Candy Corn Bundt Cake

Most of my friends know that I love candy corn.  I'm wearing candy corn earrings right now.  I love it.  I love the smell of it and the taste of it.  I don't like the variations, like Easter candy corn in pastel colors, or Christmas candy corn in red & green, but regular classic white orange yellow candy corn....lip smacking good.  A friend who knows this about me sent me this recipe.  It's actually a yellow cake made to look like candy corn, and is only garnished with the real stuff.  I thought it would be fun to try for home fellowship last Friday.  My faithful assistant Barbie was here to make it fun.  Things did not exactly turn out as we had hoped, though....

Here is a link to the original picture, and as always with my blog, I don't make up any of my own recipes, I find things (or they are sent to me, as in this case), I make things, I (try really hard to remember to) take pictures of how things ACTUALLY turned out, and then I tell you.  http://blommi.com/wp-content/uploads/Candy-Corn-Bundt-Cake.jpg  The actual recipe is from a blog called MomFoodie.com .  I think this mom must have more time and perhaps professional experience than I have.

Candy Corn Bundt Cake

• ½ Cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 2 egg whites
• 2 eggs
• 2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¾ Cup buttermilk
• 1½ Cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Orange, and yellow gel food coloring

Frosting:

• 1 Cup soft unsalted butter
• 4 + Cups confectionery sugar
• 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
• Orange and yellow gel food coloring

Bundt Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep bundt cake pan.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.
3. Beat butter on high for 30 seconds.
4. Add sugar and vanilla extract to the butter until well combined.
5. Add egg whites, one at a time, mixing after each.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each.
7. Add ⅓ C flour mixture to the wet mixture followed by adding ⅓ C of the buttermilk; add ⅓ C flour mixture again then add ⅓ C buttermilk mix on low speed, add ⅓ C of flour and add the rest of ⅓ C of buttermilk mix in low speed until thoroughly blended.
8. Divide the batter into three bowls.... add orange gel food coloring to one.... add yellow gel food coloring to the second and Leave the batter white in the third bowl.
9. Spray the bundt pan with Pam spray.
10. Begin by spooning in the white batter then the orange next then last the yellow batter on top.
11. Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
12. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove the cake from the Bundt pan and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.

Frosting:

1. -Cream the butter and powder sugar until it looks light and creamy.
2. -If it doesn't cream add several drops of the heavy whipping cream until it creams. Once the frosting has the right consistency then divide it into 3 bowls.
3. -In two of the three bowls add several drops of gel food coloring. 1 st bowl add orange, 2nd bowl add yellow, 3rd bowl stays white. After each color addition stir well to mix the colors.
4. -When the colors are right, starting with the orange frosting using a spoon drizzle the frosting on the cake. Allow the orange frosting to dry. Next again using a spoon drizzle the yellow frosting on the cake. Allow it to dry. Lastly, drizzle the white frosting on the cake and allow it to dry completely.

That is the whole recipe, copied right from this lady's blog.  Here are my observations and what I did differently:  #1 I don't use unsalted butter.  Because then I would have to buy unsalted butter, and I don't want to buy two kinds of butter.  Maybe I'm crazy but that seems like a lot to keep up with.  It's just butter.  Plus my mom told me that it doesn't make that big of a difference.  Mother knows best.  #2 I know that gel food coloring is supposed to make more vibrant colors than drop food coloring.  I bought gel food coloring but no matter how much I added, the colors got no more vibrant than what you see pictured (my mom also told me that if you add too much food coloring, the taste of whatever you're coloring can turn a bit bitter.  Barbie said with this type of food coloring you don't have to be AS careful about that...so we kept adding and adding...to no avail).  Consequently, this looked more like an Easter cake than a fall cake.

#3 The texture of this frosting was definitely not drizzling consistency.  It would not fall off a spoon, except in clumps.  We did exactly what it said, and it tasted AMAZING, but there was no drizzling...we had to spoon the 3 colors of frosting into ziploc bags and squeeze them over the cake...which is why our cake looks like this:

because we were like...well, it doesn't look like the picture.  Go big or go home. 

Okay so how was it received, and how did it taste?  The kids at home fellowship were super excited to see this cake.  They ooh'ed and aah'ed.  So that was very satisfying.  All but one kid ate their whole piece (I always scope out their plates because I am like a cooking spy).  One of the dads said he liked how the frosting wasn't too sweet (that was nice since we dumped so much on there).  I couldn't taste the cake (because of gluten) but I did taste the frosting and it was so perfect.  And people all said the cake was good. 

In summary.  I'd make this cake recipe again, and the frosting too.  But I totally wouldn't bother with the food coloring.  Unless it's Easter, I guess.....

    

Succulent Seasoned Chicken

A few years ago my mom got me a cookbook called The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook.  Since I was raised in church, and in Baptist churches, I am extremely familiar with the concept of a church potluck.  I must have been to 972 of them over the years.  I have very fond memories of standing in lines and going past all these dishes on the table, and taking some of this and some of that and NONE of that and does that have mayonaisse and oh yeah I had that last time and it was good and OH MAN the meatballs are gone??  To this day if I go to any church function and there is no food, I feel like something is missing, and I'm all "should we have snacks next time?"  It's become a bit more challenging recently since I had to give up gluten, but I can still go through the lines with my kids and get that lovin' feeling.  I just started going through this cookbook and I have a bunch of recipes marked to try.  Here we go....

Succulent Seasoned Chicken
3 tbsp butter
4 chicken breast halves (it doesn't say boneless but that's what I had so that's what I used)
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/2 lemon, cut in wedges
1/2 cup marsala (to a church potluck??  These people certainly weren't Baptist...I used chicken broth)

Butter chicken breasts and sprinkle with seasonings.  Squeeze lemon juice on top of seasoned chicken.  Put wine (or BROTH) in bottom of baking pan and top with chicken.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I can't believe I forgot to take any pictures!  I meant to before it went into the oven, and then I meant to again once it was on the plates :( sorry.  Anyway what I ended up doing is combining the softened butter with the sage, thyme, pepper, and ginger, and then smearing that butter over the chicken breasts before cooking.  Since I cooked it in broth, once the chicken was on the plates, I sliced them all fancy and then drizzled some of the pan juices over the top to keep it moist...we had it with mixed veggies and GF biscuits (that I made with GF Bisquick...I have made them from scratch but it's like 10 times more work so in a hurry I use the GF Bisquick).  A good dinner overall.

Applesauce-Glazed Pork Chops

Woah.  Two in one day, after nothing for 13 months.  I am on a roll.  This is what we just had for supper tonight.  It's from the Oct/Nov 2015 Simple & Delicious and a simple fall recipe.  In the picture in the magazine, they served it with brussel sprouts, but who does that without facing a rebellion??  I did get close to the line by serving this with "Green Potatoes," which are mashed potatoes with broccoli florets mashed in (the recipe is on the blog too).  We also had corn, which everybody likes, to balance out the potatoes.

Applesauce-Glazed Pork Chops
4 bone-in pork loin chops (1/2" thick and 7 oz each)(is anybody really in the meat department with a ruler and a scale?  I just bought a package with 4 good-sized chops in it)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp barbecue sauce
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350.  Place pork chops in 13x9 baking dish coated w/ cooking spray.  Mix remaining ingredients and spoon over chops.

Bake, uncovered, 20-25 minutes or until thermometer reads 145*.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

See how easy?  And everybody liked it.  I thought it was a teeny bit spicy, which I was not expecting, maybe because of the pepper.  It was a bit challenging to determine meat vs bone since it was all smothered in the applesauce sauce.  But we just had to scrape it away and then scoop it back on your bite.  If you made it with boneless chops the eating would be easier (although I have found boneless chops to be a bit drier...so it's a toss-up).  Overall yummy and naturally GF, which I like...as long as you double check your barbecue sauce and worcestershire sauce :)

Caramel Apple Crisp

Well.....it has been 13 months since I posted anything!  That is crazy.  But I have been busy...a brief summary of changes which have made me not want to post/not able to post would be
A: I'm gluten free now (for over a year, but it's taken me awhile to get my mojo back)
B: My son just had major surgery and I've spent the last several months cooking as a fundraiser for his medical expenses, making me not able to try anything new.

Excuses, excuses, I know ;)  I'm not sure if today's post signifies that I'm back in the saddle or not, but we'll see...This recipe came from Simple & Delicious Aug/Sept 2015.  I wanted to make it for home fellowship next week, but decided to make it today instead, because a friend sent me a recipe for a Candy Corn Bundt Cake that I'm going to make for next week.  Also the kids went apple picking with my mother-in-law last week while we were in Boston for the surgery, so we had a bunch of apples just sitting around begging to be put in something.  So here is the recipe in it's original form, and I'll let you know my modifications for gluten at the end...

Caramel Apple Crisp
3 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups flour
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup cold butter, cubed
8 cups thinly sliced peeled apples
1 pkg (14 oz) caramels, divided
1 cup apple cider, divided

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl mix flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly.  Press half the mixture into greased 9x13 baking dish. 

Layer half of each of the following: apples, caramels, and remaining oat mixture.  Repeat layers.  Drizzle 1/2 cup cider over top.

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.  Drizzle with remaining cider; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until apples are tender.

To make this gluten free, I used gluten free oats and substituted the flour with a gluten free blend.  Pretty easy, and in a recipe like this, you can't really tell.

Okay so I had visions of the caramels kind of melting down through the apples, but that's not what really happened.  They stayed right where I dropped them, and you can kind of see that in the picture:

Because of that, I found myself avoiding the clumps of caramel.  The kids, however, lapped it up.  I think if I made this again, I would use a bottled caramel to drizzle over the apples, instead of chunks like this. Also not to be too much "first world problems" but it did take some time to unwrap all those caramels!  That could be something the kids could help with to cut down on time, but mine were all busy mining for gold or whatever it is they do on Minecraft.

Overall, a good recipe for a fall day :) let me know what you think if you try it.

Candy Corn and White Chocolate Softbatch Cookies

I love candy corn.  It's so so yummy.  Yes, it's a bit like eating a candle.  But a really good honey-flavored candle.  A friend of mine tagged me in a post on facebook, and it was this recipe.  A few weeks ago I made Candy Corn Krispy Treats (you can find the recipe here on my blog) and this seemed like a logical next step.  This recipe was on Pinterest (from Averie Cooks...I don't know if Cooks is her last name, which would be cool, or if it's a verb).  This is my first Pinterest recipe.  I was hoping it wouldn't be a Pinterest Fail...have you ever seen those?  If not it is worth 15 minutes (at least) of your time to google "Pinterest Fail" and see what comes up...

Candy Corn and White Chocolate Softbatch Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I never have unsalted so I used salted)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cream or half and half
2 cups flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt, optional (I think if you use salted butter you don't have to add this, but I still did)
1 1/2 cups candy corn
1 cup white chocolate chips

Place first 5 ingredients (through vanilla) in stand mixer and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Stop and scrape down sides of bowl, then add next 5 ingredients.  Mix on low for 1 minute, just until incorporated (don't overmix).

Add candy corn & white chocolate chips and mix just until incorporated.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop cookies onto a plate; flatten slightly.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 5 days (I got stuff to do, I can't wait 3 hours...I waited 1.5 or so).  Do not bake without chilling or cookies will spread too much. 

Important note (she says): "strategically place candy corn so that it's not baking directly on cookie sheet because it will melt, burn, or turn runny if it is.  The candy corn pieces need to be in the interior of the cookies, shielded and buffered by dough" (how do you think this turned out?  I certainly did not carefully shape my dough around each piece of candy corn...I just do not have that kind of time).

Preheat oven to 350.  Place mounds on baking sheet (use cooking spray or silpat baking mat [she says])(I used my baking stones) spaced at least 2 inches apart and bake for about 9 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are just beginning to be set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center.  Do not overbake because cookies will firm up as they cool.  Baking longer than 10 minutes will result in cookies with overly browned undersides (this is never an issue if you use stones though--in my experience at least).  Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

Results:
Well, you can see the picture above.  Those were the best looking ones.  A great  many of them turned out like this:

And then folded up on themselves when removed from the cookie sheet like this:

Ha!  Oh wait, do you want to know how they tasted?  Pretty good (of course).  I thought these were going to be crazy sweet.  But really they weren't.  Maybe baking the candy corn makes it lose some of that famous sweetness.  So this was kind of a fail, but kind of not.  I did get like 13 normal looking cookies.  And some halfway between the melted ones and normal ones.  And then a lot of folded up ones.  These were fun to try and the kids were really excited about them.  But I think this is more of a novelty thing that I won't make again....but I'm glad I made them today :)

Baked Caramel French Toast

I really like french toast.  If we're out for breakfast it's usually what I order.  But I can't really make it at home.  The bread is always too soggy.  I've tried many different things through the years and haven't really found a perfect recipe.  I still haven't, even after today. Ha.  But when I came to this recipe it did look good in their picture (that is part of the conspiracy of cookbooks that we will explore another day).  My mom got me a Pillsbury Annual Recipes cookbook this last Christmas.  I have made a bunch of things out of it and most of them have been very good.  This one wasn't terrible, it just wasn't restaurant french toast either.  It did nicely fit my schedule, since I had to be out late this afternoon.  I made it this morning, had it in the fridge all day, and then it just got popped in the oven when we got home.  Defense against fast food because if it's already made I am far less likely to stop and get something on the way home :)

Baked Caramel French Toast
Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp light corn syrup
French toast:
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
8 (3/4" thick) diagonal-cut slices French bread

Spray 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.  In 2-quart saucepan, combine topping ingredients over medium heat.  Stir constantly until smooth.  Do not boil (oops, I walked away and let mine boil by accident.  I think they say this though so it doesn't start cooking the eggs on the bread yet...so I just let the topping cool off some before I proceeded). Spread topping in baking dish.

In a shallow bowl, beat eggs with fork, then beat in milk, vanilla, and salt.  Dip bread slices into egg mixture; arrange over topping in dish.  Cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, remove cover and place casserole dish in oven.  Turn heat to 400 (if you preheat the oven and then put a glass dish in there, sometimes that's bad...).  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and toast is golden brown.  Remove from oven; let stand 3 minutes.

Invert large heat-proof serving platter over casserole dish; turn platter and baking dish over.  Remove baking dish, scraping any extra caramel topping onto toast (that is SO not what I did...can you imagine the mess?? And the potential for injury?  I understand that they want the pretty caramel to be on top, so I just took each piece out individually and then flipped them onto our plates, caramel side up.  Way less risky).  Serve immediately.

Results:
Soggy bread, sticky coating.  The kids all loved this (predictably; it was like candy on a plate).  We had it with fruit and sausage.  I couldn't even eat all of one piece of this because of the sweetness.  Sam had 3 pieces. And now his blood sugar is 432.  Ha. So, an easy meal, and the kids loved it.  But this is not a good enough performance to make it into the keeper book.


 

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

This is nuts, but it has been a year and 2 days since I posted anything!  I have still been cooking (of course), but last fall, about this time, I started doing Dinner + Dessert + Delivery as a fundraiser for our Haiti trip.  It was very successful but also made me very busy.  I cooked like crazy until we left, and we got back in mid-April.  And then, I was out of the habit.  I contemplated scrapping this whole blog, because it had been so long, and also because this is clearly an amateur effort :) and when I go to other cooking blogs they are light years ahead of mine, as far as polish and professionalism.  So last week a friend asked me about it (she might have been kidding because I can almost never tell with her) and then today my sister asked me about it.  She is a great one for advice, that one.  Both ladies were like (and I'm paraphrasing here) "who cares about how professional it looks?"  So, I sally forth.  Nothing gets me in the mood for baking like fall weather, so this is what I made today.  A few months ago a friend from church gave me a huge stack of Taste of Home magazines from the past several years...some of them I had already seen and cooked through, but a lot of them I hadn't.  So this recipe is from their Oct/Nov 2008 issue.

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter
Butter:
2 tbsp dried cranberries (we didn't have these so I used raisins...still good)
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 tbsp powdered sugar
Dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/4 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour...to make them "healthier" and also to eat them for breakfast with less guilt)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter
1 egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp chopped pecans, optional (but I added them because I love them)

Place cranberries in a small bowl; add boiling water.  Let stand for 5 minutes; drain and chop.  In a small bowl beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar and cranberries; mix well.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour (I did not refrigerate mine).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pie spice, salt, and baking soda.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  In a small bowl whisk the egg, pumpkin, and milk; add to crumb mixture just until moistened.  Stir in pecans if desired.

Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead 10 times.  Pat into an 8-inch circle.  Cut into 8 wedges; separate wedges and place on a greased baking sheet (my dough seemed wetter than it should [maybe because I used some wheat flour] and I knew separating the wedges would be futile and frustrating.  So I did knead the dough on a lightly floured surface but then I put it on my baking stone and smooshed it into the 8-inch circle, and then cut it into 8 wedges.  I tried to separate them a bit so that it wouldn't be one giant cookie [you can see it in the picture above].  It worked pretty well).

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes (mine took about 18; it always takes longer on baking stones, I've found) or until golden brown.  Serve warm with berry butter.

 

The results:
Yum yum yum yum yum.  These aren't the prettiest scones ever.  But they tasted amazing. Both older children really liked them.  The little one wouldn't try ("I can't eat those.  Because of the pecans." But he could if he wanted to, he's just picky).  So delicious with my coffee this afternoon.  And THIS JUST IN my friend just stopped by and ate one and said "Mmmmmmm."  So I am very pleased to resume blogging with this yummy thing.  Even if only my sister and a couple other people read it :)