Poorman's cookies

I was looking through some recipes I had bookmarked and came found this recipe for old fashioned spice cake A.K.A Poorman's cookies. It looked yummy and it was! My dad in particular loved them didn't even complain that I had didn't put in nuts... until the next day at least.

I halved the recipe and left out the nuts and baked it 30 minutes in an 8x8 inch pan. I can see the reason it's called both a cake and a cookie. The batter was more like a cookie dough than a cake batter and it seemed like a slightly cakey bar cookie. The flavors were better the next day as they had melded together.

You could probably change it up some, cranberries instead of raisins or if I think about it next time I might toss in some diced apples.

 

Old-Fashioned Spice Cake

2 1/4c. water
1 1/2 c. raisins
1 stick unsalted butter or margerine
3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

    Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease a 9×13 baking pan.
    Combine water, raisins, and butter in a medium saucepan. Boil over medium-high heat, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, remove the lid, and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
    While the raisin mixture is boiling, combine the dry ingredients (through cloves) in a large bowl, whisking until thoroughly combined.
    Pour the slightly cooled raisin mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until mostly combined and moistened (the batter at this point will have the consistency of a paste). Add the beaten eggs and again stir with a spoon, until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
    Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until deeply browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
    Cool to room temperature before serving. If not serving immediately, cover with plastic wrap to keep the cake moist. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes 12 servings.

It would be great if any of my readers would support me in my walk for alzheimer's. Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the country and the only cause of death among the top 10 in the United States that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed.

Yum... Fudge Pie

I thought this was great with the one exception being that the outside edges of the graham cracker crust got very hard. The recipe came from a October/November 2008 issue of Taste of the South magazine. It was easy to make and didn't used a lot of ingredients. It called for a tablespoon of whiskey which I omitted and it was fine without it and is to be served chilled but it's good room temperature as well. Next time I will try it with a regular pie crust.

Miss Mary's Fudge Pie

1/4 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 tbs Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey  (opt.)
1 9-in graham cracker crust (try a regular pie crust)
Garnish: sweetened, whiskey spiked whipped cream and additional cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add sugar and cocoa powder, stirring to combine. Add eggs, evaporated milk and whiskey. Pour into prepared piecrust.

Bake for 40 minutes or until set. Let cool completely.

Chill and serve. Garnish slices with whipped cream and cocoa powder, if desired.

I will be walking to end alzhiemer's on September 17. If anyone has a little spare money they would like to donate to this cause I would appreciate it.

Cake Mix Cookies

In had a box of red velvet cake mix that had just expired, so it was make something or throw it out, and I hate wasting food, so cake mix cookies it was. There are only 4 ingredient in these cookies, so they were pretty easy to make. They looked like cake inside and were a little chewy. Not bad, not in my top ten. I would have liked them better with chocolate cake mix, I'm not really fond of red velvet, tastes too much like food coloring.


Found the recipe at Abby Sweets

 

Cake Mix Cookies

 

1 box cake mix, any flavor

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed

2 cups powdered sugar

 

     Mix the cake mix, egg, and cool whip together until combined. This will be thick, but not so thick that you can roll it into balls. Put the powdered sugar into a shallow bowl.

     Once you mix the dough, put the scoops of dough into the powdered sugar and roll it to coat. You can shape it once it is covered with the powdered sugar.

     Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

 

The batter looks a bit like Play-doh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cookies are ready to be baked.

 

 

Baked up very pretty!

Mrs. Cobb's Legendary Lemon-Coconut Bars

I love cookbooks. I especially love cookbooks that relate to books or tv shows that I like, such as the Little House on the Prairie cookbook. There is a series of called The Cat Who... by Lillian Jackson Braun and there happens to be a Cat Who Cookbook, actually there are two. It's been hit and miss as to how I've liked the recipes. I'm on the fence about these bars, the crust wasn't as heavy and rich as some lemon bars I've tried which I liked, but I prefer plain lemon bars. Still these were worth trying. I also recommend putting parchment in the bottom of your baking pan, I haven't tried that myself, mostly because I forget until I'm trying to pry the sticky edges from the pan.

Mrs. Cobb's Legendary Lemon-Coconut Bars

3/4 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. bottled lemon juice
1 c. coconut
powdered sugar

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir in vanilla extract and flour. Press into 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan. Bake 20 min. Remove from oven. Beat eggs slightly. Add sugar and beat until thick. Add lemon juice and coconut. Pour on baked crust. Bake 30 minutes longer. Sprinkle top with powdered sugar when cool.
    Makes 24 bars.

The coconut carrot cake that wasn't...

I saw this recipe at A Southern Grace for carrot coconut cake. I love carrot cake and I love coconut cake and that picture looks great! I must make it, I thought. So on my next trip to the store I went armed with a list of ingredients, Cream of Coconut, not a problem it's right there in the liquor aisle. Coconut extract, that should be an easy find right? Wrong, there isn't even a place for it on the shelf. Seriously? Vanilla, almond even root beer extract but no coconut. That's okay I reasoned, I'm sure between the shredded coconut and the cream of coconut it will be good anyway.

I start to make the cake getting all my ingredients ready before hand. (something I don't usually do), the nuts are chopped and the carrots are shredded. Everything is going great. Except for peeling my thumb when I was peeling the carrots but if I took injuring myself in the kitchen as a sign, I would never cook again. Anyway, It's time to add the cream of coconut, I open the can to find a slightly brownish waxy looking layer when I dug a bit deeper a greasy looking syrup. Does anyone know what cream of coconut is supposed to look like? If that's what it normally looks like I think I'll be getting rid of any recipes with that in it. Anyway since everything else was mixed up and ready to go I just added extra oil and made it without the cream of coconut.

The flavor of the cake was lacking but the texture was okay. and since I couldn't make the frosting which is a shame because I think I wanted to try that more than the cake and I didn't have any cream cheese. I had to go next door and borrow a can of frosting. Maybe one day I'll try it again, but I would like to know if the cream of coconut was bad or if it was supposed to look that way.

Spanish Bar Cake

A&P's Spanish Bar Cake, I fondly remember them. Sadly I haven't had one in years but I had a craving so I searched for a recipe and made an attempt at recreating it. The cake turned out okay but it wasn't the cake I remember. I didn't have cloves so I used extra allspice which could have been part of why it wasn't the same. The frosting however was nothing like the original. I'm pretty sure the frosting on the original was cream cheese but I thought I'd try the one that was with the recipe I found.

I would still consider making this again even if it's not right it's still a nice raisin cake. I would use a different frosting though.

I found the recipe here.
















A&P Spanish Bar Cake
4 cups water
2 cups raisins
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
2 eggs, beaten

Add water to raisins and simmer for 10 minutes. Add shortening and allow to cool. Sift together spices and flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. Add cooled raisin mixture and blend well. Add beaten eggs and nuts and stir well. Place into a 9-by-13-inch pan in a preheated 350-degree oven for 35 minutes, or until tester comes our clean. It can also be baked in a jelly roll pan for 25 minutes.
Frost when cool.

Frosting:
1/3 cup shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat till smooth and creamy.

Lemon Bars

My mother requested lemon bars for New Year's Eve and I thought I would try the one I found at Dinner with Julie because it had way less butter than most recipes. The crust was crisp but it wasn't all that great. The filling was a bit stickier than other recipes I've tried. I used bottle lemon juice, I think it might have been better with fresh juice. I don't think I'll be making it again especially for my mom, she didn't like it at all. If you're looking for a less fatty version you might want to try it any way.

Sweet Potato Casserole

I had intended to post this one after Thanksgiving but I'm always putting things off. Now I'm typing this on a shiny new laptop so perhaps it will inspire me to blog more often. This recipe came from a church cookbook my mom bought years ago. Here's the original recipe...

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 c. mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 stick margarine, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients. Put in a 7x12 inch casserole dish.

topping:
1 c. brown sugar
1c. nuts
1/2 c. flour
1/2 stick margerine

Put on top of the potatoes. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.
Top with mini marshmallows and put under the broiler until brown and melty. Keep a close eye on it, I think I remember my sister catching the marshmallows on fire when she got distracted.

I have made some changes to the recipe. My sister and I aren't big fans of nuts, but we like pecan pie, go figure! So my mom always made it with out nuts in the topping. The last few years we've been buying 20 lb. boxes of sweet potatoes. These sweet potatoes have been really sweet and buttery so I've been cutting back on the butter and sugar in the recipe. I also use about 4 c. of sweet potatoes. It would work fine to cut back on the topping as well if you're watching your sugar.

I actually made a larger one for Christmas because we had a couple of extra people and most of the people who come take some leftovers. 7 c. potatoes and one and a half times the amount of other ingredients and the original amount of topping. There were way more leftovers than I figured there would be. It turns out one of the people who came was allergic to sweet potatoes and I'm not sure if the other person had any or not. Next year I will not be doubling it.

I made this cake a few months ago. I was looking for something to do with a bunch of green tomatoes that had fallen off a potted tomato that the wind had blown over and found this on recipezaar. It was adapted from a recipe from Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s. I ran out of butter so I didn't make the cream cheese frosting, maybe It would have been better if I had. It was okay but no one felt it was worth making again.

Dolly Parton’s Green Tomato Cake

1 cup raisins
Hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter, melted
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 lbs green tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced small
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 lb chilled cream cheese (two 8-oz packages)

8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 pinch ground cinnamon, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-inch cake pans and lightly dust them with flour.
2. Place the raisins in a bowl and add hot water to cover; set aside. (Note from Julesong: you can use warm rum or other liquor, if you like.).
3. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add the salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg; stir to combine.
4. In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring, until a smooth batter forms.
5. Drain the raisins in a sieve.
6. Stir the walnuts, drained raisins, cored/diced tomatoes, and coconut flakes into the batter.
7. Pour an equal amount of batter into each prepared cake pan and spread evenly with a spatula.
8. Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for about 60 minutes of until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. When done, remove from oven and let cake cool in pans on wire racks.
9. When cake is cool to the touch, slide a knife or icing spatula around the inside rim of each pan to loosen edges and carefully flip the cake layers onto the wire racks to continue cooling. (You can use an inverted plate on top of the pan, flip, and carefully transfer to racks, if you like.).
10. If you want to frost the cake, make the cream cheese frosting while layers are cooling.
11. To make the frosting, in a medium bowl beat together the cream cheese and butter with an electric or hand mixer until well blended.
12. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.
13. Gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat until smooth.
14. Beat in cinnamon until incorporated. Use to frost the cake.
15. To frost cake: when cake is completely cooled place one layer on serving plate and, using a spatula, frost all over with half the frosting. Place second layer on top. Frost second layer with remaining frosting.

Chocolate Cake

This recipe came from Food Hunter's Guide to Cuisine. It's a nice chocolate cake, excellent texture and very moist. I personally thought the taste of the sour cream in the cake came through a bit more than I would have liked (it could have been my imagination, I'm not a huge fan of sour cream) I didn't use cherry preserves as a filling, other than that I followed the recipe.



I had picture of the whole cake but they turned out really blurry. My picture taking skills have sucked lately. I also have no dishes that are worthy of being photographed which is why the cake is sitting on a Winnie the Pooh plate.

The time on the recipes seems likely to be for a sheet cake. I think 20-25 min. seems more likely for a layer cake but I forgot to write down how long I cooked it for ( I made it a few weeks ago and now I can't remember)

The recipe is copied below as written on Food Hunter's blog

Chocolate Cake
(old family recipe)

1 cup cold water
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour your pan.
2. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
3. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl at medium speed. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Add sour cream beat well. Alternate between dry ingredients and water mixing just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake 50-60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

One Bowl Butter Cream Frosting
(Phylis's famous frosting)

6 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup Cocoa
2 2/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl, cream butter. Add cocoa and confectioners sugar alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency. (additional milk may be needed) blend in vanilla.

Filling

1 small jar cherry preserves

Banana cupcakes with honey cinnamon frosting

I found this recipe at Good Things Catered. I didn't love the recipe enough to make again so i won't bother putting it up here, you can find it and a ton of other great looking recipes at her blog.

The cupcake had more of a muffin texture which is, I believe part of the reason I wasn't crazy about the recipe. I love a banana muffin but not with frosting, especially when my mouth was set for cupcakes. The frosting was okay but everyone thought it tasted like plain vanilla.

Pineapple Casserole

You might have seen this over at Danielle's blog Cooking for My peace of mind. I needed to use up some ritz crackers and was thinking of getting my sister's recipe when I saw her post. I think her's was actually better. Sorry sis! I think it was the crushed pineapple that made it. It gave it a smoother texture. Next time I might halve it, I had two servings and someone else had three but there was still over half a casserole left. I'll also try it with just crushed pineapple and see how that works.

This a is really simple and delicious recipe. It's served as a side dish but it's also like dessert. It's kind of like sweet potato casserole that way. Btw, I usually make sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving and Christmas so that recipe should come up in a couple of months.





If the cheese doesn't look melty it's because I took the picture the next day and hadn't been reheated yet.

Pineapple Casserole

1 20 oz can of pineapple chunks, drained

1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained

5 tablespoons flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 to 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups ritz cracker crumbs

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350.
Grease a small casserole dish (about 11 x 7).

Combine the pineapple, sugar, flour and cheese in a large bowl.

Pour into the casserole dish.

Top with cracker crumbs and drizzle the melted butter over the top.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Cranberry Orange Bars

I found the recipe at Good Things Catered and it was fantastic! Not every one in the family likes cranberries so I ate most of it myself but I did take some to my sister and her husband and she like them as well. I never got to find out her husbands opinion, she'd eaten them all without him even knowing they were in the house!

I didn't have any oranges so I used OJ from the carton and skipped the zest. I also used frozen cranberries.


Cranberry Orange Bars

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp orange zest
2 c. fresh cranberries

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Beat together sugar and butter until lighter in texture.
-Beat in eggs, orange juice and vanilla until combined
-Add flour and baking powder and mix well (should be the consistency of a cookie dough).
-Fold in orange zest and cranberries.
-With an oiled spatula, spread batter evenly in a 9x12 prepared baking pan.
-Bake for about 40 minutes.

Bad Blogger Brownies

I said in my last post I would talk about the brownies I made. That was 2 weeks ago, as I mentioned in the title I am a bad blogger. So here we go 2 weeks late.

Kittencal's Extreme Chocolate Brownies

• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (reduce to 1-1/4 cups for a less sweeter taste)
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (24 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
3. In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, sugar and water to a boil, stirring constantly until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved (about 3 minutes).
4. Remove from the heat, with a wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until melted; cool slightly, beat in vanilla.
5. In a mixing bowl,whisk eggs, gradually add in the chocolate mixture, beating with a wooden spoon until completely mixed.
6. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt; add to the egg/chocolate mixture; mix well to combine.
7. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
8. Spread into prepared baking pan.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes (don't over bake).
10. Cut into squares.
11. Note: If desired, chopped walnuts may be added.

36 brownies

I added all the chocolate at the beginning because I didn't read the recipe right. They had an odd taste on the first day which had faded by the 2nd day. I also halved the recipe. I would maybe try them again with and add the chocolate at the appropriate times. I also think they may have been a tiny bit overcooked.