Pink Polar Cream Pie

Pink Polar Cream Pie

Crust:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup? granulated white sugar (recipe wasn't clear on this, will need to test)

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup pecans, thinly sliced

2-3 TB cold water

Pie Filling:

6 medium stalks rhubarb, sliced into 1" pieces

1 cup water

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 TB cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sour cream

3 egg yolks (reserve egg whites for below)

6-8 drops red food coloring

Meringue:

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tarter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

For the crust: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine sugars, salt, and flour in a bowl and cut in the shortening.  Add the pecans.  Sprinkle with water 1 TB at a time until it comes together in a ball.  Roll out 1/2' beyond 8" pie pan.  Place the crust into the pie pan and fold under the edges to create a double edge.  Flute edge and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Cool.

For the filling: Combine the rhubarb and 1 cup of water into a saucepan.  Cook 3-5 minutes or until soft.  Drain the water and then chop the rhubarb in a blender (or food processor) for 20 seconds.  Set aside. 

Mix the cornstarch, sugar and salt in large saucepan.  Stir in the sour cream, egg yolks, rhubarb and food coloring.  Cook slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Boil 1 minute and then remove from heat.

For the meringue:  Beat egg whites and cream of tarter until stiff.  Add sugar and vanilla. 

To assemble:  Spoon the rhubarb mixture into the cooled pie shell.  Top with the meringue.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer/Newspaper article 10/7/1956 (doesn't say which newspaper)

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie

*This recipe isn't very clear, so I'll definitely need to test it to put more definitive measurements around it and try to rescale it so that you don't have to make so much at once.  I'll do my best to interpret it to what makes the most sense.

8 cups pumpkin

2 1/4 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

3 cans Eagle grand sweetened condensed? milk

1 large and 1 small can evaporated milk

8 beaten eggs

2 tsp salt

4 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

Pie Crusts

Mix all ingredients (except crust) together well and cover and let stand in fridge overnight (IMPORTANT STEP). 

Take pie filling out from the fridge the next day and pour into pie crusts.  (The recipe says it makes 2 - 9" AND 2 - 11" pies.  Not sure if that is suppose to say AND or OR.  I'll have to test it.)  You can make the pies and freeze them right in the pie tins if desired.  They go well from the freezer straight to the oven to bake.  This would be a nice time saver at Thanksgiving!

Bake the pie at 15 minutes on 400 degrees and then 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  (The recipe says it may need a little longer.)

Recipe Source: Fred Kalt (Fred is my uncle on my Mom's side of the family so I have no idea how my Grandma (my Dad's Mom) got this recipe from him, but there ya have it.)

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

3 cups grated carrots packed (appx 6)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk all the dry ingredients together.  Stir in the oil and then the eggs, 1 at a time until incorporated.  Stir in the grated carrots.  Pour into greased 9x13 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick test shows it's done.  Cool on wire rack.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer/Aunt Dorothy

Pumpkin Squares

Pumpkin Squares

1 large can pumpkin

2 cans evaporated milk

1 1/4 cups sugar

6 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp allspice

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped nuts (doesn't say which kind, and this is probably optional)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of butter, cut into small cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, salt and allspice.  Pour into ungreased 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle yellow cake mix over top.  Sprinkle the chopped nuts over that and then dab with the butter cubes. 

Bake for 1 hour and then let cool completely before cutting.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer/Holly Smith

German Sweet Chocolate Pie

German Sweet Chocolate Pie

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1 lightly baked 9" pie shell

1 package (6 serving size) vanilla pudding pie filling, not instant

1 4 oz German's Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces (no idea what this is, I'm guessing you could sub any kind of bar chocolate here)

2 1/2 cups milk

1-2 cups Whipping Cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, heat coconut, pecans, brown sugar and butter until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Spread into the baked pie shell and bake for 5 minutes until bubbly.  Let cool on wire rack.

In a  saucepan, combine remaining ingredients, except the whipping cream.  Cook as directed on pudding package.  Cool 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour into the cooled pie shell and cover the surface with plastic wrap.  Chill at least 4 hours. 

To serve, beat the whipping cream on high until medium stiff peaks form and then spread on chilled pie.  Garnish with grated chocolate, if desired.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer/Ann McCabe

Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie

1/3 cup all purpose flour or 1/4 cup cornstarch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups milk - scalded

3 slightly beaten egg yolks

2 TB butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 bananas, slices

1 baked pie shell

In a large saucepan, whisk together the sugar, flour and salt.  Gradually add the scalded milk to the pan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  Cook 2 minutes more and then remove from heat.

Add a small amount of the hot cream mixture to the beaten egg yolks and stir.  Then add the egg yolk mixture back into the rest of the cream mixture and stir.  Cook 1 minute and stir constantly.  Add the butter and vanilla and stir to combine.

Cool the mixture slightly.  Arrange a layer of the sliced bananas on the bottom of the baked pie shell.  Poor the pudding mixture over the bananas.  If you want you can alternate the sliced bananas and pudding mixture 2 times to create a layered pie.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer

Pie Crust

Pie Crust

*Makes two pie crusts (for 2 single crust pies or 1 double crust pie)

2 cups flour

2/3 cups shortening

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup ice cold water

Sift flour and salt together in mixing bowl.  Remove 1/3 cup of flour mixture and place in a small bowl.  Add 1/3 cup of ice cold water to the 1/3 cup of flour and mix to make a paste.

Cut the shortening into reserved flour mixture.  Make a well in the center of the shortening and flour and pour the paste into the well.  Slowly work flour into the paste until it all holds together.  Roll out and use for your favorite pie.

Recipe Source: Lillian Ulmer

Grandma's Recipe Collection

My Grandma Ulmer is sending me all of her baking recipes that she has collected over her lifetime. YEAH!!! :0  Some of them date back to recipes that her Mother, my Great Granny Virgin, made.  I've decided to put them on this blog so that I have them forever.  This way they will also be accessible to the rest of the grand and great grand kids if they want them.  There are quite a few that hold sentimental memories from our growing up years too.

I'm going to label all the posts with "Grandma's Recipes" so they are easy to access all at once.  Until I try all of the recipes, I can't give any comments as to how easy or hard they are to make or what kinds of variations they can withstand.  I also am going to guess that some of the recipes will be harder to read/understand since they are handwritten on index cards and some have been around for quite some time.  I will do my best and will update them as I make them and get feedback from my Grandma where I can.

I'm so lucky to have these and I can't wait to try them all!!! Thanks Grandma!

Banana Cupcakes, Pastry Cream Filling and Chocolate Swiss Meringue Frosting

These little babies are a triple threat.  The cupcakes (from Brown Eyed Baker) are moist, delicious, perfect texture, just the right amount of banana flavor, etc.  They can literally be served stand alone with nothing on top or inside. BUT, I decided to make her Vanilla Pastry Cream to go with them and instead of putting the cream on top of the cupcake I piped it into the cupcake as a filling.  The pastry cream was very easy to make and is perfectly creamy and yummy.
After deciding to use the pastry cream as a filling, I knew I needed a splash of chocolate on top. I made a Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream to go on top.  I modified a recipe I found online into my own concoction and it turned out to THE BEST chocolate frosting I've made to date.  It's light, not to sweet, just the right amount of chocolate flavor and I was so pleased that this time the frosting had a very small amount of air bubbles in it.  Most of my Swiss Meringue frosting ends up with quite a bit of tiny bubbles, but not this recipe.  It's a keeper!  I've posted it below for safe keeping.

These cupcakes, when all put together, are probably some of the best I've made.  Absolutely delicious!  All of DJ's co-workers are in for a real treat tomorrow when I send them their way.  I seriously can't have these things sitting on my counter... I would eat half of them.  In fact, it's taking all the will power I have right now not to go back and eat a second one tonight.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract

4 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder, add more for stronger chocolate flavor

Melt 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate in double boiler or microwave and set aside to cool.

Put egg whites, salt and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (160 degrees).

Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on medium high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 8 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment (if using a Bosch mixer stick with the whisk attachments). With mixer on medium-low, add butter one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to low; add vanilla extract, melted and cooled chocolate and cocoa powder and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles, scraping down the bowl as needed.

 

Store in the refrigerator for up to three days or in the freezer for 2 months.  Bring to room temp and beat with paddle on low until light and fluffy.

Makes enough to generously frost 24 regular sized cupcakes.

Devil's Food White Out Cake - Dorie Greenspan

I made this white out cake by Dorie Greenspan.  But I only made the cake part, not the marshmallow cream frosting.  And I didn't crumble a layer on the outside of the cake.  I was simply making it to taste the flavor and texture of the cake portion.  In all the reading and research I've done on cakes the past few weeks, Dorie's name has come up quite a bit.  I am going to buy her cookbook that seems to be the most popular among bakers.  Her name is familiar to me, so I'm guessing she's been around awhile and is pretty famous in the baking world.  I'm showing my ignorance by admitting I didn't know who she was until now.

I used Hersey for the cocoa powder since it's the only brand I had on hand and Ghirardelli for the semi sweet and bitter sweet chocolates.  I baked it for 25 minutes on 325, instead of 350, rotating once.  I think I should have baked for 23 minutes. 

The taste of this cake is totally different from the other two I made.  It's far less sweet.  Really more chocolately than sweet, if that makes sense.  It's super dense.  I like dense cake, but this was almost too dense for even me.  It was a heavy, hardy and stable cake, and would be ideal for carving for specialty cakes covered in fondant.
I need to figure out how to lighten it up just a little bit and I think it would be perfect.  I like it because it isn't too sweet, whereas DJ didn't like it as much because of the lack of sweetness.  I figure every cake is gonna have frosting, which is almost always too sweet, so this is a nice compliment to the frosting.  I made a chocolate cream cheese frosting from Cupcake Project to go with the cake and the two combined were way yummy.

I want to try this cake recipe out as cupcakes too.

I'm going to remake the frosting with some personal variations.  Here is my adaptation of the recipe, to be tried on the next cake.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

10 oz softened cream cheese (possibly 12 ounces)

1/4 C unsalted butter, softened

3-3 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar

1/2 c cocoa powder

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a mixer
2. Mix in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time
3. Mix in cocoa powder and vanilla

One Bowl Chocolate Cake - Martha Stewart

When I decided to try this recipe by Martha Stewart I realized that it was VERY similar to Mel's Kitchen Cafe Chocolate cake.  So after looking over Mel's recipe again, I realize her version was adapted from a Martha Steward recipe.  Ah ha! 
This one bowl chocolate cake recipe had some slight differences, one of which was the type of cocoa powder.  This one called for Dutch cocoa, which creates a dark chocolate cake.  It also has less oil.  I guess that good if you're on a diet (which I am), but the final result wasn't good enough to make my top list.  I ain't looking for healthy cakes here... :)

The cake was pretty intense with dark chocolate flavor, almost too bitter.  It wasn't moist enough for me.  I baked it for 25 minutes, versus the 35 the recipe called for.  And it was definitely done at 25 minutes.  It did bake up nice and tall, so I did like that.  I noticed that one side of one of the cakes was lower than the other.  I think I need to start rotating my cakes halfway through baking times.  This crappy oven isn't doing me any favors.

If I can't find any decent dark chocolate cake recipes in the coming months I may try this one again but modify it.  I think I'd add more oil, possibly another egg yoke and maybe a touch more sugar.

Kahly's Birthday Cake/Cupcake Surprise

Kahly and her friends birthday party was in downtown Seattle at the Washington Athlectic Club (WAC), which is a very high end club with lots of restaurants and who knows what else.  They were able to get a sports bar room reserved for their party because Kahly's friend, Kaitlyn, has a boyfriend who is a member.  I had no idea how nice that place was and it was a bit intimidating dropping off my ameture cake and cupcakes there.

I spent a couple hours on Saturday afternoon frosting the premade cupcakes with my premade frosting and layering and frosting the cake (also premade).  I packed up all the little gumpaste flowers and decided to put them onto the cupcakes after I got them set up at the WAC.  Making the frosting on the cake was the hardest part of the whole thing for me.  The Swiss Meringue frosting is delicious, but airy, and doesn't smooth out perfectly like I wanted.  But I got it as smooth as I could and had to just be happy with it.  I need to figure out how to remove the air bubbles from that frosting...

I packed everything into the car and DJ, my Grandma Ulmer and the kids and I headed downtown to drop it off.  We decided to go to dinner afterwards, so it was just easier for everyone to tag along.  It also made it easier for me because I was able to hold the cakes in my lap and no worry about it.

When I met Kahly at the WAC she was so excited that I had surprised her with more than just a tray of cupcakes.  I took all the cake and supplies to the room and got to work setting things up.  She was SO SO HAPPY, which made me extremely happy too.  I'm so glad she loved it. 

OH, and a little side story from the day before the party.  A lady at the WAC contacted Kahly and told her she couldn't bring outside food into the club (after they had already been told they could).  She was being very difficult and finally said that they could as long as it was from a catering company or bake shop.  SO... I whipped up a business card in about 20 minutes and added a business email address and sent that over to them.  I set my business card out by the cake just in case there were any issues, but the lady that was being difficult wasn't working that night and everything went smoothly.  Kaitlyn's boyfriend is a lawyer and drafted me up some LLC papers just in case too. Very thorough!

So the next day Kahly got ahold of me and let me know how well the cake and cupcakes were received at the party.  Her words were: Everyone thought they were the best cupcakes and cake they had tasted and thought that I was a legit business, wanting to know if I did events and wedding.  One of her friends there has a catering business and said my red velvet cake was hands down the best she had ever tasted and told Kahly that she wanted my business card.  Kahly explained that I wasn't a real business and her friend said that I absolutely should be and to contact her when I am.  Another friend asked if I would do her wedding cake! 

I was happy as a kite that night and was glowing from all the praise. :)  It was so fun to do these cupcakes and cakes, I loved every minute of it!  I learned so much.

So based on the fact that I love doing this so much and on the rave reviews I got from one party, I'm considering actually working towards having some kind of cake business.  I figure I've got a good 2-3 years before the kids are all in regular school and I'm going to use those years to build up a rock solid recipe index of cakes, frostings and fillings.  And I'll continue to practice piping, fondant and other decorating styles.  I think I'll try to take a few more classes in that department too.  During this time I'll just do stuff for free or for cost of materials, and try to get some kind of portfolio built.  Then, maybe, just maybe, I'll be ready for a real business venture once the kids are in school. 

It's VERY intimidating to dive into this industry.  It's highly competitive and is thoroughly saturated already, so I'm realistic in what I want out of it.  I think the main thing will be to have fun, give myself a creative outlet and challenge myself along the way.  I'm definitely not setting out to make a bunch of money, but more give myself a sense of "self" and learn and push myself.  Should be an adventure!!!  I may eventually switch all my cake ramblings over to a different blog, but for now this one will do.

The camera used to take the pictures was just a point and shoot, so there really aren't any good ones that capture the colors or the little details like I had hoped.  The monogramed K's and the pink centers of the gumpaste flowers are painted with pearl dust for added shimmer and the little rhinestones went along with their theme for the party.  The rhinestones were the only thing not edible on the cakes.

Unbelievable Chocolate Cake - Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Onto chocolate cake!  This cake recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe is SO GOOD.  Provided you don't have an overflowing mess in your oven like I did the first time I made it, it is already at the top of my list of chocolate cake recipes.  I've made it twice now, neither time turned out perfect, but both times it tasted delicious.  I can only imagine how good it will be when I finally master it.  It's dense and moist and has fantastic texture and flavor. I think I'd classify this cake as your basic traditional chocolate cake, boarding on a devils food chocolate cake. 

Chocolate cake testing is a harder one for me, since it's not my favorite kind of cake.  I know, that's almost blasphamous in the baking world, but there ya have it.  However, THIS chocolate cake has made me a fan.  I really did love it.  It will be hard to find something better that will top it.