Cake-n-Cheesecake

This is one of my all time favourite dessert recipes. Got it from a neighbour when we lived in Montana, waaaay back in the mid 1970s. So. Thirty plus years. And I've easily made it a minimum of six times each of those years......Giving us a total somewhere in the 200 cake range? It's simple to make and it's always a hit!

Read the recipe all the way through before you start.

Filling:

1 8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese
2/3 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

Cream the cheese with the sugar.
Add sour cream and vanilla.
Blend in the eggs.
Mix well and set aside.

Cake

Sift together:

1 cup of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl cream:

1/2 cup of butter with 2/3 cups of sugar.
Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Add 1 Tbsp milk and 1 tsp vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and blend well.

Turn into a greased 10" pie plate [I use Pyrex.]Spread batter evenly over the bottom and up the sides.

Pour the cheese mixture over the batter.
Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 mins. until no longer jiggly in the center.
Cool on a wire rack. Top with strawberry glaze and chill until ready to serve.
Sometimes I skip the strawberry glaze. It's yummy all by itself! But for company it looks prettier with fruit on top....

Strawberry Glaze

You can keep this as simple as slicing strawberries and arranging them on top, if it's going to be served right away, and if your strawberries are nice and sweet. Or you can make a glaze from

2 cups of crushed or chopped berries
1/2 - 3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Stir sugar and cornstarch together. Add water and berries. Cook and stir over medium heat until liquid thickens and becomes clear. Let cool slightly before pouring over the pie. Cool completely. After serving [if there's any left!] cover and refrigerate. As you can see from the picture, I wasn't quite fast enough with the camera....

Tea Scones

My recipe for these scones is on an ancient piece of lined copybook paper. It is worn thin with age, all brown-spotted and tattered, and I'm afraid, if I don't get it on the blog here soon, it may just get thin enough to disappear altogether! Don't count on these scones to make you, or any part of you, disappear though! With fully one and a half sticks of butter there's very little chance they'd help anyone lose weight! But it's okay to indulge once in a while!

3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter [1 1/2 sticks or 6 oz.]
3/4 cup dark or yellow raisins, or currants, washed and dried
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup light cream


Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir with a whisk to blend well.
Cut butter into flour mix with knives until it looks like coarse meal. I switch to a pastry cutter to finish the job.
Add raisins or currants.
Gradually add buttermilk, mixing only enough to wet the dry ingredients. If needed add a little more buttermilk until the ingredients hold together.
Turn out onto a well floured surface and pat gently [or use a rolling pin]to 1/2" thickness.
With a sharp floured knife cut into 2" -2 1/2" strips, then crosswise into squares.
Place on a buttered cookie sheet, leaving a little breathing room between!
Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with a little sugar.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, until golden .
Serve warm with more butter, jam, marmalade, cheese, or all by themselves! With a big cup of tea, of course.

Whenever my mother made scones she wouldn't let us eat them 'til they cooled off. "They'll sit like stones in your stomachs," was her rationale. What a waste! They're best eaten warm from the oven, though there's nothing wrong with toasting them next morning for breakfast-if they last that long.