Banana Pudding Squares

Well it's that time of year, isn't it? Time to start losing that weight we gained over the holidays. Personally, I don't believe in diets. I do believe in sensibility and all things in moderation. I think food is meant to be enjoyed and it's possible to eat even really "sinful" stuff once in awhile and still be healthy. This recipe is actually relatively healthy and tastes really yummy. So you can feel free to indulge a little without feeling guilty.

Banana Pudding Squares
20 reduced-fat vanilla wafers, finely crushed
3 tablespoons margarine, melted
1 8 oz package light cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 8oz carton fat-free whipped topping, divided
3 medium bananas
3 cups low fat milk
2 small packages instant vanilla pudding (regular or sugar-free)

Mix vanilla wafers and margarine. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until well-blended. Fold in 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping. Spoon evenly over crust, spreading carefully. Slice bananas in half cross-wise, then in half again length-wise. Arrange over cream cheese mixture. Mix pudding and milk together with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. Pour over bananas. Spread remaining whipped topping over pudding. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving. Garnish with shaved chocolate, if desired.

National Cake Day

We have yet another off-beat food holiday to celebrate today. It's National Cake Day! Yea!! These "holidays" are great because they give me an automatic subject to blog about.

I love cake. I love pie, too. I love pretty much any and all desserts. Here are a couple of my favorite cake recipes. As usual, they are fairly quick and easy. I love good food, but I don't love spending all day cooking it.

Enjoy!

7-Up Cake
1 box lemon cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups 7-Up
4 eggs

Icing
2 cups sugar
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
½ cup butter
5 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan (you may also use 3, 9 inch round pans).

In a large mixer bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, 7-Up and eggs. Blend until moistened. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack. Spread top of cake with cooled icing. *

To make icing, combine sugar, pineapple, butter, flour and egg yolks in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. Cook and stir until thick. Stir in coconut and nuts. Cool completely before icing cake.

*If making a layer cake, cool cake 15 – 20 minutes in pan, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Pecan Fudge Sheetcake

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix, plus ingredients to make cake
½ cup butter
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 15 ½ x 10 ½ x 1 jelly roll pan. Prepare cake as directed. Pour into prepared jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Frost while still warm.

For frosting, place butter, milk and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Stir on low heat until butter is melted. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract stirring until smooth. Stir in pecans. Pour over warm cake. Cool completely.

Goin' Nutty

Well shoot! Yesterday was National Cashew Day and I missed it! Oh well - better late than never. I have no idea where I got this recipe, but I know it's good. I hope you like it.

Caramel Cashew Blondies
18 caramels
1/3 cup butter
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted cashews

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.

In a saucepan, cook and stir caramels, butter and milk over low heat until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat; stir in sugar. Combine eggs and vanilla; stir into caramel mixture. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into caramel mixture until blended. Fold in the cashews. Spread into a buttered 9-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 24 - 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and cut into bars.

National Bundt Cake Day

Well, I think tomorrow is National Bundt Cake Day. I say "I think" because I can't seem to find a definitive answer. The first National Bundt Cake Day was November 15, 2006 and was started to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Nordic Ware, the manufacturer of the Bundt pan. I don't know if they intended it to be an annual event or not. I found on FoodReference.com that National Bundt Cake Day is now celebrated the Thursday prior to Thanksgiving each year. So that's what I'm going with. I don't see any reason why we can't have Bundt Day every year, do you? Any day is a good day for a Bundt cake in my opinion.

I love Bundt cakes. Whenever I bake cakes they are almost always Bundts. I have a regular 12-cup size Bundt pan, as well as two pans that have six mini Bundts in each pan. One of the mini pans is the regular Bundt shape and the other has three different fancy shapes. Those are fun to use for gifts.

I hope you'll consider celebrating National Bundt Day by baking your favorite Bundt cake. I have included the recipe for one of my favorites here.

Luscious Lemony Bundt Cake

1 box lemon cake mix

1 small box lemon instant pudding

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

Powdered sugar

Frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

Heat oven to 350. Spray Bundt pan with cooking spray and coat lightly with flour.

In a large mixer bowl, blend cake mix, pudding, water and oil until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed for 8 minutes (yes EIGHT). Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until tootpick inserted halfway between the edge and center of the pan comes out clean.

Invert hot cake onto a wire rack set over baking sheet. Prepare a very thin glaze using powdered sugar and thawed lemonade concentrate. Spoon generously over hot cake making sure to cover cake completely. Allow cake to cool for 20 minutes or so and spoon more glaze over the cake. Allow cake to cool completely and glaze one more time. Glazing the cake while hot allows much of the glaze to soak into the cake providing more moistness. The second and third glazings allow a nice glaze to form on the outside of the cake - kind of like a doughnut.

For a final presentation you can make some additional glaze with a thicker consistency to drizzle over the cake, if you like.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I think Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. For us it's a day to relax with family and eat good food. No gifts to buy. No stress. No pressure. To make sure it stays that way I usually keep the menu fairly simple and make things ahead if I can.

We don't have exactly the same menu each year. Sometimes we have turkey. Sometimes we don't. The last two years we had glazed cornish game hens. This year we are having glazed spiral ham. My mom makes the ham and it's delicious.

Since there are only five of us for dinner, I don't make a lot of side dishes. I don't like to eat leftovers for a week. We'll have plenty of ham leftover for sandwiches, and I'll make a big pot of ham and beans with the bone and the little scrappy pieces. Yum!

Here's my simple, but tasty, menu:
Glazed Spiral Ham
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Butter
Green Beans (I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet)
Waldorf Salad
Pumpkin Pie Squares
Mini Pecan Tarts

Today I am making the mini pecan tarts and will freeze them. My husband and stepdad love pecan pie. I can eat about two bites and that's it. It's way too rich for me. I love the little tarts though. They aren't nearly as sweet and rich as pecan pie, but still have the flavor so everybody is happy. We also love pumpkin pie, but we like the pumpkin pie dessert squares even better. Even people who don't like pumpkin pie seem to like these.

Mini Pecan Tarts
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup flour
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely broken pecans

Combine cream cheese and 1/2 cup softened butter. Stir in flour. Blend well. Chill for about 1 hour.

Heat oven to 325. Form dough into 24 1-inch balls. Place each ball into a mini muffin cup and press to form a crust. Mix egg, brown sugar, melted butter and vanill until well blended. Place about 2/3 of the pecans into the crust lined muffin cups. Pour the egg mixture into the cups filling about 3/4 full. Sprinkle remaining pecans on top of each tart. Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes or until filling is set. Cool. Remove from pans.

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Crust
1 box yellow cake mix (reserve one cup for topping)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg, beaten

Filling
2 eggs
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 16 oz can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Topping
1 cup reserved cake mix
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Heat oven to 350 (325 if using a glass pan). Grease bottom only of a 9x13 baking dish. Reserve 1 cup of cake mix and pour remaining mix into a bowl. Add melted butter and beaten egg. Mix thoroughly and press into prepared pan.

Beat two eggs slightly in a large bowl. Add remaining filling ingredients and mix well. Pour over crust.

Mix 1 cup reserved cake mix and remaining topping ingredients with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool. Cut into squares and serve with whipped cream.