Old Style Texas Tornado Cake

Texas Tornado Cake

It may go by many names, but this wonderful cake with it's coconut and walnut frosting is moist, delicious, and very easy to make!
Texas tornado cake contains fruit and nuts, with coconut icing. It’s not clear when this cake was invented, or where it’s from. Some insist that “Texas tornado cake” is another name for an “earthquake cake.”

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs 3 cups fruit cocktail with liquid
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
Frosting:
1 Stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk 1 cup flaked coconut

Directions:
Cream together sugar, eggs, fruit cocktail, baking soda and flour. Pour into lightly greased and floured 13x9x2-inch cake pan. Mix brown sugar and nuts together and sprinkle onto unbaked batter in the pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. While still hot, poke holes into the cake to allow the frosting to seep inside. Ice cake while hot.
Frosting Directions:
Boil margarine, sugar and milk 2 minutes. Stir in coconut. Spoon over cake as soon as cake is taken from the oven. I am sure you will be enjoying this delicious cake just as much as I, and others did!

Cherry Pie Bars

Cherry Pie Bars
You can bake up a pan of these cheery Cherry Bars in just 30 minutes with staple ingredients and pie filling.

A classic cherry dessert is almost like pie. Just a couple of cans of cherry pie filling and you have a delicious, and tasty treat.

Ingredients:
For the bars:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 (21 oz.) cans cherry pie filling For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Gradually add flour.
Spread 3 cups dough into a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan. Spread with pie filling.
Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over filling. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
In a small bowl, mix confectioners’ sugar, extracts and enough milk to reach desired consistency; drizzle over top.

Delicious Spiced Applesauce Bars

Spiced Applesauce Bars
So easy you can make them anytime for that warm and cozy feeling of home. Grandma would be proud, and your family will be very happy.

Ingredients:
For the Filling:
3 cups Applesauce plus 1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp. all purpose flour
For the Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups old fashioned oats + 1/2 cup old fashioned oats, and 1/4 cup flour (for top half of crust)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the filling ingredients and cook on medium while mixing until it is thick and bubbly.
Turn off heat, and set aside to cool.
Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cream the butter and the brown sugar.
Mix in the 1 cup of flour and the 1/2 tsp. salt, then stir in the 2 cups of oats.
In a 9 x 13 baking dish, press 1/2 of this oat mixture into the bottom of the dish evenly with a wooden or plastic spoon.
Pour the cooled applesauce mixture and spread evenly on top of the crust.
Add the 1/2 cup oats, and 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining oat mixture, along with the nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix until crumbly. Break up and sprinkle the crumbles on top of the applesauce filling evenly.
Gently press down on top the applesauce.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Old French Apple Cobbler Recipe

French Apple Cobbler Recipe – Handwritten

This recipe was written on a lined index card (much like my own) and found in a large collection, date unknown. I altered mi recipe slightly for 2 crust (in photos).

French Apple Cobbler 375° for 35 to 40 min
5 c. apples peeled & sliced
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinn
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
* If you prefer a bottom crust mix a second batter, butter the pan, and line pan with the first batter before placing filling on top.

Mix and combine with 1/4 c. water and place in 9″ sq. pan and dot with butter (1 Tbsp.)
*Batter (double if you would like a bottom crust,and a top crust)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 egg slightly beaten
*Mix the batter, then roll out onto a floured surface, and cut strips to criscross on top of filling.

You may have noticed that I also left the peel on my apples. That is a personal preference as well. Let me know if you like this recipe, or are eager to try it out. I took mine to a gathering, and they were coming back for 2 and 3 pieces.
Note: to the Apple mixture I also added...
1/2 t cinnamon
3 T lemon juice
1 t lemon zest

Apple Butter Cake

This is an old Recipe for Apple Butter Cake It is very easy to make, and very delicious.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups apple butter

Directions:
Heat oven to 375°F. Grease 15x10x1-inch pan with butter. In medium bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored.
Gradually beat granulated sugar into eggs. On low speed, beat in water and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt just until batter is smooth. Pour batter into pan; spread to corners.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Place on cooling rack; cool at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle 1/4 cup powdered sugar on top, if desired. This is a wonderful treat to end a busy fall day for you, and yours. Let me know if you tried it in the comments.

Visit the Irish Halloween past with this recipe for Barmbrack

Barmbrack

Halloween festivities are never complete without some traditional Irish treats to help you celebrate. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, homes are littered with the delicious treat known as barnbrack (Barmbrack (Irish: bairín breac), also called Barnbrack or often shortened to brack, is a yeasted bread with added sultanas and raisins), which is an Irish fruit loaf. The title comes from the Irish Gaelic 'bairín breac' which literally means 'speckled loaf.' In traditional Ireland, each member of the family would get a slice of the delicious cake. But you had to be careful when chewing the delicious treat, as there were several charms hidden inside wrapped in baking paper which signified omens for the finder's future.

Barmbrack is the center of an Irish Halloween custom. The Halloween Brack traditionally contained various objects baked into the bread and was used as a sort of fortune-telling game. In the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year.

Barmbrack recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups dried fruit
1 1/4 cup cold tea
1 cup self-raising flour
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3 cups caster sugar
Honey or Golden Syrup (optional – for decoration)
Directions:
Soak the fruit in tea overnight, then drain. Mix together with the rest of the ingredients (apart from the honey/golden syrup) and stir in the charms. Don’t over knead the dough, or your delicately re-hydrated fruit will break up.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool in the pan for 2 hours before removing. Continue to cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Press the objects of choice into the cake through the bottom before serving.

Barmbrack is usually sold in flattened rounds, it is often served toasted with butter along with a cup of tea in the afternoon. The dough is sweeter than sandwich bread, but not as rich as cake, and the sultanas and raisins add flavour and texture to the final product.