Carrot cake

Hi, I haven’t made a carrot cake in years. 

 Back in the day when food processors were not known of; I used to grate my carrots but with modern inventions today I used my food processor and it worked out great!  No tedious grating Or I remember you could use jars of baby food labeled carrots, this shows you how old I am. Can you believe?

The original recipe is below.  I used my new round deep cake pan I bought recently. Baking time was similar to as below. I baked approximately 40 minutes. Use a cake tester to make sure center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Note: I cut sugar to 1 cup and oil to 3/4 cup

knowing that my cream cheese icing would make up

For the sugar.

I added chopped pecans on top!

It’s delicious!

Original:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 3 eggs 
• 2 cups Gold Medal™ All Purpose Flour 
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 3 cups shredded carrots (5 medium) 
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 
• 2 to 3 teaspoons milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 4 cups powdered sugar 
• Nutmeg, if desired

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan or two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into pan(s).
• Step 

  2
  Bake 13x9-inch pan 40 to 45 minutes, round pans 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Step 

  3
  In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. Frost 13x9-inch cake or fill and frost round layers with frosting. Sprinkle nutmeg on frosted cake, if desired. Store in refrigerator.

Betty Crocker

White cake with lemon layer

So easy!  When you have all the ingredients this is a very easy way to make a delicious dessert.  It was ready in an hour and a half.

1 box white cake mix made according to directions 

1 can lemon pie filling

Bake cake in 2- 9” pans follow baking directions.

Topping:

1 pint heavy cream

1 tsp. Vanilla extract 

4 tablespoons confectioners sugar .  Beat until

thick  but still soft.  Spread gently over cake. Refrigerate several hours.

Enjoy!  

Butternut Bundt cake

This cake originally was going to be a simple light pound cake but I by mistake added butternut extract instead of all vanilla to the recipe.  It’s darker in color because of the extract and a good recipe to serve with unsweetened coffee. I enjoyed it!

1 stick of butter melted in 1cup water.  Cool set aside

2 eggs 

1cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp.baking soda

1tsp. Butternut and vanilla extract 

1tsp. Vanilla extract 

1/2  cup sour cream

Cool whip topping! Or a powdered sugar and milk drizzle.

Best sugar and eggs  Add flour, baking soda.  Slowly add butter water mixture. Mixture will

be thin /watery).

Pour  batter slowly into Heavily greased Bundt pan.

Bake 375° for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean,  

NOTE;  Dark coated pan BAKE at 350° . Check after 40 minutes.  Additional 5 to 10 minutes may be necessary Top will be slightly golden brown.

Every oven is different so check after 30 minutes.

Top should be slightly browned.

 Enjoy!

 

Chocolate layer Cake with bananas

This cake was my Dads favorite.

 Chocolate layer cake with bananas.I fudged it using a one box Devils food cake mix.( mom would make her scratch cake).  I’m good to myself taking less steps if I can and truly it’s always delicious..

2 - 9”round cake pans. Spray bottom generously .Follow recipe on box for cake.

Make a small amount of butter cream icing to separate the layers and hold the banana. Powered sugar , tablespoon or two of milk and a little softened butter.  Best well.  Make it on the thick side. 

Use one thinly sliced banana .  If you use too many bananas it may tip the cake so be careful of placement of bananas.

Whipped cream topping 1pint heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract and 4 tablespoons powdered sugar. Best until

Thick and not watery. Spread evenly on cake and garnish with baking cocoa if desired.

Refrigerate until ready to serve and refrigerate leftovers(if there are any) DELICIOUS!

While hubby was watching Penn State football.  I was busy making fresh Sunday sauce and a chocolate layer cake with sliced bananas in the center.  ( I put a little vanilla cream icing on the cake before I add the bananas)Nothing but the best on top freshly whipped cream.  

Our son is coming over tomorrow to help us a bit so his reward is this meal with a super nice summer salad.

Hope you are all

enjoying the day!

Banana bread

Banana Bread (my daughter's recipe)  Kids and adults love it!
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt(if using salted butter eliminate it)
1 cup mashed bananas(2 bananas)
1/3 cup butter (softened)
2 tablespoons milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped walnuts(optional)
Combine dry ingredients.  Set aside..

Beat eggs,sugar and butter..

Add dry ingredients alternating with milk..

Add  mashed bananas..Beat slowly until well blended..  

I grease my pans with cooking spray generously.

Bake 350° in loaf pan approx. 45 minutes..

If I use muffin pans or muffin loaves I bake approx. 30 minutes until lightly golden..Test center with toothpick ..

Enjoy!

Banana cream cake

This recipe is from a very old cookbook that the woman who made it was a Girl scout leader back in the day.

Moist, soft but firm it’s delicious eaten as is or as I usually do I use a cream cheese icing.

Icing:

4 oz.cream cheese softened 

2 tablespoons softened butter

I tsp. Vanilla extract

Powered sugar and milk

I don’t measure milk or powdered sugar.  Beat slowly adding powered sugar then milk small amounts until

Desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Note: I usually cut back the sugar in the recipe to 1cup.

 

 

 

Fruit Bundt cake

This was my first attempt at making a fruit cake.

It’s delicious but….my pan wasn’t greased and floured enough so 1/2 of the top stuck. Uggh so make sure you grease and flour it heavy.

I thought I was using the right amount of fruit but it appears this particular fruit mix was chopped so fine you can barely see the fruit. Uggh

Please go to bottom of recipe for my notes.

Here’s the recipe:

8 oz. Extra fancy fruit cake mix

1cup Butter softened

2cups granulated sugar

2 tsp. Baking powder

2 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 1/4 tsp. Salt

4 large eggs

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1cup cranberry juice

4 oz. Red glacé cherries

4 oz. glacé cherries

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325°

Generously Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.

Combine extra fancy fruit cake mix with 1/2 cup water. Microwave one minute. Set aside.

Beat butter and softened sugar in a stand mixer until smooth.  If you don’t have one use what you have. I’m sure it will come out fine.

Beat baking powder, vanilla extract and salt

Best in eggs one at a time scraping side of bowl. Slowly beat in flour and cranberry juice a little at a time.

Stir in fruit mix and its liquid and the cherries .

Transfer batter to well greased Bundt pan.

Bake 80 to 90 minutes rotating pan half way through baking time.

Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan 15 minutes. Loosen edges and reverse pan onto cooling rack.  Sprinkle with powered sugar once cake is completely cooled.

****Notes

I did some substitutions in this recipe.

I used pineapple juice instead of cranberry.

My fruit and cherry mix were a little under 16 oz.

I cut sugar back to 1 1/2 cups.

I cut salt back to 1 tsp.

 I used a dark Bundt pan so decreased baking time to 80 minutes.  Watch your oven.  Everyone’s is different.

Since I didn’t gave cranberry juice I used pineapple juice so my cake is much lighter in color.

Enjoy!  It’s a very good cake with a nice texture.  I served it tonight with coffee and conversations with a friend.

Ps.  I managed to patch it up so I was able to hide the top that was pieced . 

Cannoli ricotta cake

I decided to be a bit adventurous and topped it with freshly whipped cream.  

****Note:  for the 9” x 13” pan recipe for a thicker layer of ricotta filling DOUBLE the amount of ricotta FILLING.

Home made butter cake topped with fresh ricotta that  I added vanilla, powdered sugar and mini semi sweet morsels.

Note:  I had this last week at a restaurant and we both really enjoyed it so I used my moms butter cake recipe and my cannoli filling recipe to put on top.  I taste tested yumm!

Recipe link below:

Moms Butter cake

I had been to a local restaurant where they served a cake similar to this so I decided to use my moms recipe for butter cake and my ricotta filling to top it.

Note:  you can top with finely chopped colored nuts for the holidays.

I’ll link the recipes below.

Ricotta filling

https://iliketobakeandcook.blogspot.com/2018/12/cannoli-ricotta-or-custard-filled-you.html