Americana Peanut Cheesecake

12 Servings

3/4 c Chopped roasted peanuts,div
2 T Chopped roasted peanuts,div
1 c Graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c Butter (or margarine),melted
2/3 c Creamy peanut butter
4 pk (3 ounces each) cream cheese
-softened
1 cn (14 ozs) sweetened condensed
1/3 c Lemon juice
1 t Vanilla extract
1 pk (4 ozs) whipped toppi,Frozen
-thawed

In small bowl, combine 3/4 cup chopped peanuts, graham cracker crumbs and melted butter; mix well. Press crumb mixture into bototom and 1″ up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Refrigerate crust 20 minutes or until set. In large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat softened cream cheese and peanut butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk and mix well. Add lemon juice and vanilla; blend well. Fold in whipped topping. Pour mixture into prepared crust; garnish top with remaining 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours, or until well chilled.

Be Mine Buttermilk Cake

-Truffle Cream
8 oz Bittersweet (not unsweetened or semisweet) chocolate,chopped
1/3 c Whipping cream
2 T butter,Unsalted room temperature
1/4 c Chambord (or other berry liquid)(such as creme de cassis)
-Cake
1 3/4 c All-purpose flour
2 t Baking powder
1/2 t Baking soda
1/2 t Salt
3/4 c Sugar
1/2 c (1 stick) butter,Unsalted room temperature
4 Large egg yolks
1 c Buttermilk
-Glaze
6 oz Bittersweet (not unsweetened or semisweet chocolate)
1/4 c Unsalted butter,cut into small pieces
1/4 c Light corn syrup
1/4 c Chambord (or other berry liquid)-Fresh raspberries (or strawberries)

For Truffle Cream: Stir chocolate cream and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until chocolate and butter meld and mixture is smooth. Mix in Chambord. Let stand at room temperature till very thick and spreadable, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.

For Cake: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter 9-inch heart-shaped pan with 1-1/4-inch-high sides. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer at high speed, beat sugar and butter in large bowl till fluffy. Add yolks 1 at a time, beating just to combine after each addition. Using rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake till tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 mins. Turn out cake onto rack and cool. Cut cake horizontally in half. Place botttom layer of cake on plate. Spread truffle cream over. Arrange top layer over and press gently to adhere. Using spatula, smooth cream on sides of cake if necessary. Chill until set, at least 1 hour.

For Glaze: Stir chocolate and butter in heavy med. saucepan over lo heat till melted & smooth Remove from heat. Add corn syrup and liqueur & whisk till smooth. Let glaze stand till slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Place cake on rack set over baking sheet or large piece of foil. Pour glaze over cake, coating completely. Chill cake on rack till glaze is set, about 30 mins. Transfer cake to platter.

Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome & chill. (Bring to room temp before serving.)

Blarney Stones

6 Servings

4 Eggs
2 c Sugar
1/2 t Salt
2 t Vanilla
2 T Butter
1 c Milk,hot
2 c Cake flour
2 t Baking powder
Icing
Powdered sugar
Milk
Peanuts (or pecans)
– fine (or ground),Chopped

Melt butter in hot milk. Beat the eggs with a rotary
beater until light; beat in sugar, salt, vanilla and
butter mixture.

Sift flour and baking powder together; beat in quickly. Pour into a greased 13×9″ pan.

Pound the pan several times to remove any air bubbles. Bake
for 25-35 minutes at 350.

Cool the cake and cut in 4×1″ pieces. Cover all sides with icing made of powdered sugar and milk to your desired consistency.

Roll in nuts of choice.

Carole’s Christmas Cake

6 Servings

6 Eggs
1 c Of sugar
1/2 lb butter,Melted
1 c Of flour
1 t Of vanilla
Fruit stuff
1/2 c Of flour
1 lb Candied cherries
1 lb Candied pineapple
4 c Of pecans,Chopped

Batter: Mix batter items together. Flour the fruit stuff items.
Place the fruit stuff into a greased Angel Food cake pan
Pour the batter over the fruit stuff. Bake at 300 degrees until done
(about 1 1/2 hour.

For a cupcake version: Bake 15 minutes at 300 degrees, brush on Honey. Continue to bake for 15-30 minutes more. (use two cupcake papers per serving.)

With the cake freshly removed, I use a hypo and inject with one shot of the following: Rum Amaretto (Almond flavor) Triple Sec (Orange) Gran Marnier (Orange)

Make these a month or so early. Wrap in Saran Wrap place in refrig.

Bring back to room temp, before serving.

Cheesecake With Cranberry Jewel Topping

1 1/2 c Vanilla wafers, crushed
1/4 c Sugar
6 T Butter, melted

FILLING
========================
1/2 c Whipping cream
1 pk Vanilla powder
1 1/2 lb Cream cheese, room temp.
1 c Sugar
1 pn Salt
4 lg Eggs

TOPPING
========================
12 oz Fresh (or cranberries)
-Frozen
3/4 c Sugar
1/2 c Cranberry juice concentrate
1/4 c Water

Preheat oven to 350 F.

CRUST: Wrap the bottom and outsides of 9-inch springform pan with aluminum foil. Lightly butter inside of pan and set aside.

Combine cookie crumbs, sugar and butter. Press mixture onto bottom and halfway up sides of prepared springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes on center rack of preheated oven. Set aside, but do not turn off oven.

FILLING: Using electric mixer, blend together all ingredients. Add eggs and mix just until well-combined. Pour filling into prepared crust.

Bake until center is just set, about 50 minutes. Refrigerate cake immediately, and leave until thoroughly chilled (at least 6 hours or overnight).

TOPPING: Combine all ingredients in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve set over a lage bowl, pressing firmly with the back of a spoon to force as much of the liquid through sieve as possible. Spoon warm topping evenly
over cold cake. Refrigerate until topping is set, at least 2 hours.

(Can be prepared 1 day before serving. Store covered in
refrigerator.)

To serve, pipe rosettes of whipped cream around edges of cake.

Garnish with whole cranberries.

Chocolate Wreath Cake

12 Servings

3 c All-purpose flour
1 T Baking powder
1 T Baking soda
1 1/2 t Salt
3 c Sugar
3 c Water
6 oz Semisweet chocolate
-finely,Chopped
1 lb Unsalted butter,softened
3 Large eggs,lightly beaten
2 1/4 c Confectioners’ sugar
1/2 t Vanilla extract
-Few drops green food colori
Fresh raspberries,dried
-cranberries,or cherries,
-for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan with a non-removable bottom.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium pot, combine the sugar and water and bring them to a boil.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the chocolate and 1 stick of butter. When the chocolate and butter have completely melted, whisk the mixture to combine completely. Whisk in the beaten eggs.

Pour about half the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk vigorously to thoroughly combine the ingredients and remove any lumps. Working quickly, add the remaining chocolate mixture and whisk to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

In a medium bowl, cream together the remaining 3 sticks of butter and the confectioners’ sugar, until light and fluffy.

Remove 1/3 cup of the icing, place in a small bowl, and color
it with a few drops of the green food coloring. Put the remaining icing in a pot, add the vanilla.

Over low heat, stir the icing until it becomes a pourable consistency. (If it overheats, causing the butter to separate, put the icing in the refrigerator to chill and stir to bring it back together.)

Pour the icing over the cooled cake so that it drips down the center and outside. Cluster the red berries in groups of 3 on top of the cake. Fill the green icing into a pastry bag fitted with a leaf tip and pipe a few leaves around each cluster of berries.

Serves 12 to 16.

Chocolate-Pumpkin Layer Cake With Brown-Sugar Frosting

12 Servings

2 3/4 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Cocoa powder
1 T Pumpkin-pie spice
2 t Baking powder
1 t Baking soda
1 c Butter (or margarine),at
-room
-temperature
2 c Granulated sugar
4 lg Eggs,at room temperature
1 cn (16 ounces) solid-pack
-pumpkin
1/2 c Milk
2 t Vanilla extract

Timing Tip: Can be stored at room temperature up to 5 days.

Cake

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed paper.

2.CAKE: Mix flour, cocoa powder spice, baking powder and baking soda.

3. Beat butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture looks like mayonnaise.

4. With mixer on low speed, beat in pumpkin, milk and vanilla (mixture will look curdled). Gradually beat in flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula 2 or 3 times.

5. Divide batter between prepared pans. Smooth tops. Bake 40 to 45 minutes until pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool in pans on wire rack 10 minutes. Run knife around cakes to loosen. Invert on wire rack, remove pans, peel off waxed paper and let cakes cool completely.

7. FROSTING: Put brown sugar, butter and milk in a medium-size saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Stir until butter melts, sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth.

8. Using a hand-held electric mixer gradually beat confectioners’ sugar and extract into hot mixture. Or
pour hot mixture into a bowl and beat in sugar and extract with a stand mixture.

9. Immediately place 1 cake layer upside-down on
serving plate. Spread with warm frosting (if frosting cools it will set and a crust may form on the surface. Beat again until smooth.)

Place other layer right side up over sides and top. Cover with plastic wrap or store in cake keeper.

Serves 12.

Christmas Tree Cake

16 Servings

1 pk Cake Mix (any flavor)
5 c Confectioners’ Sugar
3/4 c Crisco Shortening
1/2 c Water
1/3 c Non-dairy Creamer
2 t Vanilla Extract
1/2 t Salt
1 T Green Food Coloring
Peppermint Candies
Pretzel Rods
Large Gumdrops

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13×9
pan. Prepare, bake and cool cake following package directions.

For decorator frosting: Combine confectioner’s sugar,
shortening, water, non-dairy creamer, vanilla and salt
in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric
mixer for 3 minutes. Beat at high speed for 5 min. Add
more confectioners sugar to thicken or more water to
thin as needed. Reserve 1 c frosting. Tint remaining
frosting w/ green food coloring. Cut cooled cake
diagonally and invert one piece so that the cake takes
on a tree shape with a wide base. Spread green
frosting over cake. Decorate tree with reserved white
frosting and peppermint candies. Make trunk from
pretzel rods. Roll out large gumdrop and cut with star
cookie cutter. Top tree with gumdrop star.

Winkler’s Bakery Moravian Sugar Cake

20 Servings

1/2 c  Warm water,110 deg.
1/2 t  Sugar
2 pk Yeast
3/4 c  Warm water,110 deg.
1/2 c  Sugar
2 T  Dry milk
1/4 c  Instant mashed potatoes,dry
1/2 c  Butter,melted
2    Eggs
6 c  Flour
1 c  Brown sugar
1 t  Cinnamon
1/2 c  Butter,melted

Add yeast to 1/2 c. warm water and 1/2 t. sugar. Set aside until
yeast bubbles.

Add next 7 ingredients plus 1 c. flour. Beat 2 min. with electric
mixer on medium speed. With wooden spoon, add remaining flour. Place
in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top of dough. Cover and let
rise until double – about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and put in greased jelly roll pan. Let rise in warm
place for 30 min. Spread evenly in pan and sprinkle evenly with brown
sugar and cinnamon. Make shallow indentations with fingers and
drizzle with 1/2 c. melted butter. Let rise 30 min. Bake until golden
brown (about 12-15 min.) at 375 deg.

-From the Old Salem Cookbook.