Sweetheart Dessert

Pound Cake with Strawberries and Chocolate Syrup

Good evening and come on in out of the rain and cold for it is a bleak evening and getting colder by the minute. We need the rain but the cold can go far, far away. I am still waiting on the Climate Change or at least some Global Warming to come this way but at least we don't have snow and ice, yet. They say it's coming but maybe it won't, crossing my fingers.

I want to share my mom's sour cream pound cake with you for it is really good and makes a big cake. Pound cake is our favorite cake for we are not overly fond of icings and pound cake keeps so well. I also add extra flavorings to mine for a friend of mine adds 7 flavors to his but I usually add one or two and lemon and orange are my favorites.

The picture is one of the ways we ate it this week and it was really good. The strawberries are some I froze last year from a local farmer. This is the recipe for sauce I make although it is not thick but sooo good.

Strawberry Sauce

4 cups frozen strawberries
1 tsp. cinnamon

generous grating of nutmeg or 1/2 tsp. powdered - freshly grated is best

1/2 cup cranberry juice or orange juice

1/3 cup splenda

Place all ingredients except splenda in glass bowl and microwave for about 8 minutes. Remove from microwave, stir and add splenda. If the strawberries are really sweet, you may not need any splenda or other sweetener or maybe less than 1/3 cup. Don't overcook the strawberries for you want them to be thawed and soft but not mushy- they will still hold their shape.

These can be used as a dessert with a little whipped topping on them, a spread for toast, or on top of ice cream or cake. It is versatile and sugar free if you use an artificial sweetener.

This is the cake recipe and was one of our mama's favorites and mine too.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
3 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional – add both of these, I do.
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon orange extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift flour, measure 3 cups and then sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture ½ cup at the time. Add the vanilla and pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cook on rack about 10 minutes before removing from pan.

For the dessert above I cut a thick slice of cake and topped it with our strawberries and then put warm chocolate syrup on top of the strawberries. I put the bottle of chocolate syrup in the microwave for 45 sec. before putting over the cake. If I had some whipped topping, I would put that on before the chocolate.

It was delicious and you must try it. A great way to use the pound cake and next time I am going to toast the slice of pound cake a little before I top it. Doesn't that sound good?

Think I am going to fix me some right now for I have made myself hungry.

Take care going home in the rain and ya'll come back to see us.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Jekyl Island by frances Robson

Good evening and come on in and get warm. A little cold outside but not too bad but a good night to stay in and stay warm plus I am a little frazzled. I had a nerve-wracking and scary afternoon.

I decided to go down to Valdosta to Michaels and get a little Christmas tree with lights instead of putting up the bigger one. Now I know you are thinking why is she waiting until Christmas to put up a tree, well I just haven't so get over it. I do have a wreath on the door, one by the garage and greenery on the porch, what else to you want? Also I have a red bow on the mantel and some Christmas cards sitting by the bow so there, I am decorated. Anyway, what goes up must come down and I will have mine put up in short order.

Back to my trip. We set off and the traffic was not too bad on the interstate until we got close to Valdosta and it got a little crowded. When I turned of the interstate and headed down St. Augustine there were cars galore but I could handle it. Michaels was not too crowded and after we had looked, touched and smelled everything in there, we got our little tree, some tiny lights and a few other things and we left. About done, and I was still sane.

Then I wanted to go to Publix for a few things and it was horrible. I turned right out of the parking lot instead of going straight and it went down hill from there. There were 1 million and 1 cars in the short ride to Publix and I got so frustrated I forgot where I was and felt like I was hallucinating. I made a wrong turn, horns were blowing, I pulled out in front of someone and somebody gave me a 1 finger salute and I don't blame them.

There sure wasn't much Christmas good will in Valdosta today. I began to wish I had stayed a home but I was and glad that 2 stores were my only destinations. Walmart, $ Tree, and the mall were places not to be caught dead or alive in today.

I completed my grocery shopping and headed back home and was so befuddled, bewildered and distracted I wouldn't even think of taking the interstate home. We took the back road through the country with almost no traffic so I could get my mind settled back down. I wished for a great big white Russian or Mudslide by the time I got home but had neither but needless to say our daughter had several more gray hairs and was a little frazzled also. Not sure she will ride with me any time soon.

Oh well, we made it, I put up the little tree, strung the little lights on it and made shrimp and grits for supper. I know one thing, tomorrow I am not going anywhere!!!

Thought I would share a new recipe I concocted this week since it turned out really well. I found a recipe for an orange cranberry cake and it called for a yellow cake mix which I didn't have. All I had was a lemon cake mix so I decided to try using it. I also had oranges picked from our tree to use for the fresh orange juice and it is really good so I will share. The family said it was good also so here it is.

Lemon Orange Cake with Cranberries

1 lemon cake with pudding cake mix
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice if possible – about 5 oranges or from carton
½ cup vegetable oil – canola, corn, safflower
¼ cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup chopped or whole dried cranberries
½ tsp. Lemon flavoring

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. Orange juice

Preheat oven 350°
Grease and flour tube pan
Place cake mix and sugar in large mixing bowl – mix until well blended with whisk. In smaller bowl mix orange juice, oil, and eggs until blended then add to dry ingredients. Blend with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute, stop mixer, scrape down sides of bowl with spatula. Mix with mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides as needed until batter looks thick and well blended. Fold in flavoring and cranberries. Pour into prepared pan. Place in preheated oven on middle rack and bake until cake is golden brown and begins to pull away from sides of pan – about 45 – 47 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run long thin knife around edge of cake pan and invert on rack to cool another 30 minutes. Cake will fall to the rack when cool.

Prepare the glaze: Mix the powdered sugar with orange juice until smooth.
Place cake on large plate and drizzle with glaze letting it drizzle down the sides. Can add a sprinkle of orange zest to top of cake
Store in covered cake keeper for up to a week.

Let me know what you think and enjoy.

Well, it had been a long day and I am tired so ya'll be careful going home and come back to see us.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Peach Blueberry Dump Cake

Good evening, ya'll. I have been so busy this week getting my online Etsy shop - Yarn & More - ready to open, I haven't had time to write to ya'll. I haven't made but one sale so far but I had to start somewhere and hopefully I can sell more.

I want to share a recipe with ya'll that I made this week. Dump cakes have been a tried and true dessert for me to make but I found a new way to make it and I like it better. Of course, I had to add my touch to it and add a few ingredients and we thought it was better than the old way. I know you will like it too.

PEACH AND BLUEBERRY DUMP CAKE

1 yellow cake mix
2 cups of peeled, sliced peaches - I like the fresh peaches but frozen will be fine
1 cup blueberries - fresh or frozen
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
zest of lemon
1 cup coconut
1 stick of butter
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray.

Spread 1/2 of the cake mix evenly in pan. Spread the blueberries on top of the cake mix and place the peach slices over the blueberries to cover. Squeeze the lemon juice over the peaches and sprinkle the zest. Cover this with the other half of the cake mix. Sprinkle the coconut over the cake mix and thinly slice the butter on top of the coconut. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake.

Bake for 50 minutes or until brown on top.
It is easy and delicious especially served warm with ice cream.

I hope you will try it and let me know what you think.

As you all know, I am a retired librarian and read most anything and everything, including the cereal box if that is all I have. This also means I read most everything which comes in the mail including the local shopper. This is that little paper which every community has which lists what people have to sell or want to buy. Knowing they operate on limited staff, I try not to be too critical but sometimes I just can't help it. It's like the devil gets behind me and whispers to go for it and criticize, and I do, and I did last night.

Spellcheck is a wonderful tool and I use it all the time but it doesn't understand context. This means that misspelled words creep in like kudzu and the ads are quite funny. I found several "funnies" in the shopper this week and I just know you want me to share with you and the devil is behind me pushing hard. Soooo, here they are:

FREE TO GOOD HOME: 2 part persian kittens, and 1 regular kitten.
Now will someone 'splain to me what a regular kitten is versus a persian kitten. Could this mean that persian kittens are not regular kittens and if not how are they different? Maybe they are from Persia or maybe they are colored like a Persian rug. Also, what is a regular kitten? I am completely confused and I looked up "regular kitten" on the Net and found no information, so maybe you can help me.

Wanted: Drummer & Rhythm Guitarist between the ages of 15 to 19. We are a new band in the A____ area. Must have own internments.
Does this mean this person must have a pre-paid burial plan? I wonder if a good burial insurance policy will do and isn't 15 - 19 a little young to be requiring "own internment"? Seems like they would have a few good years left to play for them. Also makes me wonder just how dangerous it is to play with this band.

Help wanted: Experienced (or willing to learn) retain salesperson.
This makes me wonder just what kind of store this would be. A "retain" person must be one they want to keep. Just wondering.

I just love to read these ads and look for misspellings. Doesn't take much to entertain me does it? But after all, I was raised in South Alabama, in the country, back in the dark ages and we didn't have a whole lot of things to entertain us and we learned to make do with a little.

I hope tomorrow is not as hot as it has been today but I 'spect it will be for it is July in South Georgia. Have to go tomorrow and get "beautified" at the beauty salon. It's interesting that they call it a "beauty" salon when most of us are really "beauties" when we leave just improved average folks. Wish Robert could work miracles and remove 20 years of wrinkles.

Ya'll be careful going home and come back to see us. It was great talking to ya'll tonight and now I think I will call it a night.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach