Friday, November 28, 2008

HERSHEY'S COCOA BUNDT CAKE

This recipe was in an old Hershey's recipe give-away.

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze (recipe below)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. In the large mixer bowl, blend flour, sugar, dodoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add remaining ingredients except chocolate glaze. Beat on low speed for 1 minute, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with the chocolate glaze.

Yield: 12 to 16 servings

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar plus milk to equal 1 1/2 cups. Allow to sit for a couple of minutes before using.

Chocolate Glaze:

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Mini-Chips

In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a rolling boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat. Immediately add the chocolate chips. Stir mixture with a wire whisk until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Cool until slightly thickened. Drizzle over top of cake.

Note: For a pretty presentation, add a few chopped pecans around the top of the cake over the glaze.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Old Fashion Pumpkin Bars

This recipe is from a 1970s church cookbook.

1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat oil, sugar, pumpkin and eggs together until well blended. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a sifter. Sift mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Blend well. Grease a jelly roll pan and pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Frost with a powdered sugar frosting or a cream cheese frosting, if desired.

Note: File Photo

Thursday, November 13, 2008

LIST OF OLD TIME SAYINGS

This is a list of some old-time sayings I have gathered from old cookbooks. Hope you will enjoy them.

Willingness without action is like a cloud without rain; there may be lots of thunder and lightening but no parched ground is watered.

Too little to save, Too much to dump. That's what makes the housewife plump.

"A smile is a light in the window of the face by which the heart signifies it is at home and waiting. A face that cannot smile is like a bulb that cannot blossom." Henry Ward Beecher

You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others?

"Whatever is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience sake." 1 Cor. 10:37

Be grateful for your doors of opportunity--and for the friends who oil the hinges.

I set out to find a friend, but couldn't find one; I set out to be a friend, and friends were everywhere.

"We may live without poetry, music and art,
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friend, we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks."

"He may live without books--what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope--what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love--what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?"
By Owen Meredith

There is no indigestion worse than that of trying to eat your own words.

We do not know how inexpensive the seeds of happiness are or we should scatter them oftener.

Little acts of kindness are stowed away in the heart like bags of lavender in a drawer to sweeten every object around them.

Strive always to be like a good watch--open face, busy hands, pure gold, week regulated, full of good works.