Bake Me More

Nov

Scrumptious Snickerdoodles!

Categories: Cookies, Desserts, Sweets & Snacks and Recipes
Tags: Cookies, Desserts, Recipes, Sweets & Snacks

A favorite holiday cookie at our house is the classic snickerdoodle. Not much explanation needed on this one, as few people are unfamiliar with this delicate delight. Many versions use all butter, but I like the shortening/butter mix as in the Betty Crocker Recipe. I think splitting the butter makes for a crispy on the outside, tender on the inside cookie. Either way, snickerdoodles are an easy favorite.

Snickerdoodles (Betty Crocker)

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cooking pan. Cook 8 – 10 minutes or until set. My first batches are usually ready in 8 minutes, then cooking times reduce to about 7 minutes.

Remove and cool on the cookie sheet about 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen

Nov

Pumpkin Bread (finally in the kitchen!)

By laurelg1 1 Comment

Categories: Breakfast, Desserts, Sweets & Snacks, Muffins & Quick Breads and Recipes
Tags: Breakfast, Desserts, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Sweets & Snacks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day 2009. I am actually prepared (mentally) this year to entertain! It helped that I had the whole day off today. A couple of store runs, a 60 minute workout, and a little lunch later, I made it to the kitchen. I have been quite busy and/or not feeling well lately, so my oven was actually building up dust.

So I broke the no baking bug. Enter: Pumpkin Bread and Snickerdoodles (next post). Kenzie, my youngest, assisted in today’s efforts. I can usually deal with one kid helping (not three) so we had a good afternoon.

To keep with Thanksgiving traditions we prepared a family favorite, pumpkin bread. I doubled the recipe and came out with three 8 x 5 ” loaves. I posted the recipe last year, but happily repost below.

Pumpkin Bread (doubled for three 8″ pans)

3 cups plus 4 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs slightly beaten
2 Cup Canned Pumpkin
2/3 Cup Water

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 8 x 5″ loaf pans with baking spray.

Sift together dry ingredients, set aside.

Beat together eggs, oil, water and pumpkin. Make a well in dry ingredients and add wet mixture. Stir with spoon just until all ingredients are wet. Pour into greased pan(s), fill pan 2/3 full.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. (mine took exactly one hour)

Makes three 8″ loafs.

P.S. I used the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture from the snickerdoodles and sprinkled it over the top.

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving if full of wonderful memories.

Nov

Bite Size Carrot Cakes

By laurelg1 5 Comments

Categories: Cakes & Pies and Recipes
Tags: Cakes & Pies, Recipes

“Why is it called Carrot Cake? Are there carrot’s in it?’ That was my daughter’s question, and my reply was a wee bit of a lie. “No I said, it’s just because it’s orange”. Ok, I lied, but I wanted her to taste it. A week later now and she caught me. The fact that she initially thought carrots were not involved didn’t change her distaste of this flavor though. I think our taste’s adapt as we mature… I guess hers aren’t ready to accept vegetables in her cake.

So nothing spectacular here. Just a carrot cake recipe that I tweaked from several others, and a good cream cheese frosting all bundled into a bite size treat.

Carrot Cake (Bite Size)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1½ tsp cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cups raisins

Directions:

Pre-heat to 350 degrees. Prepare three 8” pans, or two 9” pans with flour cooking spray. (In this case I used 2 mini muffin pans, 48 total)

Stir together dry ingredients, set aside. Beat the eggs at medium speed until frothy (about one minute). Gradually add sugars and beat until batter is thick – about four minutes. Add oil in a steady stream, add applesauce and vanilla.

Stir in dry mixture, just until incorporated. Then stir in carrots. Pour batter into pans and bake. Baking time depends on pans used. Approximately 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes and remove to cool completely. Frost with cream cheese frosting. (adjust cooking time if preparing cupcakes or mini-cupcakes)

Cream Cheese Frosting (I halved this for the mini’s)

½ cup unsalted butter (slightly soft)
2 (8oz) boxes cream cheese (remove from fridge about 10 mins ahead)
2 (boxes) Powdered Sugar (16 oz each)
2 tsp vanilla

Combine butter and cream cheese, beat until fluffy, several minutes. Add sugar in three parts, then vanilla. Beat until smooth. Will more than cover a three layer cake. **Refrigerate leftovers.

Adding nuts is optional, as is pineapple. These were for a friend that doesn’t care for the nuts however.

Nov

Babies…

By laurelg1 3 Comments

Categories: Cakes & Pies, Photography and Recipes
Tags: Cakes & Pies, Photography

A little photo gallery picturing cakes and decorations from a friends baby shower. The cake was prepared using marshmallow fondant (and she did a mighty fine job!). There were diaper cakes, a watermelon baby carriage and my addition was carrot cake mini’s, which I will post on soon.