Having my cake and eating dessert too

Those who know me well know that I am mad about desserts. If available, I will eat dessert BEFORE a meal, and perhaps even forego the main meal just to get to dessert.

That said, I will only eat really good desserts. And no Costco desserts. Those things are made to feed an army, and they are made to hold up well for a very long time, which means they are shot full of preservatives. Those preservatives literally turn my insides inside-out.

A bowl of ice cream, plain ice cream scooped from a carton, does nothing for me, either. I will take a handful of Lactaid, though, for really good artisan ice cream. Usually, homemade ice cream doesn’t live up the hype so I decline. If one, though, has gone to the trouble to make a dairy-free variety, I will always partake. This is a person after my own heart.

Every so often I am served a beautiful dessert that I am thrilled to try only to find that it just does not measure up and I have to leave it after a few cursory bites. Sigh. I have come to the conclusion that life is far too short to eat bad food.

Stressed spelled backwards is dessert. Go have a piece of cake. Really good cake.

More about the white cake

Yes, I’m still blathering on about the white cake. Remember I said it wasn’t as moist as I would like it if it was to stand alone? Today I fixed that.

I split the cupcake into thirds and added a slice of preserved fig between each layer. These were figs I had preserved a couple of weeks ago. The whole cake was placed in a pool of preserved fig liqueur before serving. Swoon.

More white cake

Tried my hand with the white cake again. This time I used the tried and true Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that I’ve had for 40 years.

The cake could stand alone, without frosting or filling. That is the real test for cake. I would have preferred a bit more moistness so will increase shortening from three quarters cup to a full cup next time. Also, I will cream the shortening and sugar a bit longer.

These cupcakes currently reside in the freezer. Our grandchildren will be here in a few days and it will be Judah’s second birthday so cake will be required for a small celebration.

Should you go out in public after eating an onion sandwich?

It really is a legitimate question. My lunch today was a sandwich made of heirloom tomato, red leaf lettuce, red onion, sopressata, on a very substantial hoagie roll. Terry and I have a networking event to attend later this evening. I may sit in a corner and try not to talk!

Yesterday I spent the day at Fresno State University at an event sponsored by The Richter Center, Fall Community Service Opportunities Fair, where students can learn about and sign up for a myriad of volunteer activities. I was representing Fresno Historical Society with the goal of finding young people who will volunteer to work at the Civil War Revisited which will be held again in October at Kearney Park. I was partnered with the volunteer coordinator for the Historical Society, Randi, and during this time spent together, working, we found that we had a mutual love for really good food.

The Richter Center offered a Subway Sandwich box lunch if we wished to eat during the event, but neither of us felt much compulsion to order it. Randi flat out hates Subway, and I only eat it if there is just no other way to stave off hunger. Yesterday was not such a day. We both decided that stopping on the way home for one of our favorites, white cake, would be a better way to get our nutrition. Yes, we had discovered that we both LOVE good cake.

I called a few bakery type places that would be on our route home and found one that had white cake. It was very disappointing. Not moist. Probably a couple of days old. The frosting was certainly nothing to write home about so I won’t write about it here.

Back to the sandwiches–Randi and I both like really good sandwiches and rather particular about what goes into them thus the disinterest in Subway. But with all that talk about sandwiches, I really wanted a good one today. A really good sandwich might just wipe out the bad cake memory so I picked up some ingredients at Whole Foods today, including the red onion, came home and made that really good sandwich I described in the first paragraph.

Now, I’ve got to decide what to do about that event tonight and my onion breath.

Orange you glad I made cupcakes?

The recipe called for a bundt pan. I hate those pans so poured the batter into lined cupcake pans.

I put the extras in the freezer but they had to come out yesterday to make room for the beerocks I made.

A fresh batch of orange buttercream frosting makes the cupcakes just as good as the day I baked them.

The apple cake recipe

This is my version of the apple cake recipe from last week’s post. I must add a disclaimer: I have changed the original recipe to suit my needs.

Grease a 9×9 cake pan. (The original called for a a 9×13.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer bowl (I use my food processor) cream together:

1/2 c butter, 1 c sugar

Add one egg and 1 small container of applesauce (about 1/2 c), mixing well (a few more pulses if you use a food processor)

In another bowl, mix together 1 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda,1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ground cloves

Add the dry mixture to the butter/sugar/eggs/applesauce mixture, pulsing until mixed. Stir in 2 chopped apples, 1 c chopped walnuts,  and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix well. Spread the very thick batter into the prepared pan and bake about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it, depends on how hot your oven runs. Remember my very hot oven in the tiny apartment? It would probably bake at 325 in that oven.

I don’t frost this cake, but you could make a powdered sugar glaze for it like the original recipe called for. I also don’t let it cool much before I cut it. I like warm cake.

Healthy eating

Somewhere in my blogland wanderings, I found a new blog that will be fun to watch as its premise develops.  A family of five has decided to rid itself of bad eating and plans to tell us how they do it at The Real Foods Project.

Because I am a big proponent of healthy, organic foods, and I have seen what bad eating can do to a person, I am always cheering for those who decide to shop and cook in a more healthy manner.  Too many processed foods are bad for the body, and in the long run, (meaning old age), eating a healthy diet pays off.  You feel better, look better, and are able to do more.

I just had my eyes examined and my eye doctor does this photo image of the inside of the eye where it shows all the blood vessels.  This is the first place things like diabetes and high cholesterol can show up.  My blood vessels are very healthy and the doctor attributes much of that to my healthy eating and use of supplements.

Now, don’t read this the wrong way.  I am not a vegetarian or vegan, but we do try to eat more plant based foods than animal protein.  However, I love sugar and fat.  I could eat dessert every day and have to contain myself when there are sweets in the house.  I have butter on my English muffin every morning.

Saturday is our granddaughter’s first birthday party and we are picking up the ice cream cake.  It’s a vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free  confection made by a great company in San Francisco, Maggie Mudd.  This makes me very happy because I will be able to have cake and eat it too.

Lemon cake without an oven

As you dear Readers may remember, I LOVE cake.  Sometimes I will bake a cake, and actually I have a coconut cake in the planning, but I really love it when I can have cake without the oven.  

Today, while grocery shopping, I saw this Pepperidge Farm 3- Layer Lemon Cake on sale.  I had purchased one of these before so I knew how very good it is.  I wanted to share this treat with all of you.  If you want to have cake for Mother’s Day, and you aren’t the baker in the family, give this a try.

In your grocer's freezer

Mmmm, cake

 

Amy's Orange Cake

I love cake, and I found this new cake in the freezer at Whole Foods today.  It is really good.   And, it’s vegan.  There is a chocolate version which I’ve not tried, but the orange is very tasty.