Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean we don’t need a cheat day right? That’s why I created the perfect coconut almond pound cake…and I know you will love this recipe….
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Lemon Blueberry Cake with Pecans
Hello everyone and happy spring! Almost 2 years ago I shared a recipe for a lemon blueberry cake with walnuts that I loved. Today I wanted to do a do a do over with that recipe!
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1-2-3-4 Cake…Yellow Cake
Have you ever heard of the 1-2-3-4 cake? Recently I was at a weekend gathering and next thing we knew our friends were getting married, it was so beautiful! Meanwhile Nancy, the bride, had made the most amazing, moist yellow cake that I had ever had…ever!
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Cinnamon Cake with a Crumb Topping
What’s better than a hot cup of coffee in the morning? A slice of homemade cinnamon cake with a crumb topping to go with your morning coffee that is what is better for me :)!
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Oreo Cheesecake (Dirt Pie)
This recipe for Oreo cheesecake (dirt cake) was given to me by my cousin Nadine. We were visiting Connecticut and Nadine made this dessert as a contribution, what I mean by that is that there are about 30+ family members, a sit down traditional Italian dinner with pasta, meat (at least 2 different kinds), vegetables (at least 4-5 different vegetables) and at least 10 different desserts. Well, my daughter Kelsi loved this Oreo cheesecake so of course I asked for the recipe
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Mandarin Orange Cake with Pineapple Frosting
I have not been baking lately as my oven has not been working…I was blessed with a new oven from my landlords and was itching to bake a cake. My friend Susan came over last week and was going on and on about a mandarin orange cake that she just loved, it had pineapple, whipping cream “frosting.”
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Chocolate Fudge Cake
I wanted to end the 2015 year off with this chocolate fudge cake and ran into complications in posting the recipe…since it was such an amazing recipe I figured one last guilty indulgent before year end wouldn’t hurt, right? The chocolate cake recipe didn’t post last week and even though I know most friends are on diets from chocolate as the season has come and gone, this recipe just had to be shared as it’s pretty amazing. Here is how the post started…
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Apple Cider Cake Glaze
Here is a super easy cake involving apples and apple cider. I loved this cake as it was simple to make and making an apple cider reduction gives the cake plenty of apple flavor.
I love apple pie, apple crumble, French apple or anything apple when it comes to a dessert and yet I don’t tend to make desserts with apples. When I worked in the commercial kitchen we would experiment by making apple cakes (which was more of a batter then a crust), I just never liked the ones we would make.
For the fall, I decided I wanted to try my own version of an apple cake so I created this recipe, I did use a few other recipes as guidelines and took the best of what I read to develop this cake recipe.
The key is the reduction of the apple cider, to reduce apple cider, take a cup of cider and cook it on the stove until it becomes 1/4 cup, here is the before
and after
I used granny smith apples as they are great for baking
I shredded the peeled apples, the old fashion way using a grater, it was so much easier then pulling out the food processor
I wanted to wring out the extra moister so I placed the shredded apple in a towel and squeezed as much of the juice out that I could, do not omit this step
beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy, then add eggs, one at a time, make sure it is mixed well
In a separate bowl put “dry” ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt) and to cream add apple cider leaving the “wet” ingredients
Just like I did in my blueberry cake, alternat adding adding 1/3 of dry ingredients, mixed until blended, add 1/2 of wet ingredients and mixed it up, add another 1/3 of dry ingreditents and mix, add all of the remaining wet ingredients, mix again and end with dry ingredients
Add the shredded apple and zest from 1 lemon and mixed it by hand until everything was incorporated. Don’t worry if your apple has some discoloration to it, it won’t matter once it’s baked up.
Put in an 8×8 pan, sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar on top and baked it for about 50-55 minutes…YUM!
Now for the glaze, while the cake was baking I did the same thing with the apple cider by taking a cup and reducing it to only 2 tablespoons. I put the apple glaze in with confectioners sugar and used just slightly over 1 tablespoon of milk, if you like your glaze more runny add more milk and if you like a more thick glaze add less milk
here is a photo of the mixed glaze
Once the cake cooled off, slice your piece and drizzle some of the glaze on top (this can be optional as well)
I loved this recipe as you can see from my photo, you do not see large chunks of apple or any apple at all, just looks like a cake. The flavor of the apple is amazing, by reducing the apple cider, you intensify the flavor even more which helps bring out the apple flavor.
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If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment and if you enjoy my site, please subscribe. To subscribe, go to the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email” and input your email address.
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Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum
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Ingredients
- 1 cup Apple Cider
- 2 cups Granny Smith Apples (I used 3)
- 1/4 cup softened butter (4 tablespoons or half a stick)
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Apple Pie Spice (optional)
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Zest from a lemon
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons Sugar
- 1 cup Apple Cider
- 1 cup Confectioners’ Sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons Milk
Directions
- In a small saucepan, put 1 cup of apple cider in and reduce it to 1/4 of a cup. Set aside to cool
- Peel your apples and shred them until you have 2 cups, put them in a towel and wring them until all moisture has vanished
- In a large bowl place your butter and sugar and beat until light in color. Add your eggs, one at a time until it's well mixed, mix for about 3 minutes
- In a small bowl add your flour, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt (dry ingredients)
- In a measuring cup, measure out milk and apple cider (wet ingredients)
- With your mixer on low, alternate adding the dry ingredients first then the wet, ending with the dry until well mixed.
- Pour into your prepared 8x8 pan
- Prepare the cinnamon and sugar mixture and sprinkle that on top of your cake. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until cooked through*
- While the cake is baking, place the second cup of apple cider on the stove and reduce it down to two tablespoons make sure that it doesn’t evaporate too far.
- Place the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and add the reduced cider along with one tablespoon of milk and stir. Add more milk if you desire, but to it in small increments, this glaze should be thick but runny enough to drizzle off the end of a spoon.
- When the cake comes out of the oven, cool it to room temperature, cut into squares and drizzle a little glaze over just before serving. Enjoy
- * if you do not wring out the apples, there will be moisture and the cake could take longer to cook and may stay wet in the inside
An Italian Chocolate Almond Cake for Passover
Being an Italian Catholic, Passover was not a holiday I celebrated and the Jewish holidays were foreign to me (click here if you would like to learn more about the Passover holiday). When I was married to a Jewish man, over the past 20 years, I learned all about the the traditions and celebrations of Judaism and hosted many holidays at our house and together we created our own traditions one thing that was very important to me was to always incorporate a little Italian in all my food.
Several years ago I decided I wanted to make an amazing dessert for the Passover and found this old recipe for chocolate almond cake, it worked perfect for the celebration as there was nothing in the dessert to make it rise, it doesn’t have flour and it has chocolate (not a requirement but always welcomed for Passover). I made this dessert and it was a home run…everyone loved it!
This is not a beginner recipe, there are many steps to it and I would challenge even an entry level baker to try, if you have any issues with it, email me at Patty@MmGood.com and I would be happy to assist you for next time. I happen to love orange in my cakes or with chocolate, if you do not like orange, then you can omit it from your recipe and it will be just as tasty.
Prepare the baking pan by lining it with parchment paper, I sprayed the bottom first with oil and then I layed the parchment on top
put the almonds and 1/4 cup of sugar in a food processor
process until fine, place the processed almonds in a bowl and set aside
do the same for your chocolate chips and place in a bowl
using a mixer, beat your yolks with the remainder of the sugar and orange zest
do this until the yolks are pale
add the ground chocolate chips and almonds your mix will be very thick
whip the whites of the eggs with a pinch of salt until firm peaks (about 6 minutes)
add the whipped egg whites to the almond/yolk mixture, do this by folding the egg whites into the mixture as you are not wanting to deflate the whites
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is cook through
make your chocolate topping by melting the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it’s completely melted. When the cake is cooled off, add the chocolate to the topping
I forgot that I liked chopped nuts on my cake so here is an old photo of the cake (I gave this cake to a friend for passover and forgot to top it prior to giving it away, silly me but don’t skip this process.
This is a great recipe for anytime of the year, especially around Passover or Easter. For beginners I know it’s a lot of steps involved but go slow, try not to over mix the egg whites with the almond mixture and make sure to beat the whites until firm. I’d welcome any photos anyone wants to send me at Patty@MmGood.com. Enjoy!!!
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Thank you for visiting my site and I hope you enjoy this recipe. I do love comments so please feel free to leave me your comment or suggestion. If you would like to be kept up to date with all my new recipes, I only post twice a week, please subscribe in the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email”. You will be emailed with a link to confirm you are interested in the subscription so be sure to click on that link too.
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Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Almonds, whole, not toasted
- ¼ cup Sugar
- ¾ cup Sugar
- 5 large eggs, separated
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 cup Chocolate chips, divided
- 1 tablespoon Milk, whole
- Pinch of Salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare an 8" springform baking pan by spraying it with oil and laying parchment paper on the bottom.
- Grind the almonds in a food processor with 1/4 cup of sugar until fine and powdery, set aside. Process 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in the same processor and process until fine.
- Meanwhile, beat the yolks with 3/4 cup sugar and orange zest until thick and pale.
- Fold the ground up chocolate and almonds into the egg yolk mixture and mix until it is all incorporated.
- In a new bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form, 4-6 minutes.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the egg/almond mixture making sure not to over mix or you will deflate the batter.
- Bake 30-35 minutes, until cooked through the middle. Cool on a rack.
- Melt the remaining chocolate in the microwave with 1 tablespoon milk in 30 second intervals until it is melted and smooth, stir in between intervals, you are looking for the chocolate to reach a smooth consistency. Spread the chocolate onto the cake, decorate with a few chopped almonds and serve.
Death By Chocolate Cake
It’s the holidays and when better to splurge on eating chocolate, cakes and cookies??? That’s what New Years resolutions are all about, losing the weight from the holiday festivities. I was going to a Christmas Day party and was asked to bring a dessert, I thought I’d be original and make a chocolate cake thinking chocolate would be original. I was wrong, chocolate was the main ingredient for all the desserts, there were chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate cakes, brownies and cookies, silly me.
Nonetheless, I tried this recipe and I have to say it was very good and super easy to make. The “death by chocolate” comes from 3 different types of chocolate, chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding and chocolate chips, does it get any better than that? The recipe I found was on food.com and I did modify the recipe by the espresso powder, if you do not have expresso powder you can use instant coffee or you can just omit the coffee altogether, the coffee brings out the flavor of the chocolate, I even use it in my Red Velvet Cake (secret ingredient :))
You basically put your eggs, water, oil and sour cream in a bowl
then I creamed them until they were light in color
I added the cake mixes
mixed really good and added my chocolate chips (I folded the chocolate chips in)
I thought it would be nice in a bundt pan
I put it in the oven and baked it for about 48 minutes and here it is…YUMMY!
Do not follow the cake package instructions for this recipe as this is a modified recipe. I filled my centers with chocolate wafer cookies but for valentines, you can fill them with chocolate kisses. I’m not a huge bundt cake person but I liked how it looked…I will note changes to my next bundt cake recipe a I did learn a few things.
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Thank you for visiting my site.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment and if you enjoy my site, please subscribe to my site. To subscribe, go to the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email” and input your email address.
**In subscribing, you will be emailed a link to confirm the subscription, be sure to click on that link to activate your account.
Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum
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Ingredients
- 4 large Eggs
- 3/4 cup Sour Cream
- 1/2 cup Oil
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 small package Instant Chocolate Pudding
- 1 package Chocolate Cake Mix
- 1 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1/2 teaspoon Espresso Powder or Instant Coffee (optional)
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl add you eggs, sour cream, oil and water, beat on medium until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add your cake mix, pudding mix and espresso powder (optional). Beat on medium for 2-3 minutes are until well mixed.
- Add your chocolate chips and fold them in into the mix.
- Pour the mixture into a greased bundt pan and 45-50 minutes. Enjoy!