Gifting made delicious by me

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
(from scratch of course) in a jar.

Earlier in the week I got a call from a friend asking me to whip up some of my gift cakes for her.  She wanted to send some special 'Thank You's' to a few people.  (L) asked for yellow cake with chocolate frosting "because really, who doesn't like yellow cake and chocolate frosting?"  Well for starters, me.  My first thought was 'BORING'... Then, I realized that I am the one baking this and I can make it not boring if I want.  To shorten the story and move onto the recipe, my initial reaction was WAY off and these turned out to be delicious.  This recipe is designed for 6 pint jars, each holding 2 servings.

Yellow Cake (Well the cake part is still pretty plain, but just wait until it's frosted)
2 cups 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

Heat oven to 350°F.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each.  At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined.  Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.
Split batter evenly between 6 glass pint jars (the jars should be clean, dry, and lightly oiled).  Tap each jar lightly on the counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 22 to 27 minutes. Cool in jars on a rack 1 hour.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 single pkg of instant coffee
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp corn starch

This is where this recipe gets good (and by good, I mean gooooooooddddd, mmmmmmm).  I'll admit when I first saw the use of sour cream in frosting I was a little, er, reluctant to try it.  Let me tell you that I did not know it would become one of my favorites.  No egg whites, no white sugar, no butter; but unbelievably good. Set the cup of sour cream out and let it come to room temperature.  In a double-boiler heat chocolate until melted, add instant coffee and stir well.  Remove from heat and let cool until it just begins to thicken.  Whisk together sour cream, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and corn starch until well combined.  Pour chocolate into mixture slowly.  Stir quickly until mixture is uniform.  Cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes or until cake is cooled to room temperature.  Put frosting in frosting bag (only fill to about half full) and add frosting directly on top of cake in jar.  It looks best if frosted in a swirl increasing in thickness toward the center.

At this point you put the lid on and if you have a vacuum sealer, use it; if not no worries.  This cake should be eaten within 5 days and due to the sour cream frosting should remain refrigerated until ready to eat.

Yum

Weekly Meal Plan #5

Monday

Leftover Borscht

Tuesday

Eggplant Parmesan and Pasta Salad

Wednesday

Leftovers

Thursday

Pot-fried Ham with Purple Cabbage and Black-eyed Peas

Friday

Leftovers

Saturday

Date-night!

Sunday

Meatloaf, Sauteed Spinach, and Glazed Carrots

Eggplant Parmesan

2 Eggplants, sliced 1/4 in thick, lightly salted and laid on a paper towel to drain for 15 minutes

2 Eggs, beaten 

1 cup of Italian Bread Crumbs

1 cup of Parmesan Cheese

8 oz Mozzarella Cheese

3 cups Marinara (I usually make my own, but any spaghetti sauce you like will work)

4 tbsp Butter or Margarine

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in a ziplock bag. In a large frying pan melt 1 tbsp butter over medium heat.  Dip eggplant slices into beaten egg and then shake in bread crumb-parmesan mix 1-2 at a time and place into hot frying pan.  Cook for 5 minutes or until browned on each side.  Drain oil off eggplant by setting them on paper towels for a moment.  Place a layer of eggplant in the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish, cover with marinara, add an even sprinkling of mozzarella, repeat until all eggplant is in the baking dish and topped off with a marinara and mozzarella.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is beginning to brown.  

Pot-fried Ham with Cabbage

1 Ham Steak, cut into bite  size pieces

1 Head of Cabbage (purple or green), chopped

2 tbsp Butter, Margarine, or Cooking Oil Spray

Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat.  Add ham pieces and cook until lightly browning.  Add cabbage, stir, and cover.  Cook, stirring occasionally until cabbage is soft and browning, about 30 minutes.

Sauteed Spinach

1tsp Olive Oil
1/4 Onion, finely chopped
1 large Garlic Clove, minced
6 oz Fresh Baby Spinach
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
2-3 oz shredded Parmesan-Asiago Cheese

Heat olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  When oil is popping add onion.  Cook onion until soft and beginning to caramelize.  Add spinach, salt, and pepper to onions.  The spinach will wilt, shrink, and turn dark green.  Saute for 5-7 minutes.  Turn heat off and add cheese to top.  Allow cheese to get a bit melty before serving.

Edibles in the Front Yard

We have been doing some serious garden work this week.  I love the excitement surrounding my front yard gardening projects.  Every year I start off convinced that the neighborhood association is going to freak out and decide that my sidewalk garden  and edibles in the front yard are inappropriate and that I will be forced to remove them.  This year though, I am happy to announce that I think I have started a neighborhood trend; there are two other houses on my block with sidewalk vegetable gardens!  I love having my neighbors stop by and ask what is growing and pick a few things.  We always have more than we can eat by ourselves and I enjoy sharing the abundance with family, friends, neighbors, and those that could use a helping hand.  The only negatives are that I worry about the exhaust from vehicles constantly spraying them with chemicals and people that let their dogs poop and dig in my garden (I mean really can they not just pull the dog into the next yard?  It's only 50 ft away and scoop for the love of GOD; we live in the city!).  Really though, I am so lucky to live in a city I love and be able to combine my favorite parts of both urban and rural living.

(A) loves helping in the garden.

(A), "Hey guys, you wanted me to rake this part, right?..."

This is the beginning of the sidewalk garden redo... yikes

We've covered the hill with strawberries.  Great spreading ground cover and tasty!

This looks precarious, but the dirt actually landed behind the child.

(A) helps his pop spread some fresh stinky dirt.

New non-eroding mostly shade garden.  I replanted my azalea, ferns, hechuras, and hostas; and added cabbage and broccoli to make it more than just pretty.  The pots on the end are filled with tiny citrus trees my mother-in-law gave me.

Broccoli, yes it looks like this before it looks like food.

Yay!  Fresh dirt!!!!!

 

In the side-walk garden, I planted some sweet basil, cilantro, and flat-leaf parsley slips; double-yield heirloom cucumber, black from tula and mortgage lifter tomatoes, and cayenne and orange bell pepper seeds; and scarlet nanatte and purple dragon carrots in the pot.

The dwarf peach is hanging in there, but it has very few blossoms compared to others in the area at this time.  I'm not sure if it's going to do too much this year.

The herb garden at the corner of the house holds lemon balm, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme.  The climbers are antique red roses and the pot is filled with toad lilies.

The camellias are in full bloom.  The azaleas are beginning to bud.  And the pots are filled with radishes, white onions, red onions, and leeks.

This blueberry plant and it's sister are looking good for their 2nd year status in the side-yard!

Last spring we planted a tiny fig tree on top of the grave of our beloved old Great Pyrenees that passed that January.  This thing has grown 3 ft in 1 year.  Turns out that sweet giant of a dog is super nutritious for trees.

 

I cannot wait to eat blackberries this year!  This briar is looking AMAZING!!!!

We have been doing some serious garden work this week.  I love the excitement surrounding my front yard gardening projects.  Every year I start off convinced that the neighborhood association is going to freak out and decide that my sidewalk garden  and edibles in the front yard are inappropriate and that I will be forced to remove them.  This year though, I am happy to announce that I think I have started a neighborhood trend; there are two other houses on my block with sidewalk vegetable gardens!  I love having my neighbors stop by and ask what is growing and pick a few things.  We always have more than we can eat by ourselves and I enjoy sharing the abundance with family, friends, neighbors, and those that could use a helping hand.  The only negatives are that I worry about the exhaust from vehicles constantly spraying them with chemicals and people that let their dogs poop and dig in my garden (I mean really can they not just pull the dog into the next yard?  It's only 50 ft away and scoop for the love of GOD; we live in the city!).  Really though, I am so lucky to live in a city I love and be able to combine my favorite parts of both urban and rural living.