PEEK-A-BOO PEACHCAKE

Last weekend my husband's cousin Fred and his family stopped by to visit with us on their mad race across the country. Hearing about their trip was exciting but also very tiring. Actually Fred and his wife Dianne, in a rented RV,  traveled across the country from Virginia to California by themselves and then picked up their son Kirby and his wife Stella and their four boys for their return trip. They didn't see everything possible coming across but everyone had their requests and they didn't miss much. We were so glad they chose to stop over a couple of days with us. 

I wanted to have a dessert available for them while they were here and chose this recipe called Peek-A-Boo Peachcake from Mrs. Lilian Geyer of Belle Mead, New Jersey. It was in one of my latest finds at an estate sale from Pillsbury Publications called Bake-Off Cook Book from the 19th annual Bake Off. We especially like anything made with peaches so it sounded like a winner.

Mrs. Geyer's recipe called for two cans (1 lb. 13 oz. each) peach slices. I wanted to use fresh peaches but didn't have any more frozen ones in my freezer. I need to replenish my supply soon since they are on sale in the stores. Anyway I bought a 16 - oz bag of fresh frozen peaches from the grocery store. I made one layer of peach slices in the cake. If you wanted to have more peaches, you could make two layers of sliced peaches and use two bags (or use the canned peaches as her recipe called for).

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe or click the print icon at the bottom of the post. You will be given the option to reduce (remove) the images to 0% for the latter.

PEEK-A-BOO PEACHCAKE

2     cans (1 lb. 13 oz. each) peach slices, drained OR 1 - 2 one lb bag of fresh frozen peach slices
2     eggs
1     cup sugar
1/3  cup milk
1     teaspoon vanilla
2     cups flour
2     teaspoons baking powder
1     teaspoon salt

Topping

1     cup reserved batter
1/2  cup sugar
1/2  cup dairy sour cream (I used fat free)
1/4  teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray a 8 x 12 - inch pan or a 9 x 13 - inch pan. Set aside.

If using canned peaches, drain thoroughly and set aside. Not necessary if using frozen peach slices.

Beat eggs in a large mixer bowl at high speed;

gradually add the sugar,

beating until thick and lemon colored.

At low speed, blend in milk and vanilla.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl with a whisk and

then add to egg mixture folding in

until smooth.

Remove 1 cup of batter for the Topping.

Spread the remainder of the cake batter in the prepared pan.

Arrange peaches on top. 

Prepare the Topping by combining the reserved batter with the sugar, sour cream, and almond extract in a small mixing bowl.

Stir until well blended.

Spread the Topping over the peaches covering

all of the peach slices.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes for the 8 x 12 - inch pan or 45 to 50 minutes in a 9 x 13 - inch pan. Cool in pan on wire rack.

High Altitude Adjustment - Decrease sugar in cake to 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons. Increase milk to 1/2 cup. Bake at 375 for 50 - to minutes. 

We didn't, but you can serve the cake with a dollop of whipped topping on top.

For breakfast the first morning I made them my famous Buttermilk Biscuits and the second morning I treated them to my Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits. I did both of these posts early on when I started my blog and I don't have all the pictures I now have showing the process. I have made other biscuits though and did show lots of pictures. You could probably do a search from the search window in the right hand margin for biscuits and find them.

MINT-CHOCOLATE SQUARES

With the MO grandchildren's ball games almost every night, I needed something easy to make after we got home around 9:30 Monday night to take to H(illcrest) P(latte) C(ounty) Thrift Shop on Tuesday. 

Madison had a make-up softball game because of rain in Savanna, MO, about 45 minutes away at 6:00 and Tyler had a baseball game at "home" at 7:30. I drove her and Son Patrick to the game and my husband Wayne and DIL Lori went to Tyler's game. 

We got back to Platte City just as Tyler was coming up to bat so we got to see him strike out. (They still had about 45 minutes to play.) The next time he came up to bat, he swung early, as usual, at the first pitch. The second pitch though he made contact with the ball and hit it foul down the third base line. He was so excited! He dropped the bat and threw his arms up in the air and cheered. He didn't care if it were foul; he had finally "hit" the ball! Everyone was so excited for him also. He struck out, but he didn't care. He had hit the ball. It was just priceless. I don't know how many times he told me that he hit the ball that night.

I had found this recipe for Mint-Chocolate Squares last week in my 1001 Community Recipes, Easy Everyday Favorites cookbook and thought I would make them, but it turned out I didn't have all of the ingredients. This time I didn't forget the recipe after I bought the missing ingredients.(That's what usually happens to me.)

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

MINT-CHOCOLATE SQUARES

2        cups crushed chocolate sandwich cookies or enough to cover the bottom of the pan (I used a few extras)
1-1/4  cups chopped walnuts
1        cup flaked coconut
1-1/2  cups mint-flavored chocolate chips 
1        teaspoon vanilla
1        (14 - ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 - inch baking pan.

Spread chocolate cookie crumbs evenly in the bottom of the pan.

(I crushed a few cookies at a time in a ziplock bag. I had to scrape some of the crumbs out of the bag with a spoon as the center frosting wants to stick to the bag.

When I spread the 2 cups in the bottom, I had some "holes" so I crushed a few extra cookies.) 

Spread evenly with first the walnuts, 

then the coconut, and lastly

the chips. (I used Andes chips.)

Combine the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl.

(I just added it to the milk in the can.)

Drizzle evenly over layers.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool in pan and then

cut into squares.

FROZEN BERRY FLUFF

My husband eats frozen fruit every day mixed into his yogurt. He is always telling me I should make a pie or something with the frozen fruit. Well, one day I was flipping through my Hochstedler Family Coookbook, a collection of edible treasures from the family of Emanuel and Mattie Hochstedler. Emanuel was a Bishop of the Rich Valley Mennonite Church in Indiana. I have found so many fabulous recipes in this collection cookbook of the Hochstedler family.

This dessert is delightful at any time, but especially after eating a "heavy" meal. I treated our 8 - year - old granddaughter Madison to a piece and she loved it. The recipe called for 2 cups of fresh strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries but I decided to use 2 cups of Wayne's frozen berry mixture of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I also used only 1 cup of stevia for the 1-1/3 cup sugar. If it weren't for the sugar in the vanilla wafers, it would be a sugar-free or no-sugar-added dessert. We loved it, too.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

FROZEN BERRY FLUFF

1/2       cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1          box vanilla wafers, crushed
1          teaspoon lemon juice
2          egg whites
1          cup stevia (or sugar)
2          cups fresh or frozen berries (I used a frozen mixture of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Can use fresh strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries.)
1          8 - oz carton of whipped topping. (I used a sugar-free topping.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom of  a 9 x 13 - inch pan. Set aside.

Mix butter and crumbs. You can do this very easily using your electric mixer. 

Press most of the crumbs in the bottom of the pan. (Save a few crumbs for the top of the fluff.)

Bake in oven for 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Meanwhile beat lemon juice and egg whites slightly in a large bowl.

gradually beat in stevia (sugar) and berries.

Beat at high speed for 12 - 15 minutes util mixture is fluffy and has a large volume. (I stopped at 12 minutes.)

Fold in the whipped topping.

Spread on crumb mixture and

top with remaining crumbs.

Cover and freeze overnight.

Cut in squares when ready to serve.

(AMISH) PINEAPPLE BANANA BREAD

Bananas were recently 18 cents/lb at Aldi so I bought a bunch. I picked out yellow ones and green ones. They didn't have as many green ones as I would have liked, but I bought what I could. I guess you have figured out where I am going with this story. Right? I had five bananas not real ripe but riper than I will eat them. My husband likes them that way, but I didn't give him the option to enjoy them. 

Instead I found this recipe in my Tasteful Treasures from the Horse and Buggy Country of Copewango Valley, New York for Pineapple Banana Bread. It calls for 2 cups mashed bananas which is just what I had. Most recipes call for only 1 cup of mashed bananas but since this makes 2 loaves ... It also calls for 2 cups of sugar which sounds like a lot, but if you consider that it makes 2 loaves that actually isn't much. Still, I decided to reduce the sugar calories and used only 1 cup of stevia/sugar baking blend since I planned to keep the second loaf. I'm sure the volunteers at H(illcrest) P(latte) C(ounty) Thrift Shop would have enjoyed the extra loaf, but we haven't had much sweet stuff in the house to eat lately so I wanted to keep one loaf. (As it turned out, the loaf was all gone (eaten) easily within two hours of my getting there.) 

It is super moist and I love the pineapple and banana together.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

PINEAPPLE BANANA BREAD

3       cups flour
2       cups sugar (or 1 cup stevia/sugar baking blend)
1       teaspoon salt
1       teaspoon soda
1       teaspoon cinnamon
3       eggs
1-1/4 cups oil
2       teaspoons vanilla
1       (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
2       cups mashed bananas (about 5 bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9 x 5 - inch loaf pans.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl with a whisk.

Oops! Almost forgot the cinnamon.

Add the eggs, oil, vanilla, crushed pineapple, and bananas to the dry ingredients and

stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

Oops! Almost forgot the bananas this time.

Pour batter into loaf pans.

Bake for 65 minutes.

Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack. Remove and finish cooling on wire rack. 

Wrap in foil to store in refrigerator.

All cut ready to take to the thrift shop. (Interesting picture. Not sure why it looks this shape. 😊)