Lion House Wassail is the Best

We served this at our daughter's birthday party because she tasted Wassail and loves it!  If you make one, make this one.  Lion House Wassail

Rated: Submitted By: Audrey Wariner Photo By: Juno Suks At Cooking But Eats Servings: 36

"This recipe is Great! to have with or after Christmas dinner. It's one of our Christmas traditions."

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups white sugar 4 cups water 2 cinnamon sticks 1 slice fresh ginger root 4 cups orange juice

2 cups lemon juice 8 cups apple juice 8 whole allspice berries 1 tablespoon whole cloves

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and add cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, cloves, and ginger. Cover and let stand in warm place for 1 hour.
2.	Strain liquid into a large pot. Just before serving, add juices and cider and quickly bring to boil. Remove from heat and serve.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 1/8/2010

Allison's Chocolate Torte

http://spindyeknit.com/2008/07/torte-reform/

Alison Hyde’s chocolate torte–makes two

Snap out the bottoms of two 8″ springform pans (flat bottomed preferred). Cover bottoms with foil, snap them back in, butter the sides and the foil-covered bottoms.

CAKE:

Melt 1 lb. butter, beat with 3 c. sugar and 2 tsp bourbon vanilla
Add in 1/2 c. manufacturing cream, 6 egg yolks

Add in: 1 1/3 c. cocoa that has been mixed with 1 c. flour till smooth. Dutch process cocoa will give you a different flavor from that of Hershey cocoa; my favorite is Bergenfield’s Colonial Rosewood cocoa. The non-dutched cocoas are healthier.

Beat separately: 6 egg whites and 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar. Underbeating is better than overbeating.

Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Put in the two pans and bake at 350 for 42-45 minutes. Center will not be solid and cracking should appear. Run a knife carefully around outer edges; cake will fall, and you want the top to fall in one piece.

Cool at least an hour. Loosen springform sides and remove. Put a plate on bottom of cake and flip over. Peel off bottoms of pans, then the foil. Glaze when cool.

GLAZE:

Chop one Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Belgian bittersweet chocolate bar (500 g) and melt with 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 c. manufacturing cream. Double boiler or microwave. Try not to incorporate extra air in as you stir. Also, it is important that every edge of every piece of chocolate be fully dunked down in the cream before heating or that piece of chocolate could possibly seize into a hardened, unmeltable lump with the combination of liquid and heat.

When glazing, I make a backwards J from the center, turn the cake slightly, and repeat all the way around. If you use the smaller amount of cream it holds the indentations better.

Glazes two cakes.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Apple Pies and Finnish Meat Pies

Today, for our daughter's birthday,

I made

Finnish Meat Pies

Click here for my Mother's Recipe

and 

Apple Cranberry Pie 

Click here for Recipe Girl's Recipe

and I've added her text below.

A different take on the apple pie.

CRUST:
3 cups rolled (old fashioned) oats
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp (rounded measure) salt
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup + 2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted

FILLING:
7 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice (or ground cloves)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg (fresh is best!)
½ tsp grated lemon rind
3 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup sour cream

1.  Prepare crust: Combine all crust ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and mix well. Press firmly and evenly into the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10-inch pie pan, forming a thick crust. Reserve about a cup of the crust mix for the topping.

2.  Preheat oven to 375°F.

3.  Place sliced apples and cranberries in a large bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with spices; toss until well coated. Add rind. Sprinkle in flour and mix again. Gradually add brown sugar and sour cream as you mix. Don't worry if the apple slices break a little while being mixed and tossed.

4.  Distribute the filling into the unbaked crust. Sprinkle the reserved crust crumbs over the top and pat neatly into place.

5.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the apples are soft and the crust is nicely browned on the edges. Note: If the top appears to be browning too quickly during baking, cover loosely with foil (check after about 30 minutes).

6.  Serve hot, warm or at room temperature. This is doubly good with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Yield: 1 pie

Cooking Tips

*Depending on how thick you'd like the crust, you may have some crust mix left over. Use any remaining crust crumbs in little ramekins to make a couple of extra "apple crisps!"

Recipe Girl's Recipe Source
Adapted significantly from The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Delivering Harvest Treats to Harvest Workers

Twice this week we made  my Mother's Finnish recipe for  Old World Fresh Apple Butter Cake. Click on the title above and you'll find the recipe from a post I made last year.  

This year one of our sons helped his Dad make this as a bundt cake for my birthday.  We visited the place I first had my birthday cake during harvest time and ate my birthday cake there.  

Notice the white icing on it?  

Well, when I was 3 my Mother made me a beautiful white cake with white frosting and took it out to the field to share

 with the workers.  

When my Dad brought the combine to a stop, 

the white cake was suddenly a "chocolate" (dusty) cake!!  After that, my birthday cakes became bundt cakes.  This one is a favorite of mine.  I had to laugh when he put a white glaze on it because we were in the spud field after all.   Thankfully, this year, it had already been harvested there and we avoided the "chocolate".  

 

Then then we went to the spud cellars and delivered mini bundt cakes they'd made to the Harvest workers.  

Then I made them for the Young Women's activity where we deliver a treat one day of harvest to the other Young Women who are working in the Potato Harvest.  

I just love the memories, smell, sight, sound and touch of "Spud Harvest"!  

A fan of flan

This summer we hosted 2 teen aged girls from Belgium who came with their dance and flag throwing group www.vredon.be to the International Dance and Music Festival. Soetkin turned 16 while she stayed with us. I asked her what her favorite cake was and she said flan. 

I immediately thought of the flan shells my Mother always made and made it for her birthday. It's also what I made when I was in college and won a cooking contest with.  I won a Hamilton Beach mixette with this recipe and I still use it today.  It turns out Belgian Flan isn't the same. Oops! Just goes to show you how our environment shapes our perceptions. I would have googled "Belgian Flan" had I not had this perception in my head, which I did later that night and found http://www.recipezaar.com/304379, but alas, it was the thought that counts, I guess.

I'll have to email her and ask for her Mother's Belgian Flan recipe.  Here are my Mother's recipes:

Flan Shell #1

Crumble together:
1/2 lb. margarine
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Add:
3 beaten eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

For a lower fat and sugar version try:   

1 cube margarine

1 envelope Butter Buds mixed with 1/2 cup hot milk 

1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups sugar

Blend well then add:

3 beaten eggs

1 can evaporated skim milk

2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

Now add the 

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt.

Beat well. Grease and flour Flan pan. This recipe makes 2 large or 3 small Flan shells plus 12 muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  These freeze well and are nice to have on hand.

Flan Shell #2

1 yellow cake mix (or chocolate)
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
Use milk instead of water in the amount the mix calls for.

Divide the batter between 2 large Flans that have been well greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let set only for 1 minute, then take out of the pan to cool.

Filling #1

1 c. whipping cream
1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar well.
Add the whipped cream.
Pour into 2 prepared Flan shells. Let set.
Top with one of the toppings.

For a less fat version try:

Prepare 1 small instant vanilla pudding

Add 4 ounces softened, light cream cheese

and 1 cup cottage cheese finely blended.

Filling #2

1 pkg. instant pudding
1 c. milk
1 c. sour cream
Mix as directed on box.
Top with one of the toppings.

Topping #1

2-3 cups fresh strawberries
Arrange these on the Flan. Make 1 pkg. Junket Danish Strawberry Dessert as directed on box for PIE, but adding 1/4 c. sugar more. Cool some and pour over strawberries. Enough for 2 flans.

Topping #2

2-3 pkgs. frozen raspberries thawed and drained. Mash some of the raspberries and add the liquid, thicken with cornstarch. When cool, pour over the rest of the raspberries Danish dessert.

Rich Chocolate Filling

3/4 large Hershey bar
20 large marshmallows
1/3 c. milk
Melt together in a double boiler or microwave. Cool.
Whip 2 cups whipping cream until stiff.
Add to chocolate mixture.
Then mix in 2-3 Heath bars that have been crumbled. Fills 2 flan shells.

You can fill the flan shells with anything your heart desires, like fresh fruits, whipped cream or maybe your favorite pie filling.

Family Favorites:

1 1 lb. 4 oz. can of pineapple (crushed or tidbits or chunks), well drained
1 c. whipping cream, whipped and sweetened or light cool whip or dream whip
Fold together and pour into Flan shell. Top with shaved chocolate.

Fill flan with wilderness pie cherry filling and top with sweetened whipping cream.

Chocolate flan filled with banana cream pudding and sliced bananas. Top with whipped cream.

Anita's Favorite-- Fresh Peach Flan:

Crust:  flan shell #1 (bundt cake)

Bottom layer: cream cheese and sugar

Top: layer of fresh peaches (or 5.5 oz. can, lower sugar amount some)

Glaze: 1 c. apricot nectar, 1/4 c. lemon juice, 3/4 c. sugar, 3 T corn starch, a little lemon jello powder

Boil until thickened.  Cool. Spread on top of the peach layer.  Serve!

Tuula's Chocolate Flan 

1 cube margarine

3/4 cup powdered sugar

cream together

add 1 oz melted chocolate

vanilla sugar -- liquid vanilla extract makes it runny

2 eggs, one at a time

beat 4-5 minutes each

Scrape bowl often.  Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings and sliced almonds.

We're crazy for Krazy Cake!

My kids are crazy about snowmen and penguins this time of year. I found some great penguin and snowman silicone cupcake pans in the after Christmas sales and needed a good dense cake recipe to make them up with.  I chose Krazy Cake or Wacky Cake as some call it . I got the recipe from another Mom whose son used this recipe in our Cub Scout cake contest last year.
Krazy Cake

In a large bowl, stir the following ingredients:

2 C sugar
3 C all purpose flour
1/3 C cocoa (I like Dutch processed when I can find it)
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt

Add the following ingredients (don't stir until all wet ingredients are
in the bowl):

2 C cold water
3/4 C oil
2 Tbsp vinegar

Mix all ingredients well. You can stir by hand - an electric mixer is
not necessary. Pour batter into a well greased 9 X 13 pan and bake at
350F for 25-30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Old World Fresh Apple Butter Cake Tastes Great

Using the same castle mold I bought at Wal-Mart, I made this recipe, for our sister-in-law's birthday. I was worried the apples, may leave holes in the turrets, but it came out perfectly again. Also, I really recommend Pam with Flour.

Categories: Desserts Title: Old World Fresh Apple Butter Cake Description: My Mother made this every fall during apple harvest time. It is often my choice for my birthday cake. Ingredients: 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 3 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp. soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 2 tsp. vanilla 3 cups peeled grated apples 2 cups chopped walnuts Directions: In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until well mixed. Gradually add the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in vanilla. Fold in apples and walnuts. Pour into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Glaze if desired. I don't. I did sprinkle powdered sugar on it, so the castle looked like it had freshly fallen snow on it.

Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardy Birthday Cake

Our son wanted a Harry Potter birthday party, 

so my latest entertaining was with several "first years" Friday. 

I used my mother's bundt cake recipe for the castle mold I purchased.

Here is the recipe,
1/2 lb. soft butter
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
crumble together
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
stir together
3 beaten eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp. almond or lemon extract

Beat well; grease and flour bundt pan well; Bake 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.


the mold,


the cake


and the final product with Professor Snape setting Hogwart's a blaze.

Ice Cream Cake

This year each of us had an ice cream cake on our birthday.

I've used 2 - 9" silicone rounds or my silicone bundt pan for the shapes so far. It takes a half gallon for each round or 2 quarts for the bundt pan. You can even use 2 flavors of ice cream. I let the ice cream begin to thaw enough to empty from the carton and dump into the pans. Then I press it down, place plastic wrap over them and immediately freeze them. When I'm ready to serve them, I get a nice cake plate out and easily peel off the silicone pan and place the cake on the cake plate. The upsides are 1) there's no need to take the time to make a cake and 2)you have so many flavors to choose from. The downsides of using these homemade ice cream cakes are: 1) it slides off easily, 2) you must serve it immediately when you get it out and you must immediately then refreeze the leftovers, and 3) when I use frosting for decorations or names, it too slides off easily as it begins to thaw. This time I used the sugar letters and drizzled chocolate sauce on instead and it stayed nicely. Decorations like candles, flags, etc. are easy to stick into an ice cream cake.

Bundt Cake, Sokeri Kakku (Sugar Cake)

It's fun when your kids start doing the baking and cooking. Here they successfully made a favorite cake of ours, one my Mother frequently made as a gift to give to a friend or neighbor for their birthday. In Finland they call it Sokeri Kakku or Sugar Cake.

I also have made hundreds of these. The kids did a great job decorating it, don't you think? Recipe below:Bundt Cake, Sokkeri Kakku (Sugar Cake)
1/2 lb. soft butter
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
Crumble together.
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Stir together.
3 beaten eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp. almond or lemon extract
Beat well. Grease and flour pan well. Bake 350 degrees for about an hour.
Variations:
Marbled -- Save out 1 cup of the batter and add cocoa to it. Stir it in as marbling.
Spiced -- Add 5 tsp. cinnamon, 3 tsp. cloves and NO extract.
Fruit -- Add gum drops, raisins, nuts, etc.
Decorations:
Powdered sugar with fruit as pictured above.
Powdered sugar only
Powdered sugar glaze, especially with lemon extract in both cake and glaze.
Try a cinnamon glaze with the spice cake.
Great without any glaze or decoration.