I recently found these modern art cake decorating ideas in a vintage Betty Crocker cookbook and thought they were too much fun not to share! Click on the images to enlarge.

Braque and Mondrian Cakes:

Picasso Cake:

Cookies

• Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Sante's Hermit Cookies
• Triple Ginger Cookies (OR, Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies)
• Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies (OR, Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps)
• Coconut Kisses
• Kahlúa Truffle Triangles
• Pain d'Épice Cookies
• Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze
• Under Her Thumb(print) Cookies
• Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints
• Chocolate Thumbprints (Martha Stewart)
• Shira's Cranberry Thumbprints
• Brandied Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Pfeffernussen
• Iced Hermits
• Rum Balls (OR, Spiced Rum Balls)
• Cranberry Noels (very good!)
• Almond-Orange Shortbread
• Butterscotch Cookies
• Double-Chocolate Snowball Cookies

Candy

• Candy Cane Marshmallows
• Peppermint Icicles (OR, Peppermint Sticks)
• Marbled Almond Roca
• Foolproof Holiday Fudge
• Irish Cream Truffle Fudge (OR, Ina Garten's Irish Cream Truffles)
• Chocolate-Orange Hazlenut Bark
• Gingerbread Caramels
• Grand Marnier Truffles
• Easy Chocolate Truffles
• Chocolate-Mint Truffle Cups (SO good!)
• Dark Chocolate Mint Rockie Road Squares
• Raspberry-Chocolate Toffee Bites
• Kentucky Bourbon Balls

The past couple of months have been unexpectedly busy, not affording me time for the usual fall/holiday planning and preparations. With things settling down and cooler weather forecasted for the next week (finally!), I've started searching for some new fall recipes to try. Here's what sounded good:

Sweet

• Spiced Apple Upside-Down Bundt Cake
• Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce
• Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
• Ricotta Apple Cake with Cider-Maple Glaze
• Nick Malgieri's Chocolate Hazelnut Pound Cake
• Miniature Pumpkin Spice Cakes
• Chai-Spiced Honey Bundt Cake
• Browned Butter Pumpkin Bundt Cake
• Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread
• Clementine-Vanilla Bean Quick Bread
• Salted Fudge Brownies
• Dorie Greenspan's Applesauce Spice Bars
• Pumpkin Spice Scones
• Hazelnut Cookies
• Caramel-Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies
• Maple-Butter Spiced Popcorn
• Vanilla Bean Sugared Cranberries

Savory

• Maple-Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter
• Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing
• Cranberry-Pecan Stuffing
• Apple and Cheddar Scones
• Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Cheese Fondue
• Beef Chili + Sour Cream and Cheddar Biscuits
• Cider Brined Grilled Stuffed Pork Chops
• Dorie Greenspan's Cauliflower Bacon Gratin
• Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Bacon and Gorgonzola
• Irish Pumpkin-Cider Soup
• Bacon-Cheddar Biscuits

Beverages

• Pumpkin Spice Latte 
• Hot Rum Cow
• Apple Cider, Cranberry, and Ginger Punch 
• Warm Vanilla Cider

Also, from my newest cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes: Peanut Soup with Cranberry Sauce and Lardoons, Butternut Squash and Pear Pottage, Sugar and Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Red Cabbage and Pear Compote, Gingered Pumpkin Muffins, and Applesauce Buttermilk Biscuits. Yum!

Last night, blessed with an abundance of runty apples from a neighbor, we tried out a simple and delicious old-fashioned recipe that I thought worth sharing. The recipe, which can perhaps be traced back to the earliest European settlers in America, is Apple Dowdy - also known as Pan Dowdy.

Here's another excerpt The Country Kitchen, by Dora Lutes:

"To make it you peel and quarter firm tart apples, and you lay them in a deep earthen pudding dish (The dowdy would probably reconcile itself to a glass baking dish if it had to.)

You fill the dish with apple, and over this sprinkle light brown sugar, the amount depending upon the tartness of the apples, and the size of your dish. Add a slight scattering of nutmeg, a little letss of cinnamon, a dash of salt.

Now, with generous judgement, cut some slivers of butter over the whole, say about a teaspoonful to each serving. Then add half a cup of warm, not hot, water.

Make a rich baking-powder crust. (One cupful of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt and half a cup of milk. Note - This will make a *very* soft dough, mine required a bit of extra flour ) Roll this out to three-fourths of an inch in thickness, cut a dido in the center - you know, a big S with eyelet holes slashed alongside - and lay the crust over the apples, pinching it to the edge.

So far, so good, but the proof of the dowdy is in the baking. It must be baked in a slow oven (300 degrees) at least three hours. When done it will be delicately brown on top, a rich fruity red on the inside, and delicious withal. Serve it as Aunt Hanner did, with thick cream slightly sweetened and flavored with nutmeg."

According to another old cookbook I consulted, after baking it should be placed where it will keep hot for one hour before serving. Another variation of the recipe, involving cider (yum!) can be found here.

Since I started ours rather late in the evening, we baked it for a mere hour-and-a-half. It probably could have baked for another half hour, but certainly not a full three hours. Next time I'll reduce the heat just slightly and extend the baking time. Catholic Culture suggests serving Apple Dowdy for St. Swithin's Day, which we missed by about a month!

"That afternoon, when Laura arrived, a little round table in the hearthplace had already been laid for tea. And what a meal! There were boiled new-laid eggs and scones and honey and home-made jam, and, to crown all, a dish of fresh Banbury cakes. The carrier had a standing order to bring her a dozen of these cakes every market day.

It seemed a pity to Laura that the first time she had been offered two eggs at one meal she could barely eat one and that the Banbury cake, hitherto to her a delicious rarity only seen in her home when purchased by visiting aunts, should flake and crumble almost untasted upon her plate because she felt too anxious to eat."  - Candleford Green, Ch. 1

Though I finished watching the final episode of Lark Rise to Candleford's Season 3 some time ago, my obsession has not subsided in the least. I've read all I could find by Flora Thompson and have spent an inordinate amount of time tracking down recipes for some of the foods mentioned in the book(s) and series. I bought The Lark Rise Recipe Book by Mary Norwak, but found it disappointing (a few of the recipes can be found here). Two things I was especially eager to try were Banbury Cake and Queen Cake.

After those cravings had been satisfied, finally, I launched into a full-fledged baking (and cooking!) spree which has lasted for several weeks now. Nevermind that it's entirely *too hot* to be baking! Here are a few of the favorites that we've tried:

• Buttermilk Spice Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting (my favorite!)
• Budapest Coffee Cake (the kids' favorite)
• Orange Yogurt Cake
• Maple-Nut Chiffon Cake
• White Wonder Cake
• Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns
• Carrot and Pineapple Cake
• Banana Coconut Muffins

Spanish Cake (from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yokes
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 egg whites

Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in two 9" cake pans for 20-25 minutes at 350°. Frost with  Cinnamon Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Cinnamon Buttercream. (I'm thinking this cake would be delicious with just a hint of orange too!)

Baking Day is a Christmas tradition in our household ~ the one tradition I've faithfully maintained since the children were wee babes. Unfortunately this year, as with virtually everything else I've tried to plan lately, it did not go quite right.

Our first recipe was for salt caramels. Elon took over this recipe at the last minute, neglected to watch the temperature carefully, and we ended up with hard butterscotch candy. Fortunately, the kids *love* butterscotch so this wasn't a total loss!

The next few recipes we attempted were all from Martha Stewart Cookies: Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds, Cranberry Noels and Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies. All three resulted in extremely dry crumbly dough - so crumbly that it was virtually unworkable. This is a problem that I've never experienced before and I'm still puzzled by it! I added a bit of milk to each and stuck them in the fridge to chill, though I'm nervous to see what will happen when I try to roll them out and/or bake them.

Next, we mixed up some Nice 'n Soft Sugar Cookie dough and had the same stupidly dry dough issue. At this point I was feeling pretty frustrated, but luckily we had some success with another recipe: Cranberry and White Chocolate cookies. We also mixed up some gingerbread dough, which is currently chilling.

So...our baking day evolved into two days of very little actual baking. I still have a counter piled high with cookie and candy making supplies, so I'll have to find some additional recipes to try after work today, hopefully with better luck. We still have truffles to make and, of course, a fridge full of dough that I'll need to deal with sooner or later.
We did take a break on Saturday afternoon to assemble the gingerbread house we'd purchased:

However, we never managed to get to any of the other Christmas craft projects I'd planned. I have a basket full of new craft supplies, just waiting for some attention. Sigh. I suppose there's always tomorrow...

Since September is National Honey Month, I thought I'd compile a brief list of honey recipes that we might try throughout the month (and no, I don't plan to make all of these!). Additional recipes can be found here, courtesy of the National Honey Board.

• Honey Carrot Cake
• Apple Honey Bundt Cake
• Old-Fashioned Shortbread with Tennessee Honey Cream
  
• Piernik (Honey Bread)
• Honey Bun Cake I & II
• Honey Lace Cookies
• Easy Apple Crisp with Honey
• Honey Wheat Cookies
• Honey Lemon Tea
• Cinnamon Honey Butter
• Hollow Honey Beehive Bread
• Honey Cake
• Honey Oat Bran Cake
  
• Old-Fashioned Honey Wheat Bread
• Peanut Butter, Banana & Honey Sandwiches
  

Honey Cinnamon Toast (from Joy with Honey)

6 slices of bread, toasted
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened to room temperature
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or more, according to taste

Lightly toast the six slices of bread in your toaster. While it's toasting, stir the softened butter, honey and cinnamon. Spread on one side of the toast. Then grill under a preheated broiler in your oven for a few minutes, watching closely, until the edges start to bubble and brown. Serve immediately while piping hot.

For our Valentine's Day Party, we also made sugar cookies...


...vanilla cupcakes, mini heart-shaped cakes and strawberry cupcakes. Maddie was my helper:

The heart-shaped cakes were supposed to look like this, but by the end of two very long days of baking, everything got frosted with the Sprinkles' Strawberry Frosting and that was that...

Naturally it was later established that my kids didn't like the strawberry frosting (which I thought was quite good!), so now I've got counters full of cupcakes (and mini cakes!) that no one but the neighbor kids will eat.

One of the treats I'd planned for our Valentine's Day Party were these Playdough Cookies. Little did I know how much work they were! We mixed the dough (pink, red and purple) on Friday morning:


We chilled the dough and then attempted to roll out the "snakes" Friday evening. However, we quickly realized that we were supposed to have chilled the dough in smaller 3/4" balls...oops. We rolled new balls to stick in the fridge (excuse the darkness, my flash wasn't working):

By Saturday morning the balls were well chilled and ready to be rolled into snakes. We quickly learned to remove only one ball per color at a time. The dough gets soft VERY quickly and then the snakes break apart (resulting in a lot of frustration!).

Because I'd foolishly made a double batch of dough, we spent nearly four hours rolling out snakes (not fun!). Each snake was rolled into a coil and dipped in sanding sugar:

This was the end result:

Delicious cookies but SO much work. I'd foolishly forgotten about my carpal tunnel when we started on these and today my hands are both swollen, stiff and sore. The kids loved the cookies, but we've all agreed, never again!