A stretched-out applesauce cake

We've been making this since the days of the Grocery Cart Challenge Blog. Here's the recipe.

Baked in a slow cooker, this cake turns out small, round and fragrant with cloves and cinnamon.

But it also works in a long, thin baking pan, or other cake pan, or muffin tins. (Photo of today's cake)

Happy eating.

It makes more sense when you see it (Do-Vember #16)

Do-Vember

Scientists experiment. They change the variables and see what happens. What's the optimum range for whatever? How much is too much, what amount is just enough, and how much margin do you have? This kind of testing goes on all the time, everywhere from high-tech labs testing pharmaceuticals, to parents figuring out how long a child's afternoon nap should be or how many toys are enough without being too many, to the people who figured out that Ted Talks should be exactly 18 minutes long.

Sometimes it's nice when someone else does the work for you. If you trust their reporting, it could save you having to reinvent the wheel, or, as in today's Pinterest link, the cake and the cookie. What happens if you put in one egg? Two? Three? How do cookies change if you use white sugar? brown sugar? Some other sweetener? Butter, margarine, or some other kind of fat? You may have seen magazine articles illustrating this before (I have one stuck in my recipe binder that shows different oatmeal cookie results), but the post linked on Pinterest has collected up a few useful ones. It's helpful when the muffins turn out tough or pointy, or the cookies spread too much. Like a scientist, you can ask: what caused that? What do I need to change?

This kind of experimenting is actually something that Charlotte Mason wanted her students to practice--within reason, as they didn't want to waste food on things that wouldn't work. There were times when you might want your little cakes to be richer, or sweeter, or have some other special quirk--so knowing how to adjust a recipe for taste or ingredients was a useful thing to learn. If I were teaching that to children now, I think I'd use muffins as an example: there's a basic formula (I took mine from The Tightwad Gazette years ago), but the special ingredients, amount of sweetener, amount of fat and so on can be up to the baker.  Sometimes you can take advantage of a material's particular quirks: a non-food example would be strips of crocheting that tend to curl and twirl around themselves. That can be a problem, but if you're making legs for an octopus, it's exactly what you want.

But it can be useful just to see someone else's results.

What's for supper when it really snows

Tonight's dinner menu:

Upside-Down Meatloaf from Saving Dinner, but with breadcrumbs made from garlic breadsticks, instead of rolled oats

Baked potatoes

Mixed green veggies and cabbage

Snowfall Cake, which is chocolate cake with some white chocolate chips leftover from Christmas added in and grated on top.

And it all goes in the oven together. Except the veggies.

What's for supper? That was easy.

Tonight's menu:

Carrot fries

Leftover chicken cacciatore

Leftover pasta and spinach mixed with cheese and yogurt

Leftover sausage slices

Slow cooker applesauce cake.

Cinnamon cake for a fall birthday

Ponytails had a birthday this month.  She found this recipe for Cinnamon Cake on For Bakes Sake, but we changed it a bit to make it one layer (it was just for our family); frosted it with plain butter icing with a bit of cinnamon added (instead of the cream cheese frosting); and did the spices a bit differently.  This is our version:

Spice Birthday Cake (makes two layers, or one layer plus a dozen cupcakes):

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (see below)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (we used 2% milk)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (but it doesn't matter, you're going to melt it anyway)
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I grated some from a fresh orange)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Before you start mixing everything together, this is what I did: I mixed the flour, baking powder and salt, but left out the cinnamon. I followed the directions otherwise until it was ready to go into the pans. I used about half the (unspiced) batter to make a dozen small cupcakes. Then I added 1 tsp. cinnamon and about 1/3 tsp. nutmeg to the batter that was left in the bowl, and baked that as the birthday cake. I didn't want to take all the air out of the cake after I had just spent all that electricity beating it in, so I just swirled the spices in gently, and that gave the cake an interesting swirly-spice effect. I baked both the cupcakes and the cake together for about 24 minutes as the directions say.

So if you really want two spice layers, bake the full amount of batter in two 9-inch pans; but increase the spices for the two layers.

From here on the directions are as in the original:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Sift first 4 ingredients into small bowl. Stir milk and butter in small saucepan over low heat just until butter melts [I used the microwave]; set aside.
Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until thick enough for batter to fall in heavy ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 5 minutes.
Beat in orange peel and vanilla. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended. Add warm milk mixture; beat just until blended. Divide batter between prepared pans.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into centre comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 24 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes. Cut around pan sides and turn cakes out onto racks. Turn cakes right side up.

Frost with cream cheese frosting (amounts given in the original recipe) or with cinnamon-tinged butter icing.

Photo by Ponytails.

What's for supper? And how to make a spaghetti squash cake

Yesterday's ranch-spiced chicken, chopped smaller, wrapped in tortillas and heated in chicken broth mixed with a bit of tomato paste
Choice of frozen spinach or frozen beans and carrots
Short-grain brown rice

Spaghetti squash cake!

(How do you make spaghetti squash cake?  Basic sour-milk muffin batter; run some cooked spaghetti squash through the blender along with all the rest of the wet ingredients; blend in a bowl with dry ingredients, including half a cup of rolled oats; sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar before baking.  Spaghetti squash is so mild and almost flavourless that you do need to add a bit of cinnamon or other spice; the cake won't be the colour of pumpkin or butternut squash, but more like an applesauce cake.)

How to make a cranberry cake

Mama Squirrel's Applesauce-Cranberry Cake (adapted from this Canadian Living apple-spice muffin recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat bran or rolled oats (I used quick oats)
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg (I used only about 1/2 tsp.)
1 tsp allspice (I used about 1/4 tsp.)
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sweetened applesauce (I used unsweetened)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups diced peeled apples (I used about a cupful of chopped cranberries instead; you could use a combination)

Mix the dry and liquid ingredients separately.  Blend together and add in the cranberries (or chopped apples).  Spread into a large (greased) pie dish, or a 9 x 13 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees as a cake, for about 30 minutes (roughly); or spoon into muffin cups and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until done.  If you bake it as cake, test to be sure it's done in the middle; the middle of mine was done but just slightly squishy.  Eat for dessert or for breakfast.

It's snowing. Make a cake.

We had a freeze.  We had a thaw and lots of rain.  Now it's been snowing all day, big thick flakes.  Gray, cold weather seems to require something to cheer things up.

For some reason I was thinking about the "Delicious Death" cake in Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced.  Next to Esther's Orange Marmalade cakes in the Mitford books, that's probably the literary cake I've always been most curious about.  It turns out that about three years ago there was a big AC birthday celebration, and to mark the occasion they created a real, actual recipe for "Delicious Death," a rich chocolatey flourless cake with fruit and rum in the middle and sugared fruits and gold flecks and who knows what else.  Actually I never envisioned it quite as posh as that, especially if the baker in the story (Mitzi the hard-done-by maid) had to struggle just to get the post-war butter and eggs and chocolate together.  The cake in the Joan Hickson BBC version of the story looks more like a white cake with a thick chocolate glaze over the top.  So I guess you can imagine Mitzi's cake any way you like.

Besides the Small Chocolate Cake, which we still make regularly for birthdays etc., we have another 8-inch cake that I make if I have some chocolate to use up (which I did, just a bit left from Christmas baking).  It calls for two squares (ounces) of unsweetened chocolate, and I was a bit short but made up the last bit with part of a (dark, barely sweet) Polish chocolate bar.  I grated up some more of the bar for the topping.  And that is close enough to "Delicious Death" for us.

Here's the recipe. It came from a Kraft What's Cooking magazine, Fall 2001.  (You can see the whole thing here on their site, under "Mix Easy Snack Cakes."  The recipe gives three other variations, but this is really the only one we liked.)

One-Pan Chocolate Cake, Not Mitzi's But Not Bad

This is my version of the directions.  If you want to see Kraft's, click on the link above.

Preheat the oven (a toaster oven is fine, if it keeps steady heat) to 350 degrees F.  Put 1/3 cup cooking oil and 2 ounces (squares) unsweetened chocolate in an 8-inch square pan.  Kraft recommends non-stick but I don't have one, I just use Pyrex.  Put the pan in the preheated oven for about two minutes or until the chocolate is soft.  Carefully remove the pan from the oven (use mitts!) and stir with a fork until oil and chocolate are blended smoothly.

While the chocolate is getting soft in the oven, you can be assembling the other ingredients:

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda.

When the pan comes out and you have blended in the chocolate, beat in the other ingredients with a fork. Keep beating it for about two minutes.

Before baking, top the cake with any combination you like of grated chocolate, chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, etc.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool before cutting.

What's for supper? Cold day, warm food

On our "calendar of firsts" would be the first (short) snowfall of the year.  Tonight's dinner menu:

Reuben Chicken, made with bone-in chicken breasts (that is, sauerkraut in the bottom of the casserole, then chicken, then some Thousand Island dressing; bake till done)
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Whole wheat bread from the bread machine

Banana cake made with this muffin recipe (muffin batter baked in a 9 x 13 pan; we leave out the chocolate chips)

Three things to make that really work--I promise

1.  Crockpot Applesauce Cake: the flavours of autumn in your slow cooker.  I saw the recipe first on Grocery Cart Challenge, but the original source is Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.  You can also find it posted (and credited) here.  Leave out the walnuts if you don't like them; the egg is also optional. (I was out of eggs and tried it without, and it worked fine.) Not too big, not too sweet, good for breakfast.

2.  A Year of Slow Cooking's "What my kids like" overnight oatmeal recipe.  (The second half of the post.)  Our apples kept their shape instead of disappearing into the oatmeal; but I like it better that way anyway.

3.  A no-sew doll tutu made from dollar-store tulle and a piece of ribbon.  (We found tulle on rolls last year with the Christmas wraps at the dollar store.) You can find the same idea, both doll- and girl-sized, on various websites, but this tutorial (if a bit long) gives the basics.

Click here to view: http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_11/2006/AUG/7558.html

"A is for April Fool"

Photo of pizza cake taken by Ponytails.  It's a half-and-half pizza because we had some eaters who like white chocolate and some who prefer coconut.

Dollygirl's photo.

Easter things to make (food and crafts)

Well, at the Treehouse there are always Kiffle.

And maybe Coconut Chicks, though probably not this year.

I like the Easter Cross Centerpieces at Mad in Crafts.

We got cream cheese on a great sale last week (if you're near a Food Basics in Ontario, they should still have it on sale--Lactantia brand for $1.44 a box), so we might make Cream Cheese Mints.  I like the shape of these ones--it reminded me that we have a couple of small plastic cookie stamps, Easter/spring-themed, and I bet they'd work on candy.  On Easter morning we have a coffee-and-baked-stuff time before the church service, and these would be good for that.

On the vegan end...we will also be at a potluck Sunday night that includes vegan relatives, so I'm thinking Pizza Cake, made with a no-eggs-or-dairy white cake as the base.  I usually make pizza cake in the large-sized foil pizza pans from the grocery store, because the foil pans actually have sides to hold the cake batter in (unlike our regular flat pizza pans). 

And, not so much to make...but last year we started kind of a new tradition here.  Instead of having individual Easter baskets or chocolate bunnies, last year we all went to the European grocery and picked out chocolate, cookies and other things for everyone to share.  It was a nice change, and I think we're going to do that again.

What's for supper? Reheat and thaw

Tonight's dinner menu:

Leftover chicken lasagna
Lettuce and carrot salad
Garlic toast triangles

A bit of thawed cake (a birthday cake layer that broke coming out of the pan) with vanilla yogurt and thawed blueberries.

In which Ponytails chooses the menu (plus another frosting recipe)

Ponytails had a birthday this week.

Since she has not worn ponytails for some time now, she is trying on other possibilities for blog names. Stay tuned for that.

This was the birthday dinner menu she chose:

Barbecued pork schnitzel on a bun, with hamburger toppings
Stuffed eggs with lots of paprika
Carrot sticks, mushrooms

White cake with chocolate icing "but not as thick as that icing Dollygirl had"
Ice cream

Cocoa Fudge Rocky Road Icing

I adapted the Cocoa Fudge Icing recipe from More Food That Really Schmecks. Here's my version.

1 cup brown or white sugar (we used brown)
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
About a cupful of butterscotch chips
About two cupfuls of mini marshmallows
9-inch cake to frost

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, and milk.  Add the butter or margarine, and stir over medium heat until it comes to a boil.  Boil for one minute, then remove from heat and cool as quickly as possible, by putting the pot into a bowl of ice cubes or a sinkful of cold water.  Add the vanilla and extra additions (butterscotch chips, marshmallows), and stir hard with a wooden spoon until the frosting has thickened  and looks like soft candy.  The marshmallows aren't meant to melt completely.  If the cake is still too hot to ice, you can put the frosting into a bowl and leave it in the fridge until you need it.  We left the cake in the pan and just covered the top of it with the frosting, then added some sprinkles and candles. 

Photo of Dr. Who and Romana found here.

Pineapple cake for a potluck

Tonight was our homeschool group's annual picnic/barbecue. The group provides burgers and hot dogs, and everything else is potluck. I brought Tortellini Salad--the same dressing as the one I used here, but with slightly different salad ingredients. I used a package of dried cheese tortellini, cooked until just tender; a package of grape tomatoes; a package of little tiny mushrooms (they were the same price as regular-sized ones); a chopped red pepper; and a few canned black olives. I left out the extra cheese as I didn't think it would hold up well, and it was fine without it. At least it was all gone by the end of the picnic, so I guess that meant it was all right.

I also took a pan of Ruth's Pineapple Cake, from the Harrowsmith Cookbook. This recipe has been around for years but it's still good, and it's very easy to make. It does get a bit sticky, though, so it's best eaten the same day you make it.

Ruth’s Pineapple Cake

2 cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups crushed pineapple, un-drained (= 19 oz. can)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional--our homeschool events are nut-free, so I leave them out)

Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth (just with a wooden spoon is fine).

Scrape into greased jelly roll pan (a 10 x 15-inch pan) and bake at 325 degrees F for 35 minutes or until brown but not too brown. Cut in squares for serving (use a sharp knife and try to work around the bits of pineapple--otherwise you'll get ragged pieces).

What's for supper? Spaghetti-style sloppy Joes

Tonight's dinner menu:

Whole wheat hamburger buns with tomato-meat sauce (leftover sauce I had frozen) and mozzarella cheese
Peas
Leftover salad and raw veggies

The remnants of the Crockpot Applesauce Cake I made last night, with vanilla yogurt and raspberry sauce

What's for supper? Dangerous chocolate cake in a cereal bowl

Tonight's menu:

Sausage baked with sauerkraut
Black beans-and-salsa (reheated)
Brown rice
Carrot sticks, peppers

Chocolate cake in a mug (we make two and share them) Update: Every time I make these in mugs, it makes a mess. So I had an idea: cereal bowls work just as well and don't run over. And they're easier to share.

Oranges

What's for supper? Turkey fajitas and corn

Tonight's dinner menu:

Turkey fajitas, with green peppers, sour cream, and grated cheddar
Corn on the cob, in the pressure cooker

Banana cake, baked in the toaster oven, and made with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips (usually we leave the chips out altogether, so this was a  special treat)

What's for supper? Using up leftovers

Want to play "The Supper Game?"

Tonight's dinner ingredients:

Two slices of Upside-Down Meatloaf
A bit of cooked rice
Leftover Reuben Chicken from last night (chicken cooked with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing)
Red peppers (they were on sale last week)
Mushrooms
Half a cucumber, some lettuce
A bit of this and that

Tonight's dinner decision:

Chicken-and-rice-stuffed peppers. I didn't incorporate the meatloaf; we can eat that tomorrow. But I did add some mayonnaise and shredded cheese.
Lettuce and mushroom salad, with cucumber on the side.

Muffin cake, made with leftover spaghetti squash.  I made sure the squash would disappear into the cake by blending it in the food processor along with the liquid ingredients. Spaghetti squash is pretty bland, so if you try this, make sure you add enough spices, or some raisins or something.

Have some cake with your icing?

Crayons/Dollygirl's birthday cake this year was a Small Chocolate Cake frosted with "Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing" from Edna Staebler's More Food That Really Schmecks.  The amount given here will frost a layer cake reasonably, or a one-pan cake extravagantly.  We went with extravagantly.  But you could probably cut the recipe in half.

I put some of the icing into a decorating tube and made ruffles along the edges, along with a few powdered-sugar butterflies.  How do you make powdered-sugar butterflies?  Sink a small butterfly-shaped cookie cutter into the icing (that is, the top of the cake that's already been iced), carefully spoon a bit of powdered sugar inside the "walls" of the cutter, smooth it down, then gently lift up the cutter.  Repeat several times in other places on the cake--we had five butterflies.  I used the icing in the tube to give them chocolate bodies and antennae (which also helped show what they were supposed to be!), and a few dots on their wings.

And one warning about that, if you're blowing out candles--don't blow too enthusiastically or you'll have powdered sugar everywhere.

Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces (chips)
1/2 cup light cream (I used 2% milk)
1 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
a bowl full of ice cubes plus some water (this doesn't go into the icing, it's for a quick cooling off)

In a saucepan combine the chocolate, cream/milk and butter; stir till smooth, remove from the heat, and whisk in the sugar--it will be thin. [Microwave version: heat in the microwave, stirring at 30-second intervals.]  Beat it over ice until it holds its shape (put ice cubes and water in a bowl, and rest the saucepan on top.  I put the bowl in the sink.).  Unless you have a very strong whisk, I'd recommend using a wooden spoon for this part--the icing will get thick.

A shortcut:  in the book, Edna says that she didn't have time to stand around beating the icing, so she just put it in the fridge to set.  I have done it that way, but this time I beat it over the ice, and it turned out really well.