Recipe: How to Make Irish Soda Bread

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Recipe: How to Make Marzipan (and Marzipan Pyramids)

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Christmas Recipe: White Chocolate Peppermint Bars (No Bake!)

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Featured on Catch My Party: How to Make Flower-Shaped Mini Pies

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Recipes: A Delicious, Versatile Cake (and Cupcake, of Course)

Continuing on with the cupcake theme this week, I figured it just wasn't fair to taunt you all with picture after picture of cupcakes and not give you my favorite recipe.  I don't believe in keeping recipes secret, and want to share it with as many people as possible.  It's as easy as a box mix, and so much more delicious.

My grandmother was a professional cake decorator of some renown in Iowa decades ago.  Family lore says that the governor once told his daughter, "I don't care who you marry, as long as  you give me enough notice to get a cake from Berta M."

On of my grandmother's many, many wedding cakes.  Do you recognize the royal icing lace points from the gingerbread house at the Sugar Plum Fairy party?  One of the many things she taught me.

This is the incredibly easy, delicious, moist, no-fail chocolate cake recipe she always used, and I grew up loving. It's actually a vegan cake recipe (though be careful serving to vegans, as many icings are not).

Crazy Cake (also known as Wacky Cake and a few other names)

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups water

Mix ingredients.  Pour in a pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35ish minutes for a 9x13 pan.   Test with a wooden skewer to see if it's done (mine always takes longer than the recipe says in my oven).

It's that easy.  No special techniques, no creaming ingredients to just the right texture.  Dump it in a bowl.  Mix.  Pour.  Bake.  I think it's actually easier than making a box mix, and the taste is so much better.  It's moist, it's a little more dense than store bought mixes (which I prefer--you can tell it's from scratch!), and it freezes gorgeously if you're even considering making your own wedding cake.  

If cupcakes are on your mind, this recipe makes 30.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (check the time the first time you make them, because ovens vary dramatically!)

Now, I'm going to share my secret with you.  The recipe isn't the secret.  The obvious insight it took me 20 some years to have is.  One day it hit me:  if I don't add the cocoa powder, this recipe doesn't have to be a chocolate cake.  Simply replace the cocoa with flour, and start adding other flavors.

Once I figured that out, the possibilities were endless!  I've made peanut butter, key lime, lemon, coffee, vanilla chai, vanilla, vanilla caramel, strawberry, cherry, coconut lime cakes and more!  

Here are a couple of my favorite variations:

Lemon Crazy Cake:

Follow the recipe above, but omit cocoa, replace with flour.  Add the zest of one lemon (two if they're small.  The lemons off of the tree in my backyard are HUGE).  Add two or three tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Lemon Powder (depending on how lemony you like your cake to be). 

Make bright and delicious lemon soak with simple syrup and fresh lemon juice.  Brush each layer of the cake liberally with your soak--it can take way more than you think.  My pastry-chef mother puts at least 4oz on each layer of the cakes she makes, more for larger cakes, and just squirts it on with a squeeze bottle.

  If you're making cupcakes, you can inject the syrup in the center of the cupcake using the blunt syringes you can get from the pharmacy for squirting medicine into your baby's mouth.   

This version of the cake is divine, and even my die-hard chocolate-loving husband says this is his favorite.  Paired with vanilla IMBC--heaven!

Vanilla Caramel Crazy Cake:

Follow the recipe, but omit cocoa and replace with flour.  Double the vanilla to 2 teaspoons.  Add a good dose of vanilla caramel flavored powdered coffee creamer (not sugar free!), somewhere around 1/2 a cup.  I never measure that part, sorry.

 Mix and bake as usual.  I've made an apple filling to go with this for caramel apple cake, and it's also exceptional with a dulce de leche filling.  

See?  Easy!  Go crazy!  Lavender lemonade cake?  Sure!  Earl Grey with Cream and Sugar cake?  Sure!  (Ack!  Now I want to throw a tea party with tea flavored cupcakes!  See where this kind of flexibility can lead you?)  You now have, with a little imagination, a fabulous, easy, inexpensive cake recipe in any flavor you can imagine.  

Delicious Punch Recipes Please a Crowd

Yesterday I showed you some gorgeous beverage dispensers that would be absolutely perfect for a wedding, shower, or really any party.  But what to put in them?  Punch!

No, no, banish thoughts of high school prom and your brother's cub scout potlucks.  I'm talking classic, historic, elegant punches.  They're just cocktails in a great big bowl, after all.  Mixing them up as a punch is a fabulous way to have and serve a signature cocktail at your wedding.

Here are some of my favorite recipes:

Mojitos by the Bucketful (serves 75)

• 1 quart mint-infused simple syrup
• 2 750ml bottles of champagne (a sweet, inexpensive kind is perfect)
• mint leaves for muddling and garnish
• Enough limes to juice for 1 quart lime juice, plus have left-overs to slice and add to the punch dispenser and garnish glasses.  This really depends on the size of your limes, but 30 is a good place to start.
• 1 1.75 liter bottle of rum (try the Cruzan brand.  Delicious, and less expensive than Bacardi)
• 2 liters club soda 

Mojitos are typically made by the glass, and the mint and lime oils are infused through the drink by muddling (basically squishing and pounding the dickens out of the lime rind and mint leaves).  It's too much work to do that on this scale, so instead, we have a couple tricks to get that great flavor without so much work.

The first is to make a mint-infused simple syrup (recipe in tomorrow's post!).

The second shortcut is to make use of the lime rinds.  Juice the limes, but once you're done, keep the rinds.  Throw the rinds in the rum for 24 hours, then strain them out.  That delicious, aromatic lime oil will remain in the rum, and add complexity to the mojito when it's all mixed together.

Mix simple syrup, lime juice, and rum together.  This can be done a couple days before the event, as long as the mixture is kept in a covered container.

At the last minute, add the club soda and champagne.

Add lime slices, ice, and fresh mint leaves to the punch.

Remember to have a bowl with lime wedges and sprigs of fresh mint next to the dispenser for guests to use as a garnish.

Classic Red Sangria (makes one pitcher)

1 bottle red wine (it should be a drinkable red table wine, but doesn't need to be expensive)
1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup cointreau (or other orange liqueur like Triple Sec)
1 cup simple syrup
1 liter club soda/seltzer water
1 apple, cored and cubed
1 peach, pitted and cubed
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
1 lime, sliced

Combine wine, brandy, cointreau, simple syrup, and chopped up fruit.  Let sit at least overnight to let the flavors meld.  Right before serving, add the club soda.

Note 1)  Any fruits work really well in sangria.  I like the crunch of the apples, so always include those, but throw in mango, grapes, cherries, pears, whatever you have on hand!

Note 2)  When I serve sangria in a beverage dispenser like the one shown above (rather than a pitcher), I always make extra boozy fruit to put in a small serving dish beside the drink.  The fruit is half the fun of Sangria!


White Peach Sangria (makes one pitcher)

1 bottle dry white wine
3/4 cup peach schnapps or peach vodka
1/2 cup brandy
1 12oz can peach nectar
1 liter club soda
1 lemon, sliced
1 cup green grapes, halved
3 peaches, pitted and cubed
1 apple, cored and cubed

Combine wine, peach schnapps, brandy, simple syrup, and all fruit.  Let sit for at least 24 hours in the fridge to let the flavors meld.

At the last minute, add the club soda and ice.

Notes 1 and 2 above are relevant to this recipe, too!


Classic Champagne Punch (20 servings)
1 cup Triple Sec
1 cup brandy
1/2 cup chambord
2 cups pineapple juice
2 liters ginger ale
2 750ml bottles of champagne

Mix everything but the ginger ale and champagne (this part can be done a day or more ahead of time).  Add the bubbly stuff right before serving.

If you want to go kitschy classic, add in some sherbet to keep things cool!


Interested in an article on the history of punch, and links to some great and classic recipes?  Check out this Chowhound article on the topic.

Favor Ideas: Homemade Caramels are Perfect for Fall and Winter

Homemade caramels from the Tradewind Confections kitchen.

Caramel anything is good, in my opinion.  Homemade caramel anything is spectacular, and homemade caramels make a fabulous fall or winter wedding favor.

Never made candies before?  Don't worry--this is a pretty darn easy recipe to follow, great for a first-timer.

One batch makes approximately 100 perfect bite-sized caramels.  I say approximately because I didn't count the irresistible caramels that my daughter and I sampled.  Quality control is, you know, important and stuff.  Yeah.

 How To Make Fleur de Sel Caramels (Sea Salt Caramels)

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt to taste, for sprinkling on top of the caramels.


Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring butter, cream, and the teaspoon of salt to a boil.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, water, and corn syrup in a second, good sized (4 quart-ish) pot.  Stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved.  Once the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring!  Gently swirl the pan until the ingredients turn a light golden caramel color.  Watch carefully--this happens quickly!

Carefully stir the cream mixture into the sugar mixture.  It will bubble up impressively, but don't worry!  That's why we used a biggish pot.  Keep stirring until the mixture reaches 245 on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat, and quickly stir in the vanilla and vinegar (or lemon juice).

Pour into an 8x8 pan.  Here's my secret weapon in caramel-making.  See this blue pan here:

That's a silicone pan.  I don't use them for much, but for bar cookies and caramels, they're absolutely brilliant!  If you don't use a silicone pan, you'll need to line your pan with parchment paper, butter or oil the parchment paper and pan, and then cross your fingers and hope hope hope the caramels come out of the pan.  If you use a silicone pan, no stress, no worries, it just works.  No parchment or oiling or pan prep of any kind necessary.

Let the caramels cool for about five minutes.  Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.  It's not necessary, but I love that burst of salt with the silky-sweet caramel.  Yum!  If you sprinkle the salt too early, it will dissolve into the surface.  Too late, and it won't stick.  

Let the caramels cool for at least two hours, then turn them out on a cutting board. 

Look how gorgeously it pops out of the silicone pan!  So easy when you have the right tools!

Cut into pieces.  You can use a knife, or kitchen scissors.  Both work, but I usually grab the scissors, myself.  One word of advice--don't turn out the caramels and then leave them sitting on the cutting board for an hour or so.  It will meld to the board and stick with a force heretofore unknown outside of the superglue testing labs.

Wrap the pieces in squares of waxed paper.  You can also buy commercial candy wrappers, but I've had sticking issues with those, and I love the classic, old-fashioned, homemade look of the waxed paper.


There you go!   I'm a big fan of edible favors anyway, but I would be so delighted to get this as a favor at any wedding I attend!  It's inexpensive, delicious, and so special to give something homemade.  Plus, you can make these several weeks ahead of time, unlike cookies!  Fair warning, though--it might be hard to keep from eating them all in those weeks before the wedding.  They're that good.