Sunday, January 30, 2011

Delicious, Moist Strawberry Cake



This truly is the most delicious and moist strawberry cake I have ever eaten!
It's another cake recipe from my mother. This is not exactly a "scratch" cake
because you do use a cake mix but you add other ingredients and don't use the
recipe on the box. I have a few cake recipes like that.

Strawberry Cake
1 white cake mix, ignore directions on box
1 tablespoon flour
1 package strawberry jelly powder (Jello)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
4 eggs

Directions: Mix the cake mix, flour, jelly powder, vegetable oil, water and strawberries together thoroughly. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Divide mix between three greased round cake pans or bake in one long 9" x 12" greased pan. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Add frosting when completely cooled. Strawberry frosting recipe below.

Strawberry Frosting
1/4 cup soft butter
3.5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped strawberries

Put sugar and strawberries in bowl first. Mix together well. Slowly add water a tiny bit at a time, until desired consistency is reached. If the icing is too thin add a bit more sugar.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Bavarian Jello



I call this "Bavarian" jello because that is what I heard it called when I was a kid. It's flavoured jelly powder (Jello) mixed with whipped cream and it's delicious.



It is a quick, easy, frugal yet fancy dessert. I make it a lot in the summer in the heat but also now, when strawberries are on sale at the store. (Next year we will have our own strawberries in the freezer! - Next year we will be drowning in strawberries!!)



To make Bavarian jello you make up a jelly powder box according to the directions on the box. Mix one package with 1 cup of boiling water. This is easy when you keep a kettle on the woodstove. I always have boiling water on tap :-)



Stir it until it is dissolved. Then add 1 cup of cold water. I put chopped ice in the 1 cup measure before I add the cold water. It makes the jelly powder "set" more quickly.



When it is almost set, or half set, use an electric mixer and beat it with whipped cream. Put into whatever container you want to use and put it in the refrigerator. It will harden in a few hours.



I like to layer it with clear jelly powder and fruit in glasses. I used tumblers this time, as it was just a special dessert for hubby and not for company. If I am making it for company, I use the stemmed wine glasses. 





This one pictured is strawberry. I made up one box of strawberry jelly powder and left it clear. When it was set I spooned it into the glasses along with some fresh strawberry pieces. I then spooned in the Bavarian jello with whipped cream. I saved some whipped cream to put on top too, and a few fresh strawberries for the top, as well.



You can make any flavour that you like. Raspberry is great, as is cherry! Raspberry chocolate would be dreamy! I haven't tried it yet. If you do, let me know how it is!



When you are finished with your glass, you can then give it to the dog to clean out. Buck prewashes all of our dishes and he loves dessert of any kind!


It went over well! There's nothing like a special summery dessert to brighten up those dull, gray winter days!



I also made a fresh strawberry cake with another of my mother's cake recipes. It's fabulous! I'll post that recipe soon!




Sunday, January 2, 2011

Favourite Quotes and Picture



Happy New Year everyone!

My seed catalogues are coming in now. It's time to start planning for the spring and ordering seed!

Listed below are a few of my favourite famous quotes. Not necessarily Biblical ones, but ones that I agree with, nonetheless.

Gal 6: 7 - "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that will he also reap."

"When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly."
-Edward Teller

..."Death is not the worst that can happen to men."
-Plato

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently" - Nietzsche

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings"
-Nietzsche

"If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it."
-Socrates

"Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live"
- Socrates

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"- Nietzsche

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --C.S. Lewis

Found the above picture
here and loved it! (Beware! Lots of ads on that site...)