01.01.70

Ingredients:

750 ml (3 cups) all-purpose flour

625 ml (2 1/2 cups) sugar

250 ml (1 cup) baking cocoa

250 ml (1 cup) butter or margarine, softened

250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk

180 ml (3/4 cup) water

10 ml (2 tsp) baking soda

5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla

2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt

3 eggs

500 ml (1 tub / 16 oz) vanilla

ready-to-spread frosting

15 ml (1 tbsp) chocolate-flavoured syrup

125 ml (1 package / 4 oz) waffle ice-cream bowls (10 bowls)

140 ml (1 package / 4.5 oz) chewy fruit snack in 3-foot rolls (6 rolls)

Directions: Heat oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Grease 3 L (12 cups) bundt cake pan with shortening. Lightly flour. Beat all ingredients except frosting, syrup, waffle bowls and fruit snack in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Place cake on serving plate. Stir together frosting and syrup; reserve 60 ml (1/4 cup) of the frosting. Spread remaining frosting over cake. For straw hat: Place 1 waffle bowl upside down in centre of cake. Stack 5 more bowls on first bowl. For hair, cut fruit snack into fourteen 15 cm (6 in) strips and fourteen 12.

Source: Northumberland News

by Ashley Blais

Oranges always command significant territory on produce counters, so it's easy to imagine that they are always in season. Since they don't grow in the Valley there's no local harvest to countervail this assumption. But those who flee to Florida in the cold months know that winter is the time when the dark-leaved orange trees produce their golden-globe fruit, so school groups offer fundraiser boxes of oranges straight from southern groves and supermarkets have orange specials. And, of course, oranges are not just cheaper when they are in season - they are tastier too.

Perhaps because a huge part of the orange harvest is consumed as juice, oranges don't always get credit for their versatility, but with their sweet-acid taste and their aromatic flavors they can play starring or supporting culinary roles with equal grace. Most often they appear in cakes and sweet dishes including elegant desserts such as the French Crepes Suzette, Italian caramelized oranges, Spanish Orange and Almond tarta, and a myriad chocolate and orange confections. But the bitter tang of the skin and the tartness of the juice give backbone to classic sauces such as Maltaise sauce and the various orange sauces served with duck....

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My friend Mike Quinlan of Nordic Ware just gave me the great news that The Best of America's Test Kitchen - Best Recipes & Reviews 2012" issue (page 94), listed my Rose's Heavenly Cake Strip as their "the best strip."

They also mentioned that its one downfall is that it will not fit larger pans (it will fit a 10-inch pan) so I should add that they can be connected easily using silicone loops that are also great for myriad kitchen activities such as trussing a chicken, and replacing the usual string for wrapping roasts.

Congratulations Rose! I just bought 2 of your strips last week and have already used them for a number of cakes and I would have to agree with this review that it is the best strip! Prior to this, I have been using Wilton cake strips that you have to soak in water and pin around the pans which is such an inconvenience and at the same time they don't seem durable as even after the first use, there is fraying at the edges and also brown marks from the heat it endured while baking. Your strips does the job perfectly, I don't have to worry about them falling off the pan while baking (which happened to me once with the old cake strips).

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