Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

                                                  Makes 12 servings.

PUMPKIN CAKE

Ingredients

4 large eggs

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 can (1 lb.) pureed pumpkin

Cream Cheese Frosting (SEE RECIPE BELOW)

Pecans or Walnuts (chopped or halves)

Directions
Place eggs in the large bowl; cover and let stand 30 minutes until eggs warm to room temperature. 

Preheat oven to 350 F 

Sift flour with baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

With electric mixer at high speed, beat eggs with granulated sugar the mixture is light and fluffy. 

Beat in oil and pumpkin and blend thoroughly.

 

With the electric mixer at low speed, beat in flour mixture, beating only until flour is moistened.
Pour into ungreased 10-inch tube pan without removable bottom.

 

Bake 45-50 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertips.
Remove cake from oven and cool completely in pan on wire rack.
Using a long, narrow rubber spatula, carefully loosen cake from pan; remove.
Place on cake plate.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
2 pkg (3 ounce size) cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions
In small bowl, at medium speed, beat cream cheese with vanilla until smooth and soft.
Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, beating until light and fluffy.

Frost top and side with cream cheese frosting.
Use the tip of the spatula to swirl the frosting toward the center of the plate.

For decoration, place walnut or pecan pieces (or halves) around the top of the cake.

Serve cake immediately or store tightly covered in the refrigerator.
Remove from refrigerator about 30 minutes prior to serving.

Homemade Blueberry Muffins

This recipe is based on the basic muffin recipe from the NYS Wine & Culinary Center.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
6 Tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups fresh blueberries
cinnamon sugar*

Preheat the oven to 425 F
Line cupcake pan with 12 cupcake papers

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt)
In a small bowl, whisk the eggs then add the sugar and whisk briskly to mix.
Add the milk, melted butter and vanilla to the egg mixture and whisk to blend.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and mix together with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are almost all moistened.
Add the blueberries, then mix them in using a rubber spatula, and only mix until ingredients are all moistened. Batter will be lumpy - do not over-mix.

Spoon batter into muffin cups and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake about 12 minutes - until a toothpick inserted into 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan.

Delicious warm!

*Cinnamon sugar: mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Blueberry Bundt Cake

Ingredients

Crisco (for the pan)

Flour (for the pan)

3 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries, picked over to remove any stems

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk

Confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions

1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until blended.

3. On wax paper, toss the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.

4. In an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter for 3 minutes. Add the granulated sugar in 3 additions, beating for 1 minute after each. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

5. With the mixer set on low speed, beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula.

6. With a large rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries.

7. Spoon the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

8. Bake the cake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean when withdrawn. The baked cake will pull away from the sides of the pan.

9. Set the cake on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto another cooling rack to cool completely. Before serving, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.

Makes one 10-inch cake

Baker's Fudge Brownies

4 squares Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans


Heat oven to 350 F (325 F for glass baking dish). Line 13X9-inch baking pan with foil extending over edges to form handles. Grease foil.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Stir sugar into chocolate mixture until well blended. Mix in eggs and vanilla until well blended. Stir in flour and nuts until well blended. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out with fudgy crumbs. Do NOT overbake. Cool in pan. Lift out of pan onto cutting board. Cut into squares.

Chocolate-Mocha Yule Log

Cake
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar (for the egg whites)
1/2 cup sugar (for the egg yolks)
1/3 cup unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Dash of salt

Mocha Cream Filling
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake Directions:
Separate eggs, putting whites in large bowl, and yolks in medium size bowl. Let warm to room temperature.
Grease the bottom of a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 by 1 inch jelly roll pan.
Line the pan with wax paper
Grease the wax paper

Preheat oven to 375

Beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks start to form when the beater is slowly raised.
Add the 1/4 cup of sugar (2 tablespoons at a time), beating until stiff peaks form when beater is slowly raised.

With the same beaters, beat the egg yolks at a high speed, adding the 1/2 cup sugar (2 tablespoons at a time). Beat until the yolk mixture is very thick and a lighter color (about 4 minutes).

At a low speed, add the cocoa powder, vanilla and salt, beating just until smooth.

With a wire whisk or a rubber scraper, using an under-and-over motion, gently fold the cocoa mixture into the beaten egg whites, just until they are blended (no egg white should show).

Spread evenly in pan.

Bake 15 minutes, just until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip.
While the cake is baking, sift confectioners sugar in a 15 x 10 inch rectangle on a clean linen towel.

When cake is ready...

 turn it out onto the confectioners sugar that's on the linen towel. Do not cool the cake before performing this step.
Lift off the pan:

Carefully peel off the paper. It will stick along the sides of the cake, so you may have to use a knife to scrape the paper away from the cake, without messing up the cake too much.  Here's how mine turned out:

Roll up jelly-roll fashion, starting with the short end, towel and all.

Cool completely on a rack, seam-side down. (About 45 minutes)

Make Filling:
Combine mocha filling ingredients in medium bowl. (I chill the bowl and beaters a little, before making the filling.)
Beat until thick.

 If not using immediately, refrigerate.

Unroll cake, spread with filling to 1 inch from edge.

Reroll and place seam-side down on plate. Trim the ends.

Cover with foil and refrigerate at least one hour.
When ready to serve, sift confectioners sugar over the log to produce "snow".
Decorate with raspberries for berries and green frosting as leaves - or alternatively green sprinkles in leaf form, as shown below.

Frosted Cherry Squares

1 can Comstock cherry pie filling (or pineapple filling)
2 Pie crusts ready to roll out

Preheat oven to 425
Roll the pie crusts to a rectangular shape.
Place one of the crusts on an ungreased cookie sheet (no need to make it fit the length & width of the pan)

Spread pie filling on top of the crust, but keep the filling 1 inch away from the edges

Cover with the second pie crust and pinch edges to seal, and crimp the edges.  Cut small slits on the top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake about 12 minutes at 425, then lower heat to 350 and bake about 25 minutes more.

Cool completely, then frost (see "My Mother's Vanilla Frosting"), and cut into squares.

Raspberry Filling

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp apple cider
1/4 cup sugar

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and apple cider together.
Place berries in small saucepan, add sugar and cornstarch mixture.
Slowly bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until mixture thickens.
Cool completely, before spreading on cake.

Hint:  Strain the raspberry sauce over a bowl to remove most of the seeds.

Substitutions
May substitute fresh lemon juice for apple cider. No need to pre-mix with the cornstarch, just add both the lemon juice and the cornstarch to the pan when you add the berries.

May substitute frozen raspberries.