Group 16: Pies & Cakes – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

16-19: Midsummer Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 30, 2023March 30, 2023almond extract, almonds, boxed cake mix, butter, cakes, creamed, decorative, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, French, frosting, fruit, garnish, granulated sugar, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, party food, sliced, spring, strawberries, summer, toasted, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

We’re barely into spring, so what better way to celebrate that than to jump ahead to summer with 16-19: Midsummer Cake? We’ll call it being super proactive–you’re already thinking ahead for summer. Like when you go shopping for spring clothes and the summer stuff is already on the shelves. Look at you being so productive. Such a trendsetter!

There’s no rule saying you HAVE to make this in summer–it could be a great spring dessert as well. In fact, strawberries are generally considered more of a “spring fruit” more so than a summer one (depending on where you live), so maybe we should update this to be a “Spring Cake”? I can’t go with “Mid-Spring Cake” because that sounds like something you make in the middle of a jump.

16-5: Sacher Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods August 30, 2021August 30, 2021all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, Austrian, blanched, butter, cakes, chocolate, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, favorites, folded, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, holiday baking, jam/jelly/preserves, melted, meringue, nuts, party food, pastry, peeled, springform pan, stiff peaks, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vegetarian, Viennese

It always takes me a minute to “catch up” on these, so if you’re keeping track (don’t), we’re now up to Thanksgiving of last year (2020) with 16-5: Sacher Torte. Sachertorte is a real thing, and Simply Delicious actually has a pretty decent take on it.

The Wikipedia link above gives a pretty close approximation of the origin story Simply Delicious mentions on their card above, so they’re hitting near the mark. Sometimes the best Simply Delicious recipes are the ones they DON’T make up for themselves.

Side note: My dad ended up LOVING this one (and he’s been eating the dishes from this book for 30+ years), so it comes highly recommended.

16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 25, 2021January 26, 2021all-purpose flour, almond paste, almonds, apples, applesauce, bread crumbs, butter, cakes, chilled, cornstarch, creamed, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, flute, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, layers, lemon peel, lemons, nuts, party food, springform pan, tart pan, toppings, vegetarian, zested

It’s a bit past apple season (usually fall/autumn), but 16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake uses applesauce instead of fresh fruit, so you can make it anytime you’ve got a hankering for apples. Or cake. Cake is always good.

They (Simply Delicious) are trying REALLY hard to make you believe there are actual apple pieces in this cake. I mean, the picture and the description would lead you to think that this thing is just chock full of fresh apples.

I hate to break it to you, but this is gonna be one heck of a bamboozle.

16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 3, 2021January 3, 2021all-purpose flour, butter, chilled, cornstarch, curd, cut in, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, favorites, filling, flaky, flute, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, meringue, new book, party food, pie crust, pies, salt, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian

It’s citrus time where I live, which means that everyone has buckets of oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits that they can’t give away fast enough. I myself have an orange tree, but I’m often given lemons from friends and family as well–16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie is a good recipe to use up some of that winter citrus. You can also check out 15-29: Raspberry-Lemon Parfait or 17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars if you have a LOT of lemons to use up.

This is a NEW book recipe, so I never even knew until recently that Simply Delicious even had a lemon meringue pie recipe. If I had known, I guarantee I would have attempted it much earlier than now.

I LOVE lemon meringue pie–it conjures recipes of slowly rotating cake and pie displays in coffee shops. Man, do I miss eating in a restaurant.

16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 24, 2020December 28, 2020all-purpose flour, butter, cakes, chilled, chocolate, Christmas, Christmas Eve, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, glazed, granulated sugar, layers, melted, parchment paper, party food, powdered sugar, raspberries, revisited, semisweet, stiff peaks, tart, TGV 2019, Thanksgiving, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, XMAS 08

I had a goal to finish all the ones I cooked in 2019 by the end of 2020…not sure if I’ll meet that goal (EDIT: I did!), but here’s one more from last year: 16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart. Not only is this from last Thanksgiving (along with 6-42: Turkey Pot Roast and 17-15: Cream Puffs), but I also made a version of it as part of a fancy Christmas dinner 12 years ago (XMAS 08) as well. Since today is Christmas Eve, I think it’s a good day to tell you about it.

When I made this back in ’08, I made 6 individual tarts instead of one big one–I was afraid it would look weird once I cut it, so I thought individual servings would look better. I had been watching a LOT of Top Chef at that point (and still do, but that’s the ONLY cooking show I’ll watch).

Since I had a few of the same guests attending as that Christmas dinner back in ’08 (and the same number), I decided to make the same modification this time. Usually I will reverse modifications when I recook recipes I’ve already done to try to honor the “original” recipe, but this time I decided to stick with it.

16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 4, 2020December 3, 2020all-purpose flour, baking powder, butter, cakes, chocolate, cocoa powder, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, frosted, frosting, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grind, hazelnuts, melted, meringue, nuts, peeled, powdered sugar, stand mixer, stiff peaks, toasted, unsweetened, vegetarian, wax paper, whipping cream

Think of 16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake like a Nutella cake–same flavor profile (chocolate and hazelnuts), and maybe even somewhat healthier?

This is a pretty simple cake–it’s just one layer, and all you have to do is frost and garnish it. Or you can do it like me and make little individual cakes instead.

16-42: Easy Lime Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 6, 2020July 2, 2020butter, cottage cheese, creamed, crushed, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gift ideas, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, juiced, lemon balm, lime juice, limes, melted, mint, peeled, pie crust, pies, twice-baked, untested

If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).

The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.

I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.

16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 1, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, baking cups, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, butter, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, party food, pastry, pastry cups, pie crust, powdered sugar, raspberries, Silpat, snacks, strawberries, tart, tart pan, tartlette, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipping cream

I’ve used this project as an excuse to make dishes to share at work before. This time, I made 16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes for a quarterly staff meeting. I had a colleague that was interested in trying vegan recipes and another that required gluten-free dishes, so I tried to incorporate both in this attempt.

I had originally bought tartlette tins for 5-20: Golden Cheese Tartlettes, and I’m just glad I’ve finally found another use for them. There’s also 16-9: Raspberry Tart, if you’re looking for something a bit larger, but in the same ballpark.

Did you notice that there already was a #45 for Group 16? 16-45: Colonial Apple Cake is also 16-45. Good job, Simply Delicious. ?

16-33: Crispy Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 20, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, American, at work, butter, cakes, chilled, crispy, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, honey, light corn syrup, melted, party food, peeled, pie crust, Silpat, sliced, springform pan, strawberries, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I made 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake last September to pair with 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake as a breakfast treat for my work colleagues. This one was the less fancy of the two, but still went extremely well with some coffee on a Wednesday morning.

This title card blurb mentions that versions of this almond cake can be found all over the United States–Google doesn’t seem to want to confirm that claim for me. Searching almond cake results in several iterations of a Spanish flourless almond cake influenced by the Jewish tradition of Passover. Interesting, but none of them look like this recipe.

A search for almond tart (see 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake for my argument that these two dishes are tarts, not cakes as Simply Delicious claims) comes much closer–here’s a very similar version (with video!) from Martha Stewart herself.

16-26: Elegant Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 18, 2019November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, butter, cakes, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, cornstarch, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, kneaded, liqueur, maraschino cherries, party food, pie crust, powdered sugar, springform pan, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian

A few months ago, I made two Simply Delicious almond cakes for work: this one, 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake and 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake. I think this one came out prettier, but they were both delicious.

Simply Delicious doesn’t mention this in their blurb, but it’s also great for accompanying coffee or tea on a Wednesday morning at the office. They also refer to this dish as a cake, but it’s very clearly a tart. To confirm, here’s a recipe from King Arthur Flour that is essentially this exact same dish (referred to a tart) but with raspberries instead of Maraschino cherries.

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