Instant Pot Week #2 Cranberry Nut Cake

Baking probably isn’t the first thing a person thinks about when they hear the word pressure cooker but it is definitely something you can do. Baking is especially successful when you make something that thrives in a moist environment like a cheese cake or a baked custard. The pressure cooker is also good at baking things that don’t need to be crisp like cake.

I don’t usually bring out the cranberry recipes until the pumpkin spice everything threatens to take over the world at the end of September or beginning of October. This recipe, however, was screaming at me to make it and use up some of the cranberry stash in my freezer. I used a 3 cup Bundt cake pan to make this recipe but you can use a 6 inch cake pan or spring form pan if you don’t have one.

Cranberry Nut Cake

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From The Instant Pot Bible The Next Generation

1 1/2 cup water, for in the liner

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

2 TBS brown sugar

2 TBS canola oil

3 TBS lightly beaten egg

1/4 tsp vanilla

Spray Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. Add water to pressure cooker liner, add trivet to the liner and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, brown sugar, canola oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix well to dissolve the brown sugar.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and gently stir until ingredients are just moistened.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Set on the pan on the trivet and cover with aluminum foil. Close and lock lid. Pressure cook on high for 50 minutes. Let natural release for 20 minutes then release any remaining pressure. Remove pan from liner and let cool.

Cinnamon Cake

This recipe is dedicated to my friend, Ess, whose answer to life’s greatest problems is to add more cinnamon. Thank you for being my friend.

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From The How To Bake Everything Cookbook

3 TBS butter, melted

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 TBS sugar

1 egg

6 TBS buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of two 5 inch pie pans. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Place the egg and sugar in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat them together. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla, then stir in the melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Christmas Treat #2 Angel Food Cake With Variations

Okay, angel food cake is known as more of a summer treat then a Christmas treat but I would like to change that. I love Angel food cake. It makes a nice change of pace from the more traditionally heavy treats of Christmas. I am also obsessed with making Angel food cakes at the moment. A few summers ago, I spent the whole summer perfecting my angel food cake technique. I made cake after cake until they came out perfect every time. Eventually, I had to stop and only make them upon request. My friends were overwhelmed with Angel food cake. At the beginning of November, I found a 7 inch Angel food cake pan and I have been making Angel food cake ever since. The initial recipe was a bit of a challenge. You would think that the recipe on the label of a 7 inch Angel food cake pan would be for a 7 inch Angel food cake. It wasn’t the recipe was for some kind of mojito bundt cake.  Thank goodness for Christina Lane at Dessert For Two. She had the perfect Angel food cake recipe for a 7 inch pan on her site. Since I didn’t have to do any of the work of cutting down the actual recipe for cake,  I decided to play around with some flavor variations. If you don’t have a 7 inch Angel cake pan head over to Dessert For Two for directions on how to make Angel food cake in a loaf pan.

7 Inch  Angel Food Cake

• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Print

Recipe Used With Permission From Dessert For Two Variations Are By Me

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 TBS corn starch

7 egg whites

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together, 1/4 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt; set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, add egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, while the mixer is running. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down with nothing falling out when you reach the stiff peak stage. Seriously, this best way to tell if your whites are whipped enough. Just do it.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and gentilely fold it in until combined. Repeat twice more.

Spread the batter into the pan. Gently tap on the counter to make sure you get the batter into all the spaces. Bake at 325 degrees for 38-42 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn upside down. Cool for at least one hour before cutting.

Chocolate variation: reduce flour to 6 tablespoons and add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Proceed with recipe as written.

Lemon variation: sprinkle the whipped egg white with 1 tablespoon of lemon zest before adding the flour/sugar mixture. Proceed with recipe as written.

Popcorn Cake

Gooey,  sweet and salty perfection — Cookies And Cups

Gooey gorgeousness —  Homemade Hannah

Yum — A Solitary Feast

Just so we are clear, this is not a traditional cake decorated to look like a box of movie theater popcorn.  This cake is actual popcorn held together with a stick of butter and a bag of melted marshmallows with some kind of candy thrown in just in case it isn’t sweet enough.

Do I really need to say anything more about this cake?  This cake has been in my family since I was a little kid.  You really can use any candy here but gummy candies or chocolate work the best. Yes, you can use microwave popcorn but why would you want to?  Stove top popcorn is so easy to make and tastes so much better.   By the way,  this recipe is not small batch.

• Difficulty: Medium
• Print

From A Recipe My Mom Gave Me

20 cups of popped popcorn,  remove unpopped corn kernels

1 stick of butter

1 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows or 1 12 oz bag regular marshmallows

1 10 – 12 oz bag M n M’s

Pop your popcorn and sift through it for any unpopped kernels.  Place in very large bowl.  In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the stick of butter.  Add the marshmallows.  Stir the marshmallows until they are melted, smooth and mixed with the butter.  Let the marshmallows sit a minute or two, off heat, to cool.  Pour the marshmallows into the popcorn, add the M n M’s and mix, with hands coated in butter until well combined.  Pack into a well buttered Angel food cake pan or Bundt pan.   Let sit for 1 hour before serving. 

Wacky Cake, 3 Ways

Friday morning my computer decided to die on me. After much swearing, a few tears and a lot more swearing, I decided I’ll probably be okay. After all, for the first 18 years of my life computers weren’t exactly common and I survived just fine without Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram and Netflix. Yes, I am old enough to remember life before the Internet took over.

My plan is to write all my posts the old fashioned way, with pen and paper, and then get to the library on my day off, type, proof and schedule my posts for the week. I know myself well enough to know that that isn’t always going to happen. So if I seem to fall off the face of the internet for awhile you know why.  Now, let’s get to today’s recipe.

On Thursday, I promised all the corned beef haters out there if they stuck with me through my corned beef obsession I would have a recipe for them on Sunday.  Okay, it isn’t Sunday and one recipe isn’t an obsession.  Remember, my computer crashed and I had to leave my pile of corned beef posts in my cache for next year instead of posting them all in a row and I couldn’t get to the library until today.  But I promised, so here is my recipe for Wacky Cake, along with two variations.

The chocolate version of this cake was the one my Mom always made the kids in our family for any special occasion.  I always thought it was called Wacky Cake because Mom made it for her wacky family.   But the wackiness of this cake comes from the fact it has no eggs or dairy in it not from the fact my family is a little crazy. This makes it perfect for vegans and people with dairy and egg allergies.  Although  I have never personally tried it, I am told that the standard gluten free baking mix can be used with these recipes too.

Wacky Cake

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 ½ TBS cocoa
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup water
2 ½ TBS canola oil
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp vinegar
In a 4×4 inch baking dish, combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix it until it is well combined. Make four wells, two large and two small. In the large wells, pour the water and oil. In the small wells, pour the vanilla and vinegar. Stir until well moistened. When the batter is well mixed smooth it out and spread it into place with a spatula. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it cool 30 minutes before slicing.

Vanilla Wacky Cake

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

1/2 cup flour plus 2 TBS all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vinegar
¾ tsp vanilla
2 ½ TBS oil
½ cup water
In a 4×4 inch baking dish, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix it until it is well combined. Make four wells, two large and two small. In the large wells, pour the water and oil. In the small wells, pour the vanilla and vinegar. Stir until well moistened. When the batter is well mixed smooth it out and spread it into place with a spatula. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it cool 30 minutes before slicing.

Spiced Wacky Cake

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

¾ cup plus 2 TBS all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ cup sugar
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vinegar
½ tsp vanilla
2 ½ TBS vegetable oil
½ cup water
In a 4×4 inch baking dish, combine the flour, sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda. Mix it until it is well combined. Make four wells, two large and two small. In the large wells, pour the water and oil. In the small wells, pour the vanilla and vinegar. Stir until well moistened. When the batter is well mixed smooth it out and spread it into place with a spatula. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it cool 30 minutes before slicing.