4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into pieces
1/4 C (1/2 stick) butter
1-2/3 C boiling water
2-1/3 C all-purpose flour
2 C sugar
1/2 C sour cream
2 eggs
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease two 8- or 9-inch round pans. Combine chocolate, butter, and water in large bowl and stir until chocolate and butter are melted. Add remaining ingredients and beat on low speed of mixer until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake about a half hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Frost with chocolate buttercream frosting: 3 oz chocolate and 3 T butter, melted together. Using an electric mixer, mix with 3 C powdered sugar, 1/2 C milk, 1 t vanilla, and 1/8 t salt.

1 large tart apple (such as a Granny Smith)
4 T fresh thyme or lemon thyme
1 T lemon juice
2 C flour
3/4 C sugar + 1 T, divided
1-1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t salt
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
1/4 C orange juice
1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat an 8×8 pan with Pam spray and lightly flour it.

Peel, and core the apple. Cut into 1/2-inch dice and combine with the thyme and lemon juice.

In another bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 C sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the oil, orange juice, and vanilla. Add the apple mixture to this. Then add the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Spread the batter in the pan and sprinkle with 1 T of sugar. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Alternative version — Apple Cake with Mint
I left out the vanilla and cinnamon and substituted fresh spearmint for the thyme. It was absolutely delicious as a light dessert cake, and the leftovers are slated for breakfast.

1/2 C butter or shortening
1 C sugar
1-1/2 C applesauce
2-3/4 C flour
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C raisins
1/2 C nuts (optional)
Powdered sugar

Cream butter or shortening together with sugar. Add applesauce. Sift 2-1/2 C of flour with soda and salt and stir into the batter. Toss raisins and nuts with remaining flour and add last. Mix well.

Pour into greased and floured 8×8 inch pan and bake at 325 F for 50 minutes. Cool on rack. Dust with powdered sugar.

2 C flour
1/2 C cornstarch
2 t baking powder
1 t finely minced orange or lemon zest (optional, not necessarily authentic)
5 eggs
1-3/4 C sugar
1 C coconut milk
1/4 C powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F, grease a Bundt or tube pan,  and dust it with flour.

Sift together flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Stir in the optional zest.

Separate the eggs. In an large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.

In a medium bowl, stir together the egg yolks and the sugar. Gradually add the yolks and sugar to the egg whites, whisking until incorporated. Stir in about a third of the dry ingredients, then a third of the coconut milk (stir it very well first), and repeat until everything is combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack to finish cooling.

Dust with a couple of spoonfuls of powdered sugar. This will melt and make the cake shiny. If you want a white dusted look, wait until the cake is cool and then dust it a second time with powdered sugar.

See also this version, which uses more beets and has chocolate instead of cocoa.

2 C cooked red beets, grated
4 eggs
1-1/2 C vegetable oil
2 t baking soda
1/2 C cocoa
2 C sugar
2-1/2 C flour
Pinch of salt
1 t vanilla

Mix beets, eggs, oil, soda, cocoa, sugar, flour, and salt. Add vanilla. Pour into greased and floured 9×13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese icing. Garnish with finely grated beets.

2 C sugar
2 C flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3-4 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
1/4 C oil
3 C shredded beets

Heat oven to 325. Grease 2 9-inch pans. Whisk dry ingredients together. Melt chocolate slowly, cool, and blend with eggs and oil. Combine dry mixture with chocolate mixture, alternating with beets. Pour into pans. Bake until fork is removed cleanly from center, 40-50 minutes.

Cupcakes:
1-1/2C flour
1/4C cocoa
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1/2t salt
1C sugar
1 C water
1/2C nonfat plain yogurt
1t vanilla

Foil cupcake cups
2T finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F.
Prepare filling: In a small bowl, with electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Blend in cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.
Prepare batter: In a large bowl, with electric mixer, combine sugar, water, yogurt and vanilla. Mix until smooth, about 1 minute. Add dry ingredients and mix at low speed until barely moistened. Don’t overmix.
Line cupcake pans with foil cups. Spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each cup about halfway with batter. Top with 1 T filling and sprinkle with pecans.
Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly pressed. Cool (cupcakes will sink a bit after cooling).
Makes 20 cupcakes, 117 calories each.

Bake cake in 9×13 pan. Mix pie filling and almond flavoring. While cake is warm, poke top with fork and spread cherry filling over cake. While it cools, prepare the pudding, adding extra vanilla flavoring. Fold in whipped topping. Spread pudding mixture over cake, covering cherry pie filling. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles and maraschino cherries. Cover and refrigerate. Serves 10-12.
From Great Value Whipped Topping container.

If you’re looking for a recipe with pineapple, try one of these:
2003 Pineapple Orange Carrot Cake
1993 Pineapple Orange Carrot Cake

3 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 lb carrots
1 C butter, softened
1 C brown sugar, packed
1 C sugar
4 eggs
2 T grated lemon peel
2 T grated orange peel
2 T lemon juice
2 T orange juice
1 C chopped walnuts
1 C raisins

Cream cheese glaze:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 T lemon juice
1 t grated lemon peel
1-1/2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C coarsely chopped walnuts

This is billed as the richest carrot cake recipe ever.

Lightly grease and flour a 10 by 4 tube pan. Sift flour with baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. Wash and pare carrots, grate on medium grater. Should measure 4 C. Preheat oven to 350.

In large bowl of mixer, at high speed, beat butter and sugars, scraping side, until light and fluffy – about 4 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition until smooth and light. In measuring cup, combine lemon and orange peels and juices. At low speed, beat in flour mixture (in fourths) alternately with lemon-orange mixture (in thirds), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth – about a minute. With wooden spoon, stir in carrots, nuts, and raisins, mixing well. Turn into prepared pan, spread evenly. Bake 60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make glaze: In medium bowl, combine cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon peel, and powered sugar. Beat with electric mixer at high speed til smooth. Set aside and take cake out of pan. Spread glaze over warm cake, letting it run down the sides. Sprinkle chopped nuts around top edge of cake.

Recipe can be doubled. Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 300F. Grease & flour one 6-cup fluted tube or Bundt pan or one 8-1/2″ X 4-1/2″ (6-cup) loaf pan or line the bottom of the loaf pan with wax or parchment paper.

Melt 2-1/2 ozs. coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. Let cool slightly.

Measure: 1-1/2 cups sifted cake flour (I used unbleached pastry flour).

In large bowl, beat until creamy: 12 Tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted
butter.

Gradually sift into butter: 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar. Beat mixture on high speed until lightened in color and texture (4-5 minutes).

Beat in the melted chocolate.

Beat in 1 at a time: 3 large eggs.

Beat in: 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

Gradually add the flour, beat on low speed, stirring w/rubber spatula until smooth. Scrape batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes in a fluted tube or Bundt pan, 55-60 minutes in loaf pan.

Meanwhile, combine in medium saucepan and cook, stirring over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer: 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup water, and 1/4 cup light corn syrup. Stop stirring and bring to a boil. Cover and boil until sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat (do not stir). Let cool, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. Gently stir in: 3/4 cup rum, brandy, or
other liquor.

Let cake cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes. (If using loaf pan w/paper liner, slide a thin knife around cake to detach it from pan. Invert cake, peel off paper, then return cake to pan.)

With wooden skewer, poke holes halfway through cake, spacing them about 1/2-inch apart. Pour syrup over cake. Let cool on rack for about 30 minutes before unmolding. To unmold a fluted tube pan or Bundt pan, rotate and tap the pan against the counter to loosen the cake on all sides. Invert the cake onto a serving platter. Serve warm or cool.

2 C sour cream
1 t vanilla
5 C shredded coconut
1 C confectioner’s sugar

Mix and spread between and on top of cake layers; leave sides unfrosted.

8-oz tub of Cool Whip, frozen
6 1-oz squares Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Microwave Cool Whip and chocolate in a bowl on high for 1-1/2 minutes or until the chocolate is melted, stirring after one minute. Let stand for 15 minutes to thicken. Spread over cake, cupcakes, or cookies; let stand until firm.

I’ve read a lot of hype about baby boomers and cupcakes lately, but that’s not why I came up with this recipe. It’s simply my penchant for finger food that you can just pick up and eat. I love cake, but a beautifully decorated cake is intimidating at a potluck, and people may look at it longingly, but nobody wants to cut it. Once the first brave soul takes a piece, it becomes a free-for-all mess, with crumbs and icing smeared all over the table. Decorated cupcakes, on the other hand, are angst-free. They’ll disappear rapidly every time, leaving you with a clean plate, few crumbs, and many happy memories.

Makes 12-15 small cupcakes.

Filling
1 egg white
4 oz cream cheese — don’t soften it too much
2 T sugar
pinch salt
Beat the eggs, cream cheese, sugar and salt together and set aside. It needs to have a stiff consistency; if it’s runny, chill it in the freezer for a little while.

Cupcakes
1-1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
1/4 C dark cocoa
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 T vinegar
1/2 t vanilla or orange extract
Mix dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix water, oil, vinegar and vanilla or orange extract. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix at medium speed for about two minutes. Place liners in 12 to 15 cupcake cups. Fill each cup halfway full with chocolate batter. Top with a heaping teaspoon or so of the cream cheese filling. There’s no need to poke the filling down, as it will sink naturally. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frost with cream cheese frosting (a half recipe of the frosting with an extra 1/4 to 1/2 C powdered sugar is about the right amount) and decorate with miniature chocolate chips and slices of orange jelly candies. Or top with grated chocolate and stick a square of chocolate in the top of each one.

Beat eggs, sour cream, water, liqueur, and oil together in a large bowl. Add cake mix and pudding mix and beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into a buttered Bundt pan and bake at 350 F for one hour. Cool on a wire rack and sift powdered sugar on top. Serves 10.

A few years later, we fooled Barry’s Mom with this on her 60th birthday. We were sharing a cabin at Stehekin, and Barry and I made it after she and Dave went to bed. In the morning, before she got up, I snuck it onto a side table in the living room. She sat on the sofa, wondering how she could have overlooked this strange plant the previous day. Being a gardening person, she had to go over and look at it — why did the pot have real dirt with plastic flowers? Finally, we admitted that it was her birthday cake!

Last week, she made a batch and served it up to her grandsons. They were completely fooled, too, wondering why Grandma wanted them to eat dirt!

This is one of the most decadent desserts I’ve ever eaten. Even if you don’t have a plastic flowerpot to make it in, or a clean trowel to serve it with, or plastic flowers to stick in the top, you have to try it. Make it in a bowl and serve it with a spoon — it’s yummy.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
32 ounces chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling
Optional: Several gummy worms, for garnish

Chop cookies very fine in food processor. The white cream will disappear.
Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl.
In a large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.
Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.
Layer in flower pot, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers, ending with a solid layer of cookies on the top (the “dirt”). Chill until ready to serve.

To serve, put a few gummy worms on top of the dirt and stick some clean plastic flowers into it. Scoop out servings with a new, clean trowel.

2 C dried tart cherries
1/4 C dark rum
1 C (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
3/4 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1 C walnut or pecan halves
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1 C confectioners’ sugar
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3/4 t vanilla extract
3/4 C unsifted cake flour
Unsweetened whipped cream

Cover the cherries with 2 C of very hot tap water and let stand 45 minutes. Drain, pressing gently; the cherries should seem plump and moist but not sodden. Return cherries to the bowl, add the rum, and stir. Let stand 30-60 minutes, stirring several times.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar. Sprinkle the cherries and their liquid on top, making a fairly even layer, then distribute the nuts over the cherries and press down lightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon and set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat remaining stick of butter with salt for 3 minutes at high speed. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually and beat for 3 more minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time and beat for 2 minutes after the last one. Then add the whole egg and vanilla and beat only until the mixture looks smooth and creamy. Sprinkle or sift the cake flour on top and fold in gently.

Spread the cake batter over the cherries and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top is browned and a cake tester in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 3 minutes after removing from the oven, then run a knife around the sides and invert onto a serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature, with whipped cream on the side.

It was on a Sunday morning, and I swear, we were both stone cold sober. But after reading the recipe — much of it out loud — Barry and I both found ourselves on the floor laughing like idiots, as if we had gotten drunk on the recipe.

1 t sugar
1 C dried fruit
1 t soda
2 eggs
lemon juice
1 or 2 quarts rum
brown sugar
1 C butter
baking powder
nuts

Before starting, sample rum to check quality. Good, isn’t it? Now proceed.

Select large mixing bowl, measuring cup, etc. Check rum again. It must be just right. To be sure rum is of proper quality, pour one level cup of rum into a glass and drink it as fast as you can. Repeat.

With electric mixer, beat 1 cup butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 seaspoon of thugar and beat again.

Meanwhile, make sure rum is still all right. Try another cup. Open second quart if necessary. Add leggs, 2 cups fried druit and beat til high. If druit gets stuck in beaters, pry loose with drewscriber.

Nest, sift 3 cups pepper or salt (doesn’t matter). Sample rum. Sift 1/2 pink lemon juice. Fold in chopped butter and strained nuts. Add 1 bablesppon of brown thugar or whatever colour you can find. Wix mell.

Grease oven. Turn cake pan to 350 degrees. Pour mess into boven and ake.

Check rum again and bo to yed.

Drain a can of pineapple rings (reserving the juice) and place a single layer of pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar/butter mixture. You can put a maraschino cherry, pecan, or dried cherry in the center of each ring, just to be pretty.

Follow the mixing instructions on a boxed of yellow cake mix, substituting the pineapple juice for part of the liquid. Pour the cake batter over the pineapple and follow the box instructions to bake it.

Turn it upside-down onto a platter, and the bottom becomes the top, with the pineapple and sugar and butter as a lovely topping. So easy, you hardly even needed this recipe!

For a delicious alternative, try using canned apricot halves instead of the pineapple rings.  Place each half with the cut side down — you can put a cherry or pecan in the center of the apricot as well.

1 C sugar
1-2/3 C sifted flour
1/2 C cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C buttermilk or sour milk
1/2 C margarine, melted
1-1/2 t vanilla

Combine dry ingredients. Beat in rest of ingredients and stir until smooth. Spread in a greased and floured 9×12-inch pan and bake for 30 minutes at 375 F.