28 Delicious Thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving Leftovers) Recipes for 2016

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Janet

It’s that time again; time for the annual Thanksgiving post. After almost 6 years of blogging, I have accumulated quite a few recipes that work in this category, so I have to cull some out so as to not end up with a post with 50 different additions. 😛

Let’s start with entrees. Because…turkey…ham. Yummy. 😀

This Orange Marmalade Brown Sugar Glazed Ham is my absolute favorite way to make a ham. The ham turns out so moist and tender with such a delicious sweet/salty flavor you’ll keep coming back for.This Sesame Soy Turkey Breast is fantastic if you’re a cook who’s willing to leave the traditional box a bit on Thanksgiving. This glaze can also be used on a whole turkey, a chicken, game hen, you name it.

Sesame Soy Turkey Breast

I know that a lot of families like to serve a pasta dish as one of the main dishes so I’m including our favorite, this Cheesy Sausage And Meatball Pasta Bake. This makes a LOT, so it’s perfect for Thanksgiving, when a lot of people are there, with everyone getting as little bit of each dish.Let’s move on to appetizers; those little bits you put out to keep everyone from storming the kitchen begging for food. :-PÂ One of my favorite easy dips (and when I say easy, I mean it) is my White Trash Dip. I know; such a classy name, lol. But it is great for appeasing the hungry mongrel hordes and quick to throw together, which is always a plus on Thanksgiving.

I have adored Boursin Cheese for years, but man, that stuff is expensive for the small amount you get. So I started making my own years ago. This is soooo good and always a hit. It’s creamy, great with veggies like celery sticks as well as crackers. If you have any left over, it also makes a great stuffing for chicken breasts.

Creamy Homemade Boursin Cheese Spread

Ahhhh, side dishes. What would Thanksgiving be without 50 side dishes to serve with the turkey and ham? One of my all time most popular posts here at From Cupcakes To Caviar is my Insanely Cheesy And Creamy Mac And Cheese. This makes a HUGE pan of mac and cheese, so it’s perfect for the holidays.You can’t have turkey without mashed potatoes, right?
I was never a mashed potato fan until I made up these Ultimate Buttery Sour Cream And Onion Mashed Potatoes. I totally love these. They are creamy, buttery (boy, are they buttery) and with a subtle tang from the cream cheese.

Ultimate Buttery Sour Cream And Onion Mashed Potatoes

If you want to go a little different, you can’t beat these Herb Roasted Potatoes And Root Vegetables. The potatoes and veggies get all crispy on the outside and all soft and tender inside. So, so good.

Herb Roasted Potatoes And Root Vegetables

I was never a cold pasta salad sort of a person until I made up this Chilled Caprese Tortellini Salad a few years ago. It’s great during the holidays for people who may want something a little lighter (and with no meat in it, lol) but still full of flavor.
I have a major thing for Winter squashes. To me, they stand so far above the ubiquitous Summer squashes. I took one of my favorites here and stuffed it to come up with Squash Stuffed With Sausage, Pears And Cranberries. This is a fantastic addition to the holiday meal or a great light entree on it’s own.

Squash Stuffed With Sausage, Pears And Cranberries

You can’t have Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce, right? While I admit to a secret love for the kind that slithers out of the can with a loud plop, I also love homemade cranberry sauce and make a large batch every year. My Spiced Spiked Cranberry Sauce is a perfect foil for all the rich dishes you’ll be serving. The brandy is completely optional so don’t let that turn you away from it.

Now we come to the breads. I’m not normally a big one for breads, but hot and fresh on the holidays? I tend to go for them more at that time. And these Angel Biscuits have become a family favorite. Since they have baking powder in them as well as yeast, they are fairly foolproof, which is great for the less experienced cooks out there.

Angel Biscuits

The rolls I have been making for years are these Oatmeal Yeast Rolls. They are so fluffy and soft; perfect hot spread with butter or later as a mini turkey sandwich (Yes, I know this is a bad photo. The post is an old one, when my photography skills were sub-par, to say the least. The rolls however, are amazingly good)

Oatmeal Rolls

I love to make a few loaves of bread for Thanksgiving as well as rolls. They are so good with dinner and make fantastic sandwiches the next day. I particularly love to make my Loaded Baked Potato Bread, The flavors in it go wonderfully with a turkey sandwich!

Loaded Baked Potato Bread

Here in the south, a lot of people like to make cornbread to go with dinner, even on the holidays. My Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread is a favorite. It’s fluffy, not at all dry like so many cornbreads can be, with just a touch of sweetness.

Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread

Then, of course, we have the part of dinner that everyone looks forward to; dessert! And man, you know I have some desserts to share with you! I have to start with the classics, of course, so here is my favorite- my Decadent Extra Creamy Pumpkin Pie. This one is posted with a really good cornmeal crust, but you can use your favorite crust. Just make sure it’s a deep dish one.
That pumpkin pie tends to be my husbands favorite. Mine however will always be Pecan Pie. I love it slightly warmed with heavy cream poured over it. So bad for me, but so delicious!

The last few years, my favorite pecan pie has had to vie with this Cranberry Apple Cake. I can’t say enough good things about this cake. It’s absolutely delicious and I can’t imagine the Thanksgiving meal without it now. It’s sweet, tangy, crispy, just a wonderful dessert that I look forward to all year.

Cranberry Apple Cake

If you want a classic (not to mention, heavenly chocolate goodness 😀 ) you’ll want to make this wonderful Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Icing This is a favorite with pretty much all age groups, and even those people who say Thanksgiving should be all about the pies. I’m not even normally a cake person and I love it!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Icing

If you want to do a different apple dessert, my Worlds Best Apple Spice Cake With Creamy Vanilla Butter Sauce would be a great choice. It’s easy to throw together the day before you need it and then just warm up the sauce when ready to cut and serve. Again, I’m not huge on cakes, which is why if you see me posting one, you know it MUST be good.

Worlds Best Apple Spice Cake With Creamy Vanilla Butter Sauce

Or maybe you prefer a classic apple dessert? I find myself going for this Old Fashioned Apple Crisp all year round, but it’s a delicious choice on Thanksgiving!

I have a couple of desserts for you that are a bit more elegant, plus not as heavy. The first is one I love; my Elegant And Easy Lemon Almond Cake. This cake is light and filled with the flavor of almond and lemon; perfect for the family members who want a little something for dessert, but don’t want the heavier sweets.

Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

The other one is one of my more recent creations- these Skillet Pears With Autumn Spiced Caramel Sauce. These are wonderful if you have a smaller gathering. The pears end up tender and juicy and the caramel sauce is fantastic.

So, what to do with leftovers once Thanksgiving is over? When you tire of just making a plate of leftovers, I have some things you can do with some of them. If the title says chicken, obviously you can sub in that leftover turkey staring you in the face.

We love Mexican food in my house. Yes, I know that much of what we all call Mexican food has been totally Americanized, but it’s still delicious, so who cares? One of my family’s favorites are these Cheesy Chicken (Turkey) And Chorizo Enchiladas. They have the perfect mix of creamy, spicy and cheesy. I make them all year round, but they are a perfect way to use up leftovers.

Everyone makes soup after Thanksgiving. But I have one here that doesn’t need to have you simmering stock for hours on end. I can eat a boatload of my Quick And Easy Turkey, Bacon And Cheese Chowder. This is comfort food at its best and it doesn’t have to cook for hours.

Along the Mexican lines again, I almost always make a pan of White Chicken (Turkey) Enchiladas in the week after Thanksgiving. These are soooo darn good and everyone scarfs them down.

Creamy, Cheesy White Chicken Enchiladas

You may still have some turkey left even after those (I know I will; I always buy too much!) so my Cheaters Easy Chicken (Turkey) And Dumplings never fails me. It’s warming, comforting and filling and tastes great!

Cheaters Easy, Creamy Chicken & Dumplings

If you have leftover cranberry sauce (and you know you will), make a loaf of my Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. It’s an easy way to use up some of those leftovers and it makes a yummy breakfast or light snack.

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Baklava Cake

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Janet

Baklava Cake

Back when I was in my late teens and early 20’s, yogurt was NOT the big money product it is now. It was just eaten by the earth mother types and hippies and people tended to look at you like you were crazy to be eating this runny soured stuff. I, of course, though neither an earth mother nor a hippie (a fact that I always mourned. Had I been born about 10 years earlier, I would totally have been a stupid teen at Woodstock or living near Haight Ashbury), loved yogurt. Not plain; I thought it was nasty. But give me a cherry Yoplait and I was in heaven. I recall my older sister warning my then husband to watch out for me or I’d exist solely on yogurt and granola bars. Yeah, my pattern of poor eating choices goes WAY back.

Now however, you can get so many different styles and/or flavors of yogurt that it boggles the mind. We always have at least a full shelf of yogurt here at our house and besides eating it as is (still no plain though; ick!), I love to use it in cooking. Regular style yogurt, Greek, plain, flavored, you name it, I’ll find a way to incorporate it into baking. Well, this time, I took a recipe I had had forever for a yogurt cake and messed with it. Because…me. This originally came from what used to be recipezaarÂ and was a fair bit different. It had a syrup that was poured on it, which made me think of Baklava, one of my favorite desserts.Â So I flavored the syrup to taste more like the one that gets poured over baklava and added more spice to the cake itself, as well as using a lemon yogurt in it to give another added layer of flavor.

This is a wonderfully moist cake. The syrups soaks in, flavoring it all and the cake itself has a wonderful taste, spiced and a bit lemony with a background hint of almond and vanilla. I served this with a simple vanilla yogurt I flavored. This isn’t the worlds prettiest cake, but it’s completely delicious. This is great for family, for a church potluck or a picnic, a family reunion. It would also be fantastic late at night with a glass of dry red wine. Is this exactly like Baklava? Of course not. There’s no phyllo, not a ton of chopped nuts, etc. But it reminds me of it, thus the name.

You know the drill… 🙂

Baklava Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon lemon oil (you can sub lemon extract, but you know how I feel about that stuff. Just break down and buy some lemon oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/4 cup brandy or whiskey
1 cup lemon Greek yogurt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup sliced toasted almonds, divided
Syrup-
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup honey
zest from two lemons, in strips
2 cinnamon sticks
Yogurt topping-
1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon sugar (it’s a bit too tart without it)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or oil a 13×9 inch baking pan.Then start your syrup so that it has time to cool- Simply combine all the syrup ingredients in a medium pot,Â stir to dissolve the sugar somewhat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and let it gently boil for about 15 minutes. it will reduce some and thicken up, though it’s not very thick even then. When that’s done, set it off the heat to cool.
For the cake- in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the egg yolks, the extracts and the brandy. Beat on low speed until well combined.
In a clean (preferably glass) bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set to the side for now.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices. Add it to the butter mixture, alternating with the yogurt (flour, yogurt, flour, yogurt, flour), beating well after each addition.
Gently fold in the egg whites and half the toasted almonds, then spread the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
When done, immediately (and carefully) pour the cooled syrup over the cake, letting it soak in as you pour. If you don’t want to use it all, it stores in the fridge well and is wonderful used in a cup of tea. Once the syrup has been poured on, sprinkle the top of the cake with the rest of the almonds.
Let it cool completely and serve with a dollop of the yogurt topping, which you make by simply combining the topping ingredients in a small bowl; easy peasy.

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Honey Bun Cake

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Janet

Honey Bun Cake

When my three older kids were little (they range from 30 to 26 now), we were stone broke. I’m talking momma eats the tail of the chicken and says that is enough for her so that there was enough for an extra meal for the kids kind of broke. Needless to say, store bought treats were a rare…well, treat for them. One of the things they loved was when I would spend 75 cents (yes, I’m old enough that that was how much they were) on a box of Little Debbie Honey Buns for them. My son Cameron, now 28, especially loved those and I’d have to hide them from him. Personally, I never liked them. Too sweet, too goopy, too relatively flavorless. Even back then, while I couldn’t afford it, I was an ice cream sort of a gal.

All that said, when I was at the library recently, I took out the book “Blue Ribbon Baking From A Red Neck Kitchen”. I mean, I live in rural Kentucky. How could I resist anything with that title, right? While I didn’t find a million recipes in it that interested me, I just had to tab the one for Honey Bun Cake. Just the name made me think of my kids when they were little, so it was a moral imperative that I make it. 🙂

This is quite a bit better than the Little Debbie ones. It is still really sweet, but it’s a sweet with flavor due to the cinnamon and brown sugar, not just a generic sweetness that overwhelms and gives you a toothache or 9. The cake is moist with a crispy edge and is perfect for the kiddos. It’s also really nice with a cup of coffee. It goes together in like 5 minutes max and that’s if you’re slow. So make this for a nice last day of school snack or a family dessert or maybe even a sweet treat to start the day. I promise; you’ll like it. 😀

You know the drill….

Honey Bun Cake

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
Filling-
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I didn’t use those)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (truthfully, I didn’t measure; just sprinkled it over the brown sugar straight from the jar)
Glaze-
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk (she called for 1/2 cup but it was REALLY thin with that amount, so it needs cut down a bit)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 13X9 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together on medium speed the cake mix, eggs, melted butter and sour cream. Beat for about two minutes, until the batter is thick and creamy looking.
Pour about 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Carefully dollop and spread the rest of the batter over the top. Do your best to get to the corners, but life will go on if you don’t have every inch covered. it will spread as it bakes.
Bake at 350 for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, prepare the glaze, which is simply a matter of whisking together the glaze ingredients. Not hard at all 😛
While the cake is still hot, poke holes all over the top. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake, spreading to try to get it down into the holes also.
Let it finish cooling in the pan, then slice and serve.

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Honey Bun Cake

Chocolaty Orange Mocha Snack Cake

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Janet

Chocolaty Orange Mocha Snack Cake

Russ, my husband, has a thing for the combo of chocolate and orange. I have to admit that it’s a favorite of mine also. But then again, I’m an equal opportunity fruit/chocolate fan. Blend it with raspberry, cherry, apricots, whatever and I’ll be there banging on your door, plate in hand.

Every year at Christmas time, I get Russ one of those chocolate oranges. You know the kind; wrapped in foil, you’re supposed to strike it against a hard surface to separate the segments, etc, etc. I SAY I get it for Russ and it HAS become a tradition. But the truth is that while he loves the flavor combo, he isn’t much on candy. He prefers it in that flavor of Milano cookie (me too!) So what happens to his chocolate orange over time? Yep; you guessed it. *sheepish look* Well, I can’t just let it go to waste, now can I?! It’s rather like how every year when my brother, sister and I were kids, we would get our mom a big heart shaped box of Fanny May chocolates for Valentines Day, using her money of course. Of course, by the time our poor mother, suffering from some late night chocolate craving, got to the box that she stored in the fridge, she would usually find two or three pieces of the worst flavors left in there, surrounded by a plethora of wrappers. And those three would usually have their bottoms bitten off by yours truly.

Oops.

So, in honor of my husbands favorite flavor (honest; I haven’t eaten any yet *coughcough*), I made a loaf cake that mingles the two, but with the added bonus (totally thought of myself and my favorite coffee drink here) of making the chocolate part mocha flavored. I tried marbling it for looks, but for some odd reason, I’ve never had a lot of luck with marbling (bad butter knife skills? 😛 ) so it looks more layers, but I rather like it that way.

This isn’t in your face with either flavor; the chocolaty mocha part has a subtle flavor with a touch of orange itself from the orange oil I added and the orange part is also subtle. If you want more in your face from the flavors, add about an extra 1/2 teaspoon of orange oil to the orange part and you could probably get away with adding about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips and a touch more coffee powder to the chocolate part.Â This is a nice simple, old fashioned loaf cake, perfect for an after school snack for the kiddos if they like a more sophisticated flavor, perfect with your morning cup of coffee or for a light dessert.

You know the drill… 🙂

By the way, I really adore all of you! <3

Chocolaty Orange Mocha Snack Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream (can sub a nice thick Greek yogurt if it makes you happy)
2 tablespoons orange zest (or the amount that you can get from one medium orange)
3/4 teaspoon orange oil, divided (you can sub orange extract, but the oil is infinitely better)
2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee powder ( baked goods such as this are a good reason to keep a small jar of instant coffee around- it lasts forever)
Glaze and garnish-
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons sugar
orange zest or strips
chocolate shavings (I used a bitter sweet bar with almonds because it was all I had, but I actually liked the way the shaved almonds added a bit of texture and crunch to the top)

Preheat oven to 350 and either grease and flour a 9 inch loaf pan or spray well with one of the flour/oil combo baking sprays. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. After the last egg is added, continue beating at medium speed for a minute or two.
Â Add in the flour mixture and just barely mix it in. Add in the sour cream. This is a thick batter, so no, you didn’t do anything wrong.
Move half of the batter to another medium bowl. To that half, add in 1/2 teaspoon of the orange oil and the orange zest. Mix just until combined.
To the remaining batter, add the melted chocolate, the last 1/4 teaspoon of orange oil and the coffee powder. Mix just until combined.
Spoon half of the orange batter into the prepared loaf pan. Spoon half of the chocolate batter on top of that. Repeat those layers once. Use a butter knife to dig down in there and swirl the batter together, then smooth the top. Hopefully, your mad swirling skills are better than mine 😀 Smooth the top of the batter.
Bake at 350 until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Cover the top loosely with foil if it starts to get too brown at the edges before it is fully baked.
Let cool in the pan set on a rack set over a rimmed baking pan for about ten minutes, then carefully invert it out onto your hand, then back onto the rack to finish cooling.
During the ten minutes it is in the pan, make your glaze which is easy peasy. Just combine the 1/3 cup orange juice and 2 tablespoons sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for about a minute; just long enough to dissolve the sugar.
Brush the glaze over the hot cake.
When the cake is completely cool, garnish with shaved chocolate and orange zest.

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Chocolaty Orange Mocha Snack Cake

RumChata Tres Leches Cake With A Creamy Cinnamon Mascarpone Topping

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Janet

*Stands up at the front of the room and clears my throat* Hi there. My name is Janet and I’m a slacker. I mean, how else can I explain away an absence of almost a month? Sure, I could give you a line (truthful though it may be) about being under the weather in recent weeks. I could say that life has been busy, which it has. No one with a seven year old, other kids, a spouse and a household to care for can deny that one. But none of that is good enough. Had I really TRIED, I could have found the time and energy to post here. You ladies and gentlemen deserve nothing less than my all. In my defense, I made something (a chocolate/peanut butter bundt cake) about a week ago that I was going to post, but it turned out so badly even the kids didn’t like it. So no go. I won’t post less than delicious foods.
But I’m back. You can now be frightened. :-p
It’s been an interesting few weeks. Lots of snow, missed school days due to said snow because we live in the south, lots of cussing when the fire goes out in the house and we start to freeze to death (I died four time during the last month, but then my husband remade the fire and revived me. 😀 My toes, however, are still frozen.) and many moments of “The Momma” (that would be me) verging on insanity when no one could go outside and I got no alone time.
So what am I back with on this snowy Valentines Day? Well, anyone who likes sweet foods has heard of Tres Leches Cake, correct? It is a sponge cake that is soaked in three different types of milk. Theories abound as to where it originated, but generally, it is seen as a treat stemming from South and Central America. While I like the typical one just fine, I wanted to play with the soaking liquid a bit, so I used Rumchata in place of some of the milk.
About a year ago, I discovered the liqueur called RumChata. It’s a creamy liqueur based on Horchata, the delicious rice and milk beverage (the origins of horchata are also disputed, so I am so NOT going to get into where it came from) that is enjoyed in Mexico and has become a trendy drink in the states now, too. While we all know I tend to balk at trendiness, I bought an airplane sized bottle of the RumChata on a whim one day and absolutely loved it. I describe it as alcoholic liquid rice pudding. That is truly what it tastes like.
This cake is pretty darn easy. It’s a sponge cake, so yes, you have to separate your eggs and whips up the whites, but I have complete faith in your egg beating abilities. :-p Then all you do is whisk together the milks for the top, poke some holes in the cake and pour. Top it with the easily mixed together topping and voila, a delicious, somewhat boozy dessert (obviously just for the adults). This is the perfect treat to bring along to a book club, a dinner for adults (bring some cookies for the kids), and cut in half, makes enough for you and your sweetie with some left over. The original tres leches cake recipe that I adapted comes from Bon Appetit.
You know the drill… 🙂

RumChata Tres Leches Cake With A Creamy Cinnamon Mascarpone Topping

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons Rumchata
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened
Mascarpone topping-
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup RumChata
Soaking liquid-
1/2 cup RumChata
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 egg yolks (save the rest for something like creme brulee)
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13×9 inch pan, preferably glass.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon
In a large, scrupulously clean bowl, beat the egg whites at medium to high speed (I tend to start out lower and speed it up as they get firmer) until firm peaks form, about 6 minutes or so.
Gradually add in the sugar, beating well. Then add in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition..Mix in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture, alternating it with the 1/2 cup RumChata, starting and ending with the flour (flour, Rumchata, flour, Rumchata, flour).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, then turn the heat down to 325 and continue baking until the cake is golden brown and the center springs back if gently pressed.
Let it cool in the pan for ten minutes, then invert it onto a rack that has been placed over a rimmed cookie or baking sheet.
Whisk together the milk ingredients. Poke holes all over the cake using a skewer and pour about half of the liquid slowly over the top of the cake. Let that soak in for ten minutes.Invert the cake over a large platter and drizzle the rest of the milks over the top of the cake.
For the topping, simply beat together those ingredients until creamy. Dust the cake with powdered sugar, slice and serve with a dollop of the creamy topping.

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Lemon Ginger Pound Cake (Janet’s Cold Remedy)

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Janet

Lemon Ginger Pound Cake

Ugh. It’s definitely sickness season. The time of year when everyone is cooped up in small areas together, merrily spreading their germs with their fellow man. Share and share alike, ehh? I’m one of those people who absolutely HATES taking pills. I don’t react well to them half the time and anyway, I tend to believe that, for the most part, nature has provided a lot of cures (or at least treatments) in the plants and trees around us. So if I can get away with it, I resort to more natural treatments for minor ailments like colds, sniffles, etc.

One of the things I love is using a good amount of grated ginger in black or herbal teas. It’s got enough of a kick to it scent wise to help clear up a stuffy nose and the heat of the tea is both soothing and somewhat medicinal. If you add in lemon and honey, it’s darn tasty too. So it occurred to me that it would be cool to use the same flavors in a pound cake. This won’t do anything to make your cold better, but it tastes good, hehe. Lemon pound cake tends to be in most bakers repertoire (this one is based on the one from Luscious Lemon Desserts, though I drastically changed the oven temp; her extremely low baking temp has you end up with a lemon flavored brick, and changed some other things too) so it didn’t take much to just extend the idea to include the ginger. I didn’t do the honey because it just felt like it would be getting too busy. But you could easily sub out honey for the sugar in the glaze and make a honey lemon glaze.

I loved the flavor of this. It could use a bit more ginger though, so I’m going to write the recipe as if it had the extra ginger in it. Don’t think, “omg, that sounds like a lot!” It’s going into a good amount of cake batter and when I made it, I used a full tablespoon and it just wasn’t “there” enough.

You know the drill… 🙂

Lemon Ginger Pound Cake

3 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
2Â cups sugar, divided
6 eggs, room temp
3/4 cup milk combined with
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon oil (You can sub lemon extract if you must, but trust me when I say that lemon oil is always your better bet- I use Boyajian )
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons squeezeable ginger paste (found in tubes in the produce section of the grocery store)
Lemon syrup-
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 335 and liberally grease and flour a 10 cup bundt style pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another, larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined. Add in the lemon zest, ginger and flavorings and beat until combined.
Starting with the flour mixture, alternately add it then the milk mixture to the batter (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour), beating well after each addition.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 335 for 65 to 80 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The color should be a nice golden brown. If it starts to brown too much, just lightly cover the top with a sheet of foil.
When done, let it cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the syrup for the top, which is easy peasy. Just combine the syrup ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Carefully turn the cake out onto the rack (set the rack above a cookie sheet to catch drips) and brush the hot syrup over the still hot cake, letting it soak in each time before adding more. Let the cake cool to room temp and then enjoy!

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Lemon Ginger Pound Cake

Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Janet

Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

Twas the week before Thanksgiving and all over the internet, were recipes for pumpkin and pecan and chocolate and all sorts of heavy desserts….

Yes, I’m well aware that that didn’t rhyme at all and didn’t even have a decent rhythm to it, but by the time I typed out “Twas the week before Thanksgiving”, my brain had died out. I tend to take thinking minute by minute, obviously.

Seriously though, I figured I would give all of you a recipe for something a little lighter, something citrusy and not bogged down with 5000 calories. Mind you, if you’re anything like me, it just means one MORE dessert to eat during the holidays, not one DIFFERENT dessert. There is no way I can turn down my pecan pie or pumpkin pie or berry pie. So, I join the throngs of Americans who spend the later hours of Thanksgiving sleeping under a table somewhere, fork in hand, whipped cream smears on my chin and a happy smile on my face.

This cake is so easy to throw together and it really is such a nice change from the heavier things this time of year. The cake itself is moist, with a mild taste of both almond and lemon, along with the gentle crunch of sliced almonds on top. I got the original recipe from the cookbook “Luscious Lemon Desserts”. I changed it in that it didn’t have the almonds on it, I used lemon oil rather than lemon extract, which I don’t care for as it adds a bitter flavor to foods in my opinion, I added more vanilla as well as almond extract in the cake andddddd added a couple tablespoons of actual lemon juice to give it a very mild tartness. All in all, this was delicious and something I can see making year round.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon oil (if you absolutely have to sub lemon extract, use 1 1/2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup almond paste, room temp
1/4 cup (half stick) unsalted butter, room temp
2 eggs
1/2 cup thin sliced almonds

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a greased 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour the paper (or use a flour/oil combination baking spray). Sprinkle the sliced almonds evenly over the bottom of the pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In another small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the milk, lemon juice, lemon oil, and extracts
In a large bowl, beat together the room temp almond paste and the butter. If it doesn’t beat well at first, do what I did- get a potato masher and mush the dickens out of it. It worked great. 😀 Beat in the sugar until fluffy.
Once the sugar, butter and almond paste are nicely blended, beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well blended.
Alternate adding in the flour mix and the milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour), beating just until well mixed each time.
Spoon the batter carefully over the almonds in the pan, then spread it evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan, on a rack for fifteen minutes, then carefully turn it out onto a plate to finish cooling.
When cool, sprinkle the top generously with powdered sugar and cut into wedges to serve.

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Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

Cinnamon Spice Apple Coffee Cake

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Janet

Cinnamon Spice Apple Coffee Cake

Growing up in Chicago, places like apple orchards weren’t exactly on the list of weekend getaways. When my dad lived in one of those old hotels in Hyde Park, this one called The Saranac, he used to take me to The Museum Of Science And Industry or maybe The Field Museum when I visited him. On rare occasions during the Summer, we might head out to the Indiana State Dunes and spend the day getting sunburned…I mean, playing in the lake. Nahhh, I mean getting sunburned. Nobody worried about sunscreen back then. By all rights, none of us who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s should have any skin left. I remember a sunburn I got when I was 17 that left me the color of a Coke can and blistered. My dad wanted me to go to the ER, but I refused.

But I digress. Imagine that. Me. Going off on tangents.Â As I was saying, there were no orchards in the middle of Chicago. Since living in KY (half my life now, actually), and raising my kids here, it has never failed to make me a bit jealous when my kids would go on field trips to apple orchards or “pick your own pumpkin” spots. It was always just so…. southern to me. In a wonderful way, mind you. So when the idea to go to an orchard with the boys popped into my head, I ran with it. The one we went to is so cool. The apples were fairly well picked over this late in September, but we still got some. But there was also a huge play area that Joshie and Jordan loved, a cafe that we hope to eat at next time and tons of homey apple and “countryish” products at a store there. I hate that it took me until I was this ancient to discover orchards!

So what did I make with what apples we got? Not a darn thing. We didn’t get enough to spare for anything but out of hand eating. It was just coincidental that I had made this cake Saturday.

This is one awesome coffee cake, if I do say so myself *preens a little* It’s a tamer version of a crumb coffee cake. I stuffed this with apples, cranberries and cinnamon chips, as well as a crumbly mixture on top and in the middle. This is ultra moist due to the apples with a lovely flavor due to, well, all the varied ingredients. This is such a perfect Autumn cake. Typical of many coffee cakes, this is even better in the days following baking it, as opposed to fresh from the oven. The flavors need time to meld and then it is spectacular. The recipe was very loosely based off of one I got from a yahoo groups newsletter over a decade ago. Anyone else remember those groups fondly!?

This is a tiny bit more involved than “throw and dump”, but nothing you can’t handle. Trust me.

You know the drill….

Cinnamon Spice Apple Coffee Cake

Filling/Topping-
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup lightly toasted, finely chopped pecans or walnuts.
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Cake-
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup of either fresh apple cider or (preferably, if you have it) boiled cider**
2 1/4 cups of peeled and chopped apples (about 4 small apples)
2/3 cup dried cranberries, soaked for 20 minutes in 3 tablespoons hot water, then drained
1 bag Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips (you COULD make this optional, because I know these can be hard to find, but please try to find them!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a tube pan. Alternately, spray it with a flour/oil baking spray such as Bakers Joys Or Wiltons (which is my favorite) Set aside
Make your filling- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nuts. Add in the melted butter and mix until it is thoroughly moistened and crumbly. Set aside.
For the cake, in a large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar. beat on low speed with a hand mixer until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl down and add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined.
In a small bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
Combine the buttermilk and apple cider/boiled cider in a measuring cup.
Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the bowl with the butter, starting and ending with the flour (1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour,Â remaining buttermilk, remaining flour), beating on low speed JUST until combined after each addition.
Gently fold in the apples, cranberries and cinnamon chips.
Spoon half the batter into the prepared tube pan. Evenly top with half the crumb mixture, then the other half of the cake batter. Then top with the last half of the crumb mixture. Gently pat it down to help it adhere to the top.
Bake at 350 for 60 to 70 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it, no loose liquidy batter. Let it cool in on a rack in the pan for about ten minutes, then carefully run a butter knife along the sides of the pan and around the center hole. Do this a couple of times just to make sure it’s completely loosened.
Carefully (use pot holders and/or a towel. This is till gonna be hot) invert the pan over your (protected) hand (works even better if you can use two hands and someone else does the inverting and shaking. Don’t ask me how I know this. Ahem.) and carefully shake the cake out. Invert it immediately back onto the rack to finish cooling.
Let cool until completely cool before slicing, about two hours. Like I said above, this is even better the next day.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.

**If you want to make your own quickie version of boiled cider (boiled cider has a much more intense apple flavor than regular cider, so is worth the trouble.), take 1 cup of fresh cider and pour it into a small pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat a bit and continue boiling until the cider has reduced down to about 1/4 cup. Let it cool before using.

Cinnamon Spice Apple Coffee Cake

Easy Amish Sugar Cake (Recipe Re-do)

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Janet

Easy Amish Sugar Cake

I’ve always wondered what makes some recipes winners and others total flops. I’ll post something that tastes wonderful and even has a decent photo and it will get two shares on facebook and not a lot of notice.Â Then, another time, I’ll post something that, while good (not like I’m going to post crap), is fairly simple and nothing exciting, just homey food. And suddenly it will get 90 bazillion shares on facebook and a ton of people will come here to the blog to see it. Have I ever mentioned that all of you confuse me sometimes? 😛

This recipe falls under the second category. It is simple, tasty, homey and as easy as can be. But is certainly isn’t exciting or some earth shaking cuisine and I have come to realize that many of you prefer the recipes like this one.Â This is by far my most pinned recipe on Pinterest and always get a lot of shares on facebook when I repost it there. All this with sub par photos, lol. I originally made this one for the blog in early 2012. Like I said, it is tasty and simple. You get a slightly crispy top and edges and a tender inside. part of the topping sinks to the bottom and you can a wonderfully buttery, yet crisp and sweet bottom crust, too. It’s a wonderful breakfast cake as well as a great treat for the family and an after school snack. it takes ten minutes tops to get this into the oven and about 3 minutes for your family to have it devoured 😀 It also is one of those simple cakes that most of you will already have all the ingredients for. So what are you waiting for? Go… make your house smell amazing and make the kids and spouse love you even more than they already do. Cause you’re just that good!

You know the drill…. git to cookin’

Mrs. Cupcake…. who is going to have another slice of this cake

Easy Amish Sugar Cake

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter (more like 1/4 cup if you’re doing this in one larger pan)
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon (you’re sprinkling it on, so use the amount that makes YOU happy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two 9 inch cake pans. You can also, as I did this time, use a 10 inch cast iron pan. You may end up using a bit less melted butter for drizzling at the end though, plus plan on a longer baking time by about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and baking powder.
Dump in the egg, milk, vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons melted butter.
Stir just until well combined and smooth. Don’t overbeat.
Pour into the prepared cake pan or pans. Sprinkle with desired amount of brown sugar, then the cinnamon. Drizzle the remaining melted butter over the tops of the cakes.
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the top is firm and crackly looking and the cake is a nice golden brown color.
This is best served warm but itâ€™s still good cold and reheats nicely.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.

Easy Amish Sugar Cake

Better Than Starbucks Lemon Cake

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Janet

Yum

Better Than Starbucks Lemon Cake

This is going to be a short post because I want to get this up before the three or four people who read me, all of whom probably found me while bored at work, leave for the day and never realize I made them a delicious cake. I know, I know, you’ll miss my rambling, but I promise to ramble even more than usual when I come back.

I USED to love Starbucks lemon pound cake. So did my husband. Then they changed how they made it. I have no earthly idea what the Starbucks people thought they were doing when they changed up their recipes and added others. Their pumpkin bread is still good, but in my humble *looks humble* opinion, that’s about it. I tried their new salted caramel bar, all happy because salted caramel and was completely disappointed. And my husband, the man who happily ingests cans of overly processed, heavily salted orange stuff marketed as cheese dip, thinks the lemon cake is kind of yucky now too *she says as tactfully as she can*

So I made my own. I used an old lemon cake recipe I hand copied from food.com a billion years ago when it was recipezaar dot com and played with it. Dare I say it turned out better than the new Starbucks? I DID however accidentally overcook mine a tad so the edges (my favorite part) were a bit dry, but farther in, not at all and the flavor was delicious. This has the sweet lemon taste in the actual cake that the old Starbucks cake had and the tangy glaze. I upped the ante a little bit by doing the old trick of soaking the cake with some lemon syrup. I know; not technically like Starbucks, but that’s why I have the word better in the title 😛

You know the drill….

Love you guys! <3

Better Than Starbucks Lemon Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temp
1/4 cup lemon zest
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 lemons worth, depending on size)
3/4 cup milk, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 teaspoons lemon oil (I like Boyajian brand) (you can sub lemon extract, but lemon oil is so much better in flavor with none of the chemically taste the extract can have)
Syrup-
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch loaf pans.
In a medium bowl, combine the butter and two cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy and the sugar has had time to dissolve, about 4 minutes.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a small bowl, whisk to combine the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a measuring cup, combine the milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon oil.
Add the flour and the milk mixture alternately to the butter, starting and ending with the flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour), beating just until combined after each addition.
Pour into the prepared pans; bake at 350 until a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Cover lightly with foil near the end if it seems to be getting too brown.
When done, let cool in pans for ten minutes, then turn out onto a rack that has been set over a large cookie sheet (to catch drips).
While the cake cools, make the syrup- combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring a few times, just until the sugar dissolves. Spoon the syrup evenly over the still warm cakes, letting each spoonful soak in before using more. You should be able to get it all soaked in, but if not, the rest is great in tea.
Let the cakes finish cooling completely before glazing.
To make the glaze, simply combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl; start with just the lemon juice as liquid and add water as you need to to get a pourable but not too thin glaze (mine was a bit thin… don’t follow my example 😛 )
Let the glaze sit to harden a bit after you’ve used about half, then follow up with the rest. Then…. eat. Laugh at the Starbucks people.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.

From Cupcakes To Caviar

Cooking & Life From A Mom On The Edge Of Insanity

Category Archives: cake

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Chocolaty Orange Mocha Snack Cake

RumChata Tres Leches Cake With A Creamy Cinnamon Mascarpone Topping

Lemon Ginger Pound Cake (Janet’s Cold Remedy)

Elegant & Easy Lemon Almond Cake

Cinnamon Spice Apple Coffee Cake

Easy Amish Sugar Cake (Recipe Re-do)

Better Than Starbucks Lemon Cake