In the kitchen with Naomi

Ok, so I am going to try something new here.........In the kitchen with Naomi. I can cook, I love to cook, I just don't have time to really think about cooking lately, so I really don't. It's just easier to heat up a jar of spaghetti sauce, or some pre cooked chicken breasts. But now that the Holidays are here (yikes), I guess it's time to get cooking again. We love to bake tons and tons of Christmas cookies each year. And I love to make soup and chili and also bake. So, here is the first, of hopefully many, cooking adventures in my kitchen.

I saw this great mold for a turkey cake in a Williams Sonoma catalog. On a rare trip to the mall one evening, I drug the kids into Williams Sonoma to look for this cake mold. Wha-lah! and it was even on sale. Rather than make the recipe that comes along with the mold, I opted for my favorite Trader Joe's vanilla cake mix. Oh so good!












The recipe is right on the box, but here is what you need: mix, milk, melted butter, eggs. I used 2 boxes here.







Mix it all together. Thank you Evelyn for being my lovely cooking companion and for your great mixing here too!










Oops, a little staged flour on the face and of course a taste or too, just to make sure it's ok :)

Spray with cooking spray and dust with flour.


















Pour evenly into the 2 molds.















Put it in the oven to bake. Took longer than the directions called for, but I should have used the package directions on the mix box instead. Live and learn.















Oops, it rose and spilled over. that's why it's a good idea to use a cookie sheet underneath. Plus, the mold didn't sit too evenly right on the oven rack.















Take it out and let it cool 15 minutes, or simply forget about it while you do other things and wander back into the kitchen to find a cooled cake on the stove. Cut off the excess (good eats too!) and put back into the mold to make sure it's pretty even.Greg announce that this is the best cake he ever had. Hmmm, does he mean today? But he is not really a cake eater.





Getting late now, so I wrapped it up in press n' seal (love that stuff) and stuck it all in the fridge to sit until phase 2 - putting it all together.















Flash forward to Thanksgiving morning. Bring the cake out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit before removing from the pan
Spread with Apple Butter (this one is from Williams Sanoma). I also snuck in some white frosting to help keep it together. The directions call for home made butter cream frosting but I just didn't feel like whipping up a batch this morning.




















Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour or so. This one waited several hours.














Cook up a glaze mix and brush over the cake. We also sprinkled with powdered sugar.















Set on cake plate (Southern Living) and pray it doesn't fall over or come apart.

















Cut into when it's time for dessert and enjoy. Oh, Yum-O (Rachel Ray) and enjoy!!
And I do say, it was Yum-O. I only got one piece as everyone dug in to our cake, as well as all the pies!. But when you have close to 30 people you need a lot of yummy eats!