The fourth of July is coming up fast. My Grandfather was a real live nephew of Uncle Sam, born on the 4th of July. Every year he would have a huge birthday party, and was very pleased that the whole country celebrated his birthday.
I’ll posting a few ideas for the holiday. The first is this simple “flag” cake, with all the food and BBQ’s on this holiday, a big dessert is not necessary. A plain cake with easy decoration should suffice.
Simply make your favorite cake in a 9 X13 cake pan.
9 X 13 Cake
For this recipe I used a simple butter cream icing and less than a pint of cut strawberries.
Butter Cream Icing
1 cup butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 tbs vanilla
5 tbs heavy cream
In a mixer with the paddle blade cream the butter, then slowly add the sugar, finally add the vanilla and about ½ the cream. see how the consistency of the icing is. If you want it thinner add the remaining cream.
Take a few tablespoons of the icing in a separate bowl and add blue food coloring.
blue icing
In a small pastry bag with a small star tip put a few tbs of white icing.
Decorate the top left corner with the blue icing.and cover the rest in the white. Take the sliced strawberries and layer them across as red stripes. Finally take the pastry bag and create the stars.
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Carrot Cake needs plenty of carrots but I had no walnuts or pecans, I did have some almonds and so a substitution that worked fairly well.
Equipment for Carrot Cake
You will need 2 – 8 inch round cake pans greased with a piece of parchment lining the bottom.
Ingredients for Carrot Cake
2 cups of granulated sugar
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
2+ cups grated carrots
4 whole eggs
2¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs vanilla
Cooking Directions for Carrot Cake
Preheat oven to 350°
Take 2 eight inch round cake pans grease and place a piece of parchment in the bottom of each.
Peel, trim and grate approximately 2 cups of carrots ( about 6-8 medium size carrots, it does not have to be an exact amount the more the merrier).
In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder,baking soda, cinnamon, salt.
In the bowl of the mixer add the sugar and vegetable oil and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs one at a time and completely mix before adding next. With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients. Once combined remove bowl from the mixer and add the carrots and walnuts and fold into the batter. Pour half into each of the prepared cake pans and bake for about 50 minutes until a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean. Loosen cake from sides of the pan, invert on to a wire rack and remove pans and let cool completely.
Use your favorite cream cheese icing, covering all sides and then taking chopped walnuts press the nuts into the sides of the cake and sprinkle on top. (Our example is made with almonds).
Save room for dessert have a big slice…………..
………and then relax.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Of course the best icing, hands down, for a Carrot Cake is a delicious cream cheese frosting. I have in the past used a store brand cream cheese and it didn’t come out as well, so I stick with Philadelphia brand, my theory is don’t mess with success.
Ingredients for cream cheese frosting
1 cup butter softened
2 – 8oz packages of Philadelphia brand cream cheese softened
6+ cups confectioners sugar
1+ Tbs milk
Directions for cream cheese frosting
In a mixer on low speed combine the butter and cream cheese, slowly add all the confectioners sugar and milk.. If the icing seems too thin add more sugar and if it seems too thick add a little more milk.
My favorite treat as a pup was frozen carrot sticks, which helped with my teething. So I have grown to love anything with carrots. I’d give this recipe 10 paws if the editor would let me.
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2 - 8oz packages of Philadelphia brand cream cheese softened
6+ cups confectioners sugar
1+ Tbs milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°
Take 2 eight inch round cake pans grease and place a piece of parchment in the bottom of each.
Peel, trim and grate approximately 2 cups of carrots ( about 6-8 medium size carrots, it does not have to be an exact amount the more the merrier).
In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder,baking soda, cinnamon, salt.
In the bowl of the mixer add the sugar and vegetable oil and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs one at a time and completely mix before adding next. With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients. Once combined remove bowl from the mixer and add the carrots and walnuts and fold into the batter. Pour half into each of the prepared cake pans and bake for about 50 minutes until a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean. Loosen cake from sides of the pan, invert on to a wire rack and remove pans and let cool completely.
Directions for cream cheese icing
In a mixer on low speed combine the butter and cream cheese, slowly add all the confectioners sugar and milk.. If the icing seems too thin add more sugar and if it seems too thick add a little more milk.
Notes
use your favorite cream cheese icing to frost this cake
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There are many times when cooking just for two we end up with large amounts of leftovers. So the other evening I had found we had a large container of leftover rice and no dessert. What can you make with rice? Pudding of course! While not a true rice pudding it came out just fine and with the vanilla sauce, it was great.
Ingredients for Faux Rice Pudding and Vanilla Sauce
For the Pudding
2 cups cooked rice
4 eggs
1 cup ½ &½, or heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
For the Vanilla Sauce
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
1 tbs corn starch
4 tbs butter (1 tbs for buttering baking dish)
1tbs vanilla
pinch of salt
Directions for the pudding
Break the cooked rice up to individual pieces. in a bowl combine the rice,eggs, cream, sugar and vanilla. stir to combine thoroughly. pour into a lightly buttered 1 quart baking dish and bake at 350° for 45 – 60 minutes until custard is set Remove to wire rack to cool and then refrigerate to chill.
Directions for Vanilla Sauce
Vanilla Sauce
Combine the sugar and corn starch in a small bowl. In a small sauce pan bring the water to a boil, once boiling lower to medium heat add the sugar and corn starch and stir until sauce is thick. Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and a pinch of salt and stir until all combined.
