Carrot Cake with Pineapple and Coconut

Carrot Cake with Pineapple and Coconut

3/4 pound carrots, peeled and finely grated
8 oz. can pineapple tidbits or crushed, drained
2 C (8.8 oz.) unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp clove or allspice
1/2 C brown sugar
3/4 C granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 C (4 oz.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 C canola or vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Frosting

Approximately 1 C toasted, shredded and sweetened coconut to decorate the outside, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 8 inch cake pans. A 9 inch cake pan would also work but baking time will be shorter.

Add the drained pineapple to the shredded carrots and set aside.

In a blender, add the 4 eggs, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Blend on a low speed for a minute. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and oil and blend for 4 more minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. After the liquid mixture has finished blending, pour the blender contents into the dry ingredients, add the grated carrots and pineapple, and gently fold the batter with a rubber spatula until no streaks of flour or chunks of carrots remain.

Pour the batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake at 350 for 30 – 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Start checking the cake after 25 minutes.


The completed cake before going into the fridge. Breakfast the next day.

This frosting is absolutely magnificent. Like pineapple and coconut, browned butter and rum is one of those combinations that just works. This is a great all purpose frosting and can be used for other cakes, not just carrot cake. After browning the butter, the milk solids can be strained out for a clean looking frosting but I like the freckled look. The specks of milk solids also camouflages any cake crumbs that falls into the frosting, something I appreciated as I was frosting a cake in a sleep deprived state at 11pm.


Brown Butter Rum Cream Cheese Frosting
Enough to fill and frost an 8 inch 2 layer cake, but easily doubled
4 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. or 1 stick unsalted butter
2 1/2 – 3 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 - 3 Tbsp dark rum

Have a heat proof bowl resting in an ice bath ready.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter medium low heat. Cook the butter slowly and stir occasionally. First it will look like melted butter, then it will start to bubble and sizzle, and after a while it will start to clear and the milk solids will start to separate out of the fat. Slowly the solids will turn golden and then a light golden brown and the butter will smell nutty and caramely. When this happens, take the off heat and pour it into the bowl in the ice bath to cool it down quickly. If you let it sit, it solids will continue to cook and may burn.

Cool the butter to room temperature. Meanwhile, take the cream cheese out and bring it to room temperature.

After the butter has cooled, beat the cream cheese and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and add another cup of powdered sugar. Add more sugar according to your tastes. I added 3 cups of powdered sugar total and the frosting was the tiniest bit grainy at that point but it wasn’t a deal breaker. Next time I'll stop with 2 1/2 cups. Slowly drizzle in rum to your tastes, starting with 1 tablespoon. I like my frostings on the boozy side but too much liquor and the frosting will be too runny. A good rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon of liquor for every cup of powdered sugar you add. Continue beating the frosting until it is fluffy and pillowy. It will have a consistency similar to whipped cream but have more structure.

Asian Noodle Salad

SALAD INGREDIENTS:

1 packages linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled (tossed in Olive Oil so they don't clump)
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage
1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin
1 small bag bean sprouts (also called “mung bean sprouts”)
3 sliced green onion
3 peeled, sliced cucumbers
2 bunches of chopped cilantro
1 9oz. can whole cashews, toasted
8 oz. Crumbled Feta cheese (don't leave this out)

DRESSING:
Juice of 3 lime
1/2 cup olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (opt)
1 bunch chopped cilantro
Directions:

Mix together salad ingredients. Leaving toasted cashews right before serving. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. (you can strain dressing so you don't get chunks) Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.*Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.

My version of Paper Bag Scrapbooking

Recipe Mini Album

Happy Mother's Day Paper Bag Card

Minialbum: Coffee filter album

Paper Bag Album By: Marion

Flap Album Paper Bag

Toffee Blondies

Toffee Blondies
(adapted from Everyday Food)



1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted
1 c packed light brown sugar (I've used a combo of dark & light, too)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla (the first time I made these, I was out of vanilla...the horror!...so I used almond extract. I've made them that way ever since)
1/4 tsp salt
1 & 1/2 c flour
1 c toffee bits (this time I could only find the chocolate covered toffee bits, both taste great, but I think the plain ones make for prettier blondies.)

Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom and side of an 8 inch square pan with foil, leaving an overhang on 2 sides.

Cream butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs, vanilla and salt, scraping down sides.

Add the flour on low speed until combined. Stir in toffee bits.

Spread batter into prepared pan (an offset spatula helps). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool completely in pan.

Lift the blondies out of the pan using the foil overhang. Cut with a bench scraper or serrated knife.

Delicious!!!

Colorful Cake

Cake Recipe
Set all your ingredients out the night before so that they are all at about 70 degrees.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract, optional
1 tablespoon lemon zest (from one lemon), optional
3 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
Food coloring (I used one package of the four basic colors, including red, blue, yellow, and green, and one package of the 'neon' colors, including purple, pink, turquoise, and lime)
FOR THE FROSTING

Two 8 oz packages cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Generously grease and flour your pans

3. Cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until fluffy. Cream until fluffy; Add 4 eggs. (You can also separate the eggs, and only use the whites. If you do this, beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry and fold them in after all the dry ingredients have been added.) Then add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional), and 1 tablespoon lemon zest (grated peel of one lemon - optional)

4. In a separate bowl, sift together 3 cups of sifted-before measured cake flour (general all-purpose white flour works fine), 4 teaspoons baking powder, and a 1/2 teaspoon salt.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Stir the batter until smooth after each addition.

6. Have a bowl for each baking pan you will be making in this batch. I made seven layers from this recipe, so I put one cup of batter in each bowl. I was a little short by the time I got to the last bowl, so I just scooped some out of each to even them up.

7. Add your food coloring to each bowl. For this cake, I used 1/2 teaspoon of color per bowl, just to get an idea of how intense the colors come out with a measured amount. I left one bowl empty until after I had stirred the others, so that I could decide what I wanted to use for the last color. I decided on pink, then mistakenly used the red. Bother. Since I already had red, I added purple to one red, which resulted in the deep cranberry color. You really can't make a mistake on the colors.

8. Put the batter from each bowl into one of your greased and floured pans. They should fill up to about 1/4" below the top of the pan. Pick the pans up by their sides, holding them level, and tap them on the table to get any bubbles of air up.

9. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 18-22 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean, and the edges should be pulling away from the sides of the pan. It's better to err a bit on the overcooked than the undercooked, because a too moist cake will not be as firm. Remember not to open your oven door until at least 15 minutes have passed; the cold air can make the cakes fall.

10. Let the cakes cool in their pans for about 15 minutes, until they are just slightly warm, and easy to handle. Turn them out to cool onto racks.

Cakes naturally bake with a bit of a dome. Once you've taken them out of their pans and they are completely cool, use a long serrated bread knife to slice this off this dome so that you have a relatively flat surface on both sides of each layer.

Arranging the Colors
1. Decide what order you want your colors in, and set them out.

2. While the cakes are cooling, make your frosting. This recipe makes more than enough to frost 7 layers. You will need to multiply it for more layers.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS

1. Cream together the 2 packages of cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter until well mixed and creamy.

2. Add one teaspoon each of vanilla and lemon extract, and mix until smooth.

3. Gradually stir in the 2 cups of confectioners' sugar.

4. Frost the top of each layer and stack them as you wish, in stacks of about four.

6. Refrigerate for a couple hours so that the cake and frosting can set. The cake layers will be more likely to retain their shape in a vertical position if the layers with frosting have had this time to chill.

Assembling the Cake

1. Lay out some waxed paper -- making a space in the center for your cake. You will be removing this paper after you've frosted the outside of the cake (and any mess you made).

2. Lay down three pieces of red or black licorice a couple inches apart on your platter. Put two pieces on the bottom, and one more piece to make a triangular wedge. This will help hold the layers vertical.

3. Take your chilled and top-frosted layer stacks out of the refrigerator. Pick them up as stacks. Set the stacks vertically on the platter, holding the groups already down steady while you continue to add stacks until all the layers are down.

4. Frost the outside of the cake, and the unfrosted end. Add whatever decorations you want...get out the knife, and dig in!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

1 box original Marie Callenders brownie mix (with chocolate pouch)
1 pouch Marie Callenders Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
12 oz. semisweet chocolate (I used Baker's SEMISWEET squares)
3/4 c. heavy cream
6 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease the bottom only of a 9 x 13" pan.

Prepare the brownie mix as directed. Pour into prepared pan. Set aside.



Prepare the cookie dough as directed.



Drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto the brownie batter and press down slightly.


Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.



Optional: For the ganache:

Chop the chocolate (or use chocolate chips). Heat the cream and butter just until it begins to simmer. Pour over the chopped chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.

{I could dive head first right into this.}

Pour the ganache over the cooled brownies, spread and let stand until the ganache has set. Cut with a bench scraper and devour!