Partridgeberry Muffins

Yum! One of my favorite berries is the Partridgeberry -- otherwise know as Lingonberry, Cowberry or Lowbush Cranberry. Whatever the name, I find this tarty berry delicious :-)

They are usually ripe around the third week in September, and are so easy to pick! My daughter picked a gallon in about 1/2 hour. I freeze the berries and we use them throughout the year in jams, pies, smoothies and muffins.

PARTRIDGEBERRY MUFFINS

Dry ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

Wet ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 egg

3/4 cup margarine

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of berries (more or less as desired)

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Blend the dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine them quickly. Don't over-stir.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from tin and sprinkle with sugar.

Here are some of the muffins we made this morning for snack.

Check out some other muffins and cupcakes at Hoosier Homemade!

Some cakes I have done this summer

..... and here's my recipe I use for my cakes.

Buttercream Icing

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup margarine/butter

2 tsp almond extract

8 cups powdered sugar

touch of milk (3-4 Tbsp)

Using a mixer, blend the shortening and butter. Add the almond extract. Add powdered sugar one cupful at a time, mixing well. When I get 7 cups added, the icing usually is looking dry. Then I add about 3-4 Tbsp of milk (I use fresh milk, but you can use 18% cream). Add the last cup of sugar then whip on higher speed to make the icing nice and fluffy.

This recipe makes more than what you would need for a regular 2-layer cake mix. Icing can be frozen -- just set in fridge for a day to thaw. You may need to re-whip before using.

Birthday Cake Round-Up

I enjoy cake-making and actually do it as a side job (gives me scrapping money!) Most of the cakes I make are character cakes, some with the shaped pans, but most on a slab cake where I ice in the images - usually from coloring book pages.

Here's one of my favorite cakes that I have done. A 16-yr-old came to me with her idea for this cake. She wanted Little Mermaid characters added to a castle.

There are three cakes, iced and set a bit off-center. I iced it all in white to resemble bricks, added some vines and flowers, and for the towers I used paper towel rolls covered in icing. I spread that on the night before (along with a crumb coat on the cakes) and left it to set over-night. The turrets are ice-cream cones. The sand is just brown icing with some graham crumbs on top. The little "stone" pieces around the edges are actually mini-marshmallows cut in thirds and squished a bit to look like stones.

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This Wonderpets cake was also a fun one. The cake part is a round cake cut in half and iced together to form the bottom of the flyboat. The wheels were cookies stuck to the cake and then iced. The sail is just a piece of construction paper.

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My youngest son always wants a special cake for his birthday. For his 8th birthday he wanted a Lego cake, with the police chasing the Brickster.

You can see more of my cakes HERE!

Recent cakes

First attempt using fondant :-)

Jessica's in the kitchen

Jessica tried her hand at fondant icing this week. I think she did awesome!

Five cakes this week!

Jessica iced this last cake for me -- it was one just for us! I think we only have 2 pieces left :-)

decorated cakes, again.....

Pancakes

Since today is Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) I thought I'd post my pancake recipe. Before I found this recipe, we were making the boxed mix and thought they were alright. Well, let's just say we'll never go back to the boxed mix! LOL!

PANCAKES

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
4 Tbsp vegetable oil (I usually omit this)
2 cups buttermilk (I use regular milk with a splash of vinegar)

In a small bowl, combine the oats, flours, baking soda, salt and sugar. In another small bowl, beat the eggs, oil, and buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter onto greased hot griddle (we use olive oil in our pan). Flip when bubbles from around the edges. Cook until the second side is golden brown.

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Okay, here's what we find works for us :-)

We have done these with 2 cups all-purpose flour, when we didn't have the whole wheat. They still turn out fine. We also add about 2 tsp of cinnamon in our batter. Delicious! Our pancakes are usually about 7-inch and we can make probably 8 pancakes with this recipe. Believe me, one pancake per person is plenty! They are very filling, especially when you top them with fruit or yogurt.

cakes.... again :-)

hockey fan!

For a skating party

Lightning McQueen is popular for the little boys.

I know there's no High School Musical 7, but that's the age of the little girl :-)