The bakers in the household--husband and daughter, have been unusually busy lately. This is a good thing for the entire household, our neighbors and my husband's co-workers. They found a trio of "Mix, Dump and Bake" cakes that we have been enjoying.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake
I use lemons and olive oil for marinating gyros and for a good roast chicken. This just sounded so weird.   Was I ever wrong. This is a lovely lemon cake using a springform pan. Pouring the lemon glaze at the end makes an almost candy-like topping for the cake. Just don't let it sit too long in the pan. Otherwise the glaze will solidify into hard candy and you won't be able to get the cake out nicely.  Click here for recipe.

Super Easy Key Lime Pie
My daughter's winner, with another nod to guest blogger, The So-Called Expert, for the sour cream topping. Key Lime juice, egg yolks, condensed milk and a pre-made graham cracker crust. Click here for recipe.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from a recent Bon Appetit recipe. It also uses the springform pan. We haven't decided if it's a breakfast coffee-cake item or a powdered sugar with coffee dessert. So we've been doing both. A visiting pack of teenage boys also vouched for this one.

Click here for recipe.


No need for a special occasion. These are easy enough to make 'just because.'  Eat Well. Be Well.

On Oahu, we always try to eat sweet potato haupia pie from Ani's Bakery. It's a slightly buttery/crunchy/nutty crust, a generous layer of rich purple Okinawan sweet potato filling, a layer of smooth, creamy/custardy haupia and topped with whipped cream. You will want to eat the Entire Pie, but this is Not a Good Idea. Very small slivers go a long way.

It's about $20 and sold only at their bakery in Halawa. If you don't order ahead, don't count on waltzing in and getting one. They sell 'em out nearly every day.

I've tried desperately and unsuccessfully to bring one back. A fresh pie is too unwieldy and perishable. When I asked if one could be frozen, "No" was the swift reply, with an "Are you lolo?!" (Hawaiian for insane *and* stupid) stink-eye, just for good measure.

My daughter and husband, the resident bakers, finally tried it, as this is my daughter's favorite dessert. 

Here's what ours looked like. We do get style points for the Stitch plate and more portable bar-style form factor, but we've got a lot to learn. I've already adjusted the Greenhouse recipe, and here's what we'll do next time.

Halve the amount of butter. The sweet potato flavor was completely overshadowed by just too much butter.

Cook the potatoes really well and mash until smooth. Potato chunks aren't good pie gestalt. 

Nix the graham-cracker crust option. My daughter declared it not substantial enough against the sweet potato and haupia. And it adds even more butter taste.

If you use the Noh's haupia mix, do not let it harden before spreading it out on the pie. Our haupia topping looked more like cottage cheese, and while it tasted good, the texture was more like jello and definitely not the creamy texture of Ani's. Next time, haupia from scratch.

Click here for the updated recipe. Still Greenhouse material. Until we figure it out, go to Ani's and get your own.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Lemonade Pie was a colossal production fail the first time. Who knew that "chill" was secret-cooking-code for "freeze"? 

But with 4 ingredients, no measuring and no baking, the upside was just too great not to try again. So I made some changes.

1. Froze them so they were really "chill".
2. Used individual tart-sized crusts.
2a. Improvised with ramekins because I had too much filling and too few tart-sized crusts. This can be avoided with proper planning.
3. Fully defrosted the Cool Whip and used the entire tub.

This time it was marvy. The filling was still sweet/tart/creamy and it didn't go soupy, even after being out for awhile because "Glee" was on and we were distracted.

The only hiccup was that 6 individual tarts were not enough to use up all the filling. Initially, I was going to spoon it into the ramekins and go for Lemonade pudding, but decided to try to improvise a crust instead. I was actually looking for Girl Scout Lemon Creme cookies (Hah! eaten weeks ago.), but used a package of fortune cookies. Why we have spare fortune cookies in the house remains a mystery, but they worked out. Just enough crunch.

It's a little bit too cold to make as a winter dessert, but we'll be eating this often once it's warmer and summer berry season kicks in. In the meantime, we'll just have to polish off the rest of them. Yum.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Apple Cranberry Pie with Oatmeal Streusel = unanimous thumbs up

This was a good balance for the super sweet pecan pie and the smooth creamy pumpkin pies. Granny Smith apples + cranberries give this pie good texture and some zing. 

We'll definitely be making this again next Thanksgiving. Click here for the recipe.