Have I ever told you how much I ♥ Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen? She is an amazing baker and blogger, and it seems like so often we are on the same page on flavors. She recently posted a recipe for an Apple Cider Spice Cake, the flavors of which, just spoke to me. 
Since it’s October, we’ve all been craving Fall flavors. My son’s birthday is in October, and he told me yesterday that means that he craves pumpkin year round, but the craving intensifies in October and November. To satisfy that craving, I made him pumpkin pies for his birthday. But since he also needs cake, Apple Cider sounded wonderful!
This is not Kristan’s Apple Cider Cake, although it was totally inspired by it!
First of all – let me tell you how to make the Apple Cider Syrup. Keep in mind that this also makes an awesome pancake/waffle syrup and can be used in anything you use syrup in. It is amazing. And I will be making more with the rest of the apple cider that I purchased and no one in the house will drink. 
- 4 cups of apple cider
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
Place all ingredients in a small pot and heat to boiling over medium heat. Continue boiling until the cider is reduced to about 3/4 cup. It will still look super-liquidy. That’s ok, it’s because it’s still warm. Let cool completely, and it will be a beautiful syrup. (That’s all – you can thank me now!)
Make the cake! I made Kristan’s apple cider cake batter.
- box of spice cake mix
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease (and flour, if you are so inclined) a bundt cake pan or a tube pan. Mix together all ingredients until everything is incorporated and smooth. Pour into bundt pan. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool at least 10 minutes on a rack, then remove from cake pan.
The frosting is pretty basic:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup apple cider syrup
With a mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. While continuing to mix, slowly add apple cider syrup until the frosting is pourable. This could take anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.
Pour frosting on top of cooled cake. Enjoy.
Apple Cider Cake
- Apple Cider Syrup
- 4 cups of apple cider
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
- Cake
- box of spice cake mix
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup apple cider syrup
- Make apple cider syrup first: Combine syrup ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce until liquid is about 3/4 cup, 30 minutes
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease (and flour, if you are so inclined) a bundt cake pan or a tube pan. Mix together all ingredients until everything is incorporated and smooth. Pour into bundt pan. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool at least 10 minutes on a rack, then remove from cake pan.
- Make the frosting. With a mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. While continuing to mix, slowly add apple cider syrup until the frosting is pourable. This could take anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.
- Pour frosting on top of cooled cake. Enjoy.
When fall rolls around, I start thinking about cooler weather and soup. Since I live in the desert southwest, though, soup weather generally doesn’t come around until the end of October. This year, though, we’ve had an abundance of rain and cooler weather, which, by the way, is making me question exactly how global warming works.
Anyway – fall packs are on the offerings for Bountiful Baskets, and some great pumpkins have been included in the packs. This is exciting to me, because when I look at pumpkins, I see food (not really a Halloween type of girl, here). And soup is at the top of my list!
First stop – Roasting the Pumpkin!
Next, make the soup.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 ribs of celery, chopped
- 1 red onion, diced
- salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 3 cups water
- 3 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin (approx. 28 oz can)
- 1 cup half-and-half
In a large pot, saute celery and onion in olive oil until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add butter. When the butter is melted, add flour and poultry seasoning. Stir to coat vegetables. Slowly add vegetable stock and water. Bring to a boil. Whisk in pumpkin until it is creamy. Continue to cook an additional 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in half-and-half.
Makes a lot! About 6 main dish servings (at my house – that is, 6 bowlfuls!)
Many people look at a pumpkin and think “Jack-O-Lantern”. That’s fine, especially if you’re crazy about Halloween. But when I look at a pumpkin, I think “Food!”, and when my son looks at a pumpkin, he thinks “PIE!!!”
I started cooking and pureeing my own pumpkins years ago, and I actually prefer it to canned pumpkin (although that will work in a pinch). I roast up my pumpkins, pretty much as shown in the video from Heartland Trails shown below, and I freeze it in 2-cup increments. That works out to be about the same amount of pumpkin found in the small can at the local supermarket.
The basic directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove the stem from your pumpkin(s). Cut the pumpkin in half. Remove the seeds and stringy stuff. This works best with a sharp-edged spoon (one with a relatively thin bowl on it – for whatever reason, this seems to scrape better).
Place pumpkins, cut side down, on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet (this really helps with clean-up!). Roast in oven til the pumpkin is cooked through. This could be anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the size of your pumpkin.*
Remove from oven and let rest until cool enough to handle. Scrape out pumpkin meat and puree. Freeze in 2 cup increments for later, or use in a variety of recipes now.
*Many people will tell you that sugar pie pumpkins are the best for cooking – and they certainly are the easiest. They come out of the pumpkin with about the same density as the pumpkin you find in cans. However, you CAN roast the larger pumpkins. They have a bit milder of a flavor, and a lot more water. However, if you let them drain (in a colander) for 45-60 minutes before you puree them, they will have a nice, dense consistency as well.
Pesto is one of my favorite things to eat. There is just something so refreshing about it. However, I do NOT have a green thumb, and I can’t grow basil for anything. And basil is super expensive at my local grocery store – when they even have it. What’s a girl to do?
Punt. That’s what.
I’ve gotten some inspiration from Kimberly over at Poor Girl Eats Well. She’s really made an effort to show how you can get the most out of what you buy or get. And her recipe for Scallion Pesto is absolutely amazing.
This is NOT a recipe for Scallion Pesto.
What it is, though, is a recipe born from ingenuity and the carrot and radish tops in my Bountiful Basket today. The carrots and radishes made appearances in both an amazing salad for dinner, and roasted with some potatoes and onions for dinner. Ah. Maz. Ing. And just as a side note – when you cook radishes, they lose that bite, but still keep their fresh taste. Yum.
Carrot and Radish Tops Pesto
- greens from 1 bunch of carrots, trimmed of stems and washed
- greens from 1 bunch of radishes, trimmed of stems and washed
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/8 – 1/4 cup of walnuts
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil
Blanch the greens in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain really, really well. Place in food processor with garlic and walnuts. Pulse until finely chopped. Drizzle in olive oil as you continue to process until the pesto reaches the consistency you desire.
I stuck this in the freezer so that it would be ready for me the next time I am craving pesto. It has an awesome flavor – not bitter at all (that’s why we blanched the greens!). This made close to a cup of pesto.
Soooo….
That whole in a jar thing. I’m kind of obsessed. Yes, yes I am. Since the limeade in a jar experiment, I’ve had lemon meringue stuck in my head. But not just any lemon meringue – pink lemonade meringue. And in a jar, of course.
Oddly, I’ve never made lemon meringue at home. I’ve made it at the bakery, but that isn’t really scratch. And I debated on the crust. I polled people on facebook about their preference of crust: pastry or graham cracker. There were plenty that chose sides, with pastry edging out graham cracker by just a bit. I ended up going with the graham cracker crust for ease, but I think pre-baking a pastry crust would be NOM.
So I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, looked up lemon meringue, and started tweaking from there.
The hardest part was getting it pink. lemon meringue has egg yolks in it, which caused my filling to turn orange. Definitely not princess-y, and definitely not pink. I finally settled on adding maraschino cherry juice to get the pink color, and it didn’t change the taste at all.
So….the recipe…
Princess Pies
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 6 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp = 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup pink lemonade concentrate
- 2 oz maraschino cherry juice
- 3 tbsp flour
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp butter
Meringue
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 ice water
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, 3 tbsp sugar, and melted butter. Divide evenly between 8 (8 oz) canning jars. Press down firmly. Bake on a cookie sheet for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Combine remaining sugar, flour, cornstarch, and 1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan. Over medium-high heat, cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat and stir for two minutes more. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until creamy. Slowly stir approximately a cup of the hot filling into the egg yolks. Place filling and egg yolks back into the pan. Cook over medium heat for an additional two minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in butter. Add lemonade gradually, mixing well. Divide filling evenly between each canning jar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine meringue powder, 3 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar, and ice water. Whip at high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and continue whipping meringue until it is stiff and dry.
Spread meringue evenly over hot filling. Place jars under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, or until meringue starts to turn golden.
Remove from oven, cool completely, and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour. Enjoy!
These are pretty. And a lot of work. If you want a not so labor-intensive version, you can tweak Kristan’s (from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen) recipe for Cherry Limeade Pies. Instead of limeade, use pink lemonade. Add 2 oz of cherry juice to the lemonade mixture, and follow the remaining instructions. Do not mix cherry into the whipping cream (unless you really want to). See – easier. Â But different, too. One is not better than the other.
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