Henry and Christine's most amazing stuffing recipe

Twice a year, for Easter and Christmas, our family has the honour of going over to a family friend's home for dinner. All of us always look forward to the free range turkey and the mouth watering stuffing. It oozes with fat and is oh-so-good. I wrangled the ingredients and recipe from them. Here it is:
Ingredients:
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ground sausage meat - coarse type ( we get the deli to make it leaner)
- Bread crumbs ( can be bought in Safeway or Save-On ) granular texture not cubes
- Bacon
- Fresh sage
- Giblets from the turkey
- Sherry / brandy

In a large frying pan:
Fry diced onions and chopped bacon
Add sausage meat and chopped giblets
Remove excess oil
Add sage and sherry/brandy
Add bread crumbs and water until desired consistency
Put in oven proof dish and bake for 1 hr

Orange Chiffon cake

Still experimenting with Chiffon cakes. Made an orange chiffon cake yesterday but it wasn't cool until 1:30 am so will have to taste test tomorrow. So far, not looking good. Didn't rise as much as I had hoped even though I used cake flour.

Have been up reading all night and will have to adjust my method for beating egg whites and how I separate the egg yolks and whites. Also need to fold more gently. I haven't been sifting either cuz my mom doesn't have one and I'm sure that's had an effect as well.

Don't think anyone is complaining about having to eat cake although it's not helping my mom lose the 10 lbs she vowed to lose by the end of the month.

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Pineapple Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing

When I was in high school, our home economics teacher, Mrs. Haji, gave us a recipe for pineapple carrot cake. Or rather, she gave my sister the recipe since she took home ec and I just borrowed it from her. I remember the paper the recipe was on fondly, with with oil and batter splattered all over it.

I've long since lost that piece of paper but haven't given up baking this dessert. In England I made it once when Nica and I were both over there. I baked it in the evening and planned to have it after dinner the next day. however, after I got home from work and looked for the cake, it had mysteriously vanished. I thought maybe Nica had taken it to our room or maybe our housemates ate it. When I asked Nica, he told me he ate the entire thing. I seriously thought he was kidding. A whole cake?! It was made in a 12x9 pan! With a whole brick of cream cheese! Nope. The whole thing.

Mom and Dad had a ginormous can of pineapple bits so I thought it was time to make this cake again. Since I lost the original, I've been on the hunt for something similar on the web. This is what I used the other night:
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/canadas_best_carrot_cake_with_cream_cheese_icing.php

Canada's Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
2cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
2tsp (10 mL) baking powder
2tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
1tsp (5 mL) baking soda
3/4 (4 mL) salt
1/2 (2 mL) nutmeg
3/4 (175 mL) granulated sugar
3/4 (175 mL) packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 (175 mL) vegetable oil
1 (5 mL) vanilla
2 (500 mL) grated carrots
1 cup(250 mL) drained crushed canned pineapple
1/2 cup(125 mL) chopped pecans
Icing:
1 1pkg pkgcream cheese, softened
1/4 cup(50 mL) butter, softened
1/2 tsp(2 mL) vanilla
1cup (250 mL) icing sugar


Preparation:


Grease and flour 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan; set aside.


In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth; pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in carrots, pineapple and pecans. Spread in prepared pan.


Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack. (Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. Or ovenwrap with heavy duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks; let thaw before continuing.)


Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake. (Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to I day.)
Additional Information:


*


Tips: Set timer for 5 minutes less than the time specified in recipe, check cake then for the following signs. If the cake is not done, return it to the oven to finish baking.


When is the cake done:
A fully baked cake will spring back when touched in the center. The cake also draws away from the side of the pan, and a cake tester (a toothpick of skewer works well) inserted in the center comes out clean. Also trust your sense of smell: the fresh aroma of butter and sugar wafting out of the oven can be the signal to check the cake.


When cakes emerge from the oven, their structure is set, but the set is still fragile. Let cakes stand in pans on rack for time specified in each recipe, usually 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake, then place rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.


My review? It was moist but not moist enough. Nica said that the one I made in England was much better. When I find that recipe again (he said he just couldn't stop eating it even though he kept telling himself to stop), I'll have to keep it.

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Had a craving for a light cake the other day and decided I'd try my hand at a lemon chiffon cake. A quick search of the internet found me this recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/lemon-chiffon-cake/Detail.aspx

Ingredients
* 1 3/4 cups cake flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 6 egg yolks
* 3/4 cup water
* 1 tablespoon lemon zest
* 6 egg whites
* 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 cup heavy whipping cream
* 2 1/2 cups lemon pie filling
* 8 slices lemon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Add oil, egg yolks, water and lemon rind. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. In a small bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, and beat until very stiff and shiny peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain. Turn batter into ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Invert cake and cool completely in pan. When cool, loosen edges and shake pan to remove cake.
5. To Make Filling: Beat cream to stiff peaks. Fold in lemon filling. Chill until stiff.
6. To Assemble Cake: Slice cake horizontally into 3 equal layers. Fill layers with 1/3 cup of filling. Spread remaining filling on top layer. Decorate with lemon slices.


A few mishaps/adjustments during the baking of this...
1. A little bit of egg yolk got into the whites
2. I used Splenda instead of regular sugar
3. I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour
4. I baked it for the full 60 minutes
5. I sprayed the tube pan with Pam
6. The eggs weren't at room temperature so I had them in warm water to try and raise the temp
7. I had to add cornstarch to the lemon meringue mixture because it was too runny.

The final result was okay - it was edible and everyone enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect. It didn't rise as much as I had hoped. The lemon meringue powder may have been old or it could have been the Splenda substitution but the frosting should have been thicker. I was also in a bit of a rush because it was getting late into the evening and I wanted everyone to have cake after dinner.

I forgot to take a photo but I'm definitely going to try this again soon since I still have half a carton of whipping cream. Here are the adjustments I'm going to make next time:

1. Use real sugar instead of Splenda in the lemon meringue mixture
2. Naturally raise the eggs to room temperature before starting the recipe
3. Don't spray the sides of the tube pan before baking. Apparently leaving the pan non-greased helps the batter creep up the sides of the pan and helps the cake rise
4. Watch the bake time - some readers indicated they only needed 20-25 minutes and all agreed they didn't need the full 60 minutes. If left for too long, the cake starts to deflate.
5. Use a wire whisk to fold in the egg whites instead of a spatula.

Update February 15, 2011:
Tried this again. Did all the adjustments as I had outlined above and the cake STILL didn't rise high enough to my liking. The frosting didn't work either because Nica used all the whipping cream for his morning coffees, unbeknown to me. Not that it mattered much anyway because the lemon meringue mixture I made was still runny, even though I used real sugar. I'm convinced the powdered mix was just simply old. It looked old and you really can't count on anything in this house being recent. Oh well. Maybe I'll try a different recipe next time.

Update February 27, 2011:
After reading baking101 on the internet in the wee hours during an insomniac night, I decided to try this recipe again. And this time - perfection! Here is what I changed:
- Used real sugar, no splenda
- Used cake flour, not all purpose
- separated the eggs when they were cold, and then raised the temperature of the whites to room temperature naturally (i.e. left them for about an hour at room temp)
- when beating the whites, started to beat them at medium-low speed, and then added the cream of tartar. Then slowly raised the speed (to avoid large air bubbles)
- gently (VERY VERY gently) folded the whites with the lemon mixture and used a whisk.
- removed the cake at about 25 minutes.

The final result? Ohmigod, it actually came up ABOVE the tube pan! I was so excited and proud. I was able to slice the cake into three horizontal sections and layered it with mango and strawberry. Again, the meringue part was awful awful AWFUL. It was the last packet in that box so at least I'll never have to worry about something being out of date again. The mango was still quite firm (made slicing easy on the mandoline) but the strawberry was the real winner as a fresh filling. I took the cake to Julie and Francis' Oscars party and it was a huge hit.

I made it again the next day so my parents could taste what I had been aiming for, for so long and I went back to using Splenda in the lemon mixture although I used real sugar when making the egg white peaks shiny. It didn't raise as much, BUT, to be fair I don't think I beat the whites as well as I had the time before. The volume was less which resulted in the final cake being a little less high. However it was still light and moist.

So the secret? it's all in the whites!