When I was packing to come to Mozambique I knew I had to take some of my favorite cookbooks and recipe magazines with me. So I sat down and started looking through all my recipes and put a few books/magazines aside that I use most often. One of my favorites is the old Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazines. I found this Glazed Lemon Cakes(recipe here) inside and decided to give it a try. I loved it but when talking with a friend we were saying how much we love Almond flavor and she wondered if I could make them Glazed Almond Cakes instead. I figured why not. So here is my recipe, adapted from Martha Stewarts Glazed Lemon Cakes.

Ingredients

I don’t have all the fancy stuff most people have to make and can applesauce so I found instructions on The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen on how to make and can applesauce with what you have in your kitchen and it worked like a charm.

You will need apples, lots and lots of apples, cause a lot of apples don’t go very far. My friend has a few apple trees and she was kind enough to let me come and pick some… I think she had more than enough, so I may need to get more and make some more applesauce.

For the full instructions click here.

The instructions were super easy to follow. The most time consuming thing was peeling and coring the apples. I do not have a apple slicer, peeler, corer. I added sugar and cinnamon to my apples because they were a bit tart. Let your taste buds be the guide, you can add some at the beginning and after an hour or so taste them and see if you need more. I also left the chunks in the apples, whatever didn’t turn to mush I just left as it was.

Its my daughters birthday today and in honor of her 12th Birthday, the last year before she becomes a teenager (although she already seems like one) I am asking you to make one of these awesome recipes from my favorite baker on the internet – Joy The Baker. I love all her recipes, but check out the cupcakes, I have baked most of them and am in love with these red velvet cupcakes and cinnamon cream cheese frosting. For the Red Velvet cupcake recipe click here. The frosting recipe is below.

Others to try:

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Buttercream

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

double recipe to frost a 2 layer 9-inch cake

2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 Tablespoons butter, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, cold (I used room temperature)

scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Beat the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-slow speed until it comes together and is well mixed.

Add the cream cheese all at once and beat on medium to medium-high until incorporated.

Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes, or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.

Do not over-beat as the frosting can quickly become runny.

Happy Birthday Emily – I couldn’t ask for a better 12 year old! You amaze me!

So I am starting on a few projects at once, not sure if that’s the way to get much done but my mind has been flowing with ideas, it must be the new children’s multi vitamins that I am taking(yes I have been stealing my kids vitamins, they’re chewable and tasty, sue me).

But in the midst of all the dress revamping and apron sewing, I made some banana bread. I need sustenance to keep me going, what’s better than banana bread? Nothing, absolutely nothing, ok maybe somethings, like chocolate, but I had a bunch of over ripe bananas that needed to be made into this beautiful banana bread.

I got this recipe from a friend, Bianca, who, along with her family, owns a winery rightly named Chateau Bianca. So of course you can guess what she has added to this recipe to make it a bit better than the normal everyday banana bread.

So if you aren’t familiar with Port – here is a little helpful info: In terms of sweetness, Port wine can be very sweet, sweet, semi-dry, dry or extra dry. Port wine is often served as a dessert wine and has an above average alcohol content; ranging between 19% and 22% by volume. But as most know, when cooked the alcohol dissipates.

Continue reading for the recipe….

More on Banana Bread with Ruby Port

Recipe: Maple Sausage Scones

Ok, so this is not my normal type of post but I was so impressed with how these scones turned out. Last week while visiting Starbucks, they offered me a sample of their Maple Sausage Scones and I loved them. I decided I would have to try to find the recipe on line, I was sure someone would have made them before, but I couldn’t find one recipe for them. So I decided to try to recreate them myself.

I took my favorite scone recipe from Martha Stewart’s Food Magazine and added a few things. Here is what I came up with.

MAPLE SAUSAGE SCONES

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 5 tablespoons sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for topping
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup(plus more for tops)
• 2 breakfast sausage links with casings removed, cooked and crumbled.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together flour, 5 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/2 cup half-and-half, 2 tablespoons maple syrup until just moistened. Gently fold in crumbled sausage.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough gently, 5 to 10 times. Pat into a 1-inch-thick round. Cut into 8 wedges; place on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Brush tops with remaining maple syrup. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

These turned out great. Try them side by side with the scones from Starbucks and you will not know one from the other.