healthy cake

Dear Mom,

Speaking of healthy desserts, how about some good old fashioned carrot cake?  I think this is the original healthy dessert, it features vegetables as the main ingredient!  What's more healthy than getting a good dose of beta-carotene, vitamin A and fiber?  All in cake form?  This recipe has pineapple and pecans in it too, so we will just be topping those other healthy items with some heart-healthy nut oils and immune-boosting vitamin C!  Don't forget the calcium in the cream cheese frosting.  All in all, this is a very healthy cake, so why not have two servings? 

This cake is pretty easy to put together, you could do cupcakes too if you want individual portions, just decrease the baking time to about 15-20 minutes. 

carrot cake

1-1/2 cups AP flour
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. veggie oil
2 large eggs
2 cups grated carrot
1-1/2 cups canned, crushed pineapple, drained
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, coconut, pecans, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Whisk together oil and eggs in a separate bowl.  Add the oil and egg mixture, carrot and pineapple into the flour mixture, stir until combined.  Pour the batter into a 13" x 9" baking pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

cream cheese frosting

2 tbsp. softened unsalted butter
1 8-oz block of cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, vanilla and butter until well blended.  Slowly add the powdered sugar beating constantly.  Spread onto the cooled cake.  Toast the coconut.  I use my toaster oven to do this, just spread the coconut out on a small baking sheet and put it in the toaster oven, watching it very closely as it has a tendency to burn quickly.  As parts of the coconut gets browned, stir it and re-spread it out on the baking sheet.  (You could easily follow the same procedure in a regular oven.)

Sprinkle the top of the cake with the toasted coconut.

nagging and bragging

Dear Kristin,

Okay, okay, okay! Since when did you become the mom & start nagging me to do my homework? You are right, though - we really should be a little more diligent when it comes to our posts.

Even though Christmas has come and gone, we have only begun to experience true winter weather here. There is not much snow, but the wind-chills are hovering around 0, and we are all hunkering down in our nests. Speaking of Christmas...

This recipe comes from my mother. Now, we all know that your grandmother was not a great cook. She was, however, a pretty good baker. Every Christmas we gorged ourselves on at least 10 different kinds of cookies. There were the obligatory cut-outs - which were the only ones my sister and I were allowed to help with - but there were also cookies of a much higher order. She also made taffy treats, which looked like miniature candy apples, pfeffernusse, and candy cane cookies which were simply a chilled and dyed almond dough shaped into a twist and sprinkled with peppermint candies. Mom always was trying new cookie recipes at Christmas, and luckily for us, most of them were worth repeating year after year. This was especially true of these Cream Cheese Fold-overs.

For years I've tried to make these cookies like my mom did. I just could not get them right. My fold-overs ended up looking like little Barbie burritos. They would not stay closed, and the jam filling would all leak out, leaving me with little to show for my efforts except for a big sloppy mess on my counters and cookie sheets covered with burned on goop. You, however, would not let me give up on these. You discovered the secret of these cookies when I couldn't. After you and I made these at Thanksgiving, I felt utterly empowered, and went straight home and tried to bake them again. Finally! Success! I'm so glad you kept nudging me to keep trying these - so, yes - thank goodness you are somewhat of a nag! (luv 'ya!)

cream cheese fold-overs


1 c. butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
white of 1 egg
assorted jams such as raspberry, mint or blueberry


Cream butter and cream cheese together until well blended. Blend flour and salt into cream cheese-butter mixture. Shape dough into disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill several hours.

Generously sprinkle work surface with confectioner's sugar. Roll out dough on prepared surface to a 1/8" thickness. Cut dough into trapezoid shapes, about 4" long, with wide end about 3" wide and narrow end about 1" wide. Put about 1/4 tsp. jam in center of cookie. Brush narrow end of cookie with egg white. Fold narrow end of cookie up and over the jam filling, and secure underneath the wide end. (This sounds much more complicated than it is - the next time I make these I promise to take a video & post it here.)

Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 F. for 10 minutes, until puffed and slightly tan.

Comfy's note: these are best when they are fresh out of the oven, but be warned - once you have one, the rest seem to magically disappear into thin air!