Recipes

My friend Jan actually is a ‘Martha Stewart’ type person. One of my very first posts on my blog was about Jan and the vast differences between us and our lifestyles. I seriously don’t know how she stays friends with me.

Anyway, Jan makes many of her meals and desserts from scratch, but she knows I am more of a ‘quick and easy’ type of gal. I am not much of a baker and I am not much of a cook either. So when Jan comes across easy recipes (using store bought cake mix, or one of her ‘one dish’ meals for dinner) she will very kindly pass along the information to me.

This cake is especially nice for the summer! And it’s a quick and easy recipe! I made this today for my brother-in-law Donald’s birthday cake.


Pineapple Layer Cake ~


1 Pkg. Yellow Cake Mix
1 Can (11 oz.) Mandarin Oranges, drained
1 Can (20 oz.) Unsweetened Crushed Pineapple, drained
1 Pkg. (3.4 oz.) Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
1 Carton (12 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour two 9 inch round baking pans (I flour the pans with a little of the cake mix)


Prepare cake batter according to package directions.
Beat in oranges until blended.
Pour into baking pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (Mine had to bake for 33 minutes.)
Cool ten minutes on racks before removing from pans.
Cool completely before next step.

Combine pineapple and dry pudding mix, fold into whipped topping.
Spread mixture between layers, over top, and sides of cake.
Store in refrigerator.

HOW EASY IS THAT?! And it’s a wonderful summer dessert! (Thank you, Jan!)


This next recipe has been in Ray’s family for many, many years. Ray made this cake to celebrate Donald’s birthday (Donald is usually the one that makes it for us, but we couldn’t have him make his own birthday cake!)
Oh, and it's called a cake, but it's not really a cake, I think it's more like a dessert casserole!
This recipe gets tricky at the end, so I hardly ever make this one!

Aland’s Pankake ~
(Aland is the island off Sweden where Ray’s family is from, the Aland Pankake differs from the regular Swedish Pankake, but I don’t know in what way and neither does Ray, so don’t ask!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease baking dish (7 x 11).

2 Cups Milk
1/3 Cup Farina (first boil a porridge of milk & farina before adding following ingredients):

2 Cups Milk
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Flour
3 Eggs (beaten)
3 T Butter (softened)
2 teasp. cardamon
½ teasp. Salt

Stir into the hot porridge mixture the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, butter, cardamon, and salt. Pour batter into a greased baking dish and bake 40 minutes. You will have to test to see if it is done by checking to see if it is firm and has good color (I swear this is part of the directions!), if after the forty minutes you think it still needs to bake keep checking it every ten minutes for firmness and good color (again, part of the original recipe!).


Okay, this time Ray had to leave it in the oven for 70 minutes instead of 40 minutes to get it a "good color"! (This is why I don't bake the famous Swedish family recipe).

This, by the way, is considered good color:



Cool and serve. I like it best refrigerated and served with whipped cream or powdered sugar. Ray’s family likes it served with either applesauce, jam, or lingonberries.

If you try either of these recipes I hope you enjoy!