May 28, 2008
Posted by admin on Cake And Cookies

Make A Traditional Fruit Cake

Our introduction to Fruit Cake will include the basics, which will be followed by a more in depth look at this topic.

When I was growing up, there was nothing more stressful or feared during the holidays than grandma’s fruitcake. I know that my experience is not unique. Fruitcakes are feared all over the country. The everlasting fruit cake is the bane of any holiday season. Fruit and flower baskets, Christmas ornaments, cheesy family cards, eggnog all of these meet appreciation wherever they are given. Those tough, indestructible fruit cakes alone ruin the holiday season!

I have always been a fan of cooking especially baking. I love to bake cakes and cookies, and I can’t figure out why in the world such a disgusting cake would become such an entrenched tradition. In my whole life, I have only met a handful of people who like fruitcakes and many of them are fruitcakes themselves. I set out to discover if there were such a thing as a good tasting fruit cake. Were they always these indestructible things that you could send in the mail, leave sitting for weeks, or even stack papers on top of without damaging in the slightest? Were they ever, in other words, intended to eat?

We have just reached the tip of the iceberg, as the remainder of this article will help to further your understanding of this complex subject.

I haven’t been able to find out where the much-maligned fruit cake originates, but I have discovered that there are many different recipes. Most of the time, people are familiar with the bland, generic one. These cakes are dense, dry, and easy to preserve. In this day and age where we can have fresh food whenever we want, we are a little bit spoiled. Few of us see the usefulness of having such a durable holiday fruit cake, but my guess is that, in earlier times, they were pretty handy. In the winter when everything was dead and the ground was cold, having something sweet and doughy that you could snack on all year would be a rare luxury. So much for the uselessness of the fruit cake!

I have also discovered that there are some cake and fruit recipes that are actually quite good. If you add a little bit of brandy, for example, you can turn a bland fruit cake it is something delicious. You can also add coffee, cream, or many other additions. Using fresh fruit, although not strictly traditional, will also make it lighter and tastier for people. In short, there is no reason why you can’t make a fruit cakes that tastes good while still deserving that name. All it takes is a little bit of creativity.

The next time you have questions regarding Fruit Cake, you can refer back to this article as a handy guide.

Tags: cakes and cookies, fresh food, fresh fruit, fruit cake, fruit cakes, fruitcakes, recipes

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December 28, 2007
Posted by admin on Cake And Cookies

Making My Grandmothers Butter Cookies Recipe

We have numerous other articles written on baking cakes and cookies and a few of them are about the butter cookies recipe.

There are many traditions that I have in my family and with friendships. My husband and I have enjoyed carrying on some of the traditions that we practiced in the families that we grew up in and we have also established new traditions that we have done within our family. As with most traditions and celebrations many of our rituals involve food.

We are both of German heritage and we both enjoy cooking as well as eating. From the time our children were little we have included them in preparing meals on a day to day basis and we have made special occasions out of preparing foods for our traditional celebrations. One of my fondest memories of helping my mom in the kitchen was making my grandmothers butter cookies recipe. It was fun making the different shapes out of the rolled out dough and then decorating the cookies once they were baked. Mom would have a variety of sprinkles and different colored frostings for us to use on the sugar cookies. If you feel that you have not learned anything new thus far, there is a whole new realm of information in the rest of this article.

I have used my grandmothers butter cookies recipe with my children. They enjoy making these cookies so much that we have increased the occasions that we make them for. My mother would only make the butter cookies recipe once a year at Christmas time. We also make the cut out cookies for Valentines Day, Easter and the fourth of July. The key to any good butter cookies recipe is that the dough has plenty of butter and that you leave it in the refrigerator for several hours and preferably over night. Having cold dough allows for easier rolling without needing to add extra flour, which can produce a dry cookie with little taste. Depending upon the holiday I will use different spices to add to the butter cookies recipe. At Christmas I add cinnamon to the dough and for Easter I add lemon extract. The key is to not worry about the mess and let the kids be as creative as they want to be with decorating. I have found that if I cover their work space with a cheap plastic table cloth the clean up is easy because I simply throw away the plastic when we are done. I also set aside cookies that I want frosted special for serving for parities or to take to various functions.

Now that our children are grown we have started making these special cookies with our grandchildren. It is neat that my grandmothers butter cookies recipe is now bringing smiles to yet another generation.

This article about the butter cookies recipe, is the perfect way to gain the knowledge that you need to bake the best cookies in the world.

Tags: butter cookie, butter cookies recipe, cakes and cookies, sugar cookies

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