Strawberry Cake

My granddaughter Jossalyn turned 4 last week. She came by last weekend to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa. When she comes over I try to have some strawberries on hand. She is a
strawberry phene (is that even a word?)!

 Jossy, scarfing up strawberries at 1!

She also loves helping Grandma when she cooks. We decided to make a strawberry birthday cake together!

Cake Batter Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup strawberry jam
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons vanilla

Strawberry Filling:

3 cups strawberries, diced
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water

Strawberry Frosting:

2 sticks butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup strawberry jam
1/2 cup heavy cream
 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and lightly flour three cake pans.

Jossy loved getting her hands all buttery!

In your mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Continue mixing and add the salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add the vanilla and strawberry jam.  Continue mixing while you alternate between the flour and milk.  Divide the cake batter between the three cake pans.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, prepare the strawberry filling.  Cut your strawberries.  Add the strawberries to a saucepan and turn on medium heat.  Stir in the sugar and cornstarch.  Slowly add the water and cook until the sauce thickens.  Turn the heat off.  The strawberry filling will continue to thicken as it cools.


While the cake and the filling cools, make the frosting.  Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla, jam and cream.

When the cake and filling is completely cooled, start assembling the cake.

Decorate with strawberries

Kylie loved the cake!

Happy birthday Jossy!  We love you!

Carrot Cake

          

Carrot cake is, by far, my favorite cake ever!  I absolutely love it!  It was my job to bring dessert for Easter so I made this recipe:

Wet ingredients go into your mixer:

4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla

Sift together dry ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.

 Other ingredients to add to the batter before baking:

1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts (optional)
Grate 2 cups carrots in your food processor and add to the cake batter.

Mother Knows Best:  Before adding the raisins to the cake batter, dredge them in flour.  This way the raisins will not sink to the bottom of the cake pan.  Of course, she reminded me of this while she ate my cake with the raisins that all sank to the bottom!

Put the batter in two cake pans and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  To see if the cake is done baking stick a toothpick in the cake.  If it comes out clean it is done!

Let the cakes cool completely before frosting them.  

Frosting:

2 sticks softened butter
2, 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Put the ingredients in your mixer.  Remember, adding powdered sugar to the mixer will make "dust" go everywhere!  Use your mixer shield!

Maria, our little sous chef!

Photo bomb!

Enjoy!

Amalgamation Cake

Some of you are saying, "What?"  That is what I said too!  Last month I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with my colleague and friend, Becky Voyles.  Becky and I drove down to Florida.  We spent a lot of time in the car and I enjoyed listening to her stories, wisdom and love of her family.

I consider my life blessed to know and love Becky.  She is the most giving person I have every met-always thinking of others and trying to live her life the way God intended for her to.  She is a kind spirit and I appreciate her thoughts, opinions and I love the way she always tells me the truth.

Becky told me about a cake that her grandmother would make every Christmas-Amalgamation Cake.  Here are the ingredients:

For the cake-
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup raisins
2 cups blackberry jam
2 cups coconut
4 cups flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs, separated

For the filling-
10 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1 cup raisins, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups chopped nuts

Cake-Cream the butter and sugar together.  Beat in the egg yolks.  Add the jam, milk, raisins and coconut.  Mix.  Sift the flour, baking soda and spices.

Add that into the batter.  Whip the egg whites until they start to stiffen.  Fold that into the cake batter.

Put the batter into 5-6 cake pans, thin layers.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 13-15 minutes or until the cake comes back clean when sticking a toothpick in the center.

 While the cake is cooking start making the filling.  Pour all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook until it starts to thicken up.  It should cook up and be the consistency of jam.

Put this in between each layer.

Pour the remaining filling on the top.

OK, I know that I need to take photography classes.  This picture does not do the cake justice.  It was moist and full of flavor!

Thanks Becky for sharing this with me!

Enjoy!

Vanilla Layer Cake With Lemon Curd Filling

Cake, lemon, whipped cream.............all things I love.  Ok, if you know me, you already know that there isn't much I don't love!  Ever since I made my sister Karrie's lemon bars, I have been fascinated with lemon curd.  Check out her great lemon bars:

 I'm the cute one holding the Raggedy Ann doll, Karrie is in the middle, and little Tonette is the baby.

 Lemon Bars 

Here are the ingredients for the cake:

2 sticks butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk or cream

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder.  Add the flour, one cup at a time, alternating with the milk.


Divide the cake batter in 4-5 separate cake pans.  They will be little layers, but that is ok because this cake is like a pound cake.  You will need many layers of lemon curd to get the right balance.

Bake each layer at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let the layers cool.

To make whipped cream, add 2 cups of heavy cream with 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  Whip in the mixer.  Taste - add more sugar if you want it more sweet.

Ingredients for the lemon curd:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons lemon zest

Make sure you get the juice from fresh lemons

Mix all ingredients together and cook until slightly boiling.  Whisk constantly.  Remove from heat and let it cool.

When the cake layers and lemon curd are cool, it is time to assemble the cake.

When I made this cake I only did three layers.  I've updated the recipe 

to add more layers so that there is more lemon curd!  YUMMY!

At this point it is time to put the final layer on:  whipped cream!  

This cake is really great!  Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake With Cherry Filling and Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate...........cherries.............cake...............YUMMY!  Today, I decided that I needed to make chocolate cake, and then I remembered that I had some cherry preserves that I had canned:

Cherry Preserves on Rediscovering Lost Arts From Our Mothers

I used 2 half pints of cherry preserves.  If you do not want to make your own cherry preserves, you can buy 2 jars at the store.  Use one jar for each of the two bottom layers.  I also added a little of the preserves on the top of the cake.

To make the chocolate cake, assemble the ingredients:


2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water, boiling
1/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Assemble the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, boil the water.  When the water is boiling, turn off the heat and add the butter, cocoa, and chocolate chips.  Stir to make a chocolate sauce. 

In your mixer, add sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Mix completely.  Add 1/2 of the flour mixture, then 1/2 of the chocolate sauce.  Mix thoroughly.  Add the remaining flour and chocolate.  Mix again.

Put into 3 cake pans and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When the three cakes are finished cooking, remove from the oven and let cool.  When cool, turn the cake pans upside down to remove the cake from the pan.  Allow the cake to sit on a wire rack, cooling completely.

For the bottom layers of the cake, poke holes using a toothpick.  Take the cherry preserves and spread on the cake.

At this point it is time to make the butter cream frosting.  Here are the ingredients:

1 cup softened butter
3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk or cream

Put the butter in the mixer and cream.  Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar - don't forget the shield on your mixer or the powdered sugar will go all over the place!  Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla and milk.  If the frosting isn't the consistency you like, add more powdered sugar.

Add the top layer of the cake.  Start frosting!

This recipe is listed on Foodie Friends Friday and Totally Tasty Tuesdays
 

Cassatta

Ohhhh, just hearing this word makes me drool!  I LOVED when I would visit my Nonna and she would have made this sweet treat!

My Nonna and her sister Mary

Here are the ingredients for this delicious treat:

7 cups whole milk
2 cups sugar
1 cup corn starch
5 cinnamon sticks
1 pound cake or angel food cake
1 large Hershey's bar, shaved
1/2 jar Marashino cherries, halved
Almond extract

Heat 6 cups of the milk and sugar to the boiling point, stirring occasionally, making sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Combine the corn starch with the remaining milk.  Stir the corn starch mixture into the milk.  Stir continously, making sure it doesn't stick.  Cook until the mixture thickens and it turns glossy - 5-10 minutes.

Remove the cream from the hot pan and let it cool completely.

To assemble the cake:

Put a layer of cake down.  Brush the cake with the almond extract.  Pour 1/2 of the cream over the cake and sprinkle 1/3 of the chocolate.  Put another layer of cake down and repeat. 

Put drained marishino cherries and more chocolate on the top.

Refrigerate until ready to serve

As my Nonna would say, "Mangia!"  This recipe is featured on This Gal Cooks! and Totally Tasty Tuesdays!

Far Left:  Aunt Malutza (married to Jake Cunetto)

Aunt Mary Fantuzzo (my great aunt)

Rosalia Cunetto (my great grandmother)

Nonna!