• 1/2 c. margarine/butter
• 2/3 c. sugar

Add and beat well:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine separately:

• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients alternating with 1/3 c. orange juice

Fold in

• 1 c. chopped apples
• 1/3 c. chopped nuts

Bake in greased 9 x 5″ pan at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

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This makes for a great brunch offering.

In a saucepan, melt chocolate with water over low heat.  Mixture will begin to harden.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla and chocolate mixture.  Stir together flour, salt and soda; add alternately with buttermilk to batter.  Fold in nuts, if desired.  Pour into a greased and floured 10 in tue pan or fluted tube pan.  Bake at 325 for about 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done when a toothpick inserted in the center  comes out clean.  Allow cake to stand 10 minutes before removing from pan.   Cool on wire rack.  Sprinkle with confectioners sugar, if desired.

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 stick butter

cream sugar and butter together.  Add:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 4 c. finely chopped apples, any kind.
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. nuts (whichever kind you prefer)
• 2 c. flour

Bake 45 mins at 350 in a 9×13 pan.

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The only way I have ever made this cake was as cupcakes, with maple frosting, and they were fannnntastic.  A very moist cake with a very apple pie kind of taste.  yum.

1 yellow cake, bake according to box directions. Let cake cool, slice into halves.  Fill with filling, put back together.

Filling:

• 1 c. milk
• 1 T. flour

Mix together. Cook over low heat until thick.  Let cool.

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 stick oleo
• 1/2 c. Crisco
• 1 t. vanilla

Beat until fluffy.  Add above mixture and beat until fluffy.

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a saucepan, melt:

• 2 sticks butter
• Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa.  Stir.  Add 1 cup boiling water.  Boil for a few seconds, remove from heat.  Pour over flour mix, stir until cool.

In a measuring cup mix together:

• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Stir into chocolate mixture.  Pour onto sheet pan and bake 20 minutes.

Make icing:

Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter, add 4 heaping T. to combine, then turn off heat.

Add:

• 6 T. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 lb. minus 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Stir together.  You can also add chopped pecans, walnuts or hazlenuts to the icing.

Pour icing over warm cake.

Good ole Taste of Home.  Casseroles and cupcakes!

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Fold in coconut.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For frosting, in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and extracts until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Frost the cupcakes; sprinkle with toasted coconut. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen. 

Technorati Tags: cupcake recipes, coconut cupcake recipe, baking, yum

Cream together sugar and shortening.  Add eggs, and blend.

Sift together dry ingredients, and add alternately with milk.  Add vanilla.

Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for ten minutes.

FILLING:

Combine 1/2 c. milk and 2 T. flour.  Cook until thick.  Cool.

Add 1/4 c. shortening, and 1/4 c. oleo, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla.  Beat until creamy and thick.

Put filling between 2 cookies, to make a sandwich.

These can be kept for days by wrapping in waxed paper.  They can also be frozen.

Mrs. Rose L. Jordan.  Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  From the 1958 Maine March of Dimes Cookbook.

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True confession time.  I have lived in Maine over ten years, and I have never had a Whoopie Pie.  They always look so huge and garish and blorpy.  Reading the recipe for this filling makes them seem even less appetizing.  How can a blob of shortening and margarine with some milk in it be tasty?  I would make the cookies and fill them with my fantastic homemade whipped cream.  Because then I think they would taste like Wafer Cake, and that is my favorite thing in the world.  But the two dollar (four dollar in the summer!) smashed and stale Whoopie Pie down at the Cumberland Farms?  No thank you.

Technorati Tags: Maine recipes, whoopie pies, chocolate, march of dimes recipes, 1958 recipes

3 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 (9-ounce) packages Nabisco Famous Chocolate wafers (I have also made this with just about every flavor of Anna’s cookies ever made. The ginger are the best. You will need three boxes or more of those.)

Chocolate shavings and/or cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolate.

Beat cream, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form.

Using a FLAT plate, put seven cookies in a circle, and then plunk one in the middle.

Plop 1/2 cup whipped cream in the center, and smooth out to the edges with an off-set spatula. Repeat with the rest of the cookies and whipped cream. You should be able to make about 11 or 12 layers. The wafers break super easy, so be very careful when putting it all together. In fact, make sure you check the packages when you are in the grocery store, and don’t let the bagger boy touch them. Clutch them to your breast and give him the stink eye and tell him to back off. If you have a down pillow, carry them home on that. They will probably still be broken when you get home. I usually play the cookie puzzle game on the lower layers, so the top layers are pretty pretty. Also they cost as much as gold, so if you have children, you might want to consider selling them.

After all your cookies are in layers, put the cake under a cake dome and put it in the refrigerator. If you live in Maine, put it in the garage. If you don’t have a cake dome, use plastic wrap. As hard as this sounds, you have to leave it in the refrigerator or garage for 8 or more hours. The cake will shrink and all those cookies will turn all cakey and mooshy and everyone you give it to will love you.

I top this with big giant curly cues of bittersweet chocolate (use a vegetable peeler, it works awesome!) AND a very generous dusting (more of a blizzard) of Ghiradelli’s Hot Cocoa powder. You could just use regular old cocoa powder like the rest of the people in the world.

This recipe comes pretty much exactly from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, but my mother made it when I was a kid, and I was reminded of it by the fantastic Deb at Smitten Kitchen. She has fantastic pictures of her version on her Wafer Wonderland post, which I go and look at sometimes when I am lonely. If you don’t read Deb’s blog and you like food, you should. It is a lot better than this pile of recipes.

Ok, back to frosting Mr. Boring Cake and wishing I had wafer cake.

Technorati Tags: cake, wafer cake, best cake in the whole world, stuff my face

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
• 7 tablespoons vanilla sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs, separated
• Pinch of fine sea salt

• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter and flour 8-inch-diameter springform pan.

Boil 1/2 cup whiskey in small saucepan until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 2 minutes. Combine bittersweet chocolate, espresso powder mixture, and 1/4 cup boiled whiskey in small metal bowl. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water; stir until mixture is smooth. Remove bowl from over water. Finely grind almonds with 2 tablespoons flour in processor.

Using electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter and 6 tablespoons vanilla sugar in medium bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks 1 at a time, then sea salt. Fold in chocolate mixture, then ground almond mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold whites into batter alternately with remaining 4 tablespoons flour in 3 additions. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 30 minutes. Remove pan sides and cool cake completely.

Combine semisweet chocolate and remaining 2 tablespoons whiskey in small metal bowl. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water and stir until smooth. Remove bowl from over water. Add remaining 1/4 cup butter to chocolate mixture, 1 small piece at a time, whisking until each piece is melted before adding next. Place bowl over larger bowl of ice water. Using electric mixer, beat icing until thickened to spreadable consistency, about 1 minute. Spread icing over top and sides of cake. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover with cake dome and let stand at room temperature.

Bon Appetit May 2007

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This cake is fantastic.  It does not make good cupcakes as it is very dense and fairly flat.  This is on my list of top five cakes that I have ever baked.  Someday I will share that list with you, not today though.

Technorati Tags: food with booze, chocolate cake, Irish Whiskey, dessert, awesome fantastic dream worthy cake

1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Cake
10 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced

10 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 large egg whites

Ganache
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped

Whipped cream

Preparation

For brandied cherries:
Combine brandy and dried cherries in 4-cup glass container with lid. Cover and let soak at room temperature 1 week.

Bring 1 cup water and sugar to boil in medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool syrup. Drain brandy from cherries (reserve brandy for another use). Add sugar syrup to cherries and stir to blend. Let soak at room temperature at least 2 days. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Store covered at room temperature.

For cake:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan with 23/4-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper round. Place chocolate and 1 1/4 cups butter in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water; stir until mixture is melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water; cool to lukewarm, about 10 minutes.

Using electric mixer, beat egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl until very thick and pale yellow in color, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Gently fold chocolate mixture into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites and remaining 6 tablespoons sugar in another large bowl until peaks form. Fold 1/3 of beaten whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites in 2 additions. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 45 minutes (cake will be puffed and soufflé-like while baking). Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes (cake will fall in center). Run knife around cake sides to loosen; press edge of cake down to make level with center. Remove pan sides and cool cake completely. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.

For ganache:
Combine chocolate and cream in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove bowl from over water; let stand until ganache cools slightly but is still pourable, about 5 minutes.

Place cooled cake on rack set over rimmed baking sheet. Pour 1/2 cup ganache over top of cake. Using offset spatula, quickly spread ganache over top and sides of cake. Freeze cake 3 minutes. Pour remaining ganache over top of cake. Working quickly but gently and grasping pan bottom and rack together, slightly tilt rack with cake from side to side, allowing ganache to flow evenly over top and down sides of cake; smooth sides with offset spatula. Press hazelnuts onto sides of cake to adhere. Chill cake until ganache is set, about 1 hour. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and keep refrigerated. Let stand at room temperature 45 minutes before serving.

Cut cake into wedges. Garnish with whipped cream and spoon brandied cherries alongside.

From Bon Appetit (or bon appetit as apparently they are known…capitalization is so last century) March 2007

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I will probably never make this cake, because it seems like a big ole pain in the butt. Someday though, someone is going to ask me to make a Flourless Chocolate Cake with Brandied Cherries and I am going to say….sho nuff.

Technorati Tags: cake, chocolate cake recipe, flourless chocolate cake recipe, food with booze