This Week's Cakes

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Mom got some zucchini this past weekend at a flea market and we decided to make some somewhat (not really!) healthy bread out of it. The recipe is originally from AllRecipes.com. It’s very moist and you can’t even taste the zucchini. Besides all the sugar, it’s a good bread recipe to hide some veggies in it for picky kids. (Try substituting some sugar-free applesauce or carrots in it instead of all that sugar—what I’m doing with another bread recipe.) It's also super good the next day, gets better with age (but not too long, then it'll get moldy!).

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Klutz Crochet Hat

Here are some directions to make a quick and easy crochet hat, thanks to Klutz! I find that the Klutz crochet and knitting books are hard to come by, but they are so helpful in teaching you a basis. This hat is so easy that I made on my way to the airport before my trip to Vietnam! And then realized I was doing something wrong and had to take it out and start over. Nonetheless, it still worked and my friend had a semi-weird shaped hat by the time we said goodbye. When I have used this pattern other times, it has come out perfect and looks great. Adorn it with some embellishments or flowers and you have yourself a super cute, stylish hat! 

Hat:

1. Start by making a chain of 4 stitches. Join the ends by making a slip stitch in the first stitch
2. Chain 3
3. Make 9 double crochets right into the center of the ring while weaving the end of the yarn into the ring (so you won’t have to sew it in later).
4. Use a stitch marker to mark the stitch that is currently on your hook (9^th dc)
5. Make 2 double crochets right into the space between the first string of chains and the first double crochet
6. Now make 2 double crochets in the next stitch and every stitch around. Stop when you get to the stitch marker
7. Move your marker to the loop on your hook and then repeat these stitches all the way around: *1 dc in the next stitch, 2 dc in the following stitch** There should be 30 stitches
8. Move marker to the loop on the hook and start the 4^th round. Follow this pattern: *1 dc in the next 2 stitches, 2 dc in the following stitch** There should be 40 stitches total
9. Move marker to the loop on your hook and start the 5^th round: *1 dc in next 3 stitches, 2 dc in following stitch** Total of 50 stitches
10. Move marker to the loop on your hook and start the last round (last round of increases, yippee!): *1 dc in next 4 stitches, 2 dc in the following stitch** Total of 60 stitches
11. Move your marker down a row so it is out of the way bit still marks the end of a round. DC in every stitch around now until you get to the right length. You can stop a ½ inch before and end the hat with a girly scallop edging.

Scalloped Edge:

1. If you want the trim to be a different color, then add the new yarn now. Make a SC in the next stitch
2. Skip a stitch then make 5 dc in the next one
3. Repeat this sequence all the way around: *skip a stitch, make a sc in the next one, skip a stitch, make 5 dc in the next one**
4. When you get to the beginning again, skip a stitch and make a slip stitch in the next one.
5. Cut yarn and weave into hat

Recipe: Morning Glory Muffins

This Father’s Day my mom found a recipe from the local newspaper for something called “Morning Glory Muffins.” Well, we had them in the morning, but I’m sure they will taste great any time of day! They are jam-packed with healthy, tasty ingredients that are sure to get you started on a fabulous day.

Ingredients:

·        1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

·        ½ cup vegetable oil

·        3 eggs

·        2 tsp vanilla extract

·        2 cups all-purpose flour

·        2 tsp baking powder

·        ¼ tsp salt

·        1 tsp cinnamon

·        1 ½ cups grated carrots

·        ½ cups raisins (we used golden raisins)

·        ½ cup flaked coconut

·        ½ cup peeled diced raw apple

·        ½ cup chopped pecans (we used slivered almonds)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a big bowl.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in another bowl. Add to the liquid ingredients and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in carrots, raisins, coconut, apple, and nuts.
4. Pour into well-greased muffin tins (or just use cupcake holders) to about two-thirds full (about ¼ cup batter per muffin). Bake 20-25 minutes, until light golden on the edges and tops.

Makes 16 muffins, but I used my scoop to portion out the batter, so I got 24 smaller muffins. Thanks Barbara Jarrett for your recipe!

This is also an easily adaptable recipe as I’m sure you could substitute a variety of nuts and use dried cranberries (Craisins) instead of raisins. 

Crochet Fern Leaf

Here I have for you a scanned version of the fern leaf that accompanied my crochet daisy. It is scanned from the book because I didn't want to mess up writing the pattern for all your lovely people out there. Hope you can read it and make beautiful leaves with it!

Lemon Buttercream

Hello all! Last week I made cookies and cupcakes for my mom to take to work for a fundraiser. I made half lemon and have vanilla, and they are delicious! It is really easy to adapt a basic buttercream recipe to create different flavors. Using this basic recipe from Wilton, you can be creative and have delicious tasting cupcakes all the time!

Ingredients:

·        ½ cup butter, softened (one stick)

·        ½ cup shortening (Crisco)

·        1 teaspoon lemon extract (or any other extract: vanilla, raspberry, almond…)

·        4 cups confectioners sugar

·        2 teaspoons milk (**you may need a little more or less depending on weather & humidity)

Directions:

1.      First cream the butter and shortening together. Then add the extract (in my case, I did a vanilla recipe and then a lemon recipe).

2.      Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar, making sure not to create a catastrophic poof of sugar all over the kitchen!

3.      Add milk, slowly. The glory of this is that you can add more or less in order to get the right consistency for your recipe.

Be creative and try different extracts for different flavored cupcakes! It’s great to use a plain vanilla cupcake, add a little filling, and then complement the flavor with a flavored buttercream. For instance, raspberry filled vanilla cupcakes with lemon frosting, yum! 

I added a little royal icing flower to differentiate between the vanilla and lemon cupcakes (along with the frosting color).