Tres Leche Cake

We celebrated my son's birthday this weekend. Per his request he wanted a tres leche cake. I went in search of a recipe and found one on A Farm Girl Babbles which was interpreted from an Alton Brown recipe. I always thought a tres leche cake would be too 'wet' but surprisingly the cake soaks up all that liquid and makes a good cake.

Here is my version.

TRES LECHE CAKE

For the cake:
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze:
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half and half

For the topping:
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 9 x 13 pan with Pam.
Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low, and with the mixer still running, very slowly add the sugar. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches and mix until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. It will seem like a small amount of batter for a cake. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cake is lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over a lot with a fork. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.

For the glaze:
Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the half-and-half in a medium bowl. If you have a bowl with a pour spout, that works great! Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. It will seem like a lot of glaze. Take your time and let it keep soaking in as you pour. The cake will not completely soak up the glaze until it has sat overnight. Place it in the refrigerator and finish the following day.

For the topping:
Place the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment on low speed, whisk together until stiff peaks are formed. Increase mixer to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping onto the cake. Chill in fridge until ready to serve.

Cinnamon Roll Pumpkin Sheet Cake

One of my favorite blogs in my Google Reader is Jenny from Picky Palate. She recently posted a recipe for this Cinnamon Roll Pumpkin Sheet Cake. Pardon the picture, I dropped my camera and it sustained an injury so I took this with my Blackberry. We had a party at work for Halloween and I took this for dessert. Our theme was a Slumber Party and we all wore our comfy pajama pants and slippers to work. We had a popcorn machine and we hooked up a DVD player to a projector and watched Poltergeist. We also had nachos and pizza. It was a fun day and we all decided we'd love to wear our pajamas every day to work!

CINNAMON ROLL PUMPKIN SHEET CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
3.4 ounce box Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
1/2 cup sour cream
15 ounce can pumpkin
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream or milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray a large jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Place cake mix, eggs, oil, milk, pudding, sour cream and pumpkin into a stand or electric mixer, beating until well combined, about 1 1/2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
Place butter into a microwave safe bowl and melt, about 30-40 seconds. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to bowl, mixing until combined. Drizzle mixture evenly over cake then take a knife and run it through to swirl.
Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, until cooked through and remove. Place powdered sugar and cream into a large bowl and mix until creamy and smooth. Drizzle over warm cake then let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into squares. Refrigerate if not serving same day.

Church Lady Strawberry Cake

Sorry for the messy picture but I forgot to snap one before everyone dug in. I call this Church Lady Strawberry Cake because I think it is in most every church fund raiser cookbook I own. Another birthday at work and the birthday girl said she liked strawberry so I brought this.

CHURCH LADY STRAWBERRY CAKE

1 package white cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) strawberry Jello
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mashed strawberries with juice

Strawberry Icing
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 pound confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup mashed strawberries with juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cake mix and dry Jello in a large bowl. Beat in oil, eggs, water, vanilla and strawberries. Pour into 9 x 13 pan sprayed with Pam. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool and frost with strawberry icing.

For icing, beat the cream cheese and confectioners sugar together until smooth. Add strawberries and juice and vanilla until creamy. Frost top and sides of cake.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

A birthday in August for a coworker and I thought I'd try my hand at a chocolate chip cheesecake. My first time trying one and it was pretty good. This one doesn't rise really high and is a pretty dense cheesecake. It reminds me a little of the cheesecakes you buy at Sam's or Costco.

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESECAKE

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour


Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press onto bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Set crust aside.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk. Beat well. Add vanilla and eggs, and beat on medium speed until smooth. Toss 1/3 of the miniature chocolate chips with the 1 teaspoon flour to coat (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Mix into cheese mixture. Pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle top with remaining chocolate chips.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven (do not open oven door) and leave the cake in the oven to cool in the oven for another hour. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate before removing sides of pan. Keep cake refrigerated until time to serve.

Banana Bars

I needed a dessert recently and had some ripe bananas to put to use. I found this recipe on a 'Best Ever Cookie Collection' site. I love a quick recipe that doesn't even require a mixer.

BANANA BARS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed bananas (2 to 3 very ripe medium-sized bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with Pam. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the bananas , vanilla and pecans. Stir until well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, spreading it out evenly. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled you can sprinkle with powdered sugar. I just made a quick cream cheese frosting for them.

Baked Toasted Ravioli

I had my son, his girlfriend and his 2 boys over for dinner. I served this as an appetizer with my homemade pizza and salad. I've had these in a restaurant when they were fried which are delicious but baking them wasn't too bad either.

BAKED TOASTED RAVIOLI

1 package frozen cheese ravioli, thawed
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with foil and place racks on cookie sheet. Dip thawed ravioli in egg and then bread crumbs. Spray with Pam Olive oil spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Serve with jarred or homemade marinara sauce.

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I haven't taken anything to work in a while. I was bored today and although we are suffering with triple digit heat I decided to bake! Well, crank the A/C down a bit and pretend it's not sweltering and voila cookies are done. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I think the addition of some toasted coconut and/or craisins would have given them a bit more flavor but I went with what I had on hand.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Add the oats, white chocolate chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

Summer Sunshine

This is a recipe from my friend who made it while I was on my trip to Oregon. She used roasted corn from Trader Joe's for this. I love Trader Joe's. There is a rumor that we are getting one in Houston and I can't wait! This truly does taste like summer and sunshine. Very yummy.

SUMMER SUNSHINE

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 or 3 carrots shredded or use bagged shredded carrots
5 or 6 ears of corn cut from cob or use a bag of frozen
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Melt butter in a 10-inch skillet. Add chopped onion. After cooking for 1 minute add carrots. Cook 8 minutes. Add corn. Cook for 5 more minutes. Add milk salt and pepper.

Lavender Sugar Cookies

Back in June I took a trip to the Texas Hill Country to see the Lavender Festival. Sadly due to the drought and excessive heat this year the lavender fields were dry and not blooming.

Last week I was fortunate enough to travel to the Portland, Oregon area to visit a friend and got to see the most beautiful lavender fields. They were amazing. The area is so lush and I have never seen such beautiful flowers. It was a welcome escape from the horrible summer we are experiencing. The weather there was just wonderful and I enjoyed every minute. My friend is a superb cook and thought these cookies would be a good showcase for our lavender. These cookies are taken from a recipe of Penny McConnell from Penny's Pastries in Austin, Texas.

AMAZING SUGAR COOKIES

Butter Sugar Cookie Dough

1 cup butter, salted
1 cup granulated sugar (7 oz.)1 large egg
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups (15 oz.) unbleached flour, unsifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
We added 2 teaspoons culinary lavender to these cookies.

Cookie Glaze

3 to 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon flavoring (almond, orange, lemon, etc.) We used lavender syrup.
1/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or in a heavy-duty mixer, combine butter and sugar using low speed with mixer. Do not over mix. Add egg, whipping cream, vanilla and almond extract all at once to butter/sugar mixture. Mixture will probably look curdled. Mix just until combined.

In separate bowl, mix flour with baking powder. Add dry ingredients to liquid. Mix to form dough. Give dough a quick knead, then roll out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Bake on parchment-lined sheets until set and very lightly browned around edges about 12 minutes. Cool before decorating. Mix up glaze and drizzle over cooled cookies.

This dough rolls out beautifully. A good tip is to use powdered sugar instead of flour to roll out to keep the cookies from tasting too doughy.

Banana Split Cake

Finally a birthday at work to give me a reason to bake. Although the birthday girl did not want a lot of attention, it really became a 'Monday Cake' instead. This is a Southern Living cake.

BANANA SPLIT CAKE

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups mashed banana (about 4 bananas
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple drained (save juice)
1 small jar maraschino cherries, drained.
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Jar of hot fudge sauce

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together eggs, oil, and buttermilk. Add oil mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in banana and next 3 ingredients.

Drain pineapple, reserving liquid. Drain cherries and pat on a paper towel. Chop cherries (save about 6-8 for top of the cake). Stir pineapple and cherries into banana mixture. Spoon into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (This took a bit longer than an hour in my oven. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and cool on wire rack.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Add pineapple juice until a nice consistency to pour over the cake. Pour hot fudge sauce over and garnish with chopped pecans and cherries.

Toasted Pita Chips

This is another recipe I have had in my files forever and never got around to trying. I recently found some really healthy pita bread made with oat bran and lot of other healthy things so I thought it would be a good time to try this out. Served with some roasted garlic hummus and it was pretty good.

TOASTED PITA CHIPS

4 pita bread rounds
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sesame seeds
Parsley
Garlic powder
Sea salt
Pepper

Cut pitas in quarters. Split each quarter in half. Brush outside with cooking oil; sprinkle with sesame seeds, parsley, garlic powder, sea salt and pepper. Place on 15x10x1 inch foil lined baking sheet. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Check often to make sure they are not getting too brown.

School House Rolls

When I was in elementary school the lunch ladies would make the most wonderful yeast rolls. Sometimes I would just have rolls for lunch with a glass of sweet tea. Over the years I have looked for a recipe to make them. When I visited my friend's Mama last month I was talking about these rolls and she had a clipping from their local paper that had a recipe for these rolls. They are pretty near to what I remember, except for the wheat flour. If I made them again I might try to use all white to see if that recreates from my memory the lunch ladies rolls from the past. These are a really dense, yeast-flavored roll. I'm usually challenged by yeast but this recipe doesn't involve a lot of steps and has such a quick rise time, they were really easy. I guess lunch ladies don't have a lot of time to wait around for rolls to rise when they are feeding lots of hungry kiddoes!

SCHOOL HOUSE ROLLS

2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons yeast (3 packets)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup powdered milk
24 ounces (by weight) or 4 cups white flour
6 ounces (by weight) or 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
Plus some additional flour to achieve correct consistency.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine warm water and oil in bowl of a mixer. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, yeast, salt, powdered milk, white and whole wheat flour. Using a fairly heavy duty mixer slowly add flour to liquid beating with each addition. Add sufficient white flour so that the dough is not sticky. Knead dough into a ball and place in a large bowl. Cover with a cloth and let rise for 15 minutes in a warm place. Punch down , cover and allow to rise another 5 minutes. Shape into 2 ounce pieces of dough (about 1/3 cup) and place in a greased a 9 x 13 baking pan. (I got an additional pie plate of about 5 rolls too). Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until nicely brown. Baste with butter when you take them from the oven.

Easter Cupcakes

When my friend came to visit last month I asked her to show me a little about cake decorating. She is a pro. Off we went to Hobby Lobby to buy some supplies. I think decorating cakes is best left to the experts, me not so great. I tried my hand at making some 'grass' for these cupcakes. Our Texas Coast humidity was in it's Easter finest and I think the icing could have been a bit stiffer to make a better showing, but for a first time it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately the cake portion of this recipe from Joy of Cooking was a bit dry. My son reminded me of a trick to brush simple syrup on the cakes to help with that.

VANILLA CUPCAKES
(from Joy of Cooking)

1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of 1 lemon
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. With a mixer beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low alternately add the flour and milk just until mixed in. Evenly fill the muffin cups with batter and bake for 17-20 minutes until just set and a toothpick comes out clean. When the cupcakes are cool, frost with buttercream frosting.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk or cream.

Cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla and milk. Mix until light and fluffy. Can add food color and decorate as desired.

Peach Cobbler

Last month for a birthday I was asked to make peach cobbler. I am as challenged with pastry as I am with yeast breads. This is a good recipe and if you are good at making lattice this is worth trying.

PEACH COBBLER

6 cups sliced peaches, fresh, canned or frozen, drained.
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

BUTTER CRUST

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Whisk together flour and salt. Cut in butter with hands or pastry blender. Add ice water and press together to form a ball. Chill dough for about 1/2 hour. Roll out onto floured surface and cut into strips.

In a saucepan put peaches, butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon and bring just to a boil. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Top with pastry. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until crust is golden brown.

Miss Dorothy's Pimento Cheese

When I started my job eons ago our receptionist's name was Dorothy. She was a prim and proper lady from the top of her perfectly coiffed bun to the tips of her high heel shoes. Like we do now, we have gatherings for birthdays, showers, retirement parties and the like. Miss Dorothy always made her pimento cheese. I have to admit that I have never been able to completely match hers, but this is a close second. We always called her our Yellow Rose of Texas and she was a special lady. We had a wedding shower Friday and I decided to take this. Pardon the picture because I took it last minute before we made sandwiches out of it.

MISS DOROTHY'S PIMENTO CHEESE

12 oz. mild cheddar cheese, grated
2 green onions chopped fine
4 oz. jar diced pimentos (no need to drain)
About 1 cup mayonnaise
2-3 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
2 boiled eggs, chopped very fine
2-3 tablespoons milk

Grate cheese into a bowl. Add pimentos, onions, eggs, and pickle relish. Stir in mayonnaise. Take a knife and cut through mixture making the mixture creamier. It helps to put a few tablespoons of milk and stir to make it even creamier. Can be served as a dip with chips or spread on bread for sandwiches.