cry no more, for you can still get your fix with an easy poke cake! It’s not exactly the same, but it’s good stuff, nonetheless.
I created this with help from Suzie’s recipe and Renee’s recipe, and it couldn’t be easier. Poke cakes are especially good for warmer weather (if you are fortunate enough to be enjoying some right now) because they are served cold, and are really refreshing on a warm day! Or, let’s be honest, it’s also quite nice on a cold December day as well. At least we thought so. :)
1 white or yellow cake mix* (also water, vegetable oil and eggs/eggs whites as instructed on box)
1 box (3 oz.) raspberry-flavored gelatin
1 c. boiling water
1/2 c. cold water
1 container (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed
¾ cup shredded sweetened coconut
Bake cake according to package directions and cool completely. Pierce cooled cake all over with a fork. In a small bowl, stir gelatin and boiling water until sugar is dissolved. Stir in cold water. Pour over cake, cover, and refrigerate 2 or more hours (overnight is fine). Frost with whipped cream and sprinkle coconut over the top. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Serve cold and refrigerate any leftovers.
If you don’t know about and who CW is, check out Monday’s post: Meet CW.
Growing up, Mom would make a very particular kind of strawberry shortcake at least once every summer. She would buy a “Family Style Shortcake” from Dillons, like this:
Then she mixed the tar out of sliced strawberries with honey (to help the strawberry juice come out to play with the honey) and poured that on top, put Dream Whip over that, and served it up once a year in summer after picnics in the park. Don’t know why, but that’s always when we had strawberry shortcake–after picnics in the park. Anyway, since we very rarely had anything sweet, this was such a lovely treat and I particularly loved the flavor of the ripe berries with the local, raw honey.
Mom’s simple strawberry shortcake was so delicious, and just the idea of it brings back fond and mouth-watering memories. But I wanted to be able to create it at home because, although we can still find the exact same shortcake at Dillons that Mom bought twenty years ago, who knows how long they’ll continue to make these and when they stop, I still want to be able to enjoy CW’s shortcake. And I want my grandchildren, or great nephews and nieces at the very least, to be able to enjoy this shortcake. And their grandchildren after that. CW’s shortcake must live on!
Since my youngest sister, Lacey, manages a Dillons deli, I first checked with her to see if she could possibly snag the recipe for me. In a way, I was happy to hear they weren’t baked in house but shipped in. That meant it was experimentation time! I’m not always in the mood to create a recipe from scratch, but I was definitely up for this challenge since the shortcake holds a special place in my heart.
So here’s what I had to go off of to recreate the recipe (yes, I totally stood two inches from the ingredients list to take this picture and yes, I might have gotten some strange looks):
Based on the cake’s texture, flavor, and the ingredients, I decided this cake was pretty much a low-fat sponge cake so I Googled a lot of recipes to create my own that reflected these ingredients as closely as possible. I did omit the buttermilk since it seemed too fussy to have two different kinds of milk, but did add in some vinegar to replace the acidity lost. I also didn’t mess with any ingredients cooks normally wouldn’t have in their kitchens, like whey and dextrin. What is dextrin anyway?
I’m happy to report that while I don’t think I got it spot on, it was close enough that when Lacey tasted it, although she claimed to not remember eating CW’s strawberry shortcake growing up, she looked up with big eyes and said, “I totally remember this taste. I don’t remember eating it, but I remember this taste!”
The cake from Dillons is crusted with sugar so I did that with mine, though it’s not necessary. It’s just kinda pretty. :) The cake I created is very spongy and dry, perfect for absorbing the delicious honeyed strawberry juice. Because of its texture, I really wouldn’t recommend using it in any recipe that doesn’t have a juicy topping–that juice is really needed to soften the cake. While the cake is very soft and bouncy to the touch, the texture is tough to cut because it’s so spongy, and it’s hard to cut with a fork until the juices have flowed down into the nooks and crannies of the cake. Once that happens though, you have tender, strawberry cake magic.
I was pretty impressed with the response I got from this cake. I shared it with my family twice, serving one cake at our Independence Day barbecue, then froze the second cake (the recipe makes two) and broke it out a week and a half later for our dessert after a barbecue at the lake. I usually have to ask my family what they think to get any feedback but all I had to do this time was sit back and let the accolades rain down. Adjectives such as amazing, best ever, and incredible were used liberally. Honestly, I’m pretty sure this cake now beats out THE Mocha Crunch Cake for favorite family cake. Check out my nephew gobbling it up at the lake (unless you’re averse to messy kid eaters, then you might want to steer clear):
I stuck with CW’s recipe for the strawberry topping, only using the berries and honey, and it’s just so stinkin’ good. Please try this topping, even if you buy your cake. Just make sure your honey is local and raw to get the best flavor. Also, local raw honey can help with allergies! Bonus!
For the whipped cream, you can use whatever you prefer–Cool Whip, Dream Whip, real whipped cream, or you can use the recipe for stabilized whipped cream I shared yesterday. I first made it with the stabilized whipped cream and the second time with Cool Whip and it was loved both ways. The strawberry topping is the star of this cake and I don’t think you can go wrong as long as you’ve got that. Who would have thought that honey and strawberries could create such magic?
Cake
½ cup nonfat milk
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Berry Topping
1 lb. fresh strawberries
¼ cup local raw honey
Optional: for a patriotic dessert, add 1 cup fresh blueberries
Garnish
1 recipe stabilized whipped cream or whipped topping of choice
Directions:
For the cake, in small saucepan, heat milk until bubbles form around edge of pan. Remove from heat; set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8” round cake pans; set aside.
Sift flour with cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In small bowl of electric mixer, at high speed, beat eggs and cream of tartar together five minutes on high speed, until light and foamy. Gradually add 1 cup of the sugar, beating for an additional five minutes, or until ribbons form. Add vanilla and vinegar and mix just until combined. Blend in flour mixture on low just until smooth. Add warm milk and beat just until combined.
Immediately pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Turn the cakes out onto cooling racks. Place the racks over the sink and while they are still hot, using the remaining ¼ cup sugar, sprinkle sugar over the tops and rub it along the sides of the cakes. Allow to cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap or putting in gallon-sized Ziploc bags until ready to use. You will only need one cake for this recipe so you can either freeze one for later, or double the berry topping and whipped cream and serve both cakes at once.
For the berry topping, combine the strawberries and honey in a medium bowl and stir for about 2-5 minutes, until the strawberries start to release their juices and the sauce gets thinner and takes on a red color. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. If adding blueberries, stir them in before refrigerating or right before topping the cake.
To assemble the cake for serving, place cake on a plate, then cover with the berry mixture, including the juices so they can seep down into the cake. Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes so the juices can soak in, then top with whipped cream, slice, and serve.
Guess what??? It’s Monday and I have the day off with my husband. I’m SO excited! Before I became permanent and my schedule changed, we had the weekends off together, but now we only get one day off together once every five weeks so it’s cause for celebration. I’m going to relish it.
Speaking of my husband and celebrations, I made these cupcakes for his birthday in December, and everyone at the party fell in love. Mel calls these “over-the-top” and I’d have to agree. It starts with a moist, deep chocolate cupcake. Then there’s the cool & creamy mint frosting. Garnished with peppermint ganache and an Andes mint. But there’s more to these cupcakes than what meets the eye, and my only regret is that I did not have the chance to snap a photo of the inside to show you they are also filled with the same peppermint ganache that is drizzled over the top. Making them, you might say, over the top. :)
These would be great for your St. Patrick’s Day festivities!
1 recipe of your favorite chocolate cake*, baked into 24 cupcakes and cooled completely
Chocolate Mint Filling:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
2/3 cup powdered sugar
Mint Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks, 16 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 lbs. powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
Green food coloring
24 Andes mints for garnish
For the mint filling, place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir. Repeat the process until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract and powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. Let the mixture cool to room temperature (but don’t let it get too stiff) and pour it into a disposable pastry bag fitted with a small round tip, or a squeeze bottle with a tip.
Insert the decorating tip or tip of the squeeze bottle into the center of the cupcake and press gently to fill the middle of the cupcake with the mint ganache. You can be pretty generous, squeezing until you see the top of the cupcake start to rise a little. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.
For the frosting, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add the heavy cream and peppermint and vanilla extracts. Beat until light and fluffy. Add green food coloring until the color you like is achieved.
Frost the cooled, filled cupcakes with frosting (using a large star tip, I used Wilton # 1M) or simply spread the frosting in a large dollop (again, you can be generous-there is plenty) with a butter knife or flat spatula. Garnish with a drizzle of leftover ganache (make sure the ganache is completely cool or it will melt the frosting when you drizzle it on top of the cupcake), and an unwrapped Andes mint. Serve at room temperature.
*I used a devil’s food cake mix, but this is my favorite from-scratch chocolate cake recipe.
I had to share a few more photos from his party, which was actually only half for his birthday (our preacher and his wife had a holiday dinner/birthday party combo). One of the games we played was holding paper plates on top of our heads and trying to draw a picture of Dennis playing his guitar without looking. You have no idea how difficult this is until you try to do it! This is what I ended up with:
However, this is what his best friend, Jack, came up with:
Highly suspicious.
Here’s Dennis and Jack trying to look natural after I urged them to try embracing each other for a photo. I don’t think this is natural for most men, but they pulled it off better than I expected. :)
And here’s Dennis practicing his Kung Fu moves with our preacher’s bat’leth (a Klingon weapon…as in something a Trekkie would totally recognize but me, not so much) shortly before we left (and yes, this thing is super sharp and dangerous! Yet he was swinging it like the pro he is.):
Your Klingon Kung Fu is strong, honey.
***
Reminder: this is the last week to get your postcards out to Beverly! You can get the deets here if you missed the announcement: Operation Postcard for Beverly.
I found this recipe on Picky Palate and saved it for Thanksgiving, but wanted to give it a trial run beforehand. I do crazy things like enter pumpkin bread into state fair competitions without ever having made the recipe before or since, but I try not to pull surprises on my family. I can deal with not winning a ribbon, but I have a reputation to uphold when it comes to loved ones! ;)
I ended up making this for the CFC bake sale at work and my co-workers raved! After sampling a piece myself, I had decided it wasn’t that exciting and I wasn’t going to bring it to Thanksgiving dinner at my in-law’s, but after all the raving, I gave it a second chance and tried another piece. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, or maybe my palate just wasn’t ready to handle cake for breakfast when I tried the first piece, but I enjoyed the second piece so well that I’m now reconsidering this for turkey day.
The cake is very, extremely, uber moist, and the swirls of cinnamon filling are very complimentary to the pure pumpkin flavor. The color is a very nice orange, which I liked, and the simple glaze is a perfect compliment, really finishing off the “cinnamon roll” feel of the cake. The size of the cake makes it great for a big family gathering because it can easily be cut into 24 slices or more, whereas a normal layer cake would only be 16 pieces at best. It’s nice to have a “small dessert” option after filling up on turkey and stuffing! Or, let’s be honest, so you can enjoy more than one dessert. :)
Cake
1 (18.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (I used water)
1 (3.4 oz) box vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
Cinnamon filling
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Glaze
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray a jelly roll pan with non stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Combine all cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Mix the filling ingredients together, then drizzle mixture evenly over cake. Take a knife and run it through to swirl the filling into the batter.
Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, until cooked through and remove. Mix glaze ingredients until creamy and smooth. Drizzle over warm cake then let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into squares. Store covered until ready to serve, refrigerating if not serving within the next day.
“This cake is my favorite way to eat chocolate. It is easy to make and contains only three essential ingredients: the very best chocolate, for a full, rich flavor and smooth, creamy texture; unsalted butter to soften the chocolate and release the flavor; and eggs to lighten it. The result is like the creamiest truffle wedded to the purest chocolate mousse. It is chocolate at its most intense flavor and perfect consistency.” -Rose Levy Beranbaum, creator of the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte
That pretty much says it all! I would like to add that although it seems there are many steps to the recipe, it is very simple to make. Think of it this way: all you have to do is melt the butter and chocolate together, beat the eggs to death and fold them into the chocolate mixture and bake. The reason the instructions are so long is that they are very detailed so you are sure to have success with this cake. Enjoy!
1 lb. semisweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
6 large eggs
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8″x2″ cake pan and place a circle of parchment or wax paper in the bottom, then butter the top of it.
In a large metal bowl set over a pan of hot, not simmering, water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water), combine the chocolate and butter and let stand, stirring occasionally until smooth and melted. (The mixture can be melted in the microwave on high power, stirring every 15 seconds. Remove when there are still a few lumps of chocolate and stir until fully melted.)
In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, heat the eggs, stirring constantly to prevent curdling, until just warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until tripled in volume and soft peaks form when the beater is raised, about 5 minutes.
Using a large wire whisk or rubber spatula, fold half the eggs into the chocolate mixture until almost incorporated. Fold in the remaining eggs until just blended and no streaks remaining. Finish by using a rubber spatula to ensure that the heavier mixture at the bottom is incorporated. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth with the spatula. Set the pan in a larger pan and surround it with 1 inch of very hot water. Bake 5 minutes. Cover loosely with a piece of foil and bake 10 minutes. The cake will look soft, but this is as it should be.
Let the cake cool on a rack for 45 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about three hours.
To unmold, have ready a serving plate and a flat plate at least 8 inches in diameter, covered with plastic wrap. Wipe the sides of the pan with a hot, damp towel, then run a thin metal knife around the sides of the cake. Submerge the bottom in hot water for 10-20 seconds, then invert onto the plastic wrap-lined plate. Remove the parchment from the bottom, then invert onto the serving plate and peel off the plastic wrap.
If desired, you can spread good-quality raspberry or strawberry jam over the top of the cake. Allow to come to room temperature before serving. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Today is the day to return to the Postcard Project spreadsheet and make sure you report how many pieces of mail you sent this week. I will be drawing only from the names that have a number in the “completed” column for this week (not last week). I’m SO thrilled that so many more have signed up and hope you will be able to return to report your goal completed before I draw for the cookies tonight at midnight. Good luck and thank you!
We celebrated my birthday yesterday and the day was just so busy I didn’t have time to do the recap that I had planned for today (I usually schedule my blog posts the night before because I don’t have time to do them before work the next day). Instead, I’ll leave you with a little teaser of things to come. This was a piece of my “birthday cake,” a Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte. It was every bit as delicious as it sounds!!
This is a dessert served on the Carnival Cruise ships (or at least it used to be in the late 90s), which I have made several times for my Mother as her birthday cake. It is one of her favorite cakes, right up there with THE Mocha Crunch Cake, and just as rich…and decadent. They aren’t kidding when they named this dessert, it really is chocolate decadence. No better way to describe it.
I originally made this according to their recipe, which is actually broken up into parts, referring to basic recipes in the “Chef’s Notes” in the back of the Carnival Creations cookbook for everything but the mousse layer. The cake consists of four recipes all combined to make one dessert: the cake layer, the mousse layer, the thin ganache layer, and the strawberry sauce. I felt that the chocolate sponge cake they used was much too dry for the dessert, and lacked in chocolate flavor since it contained only a few tablespoons of the good stuff. So I replaced it with my own simple one-bowl deep chocolate cake layer and was pleased with the result. It’s my first attempt at my own cake recipe and while it’s probably not perfect, it was perfect for this dessert. Moist, rich and fudgy, nicely complementing the rich rum-infused chocolate mousse.
I stuck with the recipe for the mousse, as that was always lovely and really is the star of the dessert. It firms up in the fridge and when you take a bite, it’s akin to eating a lightly textured truffle with cake underneath. Superb. My middle sister says it almost seems like you’re eating candy rather than cake but I say…it’s the best of both worlds!
When it came to the ganache layer, I considered making a real ganache, using heavy cream, but realized that since this dessert is served from the refrigerator and real ganache gets rock hard when chilled, it would be prudent to stick with this thinner ganache (or what I’ll now call a chocolate sauce) which thickens a little in the fridge but it still nice and soft when you cut into it.
As for the strawberry sauce, their recipe doesn’t make nearly enough (individual tastes may vary, but my family enjoyed having a large puddle of sauce on their plate beneath the small slices I served. Although the cake is wonderful alone, every bite seems improved when accompanied by a good dose of strawberry sauce!) and I wanted to use a bag of frozen strawberries I had in the freezer rather than buy fresh out of season, so I made my own recipe. You can use any recipe you like for the sauce, but if you want to use mine, you can click the link to it below.
This cake went over very well with my family. Although my Mom has always liked it, even in the days when I made it with the dry sponge cake underneath, the rest of my family never got very excited about it until I replaced the cake this time. Apparently that was the only change it needed, besides the increased amount of sauce. My little sister usually prefers citrus cakes (preferably unfrosted), but she proclaimed this “the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had.” I have to admit, I felt a little piqued at this since her devotion previously belonged to my beloved Mocha Crunch Cake, the cake I prize most…but I got over it because ultimately she still giving high praise to something I created. I’ll take it. :)
The recipe is a bit time-consuming since there are so many parts, but you can pace yourself and make the sauce several days in advance, the cake the day before (wrapping it in plastic wrap and refrigerating in the mean time), and since the cake needs to sit in the fridge overnight after you make the mousse and place the cake on top (which will later be flipped over), you can wait until the next day to make the ganache if you want. Take it little by little and it won’t seem so overwhelming.
I hope you give this one a try for a special occasion–it is worth the effort and sure to impress!
Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (I used coconut milk beverage)
¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
¼ cup warm water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mousse
1 lb. semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup Myers rum
6 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
Chocolate Sauce
1/3 cup whole milk
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (about 1/2 cup chips)
1 teaspoon butter, softened
Make the cake: Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, stir, and then add the remaining ingredients. Beat with a whisk until smooth, scraping down bowl. Pour into a greased and floured round 8” pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool five minutes on rack in pan, then remove from pan to cool completely, about 1-2 hours.
Make the mousse*: gently melt semisweet chocolate in a double boiler or microwave; stir in whipping cream. Cool. When cool enough that butter will not melt, beat in butter. Stir in rum. In large bowl beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes or until very light; fold into chocolate mixture. In large bowl beat whipping cream until soft peaks form; fold into chocolate mixture. Line an 8” round baking pan with enough plastic wrap that it comes over the sides; spread mousse into pan. Place cake top side down on top of the mousse and press down to make sure that every part of the cake is in contact with the mousse and that the top is flat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Make the chocolate sauce: Place the chocolate in a food processor or blender. Heat the milk until steaming hot, then turn on the food processor and, while running, pour the hot milk through the feed tube. Blend until smooth and allow to cool.
To serve: Place cake plate upside down on top of the cake, then flip over. Lift the cake pan off the cake (you may have to wiggle it or have someone hold down on the plastic wrap “handles” while you lift the pan). Remove plastic wrap; spread chocolate sauce over the top and refrigerate for at least ten minutes. Cut into 16 slices; serve with a dollop of whipped cream and strawberry sauce.
*Veronica’s note: I only make this cake once every three or so years, so I can’t recall my previous experiences with the mousse very well, but this time I had problems with the mixture wanting to get too thick every time I let it sit so I could beat eggs or beat whipped cream. To soften it back up before adding those elements, I just rebeat it with the same hand-held mixer I had just used on the eggs or whipped cream, then folded them in. I’m not sure if this is usual or if I overheated my chocolate (which can make chocolate thicker if it doesn’t altogether seize up) so I wanted to mention it just in case others had this difficulty. It is surmountable so do not despair! :)
Per serving (without sauce or whipped cream): 473 calories; 30.5 g fat; 50.5 g carb; 3.2 g fiber; 5 g protein
2 tablespoons strawberry sauce: 42 calories; 0 g fat; 11 g carb; .6 g fiber; .1 g protein
Recipe source: cake and strawberry sauce recipes by Veronica Miller; mousse recipe, dessert concept, and chocolate sauce adapted from Carnival Creations.
Before we get to the cake, please remember to head on over to Steph’s Bite by Bite to check out all the wonderful goodies up for auction in the online bake sale, which started at 7 AM today and goes until 9 PM EST. She’s raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I can’t wait to mail a batch of my Mocha Toffee Brownies to the winning bidder! Good luck!
OK, now let’s get down to business. I begged this recipe off my friend, Judy, when she mentioned she had made a sugar-free apple cake that turned out well. I’m intrigued by anything that is sugar-free that also tastes good, as I have not had a lot of personal success with this. I discovered that the cake was made with Splenda and shortening and this repelled me on many levels, but also awakened a creative desire to make it healthier with a natural sweetener and not only non-hydrogenated fat, but less of it. As I mentioned in my post on chocolate chip banana bread, I’ve been experimenting with Truvia, a natural calorie-free sweetener made from the stevia plant’s leaves, so I used that in addition to brown sugar to give a better, more natural flavor. I didn’t mess with the diet soda in the recipe, but it could easily be switched out for any variety of Zevia (a calorie-free soda made with stevia), or with club soda and additional Truvia.
Now, I’m not sure who Mabel is, or if she was even the one to come up with the original recipe, but I hope that she would be as pleased as I am with my adaptation. It isn’t as light and tender as a traditional cake, but a little more dense like coffee cake, moist, perfectly sweet & spiced, with tender chunks of apple in every bite. It is best served the day you bake it as it gets a little dry a couple days later, but it can be returned to it’s former glory with a few seconds in the microwave.
2 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
4 oz cup (1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce
1 cup diet Dr. Pepper or cream soda
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Truvia
1 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon
1 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9×13 pan. Beat eggs until smooth & uniform in color, then add in brown sugar and beat until sugar is incorporated and mixture is slightly thickened. Add applesauce, diet Dr. Pepper, canola oil, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add in the remaining ingredients, except for the apples, and beat until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Fold in apples and pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the toppings over the top in the order listed and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream if desired.
*Veronica’s note: I recommend using a sweet baking apple, such as Braeburn, Rome, or Gala.
Makes 15 servings. Per piece: 139 calories; 2.6 g fat; 28 g carb; 1.4 fiber; 3.2 protein
I got this recipe from my friend, Katy, around this time last year, and adapted it to increase the chocolate flavor, replacing the hot chocolate mix with Dutch-process cocoa powder. If you’re a fan of chocolate and peanut butter like me, I guarantee you will love these! Delicious, and so easy to make! These would be a great addition to holiday spreads or food gifts, particularly if you need something in a hurry.
For more Christmas cookie and candy ideas, scroll below the recipe.
Peanutty Chocolate Truffles
Hershey’s Dark cocoa powder is now widely available in supermarkets, but you can substitute regular cocoa powder if you are unable to locate any Dutch-process cocoa powder. Printable recipe Printable recipe with picture
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (Hershey’s Dark cocoa powder is now widely available in supermarkets)
1 cup finely chopped cocktail peanuts
Line baking sheets with wax paper. Beat peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract in medium bowl until creamy. Add powdered sugar and cocoa and beat until incorporated. Mixture will be thick. Place peanuts in a flat dish. Scoop peanut butter mixture into 1-inch balls; roll in peanuts to coat. Place on prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm.
Living with our parents for eighteen years or more, we’re bound to take on some of their characteristics and qualities during that impressionable time, whether good or bad, and whether we’d like to admit it or not. For the past decade, I have been working on undoing many of those that I deem unacceptable, such as being overly critical and dramatic, and have been moderately successful. One of the many bad habits that I haven’t been able to completely shake is the tendency to buy things that I really don’t need, simply because they are on sale.
Yes, I was raised by a woman who can’t resist a sale. I believe this may be a common thing among women(?), but perhaps not to the degree that my mother takes it.
My parents (now empty-nesters) have three refrigerators and two freezers, and Mom has stocked enough canned & frozen foods (purchased on sale, of course) to last them at least six months without making a trip to the grocery store. Ironically, she does the same thing with produce, of which at least half goes bad before they can eat it so she ends up wasting money rather than saving it, at least in that area. I often see an entire crisper drawer full of avocados, tomatoes, onions, etc, and many are still there two months later in a much sadder state.
Though I have never shopped sales to this degree, I have purchased my fair share of unneccessary items simply because they were a good price. A butter pecan cake mix, for example. Not an item I needed or was very interested in, but it was on sale so I had to have it.
For two months, I glanced guiltily over at that mix each time I opened my cupboard where I keep most of my baking supplies. I finally, finally took the cake mix down and found a recipe on the back for butter pecan-rum cake…and that’s all she wrote. I made it immediately and after Dennis and I ate 1/3 of the cake ourselves, I brought the remainder to work where it was promptly devoured.
The butter & sour cream really make the cake super-moist–even the next day after storing it with a big hunk missing. And the addition of rum is just perfection with the butter pecan flavor.
The moral of the story? Next time your husband complains that “you’re just like your mother,” make him this cake to show him that’s not always such a bad thing.
Butter Pecan Rum Cake
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist butter pecan cake mix
1 box (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup dark rum or 2 teaspoons rum extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
2 teaspoons dark rum or 1/2 teaspoon rum extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube (bundt cake) pan. In large bowl, beat dry cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, sour cream, butter, 1/4 cup rum and the eggs on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes (it will turn into liquid velvet!!!). Spread in pan.
2. Bake 46-52 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely, about 2 hours. (My cake rose up very high above the pan but by the time it was time to remove it from the pan, it had settled back down even with the top of the pan.)
3. In small microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on Medium (50%) 15 seconds. Stir in 2 teaspoons rum. Pour over top of cake, allowing some to drizzle down sides. Sprinkle pecans over frosting. Store loosely covered.
Makes 16 servings.
High altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 52-58 min.
