HCB - German Chocolate Cake

This week, the Heavenly Cake Bakers (led by Jenn of Knitty Baker) tackled the Pumpkin Cheesecake. I made this cake last November and have very fond memories of it. Definitely one of my favorite recipes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, so give it a try this Thanksgiving (or anytime, really). My friend declared it the best cheesecake she'd ever had :o)

The German Chocolate Cake has been on my to-bake list for a while. Everyone who baked it, loved it. I can't eat coconut or pecans, so the traditional filling and frosting was out. The cake is pretty chocolatey, I heard, so I decided on a non-chocolate filling and a thin chocolate glaze. That worked really well!

A slice of chocolate heaven!

Grape jelly

To make homemade grape jelly, one has to start with good quality grapes. Our grapevine gave us lots of beautiful concord grapes this year. Although a bit too sour to eat plain, they have a deep rich grape-y taste. We've allowed the grapes to fully mature on the vine and soak up as much as sun as possible to develop that wonderful flavor. We've also refrained from spraying the vine with pesticides and insecticides.


We harvested the grapes from the vine and removed them from their stems. After thoroughly washing the grapes, they were now ready to be processed. The plan: Homemade Concord Grape Jelly. It's the best. I just love the sweet and tart flavor combo.


We make our all natural grape jelly with concord grapes, sugar, water, and fruit pectin. Each pint of grape jelly contains a pound of concord grapes. There is real grapes in here!!! :o)


Unfortunately, there one disadvantage to this grape jelly. Once you taste it and experience the intense grape-y flavor, it's hard to go back to store bought jelly. With that said... Got sandwich bread?