What Birthday Cake to Make for Me?

I am really stuck on what birthday cake I should make for myself? Carrot cake sounds great as do many others. I am really stuck and my birthday is this Friday. I would love to make a bunch of cakes, but not sure if my energy level is up to my usual self. It would be fun to see if I can still do it or have to go down to one item per day? Boomer having had so much energy and some of it was lost, but I have some really easy recipes that I made for those too tired to bake from scratch and consider them "almost homemade" like using a great angel food cake mix and adding lemon and pineapple to it or taking a regular cake mix and adding just a can of condensed milk and a can of fruit in its own juice to the batter. They are all easy, but what do I really want for this "first birthday"? Then there is a fantastic brown bread recipe from my Grandmother Harcourt, my friend Carolyn's incredible baked brown bread in cans and my Cousin Yetta's incredible "library bownies" that are the best in the world. The problem with banana cake is I will eat he entire thing, same for macaroons. I am also addicted to a million other cakes --- as long as they do not have too much whipped cream, I can handle, but too much makes me ill. I ended up making a carrot cake the day after as my sister brought me a wonderful angel food cake and Cleveland coconut bars that were out of this world! I used coconut in the carrot cake in lieu of nuts, but next time I will make sure to pack the carrots in the 2 cup measuring cup!

Valentine's Day, February 14, 2015

For Valentine's Day this year I made heart-shaped palmiers, my favorite cookie as a child growing up in Germany as a toddler. They were not too sweet and just right. The ones I find in the U.S. are too sweet, so I finally decided to make some for my husband for Valentine's Day and also try a few Lady Locks (Ladylocks, Cream Horns) as they use the same flaky puff pastry as the palmiers. I will detail the steps in my upcoming cookbook, but until then, herein are some photographs of the final little hearts and Ladylocks filled with only marshmallow cream.

Cleveland Today, Feb 2, 2015, GroundHog's Day

I made homemade pizza yesterday for the Superbowl -- schools and restaurants maybe closed, so best to know how to make what you want from scratch. Pizza recipe was fantastic -- crust the best - had a bit of a crunch yet tender on the inside, never soggy. We hate soggy pizza crusts. I made 2 so we have one for today.

Here it is in the refrigerator covered with Saran Wrap, it has canned mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, onions, and vegan hot dogs on it, but no cheese as my husband is sensitive to cheese and it makes the pizza have fewer calories for me! I always precook the onions.

Easiest Pineapple Rightside-up Cake

This is the easiest recipe ever, great for those who hate to bake or those who prefer to use only 3 ingredients!

The Easy Pineapple Rightside-up cake is made with one box of yellow cake mix, one 12 OUNCE can of nonfat EVAPORATED milk, one 20 OUNCE can of pineapple tidbits.

Dump cake mix into a large flat pan, add canned milk and mix with a spoon until blended. Drain out a bit of the pineapple juice and dump most of the pineapple tidbits plus a bit of the juice on top of the batter.

Bake in 350F oven for 50 minutes and serve warm or oold.

Dedicating this recipe to my OSU adviser's grandmother. I never met her but would have loved to learn how she makes her pineapple desserts!

World's Best Easy Banana Cake

World's Best Easy Banana Cake

This cake was my mother's favorite banana cake recipe. When my niece was small and visited Cleveland from Austin, Texas, she would slice a small piece all evening long, as we all did. One of my Mom's secrets is the finely ground almonds in the batter which is mixed by hand for approximately 300 strokes.

The recipe will be in my upcoming cookbook, but if you want me to print it herein, let me know. Cake is truly handmade, NO mixer needed!