dessert

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

December 3, 2008 by Tiffany King 14 Comments

This cake is perfectly Christmasy. It smells wonderful while it bakes and it tastes yummy too.

I found the recipe on a message board I frequent. The woman who posted it said it originally came from Fine Cooking Magazine. It’s easy to make.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Prep Time15

Cook Time55

Total Time1 10

Servings:

Ingredients

½ lb. butter very soft
1 cup brown sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon
2 cups cranberries fresh or frozen - at room temp. (if frozen, thaw, rinse, drain and dry them)
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk at room temp.
2 large eggs at room temp.
⅔ cup sour cream at room temp.
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1¾ cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda

Instructions

Make sure the ingredients are at room temperature. I used White Lily flour the first time I made the cake (NOT the self-rising kind) and I thought it came out a bit less dense than the cake flour version, but both were good.
Position the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 350°
Lightly butter the sides and bottom of a 9" cake pan. (I don't have a 9" cake pan so I used a 10½" iron skillet. My friend used a springform pan.) You want the sides of the pan to be at least 2½" high.
Put 1½ sticks of butter in a bowl.
With a wooden spoon cream together the butter, sugar and one egg yolk.
Switch to a whisk and mix in the additional eggs one at a time. Whisk until the sugar begins to dissolve and the batter is smooth.
Whisk in the vanilla, sour cream and salt.
Sift in the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda directly into the wet ingredients. I don't have a sifter so I just ran a fork through the flour mixture before adding it. Stir until all the ingredients are combined and the batter becomes satiny.
Put the remaining 4 Tbs. of butter into the pan and set it in the oven to melt.
Then mix the brown sugar and cinnamon into the butter. Spread this out as evenly as you can and put the rinsed and drained cranberries over the top.
Spread the batter over the top of the cranberries and pop it into the oven.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. Cool for 5-10 minutes and then dump it out on a plate.

Don’t forget to lick the sticky yummy stuff from the pan!

Pie Crust

December 1, 2008 by Tiffany King 10 Comments

Making this crust is as easy as pie 😉 Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. I made two cherry pies on Thanksgiving Day to take to my in-laws the next day. They were very yummy!

Here’s what you’ll need for one crust:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup (less) solid crisco or butter
1 tsp. salt
2Tbs. + 1 tsp. water

I always use butter in my crusts and I soften it a bit. Notice that you’ll use a bit less than 1/2 cup. I use about 1 Tbs. less. If you’re making a two crust pie, don’t forget to double the recipe.

The basic directions are to cut the butter into the flour and salt. Add the water and stir with a fork until it forms a ball. Roll it out and put it in the pie pan.

Here are some pictures to go with the instructions.

Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. The above picture looks like feta cheese crumbles to me, but it’s not.

It will form a ball like this after you add the water, just keep stirring with the fork.

Roll the crust out thin on a floured surface. I use the pie plate to measure if the crust is big enough, like this:

Like the pie plate? It’s Bybee Pottery. It’s available in several shops in Kentucky, but you can buy it here. The pie plates are wonderful, as are their other products. Okay, back to our crust.

As you can see, I didn’t get the crust in there straight and was a little short on one side. No problem. I pinched off an extra piece and patched it in. Just like working with play dough!

If you’re making a single crust pie, at this point you would pinch around the edges and finish it off. Since I was making a two crust pie, that step came after I added the filling and the top crust.

The cherries were a gift from a friend. She has some awesome cherry trees in her backyard.

The filling was really hot and was making the pie crust soft. I should have cooled the filling first.

There it is before I baked it. Here it is after.

And with the left over crust scraps you can make these yummy cinnamon snacks. Roll out the scraps, spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll, cut and bake.

My husband thinks these are the reason to make a pie in the first place.

Spicy Pumpkin Pie

November 16, 2008 by Tiffany King 9 Comments

I love pumpkin pie. I will eat many pieces of it, even having it for breakfast. Pumpkin is a vegetable, right? I do like my pie spicy though and this one takes care of that.

What you’ll need:

2 eggs
1 can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 2/3 cup milk (or 12 oz can evaporated milk)
1 unbaked pie shell

Beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the sugar and then pumpkin, mixing well. Add the spices and mix until the spices are well distributed. Add the milk and mix. (I used 2/3 cup of half and half and 1 cup of milk) Pour the great smelling mixture into an unbaked pie shell. Sometime I’ll share how to make a very easy homemade crust, but I was too lazy for that this time so I used a Pillsbury refrigerated crust.

Bake the pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake another 45-50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Try not to eat it all yourself.

No Bake Cookies

November 8, 2008 by Tiffany King 20 Comments

These cookies take me back to being a little girl. I remember them like I remember cheese sandwiches on white bread with Miracle Whip and iceberg lettuce or applesauce with red hots stirred into it.

Now we make them often when we have a need for chocolate that needs to be met quickly.

What you’ll need:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
a bit of salt (the recipe says 1 tsp, but i just shake some in)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (I never measure this either, just add a big glob)
3 cups quick cook oats

Boil all the ingredients except the oats for three minutes. Add in the oatmeal and drop by teaspoons full onto wax paper. It takes them a little while to set up. I like them while they’re still glossy and a bit soft, but they are good the next day too.

Apricot Bars

October 18, 2008 by Tiffany King 3 Comments

I’ve been dying to make these since I finished licking the crumbs from the pan from my first batch. They are so buttery and yummy. What else can you expect from a Pioneer Woman recipe? Mine were still warm when I cut them and took the picture last night. I couldn’t wait until they cooled to eat one, but if you can wait, they will cut better and be neater to eat.

I really want to try these with some different jams. I think raspberry would be good, or orange marmalade, or blackberry or cherry or…. But before I can branch out to other fruits, I’ve got to polish off the pan I made last night.

Oh yeah, did I mention these are really fast and easy to make? And they would pack up great for a snack on the go.

Excuse me while I go eat another one 🙂