homemade vanilla extract

Way back in January (I think) I announced I was going to get some vanilla beans and make my own vanilla extract. Well, it's been finished for some time, but I haven't gotten around to posting the results yet. So here goes I drained the extremely dark liquid and discarded the vanilla beans. The vanilla extract was extremely strong smelling, mostly of booze. The smell faded away after I left the jar open for about 5 minutes. I poured the extract into 2 canning jars I had purchased just for this experiment. I was a little hesitant to try it, I thought it would knock me on my butt. I figured I'd use it in a recipe instead of sampling it straight from the jar. In my opinion, it made a difference in the brownies and cake. But maybe it's just my imagination, because nobody said "holy Moses, this tastes like vanilla". But that's probably a good thing, I wouldn't want one flavor to overpower the rest. Would I do it again? Yes, and I plan too prior needing the vanilla. I considered doing it now so I will have lots of vanilla extract for holiday baking. I think I would use vodka the next time around. Not that I know using the vodka would be better, just to try out different ways to make vanilla. I want to see if the vodka vanilla works better than the rum vanilla. What would I do differently? I'd make sure I had jars/bottles ready to put the vanilla in. I'd make a note to myself to shake it up every day (I skipped it some days, I forgot). So I would say if you use as much vanilla as I do, making your vanilla is a great alternative.... Here's the basic recipe 5 whole vanilla beans 8 ounces of alcohol (bourbon, rum, vodka - anything that's about 35% alcohol) Take the vanilla beans and split them down the middle. Place vanilla beans in container. Add the booze, seal the bottle and keep it in a dark place for 8 weeks. Shake the bottle every day for a minute. After 8 weeks, the extraction process should be finished. The liquid will be dark. There's some disagreement on what happens to the vanilla beans. Some people re-yse them, making another batch. Others leave the beans in the extract and add a little booze to replace what they used cooking. I tossed mine because they looked mushy and were in small bits and pieces. (that's because I thought if I exposed more vanilla to the booze, it would become vanilla quicker & give a different flavor). So here it is, you can get cracking on those Christmas gifts;)

Will I ever bake again?

It has been a long hot summer. A summer that I spent on having whooping cough and that's not fun, I felt like I had been run over by a train. But (finally) I am starting to feel better. I miss the baking but it's been too hot... I did bake Will's "Cheeto cake". That, of course, was a hit. He wants me to make one without icing for his girlfriend (she's diabetic). I have managed a few thrown together dinners. Luckily for me, Craig doesn't seem to mind eating lots and lots of sandwiches. But today the weather cooled off. And I thought "hey maybe tomorrow's that day" The day for what, you ask? The day to make a Sunday dinner, the day to make bread sough (man I miss that). I think a nice roast beef with veggies and some yeast rolls will do just fine. I'll use one of my favorite bread recipes - Bernard Clayton Jr's potato bread recipe. It always turns out perfect. I have only used a few of the recipes in his book. I may like to experience with cakes and brownies, but with bread, I pretty much stick to the recipe - unless I don't;) I need to explore the book a bit more so I can make other goodies. Maybe I'll do more bread experiments in the fall, when it is cooler. Baking bread is a great experience because I believe if I can bake bread, I can do anything if I put my mind to it. And sometimes I just need to knead the bread, it's very relaxing

too much chocolate?!

I have a confession to make. Yes, I have continued to bake brownies and experiment with the ingredients. I still find the half a cup of applesauce (to cut down on the fat) and the whole wheat flour (because who doesn't need more whole wheat?) to work out pretty well. But I tried one experiment that made me go "UGGH - too much chocolate". Nope, I am not a pod person. It is just when I chose to using chocolate chunks in the brownies, it became too much for me. Incredible but true.
But it didn't slow down my sons for 1 minute. They didn't praise it but they didn't complain.
Not going to put chocolate chunks in the brownies again.

hello again

I've still been baking brownies - okay not so much during the hot summer months but I'm still baking. I doubt the kids ever notice the difference but sometimes they surprise me. I have added peanut butter (1/2 cup) but it seems to get overpowered by the chocolate. I've added Nutiva's coconut oil (emulsion?) and while it gave the brownies a richer taste, no taste of coconut.
And believe it or else, I managed to make a cheesecake that didn't crack. I know, it amazes me, too. I told my older  son no one could touch it until we had a photo of it. He whipped out his cell phone that's equipped with a camera and he took the shot. Then he  put the phone away and went to work on the cheesescake;)
In my quest to find different recipes to try, I have come across a few British recipes that I would like to try. British measurements are almost totally unlike  American cooking measurements. So in case you have a Brit recipe you would like to try, here's a link to do the conversion to US cooking measurements, too. (They also have other languages.) 
So now I got to clean up the mess I made already today. I baked my first fruitcake of the season last weekend, it went over pretty well. I don't give them to anyone unless I know they like fruitcake. There's no use spending the time and money to make a homemade fruitcake and it not be appreciated.
later - dishes don't wash themselves (and why is it?)

hey, I'm still here (I think)

I got no excuse for not writing in so long. I could say I was busy (and I was) but still it's a long of water under the bridge, so to speak.
I still am making brownies, I didn't make any this week, it's just way too hot. Plus I plan to put the energy into baking my "baby's" birthday cake, the famous Cheeto cake.
I did make blondies from the King Arthur cookbook. I used just chocolate chips. That worked out pretty well. My sons suggested I add peanut butter chips. I used those mini peanut butter chips as well as chocolate chips. The peanut butter chips did not stand up to the chocolate and you couldn't tell they were in the blondie.
So far, the faves of my sons are the brownies with peanut butter chips (and no additional chips), brownies with orange extract flavoring and the frozen mini marshmallow brownies.


I keep a bag of the mini marshmallows  in the freezer. Sometimes I take the  frozen mini marshmallows and mix them in with the brownie batter. It creates a little pocket of marshmallow goodness in the brownie. Sometimes I put them on top and they dot the brownies. It's pretty cool, even if I say so myself.

I did make some brownies with cream cheese in them. I loved it, but I like cream cheese. My sons didn't seem to notice any difference. But generally they don't notice anything different. Which, I guess, is good because I could sneak ground up pickled beets in the brownies - but I'm not going to because I also eat the brownies.

For Father's Day, I baked my beloved a chiffon case. For some reason, it was easier than I thought it would be. But I can't say I remember making a chiffon cake before. It might be possible I'm thinking of angel food cake. And what gives? "Back in the day" you hung the tube upside down on a glass bottle while it was cooling, something like a soda bottle. But mostly everything comes in plastic now, so there's no way you can do that. I might have to find an old soda bottle just for that purpose. Probably there's a gadget that I could buy and use for that purpose. I'll have to look into that.

_enjoy_

cooking action lately

Not much at all, I'm sad to say. The only baking I did last week was a pineapple upside down cake for my brother's birthday, And I forgot to get a photo of that. I didn't even bake brownies and boy was _I_ sorry about that....
But this week I made up for it.  I baked a blueberry swirl cake. Basically, I made a yellow cake and swirled some blueberry pie filling in it. It looks pretty ugly because, as you know, blueberries mixed in something looks grayish. I put blueberry pie filling inbetween layers and frosted with a vanilla buttercream frosting that I sort of winged it on. I couldn't find the recipe I use all the time (I know, I got to be better organized). So I thought I could recreate it from memory. Turns out I was wrong. I think it will be okay, at least I hope so.
I also made brownies (but of course). I made them the "normal" way but instead of 6 eggs, I used 5. I wanted to see what type of effect that would have, chewy or fudgey. We will see - and taste.
Believe it or not, I am already starting to think about Thanksgiving dinner. I'm thinking instead of ham, I'll make chicken and noodles like my mom used to make (not for Thanksgiving). My oldest cat and I really love eating the ham, but secretly even we get tired of it after a few weeks.  I should run the idea by my beloved, see what he thinks.
I try not to mess with the Thanksgiving menu too much, I'm a traditionalist. But I do think the chicken and noodles would be warmly received at Thanksgiving.
Nope, haven't thought of what to bake, Of course rolls, lots and lots of rolls. I tried making sweet potato rolls one year and they just weren't all that special. Perhaps it was the recipe or I messed it up, but there was no great sweet potato taste. So the usual dinner rolls and the potato rolls will be fine.
That's all I got for now. I should think about getting my lunch together for the week (boo! hiss!), but it must be done. Work, the curse of the eating class;)
_enjoy_

if it's going to be hot like an oven outside,

it should smell like a brownie inside;)

yes

I have been baking although it's been horribly hot. How do I manage to do this? It's called sweating;)
So what have I baked? Of course, the "usual" brownies. I've added overripe bananas to the batter but later it's been a straight forward stick by the recipe baking. Oh, wait, not quite true. I have been melting bits of baking chocolate and using it in the batter. I have bits and pieces of baking chocolate that don't really add up to make a whole recipe, but a little extra chocolate is always good.
I made a strawberry swirl cake for my beloved. Instead of using a cake mix and Jello, I tinkered with Trisha Yearwood's recipe for key lime cake. I used the Jello to flavor the whole cake. I cooked some frozen and fresh strawberries into a puree and strained them.
I had reserved some cake batter after putting most of the batter in the pans. I mixed the puree strawberries into the reserved batter to give it an extra taste of strawberries. I was a little apprehensive that since I messed with the proportions of liquids, the cake wouldn't rise properly or taste okay. I topped it with a vanilla buttercream frosting.
My beloved said it turned out great. I had a piece of it today and I liked it. But honestly I love chocolate cake.
Besides baking my honey a cake, I baked a birthday cake for my "baby" boy who just turned 29. Last year, he picked the Cheeto cake that shows up as the photo on the blog. This time, he wanted a chocolate cake. So I lucked out, made his cake and got a slice of chocolate cake.

cake saw in use

Will trying to keep all his cake to himself

I bought the cake saw and really like it. I have a few photos of Will cutting the cake, but this is the only one that didn't turn out blurry because of his speed to cut it. 









This is Will in an attempt to make sure no one else will eat his cake. It failed miserably because we still ate a slice. I should have swiped a slice before he took it home, but didn't think about it. oh well.

I have to admit, I did enjoy baking a cake for my brother and sister-in-law. My brother wanted me to knock it off as my sister-in-law is diabetic and should watch her cake eating. I did make her a coconut cake for her birthday.
I should make my brother a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday. He likes that and his birthday isn't that far away. Chocolate cake is the usual tradition for siblings, but why not a pineapple upside down cake? It's his birthday.
Anyway, that's what I have been up to lately, Trying to stay out of trouble and the heat and just baking now and then. I think I would love to open a bakery but I don't honestly know if I could do that much work.  I'd like to believe it's all just baking and the customers will flock in. But I do know it's a lot more complicated than that.  I should research it more to really see if I could manage to work more baking into my life. Maybe I should find a family to bake for? hmmmmmm

whoopie pies

I'm not entirely with it, I think. Maybe it's because I think I should be on summer vacation, maybe it's brain fog, maybe.....I just don't know....
But I reviewed a book for Amazon

 and actually made whoopie pies.... so I thought I'd share a few photos with you. The recipe was quick to put together and used ingredients you most likely already have. They do suggest you use parchment paper and I have to agree - it makes the clean up so much easier.
My beloved loved them (after they were out of the fridge. I stuck them in the fridge to begin with because I was tired and it was late). My younger son and my youngest sister also gave them the thumbs up. So if you like whoopie pies, this is a shameless plug  for the book. Nope, I don't get a kickback from the authors. However, if you do use the link I provided, Amazon pays me a referral fee from the cost of the book.
They have a lemon whoopie pie that looks interesting. I think the next time I make the whoopie pies, I'll use more instant coffee. These were supposed to be mocha, but I didn't add enough instant coffee (what can I say, I don't like coffee). But next time I will.
I also made brownies this week. I did something a little different - I had left over vanilla mousse from my beloved's cake and I put a half a cup of it in the brownie batter. Again this is the  Hershey recipe with the exception I melt the butter and add the cocoa in it to give the cocoa a chance to bloom. The brownies seemed somehow richer, but not overly rich.

The mousse reminds me a bit of vanilla ice cream, but not frozen. I still have more left, I'm thinking of using it in the coconut cake I'm making for my sister-in-law today for her birthday. Maybe mix some coconut with it and use it as the filling between the first and second layer.
These are photos of my honey's birthday cake. It got eaten up relatively fast, believe it or not

The mousse reminds me a bit of vanilla ice cream, but not frozen. I still have more left, I'm thinking of using it in the coconut cake I'm making for my sister-in-law today for her birthday. Maybe mix some coconut with it and use it as the filling between the first and second layer. I used the mousse in the buttercream frosting I made for the cake.

This is how the filled cake looked when it was sliced. The mousse held up much better than the Baviarian cream has in the past.






_enjoy_

April 25, 2010 in baking

This is my new toy, a "Cakewich" cake pan  by Fred and Friends.


This is the first time I used it and  you can see I had a little trouble cutting the cake in half.  The box the "Cakewich" pan comes in has a white pound cake recipe, which is what I used in the pan. The pan releases well, but I think I was in too much of a hurry. I should have waited for the cake to cool a little longer. The inside frosting is damson jelly and a peanut butter icing.  It tastes pretty good, even if I do say so myself.

In other baking action, the cake of the week is another pound cake - my Aunt Roe's pound cake recipe. It's strange because you start it in a cold oven and it bakes for about an hour and a half up to 2 hours.  My sturdy tube pan was, as always, up to the task It looks pretty good, too.
The third and final thing I baked was (what else?) brownies. I followed my normal procedure of "blooming" the cocoa in the melted butter, substituting 1/2cup of applesauce for 1/2 cup of butter and using whole wheat flour. Now you're thinking "yuck", but it comes out fine. That's the way I usually make it. That way I can fool myself into believing it's a little healthy for me;)
That's all I got so far this week - _enjoy_

ta da

This is the key lime cake I made from the recipe in the April 2010 "Redbook" magazine, it's the one that has Trisha Yearwood on the cover. It's her recipe, I tweaked a few things (flavored the icing with lime, for example). My husband said it is _great_.
I also baked brownies, using 1 cup of butter and 1/2 cup cooking oil and the whole wheat flour. This gave the brownies a fudgy texture.

I made spaghetti and I made Italian bread to go with it - well, actually I made "Mr Food"'s recipe for thick crust pizza and baked it as a loaf. It had a wonderfully crisp crust.
I also tried the baked jelly doughnuts from "Bread in Half the Time". I don't think Dunkin' Donuts has anything to worry about anytime soon. They just taste like sweet rolls with raspberry jelly in them. Yeah, it's good, but not that big a deal.
I had a poor history with doughnuts. I tried frying some many years ago. They came out _horrible,_ all greasy and as black as the soles of my shoes. I used an electric deep fat fryer, but apparently it was a bad recipe or I didn't do it right. I was going to toss them but saved them for my younger son to come home. He knew I was making them and I figured if I tossed them, he would think we'd eaten all of them. He looked at the doughnut and said "Is this supposed to be chocolate" and I said "nope".....
_enjoy_
I also

3/21/10 baking action

I managed to make my youngest sister's cake and apparently it was acceptable. I haven't heard any complaining about it (yet;)). I still have bread left over from what I made Wednesday, so I won't make any for dinner tonight.
So far I have made brownies, big surprise. I put some orange flavoring in them. I considered putting icing on them because I have icing left over from my sister's cake, but I didn't. I might end up eating the icing by itself;) Or maybe saving it for another cake down the road.
The cake this week follows the orange theme, the infamous "Cheeto cake". Although I did not find an an orange cake mix to begin with, I did add orange juice for the liquid in the cake. I also baked 3 layers, I don't usually do that. I still have to frost it using the buttercream frosting. That will be orange, also. It won't be as dramatic looking as the "Cheeto cake" but it should be good.
I should (and I might) make some small egg cakes and freeze them for Easter. I have the pan, it has 9 egg shaped cavities for cake. I tried doing the milky way cake in it, but it doesn't work out so well. The little bits of milky way that doean't completely melt stick to the pan no matter what I have tried.
I don't have too much to add to this. I am trying to think of a suitable dessert for Easter dinner, bit so far only came up with lemon cake. There's nothing wrong with lemon cake, but I love chocolate and I don't believe lemon and chocolate work well together. It gives me something to ponder...

Brownies this week

A great cook knows what ingredients she/he has on hand and makes sure to plan the cooking around it. She/he knows pretty much to the ounce how much flour, sugar, yeast and all that stuff is in the pantry.
A good cook knows what's in the pantry, He/she might not be able to tell you if it's a 14.5 ounce box of currants or a 15 ounce box, but he/she knows that the ingredients needed are at hand.
Than there's me. I thought I had plenty of granulated sugar. At least, it seemed I had a five pound bad tucked away somewhere. But, as it turns out I didn't. And I had already melted the butter and threw about a half a cup of semisweet chocolate chips in the melting butter as my experiment this week.
What to do, what to do? I went to my favorite cookbook "The Joy of Cooking". I knew that if anybody could save this recipe, it would be the Rombauers. And I was right. The advice was to substitute one cup of brown sugar for 1 cup of white sugar. I wasn't quite sure how it would work, but much to my surprise, it did work.
The brownies came out a nice cross between cakey and fudgey. I would say it was a success - at least to me. The food critic hasn't tried it yet;)
As to other baking, I have my fovorite yeast dough rolls rising so I can pop them in the oven. I also baked my honey a strawberry swirl cake, using the basic "Cheeto cake" method. I used a yellow cake mix instead of a strawberry one. I also took some frozen strawberries and cooked them down to a sort of strawberry paste. Part of this I used to flavor the buttercream frosting and part I used as the "icing" between the two layers of cake. He hasn't tried it yet, but he won't complain. He's afraid if he does, I'll never cook for him again.
My older son's birthday was yesterday and he requested his favorite, ice cream cake. Yes, the Carvel kind. Hey, that's what he wanted. I would have noticed the lack of sugar sooner if I had to bake a cake for him.
I was hoping to wait until next grocery shopping day to get more sugar, but I can't. My youngest sister's birthday is Tuesday and she will not settle for a Carvel ice cream cake - it has to be chocolate with chocolate frosting. And don't mess with any of the ingredients. I can't change the way the frosting is made and I can't change the cake recipe. She's very picky when it comes to that.
Anyway, that's it for me this week.
_enjoy_

wow

Yeah, it's been a very long time. I figure I lost about 14 days just to the process of having 48 inches of snow outside of my house. When you are stuck in the house and not sure when you will get out to buy groceries, it makes you a little conservative as to what you bake - or at least it makes _me_ conservative in what I bake.
But there's only small piles of snow in our yard now. There are parking lots spots that are still blocked by snow, but mostly it's clear in MD.
I baked brownies last week, I used one half a cup of applesauce in the batter. This made for a more cake like brownie. I didn't add any extra chocolate (I had been melting some chocolate and adding it in) because I wanted to see how it would be without it.
I did like the cakelike texture. But I also like the fudgey texture. Now to figure out how to make a brownie that combines the best aspects of fudgey and cakey. Sounds like I need the Keebler Elves for that;)
I also made a lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting. I used a cup of lemonade in place of the water in the directions on the back of the Duncan Hines box. I also used a box of lemon Jello to make a swirl cake, but it is not as dramatic as the Cheeto cake. Still tasted good o or so my beloved says.
I made a spice cake, not particularly thrilled with it. My grandmother would make the best spice cake. I hated the frosting, way too thick and sweet, but my older sister loved it. so we'd swap icing for cake. It was a cooked frosting. I never tried to duplicate it because I didn't particularly care for it. But my aunts and uncles still talk about it.
My older son's birthday is next week and he wants - ice cream cake. Yes, you heard me. That is his traditional cake. Last year he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and I was stunned. But usually he gets the ice cream cake (Carvel's). But don't worry, I will be making a chocolate cake for my youngest sister's birthday later that week. so I won't get out of practice.
That's it, that's all I got...

brownies

Well, here it is, most likely the last post of the year for this particular blog. I can't believe it. The days are long but the years are short. I know that doesn't make any sense, but there you are.
Last week I bought 4 dozen eggs, bringing the total amount of eggs in my fridge to approximately 52. Today I have _3_ eggs in my house. So I must have been busy baking.

I actually didn't make anything special for Christmas. I know, hard to believe. But I was exhausted from work and running around trying to get things together. I feel like I woke up 2 weeks ago and I need to do everything right now.

Christmas dinner went well, except my younger son complained about the Swedish meatballs;) He always says they are terrible and he has to eat them all to save us from them. I did notice he took the leftovers home;)

This week's brownies were fairly straightforward. I "bloomed" the cocoa in the melted butter and added a few Ghiradelli chocolate chips to the melting butter. It gave the brownies a more complex taste, deeper chocolate. SO you know that's good by me.

That's it for me this week. I probably will be cooking chicken and noodles for New Year's Eve dinner. I think my brother and sister-in-law are coming over. I even think my sons might stop by. I might even feel froggy and bring a few rum cakes to work on Thursday....maybe. We'll see.

twas the week before Christmas

and all thru the house, Robin could be heard muttering "it can't be the week before Christmas yet, can it?"
well, it is. And I did bake brownies this week. The only change up this time was I substituted part of the butter for vegetable oil. Seems to have worked out well so far;) The peanut butter chip brownies did not seem to be the hit I thought they should be, or maybe I thought they would be better received by my sons. Oh, well, can't win them all.
I did make 3 fruitcakes this weekend. Don't worry, I'm not giving them to you. Some people like fruitcake, my beloved is one of them. And not I didn't use the Maida Heatter fruitcake recipe. I am always tempted, but somehow the amount of work put into it puts me off of it.


I use this recipe http://pillsburybaking.com/Recipes
/Details.aspx?recipeID=2294&mealtype=
because it easier for me. I use dried fruit (soaked in orange juice) in place of the nuts and I don't put a glaze on it. But you can figure out what you would want to put in it as long as you keep the amount you put in the same.

I still want to bake cookies. Whether I find the time or not, I don't know. I was in the house because of the snow most of the day Saturday but didn't quite get to making cookies. Fruitcakes take a lot of oven time that isn't compatible with cookie making.

I'm sure you're just as busy if not busier than I am, so I'll stop rambling now.
Have a very Merry Christmas!

really slacking

sorry, folks, life got more busy or something. I did bake brownies this week, the "secret ingredient" was peanut butter chips. Interesting taste, good texture but I'm not sure I am that big a fan of peanut butter (yeah, I know, hard to believe)
So I baked a chocolate cheesecake (that didn't crack) and a "Cheeto" cake for Thanksgiving. I also made raspberry junket for my beloved. It comes in a box, it's sort of a cross between pudding and jello.
Than then was a Toys for Tots bake sale. I made a milky way cake and a pound cake. Actually, for some insane reason, I baked the first milky way cake at 450 degrees. The outside of the cake was as black as the bottom of my shoes. The inside was fine and devoured by my beloved. So I made a second milky way cake to take to the bake sale.
If there is another bake sale like this one, I will just donate the money to the cause. I felt everything was underpriced (cookies and cupcakes for a quarter, a slice of cake for a dollar). I think if you want to make money for a charity, you got to sell the stuff like you want to make money. I'm not saying charge a fortune, but seriously, a decorated cupcake for 25 cents?! That's not worth the effort, in my not so humble opinion.
But enough whining. I am trying toplan what I am baking for Christmas. Last year, because I burned up the oven, I baked only a few things. This year, I already have fruitcake (don't cry, I'm not giving you any) and a milky way cake. I am debating whether I want to take a cake into work, I guess it depends on how I feel at the moment. I also want to make some sugar cookies. I have always wanted to try to make a cookie tree, but haven't found the time or the nerve to do so. I have the ingredients, it's just making the time and the effort to do it. It would be cool.
That's it for now, nothing earth shaking, just been really busy at work...

No brownies?!?

Nope, I didn't take the time to make brownies this weekend. I had some left over from last week (I made them on Tuesday night). But I did make stuffing bread, rolls, a chocolate cheesecake and a "Cheeto" cake. I need to take a photo of the chocolate cheesecake, it came out beautifully. It didn't crack and I've had that problem in the past. I made two modifications to what I usually do while baking a cheesecake. The cheesecake was the first thing baked in the oven on Friday and I let it rest inside the oven for a few hours after it baked.
Apparently, I shocked my youngest sister last night. She didn't know I made the "Cheeto" cake from (gasp) a cake mix. Everything else on the table was made from scratch, so what's the big deal? I do use cake mixes, I usually jazz them up some way or another. If you are a fan of cake mixes, I suggest


There are some great ideas for using cake mixes in ways I never thought of. I've been asked "is it really easier to use a cake mix" and my answer is "Depends on what you're tryin to bake". If your kid tells you at bedtime "hey Mom, I promised the teacher you'd bake 3 dozen cupcakes for tomorrow" , the answer is definitely "yes" in my not so humble opinion. Your mileage may vary, but I'm just saying that's what I have done in a situation like that.
For other cakes, you may want to make the traditional chocolate cake with the chocolate icing - or whatever is the tradition in your family.
It's your life and time, so don't stress over it if Mrs Smith makes your pumpkin pies. Just enjoy your holiday in a way that doesn't make you (and the rest of your family) bonkers.
Whoops, I didn't mean to rant. But so many magazines and shows have "How to make this the most memorable Thanksgiving ever" articles, it makes me wonder if they have missed the whole point of Thanksgiving.
_enjoy_

this week

I tried something new this week - I made German raisin bread. I've never made raisin bread before. It tastes pretty good and I'm not a big fan of raisins.
I also made a raspberry jelly roll - the "Joy of Cooking"'s recipe. I have to remember to get the wider Reynolds Wrap for the jelly roll pan. That would make it easier to transfer the cake to the towel.
I also made a pumpkin cheesecake bar. It was on the back of the box for the pumpkin bread. I didn't realize I didn't buy any pureed pumpkin until too late (I forgot again today) and I had a hankering for pumpkin.
Last week's brownies were quite the hit. Will made sure he got the remaining brownies on Thursday "so they don't go to waste". So this week I used the basic Hershey recipe using the Ghiradelli cocoa, the normal amount of eggs and butter with one addition - a very ripe banana. That seems to give the brownies a more cake like consistency.
I finally dumped out my sourdough starter. it had mold growing on top of it. I don't think sourdough is my thing but darned if I don't see another recipe for sourdough and start thinking "I could do that". I'm still thinking about it...

baking action this week

Let's see, it's a bit of comedy of errors;) I made popovers again and I used cake flour. However, I did not compensate for the difference in weight between cake and all purpose flour and the popovers didn't. They still tasted good, but they were sort of muffiny.
As for the brownies....I used 1/2 cup applesauce to replace 1/2 cup butter. They came out cakey. Then I added a topping - the "Mississippi Mud" frosting from Paula Deen. I think it's a bit too heavy for the brownies. However, Will did manage to say "it's a bit too much" while eating the brownie, so there you are.
I made the raspberry puff pastries from the King Arthur folks. It turned out great. This time, I cooked the raspberries for the filling. I do need to seal the pastry properly because the filling spills out. It was still pretty good.
No cakes this week. Hmm, I must be slipping.....