experimenting

As I said in July, my main guinea pig, I mean my son, was diagnosed with diabetes.  His birthday was coming up. So I began to look for alternatives to his favorite "Cheeto cake" (see photo on left). I am not familiar with using artificial sugar replacements in baking. I was a little concerned because I wanted to make him a cake,  but I also wanted it to turn out right.
So I chickened out. I bought the Pillsbury sugar free yellow cake mix*. I didn't even know such an item existed until I seen it in the store.**I also bought the orange sugar free Jello*** as well as Pillsbury's reduced sugar  white frosting. I wasn't sure how or if I could punch it up.
Well, this is how I did it.
For the cake, I used milk instead of water, it gives the cake a richer taste. I also replaced 2 teaspoons of the milk with 2 teaspoons McCormick's orange extract. I filled the 2 prepped cake pans with about one half of the batter (each pan got one quarter of the mixture). I mixed the sugar free Jello with the remaining cake batter and swirled that into the already prepped pans. Then I waited.
It seemed to me that the cake had to bake a little longer then what was stated on the box. Do_not_ take that as advice to bake the cake longer. My oven can be a bit strange sometimes so I normally have to adjust to its quirks.
While the cake baked, I fiddled about with the frosting. I wanted to add some orange extract to it, but I was apprehensive because I might put in too much. I started off with a teaspoon of orange extract to the can of frosting. I wasn't completely satisfied, so I upped it by one half of a teaspoon and the flavor was right. If you intend to do this, you may want to do some tasting of the icing  to make sure it has the right flavor. Orange extract is clear, so you don't see the icing turn a pale orange color.
The cake was baked and frosted and ready for the ultimate taste test - my sons Dan and Will. The cake met their rather high expectations. Believe me, if it was off in any way, they would have no problem in letting me know.
So the experiment was a happy success. I would like very much if Pillsbury produced  an orange sugar free cake mix (they do produce chocolate****) to use. The color is much more intense with the varying colors of orange.  If I intend to use the frosting again, I would buy some orange food coloring. It is amazing to me how much color can trick the mind and make something taste so much better. I know it works.  But I always think I could have done better. Maybe use orange juice instead of the milk or water? I'm not sure.
Bur now I have about 2 months until the next birthday at my house. So I have 2 months to troll the internet for a diabetic friendly chocolate cake recipe. That will also give me some time to fiddle about with it, seeing if I could make it better. Then there is Christmas coming up and sometimes I bake for it. If I am going to bake for Christmas, I am going to have to troll for diabetic friendly recipes. So perhaps I should shut this down for today and start looking.


* I  know, you are thinking, sheesh, do you call that baking?  Well, yes I do.
** If you must know, I found it at Wal-Mart
*** No, I do not get a kickback from any of the products mentioned or Wal-Mart. I can be bribed but nobody offers me a bribe.
**** besides the sugar free chocolate cake, they produce a sugar free brownie mix and sugar free icing

McCormick rosemary roasted chicken spice package

I received the McCormick package of spices and the recipe for rosemary roasted chicken with potatoes from Gather yesterday. I decided I would try it today.
Most of the spices I would normally have on hand except for the coarse ground black pepper. I just don't normally use that much pepper. But this collection of premeasured  spices made it easy to put together this meal.
I didn't want to buy anything else to make dinner, so I used the white potatoes I had on hand in substitute for the small red potatoes. I washed the potatoes and cut them into 1  inch cubes. I mixed the ingredients in the olive oil as per the instructions. I mixed the chicken and potatoes, lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and placed in the oven.
While the meal was roasting, I managed to squeeze in a look at my mail and a quick shower. It was great not to stand over the stove to make sure sinner was cooked. I had to cook the food just a bit longer than what the recipe called for, but my oven is a little quirky when it comes to the temperature.
My husband and I ate the results. We both liked the way the potatoes turned out, but we felt the chicken itself was a little "edgy", a little too much spice for the chicken.  But it didn't bother us enough to make us stop eating the food.
I would give this recipe over all a 4.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.  Even though I got home later than I usually do from work, the meal came together quickly and easily, perfect for a work night dinner. The ingredients are premeasured, so the seasoning is not a problem.  The clean up was easy and quick, always a plus for a week night dinner.  For us, it seemed a little spicy, but we tend to shy away from spicy food. I would definitely make this again but maybe reduce the amount of pepper and paprika than what is given in the recipe.
I would recommend this McCormick seasonings for rosemary chicken and potatoes highly to anyone who likes chicken. I think I with try the pork one next.
Thanks to Gather, who supplied me with the ingredient pack.

catching up

Sorry for the delay. I have been dragging around with some weird salivary gland infection and my beloved was pretty sick. I presume he had a bad cold, he never went to the doctor for it. He still has that cough, though...
Anyway, 2 weeks ago the "secret ingredient" was 2 tablespoons of frozen concentrated orange juice in place of 1 egg. Last week, the "secret ingredient" was extra vanilla. Both of these recipes got good reviews.
My younger son has been distributing "bonus brownies" to some of his coworkers. The "bonus brownies" are the ones that would be left over at the end of the week. However, he happens to be on vacation this week and his coworkers were questioning how were they going to get their weekly brownie fix. They even suggested that Will made a special trip to work to drop the brownies off.
This week's brownie is 1 less egg and extra vanilla, plus a mix of Hershey and Ghiradelli cocoa. Pretty good. The bread I made was "The Redbook Breadbook"
overnight dinner rolls.

The cake - I made a strawberry pie filling and a tart kind of vanilla cake. The strawberry filling went on top of the cake and my beloved loves it.
Soon, It will time for the biggest baking season of the year - the Thanksgiving to Christmas season. Last Thanksgiving, I had a fire in my oven (my fault) and ended up having no oven until about December 21. I wasn't a happy camper about any of it. I never had an oven fire get out of control like that before and never destroyed a stove before. This year I plan to make sure I have an oven liner for the oven. I'm sure I'll be more aware of what I am doing this year. I felt like I was struggling against a fog of grief last year.
Anyway, that's it for this week.
_enjoy_