Parmesan Baby Cakes for Neal

Neal is our Parmesan aficionado. In his honor, we recently bought a twelve-pack of Kraft Parmesan  - the ones in the green containers - from Amazon when they had it on one of their Daily Deals. This recipe will help us use it up. As if Neal needs any help with that!

The recipe, adapted from  Patricia Wells' Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season, is supposed to be baked in a Cannele Mold. Don't happen to have one of those - sorry! - so I substituted a mini-muffin pan with lots of baking spray.

1 cup milk

1 1/2 Tablespoon butter

1 cup flour

1  cup Parmesan cheese

1 large egg, beaten

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup diced faux bacon, green olives, or whatever sounds good, optional


1 ) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray your pan well. If you don't have a small mold pan of any type, use a regular muffin tin but only put a tablespoon or so of batter on each one.

2 ) In the microwave, heat butter and milk until the butter is melted and the milk is hot. Remove and whisk in flour, cheese, egg, salt and pepper.  Set the batter aside for half an hour or so to gel a bit.

3 ) Spoon the batter into the molds. Do not fill all the way! If you're using the extras, drop a few pieces in each mold.

4 ) Place your pan in the oven and bake until the cakes are a very deep golden brown, about 45 minutes. (Your time may vary, depending on the pan, the oven, and the Whims of the Kitchen Deity. Start  checking at 30  minutes, just to be sure!) Remove the little dears  and let them cool for about five minutes. Turn the cakes out onto a clean towel and let cool a few minutes before serving.


Makes about 18 little munchkins.