Category: Desserts

 Ingredients

•  cake:
•  2 3/ 4 cups flour
•  1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking powder
•  1/ 2 teaspoon salt
•  1 cup butter, softened
•  1 1/ 4 cups sugar
•  1/ 3 cup honey
•  4 eggs
•  1/ 2 teaspoon vanilla
•  3/ 4 cup milk
•  2 tablespoons lemon juice

•  buttercream frosting:
•  11/2 cups powdered sugar
•  1/3 cup butter, softened
•  1-2 tbsp milk
•  1/4 tsp vanilla

•  honey icing:
•  11/2 cups powdered sugar
•  1 tbsp honey
•  1-3 tbsp milk

Directions

CAKE:

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour Beehive pan or use baking spray; set aside. In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and honey, scraping bowl often. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, alternating with milk, mixing just until blended. Blend in lemon juice. Divide batter evenly amongst two halves of pan. Bake at 300°F for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan. Invert onto cooling rack and cool completely.

BUTTERCREAM:

In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, 1 Tbsp milk and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy, adding additional milk if necessary. To make honey icing: In medium bowl, combine all honey icing ingredients; blend well, adding milk until icing has the consistency of very thick cream.

TO ASSEMBLE CAKE:

Stand one-half of cake upright; using a serrated knife, level off the flat side of cake by trimming off rounded dome; repeat with other half of cake so that 2 halves fit snugly together. Spread buttercream frosting over cut side of cake; gently press cake halves together to secure. Place cake on serving plate. Spoon honey icing over cake, covering side seams. Decorate with honeybees. Makes 12 servings.

• 3 cups pumpkin
• 2 jumbo eggs
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Makes one pie

For the crust:

1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers

1/3 to 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter

3 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup lemon or lime juice or a mix of the two

Fresh whipped cream and coarse sea salt for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crush the crackers finely, but not to dust. You can use a food processor or your hands. Add the sugar, then knead in the butter until the crumbs hold together like dough. Press into an 8 inch pie pan. Chill for 15 minutes, then bake for 18 minutes or until the crust colors a little.

While the crust is cooling (it doesn’t need to be cold), beat the egg yolks into the milk, then beat in the citrus juice. It is important to completely combine these ingredients. Pour into the shell and bake for 16 minutes until the filling has set. The pie needs to be completely cold to be sliced. Serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt.

These homemade marshmallows are not only easy to make, they set as perfectly as promised: puffed and lightweight, bouncing off one another as I tossed them in the container. Even better, they toasted like a campfire charm speared on the end of a skewer, and s’mooshed between two graham crackers with a square of chocolate.

Makes about 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows

About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. (Some reviewers felt this took even longer with a hand mixer, but still eventually whipped up nicely.)

In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Do ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

• 3 1/2 Cups milk
• 3/4 Cup Splenda
• 1/4 Cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 large (jumbo) eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla (bean paste) or regular vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter

Put milk in large microwave bowl. Heat for 4-5 minutes. Mix Splenda, salt, and cornstarch in another bowl.

When milk is hot, whisk the dry ingredients into the milk and microwave 2-3 minutes and stir. Repeat until pudding thickens. Whisk vanilla into eggs until well mixed.

Temper eggs with some of the hot mixture, then add eggs to pudding, whisking well. Microwave 2-3 minutes until as thick as you want.

Add butter, cool and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 ounce(s) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup(s) unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) kosher salt
• 1/2 cup(s) (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup(s) firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup(s) confectioners’ sugar, plus more for rolling

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate according to package directions; let cool. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then the cooled chocolate.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.
4. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Drop a slightly heaping tablespoon of dough into the confectioners’ sugar (the dough will be soft) and roll to coat and form into a ball; repeat with remaining dough. Place the dough balls on a prepared baking sheet and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes and up to 4 days.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly toss the chilled cookie dough balls in confectioners’ sugar and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating the position of the pans halfway through, until the cookies are puffed, cracked, and just set around the edges, 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool on the sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

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