Italian Cream Cake and Frosting

A friend of mine in Okinawa (Kay Gudmundson) made this cake for us and I brought the recipe home to Nana. I knew she would love it, and she did. She incorporated it into her wedding cake recipes and it is a tasty cake. It's one of my favorites which is saying something since it isn't chocolate!

• 1 C. Shortening
• 2 C. Sugar
• 1 t. Vanilla
• 5 Egg Yolks
• 2 1/4 C. Flour
• 1 t. Salt
• 1 t. Baking Powder
• 1 t. Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 C. Buttermilk
• 5 Egg White (beaten stiff)
• 2 C. Coconut
• 1 C. Nuts (walnuts or pecans, optional)

In a large bowl, or your KitchenAid, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together. Mix the buttermilk and the soda together in a measuring cup. Alternate mixing the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture into the creamed sugar mixture until it's all in. Fold in the coconut. Fold in the egg whites. Pour into 2 (9") greased and floured cake rounds. Bake in preheated 350º oven for 40 minutes, or until it tests done. Remove and turn out onto racks to cool.

Butter Cream Cheese Frosting…

• 4 T. Butter (softened)
• 1 (8oz) pkg. Cream Cheese (softened)
• 4 C. Powdered Sugar (maybe more)
• 1 t. Vanilla

Beat all ingredients together until light and fluffy. Frost between layers, top and sides of cake. Good at room temperature, or chill to serve. Refrigerate left overs.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake and Frosting

Nana has some great from scratch recipes for cake that need to be included in her recipe file. I know we have all enjoyed these and hope our families will continue to enjoy them.

• 2 C. Flour
• 1/2 C. Cocoa Powder
• 1 t. Salt
• 3/4 C. Butter
• 1 2/3 C. Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 t. Vanilla
• 1 C. Buttermilk
• 2 t. Soda
• 2/3 C. Sour Cream

Stir the soda and buttermilk together and set aside. In a separate bowl whisk the flour, cocoa and salt together, set aside. In a large mixing bowl (or your KitchenAid) Cream together the butter and sugar until it is fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Add the sour cream to the buttermilk mixture and stir well. Now alternate adding the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture to the creamed sugar mixture. When everything is in blend well. Pour into 2 greased and floured round cake pans (at least 10"). Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes, or until it tests done. Remove and turn out on racks to cool.

Now for the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting…

• 3 (3oz) pkg. Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/3 C. Butter
• 5 C. Powdered Sugar
• 4 T. Cocoa
• 5-8 T. Cream OR Half & Half or even Evaporated Milk

Cream the butter and cream cheese together. Mix the cocoa and powdered sugar together. Add cocoa mixture alternating with cream to the cream cheese mixture. Beat well and adjust more cream or more powdered sugar to get the right consistency. Spread on layers, top and sides of cake. One of Richard's favorite cakes.

Strawberries, Sour Cream and Brown Sugar

The title says it all, almost. First of all, don't knock it till you've tried it. It has become a family favorite. Thanks to Aunt Charleen for the sweet lady that she was. Without her, we would never have known how good this dessert is. And oh, so simple.

Recently, while on my new obsession Pinterest, I saw where someone had sliced through the strawberries from tip, but not through the stem and filled them with whipped cream. I'm sure they used a bag and cake tip. If you put a little gelatin in with the sour cream you could do the same and stand them up with stems down for a great presentation. They could then be dipped in the brown sugar. This would eliminate the sour cream dish for serving.

Any way you do them, they are wonderful. Enjoy.

Chocolate Nutty Delight

I was trying to remember where I was when I got this recipe. I think it was at a baby shower in Okinawa, Japan while we were serving there in the Air Force. I knew right away it was a keeper for our family and it is with us still, some 30 years later. It's just one of those desserts that everyone loves. We have all made this for countless functions and it makes an appearance regularly at family get togethers.

This recipe is for a 9"x13" (regular size) oblong cake pan. *
Preheat oven to 350º.

Crust:

• 1 stick (1/2 C.) butter or margarine, softened
• 1 C. pecans chopped small (Walnuts can be used) (no nuts can be used and it's still good)
  
• 1 C. Flour

In a small bowl, cut flour into softened butter. When the texture is mealy, mix in pecans and turn into a 9x13 pan. Press into bottom of pan and put into oven and bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove and allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Layer:

• 2-8 oz. Cream Cheese softened
• 2 C. Powdered Sugar
• 2 C. Cool Whip or stabilized whipped cream

In a small bowl stir ingredients together until smooth. Mixture should be very easy to pour onto crust. If it is too sticky it will pull up the crust, so be sure and get it about the consistency of cake batter. I soften the cream cheese in the microwave. Spread over cooled crust and refrigerate until cream cheese has firmed up. Food coloring can be added to this layer for seasonal purposes. I usually make this layer green or pink.

Pudding Layer:

• 1 sm. Box Instant Vanilla Pudding
• 1 sm. Box Instant Chocolate Pudding
• 3 C. cold milk

In a medium bowl combine instant puddings and milk. Stir together with a wire whip until smooth. Donʼt wait for pudding to completely thicken in the bowl. Pour over cream cheese layer and refrigerate.

Whipped Cream Layer:

• 1 Large container cool whip or stablized whipped cream (the non-dairy whipped topping mix in the refrigerated case at Smart & Final works well too)
• Mini chocolate chips or chocolate curls

Spread cream over top of pudding. Sprinkle chocolate chips or chocolate curls to garnish. A grated Hershey with Almonds bar makes a great garnish too. Refrigerate. Serves 12-15

For a Christmas version Candy cane chocolate kisses chopped in the food processor are a yummy addition to the mini-chips or chocolate curls on top.

*If you are doubling this recipe in the big cake pans we love in this family, only do one and a half the recipe for the cream cheese layer.

I have made this in individual servings in clear, plastic 8 oz. cups. I got Pecan Sandie cookies for the crust as they just fit in the bottom of the cups. You could also make several pans of crust and crumble it into the bottoms to keep the recipe more true. I put the cream cheese layer in by loading a pastry bag with it, using a large hole tip. Nana always had large pastry bags around and a wonderful array of tips to choose from. I did the same with the pudding layer and the whipped topping. It made the cutest little parfaits and they are so delicious. A little more work, but serving them was really fun. No cutting and plating and no pan to wash.

Nana's Yummy Ice Creams

Nana was always happy to make a freezer of ice cream for us to share. She made plain vanilla for many years because it went so well with chocolate cake. Then she tried the heath bar kind and it became the new family favorite. I tried a batch of Rocky Road and loved it so I have included those recipes here as well as some options for fruit flavors that she had in her file. Enjoy and remember the many bowls of delicious ice cream at Nana’s.

–Sherry Kanaga Harmon

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream 
Quantities for a 6 Quart Freezer
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan combine:
6 Eggs
6 T. Flour
1 qt. Milk
1/2 C. Sugar
 
Directions
Stir above ingredients over medium heat until thickened. (about like a medium white sauce)
While mixture is still hot add:
2 C. Sugar
1 Can Eagle Brand Sweetened
Condensed Milk
2 T. Vanilla Flavoring
1 T. Lemon Flavoring (optional)
(You can substitute 3 more cups of sugar for the Eagle Brand if you don’t have any).
Allow to cool and even refrigerate overnight when possible.
 
Before freezing add:
2 Qts. Half and Half
(Or 1 qt. Cream and 1 qt. half and half).
Mixture should fill the canister to 3/4 full. If it doesn’t, add a little milk to bring it up to 3/4 full. Freeze, remove paddle and ripen in deep freezer.

Don't forget the chocolate cake to complete the experience.


Nana's Toffee Ice Cream
We've all enjoyed many a bowl of this wonderful stuff!



Make the Basic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe with these exceptions:
Use raw sugar in place of white sugar.
Use banana extract instead of Lemon.
Add 1 small box of French Vanilla instant pudding.
After freezing and paddle has been removed, add 8-10 crushed toffee bars and stir in well. Sometimes crushed toffee is available in bags like choc chips, in which case a 12 oz. bag would suffice. Of course if you’re like me, put in as much as you think you need to taste some in every bite. Ripen ice
cream in deep freezer.

Fresh Fruit Ice Creams
Puree or dice into small pieces the fruit of your choice. Let stand overnight in heavy syrup. Add the mixture of fruit and syrup to the freezer when ice cream is in a soft freeze state. Return to freezing until more hardened. Remove paddle and ripen ice cream in deep freezer.

Chocolate Ice Cream
Make the Basic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe with this addition to the cooked mixture:
1 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 C. Sugar


My new personal favorite (you can have more than one favorite you know…) Rocky Road. It doesn't get much better than this.
 Rocky Road Ice Cream
Make the Basic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe with this addition to the cooked mixture:
1 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 C. Sugar
3 1oz. squares of semi-sweet chocolate
1 Additional tablespoon of Vanilla flavoring
1/4 t. Salt
After freezing and paddle has been removed add:
3 C. Mini Marshmallows
1 1/2 C. Chopped almonds (or pecans)
Ripen ice cream in deep freezer.






There are Ice Cream Freezers at Sam's Club now for about $60.00 in the half gallon size with both an electric motor and an attachment to just hand crank it. Of course there are many kinds of freezers out there, they all work. I am wanting to try some of the strawberry jam with some fresh strawberries in a batch and maybe even some peach this year. I hope you will enjoy Nana's recipes and have as much fun with them as she did. She loved to make and freeze ice cream for all of us.

Homemade Chex Mix...

This is a great treat for the summer! This is also a recipe from Christy, but Kaitlin and I customized it, so I'll put what we did and you can make it your own too...

You will need:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups corn syrup or honey ( I used half of each)
2 tablespoons coconut flavoring
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 box of rice chex
1 small bag of coconut
1 small bag of chopped pecans
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 cups shaved chocolate (or choc chips)

DIRECTIONS:

Mix chex mix, coconut, nuts, and chocolate in a bowl. Boil sugar, corn syrup/honey, coconut flavoring and butter for 5 minutes. Pour over chex mix. Put wax paper oover a cookie sheet and then spread the chex mixture on top of wax paper. Sprinkle with the powdered sugar and let cool. YUMMMMM!

Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

2-20 oz. cans of pineapple slices or chunks
1/3 cup of melted butter
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1 yellow cake mix

Drain pineapple slices, reserving juice. Grease well 24 muffin cups. Stir butter and brown sugar together and spoon the mixture evenly into the bottom of the muffin cups. Place the pinapple over the sugar mixture. Prepare cake mix according to the package directions, replacing water with reserved pineapple juice. Pour batter evenly into the cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool for a few minutes and then invert onto cooling rack to cool further.

**These are really good! Great for parties because you don't have to have forks! Enjoy!

Classic Creme Brulee

2 Cups Of Heavy Cream
4 Egg Yolks
1/4 Cup Of Sugar
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
8 tsp Fine Raw Sugar or Granulated Sugar (for carmelizing)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and have a pot of hot water ready. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine cream and 1/4 cup of sugar. Cook, stirring, until steam rises, about 4-5 minutes.

In a bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla until blended. Gradually pour hot cream into the yolk/sugar mixture, stirring constantly.

Divide mixture between 4-7 oz. ramekins or small oven safe dishes.

Line a 3'" deep baking dish with a clean kitchen towel. Fill the dish 1/2 way up with the hot water. Place the ramekins into the baking dish (water should be 1/2 way up on the outsides of the ramekins). Cover the baking dish loosely with foil.

Bake until set, 30-35 minutes, until the centers of the custards shake gently when the pan is moved or shifted.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool slightly. Remove the ramekins from the pan and let cool to room temperature. Then move the ramekins to the refrigerator overnight (or at least 4 hours).

Just before serving, sprinkle the custards with 2 tsp of sugar each adn carmelize the tops with a kitchen torch or place the ramekins under the broiler, 2-3 inches away from the heat source, for 3-4 minutes. Watch carefully.

Top with berries, chocolate or whatever you like!

Basic Dessert Crepes

Really thin, rich pancakes better known as crepes…

4 eggs (room temperature is best)
1 C. flour
1/2 C. milk
1/2 C. water
1/2 t. salt
2 T. melted butter
2 t. sugar
1 t. vanilla
Measure all ingredients except flour into mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed and gradually add the flour. Beat until smooth. If there are any small lumps, pour batter through a strainer into a 9 inch pie pan.
I am not a french chef, so I cheat and use a crepe maker to actually make them up. It takes all the hard work out of crepes, so follow the directions for your crepe maker amd have fun. This much batter will make about 12-14 crepes.
For a Chocolate Crepe add 2 T. chocolate sauce to this recipe.

I made these crepes for my ward mid-week activity since we were doing Valentine things. I love crepes and have made them for large groups as they can be made ahead of time, served them off the tailgate for breakfast on lake trips and for small elegant dinner parties. Of course the crepe maker I use makes all that feasible since the process is so simple. I have given crepe makers to several of my children and so am fairly sure they can be found for around 30.00 at places like Bed, Bath and Beyond and Shar's Kitchen to name a couple. Have fun with them. 

The filling is 2 parts creme cheese to 1 part cottege cheese. Sweeten with powdered sugar to taste and put in a little vanilla too. I mixed mine in a food processor so it would be really smooth and I colored it pink.

The toppings are fresh cut strawberries on one crepe, roasted raspberry chipotle from costco on the other crepe and whipped cream in the middle of them finished off with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. We enjoyed them and some of us enjoyed seconds because we have no will power. Oh well, we can walk another mile to compensate, right? You can top them with anything that sounds good. Fruit is always good - ice cream even.

You can make many variations of crepes including Entree crepes for chicken dishes, etc., Cornmeal crepes for mexican dishes, and even Whole Wheat crepes for a healthier dish.

Enjoy them on Valentine's Day as a special dessert or make them for breakfast. Kids love them.

Apple Pie a la Nana

I remember Nana making her famous apple pie and knowing how much Richard loved it and had a non-pie-making wife, she would think of ways to send it to us when we lived in California. Papa flew for a corporation that came to Cali often, so when she baked a couple of pies, she would send one with Papa for us. I would drive to little executive airports many times to pick up a delicious pie. What a wonderful memory to cherish now.

–Sherry Kanaga Harmon

Deep Dish Double Crust
Ingredients
2 1/2 C. Flour
2 T. Sugar
1 t. Salt
1/2 C. Cold Shortening
1/2 C. Cold Butter (diced)
3 T. Apple Juice
3 T. Cold water (more if needed)
 
Directions
In a food processor with the chopping blade on, combine flour, sugar and salt.
Cut in the shortening with 7-8 pluses and add the butter. About 4- 5 more pulses should produce a pea like texture. Add the water and juice mixture and do a few short pulses, just until it starts to come together. Turn onto a bread board and push it into a ball.Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 15 minutes. It can stay in the fridge longer if you don’t get to it right away.

Apple Filling
Ingredients
8-9 mixed variety apples
For a mix of naturally sweet and tart varieties, try these: Bramley, Cox, Pippin, Fuji, McIntosh, Stayman Winesap, Jonagold, Rome, Cameo, Jonathon, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady. If unavailable, try Red Delicious or Gala. Granny Smith were Nana’s favorite to mix in as she liked a tart apple pie. You want flavorful, aromatic and firm apples. Always use a mixture - never just one type. The Fuji's and Gala's give it an aromatic flavor!

1/4 C. Apple juice (or balsamic vinegar)
3 T. Butter
2 t. Vanilla
1-2 C. Sugar (1 part can be brown)
2 T. Cinnamon

Optional additional spices to add are:
1/4 t. Nutmeg
1/4 t. Ground cloves
1/4 t. Ginger
1/4 t. Allspice

Nana was not a fan of ginger or allspice for sure, only sometimes would add a little nutmeg and maybe a dash of cloves if she were in the mood. Experiment and decide what combinations you like.

3-4 T. Ultra Gel (can use flour or cornstarch for substitution)
2 T. Butter (to dot top of apple filling in the pie)

Directions
Peel, core and wedge the apples. Place into a large frying pan with butter and juice on medium heat. Cover for about 8 minutes, or until just barely tender. Remove from heat, add vanilla and allow to cool. Mix Ultra Gel, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over cooled apples and toss. Place apples into bottom crust in a deep pie dish. Dot with butter and cover with top crust. Cut a few slashes in top crust to allow steam to escape while cooking. Trim edges to 1/2” bigger than the pie dish, fold excess under itself and crimp edge down to seal in the filling. Paint top crust with cream and sprinkle sugar over top. Egg wash can be used, but doesn’t brown as well.

Bake at 375º for 20 minutes in lower half of oven. Then reduce heat to 350º and move to center of the oven. Bake another 30-40 minutes. This will insure the bottom crust gets nice and done for a flaky melt in your mouth crust and should keep the crust edges from getting too brown.

When pie is nice and golden brown, remove and cool on wire rack.

Tip: Sometimes I use foil to make little shields for the crimped edge of pie. Keep in place for first
30 minutes of bake time and then remove. This will keep the crimped edge from getting too brown.
 
Tip: Sprinkle 1 T. of lemon gelati over apples before adding the top crust. Flavor is delicious and gelatin helps to prevent spillovers.

Apple Upside Down Cake

Okay...first off I have to give credit where credit is due. My mom found the recipe for this cake on a blog-site called "Stephanie's Kitchen". It sounded so very yummy that I was dying to try it...with a few modifications! The wonderfully talented woman who we borrowed the recipe from made the entire cake from scratch, fresh apples, cake-not out of a box, etc! I decided that this would not work for the PTA function that I was hunting down a new dessert for so I needed to make it easier. If you would like the recipe for the "from scratch" version please go to http://www.stephanieskitchen.com/ . This is also a great way to use pie apples that you have canned for a quick and easy dessert, besides apple cobbler, which we have had a ton of this past year!

1 Jar of pie apples (already with cinnamon)

1 yellow cake mix

Spray bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Pour pie apples into the bottom of the pan. Mix together the cake mix as directed on the box. Pour batter over the apples. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 30 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate. **Would be great with the tiniest bit of cool whip/whip cream or ice cream, though we loved it just by itself! Enjoy!

Tawna :)