Cranberry Orange Cake w/ Butter Rum Sauce

I made this cake for friends who came over for supper on New Year’s Day and we ate THE WHOLE THING! I admit that it was pretty darn tasty though. In fact, it was so tasty that I made another one yesterday. We ate a few pieces and then I put the rest in the freezer to see how it fares.

The cake is good but what really makes it is the warm creamy butter rum sauce! Don’t make the cake without it. It’s really an easy sauce to make and you will not be sorry!

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

grated zest of 1 small orange

Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add eggs,zest, vanilla and milk and mix well.

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons baking powder

Add dry ingredients and mix well.

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

Carefully fold in cranberries.

Spoon batter (it is quite thick) into a bundt pan that has been well coated with baking spray and then coated with white sugar.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Let sit in pan on a rack for 15 minutes before removing.

Let cool on wire rack at least 15 more minutes before serving.

Just before serving, make the butter rum sauce.

1/4 cup butter (real butter only)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla (or rum extract if desired and omitting rum)

2-3 Tablespoons of spiced rum (optional, I guess… LOL)

Melt butter in small saucepan on medium heat. Add sugar and cream. Whisk until sugar melts and the sauce is hot but DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Remove from heat and whisk in extract and rum.

Serve the cake warm or at room temperature with the hot butter rum sauce on top of each slice of cake. Do not pour the sauce over the entire cake. You can save the sauce in the fridge for 1 day and warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to serve again. But I would not keep the sauce longer than 24 hours.

Better Than Fruitcake

I am one of those crazy people that actually like fruitcake. I don’t like it enough to take the time to make one but if you brought one to my house I’d eat it. :o)

This recipe is a bit more cake-like than traditional fruitcake but still has the flavor I like.

You can bake it in a ring-pan, loaf pans or muffin pans. All you need to do is adjust the baking time.

2 eggs

1 28oz jar of mincemeat

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used both)

2 cups chopped candied fruit (toss the fruit with about 1/4 cup of rum or brandy and let sit for a couple of hours before making cake, stir occasionally)

1/2 can condensed milk (I poured out about half the can and filled it back up with the molasses)

1/2 can molasses

1 teaspoon rum extract

Mix these ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix well.

Pour into greased and sugared baking pan of your choice.

Bake at 300 for 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on size of pan. It is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Let cool before removing from pan.

Apple Cheddar Sausage Balls

I love apple in my sausage! While I’m not fond of cheddar cheese and apple pie, I did wonder if they would pair well together with sausage???

Yup! They do!

These sausage balls are perfect to pair with eggs and toast for breakfast or make into patties for a breakfast sandwich on a biscuit. (That’s what I’m trying next…)

2 pounds breakfast sausage (if you’d like trying to make your own, you can try my recipe HERE)

1/2 cup finely chopped apple

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup fine bread crumbs

1 cup shredded cheddar (I used a 3 cheddar blend of sharp, mild & white)

Mix well together. Form into balls. Bake on greased or parchment-papered baking tray at 350-375 for about 30 minutes or until they temp at 165.

Pierogi Casserole

I love pierogi but I would never make them! They are so much work! Lately I’ve been making a lot of dishes I love into casseroles: cabbage rolls, stuffed green peppers…

This one combines all the things I love about pierogis in one dish!

1 pound gnocchi, cooked and drained

1/2 head of cabbage, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup sauerkraut, drained and rinsed (this is optional)

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced or chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 pinch ground cloves

1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

Sauté cabbage, onion, mushrooms and garlic with seasonings in 4 Tablespoons of butter until tender.

Toss with gnocchi and sauerkraut (if using). Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Butter Scones

A crisp fall day of watching BBC with a friend calls for a cup of maple cream tea and a batch of pumpkin scones. I have a freezer full of pumpkin butter, so I made up a recipe for these little gems. Just the perfect thing for the Call the Midwife Christmas special!

2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup pumpkin butter (I used this orange bourbon recipe. But you could use this one or this maple one or any of your favorites.)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Whisk together pumpkin butter and egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir well to combine.

Knead a few times on a floured surface.

Place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Press into a circle about 1/2” thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate them slightly from one another.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool on rack.

Make a orange spice glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Add orange juice until it becomes a good consistency for drizzling over the top of the cooled scones.

Drizzle over the scones when they are warm but no longer hot. Eat right away or wait until the scones have gotten to room temp and glaze has set.

Pork Chop Loaf

I found a recipe with this name in a 1950s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They had you make your own stuffing but I was really looking for a super easy dinner to just pop in the oven and making stuffing kind of defeats the idea. But a box of stuffing mix that I dolled-up a bit did the trick!

Brown 4-6 pork chops in large skillet with 1 Tablespoon of oil on med-high heat. Brown both sides.

Prepare stuffing mix according to directions on box. I sautéed up some chopped onion and celery in butter and threw in some dried cranberries, too.

Then alternate pork chops and stuffing in a loaf pan.

Bake at 325 for about 1 hour or until pork chops are 145 degrees.

Serve with applesauce.

Bourbon Orange Pumpkin Butter

This is the darkest and most flavorful of the three pumpkin butters I made. It is my favorite to throw into pancakes or yogurt!

4 cups pumpkin puree (see how to make your own HERE)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see my recipe HERE)

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon bourbon

1 teaspoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in bourbon and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.