Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I am a sucker for anything baked--especially cake. This stuff is really good. I got a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook in high school and have made it ever since. Definitely a favorite. I love it every time I make it.

1 cup margarine or butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 8-ounce carton of sour cream
1/2 t. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, I like walnuts or pecans)
3 T brown sugar
2 T sugar
2 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. grease a 9x13 pan; set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and the 2 cups of sugar with a mixer on medium. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Beat one more minute.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Add the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture. Beat with the mixer on low for 2-3 minutes or until combined.

4. To make topping: in another small bowl stir together nuts, brown sugar and granulated sugar and cinnamon.

5. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the topping over the batter in the pan. Spoon the remaining better into the pan, spreading it slightly over the first layer of topping. Sprinkle the remaining toping over all.

6. Bake the coffee cake in the over about 35 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly before eating.

Peach Cream Trifle

Tis the season for peaches.  I make this dessert every year during peach harvest. I've tweaked it a little over the years, but I'll post the origional recipe and add my two bits in.

Ingredients:

1 angel food cake loaf (I sometimes make my own pound cake depending on how much time and care I want to put into it, Mary now you know how much I care. I use Martha Stewart's recipe http://www.marthastewart.com/274847/pound-cake-recipes/@center/276954/great-cake-recipes)'
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 C cold water
1 3.4 oz pkg vanilla pudding
1 tsp vanilla
1 pint whipping cream whipped (I don't add sugar to whipped cream, I think the swt cond milk and pudding adds enough sweetness and I like to add sugar to peaches to get the juices flowing)
4 C sliced fresh peaches (I add sugar, see above)

In a large bowl combine swt cond milk and water, mix well. Add pudding mix, beat well. Chill 5 min. Stir in vanilla.  Fold in whipped cream.

Cut angel food cake (or pound cake) into cubes. Arrange 1/3 of cake on bottom of trifle bowl. Put 1/3 sliced peaches on top of cake then add pudding mixture on top of peaches. Repeat 2 more times. 
*If you don't have a trifle bowl you can use a  9x13 pan and just do two layers.

Perfect Frosting

6 T Flour
 1 C milk (whole milk is best, but I use non-fat when it’s all I have and it’s actually fine)

 1 C real butter (I prefer salted, but you can use also unsalted and add salt to taste)
 1 C sugar (that’s granulated sugar, not powdered sugar)
 2 t vanilla extract, or other flavor if you wish.

Whisk together the flour and the milk. Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.
Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. Let it cook, while stirring with a rubber spatula, until you can start to see the bottom of the pan.   Continue to cook until mixture has the consistency of thick pudding or paste.

Put  mixture in the fridge and let it cool completely, it’s fine if it stays in there long enough to get chilly, you just don’t want it warm at all. As it’s cooling, feel free to stir it occasionally to speed up the process and keep it from forming a crust on top.

It an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. You’ll want to use the whisk attachment on a stand mixer if you have one, instead of the flat paddle. Then while beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the vanilla. Beat to combine and then scrape down the sides. Mixture will separate and look messy, keep beating!  Continue beating until mixture comes together and is light and fluffy, about 7-8 minutes, but time varies.  Take a sample of frosting between your fingers; frosting is done when light and fluffy and sugar granules are dissolved.

From Our Best Bites

ps I changed the numbers on here to double their original recipe. This frosting will forever remind me of Ashley and Kailyn's fancy cupcakes they brought to the new years eve party, 2013-2014.

Bunt cake with chocolate frosting

This sounds like just another chocolate cake, but it is super moist and yummy.

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix
1 small pkg instant fudge pudding
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c oil
3/4 c water
4 eggs
1 c sour cream

Mix by hand (by hand people, put your mixer away).  Pour into a well greased and floured bunt pan.  Bake 350* for 45-60 min.  Remove from pan and pour frosting over top while it is still warm.

Frosting:
1 c butter
3 tsp cocoa
6 tsp milk
powdered sugar

in a saucepan, melt butter, add cocoa and milk.  Sift the powdered sugar in to avoid lumps (the recipe I have doesn't say how much to add and I've never measured, but I think about a half pound). In my experience, just when you think you've added enough sugar you probably need to add more.  It should be thick enough so that it doesn't soak into the cake when you pour it over the top.  If you let it cool a little it thickens up.

My sister-in-law Ashley used this recipe to make the dump truck cake with the dirt(cake) like Kim did for Wyatt's birthday and it worked really good.

Oatmeal Cake

Doesn't anyone eat desserts in this family?  I'm going to share my two favorite cakes.

1/4 C boiling water
1 C dry oatmeal

Pour boiling water over oatmeal set aside and let stand 20 min.

mix:
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C butter
1 C white sugar

add:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 C flour
combing oatmeal last (sometimes I add this befor it has set 20 min. and it still turns out fine)

spread batter in 9x14 greased baking dish.

Topping:
7 TBS butter
1/4 C evaporated milk
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1 C coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chopped wall nuts

mix ingredients then dollup on top of uncooked oatmeal batter.  Bake 350* for 45 min.