Cherry Ricotta Cake Filling!

So, now that you have your yummy maraschino cherries made from my last post, here's something yummy to make with them!  :)  I use this filling in a white cake with vanilla or almond frosting.  However, if you like cherries and chocolate, a chocolate cake might be a good option too!  Here we go...


Ingredients:
15oz Ricotta cheese
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
16 oz maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together, then refrigerate for 1 hour, or until spreadable.


This makes a LOT of filling, so halve the recipe if you're not filling a pretty large cake.  Of course, sometimes I just eat the filling too, so it's nice to have some extra...  ;)  Also, sometimes I leave the cherries and almond extract out, and it's HEAVENLY in chocolate cake.  :)

Yum.  I'm so glad I have some of this in the fridge for a cake order tomorrow... There WILL be extra just for me.  :)

Hello again!

My poor little neglected blog...  Between moving and holidays and more moving, I haven't spent much time here at all, even in the short time periods where I've had internet!  Hopefully my internet service will be less spotty now, so I can update every once in a while...  :)

Now on to what I've been doing the last while!  Naturally, with the holidays past, I've done a fair amount of baking, so let's do something simple.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries.

:D

Now, if you've ever looked for recipes for maraschino cherries online (like I have), you'll notice that they usually start with "Wash 4 1/2 pounds of fresh cherries and then pit them all".  O.o  They also often call for three day cooking times, with cooling, macerating and canning.

Spare me, please.

:)

They often also call for copious amounts of red food coloring, just like the store-bought kind.  So I decided to  make up my own recipe!

First of all, there are only three ingredients in mine, and no cooking required!  And boy, are they tasty!  First, I bought a can of these:

Maybe not the healthiest item out there, but it only has three ingredients: Cherries, water and sugar.  Since most recipes call for cooking a syrup anyway, we'll just let this can take care of several time consuming steps for us.

Maraschino Cherry Recipe

   1 15oz can Cherries in Heavy Syrup
   1 tsp Lemon Juice
   1/2-1 1/2 tsp Almond Extract (add to personal preference.  I like lots of almond.)

Place all ingredients in a one pint canning jar.  Place in refrigerator.  Let sit at least overnight.  Enjoy!


Now, these get better the longer you let them macerate.  After a couple days, the flavors have melded together really well, and they're absolutely DELICIOUS...

And later, I'll give you the recipe for the best cake filling to ever feature maraschino cherries...  :)

Another monochromatic post (sorta)

There's a lot to be said for color.  But that's not to say something all one color can't look classy!  Adding an inedible decoration can help when you want a precise color, as well.  Take wedding cakes for example, they're often just WHITE.  But add a little piping and a little ribbon and it really pops!

My cousin decided on that design, and I really love it!  It was so fun to get all the designs just so...  :)

Again, sometimes just a little splash of color is all it takes to make a good cake GREAT!  Or maybe that's just my personal preference...  ;)

If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of a fan of free-hand random patterns...  Pretty, but not stuffy.  Patterned, but not fussy.  Easy to fill in empty spots, and even cover flaws in the icing!

Not that we ever have that problem...  *whistling*

Of course, these kinds of patterns work better for females.  Or at weddings.  Or at some fancy dinner. 

I don't have any boys yet, so I'll have to find something different if I ever have one.  :)  Maybe chocolate explosions?

Nah, that'd still work for me...  *drool*



Turmeric: not just for chicken!

Ah, turmeric...  I buy it in large quantities.  My mom uses it as much as possible for the health benefits.  I use it as a SPECTACULAR all-natural yellow coloring.  :)

I get mine from the Amish store down the road.  Good stuff.

Now, you can use the full-flavored spice in desserts without too much difficulty, but it will give your food a twang if you use too much.  Use stale turmeric if the flavor is a problem.  

Using large grain sugar, a dash of tumeric, and a few drops of water you can make colored sugar sprinkles for cookies!  (See instructions in this post.)

Using my cookie frosting recipe, I made some yellow and some chocolate frosting for fall-colored cookies!

I'm not entirely sure why, but I really love that tree cookie...  :)

I mixed a little beet juice into my turmeric yellow frosting, and got a soft orange color.  Combine with chocolate frosting and a little plain white, and VOILA!  Cute little fall owl cookies!

 I must say, these are SO FUN to make!  And so cute!  And so yummy!  And all-natural!  :)  Yay for color.  Pooh on the nay-sayers.  ;)

Flavorings

There are SO MANY great flavorings out there to use in your baking!  So many, sadly, are artificial, so I can't use them in my kids' foods...  :(  Here's a small sampling (not even exhaustive) of what I have in my cabinet right now:

I have several things that I keep around because I sometimes need them for my bakery business.  Or because I just haven't used them up completely.  Or haven't thought about throwing them away.  Or whatever.  It's fairly easy to tell which things are artificial flavors, since they usually SAY "imitation" or "artificial" or simply "flavor" (e.g. strawberry FLAVOR, almond FLAVOR, butter FLAVOR).  Not the real thing, just the FLAVOR of it. 

A good clue for vanilla?  If it's clear, it's not real vanilla...  At least, not that I'VE ever seen...

If you're looking for the real thing, look for "extract" or "natural" or "natural oil".  Watch out for things that are "made with" real vanilla, et al.  That means it's just part of the ingredients, not that it's totally natural.  "Double strength" varieties of vanilla are big offenders here, as they will sometimes make real vanilla, and then add the fake stuff to make it "double strength".  Ask me about discovering that AFTER using it in my food...  That'll teach me to read the labels...  *sigh*

So in visual summary of my cabinet:

Interesting note: Did you know that Wintergreen oil is sometimes manufactured in a lab, and then marketed as "natural" because it is molecularly the same?  Just something to think about...

Buying Candy

Being the first day of November, that means only ONE thing: CLEARANCE HALLOWEEN CANDY.  ;)

I may or may not take part in the dash to get to the good stuff first, but we would all do well to follow my Grandpa's advice: "Stock up before the hoarders get there!"   Gotta love that old-fashioned wisdom...  Heh.  :)

Most candies out there have so many food colorings it's almost INSANE:

I try to find things that at least have a minimal amount of color and preferably no artificial flavors.  As we've seen, even CHOCOLATE isn't immune to the flavoring phenomenon, but there are a few exceptions.  My favorite would be the Reese's peanut butter cup!  But only the large one, as the bite-size ones have artificial flavoring in them.  Same company, essentially the same product, DIFFERENT INGREDIENTS.  GAH!  So remember:

In non-chocolate candy, there's also the ubiquitous Necco Wafer:

Look at the soft coloring!  Kinda like Smarties coloring, but all-natural.  Excellent choice.

Now to my FAVORITE treat to get the kiddos, YUMMY EARTH LOLLIPOPS!

Look at the colors!  And the swirls!  And the all-natural organic-ness!  Well, I guess you can't really tell that last one by looking at it, which is kinda the point.  :)  I got a good deal last year on the hexagon container:

Yum.  These are so good.

I need a Reese's cup.  Now.

Chocolate

Now for a small post on chocolate that might turn into a long post, because I like chocolate.  :)

Did you know that many chocolates contain artificial flavoring?  I didn't until fairly recently...  It seems rude to have these yummy things that shouldn't NEED anything artificial in them, but DO.  I've done a little shopping around, and unless these companies change their products, this is what I've found:

Pretty much everything Hershey's contains artificial flavors.  Sad.  However, Nestle has a good record of all-natural offerings, including their mini chips!  YAY!  Baker's Corner (Aldi) are good, and the cheapest chocolate chips I can find around here.  WOOT!  The Choceur bars on the right (also Aldi) use real flavorings as well.  We used them for S'Mores.  :)

I would also like to add that Ghirardelli's chocolate chips are also all natural... 

 

(These are my FAVORITE chocolate chips of ALL TIME)

I didn't take these pictures, because I believe we've eaten all the ones I got on sale a few weeks back...  Uh, yeah.  "We".  ;)