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Taste of the Past

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by Maxine Troxell

This is my Aunt Erma’s Sweet Muffins recipe from her Run of the Mill cookbook.  I add fruit to make them extra special.  This recipe has won a lot of blue ribbons. Sometimes, instead of blueberries, lemon zest, and lemon extract, I substitute with cranberries, orange zest, and orange extract. Both versions are delicious. I hope you enjoy them.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups sifted flour 

1 teaspoon salt                     

1 egg                       

¼ cup cooking oil

1 teaspoon lemon extract

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup sugar

1 cup milk

¾ cup blueberries

1 tablespoon lemon zest

*additional sugar for muffin tops (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Grease 12 muffin tin pan or use cupcake liners. 

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar into bowl. 

Make a well in the center and add egg, milk, oil, and lemon extract. 

Stir just enough to moisten dry ingredients. 

Fold in blueberries and lemon zest. 

Fill tins 2/3 full. 

Sprinkle additional sugar on top of each muffin if desired. 

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Taste of Past Recipe

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by Maxine Troxell

Christmastime is almost here.  Time to start to think of all the holiday goodies you will be baking this year, from cookies to cakes and all kinds of spicy goodies. Growing up, my mom would make all kinds of cakes. My mom and all her sisters were great bakers. I always loved applesauce cake with all the spices, raisins, and nuts. I found the recipe below in a cookbook from Damascus in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I do not remember what organization it was in, but I did copy the recipe and have used it as entries in the Community Show. It has won a lot of blue ribbons. This cake is so easy to make because there are no eggs, and you just put all the ingredients, except the raisins and nuts, into a mixing bowl. I am a fan of fruitcake, so if you like candied fruit, you can add candied fruit to the raisin and nut mixture.  At Christmastime, I like to decorate it with candied cherries and nuts. If you use a Bundt pan to bake the cake, you can put the candied cherries and the walnuts in the grooves in the bottom of the pan.

Applesauce Cake

4 cups ( minus ¼ cup for raisins and nuts)  all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar  
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup butter (melted)
2 cups raisins
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking soda
4 cups applesauce
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Generously grease and flour 10-inch tube or Bundt cake pan.  Mix all ingredients except raisins and nuts. In a small bowl, combine raisins and nuts.  Add ¼ cup flour to raisins and nuts to coat.  Add the raisin and nut mixture to cake batter.  Using a spatula, fold raisin and nut mixture in until mixed through.  Bake in pre-heated oven for 1 to 1½ hours (until toothpick inserted comes out clean).  

Remove cake from oven and cool for 10 minutes.  Invert cake onto cooling rack.  When cake is cool, sift powdered sugar on top.  Keep cake in an airtight container.  To keep cake moist, you can wrap cake

in a cheesecloth soaked with cooking sherry.