Almond Toffee Brickle

This summer has been great, but it's not over...yet. So while it's still summer we have a chance to try something new and with a couple of guests too. Guess who??? I'm starting to sound like Dr. Seuss.  I guess I'm a poet and I don't know it. Anyway my three guests were my cousin (who's one year old), my aunt, and my mother. It made for a lovely day of ohhhh look at the baby laugh when Grace spills something. She was very distracting. =)

The Ingredients

BTW, you don't need 4 sticks of butter, these sticks were only 1/4 cup.

My aunt pouring the ooey gooey mixture.

We had a wonderful audience...
until someone got distracted by a CA orange. =)

Ingredients:
40 saltine crackers
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter ( 2 sticks )
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds
Created by: Debbie Calhoun, Big Pool PA

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover bottom and sides of jelly roll pan with aluminum foil. Place crackers side by side, not overlapping. Set aside.

2. Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar, and bring to a rolling boil. Boil exactly 3 minutes; stir often. Remove from heat and pour immediately over saltines. Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees.

3. Take out of oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Allow chocolate to melt a few minutes, then spread evenly. Remove foil and break (do not cut) into small pieces. Store in refrigerator in plastic containers.


I had so much fun making this recipe with my aunt and our audience carefully watching us, making sure nothing was spilled. In the end everything turned out wonderfully and was eaten up as quickly as we made it.

GB2- God Bless, Go Bake!!!

The Real Red Velvet

Although you've probably seen red velvet cake at a bakery or grocery store, this is the real thing. We hardly ever buy red velvet cake because we've had the real thing, and once you've had that... there's no going back.  I know that red velvet cake has become rather faddish in the last few years, but this is an older recipe from my PA Grandma who has made this cake for a very LONG time (even before I was born), so pay close attention.

The Ingredients

1 bowl down 2 more to go.

Here comes the cake!!!

 I borrowed my sister's trifold board so everything looks white and pretty for the background. Hopefully she won't notice any smudges or batter on the board. =)

The trio of bowls.

Just 2 more ingredients left!

Ingredients for the icing

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!

Our friends enjoying some red velvet cake.

My patriotic Red Velvet Cake.

Ingredients:
FIRST STEP in BIG BOWL:
Mix 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. cocoa
Mix these 4 ingredients together.
SECOND STEP in MEDIUM BOWL:
3/4 cup oil, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 eggs 1 oz. red food coloring
Cream oil and sugar, add eggs. Add food coloring, Mix well.
THIRD STEP in SMALL BOWL:
1 cup buttermilk, 1 tsp. baking soda
Combine buttermilk and baking soda.
FOURTH STEP:
Add second and third bowls alternately with the first.
1 tsp. vinegar, 1 tsp. vanilla.
Add vinegar and vanilla. Mix Well. Bake at 350F (175C) about 25-30 minutes.

Icing:
8oz of soft cream cheese, 1 stick of soft butter, 4 cups confectioner's sugar,  2 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cream cheese, stick of butter, and vanilla. Pour in the confectioner's sugar gradually till light and fluffy, (If desired add more sugar for sweeter icing.)

So, what do you think... are you going to be bold and try this recipe or just buy Costco's brand? Wouldn't you rather have the real thing instead of going with a cheap imitation??? I would make the cake...that's my opinion. =) I hope that's enough to convince you to make this wonderful thing....although it's probably not... or maybe it is!

GB- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!