Peach Upside Down Cake

This cake is made from farmers market fresh Michigan peaches, and is adapted from this recipe.  I made the mistake of leaving it out on the counter for 2 days in the summer and it got moldy!  Keep it in the fridge!  Also I used a spring-form pan and all the good stuff dripped out and charred on the bottom of the oven.  Don't do that.  Even so, the pre-mold cake was delicious!

Christmas Goodies

These are tasty and pack well.  They're fine without glaze too, and pack even better!

White Chocolate Cappuccino Raisin Bars
36 bars, 350 degrees


½ C. butter or margarine
1 C. (6 oz.) white chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. instant coffee granules
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 C. flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ C. raisins (dried cherries or cranberries also work!)

Heat together butter and choc.,‘til just melted.
Dissolve coffee in 1 Tbsp water.
Stir into melted mixture with sugar, vanilla, and eggs.
Combine dry ingredients; add to mixture. Stir in raisins.
Spread in greased 9”x 13” pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until set in middle. Cool.
Drizzle with glaze.


Glaze:


Stir ¼ tsp. coffee granules in 4 tsp. water to dissolve.
Add 1 Tbsp. melted butter.
Mix in ¾ C. powdered sugar.

These are pretty much everyone's favorites every year.

Toffee Squares, from Forum Feasts

easy yield 3 dozen 350 degrees
can be frozen bake 20 minutes


1 C. butter (to soften, nuke 5 min at med heat)
1 C. light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 C flour
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg yolk and vanilla.
Add flour and mix well.
Spread onto a 16” x 11” sheet with sides.
Bake at 350* for 15-20 min. Watch carefully.


½-1 C semi sweet choc chips (nuke 2-4 min to melt)
½-1 C chopped nuts


While crust is baking, melt chocolate chips. Gently spread chocolate on dough gently while it is still hot.
Sprinkle with nuts, and press them into the chocolate.
Cool slightly (10 minutes?) and cut into 2” squares.

This is store-bought marzipan rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate.  It was gross.

2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Regrettable Oreo Truffles

Ugh.

Pretty, right?  Ugh.  These little monsters are made from one package of oreo crumbs mixed with one package of cream cheese rolled into balls and dipped into melted chocolate. I zigzagged over the with melted white chocolate in a ziplock bag with the tip cut off.

I made them for my roommates for Valentines Day and while they look charming, eating just one walnut-sized truffle will make you feel like you are staring into the icy cold face of death. Tasty, but too intense.  Uncomfortably rick.  We've got pretty low standards around these parts, and these puppies actually went unfinished.

I always mix my leftover melted chocolate with whatever I can find laying around to make a tasty bark- granola and/or dried fruit and/or nuts.  I piped little hearts out of the leftover white chocolate, which one of my roommates used to spruce up his homemade V-Day dinner for his squeeze!

On a related note, some white chocolate melts and some doesn't.  I don't know what the difference is (I think I always buy tollhouse?) but if you know, please enlighten me! I can never tell till I'm mid-project.

Bear buns

We made these bear buns out of a tube of refrigerated dinner roll dough and raisins.  They looked cute before we baked them...

But when we baked them most of their eyes fell off or migrated.  Gruesome!  Do not recommend.

Iced Tea Popsicles

I tried making iced tea popsicles.  They were not great.  The fresh mint I added all floated to the bottom and turned all dark and bruisy-looking from the freezing, and the flavor of the tea got weirdly distributed in the popsicles when they froze.  They were neither pretty nor tasty.  Do not recommend.

I have been considering trying to make Thai iced tea popsicles, but haven't attempted it yet.