Mad About Maida

Blueberry Muffins Source:  Maida Heatter's Cakes (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2011 ed.) , pg. 276 . These muffins are light and deli cious and can be served warm or cold. They also freeze well. They are also simple to make. I'm still on a silicone kick and this time I used silicone cupcake cups. They worked great . Not as quick and easy to clean as the silicone pan was but of course you have to clean each i n dividual cup.  I confess that I did not use fresh blueberries. I had some in the freezer and they worked fine in the recipe. Be sure that the berries are dried properly before incorporating them into your flour mixture !   1 cup fresh blueberries 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 cup sugar 1 e gg 2 TBS. uns alted butter, melted 1/2 cup milk Finely grated rind of 1 medium- sized lemon The full recipe is available here.         Combing the blueberries with flour with ...

Marble Spice Cake Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 138 . This is described as "an old fashioned Southern loaf cake". I made this last month and am just now getting it on the blog. This would be a nice cake for the holidays .  The recipe calls for a 9x5x3 loaf pan but I used a silicon pan (measuring slightly longer and narrower) that I had received from t he A mazon Vine Program to review. This was the first time I've baked in a silicon pan and I was pretty impressed with the results.   2 cups sifted cake flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter (softened) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup milk 1 tsp. powdered, unsweetened cocoa 1 tsp. instant coffee 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 tsp. powdered cloves 2 TBS. molasses, light or dark Preheat oven to 375 and adjust rack 1/3 up from the bottom. Butter (or spray) a 9x5x3 loaf pan and dust lightly with fine...

Sour Cream Chocolate Layer Cake Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 54 . One of these days, I'm going to learn to check my ingredients before baking. I thought I had learned this lesson but apparently not. As I was about to start, I realized that I was out of butter (of all things!). Actually I had 1 stick so I needed an additional 1/2 stick. Instead of running to the store, I decided to take a chance and use Smart Balance, which we did have on hand. The cake turned out fine although it was a tad dry. I don't think that was because of the Smart Balance, just probably overbaking time. As usual, this didn't take near a s long as she said. She states 35 minutes in the recipe, my was overdone at 2 0 minutes. Be careful!  The icing is absolutely delicious. I also had to use Smart Balance for this. It was a lit tle thick when I finished so I just added a bi t more sour cream and it was fine. I...