Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake.

I made this recipe twice in one week for two different events, and, while I intended to photograph it, it was gone too quickly. You'll just have to trust me, it looks delicious, and it tastes even better. This is also possibly the easiest cake ever to make. Seriously, I considered having Jonathan make it all by himself. (He could have, but he was 'not in the mood for baking' that day.)

You could easily substitute another fruit for the blueberries, though I wouldn't suggest changing out the pineapple, purely for the liquid content needed. Though, you may be able to try mandarin oranges in their juice...

Whatever you do, don't be surprised if this doesn't last long!

Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake, from Susan Stogsdill

Ingredients:

1 can crushed pineapple

2 to 3 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh, I usually use frozen)

1 pkg yellow cake mix (original recipe specifies Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix)

1 to 2 sticks butter, melted (one stick=more cakelike, 2 sticks=more barlike. I do 1 1/2.)

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

DON'T STIR EVER! Grease 9x13 pan. (Or not, I usually forget to do this.) Spread pineapple in bottom of pan, pour blueberries on top of pineapple. Sprinkle cake mix on blueberries. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle pecans on top. Bake at 350ºF for 35-40 minutes. (Might take up to 50 if you use 2 sticks of butter. Just watch it. It will also firm up a bit as it cools.) Enjoy!

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread Cookies.

This cookie recipe could possibly be the easiest recipe I've made yet. Three ingredients before the customization, and a short baking time until nearly instant gratification. Also, this are one of the few cookie recipes I know of where the baked cookies tastes better than the dough. The only downside of these is they kind of need to be doctored, hence the lemon poppyseed. Next time I'm going to mix a bit of vanilla and brown sugar and use that in place of the white sugar. Should be great!  

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, from Anyone Can Cook, by Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour

3 T. sugar (or a mixture or vanilla and brown sugar, perhaps?)

1/2 c. butter

a generous sprinkling of poppyseeds

1/2 T. lemon peel, or to taste

Directions:

Mix the flour and sugar together, along with the poppyseeds and lemon peel, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a knife. Roll out the cookies to desired thickness, very thin if you like shortbread crispy, slighly thicker if you prefer it crumbly and slightly moist. Cut in traditional rounds, simple squares, or fun shapes. Bake in a 325°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until bottoms just start to brown. Cool on a wire rack.

This makes slightly under two dozen cookies. Enjoy!

Apple Hand Pies.

Happy 4th of July! My family is definitely going low-key this year, hanging out at home and watching what fireworks can be seen from our deck. Nevertheless, there's going to be some delicious 4th of July fare, grilling and such, going on. One thing that always seems to be touted as a perfect 4th of July dessert, beyond the red, white, and blue trifles, is apple pie. I love apple pie, but frankly, in July, especially in this heat wave we've been having, I don't want my oven on that long if I can help it. I had some apples to use up though, and I do really like apple pie, so I decided to see if I could make mini pies that didn't take as long to bake. Success!

Apple Hand Pies, by me! (with help from my mom's pie crust recipe)

Filling Ingredients:

Chopped apples (I used about three apples, but had some left over. You could probably make these with two.)

Brown sugar

Lemon juice

Vanilla

Butter

Cinnamon

Pumpkin pie spice/apple pie spice (I had pumpkin pie spice on hand)

salt (optional)

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter

1 1/2-2 T cold water

a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon, if you like (I liked.)

Directions:

For crust: Mix flour and salt together. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or knives. Slicing it up into small chunks first makes this easier. Once the butter and flour mixture is well blended, and resembles small peas, add in the water, a little at a time. Blend as you go, adding just enough water till everything holds together. You probably won't need it all. Set aside in the fridge until your filling is ready.

For filling: (Sorry for the generalities ahead, everything is to taste.) Chop apples into small chunks. Throw some brown sugar over top, add some lemon juice, and stir together. Taste an apple, and add more brown sugar or lemon juice as needed. Add a healthy splash of vanilla. Add some butter for flavor. (I used around 2 Tbsp, but you can use more or less, it's for taste, nothing else.) Add cinnamon and pie spice, stir everything together. Taste again, balance flavors if needed. Sometimes adding salt will help meld flavors, so if needed, add a little salt here.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out thin. This may take a bit of work, this particular crust is rather flaky and doesn't like rolling much. If it gets too sticky, just ball it up and pop it back in the fridge to cool down for a couple minutes and try again. Once you've got the crust as thin as you want it, tear off palm sized chunks and place them on a greased tray. The edges don't have to be smooth or pretty, that's part of the charm with these.

Once all crust is on the pan, spoon filling into the center of each crust and fold the edges of the crust up around the filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350ºF oven. Let cool for a couple minutes on the pan, remove, and enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Birthday Cake.

On June 9th, Chris turned 27. On June 10th, I left for northern Minnesota for a few days to participate in a fairly young family tradition called Chick Week. (Only girls attend, for the most part...) In any case, I wanted to be sure that Chris' birthday was extra special this year, with very little packing on my part, and lots of celebrating instead!

We started the morning early, at 6:15, so that Chris could run a charity 3K race in a nearby neighborhood. He finished a full minute quicker than last year! Then we came home, regrouped, and headed out for a victory beignet at The Green Gateau, a great place for a date night, but even better for a nice brunch.

After brunch and a quick nap, I sent Chris out for a break to do some writing, and I scrambled to make a cake and get some cleaning done for the mini surprise party that night! We had some lovely friends over, Steve and Laurie, and their ADORABLE little girl Noelle over, enjoyed some great food and even better company. All in all, a great birthday!

This cake is dead simple to make, and it's completely delicious. I'd suggest serving it with some ice cream, or some barely sweetened whipped cream. Not too much extra sweet though, as the frosting is plenty sweet on its own. I will definitely be making this again. Yum!

Cinnamon Sugar Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting, from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

Cake:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) Butter, room temperature 
1 cup Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch Of Nutmeg
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 cups Cake Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt

Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter, room temperature 
⅓ cup Brown Sugar, packed 
1 tsp Cinnamon
4 cups Powdered Sugar
4 Tbsp Heavy Cream
1 tsp Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Grease 2 8 or 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract.

Gradually add in cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until smooth. Batter will be very thick. Ridiculously so.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and spread out batter until level. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine were done at about 42 minutes.)

Cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before removing cake and allowing to cool completely on a cooling rack.

For the Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the ground cinnamon and salt. Extra cinnamon is wonderful here. Beat in the powdered sugar and cream, alternating a cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of frosting until it's all incorporated. If frosting is too thick, add a small amount of cream until desired consistency is achieved. If frosting is not thick enough, add powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved. (I found the frosting is rather thick, but it is still a nice consistency for this cake, and doesnt need too much thinning.)

To Assemble:

Put a dab of frosting on your cake plate to hold cake in place. Place a cake layer on cake plate. Top cake with ⅓ of the frosting and spread evenly. Top with second cake layer and the rest of the frosting, spreading it evenly across the top and down the sides. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon for decoration, if desired. (Definitely do this!) Enjoy!

Strawberry Pie.

Strawberries are on sale again. That doesn't entirely mean they're in season locally yet, but they're in season somewhere, and that was enough for my husband to bring home a 2 lb. container from the grocery store the other day. The thing with that many strawberries in the presence of two adults and a toddler...well, we cant make it through all of them quickly enough — they start to grow beards. I decided that this time they'd become a pie instead.

I rarely make a strawberry pie (or any pie for that matter, much to my husband's dismay) mainly because the chopping of the strawberries takes awhile, and I'd rather be doing something other than slicing two pounds of strawberries to manageable pieces. Still, the reward is worth it at least once a year...

 

Strawberry Pie, from Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?, by Betty Rae Frandsen, Kathryn J. Frandsen, Kent P. Frandsen

Ingredients:

3 T. strawberry gelatin

1 C. sugar

3 T. cornstarch

pinch salt

1 C. water, divided

3 drops red food coloring (I didn't use)

3 C. sliced strawberries

1 baked 9-in. pie shell (recipe follows)

Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

Combine gelatin, sugar, cornstarch, and salt to make a paste with 1/8 cup of the water. Set aside.

Boil 7/8 cup of the water and gradually add the paste, stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Cook until thickened. Cool two hours.

Bake pie shell, if you're making your own.

Arrange sliced strawberries in pie shell. Stir food coloring into cooled glaze, if you like, and pour over strawberries. Chill completely. Top with whipped cream.

Pie Crust, from Gayle Van Camp

This is actually my mom's quiche crust, but I use it for everything, as it's delicious.

Ingredients:

1 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1/4+1/8 c. butter flavored shortening (6 T.) (I use regular unsalted butter)

1 1/2 to 2 T. cold water

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening/butter with pastry blender till it resembles peas.

Add water, a little at a time. Form ball and roll out to fit a 9" pan. (I find this crust somewhat difficult to roll out, so I usually just press it into a pan.)

Bake crust for 8 or 9 minutes at 375°F. Enjoy!

P.S. This crust is also great when spices are mixed in and you wrap it around a peeled apple and bake for 20 minutes. DELICIOUS! But that's for another post…