Melt In Your Mouth Blueberry Cake

We spent this weekend in State College, PA celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday with family members coming in from as far north as Maine and even as far away as Ireland. Saturday night’s meal was a Maine seafood feast with all the ingredients brought down by Katy and her boyfriend Billy.

We enjoyed lobster, Louisiana shrimp, seafood casserole, cole slaw and this delicious Melt-In-Your Mouth Blueberry Cake. The recipe was found in the cookbook, Cooking Down East and originally came from a Maine church cookbook.

Thank you Katy and Billy for a great meal and Happy Birthday Judy.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs separated
1 cup sugar
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

How to Make Homemade Blueberry Cake

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add about ¼ cup of the sugar to keep them stiff.
Cream shortening (cream as a verb means to beat an ingredient or a couple of ingredients together until soft and smooth) and add the salt and vanilla. Add the remaining sugar slowly.

Add the sifted dry ingredients alternatively with the milk. Fold in the beaten egg whites and then the blueberries. The recipe says to use some of the flour “called for in recipe and gently shake berries in “ so they won’t settle. I’m not sure what this means but I’m guessing by coating the blueberries with some flour they won’t sink to the bottom.

Add the mixture to a greased 8 x 8 inch baking pan. Sprinkle top of batter lightly with granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 to 60 minutes.

This recipe serves eight and is absolutely delicious. We served it with ice cream for dessert but my wife had a piece the next morning for breakfast (without the ice cream) and it was fantastic.

Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies

I just posted my latest Novice2Pro Interview with cookbook authors Heather and Lucinda Wallace and they were nice enough to send me a couple of recipes including Lucinda’s favorite one for Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies.

Heather and Lucinda’s new cookbook, 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes is filled with recipes like this that are easy enough for us home cooks to prepare. You can read their entire interview and learn more about their new book at my Novice2Pro Interview with Heather and Lucinda Wallace.

Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups butter or margarine, softened
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup white chips
1 cup chopped nuts

How to Make at Home

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.

Beat eggs and vanilla extract into butter mixture. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Stir in milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chips, and nuts.

Drop by level ¼-cupfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until light golden brown.

Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Oranges and Cream Cookies

I just posted another recipe from their cookbook on my Cooking Community Forum under Favorite Recipes. Check it out.

Geoff’s Jewish Apple Pear Cake

My buddy Geoff loves to bake and whenever there is a get together at someone’s house to celebrate a birthday, holiday or Michigan football game, Geoff is asked to bake something special. I have mentioned him before for his absolutely incredible Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in February at Barbecue Bob’s home and Geoff brought the cookies plus this Apple Pear Cake. It was delicious so I wanted to share his adapted recipe and tips.

Here’s what Geoff said, “The recipe below came from a cookbook put together by Price Waterhouse Coopers of favorite employee recipes. It never fails to draw rave reviews…but as usual, I have altered the recipe a bit to make it more interesting. The original recipe was for Jewish Style Apple Cake.”

Ingredients

2 Bartlett Pears
2 Granny Smith Apples
1 Braeburn or Macintosh Apple
5 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 cup veg. oil
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup orange juice

How to Make Apple Pear Cake at Home

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease tube pan.

In a large bowl, beat well the oil sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder. Add orange juice. Peel and slice the fruit and mix with 5 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon. Make layers of batter and fruit. Bake 1 1/2 hours. Let cool in pan before inverting. Serves 12-16.

Geoff’s Tip- if you prepare the fruit before the batter, the fruit mix becomes too liquidy and causes the cake to stick to the pan. While this cake always tastes good, I have had some problems with it sticking, so choose your pan carefully, butter it well and remove the cake carefully.