Another Giveaway! Effie’s Homemade Cakes

Good morning, readers!

I am excited to announce that I am holding another free giveaway for all of you!

This should make your Monday mornings at least a little more exciting, right?  I mean, who doesn’t love free stuff?

A couple weeks ago I attended the Boston Local Food Festival and had the privilege of sampling so many delicious locally grown and produced products from all over Massachusetts and New England.  One of my favorite booths was Effie’s Homemade, where I got to taste three different flavored samples of their wholesome and all natural cakes!

What stood out to me about the cakes were how good they were for something so simple!  And this is exactly what the Effie’s Homemade owners, Joan MacIssac and Irene Costello, try to accomplish with their products.  The inspiration for the company comes from Joan’s mom (that’s Effie!) who grew up on a rural farm in Nova Scotia.  During her childhood she learned to bake oatcakes and has since passed on the recipe as a family tradition through the generations.  Oatcakes were such a simple flavored staple in farm homes then, and Joan and Irene continue to use this as a basis when giving new spins to old-fashioned recipes.

Effie’s Homemade products (and the ones I sampled at the festival) include oatcakes, corncakes, and nutcakes.  Below is a brief description of each and a link to their product pages on the Effie’s Homemade website.

Oatcakes
“Effie’s Oatcakes are a 4th generation family recipe with origins in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  Crisp, lightly sweetened, with a nutty flavor, oatcakes are a perfect snack any time of day.”

Corncakes
“Inspired by regional recipes of the Americas – cornmeal flatbreads, corn pones, johnnycakes – Effie’s Corncakes are crisp tea biscuits with a homey, toasted corn flavor and a hint of anise.”

Nutcakes
“We combined the sweetness of Southern pecans with stone-ground whole wheat and wildflower honey to create these irresistible nutty tea biscuits.  Effie’s Pecan Nutcakes have a comforting flavor and buttery texture that make them perfect with your favorite hot or cold beverage.  Try topping with stone fruit preserves, or pair with goat and blue cheeses.”

Definitely click on each of those links to read more about the products – each product page includes pairings, fun facts, ingredients, nutritional information, and recipes!  Really cool, huh?

When Tim and I were driving home home from the festival, we couldn’t decide which of these three we liked best.  I think my favorite were the oatcakes – but they really were all so good.  Since I enjoyed the oatcakes so much and also have been really into making anything with apples lately (see Apple Topped Pork Chops and German Apple Cake) I decided to try out one of the recipes listed on Effie’s recipe page.

A couple fun facts:  While I was reading through the recipe link, I learned that the cakes can be substituted in any recipe that calls for graham cracker crusts or crumb toppings.  Most of the recipes they post also come with an instructional video!

Anyways, I decided to go with the oatcake topped apple crisp.

Individual Apple Crisps with Oatcake Topping

Ingredients

• 4- 8 oz. ramekins
• 1 t. butter
• 5 crisp tart apples
• ½ c. sugar
• ½ t. cinnamon
• 1 t. lemon juice
• 1 t. corn starch
• ½ pkg. Effie’s Oatcakes
• 2 T. melted butter

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter the ramekins and set aside.
3. In a bowl combine the apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Toss the apples to macerate then add the cornstarch and toss to coat. Taste the filling. Add more sugar or lemon juice to taste. Set aside.
4. In the meantime place the Oatcakes in the bowl of a food processor or Cuisinart and pulse to a coarse crumb. Transfer to a bowl and toss with the melted butter forming a moist meal.
5. Pour the apple filling evenly into the 4 buttered gratin dishes and top with the Oatcake topping.
6. Transfer the ramekins to a sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cover the gratin dishes with aluminum foil and continue baking for 15 more minutes or until there are syrup-y bubbles oozing to the top.
7. Cool and serve with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream.

Interested in giving Effie’s Homemade a try?  Well, one of you will be in luck because they have kindly offered to give away a free Effie’s gift box to one random commenter on this post.  The gift box will include one package each of the oatcakes, nutcakes, and corncakes.

These gift boxes are perfect with the holidays right around the corner, don’t you think!?

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me which flavor you think you’d like to try the most and why!  You get a double entry if you share the link to this giveaway on Facebook (but you need to leave me a second comment on this post telling me you did so). 

I will announce the winner on Wednesday.

Good luck!