A simple dessert

This is my half-assed attempt at Sunday night dessert. Sweet, tart, lovely blackberries were on sale at our local grocery store this week, and while I know I shouldn't indulge in off-season produce, I couldn't resist. Let's begin!

Ingredients:

Some sort of plain dessert (un-iced cake, some ice cream, anything you feel like. Vanilla or lemon flavors are a plus. I went for angel food.)

4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brandy
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
1 pint blackberries or other aggregate fruit-type berries. Raspberries or whatever. If you use a sweeter berry, you may want to cut back the sugar by half.

Give your berries a gentle rinse, place in a bowl, throw in the other ingredients, gently mix, and leave to macerate for an hour or two.


Come back and squish them up with a fork. If you don't care for the pulp or seeds, run the sauce through a sieve.
Spoon liberally onto your chosen dessert, and if it's cake, I recommend a little half-and-half for extra deliciousness.

Lovely holiday apple cake!

This cake is full of apples, coconut, and walnuts, and is so dense you could lob it at Santa and mug him for presents while he is unconscious and entering a brown-sugar-butter-sauce coma.
Okay, maybe that isn't a good idea. But hopefully laughter or outrage will make you forget the fact that I forgot my usual ingredient shot.
Regardless, I got this recipe after our annual bake sale at work. I don't know what book it came from, so if anybody recognizes it, do tell!

Step 1: Ingredients

Cake
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp brandy
2 cups sugar
2 3/4 plus 1/4 cups flour, divided
3 cups of apples, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup coconut
1/3 cup butter

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp brandy

Step 2: Prep

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" tube pan. Peel and chop the apples. I used one and half ginormous Granny Smiths. Mix them with the 1/4 cup of flour, nuts, and coconut. Set aside.

Lovely!

Step 3: Beat the eggs well. Add the oil, vanilla, brandy, and sugar, again beating well.

Step 4: Sift in the remaining flour, the soda, salt, and nutmeg.

If you are a little weird about your food like we at Good Noms are, you'll probably grind your cinnamon fresh. Why do this and get the nutmeg out of a shaker bottle? Here's why:

After you grind your cinnamon in your coffee grinder, your next few cups will be extra delicious, infused with a delicate cinnamon flavor. Yum!

Step 5: Fold in apple mixture.

Step 6: Pour batter (which will more resemble dough than batter) into the pan. Bake for 70 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Set the pan on a cooling rack.

Step 7: Put the sauce ingredients into a small pan over medium high heat. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 8: Turn the cake out onto a plate large enough to catch any sauce fallout. Jab the cake with a fork so that the sauce will soak in better. Pour or spoon sauce over the cake. I suppose you could serve it warm, but that would risk losing the sauce while it is still very runny and liquid. When it's at room temperature, it it nice and thick and won't ooze off as you serve.

Naked cake

Oh my.

Delicious!

Welcome to Good Noms

Hello, and Welcome to Good Noms!

For our first recipe, I'll walk you through my latest adventure in baking, an adapted version of Cakespy's Cranberry Bliss Bars.
My usual cooking style involves a lot of fooling around with substitutions, mangling recipes to my own tastes...and my fiance's pickiness. Therefore I present to you...

Good Noms' Cherry Bars!

Step 1: Gather up your ingredients.



Cake base
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon brandy
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
dash of salt (omit if using salted butter)

Garnish
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cherries

Step 2: Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Step 3: Cream together the butter and sugar. It's really important to use softened butter, not melted butter, because the creamed butter and sugar add air to the batter, giving the end product a better texture.

Step 4: Add the vanilla, and the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after every addition. Now is the time to add the brandy as well, if you have it. I keep a well stocked liquor cabinet solely for cooking purposes. If you don't have any brandy, grand marnier, dark rum, or some other sweet liqueur will work just as well.

Step 5: Add in the dry ingredients. I have added some baking soda to the original recipe for a more tender, cakey bite. Because I love cake.



Step 6: Cherries and chocolate. You can use regular chocolate in place of white chocolate if you like, but inexplicably, I like white chocolate better in some recipes. DO NOT tell my mother this. White chocolate is one of several foods against which she has a vendetta.




Step 7: Bake for 30 mins, or until golden and a knife inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean (or mostly clean, depending on how many chocolate chips you run into). Cool completely before moving on to the frosting.


Frosting:

Step 1: Blend cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl slightly larger than you think you will need. The confectioner's sugar will make a bit of a mess if you let it.

Step 2: Add in the sugar a little bit at a time, until fully incorporated.

Step 3: Glob onto your cooled bars and top with cherries.



Step 4: Lick spoon.

Topping:

Step 1: In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips. If the chocolate seems to be too thick to drizzle, add a little shortening to thin it out. Don't worry, this won't change the flavor or texture of your chocolate once it's cooled.

A saucepan and Pyrex bowl make a good makeshift double boiler

Step 2: Drizzle chocolate over your bars. Cut the bars while the chocolate is still melty or it will crumble and your bars won't look as nice when cut. Cut in half lengthwise and into four wide. Cut each rectangle into two triangles.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Eat with a cup of French Roast for maximum enjoyment!