Baking and Such

Friday Bake Along: Italian Cream Cake

- JustPlainSusan

Happy Friday! Thought I would try to revise Friday Bake Along.  Back in the “olden days” when I had a blog called NotQuiteJuneCleaver I did a lot of cool things (for the times).  Then Life happened and the blog fell by the wayside.  But you know, why not give it another go?  It used to be cathartic to blog almost daily.  That’s probably not going to happen. I am far less disciplined now.  But I will do my best – which is not what it used to be.  [gs_pinterest user=”JustPlainSusan59″ board=”” count=”10″ theme=”gs_pin_theme1″ cols=”3″] Print

Italian Cream Cake

This is one of our favorite cakes.  I hope you will try it if it’s new to you. If not maybe it will remind you to make one soon!

  • Author: JustPlainSusan

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cake:

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 2 cups all purpose flour or 2 cups plus 2 TBSP cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 2 cups coconut
  • 5 egg whites, beaten stiff
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Frosting:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese at room temp
  • 1/2 cup butter at room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pound confectioners sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) or 4 (8 inch) round cake pans.

Cake:

Cream sugar, butter and shortening. Add egg yolks and mix well. Mix flour, salt, baking soda in a bowl. Add this flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Mix well. Add vanilla, pecans and coconut. Mix well. Then gently fold in egg whites. Divide evenly between your pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes then turn out on a rack to finish cooling. Frost when completely cool.

Frosting:

Beat cream cheese and butter until light. Add vanilla and mix well. Add confectioners sugar a cup at the time and when all in incorporated beat on high until light and spreading consistency.

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag me — I can't wait to see what you've made!

 

Chicken & Dumplings

- JustPlainSusan

These are a favorite at our house. My Ganky (my mom’s sister) made THE best. This is a slight variation on her original recipe. We thoroughly enjoy these. I always wonder why I don’t make them more often. Let me know if you have any other questions. Or if you think I misspoke or left something out.

Your dumplings can be made way ahead and frozen. But make them at least a few hours before so they will be very well chilled if not frozen.

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp salt

Stir together and set aside.

  • 1/2 cup all vegetable shortening ( I know lard would be amazing but I have never tried it -quite sure my Ganky used regular Crisco)
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 large egg, well beaten

Put the shortening in a heat proof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Stir to melt the shortening. When it has melted pour this into your flour/salt, stir a couple of times, then add the egg.

Stir with a fork until well blended. Then give it a little beat with a wooden spoon to be sure you get all the flour off th bottom of the bowl.

Cover and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.

On a well flour cloth with a well floured rolling pin, roll out the dough using a approximately 1/4 of the dough at the time.

Cut into strips or squares using a knife or pastry cutter.

Layer on a parchment or waxed paper lined cookie sheet, putting parchment or waxed paper between the layers of dumplings

Place a piece of parchment or waxed paper over the last layer and then wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer while you prepare your chicken. If however you are making these days or even weeks before you intend to use them, they freeze very well. Simply allow them to become completely frozen and then remove them from the cookie sheet and put them in a zipper freezer bag or freezer safe plastic container, label them with the date and return them to the freezer, using them within 3 months.

I have a large white enamelware pot I make dumplings in. But a dutch oven or soup pot with a good fitting lid will do.

Boil a chicken or enough chicken pieces to make a rich broth in enough water to cover the chicken well. Salt and pepper to taste. You certainly may need to add more water as the chicken cooks. But keep it well covered with water. After chicken is completely cooked remove from the broth to cool and when cool enough, pick meat off the bones and return it to the broth. To the broth add 2 (16 ounce)cans chicken broth, 2 chicken broth cans of water and 2 cans cream of chicken soup. Bring this to a rolling boil and stir so the cream of chicken soup is well incorporated.

cd13

Drop the still VERY cold or frozen dumplings into the boiling pot one at a time, shaking to move the dumplings around so they don’t bunch together. Best not to stir but you can press down on the floating dumplings with the back of a spoon to make room for more.

ck12

When all your dumplings are added to the boiling liquid. Turn the heat down to simmer and put the lid on your pot. Cook undisturbed for 25 minutes. If you like add a little more freshly ground black pepper to the pot.

ck11

Serve right away while piping hot! We usually do not have any sides with this – just dumplings…and more dumplings.

cd101

A plain and simple meal. And I told you, they are easy!!!

 

Just Plain (and the best) Meat Loaf

- JustPlainSusan 1 Comment

Our favorite meatloaf recipe! 

JustPlainSusan’s MeatLoaf

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • ½ lb. ground pork
  • 1 ¼ cup dried bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 large egg beaten
  • 2 tbsp. ketchup
  • 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp. dried parsley leaves
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

For the Topping:

  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 tbsp. packed light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, add the beef, bread crumbs, onion, milk, egg, 2 tablespoons ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Use your hands to mush and mix these ingredients together until well combined.*

Add the meat mixture to a non-stick meatloaf pan or non-stick 9×5 loaf pan or regular loaf pan very lightly greased. Pat the meat down into an even layer.

In a small bowl, add 1/4 cup ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar. Stir to combine. Pour the sauce on top of the meatloaf and spread it into an even layer.

Bake uncovered for 55 minutes or until tests 160F degrees internally.

Let the meatloaf rest for 8-10 minutes before serving (or it may fall apart).**

Notes:

*Be sure to mix the meat really well.  This is a very moist meatloaf recipe so under mixing can cause the meatloaf to be too soft/mushy.

**if using a pan other than a meatloaf pan use thin spatulas to remove the meatloaf from the pan and transfer it to a cutting board. You could also slice and serve the meatloaf directly from the loaf pan, or use parchment paper to line the pan for easy removal.