Not Your Mama's Thanksgiving

My nephew, Jay, and I are preparing all desserts today

because this is Nacho Mama's Thanksgiving. We're starting with one of my favorites

a cinnamon ribble sweet potato cake. Ta-da! And what would Thanksgiving be without our pumpkin chiffon pie

Yummy looking, isn't it? And we're rounding out our dessert table with Jay's sister, Kari's favorite carrot cupcakes

with cream cheese frosting. Are we ready? I am ready. We are cooking nothing but Thanksgiving desserts, aren't we

That's my favorite. We're going to start off with a cinnamon ripple sweet potato cake

So why don't we get started? Sounds good. Now, the first thing I'd like for you to do is drain our sweet potatoes

I am going to be beating up and creaming two sticks of Butterbird and two cups of sugar

Okay. While you're getting all of our dry ingredients ready. How do you want these, Paula

Just mashed up good. You can't hurt them. All right. So when you get those sweet potatoes made, Jay, you can just measure out one cup and put it in that bowl

Okay. And I'm going to start creaming our butter and sugar together

And I'm just going to beat this until it's creamy. Fill it up a little bit more, baby

A little bit more? Uh-huh. All the way to the top and then level it off

Super. Sounds good. So I'm going to do the dry ingredients here

I'm going to start out with a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg, one teaspoon of baking powder, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Now, I'm going to add one egg at the time, Jay Bird. And one tablespoon of salt here

And then I'm just going to mix this up. Jay Bird, do you ever get to cook at home

You know, I do more so now than I ever have. Because of your girlfriend

Well, that's right. You know, I've always been the eater in the family up until now

but we're cooking more and more, which is nice. Can she cook

My refrigerator has more food in it now than it's had in two years. Okay, so we're going to do three cups of this all-purpose flour

I'm going to add the rest of my eggs. This is my third egg, Nat Jay Bird, I've got going in

I'm just going to give a little beat after each egg. Okay. Okay

All right, this looks good. So, Bird, if you would... Go ahead and spoon this in

Just scoop those sweet potatoes. And again, that's one cup of sweet potatoes

And look at that. They were still warm. And look what you're doing to that butter

All right, now if you take that spatula and just go around the sides for me

Sure, you got it. Might need to cut that down. At least I slosh it

Am I going the right way? There we go. Yes, yes. We got it going on

That's right. Tag teaming it. All right. So I think that's enough

So now I've got a 16-ounce carton of sour cream, and I'm going to add three-fourths of a carton of this

So I'm just going to eyeball it, y'all. And I'm going to beat, beat, beat

All right, Jay Bird. Yes, sir. If you would just take this measuring spoon

and just slowly add this to our cake. Okay. Let's bring that in

That would be great. And I might need for you to just take that spatula

and go around the edge of the bowl so we can keep all that flour

Okay, you ready for the other? I am. So, Paula, out of all the Thanksgivings

that we've spent together, what was your favorite? Well, Jay Bird, I did love those Thanksgivings

in Statesboro. I did, too. We had so much fun. So many great memories

All you kids running crazy. I'm very upset that we don't do that anymore

because I'm old enough now I'd love to play poker with y'all. Y'all, as soon as we walked in the back door, we set up the poker table

Last Thanksgiving was pretty dadgum good. I cooked Thanksgiving here. I know the store was open

That's right. I'm usually stuck down there. I'm going to have to take some time off this Thanksgiving so I can spend it with the family

You think maybe you can make a phone call for me? I think I might know somebody

So while you work on that, are you ready for me to make the streusel? Yes, please

Okay. So I'm going to work on that down here. I actually am going to take a half a cup of brown sugar

half a cup of chopped pecans here, add that in. Okay. And last but not least

we're just going to throw in a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. All right, now we have sprayed our Bundt pan

and I'm going to put half the batter in, and then we're going to put your dry ingredients in the middle

Do you like eating cake batter? I do. I could actually live on it

Alright, Jay Bird. So, we're gonna take your dry ingredients. Is that mixed up in it? Yes

Now all you have to do Jay Bird is just sprinkle that evenly over that batter And if you want to do it with your hands that perfectly all right And you know this is going to be so delicious with some fresh whipped cream

I cannot wait. I know I can't either. We are doing it all

You think there'll be enough left for anybody else by the time we're done? I don't know, but you know what

Today we don't have to share. All right, so if you would just kind of rotate this bowl. Sure

As I go, there you go. That makes it easier. This is one of those beautiful old retro bowls from like the 60s

We got to get that little piece. Right over here. I got it ready to go

Okay. On 350, we're going to stick it in there for one hour. Okay

And count the minutes. Yum. And look, I won't take my finger and rake that off so you can have that, Jay Bird

350 degrees for one hour. Yes. Y'all don't go anywhere because I'm in the kitchen with a sweet boy

and we're going to be making more sweet dishes. Coming up next, we get started on our pumpkin chiffon pie

I make a glaze to top off our cinnamon cake. That's my favorite part

And later, we make Jay's sister's carrot cupcakes. So listen to what we're making now

Tell me. We're making Charlie's pumpkin chiffon pie. Charlie is your cousin

Right, Trina's youngest daughter. Trina's youngest daughter. This is Charlie's recipe, and it's super simple

Now, I'm going to add one cup, y'all, of pumpkin puree. Now, don't confuse that with pumpkin pie filling

Now, we're going to add this to the bag of jumbo marshmallows that Jay has been melting

I'm going to add a half a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt

And we're going to melt these marshmallows with that pumpkin puree. And we're going to have to let that cool because we're actually going to take half of this frozen whipped topping and fold into there

And then we're going to top the pie with the other half of this

While you're stirring those, I'm going to come down here and I'm going to finish up our cake

I'm going to make the glaze. And how do... Ooh, that's a heavy cake

So, how's this, Jaybird? That's beautiful. Isn't this beautiful... Alakazabra alakazam

I'll be damned. I'm a poet and don't know it. How's that

That's beautiful. Magic. Yes, it is magic. Cake magic. All right, now I'm going to make a glaze for our cake

I'm going to use two cups of confectionate sugar. A half a cup of heavy cream

Three-fourths of a teaspoon of rum flavoring. I'm just going to mix that up

Does that work to suit you? It does. Okay, Jay Bird, that is great. Great

You just put that to the side and we're going to let it cool because otherwise the frozen topping would just collapse

if we added it to the hot. So we'll let that cool. All right, now, Jaybird, I'm going to just glaze

I'm just going to dribble this over our cake. Do you want it almost frosting-like

I do. Okay. Do my half that way. Okay. Now, this cake is no longer warm

So if the cake were warm, it would start to really fall down

Mm-hmm. Yes. Yum. Wow. Yes, wow is right. I love the glaze

That's my favorite part. And we'll sprinkle a few nuts. Look at this

Isn't that wonderful? Ta-da! That looks amazing. I can't wait to eat it

It does look amazing. It's going to look better in my stomach. Yes, it is

Mmm. Okay, there's your piece. Oh, no, honey, that's yours. No, this is mine

Come on, okay. Oh. I got you. I'm going to cut me a little smaller piece

Should I wait on you? Why, thank you, kind gentleman. She doesn't know me very well

All right, come here. Wait, you can't eat it like that. Jeez

Get on with the show. Everything's better with a whipping cream. What do you think

I haven't tasted it. To you, baby. The fam will like it

Yeah, we did good. Okay, Paula, you keep eating, and I going to come down here and assemble Charlie Mmm Okay Of course This is delicious Jay Bird So now Jay is just folding in half of our frozen whipped

topping to our mixture. That looks great, Jay. Just fold, fold, fold

Perfect. And it's real light because of the whipped topping really cut the color

OK, Jay Bird, why don't you add that to our pre-made pie crust? Way to go, Charlie girl

Oh, yum. I'm gonna finish getting all of this out, and I'm gonna borrow your spatula to just even that out

Mmm. Then I'm gonna top it with a sprinkle of cinnamon. And here we go, just for you, darling. Plate

Yum. Wait, wait, wait. Don't go anywhere now. Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm. A little more cinnamon couldn't hurt. All right, now you can go

I'll wait on you. Charlie, I'm impressed. You know, Charlie's not but like 19 or 20

She's a young girl. But all the women in our family are all good cooks

Her mother, our Aunt Trina, is a fabulous cook. So tell me what you think

Delicious. Wonderful. Mine's almost gone. Dad gum, Jay. You inhale that, boy

Don't go anywhere, y'all, because guess what? We're going to make your sister Kari's cupcakes

Coming up next. You ready? I am excited. Are you excited? I'm very excited

We get started on Kari's carrot cupcakes, and later I whip up a cream cheese frosting

Looks fabulous. And then we add a very special touch to our cupcakes

Looks just like a carrot, doesn't it? You ready? I am excited

Are you excited? I'm very excited. Cupcakes are my favorite. Yes, we are making Kari's carrot pecan cupcakes

If you'll do the dry, I'll do the wet. Okay. And this is so easy, y'all

We're not even having to pull out a hand mixer or a stand-in mixer. So why don't we get started, baby

You got it. I'm going to do three cups of all-purpose flour here. We're going to have a lot of cupcakes, Jay Bird

Good. Over here, y'all, I'm going to be putting together the wet ingredients

We've got baby food carrots in this jar. I love using the baby food

It saves me some steps. I don't have to peel the carrots

I don't have to grate them. The baby food works great. That's good to know. I thought you were actually kidding

Oh, no, I'm not kidding, honey. Jay's getting our three cups of sugar. All right, now I'm going to start by measuring up one and a half cups of oil

And you know, that's the secret to good carrot cake. this oil in it just makes them so moist

I'm doing two teaspoons of brown cinnamon, one tablespoon of bacon soda

and then one teaspoon of salt. And I'm just measuring out our cup and a half of pureed carrots, y'all

All right, I've got four eggs, and I'm gonna break these in to a separate cup

And that's looking good, Jay Bird. Paula, do you remember the first time

that you ate these cupcakes? Gosh, Jay Bird, I don't remember. You know, I've been eating carrot cake and carrot cupcakes all my life

but Kari's got a different twist on these. Kari is adding coconut to her batter

Is that right? Yeah, and pecans. Okay, so there we go. All right, Jay Bird

Yes, ma'am. So a cup and a half of baby food pureed carrots

and now I'm going to add a tablespoon of vanilla. So what I'm going to do is just pour this in your bowl

over your dry ingredients, and you can just mix those up. Come on down

We can call us just about done, honey. Okay. I'm sure Kari will show up just in time to eat

All right, Jay Bird. Yes, ma'am. Now, Kari does a little something different

She adds a cup and a half of pecans and a cup and a half of coconut

So look how smoothly and quickly that went together. Okay, there's a cup

Here's a half a cup of pecans. There we go. I love nuts in my stuff

Okay a cup and a half of coconut which is going to sweeten it up and keep it real real moist The coconut is just gonna give it a whole other boost because the coconut oil is going

to help make it real moist too. Will you really taste the coconut

Oh, yes. All right, so there we go. We have got everything in this just that simple

Now, I've got... I should have brought my muscles today. I've got little paper liners here

And how cute is that? They kind of look like Thanksgiving, don't they

They kind of match us. It's all about accessorizing, right? Yes, it is

I know you're an accessories kind of guy. All right, so what we're going to do is we're going to use just an ice cream scoop

And we're going to fill these three quarters of the way full

All right, now we're going to put these in the oven, sweetie

Okay. We're going to bake them for... 350. 25, yeah. 350, 25 to 30 minutes

You know, we'll want to just check them because we don't want to overcook them

because these are such a moist cupcake and we want to make dang sure they stay moist

Coming up next, we frost the cupcakes, Add a little carrot to the top

You're so creative. And eat up. Mm-hmm. We're finishing up Kari's cupcakes

I got one last job for you before you go home. All right. I want you to chop those nuts for me, okay

I can do that. And I'm going to make a quick frosting. Now, we've already got a pan of cupcakes that's ready

Yeah. Because we want to let them cool a little bit. Okay. Because we're going to put a cream cheese icing on them

So I've got an eight-ounce package of cream cheese. I'm going to go in here with a half a stick of butter

Surprise, surprise. There we go. You know, you've got to have a little butter for your icing

I'm just going to cream this. And look at here how nice that is

So I've got our creamy ingredients cream. All right. One cup of confectionate sugar

Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. And those nuts, I think, are pretty good. Okay

So if you'll move our cupcakes over here. Sure. How's that? Is that close enough

Looks fabulous. This is going to be really cream cheesy. All right

Now you want to fold in your nuts. Okay. Sure. Just fold those right in

There we go. I don't know that Corey does this, but I'm going to squirt

Well, now it's your recipe instead of hers. And that was just half a teaspoon of vanilla

Okay, we are set, honey. And we're just going to frost these

Look at those. I'm going to frost this. Okay, you frost that

I'm going to show you a little trick with a dried apricot

So now look here. We've got a dried apricot. I'm just going to cut them

All right, now we're going to come over here. Kind of looks like a carrot. And then we're going to take a little sprig of mint

and we're going to put the carrot top right there. Oh, it looks like a carrot

Looks just like a carrot, doesn't it? Isn't that cute? Yes. We're so creative

Aren't we? Well, I have enjoyed making our Thanksgiving desserts with you

Me too. We've had no other competition. We don't get quality time like this very often

I know we don't, do we? So, what do you say? And we don't have to share

You know what I'm going to do? That's so pretty. I'm going to take one of these, and I'm just going to put a little icing on it

So I don't have to mess up our pretty carrots. Get in there

so you know i hope that everybody watching cheers to you i hope that they'll like our recipes and

maybe consider making them for thanksgiving curry love the coconut in it it's good i never would have dreamed of putting coconut

best dishes with love from mine and jay's kitchen to y'all's happy thanksgiving y'all

Bye, y'all. May it be full of peace and contentment and love and good food