Make an Independence Day Cake - and a Memory, Too

This cake is from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa). Not only is it delicious, it makes a great activity for the kids at a 4th of July barbecue. You bake and frost the cake, then let the kids decorate it with blueberries, raspberries, and more frosting. So what if it doesn't look as good as Ina's? It is sooo good - white cake with cream cheese frosting and berries, and it serves 24 people. If you try it, you might just start a new tradition!

Flag Cake

Ingredients

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups sugar
7 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the icing:

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese at room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

To assemble:

2 half-pints blueberries
3 half-pints raspberries

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour an 18 by 13 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan. (You can use an 11x15 jelly roll/rimmed cookie sheet, but don't overfill with batter - put the extra in an 8-inch square pan).

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

For the icing, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mixing just until smooth.

Spread three-fourths of the icing on the top of the cooled sheet cake. Outline the flag on the top of the cake with a toothpick. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Place 2 rows of raspberries across the top of the cake like a red stripe. Put the remaining icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe two rows of white stripes below the raspberries. Alternate rows of raspberries and icing until the flag is completed. Pipe stars on top of the blueberries.

Serve in pan.

Insalata Caprese

This simple salad is one of my favorite things in all the world. I grow extra basil just so we can eat it often - like once a week in the summer.

You can really use any kind of good, flavorful tomatoes. Those ugly heirloom ones from the farmer's market are especially delicious. Tonight I used small Campari tomatoes - I thought I might not have enough because Ben was eating them as fast as I could slice them! They were so sweet.

Insalata Caprese

1 8-oz ball fresh mozzarella, sliced roughly the same size as tomato slices

bunch of basil, leaves detached and washed

2-3 large slicing tomatoes, or 6-8 small ones, sliced

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

sea or kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

You can stack or layer the ingredients in any pattern you like: tomato, basil leaf, slice of cheese. Drizzle with olive oil, then a few splashes of balsamic (not required). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Regular salt is fine, but I like the crunch of sea or kosher.

Baked Potato Soup

The boys watched Ratatouille on the way home from Florida, so Ben started asking me to make potato soup and eclairs. The French version of potato soup is not like our baked potato version, but we like this better. I hadn't made it in a long time, but it was sooo good - and even Ben ate it!

I found the recipe on the Cooking Light board originally, but it's from a restaurant called California Dreaming.

Baked Potato Soup

1/4 cup onion -- minced
1/4 cup celery -- minced
1/3 cup flour
3 cups chicken stock or broth
2 medium potatoes -- peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon basil, fresh, or 1/3 t. dried
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
1 cup sour cream
8 strips bacon -- chopped
fresh chives or green onions -- chopped
cheddar cheese -- grated

Cook bacon slowly over medium-low heat until crisp, taking care not to brown the fat. Set bacon aside, leaving 1 - 2 tablespoons rendered fat in the pan.

Add onions and celery and saute until tender. Add flour and mix well. Add chicken stock and stir until all flour is dissolved. Continue to stir and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Add potatoes and let soup simmer until potatoes are tender (about 30 minutes). Add heavy cream, sour cream, basil, and white pepper. Let simmer for another 10 minutes until soup is hot again.

Garnish each portion of soup with the bacon, chives, and cheese.

Our Father's Day Cupcakes

Making the cupcakes with the boys was messy but fun! We couldn't find the black shoestring licorice, and twists didn't work as well. But no one complained - they tasted great!

Father's Day Cupcakes

The cupcake craze continues! I have three cupcake cookbooks, and the boys love to look at them, begging me to make the puppy ones and the werewolf ones and the basketball ones and on and on. I've seen a lot of cute ideas for Father's Day, so I thought I'd collect some of them here.

"Want Some Mower" is from Family Fun. I give it a B+ for cuteness and a B for easiness. You're going to make chocolate cupcakes and frost them with chocolate frosting; tint coconut green; and construct a lawnmower out of readily-available candy. It wouldn't be hard, but it would take a little while.









Can't you tell these "Tee-Time" cupcakes are from Martha? Spare, cute without being cutesy, colors from a Martha Stewart paint palette? I give these an A- for cuteness and a D+ for easiness. Ask yourself if you are the type of person who isn't frightened by a cupcake recipe that calls for grosgrain ribbon and a glue gun.














Wilton created this "Snack with Sizzle" grill/mini cake for two reasons: 1. maximum cuteness and 2. maximum need for Wilton products. I love it, though it's so far removed from food . . . or cupcakes . . . I just don't know. I give it an A for cuteness and an F for easiness.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

After our annual strawberry picking, we make copious amounts of jam. Last year I made 36 8-oz jars, and after we gave probably 8 jars away, we ran out of jam by Christmas.

It doesn't take that many strawberries to make jam: 2 cups of sliced/mashed berries will make a little over 5 8-oz. jars. However, it does take a lot of sugar! You may be shocked if you've never made jam before. But there's no high fructose corn syrup like there is in store-bought jam, so you've got that going for you.

This recipe is freezer jam, and it's uncooked, which means the fresh flavor is preserved. Since you store it in the freezer or refrigerator, you don't have to worry about sealing the jars or risking botulism. Store it in the freezer for a year or in the refrigerator for a month. You can pretty much use it straight from the freezer because it doesn't freeze solid.

I've had the best luck using liquid pectin (Certo) vs. powdered - it tends to set up better. As long as you keep the proportions correct and stir the sugar until it dissolves, yours will set up, too. If by any chance it doesn't, it makes a great sundae topping!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2 cups sliced strawberries, mashed (you can do this by hand or in a blender or food processor - leave it somewhat chunky)

4 cups sugar

1 package liquid pectin

2 T. lemon juice

Clean canning jars or tupperware with lids

Mix strawberries with sugar and let stand for ten minutes. In a small bowl, mix packet of pectin with lemon juice. Add to strawberry mixture, and stir 3 min. or until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy. (A few sugar crystals may remain.)

Fill all containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use.

Golden Cinnamon-Pumpkin Bars - Whole Grain

Yes, I cut these bars awfully unevenly! But don't let that or the half-eaten pan dissuade you: these bars are really good. Their consistency is like brownies, but with pumpkin flavor.

The bars are adapted from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. The philosophy of King Arthur was that the recipes in the cookbook would be great on their own merit, not just "good - for whole grain." By using various kinds of whole-grain flours, mixing whole grains with all-purpose flour, letting batters "rest" overnight in the refrigerator, and yes, using butter freely, I think they accomplished this goal.

The large amount of butter in this recipe works out to 1/2 T. per bar if you cut them into 24 pieces, which is not unreasonable. You could replace 1/4 cup of butter with applesauce, and they'd still be great.

Variation idea: swap chocolate chips and raisins or Craisins for the cinnamon chips and apples

Golden Cinnamon-Pumpkin Bars

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
3/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. ground allspice
1 large egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup diced unpeeled apple

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Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan

Melt butter in a medium microwave-safe bolw or in a saucepan set over low heat, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the microwave briefly, until it's hot and starting to bubble (1-2 minutes -check midway). Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and allow it to cool until you can comfortably test it with your finger.

Beat in the vanilla, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Stir in the pumpkin, flour, chips, and apple. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake the bars until a sharp knife inserted into the center reveals moist crumbs, 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.