Jen’s Big Birthday
Today is a big day for my friend, Jen, as she celebrates a milestone birthday. Her grade-partners have prepared a surprise celebration, and I volunteered to bake the cake.
Since I wasn’t at the party, I don’t have any photos of the sliced cake (bummer). I will do my best, though, to describe it. I started with a Betty Crocker Super Moist white cake mix. To this, I added: 1 cup milk, 3 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 stick melted butter (a la Paula Deen). Mix it all together and bake in two 9-inch round cake pans for approx. 25 minutes (you know what a cooked cake looks like!)
The filling is Henry & Henry raspberry filling and it is wildly delicious. I purchased it at Ladybug Cake and Candy Supply, but if you don’t live anywhere near a shop like this, it is available online. I frosted it with Magnolia Vanilla Buttercream, but I substituted 1 tsp. almond extract for 1 tsp. of the vanilla (it calls for two). I love the taste and creamy texture of this classic buttercream. It’s easy to make, but the secret is to beat it (just beat it…)
Happy day, dear Jen! Hope you enjoyed your cake ;-)
“A”
Note: My addiction to disco dust continues. I may need a 12-step program.
Grandma’s Roasted Red Peppers
My mother-in-law has shared some mighty-fine family recipes, and these roasted peppers are among our all-time favorites. They are super delicious served hot, cold…as a side dish, as a sandwich, as a snack…morning, noon or night!! They take a bit of work, but good food is well worth the effort. (right???)
I have her written recipe, and have watched her dozens of time, so I’ll try my best to keep this authentic. First up, you’ll need 4 – 5 lbs. of red bell peppers: (she would usually make 10 lbs. ;-)
Remove the seeds by cutting around the green stem at the top of the pepper and then pull the stem out. (sometimes you have to give the stem a little twist) Reach into the pepper and remove as much of the pulp and seeds as possible:
Next, place the cored peppers on a broiling pan:
Place peppers under the broiler, and broil until skins are somewhat blackened. You’ll have to rotate each pepper during cooking so that all sides blacken. It took about 35 minutes for my peppers to cook:
Place cooked peppers in a paper bag, or plastic grocery sack, and allow to cool until peppers are easy to handle, but still warm. This process helps loosen the skin, making it easier to remove the skin from the pepper.
Now…the messy, not-so-fun part. (Don’t give up…it’s still worth it!!) Remove the skin from the pepper by peeling it off with your fingers. The goal here is to remove the entire peel. (Well, sometimes close enough is good enough.) After the skin is removed, separate each pepper into three or four sections and set aside until all peppers have been peeled and separated.
Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of a casserole dish (I used a 13 x 9 x 2) and arrange the first layer of peppers. Sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs (mine are seasoned), place some fresh, thin garlic slices on top, sprinkle lightly with salt (pepper is optional) and drizzle olive oil across the entire layer.
I started with 4.5 lbs. of peppers, and I sliced 5 cloves of garlic:
Place the next layer of peppers directly on top of the first, and repeat the seasonings. There are three layers here:
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for approx. 45 minutes (they’ll be really hot and bubbly). Remove the foil and continue cooking until they are completely soft and tender, and slightly browned on top…about 15 minutes more.
Yes, you can buy roasted peppers in a jar but, trust me, they do not compare.
I hope that I have honored my mother-in-law by sharing this version of her treasured recipe; one she generously and lovingly prepared for her grateful family.
“A”
Note to Mom: I got the peppers for $1.29 a pound!!
Minty Hearts and Chocolate Coconut Bites
I have been looking for a real good reason to make peppermint patties again, and what better opportunity than Valentine’s Day. These patties are the perfect combination of oh-so-minty and deliciously-creamy, and I couldn’t resist turning them into a sweet Valentine’s treat. After I formed and pressed the prepared patty, I cut them with a 2″ heart-shaped cookie cutter. They sat in the fridge for about an hour before I dipped half of them into melted dark chocolate and the others into Wilton pink candy melts. A few sprinkles (gotta have sprinkles!) and there you have it!
The coconut bites are way too easy. I purchased a 1/2 lb. of coconut dough at my local cake & candy supply shop, scooped it into small balls and dipped them into melted chocolate. They taste like mini Mounds!
I’m hoping to share these on Valentine’s Day, but they’ve already started disappearing.
Sweets (with me around) have a way of doing that.
“A”
Neapolitan Bundt Cake
This cake tastes as good as it looks! It starts with a white cake mix which is separated into three parts. The white layer is poured first into a bundt pan, the strawberry and chocolate layers follow, and voila. Pretty and delicious!
The recipe is on allrecipes but, after reading the reviews, I made the following changes: I added 1 1/2 tsp. strawberry extract to the pink layer, and I added 1/8 cup dutch-process cocoa and 6 tbsp. melted dark chocolate to the chocolate layer. The cocoa made the batter a little thick, so I thinned it slightly with a bit of milk. (it was still thicker than the vanilla and strawberry). The vanilla glaze came from allrecipes, too, but I tinted it pink and used strawberry extract instead of vanilla. Also, 2 1/2 tsp. milk was not nearly enough to make the glaze pourable, so I kept adding milk until I got the consistency that I wanted. (I think I may have gotten carried away with the milk because the glaze was a lit-tle too runny. Next time for me, less milk.)
I would definitely make this cake again. With a scoop of strawberry ice cream on the side, it’s a Valentine’s Day super-treat!
“A”
Banana Crunch Muffins
Same old story. What to do with ripe bananas. Although I’m a huge lover of banana bread, it was time to try something different.
To quote Sean, the oil burner serviceman that I shared them with today, “OMG! Best muffins E-VER.” Since he ate three of them, I believed him. And, since I ate uhhhhh two of them, I had to agree. The topping is deliciously sweet and crunchy, and the soft, tender crumb of the banana muffin is the perfect complement.
The recipe came from Allrecipes, and I made them exactly as described. Their yield is 10 muffins, but I filled 12 muffin cups.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
No need to wait for a visit from your oil burner serviceman. If you have some golden, spotted, ripe bananas, now is the time to use them.
Trust me, you will not regret it!
“A”





























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