A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Glenna's Buttermilk Pound Cake

 What most people I know think of when you use the generic term "cake" is technically a butter cake, typically eggs and butter or oil beaten together and the dry ingredients then added, as opposed to a  chiffon cake, a lighter textured cake where the egg whites are whipped separately and folded into the batter.  Pound cake is butter or chiffon cake's sweet, voluptuous cousin, with rich, velvety crumb, created from not just eggs and butter but LOTS of eggs and butter!

Originally named "pound cake" for the simplicity of its ingredients: pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound of flour... it has long since been cut down to what we think of us "regular" cake size and customized in endless variations. This buttermilk and vanilla recipe is rich and. satisfying with straight-forward, simple ingredients that showcases what, to me, is almost a religiously divine combination: butter, flour, and sugar...and an oven. .

To fancy it up, add fresh strawberries or a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce. For me, I just cut a slice, pick it up, and don't bother dirtying a fork and plate.

Feb 12, 2013: Happy Fat Tuesday--Mardi Gras King's Cake

 This is my very very favorite King Cake recipe. I've made it for several years and it's always a huge hit. It's a great combination of buttery pastry, creamy fruit filling, and just enough sugar to be a dessert but not so sugary that it's overwhelming.

Earthquake Cake

Mmmm....chocolate...and coconut...and more chocolate...and walnuts...and more chocolate...and cream cheese...does it really get much better than this? I didn't think so either!  My friend, Melissa, found this recipe posted several times by approving pinners on Pinterest and I researched to find the original recipe, which was no surprise to me, came from the Duncan Hines web site.

Kin to my cream cheese brownie recipe, this is a great step up with even more flavor.

Thanks for letting me use your photos, Melissa--so scrumptious looking! 

Kids Decorate Their Own Cake: Sydney's Butterfly Cake

One of my nieces' and nephew's favorite birthday cakes wasn't one that I decorated elaborately, but that I baked and put borders on, then let them decorate with candy pieces.  Sydney has always had a love affair with butterflies so for her 10th birthday I baked a simple butterfly-shaped cake (Wilton pan), piped purple borders and simple wing marking patterns, bought skittles, M & M's, gumballs, and sweet/sour candies and assigned each of them one quarter of the cake space. 

Look at those serious faces! They enjoyed it, as you can see in later pics, but they took the decorating seriously, carefully choosing their colors and gently placing the candies on the cake. 

Look at those adorable faces!

 I'm pretty sure Sydney LOVED her cake, aren't you? 

 

 

Sydney & Kaylee Birthday Party 2012: Pink Rice Krispy Cake with Buttercream Borders

In my family, as much as we love decorated cakes, we're not very big cake eaters.  At least, not me and my siblings. We grew up the children of a cake decorator so while all of our friends were jealous of the presence of cake and buttercream in our house all the time, we got sick of it!  We often laugh about what rotten kids we were to our Mom who would volunteer to make us any kind of outlandish birthday cakes we wanted but because we had so much cake around us every day we all requested things like my banana bread favorite, our brother Kenneth's angel food cake with no frosting, our dad and brother Carl's pie requests, and my sister Suzanne's Rice Krispy treat wish.  What whiners we were! "Pleeeeeease, Mom. Do not make us eat cake!" What kind of sick children were we?

While we were planning Sydney and Kaylee's birthday party last week Suzanne and I were talking about cake, or the lack of it being okay, and told stories to the nieces and nephew about our childhood brattiness and the fact that Suzanne's wedding cake just out of high school (1988) was made of Rice Krispy treats because she emphatically did not want cake at her wedding.  I see Rice Krispy cakes on Pinterest now all the time and people kind of verbally smack themselves in the head and comment "That's so cool! Why didn't I think of that?"  I'm proud that our Mom was 25 years ahead of her time, making my sister's whole wedding cake from Rice Krispy treats and everyone at the wedding loved it.  After that wedding Mom got tons of orders for rice krispy treat wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and anniversary cakes--she was a wedding cake pioneer in our little town in the Ozarks.

Smiling about all the stories we told, and already having planned to make Rice Krispy treats for the party, I decided to revive Mom's idea and go all the way with the girls' birthday and make it an unforgettable cake.

I'm pretty confidant the girls were pleased! 

Kaylee was really nuts about it!

Rena's Hershey's Kiss & Maraschino Cherry Mice Cake for Mom's 60th

My friend, Rena, made this adorable home-made cake for her Mom's 60th birthday using Jenn's Hershey's Kiss & Maraschino Cherry Mice candy I posted on March 27th:   http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/03/candy-cherry-hersheys-kiss-mice-for-holiday-tables.html

Rena said the mice were easy "but messy" to make and lots of fun. Bet her Mom was tickled to get this cute cake. You did well, Rena--thanks for sharing your pics!

Happy Birthday, Rena's Mom!!!!

Cheesecake, Ancient Roman-style: Libum or Honey Cakes

 

Here in the Ozarks, we have an excellent local beekeeper:  Matt, who along with his family, own and run the Amish Country Store on Gretna Road in Branson (You can also mail/phone order by checking out their web site Amish Country Store, although, those of us who make the trip can tell you that there are a multitude of additional wonderful foods, ceramics, and furniture, on the shelves that make it worth your time to seek the store out in person the next time you're in Branson.) Next time you go, tell them "Glenna said Hi!"

 

Matt started beekeeping five years ago with one hive and a can-do eagerness. He's now an experienced beekeeper who maintains his hives as naturally and healthily (for the bees and for us) as possibly by eschewing the use of continuous wide spectrum antibiotics and winter feedings of commercial HFC mixes, instead using of a more bee-environmentally harmonious sugar water with lavender and peppermint mixture. His care has paid off in that he now manages fifty hives, which not only produce honey but help local farmers cross-pollinate crops.

This recipe for Libum or "honey cakes", dating back to 160 B.C. and written by Cato the Elder, Roman Statesman, is found in his book De Agri Cultura (translated: "On Farming"). Libum is the Roman version of cheesecake, used both as celebratory food and as sacrifices to the houseold spirits or gods.  It's a fun and appropriate choice to focus on honey, one of the oldest foods known to man. Revered for its antibacterial properties, it makes an excellent wound dressing and its composition from local pollens boost the immune systems of the honey-vores consuming it.

I have a couple of notes about the recipe. First: bay leaf.   I know it may sound like a funny choice since it's not usually associated with desserts in our present day culture, but don't leave it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderful the bay smell while baking and what a subtle influence it was on the final taste. Not traditional to us, but a flavor I can only describe as "homey" or "cozy", and one that I think will become almost addictive to me with more use. I'll definitely be baking bread/dinner rolls on bay leaves in the future.

While these are called "cakes" the final texture is a cross between bread and cake. Not as light and fluffy as butter/sponge cake but not as chewy as bread. The ricotta gives a unique texture that is both soft and light while still warm but also denser when cooled. Not a texture we use a lot but a great experience for kids and adults alike.

Overall, this was a very fun recipe to make, eat, and think about culture and cooking from centuries ago. This would be a great Sunday School or Home School recipe to play with, easy for the kids to put together themselves and easy on the wallet, bringing kids closer to a tangible understanding of the reference to "honey cakes" in history, literature, and scripture. It will also definitely give them a better appreciation for  all the varieties of sweets we have available to us in our era!

More links to honey recipes

 Honey Curry Roasted Chicken-- OMG good! One of Gene's FAVORITE chicken recipes.

Honey, Cardamom, and Almond Rugelach -- One of my favorite cookies

Home-made Granola with Dried Fruit & Honey --Breakfast done right

Blood Orange & Lavender Muffins -- Summery goodness

Orange Olive Oil Cake with Honey -  Love this recipe! Whole food at its best.

 

Celebrating James' Birthday with Auntie Miranda's Grapefruit Cake

(Photo below: James demonstrating his "Dexter knife skills".)

 

After tweeting one night that grapefruit-flavored cake sounded "awful", as usually happens with my crazy family of foodies, the decision was made that we had to make it, bake it, and try it.  Auntie Miranda volunteered her time and James volunteered his birthday--win/win!

After reading through several recipes, Auntie used her own baking skills to create her own version based on elements from different recipes and her own experience.

Our prounouncement:   Delicious!  Just like orange, lemon, or lime, grapefruit is just a twist, so to speak, on the citrus genre.

Thanks, Auntie, for introducing us to this new dish and for sharing your recipe!

 

 

Note: Please excuse the phone pics--forgot my camera.

Angel Food Cake: To Grease or Not to Grease

I hadn't baked angel food cake in years so I couldn't remember if I was supposed to grease the pan or not. I kept thinking that the trick was to not grease the pan plus I remembered mom doing something like turning the tube pan upside down onto a (glass) soda bottle. Hmmmm...

Gene and I were craving something sweet and I had the cake mix from The Amish Country Store in Branson, but no tube pan and no memory of the "tricks." 

We can all learn from my experimentation:

1) Loaf pans work great.

2) Either greasing or not greasing the pan produces a nice cake.  The difference is in heft.  If you want a truly light, spongy, angel food cake, DON'T grease the pan.  But Gene and I found that we also like the density of the greased pan. It still had the spongy, chewy angel food texture but it was more dense and hefty like a butter cake.

The conclusion must be that even though we were all raised to believe that angel food cake was special and "hard" to bake, you can't really screw it up!

 

 

 

Brittany's Punkin' Pie Cupcakes with Spiced Frosting

 

Thank you to Brittany for making this WUN-DER-FUL spiced cupcakes for our November Nightshift Birthday Party.  Holy cow, believe me, you can't eat just one.