sugar | Not Just Sunday Dinner

Pecan Pound Cake with Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

I like salted caramel, and I can not lie! I have been on a salted caramel roll lately. I know that I posted salted caramel sauce recently. Hopefully, you like it as well as I do. This is a different recipe, maybe even a little easier, but equally as delicious! Poured over this moist and delicious pecan pound cake this dessert is the bomb! This cake is going to be my signature dessert during the fall and holiday season!

pecan pound cake with easy salted caramel sauce 5

This cake recipe works best in a large 12-cup bundt pan. I used a smaller pan simply because I’ve had this fancy cake pan for a while and had never used it. I had enough batter to make six large muffins in addition to the cake. You should have plenty of caramel sauce to drizzle over your cake and have extra for serving. I sprinkled my cake with a few chopped pecans, to let anyone eating the cake know that it contains nuts. This cake is by far the best new cake recipe I have tried in a while!

Pecan Pound Cake with Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

Author:

Amye Melton

Ingredients

For the cake:
1½ c. unsalted butter, softened
2 c. light brown sugar, packed
1 c. granulated sugar
5 lg. eggs, room temperature
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 c. pecans, chopped
For Easy Salted Caramel Sauce:
¾ c. unsalted butter
1½ c. light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. Fleur de Sel (or kosher salt)
½ c. evaporated milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan and set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine buttermilk with vanilla extract. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just to combine. Stir in the pecans.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover the top of the cake with foil if the top begins to get too brown.
Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack to completely cool.
Place cake on serving plate and drizzle with Easy Salted Caramel Sauce and sprinkle with pecans.
For caramel sauce:
In a medium saucepan add butter, brown sugar, and salt. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and boil
for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and stir in ½ c. evaporated milk and vanilla extract. You may need to stand back while it bubbles up. Stir to combine.
Store in refrigerator. May be reheated in the microwave.

Meringue Cake with Fresh Fruit

This meringue cake with fresh fruit is such a treat that you may catch yourself making it all of the time! You’ll be in and out of the kitchen in no time, and you can bake it ahead of time. It’s so easy that I almost feel guilty sharing it. After all, you start with a cake mix.

This cake is simply a white cake mix, topped with meringue and nuts and served with fresh fruit. I like peaches or strawberries, and I don’t even use additional sugar on the fruit. The dessert is simple enough to serve on a weeknight, but it’s delicious enough to serve to guest.

Meringue Cake with Fresh Fruit

Author:

Amye Melton

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix
4 egg whites
1¼ c. granulated sugar
¾ c. chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or almonds)
Chopped fresh fruit

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans, set aside.
Prepare cake mix according to directions on box. Spread into prepared pans and set aside.
Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually add sugar, beating thoroughly. Spread meringue over cake batter. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 325°F for 30 minutes or until center tests done. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Cut into wedges and serve with fresh fruit.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

I was recently reminded that I had never shared my mother’s sugar cookie recipe on NJSD. I received pictures of these two cuties making mama’s cookies, and I knew I needed to share this recipe with you!

My mother is and will always be the most wonderful cook I know. She passed on the love of creating something delicious in the kitchen for family and friends to me. Mama is an amazing lady with many wonderful qualities. Anyone that knows her knows that she has a heart of gold. She is kind to everyone and never meets a stranger. When I was growing up, she made all of my friends feel at home when they were at our house. I think my friends enjoyed spending time at our house to see my mama rather than me. She is in every sense of the words an “elegant southern lady”. She lost my daddy over 12 years ago, and if there were ever two “soulmates” in this world, they were. Since losing my dad, she has been thrown a few curve balls but has shown incredible strength. She is my hero, and I am so thankful that God chose to give me such an amazing role model. I love you, mama!!

Mama made these cookies many times when I was growing up. My cousin said that she made them often when her daughter was small, so I’m guesstimating that this recipe must be 40+ years old. This recipe makes about two dozen cookies that are not overly sweet. Mama always pressed the cookies slightly with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Author:

Amye Melton

Ingredients

½ c. butter, softened
½ c. vegetable shortening
½ c. granulated sugar
½ c. powdered sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
½ tbsp. vanilla extract
2¼ c. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cream of tartar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, and cream of tartar, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and shortening. Add sugars and mix well. Mix in the egg and vanilla until combined. Slowly add flour mixture and mix just until combined.
Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on if you like them light golden brown or a little darker.

Three-Bean Salad

Here’s another great vegetable salad recipe. This recipe uses convenient canned vegetables, which makes it an easy year-round recipe. This salad has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. It was always on the table at family get-togethers, and it’s great for cookouts and picnics.

My mom uses Splenda in place of sugar, which is an excellent option. You can mix up the beans. Try adding frozen English peas in place of chickpeas, or maybe cannellini (white kidney beans) rather than red kidney beans. Stored in an airtight container it last about one week in the refrigerator.

Three-Bean Salad

Author:

Amye Melton

Ingredients

1 (15.5-oz.) can Garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-oz.) can cut green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-oz.) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
½ c. chopped bell pepper
½ c. chopped onion
½ c. white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
½ c. vegetable oil
½ c. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Instructions

Pour rinsed and drained beans into a large bowl. Add chopped bell pepper and onions. Mix and set aside.
Mix vinegar, oil, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves. Pour over bean mixture and gently mix. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Blueberry Scones

I have tried my hand at sweet scones for years. Through the years, I have never produced a scone this tender and delicious. I’m so excited that I finally have a recipe that I want to keep forever! I already have a list of different flavors that I’m dying to try.
I found this recipe on babble.com. The first time I followed the recipe to a tee. Although it was good, it still wasn’t what I wanted. So I made a few changes and came up with the most delicious, tender scone I’ve ever had. I love the fold method they used and will use it from now on when making scones. Be sure to comment if you decide to try this recipe with anything other than blueberries!

Blueberry Scones

Author:

Amye Melton

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose flour
½ c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 stick unsalted butter
1 lg. egg
½ c. whipping cream + extra to brush on top of scones
1½ c. blueberries, fresh or frozen
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 to 3 tbsp. Demerara Washed Raw Cane Sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
If you are using fresh berries place them in the freezer for a little while.
Place the butter in the freezer for about 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from freezer and shred, using a cheese grater. Return the shredded butter to the freezer until you are ready to use.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest, set aside.
In a small bowl whisk together the egg, whipping cream, and vanilla extract, refrigerate until ready to use.
Add the frozen shredded butter to the flour mixture and toss with fingers to coat with flour.
Stir in the cream mixture just to combine. Transfer dough to a well-floured board and dust top with additional flour. Working quickly, knead the dough a few times. Flatten, using your fingers and knead a few times. Flatten the dough into a 12" x 12" square. Sprinkle with blueberries and lightly press them into the dough.
Fold ⅓ of the dough over, then the other ⅓ over the top of that piece (fold like you would a letter). Press the ends together and shape, if needed into, a 12" x 4" rectangle.
Cut crosswise in the middle, then again in the middle of each piece. You should have four even squares. Cut each square diagonally into two triangles. Place on prepared pan. Brush tops with whipping cream and sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar.
Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks for about 10 minutes.

Notes

These are best the day they are baked. If you have leftovers, store in an airtight container. To reheat, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place scone on prepared pan and heat in a 250°F oven until heated through.