Cakes – Buen provecho…2022

Muffin Tin Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

My spouse’s mother always made him pineapple upside down cake for his birthday when he was young. Waking up early on his birthday, I decided that was what I would make him also. I had previously found a recipe and purchased all of the ingredients. It doesn’t get much easier than this recipe! PS…It would be great for Easter Sunday!!!

Muffin Tin Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

Ingredients…

1/4 C Butter
1 C Packed Dark Brown Sugar
1 Can (20 Oz) Pineapple slices in juice, drained, reserve juice
1 Jar (6 oz) Maraschino cherries without stems – drained
1 Box Betty Crocker Supermoist yellow cake mix
- oil and eggs called for on box –

1 – Preheat oven – 350 degrees. In a 13 x 9 x2 pan, melt butter in oven. Here is where I made a change – I sprayed the pan first with PAM – just a precaution I wanted to take. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices on brown sugar. Place cherries in centers and around the slices – press gently into the sugar/butter.

2 – Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to make 1 cup. Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

3 – Bake about 40 or so minutes – or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately run a knife around the edges of pan to loosen cake. I let mine sit in the pan for about 10 minutes then turned it out onto a serving platter leaving the pan on top for an additional 15 to 20 minutes… This lets the brown sugar drizzle over the cake – remove pan. Cool for about 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Canadian Thanksgiving, Eh?

Since there might be a few new followers, I am noting a few of the recipes on the site which you might want to incorporate into your Canadian OR American Thanksgiving dinners. Hoping you might find some ideas before you head out to buy groceries…LOL

Look for these and other recipes in the GO box –

Good Eats Roasted Turkey or

Spice Rubbed Turkey or

Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Crusted Roast Beef (for those who are not into turkey)

Thai Style Chicken and Pumpkin Soup

Fragrant Fall Red Cabbage (side dish)

Pumpkin Crunch Cake (much better than pie!)

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!

Limoncello Tiramisu

Some of you are aware of my recipe posted some time back for homemade limoncello liqueur. Recently I was asked to bring a dessert to a potluck and I decided to make a limoncello tiramisu instead of the traditional one with espresso and Grand Marnier. What follows is this very tasty but time consuming recipe…thanks to Coleen, the Redhead Baker for sharing this recipe on Pinterest.

Limoncello Tiramisu Author: Coleen, The Redhead Baker

Serves: 12 servings

Ingredients

5 large eggs, divided
1 cup sugar, divided
1½ cups limoncello, divided (1/2 and 1 cup)
Zest of 3 Meyer lemons
Juice of 5 to 6 Meyer lemons (enough to yield ¾ cup)
1 cup water
16 oz. mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
40 ladyfinger cookies

Directions

Line a 9×13 baking sheet with wax paper, letting it hang over the edges on two sides.
Fill a large saucepan with about an inch of water and set it over high heat until the water comes to a steady simmer. Reduce the heat to keep water at a steady simmer.
Place two cups of ice in a very large mixing bowl and fill with about 2 inches of water.
Place the egg yolks, ¼ cup of sugar and ½ cup of the limoncello in a medium mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl over the simmering water, and whisk vigorously until the mixture thickens (about 5 minutes).
Take the mixing bowl off the double boiler and place the mixing bowl in the ice water.
Empty the simmering water from the saucepan. Place the 1 cup of water, the remaining 1 cup of limoncello, the lemon juice, and ½ cup sugar in the saucepan. Heat over high heat until boiling, and cook at a boil for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, with a hand-held mixer or whisk, beat the mascarpone cheese until softened. Add the lemon zest and beat until light and fluffy.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the sugar and beat until the whites form medium peaks.
Fold a third of the egg yolk mixture into the mascarpone cheese, then fold in the rest of the yolk mixture. Then fold in the egg whites, a quarter of the whites at a time.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Never tired of pumpkin…LOL. This is much better than a pumpkin pie! Oh so easy…

Pumpkin Crunch Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar (reduce sugar to half cup brown and quarter cup white) as it does not need all of this)
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup melted butter
whipped topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease bottom of 9X13 pan.
Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt in bowl then pour it into your pan.
Sprinkle your dry yellow cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture.
Sprinkle chopped pecans and walnuts over the cake mix.
Drizzle melted butter evenly over everything.
Bake your pumpkin crunch cake for 55 minutes or until top is turning golden brown. Cool completely, cut and serve with whipped topping or French vanilla ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers.

Campbell’s Tomato Soup Spice Cake

Keeping with the nostalgia mood from last week, here is another favourite recipe from my youth, which I recently found in an old Campbell’s Soup cookbook. For more SOUP-rising recipes, follow this link –

http://www.campbellskitchen.com/

Campbell’s Tomato Soup Spice Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Tomato Soup
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
Cream Cheese Frosting (Store Bought works)

How to Make It

Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan.
Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, allspice, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves in a large bowl. Add the soup, shortening, eggs and water. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed just until blended. Increase the speed to high and beat for 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Frost with the Cream Cheese Frosting.

McIntosh Dark Christmas Cake

Okay…I hear ya! It may seem too early to start this, but trust me, NOW is the right time to make this cake! Once baked and wrapped and stored, you are going to take it out every two or three weeks and brush it with your favourite brandy! Keep doing that right up until the cakes are all gone!! You won’t regret it…

FYI…this is Larry’s mother’s recipe with a slight change. Since we had no cherries, we replaced them with dried cranberries. He also added some Kirsch to make up for the lack of cherry flavour… BTW…MY mother used glazed pineapple too!

Mrs. McIntosh’s Dark Christmas Cake*

Fruit Mixture:

3 cups seedless raisins

3 cups Sultana raisins

1 cup dates cut up

1.5 cup dried cranberries OR glazed cherries

3 cups mixed peel

1 cup chopped pecans OR walnuts

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp.cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. mace

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. ground cloves

Wet Ingredients:

10 Tablespoons butter

10 Tablespoons shortening (Crisco)

8 eggs

1.5 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup orange juice

Line 2 loaf pans with heavy waxed paper and brown paper.

Preparation:

Soak fruit with 1/3 cup Kirsch liqueur

Add the nuts; dust with ¼ cup flour.

Stir Dry Ingredients (remaining flour and spice) together in a separate bowl.

Cream Wet Ingredients (shortening, butter and sugar), beating together until fluffy.

Add eggs ONE AT A TIME, beating well after each.

Blend in dry ingredients; fold in ½ fruit and nut mixture.

Add orange juice slowly while mixing in, and then add second half fruit mixture.

Fill prepared pans 2/3 full.

Bake in a slow oven (300 degrees) 2 hours or until done. Place a pan of hot water in a shallow pan on bottom rack during baking. Remove after one hour!

Cool before removing paper; re-wrap and store in an airtight container in a cool place.

DON’T FORGET THE BASTING EVERY TWO OR THREE WEEKS….. I personally like brandy!

Easy Peach Cobbler

Recipe-hiking on the Internet, Larry came across this great and easy cobbler. In three weeks, he has made it twice for guests. Check out the original site for more great recipes – www.justapinch.com

Great for kids baking!!!

Easy Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:

2 lbs of frozen peaches (or any fruit of choice…we liked mixed berries)

1 box of Betty Crocker yellow cake mix

1 10 oz. can of Diet 7-up or SPRITE

Preparation:

Spread the frozen fruit of choice in the bottom of a 9 x 13 Pyrex pan which has been sprayed with Pam.

Sprinkle dry cake mix over the fruit.

Pour 7-Up or Sprite over the mix … GENTLY!

Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove foil and bake another 40 minutes. Let cool.

Serve with whipping cream or ice cream.

VARIATIONS: Chocolate cake mix, frozen cherries and Cherry Coke…

Rhubarb (Fruit) Dump Cake

Our friend, Sandy, posted this recipe on her FB page. The mad scientist/baker in our house decided to experiment with it since rhubarb is very difficult to find where we live. Et voila…. In researching dump cakes, it was noted that this is often the FIRST cake which a child can make since it is so basic! Calling all Moms and Grandmas??? Ok…grandpas and dads too…Thanks Sandy B.

Rhubarb Dump Cake

Dump cake is usually a combination of canned fruit, with cherries and pineapples being some of the most preferred. Fruit is usually drained and combined on the bottom of a baking dish. Next, people add yellow or white cake mix, simply pouring the mix right over the fruit. Recipes vary but most then direct people to add slices of butter on top of the cake mix. When the cake is baked it has a lovely top crust that is buttery over a layer of sweet fruit. Be brave and experiment with the fruits…..

More like a crisp than a cake…if you cannot find the rhubarb, try the substitutions in red….

1 pound rhubarb, cut into ¼ pieces (3 to 4 cups) and ¾ cup sugar OR

1 pound fresh strawberries (quarter the larger ones, half the small ones)

+ 1 cup fresh mango cubes (not super ripe)

¾ cup sugar

Cinnamon

1 – 3 oz. strawberry Jello

1 package yellow cake mix

1 cup water (warmed)

¼ cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Spread the fruit evenly in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the fruit, followed by the Jello, and finally, the cake mix.

Pour the melted butter and the water over the top of the cake being careful to moisten it all. DO NOT STIR!!!

Bake for 45 minutes or until the fruit appears tender.

Serve with a good French Vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Fudge Cakes aka Molten Lava Cakes

When the kids were younger, they loved those molten lava cakes with the rich warm chocolate filling. That was when they were only available in restaurants. Then President’s Choice brought them out and life was simpler. More recently Dr. Oetker has introduced a mix available in Canada so kids can make these easily at home. (My granddaughter likes to make these after dinner while all of the adults are having another glass of wine!)

The recipe below is still my preference and I must apologize, its source is lost from my aging mind….

Chocolate Fudge Cakes

3 eggs
2 yolks
3 T sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz. semi sweet chocolate chopped
1/3 cup all purpose flour
raspberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375
Grease 6 – 1/2 cup ramekins
Sprinkle with sugar.

Beat eggs and yolks with sugar for 5 minutes.
Melt butter over low heat and add chocolate.
Fold into the egg mixture.
Fold in flour.

Divide among 6 ramekins. Cook 10 minutes. Add a few fresh raspberries and a rich French vanilla ice cream!