Food On Friday – Swedish Nut Cake

Super Easy.  Super Quick.  Super Delicious.

You only need to have on hand a few things that are a little out of the ordinary in your pantry – crushed pineapple, cherries and cream cheese – and you can make a wonderfully moist cake that should wow both family and guests.

Here is the recipe from out of the Family Cookbook.  This recipe is really simple to follow.

First, take out a stick of butter and an 8 oz package of cream cheese to soften to room temperature.  I try to do it early in the day so I know it will be ready when I am ready to make the frosting.

For the batter, I start by beating the two eggs in the batter bowl (one less bowl to wash later).  Then I add the can of crushed pineapple and sugar and whisk it all together.

While I am doing the batter, Vash starts working on chopping the cherries.  You can use the red maraschino cherries if you want but Vash is not a fan of them, so we use the black sweet cherries.

Because of the time of year we were not able to get fresh cherries so we used the canned ones.  I expect that frozen thawed cherries would work just as well.

I chopped the walnuts while Vash worked on the cherries.

Back to the batter.  Next I add the vanilla, cherries and the walnuts to the batter – and then I add the flour and baking soda.

I think that I get a better distribution of the cherries and walnuts throughout the cake if I add them before the flour instead of after, but I have no idea if that is true.  It doesn’t seem to affect the cake batter itself so you can add them before or after the flour – however it works for you.

Then I lightly spray a 13 x 9 x 2 glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (too much and the taste will affect your cake) and pour the batter in.

After baking for 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven, it is done.

Test it with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean, but 35 minutes in my oven seems to work pretty consistently.

Then, after the cake has cooled, I make the frosting by beating the softened stick of butter and cream cheese in a bowl with an electric hand mixer until the butter and cream cheese are blended well.  Then I add in the powdered sugar – a cup at a time.  Though the recipe says 2 cups, I use at least a half cup to a cup more.  Taste it as you go (I know, twist your arm. . .).  I found that the frosting was still too cheesey at two cups but is perfection with another half cup or more.  I often add a dash of vanilla to the frosting as well.

When the cake is cool, frost it with your cream cheese frosting

and get ready to serve it, because it will go fast.

My family really enjoys this cake and it does not last long in the house.  (It’s one of those cakes that everytime you walk past it you will want to just cut a sliver off and pop it in your mouth).  It has the moistness of a carrot cake but the sweetness of a pineapple cake.

Yum.

I hope you enjoy this one.

I’m not sure what we are doing next week.  I was thinking a Ricotta cake, but my diet keeps steering me toward a soup.  We will see who wins – the diet or the sweet tooth.  Have a wonderful weekend all!!

Onward and Upward.

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