Run With The Fishes

This is the last week for the “Whip It Up Challenge“.  It has been a fun experience trying completely new recipes each week. The theme for this week is desserts. Even though I made the Lemon Sandwiches last week, I knew there would be no complaints about having more desserts from the household. Since I wanted it to be a good one, I decided to go with The King.

Zoey and I have already determined that made from scratch cakes are far superior to box cakes, so I first had to find a white cake mix. All Recipes always comes to the rescue.

Elvis Presley Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake (one 9×9 square cake or one batch of cupcakes)

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

For the topping

This makes enough for two cakes
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
2 cups white sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened plus 1 tbls
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour (or sugar if you are me) a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.

Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch. Allow to cool.

For the topping:
Combine pineapple and sugar in saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until sauce thickens slightly. Allow to cool. I drained off the juice from the pineapples to save for something later (maybe sweet and sour sauce?).

Melt remaining tablespoon of butter in small skillet. Add pecans and brown 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla.

Spread pineapples across the cake.

Spread cream cheese frosting over pineapples.

Sprinkle pecans over top of cake.

Dig in.

The recipe was easy to follow. The topping was super simple to make. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it sooner, but pineapples and cream cheese are such a good combination. While this cake was pretty good, it wasn’t exceptional. I may make it again if someone requests it, but it won’t go into our favorites.

I have a beautiful new cookbook and really wanted to try some of the recipes in it. I have tried a few and so far each one has been delicious. I thought about doing this one next week, when the Whip It Up theme is desserts, but couldn’t wait that long to make it. I guess that means we’ll have to have a new dessert again next week. Darn.

Please don’t make fun of my duct tape labels. They are not meant to be permanent but are there to help young minds learn how to read.

Lemon sandwiches filled with raspberries and cream
from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros
Ingredients:
For the bread

1/2 lb plus 2 tbls butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Finely grated zest and the juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

For the filling

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup Greek style plain yogurt
1 cup fresh raspberries, halved

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Directions
Preheat oven to 325f. Butter and flour 4″ loaf pan.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs 1 at a time.

Sift in the flour and baking powder.

Mix in the lemon zest

lemon juice

cream and vanilla.

Whisk well to get a smooth batter.

Spoon into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick poked into center comes out clean.

If top is browning too fast, cover with aluminum foil. After baking, remove from oven and cool completely.

For the filling, whip the cream and confectioner’s sugar

until it holds peaks. then fold in the yogurt.

To make the sandwiches, cut the lemon loaf in slices about 1/4 inch thick.

Spread some of the whipped cream on a slice

add some berries

top with another slice

and dust with powdered sugar.

This recipe was super easy to follow. Just like all of the others in this book. This one seems to be one of the more labor intensive of the recipes. It is completely worth it. I didn’t have access to Greek yogurt, but found that it is basically just super thick yogurt. To achieve this, I followed one of the online tips I found (I don’t remember where and didn’t save the link). I used a coffee filter and strained some regular plain yogurt overnight in the refrigerator. It worked perfectly.

Even though I bought the berries the day before, they had already started to mold. Gross. As a quick substitute we used some strawberry preserves. There is no doubt that I will be making this again. Next time, I will make it the day we buy the berries.

This is the cake that I used as the base for the Black Forrest Cake we had on Greg’s birthday. I got the recipe from Allrecipes and it had so many high ratings, I had high hopes that it would be delicious. Even though it didn’t come from a box, it was so easy to make. It was also really tasty. Based on the string of successes we have had with made-from-scratch cakes, I don’t know if I will use a boxed cake again.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 – 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Hey! It’s been a while. Like TWO whole months. Time really goes by quickly. For Greg’s birthday on Saturday, Greg couldn’t decide between cherry pie and something else. He said to make him a cake we haven’t had before. After scouring the internet, I found this recipe for Black Forest Cake. The only thing I didn’t have was kirsh (cherry brandy) and, because it wouldn’t be cooked off. I wouldn’t have used it anyway. You know, because I would be serving it to young children and all. I also didn’t get all fancy and make chocolate curls. Oh, and we used the juice drained from the cherries as a syrup for the vanilla ice cream. Delicious.

* 1 dark chocolate cake mix (or your own from scratch) – I made my own, and will be posting the recipe. It was soooooo easy and much healthier. Right now, we are all about the healthy.
* 1/4 c. kirsch (cherry brandy)
* 1 can cherry pie filling
* 16 oz. heavy whipping cream
* 1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar
* Maraschino cherries, drained, optional, for garnish
* milk chocolate curls or shavings, for garnish

PREPARATION:
Drain cherry pie filling in a colander to remove most of the thickened juices.

Make cake, following package directions. Bake cake, as directed, in two 9-inch layer cake pans.

When cool, sprinkle kirsch over both cake layers.
Chill electric beaters and large mixing bowl; beat cream until it thickens slightly, gradually add confectioners’ sugar and beat until thick enough to hold its shape.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave chocolate; refrigerate until ready to serve.

Assemble cake; place one layer on serving plate and spread its top with 1/2-inch thick layer of whipped cream and strew the cherries over the cream leaving about 1/2 inch margin around border of cake with no cherries.

Set other layer on top of cherries and spread top and sides of cake with remaining cream, shape whipped cream into decorative swirls on top.

With fingers, gently press chocolate curls into cream on sides of cake.

Garnish top with drained maraschino cherries, if desired, or with a few remaining chocolate curls.

At work, it was someone’s birthday so I told them I would bake a cake. When asked what kind she would like she was no help. She said she liked the frosting of a German Chocolate Cake, but didn’t really want a chocolate cake. When I did a search for “cakes with coconut” a few popped up, but this one sounded like it had the most promise. I made two cakes, one for work and one for us to eat at home. I am so glad I did. It was totally worth the effort of making a cake from scratch. The cake was absolutely delicious.

Here are the things I did differently:
A) I used two sticks of butter instead of shortening.
B) In an effort to make the cake slightly healthy (and to offset a pure butter cake), I also used fat free cream cheese for the frosting.
C) I don’t keep buttermilk on hand so used a measuring cup with 1 tbsp vinegar topped off with milk.
D) On the second cake, I used two 9 inch cake pans instead of three. There really wasn’t enough batter for more than two pans.
E) On all of the cakes I bake, instead of greasing then flouring, I spray the pans with Pam then sugar. It works just as well and leaves no flour residue on the baked cake.

Italian Cream Cake (From Beth Lott’s Mom)

For the cake:
1/2 cup shortening, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, separated and at room temperature
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar, sifted
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together onto a sheet of waxed or parchment paper. With the mixer on low speed, add the sifted ingredients in batches alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, and gently fold into the prepared batter. Add the coconut, pecans and vanilla and fold into the batter. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared cake pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of each cake. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. When the cakes are completely cool, stack the layers with the frosting and frost the sides and top.

While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, butter and vanilla and, using an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy. Add the sifted powdered sugar and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the nuts and fold together. Keep refrigerated until you are ready to frost the cake.

Southern Style Christmas Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce
Recipe courtesy, Terri Kurlan, McKinney, Texas

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
User Rating: 5 Stars

2 loaves Raisin Cinnamon Bread
8 eggs plus 2 egg whites
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar
2 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 lemon juiced and zested
1 cup dried cherries and raisins
1/4 cup melted butter, for baking dish

For topping:
2 cups bread crumbs from crusts
Bourbon sauce, recipe follows
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 stick cold butter, cut into cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove crusts from bread and reserve. Cut bread slices into cubes. In a large bowl, beat eggs well. Add milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, Grand Marnier and mix well. Add cinnamon, juice, and lemon zest. Stir in cherries and raisins. Add bread cubes and stir until well coated. Let stand 30 minutes, stirring often. If mixture is soupy, you may need to add additional slices of white bread (crusts removed.) The mixture should be wet but not soupy. Pour into buttered baking dish, dusted with sugar. Prepare topping in a food processor. Add crusts, butter and brown sugar, pulsing until mixture is crumbly. Spread evenly over top of pudding. Bake in a water bath for 50 minutes covered with foil. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes or until brown on top. Serve with bourbon sauce.

BOURBON SAUCE:
2 egg yolks
1 stick butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup bourbon

Mix eggs, butter, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and 1/2 cup bourbon. In top of a double boiler cook until temperature reads 165 on a thermometer. Beating constantly and being careful not to curdle eggs. Remove from heat and strain. In a mixer bowl, beat sauce until slightly cool, adding remaining bourbon a little at a time. Serve with bread pudding.

1 (9 inch) pie shell
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup bourbon (I usually cut this in half) / Amaretto works well also
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees F).
In a small saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter or margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter or margarine melts and sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.
In a large bowl combine eggs, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour sugar mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour mixture into pie shell.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until set and golden. May be served warm or chilled.

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 package vanilla pudding (optional)
1 cup butter (real butter makes better cookies)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbls vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1 dollop sour cream

Optional stir-ins: Heath bar chips, vanilla chips, white chocolate chips, M&M’s, nuts. Pretty much whatever sounds good.

Preheat oven to 375.
In small bowl combine dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, melt butter and sugars together in microwave at 1/2 power.
Let cool, then mix vanilla, eggs, and sour cream into large bowl.
Stir in dry ingredients, then chocolate chips and optional stir-ins.

Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Let cookie sheet cool completely before next batches.

1 Tbls sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
6 Tbls salt
Ice
1 pint size baggie
1 gallon size baggie

Fill smaller baggie with milk, vanilla, and sugar.
Fill larger baggie with ice and salt.
Place smaller baggie into large baggie.
Shake for 5 minutes.