I’m almost certain soda cakes are an early slice of heaven.

Ingredients

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.

1 (18 1/4 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package chocolate or chocolate fudge pudding mix 1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
10 ounces Dr. Pepper

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs and Dr. Pepper. Mix until all ingredients are moistened.

Pour into prepared 9×13 inch pan and bake for 30 too 35 minutes. Or in a tube pan for 45 minutes.
Cool completely.

Once the cake is cooled, I’ll usually make whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar, pinch of salt, almond or vanilla flavoring) and adding a dollop to each slice and garnishing with a maraschino cherry. (Bit of trivia. Did you know they actually make peppermint flavor maraschino cherries, that have been dyed green. Yeah. I’m apparently not a maraschino cherry connoisseur. I just know the red ones are good, and the vodka ones are even better.)

Can also make a glaze instead of piling on the whipped cream.

Glaze

Glaze

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Dr. Pepper

Mix together butter, sugar and Dr. Pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove. Boil for two minutes. Pour glaze onto cake while glaze is still hot.

Other Variations

Mountain dew soda, lemon cake mix, lemon pudding
Cream soda, white cake mix, white chocolate pudding
Orange cream soda, white cake mix, coconut pudding – Add toasted, shredded coconut
Shasta raspberry soda, white cake mix, cheesecake pudding – Use raspberries as garnish. Could do the same, but find strawberry soda.

See the trend…

Go forth and experiment.

Boy do I have a fun week planned for you all. I’ve decided to dedicate this whole week to recipes with eggnog in them. YUM! This is definitely one of my favorite holiday ingredients to bake with. Lets not waste any time!

Eggnog Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 3/4 cups eggnog
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/c cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans

*Grease or line with paper muffin cups
*Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, eggnog and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raisins and pecans. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack.

YUM!

I like to slather mine with honey butter, but they are just as good plain.

I’m frantic cool like that. (And yes, frantic, is my new word. I’ll be abusing it, don’t you worry!)

So now, onto the Pumpkin Bread Recipe that I’ve been withholding from you all for almost 2 weeks!

Pumpkin Bread
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter 2 loaf pans. Sift together flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. Mix the pumpkin, oil, apple sauce, eggs, water and spices together, then combine with dry ingredients. Don’t over mix. Pour into loaf pans and bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean. Remove from oven, turn onto wire rack and cool. (or not … *smile*)

Toppings

Dollop of whipped cream (the real stuff – that you pour out of the carton and whip with your blender), sprinkled with cinnamon
Whip cream cheese and heavy cream together to form soft peaks. Spoon onto pumpkin bread and add sliced almonds
Lastly, my favorite!

Drizzle Ducle de Leche over slices. (HEAVEN)

If you don’t have a recipe for Ducle de Leche I recommend Kay’s recipe at Dutch Girl Cooking. Super simple and perfect! I stumbled onto Kay’s blog a while back and have been enamored ever since. Frankly, her photos are spectacular, and I love her uncomplicated way of showing how to prepare each dish.

Also, I have something to share with you all.

This is my pantry. As many of you know, I’m single. I must have a fear of starving or something.

But really, if anyone ever needs anything, I’m sure I have it. And this isn’t even the whole pantry area. There are four more doors that I can’t really photograph because I’d have to get under the table and there’s not much light. And well folks, it ain’t pretty! It just ain’t!

(please refrain from noticing the outdated counter tops – my dream kitchen with the copper caped counters just isn’t moving along as quickly as I’d like)

Ok, so I didn’t leave…really. Well mentally I might have. There have been a few times over the past three weeks when I’d have liked to have moved to an island community; sat in a beach chair, drank copious amounts of alcohol and tanned. Okay, so I’d probably do some snorkeling, and swimming and eating, but otherwise I’d have been sitting on the beach.

So….upon my mental return, I bring you:

Blueberry Lemon Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup fresh blueberries

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, sugar, egg, milk, almond extract and lemon zest. Mix well after the addition of each ingredient. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; blend into the creamed sugar mixture. Fold in the blueberries. Cover and chill for 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. The mixture will look dry and crumbly – don’t add anything to the mixture!

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched.

Frosting

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup margarine
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners’ sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

I’ll be adding photos shortly!

Trust me…these really are the best brownies.

Let me introduce my friends (well it’s really me) “The Skirts”. The Skirts are a bit like a sorority, in the sense that we all come together to make this unique mess.  Me!

Almost Betty – Red Skirt. Almost Betty is my inner Betty Crocker. She’s basically bursting at the seams to bake, cook, fry, saute and generally be in the kitchen. This is the me that wears the apron.

Almost Martha – Green Skirt. Almost Martha is my inner Martha Stewart. She’s the green thumb, jack-of-all-trades, crafty gal who can do it all. At least I think I can

Almost Laura – Orange Skirt. Almost Laura is my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder. She’s my inner child, story teller, writer, thinker, player and the one with all the fun stuff.

Almost Jeanette – Brown Skirt. Almost Jeanette is my inner Jeannette Rankin. My inner politician, fighter, and “I want to help change the word” me. Military and Liberty!

Basically, that sums it up. I have ideas for other skirts, so we shall see what the future brings. For now, four is probably more than enough to unleash on all the innocents of mankind. Mixed in with all of these you’ll find flights of fancy and some hard-knock lessons.

Soon to come – Almost Fanny. She’s a rip-roarin good time!