Birthday Cake

For my birthday today, I defrosted a pumpkin bread as always bake extra and keep the loaves in the freezer for times when I need a cake or feel in the mood for some healthy pumpkin bread!

After taking the pumpkin bread out of the freezer, I decided to bake one of my mother's favorite cakes for my birthday, a marble pound type cake.

I have never had a loaf cake rise this high up! I can not imagine that I over mixed the cake, but I have never experienced such a high topped cake. My husband says it has a high top to better show off my single candle which I hope to light later in the day!

When I cut into this cake, I hope it has an incredible taste and marbled pattern as it sure looks like a bit of a monster at the moment!

The pumpkin bread that I defrosted is much lower in height!

Again, what a cake for my 66th birthday -- maybe I should cut it up quickly after blowing out the candle so no one notices what a monster cake with a very fat tummy?

I guess there is a first time for everything and at least the cake batter did not overflow the loaf pan!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Wow, what a winter! My husband keeps reminding me of what the weather is like in Hawaii, thus, I think I better come up with food to warm us up today and give us a bit of a feeling like   .  .   . catching a wave?

The photos of Hawaii look so heavenly, maybe I should make an angel food cake for my birthday this week?

Maybe a pineapple angel food cake? I made a strawberry angel food cake when my Texas nephew requested a "strawberry" cake, on his visit to Cleveland in 2011. I substituted the water required in an angel food cake mix with pureed strawberries --- the cake had a light pink color and tasted yummy.

Angel food cake made with a can of crushed pineapple is wonderful, just dump the entire can plus liquid (natural juice) into the mix as the exchange for the water designated on the box of the cake mix.

My great-niece loves "purple" and blueberries -- for Emma, I would take a box of angel food cake mix, instead of water I would use pureed blueberries, and drop the batter into cupcake tins!

I bet one could use puree from any fruit from apples to mango -- as a substitute for the required liquid in cake mix for angle food cake. I used to make angle food cake from scratch - using many egg whites, but why bother per the convenience, quality, and fluffiness of an angel food cake mix can not be beat -- just make sure your mixer is in working condition on the highest speed!

As Ina would say "How simple is that?"

Emma loves cupcakes, don't we all?  Two year-old Emma would say, "O.K.!"

A Birthday Party to Remember

The weather in Cleveland has not improved, but we made it to Austin, Texas, for a few days for our great-niece's 2nd birthday party. My niece Julie made some wonderful foods for the children (and adults) attending the party at the Austin Dog Alliance. Compare the photographs of Cleveland, Ohio, to Austin, Texas, on approximately the same day in February!

                                                                           

One child filled his plate with a selection of very healthy and colorful combinations of fruit, cheese, and crackers.

                                                                                     

 

For easy to handle food for children, and adults, Julie made some doggie's in a blanket (a small piece of hot dog embedded in dough,) which can be made from most any kind of pastry that can be wrapped around a small piece of meat. Per my former life in intensive care units, hot dogs can be very dangerous food for young children, so always be very cautious in this respect. Small pieces of multi-colored cheese and cut up fruit were most colorful on the buffet table.

Cupcakes on a cup-cake-tree were a wonderful addition and my niece had the most fluffy cupcakes covered in white icing with multi-colored sprinkles. Lemonade was available for the guests and the hosts were two very well-trained dogs, both named Max.

In a Blizzard? Think Hawaii with these wonderful Banana Pancakes

What can I make today for breakfast, January 25, 2014, to celebrate my great-niece's birthday and forget the view outside?

How about banana pancakes, almost as good as the ones we had in Hawaii? In any case, these remind us of a wonderful vacation so many Januaries ago and we can celebrate a bit for breakfast for a most precious birthday!

Take the ripest banana, like the dark one in the picture and mash it up before adding it to your favorite pancake recipe. You can mash it up completely or leave some chunks. If you leave a few chunks, the wonderful banana "perfume" will permeate through your kitchen, and you can dream to your heart's content, until you look outside!

In Hawaii, they slice their wonderful small apple bananas and get the heavenly aroma, however, I have found slicing does not give us the same effect in the continental US. I need to mash one banana and leave some chunks -- enjoy with maple syrup or your favorite topping, you will use less syrup as the banana adds a bit of sweetness to the wonderful banana-mash-pancakes! The restaurant in Hawaii was cooking hundreds of these wonderful pancakes, but since I only cook a few, mashing and leaving chunks in the batter creates a more aromatic mixture than slicing the banana.

Banana pancakes are a most wonderful comfort food during the coldest, snowiest blizzards. Finished eating the pancakes? Then enjoy the time to curl up with a good book like, "Walk Forward," and feel most blessed!

Happy Birthday sweetie, can not wait to see you again! I must adapt this recipe for French toast, the favorite of today's birthday girl, a most darling, beautiful redhead who lives in Austin, Texas, but is a "Cleveland Girl," when she wears her mittens!

Nothing like mittens or precious home cooking from Cleveland, but in any case, like me "keep dreaming" of warmer weather and beautiful sunshine!

Gluten-Free Crustless Pumpkin Pie

I have been making crust-less pumpkin pie for so long, I have forgotten that many eat it with a crust!

The pie pan might not look very good, but believe me, every drop of that delicious pumpkin will be cleaned off the plate!

We love our pumpkin pie, always make two at a time exactly the same way as if it had a crust. When we have a "real" pumpkin pie pumpkin, I bake the pumpkin whole in the oven and mash it before freezing. I have found that baking the whole pumpkin is easier than trying to cut up the hard flesh and cooking it in water, which can add too much moisture to my pumpkin puree!

The easiest way to make the pumpkin pie, so that it tastes the freshest and has that heavenly smoothness, is to use Libby's pumpkin and add one's own fresh ingredients including cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, the usual 4 whole eggs, sugar and canned milk. If I do not mind losing the pumpkin flavor, I substitute  1-2 very sweet, ripe, mashed bananas (turned into a white puree in my Ninja) instead of the granulated sugar. If not using bananas as a sweetener, I usually use only 1/2 cup of sugar and two small packets of a sweetener containing stevia. Sometimes I skip the stevia and only use the 1/2 cup sugar.

We do not like the pie when the only sweetener is stevia, but at least a bit of granulated sugar plus the stevia seems to taste the best to us. Per the mashed banana, no other sweetener is needed. The banana works as granulated sugar, granulated sugar counting as a "liquid" in baked goods.

From Halloween, to any holiday, or just for a snack, we love our crust-less pumpkin pie. For special occasions, I make a homemade crust or pull one of my homemade frozen crusts out of the freezer, defrost, roll out, and place into the pie shell for a more traditional pumpkin pie. I like the recipe on the Libby's can of pumpkin the best, but all egg whites work, as does nonfat canned milk, almond, or rice milk. We do not miss the crust and think we are reducing the calories of the pie, although, I must admit, it disappears faster than a pie backed with a wonderful crust!

For the best pie, I like the recipe on the label, but be sure to cut down on the sugar depending on how sweet your family likes pumpkin pie. We can easily become used to using less granulated sugar. I would make a pie and decrease the sugar each time until I came down to about 1/2 cup. We like our pumpkin pie less sweet as it tastes more like delicious homemade pie. The wonderful pumpkin does not need all the sugar suggested, however, the pie does need some sweetness!