Hummingbird Cake with Ermine Frosting

Hummingbird cake is composed with bananas, crushed pineapple in its juice, roasted pecans and, typically, cream cheese frosting. Because the cake itself is quite sweet, I decided to make the butter version of classic Ermine frosting, meaning without shortening. The frosting is lighter in sugar content and fluffier than cream cheese frosting. (Leftover ermine frosting … More Hummingbird Cake with Ermine Frosting

Caramel Apple Cake and Trader Joe’s Caramel Sea Salt Baking Chips Review

February 13th is the birthday of a native Alaskan man who lives in the Manor and who occasionally accepts a slice of cake or a cookie when I find him in the community room with his Tablet. I decided not to make chocolate because one of my Mahjongg ladies cannot have it and I thought … More Caramel Apple Cake and Trader Joe’s Caramel Sea Salt Baking Chips Review

New! 2-Chip Snicks with Trader Joe’s Peppermint Flavored Chips and Semisweet Chocolate Chips

I went into my local Trader Joe’s last week on the hunt for some more of their yummy Sea Salt Caramel Chips but, as with other favored products you’ll find on their shelves, the item is either discontinued or seasonal and those chips are seasonal. That’s a serious marketing problem, in my opinion, because caramel … More New! 2-Chip Snicks with Trader Joe’s Peppermint Flavored Chips and Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Cranberry-Strawberry Upside-Down Cake with My Recipe

Having just returned from a wondrous and joy-filled 75th birthday trip to Salt Lake City sponsored by my daughter, life in Bitter Lake returns and so does Thursday afternoon Chinese mahjongg with my lady friends. While there will be a little birthday party next week for the “mother” of our local mahjongg, I decided for … More Cranberry-Strawberry Upside-Down Cake with My Recipe

There’s A New Wich in Town! Lemon and Wildflower Honey Caramel Wich

As I wrote in my previous post*, there were a few leftover Wildflower Honey Caramels. I’d made Golden Lemon Butter Cookies for my Chinese Mahjongg ladies, but one of the ladies was a no-show so there were a few leftover cookies. My brain said, “Get out the marble rolling pin, flatten some caramels and put … More There’s A New Wich in Town! Lemon and Wildflower Honey Caramel Wich

New! Maple Date Honey Pecan Bread with My Recipe, and a Note about My Pumpkin Rum Raisin Honey Walnut Bread

When I get a brainstorm about trying a new baked quick bread, well … here’s the result. Not long ago I experimented with canned pumpkin and a packet of Fresh Gourmet Honey Roasted Walnut Pieces*, made a Pumpkin Rum Raisin Honey Walnut bread, posted about it on my Instagram** and said I’d put the recipe … More New! Maple Date Honey Pecan Bread with My Recipe, and a Note about My Pumpkin Rum Raisin Honey Walnut Bread

Matcha Butter Cookies for Little Chinese New Year

I’ve had an intention to create a trio of cookies using culinary matcha after I discovered a taste for, first, green tea Frappucino at Starbucks and second, Fred Meyer’s Private Selection Matcha Ice Cream. Last week I bought some culinary matcha and on Saturday did the first experimental matcha cookie in two forms, a butter … More Matcha Butter Cookies for Little Chinese New Year