Thanksgiving!

We have our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday evening. This way, everyone can go to their in-laws on Sunday. The last couple of years, we have gotten the best turnout doing it this way. With 16 adults and a toddler, this year was no exception! We did the meat, potatoes and a carrot cake. Everyone else brought the sides. We had pork, hot potato salad, turnip casserole, sweet potato casserole, green been casserole, salad and homemade rolls. For dessert, there was apple pie, pumpkin pie and carrot cake. Thanks for the pies Barb!

I think everyone enjoyed the meal, considering we were all sacked out on couches and on the floor in the family room for about 2 hrs after!

The pork was a new recipe and didn't disappoint! The carrot cake was too, but not quite as risky as a new main course recipe for a crowd!

Apple-Cranberry Stuffed and Glazed Pork Roast
Source: The internet! Link in the post below.


I doubled this recipe to make it for a crowd of 16 adults. One pork roast will feed around 8-10 people quite nicely. This was really good! The glaze was delicious and the stuffing had a strong, sweet and savoury flavour.





Ingredients:

• 1 2.5lbs pork roast (double butterflied)
• 1 c. apple cider
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 c. dried apples
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp ginger
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. When you buy your pork roast, get them to double butterfly it for you at the meat counter. It is so much easier then trying to do it yourself! Basically, you want it to be 1.5 inches thick the whole way across. When you get it home, before you stuff it, unroll it and pound it out so it will roll up easily. The website below has really good pictures of the pork prep.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 mins. The apples should be soft.
3. Drain the mixture using a fine mesh stainer. Set the liquid aside, you will use this for a glaze. When you strain it, use a spatula to push the mixture down really well getting as much liquid out as possible.
4. Put the strained apple/cran mixture in the food processor and puree. This is the stuffing for the pork.
5. Spread out the pork, pound it and season both sides with salt and pepper. Cover it in the filling. You want an edge with no filling about an inch all the way around. Roll it up and tie it with twine.
6. Bake at 350 F for 45-60 mins in a roast pan on a rack. You want the internal temp at around 135-140 F.
7. Glaze the pork with about 1/3 c. of the liquid. Put back in the oven on around 400 for 5 mins or so. This will brown the exterior.
8. Remove from the oven and put it on the cutting board. Cover it in foil for around 15 mins.
9. During this time, put the remaining liquid back on the stove. Bring to a boil then turn down to low and simmer it until it reduces a bit and thickens. Mine didn't thicken a lot.
10. Slice the pork in 1/2 inch thick slices. Pour remaining glaze over the pork and serve!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Better Homes and Gardens, Best New Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 c. oil
• 3 c. finely shredded carrots
• 2 c. flour
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 c. coconut

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. Beat eggs. Mix in oil and carrots.
3. Add flour mixture and stir in.
4. Bake in 2 layer cake pans at 350 F for 30-35 mins. Take out of oven and cool in pan for 10 mins. Remove from pan and cool for an hour, then frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 6 oz block of cream cheese
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 1/2 c. icing sugar

Directions:

1. Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.
2. Add 2 c. icing sugar and beat. Continue adding icing sugar 1/2 c. at a time until icing is a good consistency.
3. Ice the cake!

German Chocolate Cake

Last Sunday, we had sweet and sour meatballs in the crock, over egg noodles with broccoli salad. All of these recipes had already been posted, so I had to make something new and amazing for dessert! This german chocolate cake recipe fit the bill. It looked sort of fancy and was DELICIOUS! Honestly, if I were to make it again, I think I would double the recipe and make it a 4 layer cake or at least 3 thicker layers. I made two kinds of icing: coconut-pecan frosting and classic chocolate butter frosting. I frosted the entire thing in the chocolate butter, plus added the coconut pecan between the layers and on the very top. I was also really excited because the chocolate butter frosting actually turned out!! Last time I attempted homemade frosting, it wasn't so great, so this was a huge accomplishment!

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE
Source: Better Homes and Gardens, Best New Baking Book (Where else?!)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 4-ounce package of sweet baking chocolate
• 1 c. shortening
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 1 recipe of coconut-pecan frosting
• 1 chocolate butter frosting

Directions:

1. Grease and lightly flour two round layer cake pans. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a saucepan, combine chocolate and 1/2 c. water. Cook and stir over low heat until melted; cool.
4. Beat sugar and shortening with an electric mixer on medium until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat on low speed until combined, then beat on medium for about a minute. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the mixing bowl, beating on low.
5. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until toothpick is clean. Cool layers well.

Now, you need to make the coconut-pecan frosting. It starts hot, so you need to let it cool before it goes on the cake. I ended up putting this in the freezer to cool, since I didn't make it right away while the cakes were cooling.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2/3 c. evaporated milk
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
• 1/2 c. pecans

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, lightly beat the egg. Stir in the milk, sugar and butter.
2. Cook and stir over medium heat for about 12 minutes or until thickened and bubbly.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut and the pecans.
4. Cover and cool.

Once the cakes and the coconut-pecan is cooled, make the butter frosting so you can assemble to whole thing!

Chocolate Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. butter
• 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 c. icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 c. milk (and keep the milk handy!)

Directions:

1. Beat butter until fluffy. Add the cocoa and 1 1/2 c. of the icing sugar. Beat well. Add 1/4 c. milk and vanilla.
2. Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar, continuously beating and add more milk if necessary.

Now assemble the cake! Put the bottom layer on the cake plate, front with a layer of chocolate and a layer of coconut-pecan. Add the 2nd layer of cake and frost the whole thing in chocolate. Put the remaining coconut-pecan to the top.

Cut and serve!

Spice Cake with Penuche Frosting

SPICE CAKE WITH PENUCHE FROSTING

Spice cake:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 c. shortening
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp of vinegar and milk, set for 5 mins)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease 13x9x2 inch baking pan or 2 round layer cake pans.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices).
3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and shortening on high for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla and beat.
4. Alternatively beat in milk and flour mixture at low speed until well combined.
5. Pour into pan(s). Bake 30-35 mins for round pans or 35-40 mins for rectangle pan and until wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 mins. Out of pan until well cooled and frost.

Penuche Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1 3/4 -2 c. icing sugar

Directions:

1. Melt butter. Stir in brown sugar. Boil for 2 mins.
2. Remove from heat, cool to lukewarm. Stir or beat in icing sugar. Add more icing sugar or milk as needed.

Comments:

The cake was delicious! Light and airy with just the right amount of spice. The icing was very tasty, although maybe just a shade sweet. I also got the consistency all wrong. I added WAY too much icing sugar too quickly, so got almost a fudge-like consistency and the icing was drying out fast as I was using it on the cake. Next time: less icing sugar and add it more slowly, really giving it time to thicken.