Category: Cowboy Day


Jul
2021

Cowboy Day – Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting

categories: 1960's recipes, Cake, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day

Yippee Ky Yay Cake Lovers, number 5 is alive!!!!  This weekend, courtesy of the nicest man on the Internet,  Greg Swenson, we are celebrating Cowboy Day with a Cookalong.  I have chosen to bake a cake (because every celebration needs one) from Greg’s book, Recipes for Rebels:  In The Kitchen with James Dean – and oh (cow)boy, what a cake it is.  Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting.

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Pepsi Cola Cake wth Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting

You might be wondering what is the connection between a cake made from Pepsi and Cowboys? Well, hear me out here. It is a little like one of those puzzles you used to do at school where you change one letter at a time to turn one word into another…

But here me out:

James Dean played a cowboy in the film Giant
James Dean’s first paid acting job was in a Pepsi Commercial
Pepsi is a key ingredient in this cake.

Cowboy to cake in less steps than it will take you to go from bath to tubs!

Cowboy Day 2021

Good lord, just look at that face!!!  If that is not a textbook definition of impossibly handsome, I do not know what is.

Something that is most definitely not impossibly handsome is the Pepsi-Cola Cake.  It is a massive brute of a thing (might one say a Giant?) that erupted like a volcano in my oven.  It reminded me of the ads we used to have for Picnic bars – deliciously ugly.

 

Pepsi Cola Calke

I mean, ok, it doesn’t look quite as much like a pooh as a Picnic bar but at the point of removal from the oven, it did not look good.

But as the picnic ad states that’s what wrappers are for. And the wrapping on the Pepsi-cola cake is some divine Peanut Butter frosting.

Pepsi Cola Cake 4

I mean it’s still not the prettiest cake in the world. But, do not let it’s somewhat less than gorgeous faced fool you.  Remember the delicious part of deliciously ugly?  Well this cake has a ton of delicious!  The cake itself is moist and fudgy, a little like a brownie.  The slight slatiness in the  peanut butter frosting is a perfect accompaniment to the sweetness of the cake.  Beware though the Pepsi Cake is not just rich.  It is filthy rich!!!

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I have a sweet tooth and even I would recommend cutting what you think is a normal-sized slice of cake then cutting that in two.  And bada bing bada boom that’s elevenses and afternoon tea sorted!!!!

Pepsi Cola Cake – Recipe

So, the recipe for this cake made me laugh.  I love the way they ask for non-sweetened cocoa powder.  I mean, when you already have 2 cups of sugar and a cup of Pepsi in your cake I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

Here’s the recipe!

 

 

Giant 2

 

This was so much fun!  I loved cooking this cake and being able to take part in the world wide cookalong to celebrate Cowboy Day 2021!  Thank you Greg for organising and inviting me to contribute!

Have a great week everyone!!!!

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Jul
2019

Cowgirl Cookies for Cowboy Day

categories: Biscuits & Cookies, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Sweets

Giddy up people of the internet and Happy Cowboy Day!

Having said that, this year we are celebrating with two posts celebrating Cowgirls!  First up some OMGZ so delicious Cowgirl cookies.  These are amazing.  So good – as they should he when they are pretty much 2 types of M&M’s, choc chips and nuts held together by butter and sugar.  They also contain oats so they are also (almost) good for you!  

We celebrated Cowboy Day a little early this year because a few weekends ago I found myself entertaining children.  This does not happen very often at Maison de la retro food so initially, I was at a loss of what to serve.   

My go to’s of cocktails and canapes didn’t seem appropriate plus I wanted something I could whip up pretty quickly on a Saturday morning.  A quick flick through the interwebs and yee hah!  Cowgirl cookies to the rescue!

I’m not a big cookie maker so I was a little nervous about making these.  However, a few minutes after these went into the oven that delicious aroma of sweet baking began to fill the house and I was pretty sure I was onto a winner!

Tasting one  (well maybe three or four) fresh out of the oven I became even more certain but the proof of these cookies were not in my eating.  So I was mildly nervous when the oldest of the kids, nine-year-old Christian approached me, cookie in hand.

“Did you make these?”

“Yep”

“When?”

“This morning”

“Huh…..that must be why they taste so good”

https://gph.is/g/Eq6V0pa

Yippee Kay Yay!!!!

I used this recipe from Bakerella. 

And I can recommend it highly. As can the little humans who I made them for.  

Child-friendly post over, but stay a while because coming right up is an adults-only tipple and a teeny peek into the life of a real-life Rhinestone Cowgirl.

See you there!


Jul
2018

The Dirty Cowboy Martini

categories: Chilli, Cocktail, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Gin, Martini

Howdy Cowdies!

First up sorry for my tardiness for Cowboy Day but I have been laid low for about a week with a totally vicious cold/flu.  But, just like that ChumbaWumba song from the 90’s, I get knocked down… but I get up again.  (But only for a few hours at a time because this thing is wiping me out!)

Unlike that song which talks of whiskey drinks and lager drinks and vodka drinks, I made us a gin drink.

People of the world, meet the Dirty Cowboy Martini!

Dirty Cowboy Martini

 

It’s good.  It’s so good.  As to be expected.  Cos who doesn’t love a dirty cowboy?

😉

Now there is a bit of too-ing and ‘s fro-ing to make the Dirty Cowboy but believe me, it’s worth it!

First up you gotta make some Cowboy Candy.  Which is no hardship because these Candied Jalapeno’s may just become my favourite thing to eat in the world.  Ever.

Cowboy Candy1

Sweet, spicy, tangy, hot, sour…these are little flavour bombs!

I had fully intended just to post these but then I got to thinking (always dangerous) about how to show them off to full effect and I came up with the idea of the Dirty Cowboy Martini.

I used this recipe for my Cowboy Candy.

Cowboy Candy4jpg

The Dirty Cowboy Martini is a riff on a regular dirty martini.  This is where a bit of the olive brine is added to the drink.  In the Dirty Cowboy, a spoonful of the sweet, spicy chilli liquid is added!  It’s so good!  And really hard to have just one of!

I used the Four Pillars Cousin Vera Gin for this as it is a lot more savoury than my usual Hendricks.  It worked really well!

Dirty Cowboy Martini

The perfect accompaniment to the Dirty Cowboy Martini was a little dip I made from some of the chopped up Cowboy Candies, some cream cheese and a spoonful of the French Onion Soup Mix I had left over from when I made the Selfish Girl’s Seafood Plate.

Dirty Cowboy Martini

Here’s the Martini recipe.  Now, I like a lot of vermouth in my martini so I would add more than the standard amount I have listed below.

Print

Dirty Cowboy Martini

Print Recipe

A delicious take on a Dirty Martini, using Cowboy Candy instead of olives.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 70 ml gin (I used Four Pillars Cousin Vera)
  • 1 tbsp dry vermouth (I used Noilly Prat)
  • 2 tbsp Cowboy Candy Brine
  • Lemon Wedge
  • Slice of lemon to garnish
  • 1–2 Cowboy Candies to garnish

Instructions

  1. Pour the gin, dry vermouth and Cowboy Candy brine into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.
  2. Rub the rim of a martini glass with the wedge of lemon.
  3. Pour the liquid into the glass and garnish with a round of lemon and a Cowboy Candy. Add another Cowboy Candy to the glass if you wish.
  4. Enjoy!

Happy Belated Cowboy Day to all who celebrated!

Thank you to the utterly awesome Greg Swenson from Recipes4Rebels for inviting me to take part in the festivities!!!!  I am raising a virtual glass of Dirty Cowboy Martini to you!

 

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2


Jul
2017

Cattle Country Salad for Cowboy Day

categories: 1970's food, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Meat, Salad, Salads For All Season

Go west they said.  I took their advice and not only went  west but a whole heap north as well to end  up in the UK for this year’s Cowboy Day.  I will be spending the actual day in the most haunted town in Britain! Maybe a ghost cowboy just like this one will appear on the day….

Spooky huh?

Something that is not at  all spooky is the  Cattle Country Beef Salad Salad l made to celebrate Cowboy day.  But first, this is the first time I am writing, editing,  and posting entirely via phone so let’s put any weirdness in this post, beyond the regular  weirdness down to that and I will re-edit, format as required once I get home!

Cattle Country Beef SaladWe don’t have cowboys in Australia.  We have cattlemen.  Who live in cattle country which is where this salad comes from.  Actually, it comes from Rosemary Mayne-Wilson’s Salads for All Seasons but you know what I mean.

So what all goes into a Cattle Country Beef Salad?

  1. Beef of course.  I suspect originally this would have been leftovers from the Sunday roast but I just bought from slices of roast beef from the supermarket. 
  2. Then there’s apples.  Because we all know one a day keeps the doctor away and you don’t want to get sick while you’re out riding the range.  
  3. There’s celery because…I dunno. What use is celery?  I like the taste of it but….oh that’s right.  Celery keeps the cattlemen skinny.  Because no one likes a tubby cowboy.  Specially the horses they ride around on all day.
  4. Spring onions.  To put a spring in their step.  

That was about it for the original ingredients.  I also added some mixed leaves because I had to use them before I left for the UK the following morning.  I also added some chunks of a lovely vintage cheddar.  Which also had to be used but cheese also makes anything taste better and this was no exception.

RMW suggests using a French dressing for this.  Make it really punchy by being HEAVY on the mustard.  The flavours in here are strong enough to deal with it. 

Cattle Country Beef Salad 2This was yummy!!!! Quick simple delicious.  That’s an all round winner for me!  

Here’s the original recipe:

Okay, I’m trying to keep this short and sweet because posting off the phone is doing my head in.  

Many thanks to Greg from Recipes for Rebels for inviting me to participate in the cookalong again this year.  It is always a so much fun to be a part of something like this.  Plus, he”s one of the most awesome people on the internet so should just be thanked in general 

 I dont have my regular sign off this week but just look what can happen when bloggers get together.  For an explanation of why Battenberg Belle, Jenny Hammerton and I are wearing cowboy hats and clutching a meat cleaver, a melon baller and a hammer respectively, you’ll need to head over to Silver Screen Suppers but in the meantime, have a great Cowboy Day everyone!