Foodie Friday -- Apple Toffee Coffee Cake

I originally found this recipe on the Baker Mama blog. But I changed it a little bit. One of the ingredients I had wasn't exactly what was called for. AND, this is the biggie, I suspect my self-rising flour had exceeded it's ability to rise--I have no idea when I had bought this flour. My bad. This didn't make it as much of a coffee cake as a 'blondie' - type brownie texture.

Don't get me wrong. This was a wonderful recipe, but I think you need to be warned that your results might be different.

Apple Toffee Coffee Cake

2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups peeled and diced tart apples
1 bag (8 ounces) chocolate toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Stir in flour. The batter will be very thick at this point. Stir in apples and 1 cup toffee bits. Spread into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with toffee bits.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool slightly before cutting.

Hints & Suggestions:

• I finely diced the apples, which made the apples a little less prominent
• I didn't have chocolate toffee bits, so used plain Heath toffee bits. And the package had been previously opened, so I just saved some to sprinkle on top
• Check your self-rising flour to make sure it's still viable. Sometimes the baking powder in the self-rising flour will lose it's 'umph'.

There were three of us and we managed to demolish the entire pan in less than twelve hours. Jus' sayin'.

Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Sad Cake

A few nights ago, my hubs drops a bomb that he needs to make something for their work 'holiday' party. They had to postpone the party from December to January because they were moving the office that month.

Anyway, he asked if we had the ingredients for Sad Cake. Of course, my mind is like a

steel trap--make that sieve--and all I could remember was yellow cake mix, pecans and coconut.

Well, I was wrong about the cake mix. It's actually Bisquick. And the last time I used my package of Bisquick was prior to the expiration date on the box--April 2009. My guess it was also the last time we made Sad Cake.

This snack cake is very good, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's healthy--it's no where near 'healthy' on the healthy-to-evil scale.

Sad Cake

2 cups Bisquick

4 eggs

½ cup oil

1 tsp. vanilla

16 oz. brown sugar (1 box)

2 Tbls. sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray Pam in 9 x 13 pan to coat. Mix all ingredients together and pour into pan. Smooth top. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Enjoy!