This sauce is meant to be served over apple cake.
HOMEMADE APPLE CAKE SAUCE
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
½ cup heavy cream or evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
STIR all ingredients in a saucepan.
BOIL over medium high heat, cooking for 3 minutes.
COOL slightly, stirring to combine, and serve over apple cake.
This cake is simple and easy to make. You can serve it by itself, with a homemade sauce, or with ice cream.
APPLE CAKE
from Cross Stitch Magazine
4 cups peeled, sliced apples
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
STIR apples and sugar in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients.
BEAT eggs, oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Stir egg mixture into apple mixture, blending until thoroughly moistened. Stir in pecans.
BAKE in a greased 9x13 pan at 350°F degrees for 50 minutes. Serve warm with homemade sauce.
My friend made this cake for a party. I had to ask for the recipe! It is a sweet, mild cake with a little cinnamon flavor. When I made it, I added some vanilla extract. I'm also considering playing with the spices--maybe adding some cardamom or cloves to make a stronger version. But as is, it's quite pleasant and enjoyable, and even better, easy to be made with ingredients you probably already have in your house!
KAREN'S CINNAMON CAKE (makes one 8x8 inch pan)
1 ¾ cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup milk
½ Tbsp vanilla
COMBINE dry ingredients. Cut in butter until it resembles a fine cornmeal.
ADD milk and vanilla. Beat well. Pour into a greased and floured 8x8 inch pan.
BAKE at 350°F for 30-35 minutes. Serve warmed with whipped cream, apple pie filling, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or plain.
I make cakes. From scratch.
It was never really a goal. I grew up with Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, and all the other boxed cake mixes. They're so easy! And so consistent. And if you need something a little special, there's the whole breed of altered box mixes. Pinterest is littered with these recipes. Before pinterest and blogs, you had to buy a cookbook. These days, it drives me crazy because such imported goods come with a large price tag.
Still, one of my favorite chocolate cakes starts with a cake mix. I tried once to make it in China without a cake mix but it was NOT the same. I've since decided I'm either willing to pay the $6 for a cake mix to get the cake right or I'll make a different cake, from scratch. Thankfully, a friend keyed me in to her favorite chocolate cake recipe. It's great! The ingredients are relatively cheap and convenient for China. Even better, it is simple! One bowl. No special order of combining ingredients. Then bake, cool, remove from the pan if desired. Frost as you see fit.
FEATHERY FUDGE CAKE
from the Shenyang Cookbook
2 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
⅔ cup oil
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
9 Tbsp cocoa
1 ¼ cups cold water.
MIX all ingredients in one bowl. Beat well.
POUR into a prepared cake pan (one thick round layer, a thinner 9x13, or 18+ cupcakes).
BAKE at 350°F for 20-35 minutes depending on pan size. Test with a toothpick, taking the cake out when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and frost if desired.
I made cake balls for the first time last weekend. They are quite tasty little treats and very simple, if you have access to boxed cake mix and canned frosting. I happened to have both sitting around my house. Somewhere, in adjusting to baking in China, I completely stopped using boxed mixes and started baking everything from scratch, even though I had stockpiled some boxed mixes.
It is my new goal to actually use those mixes, so making cake balls was a perfect recipe. In the future, I want to try them with cake and icing made from scratch. I'm sure it will work; it will just be more mafan (troublesome, a bother).
The possibilities are endless with cake balls---What flavor of cake? What flavor of icing? What flavor of coating?
I used a yellow cake mix, vanilla frosting, and dipped the cake balls into melted white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. I also drizzled a little of a contrasting chocolate on top for decoration.
Recipes and tips for making cake balls are abundant on the internet, including red velvet cake balls and a list of other flavor combinations.
CAKE BALLS
1 9x13 prepared cake
2/3-3/4 can of frosting (about 1 ½ cups)
chocolate bark, chocolate coating, or actual chocolate (DOVE BARS)
CRUMBLE cooled cake into a bowl. (You may consider trimming off the edges and top---the darker portions will taste fine but don't look as pretty in the center of the cake balls.) Mix in frosting. Allow to mixture to firm up in the fridge for at least an hour.
ROLL mixture into quarter size balls and lay on a cookie sheet. Chill for several hours in the fridge or freezer.
DIP into melted chocolate and lay on wax paper to harden.
As a child, I loved cooking shows. I remember watching The Frugal Gourmet with awe. The best part was having all the ingredients premeasured and on display in small glass bowls. I used to ask my mom to let me play cooking show—it meant I made a lot of extra dishes from all those small bowls and that I talked to an imaginary audience on the other side of our peninsula.
In the past 7 years, only one place I have lived had a dishwasher. So while I currently own a cute set of nesting glass bowls that would be perfect for all the ingredients in a recipe, I have no desire to play cooking show. In fact, I haven’t watched a cooking show in ages. Some rant and rave about The Food Network, but I am largely unaware of celebrity chefs. The following recipe is the first recipe I’ve ever made from Emeril Lagasse. I would have never found this recipe except that a friend made the cake this past weekend; it was so wonderfully moist and tasty that I had to have the recipe. While it is officially a “coffee cake,” it does double duty as an evening dessert.
APPLE CAKE
from Emeril Lagasse
¾ cup butter, softened and divided
2 ½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour, divided
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon, divided
½ tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apples
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp water
CREAM ½ cup butter and 1 ½ cups brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after the addition of each. In a separate bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients, alternating with the sour cream and vanilla. Fold in the apples. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan, spreading out to the edges.
COMBINE ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup flour, ½ tsp cinnamon, and ¼ cup butter in a small bowl, mixing until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the cake and bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and set.
DRIZZLE slightly cooled cake with glaze made from ½ cup brown sugar, ½ tsp vanilla, and 2 Tbsp water. Let harden slightly. Serve warm.
Last year, I collected 30 recipes for a friend’s 30th birthday gift. This recipe was one of the contributions. An odd recipe, the use of a cold oven and the change of temperature midway through cooking creates a fabulous cake with the perfect combination of textures.
COLD OVEN POUND CAKE
from Cooks Illustrated
3 cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 cup skim or 1% milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature, separated
16 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
½ cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
ADJUST oven rack to the middle position. Do not preheat oven. Grease and flour a 12-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Whisk the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk the milk, vanilla and egg yolks in a large measuring cup.
BEAT egg whites to soft peaks with an electric mixer on medium-high speed. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and shortening and sugar together on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce to low speed and add the flour and milk mixture alternately, in two batches, beating after each addition until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in egg whites. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and place in the cold oven.
HEAT oven to 300°F and bake 45 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 325°F and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the cake, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely, at least, 1 hour.
I found this recipe while searching for a good Thanksgiving dessert that wasn't pie and had nothing to do with pumpkin or cream cheese. (There is a place for that, of course, in pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cheesecake, but sometimes you need a break.)
I think bundt cakes are cake beautiful, especially when topped with a glaze. I bought chocolate, coffee, and walnut ice cream to have with the cake. Walnut was my favorite.
For the recipe, I was not particular about espresso powder, instant coffee, 2+1 instant coffee, maple extract, maple syrup, pancake syrup, etc. Use what you have available to approximate the flavor combination.
CRANBERRY WALNUT BUNDT CAKE
for the streusel
½ cup light brown sugar
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
2 tsp instant espresso powder
for the cake
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp maple extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups dried cranberries
for the glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp instant espresso powder
COMBINE the streusel ingredients (brown sugar, walnuts, and espresso powder) in a small bowl and set aside. Combine eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and maple extract in a small bowl and lightly beat. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a third bowl.
CREAM butter and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add 1/3 of the egg mixture, then 1/3 of the flour mixture, alternating. Stir in the cranberries. Pour 1/3 of the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Layer with 1/3 of the streusel. Repeat twice.
BAKE at 325°F for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Whisk together powdered sugar, maple syrup, cream, and espresso powder in a medium bowl. Drizzle over cake.
This is one of those recipes that is not easy and not cheap in China, but sometimes it's worth it. The cake is super-moist, very dense, and incredibly chocolaty. I like to drizzle a simple thick glaze of milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla over the cooled cake.
CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE
1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 small package of instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
½ cup oil
½ cup water
1 small sour cream (8oz) or 1 cup soured whipping cream (see substitutions)
1 bag of chocolate chips (12 oz)
MIX cake mix, dry pudding, eggs, oil, water and sour cream until well blended.
FOLD in chocolate chips. Grease bundt pan and fill with batter.
BAKE at 350°F for 55 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan.
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