Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Another Labor Day dessert
--Cherry Pudding Cake



Cherry Pudding Cake
Taste of Home Family Collection Cookbook Copyright 2006

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups sugar, divided
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cans (14 ½ ounces each) water-packed pitted tart red cherries, well drained
2 to 3 drops red food coloring, optional I didn't use this
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Whipped cream or ice cream, optional

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, milk and oil; pour into greased shallow 3-qt. baking dish. In a bowl, combine cherries, food coloring if desired, extract and remaining sugar; spoon over batter.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake portion comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Yield: 10-12 servings
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I've seen this recipe all over the place, mostly in church cookbooks and Amish cookbooks. It's essentially a cobbler, although not quite a juicy as most cobblers. The slightly syrupy cherries end up on the bottom and a simple but delicious cake floats to the top.

I didn't get to fully appreciate this since my appetite still had not returned when I served this and I opted to leave the leftovers behind. I did taste it with some ice cream and there certainly wasn't anything bad about it, it was very good, but was it worth the cost? Those can of cherries were about $2.75 each. I think you could get the same effect with a less expensive dessert. I wasn't disappointed in this at all, it just wasn't a stand-out and like I said, I don't think it was worth the expense of the cherries. Oh, and right when I served it I remembered that my husband doesn't care for cherries. Oops! He just had ice cream.

Blast From The Past: Cherry Cherry Cookies from December 2005. I can't remember if I made these without the nuts last Christmas, now that we're nut-free, or if I skipped them. These were one of my favorite Christmas cookies but I think it was the nuts that really helped make them so good.

Question of the Day: Are there any fruits that you don't like?

6 comments:

Wanda said...

Not really. Not that I can think of. But stuff I buy now - especially at Walmart (so I never buy meat, veggies or fruit there any more) - is disgustingly UNripe and/or tasteless or just horrible tasting. I am waiting on a fig tree to ripen behind the parish classroom building so I can have fresh figs. I would LOVE to eat fresh, locally, only - especially with the genetic engineering going on with our foods. Mouse genes in tomatoes?! Blech!

ThursdayNext said...

I enjoy all fruit but grapefruit...its so tart and sour and I find no pleasure in eating it.

. . . said...

i have never liked melons. not at all.

Anonymous said...

I don't care for kiwi fruit, papaya, plums and berries with seeds such as raspberries and blackberries. I only like strawberries if they are sweetened or cooked.

Jan

Anonymous said...

Hmm.. I would recently have said I like all fruit except raisins (yuck) but I tried a new kind of melon this past week and didn't like it. I can't remember the name of it but it was a little larger than an apricot with striped skin and very slimy and tart. Bleh.

Anonymous said...

we knew this as "George Washington Cake" when I was growing up because it was made once or twice a year during February. it was a recipe of my grandmother's, probably from the 1920s or 1930s and we used a quart of home-bottled cherries (pitted of course so the expense of today's store-bought canned cherries wasn't an issue. this is best warm, not hot, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top so that it melts ever so slowly. yum yum.