Sunday Dinners

For Sunday lunch, my aunt Ilene decided to have sandwiches because they had to leave immediately after lunch to visit my great uncle’s mom in the hospital. My favorite style of sandwiches are hot. I love cheese steak sandwiches. In my cookbook, I created a Mississippi cheese steak using my Grandma’s Sunday roast recipe. One of the best parts is that instead of sliced cheese like provolone, I top the cheese steak with my spicy pimiento cheese.

The flavors hit you immediately. Hints of garlic and onion flavored tender pieces of roast with creamy spicy cheese spread all wrapped up in a warm toasty french bread loaf. This sandwich isn’t for the faint of heart. It is amazing!

My aunt Ilene put out a spread of thinly sliced deli meats, condiments, toppings, and a variety of breads. She did it up right!

At Sunday lunch it is a tradition to celebrate birthdays that any of us have each month. My dad just had his birthday so I wanted to make him his favorite cake, German chocolate cake but in a cupcake form for Sunday lunch.

My dad loves chocolate so it is no wonder that German chocolate cake is his favorite cake. For years now, I have made it with a Devil’s Food Cake base. The rich chocolate flavor and moist texture is the best. To create my own Devil’s Food Cake recipe, I looked at a five different chocolate cake recipes. Two of the recipes were from my grandmothers and one from an old fashioned Southern cake cookbook. The differences in the recipes were that the old fashioned recipes used shortening or oleo and hot water. I wanted to use butter instead and I liked the idea of using the hot water. To intensify the chocolate flavor, I used cocoa powder and dark chocolate. For a moist cake, I like using buttermilk. I have been using buttermilk in the cake I make for my birthday for years. My Devil’s Food Chocolate cupcakes turned about better than I could have even imagined. I think my mom was even surprised that they turned out so well. I don’t make too many cakes because we are not really cake people in my family. We lean more towards brownies, pies, bars, cookies, and molten lava cakes if anything.

The coconut pecan topping recipe I have used from an old Southern cake cookbook for years. I decided to put my own twist on it by using coconut milk instead of evaporated milk to amp up the coconut flavor. To intensifying the coconut flavor even more, I toasted some of the shredded coconut. The cupcakes are best served warm. The cupcakes can be at room temp with the topping warmed.

Because there are people that do not like coconut, I made some of the cupcakes with a ganache topping. Ganache is simply warm cream and chocolate combined. You can dip the cupcakes in the warm ganache or you can let the ganache sit until thickened and then top the cupcakes. You can also whip the thickened ganache for more of a frosting.