But when I happened upon this Apple Cake, I knew right away I wanted to bake it. Mostly because it sounded delicious, but also I remembered an Apple Cake that my Mom used to make years ago.

It was a perfect addition to the Thanksgiving Leftover Party. Guests are usually tired of Pumpkin Dessert after Thanksgiving, but the Apple Cake still has the Fall flavors that we all love around the holidays.

I changed the recipe a bit and had enough batter to bake the cake a couple different ways, in these cute little individual bundt pans and also in a regular size bundt pan, both gave it a beautiful shape, plus it was easy to cut and serve.

The larger cake was definitely a show stopper on the Thanksgiving Buffet! I served the larger cake with Cinnamon Whip Cream and glazed the smaller Apple Cakes with Brown Sugar Glaze. Both were delicious, and actually were better the second day, making this a great make-ahead cake as well.

I think my favorites were the little ones…they are so cute, and kind of remind me of a cupcake.

I’ve been involved with  Secret Recipe Club for 6 months now, here are my other assignments…

• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
• Apple Cake
• Homemade Hand Pies
• Homemade Blueberry Crisp
• Chocolate Doughnuts
• Pumpkin Icebox Pie

AND…don’t miss our Premier Issue of Splendidly Homemade! It’s full of awesome ideas for the Holidays!

Linking to…Mouthwatering Mondays, 2 Maids a Milking

Typically when I’m hunting for a new recipe, I head on over to Taste of Home, Betty Crocker or Pillsbury, I had never really thought of looking at Country Living and the Delish website. When I received my Country Living Newsletter I noticed a small little link that said “Baking this Weekend?”  Yes, of course I was baking, so I thought I would take a quick look and see if there was a new recipe I’d like to try, there were 48 to choose from. Well, about 6 recipes added to my to-do list and 30 minutes later, I decided, yes there definitely was some I wanted to try.

The Pumpkin Cake with Honey and Spice Buttercream caught my eye right away, not only does it start with a cake mix which I love, but the addition of buttercream with honey and spice…yes please!

While I loved the Honey and Spice Buttercream slathered all over, it was definitely pretty sweet. The Pumpkin Cake is just as good {if not better} without the frosting. Shh…don’t tell…I even had a piece without the Buttercream for breakfast with my Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte.

Don’t miss out tomorrow! We will have a HUGE Halloween Round-up of Ideas for you!

And join us in the Coffee Talk Community as we share more Pumpkin Recipes!

Linking to…Show & Tell Friday, Saturday Night Special, Mouthwatering Mondays, Ingredient Spotlight

Picking strawberries or buying them at the store when they are on sale is a good thing. Freezing them to use later is even better. Erin from $5 Dinners shows you how to freeze them to use later in smoothies, muffins or even pancakes.

So tell me, have you found strawberries on sale this year? Or maybe been lucky enough to pick some?

I’m linking to…Ultimate Recipe Swap, Saturday Night Special, Eat at Home

Mmm…Chocolate!! We are loving all the chocolate treats for Valentine’s Day! Yesterday I shared Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Covered Cherries, a perfect treat for your kiddos or sweetie.

This Chocolate Molten Lava Cake is not only decadent, ooey and gooey…but super easy. You know me…quick – easy – impressive…yep, it’s a box mix!! Shhh….don’t tell, your sweetie will never know.

I used the Betty Crocker Decadent Supreme Cake Mix and baked it in a heart shaped pan from Wilton. If you don’t have the heart shaped pan, you can bake them in a muffin pan, according to the directions on the box.

I simply added a dusting of powdered sugar and a spoonful of strawberry preserves to the middle, and drizzled the plate with melted chocolate.

Here is what you will need…

• Betty Crocker Decadent Supreme Cake Mix
• Butter and Eggs {according to the box}
• Wilton Dimensions Heart Shaped Pan or muffin tin
• Powdered Sugar for dusting {optional}
• Strawberry Preserves {optional}
• Melted Chocolate {optional}

What are you baking for Valentine’s Day?

Disclaimer: Betty Crocker and Wilton sent me these products to try. The opinions are my own.

This Make Ahead Coffee Cake is perfect for those busy mornings when you are trying to get the family ready and out the door or even when you are hosting Brunch for friends or family. This recipe and tons more are from the Make-Ahead Meals for Busy Moms Cookbook, enter my giveaway to win your copy.

I enjoy cooking a large breakfast on the weekends, especially on Sunday. We usually eat a late morning brunch, and then skip lunch and have an early dinner. It makes my day a little easier.

Last weekend, after returning home from a minor league baseball game, I put this Coffee Cake together. It was really good, in fact, we snacked on it all day.

If you have been following along this week, you know that I shared a week of Make-Ahead Meals, the plan, the grocery list and the recipes. On Saturday evening I will post our Prep Day plan and then on Monday we will be cooking together, preparing a week’s worth of meals for the frig and freezer.

I’m really looking forward to this. It’s taken a little more time to prepare this week, but I know it will be so nice next week when I have all my meals prepared ahead of time. I hope you will join me!  I will keep you updated on Twitter too, so if you aren’t following me, please jump over and click the follow button. I will use hashtag (#) Make-Ahead Meals.

So, I suppose you would like the recipe for this yummy Make Ahead Coffee Cake? Well, you are in luck

Note: Because it was 10 p.m. when I put this together, I didn’t make the streusel until the morning, after the cake was removed from refrigerator. I also didn’t add the nuts, it was delicious without, but I think it would taste really good with also. I served it with breakfast tacos and smoothies.

I also think it would be good to either swirl the streusel into the cake before baking or layer it. You would need to hold back part of the batter in a container in the frig, then when you are ready to bake it, pull it out, sprinkle with part of the streusel, pour remaining batter, then sprinkle remaining streusel.

Update! I baked this again for Mother’s Day and layer the streusel

Do you cook a big breakfast on the weekend? What do you cook?

This post linked to:

~Foodie Friday hosted by Designs by Gollum

~Finer Things Friday hosted by The Finer Things in Life (it’s definately a Finer Thing to have more time in the morning )

-Friday Food hosted by Momtrends

~Saturday Night Special hosted by Funky Junk Interiors

Scroll down for the Layer Cake with Lemon Filling recipe

This giveaway is now closed

I have had the pleasure of reading and enjoying books written and illustrated by Susan Branch for many years now. She is an absolute favorite of mine!

Several months ago I was really excited to meet Susan on Twitter. She is just as wonderful to chat with, as you would imagine.

I have several of her books, and even found some scrapbooking stickers while organizing the basement last weekend.

I just had to bake you a cake to celebrate her giveaway today. But, in Hoosier Homemade fashion, I switched it up just a bit and made cupcakes Jumbo cupcakes!

I found this recipe in Susan’s Summer Book. I could just sit for hours and look at each and every page.

Ingredients for Cake:

• 6 Tablespoons Butter, room temp
• 1 1/2 cup Sugar
• 3 eggs, seperated
• 2 1/4 cup Flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 3/4 c. Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks and beat until thick and lemon colored. Combine dry ingredients, mix with fork add to creamed mixture, alternately with the milk, stir in vanilla. In a seperate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold gently into batter. Divide batter into 3 buttered 8″ cake pans (or make cupcakes like I did) Bake for 20 minutes or until done.  Cool.

Ingredients for Lemon Filling:

First, let me tell you this is the BEST lemon filling I have ever tasted, honestly, I’m not much of a lemon lover , but I could have did just eat this filling by the spoonful.

• Juice & grated rind of 2 lemons
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, melted

Directions:

When grating lemon, be careful not to get any white part, it’s bitter. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan or double boiler on stove. Simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes, chill.

Ingredients for Marshmallow-Like Frosting:

• 1/3 cup Water
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 Egg Whites
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• Sweetened Coconut (I didn’t use because my family doesn’t like coconut)

Directions:

Stir together water, sugar, cream of tartar and salt in a small heavy saucepan. Hook a candy thermometer to the edge of the pan (or have your husband hold the meat thermometer in, like I did ) Boil mixture without stirring until mixture reaches 240 degrees. In the meantime, beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form, when sugar mixture reaches 240 degrees, carefully pour a small stream over the beaten egg whites and beat until glossy. Stir in vanilla.

To Assemble:

Place one cake layer on plate and spoon lemon filling, top with another cake layer and repeat.

Frost with marshmallow-like frosting, pat and sprinkle coconut onto sides and over top of cake.

For cupcakes, slice jumbo cupcake into thirds, place one layer on plate, spoon filling, top with second layer, spoon filling and add the top. Spoon frosting on top of cupcake and let it ooze down the sides.

I also cut the center out of one of the cupcakes and filled with lemon filling, similiar to the way I filled cupcakes here.

Decorate with a sprinkle of lemon rind if desired.

Now that I have you craving lemon…here are the details for the giveaway…

Susan is offering her new Daisy Card Box, here is what she said about it

“This wonderful keepsake box contains many of Susan’s favorite greeting cards! Box contains 40 cards ( 5 x 7) (2 each of 20 designs), 40 envelopes, dividers, and booklet “The Right Words for Any Occasion”. The box measures 9″H x 7″W x 3 1/2″D.”

This is the last day for my week long Anniversary celebration, please enter my giveaways

~Photo Album & Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls (ends Mon. March 1st)

~Hello Cupcake Cookbook (ends Tues. March 2nd)

~$20 New Customer Gift Card (ends Wed. March 3rd)

~Tile Pendant personalized with your blog (Thurs. March 4th)

This post linked to:

~Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Blessed with Grace

~Tuesdays at the Table hosted by All the Small Stuff

Giveaway Guidelines:

Please leave a seperate comment for each entry.

1. Leave a comment telling us your favorite Susan Branch product on her website. 
2. Follow Susan on Twitter, and leave a comment with your Twitter ID. 
3. Follow me on Twitter, and leave a comment with your Twitter ID, if you already follow me, just leave me a comment.
4. Tweet about the giveaway including @HoosierHomemade in the tweet and a link to the giveaway post. Leave me a comment.
5. Become a subscriber, leave me a comment.
6. The Giveaway will be open until Friday, March 5th, 8 p.m. CST, the winner will be notified and have 48 hrs to claim their prize.

This particular recipe takes a little work, but is definately well worth it. You can easily buy a box mix, that are actually very good too. As part of our Valentine Dinner, I served this cake with whipping cream and strawberry sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Egg Whites, room temperature
• 1 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1 1/3 cups Sugar
• 1 1/4 cups Softasilk Flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

Directions:

Mix egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 1/3 cups sugar until stiff peaks form.

Sift Softasilk and sugar several times to make them light. Gently fold into egg white mixture.

Add vanilla and almond extract.

Pour into a greaseless tube pan or Angel Food cake pan, cut around pan 2 times and drop once about 14 inches from counter (this step removes air bubbles)

Move oven rack to lower position, bake at 325 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes or until golden brown. Cool upside down on a bottle.

Strawberry Sauce: made this just like I did the Blueberry Sauce

• 2 c. Strawberries (used frozen)
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 2 tablespoons Water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

Whipping Cream:

Use about 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, the kind in the little box, whip until soft peaks form, add about 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Enjoy! Do you have a family recipe that has been passed down to you?

This post linked to:

~Foodie Friday hosted by Designs by Gollum

~Food on Fridays hosted by Ann Kroeker

~Ultimate Recipe Swap hosted by Life As Mom