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
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter the ramekins and set aside.
- 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.
- 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.
- Pour the apple filling evenly into the 4 buttered gratin dishes and top with the Oatcake topping.
- 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.
- 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!
For some reason I cannot imagine what these taste like. They look like tea-biscuits or crackers, but I am imagining rice cakes. Nutcake sounds pretty awesome, but I think I only say that because they have a recipe for Nutcake Crusted Goat Cheese. Oh man… you can’t go wrong with that.
MMM i love the oatcakes!! and the adult s’mores sound delish!
I’d definitely want to try the Nutcakes first. I have been loving pecans lately! They all sound awesome, though. I was at the Boston Local Food Festival, I don’t know how I missed them!
This was a tough decision, but I think I’d be most interested in trying the oatcakes first! Mainly because I NEED to try that apple crisp recipe. I also have been into trying fall recipes these days (mostly desserts hehe) so I want to try this one before it’s not fall anymore!
I posted a link to the giveaway!
That apple crisp sounds amazing. When did you get so domestic?
Corn cakes!! I love corn bread so I bet these are amaze!
This is an easy decision – absolutely would be corncakes. The reason should be obvious; yesterday at the Blues and Brews Festival, after waiting about 30 minutes in the food line, I was third in line when a sign went up announcing they were out of Cornbread. I was craving cornbread, ergo corncakes.
probably the nutcakes. or all of them…haha
Hi Athena!
I think I would definitely love to try the Effie’s Oatcakes, mainly because Chris and I were in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia last year, and anything that originates from there has to be amazing. It was one of my favorite places I’ve ever been- breathtaking views, kayaking, hiking, waterfalls, camping. Amazing. Also, my mom makes a delicious oatcake, so I’d love to compare Effie’s with my Mom’s 🙂 (she’s tough to beat…) Thanks for the fun new apple pork chop recipe!
Hi There!
My vote goes for the Oatcakes-Adult S’mores. I have been craving s’mores ever since my family made the first bonfire of the season two weekends ago!!!
I would love to make the Summer Fruit and Field Greens Salad with Effie’s Nutcake Crusted Goat Cheese. I love goat cheese and had a salad in France that sounded very similar! I’m craving it right now… mmm
I posted this link on my FB too!
Probably the oatcakes…. I always see them at Whole Foods but have yet to try them!
Would love to try baking with the oatcakes
Definitely the nutcakes although I’d love to try them all!
The oatcakes look great!!!
I am struggling as to which one I would like the most, but I am leaning towards oatcakes. Sounds like it would be along the lines of an oatmeal cookie, at least that is what I am hoping for. LOVE reading your blog everyday! 🙂
Oatcakes — I think they would be more versatile for cooking! They can be sweet or salty.
Oatcakes for me! So much you can do cooking!
I recently bought some of the nutcakes and I am hooked. The grocery store had samples of them with goat cheese. I’ve also put fig spread on them. I really like how ‘hearty’ they are, and that having about two of them are pretty filling. How many people can say they’ve had their fill after just two of anything? I actually did a search for Effies and found this blog. I’m glad I found it because I’m trying to eat healthier and limit my consumption of processed, junky foods, and this is right up my alley.
I want the corncakes because I have tried them all and those are by far my favorite.