Ambrosia Cake - A Celebration of Spring!

Ambrosia means "food of the gods" in Greek and Roman mythology. In the USA, it has a much more humble history as a chilled fruit salad! Most ambrosias are made with manadrin oranges, pineapple, and coconut. This show-stopping cake is no exception, with four layers of angel food, pineapple curd, and orange and vanilla frostings.

Don't let the picture fool you... This stunning and delicious cake is super simple to make!

AMBROSIA CAKE

1/4 cup pineapple juice (I used the juice from the can of pineapple slices.)
2 large eggs + 1 yolk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch salt
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3 cups vanilla buttercream frosting (I used the cooked version here)
1 teaspoon grated zest + 2 teaspoons juice from one orange
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1 9" angel food cake (due to time constraints, I used store-bought)
2 15oz. cans mandarin orange slices, drained
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 20oz. can pineapple sliced, drained and cut into half-moons

For the pineapple curd:
Bring pineapple juice to boil, in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Whisk eggs/yolk and sugar together in a medium bowl. Whisking constantly, pur hot pineapple juice into egg mixture. Return to pan and cook, stirring constantly, until mixtures thickens. (It takes 2-3 minutes and will be VERY obvious!) Remove from heat and stir in butter and salt. Place in small bowl, cover surface directly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until thickened (at least one hour).

For the orange frosting:
Put one cup of vanilla buttercream frosting in a samll bowl. Stir in orange zet and juice.

To assemble cake:
Using a serrated knife, cut cake horizontally into four layers (don't worry... angel food cake is quite sturdy!). Place bottom layer on platter, spread with 1/2 cup of orange frosting and top with about 20-25 mandarin slices. Place next cake layer on top of orange slices and top with pineapple curd. Top with the next cake layer, spread with orange frosting and more orange slices. Finish with the top cake layer and coat top and sides of cake with vanilla buttercream. Press coconut onto frosted cake and decorate with orange and pineapple slices.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Candy Cane Cake and Tiny Gingerbread Houses!

Wow! Christmas is almost here and I've been so busy that I've not been able to do much along the lines of crafting this month. (I can't really complain, though. Kumon has been really busy, which is definately not "normal" for December!)

I was able to find time to make a "Candy Cane Cake" (Betty Crocker's recipe here) for my staff Christmas Party

I baked a Cranberry Apple Pie with Vodka Pie Crust and will be posting the recipe later this week. I also made peppermint truffles, dipped pretzels, and Fire Vodka so I guess I'm OK in the holiday cooking/baking category :-)

Wait! I'm not finished yet... Below is one of the cutest and most original Christmas ideas I've seen in ages...

Tiny gingerbread houses that sit on the rim of a cup! I know I'm out of time this year, but I am totally adding this project to next year's Christmas "must do" list! For complete instructions and a pattern, please visit Megan at NotMartha.org.

If you do make these sweet little houses (you know you want to!), please leave a comment/link so I can live vicariously through your creativity...

Merry Christmas!

~~~Anne

No-Bake Bittersweet Mocha Cheesecake Bars

BITTERSWEET MOCHA CHEESECAKE BARS
Ingredients:

For Crust-
35 chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreo)
3/4 cup bottled hot fudge topping

For Filling-
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold strong coffee (I used a sleeve of Starbucks Via Instant Coffee in 1/2 cup water)
2 bricks (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted

Directions:
1. Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil, leaving a coule inches of overhang at the narrow ends of pan.
2. Make the crust: Pulse cookies in food processor until you have fine crumbs. Heat fudge topping and add to crumbs. Pulse several times to moisten completely. Press crumb mixture into pan and freeze while making filling.
3. In a small sauepan, sprinkle gelatin over coffee. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves and mixture steams. Remove from heat.
4. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar at high speed until smooth. On low speed, beat in sour cream, the coffee mixture, and melted bittersweet chocolate until blended.
5. Pour onto crust and refrigerate for 4 hours or over night.
6. Cut into bars and garnish (chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate curls, candies...)

Makes 48 bars. Enjoy!

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

Cherry Pecan Coconut Bars

Ahhh.... I finally took a little well-deserved time off to do some basket weaving with my friends Faith, Dar, and of course, Basket Master Nancy. Nancy offered to help me figure out how to weave a "Peanut Basket turned into a Prayer Basket", for which we had no pattern. Nancy generously provided pizza for our evening of weaving, so I offered to bring dessert. I whipped up my chewy, buttery, Cherry Pecan Coconut bars for all of the ladies to enjoy. Below is my recipe...

Chewy Cherry Pecan Coconut Bars
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
Filling:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chopped pecans (but you could substitute walnuts)
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and quartered
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use Mexican vanilla)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare crust: Combine flour, powdered sugar, and butter in medium sized mixing bowl. Cut butter into flour/sugar using a pastry blender or two butter knives. Press mixture into an 8" square baking pan. Bake 18-23 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from oven.
3. Prepare filling: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. (I added the cherries last, because I was afraid the whole thing would turn pink... not that this is necessarily a bad thing!) Spoon on top of crust and spread evenly.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

5. Cool completely before cutting into bars. This recipe will make 16 bars of chewy goodness. Be careful to make them right before your event if they are a contribution to a potluck or a party. The have a tendency to disappear very quickly!

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Strawberry Tall Cake

My son Jordan graduated from high school on Monday. We are very proud of him! In honor of his graduation, we had family come into town to help us celebrate. Dessert on Sunday night was "STRAWBERRY TALL CAKE". It's an easy-to-do recipe, and the cake has quite a presence.

STRAWBERRY TALL CAKE
Ingredients:
1 box (16 oz.) angel food cake mix
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 box (3 oz.) strawberry gelatin
2 tubs (8 oz.) whipped cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup seedless strawberry preserves
2 tubs frozen whipped topping, thawed
Fruit for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 9" cake pans with parchment. (Or use a coffee filter, as I did. It worked great!)

Prepare cake mix according to directions on box, adding the vanilla extract. Divide batter evenly among the 3 cake pans. Gently tap to spread batter.

Bake 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Invert onto cooling rack and remove paper.

In bowl of electric mixer, mix gelatin and 2/3 cup boiling water until gelatin is dissolved. Add cream cheese and whip for a minute or two. If mixture is not set enough to spread, place bowl in the refrigerator or ice water bath until spreadable.

Place a cake layer on a platter. Spread with half of the preserves, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the cake.

Spread on half of the mousse mixture, add the second cake layer, and repeat.

Add top cake layer, frost with whipped topping, and chill for at least 2 hours. Garnish with fruit before serving.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

How to Make Cake Mix Cookies ~ $5.00 + 90 Minutes = 6 Dozen Cookies!

"Wife," my husband (a Realtor) said to me the other evening. "I'm having a big open house this weekend. Do you think I should serve cookies?" As wives around the world know, this translates to "Anne will be baking on Friday." I just feel grateful that he gave me a couple of days notice instead of letting me in on the secret the night before the event!

Anyway... For about $5.00 and in 1 1/2 hours, I whipped up 6 dozen cookies, and ended up with a kitchen that was cleaner than when I started my baking. Yeah, me!

I discovered "cake mix cookies" a couple of years ago. I've modified the traditional method a bit, so I'm calling this rendition "Auntie Anne's Creative Cake Mix Cookies". Below the recipe you'll see some flavor combinations I have tried (today was old-fashioned chocolate chip and "Almond Joy"), but the possibilites are only limited by your imagination :-)

"AUNTIE ANNE'S CREATIVE CAKE MIX COOKIES"

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix (any flavor)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup "stir in" (chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, etc. This is where the "creativity" occurs!)

Directions:

1. Combine cake mix, oil, eggs, flour, and vanilla in a bowl and mix thoroughly. (Mix will look greasy. It's supposed to look that way.)
2. Stir in your "stir-in".
3. Roll a rounded teaspoon sized amount of dough into a ball and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes.
5. Upon removing from oven, let cookies stand on sheet for two minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.
   
   

These are my "Almond Joy" Cookies. I used chocolate cake mix, almonds and coconut. I substituted almond extract for the vanilla.

These are "plain and simple" chocolate chip cookies. Yellow cake mix with chocolate chips.

Other flavor combinations I've tried:

• Devil's food with peanut butter chips
• Strawberry with chocolate chips
• Yellow with white chocolate chips and macademia nuts (a fan favorite!)
• Carrot cake with coconut and pecans
• Spice cake with raisins and walnuts
• Chocolate with Andes mint chips
• Cherry chip with chocolate chunks

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

CREAM PUFFS - Inexpensive, elegant, and easy!

Want to look like you spent hours making a fancy dessert? These amazing CREAM PUFFS look like a really challenging project, right? NO!!! It's a super easy, quick , inexpensive recipe that has a huge WOW factor. Here's the recipe:

ANNE'S "DON'T TELL ANYONE HOW EASY THEY ARE" CREAM PUFFS

(Makes 5-6 big puffs, but the recipe can be easily doubled.)

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup flour

dash salt

1/4 tsp. sugar

2 eggs

1 pkg. French Vanilla Jell-O Pudding, prepared and refrigerated

Powdered sugar (for decoration)

Melt butter in boiling water. Add flour, salt and sugar all at once and stir until thouroughly mixed. Cook over meduim heat, stirring constantly, until mixture forms a ball. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat with a hand-mixer until mixture is smooth.

Drop mixture in heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet, about 3" apart. (Don't worry! They'll puff when they bake!)

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes (a little less for smaller puffs). Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 15-25 minutes until puffs are golden. Check on them often, so they don't burn. Cook time depends on your oven and the size of your puffs :-)

Remove from oven, and split puffs in half. Put puffs back on cookie sheet and return to oven to dry. MAKE SURE OVEN IS OFF!!! The drying process takes about 20 minutes.
Spoon prepared filling or custard into tops and bottoms of puffs. Reassemble, and sift powdered sugar over the tops. Put on serving plate and enjoy. Easy, right? Enjoy!
Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Bittersweet Mocha Cake: A Tale of a Good Recipe Gone Bad... And Then Good, Again!

OK. We all have at least one story of a good recipe gone bad. My FLOURLESS BITTERSWEET MOCHA CAKE started out good, then took a very unfortunate turn down the "road of badness", but I was able to rescue it and guide it to "chocolate bliss"! Below is my recipe and tutorial (bad pictures and all...)
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Ingredients:
20 oz. bittersweet chocolate (5 4 oz. bars)
6 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup Kahlua (coffee liqueur), plus extra for drinking... I mean drizzling!
6 eggs, separated and at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In double boiler, over medium heat, melt 3 chocolate bars, butter, and Kahlua. Cook and stir until melted. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. In bowl of electric mixer on high speed, beat egg yolks and sugar for 3 minutes, or until light yellow and thickened. Fold in cooled chocolate mixture.
3. In separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites about 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. In batches, fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.

4. Pour batter into 9" cake pan coated with flour-based cooking spray. (Notice how full the pan is. This should have been a warning to me, but NOOOO!)

5. Bake 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

~Here's a picture of the "bad" cake I took out of the oven. Notice the burned edges rising up and over the edge of the pan. YIKES! Not at all the result I wanted.~

~Here's my cake "post surgery". Things are looking up!~

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6. Allow cake to cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, turn upside down, and allow to cool completely on cake rack.

7. If desired, brush or drizzle extra Kahlua on top and sides of cake. (This was a "must" for me, as my cake was a little dried out and a tad burned. The extra Kahlua aided tremendously in my cake's recovery process!)

8. In bowl, combine 1/2 cup boiling water and remaining chocolate. Let sit 2 minutes and stir until smooth. Let cool for 2 minutes. Pour chocolate over cake to coat.

9. Chill completely.

10. Garnish with fruit and serve This rich dessert goes great with a cup of good, strong coffee or a glass of deep port. Truly a slice of "Chocolate Heaven"!

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

How to Make 3-D Chocolate Butterfly Cake Decorations

Here's another view of my 14-LAYER CAKE from Deanna's shower. I couldn't come up with a fun decorating idea for the cake... Until I remembered reading an article about making CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLIES. I don't remember in which magazine I read about this project, but it was years ago. I knew I had to make the butterflies, but without directions, I'd just have to "wing it". (That pun deserves, at least, a snicker!)

Step 1: Melt a square or two of chocolate "bark" in the microwave. Stir until smooth.

Step 2: Cover your butterly pattern with waxed paper and trace your pattern with the melted chocolate. You can pipe it on, use a paint brush, or use the end of a skewer or chopstick. If you don't like the result, toss out the wax paper and start again :-) DO NOT TRACE THE BODY! Your end result should be two separate wings.

Step 3: Melt a couple of squares of white "bark". Make sure your outline has hardened, then fill in your white areas. Next, tint the remaining white bark with "paste" food coloring. (Do not use liquid food color. It will make the bark hard and grainy.) Fill in the remaining areas on your wings and allow to harden. It only takes a few minutes.

Step 4: Drape a sheet of waxed paper over two "wing supports" (I used tongs for the biggest butterfly and chopsticks for the smaller ones). Lay your wings on the supports so they form a "V". Pipe on your butterly body with re-melted chocolate bark. This will connect your wings. Let dry.

Step 5: Pipe out several sets of antenae. Pipe heads onto your butterfly bodies while your antenea harden.

Step 6: Lay a chopstick (or other support) near the butterfly head, add a drop or two of chocolate bark, and position your antenae. Once the butterflies harden, they are ready to use to decorate any of your edible goodies.

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For my next butterflies, I am going to try filling in the wings with a solid color (blue might be pretty!), dripping in dots of chocolate, and then cutting the dark color into the blue for a "marbled" effect. I'll let you know how it goes :-)

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Enjoy!

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne