Mississippi Pancakes from the New York Times

I usually halve this recipe -- half a recipe makes enough for 2 hungry people

2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt.

1. Place a nonstick griddle or a skillet over medium heat. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and foamy. Add milk, oil and butter. In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients, then beat them into the liquid ingredients with a wire whisk.
2. When skillet is hot, pour in about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake, leaving space between. Flip when batter bubbles. Continue cooking for about a minute. Serve immediately.

Nice to add things like fresh corn, cornmeal, milled flax seed, blueberries, etc.

Hummingbird Cake

This is an old southern recipe. Which is another way of saying that it has enough sugar in it to make you twitch.


Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups chopped firm ripe banana (about 4 bananas)

Frosting:

16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 pounds confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together into mixing bowl several times. Add eggs and salad oil to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pecans. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes,or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting: Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.
Frost the tops of all 3 layers, stack and then frost sides. Sprinkle top evenly with the 1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans. Or you could add even MORE sugar by sprinkling it with decorating sugar or jimmies.

New York Cheesecake

Crust:

1 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs
6 tbsp melted butter


Cake:

5 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
5 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla


Toppings (optional): all added just before serving
- 1 cup sour cream
- raspberry coulis (my favorite)



Set oven to 500. Mix butter and graham cracker crumbs and press into bottom of a 9- or 10-inch springform pan and up the sides a little bit. In a bowl mix cream cheese with sugar and zest until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Add vanilla and cream and pour batter into cake pan. If you are feeling vigorous, I prefer msing this by hand -- the batter isn't as smooth, but there's less air in the cake so it doesn't slump as much.

Bake 10 minutes at 500, then lower temp to 200 and continue baking for another hour. It will still jiggle a little when it's done. Remove from oven, cool completely in springform pan on a rack. Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving. I have tried with and without a bain marie and frankly can't tell the difference.

Also -- you can make very nice little mini cakes by lining a smaller container (custard cups, smaller pans, etc.) with foil and then putting in the crust and batter and peeling the foil away afterward.