Recipes Discovered

All In One Holiday Cake Recipe

The holidays are all about sharing and giving, and a lot of people have been asking me for my Thanksgiving recipes. On the menu this year, besides the normal roasted turkey with stuffing, and the not so normal deep fried turkey, was macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, candied yams, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and cranberry jello salad. To keep everyone happy (and quiet) until dinner was served, I made a bacon ranch cheese ball and a pumpkin cream cheese dip, which was really great with pretzels. For dessert, there was pumpkin pie, all in one holiday cake (pumpkin, cranberry, apple, and pecans), and brownies. Of course, with all the food we had, Seth and I have a refrigerator full of leftovers. I’ve come up with some interesting uses for them though, including potato pancakes, turkey cranberry sandwiches, sweet potato and black bean chili, shepherds pie, and a macaroni and cheese concoction that I don’t even know what to name. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and hopefully there are a lot more recipes to come during the holidays.

Devil’s Food White-Out Cake Recipe

Generally when I make cakes, I freely interchange 8 and 9 inch cake pans. This cake is a little different however, because it needs the height to have the appropriate finished look. I converted the measurements from the original recipe, calling for 8-inch cake pans, to slightly larger amounts to be make 9-inch cake pans.

The cake is a fairly simple recipe, combining cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, and semi-sweet chocolate to make a very moist and rich chocolate cake. The frosting is sweet, marshmallow-like, and a little more involved. It’s similar to the 7-minute frosting used on the coconut cake, but instead of cooking it over a double-boiler, a hot syrup is used to cook the egg whites. To assemble, each cake is cut in half. Three of the halves are alternated with the frosting to make black and white layers, and the fourth half is crumbled and pressed into the sides and top of the cake. It looks quite impressive when it’s finished. Although I haven’t actually had a slice, I did sample some of the cake that I crumbled, and it was outstanding. Hopefully the whole cake lives up to those expectations.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Our nephew’s were in town visiting Seth and I last weekend, and they are typically 13 year old boys - all they wanted for breakfast for cinnamon rolls. I suppose I’m a good aunt though (or maybe just looking for an excuse to have cinnamon rolls) because I pulled out Alton Brown’s recipe for overnight cinnamon rolls and went to work. I started by making the brioche, a very rich and sweet bread dough. Once it raised, I rolled it out fairly thick, brushed it with butter, and sprinkled it with a lot of brown sugar and cinnamon. The dough is then rolled up, sliced, placed in a baking dish, and allowed to set in the refrigerator overnight. I liked the idea of having everything done the night before (I’m not a morning person by any means), but the rolls do need to raise for 30 minutes in the morning and then bake for 30 minutes. Once they were baked to golden brown, I mixed up cream cheese, sugar, and milk to make a creamy icing. I inverted the rolls onto a serving plate, drizzled the icing over them, and gave them to the boys. I’m glad I grabbed one first though, because they cleaned the plate off in about 5 minutes. I can’t really blame them - they were really good cinnamon rolls. I suppose we’ll have to have the boys over again so I have another excuse to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Spinach, Orange, and Avocado Salad

Although it sounds like an odd combination (to me, at least), this salad has become one of my favorites for lunch. It’s easy to put together with just a few ingredients, and the flavor is just insanely good. The spinach is a little bitter, the orange is sweet, the avocado is creamy, and onion is tangy, and the sunflower seeds add just a little bit of saltiness. It’s delicious and easy, which is always good in my book.

Caramelized Onion Tartlets

For New Years last year, I made a couple different small appetizers. Basically just mini phyllo shells filled with different fillings. Apparently the caramelized onion filling was a huge success though. Everyone really enjoyed them, even those who don’t like onions, and I was asked to make them again for my aunt’s wedding last weekend. The filling is similar to french onion soup and can be made a day ahead of time. Since the phyllo shells are already made (buy them in the freezer section), it’s a really simple appetizer to put together. If they are going to be sitting for awhile, it’s best to bake them for 5 to 10 minutes, just to make sure they stay crisp. Otherwise, just fill the shells with the hot filling and serve. The filling is really sweet and savory, and I think most people are surprised how good the tartlets are.