Peach Brandy Pound Cake

So there is no way to avoid it but yes there is alcohol in this cake. But This cake is really great. When I first made it everyone loved it, my super healthy sister even had some for breakfast! Yeah it is that good. This recipe is straight from the book other then a few comments I stuck (in). There is also a substitution for the Brandy for those who do not want the alcohol.

Ingredients

1 Cup Butter softened

3 Cups Sugar

6 large Eggs

3 Cups All-purpose Flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 8oz carton Sour Cream

1/2 Cup Peach Brandy *

2 teaspoon Dark Rum

1 teaspoon Orange Extract

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 teaspoon Lemon Extract

1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium  speed 5 minutes.

 (Make sure you cream the sugar all the way so you don't see any sugar granuals , so it is nice and creamy, or as close as you can get it, I think I did burn up a hand mixer this way) Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition just until yellow disappears. 

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and with flour mixture. Mix at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour batter into a greased and floured (I never flour) 10inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10-15 minutes; (using a long sharp knife like a felay knife) remove from pan, and cool completely on wire rack. 

(This time I used a pretty mini bunt pan. They were a little crunchy because they were so small so I put a glaze on them, the recipe follows)

Glaze

4 Tablespoons Butter

1/4 Cup Sugar

1-2 Tablespoons Brandy or your peach syrup

Combine in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat and stir till the sugar dissolves completely. Brush over your cake while warm.

* (substitute the Peach Brandy with the syrup in canned peaches)

Cookbook Review Southern Living 30 Years of Our Best Recipes

There are tons and tons for cookbooks. My mom has a whole bookshelf of them. There are annual books, like Taste of Home, Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens (those are one my mom has). The list goes on and on. There is one cookbook that I really love, it is Southern Living 30 Years of Our Best Recipes. 

There are other "Best of" Southern Living cookbooks, and they are not as good, I really hate books where there is wasted space. There is no picture, no recipe just an empty space, I hate that. But the SL 30 Years of Our Best Recipes is full of really good recipes, has great pictures, is formatted well too. The book tells you what the picture is and where to find it in the book. It also gives you little bits of history throughout the book on food and what Southern Living was doing. If you like Southern Living and don't want to commit to the whole series this is the book to get. The cover has one of my favorite Pound Cakes, the Peach Brandy Pound Cake. There is a separate post on the Pound Cake, so look for it. 

She likes Pina Colada

Coconut and Pineapple Cake

My first cakes recipe blog post, oh yeah! My mom's birthday cake, and she loves coconut.

Ingredients

Pineapple Supreme cake mix

Oil need for cake mix

Eggs need for cake mix

Can of Pineapple tidbits in juice

3 cans Coconut Cream/milk refrigerated

1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter softened

3-4 Cups Powder Sugar

1 teaspoon Coconut Extract

1 bag flake Coconut toasted

1 Jar Pineapple Preserves

Chopped Macadamia Nuts

Directions

Make the cakes mix according to package directions with substituting the water with the same amount of liquid from the pineapple tidbits. Pour batter into two prepared 8 or 9 inch pans and bake as the package says.

When the cake is out of the oven and cooling, toast the coconut. Place the coconut evenly on a parchment covered pan and place in the oven for 5 minutes, and check it, and 2 minutes after that till it just starts to toast, and mix it up and spread it out again, and place in oven 1 minute at a time checking it. When some of the coconut starts to toast the rest will go fast so check it! I did mine in two batches. 

Now the frosting! Cream the butter with a mixer till light in color. Open your cans one at a time of Coconut cream or milk, there should be a solid at the top, scoop that out, leave the liquid at the bottom,and add it to the butter, the liquid is like coconut syrup, you can save that for another use. Add about 1 cup of the coconut solid just eye ball it. Beat till combined. Add the powder sugar 1 cup at a time till the consistency is good for frosting. If you have the coconut extract add that too if not it should be fine. 

To assemble the cake, cut the cakes in two, place the first layer on your cake plate, spread and thin layer of your coconut frosting and keep a lip all around the edge to hold the pineapple filling. Spread half of the pineapple preserves keeping inside the frosting edge. Place a layer of cake and frost with the coconut frosting, no pineapple filling this layer. Another cake layer, thin layer frosting, pineapple filling. Place the last cake layer on top and frost the whole cake with the remaining frosting. Cover the sides with the toasted coconut and decorate the top with the pineapple tidbits, macadamia nut and remaining coconut. Refrigerate to set the frosting, and enjoy.

Today is the day

I have been encouraged by my brother and sisters to start a food blog, well a dessert blog mostly.
I love cake, I always have. Being one of six kids and no one had the same birthday month we had a lot of cake, mostly store bought, my mom loves that frosting.Now I bakes the birthday cakes, cupcakes, holiday cakes, I bake a lot of cake.
The problem I have is I will do something new or different and I don't write it down and forget, so I hope having a blog will help with that.
I will let you know that these are not health food desserts, they are more like death by sugar, so eat them only on special occasions. 
Happy eating, or Happy Birthday!