Beer Cake

2/3 cup butter or oleo
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 sq. bitter choc.
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsps. soda
1 cup beer
3/4 cup buttermilk
8 oz bottle maraschino cherries
1/4 cup cherry juice
1/2 cup chopped nutmeats

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and melted chocolate and mix well. Sift flour and soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with beer and buttermilk. Add cherries, cherry juice and nutmeats. Mix well. Pour in 9 x 13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 mins.

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 tsps. vanilla

Blend softened cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread on cake.

Submitted by Dona Jahn, Tripoli, WI

Bloggers Note: I used "Point, Special Lager" beer from the Stevens Point Brewery.

It was only after starting to mix the ingredients did I realize that all of our 9 x 13" pans were in use with left over casseroles. So, I had to use three, eight inch round cake pans. As I learned, this cake is not meant to be a layer cake! It's very moist, and therefore very hard to stack. Keep that in mind as you gander at the pictures. It really does taste much better than it looks!

I was really happy with how the cake tastes and am excited to make it again in a 9 x 13" pan. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of maraschino cherries, but I did not mind them in the cake. I also used almonds for the "nutmeats".

When I make it again I will place the cherries in the pan once the batter has been poured in. They had a tendency to clump together so parts of the cake have lots of cherries, and other parts have none.

This definitely will be making a few appearances this summer and parties and cookouts... maybe paired with the Cherry Bounce!

No-Bake Chocolate Cookies

No-Bake Chocolate Cookies

4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
2 oz. butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups oatmeal

Mix sugar, cocoa, milk and butter together in a large saucepan. Boil 1 minute, no longer. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Drop on wax paper from teaspoons. Store in airtight containers.

Submitted by Mrs. William Bates of Blaine, MN

Blogger's Note: I used Nestle Toll House cocoa and Quaker Oats (Not Quick Oats) and they were great.


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Culinarily we've come a long way since the No-Bake cookie first burst on to the scene. NowPaula Deen tells you that recipes need lots of butter to taste good, and Martha Stewart tells us that it has to be fancy and tied up with a bow. in 1977 there was none of this. We had Julia (Childs) and Betty Crocker. Both were nice ladies. I preferred Betty at the time, and still think she has a lot to offer. This is all to say that I LOVE, I mean <3>

When I was in 3rd grade (1979) our teacher, Miss Lapetina took us through an entire project on nutrition. Among the things we learned were healthy eating, look here for Mulligan Stew in the future, and healthy snacking. No-Bake cookies were one of those recipes.

I resisted the urge, with this batch, to make them nicer. You can get much better cocoa these days than you could back then. I did, however, use Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. I may wan't to relive the 70s, but I'd really prefer to do it with my arteries intact. Normally my peanut butter of choice is completely natural, i.e. peanuts and salt, but Skippy Natural has the texture of 1970s/80s peanut butter, and I was concerned something without thickeners might not work.

The total prep time for these was about 20 minutes and the actual "making" of the cookies was very simple. Drop them on wax paper. Not having wax paper in the house, I sprayed tinfoil with Baking Spray and things turned out fine. These are a great snack and a lot lower in fat than a lot of desserts. Sugar content is still quite high, so diabetics beware!!!

Sharon's "Old-Fashioned" Cinnamon Rolls

Sharon's "Old-Fashioned" Cinnamon Rolls

1 loaf frozen bread dough

6 Tbsp butter (room temperature)

1/4 cup cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp milk

Thaw 1 loaf of bread dough. Roll dough flat. Spread 6 Tbsp butter on dough. Roll up dough and cut (approximately 10) and put rolls in 9x13 cake pan. Let rise. Bake 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Frosting: Mix butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.

Submitted by Derek Owen

Book: Oregon Preschool Cookbook -- Oregon, WI (1999)

Blogger's Note: I changed the name of this recipe. The name in the Oregon Preschool Cookbook is ingeniously called “Cinnamon Rolls”.

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The reason for the name change is because on rare occasions in my childhood my mother would make these exact cinnamon rolls (mostly on Sunday mornings). Luckily the Sundays that weren’t graced with this delicious recipe were graced with the fine baking’s of The Quality Bakery in downtown Dodgeville, WI. If you’re in the area, you need to check them out! (They don’t have a website, but here is their information.)

The simplicity of the rolls ingenious! Do all the prep work the night before and let them rise overnight. The next morning throw them in the oven.

I will admit, it is no simple feat rolling out the pre-made dough. If you go to the gym, I’d suggest skipping it the night you plan on making these. You’ll be getting quite the upper body workout.

The frosting recipe is not the same as Sharon uses. The one listed above, for my liking, is too sweet. You tend to lose the cinnamon roll to the richness of the frosting. Also, the mixture of cinnamon and sugar is way too much. I used an excessively generous amount and still threw a lot away. It could easily be reduced by half.