Decadent Desserts
We are heading into the holiday season so yesterday's class at The Cook's Warehouse was all desserts. The class was for the older kids, over 10, so it was a pretty easy and fun day.
The students made:
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Fudge
- Apple Cake with Vanilla Butter Sauce
- Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Poundcake
- Caramel Pecan Sauce for Ice Cream
We had a lot of desserts since we had three teams of students and each team made all the desserts. Since my lunch was a dessert plate, I felt that I needed vegetable soup or a salad for dinner! The kids were happy with their desserts, the parents happy and the staff at Cook's happy with desserts.
One Cook's Warehouse staff person took a small piece of dessert and said she needed to watch since we were coming into the holiday season and there would be lots of eating. I encouraged her to train for the eating and take more dessert so she'd be able to keep up later.
If you wanted to start training for the holiday season, you might want to start with the apple cake. The sauce is good, but the cake is good by itself if you don't want to make sauce.
Chunky Apple Slice Cake with Vanilla Butter Sauce from McCormick Spices
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon McCormick® Pumpkin Pie Spice or 1 tablespoon McCormick® Apple Pie Spice
- 1 teaspoon McCormick® Allspice, Ground
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups chopped peeled apples (about 2 medium)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Vanilla Butter Sauce (recipe follows)
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, allspice and salt in small bowl; set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla on low speed just until blended. Gradually beat in flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in apples, raisins and walnuts. Spread evenly in greased 9-inch round cake pan.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert cake onto serving plate. Serve warm with Vanilla Butter Sauce.
Vanilla Butter Sauce: Bring 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter and 1/2 cup heavy cream to boil in 2-quart saucepan on medium heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract . Serve warm.
Today is windy and cold so I took chicken soup from the freezer. My husband has been at a woodworking show in Kentucky and I'm not sure when he'll get home, so soup will be perfect.
I'm going to plan the rest of my menu now and make a little breakfast.















































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