The Ricco Kitchen

Want a cleaner, easier way to grease your baking pans? My grandmother taught me this when I made my first cake back in elementary school. All you need is some fat (butter or shortening), some scissors, and some wax paper.

Today is, besides Veteran’s Day, my father’s birthday. Of course I had to make him a birthday cake, and I chose a family favorite: Jack and Jill cake. To be honest, I don’t think anyone knows where the name came from, but it is a delightful variation of a yellow pound cake. Topped with light icing and some powdered sugar, this cake is AWESOME with ice cream, fruit or whipped cream. I used a single recipe in a 9″ round cake pan. This cake is also great as a bundt cake, but use a double recipe. I’ve also made mini bundt cakes with this recipe.

So today my boyfriend and I shared our 1 year anniversary-I know, I know, I’ll keep the sap to a minimum. Anyway, I brought ingredients to make an apple pie with me when I drove up to visit him (He’s still in college, my youngling little boyfriend).

We chose to make the pie at one of his fraternity houses, affectionately named “Maple Light” because it is a smaller, albeit cleaner version of it’s neighbor, “Maple.” Well, cooking there was an experience- amidst hungover frat boys who were pleasantly surprised to find the aroma of apple pie wafting through the house.