Gooey Butter Cake #4

Where has the time gone this week?  We had Birthday Celebrations, school/homework, projects, sickness and yes, we still found time to make the cake on Thursday.  So now it is time to share this week's cake.  It is our last in January - Can you believe it?  I think this creative endeavor may make my year pass even quicker!!!  We have focused on sheet pans and 9x13 pans this month.  These cakes are crowd pleasers and easy if you are not a lover of frosting cakes - We are all lovers of frosting!!  However, this recipe has no frosting.  This cake is like a combination of the old fashioned chess pie and a moist blonde brownie but it is definitely a cake.  The recipe is from one of our favorite chefs from the Food network...Paula Deen!!!  I remember loving her from the very first episode but a friend of mine said Paula used to much butter...my friend just didn't get it!!   This week I thought I would show you more pictures...Savannah is an awesome photographer as well as a baker.  Check out the recipe page for more pictures of the recipe in the making.  This cake will not last long at our house - better do some more time on the elliptical!!!

Gooey Butter Cake with Chocolate Chips 

Yes, she has cake mixes, cookie mixes, muffin mixes, spices- 

Yes we have them and more!

Look at Paula in the beginning...

We use my Havilland china for our desserts!  And our sweet 

vintage pastry forks, too!

This has been a great first month..We have made a great Texas Sheet Cake, an old recipe from days gone by in our 7 up cake, a Coca Cola Sheet Cake and now an Oh so good, gooey butter cake.  I hope you have enjoyed the first month of cakes...Get ready for February... 

It's all about love and chocolate!!

Finding the Sweetness in Life, 

A quick Critic on a new cupcake pan....

It's Valentine's Holiday Season (Who knew?)...and the stores have had Valentine's out since December 24th!!  I love Love, I love hearts, I love all the new cute stuff that is out right now....but I don't love this.....

This is the new Cupcake Pan from NorticWare.  It is at Walmart for a pretty hefty price tag ($18).  The pictures on the pan's brochure look great, look like cupcakes, look perfect. I love the idea of filling in the middle of the cupcake... So I bought this pan thinking "Oh, this will be great for parties, birthdays,..."  I was so hopeful and really wanted to like this pan so I made them for Savannah's birthday along with a Chocolate covered Strawberry Cake (the cake was all strawberries!!)  Much to my disappointment, the cupcakes once baked and assembled look like mushrooms and they do not stay together when you bite into them!  The taste of the cupcakes were great but I wish I would have used just a standard muffin tin or better yet cake pans!!!  So if you are tempted to purchase this, walk away!!!  Save the $18 and make the traditional cupcakes that everyone loves....

Our cake #4 will be up tomorrow....

Finding the Sweetness in Life,

I'ld like to teach the world to sing....Cake #3

This title is from a commercial back in the 70's (I think)... I loved it!!  I was a little girl when it first played and can still sing it today.  Can you?? If so, you probably know what our third cake is....the ever southern...              Coca Cola Cake.

As you probably have noticed in this first month, we decided to make our cakes with our sheet pans or 9 X 13 pans as so many of us have those readily in our cabinets.  We will be going in many directions with these cakes/recipes  over the next 11 months...Yes, January is almost gone.  While we were making this cake, we thought it might be very close to the Texas Sheet Cake.  After tasting both, they are very different cakes indeed.  While they are both incredibly moist and chocolatey, the consistency is different as one is in a sheet pan and one in the 9X 13.  The frostings are both melted and poured over the warm cakes but again the taste and consistency is different.  

A few tips

• Have all ingredients ready and measured as this makes the time go by fast.  
• Use Coke - it's the real thing!!
• We only greased the pan (the recipe called for grease/floured pan) and the cake came out with ease.
• It took 35 minutes to bake but check at 30 minutes.  Oven varies
• Spread the marshmallows out in the pan after the batter has been poured.  The marshmallows gravitate to the center of the cake.

• We omitted the pecans (allergies) but please try them- It should be wonderful and will cut the sweetness  a bit.
• Prepare frosting when you take the cake out of the oven. 
• Pour frosting over warm cake.  

All in All , the cake was a delight.  You might say  we had  a "Coke and a smile" while we were baking,  this brought "perfect harmony" to our evening and don't forget to use the "Real Thing."  

Until next time,

Finding the Sweetness in Life 

Cake 2 - a bit of sunshine to chase away the Winter blues....

7-UP Cake takes the stage this week.  This is a recipe from my childhood Church's first cookbook called Aromas.  It was first published in 1977.  This cookbook is a treasure to me as it contains memories just by reading the names of the cooks, bakers and hostesses that grace the pages.  It was when I was a little girl that I first learned of hospitality from my mom and many of these women whom I would see in our Church's kitchen on those many occasions we called Fellowship Dinners...a great time that has somehow missed this century- I would be allowed to be in the kitchen to help, I was a runner.  I would be the one who could take napkins, silverware, etc. to the tables.  I loved to see the ladies fixing platters or warming dishes, they would laugh and share their lives with each other.  Little did they know that I was watching and learning all the while as they were just doing what they all did so well..Serve and Share.  

This Cake is incredibly moist and was easy to prepare.  We liked what happened when we poured the 7-UP into the batter..... a little like Chemistry with a few bubbles here and there.  I must show a picture of the pan after the Cake came out...Savannah is one incredible greaser.  She says it's a hidden talent.  Hidden no more!! 

Our only hitch was the frosting.  Our frosting didn't thicken up as much as I thought it would.  Perhaps we didn't let it cool long enough, we were just ready for the tastin'...We hope you'll find a ray of sunshine in this cake as so many of us had snow this week.  Yes, I said had- our's is already gone:(  

Until next week--

Finding the Sweetness in Life!

Number 1!!!

TEXAS Sheet Cake....Could there be any better way to start than this?  A wonderful cake with differing stories on why it is called such.  Some say it is big like everything in Texas or perhaps it has big flavor like that of Texas cuisine.  For me it is a southern staple, a large cake for crowds and just an awesome cake with very little effort.  It is delicious served warm with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee!

Here is the first slab with a vintage silver pastry fork (a recent find in Canton).

Ready for the first bite!!!

 Morgan, his first word after taking that bite was WOW!! We had this for dinner tonight...Life is uncertain- eat dessert first!

Here are some tips for you...

*Have ingredients measured before you start as part is stirred in a bowl and part is on the stove.  

*Our jelly roll pan is from William Sonoma and we generously greased it...

The cake came out with ease!!  

For the frosting....

*Have ingredients measured about 10 minutes before the cake is done.  

*Then begin with about 5 minutes left on your cake.

*Frost this cake immediately after you take it out....

BUT here is the biggest tip of the day...

****Lightly put the frosting over the cake in different areas and then gently smooth on the cake.  Use a light touch and do not spread it too thin as it could remove the cake's top layer.  Continue to frost the entire cake!! ****

Then no matter the time of day, pour a glass of milk and enjoy a slab of this Texas sized, Texas flavor Cake!!

....Finding the Sweetness in Life.