Lemon Cake Mix Snickerdoodles

Well, this recipe isn't from one of my mom's cookbooks - although I can't say for sure,  a few of the cookbooks do include a lot of prepackaged food recipes, and housewives of that time were no doubt looking for some way to spice up that plain old can of peas, but this isn't about peas, it's about making simple cookies. Simple soft yummy cookies!

I wanted to try this recipe for quite a while and this turned out to be the day. I had to work the 2am shift for two nights so it completely messes up my system since I'm not all geared up for it. I didn't have the motivation for anything with more than a few ingredients and wanted minimal cleanup.

You can find this recipe all over the web; the only difference is in the brand of cake mix they tell you to use.  The recipe doesn't call for vanilla, but I added a teaspoon anyways.

I had a No Name brand Lemon Cake mix so I decided to use that. Yes, No Name is an in-store brand name in Canada :) I lived in a town once that sold Beer beer too :)

Basically you get all the ingredients together and combine the sugar and cinnamon separately.  

Combine the cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of oil and 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture in large bowl. Mix until well blended. The batter will be really soft, but not sticky. It's easy to roll in your hands, but hard to make a perfect ball shape, but that's ok, the cookie dough will get flattened slightly.

Roll into 1 - 1.5" dough balls and then roll in reserved sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat.

Place on parchment covered (or greased) cookie sheet about 2" apart. Gently press down on the cookie with the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 8 - 9 minutes in a 375 F oven.  ENJOY! 

Lemon Cake Mix Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Tbsp. sugar 
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon  
• 1 package Yellow cake mix (or whatever kind you want....like Lemon or Chocolate)  
• 2 large eggs  
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease baking sheets. 
2. Blend sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; set aside. 
3. Combine cake mix, eggs, oil and 1 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar mixture in large bowl with wooden spoon until blended.
4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in remaining cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2-inches apart on prepared pans. If desired, flatten balls with bottom of a glass. 
5. Bake 8 to 9 minutes or until set. Cool cookies 1 minute on pan. Cool completely on wire rack. 
6. Baking Tip: Use a 1 to 1-1/4-inch scoop to form dough into balls. For best results, bake one baking sheet at a time. If baking two sheets together, rotate pans halfway through baking.

Date Squares revisited

Thanksgiving came and went - thankfully with no real impact to my waistline! It was a good day and evening.  We made the Turkey, vegetables, stuffing etc at my sisters house and then took it over to my moms to enjoy. It might seem like extra work, but it really did minimize any cleanup that had to be done at my mom's house and we spent our time visiting instead of slaving over dirty dishes.

A while ago I made Date Squares from the 1938 Five Roses Flour Cookbook and having no real creative motivation last week...I think I was still in a Turkey coma :)  I decided to remake the date squares using the updated Five Roses Flour recipe, plus I still had leftover dates and no real ideas on what to do with them...and I got a wee bit obsessed on crocheting headbands!

The recipes are pretty much the same with a few modifications that seem to make sense, like the removal of the baking powder and baking soda. I didn't really notice a difference in how they cooked up.

What I did notice was that the date mixture seemed drier and I had to add more water to get it to cook enough to be mushy, and...the newer recipe mentions

"Cook over medium heat until dates are soft and water is absorbed. Add vanilla and let cool."

But no where in the recipe does it mention vanilla as an ingredient, so I didn't add it in.

In the newer cookbook they have the Orange Date filling as a variation of the basic one, so I included both below. I chose the Orange Date filling to make since it more closely resembled the 1938 recipe.

Out of both recipes, I think I prefer the newer variation better. It just seemed more substantial and the bars were less thin. I guess it depends on if you like a thicker date middle, but flavourwise, I don't think there was much difference at all. 


Date Shortbread (Matrimony Cake)
Five Roses Flour Cook Book - 1970? (page 122)

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4  1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2  cups old fashioned oatmeal

• 500 g pitted dates
• 3/4 cup hotwater
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine dry ingredients together
2. Rub in butter with the tips of your fingers
3. Spread half the mixture in a greased shallow pan (about 8 X 14 inches) and pat to make smooth.
4. Cover with cooled Date Filling, spreading it evenly, then cover with remaining crumbs, pat to make smooth.
5. Bake at 375F for 30 - 35 minutes.
6. Increase heat slightly and bake for a few minutes longer to lightly brown the mixture.
7. Cut in squares while warm and allow the shortbread to cool in the pan.

VARIATION
Orange Date Filling
Five Roses Flour Cook Book - 1970? (page 122)

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 lb  1 lb chopped dates (500 g)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 tbsp 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Grated rind of 1/2 orange
• 2 tbsp 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook dates, water, orange rind, and sugar in a small saucepan, over a moderate heat until thick and smooth
2. Remove from heat and let cool

Cranberry Tarts for Thanksgiving

This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. Mmmmm Turkey, stuffing, veggies and homemade cranberry sauce...and of course dessert. I'm not overly excited for pumpkin pie, so I decided to make something that still would blend in nicely with the holiday.

My mom and aunt made tarts when my aunt was here visiting this summer and my mom talks about them quite often. They used a recipe for Cranberry Meringue Pie from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic cookbook, but without the Meringue. Right next to that recipe is a similar recipe for Cranberry Pie, so I'm not sure why they didn't use that one instead. I'll have to ask when I'm over there on Sunday.

I cheated a wee bit and used pre-made pastry shells for the base and used extra shells to make the pastry decorations. I think it would of been easier to get the dough out of the shell when they were frozen...it's way too soft and fragile trying to get it out in a less than frozen state. Just sayin'.

It's a pretty easy recipe to follow but it takes a little bit of time to wait for all the cranberries to pop and also for the final cooking part. Just a wee bit of standing around.

I doubled the recipe, which made about 60 tarts. The recipe (as it's written below) says it makes 1 9" pie, so I wasn't sure what that equaled out to in tarts, so to be safe I doubled it. More to share!

After dissolving the sugar in 1.5 cups of the water, I added in the cranberries and let it cook down for a while on medium heat. A bit more than a simmer, but not a boil, so I could walk away from the stove without things burning.  I could hear the cranberries popping!

After cooking so that most of the cranberries had burst, I tempered the egg, butter, water, salt, cornstarch mixture with some of the hot cranberry mix, and then while stirring the cranberries on the stove, I slowly poured the tempered egg mix in. Please don't scramble the eggs...please don't scramble the eggs...please don't scramble the eggs...hahah, that was what I was thinking in my head. It was scary to think it all could go wrong in an instant.

Phew!

At this point you let it cook until it turns clear and thickens up. I had the stove on medium-low (closer to medium) and it was taking quite a while to clear up, but it was getting less cloudy and thick. After about 20 minutes I had enough and to me it looked great..and goopy!

I put the cranberry filling in the tart shells using a soup spoon. Yes, I know, I need to learn to do this more neatly...or you might be nice and think that the below picture isn't too bad, but well...this was the cleanest looking set of tarts I had :)

I added on cutouts of acorns, hearts, and baby hearts.  Wala! Off to the oven.

I poked little holes in the tops of the acorns to give them a more acorny look. My sis thought it was cute :)  I'm not sure how people make nice clean looking tarts that don't bubble up and over. These ones weren't overly full and they sank down quite a bit once I brought them out of the oven. Guess I'll have to google that..

But messy or not, they are yummy. They are sweet and tart...and sticky! Sure, it's sad when a few tarts stick together, but there is a way to fix it...put them in your belly so no one sees them!

Cranberry Tarts
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook - 1950 (pg 572)



INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups cranberries
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• 2 egg yolks, beaten

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook sugar and 3/4 cup water until sugar is dissolved.
2. Add cranberries and cook until they stop popping.
3. Combine cornstarch, remaining water, salt, butter, and egg yolks and add a small amount of cranberries. 
4. Mix thoroughly, add to remaining cranberries and cook until thickened and clear. 
5. Pour into pastry shell, cover with meringue and proceed as directed.

Or in my case, pour into a bunch of tart shells.

The recipe for butter pecan tarts says to bake at 325 F for 20 - 25 minute, so that's what I did. 

Banbury Cakes are my one weakness!

I've just finished watching the BBC TV series Lark Rise To Candleford a second time. This time with my sister and we just finished the last episode on Sunday night. It's a nice British period piece, if you are into those. Some laughs, some tears, and some characters who get annoying to listen to after a time :)
 

"It's my one weakness", is a favorite saying of Dorcas Lane of the Candleford Post Office and Banbury Cakes just happens to be one of her weaknesses. Technically she has a lot of weaknesses, like milk baths and cashmere, but they don't happen to be something I can bake.

I was going to make Butter or Pecan Tarts this week, so imagine my excitement to come across a recipe for Banbury Cakes in my moms cookbook...and...to see that it's not a cake either, it's more of a fruit pastry made with currants (hahah, I thought it was a strange English countryside berry..banberry, not an English countryside place!).  I've never heard of this pastry before the TV series so I did a quick check online to see if the recipe in the 1938 Five Roses cookbook was somewhat similar to what Dorcas Lane might be been talking about in 19th century England, and it seemed to be so, so off to store to get the ingredients.

The lady at the checkout asked me if I was making a Christmas cake because I had all the fruity makings for one. I explained I was making Banbury cakes to which she just looked at me funny but the guy behind me in line asked me if I had ever been to Banbury or Oxfordshire because he grew up on Banbury cakes! I am more amazed every day how small the world is!

Anyone know the odds of a guy from England standing behind me in a grocery store in a town of 4000 people, who grew up on the not-a-berry-not-a-real-cake Banbury Cakes I was going to make after I stumbled across the recipe which I only knew about because I just watched a tv show that mentioned it???

Anyone??? I think very high odds..like winning the lottery odds :)

The filling for the Banbury Cakes is simple enough. I actually doubled the recipe - I wish I hadn't, because it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is! I tripled the pastry recipe and I still have a cup of the Banbury mixture left over!  Banbury Cakes are made with mixed peel and Currants. And, I just learned (by reading the package of currants) that they need to be put in the fridge after opening, odd - they look like tiny raisins.

I beat the butter... hahaha, mashed it about with a spatula is what I should of said...since it seemed a huge waste to try to use a mixer/blender for 4 tablespoons of butter. Then added the sugar and eggs.

The recipe calls for a few grains of allspice. Umm...no, I gave it a pinch since I had doubled the recipe after all and seriously...a few grains, the stuff looks like powder!

I then tossed in all the rest of the ingredients. It looks so pretty and festive! I had no clue what kind of crumbs to use, so I decided on a mixture of graham cracker crumbs and regular Premium Plus soda crackers. Also, my local store doesn't carry 'mixed peel' so I used citron peel and a bit of mixed fruit glace.

Stir it all together. From pretty to pretty ugly in 2.5 seconds!

I let that sit while I made up the pastry dough (there will be plenty of time for writing about that - just not today).

From what I saw online, Banbury cakes look more free form or at least like a big perogy where the dough is cut in a circle and folded over, but the recipe I have called for a round to be placed on a round and then sealed, so that's what I did :)  Follower of directions, that's me...somewhat, ha!

I tried a few methods, first with the two rounds being the same size and then with the top round being a bit larger. I prefer the rounds being different sizes. With the top one being a bit larger, it folds around the filling better.  I have a dollar store set of stacking round cookie cutters, so it was easy since they all go up in size.

I cut little slits in the top before baking and brushed with milk. Half of them I forgot to sprinkle sugar on, but I think they still turned out pretty.

Banbury Cake
Five Roses Cook Book - 1938 (pg 144)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped mixed peel
• 1 egg
• 1 oz cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cup currants
• few grains of allspice
• Pastry

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat butter to a cream, add sugar, then add well-beaten egg.  
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. 
3. Cut rounds of rich pastry and place spoonfuls of this mixture in the centre of half of them; moisten edges, cover with a second round of pastry. Seal edges carefully.
4. Brush over with milk, prick tops, sprinkle with fine sugar, and bake in a hot oven (425 F) for 15 minutes.

Standard Plain Pastry
Five Roses Cook Book - 1938 (pg 135)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups FIVE ROSES flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup ice cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Mix in shortening with tips of fingers or two knives.
3. Add the water, a little at a time, using just enough to bind the mixture.
4. Collect all the moistened particles into a ball of dough.
5. With as little handling as possible, form dough into a round disk.
6. Place disk on slightly floured board. 
7. The dough should be soft enough not to break when it is rolled; it should be stiff enough not to stick to a lightly floured board.
8. Handle the pastry as lightly as possible. Kneading will toughen it.
9. Roll the dough from the center outward - always rolling wiht a light even pressure, to a thickness of 1/8 to 1/4 inch.
10. Line pie plates, tart shells, etc., and bake as directed.

Note: Enough pastry for 1 two-crust pie of average size, or 1 pie-shell and 6 tarts.
For a richer pastry, increase the amount of shortening to 2/3 cup. The amount of water required will depend on the type of shortening used.

Moms Swirl Squares

I'm not sure if I've ever had these before, I mean I think I have, but I don't think I've had this particular recipe or even had Swirl Squares that my mom might have made, but... she has it handwritten down in her scribbler, so it was worth trying :)

Going in to making these, I had no clue what they would turn out like. But after seeing them out of the oven, these are chocolate chip cookies baked in a pan ...and a lot easier to make!

I added a 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup of butter to the mixer and let it go while I got the flour, baking soda, and salt ready.

Once the sugar, butter, and egg mixture was mixed well, I stirred in the flour mixture and then the nuts. I was expecting a batter, but it was really thick. I was really thinking I did something wrong. I checked online for other recipes to see if I was missing a liquid, but I wasn't.  So don't be surprised when it's like a cookie dough!

I pressed it down in to a greased baking pan and dropped the square baking chunks that I had leftover on to the top.  The recipe says to bake for 1 -2 minutes to melt them, but I went for 4 minutes before taking them out of the oven.

Even at 4 minutes they weren't completely melted, but I did my swirling with the knife anyways. I have to say I was a bit concerned with the thickness of the dough and swirling the chocolate through it. I really felt like it would stay all mangled looking and not soften or even out!

I was happy when it came out of the oven looking half decent! But would it be dry and crunchy like toast or grainy or or or... my experience with marbled or swirled desserts has been mostly limited to cake or cheesecake, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out it was basically a giant square cookie.

I had frozen the leftover Nutella Frosting that I used on the Fudge Four O'Clocks, so after a bit of defrosting, I used it on the Swirl Squares.  YUM!

Notes on the recipe:

My mom's recipe has a bit of a glitch in it. She's got an additional measure that isn't tied to anything.

3/4 cup   1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar

But, it seems like her recipe is half of a Five Roses recipe, somewhat. The Five roses calls for 1 cup brown sugar CHECK! 1/2 cup of white sugar...WAIT! That doesn't add up, but if I cut it in half it's 1/4 cup and if I add it to the half of brown sugar then it equals the 3/4 cup...hrmm..what to do?... I really do think this is the Five Roses recipe from online.

I decided on the 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup white. It doesn't seem overly sweet to me, but try it out for yourself :)

Swirl Squares
The recipe and instructions are how she wrote it out.
 
INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3/4 cup   1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/8 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl measure butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. 
2. Beat until blended
3. Stir in flour, soda, salt, and nuts
4. Spread in a 9X9 inch greased pan
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top
6. Bake 375 F for 1 - 2 minutes until chocolate chips are soft enough to marble.
7. Run knife through batter
8. Bake 20 minutes more.

Rustic Apple Pie

It's been a busy few days. I decided to hop in my truck and drive 8 hours to visit family and friends. The drive through the mountains would of been beautiful, but it was a rainy day and the clouds/fog pretty much covered all the views.  Wasn't worth stopping to take pictures, blek! :(. Hopefully the drive back will be spectacular! I'll let you know next week. :)

So, realizing that I haven't made anything for over a week, I let my granddaughter decide what to make. Haha, yes, I had the foresight to pack a few of the cookbooks with me :) She chose apple pie since they had a whole bunch of crab apples, but they didn't have shortening. So...off to the store ...

The kids helped me make the pie and it wasn't until it was finished that I remembered I should be taking pictures...ahh, well...I did get a picture of the finished pie...so that is something!  I call it 'Rustic Apple Pie' - even with the mixed up weave of the pastry strips, it still turned out pretty enough to make the kids proud :)  And it tasted great too - thankfully, since I got a bit worried that the crab apples might be a bit too tart!

I followed the instructions as posted, except I found there really wasn't enough liquid in the pastry to have it hold together so I added probably about 2 more teaspoons of water, and it was VERY thin when rolling out, but that was me....I should of paid more attention, I don't think the recipe for SWEET PASTRY was meant to be for a double crust, so after separating the dough into two balls,  I cut the second ball in to strips to cover the top.  

Everyone liked the pie and it was simple enough to make, and I think fairly foolproof.  So for that reason I would probably make it again (but double the sweet pastry recipe for a bottom and top crust).

Sweet Pastry 
Rich and sweet for fancy tarts
Robin Hood Flour Cook Book - 1947  (pg 90)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup sifted Robin Hood Flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp shortening
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift together flour and salt into mixing bowl.
2. Add sugar and mix well.
3. Cut butter and shortening into small pieces and add to flour mixture.
4. Blend together thoroughly, using pastry blender (or two knives, cutting in with scissor-like motion). Butter and shortening should be well blended into mixture.
5. Beat egg yolk slightly.
6. Add lemon juice and water.
7. Add a little at a time to the flour mixture, blending in lightly with a fork.
8. When adding liquid, drop it here and there over the mixture so it will be better distributed. Mixture will be crumbly.
9. Turn out on to lightly floured bakeboard or pastry cloth and press together into ball.
10. Knead for 15 seconds (turn dough over 4 or 5 times)

Apple Pie 
First choice - with all the family 
Robin Hood Flour Cook Book -  1947 (pg 95)

INGREDIENTS

(For Eight-inch Pie)

• 4 1/2 cups thinly sliced apples
• 1/2 to 3/4  cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp butter

For Nine-inch Pie

• 6 cups thinly sliced apples
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare pasty as in General Directions for Two-Crust Pies (page 94)
2. Wipe, quarter, core, peel, and slice apples, then measure
3. Combine sugar and cinnamon (amount of sugar depends on tartness of apples)
4. Arrange apple in layers in pastry-lined pie plate.
5. Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon.
6. Dot top layer with small pieces of butter.
7. Cover with top crust
8. Place pie on lowest rack in oven preheated to 450 F (very hot oven)
9. Bake 10 minutes and then reduce oven temperature to 350 F (moderate oven) and bake for 30 - 35 minutes longer.
10. Serve warm or cold.

Note: I didn't make the Two-Crust Pie Pastry, so I ignored Step 1 - General Directions for Two-Crust Pies (page 94) But I will post them at some point :)

The best and yummiest Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I can't say I love Carrot Cake. In most cases I avoid it and choose something else. It's always hit and miss and I don't want to take the chance of biting in to gummy undercooked cake, slimy carrots, or shredded carrot bits that are just too long and stringy - the kind that you pull from the cake like hair stuck in a shower drain. Blek! I would rather gnaw my arm off, seriously! I have issues with finding any hair in my food! I became a vegetarian for a couple years because of hair and a Wendy's hamburger!...But that's a different story and not about this carrot cake.

The carrot cake my sister (sis #2) makes is amazing. I'm not sure why, but it's very vanilla-ie, hahaha...it has a great vanilla flavour is what I'm trying to say :) or maybe it's just that the smell makes it seem like it has been infused with vanilla.  The cake has an amazing 'rightness' to it. The right taste, the right texture, the right smell, the right sweetness, and the right size of shredded carrots.  And whomever decided that cream cheese icing goes with Carrot Cake was a darn genius!

This time around, I figured I would make it myself, using the recipe my sister uses from the Five Roses Flour Cook Book and I wasn't disappointed, nope, not at all. The only thing better than this cake - is if she had made it for me :)

I started off by chopping the nuts (I used walnuts) and shredding the carrots. I just used a carrot peeler and did small strokes at the end of the carrot until the carrot was completely shredded and in the bowl. It took about 4 - 5 medium sized carrots to make 3 cups.

Once I had the carrots and nuts done, I dumped all the wet ingredients plus the sugar into the mixing bowl and turned it on. The recipe says to let it go for 5 minutes, so while that was spinning around, I got the dry ingredients ready and greased the 9 X 13 baking pan.

Next up was to toss the carrots and nuts in with the wet ingredients and give it a whirl.  

Add the flour. I just dumped all of it in at once and gave it a quick mix.

This seriously looks like barf and reminds me of the Rinktum Ditty I made. Pinky orange is NOT a good look for food. Hahah, are you sold on making this yet? Hair and Barf - what the heck will I say about food I hate??

So, take your yummy looking pinky orange mixture and dump it into a greased 9X13 pan. It really needs to be this big of a pan, or two 8X8's or something (24 muffins perhaps). It ends up making a lot of cake. I got 24 large 'forget about the diet' sized pieces out of this.

 Bake at 350 F for 55 - 60 minutes and then let cool on a rack.

While baking, throw your cream cheese ingredients into the blender and cream together.  I made a double batch because....

1. a regular package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese is 8 oz, not 4, and what am I going to do with 1/2 a brick of cream cheese? I guess I could freeze it...nah...
2. I think the cake is better with the double recipe. It's a nice yummy amount  - not too much...and definitely not too little :)

 Once the cake has nicely cooled, slather it with the cream cheese icing. YUM!

Cut into the non diet friendly servings and enjoy!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Five Roses Flour Cook Book - 1970? (pg 94)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1⁄2 cups Five Roses flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped nuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven
2. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together.
3. In the large electric mixer bowl combine oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla; beat until light, about 5 minutes.
4. Blend in carrots and nuts.
5. Blend in dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time.
6. Pour batter into greased and floured pan
7. Bake in a moderate oven until top springs back when lightly pressed with fingertips.
8. Let cake stand in pan 10 minutes before removing. 
9. Cool completely on rack.
10. Frost with cream cheese frosting

Rectangular cake pan: 22 cm X 33 cm (9" X 13")
Temperature: 180 C (350 F)
Cooking Time: 55 to 60 minutes
Yield: 1 large cake

CREAM CHEESE ICING (single recipe as shown in book)

Five Roses Flour Cook Book - 1970? (pg 102 )

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1⁄2 cups icing sugar
• 1⁄2 cup butter (softened)
• 1 – 4 oz pkg cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together
2. Add in vanilla
3. Beat in icing sugar

Yield: 500 mL (2 cups)

Nut Coffee Cake with Blueberries

There seems to be a lot of blueberries for sale, everywhere! And all at a fairly good price. Between me and my sister, I think we collected more than we really need, so besides freezing them,  I used about a pound to top up the amount of fruit I needed when making cherry jam... I guess it's Cherry Blueberry Jam now. I hope it tastes great!..hope hope and more hope.. even if it's not great, I hope at least edible and somewhat yummy! Jam is a funny thing, you can't really know for sure if it all worked until it's done..  *sigh*... ok..ok, less about jam and more other blueberry stuff! Although...runny jam is great on ice cream!

I love coffee cake, especially when having coffee. It seems like such a civilized thing to do. Like afternoon tea with dainty teacups. But coffee cake and coffee feels more rustic and down to earth. More like a friendly visit with girlfriends instead of a snooty affair. Apologies to afternoon tea drinking / cucumber sandwich eating folks :)

I took this one over to my mom....minus a TINY slice...Thankfully I had better self control than I did when I made the Sally Lunn!  It was yummy, although very cake like and not as dense as I envision coffee cake to be.

I basically followed the recipe as is with the exception of 1 or 2 things.  Ok, 3 things if I'm being honest.

I didn't read 'square pan' until I had already poured the batter into the Bundt Pan. And, well, I kind of decided that I didn't want to only use half the topping, nor did I want to put the topping and blueberries on top - so I followed the basic recipe and just added blueberries along with the first layer of topping in the middle of the batter.

It doesn't mention it in the recipe, but I usually dust fruit with flour before adding them into the batter. So I did that too.

I did have a bit of concern when I put the final bit of topping on. I thought to myself, "How the heck is this going to work...the cake gets flipped, so this is really the bottom", that's when I read 'square pan', which makes more sense based on the directions! 

There wasn't anything else to do, but put it in the oven and hope for the best. And..well, it worked out great! The blueberries and nuts sunk in to the batter a bit while cooking, so it didn't leave a weird sticky mess on the bottom when I flipped it over  :) Yay! I won!

I let it cool for the 10 - 15 minutes they recommend and then flipped it out onto a plate.

I wanted to pretty it up, so I lightly sprinkled it with icing sugar.

I took some pictures, and then off to my mom's house, cake in hand :)  Hahah, they didn't wait long to try it, since when I asked how she liked it later on that day, she said she liked it and that it was still warm when she tried it :)


Nut Coffee Cake with Blueberries
Five Roses Flour Cook Book  - 1970?  (pg 37)

Topping

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp butter or margarine

DIRECTIONS 

Combine brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is the size of large peas.

Batter (Basic Recipe)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/4 cup Five Roses All Purpose Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp shortening
• 1 egg - beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In another bowl, cream together sugar and shortening until smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until mixture is light.
4. Gradually stir in dry ingredients alternatively with milk.
5. Spread half of the batter into greased pan. 
6. Sprinkle half of topping on top.
7. Cover with remaining batter and sprinkle with remaining topping.
8. Bake in a moderate oven.
9. Allow cake to sit at room temperature in pan on rack 10 -15 minutes.
10. Cut pieces from pan and serve warm.

Square Pan: 20 cm (8")
Temperature: 180 C (350 F)
Cooking Time: 30 - 40 minutes
Yield: 1 coffee cake

Variations: Blueberries

• 1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, not thawed

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare only half of the topping.
2. Spread batter in greased mould.
3. Arrange blueberries on top and sprinkle with topping

Mom's Jelly Roll

I wanted to make a Jelly Roll or something since I have a bunch of homemade blueberry and raspberry jam sitting around, and since I haven't made any of my moms recipes, I figured this would be a good recipe to test out since I knew she had one written down.

This recipe comes from the little blue exercise book.

I wasn't sure I would be able to make it since it's really hard to decipher, but I worked it out. Well, I think I did :)

I wrote out everything I could understand, checked which ingredients were in the instructions and vice versa and then put it all together.  The only ingredient I'm unsure of is the lemon zest...or whatever it is, because I can't find it in the instructions and there is no mention of some other ingredient that I am missing from the list.  Also, for the second sugar on the list, I'm guessing icing sugar to decorate the top with, although I have seen some jelly roll recipes where they sprinkle it over the jam before rolling also.

What I love about this, is that my mom tried to figure it out again too! She copied over some of the faded writing, but then left off.


So, off to the market for the ingredients...a stick of butter, a container of milk, a loaf of bread... for those of you who remember sesame street.

Once all the ingredients are collected. Mix all the dry ingredients together. I added the lemon zest to the flour, stirred it all up to combine and let it sit while I moved on to the eggs.

Separate the 3 eggs - whites and yolks.  Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold in 1/2 cup of sugar.

Mix the yolks and cold water together and then add in 14 cup of sugar and mix until foamy.

Fold the yolk mix in to the whites

Once that's all done, gently fold in the flour.  On a greased pan with a greased parchment - spread out the batter. It's bubbly feeling and looking, very much like pancake batter. At first I thought it wouldn't spread, but it puffs up and fills in the thinner spots.  It still needs to be spread evenly or it will get crispy in spots when it cooks.

My mom's instructions don't give any information on what to do once cooked and there were two different trains of thought in other recipes I looked at.  I chose option 1 listed below, but I think option 2 would of worked just as well... since I was only using jam. If I was using whipped cream or something that would melt, then option 1 for sure.

1. Once out of the oven, cut off crispy edges and then roll in a clean towel until cooled. Once cooled, unroll, and spread with jam
2. Once out of the oven, cut off crispy edges, spread with jam, and then roll while still warm.

Having chosen option 1, once it cooled, I unrolled it and spread with blueberry jam.

Roll up lengthwise, placing open edge down and garnish.

All that's left is to bring the Jelly Roll to mom.


Mom's Jelly Roll
The recipe and instructions are how she wrote it out.

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest*
• sugar*
• 3/4 cup jelly

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift together flour, b.powder, and salt
2. Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually fold in 1/2 cup sugar.
3. Mix egg yolks with water. Add in 1/4 cup sugar and beat until foamy.
4. Fold egg yolk mix into egg white.
5. Fold in flour mix.
6. Bake 25 minutes @ 350 F