Birthday Cake for Mom

I just finished baking a cake for my mom's birthday tomorrow. It's called a Busy Day Cake with a broiled coconut topping from Better Homes and Gardens. You're probably wondering what is that purple thing, right? It's the best way to bake a cake - I also used it the other night for a Gingerbread Applesauce cake I made when we had another couple over for dinner. I ordered it from HSN.com when Suzanne Somers was selling her silicone bakeware line. HSN.com has many other silicone bakeware options to choose from as well. I like baking a cake in this particular style because it creates a flower shape, much more appealing to your guests than the traditional round cakes. And with the silicone bakeware, cleanup is a breeze. The cake just pops right out and washing the silicone is very easy. A trick that I found to make the washing even easier is to coat the silicone with a non-stick cooking spray (even though the silicone itself is non-stick, sometimes things still tend to stick to it). I insert the silicone cake pan into a non-stick pan for ease of handling since the silicone is very pliable. Hopefully the cake will taste yummy when we have it tomorrow night.

Blueberry Muffins

Last week my mom came over and we made these delicious Blueberry Muffins. There are lots of healthy ingredients in them, plus they taste yummy - you will have to try these and let me know what you think. Here's the recipe:

Note on margarine: For all cooking I now use Earth Balance Natural Buttery Sticks (79% vegetable oil spread) - they contain no trans fatty acids and are non-hydrogenated. I find them at our local Price Chopper.

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons margarine (see note below)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

Preheat over to 400 degrees F.
Grease 12 3 x 1 1/4 inch muffin cup tin
Yields 12 muffins

Step 1 - combine dry ingredients into a large bowl
Flours, flax seed, sugar, baking powder, salt and toasted walnut pieces (once cooled)

Step 2 - combine wet ingredients in another bowl
Stir together milk, butter, egg, and vanilla until blended

Step 3 - Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk mixture. Stir just to combine. Stir in blueberries.

Step 4 - Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups and sprinkle each muffin top with sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester/toothpick inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffin tin. Cool for 5 minutes before removing the muffins to a wire rack to finish cooling. Server warm or cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature. (These muffins also freeze well).

It's all about the 'Best in Food'

Well, it's time for my first blog entry of many. I've decided that the time has come to share my love of cooking with everyone. Before getting married, I never thought that I would enjoy cooking so much. But, in the now 3+ years of my happily married life, I have come to love the time spent cooking and baking in our kitchen. For me, it's an escape from all the work demands of the day. When I'm cooking I can pretty much only concentrate on that, just ask my husband :)

But, I guess I can't always escape from cooking either. My husband and I have grown to love going into used bookstores either in our area or when we are away on vacation. As soon as we enter the store my husband knows exactly where he can find me - I'll either be in the romantic novel section, or you guessed it... surrounded by a bunch of cookbooks. While I love looking through all cookbooks, I have become picky in the ones that I actually purchase. All of my recent cookbooks contain the nutritional information after the recipe, something that isn't always so easy to find. In particular, I like to know the calories, sodium level and fiber content.

Please come back to my blog often, as I will share with you some wonderful recipes that not only "taste divine", but are healthy for you. You might be skeptical, but follow along as I show you it is possible to have the best of both worlds :)