Baking | Jendi's Journal

Watch Out For Rainy Day Urges

July 10, 2008 By Jendi 2 Comments

Rainy days bring out my urge to bake. Yesterday the urge went crazy.

The kids and I baked…

Two banana breads.
Two small pumpkin breads [using pumpkin I froze last fall].
Four small pumpkin breads with chocolate chips [but half the chips stuck to the bottom of the pans].
A Chocolate Buttermilk Cake [please excuse my fancy cake plate - a lot of my stuff is packed].
A Hashbrown Hamburger casserole for supper.
One pan of rolls [not really - they just needed thawed].

I’m throwing this next picture in to keep me honest and humble. This was a half hour before the previous picture.

Since the necessary baked goods were in the freezer and the dishes were cleaned up, well half cleaned up…

$If I lay down for real I\'m never alone like this.$

Just kidding. That picture is totally posed before I rushed around throwing church clothes on everybody, except my husband. He throws his own clothes on.

The casserole has been demolished and it sure was nice to have banana bread for breakfast.

P.S. I got the recipes off the internet because – you know – a lot of my stuff is packed.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, cooking, food, homemaking

I really like Mrs. C.’s quote on her blog, “The days are long, but the years are short.” It rings so true with me right now. I feel like, “Will they ever do things by themselves?” Then I turn around and my son is 5 years old.

This is the cake I put together last minute. Please keep in mind that I’m not a cake decorator, never had a class, don’t have any of the tools, etc. It’s just since I’ve had kids I wanted to make their cakes a little special so I’ve done some simple things with cakes.

There is a story about the candles.

I bought them from a clearance table in ’06. I was going to use them for his 4th birthday because there were 4 trucks. Then I forgot about them. In the early months of ’07 I found where I hid them and moved them out to the kitchen cupboard. During the moving of the truck candles the kids saw them and Joey loved them. Since then he has seen them a couple times and was eagerly awaiting his cake with trucks on.

When we asked what kind of cake he wanted he replied, “One with trucks on.” “Yes, we know; but what flavor.” “The kind with trucks on.” “You will have the trucks on it. Do you want chocolate or yellow?” “Chocolate. . . with trucks on.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, birthday, cake

Mixing It Up

November 8, 2007 By Jendi 3 Comments

The other day we made Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. I say “we” because my kids helped mix it up.

Previously I have always been a one bowl mixer. None of this dry ingredients mixed separately stuff. In fact, when we were first married my husband wanted 2 bowls to make chocolate chip cookies; I shot down that idea. Save time, save dishwashing, save space, save my sanity [oops, too late for that one!].

I finally found a good reason to use two bowls to mix up some baked goodies. Two kids can stir at the same time! “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

It eliminated a tremendous amount of fussing. They even traded so that they could each stir the wet ingredients and the dry.

The Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread turned out great.

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Edited 11/9 to add recipe as requested. I cut this out of a Taste of Home Quick Cooking Magazine.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

In a large bowl combine 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda.

In another bowl, beat 4 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups cooked or canned pumpkin, and 1 1/4 vegetable oil.

Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips.

Pour into two greased 8 in. x 4 in. x 2 in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Makes 2 loaves.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, cooking, food, kids

Fruit Swirl Cake Recipe

September 8, 2007 By Jendi 1 Comment

I recently received a recipe chain e-mail. I couldn’t decide what recipe to use…until now. This Fruit Swirl Cake is easy and quick to make with a minimum of ingredients. Plus, you only have to dirty one pan! Great for women like me who don’t really like to do dishes. Since I made it for a picnic that we went to today I am able to include some pictures.

Ingredients

1/4 cup oil

1 yellow or white cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 c water

1 can fruit pie filling (I use cherry filling a lot, but have made it with blueberry & apple. I recently ate a cake with peaches in it so I’m going to try peach pie filling next.)

Pour the oil in to a 13 X 9 inch pan and tilt the pan so that the oil covers the bottom.
Add cake mix, eggs, and water to the pan; beating to mix. [most times I just hand mix it because my mixer is buried in the cupboard.]
Top with fruit and swirl to create marbling effect. [I drop the filling by large spoonfuls around the outside of the pan so that the filling and cake is pretty evenly mixed. If you empty the filling can in to a pile in the middle of the cake you will have a mushy middle and dry cake around the edges. I know people who like it both ways.]
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes.
You can sprinkle confectioners sugar on the top if you want.