Huckleberry Coffee Cake from Julie Cantrell

.
This was my Uncle Mel's favorite. I remember Mom making it when he came to visit.

Sift together:
... 2 cups flour
... 1 1/2 cups sugar
Add:
... 2/3 cup butter
and mix till very fine.

Remove 3/4 cup of the above mixture for topping.

Add:
... 2 tsp baking powder
... 1 tsp salt
... 2 egg yolks
... 1 cup milk
Beat three minutes.

Beat:
... 2 egg whites
till stiff, but not dry.
Fold into batter and spread into a well greased 9x13 pan.

Cover complete top of batter with huckleberries.
Sprinkle on crumb mixture and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.

Russian Apple Cake from Molly Whitcomb

.
This is a delicious yet wonderfully simple recipe. It always succeeds. I got the basics of the recipe in a Russian cookbook. But the title was Moscow apple cake. I know I’ve tweeked the recipe, but I’m not sure how. I saw a recipe from Volgograd that was very close to mine. The difference was no salt, cinnamon, or lemon. The lemon is my addition, for just incase your apples aren't tart.

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
juice of 1/2 of small lemon, optional
2 to 3 apples, peeled, cored, and diced/sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a flat bundt pan, with spring-form edge.
Put the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, soda and cinnamon into an electric mixing bowl and beat until light in color.
Peel and cored and quarter the apples.
Take each quarter, cut in half the long way, and slice the short way.
Toss apple slices in lemon juice if desired for tartness.
Fold apples into the batter and spoon mixture into the pan.
Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. This depends on how much apples you have used and how wide your pan is. The cake should spring back when touched if it is done.
Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Chocolate Birthday Cake from Joan Jensen

I no longer have Mom's original birthday cake recipe, but this one is just as good. Mom used to wash and boil coins (2 each of quarters, dimes. nickles, pennies). After the layer cake saw baked but before frosting, she would cut slight small slits near the edge of the cake, equally spaced and radiating out from the center. Then she would slip a coin into each slit. Half the fun of eating the cake was to fine the coin!

3 squares melted cooled chocolate (unsweetened I assume)
1/2 cup soft butter
2 1/4 cup brown sugar (one box)
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt and cool the chocolate. Prepare cake pans. (2 or 3?) Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, chocolate and vanilla. Mix in the baking soda and salt, then flour until completely combined. Fold in the sour cream. Add the boiling water, mix quickly, pour into pans and bake.

After completely cool and coins are added, frost.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

4 squares milted cooled chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 package powdered sugar (about 2 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup milk or cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Carrot Gold Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from Julie Cantrell

.
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canola oil
4 eggs
2 cups finely grated carrots
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (optional)

Sift the first 5 ingredients together.
Then add the sugar and eggs (and oil) and mix well.
Blend in thoroughly the carrots, pineapple, and nuts.

This makes a large cake (9x13 or large bundt or 24 cup cakes?)
or the greased and floured 9" round cake pans.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes for the layer cake, or 40-45 for the 9x13 pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1 pound confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together in order named and us to ice the cooled cake.

Chocolate Roulade from Molly Whitcomb

.
I got this recipe from a friend in Hong Kong, Chris Duggan. Her family went to our church, St. Andrews, and we went to a Bible study at their house. Brian, her husband, was an engineering professor at the University of Hong Kong. They were from Birmingham England. She is an excellent British cook. This recipe is not like any other chocolate roulade I've seen. I've made it as our buche de Noel for years. I once made one five feet long for a co-workers 50th birthday.

Cake
6 eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 ounces cocoa

Filling
4 ounces chocolate, like chocolate chips or bar
2 tablespoons liquid, like brandy

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Find a jelly roll pan, they seem to come in all sizes.
Grease the pan a little, then put in a piece of parchment paper that comes up over the edges of the pan.
Grease the paper lightly.

Beat the egg yolks and the sugar and vanilla until very light yellow.
Add the vanilla and the cocoa. This will make a rather stiff mixture.
Beat egg whites until stiff, but not too stiff.
Dump the egg whites into the bowl with the yolks and fold the two together.

Spread the batter into the pan, and bake for about 20 minutes. Because pans differ, time differs.
Not long after taking the cake out of the oven, lift up the cake by the paper onto a cooling rack. When the cake is sufficiently cooled sprinkle granulated sugar onto the cake (not too much) and then place a tea towel over the cake and carefully flip the cake over. The gently peel off the parchment paper. The cake can rest for a while like this.

Assembling the cake

Whip the cream and the sugar until nice and stiff, but not so stiff it's almost butter.
Put the chocolate and the liquid into a glass dish and put into the microwave for a little while, not long. You can sneak up on it. Don't get the chocolate too hot as it can solidify. Stir up the chocolate mixture until smooth and using the back of the spoon, spread the melted chocolate over the cake.
Using a frosting spatula spread some, but not all, of the cream over the chocolate. Then, using the tea towel as a help, roll up the cake and carefully get it onto a platter. Don't worry about any cracks, as the whipped cream will cover them. Put on the rest of the cream. I like to reserve some of the cream so that I can pipe it on the cake, like around the ends and along the sides.

For a special decoration I like to add chocolate leaves on the top. You melt up a handful of chocolate chips with a dab of shortening. Then get come camellia leaves, wash and dry them, and gently apply some chocolate to the bottom of the leaf, using the back of a small spoon. Place the leaves on a small plate and put into the freezer for about 15 minutes. Then carefully remove the leaves and place on the cake. Be as artistic as you like.

Emily's Chocolate Baby Cake with cherries and pecans

.
I got a pan for Emily at Williams and Sonoma, 7" round by 2". Stuck to the pan was a recipe just the right size for the pan. We modified the recipe a bit, and it turned out to be a really nice cake.


5 ounces flour (140 gr)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup Dutch cocoa (30 gr)

1 stick butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup pecans
1 Tbl flour

or instead of cherries and pecans add 2 ounces of finely ground almonds and a bit of vanilla essence.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Grease and flour the pan.
In a medium mixing bowl combine the first 4 ingredients.
Cream the butter and sugar, then add in the egg and vanilla.
Combing the wet and dry ingredients alternately with the water.
Mix well, but don't beat to death or you will expend the baking soda.
On a chopping board stir together the cherries, nuts, and 2 Tbls flour and chop up with a big knife. Add to the cake batter, and pour into the cake pan.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Cool for a bit and turn out onto a cooling rack.


Icing:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 stick of butter - 2 ounces, room temperature
2 teaspoons kirsch or brandy or any thing you like
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
milk, needed only if the icing is not spreadable enough.

Put the icing sugar and butter and brandy and vanilla into a smallish mixing bowl and beat for about 2-3 minutes with a hand mixer, add the milk to get the consistency you want - spreadable.

Assembly: Cut the cooled cake in half. Place the bottom half on a cake plate and cover with icing. Put on the top layer and cover it with icing. Do not ice the sides. Save any left-over icing for graham crackers.

Banana Tea Cakes from Molly Whitcomb

.
7 ounces flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
a grating nutmeg
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
little bit of rum and/or whiskey,
at least a tablespoon or two
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt or buttermilk,
or any combination thereof
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup dried fruit (I used sultanas, currents, and cherries)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and paper two 5 1/5 inch x 2 inch cake pans.
Combine the flour, soda, salt, and nutmeg.
Cream the butter and sugar.
Then mix in the egg, beating very thoroughly.
Mix in the extracts and alcohol.
Mash the bananas in a small bowl and mix into the creamed mixture.
Add the sour cream or yogurt or buttermilk (or any combination there of) to the creamed mixture and stir well.
Mix in the dry ingredients.
Stir in the nuts and dried fruit.
Pour into the pans and bake until done, this was maybe 50 minutes.
Note: If you want to use a single pan use an 8 inch x 2 1/2 inch pan.
Or put the batter into a normal sized bundt pan.
Just cook it until it's done, having a tooth pick come out clean.

The Perfect Chocolate Cake from Molly Whitcomb

I came across this cake at a friend’s house. She did not make it exactly the way I do, but I knew at the time that it was a great cake. It’s an often requested birthday cake, and I made for my oldest daughter’s wedding, as the second cake. Actually I asked a friend to make the layers for me. She is from Denmark. The other friend that I asked to help with the baking is French. My third friend who I consider to be a fabulous baker is German. And my very dear friend from England can make excellent pies. I do not have so may American friends who I consider to be good cooks. But there are two, Lynn Goodwin and Sue (who got remarried and I don’t know her last name). One of them gave me this recipe. I honestly don’t know which one. (I've since learned that it was Lynn who gave me the recipe)

It’s a classic american recipe and has been around a long time. Except all the other recipes put the whipped cream inside, and the butter cream on the outside. I’ve never wanted to do that. I think that the whipped cream would squish out.



Cake:

1 cup cocoa, best quality (80 gr)
2 cups boiling water

2 1/2 cups flour (11 oz)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup of butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar
 
Chocolate Butter Cream:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate

2 1/2 cups icing sugar (10 oz)


Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease, paper, grease and flour three 9 inch round cake pans. Stir together the cocoa and boiling water. Set aside to cool. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder, set aside.


In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the cooled cocoa mixture. Mix only until combined. Divide evenly between the three prepared pans, and spread the batter out flat.


Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool cakes on a wire rack.


Chocolate Butter Cream: In a microwavable bowl, put the semi-sweet chocolate, butter and cream, and place in microwave for about 2 minutes. After taking out of microwave stir until everything looks melted and well mixed. If not so, put back in microwave for a little bit. When well mixed, add to the icing sugar in an electric mixing bowl and continue to whip until very smooth. It will be runny looking. Just leave the beaters in the mixture, cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator or freezer until very solid, but not frozen.

When ready to assemble the cake, put the filling back in the mixer and with a good grip on the bowl, whip until very smooth and spreadable. The mixture will turn from dark brown, to a very pale brown.

I put the butter cream mixture between the layers of the cake and the put a very light coating all over the cake and put the cake into the refrigerator until ready to be served. There will probably be left-over butter cream. It is very good between graham crackers.


Whipped Cream Frosting: Put the whipping cream into an electric mixing bowl, add the beaters and put into the freezer for about 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and beat, adding the vanilla and sugar. Make the cream stiff, but not butter.

Get the cake out of the refrigerator and put most of the cream all over the cake, reserving some for piping however you please. Et Voila!