Cranberry Honey Cake for Thanksgiving

Cranberry Honey Cake 

This recipe was kind of an accident and the best and happiest one to date in my kitchen.  (The kitchen that will soon be torn assunder for an extended period of time as we try to fix the slope in our floor.)  

So I saw a Pinterest or Facebook recipe going around that was called a Cranberry Upside-down Cake. It really sounded good.  However, I really wanted to make it something my mom and dad would both really like.  I started with, Cranberry-pumpkin-upside-down-cake/ and from there came my own Cranberry Honey Cake that my sister says is just an upscale fruit cake.  

Ingredients:

Topping –

16 oz Cranberries, washed

½ c Kroger Select Nutmeg & Vanilla Infused Honey, maybe more or less

1 c regular honey, maybe more or less

Cake –

1 box vanilla cake mix (Betty Crocker Super Moist)

1 c butter (salted), melted

4 eggs

1 ¼ c milk, warm

1 c black walnuts, chopped

Filling –

1 c confectioner’s sugar

8 oz cream cheese, room temp

1 tub Cool Whip

1 small orange, zested & then sliced thin

To get started, I preheated the oven to 350 and set out my three round cake pans.  To prepare the pans, I poured melted butter into the pans and made sure all the sides were well-coated.  I had rinsed and prepared the fresh cranberries by sorting out any that were shriveled, soft or otherwise undesirable. I split my 12oz bag of cranberries between two pans, but with more cranberries, I would fill all three.  Once I had my cranberries in, I drizzled honey all over the cranberries.  I started with the nutmeg & vanilla and made sure I had a drizzle on almost every berry.  I then went back with the regular honey and filled in to make sure the honey was completely covering the berries.

Next is the batter.  I really wanted the cake to be all the super things that cake can be, but I wanted to use a box mix.  It's just simpler since my sister is diabetic and we don't use much flour, sugar or honey in our everyday cooking.  So, I chose a Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix and made it as moist and fattening as I could.  I substituted the 1 cup of water for 1 1/4 cup of warm milk.  The 1/2 c oil was substituted with 1 c of melted butter.  I added an extra egg and 1 tsp of vanilla extract to really intensify the vanilla flavor.  I combined all the ingredients for the cake mix and stirred in 1 c of chopped Black Walnuts.  

I was supposed to sprinkle some course raw sugar over the batter when I poured them into the pans, but I forgot.  I didn't miss it, but it's supposed to help keep it from rising too much.  I did have to trim one of my layers, but it did not go to waste!

The cakes went into the 350 degree preheated oven and in 20 mins were already done.  It seemed really fast.  I think the box mix said 25-35 min, so keep an eye on it!  I set my cakes out to cool overnight. 

I had decided before I bought the cake mix that I wanted at least a double layer and decided to go with a cream cheese-whipped topping filling to  hold it together since the suggested topping was whipped topping anyway.  With the cranberries filling the bottoms of the pans, there was more than enough batter for three pans.  

In the morning, I combined the sugar, cream cheese (which I left out overnight to bring to room temperature) and whipped topping right before assembling it.  The touch that I thought of last minute was the orange zest.  The cream cheese filling was pretty good, but I saw some fresh oranges sitting on the counter and thought that a little orange zest might be just the thing to zing the filling! It is perfect.  I rubbed one small orange all over my zester and then scraped it into the filling and stirred it in.  I then sliced up the orange in thin slices and coated it in sugar and stuck it in the oven on 475 degrees watching it carefully for the next 30 minutes to get it "kind of" candied to go on the top.  It was quick and maybe a little fresh to be "real" candied orange peel, but still good!  

I don't have any baking tools really so I just used some gallon bags with one of the corners cut off to pipe my filling between the layers.  You just want to be sure you don't go too far out to the edges because as you place the layers it will squish some of the filling out.  It kind of looks like a whoopie pie and a fruit cake and a cranberry upside down cake, but with the gooey honey topping I decided after taking a bit that this IS Cranberry Honey Cake.  And DELICIOUS!  

 My sister has already asked that I make it for Christmas dinner with the family since two of my sisters didn't make it for Thanksgiving.  

Hope you have similar success if  you try this recipe! 

Finding the Answers in the Old Testament

I have been praying for courage, for hope, for something. This morning I read a passage in 1 Chronicles. It is 1 Chronicles 28:20 "...Be strong and be of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed; for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work..."  When I read the scripture and it said "do it: fear not". I felt as if God literally said quite worrying about it and do something.

My favorite part of the story though is the prayer that David offers at the very end of his speech to his people before turning the throne over to his son. He says (1 Chronicles 29:18-19), "O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee. And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things..."

What a glorious blessing - to be blessed with a perfect heart that would always choose right, would seek to serve others without selfish thought, to have always before your mind in your thoughts and heart to do the will of God and never stray or get bogged down in the pursuit of worldly things. And to have your father pray in your presence for you to have that, what a sweet blessing...

Wisdom for All

This morning in my readings, I came across a passage in the Bible, Luke 7:31-35. It calls to my mind the political machinations that seem to be employed with increasing frequency in today's society.

The passage reads, "And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and he have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children."

What this means to me in my life is that God has blessed everyone in this world to WISELY recognize when someone is being deceptive or judging unrighteously. There is no way that these Publicans or Politicians can hide their absolute hypocrisy in condemning people for being both for and against a particular issue or way of doing things. It is within us a "gift" if you will from God that we can wisely discern the truth of all things.

Getting Started

I have no idea what I'm doing. I was encouraged to share, so here I am...sharing.

I'm currently reading The Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Spencer W Kimball published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been a member of my church really since birth, but I was baptized when I was 8. Sometime in my early 20s I actually truly had that divining experience that made me believe it was true. In the last couple of years, I've come to LIVE that it is true.

In this book, Chapter 5 is called "Prayer, the Passport to Spiritual Power". The very first sentence encapsulates my very own thoughts from the last few years of my life..."I always have very tender feelings about prayers and the power and blessings of prayer. In my lifetime I have received more blessings than I can ever adequately give thanks for. The Lord has been so good to me. I have had so many experiences in sickness and in health that leave me with no doubt in my heart and mind that there is a God in heaven, that he is our Father, and that he hears and answers our prayers." Spencer W Kimball

Each day, I begin and end with prayer. Through prayer, I feel connected to Someone higher, stronger, wiser and more experienced than myself. And from Him, my Heavenly Father, my God, I gain strength, hope, light, peace, and joy. I only have my heart and my will to give back to Him for all that He gives to me, so that's what I give Him in prayers of Thanksgiving, night and day.