Cornbread- Ain't nothin' wrong with it NOW!

First off I'd like to apologize to Domestic Spaz for not posting this months ago as a response to her Chili & Cornbread recipe as an alternative to the Jiffy mix cornbread. Shortly after her post, I threw my back out and then came the five-tier cake of Doooom. I hope that this would be similar to the Jiffy mix (I'm not sure because I don't remember the last time I ate it) but its about as easy, especially when time runs short.

This is from Make-A-Mix Cookbook my mom gave me years ago after she had received it as a gift, and had no use for it. This is not a vegan cookbook, however there are a lot of recipes that vegans can still use but alterations are required. It has saved me time, money, and helps me keep my cupboards full of homemade foods with the convenience of the prepackaged products.
~~~
This recipe comes in two parts:

Cornbread Mix

4 cup all purpose Flour
4 cup yellow Cornmeal
2 cup instant Soy Milk Powder
2/3 cup granulated Sugar
4 tablespoons Baking Powder
1 tablespoon Salt
1 tablespoon Baking Soda

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Stir with a wire whisk until evenly distributed. Pour into a 10-cup container with a tight fitting lid. Seal container. Label with date and contents. Store in a cool, dry place. Use within 10 to 12 weeks. Makes about 10 cups Cornbread Mix.

Cornbread

Egg Replacer equaling 1 Egg (we use Ener-G)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Water (for pourable consistancy)
2 tablespoons Canola Oil
1-1/4 cups Cornbread Mix

Preheat oven to 425F (220 C). Grease a 5" x 3" loaf pan. In a bowl beat together egg, water, and oil. Stir in Cornbread Mix until moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. makes 1 loaf.

Variations:

Add 1/2 cup of frozen corn to the batter

Mix in salsa or chili before cooking

I like to double the cornbread recipe and bake it in a glass 11" x 7" pan so I can freeze the leftovers.

It would be fun to make up a batch of the mix with blue cornmeal, mix up a double batch (one yellow, one blue) and marble it in the pan. Or similarly, mix up two batches of batter, adding food coloring to the water of one of them, again marbling it in the pan.

To use as a substitute for Jiffy cornbread mix- Weight of the Jiffy mix (dry) is 8.5 oz and the amount of the MAM dry cornbread mix for a single recipe is 6-1/4 oz. My assumption is that they could possibly be used interchangeably, but I haven't tested it (I have leftover lemon or white cake mix but not yellow, Lemon cornbread doesn't sound good.)

Now if only I had some of that chili... :D

Headline: Cake narrowly misses causing a labor strike

On July 26, 2008 My sister-in-law (my husband's only sibling) was married in a nearby town. Everything looked wonderful and went as smoothly as weddings can go, not too many things went wrong. They had a five tier fondant covered cake, complete with a handmade cake topper. There were the standard oohs and ahhs over the cake, and the guests seemed to enjoy it once the eating commenced.

Personally, I thought it stunk. Or more accurately, I was tired of smelling it, since I was the one who was asked to make it.

Even sitting here thinking about ALL the work that went into that cake still terrifies me. I had never made a stacked cake more than 8" and two layers that used more than one cake mix at a time. The top two tiers are 'fake cakes' (Styrofoam instead of cake). I had six months to learn EVERYTHING I needed to know to have it even vaguely like something I'd call a wedding cake. I have done cakes before, I usually have fun doing them, but as I found out, wedding cakes are a whole other beast than 'simple' Birthday cakes.

I had never before:
Made the correct consistency of Royal Icing to make flowers
Made icing flowers most especially roses
Baked a 10", 12", 14", or sheet cake (11"x15") all in 3" pans
Split each cake in half to add the filling
Made frosting that spread onto the cake smoothly
Frosted a cake with exceedingly smooth edges
Used fondant in anything
Made full figurines
Rolled out fondant
Colored fondant
Created fondant clothes

...And yet I did all of this and more. I am still surprised at what I accomplished, and the sheer amount of stuff I learned in 6 months. Towards the end it was 16+ hour days (for two weeks) of what felt like constant Finals. But I do have to say, I'm not going to do it again anytime soon.






This is the frosting on the cake before I had to add the fondant.