Category Archives: Fran's Old School Recipes

Boston Banana-Spice Cakes

Posted by suzyhomebaker in breakfast, cake, Fran's Old School Recipes, kid friendly, muffin

These are basically banana muffins but with lots of spicy goodness. I will admit, mine came out a little dry, maybe overcooked a bit, but the taste and texture are nice. Riley seemed to like them too. To please her we added small semi-sweet chocolate chips to half the batter and baked off ones with chocolate. She really liked those. I plan to freeze them for Riley to have for breakfast or a nice little snack. They’re not exactly healthy (made with shortening) but they do have lots of banana in them. *Please note, in the recipe, 2-3 cups is actually 2/3 cup, same with 1-3. At least I hope that’s what it means. Thanks Fran.

Fran’s Old School Recipe: Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Posted by suzyhomebaker in cake, Fran's Old School Recipes

I needed to make a cake and I do like the spongy, light quality of a good chiffon cake. Plus, its been a while since I’ve made a recipe from Fran’s collection. This was a tasty cake and not too difficult to make. I made an 8″ layer cake, filled the middle with Jello chocolate pudding, and iced it with a delicious chocolate buttercream by Nick Malgieri. My only complaint; it is quite spongy so when slicing it tends to squish down, cracking the icing and squeezing out some filling. I put mine in the fridge for a while so that it would slice easier. If you let the slice sit for a bit, the icing will get soft again. I like it either way.

Filling

1 packet jello pudding, any flavor

milk

Follow directions on packet for pudding.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing (adapted from Nick Malgieri)

  • 4 large egg whites (1/2 cup)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • Pinch salt
  • 12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • Flavoring

Directions

One of the best-tasting buttercreams is also the easiest to prepare. See the end of the recipe for flavoring possibilities.

Place egg whites, sugar and salt in medium-sized heatproof mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until egg whites are hot (about 140 degrees) and sugar is dissolved, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whip by machine until thick and cooled, about 5 minutes. Beat in butter and continue beating until buttercream is smooth and spreadable. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, for up to 5 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature and beat smooth by machine. Beat in flavoring, a little at a time, and continue beating until buttercream is smooth, about 2 minutes longer (always flavor buttercream immediately before using it).

Flavorings: Liqueur: 2 to 3 tablespoons liqueur, such as Grand Marnier or dark or light rum. Lemon: 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Coffee: 3 tablespoons instant coffee (espresso, if possible) dissolved in 2 tablespoons water, coffee or rum. Raspberry: 3/4 cup thick raspberry puree made by cooking down and straining a 10-ounce package of frozen raspberries. Chocolate: 6 ounces chocolate melted with 4 tablespoons water, coffee or milk and cooled.

Putting it all together

After your layers have thoroughly cooled, place one layer on a plate. Top with pudding almost to edges, spread evenly. Top with second cake layer. Start at center of cake with a heaping pile of icing. Start spreading to edges, trying to keep everything even, then begin to ice sides with excess icing. Smooth it all around or ice it rough to look more old-fashioned and homemade. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it’ll still taste good I promise you. You may not use all the icing. I certainly did not. Save it in the fridge for cupcakes or a late night snack.

Beef Potato Casserole

Posted by suzyhomebaker in Fran's Old School Recipes, kid friendly, savory

Another stellar recipe from Fran’s collection, I thought this casserole epitomized the 50′s era. It’s a simple to make casserole that incorporates layers of meat, veggies, and of course, a canned sauce/soup. This recipe seems to be from the kitchen of Marion S. Turner, so thanks Marion.

Here’s the verdict: It tasted just as I thought it would. Kinda Hamburger Helperish but definitely not as salty. I added a little salt and pepper to the beef to give it some flavor but the cream of chicken soup gave it an interesting texture and flavor, almost like a cheese sauce. Actually, cheese sauce would be pretty tasty instead of the soup. The onions were a bit crunchy for my taste, maybe sauteing them a bit before layering would help that, but the tater tots added a nice crunch. My husband downed it and all that was left in the dish so I guess he liked it and my daughter ate most of hers, leaving just a little ground beef in her bowl. So this could be a kid friendly dinner as well. There wasn’t much though, maybe if you doubled the recipe it could feed a family of four.

Found Cheesecake

Posted by suzyhomebaker in cake, Fran's Old School Recipes

Recently I acquired an old Betty Crocker book (copyright 1950) from a friend of the family, Fran. Stuffed inside were pages of hand written recipes, recipes from other cookbooks and newspapers and product labels. Most of the items seem to be desserts but there is a handful of interesting dinner/lunch recipes, most of which are pretty old school and full of deliciously fatty ingredients. Chiffon Pumpkin Pie, Dump In Cake, Barbeque beefbergers (that was the spelling, I promise you), Sour Milk Pie, and Moving Day casserole to name a few. Some of them sound really promising while others, well, they sound really gross to be honest.

So my new project for Suzy Homebaker’s blog is to make at least one recipe from this pile each week with an honest review via my husband and daughter to go with it. This way you can decide if Deviled Ham Logs are really worth the time. Oooh that one sounds horrible.

I picked a good one to start with. You can’t beat Aunt Dena’s Cheesecake. It’s creamy and rich, definitely not a light and airy cheesecake. But delicious overall. You can really taste the sour cream and the cooking time is so short, it’s really quite simple to make. My husband and neighbors, Annette and Charlie really enjoyed it.

Please note: I used a 10 inch spring form pan and only one 10 oz. box of Lorna Doones for this recipe and it seemed to be enough however, I didn’t have any extra to trim the top.

Thanks Aunt Dena and Fran.