Sunday August 30, 2009 Week 24

Mark turned 50 on Friday!!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday to you and welcome to the pond the water is fine! In celebration I made Mark's favorite combination: Chocolate and raspberry!!! (Who in the world doesn't like this?? The torte is from Epicurious.com and the raspberry coulis is from Foodnetwork.com.

The Torte:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 5 large eggs, beaten

• Equipment: a 9-inch springform pan; a large (18-inch) roll of heavy-duty foil

• Accompaniment: whipped cream (optional)

preparation

Preheat oven to 300&Deg;F with rack in middle. Wrap outside of cake pan in plastic wrap, then wrap tightly in a layer of foil.

Lightly butter pan, then dust with sugar, knocking out excess.

Heat 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool.

Melt chocolates in a large bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water (do not let bowl touch water), stirring occasionally, until melted. Stir together butter (2 sticks) and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in another bowl until combined. Stir butter mixture into melted chocolate. Then stir in sugar syrup. Gently stir in eggs (avoid making bubbles) until combined. 3Transfer to pan and bake in a hot water bath until center is almost set (it should barely wobble), about 45 to 50 minutes.

Cool completely on a rack. Chill, covered, at least 8 hours. Run a thin knife along side of pan, remove side, and serve slightly chilled or at room temperature.

Raspberry Coulis:

2 cups raspberries (about 12 ounces), rinsed

3/4 cup Simple Syrup, recipe follows

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Bring the raspberries, syrup, and lemon juice to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over low heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries are very soft, about 8 minutes.

Sprinkle the cornstarch over 2 teaspoons cold water and stir to dissolve. Pour into the simmering raspberry mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl; discard the seeds. Cool completely, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Freeze any leftover coulis in a plastic container for up to 1 month.Yield: 2 cups

Sunday August, 23 2009 Week 23

This recipe is another from Melanie Crain. (Many thanks!!)

"One of the first cakes I ever made. I don't remember where I found the recipe, but it was probably in one of the well-worn, out-of-date, ladies magazines in the Ladies Room Lounge at Jacksonville University where I finished my bachelor's degree. I used to spend time in between classes transcribing recipes. Hal and I were just married and living on a shoestring. I couldn't afford to buy recipe books."

Orange-Rum Cake

Makes 12 servings

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
Grated rind 2 large oranges and 1 lemon
2 eggs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
Juice of fruits above
2 Tbsp light or dark rum

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease or butter a 9” or 10” 2 qt fluted tube pan.

Cream butter. Gradually add 1 cup of the sugar and beat until light. Add fruit rinds and eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition of an egg. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until smooth. Fold in nuts.

Pour into prepared pan and bake about 1 hour.

Strain fruit juices into saucepan. Add remaining 1 cup sugar and the rum; bring to boil. When cake is removed from oven, pour syrup slowly over cake in pan by tablespoonsful. If all liquid is not absorbed immediately, pour remainder on later. Turn out on serving plate.

Sunday, August 15, 2009 Week 22

Mrs Wilkins' German Chocolate Cake

This recipe was sent to me by Melanie Crain who sings with me at St Thomas More Church: "Mrs. Wilkins was a landlady to a friend of ours when he was in med school at Duke. Again, I never met the lady who made this marvelous (and easy) cake."

Wes said this is his favorite cake so far! It is an odd combination and not your traditional German Chocolate cake, but the cake ends up very moist! The custard would also be good on its own! I refrigerated it over night. It was not a "pretty cake" due entirely to my less than professional slicing methods!!!

Mrs. Wilkins's German Chocolate Cake

Serves 8-12

Cake
1 pkg Duncan Hines devil food cake mix

Prepare two 9-inch layer cake pans. Preheat oven and make cake mix according to directions. Bake and cool cake. Slice each layer in half horizontally. Next time I will cook this in 4 cake pans.

Custard Icing
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 stick margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup + Black walnuts, chopped

Cook the eggs, sugar, milk, cornstarch, and margarine in a double boiler; add the vanilla and cook until thick. Cool slightly. Spread between the four cake layers and on top of last layer, adding black walnuts on top of the custard each time.

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Sunday, August 8, 2009,

I'm taking a week of to enjoy visiting Pittsburgh!!

Sunday, August 2, 2009 Week #21

Comfort Cake

My sister Judy told me to look this one up because it is really good and she was right! This is another poundcake-ish cake:

Cake:

18 oz yellow cake mix

3 1/2 oz instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup Southern Comfort (two little airline bottles)

1 cup nuts chopped fine

Preheat oven to 325 F

combine cake ingredients and beat for two minutes.

Pour into a greased and floured 10 cup tube pan or 12 cup bundt pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean (mine took about 40 minutes in a convection oven).

Cool for 15 minutes and invert on plate.

Prick top gently with a fork and spread half of the glaze over the top and sides.

Glaze:

melt 1/4 cup butter

add 1/8 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

Boil one minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup Southern Comfort

Cool cake completely.

Reheat glaze and brush on cooled cake again.

Before serving, sift confection sugar over the cake.

There were a lot of Southern Comfort cake recipes on line, and they were all pretty much the same. I ended up using the one on www.Grouprecipes.com. Hope you like it!