My favorite form of a carrot cake is a cupcake. I don't know why.
Ingredients: 4 eggs 3/4 cup canola oil 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 cups grated carrots 1/2 chopped pecans 1 eight ounce can drained crushed pineapple 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 cup applesauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease either a 9x13 inch cake pan, or cupcake tins.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil and sugars. Beat in the rest of the dry ingredients. Fold in pineapple, nuts and carrot. Pour into prepared pan. Cupcakes will take around 25 minutes to cook, the whole cake will take more like 45. But keep an eye on it!
My first two tiered cake attempt. It wasn't perfect, but that was mostly because I had run out of frosting. But all the basic components were there, and it didn't collapse. Hooray! Most importantly, it tasted good. Pretty basic devils food cake with vanilla frosting. Yum.
Cake: (courtesy of favorite cooksillustrated) 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder 1.25 cups boiling water 3/4 cup all purpose flour 3/4 cup cake flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 sticks unsalted softened butter 1.5 cups packed dark brown sugar 3 large room temperature eggs 1/2 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine cocoa and chocolate in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Whisk together until melted and smooth.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
Beat butter in a standing mixer at medium-high speed until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat on high for another few minutes until fluffy. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time. Beat for a few seconds between each egg. Add sour cream and vanilla. This entire time, scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
With mixer on low speed, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Follow with another flour third, then the rest of the chocolate, and finally the rest of the . Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combined.
Divide batter between your buttered pans. I used two nine inch pans and two six inch pans.
Cook for around 20 minutes (smaller cakes finish quicker!) - a good test for the doneness of a cake is to lightly press the middle. If it springs back up, it's done. Let the rounds cool on wire racks for a few minutes, loosen the cake from the walls with a knife, and transfer to the wire rack (without pans).
Let them cool entirely, and wrap in plastic wrap until you need them (unless its immediately).
This is pretty easy...just beat all these ingredients together with a mixer (either hand held or standing). If it needs some liquid, add a little milk. Try to make the frosting just before you frost the cake. I've never had much success trying to restore refrigerated frosting back to a desirable consistency for frosting.
Now, for the construction. You'll need cardboard rounds, and either wooden dowels or regular drinking straws for support. I prefer straws, because they're easier to cut, easier to find and plenty supportive enough.
I like to freeze my chocolate cakes, as it prevents your cake from leaving dark "freckles" in the nice white frosting. Make sure before you freeze, that you've leveled off your cakes. If its bulged on top, it will be hard to stack. Here are my cakes and the cardboard rounds:
Smear some frosting on the 9 inch cardboard round to hold as glue. Put large cake #1 on the round, cover with frosting, add #2, and then cover with frosting. Insert straws (same height as bottom tier) around the perimeter of where the top tier will be sitting. Otherwise, your cake will collapse. Do the same thing with the little set of cakes, then put the same tier on top of the large one, over the pre-inserted straws. Finish frosting your cake, and voila! Decorate how you please. Also, frosting a cake is much easier with an offset spatula, just FYI.
The red on my cake is just some brushed on raspberry reduction. I suspended a bag of frozen raspberries over a mesh strainer, let the juice collect, and then reduced in a saucepan over medium high heat.
Tasted a lot like BBQ chicken, but very good. Another recipe that you can make a ton of since it's good for several days. VERY easy.
Put the following in your slow cooker: 6 breasts of chicken 1 can crushed pineapple 1-2 chopped white onions 2 minced garlic cloves, minced
Then fill the rest of your slow cooker with sweet baby rays BBQ sauce (OK, any kind, but I like SBR). Turn the slow cooker on low and then leave for the day! Ready for dinner!
I like to take the chicken out and shred with forks to make pulled chicken. More flavorful this way.
Not much beats homemade macaroni and cheese, especially when the recipe comes from Grandmom Ruth. She got it from the side of a box of Muellers pasta, though it's no longer printed on the box. We learned that it tastes best when you let it sit for a day before cooking.
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
2 and 1/2 cups milk
4 cups (8 oz) grated cheese (I used cheddar and jack)
2 cups (8 oz) elbow macaroni
1/4 cup bread crumbs (optional, I skipped)
paprika to taste
In saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat, blend in flour, salt mustard. Add milk and heat, stirring constantly for a few minutes until sauce thickens a little. Add cheese, continue to cook until melted. Meanwhile cook macaroni as directed and drain. Stir into the sauce and transfer to casserole dish. Add the breadcrumbs if you'd like and cook for 20 minutes at 375.
Thanks to friend Janice for this recipe! Great to serve with chips, or over grilled chicken or fish.
1 small pineapple, trimmed and diced, or 1 can of diced or crushed pineapple 1 chopped sweet red pepper 3/4 cup chopped red onion 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 3 tablespoons lime juice 1 tablespoon canned chipotle peppers in adobe sauce (mashed) 2 teaspoons of the adobe sauce 2 fresh jalapeno peppers 2 cups diced tomatoes 2 minced garlic cloves 1 tsp chili powder 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp cumin
I always forget about the slow cooker. It's so great when you get home and just want to have something warm and waiting for you. This chicken recipe is warm, hearty and healthy. I made a TON (as much as my pot would hold) so we'd have plenty of leftovers. This sort of thing only gets better with time as the flavors blend together. Also, don't worry about proportions. Add whatever you like, as much as you like, depending on how much you like any particular flavor.
6 chicken breasts 2-3 white onions, chopped 2 small cans of diced mushrooms 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 2 bay leaves (remove before serving) 16 ounces tomato sauce (NOT marinara, just in the canned tomato section of the supermarket) 2 cans of diced tomatoes (or one large one, again proportions don't really matter) 1/2 cup white wine red pepper flakes to taste
This is really easy - put all of these ingredients in your slow cooker. If you're gone all day, cook on low. If you're only gone for 5ish hours, cook on high. Before you serve, remove the chicken breasts, pull apart with a few spoons and remove to the pot so it can soak up the juice.
I served with white rice, which soaked up the juice nicely.
Every year during cranberry season I stock up. I always have a few bags of cranberries in my freezer because I don't think they should be a season ingredient - they're just too good! My favorite is cranberry orange muffins, recipe from CooksIllustrated.com. These were another option for my SGR-ers :-)
Ingredients: 3 cups flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 10 tablespoons softened unsalted butter 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 2 large eggs 1.5 cups plain or vanilla yogurt 1.5 cups chopped cranberries 3/4 cups chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix first four ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy(around 2 minutes). Add orange zest. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in half of the dry ingredients (start the mixer slowly so you don't get a flour bath). Beat in the yogurt. Beat in remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Fold cranberries and walnuts into finished batter. Spray twelve-cup muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray or coat lightly with butter. Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm.
