JAMSquared

Last Saturday, our friend Phap came over to help James pull up the ruined laminate flooring. Phap is quite the eater and whenever he comes over I always send him home with food. For dessert, I made this delicous cake. I did not tell them the name of the cake until after they had eaten their slice. James, my non-vegetable eating husband, found it to be pretty tasty. Phap tore it up and had devoured the 4 slices I sent home with him by the next day. I also took the cake over to Ranger and Clarisse’s house and they enjoyed the cake as well.

Zucchini Fudge Cake

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups shredded zucchini (I used 2 zucchini)
• 3-1/2 cups prepared chocolate frosting (see following recipe I used)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Stir in zucchini.

Pour into three greased and floured 9-inch round baking pans. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Since I placed all 3 pans on the same rack, I rotated them about halfway through baking.) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. (I let cool about 1.5 hours before frosting.) Spread frosting between layers and over the top and sides of cake.

Yield: 10-12 servings

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Source: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (2000 binder edition)

Ingredients:

• 4-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

In medium bowl, mix confectioner’s sugar and butter with electic mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and chocolate. Gradually beat in just enough milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

Yield: almost not enough to frost my cake

Not yesterday, but the previous Saturday, we went to Sprout’s Farmers Market (a grocery store, not a true farmers market) to buy avocados, since they ran a one-day special of 4 for $1 and I thought it would be a great food to introduce to Jessica. While there, we browsed the bakery section, since they also had sourdough loafs for $1. James saw a bunch of lemon desserts and got a hankering for something lemony so I said I’d bake him something and picked up some lemons while we were there. Once home, I browsed one of my cookbooks and came up with four options for him to choose from. Lemon Cherry Cake was the furthest from what he was craving, but it sounded intriguing, so he picked it. Plus, we had also picked up some fresh California cherries while at Sprout’s.

We actually baked the cake together last Sunday. I pitted and chopped the cherries and zested and juiced the lemon while James mixed the batter. The result was delicious, although both the lemon and cherry flavors are very subtle.

Lemon Cherry Cake

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Cake Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen pitted sweet cherries
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purposed flour
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cup milk

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 3-1/2 to 4 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. (I used a stoneware pan.)

Pat cherries dry with paper towels; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in lemon peel and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cherries. Bake at 375°F for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For frosting, in mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, lemon juice and peel until smooth. Beat in enough confectioner’s sugar until mixture achieves desired consistency. Spread on cake. Store in refrigerator.

Yield: 12-15 servings

You might remember saying I had made dessert for Aspen’s baptism party. Here’s the post about it.

The week before her baptism and party, Aspen had been teething and needing her mama. So Julia took me up on my offer to help with a dessert for the party. I couldn’t completey make up my mind what to make, so I made two desserts.

The first dessert I made was a recipe I had book-marked from the Pioneer Woman. I have enjoyed most everything I tried from her site. The cake was even better a few days later.

Perfect Pound Cake

Source: Pioneer Woman (she has a printer-friendly version on her site)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 whole eggs
• 1 teaspoon butter flavoring (I omitted since I didn’t have any)
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Sprite, 7-Up, or Sierra Mist (I used 7-Up)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Cream butter. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add egss, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition. Add butter and lemon extracts and mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add soft drink, then mix together until combined. Scrape sides of bow, then mix briefly.

Pour into a greased Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until the cake is no longer jiggly.

Remove cake from oven and invert pan until cake drops out. (I did not wait until it drops out and I had it break, so be patient.) Slice and chow down!

Yield: 12

I felt the second dessert needed to be chocolate flavored, so I browsed my cookbook collection and decided upon these Cookies ‘n’ Cream Brownies.

Cookies ‘n’ Cream Brownies

Source: Taste of Home Prize Winning Recipes (go here for a printer-friendly version)

Ingredients – Cream Cheese Layer:

• 1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients – Brownie Layer:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa (I used unsweetened cocoa)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 11-in. x 7-in. x 2-in. baking pan (I used a glass baking pan).

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth; set aside. For brownie layer, combine butter, sugars and cocoa in a large mixing bowl; blend well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and baking powder; stir into the cocoa mixture. Stir in vanilla and cookie crumbs.

Pour into prepared pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture over batter; cut through batter with knife to swirl. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool completely.

Yield: 2 dozen

We had a busy weekend. Jessica’s baptism was yesterday and we had a lot of family in town. There will be a bunch of posts related to the baptism and this first one involves the Orange Bundt Cake I baked for the brunch/lunch we held after the baptism.

It is a very moist delicious cake that I like to make when I buy orange juice, because I have a tendency of forgetting about it being in the fridge. This is the kind of cake that Sandra Lee would call semi-homemade.

Orange Bundt Cake

Source: James’ mother

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 18-oz. package orange cake mix
• 1 3.4-oz. box instant vanilla pudding
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 4 eggs

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1-2 tablespoons orange juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil and flour Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, blend all cake ingredients at low speed until moistened. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake at 350°F for 38 to 43 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

For the glaze, mix confectioner’s sugar and orange zest; add enough orange juice to make it thin enough to spread. Drizzle over cake.

Yield: 12-15 servings

Yesterday, I made a cake called Susan’s Lemon Cake that I found on the Cake Mix Doctor’s website. I picked it because it contained no dairy and we were going to have dinner with some friends, one of which is lactose intolerant. The cake turned out delicious. It went very well with the watermelon fruit basket Clarisse had put together.

After dinner, we hung outside a little bit watching the sunset. Dalton, of course, had to spend time with his favorite sucker James.