Paula Deen's Almond Sour Cream Pound Cake

When I left my job where I worked 12-hour shifts, the team of people I worked with gave me two very generous gift cards. One was for Ann Taylor where I buy most of my clothes, and the other was for Amazon. The gifts from them were particularly generous in part because for the 20 months I worked with all of them I baked something for each and every shift (well... except that one which they never let me forget.) Therefore, when I got the Amazon card I decided to spend every single penny on baking books. Because I could. And I wanted to. And here is what I bought:

I also inscribed each of them with the team motto on the inner cover (Team 3: We build no egos) just so I would always remember where those particular books came from. I have been excited about all of the books, but by far my favorite so far is one I had never heard of: All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray. In fact, since buying that beautiful stack of books, I haven't used any of the other books -- I keep coming back to that one.

This recipe came from that book, but was attributed (as the title shows) to Paula Deen. Most of the time when I make a Paula Deen recipe I feel like should refer to her as "she who shall not be named" since my friend Burkie, who frequently partakes of my baking, just can't stand the woman. His hatred of Paula Deen is pretty much as complete and thorough as my hatred of Martha Stewart. At least Paula's recipes work most of the time and taste good, which is why I'm usually willing to give them a try, despite Burkie's hatred. (Unlike Martha who I have banned from the house with only a few far and in between exceptions.)

One thing about this recipe is that the mixing instructions for this cake are very odd. Instead of creaming the sugar and butter and then adding the eggs one at a time, followed by the extracts, and then alternating the dry mixture and sour cream -- which is standard -- you cream the butter and sugar, then add all the sour cream, and then alternate the flour with the eggs, and ending with the extracts. Weird. I'm so used to making cakes the first way I listed, that I very nearly didn't even read the instructions before I started adding the eggs.

I'm not quite sure what exactly happened to this cake in the oven, but I suspect the mixing technique had something to do with it. When I pulled the cake from the oven I started laughing because the center of the cake had risen quite a lot more than the outer edges. The good news is that something like that does not affect flavor at all. In fact, it gave it a bit of a crispy shell along those parts and I do love me some crispy cake shell. Overall, strange middle aside, the cake was moist with a nice almond crunch and flavor, and I can see repeating it in the future. However, while I would make this cake again, I actually have a similar recipe from my Tish Boyle Cake Book that I liked a bit more -- her Cherry-Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake. However, I have not blogged about that particular cake so I suppose I now have an excuse to make it again.

Ingredients:

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temp

3 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

6 large eggs

1/2 tsp orange extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 325. Put the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet while the oven is pre-heating and toast for 3 minutes. Pull them out and toss them around a bit, then put them back in the oven for 3 more minutes until aromatic and slightly golden. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan or 10-cup tube pan with baking spray.

Cream the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and slowly add the sugar. Add the sour cream and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl mix the flour and the baking soda together.

Add 1/2 cup of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until blended. Add 1 egg, then beat until blended. Repeat until all the flour and eggs are mixed in.

Add the orange extract and the almond extract and beat until blended into the batter.

Using a wooden spoon or spatula fold in the toasted almonds.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully unmold it and allow it to cool completely on a cake rack.

Dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

It has been a really long time since I have blogged regularly... and I'm not sure it's going to stick this time around. But I am back to working regular 8-hour shifts, Monday through Friday, rather than rotating 12-hour shifts so I figured I would give it a try.

I chose this particular recipe to get started with for a couple of reasons. The big reason was that I had two sorry looking pears sitting on my counters and I really needed to use them up. I looked over several cake recipes that called for pears but this one won the day because it called for exactly two pears (which is what I had) and it made a bundt cake which is sturdy enough to transport to work via bicycle. It also didn't hurt any that it was a Dorie Greenspan recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours that I haven't actually made before.

As for flavor... all I can say is... "oh wow that is good. holy crap! I can't believe how moist and flavorful and wonderful it is ! Why oh why did I ever wait so long to make this recipe? So good." And I don't even like hazelnuts. One thing that probably makes this such a winner for me is the ground nuts in the recipe. I really, really like the texture difference in a cake with ground nuts in it. In fact, probably one of my favorite recipes of all time is a rum glazed walnut torte that I have made several times now. So despite the fact that hazelnuts don't do much for me, the texture that the ground nuts added to cake more than made up for the fact that hazelnuts are not something I actually like all that much.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 all purpose flour

1/2 cup ground hazelnuts or walnuts

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp

2 cups packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs at room temp

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 cup buttermilk at room temp

2 medium pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4 inch dice

1/2 cup moist, plump prunes, snipped into 1/4 inch pieces

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray, or coat with butter and dust with flour.

In a small bowl stir together the flour, ground nuts, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

With a mixer, cream together the butter and the brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the extracts. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour, then half the buttermilk. Let it mix for just a few beat, then add the rest of the flour, then the rest of the buttermilk. Once the flour has all disappeared, stop the mixer. Fold in the pears and the prunes with a spatula.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and bade for 60 minutes. If the top is getting too brown cover it with foil. It is done when it has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool for 10 minutes, then unmold and let cool to room temperature.

When you are ready to serve dust with powdered sugar.

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Strawberry Coulis

Strawberries were on sale at Safeway the other day and I had to buy some even though they were a bit rough looking simply because it is Spring and I wanted berries. Of course once I got the berries I had to figure out what to do with them and I gave Chris several options including pie, cheesecake, shortcake, or pound cake. In the end Chris couldn't decide which left it up to me.

I considered my options for a while, but I kept coming back to a post I saw on Smitten Kitchen not to long ago where she made cream cheese pound cake and strawberry coulis. It looked, and sounded good, and I tend to trust Deb's instincts, so I decided to make that. However, I did not use the cream cheese pound cake recipe that Deb posted, instead I turned once again to my friend JB's cream cheese pound cake since it is amazingly good and quite easy too. (Remember this pound cake which is unique because you don't preheat the oven before baking it...)

The only problem I ran into, if you can call it a problem, is that I had lemons on my mind. I really wanted the sour lemon flavor to go along with my strawberries so I adapted the base pound cake recipe to get what I wanted by adding the zest of two lemons and a 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon oil. I was a bit worried since I was adding acid to the cake, but the recipe has no leavening and I did not add any juice to thin it out, so it ended up working out well.

The whole experience of the lemon pound cake and strawberry coulis: fantastic.




For the Cake:
Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups cake flour (or all-purpose flour minus 6 tbsp)

If you want a lemon pound cake add the zest of two lemons when you cream the cream cheese, butter and sugar together and add an 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon oil or extract when you add the vanilla.

*note -- do not preheat oven*

In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese, then the sugar. When smooth, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well before adding the next (2-3 minutes between each egg.) Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated. Gradually add the flour, mixing only until incorporated. Place the batter into a greased and floured tube or bundt pan. Place the pan into the COLD oven, set the oven to 325 and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and cracked on top. The top of the finished cake will crack and separate a bit from the rest of the cake, but as JB points out, that's the best part so it's all good.

For the Strawberry Coulis

2 cups quartered hulled strawberries (about 12 ounces)
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine strawberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in blender. Purée until very smooth, then press through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. (Deb strained it -- I did not because I don't mind seeds and I am lazy and didn't feel like messing with it) Cover and refrigerate until cold. Coulis can be prepared one day ahead.

Pecan Fig Bourbon Bundt Cake

I have to say, figs just don't do that much for me. I like fig newtons, but unless the cookie package is sitting open on a counter that I walk past several times a day, they aren't something that tempt me that much. I made the Dorie Greenspan upside down fig cake last year sometime, but that has been one of my least favorite recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours so far.

Chris likes figs quite a lot though, and we had several packages of dried figs in the cupboard so I was happy when I found this particular recipe. I like pecans, I like bourbon and I like bundt cakes so I figured this would be an excellent chance for figs to redeem themselves with me. I thought the cake was okay, but I know it's my personal tastes that affect my opinion on this cake and not the cake itself. The cake is moist and flavorful, so if you like figs and bourbon I say go for it.

I will warn you though that it's not exactly a quick cake to throw together though because you have to boil the figs for 35-40 minutes then let them cool to room temp before putting the cake together. Another reason I liked it though was that it keeps fairly well if you wrap it up and keep it at room temperature. I made it on the 23rd and wrapped it up for Christmas -- figs, bourbon and pecans just seemed like a good Christmas kind of cake to me



For the Cake
1 pound dried Black Mission figs, hard tips discarded
2 cups water
1/2 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 3/4 cups pecans
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature

For the icing
1 cup confectioners sugar
4 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons bourbon
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment - 12-cup bundt pan

Simmer figs in water in a heavy medium saucepan, covered, until figs are tender and most of liquid is absorbed, 35 to 40 minutes. Purée in a food processor with bourbon and vanilla. Cool to warm.

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour bundt pan, knocking out excess flour.

While oven preheats, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Lightly toast pecans in a shallow baking pan in oven, 8 to 10 minutes, then cool and coarsely chop. Leave oven on.

Beat together brown sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in fig mixture. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated, then fold in pecans.

Pour batter into bundt pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake completely in pan on a rack, then invert onto a plate. The cake will keep for up to 5 days if you wrap it well and keep it at room temperature.

Sift confectioners sugar into a bowl, then whisk in remaining icing ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Finnegan's Irish Cream Cake with Caramel

It all started with this cake. I saw the cake on Peabody's site and told a coworker I would make it for the office. Who wouldn't want to make that cake? Chocolate cake, irish cream, caramel, buttercream frosting, chocolate caramel ganache... I mean, really. It's an awesome looking cake with a flavor combination that looks like a grand slam home run batted right out of the park.

But after confidently telling a coworker I would make it and bring it to work the next day I started thinking through the logistics of it all. I got off work at 6 am and I had to be back at work by 6 pm. Since I require and always try to get 8 hours of sleep (it's better for everybody that way -- trust me) that didn't leave me much time to make a cake. Much less a layer cake with a boiled sugar-style buttercream frosting and a cooked and cooled caramel ganache filling.

I tried to come up with different ways to get it all done, but in the end I realized it just wasn't going to happen. So I started looking for other chocolate and Irish cream combinations and I remembered the Finnegan's Cream Cake that I had made from my Passion for Baking book some time ago. Perfect. It had most of the flavor requirements I needed already -- chocolate and Irish cream -- and the caramel fit in because I would use caramel Irish cream instead of regular. Plus, as a bundt cake it would be far easier to get ready in the time I had then a layer cake.

As I was finishing up the cake batter though it occured to me that I might be able to up the ante a bit by making caramel chips like I did for the Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies I made last week. So I cut some caramels into pieces and swirled them into the bottom of the layer of cake batter after it was in the pan. My original plan was to do a layer in the middle, but I forgot so the caramels ended up on the bottom which was probably a good thing since they all sank to the top of the cake anyway. The good news is that the caramel layer gave it even more yummy gooey caramel goodness. The bad news is that it made the finished cake nearly impossible to cut since the caramel layer hardened up once everything had cooled.

Also, since I had major time constraints to make the cake I had to put the ganache topping onto the cake while the cake was still warm and had to take pictures before the ganache could harden up. Actually, now that I think about it, the ganache never did harden up, and I suspect that something was a bit wrong with it since it appeared cracked and grainy rather than smooth and shiny. At least it tasted good though...

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup brewed warm coffee
1/3 cup Irish cream liqueur

Chocolate Cream Glaze

3/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

Finishing Touch:
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan or a 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray (preferably baking spray.)

In a mixer bowl, cream butter with both sugars. Then add eggs and vanilla. Blend on low for 1 minute until smooth. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir briefly, the drizzle in coffee and Irish cream, stirring at the same time to make a smooth, somewhat loose batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 55 to 65 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. (the Bundt cake pan will take a bit longer, I used a tube pan and baked mine for about 55 minutes, checking it after 50.) Cool cake well and then invert onto a serving platter.

For Chocolate Cream Glaze, bring whipping cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Add chocolate chips, reduce temp to low, and whisk to blend and melt chocolate. Add Irish cream. Remove pan from heat after one or two minutes and stir until smooth. Let cool to room temp before using.

Place cake in fridge to firm up chocolate after glazing. Once chocolate is set, dust with powdered sugar.

Maple Pound Cake

So there I was at 2 am last night when I realized that I had run out of stupid t.v. shows on my DVR, there was nothing on t.v. except talking heads rehashing every last minute of Obama's win and the really bad infomercials that only come out after 1 am. I didn't feel like reading, and I didn't feel like playing a video game and yet I had 3 hours to kill until Chris woke up and I could go to bed. So I did the only thing I could think of, I baked a cake. :)

The recipe comes from my Cake Love book and it has intrigued me the entire time I have owned the book, especially considering that he serves it with a Pecan Crunch Buttercream that looks divine. The problem of course is that to make that divine looking buttercream involves LOTS of time standing over the stove. Even last night when I had plenty of time to spare and not a lot else to do I opted against the buttercream. One day though... Instead I topped the cake with a simple maple flavored powdered sugar glaze that worked really well.

The cake is very much a pound cake. Soft and moist, but also extremely dense with a tight crumb and slightly firm crust. It's not actually all that sweet so I can see why a super sweet buttercream would compliment it, but then again, a simple glaze also lets you enjoy the cake for itself without the flavors getting lost in the frosting. The only thing I really changed about the recipe was to add maple extract to the liquid ingredients -- just to punch up the maple flavor a little bit more. I love maple, and I wanted to taste it in this cake.



Ingredients:
Dry
13 1/2 ounces (2 1/4 cups + 3 tablespoons) all purpose flour
1 tbsp potato starch
1 1/2 tsps vanilla powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsps maple crystals

Liquid:
8 oz (1 cup) sour cream
2 tbsps heavy cream
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup brandy
1 tbsp amaretto
1 tbsp rum
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp maple extract
1 tsp whiskey

Creaming:
2 sticks butter at room temp
2 1/4 cups +1 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean
5 large eggs
1 large egg yolk

Glaze:
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp maple extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-3 tsps milk or heavy cream to get the right consistency

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with baking spray.

In a medium bowl measure out the dry ingredients and stir to combine. In another medium bowl measure out the liquid ingredients and stir to combine.

In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and the sugar along with the scraped seeds from the vanilla bean until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, finishing with the egg yolk, mixing for at least one minute after each addition. Make sure everything is light, fluffy and well-mixed.

Add half the flour followed by half the liquid mixture, alternating until it is all incorporated. This should go fairly quickly. Stop mixing as soon as the flour disappears.

Put the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake 45-55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the cake looks set.

Remove from the oven and leave in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the pan and place on a cooling rack. When the cake has cooled completely, make the glaze.

To make the glaze put all the ingredients but the milk into a bowl and stir well. Add just enough milk to get a glaze that will drizzle on the cake. From the pictures -- it is clear that I have trouble judging this consistency.

Pumpkin Bourbon Pecan Pie Bundt with Bourbon Glaze

Sometimes mistakes are a good thing.

I asked Chris to help me out by bringing the bourbon into the kitchen while I was busy making this cake. He brought it in, then asked me how much I needed and where I needed it. I handed him the 1/4 cup measure and said "here" bumping the measuring bowl with the molasses and buttermilk while I said it. When I turned around again I found the bourbon in the bowl with pecans, brown sugar and butter. oops.

Rather than throw anything out, I figured a little extra bourbon never really hurt anything and it couldn't possibly hurt the pecan streusel layer much, so I simply measured another 1/4 cup and added that to the liquid mixture.

Since the bourbon theme was already going pretty strong with this cake I opted to use my new favorite bourbon glaze on the cake as well, instead of the glaze recipe that went with it originally. In for a penny, in for a pound. And what wonderful, flavorful pound it was. As long as you like bourbon of course.

Moist pumpkin with hints of cinnamon, combined with sugar-crusted sweet/crunchy pecans and the aroma and flavor of vanilla-laced bourbon -- this is a good recipe.

I found the recipe by trolling through tastespotting and the picture there led me to Salt and Chocolate Girl's blog. I added the recipe to my ever-growing list in gmail documents and printed several pumpkin recipes last night since we still had fresh pumpkin puree to use up. This recipe was on the top of the pile I handed Chris and while he did a cursorary look through the rest of the pile, the idea of pecan pie and pumpkin combined in a bundt cake had his immediate attention and the other choices never really stood a chance. Smart man. :)

Pumpkin Pecan Pie Bundt Cake

For the Cake –
3 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
½ teaspoon of baking soda
1/3 cup of buttermilk
¼ cup of bourbon
¼ cup of light molasses
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 ¾ sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups of granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 – 15oz can of packed pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

For the Pecan Layer -
1 cup of pecans, toasted and chopped
½ cup of light brown sugar, packed
¼ stick of unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12 cup Bundt cake pan with non stick baking spray. In a small bowl combine all of the ingredients for the pecan layer. Stir until all of the sugar is coated with butter and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. In a glass measuring cup or bowl combine the buttermilk, bourbon, molasses and vanilla together and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, making sure the previous egg has been well incorporated before adding the next. Be sure to scrape down the bowl after all of the eggs have been added. With the mixer on low, mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk mixture and half of the pumpkin puree. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the rest of the buttermilk mixture and pumpkin puree.

Turn off the mixture and stir in the remaining flour by hand. Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan in an even a layer as possible. Sprinkle an even layer of the pecan layer over the batter. Put the remaining batter on top of the pecan layer and smooth the top. Tap the pan on the counter to break up any air bubbles that might be in the batter.

Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

During the last 15 minutes of the baking time make the glaze. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes on a cooling rack then turn it out and glaze it immediately.

Bourbon syrup:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Boil for about 5 minutes

Add 1 T Butter
2 T Bourbon
1 tsp. vanilla

Boil for another 2 minutes, until beginning to thicken and brush the hot glaze onto the still-warm cake.

Banana Bundt Cake with Rum Glaze

After the roaring success of the Pumpkin Bourbon Bundt with Bourbon Glaze I decided to play with the recipe a bit and ended up with this BananaWalnut Bundt Cake with Rum Glaze. My primary motivation was the pile of bananas on the counter and in the freezer, but I am really glad I went with it. At first I was going to use the Dorie Banana Bundt recipe, but it didn't include an option for 1/3 cup of rum so I decided to combine the original Pumpkin Recipe with the Dorie Recipe, although the only thing I really did to the pumpkin recipe was to trade out pumpkin for banana and bourbon for rum and to use whole milk yogurt instead of milk.

The results were fabulous. Dense, moist, yummy with a great banana flavor and enough rum that you could taste it. Once again the glaze was literally the icing on the cake -- that same flaky, sugary, donut consistency as the bourbon variety but with the rum perfectly accenting the bananas.

I definitely see this recipe hanging around my kitchen for a while -- especially considering I've made it three times this week -- once as pumpkin and twice as banana. I will likely make it yet again next week with sweet potato... just to try it the way it was written.



Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup cooked sweet potato (or pumpkin puree or banana)
2 tsps vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk or yogurt or sour cream
1/3 cup bourbon or rum
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp (yup, a tablespoon) baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups pecans or walnuts

For the glaze:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsps bourbon or rum
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt cake pan and sprinkle a 1/4 cup of chopped nuts in the bottom of the pan.

Cream the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla. Next add the puree and mix well.

In a small bowl combine the milk and the bourbon and stir to combine.

In another small bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix up.

Add half the flour mix, then half the milk mixture, alternating until you've added it all. Stir in the nuts.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on a cooling rack.

For the Glaze:
Boil the sugar and water for 5 minutes. Add the butter, bourbon and vanilla and boil two minutes more. Spread the hot glaze on the cake slowly, letting it absorb as much as possible.

Pumpkin Bourbon Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze

I know that I have all winter to enjoy pumpkin dishes and that summer isn't even over yet... but I just couldn't resist this recipe. I needed a cake for a gathering and this is the one that was calling to me. Besides, I have a well documented weakness for pumpkin bourbon combinations (here, and here) and it's been a while since I gave in to the temptation.

This is an excellent recipe. I used ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of cardamom in the recipe instead of allspice (turns out I was out of it), it was moist with a nice light spice, mellow pumpkin flavor, and plenty of crunch from the pecans. The cake was good, no question about it, but the glaze -- now that was inspired. I was a bit doubtful about boiling the glaze the way the recipe said to, but it turned out to be great.

Once I brushed the glaze on the cake it set up a bit turning it into a slightly crusty, sugary, crunchy coating of perfection on the super moist and wonderful cake below. It looked and had the texture of a the glaze on a sugar donut, but with a light bourbon vanilla flavor to go along with it -- flavors you don't usually get with donuts.



Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup cooked sweet potato
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup bourbon or apple juice
1 tablespoon baking powder (yes, a tablespoon)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
Nonstick cooking spray with flour
1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together brown sugar, butter, and eggs until very light and fluffy.

Add sweet potato and vanilla; beat to combine.

Combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in a bowl.

Add half the flour mixture to the mixer and mix until just incorporated.

Add the milk and combine.

Add the remaining flour and combine.

Finally, add the bourbon and 1 cup chopped pecans and stir in just until incorporated.

Lightly spray a 10 or 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle bottom of the pan with 1/4c. chopped pecans. Pour in cake batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.

Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Brush cake with bourbon syrup.

Bourbon syrup:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Boil for about 5 minutes
Add 1 T Butter
2 T Bourbon
1 tsp. vanilla
Boil for another 2 minutes, until beginning to thicken

Chocolate Orange Zucchini Cake

I was looking for an easy cake to make for work on Saturday when I saw this recipe in my Passion for Baking book and since I still had zucchini shredded and ready to go from my last zucchini bread, this fit the bill perfectly. I was a bit skeptical of this cake, because the combination of ingredients just doesn't sound all that good, but for the sake of using up the zucchini and the sad orange I had, I was willing to give it a try. JB even commented that it was one of the worst sounding recipes he had ever heard of and the only thing that could possibly make it worse was to say it had catfish in it too.

The surprise wasn't that the cake tasted good though, the surprise was that it didn't taste like much of anything. It was moist from the zucchini, but didn't taste like zucchini bread. It had the zest of an orange in it, but it didn't really taste orangy at all. There was only 3 oz of chocolate in the cake, so it didn't even really taste like chocolate. It was just a basic, moist, nondescript kind of cake that probably even JB would have liked.

The sad thing is that tomorrow when I put the cake out at work for my coworkers to enjoy, I'm just going to call it a bundt cake because if I gave the title of it I doubt most of them would go near it. *sigh*



Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup veggie oil
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 oz semisweet chocolate melted
2 tsps vanilla extract
zest of a small orange
1/2 cup milk
2 cups shredded zucchini
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and oil with sugar until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, and then the melted chocolate, vanilla, orange zest, and milk. Stir in shredded zucchini. Fold in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and blend until batter is thoroughly combined. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake approximately 1 hour or until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. Let cake cook in pan 15 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate.

Dust with powdered sugar and/or cocoa powder.

Pear Cake

It's not very often a recipe can make me say wow. Sure I ooh and ahh over the various sweets I eat, a lot of recipes will get a happy food dance, and some will get moans of pleasure, but few recipes elicit an actual wow. This is one of those recipes.

I got the recipe out of my Southern Cakes book and I overlooked it pretty much every time I saw it. A couple of times I glanced through the ingredients thinking that I should consider it one day, but I never really took it seriously. Instead, I moved on to other recipes in the book -- the ones I had marked with sticky notes -- and ignored this one.

And then I saw this post on Bake or Break. I don't even remember how I got to the blog, or how I stumbled on that particular post, but I did, and I read it, and I was intrigued because they loved this cake. Even after that post though I didn't run right out and buy pears. Instead I tucked the information away somewhere and moved on with my life.

Then last week while I was at the grocery store none of really great seasonal fruit was stocked. In fact, the only fruit that looked halfway decent at the time was the pears. I like having fresh fruit on hand for snacking so I bought some knowing that if we didn't get around to eating them, I could make this cake. Man I'm smart. :)

Everything that Bake or Break said about this recipe is spot on. It tastes great. It has a light fruity flavor that you can't quite identify that matches with the cinnamon goodness of this cake perfectly. It's easy and quick to mix up and bakes up moist and nutty and wonderful. Do yourselves a favor and give this one a try, believe me, you'll thank yourself for it.

It was only after I typed the recipe that I realized I made a couple of mistakes -- first I only used a tsp of cinnamon instead of a tablespoon, and then I didn't peel the pears like the recipe says. Oh well, guess I'll have to make it again. Darn.



Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and finely grated ripe but firm pears
2 tsps vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a bundt pan.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix butter, eggs, sugar, pears and vanilla in a smaller bowl until well blended. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold until the flour disappears. Gently fold in the nuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and even it out. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until it is browned and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

Vanilla Pound Cake -- Cake Love Style

Tomorrow is my birthday. :) I turn 30 which seems like it should be a big deal, but I just don't care that much. Normally for my birthday I make carrot cake -- pretty much my favorite cake in the world -- and I will likely make carrot cake later this weekend, but today I made the vanilla pound cake from my Cake Love book by Warren Brown. What ended up happening is that I bought a new cake pan, but the shape of the pan (all will be revealed -- maybe too much for some of you -- later this weekend) needed a sturdy cake recipe so I went with pound cake instead of my favorite carrot cake.

The recipe is very good. Sweet without being overly sweet and with a very pronounced vanilla flavor, which isn't all that surprising considering that there is a vanilla bean, vanilla powder and vanilla extract in the cake. There is also a surprising amount of liquor in the recipe -- brandy, rum, amaretto and whiskey -- but you can't really taste the alcohol in the finished product, although I'm sure leaving it out would change the overall flavor. This is a good pound cake that doesn't dry out like so many of them, but I don't think it's quite as good as the Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipe that I got from JB -- now that is a great recipe.

For frosting I made the Swiss Buttercream that I made for the last cake I made, and that I originally found on Smitten Kitchen. I didn't have problems with the frosting the first time, but there were definitely issues this time. I suspect that I didn't whip the egg whites long enough before adding the butter, either that or the egg white mixture was still too warm when I started adding the butter -- either way it never quite set up right and was pretty runny. I ended up salvaging it by throwing a package of cream cheese in there. It helped give the frosting more body (although it was still pretty runny) and as an added benefit gave it a subtle cream cheese frosting flavor which is always a good thing.

I'm obviously just getting started with the whole piping thing, and runny frosting didn't help matter at all. Practice makes perfect, or at least better, so I will likely keep trying. I will say that it's much easier to get a totally cool looking cake using fondant than it is buttercream. As far as I'm concerned piping is an art form and I'm still stuck in kindergarten...

Adapted from Cake Love by Warran Brown (ingredients same, but I skip a lot of the commentary and take shortcuts with the methods -- if you have trouble with the recipe, blame me, not him.) :)

Dry:
13.5 oz (2 1/2 cups + 3 tbsps) all purpose flour
1 tbsp potato starch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Liquid:
8 oz sour cream (1 cup)
2 tbsps heavy cream
1/4 cup brandy
1 tbsp amaretto
1 tbsp rum
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsps whiskey

Creaming:
2 sticks butter at room temp
3 cups extra fine granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 350

Cream together the butter and sugar on low speed for 3 to 4 minutes. While that is creaming scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the butter/sugar mix. Add the eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat on low speed, making sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next.

Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl, and the liquid ingredients in a third bowl. Once all the eggs are mixed in, add the some of the flour, then some of the liquid ingredients, alternating until everything is fully mixed -- this should only take about 60 seconds.

Put in the greased pan of your choice and bake -- a bundt pan will take 50 to 55 minutes. Cupcakes or something smaller will take around 25 to 30 minutes.

Coconut Bundt Cake

As I was making this cake yesterday to bring in to work, I was concerned that there would be too much coconut flavor since there was coconut milk, coconut extract and coconut in the cake itself, as well as more coconut milk in the glaze. However, when I finally tasted a piece of the finished product I was seriously underwhelmed. The cake was good -- nice and moist with a decent texture, but it mostly tasted like yellow cake with some coconut thrown in, and that's not quite what I was aiming for.

I pulled this recipe from Epicurious, and like some of the people who commented on the recipe, I went ahead and added baking powder and baking soda to the recipe to give the cake some lift. The original version is for a dense pound cake, but I wanted something a touch lighter, which is what the leavening did.

I've made good coconut cakes before (my favorite so far isn't a traditional coconut cake, but damn it's good), but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and make a cake using a fresh coconut to really get the depth of flavor I'm looking for. We've seen Alton do it on Good Eats, and I even have a recipe in my Southern Cakes book (which has an entire section devoted to coconut cakes) that calls for fresh coconut.



3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 1/4 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups (packed) sweetened flaked coconut (about 7 ounces)

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
Additional sweetened flaked coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter 12-cup Bundt pan; dust pan with flour. Stir 3 cups cake flour and salt in medium bowl to blend. Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups sugar, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then both extracts. Beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with 1 cup coconut milk in 3 additions. Fold in 2 cups flaked coconut. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

Bake cake until top is golden brown and tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan 5 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack; cool completely.

Whisk powdered sugar and remaining 1/4 cup coconut milk in medium bowl to blend. Spoon glaze over cake. Top with additional coconut, if desired.

Chocolate Chip Brickle Cake

I have had a version of this cake in my mind for about a week now. Culinary in the Desert's version looked very nice, and I'm sure it tasted great, but I had chocolate on the brain as soon as I considered making a version of it. I actually ended up changing the recipe a bit more than I normally do. Instead of all granulated sugar I used half brown sugar and half granulate. I also used yogurt instead of sour cream since that's what I had, and instead of pretty layers, I just mixed in a cup of mini-chocolate chips and an entire bag of heath chips.

In the end, mine tasted more like chocolate than anything else, but that's okay, it still tasted good. The cake is incredibly short... not a tall bundt at all which kind of surprised me. It was moist and delicious of course, but short and kind of plain looking. I thought about doing a glaze of some sort, but I couldn't really think of anything that would complement the flavors much, and I knew that with all the chocolate and heath bits, it was probably quite sweet enough as it was.

The cake was quick to mix up though, went into the oven quickly and, for a bundt cake, came out fairly quickly too (only 40 minutes). It would be great as something to throw together for a casual gathering, or maybe for a bbq, especially if someone is craving chocolate. :)



Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar or 1/2 granulated and 1/2 brown
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream or 1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup heath bits
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined after each. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat for 3 minutes. Mix in the heath bits and chocolate chips until well blended. Spoon into well greased bundt pan.

Bake until golden and a wooden skewer placed in the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove and place pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pecan Molasses Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze

I got an email the other day from someone who just stumbled upon my blog and liked it. It's always nice to hear positive feedback about my blogging, but Seth from So This Is Your Blog took it a step further -- he told me about a recipe I would probably like, and boy oh boy was he right about that.

I followed his link to epicurious and to the Pecan Molasses Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze... it took me about a split second to print the recipe, and I had it in the oven later the same day. I mean, come on.. pecans... molasses... bourbon...? yes please.

There seem to be a few flavor combinations that I just can't resist: coconut & pecans, maple & just about anything, pecans/walnuts with banana/coconut and rum/bourbon -- or better yet, all of the above. I used to be a complete chocoholic, and while I still love chocolate (especially chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal and nuts...), but lately, I seem to be drawn more and more to other flavors, especially the rich combinations I mentioned above. I guess everyone has their favorite flavor combos. JB loves the fruit cobbler/pie realm. Chris is all about the spice cakes and cookies. I'm not quite sure what my little list counts as... tropical because of the liquor and coconut/bananas? North American because of the bourbon and maple/molasses? Guess it really doesn't matter... I like what I like. :)

I will say that I had a couple of small concerns when I made the cake. First, I didn't have enough cake flour, so I used half cake flour and half White Lilly all purpose flour. However, the White Lilly flour is considerably softer than normal flour, so when I pulled the cake from the oven it had collapsed a bit on itself -- luckily that was the bottom of the cake so you couldn't really see it. The cake also bubbled up over the sides of the pan creating a wonderful burned mess on the bottom of the oven -- again, it didn't affect the flavor of the cake so no harm, no foul.

I was a bit concerned about the flavor of the glaze though -- while it was still warm the alcohol flavor was quite potent, almost to the point of overpowering. As it cooled though it mellowed out considerably, and the cooled glaze on the cake was quite divine. Crunchy pecans, sweet molasses, soft cake and a slightly sticky bourbon glaze.... there really aren't words... so good. so yummy. so worth it.



Cake
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 1/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk

1 cup pecans, toasted, finely chopped
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Glaze
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons dark corn syrup
1/2 cup bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Vanilla ice cream

For cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10-inch-diameter Bundt pan with nonstick spray; dust with flour. Sift 3 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and 2 teaspoons vanilla in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions. Transfer half of batter to prepared pan.

Stir pecans, corn syrup, molasses, and 2 teaspoons vanilla in another medium bowl to blend. Stir in baking soda. Stir pecan mixture into remaining cake batter in bowl. Spoon pecan batter over batter in pan (do not swirl). Bake until tester inserted near center of cake comes out with dry crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Transfer cake in pan to rack.

Meanwhile, prepare glaze: Stir 2 teaspoons water and baking soda in small bowl to dissolve baking soda. Bring sugar, buttermilk, butter, and corn syrup to boil in heavy 6-quart saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and melt butter. Reduce heat to medium-high. Stir in baking soda mixture (glaze will bubble). Boil until sauce is golden and slightly thickened, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in bourbon and vanilla.

Invert warm cake onto platter. Immediately brush 1 1/2 cups hot glaze over cake, allowing glaze to soak into cake. Cool cake completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate remaining glaze.)

Rewarm remaining glaze, stirring. Serve cake with ice cream and warm glaze.

Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake

The banana pile got a bit out of hand in the freezer again so I vowed to use some of them up. I also vowed to use my newest cookbook -- Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey -- since I've owned it for two weeks and have only used it once (the very awesome Maple Walnut Pie.) I was at Borders yesterday and realized that I couldn't buy any new baking books until I've used that one more than once, and since there are still many books I want to get, I figured I ought to get cracking.

Luckily, the book had a very intriguing Banana Rum Cake -- problem solved. A cake somewhere between a rum cake and a pound cake with bananas thrown in for good measure, and a lot of sugary, rummy, sticky glaze to go over the whole thing -- the only thing I thought was missing was coconut, but I can always add that next time. My big problem was that my cake wasn't quite done when I pulled it out of the oven. I had mixed results when I tested it with a skewer after 60 minutes in the oven. I figured the last little bits would finish cooking on the cooling rack, but it turns out that it probably needed at least another 5 minutes in the oven, if not longer. So my cake is a bit... um... moist... yeah, we'll call it moist.

If I make this cake again I would also probably fold the pecans into the batter rather than have them just on the top. It makes a cool looking crust that way -- but then when you eat it you get a distinctly different experience depending on if you eat the "crust" or the inside of the cake. If the pecans were folded in, the crunch and flavor would be distributed evenly and I think it would improve the cake.

That was really my only quibble with the cake and it's very minor and easy to change if I make it again. Other than that -- bananas, rum, cake... a very good combination that works well together to give a moist (some parts moister than others), flavorful cake.



Ingredients:
For the Dark Rum Glaze:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

For the Cake:
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temp
1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
3 tbsps dark rum
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream (I didn't have enough sour cream so I used buttermilk)

To make the glaze: Combine the butter, water, and sugars in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Set aside and keep warm.

To make the cake: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350. Spray a 10-cup tube pan with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle the pecans in the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat together the butter and sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the mashed bananas, vanilla, and rum. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt over the batter and fold in using a rubber spatula, just until no streaks of flour remain. Fold in the sour cream. Spoon the batter over the nuts in the pan and spread to the edge of the pan using the back of a rubber spatula.

Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out with no more than a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 60 to 80 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Use a wooden skewer to poke holes all over the cake and pour 14 cup of the warm glaze over the cake. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes more. Place a serving platter over the pan and invert to release the cake onto the platter. Spoon the remaining glaze over the cake, a little at a time, and let stand until the glaze is completely absorbed into the cake. If the glaze starts to pool at the base of the cake, use a small metal spatula to spread it up and around the sides of the cake. As the glaze hardens, this will encase the cake in a rummy, sugary shell.

Let the cake cool completely before cutting into wedges and serving. This cake will last 2 to 3 days if covered well.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

I did not expect to make a cake today. In fact, cake was about the furthest thing from my mind when I was looking at recipes and considering my options. I have more rhubarb to use up so my intention was to make a crumble or crisp using the rest of the rhubarb and the sorry strawberries, and possibly even an apple I have sitting around. In fact, I still might do that tomorrow -- just not today.

The problem was that in my OCD over sucking at pie crust I started looking at various recipes and techniques to see what was out there and found my next attempt (the story is being saved for another blog) -- but my next attempt also calls for some cubes of pound cake. I said something to Chris about the possibility of purchasing a pound cake to use for the recipe and Chris asked me if I was feeling okay. I acknowledged his point and then it occurred to me that there was a brown sugar pound cake recipe in my Southern Cakes book that I have wanted to try since I bought the book (and about a dozen others, but those will wait for another day) and cubes of that would probably work perfectly for tomorrow's recipe. Problem solved.

Now if only I could actually read the recipe correctly. I only realized when I was typing the recipe into the blog (after the cake was in the oven baking) that I had shorted the recipe by a whole cup of brown sugar. Granted, that still meant 1 3/4 cup of brown sugar and another 1/2 cup of white sugar -- but missing an entire cup is pretty significant in terms of flavor. Luckily, the cake still tasted okay despite the mistake and was actually quite nice as a tea cake rather than as a dessert (i.e. super sweet) cake.



Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
one 1-pound box (about 2 3/4 cups) dark or light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
5 eggs

Heat the oven to 325. Spray a 10-inch tube pan with baking spray.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar in 3 batches, and then add all of the white sugar, beating well after each addition.

Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add half the flour, and then half the milk, beating at low speed only until the flour or milk disappears into the batter. Add in the rest of the flour, and then the remaining milk, in the same way.

Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the cake is nicely browned at the edges, springs back when touched lightly at the center, and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel for 20 to 30 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan with a table knife, and turn it out onto a wire rack or a plate to cool completely, top side up.

Mom's Apple Spice Keeping Cake

I have been on a bit of a Fall baking kick lately (maple cookies, maple scones, pumpkin cookies, sweet potato cake) which is really strange considering that Spring is just around the corner. Although, now that I think about it, maybe that's exactly why I'm cooking all the Fall flavors -- got to get the recipes made before all the Spring recipes take over. That and Spring just isn't quite here yet either. Every week I dutifully put rhubarb on the list so that I can make the Rhubarb Crumb Cake that I saw on Smitten Kitchen a few weeks ago, and every week the grocery store disappoints me. And of course the weather has still been cold and gloomy which puts me in the mood for warm and comforting.

I stumbled on this recipe a few weeks back when I was trolling through the food blogs looking for recipes. Instead of just looking at recipes and thinking "wow, I'd like to make that some day" I was actually copying recipes and putting them into my google documents folder for future use. Granted, the folder is very full and I don't remember to check it that often when I'm looking for a recipe -- but the fates conspired to make this cake happen today. First, I had 5 apples to use up -- they were starting to look a little sad and there was no way I was going to eat all of them. Second, the other cake I wanted to make with the apples called for lemon zest and I didn't have lemons. This cake used all of my apples and didn't call for a single thing I didn't have. And third, at some point in the last couple of weeks I printed this recipe and had it sitting on my desk so every day I came to my computer I was reminded that I wanted to make it soon.

The next trick was remembering where I found the recipe since I don't want to steal another bloggers recipe without giving them due credit. When I pasted the recipe into my google document, I completely forgot to grab the link that went with it. Luckily, I googled the title of recipe in quote and immediately found the source: Melissa Makes Bread. If you go to her blog you'll note that this is her mom's recipe and it's full of great fall flavors (so it's the end of March... I'm a rebel... what can I say? besides... it still tastes great whether made in March or October...)

I'm actually tempted to call this a pudding cake since I had trouble telling if the cake was super moist, or just not quite done all the way. It tastes great, and the outside is nice and golden brown and crispy, but the inside is so incredibly moist that it definitely reminds me of the bread pudding I made with caramelized apples. There are a ton of apples in this cake -- I mean seriously! look at all the apples in this cake:



plus raisins and walnuts -- lots of texture and flavor going on. In fact, there was so much texture going on with the cake batter that I was joking with Chris that we might want a little cake to go with our apples and raisins.

As usual, I was too impatient to get the pictures (and tastes!) done before the sun went down, so we had our taste while it was still warm from the oven. *swoon* I don't care that it's March and I should start thinking about lemon recipes and strawberries... this cake is incredibly good and comforting.

Ingredients:

5 large apples, approximately 1 lb 12 ounces

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

2 cups granulated sugar

12 ounces unsalted butter (3 sticks), melted and cooled

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 ˚F. Once the oven has come up to temperature, place the walnuts on a baking sheet, and toast them in the oven for 10 minutes, until they are nicely browned. Once they are taken out of the oven, let them cool down, and then chop them coarsely.

Butter a 12-cup capacity Bundt pan (you can substitute a 9x13-inch baking pan, but the baking time will vary). Set aside.

Peel, core and cube the apples into ¼-inch to ½-inch thick dice. If the apples are turning brown, toss them with a little lemon juice to prevent further browning.

Make the cake batter. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a bowl, and set aside. Place the sugar and melted butter in a mixing bowl and mix on medium speed with a paddle attachment until the mixture is light and a little fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is combined, before adding the next egg. Continue mixing on medium until the mixture is homogenous and fluffy. Then mix in the vanilla extract. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the dry ingredients by hand, mixing until there are no pockets of dry ingredients. Then add the apples, chopped walnuts and raisins and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan.

Place the cake in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

East-West Spice Cake with Cardamom Cream

This is the other recipe that I made for the Asian night last Saturday. Chris has actually been looking forward to trying this recipe for quite some time, but it kept getting bumped off the list by other recipes. It had actually gotten bumped once again in favor of the Sweet Potato Pound Cake, but at the last minute I decided I had the time and energy to put this cake together for the gathering as well.

The recipe comes from the book Blue Ginger which is a Food Network/Ming Tsai book that Chris has had for a while now. Chris made the lemon-grass ice cream last summer and it was very refreshing and different. I thought this cake might be similar to the Indonesian Spice Cake I made for a slightly different Asian food night gathering, but that cake was fairly light and airy compared to these dark & rich little cakes.

The book calls to have them baked in 8 4-oz ramekins for mini-cakes but I don't have that many ramekins. I could have made one 8-inch round cake instead, but I opted to use the mini-bundt pan that I had never used. I only ended up with 4 mini-bundts, but I think I should have had at least 5 considering that I overfilled all 4 of the pans.

The cakes were super moist, and baked for a lot longer than I expected. I checked them after 35 minutes, but they stayed in there about 50 minutes. I thought they were good, but I also thought the ginger flavor got lost a bit with the molasses which is too bad. The cardamom cream was quite good and paired nicely with the cake, but it was incredibly rich and a little went a long way.



Ingredients:

2/3 cup cake flour
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup minced candied ginger
1/2 cup water

Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 300. In a medium bowl, combing the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper and stir to blend.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, egg, oil, molasses, and ginger. Using an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the mixture until well blended. With the machine running, add the water and mix to incorporate.

Remove the bowl from the machine and fold in the dry ingredients by hand until well incorporated. Spray eight 4-oz ramekins or a round 8 -to -10 inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and fill with the batter. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the individual cakes comes out clean 20 to 25 minutes. If using the cake pan, bake 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the cream. In a chilled bowl, combine the cream, brown sugar, and cardamom and whip until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate.

To serve, allow the cakes to cool to room temp (or serve them warm) and unmold onto 8 serving plates. Serve with cream.