Confessions of a Grandma

The Sandal Wood Homeowners Association is having a rummage and bake sale Saturday morning.  Since I have not accumulated stuff that I am ready to get rid of yet, I thought I would do some baking. I made chocolate covered cherry cupcakes--a dozen for the sale and a single layer cake for Mike because he does love his chocolate cake. I also made pineapple upside down cupcakes.  I was going to make a sheet cake, but then thought that smaller quantities would sell better.  I made the chocolate cakes from scratch, but I cheated with these and used Jiffy yellow cake mix. This is not a baked good, but there is so, so much citrus fruit that I made a mix of white and pink grapefruit with Valencia oranges, lightly sweetened with Florida honey, and packed it snack containers.  I am getting to be very quick at sectioning grapefruit without turning it entirely to juice. Lots of people will be having carport sales around the neighborhood tomorrow as well.  We will be p...

A friend of mine gave me this recipe many years ago.  She called it Not To Be Believed Fudgy Chocolate Chickpea Cake. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, melted 2 cups well rinsed and drained chickpeas 4 eggs 1 cup white sugar 1/2 tsp. baking powder Preheat oven to 350 F.  Generously grease a 9" round cake pan. In a food processer, mix the melted chocolate chips and the chickpeas. Add the remaining ingredients and process well. Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes. My friend says, "This cake needs no frosting." Well, it may not need frosting, but it dosn't hurt it in any way.  My friend is the type who will have cut down on the sugar from the original recipe, I am quite sure.  Frosting and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, I say. No claims here that this is health food, but did you know: Chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans or bengal gram) are low in fat, cholesterol and sodium while high in fiber (29% of your daily need)...

In spite of the signs of autumn all around, nice weather has been hanging on in defiance of the weather forecasters and their dire predictions for frost and chilly rains.  I suppose it won't last for long though. I made chocolate cake for Mike's birthday.  Let me rephrase that...I made CHOCOLATE cake for Mike's birthday. Here's how: Butter a 9" cake pan and line with a circle of parchment paper.  Butter the parchment paper too. Melt 7 ounces of good quality baking chocolate and 7 ounces of good quality butter over hot water.  I used 4 ounces of unsweetened and 3 ounces of bittersweet.  Or maybe it was the other way 'round, I don't remember exactly anymore.  Stir chocolate and butter together. Add the chocolate mixture to 1 1/3 cup sugar in a mixing bowl and allow this to cool a bit. Then beat lightly. Add five large eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in 1 (that's one) tablespoon of all purpose flour. Scrape the batter...

When Mike was 11 years old he had "the best chocolate cake ever" at a friend's house.  He asked the friend's mother for the recipe so his mom could make it home.  Isn't that cute? His mom gave me that recipe, but I could never earn the "Best Cake Ever" status.  My cakes all tend to be slightly on the dry side.  A friend of mine has used the exact same recipe and gets marvelous, moist cake so I don't entirely get it. Anyway..."Chocolate Cupcakes with Bittersweet Glaze" is a recipe from A Homemade Life.   (Make a comment and I could be sending it to you soon!)  Mike is in love with me all over again.  These were a major hit.  Like I said, if you get a craving for chocolate, this will fill the bill. Now, the very last recipe in the book is also for a chocolate cake that comes with instruction that it should not be served to someone your feel just so-so about.  It is for when you want to get some one's full  attention. Hmm...lots of...

Our friend stopped as part of his summer road trip with his two daughters. We went to the Lake Champlain Chocolates tour--lots of free samples provided. We also went to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and took that tour, then on to Dakin Farms so the girls could get some maple sugar candy and we could all graze on their free samples of cheeses, summer sausages, jams, honey, condiments. Cheap dates, all. The LCC tour reminded me of the an article in Sunday's Burlington Free Press . It was about the mother of a bride creating a complete "localvore" wedding for her daughter and new son-in-law. The flowers were all provided from her own and friends' gardens. She found a local grain grower and used their flour to make her own lasagna noodles then stuffed that with locally grown mushrooms, frozen kale from her own garden, and locally produced cheeses. She made apple and blueberry pies and a lemon tart. The lemons were harvested from a Meyer lemon tree she has as a ho...