Under a blue moon

Pumpkin Cake

Happy 1st day of October!  The countdown to Halloween officially starts.  I thought I would kick it off with pumpkin cake topped with deliciously light whipped cream cheese frosting.  

As I was taking pictures I realized that this is very close to the apple spice cake I made last month.  The difference is I found a much better cream cheese frosting.  The previous recipe had four cups of powdered sugar where this one only has one.  Much less cloying and oh so much fluffier. 

The cake recipe I used is the One-Bowl Pumpkin Sheet Cake from A Cozy Kitchen.  I followed the cake recipe exactly but used a different recipe for the frosting.   The frosting recipe I used comes from Natasha's Kitchen and it is so fluffy and light and just the right amount of sweetness. 

Here's something that happens behind the scenes...Since I don't eat cake (or any sweets) it is a little ridiculous to make an entire cake just for Rick so I tend to bake on Sundays so I can take it to Sunday dinner at my Dad's.  But I also want to take glamour shots of whatever I make.  I first take pictures of the whole cake then I cut a piece to get pictures of the inside of the cake.  Afterwards I carefully put the piece back and smear the frosting along the cut lines to hide them.  Ha! No one is the wiser.

A Cozy Kitchen decorated her cake with pretty pastel jimmies that she made herself.  Not having the patience or the wherewithal to do that I settled for a mix of white and orange.  But I love the idea of less garish colors when decorating cakes and found this shop that sells a huge variety of different colored jimmies.  I would have done a mix of peach and ivory.  

On Wednesday I'll share the Halloween Party invitations.  They have been all sent off on Saturday so the recipients should have received them and it won't ruin the surprise.

 

Pumpkin Spice

A couple of weeks ago the Minister of Creative Ventures (is that not a fabulous title?) at The Republic of Tea reached out and asked if I would like to try some of their teas.  They had seen a previous post on tea, my beverage of choice, and thought I might like to review some of their offerings.  Free tea?  I'm in!

And just to get the disclaimers out of the way I was sent the tea for free but am not being paid or even required to review it.  And if it turned out I didn't care for it I wouldn't review it all, to be honest.  The old 'if you don't have anything nice to say' adage runs deep in my veins....

I was invited to visit their website and pick anything I like - an old favorite or maybe something new.  I did both.  I am a black tea drinker (English Breakfast being my favorite) and could have stuck with that.  But their line of cozy weather teas caught my eye and I choose the Pumpkin Spice tea.  The pumpkin spice latte folks shouldn't have all the fun.

Of course I had to make a pumpkin pie as a prop.  Even though the temperatures are in the 90's right now.  Fall?  What fall?  

I start every morning with my low-carb muffin which I make with pumpkin pie spice.  I thought the tea would be the perfect pairing for it.  It is a black tea with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.  To me it is a little more sophisticated than pumpkin pie spice you would use to make a pie.  I find that some spiced teas can go overboard with the cinnamon but this is nicely balanced.   I use a vanilla coconut cream and almond milk creamer in my tea and the addition of vanilla is really nice.  

As for the company itself, The Republic of Tea is headquartered here in Northern California and is committed to creating a fair and sustainable tea industry for tea workers, farmers and the environment.  They also routinely donate to a number of non-profit organizations and causes like the American Red Cross for the relief efforts of the Northern California wildfires that have devastated our state.   

Great company with an admirable ethos and lovely tea.  Thank you, Minister of Creative Ventures, for inviting me to try your tea.

Apple Spice Cake

I'm kicking off the fall season with an apple recipe.  Okay I know it's not technically fall yet, and won't be for a few weeks, but to me September is fall and apples especially are fall.  

This is a simple apple spice sheet cake with cream cheese frosting.  I have no idea how it tastes because I don't eat cake but Rick assures me it is good, although maybe could have been a bit apple-ier.  

I will say the whole house smells fabulous.  Since I've been eating low carb I rarely bake.  I am starting to slowly add carbs back into my diet and while I don't think I'll be binging on baked goods anytime soon I think the occasional small treat won't derail my efforts.  

I may or may not have eaten a spoonful of cream cheese frosting while making this cake...

Apple Spice Cake (adapted from The Baker Chick which is adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients

• 2 large Granny Smith (or other tart apple) apples peeled and cut into small pieces (about 3 cups)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⅓ cups vegetable oil 
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Instructions

1. Preheat over to 350F. Oil and flour a quarter sheet pan and set aside.  If you don't have a sheet pan use 13 x 9 baking pan.
2. In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter and add the apples, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, and 1 tablespoon of white sugar. Saute for 3-5 minutes, until the apples are slightly soft.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine vegetable oil, sugar, and eggs; mix on high speed until the mixture is fluffy and light. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients while mixing on low speed until just combined. Add in the apples and gently incorporate.
6. Spread batter in the sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
7. Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time until creamy. Add the vanilla extract.
2. Frost cake in the pan and serve.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Pickled onions

Happy 4th of July!  This is going to be a quick and easy post.   I am packing up to head over to my son's and his wife's house to do grandma duties then we are going to have a bbq to celebrate our country's independence.  

This recipe for pickled onions is so easy and is perfect for Summer menus.  It's great thrown in a salad or coleslaw or used as a topping for burgers, hot dogs or any kind of sandwich (banh mi, anyone?).   And some people are known to just eat it straight out of the jar..ahem.

The jalapenos add just the right amount of heat but if they aren't your thing feel free to leave them out.  I prefer to use rice wine vinegar because I think it is a little more delicate than regular white or apple cider vinegar but either will do in a pinch.

On to the recipe!

Pickled Onions

• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

In a medium sauce pan bring vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a boil.  Add sliced onions and jalapenos and simmer for a minute or two.  Take off heat and allow to cool slightly.  I used a clean 13 oz. jam jar and this batch fit just perfectly.   Let chill at least an hour, overnight is even better.  It will last a week or two in the refrigerator (if it isn't eaten before then.

I hope you'll give them a try! 

Recipe cards

Whenever I do a recipe type post I pull out my motley collection of recipes I've collected over the years or pull from something I've seen online.  

The issue with that is it isn't very photogenic.  

I got to thinking I should clean up my recipe collection so I could file them all away neatly.  I have recipes that I copied at the tender age of 19 (before I knew how to spell pilaf properly) and while some were kept semi-consistent with my kitschy 70's recipe cards, most were just saved on scrap pieces of note paper.

So when I do a food related post I usually copy the recipe on a template recipe card that has a kind of vintage, tried and true, look to it.  

I decided I would start migrating my hodge podge collection of recipes and I would just keep with the recipe card template I like.  I would recommend looking on Pinterest for a template that speaks to you.  The one I like is from HERE.

I copied the image into a MS Word document and then layered text boxes on top.  I did alter the original graphic of the recipe card to lighten it up a bit.  The font I used is Traveling Typewriter.  I printed two to a sheet of card stock and then cut them down to size (6" x 4")

While I'm not sure I'm quite ready to toss those late 70's, early 80's recipe cards out just yet I don't have any problem getting rid of the various scrap pieces of paper I have with recipes on then.  

I noticed that most of the earlier recipe cards are for baked goods or desserts and some of the recipes are just awful sounding (anything calling for cream of chicken soup...) or undecipherable.  I do like how I consistently recorded who the recipe came from.   I must have tried it and liked it enough to ask for the recipe.   

I hope you all have a wonderful week.