Lucky Leaf Pot-A-Cakes

I admit to being a baker who uses canned pie filling. It's not anything I'm ashamed of, on the contrary, I think it makes me a smarter baker. While fresh cherry pie is lovely, pitting cherries is not, and while fresh blueberries are the bomb, some days I just need them ready to go. I will admit that using apple pie filling from a can is something you'll almost never see me do, but I've slipped there on occasion, too.

Lucky Leaf recently sent along a few recipes for me to try along with cans of their pie fillings to make them with. The first was a clear winner in our house. Lucky Leaf Pot-A-Cakes was the Grand-Prize Winner of the Lucky Leaf Blue Ribbon Recipe challenge, submitted by Gloria Herdman of Pomeroy, Ohio. A combination of streusel bread, blueberry pie filling and cheesecake, they were absolutely yummy.

Pot-A-Cakes

Ingredients

1 21-ounce can LUCKY LEAF ® Premium Blueberry Pie Filling
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 4-serving size package (3.4 ounces) French vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/3 cups whipping cream
1 17.4- to 18.3-ounce package cinnamon streusel quick bread mix
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Divide pie filling among eight 10-ounce custard cups or ramekins (for one dish recipe see below). Set cups on a large baking sheet; set aside.
2. In a large bowl beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in pudding mix. Gradually beat in whipping cream until well combined (mixture will be thick). Spoon evenly over pie filling in cups.
3. In another large bowl combine quick bread mix, water, eggs, and oil. Stir until combined but slightly lumpy. Spoon 1/4 cup of the batter over the cream cheese mixture in each cup. Sprinkle evenly with all but 1/4 cup of the packaged streusel mixture. Spoon remaining batter over the streusel (batter won't cover the streusel layer). Sprinkle with reserved streusel. (Note: Cups will be full.)
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into top portion comes out clean. Cool slightly. If desired, drizzle tops of cakes with icing* before serving. Serve warm.

*Icing: If your quick bread does not contain an icing packet, in a small bowl combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons milk, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla. If necessary, stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to make drizzling consistency.

One Dish Method: Prepare batters as above. Spread pie filling in a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Dollop pudding mixture atop. Spoon on about 1/2 of the batter and sprinkle with all but 1/4 cup of the streusel. Spoon on remaining batter and sprinkle with reserved streusel. Bake in a 350°F for 40 minutes. Cool slightly and drizzle with icing.

Servings: 8

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Lucky Leaf products provided free of charge. This post and resulting opinions are my own and have not be influenced by free product.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Dulce de Leche

Leftovers are a fact of life, especially during the holidays. I'm a straight-up kind of girl when it comes to them so it's rare that I make anything different from a leftover holiday food. This cake, though, is something I'd make extra sweet potatoes for any day.

When this was done, still warm from the oven and topped with thick dulce de leche, the result was something that can really only be described as foodgasmic. There were no words for just how good that cake was. I made it again with the same delicious results and expect it to stand the test of time here.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Dulce de Leche
Serves: 12

Ingredients:

2 cups leftover mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup unsalted butter - softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unpacked light brown sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 cups prepared dulce de leche

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan and set aside.
2. Mix together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add sweet potatoes, vanilla, eggs and milk and stir until smooth.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice and add to wet ingredients slowly. Batter will be thick.
4. Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. Cool for 10 minutes and invert onto a clean serving platter.
6. Heat dulce de leche until smooth and warm and serve over slices of cake.

*Notes: If you don't have pumpkin pie spice on-hand you can use 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and cloves.

Jersey Diner Coffee Cake

I'm not sure where the title of this recipe came from, but if you've ever had an Entenmann's Ultimate Crumb Cake, this is nearly identical to it. Dense crumbs top a moist, buttery cake and the result is pure joy.

This uses a boxed cake mix and margarine - both taboo these days, it seems - but we so enjoy this cake that I make it with both anyway. There's no reason to eat a whole cake in one sitting, and if you stick to one piece (I dare you!), then you're not ruining your health completely.

I know I found this online somewhere about 11 years ago, but I didn't save that information and I'm clueless as to the author. There are different versions of this floating around, though, so I don't feel as if I'm stepping on any toes. Whoever you are, here's to your delicious creation.

Look at all that butter, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla.

Perfectly crumbed cake.

Jersey Diner Coffee Cake

1 pkg Duncan Hines Butter Cake mix (or any other brand)
4 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Blend together until lumps disappear - do not over mix.
Bake in a greased 11x15 jellyroll pan for 20-25 minutes.

Crumb Topping:

4 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (I use Floridian Gourmet [see photograph] - this guy knows his stuff! Check the website and see if you can still get your hands on some)
2 sticks of margarine
1 stick of butter

Melt butters and let cool slightly. Add vanilla.
Mix flour, cinnamon, sugars then add the liquid mixture.
Crumble with hands and place on warm cake. Bake again for 20 min at 350 degrees F.
Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Christmas Cake

The top of this year's snowflake cake.

I think the first year I started blogging, which was 2005, I went into great detail about our Christmas celebrations and food. Not much changes from year to year in the department, but there are differences. Usually it's something one of the kids has requested or a recipe I caught from a magazine that I had to try. This year one of the desserts was something I haven't made for about 12 years - a snowflake cake.

I can't remember what magazine I found this beauty in, but I thought it was one of the prettiest cakes I've ever seen and had to tackle it. Back then I had 3 children and lots more time, so it wasn't so taxing to get it done. Over the years, as we added 4 more kids and lost some time I let it slide and intended to make it, but never got 'a round tuit'.

This year I wanted to make that cake come Hell or high water, and I did. I was amazed at how easily it went together and quietly scolded myself for not having done it earlier. It was a show stopper - as it was meant to be - and the cake itself was so good that my mother-in-law called (on behalf of my brother-in-law) to ask if we had any left.

My first snowflake cake from 1997.

The cake itself is one of my newest favorites, Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake, which I first made with the Daring Bakers almost 2 years ago. I have since come to love that cake and use it as a base for many, many desserts. This time I made 4 layers of the cake and sandwiched ALDI's Fruits of the Forest Spread between the layers (this spread is to-die-for and you must find an ALDI and seek this out) and topped the cake with a basic buttercream icing.

Once assembled, I piped 'snowflakes' (which were really more star-like because they have more than 6 sides) out of melted white chips and added pearlized dragées to them. I usually use silver or gold dragées, but they were hard to find this year.

Once the snowflakes are set, I add them in a pile to the top of the cake and sprinkle the whole top with large crystal sugar to give it extra sparkle. Give it a try sometime - it's a good cake for all winter long, not just Christmas.

What are the food traditions your family can't live without? What is something new you've tried this year?

Cherry Upside-Down Cake

Cherries aren't one of my favorites, but they are for Marty and Megan (my second-oldest) so I make cherry pies and turnovers for them. I love Bing cherries of the fresh variety, though, and I picked up some this past week.

Nobody seemed interested in them besides me, so I devised a yummy dessert in which to 'dispose' of them. Even I liked this, which is saying a lot as I really don't like cooked cherries in any form.

We like ours with a smaller cake, but the recipe doubles very easily if you'd like more cake-to-fruit ratio.

Cherry Upside-Down Cake
Makes 1 10" round cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg - lightly beaten
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter - softened
1/4 cup light brown sugar - packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
35 to 45 fresh cherries - pitted and halved

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Melt 2 Tablespoons butter in a 10" round cake pan.
Place halved and pitted cherries, cut side up, into the bottom of the cake pan. Blend brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over cherries. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and blend well. Stir together flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Drop evenly over top of cherries - this is a thick dough that can not be poured.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and gently invert onto a large plate.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge is hosted by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater with her Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, as published on Bay Area Bites - full recipe HERE. There was also an optional challenge: Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press, Copyright 2007, ISBN: 978-1579652111.

Co-hosting with Shuna are Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo), Jenny of Foray into Food, and for the gluten-free options, Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go.

I decided to use the caramels as a decoration for my cake, and although we haven't eaten ours yet, the cake smelled so good when it was baking that I was having to hold the kids back. Caramel is one of my husband's favorite things and he can't wait to get his fork on this one!


I think it went together really easily, the cake baked perfectly and the icing was a real pleasure to work with. I can tell you that the caramels themselves are delightful.

Lava Cakes with Cherries

Lava cakes are absolutely nothing new. But they sure are good. A couple cherries added to the center make them even better; if that's possible.

Lava Cakes with Cherries
Makes 4

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
8 maraschino cherries - well drained

Grease 4 custard cups - 3/4 cup capacity and pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt butter and chocolate together and stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Beat eggs and yolk with vanilla; add to cooled chocolate and blend well. Stir in flour. Divide evenly between custard cups. Gently push 2 maraschino cherries into the center of each cake. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes. Loosen gently with a thin knife and upturn onto a plate. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

Chocolate cappucino cake

The food news story of the past few days is that we're all getting back into baking. I'm not sure that isn't one of those slightly whimsical ideas the media gets into its collective head (I can't smell any baking smells wafting from our neighbouring flats) but it's a nice, comforting thought anyway.

I must confess I'm not an avid baker - which is just as well otherwise I'd be the size of a house - but I did come up with a really great recipe for The Frugal Cook which I adapted from a splendid book called Best Kept Secrets of the WI: Cakes and Biscuits. It's not terribly thrifty (or healthy, let’s face it) but even frugal cooks deserve a treat. And it does involve economies. Leftover coffee. Cocoa instead of chocolate (for the cake at least) and buttermilk spread instead of butter. If you're planning to join the ranks of the New Bakers, give it a go.

Makes 12-16 squares or bars (so a good weekend bake for a crowd)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp hot strong black coffee
200g unrefined caster sugar
225g hard buttermilk spread (e.g. Willow) at room temperature
4 medium eggs at room temperature
225g self-raising flour sifted with 1 tsp baking powder
For the icing
90g milk chocolate (Belgian rather than Cadbury's - see tip below)
40g butter or buttermilk spread
2 tbsp strong black coffee or milk
125g icing sugar

You’ll also need a medium-sized shallow rectangular cake tin about 18 x 32 cm lined with baking parchment (if it's not non-stick)

Turn the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Sift the cocoa into a large bowl, pour over the hot coffee and stir. Add the caster sugar, stir then tip in the spread, eggs and half the self-raising flour and beat thoroughly together with a wooden spoon or an electric hand whisk. Fold in the remaining flour. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the surface. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully tip out on a wire rack to cool. To make the icing break up the chocolate and put it in a basin with the butter and coffee or milk. Place the bowl over a pan of hot water, taking care that it doesn’t touch. Once the ingredients have melted remove from the heat and beat in the sifted icing sugar. Return the cooled cake to the tin, spread the icing evenly over the surface and leave to set for a couple of hours. Cut the cake into 12-16 squares or bars - or smaller pieces if you prefer.

A thrifty tip: Buy your milk chocolate in the bakery section rather than from the confectionery shelves. It tends to be cheaper

Chocolate cappucino cake

The food news story of the past few days is that we're all getting back into baking. I'm not sure that isn't one of those slightly whimsical ideas the media gets into its collective head (I can't smell any baking smells wafting from our neighbouring flats) but it's a nice, comforting thought anyway.

I must confess I'm not an avid baker - which is just as well otherwise I'd be the size of a house - but I did come up with a really great recipe for The Frugal Cook which I adapted from a splendid book called Best Kept Secrets of the WI: Cakes and Biscuits. It's not terribly thrifty (or healthy, let’s face it) but even frugal cooks deserve a treat. And it does involve economies. Leftover coffee. Cocoa instead of chocolate (for the cake at least) and buttermilk spread instead of butter. If you're planning to join the ranks of the New Bakers, give it a go.

Makes 12-16 squares or bars (so a good weekend bake for a crowd)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp hot strong black coffee
200g unrefined caster sugar
225g hard buttermilk spread (e.g. Willow) at room temperature
4 medium eggs at room temperature
225g self-raising flour sifted with 1 tsp baking powder
For the icing
90g milk chocolate (Belgian rather than Cadbury's - see tip below)
40g butter or buttermilk spread
2 tbsp strong black coffee or milk
125g icing sugar

You’ll also need a medium-sized shallow rectangular cake tin about 18 x 32 cm lined with baking parchment (if it's not non-stick)

Turn the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Sift the cocoa into a large bowl, pour over the hot coffee and stir. Add the caster sugar, stir then tip in the spread, eggs and half the self-raising flour and beat thoroughly together with a wooden spoon or an electric hand whisk. Fold in the remaining flour. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the surface. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully tip out on a wire rack to cool. To make the icing break up the chocolate and put it in a basin with the butter and coffee or milk. Place the bowl over a pan of hot water, taking care that it doesn’t touch. Once the ingredients have melted remove from the heat and beat in the sifted icing sugar. Return the cooled cake to the tin, spread the icing evenly over the surface and leave to set for a couple of hours. Cut the cake into 12-16 squares or bars - or smaller pieces if you prefer.

A thrifty tip: Buy your milk chocolate in the bakery section rather than from the confectionery shelves. It tends to be cheaper

Weight Watchers Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling - and GIVEAWAY!

Weight Watchers has just released a brand new snack cake - their version of the Twinkie, but smaller and with less calories. In fact, one Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling is a mere 80 calories and 1 (ONE!) point. One could easily make a full dessert with two cakes and 3/4 cup of sliced strawberries for a total of 2 1/2 points. Now, that's a great deal!

I'm giving away TWO boxes of these little cream-filled lovelies, and if you'd like one - leave a commment for me here with your email and I'll choose two winners by October 1st!

Veggie Wednesday: The Forbidden Fruit

Apple season is one of my favorites and this is one of my favorite recipes to go with it, Nana's Apple Cake.

A bowl filled with the promise of good things to come.

Sliced apples in a 9x13 baking pan.

Butter cubed to help it soften quicker.

Sugar added.

Sugar and butter creamed together and eggs added to the mix.

Flour and baking powder tossed in.

A soft dough. Take note of the old silver fork - that's a must for mixing! Well, maybe not a must, but it works for me.

Sugar with freshly ground nutmeg (the only way I use it) and cinnamon.

Apples sprinkled with the cinnamon-nutmeg sugar.

Spoons of dough tops the apples.

Play 'connect-the-dots' and spread them over the apples. Even if it doesn't look like it will cover them all, or there are holes, don't you worry - it will bake together and be perfect. Top with more cinnamon-nutmeg sugar and...


Surprise! The final result and full recipe are at Short Order Mom.

A "Sweet" 16!

My second daughter turned 16 a couple days ago and this was another another "Bad Cake by Anne" for her - a little play on words:



Now, I know I'm probably scarring my children for life by continuing to make badly decorated cakes for their birthdays, but I can't help it. It's like a compulsion - you know, like rubber-necking for a car wreck.

Think they'll live through it?