Quick Chocolate Cake

I love cake. OHMYGOD do I love cake. And I'll be honest, this is not the best cake ever, but when you just WANT CAKE (and come on, we all know there are times when nothing will do but cake!), this is FAST and YUMMY. Why buy a mix when you can literally throw things into the baking dish itself, bake for 20 minutes, and then happily scald your tongue on home-made cake? I couldn’t say.

Susan Katz’s brilliant 1978 “Just Desserts – Fast but Fancy” is one of my favorites. She has so many ideas that I would like to quit my day job to cook each and every one of them… well, I can dream, right? She even has a chapter entitled Desserts for Dinner. (She has also written a book called “100 ways to use yogurt besides eating it out of a container” – LOVE her to death!). When the sudden NEED FOR CAKE struck me, I turned to her and she did not disappoint.

This recipe – better than cake mix, I swear – is fun in that you mix it right in the baking dish. Seriously people, you are going to have cake SOON, and barely any dishes to wash! GET ON THIS! Even kids can do it, in fact it is perfect for them. Don’t have a mixer? Or are you just lazy? Who cares. YOU can make cake.

The only trick is that she’s not kidding when she says “There must be no delay in baking after adding vinegar” because that will activate the baking soda, and if not baked right away, the cake won’t rise. So be sure to have all your ingredients out in advance. This is as good a way to reinforce the practice of mise-en-place if I ever knew one! There: justification for baking cake: to teach yourself the importance of proper kitchen prep. (Not that you needed any justification.... )

 Dump in the ingredients!

 Mix well - and get into the oven IMMEDIATELY once the vinegar is stirred in!

You can frost this cake with just about anything, or heat up a nice glaze of chocolate, butter and a little grand marnier, or perhaps whisey and black cherries…. Possibilities are endless. You’re welcome. 

Carrot Cake

 

What do you do with an over-abundance of carrots because your juicer quit working? Why, you make carrot cake! (Or in this case, delicious little carrot cupcakes.) Because come on, who wants to juice when you can eat cake instead?

(Did I mention I had a lot of carrots?)

I googled a recipe for a low-cal version of carrot cake, and also found a low-sugar version in one of my hippie cook-books, the 1976 “Bake Bread” by Marguerite Bencivenga. Between the two, I came up with something not too sinful that still tastes like cake rather than like a hockey puck – success! I should point out that I made a straight up, regular, full fat and sugar, cream cheese frosting. Because I might substitute part whole wheat flour and use less oil, but I will NOT MESS WITH FROSTING.

I’m not giving a traditional recipe here, because you can find those easily (and for about 500 calories a piece!) but do try this version. I made cupcakes, which require less baking time – and pay attention so they don’t become dry! As soon as you can smell them, they are close to done. Since there is much less oil than a traditional recipe calls for (1 cup or more less!) you need more carrots (on average one more cup) to increase the moisture, but it will never be quite as moist. That’s why you NEED the good frosting! However, if you omit the frosting (WHAT!?!?!?) then it is “carrot bread” and you can pretend you’re eating health food. Sure…..

Carrot Cake

4 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup all purpose white flour

1 cup all purpose whole wheat flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

·         * Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan (or place cupcake papers into cupcake tins – approx. 18)

·        *  In a bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in carrots; fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

·        * Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes (30 min for cupcakes), or until you smell the cake and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

·        *  Frost when cooled. (see below)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 box powdered sugar

3 oz cream cheese

2 Tbsp milk

½ lemon

·        *  Cream the cheese and ½ box of powdered sugar, and add milk and juice of lemon

·        * Add sugar till taste and consistency are right; beat till smooth. You may not need the whole box of sugar. (Oh come on, who am I kidding? Of course you will!)

·         * Frost cooled carrot cake or cupcakes.  

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with Pecans. YUM!!!

Orange Cupcakes

Celebrating a birthday calls for cupcakes, doesn’t it? In the past, I’ve been treated to entire trays of Hostess orange cupcakes studded with candles, but I decided to bake up my own, somewhat healthier, version for a friend’s recent birthday. As usual, I turned to the venerable Joy of Cooking (1975 version) for a recipe for Orange Cake, and adapted it to cupcakes, as follows.

Since I made mini-cupcakes, I didn’t have room to inject the cream inside, (the element that makes the Hostess product the chemical-filled delight that it is!) but that can be achieved with regular-size cupcakes and a baking syringe if you have the time and inclination. Otherwise, go nuts with the frosting instead (I used a basic cream-cheese frosting with orange and topped each cupcake with colored sugar) for a sweet little bite of cheer.

To note with cupcakes, especially mini ones: watch them as they bake, and test them as soon as you can smell the cake. Burned cupcakes aren’t the life of any party!

Orange Cupcakes

Have all ingredients about 70 degrees. Sift before measuring:

3 cups cake flour

Re-sift with:

¾ tsp. salt

3 ½ tsp. double-acting baking powder

Grate:

Rind of 1 orange

Into:

1 ½ cups sugar

Cream this until light with:

¾ cup butter

Beat in, one at a time:

3 eggs

Measure:

½ cup orange juice

½ cup water

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Add the flour mixture in 3 parts to the butter mixture, alternately with the liquid. Stir the batter after each addition until smooth. Bake for 12-24 minutes; cool.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream together 1 package or softened cream cheese and 1 package of powdered sugar. Add 1 Tbsp orange juice and the zest of ½ an orange, to taste. Spread lightly on each cupcake and top with colored sugar.

Cheddar-Topped Apples

When asked to bring a dessert to a Tupperware party recently, I naturally reached for my copy of their own cookbook from 1986, “Quick and Easy Cooking with Tupperware”. In the section entitled “Cabinet Cuisine”, I learned that “the secret to off-the-shelf success is stocking the right foods”, and sure enough, I had all these items at hand, so I deiced to make their Cheddar-Topped Apples and transport them in, what else, vintage Tupperware.

Now I will admit I was in a bit of a hurry when I first read over the recipe, because I got the WRONG IMPRESSION ENTIRELY about what the dish was going to be. Somehow, I envisioned apple slices with a topping sprinkled over them, such as might be served on a tray as finger-food. However, these are in fact, nothing like that. At all. Not that I’m saying they aren’t good, they just are NOT what I thought they would be. Nor, in fact, are they very attractive, so they turned out to be NOT IDEAL for a party. But, where would I be without the failures along the way, right?

So if for some reason you are really in the mood for apple pie filling, and you like that topped with cheddar cheese (a big thing, I know, I know!) but you also do NOT want to suffer the added enjoyment of a crust, this dish might be for you. Or, I thought, possibly it could be made in individual ramekins – but to be honest, just plain baked apples with cinnamon would seem tastier, and easier. This was tasty enough, just not quite… RIGHT. Read on and see what you think!


Cheddar-Topped Apples

3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
6 medium baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
½ cup raisins (NOTE: I left those out because I can’t stand raisins!)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz)
¼ cup broken walnuts

In the Ultra 21 1-Quart Casserole (NOTE: just use Pyrex if you don’t have Tupperware / don’t want to cook in plastic!) combine the sugar, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the water and lemon juice. Add the sliced baking apples and raisins; stir to coat.

Bake, covered with the vent closed, in a 350 oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the apples are tender. Uncover, sprinkle with the shredded cheddar cheese and the broken walnuts. Let stand, covered with the vent closed, for 2 to 4 minutes or till the cheese is melted. Serves 6.

Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

“You no longer have to spend hours toiling in the kitchen to make an elegant, luscious dessert. Now, Just Desserts shows you how to whip up scrumptious treats in under 15 minutes!” YES! Talk to me like an info-mercial, I am a sucker every time. Actually I am usually quite happy to spend more than 15 minutes on things, but in this case I was looking for something fast and fun for kids to make. And for kids to subsequently ravage in much less time!

Susan Katz, who also authored an entire book on yogurt, offers in her 1978 “Just Desserts: Fast but Fancy” several quick and tasty pies, but we chose Ice Cream pie to celebrate the coming of summer. And just because, heck, it sounded good.

I used a pre-made pie crust (heavens!) and the only thing I changed was the flavor of ice cream, because I’ve never seen butter-almond flavor, and Ivy requested plain vanilla. I suppose even chocolate would have been good, too, though the layer of near-fudge on the bottom of the pie handled the chocolate requirement nicely. This turned out to be a super fast and yummy pie, and my Tupperware Cake Taker made it a cinch to transport!



Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker crust
2 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 pint butter-almond ice cream

Put all ingredients, except ice cream and pie crust (ed: really? Hah!), in blender and blend until smooth, or beat well with an electric mixer. Pour into crust and chill until thoroughly cooled. Just before serving, spoon softened ice cream on top.