Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (a.k.a. “Wacky Chocolate Cake” or “Depression Chocolate Cake”)

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

This is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes!  Interestingly, it calls for no eggs and no dairy for the cake portion – which makes it easy to make with basic pantry ingredients (in addition to being vegan).  This cake recipe was very popular during the Great Depression (since it could be made without expensive [...]

3-2-1 Sponge Cake (Single serve microwave sponge cake)

3-2-1 Microwave Sponge Cake

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about this “3-2-1 cake” online…  It’s supposed to be a really easy single serving cake to make in the microwave using a rice bowl or a mug (which is great if you don’t want to have an entire whole cake lingering around your kitchen).  **Cough** …portion control… **Cough** (You [...]

German Apple Cake (Apfelkuchen)

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Apfelkuchen is a traditional German/Austrian apple cake.  It’s very simple, as it calls for only basic pantry ingredients.  You can “dress it up” a bit by adding raisins, walnuts, whatever you like – but I think the apple flavor stands out the best without these additions. This cake makes a wonderful dessert than can be [...]

Tortuga “Florida Orange Rum Cake” Copycat

Copycat of Tortuga "Florida Orange Rum Cake"

On our recent trip to Florida, we picked up some “taste of Florida” Tortuga rum cake sampler packs.  The sampler pack contained three flavors: Florida Orange, Key Lime, and Coconut.  The Florida Orange Rum Cake was my favorite… and for the low price of $26.95… I could have another one mailed direct from the Cayman [...]

Glazed Orange Bundt Cake (baking with decorative bundt pans)

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A few weeks ago, I was browsing the aisles at Target, and I found these super cute Nordicware mini bundt pans, the “Bundt Duet” (see the image below, right).  With a total capacity of 5 cups of batter (2.5 cups per mini bundt), and at about $30 per pan… (with a little bit of hesitation) [...]

Chocolate Pecan Mystery Cake (made with pumpkin or zucchini squash)

Chocolate Pecan Mystery Loaf Cake

I still have a ton of raw field pumpkin in my refrigerator & freezer, leftover from my Halloween Jack O’Lanterns.  Since then… I’ve made pumpkin streusel bread, warm pumpkin pudding cake, pumpkin pie cupcakes… and I’m now officially sick of pumpkin!   No more pumpkin flavored treats!!!  Blech! And now, for something completely different…. How [...]

Warm Field Pumpkin (leftover Jack O’Lantern) & Pineapple Pudding Cake

Field Pumpkin & Pineapple Pudding Cake

Do you still have leftover Jack O’Lantern (field pumpkin)?  I still have about 2 pumpkin’s worth of raw field pumpkin in the fridge… and besides making “pumpkin bread“… what else could I make with it?  Well, a few days ago, pineapple was on sale for $0.88 each at the market… so why not combine the [...]

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

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Last week, I bought two sugar pumpkins at the market – it’s that time of year again!!!  A few days ago, I baked the pumpkins and pureed them, with the intent of making some pumpkin pies.  Then I made the pies.  Everything was going just fine until I baked them… and somehow my oven ended [...]

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

There is such a thing as having too much zucchini, apparently.  After a particular grocery store trip (where I purchased zucchini), I came home to find that not only was there already zucchini in the refrigerator (oops), but that a friend had also dropped off some baseball bat sized home grown zucchini!  Now, there are [...]

Yellow Squash & Pistachio Lemon Cake

Yellow Squash & Pistachio Lemon Cake

Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re staring at a single squash, wondering, “What am I going to do with you?”  (Yeah…  Probably not.)  But that was me tonight, and I had no plan.  It was time to clean out the refrigerator – and I had one yellow squash, one lemon, a [...]