Bria's Sweet Sixteen Cupcake Tower

My family celebrated my youngest daughter's sweet sixteen. I am feeling old. Bria wanted a special cake for the occasion and we brainstormed all kinds of ideas and finally decided to make cupcake tower. It came out pretty great. Her sister and her boyfriend spent a couple days before the event making cupcakes. They made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing, devil's food cupcake with Mary Steven' famous white icing, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with fudgey chocalte icing, and my favorite, german chocolate cupcakes with pecan coconut icing.

Instead of buying the cupcake stand from the craft store, we build our own. It was pretty easy. In this picture you get a better idea of the structure.

We took 3 different size Wilton cardboard cake trays and the top was a plastic wilton cake tray, created styrofoam columns by gluing together styrofoam discs and covering them with ribbon. Then we glued them to the bottom of the top three trays. We glued a large styrofoam disc to the bottom tray and glued a dowel to the center of that disc. Finally we connected the tower together by pushing the dowel through the center of all three top trays. It really worked out well and was quite inexpensive. The great thing is that is breaks down for easy storage. The top of the tower was supposed to be topped by a fondant covered topsy truvy cake, but the heat that day caused us to have an "Ace of Cakes" moment so we had to improvise.

Enjoy!

Easy Oatmeal Cake

A rainy, chilly day, and the house is filled with the warm aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg as a delicious oatmeal cake cooks in the oven. This an easy recipe of the classic cake. I love oatmeal cake all by itself or topped with a broiled topping of my favorite combination -- nuts, coconut and brown sugar. I use d combo of pecans which are rich and flavorful and almonds which give a crunchy texture.

Oatmeal Cake

1 1/4 cubs boiling water
1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 stick of butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour the boiling water over the oats and soak for 10 minutes. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and spices. Add alternatively with the butter mixture the flour mixture and the soaked oats. Beat well. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until you finger doesn't leave a dent.

Broiled Nut and Coconut Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar packed
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans and almonds are my favorite)
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons of butter, softened
3 tablespoons milk

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle on top of cake. Put under broiler for 5 minutes until bubbly.

Enjoy!

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Dutch Plum Cake (Zwetschgenkuchen)

I made this with the Italian plums we picked at Strawberry Hill Farm a couple of weeks ago. Very tasty.

Zwetsgenkuchen

Cake

1/2 c butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t grated lemon peel
1/4 t nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons cold water

Cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon peel and nutmeg until crumbly. Stir in egg with a fork and then water until the dough comes together. Press into a spring form pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Topping

Italian plums, halved and pitted (enough to cover the top of the pastry)
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 T flour
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 c slivered almonds

Top dough with plums, arranging so that most of the cake is covered. Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of plums. Sprinkle almonds on top of sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until plums are bubbly about 35 to 40 minutes.

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