Recipe Swap: Sweet old tunes to end your holiday meals

Last weekend I found a few minutes to pull out some of my Christmas cookbooks and ran across a couple of Country Woman books that are just full of good recipes. All of the recipes are submitted by readers, so you know they are tried-and-true recipes. I had fun looking at the pretty photos, reading stories that accompanied the recipes and choosing a few recipes to include here.

Cranberry Orange Cake

I love cranberry and orange together in just about anything you can put together to include those flavors. This cake recipe is one I plan to try this Christmas season; I hope you will, too.

This delicious cake features a sweet-tart cranberry topping paired with a tangy orange cake and filling. If made exactly like the directions the cake will look like a drum when finished. If you do not want to go to the trouble of piping the decorations, just use a spoon to build a rim around the top to hold the filling and omit the side and border decorations. This seems like a long recipe, but there are a lot of directions for the decorating portion. Simplify as you wish.

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup red currant jelly

Cake filling:

1 medium navel orange, unpeeled and quartered

1 2-layer size package yellow cake mix

1 1/2 cups water, divided

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

5 teaspoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cubed

Yellow liquid food coloring

Frosting:

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

Yellow and red liquid food coloring

28 fresh or frozen cranberries

For the topping, sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a microwave-safe bowl. Let stand for 1 minute. Microwave on high for 40 seconds. Stir. Let stand for 1 minute or until gelatin is completely dissolved. Set aside. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, cook cranberries and sugar, uncovered, for 7 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. Stir in jelly and gelatin mixture. Cover and chill for 5 hours or overnight.

For cake, process orange in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat cake mix, 1 cup water, oil and eggs on low speed until moistened. Add 1/3 cup chopped orange. Beat for 2 minutes on medium. Set remaining orange aside for filling. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 28 to 31 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks.

For filling, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and remaining water in a saucepan until smooth. Add butter and 1/3 cup chopped orange (discard any remaining orange or save for another use). Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in a few drops of yellow food coloring. Cool.

Split each cooled cake into two horizontal layers. Place bottom layer on serving plate. Spread with one-third of the filling. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread the cranberry topping over top to within 1/2-inch of edges.

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and extracts. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, alternately with milk, beating until frosting is light and fluffy. Using 2/3 cup of frosting, frost cake sides. Tint remaining frosting gold with yellow and red food coloring. Cut a hole in a pastry bag. Insert round tip No. 8. Fill with gold frosting. Pipe connecting diagonal stripes around side of cake. Add cranberries at end points. With star tip No. 21, pipe a shell border around top and bottom of cake. Yield 12 to 15 servings.

Eggnog Cream Pie

1 (5.1-ounce) package cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cups eggnog

2 cups whipping cream, whipped

1 9-inch pastry shell, baked

Additional whipped cream and ground nutmeg as garnish

In a saucepan, combine the pudding mix, nutmeg and eggnog. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes linger or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Cool. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into crust. Garnish with whipped cream and nutmeg if desired. Yield 6 to 8 pieces.

Mincemeat Cherry Pie

Cherries and orange marmalade give this recipe a nice twist.

Pastry for double-crust pie, 9-inches

1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling

1 3/4 cups prepared mincemeat

1/3 cup orange marmalade

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon flour

Line a 9-inch pie plate with bottom pastry. Trim evenly with edge of plate. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Pour into crust. Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edges. Cut slits in top. Cover edges loosely with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack. Yield 6 to 8 servings.

Cherry Pineapple Fruitcake

Even people who claim to not like fruitcake seem to like this one. Allow to sit overnight before slicing. I was recently somewhere where there was a discussion about candied cherries and wanted to make sure you know the difference for this and other recipes. Candied cherries, as well as other candied fruits are real fruits, found in the baking section of the grocery store, and have been slowly cooked in a sugar syrup and oftentimes a fruit juice until very firm and sweet. They are not the candy found in candy stores, often referred to as sour cherries, and maraschino cherries cannot be substituted in most cases.

1 cup chopped candied cherries

1 cup chopped candied pineapple

2 cups chopped pecans

4 cups flour, divided

2 cups butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

In a bowl, combine the cherries, pineapple, pecans and 1 cup flour. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Combine baking powder and remaining flour, and gradually add to creamed mixture. Fold in fruit mixture. Spoon into a greased and waxed paper-lined 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 3/4 to 2 hours or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Remove waxed paper while warm, cool completely before slicing. Yields 12 to 16 servings.

Have a great week and until next week, happy cooking.

Susan McClanahan is administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Send recipes to her at smcclanahan@semissourian.com or by mail at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701. Recipes published have not been kitchen-tested by Southeast Missourian staff.