Some Word Wednesday

Some pictures that were taken when we went camping on Labor Day weekend. The weather was great and I got to chase some ducks in the water! Mom said she has more pictures of camp but she would need to upload them. They are not on her phone.

Also mom wanted to share this awesome apple cake recipe with you. She made it a few weeks ago and it was really really good. I tasted some as well! I gave it 4 paws up! Click on the link below if you would like to get the recipe:

Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting

Hugs,
June

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone

An Apple A Day....

"An apple a day, keeps the doctor away", we all have heard of this quote. Well, I for one cannot eat fresh apple, so that won't work for me. I am allergic to raw apples but thank goodness I can still eat cooked apples, therefore I am always looking for ways to "cook" apples, especially making it into desserts.

I was checking up on some blogs and saw this post at Bakers' Banter: Apple-picking time: our top-pick apple treats: Blog

King Arthur Flour. Let me tell you, if you love apple desserts, you NEED to go on over and check it out. You won't regret it.

These are the ones that I want to make:

1) Old-fashioned Apple cake with Brown Sugar frosting

2) Apple upside-down cake

3) Roasted Apple bread
4) Easy Whole Wheat Apple Raisin Bread
5) Apple Muffins

We also went apple picking last weekend and picked about 20 lbs of apples! I started baking right away, making Apple Crisp.

Wordless Wednesday

Pecan Pie

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless mobile phone

Zucchinis

If you are a gardener, by now you probably have zucchinis coming out of your ears! What to do with all that zucchinis? You can eat them right away, or freeze them for later use, give some away to families and friends but you are still left with loads and loads of zucchinis!

Have no fear my friends. I've got some recipes for you to help you "get rid" of those zucchinis. I was over at my friend's Lena's blog and saw her grandmother's recipes for pickles. I thought I would give that a try but use zucchinis instead(I don't have as much cucumbers yet). I hope they will taste good.

I've also went online and searched for some Zucchini Pickles and Zucchini Relish. I've never made these recipes before. If you do try them, please write back to me and let me know how they turn out.

You can also make zucchini bread(s). Hubby loves zucchini bread, that's the only way he would eat zucchinis. The recipe I have is actually a Banana bread recipe, I just adapted it to make zucchini bread. It's not a very sweet bread. If you like them to be sweet, please increase the sugar amount. I've also heard that zucchini & blueberries bread is pretty good. I've found a recipe but have not try it out yet.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 1/2 AP flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 5(or smaller) loaf pan and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scrape the sides of bowl after each addition.
• Stir in shredded zucchini and vanilla.
• Combine all dry ingredients(except nuts) and add to wet mixture. Mix well.
• Fold in chopped nuts if desired.
• Pour into prepare pan and bake for 30-35 minutes(for 9 x 5 pan).

Please also check out Vegetable Gardener In the Kitchen section and search for zucchini. There are some mouth-watering recipes.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Remember a few weeks ago I got some rhubarb from a co-worker? I still have some in the fridge and wanted to find ways to use them up. So I went online searching for rhubarb desserts recipes. I found a few rhubarb coffee cake recipes and this was one of them: Big Crumb Coffee Cake. I saw this recipe over at Smitten Kitchen and her scrumptious photos of this coffee cake made me drooled all over my desk(well, not really).

I made this recipe for a pic-a-nic last Saturday and it was a hit! There was no leftover at all, so the next day I made another one, except I used frozen blueberries this time instead of rhubarb. It tastes just as delicious!

Here's the recipe, adapted from Smitten Kitchen:

‘Big Crumb’ Coffeecake with Rhubarb
Adapted from The New York Times 6/6/07

Not rhubarb season? Don’t fret. I think this cake would be amazing with a blueberry, raspberry, sour cherry or any other tangy fruit filling you can think of. Simply adjust the sugar level accordingly–most of these will need far less than rhubarb does to make them palatable.

Butter for greasing pan

For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed (I didn't have a scale, so I use 2 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumbs:
1 3/4 cups cake flour (I used All Purpose Flour and I only used 1 1/4 cup)
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, melted

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (I used AP flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan.
For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.

2. To make crumbs: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, spices and salt. Add melted butter and mix it with a fork. The mixture will be slightly wet. Set aside.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.

4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.

5. Using your fingers, break up the topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

12 Days of Baking - Part 2

A few more recipes/links of the cookies I'll be baking for this Christmas/Holiday season. These cookies are for some customers, as a gesture of appreciation, and for the cookie swap we are doing at work.


The list continues:

4) Italian Christmas Cookies - One of my favorite holiday cookies. It's made with Ricotta cheese and the cookies are very soft!


5) Spritz cookies - This recipe link is from Wilton. I have not made this recipe yet. The one I used was from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. Funny thing is every time I make this, hubby and I fight over who gets to pipe out the cookies. Well this year is probably no difference because a friend gave me a cookie press(my pastry bag broke, I was going to buy a new cookie press but she said she doesn't use hers), I'm pretty sure we'll be fighting over who gets to use the cookie press.

6) Raspberry Shortbread Cookies - I made these last year and I had to make extra because hubby just loved them. Guess I'll have to make extra again this year. :)


If you are not into making many different kind of cookies but would like to bake something to give to some friends or families, why not try these:


Zucchini Apple Bread - I posted this recipe here. You can actually make this into an all Apple bread instead. Just omit the zucchini and use 1 1/2 cup of shredded or chopped apple(I actually did both, 1/2 cup shredded and 1 cup chopped)

Apple Spice Cake - I posted this recipe here.

Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf - If you love chocolate and pumpkin, this is one you MUST try.

Happy Baking!

12 Days of Baking

Ok, it's not really 12 days of baking. I don't and am not planning to spend 12 days baking. But it is officially December and it is Christmas/Holiday cookies baking time(I'm sure some of you may have even started already). For the next few posts I'll be posting a few recipes(well, more like links to the recipes) that I'll be making this holiday season.



1) Chocolate Coconut Neapolitans - This is a new recipe that I'm trying. I saw it in one of my old issues of Taste of Home magazine.


2) Rugelach - I've posted the recipe for these here. The recipe looks long but it's actually not complicated to make. I do have to warn you: make extra because once you eat one, you will want more, which will leave none to give away to your friends & families.

3) Pecan Butterballs - I make these every year for Christmas. They are very easy to make and 1 recipe yields 4 dozens or more if you shape the balls smaller. When I make these, I don't roll them in confectioner's sugar because I think it's too sweet with it.

Do you do any holiday baking? What's your favorite holiday cookies?

Am I A Celebrity Now?

Last week when I posted my Double-berry Cheesecake recipe, I received a rather exciting comment:
"Hi there, I love your double berry cheesecake recipe! I represent cheesecake-recipes.org and we have selected this recipe to be in our Featured Cheesecake Section. Please email me so I can give you further details...Thanks and Keep On Cookin'..."

For real? My recipe was picked to be featured? That's so exciting! So I immidiately emailed April for more info. Long story short, my recipe is now featured on this site:
If you love cheesecakes, please check out this site for yummy recipes.

Last Friday was my stepson's 21th birthday! I made him a cake, eggless cake, because he is allergic to eggs. I found this recipe on eHow.com

Instead of using eggs, the recipe uses vinegar and I was a little worried about that. But after tasting the cake, I must say it's quite tasty, couldn't taste the vinegar at all.

Here's the recipe for this delicious Eggless Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp white vinegar
6 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water (I used 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk)
1/2 tsp salt
Cocoa Frosting (See step 3)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9" square pan with vegetable spray. (I used a 9" round and I greased and floured the pan)

2) Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Then add vanilla, vinegar, oil and water. Hand mix well. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes. (I baked it for only 25 min and I thought the cake was a little on the dry side, so next time I would bake it for 20min and keep checking the toothpick every minute after that)
3) FROSTING:

1/2 cup margarine or butter

2 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

While the cake is baking, cream the margarine or butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a sauce pan. Add milk and bring to a rolling boil for one minute. Remove from heat and immediately beat the mixture, in the sauce pan, with an electric mixer until it begins to thicken to a yogurt-like consistency.

4) Once the cake is done, immediately pour the hot frosting over the hot cake. Let cool.

*Note: Instead of using the cocoa frosting, next time I would use Chocolate Ganache.