White Texas Sheet Cake

Have you visited the blog Mel's Kitchen Cafe?  If you haven't I highly suggest that you do.  Mel has a TON of delicious looking recipes, both savory and sweet.  I've yet to make a recipe of hers that wasn't a winner.  This White Texas Sheet Cake is her recipe as well and it's a keeper.  Because I trusted Mel's recipe I changed things up just the tiniest bit.  I like orange and almond together so I added some orange zest to brighten things up.  Turns out that wasn't a bad idea as we loved the cake.  There is one little change I'll make the next time I bake this and that's to cut back on the frosting.  I thought it overwhelmed the cake.  Shocking I know!  I'm also thinking I'd like to try adding a thin layer of raspberry (maybe strawberry?) jam between the cake and frosting.  Mel made a coconut one that she claims was equally delish so I'm thinking this recipe is pretty forgiving when it comes to changing up the flavor.  Give it try and let me know what you think!

Swedish Visiting Cake

This is one of those don't judge a book by its cover moments.  Swedish Visiting Cake doesn't look like much but it has lots of almond flavor, a tender moist crumb, and a yummy bit of crunch from sliced almonds and turbinado sugar.  An added bonus, it's a cinch to make.  The toughest thing is zesting the lemon, but you can do that while your melted butter is cooling.  I intended to warm some raspberry jam to drizzle on the wedges but sadly I didn't have any.  It really is a lovely cake.  I hope you give it a try and if you do please let me know what you think.  FYI... Jalen one of my twin boys loved it so much he hid the last two pieces AND immediately requested it again! 

Swedish Visiting Cake (slightly adapted from In the Kitchen & On the Road with Dorie)

Serves 8 to 10

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

About 1/4 cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

1 tablespoon turbinado {or any coarse} sugar for sprinkling on top

jam of your choice, warmed to drizzle on individual wedges

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a seasoned 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 9-inch cake pan or even a pie pan. (I used two skillets.  One 6 inch & one for 4 inch, which is why my slices look a little thin. They were from the smaller skillet.)

Pour the sugar into a medium bowl.  Add the zest and blend the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic.  Whisk in the eggs one at a time until well blended.  Whisk in the salt and the extracts.  Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.  Finally, fold in the melted butter.

Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar (I used turbinado sugar for a little added crunch).  If you're using a cake or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.

Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is golden and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it.  You can serve the cake warm or cooled, directly from the skillet or turned out onto a serving plate. (Drizzle warmed jam on wedges.)

Thanksgiving Desserts

Libby’s Pumpkin Roll

Brownies with PB Chips, Mini PB Cups, & Chocolate PB Ganache

Cherry Almond Pie Bars

Here are the three desserts I made for Thanksgiving.  They were all very good but the surprise standout was the almond cherry pie bars.   Everyone thought thought they were amazing.  Even those that normally go for the pumpkin or chocolate desserts went back for seconds of the pie bars.  Another plus, besides their overall deliciousness they are also waaaay easier than baking an actual pie!

This recipe comes by way of Amanda’s Cookin’ and her blackberry pie squares recipe.  (If you haven’t yet, check her out.  I’ve made a few of her recipes and have been please with each one.  She also has a pretty cool craft blog. )  I’ve adapted her recipe twice now.  The first time I used Lucky Leaf’s blueberry pie filling and upped the lemon factor by adding the zest of one lemon to the sugar. This time around I used Lucky Leaf’s cherry pie filling and subbed in almond extract for the vanilla. 

Almond Cherry Pie Bars, adapted from Amanda’s Cookin'

Bars:

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temp
4 eggs, room temp
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
30 ounces cherry pie filling,* (21 oz. is one can of pie filling but I added another half a can)

Glaze:

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons heavy cream, enough to make the glaze pourable

1/4 teaspoon of almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream sugar and butter in mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add the almond and beat well. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Turn mixer speed down to lowest setting and slowly add flour mixture until completely combined.

Spread half of mixture onto an ungreased 15x10 jelly roll pan. (Amanda weighted hers out.) Spread pie filling over the top of the batter. Drop remaining batter onto the pie filling layer by spoonfuls.  Spread gently.  (I use a damp offset spatula to do this. Don’t worry about it not being perfect.  It all works out.)

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. (I took mine out at 38 minutes. Do not under bake. Remove to a wire rack.

Whisk together the powdered sugar, melted butter, and heavy cream.  Drizzle over warm bars. (Toasted almond slices would be nice sprinkled on top.  I didn’t add them because my Dad doesn’t care much for nuts. He’s weird! :))

Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Printable recipe

*Note:

I have been very fortunate to receive Lucky Leaf’s pie fillings.  Each one I have tried has been wonderful.  In the past I’ve never cared for the other brands I’ve tried. I found that they were too sweet and artificial tasting.  Not so with Lucky Leaf.  And for those of you staying away from high fructose corn syrup you’ll be happy to hear that Lucky Leaf’s does not contain any!

Disclosure:  While I received Lucky Leaf pie fillings to try.  The opinions expressed here are all my own.

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If you haven’t yet, click here to enter my Thankful Giveaway! 

 

Lucky Leaf & 10 Lucky Winners

At the end of January Krista from Lucky Leaf contacted me about trying their one of their Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings.  While I’m not crazy about pies my children are so I figured why not. Along with the two cans of  Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie fillings I received Wilton’s heart shaped pan, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons, and recipe card for a sweetheart cherry cake.

My honest opinion?  I still don’t like mushy fruit but thought the cherry pie filling had a pleasantly sweet flavor and  it didn’t have that awful artificial cherry taste.  I made a slight change to the recipe in that I added all the pie filling at once.  I did this so my mixer would chop up the cherries as I didn’t want chunks of them  in my cake. Both the kids and I really liked the cake.   (I loved the frosting and wish I could have split the cake into two layers as I had plenty of frosting to fill it.) The only issue I had with it was that the outside was done well before the middle.  I think there may be too much batter for the pan.  Next time I’ll divide the batter between two pans instead of the one.  Thanks Krista for the chance to try Lucky Leaf!  I’ll be keeping my eye open for more the next time I go to the grocery store. I’m thinking  strawberry pie filling with a lemon cake!

I’m sure you’re wondering about the 10 lucky winners.  Well, Krista and Lucky Leaf have very generously offered to give 10 lucky commenters a chance to sample their products and receive a Wilton heart shaped pan along with the sweetheart cherry cake recipe card! All you need to do it swing by Lucky Leaf and tell me what recipe you’d like to try. (I’m hoping you’ll find some good ones I might have missed!)  Besides my giveaway click here for info on Lucky Leaf’s Blue Ribbon Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance at $1000 and $50 worth of Lucky Leaf premium pie filling products!  Good luck!

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Here’s a photo of Babygirl and Joe just before they left tonight to attend Winter Springs’ Annual Father Daughter Dance!

Cookies

In my last post I mentioned it had been years since I baked cookies but that I ended my cookie boycott this Christmas and baked some with my mom.

When I found out my parents were going to be in town for the holidays, I quickly told my mom that I would take a day off so we could bake some Christmas goodies together.  I guess I should have been more specific about what we would make as her mind went straight to cookies.  Her and my dad’s favorites, Raspberry thumbprints and Mexican wedding cookies.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t want to make cookies but I did whine a lot about how much work they are.  

I’d like to say this foray into cookie baking changed my opinion but it didn’t.  It confirmed it.  Cookies are time consuming and a lot of work.  Bars ARE better!  :)  Were they good? Yes!  They were very good but for the amount of work I really didn’t get many cookies.  And you know, no one eats two or three slices of cake at one time but two or three cookies?!  That’s just getting started.  Every time some one went into the kitchen they grabbed one (or two), well with seven people in the house  those 36/40 cookies just didn’t last.  As a matter of fact there were only a few of each one left by the end of the night.

Click here for the thumbprint recipe I used from Land o Lakes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t  find the wedding cookie recipe that we used and none of the ones I saw on the web looked familiar.  Sorry.  The good news is while the recipe was good it wasn’t “oh, my gosh this is the best cookie recipe I’ve ever had in my cookie eating life.” good so you’re not missing out.  :)

Here’s a picture of the official cookie ball roller, my Mom, Linda. 

See that photo below?  I made a pan of cranberry crumb bars while waiting for the cookie dough to chill.  We’ll talk about their yumminess in a later post along with a couple of other things I made.

Almond Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake

This pound cake was amazing.  It was so moist and perfectly flavored with hints of almond and lemon!   The kids and I absolutely loved it.  Devon even bartered away one of his precious mechanical pencils for his brother’s last slice.  When I first saw this pound cake on the blog, Mike’s Table I knew it wouldn’t be long before I gave it a try.  He called it lemon and ricotta pound cake but from my title you can see I took a different route.

I did make two slight but big flavor changes to the recipe.  I used almond extract (1/2 tsp) in place of the vanilla and added some lemon extract (1/4 tsp) which Mike has listed as optional. (Hilary, it was all your yummy almond and citrus posts that inspired my changes!  Thx!)I also baked four mini loafs instead of one large one.  (Have you read Peabody’s reasons for using mini loaf pans?  Reason numbers 2 and 8 are right on the money!)  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  I’ve already bought more ricotta  for another try only this time I’m going with orange  and almond.  Mmmmm!

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