Hot Apple Cider Cake

Mmmm...nothing like smell of hot apple cider! I was in a hurry to make something for dessert, so this was whipped up from a boxed cake mix. Nothing to be ashamed of! It tastes delicious, very moist, damp, dense and full of apple chunks! If I were to make this again, I would skip the powdered sugar icing and glaze it with (reduced) apple cider syrup.

Hot Apple Cider Cake

1 pkg. yellow or spice cake mix
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding (4-serving size)
1 3/4 c. apple cider (plain)
3 medium Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and roughly chopped)
4 eggs
1/3 c. oil
1 c. apple cider
2 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Boil 1 c. of apple cider in medium pan until it reduced to 1/4 c. about 8-10 minutes. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, reduced apple cider, the remaining 3/4 c. cider, eggs and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat on high speed 2 min.
Gently stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan.
BAKE 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Again, reduce 1 c. of cider to 1/4. c. Whisk into 2. c powdered sugar until smooth, add more cider if necessary. Drizzle over cake.

The Smell of Autumn

The house was filled with the scent of autumn today. I made this wonderful pie that is similar to one my grandmother made me when I was little. It's sort of like pecan pie, but made with raisins, walnuts and a healthy dash of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. It smells absolutely wonderful and tastes even better!

Spicy Raisin Walnut Pie

3 eggs
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 c. light or dark corn syrup
1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 c. raisins

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare pastry, beat eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, corn syrup and butter with hand beater until blended. Stir walnuts and raisins in. Pour into pastry lined pie pan and bake until set, 45 to 50 minutes.

King Size Cupcakes!

Look what I found at the store! I can't wait to try them out.....Wilton's King Size Cupcake Pan
and Liners. I saw at post at Not Martha awhile back with the cutest cupcakes. How cute would these be for a children's party?

Bread Baking Day

32 Large yeast rolls and 10 cinnamon rolls. The rolls got an egg wash before baking and the cinnamon rolls got some icing after baking. The house smelled wonderful!

Various Pics

Things I have made in the past few months:

Birthday Cake: Four Layer Midnight Cake filled with ganache, covered with Italian Meringue buttercream and topped with chocolate shavings.




Buttermilk yeast rolls from the Bread Bakers Apprentice, Variation #2.


Four layer of jaconde, soaked with coffee syrup, with alternating layers of French chocolate and coffee swiss meringue buttercream

Guinness Stout Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Almond jaconde soaked with coffee syrup, coffee-flavored swiss meringue buttercream, ganache and chopped almonds.

I really do love to bake, it's such a stress reliever. I'm not very good at presentation, but I think truly good sweets are more about taste, anyway.