Double Apple Bundt Cake

For all of you in the food blogisphere who have ever had a mother (so I'm talking to everybody here), you've probably experienced the power of guilt.

Note to Psychgrad - you are not allowed to say or type one word of response about the guilting mothers ... and I mean that in the very sweetest of Mommy Dearest ways.

If you've been hanging out with us for a while, you will have heard stories about Baba (check right sidebar of the home page for people details). Sometimes she's baba, sometimes she's The Babster, sometimes she's The Queen (no disrespect Elizabeth) and sometimes she can really be "pain in the butt". Baba had some challenges walking and at the tender age of 86 (almost) she had to have a hip replacement. She's still recovering and she's fine but what a manipulative bonus she has going for her. Here's basically how it goes:

Giz: Hi mom, how are you feeling

Baba: Oy, I didn't sleep all night - I had to take a pill (between you and me I think she's liking those percocets just a little too much)

Giz: I'm sorry mom. How's everything else?

Baba: Slowly, slowly but I have to be careful not to harm myself.

Giz: Are you hungry?

Baba: Not so much. I have very little appetite.

Giz's sister walks in with Swiss Chalet soup...

Baba: What a wonderful daughter...you thought of your mother.

Okay, I'm getting it.

Giz: Mom, would you like me to bring you something.

Baba: (here's the killer)...No, I don't want to bother you, I know you're busy.
That translates into - you didn't even think to do it already so here, here's the knife to the heart.

Giz: No mom, it's not a problem, if I cook for me, I can make a little more.

Baba: If you have extra - I don't want to take your food, it would be nice.

It goes on, but I think you get the drift. So, today I put together a home made t.v. type dinner and now I have a Dutch Apple Bundt Cake in the oven so she can have something with her tea.

Finding something that would work for baba was a challenge - very fussy, hates cinnamon, doesn't like things that are too sweet, no chocolate, nothing sour. I found this near perfect recipe in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking from my home to Yours".

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (she won't even know it's there)
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup store-bought apple-butter spiced or plain
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated (I used granny smith apples
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden - I soaked them in passion fruit juice for about 1/2 hour and then drained them)
Confectioners' sugar, for dustng (optional)

For the Icing (optional) (I didn't do this)

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
About 2 Tbsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Getting Ready:

1. Centre rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Butter a 9-to-10 inch (12-cup) Bundt pan. If your pan is not nonstick, dust the interior of the pan with flour, then tap out the excess (If you have a silicone Bundt pan, there's no need to butter or flour it.) Don't place the pan on a baking sheet - you want the oven's heat to circulate through the Bundt's inner tube.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
4. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scraping the bowl as needed for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick and pale.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you'll have a light, fluffy batter.
6. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter - don't worry if it curdles the batter.
7. Still on low, add the grated apples and mix to completely blend.
8. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only ntil they disappear into the batter.
9. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the rubber spatula.
10. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes (50 minutes worked for me - 40 minutes for the small bundt pans), or until a thin knife instered deep into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding and cooling the cake to room temperature. If possible, once the cake is completely cool, wrap well in plastic and let it stand overnight at room temperature before serving.

To Make the Optional Icing:

Put the sugar in a small bowl and stir in a squirt or two or either orange or lemon juice. Keep adding the juice a little at a time until you have an icing that falls easily from the tip of a spoon. Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake, letting it slide down the curves of the cake in whatever pattern it makes. Let the cake stand until the icing dries, a matter of minutes, before slicing.

Verdict: Of course I didn't wait the day to taste it. I figured I best try it before I take it to baba. She loved it and now has a supply in her freezer.

P.S. Her new bionic part is great and she's doing marathons down the hallways of her condo building.

We would also like to acknowledge some recent awards we've been given.

Recently, we found out that Giz's Peanut Butter and Jelly Filled Cupcakes tied for 3rd place in Peanut Butter Boy and Foodaphilia's 3rd Peanut Butter Exhibition.



Awesome job Giz! Now, with a 2nd and 3rd place placing, you know Giz is going to be working extra hard to take home first prize.

We also received awards from Dee at Choos & Chews and Val at More Than Burnt Toast



So by accident as it often happens, I stumbled upon Dee's blog. A dedicated mom, Dee also puts together some extremely interesting dishes and I can't even begin to tell you how many I have in my del.icio.us file. Thank you Dee.

Val, I seriously don't know how this slipped through the cracks for me. Val awarded us a while ago and Psychgrad said "did you acknowledge this award"...oops...I screwed up... I'm so sorry Val. It's not at all an indication of lack of appreciation - more an indication of my "sometimers". Thank you Val.

All of you just make us want to come back and get better and better.

For the "I Love you This Much" award:

Glamah at Coco Cooks Glamah, in my impression is one who loves to schmooze and will try anything at least once. I remember asking Glamah for a favour and even though she was literally walking out the door and had already said she was gone, she took care of it just like that. Now that's the kind of A type that I get along with.

Ohio Mom at Cooking in Cleveland has and is a loyal visitor to our blog. You can always tell that when OM comments, she's read what you've written.

Ricki from Diet Dessert and Dogs
who became my old old friend the first time I met her. That's something special and now we're even planning mysterious things. Stay tuned for that one.

Anne who hails from Cooking with Anne has to have one of the biggest hearts around. She has such a strong sense of fairness and when things don't seem right, she makes them right. With a football team for a family, she inspires me when I think I'm the one who's overwhelmed. She helps me put things into perspective.

Nicisme, from Cherrapeno is one of the UK connections who's blog I love to visit. Visually, the pictures are stimulating and the recipes entirely accessible. Love the blog - love the person.

Dear Nuria from Spanish Recipes honours us with an award on the same page as her recipe Hummus Magnificus. Imagine - being on the same page as something that is Magnificus - like how inflated do you think my ego is going to be. It's something to get the Blogging With a Purpose award. Thank you Nuria. And oh....I know you didn't like the hummus too much but I'm sure you'll tweak it until it's perfect.




We'd like to share the "Blogging with a Purpose" award with:

Biscuit Pusher The Biscuit Pusher who's recipes seem to be full proof and inspire me to try them every time I visit her blog.

Ferdzy from Seasonal Ontario Food. A local Toronto blogger, Ferdzy likes to keep it seasonal and always has very interesting information that I always end up saying "I didn't know that" to. She makes me feel like a visitor in my own city and I'm waiting for her to pick me up and take me with her on one of her escapades. As my nephew would say "she's a cool dude".

Anne from Pink Cake Box who's in New Jersey baking up some of the most interesting cakes. We've come to appreciate the work that goes into these cakes. They're beautiful, they're creative and I think it takes special people to do this work day in and day out.

Jen at Cake Wrecks has the most unusual blog. If you've never visited, take the time to look through the blog. I only found it recently and I'm ever fascinated by the not only the creativity but lack of same found in the cake decorating world. And Jen has a style that's so refreshing - I laugh out loud every time I read her descriptions.

Anna from Cookie Madness is a sound blogger who's recipes are just good. Anna's tips are great and I've tried some of her recipes and found they've never failed me. She's my go to blogger when I need something quick and it's not going to be a chore to make it in short order.




And last ....but certainly not least - this is the final weekend for submissions to Tried Tested and True Two. 3 days to go. I picked up the prizes from Christine Cushing and I have to tell you - the cookbook is a good one. Hmmm...maybe I'll keep it... lots of good recipes and love the pictures. After the 21st, we'll arrange for the roundup to be posted so all can see the entries. A copy is being sent over to Christine Cushing, each recipe numbered with a picture and the recipe. I'm very interested to see a professional's take on the recipes that we do. Once Christine has gone through the submissions, she will award 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners.

I say in advance - a heartfelt thank you to all who took the time and gave your energy to submit to this event. Each blog that displays the organ donation symbol even if it's for a day, helps. You make a difference!

Screw Work, I'm Going to the Market & Caprese Salad

I enjoy travelling, but I always find myself obsessing about what I will cook/bake upon my return throughout the trip. For example, when R and I backpacked around Europe for 3 months in 2003, I had created a list of groceries I wanted to buy upon our return that took up the entire backside of a month long calendar. You know, this kind:



Excessive? Possibly.

Even with only being gone for about three weeks, I was still jonesing to fill my fridge and cupboards. Really, I can only blame Giz for this (yes mom, another thing to blame you for). I'm always shocked at how empty people's fridges are...until I realize that their fridges are probably more around average and my fridge is more on the packed side. But, the apple doesn't fall from the tree on this one - Giz's fridge is just as bad, if not worse.

Giz's comment: You forgot about the fridge in the basement. Hey, I bought you that book "Breaking your Genetic Code"...clearly you didn't read it. I don't feel in the least bit guilty about your inability to restrain yourself while shopping for food.

After today's trip to the market, I think I've sufficiently appeased the obsession for a day or so. Yes, I know it's a work day - but the boss is out of town and I've got priorities: cooking!

Here are today's acquisitions:



Most importantly, for today's post, is that I picked up some sweet, juicy tomatoes and bocchini cheese. Ever since I saw some of the Caprese salad posts earlier in the summer, I had a hankering for trying it out myself.

Since basil is my favourite herb and I've never made Caprese salad, I thought this would be an appropriate submission for this month's No Croutons Required:



This month's theme is showcasing your favourite herb in a soup or salad.



I alternated the tomato, cheese and basil and then blended up a pseudo-pesto of garlic, basil, olive oil, and pepper to drizzle over top. Simple, but so good.



Is it kind of sad that the sweetness of the tomatoes almost brought me to tears? Partly because it tastes so good and partly because in season fruit is fleeting. I started missing the tomatoes as soon as I swallowed them.

I must make another one of these salad before the end of tomato season.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

I have one of these really REALLY old recipe boxes made of hard plastic jammed with hand written recipes, many of which are in what one might think is a foreign language. Some have shorthand scratchings while others are written diagonally with things like 2 cups flour written 2 c f and 1 tsp cinnamon would be 1 t cin. I'm sure most cooks or bakers would figure it out but since the whole idea of our blog is to create a living cookbook - something that can be a heritage thing to pass down for generations to come, it's a good thing that I'm pulling out the old recipes and making them accessible. Here's one of them that in original form would probably need an experienced ancient scribe to figure it out.

Just looking at that recipe brought a smile to my face because I could actually remember the day I wrote it. In the day, my mother's contemporaries would get together on Saturday night for what they called "The Poker Game". As kids, (all four of us), we would hate it when my parents were the hosts. All their friends would sit around this round poker table that my dad crafted, speak very loudly and smoked like crazy. I guess it was just cool in those days to have a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. My mother would prepare a literal feast for when they took a break for what they called "snacks and coffee". One of these snacks was the famous Strawberry Rhubarb cake. So, when I saw this recipe it brought back memories of "check to the aces" and how hard my mother worked to please.



So tell me this isn't perfect for a walk down memory lane!! This event was a great trigger for me to submit this cake to Chef Jeena's Kitchen event. The idea is to cook a recipe that reminds you of a person or event from the past and state why.

And...psst...if you've never visited Chef Jeena's blog and you like pictures - you'll find a plentiful supply of pic by pic tutorials for the recipes on her blog. She just makes it all look so easy.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients

4 cups diced fresh rhubarb
3 oz. package strawberry jello (I use the sugar free)
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar (I use 1 cup)
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream (yogurt would work too)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Directions

1. Cut rhubarb into small dice and mix with jello powder, set aside.

2. Make a batter of the next 8 ingredients.

3. Spread 1/2 of the batter into a greased 13 x 9 pan

4. Spead rhubarb over the batter.

5. Combine the last 4 ingredients to make a streusel mix

6. Sprinkle half of the streusel mix over the rhubarb.

7. Spread remaining half of the batter over rhubarb and sprinkle remaining streusel mix on top of it all.

8. Bake 350 F oven for 60 minutes or until done.

Grilled Pineapple with Curried Chicken

Have you heard of the Great Cooks Community? What started out as a blogroll run by Jill of Simple Daily Recipes has turned into an online community where each of the (currently) 262 members has access to his/her own page, an opportunity to upload photos and video, a forum, monthly featured bloggers, a regular podcast to tune in to and several special interest groups that you can join (or you can start up a new one yourself).

One of the groups in the community is called Great Cooks County Fair.



A county fair is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods and often linked with a carnival. Borrowing from this idea, the Great Cooks County Fair gives us the opportunity to display our cooking creations and then group members (you can easily become a group member too) vote on the winning submission.

This time, the event features grilled fresh fruit.

I borrowed some ideas from this recipe, both because it tastes great and because R was out of town when I made it.

Grilled Pineapple with Curried Chicken



2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 fresh pineapple
2 plum tomatoes
1 red pepper
approx. 10 cremini mushrooms
olive oil
salt and paper, to taste

Cut up the chicken breasts to your preferred size. Marinate the chicken in turmeric, chili power, cumin, coriander and olive oil. Cut up your fruit and vegetables for grilling.



I seasoned my red pepper and and mushrooms with salt, pepper and sweet paprika.
I also coated my fruit with olive oil. When the chicken is about 1/2 finished, start vegetables on the bbq.



About 8 minutes before the chicken was complete, I added the pineapple and tomato.



It should only take about 3-4 minutes for each side to get nice grill marks.



Serve with rice.

The dish was delicious! Really, the pineapple was the star of the dish. The tomato is a nice addition, but not a deal breaker.



This is my first time grilling fruit and I plan to continue to experiment with it. I'm really looking forward to the roundup of recipes!

**************************************************************

The final countdown is on for entering your submission for Tried, Tested and True Two. The deadline is July 21st at midnight (Eastern Standard Time). For more information about the event, the cause and the great prizes, click on the green ribbon below.



*************************************************************

I've got a couple more France posts in the works - but have been exploding with eagerness to start sharing recipes.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Weekend Wokking given birth in the home of Wandering Chopsticks is a monthly blogging event that takes on an Iron Chef type feel by celebrating a new single ingredient each month. The secret ingredient this month is ... (insert music crescendo here)... TOMATOES!!! The second informational bit for this blogging event is that there's a different host each month. The host(ess) for the Tomato challenge is Blazing Hot Wok . The beauty of Weekend Wokking is that the secret ingredient does NOT need to be made in a wok, nor does it need to follow an Asian theme. You can if you like, but certainly not a prerequisite for entry. Here is my entry, simple and delicious to Weekend Wokking.




Ingredients

2 Large firm tomatoes
1 1/2 cups diced chicken
1/4 cup blanched toasted almonds
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup fried crimini mushrooms
mayonnaise to taste
salt and pepper to taste
lettuce or field greens

Directions

1. Rather than scoop out the tomatoes, cut them into sixths, leaving the bottom uncut.

2. Push the sixths apart and you can fill them without cutting away any of the fruit.

3. Mix the chicken, almonds, celery, mushrooms, mayonnaise, salt and pepper and fill the tomatoes.

4. Serve on a bed of greens/lettuce.

France Blogging: Winery & Foie Gras

The morning after this day was a Monday. That's relevent, as we learned, since many things are closed on Sunday. I think I had been taking for granted how most things are open in my area on a Sunday.

On Monday, we were able to take some visits of local businesses. Our first stop was the tourist information centre in Montagne. I believe Montagne it considered to be a satellite region of St. Emilion. Since St. Emilion is a recognizable brand/name, the surrounding regions are connected to it.

I don't think we could have figured out any of our day without them. R and I told the woman there, I believe her name is Celine, that we would like to go on a winery tour and maybe to a store that sold local products. The nearest local product store was further than what we wanted to travel, but Celine came up with a great alternative: visiting a foie gras farm.

Just before taking off to pick up some supplies for the day, we checked out the wine museum attached the tourist information centre. I found it interesting, although a bit of overload. It basically explained the history of wine-making in the region along with all of the tools used. It was in French, with a couple of bilingual (French-English) signs.

Here's some of what we saw during the tour.

There are four types of grapes grown in the region:






I also learned that it is best to wait about 4-5 years to drink Cabernet Sauvignon, but this wait time can be reduced by adding Merlot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it has to do with the tannin in the Cabernet Sauvignon being too strong if consumed within 4-5 years of being bottled, but mellowed by Merlot.

Although, I'm confused whether this only applies in France, where there is less taste for full-bodied wines. I'm new to this whole "Parkerized" issue.

Another tidbit of information is the names used for different bottle sizes. The names are relatively similar in English:




The names in the top picture correspond with the bottle sizes in the bottom picture.

The picture below is of a old-fasioned machine called "un pressoir". It was used to press the grape skins for its flavour and colour. I didn't know that all of the colour of red wine came from the skin of the grape.



It's probably insensitive of me, but I had to laugh at this portion of the exhibit:



It appears to depict how sad a farmer would look when standing over dead vines.

Behind the wine museum, there is a nice picnic area with many varieties of flowers and a great view of a vinyard:





There were also some stable-like rooms nearby showing other tools and the typical family home at that time.



After the museum, we picked up on supplies for the day. One priority was picking up peanut butter. Yes, peanut butter. R would happily eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches every day.

Next, we made our way to a winery in Lussac, another town in the area:



One of the owners took us on a tour of their winery. Michel and his family (brother-in-law, father-in-law) run a 8 acre winery together. Michel's father-in-law, an immigrant from Algeria, moved to France and bought this land. In an area where tradition and generations of wine-makers predominate, Michel was quite candid when I asked about his relationship with his neighbours. He didn't have the exact words to describe it, but basically said that they were somewhat suspicious of his family. If there are any neighbourly alliances, they seems to be more utilitarian than that of a close-knit community.

At this point, the grapes still have a way to go until harvest:



Following harvest time, Michel would be travelling for the next four months to secure contracts for upcoming years' production.

I asked Michel when he has time for a vacation. He said he would take time with his family to go walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (The Way of St James), a pilgrimage that crosses Spain and some surrounding areas. He said they did it for the experience, not for religious reasons. I also asked if he liked to spend time relaxing by a pool and he assured me that he did this too.

In some, but not all vineyards, you'll notice a bush of roses, which Michel explained used to be used to detect Oidium, as flowers would show signs of the disease earlier than the vines. Today, they have people who come around to test the levels of the soil and the roses are kept more for show and tradition.



Clos Les Hauts Martins annually produces a classique and prestige selection of wines. The prestige is kept in an oak barrel for a year prior to being sold.



We bought two bottles, which Michel had to put a label and red cap before selling the bottles:



Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out any legal ways to bring more than 1.5L of alcohol (each) back to Canada.



R, always the business-guy, wanted to know about the labelling for the bottles. How did they pick their design? Michel said that they wanted a simple design, and added their father-in-law's signature for something appealing to the eye. From what I could tell, the bottle names and labels in the region are pretty neutral. Feel free to show me otherwise, but I would be highly suprised if you found any wine names like Fat Bastard or Fat Cat coming out of the Bordealais region.

Given the importance of tradition when it comes to wine production in the region, I'm sure people are happy with the more conservative bottle design. It's what inside that counts, right? However, with the growth in wine production internationally combined with reduced rates of wine consumption in France, the wine producers outside of St. Emilion proper are feeling the crunch.

Overall, a great experience. Michel was a really nice man, without a pretentious bone in his body. Toward the end of the tour, Michel received a call from Celine at the tourist office confirming that the owner of the fois gras farm was available to give us a tour.

We headed over to Emmanuel Provin's farm. Only problem is, the tour was in French. Odd thing - when I listen to people talk in French, I spend so much of my energy understanding what they're saying, that the information doesn't actually get encoded into long term memory. Let's see what I can remember...

Emmanuel relocated to his current location from the Champagne region of France. He was very friendly as well. He explained that all of his ducks are a mixed breed and male, as female ducks tend to have more veiny livers.



The ducks have free reign of the land, but being that it was a sunny day, the ducks pretty much stuck together in the shade. I asked if the ducks had water to swim in and Emmanuel explained that it would noy be healthy as ducks that swim and drink in the same water are prone to disease.

Here is some more information on foie gras. There is some controversy around the practice involved in making foie gras. Essentially, the goose or duck is force fed corn to enlarge the liver.

Here is the machine Emmanuel uses. I suppose he sits in the seat and holds the duck while the bottom of the funnel shaped object is used to force-feed the duck. Actually, I just saw an episode of Ricardo and Friends that shows the process.



Emmanuel explained that, contrary to belief, the size of the enlarged liver can be reversed if the duck is fed normally for a few days.

He also explained how the duck is slaughtered. They are first put into this funnel like bin and given a quick electrical shock. This puts them to sleep.



This machine is then used to pluck the feathers from the duck.



I tried to keep an open mind about the whole process. As Emmanuel and many others in the food world have said, it's easy to disassociate the animal from the food you're eating. So, it's probably good to visit farms to gain an appreciation of the process that goes into putting food on our plates.

Here are the products sold at the farm. We're not big foie gras eaters (read: never tried it before this trip), so we went with two jars.



And here is the man himself. I thought it was cute that when I asked for his picture he fluffed his hair up and stood up straight. Very nice man.



After a full day of touring, we retreated to our B&B and had a simple baguette sandwich for dinner.

Black Forest Cake

It's my nephew's birthday and his favourite cake is Black Forest cake. "Auntie Giz, could you make me a black forest cake for my birthday"? With pleasure J... and really with pleasure since this kid NEVER asks for anything. He's always the first one up from the dinner table offering to help with dishes, preparing coffee and walking my dogs. At 12 years old I marvel at his selflessness and kind nature.

Thankfully, there is a world of black forest cake recipes - from the most elaborate to the dead simple. I guess you'll have a really hard time figuring out which one I opted for.

A huge big thank you goes out to a fellow blogger who really saved my skin.
Anna at Cookie Madness ingeniously had a quick and really delicious version.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong brewed coffee, cold
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans

Combine milk and vinegar to make sour milk; set aside

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the eggs, oil, coffee and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in the sour milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Place pans on center rack and place a cookie sheet on lower rack just in case there are spill-overs. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. (mine was done in 27 minutes). Cool completely before filling.

Assembly

With long serrated knife, split each cake layer horizontally in half. Tear one split layer into crumbs, set aside. For finer crumbs, you can pulse the cake layer in the food processor.

Place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread about 1 cup whipped cream, top with about 3/4 cup cherry topping. Top with second cake layer; repeat layers of whipped cream and cherry topping. Top with third cake layer. Frost side of cake with remaining whipped cream. Pat reserved crumbs onto frosting on side of cake. Arrange a bit more filling on top in a decorative way.

Filling:

2 (20 oz) cans pitted sour cherries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Combine reserved juice, cherries, 1 cup sugar and cornstarch in a 2 quart saucepan. Cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Cool before using.

Whipped Cream:

3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine whipping cream and confectioner's sugar in a chilled medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.