Annie made this racetrack cake for Daniel’s birthday.

First, she baked 4, round 9-inch chocolate cakes. Then she used a cake leveler to make them flat, and cut a slice out of each piece so that they fit closer together.

She thinned out some raspberry jam with water and spread that on the bottom layers. She made a dark chocolate butter cream frosting and spread that on top of the raspberry jam before covering with the top cake layer.
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Some friends of ours gave us a bag of the starter batter plus a recipe for this “Amish Friendship Bread”. It’s kind of like a chain letter of baking. You get the starter batter which you feed and care for 10 days. On the 10th day you make a huge batch of batter, divide it up into four parts, bake at least one, and give away the bags of remaining batter along with the recipe.

It’s a nice recipe, more like a cake than a bread. It uses instant vanilla pudding to keep it moist, and cinnamon powder for spice. Some enterprising people sell the recipe on eBay but you can find all kinds of variations of the recipe elsewhere online.

Aloha, Nate

Our neighbor left us a bag of Golden Delicious apples from her tree. Peel, slice, mix with flour, sugar, vegetable oil, walnuts, and cinnamon, then bake. This cake is so good, it cannot last more than a couple of days!

Aloha, Nate