Today, March 28th, marks the date of my mother’s birth. Although she left this earth 48 years ago, her memory remains crystal clear. She was a wonderful mother who made our lives so much better in ways we never realized. She set a good example just by the way she lived the ‘best version of herself’.
When this date rolls around each year, I like to post something on the blog that I think she would have enjoyed making. Baking was a ‘job’ she really seemed to enjoy, and our family certainly reaped the benefits of that.
Carrot cake is considered a spring dessert primarily due to its strong association with Easter celebrations, the bright, vibrant color of carrots representing the season. With Easter being just a week away I thought it would be a fitting recipe for today’s blog.
While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact first instance of carrot cake being made in Canada, it’s likely that it became popular in the mid-20th century, alongside its rise in popularity in the United States. In the 1970’s, carrot cake was perceived as being ‘healthy’ due to the fact that carrots, raisins and nuts are all ‘good for us.’ Then along came that glorious cream cheese frosting that forever bonded the pair. While raisins are undoubtedly the oldest compliment to carrots, pineapple, apples or applesauce as well as walnuts have all become modern day add-ins of choice.
Today’s blog recipe for layered pineapple carrot cake is moist, not too sweet and filled with crushed pineapple and pecans. I’ve used a fluffy, pineapple cream cheese frosting for the filling as well as topping for this decadent dessert.
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Pineapple Carrot Cake
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Ingredients
Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
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Instructions
Cake
Place crushed pineapple in a fine mesh sieve over a bowl & push down on pineapple with a spoon to eliminate excess moisture. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Line three 8” round cake pans with parchment paper then spray with nonstick cooking spray WITH FLOUR or grease and flour pans.
In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, gently whisk eggs then stir in remaining wet ingredients, including drained pineapple, just until combined. DON'T OVERMIX.
Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened, then stir in 2 ½ cups grated carrots until evenly combined, being careful NOT TO OVERMIX.
Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Gently tap the pans a few times on the counter to get rid of air bubbles. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean & the cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans.
Let cakes cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.
Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese & butter until creamy. Beat in the sour cream, vanilla & salt. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached. Mix in pineapple preserves.
Assembly
Place a small dollop of frosting in the center of the cake stand to keep the cake from moving and top with one leveled cake.
Top cake with ¾ cup frosting & spread evenly. Top with a second cake & spread evenly with ¾ cup frosting. Top with remaining cake.
Create Crumb Layer by scooping 1 cup of frosting into a smaller bowl. Frost cake starting with the top and working down until the cake is evenly frosted, removing any excess frosting. Refrigerate cake 30 minutes or until crumb layer has set. Refrigerate remaining frosting until ready to use.
Frost the outside of cake with the remaining frosting. Decorate as you wish. Serve cake cold or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
As you may have noticed in the blog picture, I divided the batter into thirds. We gifted a friend with a 2 layer cake & Brion & I kept 1 layer for us.
For the decorations, I simmered some dried apricots in the extra pineapple juice for a few minutes then sliced them & added some pepita seeds as well as black sesame.
The core idea of pork with apples is ancient, but the specific preparation using commercial apple pie filling is a modern, convenience-driven take on that tradition. This method transforms a classic historical pairing into a quick, easy-to-prepare meal using modern pantry staples. This inspiration appeared around 2010, utilizing canned filling and sometimes boxed stuffing to create simple, one-pan baked meals.
Cooking doesn’t always have to be complicated. Sometimes, it’s the simplest amount of ingredients that come together to recreate a traditional flavor profile without the extra prep work.
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Pork Medallions w/ Apples & Stuffing
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Instructions
In a large skillet, brown pork medallions & onions in oil over medium-high heat. Remove to paper lined plate & set aside.
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Prepare stuffing according to package directions. In a bowl, combine apple pie filling, apple juice, cranberry sauce, herbs & spices. Spread mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 9-inch baking dish. Place onions over top then nestle pork medallions into apple mixture. Finish with spooning stuffing over all.
Cover & bake for about 55 minutes or until medallions are cooked through. A meat thermometer inserted into pork should read 145 F.
Sprinkle with parsley & serve.
CELEBRATING CINCO de MAYO!
Cinco de Mayo commemorates a regional Mexican military battle, but it has evolved to become an important celebration of Mexican culture. Cinco de Mayo is not a major holiday in Mexico. In fact, it’s even considered a minor holiday in the region where it is observed, Puebla. It commemorates the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, when a small band of Mexican fighters defeated French invaders. It has nothing to do with Mexican independence, contrary to what a lot of North Americans may think.
Today Cinco de Mayo is celebrated extensively in the United States and to a lesser degree around the world, including here in Canada. Decorations use the red, white and green colors of the Mexican flag. There are the sounds of traditional folk music from Mexico. Schools use the celebration to teach about Mexican culture and the Spanish language.
Like any celebration of an important date, food typically plays a significant role in traditions. For the occasion I decided to go with some tender flakey empanadas loaded with ground beef, pork, potatoes, and spices. To keep it even more ‘authentic’, the filling is encased in a cornmeal pastry.
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Meat & Potato Empanadas
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Instructions
Pastry
In a small bowl, combine sour cream & ice water: set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ½ cup cornmeal, sugar & salt. Using a pastry blender or fingertips, cut in butter until mixture resembles both coarse crumbs & small peas. Sprinkle the cold sour cream mixture over dough, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute it. Do NOT overwork dough.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap & refrigerate for at least an hour.
Filling
Bring potatoes to a boil in salted water. Simmer 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well and mash.
While potatoes are cooking, brown ground beef, pork, onion, and garlic until no pink remains using a spoon to break it up. Add remaining ingredients (including mashed potatoes) except for breadcrumbs.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until thickened. Add 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs to help the mixture hold together if needed. Cool for 20 minutes.
Assembly/Baking
Divide chilled pastry into 10 balls. Roll each one in cornmeal. Place a ball between 2 sheets of plastic wrap & roll into a 6-inch circle.
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Divide the filling into 10 portions. Place a portion on one side of the pastry circle, leaving about a ½-inch border (on filled side). Flip the opposite side over filling & press edges together to enclose it well. Use a fork to make the classic look.
Repeat with the remaining pastry & filling. Lay empanadas on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with egg wash.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until pastry is baked & slightly browned.
Fall is here and its pumpkin season! It’s like a pumpkin explosion in the stores this time of year with pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice Oreos, pumpkin spice M&Ms, pumpkin spice Ramen noodles, Doritos and so many others.
Unlike pumpkins, however, blueberries have a flavor that knows no season or food type. They pair well with just about anything, and pumpkins are no exception. Blueberries have just enough sweetness to complement pumpkin-y flavors and stay juicy during the baking process.
These pumpkin blueberry muffins make for an ideal autumn indulgence.
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Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins
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Instructions
Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8 cup large muffin tin with parchment papers/cups
In a large bowl, whisk together 1 2/3 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon & allspice. In a small bowl, combine pumpkin puree with milk.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter & brown sugar until creamy. Add egg; beat until fluffy.
Alternately add flour & pumpkin mixtures to butter mixture, stirring just until blended. Combine blueberries with 1 Tbsp flour in a small dish. Fold gently into mixture. Spoon batter carefully into prepared muffin cups.
Topping
In a small bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon & salt. Using a fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add pepitas & combine. Divide evenly over muffin batter.
Baking
Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool in pan for a few minutes then remove to a rack to finish cooling. Store muffins in a covered container.
Recipe Notes
- If you would prefer smaller muffins, divide batter between 12 paper lined standard muffin cups. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
September is the bridge between summer and fall. The beginning of the fall season is just around the corner so it’s time to transition meals between the summer and fall. Turn the oven back on to embrace the changing season. For many, this means baking, but there’s also sautéing and slow roasting, braising and boiling.
It’s National Chicken Month which gives Canadians from coast to coast another reason to celebrate their favorite protein. It’s the time to cook and eat all sorts of chicken dishes in salute of all the hard-working Canadian farm families that raise the chicken we love.
This recipe for skillet chicken with grapes and caramelized onions is an easy recipe that makes a perfect pair for a crisp green salad, quinoa, or fresh bread. Quinoa is still very much a small niche crop in Canada. The search for seed to produce quinoa varieties that can reliably flourish in Canada continues, and it is entrepreneurs as well as research scientists who are leading these efforts. Quinoa is a cool-season crop and is particularly sensitive to heat, which limits the areas of potential commercial production in Canada.
Its popularity skyrocketed in 2006/7 when restaurants began featuring this ancient grain on their menus, and it quickly won over people’s taste buds with its unique flavor and texture profile.
Serving quinoa with this chicken meal really makes it special.
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Skillet Chicken w/ Grapes & Caramelized Onions
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Instructions
Caramelized Onions
Heat butter over medium low heat in a heavy ovenproof skillet. Add the onions cook for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. When the onions are a deep golden color, remove from the pan and set aside.
Chicken Thighs
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Combine the flour, salt, chili powder, thyme, allspice, & black pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess.
In the same pan as the onions, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add each piece of chicken & fry for a few minutes until golden brown; flip & cook for a few more minutes. Transfer to a plate (it will not be fully cooked at this point, just browned – it will finish cooking in the oven).
Turn the heat down & let the oil cool off a little bit. Add the wine – this will definitely bubble & sizzle! Add the broth & simmer until the mixture is thickened slightly. Add the onions & chicken to the pan. Bake for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, add the grapes, baste with the sauce & bake for another 5-10 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Recipe Notes
- To make without using wine:
- Use 3/4 cup chicken broth (instead of the 1/3 cup wine & 1/4 cup broth). Add remaining flour (leftover from dredging chicken).
- Make a roux with excess oil in skillet & dredging flour.
- Add chicken broth & cook until a sauce forms.
- Add the onions & chicken to the pan & bake as directed above.
CELEBRATING GOOD FRIDAY!
Bread pudding always gives me reason to remember good things. Truly a comfort food for those of us that recall it from childhood days. It’s not that the dish was invented here — that honor likely goes to clever medieval or even ancient cooks in Europe and the Middle East who had a surplus of stale bread on their hands. The perfect embodiment of the virtues of frugality and indulgence: day old bread, too precious to waste, is bathed in a mixture of milk and eggs and made into either a sweet or savory bread pudding (with a few other additions) and baked into something sublime. What makes it special is the blend of spices mixed into it and the sauce.
The chai spice baking blend, which is sometimes overlooked, adds a distinct warm flavor and depth. It can include a number of different spices. Cardamom is the most common ingredient, followed by some mixture of cinnamon, ginger, star anise and cloves. Pepper, coriander, nutmeg and fennel are also used but they are slightly less common.
This bread pudding combines hot cross buns with spices inspired by the world’s love affair with Indian chai. The origins of hot cross buns may go back as far as the 12th century. According to the story, an Anglican monk baked the buns and marked them with a cross in honor of Good Friday. Over time they gained popularity, and eventually became a symbol of Easter weekend.
Bread pudding, when done right, should have the perfect balance of gooey goodness and chewy texture. That’s why stale bread/buns are important. The bread needs a degree of crunch otherwise you will have ‘mush pudding’. For additional flavor, the pudding is served with a vanilla sauce. Who says bread pudding has to be boring!
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Chai Spiced Hot Cross Bread Pudding w/ Vanilla Sauce
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Instructions
Bread Pudding
Place cubed hot cross buns in a greased 9 x 9-inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, combine the milk, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, spices & salt. Pour over buns, making sure that the bread is completely covered by the milk mixture.
Cover & refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
Set out the chilled bread pudding while you preheat the oven to 350 F.
Bake 40 - 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pudding comes out clean. Remove from oven & serve with vanilla sauce.
Vanilla Sauce
In a small saucepan, melt butter & add flour. Stir until mixture has a nutty aroma.
Add salt, cream & sugar; stir until mixture becomes thick. Remove from heat & stir in vanilla.
Spoon over servings of warm bread pudding.
Recipe Notes
- You will notice I have only used 2 Tbsp sugar in the vanilla sauce to offset the sweetness of the pudding.
Homespun desserts such as crisps, cobblers, betties, slumps & pandowdy’s are all variations on the same theme. As much as we like to be definitive, these old fashioned desserts are ‘folk-food’ passed down orally from mother to child and like all folk culture slight variations arise from kitchen to kitchen.
My spice drawer gets a good workout in the fall. I want to add fall spices to as many things as possible. Warm fruit desserts are a perfect candidate for doing just that.
The filling for this cobbler is a combination of peaches, brown sugar, butter and some added spices. All of that is cooked briefly to give it a caramel-like flavor. The topping is a simple one but the combination of spices adds such amazing flavor and is the perfect complement to the peaches. I’ve added cardamom to both the filling and topping. If you follow the blog, you are probably aware of my obsession with cardamom. Definitely feel free to use your favorite combination and ratio of spices.
I think this Chai-Spiced Peach Cobbler is everything you could ever want in a fall dessert.
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Chai-Spiced Peach Cobbler w/ Pepita Oat Crumble
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Instructions
Topping
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, rolled oats, pistachios, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom & sugar.
Using a pastry blender, combine flour mixture with butter until it resembles a coarse meal. Store the mixture in the fridge until ready to use.
Filling
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Place a large saucepan over medium heat & add in butter. Once the butter is melted, add in the (thawed) peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom & black pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer & cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Pour cooked peaches into a large casserole dish & evenly top with the pistachio-oat crumble.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown & the sauce bubbles around the edges.
Once finished baking, serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream if you wish.
Eostre is an obscure Germanic and Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and dawn, and it is thought to be the namesake of the Christian holiday Easter. Because food has always had a close association with Easter, special dishes were cooked in her honor. Most important of these was a small spiced, sweet bun from which our ‘hot cross bun’ derives. These little spiced buns are a rather old English tradition, which are still traditionally eaten on Good Friday. They are marked on top with a cross which is of ancient origin connected with religious offerings of bread.
Hot Cross ‘Scones’ are an easy take on the seasonal classic bun. They are the best of both worlds; hot cross yeasted buns and a tender spicy scone. Scones work for me in the way that most of the time I have the ingredients on hand and they only take about twenty minutes or so to make.
As always, I enjoy the idea of variation in just about everything. I had three scone recipes in mind for today’s blog. One recipe is a hot cross scone made by changing out the regular flour for ‘Kamut’ flour. This flour is made from an ancient grain originally grown by the pharaohs of Egypt. It contains more protein, minerals and other nutrients than modern wheat.
The other two recipes are Spiced Orange & Fresh Apple Hot Cross Scones, both made with a sour cream batter. Hopefully they will become part of your Easter recipe collection.
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Easter Hot Cross 'Scones' X 3
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Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Add butter; using a pastry blender, blend until mixture forms fine crumbs. Stir in spices, dried fruit & orange zest.
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In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, & vanilla; whisk until well blended. Add to flour mixture; stir until a soft dough forms.
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Scoop onto lined baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven, combine water & honey glaze. Warm very slightly in microwave; brush over tops of scones. When scones have cooled, decorate with icing crosses.
Recipe Notes
FOR VARIATIONS:
- To make Kamut Scones use 1 3/4 cup kamut flour & 3/4 cup white flour instead of all white flour.
- To make Apple Scones add 1/4 of a large apple, peeled & cut in 1/4" dice. to basic recipe.
