I always go a little squirrely for mushy food, especially when it's mushy biscuits saturated in pudding, Cool Whip or Kahlua. So when a work colleague brought in a dish his wife had made with pudding and vanilla wafers, I had no other choice but to steal it out of the fridge, blame it on the cleaning staff and get the recipe for myself.
Folks, let me tell you: Banana Pudding can cause your wallet some serious damage. The reason? After you’re done eating the whole thing, you’ll need to get out the Sears catalogue and order some bigger slacks. Like one of my other caker faves, Pineapple Cream Cake, this dish needs to ferment for two to three days to get everything all squishy-like. Just make sure you put it in the fridge as fruit flies can be pesky little buggers.
Mrs. Hunter, the person I got this recipe from, writes a fashion blog called Style Forage. Being a fashion-forward guy myself (my summer mission is to bring back man clogs), I asked her if she’d help me come up with the top five caker fashions. I’ll post that on Friday, along with a trés chic reader contest!
Until then, keep eating.
1 6 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups cold water
Small box (3.4 oz) of instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups heavy whipping cream (see note)
One box of nilla wafers
4 bananas, sliced
Beat sweetened condensed milk and water in a bowl for about a minute. Add the pudding mix and continue beating for two more minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, up to overnight. In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks have formed, then gently fold into chilled pudding mixture until fully combined. In large bowl or dish, layer wafers, bananas, pudding, layers, bananas, pudding.
Note: Just use a container of Cool Whip.
Source: Stylish Mrs. Hunter
Good lord, what kind of sick individual came up with the spelling for daiquiri? I don’t even want to say how long it took me to get it right. Personally, I think dackeree is a much more practical way to spell it.
This cool and refreshing Daiquiri Pah is like the sibling of the equally delicious Tang Pah. However, because of the alcohol content, this pah should only be eaten after the kids go to bed. In other words, it’s “adults only,” just like those VHS rental places with the frosted windows. And, like Tang Pah, it’s better frozen. (It was a little goopy in its refrigerated state.)
A word of caution: this pah is strong! There’s a ½ cup of rum in it. In fact, it’s so potent, I blanked out after my second piece and woke up the next morning, dangling from a construction crane, wearing a cowboy hat and a pair of pantyhose – neither of which, surprisingly, were mine. Scary how that happened. Again.
But I suppose that’s to be expected when you bake from a cookbook with a unicorn on the cover.
Graham cracker pie crust
1 8 ozs. pckg. cream cheese
1 14 ozs. can Eagle Brand Condensed Milk
1 6 ozs. can frozen limeade or lemonade
½ cup rum
1 5 ozs. container pre-whipped whipping cream (35% - Cool Whip is good) (See note)
Green food colouring (few drops – your choice)
Combine all ingredients except the pie crust in a blender. Blend well and pour into the pie shell. Limes may be placed around the top of the pie. Refrigerate for 6 hours and then serve.
What a coooool dessert!
Note: About half of a large Cool Whip container.
Source: What’s in the Oven?
Please, god. Don't let it be a unicorn.
When I’m thumbing through a cookbook, it’s pretty easy for me to separate the caker recipes from the non-caker ones. The telltale signs are instructions like, “pour contents of envelope,” or “assemble all ingredients,” or “cover and bake until Oprah’s over.” But sometimes, a recipe can leave me on the fencepost.
Cheese balls are popular among cakers, mainly because they combine our love of cheese and ball-shaped food. And while Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball looked tasty, I wasn’t sure it was caker enough. Then I came across this ingredient:
Simulated chocolate chips
And that sealed the deal. Why would cakers eat real chocolate when we could eat pieces of brown wax instead? Of course, you could use real chocolate chips, but don’t admit this to other cakers. It’ll get awkward and you'll hear comments like, “Well, someone won the lottery,” or “Girls, look who's gone all Martha Stewartson on us.”
1 package cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¾ cup miniature simulated chocolate chips
Graham crackers
Blend cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Add sugars; beat just until combined. Combine the chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Place cream cheese mixture on a long piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a big ball. Serve with graham crackers.
Note: I rolled my ball in the remaining chocolate chips to maximize the simulation taste.
Source: Our Family Favourites, Stirling Primary/Junior School
Yes, this is the second week in a row I've used this cookbook, but it's a goldmine. Plus, that cover is a work of art.
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Now that summer is here, you’ll find me alongside my aboveground pool, wearing my sarong and water wings (along with a good spritz of Raid) and entertaining mother my countless caker friends on any given night of the week.
I like entertaining poolside because everyone knows you’re not supposed to swim on a full stomach. That means I can get away with feeding my guests as little as possible and feel good that I’m saving them from a potential drowning.
This week, I’m featuring not one but TWO pizza hors d'oeuvres recipes, because who doesn’t like small round things? Especially when there are Ritz crackers involved. And ketchup. These little gems are best hot, so try to get them out to your guests before the cheese has time to congeal. And remember: only one per person. Lives are depending on it.
Little Pizza
Ritz crackers
Pizza sauce or tomato paste
Sliced pepperoni
Mozzarella cheese
Mushrooms
Olives
Spread Ritz crackers with sauce, place a square of cheese on each. Add pepperoni, mushrooms and slice of olive. Place on cookie sheet and heat in 350° oven until cheese melts. Serve hot.
Source: Country Favourites Cookbook, Mitchell’s Corners Home and School Association
Tortilla Pizza
1 whole wheat tortilla
Ketchup
Grated cheese
Chili powder
Spread ketchup on tortilla. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Sprinkle with chili powder. Microwave for about 1 minute or till cheese is melted. Roll up or cut into pizza slices.
Source: Our Family Favourites, Stirling Primary/Junior School
You know, since all the brouhaha of February’s Reader Month, I haven’t posted any reader recipes. And that’s just not right. After all, if you can’t share some saturated fat between friends, what’s the point in spending five minutes making it in the first place?
Some of you may recall that lemon has always left me a bit sour – that is, until I made Lemon Fluff. So when Caker Cooking reader Doug sent me his mother’s recipe for a lemon creation called McPhail Cake (named after a family friend), I thought I’d give it whirl.
It should come as no surprise that McPhail was a McSuccess. It was moist, dense and had me puckering in all the right places. The only thing that wasn’t a McSuccess? My McBundt. I didn’t grease the pan enough, so the cake came out looking like the surface of the moon. Lesson learned: butta your Bundt.
If you have a recipe you’d like to share, email cakercooking at gmail dot com and I’ll do my best to feature it.
Thanks, Doug!
1 Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix
1 package vanilla instant pudding
1 cup milk
1/2 cup liquid shortening
Mix, and add 4 eggs one at a time. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool on a rack, turn out on a plate and top with a glaze of 2/3 cup icing sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
This is the recipe written out in Doug's mom's handwriting. In his words: "For me, the stained, yellowing, handwritten recipe card is part of the caker experience."
Doug, I say "Amen" to that.
I should’ve declared June as “My Clearasil Month.” Two weeks ago, I featured a homemade Orange Julius inspired by my first job. This week, I’m serving up a caker dessert based on the popular Dairy Queen treat. And if anyone should know what a Buster Bar tastes like, it’s me. Because I made lots of them. That’s right, folks. I used to be a Dairy Queen.
Here are some interesting facts I learned while working there:
1) You can get any three toppings you want on a banana split (most people assume there’s some kind of weird pineapple, chocolate and strawberry restriction.)
2) Make sure no customers are around before you get freaky with the whipped cream dispenser.
3) If you stick your tongue into the cone dip, you’ll burn it.
Another thing I learned is that Spanish peanuts (the ones with the skin on them) taste the best. And that’s what we used for Buster Bars. So when you make this dessert, opt for those instead of chopped peanuts. I’d also skip the Oreos on top and cover with a layer of that chocolate magic shell stuff. Lastly, if you want sh-t to get really real, serve with an air of teen angst and a bandaged tongue.
48 Oreo cookies (see note)
¼ cup melted butter
½ gal. vanilla ice cream
8 ounces Cool Whip
1 cup peanuts
1 jar hot fudge topping
Crush cookies and mix with melted butter. Reserve 1 cup for topping, press into 9” x 13” pan. Put softened ice cream on top of cookie layer and freeze. Pour hot fudge sauce over and add peanuts, freeze. Spread Cool Whip on top, sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs and freeze.
Note: one bag
Source: National Mfg. Co. 1901-2001 Centennial Cookbook
I used to love when my Michigan relatives came for a visit. We’d send my uncle off to the park in the morning to reserve a picnic table (and clean off the bird poop). A few hours later, the Americans would arrive in their visors and Detroit Tigers hats, car trunks loaded up with boxes of chips and buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken, announcing, “Oh my gad! Can someone get Bannie a pap?”
It was Bonnie, in fact, who first introduced me to Taco Salad. I remember the exact moment she brought out the bowl, tore open a bag of Doritos, crushed them up and poured them in. “Cheez of Whiz," I thought. “Them American cakers know how to do things right.”
Perfect for a summer picnic, Taco Salad (not to be confused with the equally delicious Taco Salad Casserole) combines ground beef, cheese, iceberg lettuce, and yes, Doritos. I’m warning you ahead of time – you won’t be able to stop eating this. Make sure there are other people around. Otherwise, your tears will make the Doritos all soggy.
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped (see note)
1 pound ground beef, cooked
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag crushed Doritos
1 head lettuce
250 ml bottle Catalina salad dressing
Prepare everything ahead of time. Mix everything together approximately five minutes before serving. (This salad is great for large gatherings. Even half this recipe makes a large salad suitable for a family of four.)
Note: My taste testers found the onion a bit strong. I used white onion. They suggested green onions might be better. Whatever. Everyone’s a critic.
Source: What’s Cooking at St. Joseph
