Desserts

This fruit fluff is based on the old-fashioned creamy fluffy fruit dessert/salad concoction often called fluff or heavenly hash, a blend of chopped fruits and mini marshmallows. Occasionally a dollop of mayonnaise is added which creates the sweet-savory taste of the past.

The recipe contains all the good ingredients of a pound cake (i.e., lots of eggs and butter) but follows a much simpler method — melt the butter and then stir in everything else. The texture will be pound cake dense and velvety. And in furtherance of my crusade for southern self-rising flour’s versatility beyond biscuits, there’s no need to add salt or leavening (it’s already added to the self-rising flour).

So, after declaring, over and over again, that sugar and cornbread don’t mix, this Apple Cornbread Skillet Cake again changes my mind. Yes, it’s a cake and not to be mistaken for sweet cornbread. I love to make it because it has just enough cornmeal texture, plenty of buttery flavor, eggy richness, and sweet tart apples on top.

Our bet is that most Nashvillian home cooks have at least one of the Cake Mix Doctor cookbooks. Our fabulous quick caramel frosting comes from the Cake Mix Doctor herself, fifth generation Nashvillian Anne Byrn, whose mother’s sage advice “you can get away with a cake mix, but you must make your own frosting” has had a lasting impact on her successful career.

You are so Nashville if…you can’t remember a holiday without Peppermint Stick Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce that combines semisweet and unsweetened chocolate and boasts a very rich, deep finish that is spectacular with the cool mint ice cream.

Good chocolate sheet cake recipes are like biscuits– they’re are all quite similar. This one excels, is easy, travels well, and needs no mix. Self rising flour and some salt in the icing. There’s my secret.