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Big Mama’s Carrot Cake Recipe

Posted in Recipes, Serendipity, tagged Carrot Cake, Carrot Cake Recipe on November 28, 2014| 1 Comment »

Ingredients for Carrot Cake

Batter should look like this

Big Mama’s Carrot Cake

Yesterday I made Big Mama’s Carrot Cake to take to Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a hit! It always is.

Big Mama made the best cakes and the recipes I have of hers have always been favorites. Several people asked for the recipe so here it is. When I make one to take to a gathering with lots of people I always make 1 1/2 times the recipe in order to have a large cake. Enjoy.

Big Mama’s Layered Carrot Cake

2 cups sifted cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups cooking oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups finely grated carrots

Combine oil, sugar and eggs. Beat well. Add dry ingredients to this mixture. Mix well and then add carrots. Mix them in and then pour into 3 layer pans which have been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (Be sure to watch them toward the end of the time as each oven bakes differently.) Cool.

Carrot Cake Nut Frosting

½ cup butter

1 8 oz. cream cheese

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cup chopped pecans

Beat butter and cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Frost cake. Sprinkle a few pecans on each layer with the majority on the top.

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Apple Cinnamon Bread

Posted in Recipes, tagged Apple Cinnamon Bread on February 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know about you but I am always seeing these really good-looking recipes that friends share on Facebook or Pinterest. I have tried a few and they are never as good as they look. But I recently ran across this one that is AMAZING! I have made it several times and it doesn’t last long. It’s great for a breakfast bread or a dessert. Hope you enjoy it too! You can print the Apple Cinnamon Bread recipe at this link.

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Things You Find…

Posted in Books, Recipes, tagged Art Books, Books, Carnation Company, Fun to Cook Book on July 21, 2013| 2 Comments »

The things you find when you clean up your studio. Yesterday I spent all day cleaning up, straightening up, moving around, etc. Now I’m exhausted! The big thing I wanted to accomplish was to get all my art books in one location. I did it but it took all day and one thing led to another so I ended up rearranging three rooms!!!

While moving books from one room to another I found this old cookbook. It is my very first. I remember Mama ordering it for me. We had to save three labels from Carnation products and mail them with a quarter. (That is when you could actually mail a quarter in the mail.) And then I waited for it to arrive. How exciting it was! I think I was about 7 or 8 years old.

So glad that I found it!

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Painting with Icing

Posted in Dogs, Recipes, tagged Dogs, pupcakes, Small Town Life on March 26, 2013| 2 Comments »

A week ago on Monday morning while snow was coming down I got ready to go to work. I called the dogs to say goodby and there was no Jed. I continued to call and look and no Jed. Finally I heard a sound under the deck. He had crawled under and gotten stuck way up toward the house where there is just a little space between the deck and the ground. No matter how much calling and coaxing I did, he could not come out. The good news was this was not the first time this had happened. He did it last summer while I was away and the dog sitter had to get someone to cut a hole in the deck to get him out. So I thought, “Ok, I just need to remove the wood screws from these boards that were cut and replaced and he’ll pop right out”. Of course, it could not be that easy. My little drill wasn’t hardy enough to pull those heavy screws out. So I called Allen in a panic. He was out-of-town on a job an hour away. So I panicked again. I called several other people but no one was around. Finally Allen called back and said he reached his plumber who had the right equipment and would come by to help me. They arrived (father and son) about 10 minutes later and within another 10 minutes they had the boards up and a muddy Jed out of his trap. Woo Hoo! I was so relieved and so grateful. I didn’t know how to thank these guys (who are also dog lovers). Finally it occurred to me a couple of days later that everyone loves cupcakes so I made these chocolate pupcakes for them. I tried to make them look like Jed. They loved them. And I love Sunlite Plumbers! They did some plumbing work for me a few weeks ago and did a great job….plus they rescue stuck dogs on the side. What’s not to love about that???!!!

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Big Mama’s Cane Syrup Candy

Posted in Recipes, tagged Cane Syrup, Cane Syrup Candy, Hard Candy Recipe, Syrup candy on February 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Cooking

Last weekend as I was cleaning out a cabinet I came across a bottle of homemade cane syrup that I had received for Christmas. It made me think of the old-time candy that Big Mama used to make for us. So I gave it a try.

Big Mama’s Cane Syrup Hard Candy

2 cups Georgia cane syrup

2 cups light corn syrup

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoon butter

Cooling

Cook ingredients over medium high heat to a hard crack stage. (Cook to hard boil stage for chewy candy). Pour into buttered pan to cool. When cool enough to handle pull until light color. Cut with scissors into small pieces.

Cut and Ready to Eat

This candy has a distinct taste. It makes a nice hard candy but you can also cook it a little less time and then when it gets cool enough to handle you can pull it into a nice taffy candy. You do have to work with it pretty hot to get it to work so be prepared for your hands to hurt a little. But it’s worth it. Enjoy.

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Lexie’s Best Sweet Onion Dip

Posted in Recipes, tagged onion dip, onion dip recipe, onion side dish, sweet onion dip, sweet onion dip recipe, Vidalia onion dip on January 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

At Thanksgiving this year my niece Lexie made the best dip. I can’t quit thinking about it. Maybe it’s because I am trying to eat healthier this new year but I made an exception last night and whipped up this wonderful onion concoction for supper. I am pretty sure it’s not suppose to be a main dish but it’s just that good! And the really great news is it is so simple to make.

Lexie explained to me as she was writing out the recipe that any sweet onion would do but of course, we use Vidalia’s being from Georgia!

Lexie’s Sweet Onion Dip

3 cups chopped sweet (Vidalia) onions

16 oz. cream cheese

5 oz. Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients together and Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until it’s bubbly around the edges. Enjoy with pita chips, crackers, chips.

Thanks Lexie. You know I love this recipe!

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Big Mama’s Carrot Cake

Posted in Recipes, tagged Carrot Cake, Carrot Cake Recipe on December 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I love cooking for the holidays especially making recipes handed down to me from my grandmothers. I made Carrot Cake for Christmas Dinner dessert. And after I posted a photo on Facebook I got a couple of messages asking for the recipe. So here it is. Enjoy!

Big Mama’s Layered Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups sifted cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups cooking oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, beaten well

2 cups finely grated carrots

Combine oil, sugar and eggs. Beat well. Add dry ingredients to this mixture. Mix and add carrots. Pour into layer pans which have been greased well and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until done. Cool.

Frosting:

½ cup butter

1 – 8 ounce cream cheese

1 box 10x sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cup chopped pecans

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Plum Jelly

Posted in Recipes, Small Town Life, tagged plum jelly on August 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I love this time of the year. There are loads of plums on the trees at the cabin and I feel so productive when I make jelly. Yesterday I turned out 20 jars! This is an annual tradition for me. Click here to read about how I did it.

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Plum Jelly

Posted in Recipes, Small Town Life, tagged jelly, plum, plum jelly, plums, West Virginia on September 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

After a delightfully restful weekend at the cabin, I came home with loads of plums, all very ripe and ready for jelly.

I love making jelly as it reminds me of both of my grandmothers. Granny had some of the best plum trees in her yard and so did Big Mama. They both made jelly and I learned much from them both.

You can see more about the process here from a post I made a few years ago during my jelly making. Last night I made 15 jars and have enough juice squeezed to make about that much more!

I love the equipment you use to make jelly especially the little funnel cup in the lower right of the photo that belonged to Big Mama. 🙂

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Plum Jelly

Posted in Recipes, Small Town Life, tagged daily painter, jelly, plums, Recipes, West Virginia on September 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Loaded with Plums

The trees out at the cabin were loaded with plums this year. There is a long row of trees along a road where we walked in the mornings there. I’ve watched them grow all summer. And finally…..

Plum Jelly 2 I picked them.

Plum Jelly 1 And washed them.

Plum Jelly 3 And cooked the pitted plums with a cup of water to get all that good juice going.

Plum Jelly 4 And once the cooked plums cooled a little, I squeezed the wonderful plum juice.

Plum Jelly 5 And then back into the pot the juice goes with sugar and Sure Jell. I’ve used Sure Jell for years and it always makes great jelly. Just follow their directions.