Category Archives: Recipes – Desserts

Recipes - Desserts

Buttermilk Pie

There didn’t seem any better day to bake a Buttermilk Pie than April 1st (and no April Fool’s indeed!).  A spanking new calendar page, spring daffodils already in bloom, and the sweet tang of buttermilk are a perfect way to greet this beautiful month!

This pie will remind you of a southern Chess Pie with the same creamy texture.  Today I used a heaping 3 T. of flour to be sure that there was enough flour to thicken the liquids in the batter.  The buttermilk is the most distinctive taste in this pie; just a hint of tartness with the sugar complementing the buttermilk tang.

You really must make your own crust for this pie; using a store-bought crust will not give you anywhere close to the results you will get rolling out a homemade crust, flaky but sturdy enough to provide texture to the creaminess of the pie.  As always, I used 4-5 T. of ice water for my crust and worked the shortening in quickly to the flour-salt mixture using just my fingers to cut the shortening in until the dough resembled small peas.

Once your crust is ready and in your pie plate, you need only to mix up the filling.  Sprinkle the top of the pie lightly with nutmeg, and dessert is in the oven in no time.  Hello April!

Ingredients

½ cup buttermilk
1-3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 T. flour
Pinch of salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 unbaked 9” pastry shell

Directions: Preheat oven to 400°. Set pastry shell aside. In large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the nutmeg and the pastry shell and stir well with a wooden spoon to blend then use a wire whisk to incorporate the liquid ingredients more thoroughly. Pour batter in the unbaked pie shell; sprinkle the top lightly with nutmeg. Bake 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake another 45 minutes until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Cool well, allowing the filling to set well before cutting into wedges.

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Recipes - Desserts

White Texas Sheet Cake

Bring your sweet tooth for this one!  This great cake, perfect for winter with its frosty cool look, is also perfect for spring with its delicate almond flavor. The simple frosting only adds to the cake’s allure. this is a sweet creamy frosting, yes indeed, so serve cut into small squares. You can substitute slivered toasted almonds or walnuts for the chopped pecans, but definitely want to add nuts for texture in the frosting. Public Service Announcement: for users of my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook, please note that the recipe, as written in the cookbook, has two typos.  The recipe should say begin with 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of sugar so e kalamai, please excuse that mistake.  The recipe is correct below.

The cake requires just a short prep yet it nets you big results.  Allow your butter-water mixture to cool slightly before adding the dry ingredients; whisk and stir well from this point so that the batter is free of lumps.  The batter is thin so don’t worry that you have made a mistake; the hot liquid thins an otherwise traditional cake batter. The thinness of the batter produces a finished almond-flavored moist cake.   Today I baked it closer to 28 minutes than 22 as my oven runs slow of late; bake it definitely  for 22 minutes, minimum, then give it more time to set and brown slightly on top.  Two great things about this true sheet cake are that what isn’t in a tall cake is definitely made up for in volume and the cake will serve 20 easily so great to take to a potluck or a picnic, and, also this cake tastes even better the next day so any leftovers are always welcome.

Cool at least 20 minutes before frosting.  Almond extract also goes into the frosting; whisk well to remove all lumps before spreading on the still-warm cake. Guaranteed, every sweet bite will remind you of soft breezes and trees ready to burst forth into glorious bloom.  Ahhhh, Happy Spring to You!

White Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. In large mixing bowl, mix and stir the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Bring butter and water to boil in saucepan on stove. Add to dry ingredients and add beaten eggs, sour cream, and almond extract. Stir all until smooth; batter will be thin. Pour into a greased 15x10x1” pan (jelly roll pan) and bake for 20-22 minutes, until set and browned on top. Cool 20 minutes.

FROSTING Ingredients and Directions Prepare by melting 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup milk in saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add  4-1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp almond extract. Mix and whisk well. Fold in 1 cup chopped pecans, thoroughly blending. Spread over the slightly warm cake.

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Recipes - Desserts

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I have always thought of a Pineapple Upside Down cake as a cake perfect for Spring weather!  Perhaps it is the glossy thin batter or the bright colors of the pineapple slices and the maraschino cherries (the cherries are a must; do not omit!) that bring to mind the Spring flowers that I know are just waiting to appear after a long winter’s hibernation, but this cake always begins food whispering to me once winter loosens her icy grip.  Today was definitely THE day!

I finished the prep work and had the cake in the oven in 30 minutes today.  Basically you have four easy steps: preparing the skillet with melted butter and a layer of brown sugar and pineapple juice, layering in the pineapple slices and cherries, creaming your shortening and sugar then adding the dry ingredients with enough reserved juice from the pineapple to make a thin batter.  That’s it.  Pour the batter over the sugar-fruit-cherry mixture and bake!

I bake this cake in a 10″ cast iron skillet just as my mama and grandma did.  The brown sugar-pineapple juice layer browns perfectly in cast iron and the size is perfect for a cake to serve seven. If you grew up enjoying this sweet delicate cake you know how good it is with a glass of cold milk on a day where you can smell Spring in the air.  Make one today and open your arms wide to this most beautiful season of the year.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

1-(8.5 oz.) can sliced pineapple, juice reserved
3 T. butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries, from jar, drained
1/3 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour, sifted
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Drain the pineapple reserving the juice. Melt butter in medium-sized cast iron skillet (no larger than 10”). In small bowl, mix the brown sugar with 1 T. of the reserved pineapple juice from the can and sprinkle this over the butter. Arrange the pineapple rings on top of this mixture leaving them whole but trimming when you need to fit the curved bottom of the skillet. Add a maraschino cherry in the center of each whole pineapple ring.

In large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and white sugar until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until mixture is fluffy. In small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and add to shortening mixture alternately with at least 1/2 cups of the reserved pineapple juice (if you don’t have 1/2 cup left; add water to get it), beating after each addition. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter over the pineapple mixture in the skillet and use spatula to spread to edges of pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes after removing from oven then invert the skillet over your serving platter and turn out cake to platter.

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Recipes - Desserts

Grandma’s Lemon Cake

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I could write forever about this cake, but somehow that isn’t a fitting accompaniment for this quick-to-prepare totally delicious cake.  It’s a simple cake with a simple text:  it is an old recipe, my Grandma Opha’s, it has a delicate texture, airy and light, the glaze is tart with the juice of fresh lemons, and it tastes better the longer it sits.  And, oh, men love this cake (go figure).

No matter how “artistic” I was while taking pictures, the best ones today are also simple.  Moist sunny squares flavored with the thin powdered sugar and lemon glaze.  I couldn’t resist eating three of the five pieces on the plate here, still warm, with a glass of cold milk. The cake serves 15 people easily, or a few people for several days, and honestly, this is one of those cakes where it is great to get the last piece because the longer it mellows, the better it tastes.

Only five ingredients in the cake, two of those boxed mixes, and finished in less than an hour, cake baked and glazed, with the kitchen cleaned! There’s just no way you cannot make time to bake this for a church dinner, or to carry in to a friend’s house. I guarantee your baking dish will come home empty. Simply put, this is a simply outstanding offering!  Do enjoy every bite!

Grandma James’ Lemon Cake

Ingredients

For the cake

1 box Duncan Hinds Lemon Supreme cake mix
1-(3 oz.) box instant lemon pudding mix
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl and beat at low speed with electric mixer until smooth then allow to breathe in the bowl for five minutes. Do NOT grease or flour your baking pan. Pour into a 9×13 glass baking dish and bake for 40 minutes or until the top springs back when touched.

GLAZE:

2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 T. butter or margarine, melted
1 T. water

Directions Do not cook glaze; just whisk until completely smooth then poke holes in cake with fork and pour glaze over cake while it is still hot from the oven.

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Recipes - Desserts

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Sticky Toffee Pudding 4

Sticky Toffee Cake 2

Yay! Don’t you love chancing across a new recipe that you know you are going to use again and again? I can think of no good reason this cake has never crossed my radar before, but am completely happy about meeting this charmer at a recent Christmas dinner party. Away from the table when dessert arrived, I returned to a table grown silent, my dinner companions quietly chewing and making that promising “mmmhmm” sound. You know that sound. Someone spoke at last saying, “Just try it,” and when I did, I began making the “mmmhmm” sound too.

Despite the pudding tag in its title, this is definitely a cake. A dessert tradition from the British Isles, this dish is as hard to describe as it is identifying the ingredients while eating it. It is sweet, but not overly so. The texture is best described as toothsome and chewable in the very best sense. Without a speck of chocolate in it, the flavor eludes it, along with winter and warmth, each essence sourced to the coffee-soaked dates pureed then added to the batter. The dates are responsible for the dense texture and at first bite, gingerbread comes to mind, but this cake isn’t at all spiced so the gingerbread association is all about the texture of this dish.

If this concoction isn’t already the signature dessert of a famous eatery somewhere in the civilized world, it definitely deserves the honor. The recipe below I adapted after reading the history of the cake followed by looking through a dozen recipes for it online. I used hot coffee for soaking the dates, and used light brown sugar though next time I will try dark. Having all but two ingredients in my pantry meant only a quick trip to the market for dates and heavy cream, then preparing and enjoying it with mama at our traditional New Year’s Eve supper. Mama insisted she could only eat a very small piece so I served her a nice medium piece and she ate every bite of it without one word of further protest.

I checked the cake after 30 minutes as I used a different sized baking dish than in the recipe; I wanted something smaller than a 9×13 pan so the cake would be taller, so used an 8×11″ dish. If baked in a 9×13″ dish, the baking time will be much shorter so just watch it and don’t let the edges begin to brown. I took it out of the oven when a toothpick inserted came out streaked but not gooey, about 36 minutes on my timer. The sauce is delightful; serve it sparingly, drizzled over each serving. And do go whip the cream for this and sprinkle it with just a pinch of sea salt before serving as the salt is a great contrast to the whipped cream. You’ve already figured this out surely, but the cake keeps well, covered tightly, sitting on the counter. Hello, added bonus! The bottom photo here is of the cake on Day 2, with lunch, in better light.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Cake Ingredients

2-1/4 cups dried dates, coarsely chopped
2-1/4 cups scalding hot coffee
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 T. dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour

Toffee Sauce Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup plus 2 T. dark brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions Pit and roughly chop dates and place them in a heavy bowl; pour hot coffee over them and stir in the baking soda. Cover the bowl and set it aside for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 350, and butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, if desired. I didn’t, and the cake turned out of the pan with no sticking at all.

Blend the date-coffee mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugars. Whisk in eggs, then salt. Stir in the flour, fold well, then add the prepared date puree and fold well again. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30. Cool on wire rack. If you used parchment paper, invert the cake onto a serving platter and remove parchment paper from bottom of cake; finish cooling on wire rack.

When your cake is ready for serving, make the sauce: you need a large sauce pot with a heavy bottom, at least 2-1/2 quart size because the mixture increases in volume as it cooks. Melt the butter in the pan, add cream, sugar and vanilla and bring mixture to a good simmer over medium heat. Whisk continually for 10 minutes until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and allow to begin cooling. To serve, cut cake into squares and drizzle with toffee sauce, top with 2 tablespoons of unsweetened whipped cream with a pinch of sea salt added to the top of the cream. Serve when the cake is still slightly warm.

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