Cherry Vanilla Cake

I needed something low maintenance for youth group. I rummaged around in the kitchen and came up with a box of yellow cake mix.  I was not in the mood for ordinary yellow so I kept looking and came up with the large size box of regular Jello in cherry flavor.  I decided why not?

I dumped the cherry jello (dry) into the cake mix and proceeded to add all the normal amount of ingredients per the cake mix's box instructions. It mixed up into a glorious red.  I taste-tested the batter and it seemed okay. Into the oven it went!

Here it is fresh out of the oven....and YES there is a piece missing already as I simply had to taste it first to make sure it was not gross! I love my youth group and did not want to send something bad.  It was  pretty good and not overtly cherry!

I topped the cherry cake with a homemade vanilla buttercream.  It must have been okay because it got eaten up at church!

Luscious Lemon Bars

Tonight I am making some cookies for my family. I have to be out of town for a few days so I wanted to leave something sweet behind.  I recently re-discovered a cookbook I forgot about called "Grandma's Old-Fashioned Cookies" by Favorite Brand Name (Publications International, Ltd. 1996).

It is an amazingly simple recipe that does NOT require graham crackers.  Of all the baking ingredients I keep handy around the house, I never have graham crackers! The crust is simple and light and only consists of sugar, flour, butter and lemon zest.  It is baking in the oven right now and when the 15 minutes are up I will be pouring over the filling.

Here is a picture of the crust.  And here is what it looks like when I poured the filling over top of it:

It is now in the oven, all warm and cozy and baking away!  I can't wait for it to be finished.  The filling is a wonderful mixture of eggs (four of them!), sugar, lemon zest and a touch of vanilla.  Shoot me a message if you would like the recipe as I am not sure I can post it online because of copyright but I will be happy to email you!

As soon as this is out of the oven I suppose I should hit the hay and go to bed as I have a very long flight tomorrow! Goodnight all! Don't forget to be thankful for EVERYTHING, no matter what!

Winds of Fortune.........

Tonight I am making fortune cookies for my youth group but instead of the usual "fortunes" inside, I am putting their bible memory verse for the following Wednesday! It is kind of a fun and yummy delivery system.  Of course I am changing the recipe a tiny bit (as I usually do) because I am not a big fan of almond flavoring!  I used vanilla flavoring instead!  Here is the recipe site I used as I have lost my original recipe (I had not used it since around 1984!)

http://makefortunecookies.com/

So I have gotten a few cookies done with minimal burning of my fingers.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems.  I think I need different paper.  The regular computer paper is sticking to the cookie.  I also think I may need to re-think the use of only vanilla flavor because they are a little too sweet.  <sigh> A work in progress!  I will keep you updated.