Apple cake from a homemade mix

I have mentioned The Perfect Basket here before. It's just a little book I picked up a long time ago from a pile of books in a liquidation store. It turned out to be worth the $2.99, not so much for the gift basket ideas as for the mixes and recipes that were created to go in them. Pumpkin Bars to go with a fall basket, and so on.

So today I decided to use up some baking supplies and also some of the apples I bought in Point Pelee, and make the Spiced Apple Cake recipe from the book. I baked one cake right then, and put the dry ingredients for two more in plastic bags. When I pulled out the powdered vanilla, I realized that it had been on the shelf for probably a couple of years, so I asked Mr. Fixit if he would kindly pick up some while he was out radio-hunting this morning. (The bulk store is next to the antiques market.) 

The cake recipe sounds like it shouldn't work, or taste good, but it does (both). It has no salt in it; it contains baking soda, but nothing acid like yogurt or sour milk for the soda to act on, so I'm not sure (kitchen-chemistry-wise) why the soda instead of baking powder, but it did rise. I don't have the Bundt pan that the book called for, so I used our 10 x 15 inch glass pan.

Success!

What's for supper? Soup and bread night

Tonight's dinner menu

Split pea soup in the slow cooker
Country White Bread in the bread machine

Assorted leftovers from the rest of the week

Pineapple-Granola Muffins
Apples and oranges.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Adapted from a recipe in The Perfect Basket, by Diane Phillips.

Ingredients:

2 cups yellow split peas (one of the little bags from the grocery store)
1/2 cup brown rice (optional)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper (I didn't have any so I used black pepper)
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth plus more water as needed
Some chopped frozen onion
A couple of carrots, peeled and chopped
Three stalks of celery, chopped

If you weren't going to do this in the slow cooker, you could start by sauteing the vegetables in a bit of butter or oil, then adding the split peas, broth, and seasonings. I just put everything into the slow cooker, adding water to fill it maybe three-quarters full. I set it on High for a few hours, then turned it to Low partway through the afternoon when it was bubbling hard. I think it would work fine to leave it on Low all day.

It's pumpkin time too (Pumpkin Bars)

Needing to keep this weekend's grocery list on the light side, I nevertheless wrote down "can of pumpkin," because I wanted to try a new recipe for pumpkin bars.

Then I realized we had a pie pumpkin from Monday's Thanksgiving dinner. I bought it to cook in the first place, but it got lost in the pumpkin-and-maple-leaf scenery.

So I baked Mr. Pumpkin during school today, pureed it with an immersion blender, and ended up with two cups of cooked pumpkin--exactly what was needed to make the pumpkin bars. And now we have pumpkin bars on the counter, and some in the freezer (the recipe makes a big panful).

The author suggests an orange-cream cheese frosting, but that's fancier than we wanted. I just sprinkled the batter with a bit of extra cinnamon sugar before baking. Or you can leave it plain.

Peter's Pumpkin Bars, from The Perfect Basket by Diane Phillips

4 large eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar (I cut it back a bit)
1 cup oil
2 cups cooked pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice mix (homemade version is given in the book; I used 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. cloves)
1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. In the large bowl of an electric mixer (or just a regular large bowl), beat together eggs, sugar, and oil. Gradually add the pumpkin, beating until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, spices, and baking soda, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cut in squares. (Sprinkle before baking as described above, or cool and frost.)