3T Ranch Summer Berry Cake
Have you tried red currant berries before? It is native across Europe and great for jams and light summer cakes. My grandparents had many red currant bushes in their garden and I remember picking them as a little child. My grandma or as we called her "babi" baked many of these wonderful light cakes - "bublanina". You can use any fresh fruit you have, it always turns out airy and tasty.
Saturday afternoons at my grandparents' house were always reserved for visits from the neighbors and you could count on that this cake would be served along with hot coffee, yes.. even in the summer time. So, as I'm sitting here on Saturday afternoon, typing up this recipe and enjoying my own version of her cake, it sure brings many wonderful memories of my grandparents.
I have ordered the red currant shrub for my garden a few years ago and the very next year it was producing fruit. The berries are known as super fruits as they have naturally high antioxidant capacity and they also have a good supply of vitamin C and K, manganese and potassium.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 grassfed unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tbl granulated sugar
- 1 farm fresh egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups of fresh or frozen berries of your choice (I have used strawberries and red currants from my garden)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Grease and line with parchment paper 9-inch round cake pan.
- Mix milk and apple cider vinegar and let it sit.
- Beat together butter and 1/2 cup of sugar for 2 minutes.
- Beat in egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and sat and add to the bowl with butter and sugar. Gently stir a couple of times.
- Gradually pour in the milk and vinegar mixture that just turned into buttermilk, stir until incorporated, don't over mix.
- Spread batter evenly into the pan.
- Evenly arrange fruit over the top of the batter.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar.
- Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let it stand 10 minutes before serving.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and some leftover fresh fruit.
3T Zucchini Chocolate Coconut Cake
Well, we got our first snow this week and my garden is officially done for the season. The past weekend, I have tried to harvest as much as I could before the snow storm. I will have to remind the Cowboss to "remind me" next spring that I shouldn't plant that many zucchini plants. It was a little too much, but our chickens sure liked the leftover squash.
The cowboys were hunting pronghorn this past weekend and the little guys and I "manned" the ranch. So, we have picked our zucchinis, carrots, beets, tomatoes, peppers and somehow we still had strawberries?! That was a first one for sure.
As I had plenty of time on my hands at night, I decided to shred, freeze and can everything I could. Zucchini processing was one of them. I have packed two cups of shredded squash into freezer safe ziplock bags for baking. Pre-measured and ready to go.
My sister was "manning" her own household and yet again we ended up talking about food and cooking. She baked this zucchini cake while her kiddos finally went down for the night. It is an old family recipe that our grandma used to make. Easy and tasty and versatile. You can use shredded apples instead of the zucchini. Grandma aka babi was so good with using up all of the produce from her garden. I sure do miss her. Actually, I so miss both of them. Best grandparents and great-grandparents.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups of shredded zucchini or apples
- jam, Nuttela or melted chocolate for the top of the cake
Directions:
- Spray 13x9 pan with canola, so you can get the cake out of the pan.
- Mix all ingredients really well. You don't even need a mixer!
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.
- Let it cool for 20 minutes and your cake should come out as "piece of cake"!
- You can spread your favorite jam or Nuttela or melted chocolate over the top. Grandma even did powdered sugar and milk glaze. All are wonderful!
- The kids like it and it is even better with a friend that just showed up for an afternoon coffee or tea.
P.S Here is the cake my sister baked. She is today 32! Funny girl she is!
