Blueberry Cream cheese Crumb Cake

     This cake is so good with a hot cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or with anything, even ice cold milk.!!!

Streusel Topping:

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup coarse granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 cup cold butter cut into pieces

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounce  cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon all purpose flour 

Cake Batter:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup good-quality margarine

1/2 cup soft brown sugar, tightly packed

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla essence

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup (or more) blueberry filling

Preheat oven to 150C (original is 180C).

Grease and line the bottom of an 8x8-inch pan with baking paper 

Streusel Topping:

Mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon in one bowl. Cut in the butter using a fork, a  bread knife or the tips of your fingers  until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Cover and place mixture in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

Cream Cheese Filling:

Place cream cheese in a bowl and beat using an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and flour and beat until well incorporated. Set aside.

Cake Batter:

Whisk or sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the margarine until smooth and creamy. Add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk and eat until just combined. 

Assemble:

Spread the cake batter onto the bottom of the prepared pan and up the sides (the mixture is quite thick so this shouldn't be too  difficult). Pour the cream cheese filling on top of the cake batter. Spread or dollop generous spoonfuls of the blueberry filling on top of the cream cheese filling. Scatter the streusel topping on top.

Bake for about 50 to 60 minutes. Test using a toothpick- poke it into the center of the cake. Wait for 5 minutes and pull it out, if it comes out clean it is ready. Remove from oven and let cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. It's good enough on its own, but you can always have it with  ice cream. 

                                                                      Funnel Cake

              These are always a hit at the fair taste, but just as good home made! Also a lot cheaper.


5 eggs
3 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour (heaping)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
10 teaspoons sugar
Directions:

1
Fill a 8 to 10 inch fry pan with oil (about 1/3 to 1/2 of the pan full of oil) and heat to frying temperature.
2
Combine the ingredients in order given.
3
Get a regular cooking funnel. Put your finger over the funnel spout; fill the funnel with the batter.
4
Start letting the batter funnel out in a criss-cross until all batter in funnel is gone. Batter will come together and cook until golden brown in about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. remove and top with what you want (when cooking make sure you make the batter cover the whole bottom of the pan--just keep criss-crossing until all holes are filled in).
5
Repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 to 10 large cakes.
6
Toppers for the cakes after cooking: Dust with powdered sugar or powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon. The carnival also uses canned pie filling such as apple or any flavor you want.

Glazed Orange Rolls

            These yummy rolls are full of orange flavor! Good for dessert, snacking or breakfast!


1 envelope dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar - divided

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons melted butter

2 eggs - beaten

3 to 31/2 cups all purpose flour, divided

3 tablespoons grated orange peel

2 tablespoons butter softened


Dissolve yeast in warm water.

Combine sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well.

Add melted butter, eggs, 2 cups flour and yeast mixture, mix well.

Gradually add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

Place dough in well greased bowl and turn to coat all of the dough with grease.

Cover and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down and divide in half.

Roll each half into rectangle on well floured surface.

Combine remaining 1.2 cup sugar and orange rind.

Spread each rectangle with butter, sprinkle with half the sugar- orange peel mixture.

Roll up jelly roll style starting with short end.

Seal edges and slice into 1 inch rounds.

Place cut side down on greased cookie sheet or baking pan.

Cover and let rise again until almost double in size.

Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly brown, not to brown.

Drizzle orange glaze over hot rolls. Recipe follows:

ORANGE GLAZE:

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon orange juice

Combine all ingredients in small sauce pan.

Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Drizzle over hot rolls.

Monkey Bread

When making this dish, I like to use refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, but you can use traditional if you like. I suggest not using butter flavored or flakey, they do not work as well in this recipe, adding too much buttery flavor or making if more difficult to pull full pieces apart.



Greased Bundt pan
4 small (7.5 ounce) tubes of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. Cut each circle of dough into ¼’s
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup light brown sugar
1 stick of butter or margarine


Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place 2/3 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon into a ziplock bag. Add dough quarters, few at a time, to bag and shake until well coated. Place coated dough into Bundt pan. Continue this step until all dough is used.

In a small saucepan, add butter, brown sugar, and remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Heat to melt butter and stir to combine well. Bring to a low boil. Stir constantly for 1 minute while boiling. Remove from heat, and pour over dough in Bundt pan.

Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and flip out of pan onto serving dish. Serve warm.