Blog

Spring 2020 Prairies North Magazine Has Arrived

In my spring Eats and Treats column, I shared a few of my favourite memories about microwave cooking, from a time when microwave ovens were new and exciting. Decades later, I still rely on my microwave oven for many fantastic recipes. 

You must try my Popcorn in Caramel Sauce. Get inspired to eat popcorn in the morning, by reading I Love Popcorn for Breakfast. 

Every Christmas I make Fantastic Microwave Oven Peanut Brittle. This year I also made it with mixed nuts.  

Oat Snacking Cake is delicious when cooked in the microwave oven. 

Six-Minute Lemon Pie Filling is one of my favourite recipes. 

Also, Best Ever Microwave Rice Pudding is a delicious microwave dessert.  

Don’t overlook the simplicity of the cheese sauce featured in the Spring Issue of Eats and Treats. This particular cheese sauce is simple enough for kids to make. It dresses up everything from corn chips to broccoli. I recently discovered that leftover veggies smothered in this sauce can be frozen and reheated perfectly. You might even want to try making Scalloped Cabbage, which I adapted from a vintage family recipe, using a microwaved cheese sauce. 

In these days of self-distancing, I’ve had a lot of time to play. I want to draw your attention to a short video that features my talking microwave, circa 1980. Tee Hee! 

Click here: Talking to My Microwave

Mind Blowing Caramel Coconut Icing

Every fall I receive beets from my friend Aline, and I make several Beet and Carrot Cakes to place in my freezer. In response to my past blog about Beet and Carrot Cake, I received many comments and emails. Aline told me her recipe for Beet and Carrot Cake was identical to mine, but her icing was entirely different. She shared that recipe with me, and I am grateful.  

This year, I did a comparative test with tea time visitors. Each person received two pieces of my beet and carrot cake, one with cream cheese glaze and the other with Mind Blowing Caramel Coconut Icing. Our young friend took a bite of the caramel coconut topped cake, and, as he chewed, his expression brightened and he said, “Wow! That is good. It totally surprised me.” 

If I hadn’t told my guests we were testing one cake recipe with two different toppings, they would have thought the cakes were different too. Give this recipe a try, and let me know your thoughts by commenting below.    

Caramel Coconut Icing Ingredients: 

Make this icing as soon as the cake comes out of the oven. It is best to apply this icing to a warm cake. 

10 tablespoons of brown sugar

4 tablespoons of butter

6 tablespoons of cream (I used whipping cream)

1¼ cups of unsweetened shredded coconut

Place the above ingredients in a saucepan and stir until the mixture boils. Continue boiling for 3 minutes.   

Spread the icing on the warm cake. 

Return the cake to the oven and broil until the icing has browned. In my oven, the broiling step requires just over two minutes. Keep an eye on the process to avoid burning.

Vintage Caramel Fudge Frosting

I have searched for this recipe for decades. My dear friend, whom I met forty-nine years ago, in a boarding house, while attending our first year of university, will be as happy as I am to see it in print.

One summer, this friend and I rode the bus to her hometown, in Northern Saskatchewan. The trip provided me with many memories, but one of the most vivid was the taste of this icing. My friend’s mother had made a white cake, and, on the first evening of our visit, we enjoyed strawberries and whipped cream over squares of cake.  

The next evening, my friend’s mother stirred up a brown sugar sauce and poured it over the cake, and right before our eyes, it turned into a soft fudge-like frosting. It was glossy and held its shape, but didn’t become hard. The taste made me stop chewing, savour it, and sigh. The practicality of creating two such different desserts, from one cake, impressed me. I meant to ask for the recipe but never did.

My friend’s mom passed away and time marched on. I kept asking about the recipe, but my friend couldn’t find it. I tried several cooked icing recipes but couldn’t reproduce the taste sensation.

Then one day, while having tea with a friend of my parents, I mentioned the icing, and she remembered making such a recipe in the early fifties. She loved it on chocolate cake, and we agreed it would be good on a boiled raisin cake. She shared this recipe with me, and I tucked it away for further reference.

We just celebrated my husband’s birthday. He has enjoyed many of his favourite treats lately, because I have been on a roll in the kitchen. I asked what he’d like for his birthday treat, and he suggested Chameleon Cake. He likes to have a slice of this cake, drizzled in maple syrup. Well, he had a slice that way, the day before his birthday. I had my slice with fruit and yogurt. On his actual birthday, I decided to use the vintage recipe from my “must try” file and ice about a third of the Chameleon Cake. The rest of the cake would go into the freezer, cut and wrapped, in serving size portions. 

As I stirred the ingredients in the pot, I was immediately transported to the little home of my friend’s parents. I could see my friend’s mother pouring the icing, while it was still warm, onto the cake, and I remembered how it spread, like lava, across the surface.

The wonderful thing about this icing is that you can refrigerate what you don’t use, in a plastic sealable dish. What is left can be cut into chunks, served cold like fudge, or placed on top of a muffin or piece of cake and popped in the microwave oven for a few seconds. This icing even makes a cake mix memorable.

Caramel Fudge Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown sugar

4 tablespoons of butter

¼ cup of milk

1 cup of icing sugar

Step One:

Mix the brown sugar, butter and milk in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Step Two:

Cool the mixture slightly (about 2 minutes) and then add the icing sugar. Stir vigorously, until the icing is smooth and silky.

Step Three:

Pour the icing over the cake and let it spread. You could tip the pan to help it flow.

Gord, the boy, Haddock keeps Nig Nog Biscuits in this tin!

Notice how the icing keeps its shape but is still soft.

Thank you to Vie Reynolds for this recipe.

Thank you to Marie Graham for such lovely memories.

Thank you Marion Murawsky for the trips up North. 

Let's Get Saucy

It is very clever to have a white cake, cupcakes, mini-cheesecakes, pancakes, ice cream, or leftover dessert cloud in the freezer. In minutes, you can prepare a delicious sauce, which will raise the ordinary to the sublime. My Butter Tart Sauce is definitely one of the most popular sauces in my collection. I try to have Saskatoon Berry Sauce in my fridge, frequently. My daughter loves my Pineapple Topping, and the Cherry-Berry Topping is always popular.  

It is fun to serve several sauces with one basic cake and let your guests try them all. You can find recipes for Chameleon Cake, which is a versatile delicious white cake, and my Dessert Cloud, a large delightful dessert for 16 guests, by simply clicking on the highlighted recipe name.  Many of these sauces and the cloud are gluten free. 

Maureen’s Butter Tart Sauce

Fast, easy, and The Boy's favourite!

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Pinch of salt

¾ cup of milk

(I add ¼ cup of raisins) optional

2 tablespoons of butter

½ teaspoon of vanilla

Stir together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir in milk until smooth. Add the ¼ cup raisins at this point if you are going to use them. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.

The mixture may appear to separate, but keep stirring. It will come together as the mixture begins to boil and thicken.

Remove from heat, stir in butter until melted then add vanilla. Serve this sauce warm or cold. It is absolutely yummy on white cake, ice cream, or mini-cheesecakes.

Add ¼ teaspoon of rum with the vanilla for a great adult company dessert!

Maureen’s Saskatoon Berry Sauce

2 cups of Saskatoon berries

1 cup of water

Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes

Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with ⅔ of a cup of granulated sugar.

Add sugar mixture to hot berries, slowly, while stirring.

Leave the pot on the stove and continue stirring until mixture thickens.

Add ½ teaspoon of almond extract and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Let the sauce cool and serve it on gelato, over angel food cupcakes, white cake, in tiny cooked tart shells, or on waffles.

Maureen’s Pineapple Topping

Serve over ice cream or white cake for a delicious treat.

It’s heavenly on the cloud!

½ cup of firmly packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

1 can crushed pineapple (14 ounce)

4 tablespoons of butter

Mix brown sugar and cornstarch in a medium-sized saucepan; stir in pineapple.

Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils for about three minutes. Stir in butter, just until melted.

Serve warm or cold over ice cream, cheesecake, or plain white cake. It is delicious as a filling for tiny tart shells.

Cherry-Berry Topping

Stir together:

1 can of E.D. Smith Cherry Pie Filling

2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Mix and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve over Dessert Cloud, ice cream, or angel food. 

Perfect Microwaved Cheese Sauce

If you try making white sauce in the microwave oven, you may never go back to the stovetop method. This sauce takes seconds only and can be turned into cheese or herb sauce by adding the ingredients you prefer.

Set power at MEDIUM

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

½ teaspoon of salt

1 cup of milk

Method:

In an eight-cup glass measuring-bowl, heat butter for ½ to ¾ of a minute or until melted. Stir in flour and salt with a small whisk. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth.

Heat for 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. (I stir every 2 minutes)

For Cheese Sauce:

Add ½ to ¾ of a cup of grated cheese and heat 1 minute if needed.

Add this cheese sauce to cooked macaroni, cooked potato with onions, or steamed vegetables. Add spices like garlic, oregano, or cayenne pepper if you like. 

I enjoy this sauce mixed with cooked spinach and served over crisp toast, as a quick lunch. My grandchildren love it served over cauliflower or broccoli. It is even good with crackers or corn chips. 

It is easy to please everyone. On the left is a gluten-free noodle dish with a white sauce recipe made using my favourite gluten-free flour and a small amount of mozzarella cheese. In the other bowl, I used my cheese sauce but sprinkled extra cheese on top for half of the family. Of course, the men had meat cooking on the barbeque, and the kids asked for a salad. 

NOTE: Béchamel sauce is just white sauce, which was named after Louis (Marquis de) Béchamel, a French courtier who is credited with inventing white sauce in 1703. Feel free to make your white sauce in the microwave oven, even when recipes call for stovetop preparation.