Author: Amy Veloz

Thanksgiving Desserts

In our family, we love dessert. To be honest, we probably love dessert a little too much, but we won’t dwell on that right now. As we get closer to the holidays, my husband’s family divides up responsibilities for the meal we will share together. There are 17 of us, so that’s a lot of mouths to feed and too much for one person to prepare.

One of my favorite dishes that is always prepared by my sister-in law is this Toffee Pecan bundt cake with caramel drizzle.

It is seriously to die for! I could probably eat the entire thing, but I love my family so I share with them.

She shared the recipe with me that she originally found on a blog called A Family Feast. That blog has since become one of my favorites for pulling recipes to try.

I will admit, I haven’t tried to make the toffee pecan bundt cake on my own because let’s face it, I’m not even close to as good a baker as my sister-in-law. Instead, I wait patiently for Thanksgiving each year and hope she chooses that as the dessert to bring!

Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try. You can also check out the blog for the recipe and some more pictures of this delicious masterpiece!

INGREDIENTS

For the Cake

  • Non-stick cooking spray with flour
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 bag (8-ounces) toffee pieces
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped

For the Caramel Drizzle

  • 14 ounces (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add both sugars and beat again until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until blended. Alternate adding in flour mixture and milk, mixing until just combined, being careful not to over mix.
  4. Stir in toffee chips and pecans by hand, blending well. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
  5. Bake for 75-80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  6. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, prepare the Caramel Drizzle as follows:

  1. Combine the sweetened condensed milk and brown sugar in a medium, heavy–bottomed saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a boil, whisking very frequently.
  2. Reduce the heat under the pan and simmer gently for about 8 minutes, whisking constantly.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Allow the mixture to sit in the pan for about 5 minutes – then drizzle over the cake. (You will want the drizzle to still be fairly hot when you drizzle it over the cake – it does harden a little after it cools.)

Keeping the education train rolling at home

Learning to read is tough! Sometimes words sound one way, and sometimes they sound another. For example, read and read, live and live…you get the picture.

In our family, we have a little guy that is currently learning how to read. He’s in Kindergarten, and while he has an amazing teacher who has way more experience with teaching children how to read than I do, I like to reenforce learning at home.

We’ve been using Starfall.com every night to work through learning how to read.

 

We started with the ABC’s and worked through the sound each letter makes. We have progressed up to “Learn to Read” section. He can work through the story at his own pace and if there is a word he is having trouble with, he can click on it and the computer reads the word for him. There is also an option to click to have the entire sentence on the page read to you.

We love this site! Each day is different, especially with kids. So we play it by ear to see which direction we’re going to go when working on the site. Sometimes I read it to him, sometimes he tries extra hard to read the entire thing himself without a prompt, and sometimes it is a struggle to get through one short book.

We love the options the site gives us and that we will be able to grow with it. As he becomes a better reader, there are more options for him to work through and perfect his reading. They also offer some mathematics help and for those who like it, singing. My son is not a big fan of my singing…I have no idea why!

We give starfall.com four thumbs up for keeping that education train rolling when you’re at home.