Sweet Potato Pound Cake

Sweet Potato Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Orange Glaze

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

5 teaspoons orange juice

2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Brown Butter Glaze

4 ounces (1 stick) butter

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Set aside

2. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add mashed sweet potatoes and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time (the batter will look curdled). Add flour mixture to potato mixture. Beat on low until combined.

3. Pour batter into 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool cake for 20 minutes in the pan, then invert onto serving plate.

4. To make the orange glaze: in a small bowl, combine confectioners sugar with 3 to 5 teaspoons orange juice to achieve drizzling consistency. Spoon over warm cake and sprinkle with orange zest if desired.

  To make the browned butter glaze:

1. Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Immediately remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown.

2. Carefully pour butter into a bowl, leaving sediment behind.

3. Add sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk to butter, and stir until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add more milk. Use immediately.

Caramel Glaze

Make the glaze by heating the butter, milk and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and then remove from the heat. Drizzle over the warm cake. I like to place a sheet of aluminum foil under the cooling rack to catch the drips for easy clean up.

*  Your choice of glaze 
** Roast the sweet potatoes for optimum caramelized flavour

Rose Petal Jam

Rose Petal Jam

1/2 pound pink or red edible rose petals*
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 1/2 cups water
Juice of 2 freshly-squeezed lemons (approximately 1/2 cup) 

* All roses that you intend to eat must be free of pesticides. Do not eat flowers from florists, nurseries, or garden centres. In many cases these flowers have been treated with pesticides not labeled for food crops. The tastiest roses are usually the most fragrant.

Clip and discard bitter white bases from the rose petals; rinse petals thoroughly and drain.

Place rose petals in a bowl and sprinkle enough sugar to coat each petal. Let set overnight.

In a saucepan over low heat, place remaining sugar, water, and lemon juice; stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in rose petals and let simmer 20 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil; continue boiling for approximately 5 minutes until mixture thickens and the temperature on a candy thermometer reaches 221 degrees F. or until a spoonful dropped onto a cold plate jells and holds its shape. Remove from heat.

After boiling, transfer the jam into hot sterilized jars. Fill them to within 1/4-inch of the top. Wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid, and tighten the ring around them. Cover, label, and store in a cool place.

Makes 1 pound of jam.

Pineapple Meringue Cake

Pineapple Meringue Cake

2/10 inch spring form cake pans

350 degrees 25 minutes

Cake

8 egg yolks beaten

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup cake flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon coloured. Cream butter and sugar together when light and fluffy add beaten egg yolks. Sift dry ingredients together into mixture starting with the dry ingredients alternating with the milk finishing with the dry ingredients. Pour batter into buttered and floured cake pans lined with parchment paper.

Meringue

8 egg whites

1.5 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Slowly whip egg whites with cream of tartar  adding sugar at a slow and steady rate. Spread meringue on top of cake batter. Sprinkle 1.5 cups chopped pecan pieces. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cream Filling

1 pint whipping heavy cream

2 cans crushed pineapple drained

3 Tablespoons icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Construction

Place one layer cake side down ,spread cream filling on top of meringue. Place other layer with meringue side down on top of the bottom layer. Spread remaining cream over cake.

Incredibly Crisp Gingersnaps

Incredibly Crisp Gingersnaps

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup sugar in a shallow bowl, for finishing

2 or 3 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans covered with parchment or foil

Directions

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl; stir well to mix. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together on medium speed the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until very light, fluffy and whitened. Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. Lower speed and beat in half the dry ingredients, then the molasses. Stop the mixer and scrape down bowl and beater. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Remove bowl from mixer and use a large rubber spatula to finish mixing the dough. Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out 1-inch diameter pieces of dough. Roll into balls between the palms of your the hands, then roll in the sugar. Place the balls of dough on the prepared pans leaving about 3 inches all around each, to allow for spreading. Bake the cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until they have spread, the surface has crackled, and they are firm to the touch. Slide the papers from the pans to racks. Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.

Wild Grape Wine

I finally bottled my wild grape wine, thick, heady and a black purple, like me a whole lot of nonsense.
I shared a glass with John and my brother Mike, it was acclaimed as critical. Wine snobs......bleech!
I bestowed upon a few neighbours a bottle with the following advice
:" Do not drink  now as it still is green, if you do and you die......you were warned. Age until Christmas, if you die then you were naughty not nice. Mull the hell out of it and serve to your guests to speed up their departure."
Still waiting on my pumpkin wine..........fun to make but a dare to drink.

Can you guess what this is?

Morels

Morel season is now ! My friend Dan found his first morel/wild mushroom, sent me these pics.I will be doing my stalking this weekend with an eye for asparagus.