southernfood.about.com/od/poundcakes/r/blbb681.htm

This was my first cake of 2010. The cold oven pound cake gets its name because you do not preheat the oven as you normally would for most cakes. You combine our ingredients, poured them into a tube pan, place it in the oven, set the oven to 325 degrees, and bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes. It turned out well but next time I will use room temperature eggs so the cake will rise better.

Just in time for the holidays. This recipe is really simple to prepare and the taste takes you back to your elementary school lunchroom.

www.j-notes.com/recipes/buttercookies.htm

Butter Cookies (the yummy lunchroom kind!!!)

2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup of plain flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add flour a little a time. Form dough into small balls and flatten with a fork or by hand. Bake at 325º until lightly brown…. About 15-20 minutes. Recipe provided by my baking buddy, Billy.

First cookies of the holiday season, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups pecan halves
1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; gradually stir into creamed mixture. Fold in rolled oats, cranberries, chocolate chips, and pecans. Drop rounded spoonfuls and press them by hand onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in preheated oven. Remove cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Tips and pointers:

I have made these cookies for a few years now but I wanted them to be more chewy and soft. My secret baking angel suggested that I use 1/4 cup less flour and also finely chop the cranberries and pecans. Press the cookie dough flat by hand on the cookie sheet which makes them spread wider. I bake my cookies for 12 minutes then pull them out of the oven as they will keep cooking as they are cooling which makes them more chewy.

Makes approximately 36 cookies. (More like 4 dozen.)

Dessert Goodness #2, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

These are photos from the 4th Annual Festival of Desserts and other holiday baking. Over 40 people stopped by for dessert during the course of the evening and I still had leftovers. Everyone had a great time and I am already thinking about this year’s festival. I did learn something important along the way. The “bake cake now and glaze later” approach will have you glazing and frosting cakes all evening.
The desserts included the following:

• Pecan Tarts
• Heath Bar Chocolate Brownies
• Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies w/Nuts
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• McNannygocious Pound Cake
• Egg Nog Pound Cake
• 7 Up Cake
• Chocolate Brownies
• Lunchroom Butter Cookies
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Chocolate Egg Nog Rum Cake
• Egg Nog Rum Cake
• Lemon Pound Cake
• Hershey’s Chocolate Swirl Chip Cookies
• Red Velvet Cake

Chocolate Egg Nog Rum Cake, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted Cake Flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup eggnog (I like the Berkeley Farms Eggnog from Albertson’s)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup Myers’s dark rum
1 package of Jell-O chocolate pudding
3 heaping tablespoons of Hershey’s Cocoa
Cream butter, gradually add sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with eggnog and flavoring, beating after each addition until smooth. Add package of chocolate pudding, rum and cocoa and mix well together. Pour batter into a greased 12-cup bundt pan. Bake at 350º for 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove and place on wax paper and let cool before putting on the glaze.

Rum Glaze

2 sticks of butter
1/2 granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Karo syrup
1 cup of rum (currently using Myers’s Dark Rum and getting rave reviews!!!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Melt butter in saucepan until lightly boiled (do not overheat). Add powdered sugar slowly with a wire wisk then add granulated sugar. Once dissolved under low heat, add brown sugar. After the brown sugar has dissolved, add Karo syrup. Keep stirring with wire wisk. Bring to a light boil. Add rum and bring to a boil while stirring with a wisk. Remove from heat and wisk in the vanilla extract. Add more powdered sugar for a thicker glaze.
Poke holes in the cool cake with meat fork. Drizzle and brush the glaze over the cake. Continue to brush the cake with glaze that has ran down the side. Let dry and serve.

Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup Land O Lakes Butter(or your favorite)
1 package(3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 cups all-purpose flour

Glaze
1 cup semi-sweet real chocolate
1/4 cup Land O Lakes Butter

For cookies, in large mixer bowl, combine all cookie ingredients except flour. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until light and fluffy. Add flour; beat until mixed. Divide dough into halves. Wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out with floured heart-shaped cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 10 minute, or until edges are very lightly browned. Removed immediately; cool completely.

For glaze, in small saucepan, melt chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally over low heat until melted, 4 to 6 minutes. Dip half of each heart into chocolate. Refrigerate on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet until firm. Store, covered, in refrigerator. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

This recipe comes from the Land O Lakes Cookie Collection.

What did I learn?

The glaze was a bit of a challenge for me because I could not get it smooth enough. I used Baker’s Dipping Chocolate for dipping the cookies and it worked great. Get 3 to be on the safe side. Heat up two and pour them into one container. This way your chocolate will be deep enough to cover half your cookie.

Cream cheese is sold in 3 ounce packages but you do not see it in the stores very often so I cut 3 ounces off the 8 ounce silver brick. You can save the rest for bagels.

Cakes Galore, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

I know you have been waiting and wondering when I would post the photos from last year’s Festival of Desserts. Click on the Cakes Galore link or the photo above to see more desserts. I used Flickr to create the photo album for this baked goodness. In addition scrumptious chicken and ham, we enjoyed the following desserts:

• Pecan Tarts
• Banana Chocolate Walnut Brownies
• Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies w/Nuts
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• McNannygocious Pound Cake
• Egg Nog Pound Cake
• 7 Up Cake
• Chocolate Brownies
• Lunchroom Butter Cookies
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Chocolate Egg Nog Rum Cake
• Egg Nog Rum Cake

I ran short of time so I was unable to make the cheesecake and red velvet cake. I made the cinnamon rolls a couple weeks after the festival and they were great. Special thanks to CW, JS, & JS for the ham, chicken, and coffee. Also, thanks to everyone who took photos and sent them to me.

Where do I start? Baking is just as much a part of my life as music. I usually am playing good music while baking. I think I first tried my hand at baking when I was in my teens. I had been thinking about creating a separate blog devoted to baking for a while but I could not imagine having two blogs. Not sure how often I will post over here as I do not bake every week. I can guarantee you lots of good photos and a fotoblog along the way. This clever photo was taken during the recent Christmas holiday baking season. I went through a lot of butter. I will tell you more about that real soon. Creating this blog was much easier than my first one. I dedicate this blog to my dad who passed 5 years ago on this day.