Chocolate Truffle Cake

=)

"Mousse like cake"

I just found this post....blogger said that it was a draft....hmmm....well, clearly I did start to work on it.

Notes: 

...I remember that it was quite good...but that is all I remember, lol!

 I remember I would make it again! =)

Easy Lemon Squares (recipe too!)

 Easy Lemon Squares from the Recipe Box

Easy Lemon Squares

Crust:
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
4 Tablespoons Butter
1 cup white Flour
(maybe add a pinch of salt next time)

Filling:
3 large Eggs (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup White Sugar
2 teaspoons fresh grated Lemon Rind
1/3 cup Fresh Lemon Juice
3 Tablespoons white Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Using a reasonably sized bowl & large fork, combine the crust ingredients- keep working it till the mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Gently press mixture into the bottom of an 8X8 baking pan.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.   
While it bakes, start on the filling!   
Remove from oven...(I let it cool maybe 5 minutes on a wire rack. Cooks Illustrated says to fill while hot, so that's kind of what I did.)

3) To prepare the filling, beat eggs at medium speed until foamy.  Add all the rest of the filling ingredients, and beat until well-blended.  Carefully grease the edges of the pan before you pour mixture over the hot partially baked crust.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until set.  Cool on wire rack.   Cut into 16 squares. 

Topping:
When the bars are cool & on the serving plate, sift Powdered Sugar on them. 

Note: 
~If you sift Powdered Sugar on them too soon, the sugar will melt right in to the Lemon Squares...so you'll have to do like me, and re-sprinkle them when it's time to serve. =)

Photo from a 1954 Family Circle Magazine...

Blueberry Gateau (recipe too!)

Blueberry Gateau (cake) clipped from a Country Living magazine (August 2001)

Delicious, simple, easy, fresh berry cake. I have plans to bake more! =)

Let me know if you need a better copy....

Notes:
~ Next time I think that I would use more salt- say 1/4t.
~ Maybe I would add a little lemon to the cake batter....
~ Thanks to Mom's suggestion, I only baked the cake for 50 minutes, and I probably should have paid a little more attention to it and probably could have pulled it a few minutes earlier. 
~ I could have used Hawkins Berries, but I did not have them at the time. You could~ find them HERE!

~ Here again, I used golden free-range eggs (from:  www.facebook.com/GuadalupeRanch)!

Serve a Blueberry Gateau to anyone, any time of day! =)

Chocolate Frozen (Greek) Yogurt (recipe too!)

Hi friends!  Long time no see!  ;)  How are you all???  I'm good, I've not been baking/cooking much because: I've been sewing new clothes!  =)

Chocolate Frozen (Greek) Yogurt

I found this recipe on allrecipes, and tweaked it....I hope that you enjoy it!  =)

• 1/4 cup White Sugar
• 10 drops Sweet Leaf liquid Stevia
• 1-2 Tablespoons Organic Cornstarch (3T is too much)
• 3 Tablespoons Organic Cocoa Powder (Frontier)
  
• 12 oz Cream
  

• 1/2 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
  
• 1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
  

Directions

1. Place some of the Milk in a jar, add the Cornstarch & Cocoa Powder- shake it up good (like you were making gravy). 
2. (now think pudding) In a saucepan: stir up the remaining plain Cream, the chocolate Cream, the Sugar and Chocolate chips. Cook over medium heat until chocolate is melted and the mixture is thickened. Stir constantly to prevent burning. (You have to cook the cream concoction til it boils, but not too long!)
3. Remove the mixture from the heat, and stir in the plain yogurt, butter, Stevia and Vanilla. (I used a whisk, because the yogurt was hard to incorporate.)
4. Refrigerate until chilled. 
5. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.   (click here for our preferred method)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes:
~YUM!
~3T Cornstarch is too much, unless you want to eat it like pudding, and not try to freeze it.
~I'd add more Butter next time. =)

Notes from allrecipe commenters I'd like to remember:
~My family loves this recipe and I think next time I'll try adding 1/4 peanut butter or a few peppermint sticks for a change. Excellent ice cream.

~I used Truvia sweetener and nonfat GREEK yogurt.  Wow oh wow, this was incredible! Everyone loved this, even my froyo hating husband. This recipe will be made a lot this summer, I can tell you that!

~I used sweetened condensed milk (didn't have cream), 1 cup yogurt, 3 tbs of cocoa, and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Omitted the sugar and the cornstarch because the condensed milk was sweet enough and thick enough.

1940's kitchen

Detour ahead~ Fall Pear (or Apple) Cake from the Recipe Box (recipe, too!)

Week 6 ~ Fall Pear (or Apple) Cake

Why did I take a detour this week?  Because Fall is in the air, and I've attended 2 bonfire parties,  and the pears & apples are in season (or coming in season),  and I just HAD to make an old favorite this week!  =)

Notes:
~We like to put our extra pears in the freezer pre-measured, and ready to go.
 ~If you make cupcakes, check them in 12-15 min.
~The original cake recipe came from a C&H sugar package, but the following is the way I make it:

                     Fall Pear (or Apple) Cake
3 eggs
3/4 Cup Oil (rice bran or olive)
1 tea. Vanilla

2-1/4 Cup flour (wheat, white or white spelt)
Or:  ((((Gluten-Free: 3/4 cup Brown Rice flour, 3/4 cup White Rice flour (the sticky kind- you can get it at the Asian markets) & 3/4 cup Sorghum flour (Bob's Red Mill) and 1/2 tea. Xanthan Gum (you could use unflavored gelatin- look up how much to substitute))))
1 Cup Sucanat (or brown sugar, or white with a bit of black strap molasses)
1 tea. Baking powder
1/2 tea. Baking soda
1 tea. Salt
1-1/2 tea. Cinnamon
1-1/4 tea. Nutmeg

3 Cups (18 oz) Grated Pears or Apples
1/2 to 1-1/2 Cup chopped/ground nuts

Heat oven to 350.
Stir together flour, sweetener, powder, soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg- set aside.
With and electric mixer beat eggs, oil, and vanilla.
Gradually beat the dry ingredients into egg mixture until blended.
Stir in pears and nuts.

Spoon batter into a greased Bundt pan.
Bake 45-50 minutes (Gluten-Free cooks a bit faster, so check on it sooner), until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan.

Serve warm or cold. With or without frosting.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cream Cheese "Frosting"

1- 8oz package of cream cheese (really soft)

1 cup powdered sugar** (sifted)

2 dribbles of vanilla**  Beat (with an electric mixer) the really soft cream cheese,
and add the powdered sugar & vanilla- keep beating till well mixed and gooey/goopy! =)

(This was a nice amount of frosting- 15 cupcakes had a generous amount- if I used less, it would have gone further)
If it is too stiff, add a tiny amount of milk or cream.


** You can use as little as 1/4 c. powdered sugar, and if you do, only use 1 dribble of vanilla.