Thursday: All Hallow's Eve Eve & Spiced Tea

We make a point of staying home to hand out candy to trick or treaters, and it's always nice to have a pot of hot spiced tea simmering on the stove to enjoy between revelers. Here's the recipe our entire family has grown to love over many years:

Spiced Tea

1 heaping teaspoon whole cloves

½ cinnamon stick

3 cups water

Place cloves, cinnamon stick and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to very low, cover, and simmer gently while you complete the rest of the tea.

*****

12 cups water

6 tea bags (I use Salada)

2 lemons, juiced

1 ¾ cups sugar

2 cups orange juice

Bring water to a boil in a very large pot. Turn off heat, add tea bags, cover and steep for 5 minutes or so. Squeeze tea bags dry and discard. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add orange and lemon juices, stirring. Remove cloves and cinnamon stick from the spice water in the small saucepan. Add spice water to the tea and stir.

Serves a LARGE crowd (18 or more cups). Great for cold days: Can be left on a burner on very low heat all day, ready when you are. This recipe is easily halved for a smaller batch.

One Year Ago Today: The Beginning - Guittard Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

One year ago today, this blog was born. Although none of us are prolific posters, it's important to have a space where we can celebrate small things. So far, FOOD dominates our posts ... that's not much of a surprise, is it?

Here's our FAVORITE celebratory cake; now you can find the recipe 24/7. We seem to make this more often than any other. So often, in fact, that the aging recipe is permanently taped to inside of the spice cabinet door! It's also the cake that appears in the masthead photo for this blog.

GUITTARD CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 3/4 c. butter
• 1 2/3 c. sugar
• 3 lg. eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 2 c. unsifted flour
• 2/3 c. Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa (Guittard is BEST, but Ghiradelli is good too)
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Sift together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well (for several minutes). Add the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the water.

Pour the batter into well-greased and floured cake pans lined with wax paper. Makes three 8" layers, or two 9” layers. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack; remove from pan after 6 minutes to finish cooling.

White Chocolate Frosting

6 tablespoons heavy cream

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped (baker’s)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

Bring cream almost to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add white chocolate, stirring until completely smooth. Stir in vanilla and water. Cool, stirring occasionally. Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add powered sugar and beat for at least 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. On low speed, add white chocolate mixture and blend until desired consistency is reached.

Frosts and fills a 9” layer cake.

Note: Dark chocolate curls are beautiful on top of the cake!

Stone Room

Since Mom wants us to pause and think about something relatively pleasant every day, I'm adding in my thoughts about my work study job on the 7th floor at PAFA. The stone carving room overlooks a demolition site, future home of the Philadelphia Convention Center. While most people view construction as noisy, dirty, and generally obnoxious, I actually quite enjoy watching the tonka trucks shuffle around dirt and huge cranes hoist even huger burdens. Plus, the sky is wide open in that direction since there is no building to block the view. So I get a blue sky and some fresh air coming in through the window, amidst a bunch of sculptures.

Thursday, February 14, 2008 - Aunt Esther's Hearts

One of the fondest memories from my childhood is Valentine cookie baking day with my Aunt Esther. My dad's brother and his family lived directly across the street from us, and my Aunt Esther was a wonderful baker. But it was always the Valentine day cookies I loved best and can still taste.

Aunt Esther's Hearts

1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour

In a bowl, sift the salt, baking powder and flour; set aside.

In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg, blend well on medium low speed. Add vanilla and blend until incorporated. Add the sifted dry ingredients a little at a time and mix only until blended.

Divide dough into three balls. Roll out a ball at a time on a lightly floured surface to approximately 1/8" thick. Cut into shapes. Gather scraps and reroll all scraps from all previously rolled dough in a single batch after rolling out each ball of dough. Place on parchment papered baking sheets. Bake at 400 degrees Farenheit for six minutes. Cookies should not brown, but be set. Remove to a rack to cool completely.

ICING

2 tblsp. butter, melted
2 cups 10X (confectioners) sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tblsp. milk
a drop or two of red food coloring

Add butter to sugar in mixing bowl. Blend, adding salt, then vanilla, at low speed. Add milk one tablespoon at a time, blending well after each addition. Scrape bowl sides and bottom, mix until smooth. Add red coloring. Icing should be pale pink, not Pepto looking!

Frost cookies and allow to set until dry on a rack. Place between sheets of waxed paper in a tin to store. Makes 4 to 5 dozen.