It's a Wicked Good Life!

I’ve wanted to participate in the Bundt-a-Month over at Baker Street for a while, but this is the first month that I’ve actually done it.  The theme for this month was cherries.  I originally wanted to do a chocolate bundt with a cream and cherry filling so the flavors would be like Black Forest Cake.  However, I just couldn’t get excited about it and was quickly running out of time last Friday to get something baked for potluck at church.  

My hubby then asked if there was any ice cream in the house and I remembered the pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia that I had hidden in the chest freezer in the basement.  (And yes, I do need to hide the good stuff around here or it will all be eaten in one sitting by my tall-dark-and-handsome).  At that point I abandoned the chocolate cake base and went for a strong vanilla base with cherry and chocolate chunks throughout. I used the Vanilla Bean Bundt as my starting point.  In my humble opinion I think it turned out great.  And even with all the desserts that were leftover at potluck I only had two small pieces left to bring home. Robert and Eddie quickly took care of those so I’m guessing that it was enjoyed by all. The only change I would make in the future is to put the cherries and chocolate on top instead of the middle as they mostly still sunk to the top even though they were tossed with some flour.

Cherry Garcia Bundt 

10 to 12 servings 

Nonstick Pam with flour Baking Spray

2 teaspoon vanilla

1 TBSP vanilla paste

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), room temperature

3/4 cup vanilla sugar

1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup chocolate chunks (dark chocolate if you can find them)

 

3/4 cup Morello cherries drained and cut in half (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)

Standard Bundt pan (10-inch-diameter Bundt pan with 33/4-inch-high sides)

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325°F. Butter and flour standard Bundt pan, then spray pan with nonstick spray or spray really well with Pam Baking. 

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Remove 2 tsp of the flour mixture and set aside.

Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and egg yolk 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat vanilla and vanilla paste. Add flour mixture in 2 additions alternately with buttermilk in 1 addition, beating just until blended after each addition.

Mix the chocolate chunks with 1 tsp of reserved flour mixture.  Mix cherries with the remaining 1 tsp of flour mixture.

Spoon 3/4 of the batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Sprinkle cherries and chocolate over the batter and top with remaining batter. Smooth the top.

 

 

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

You want to follow this link to the recipe.  Trust me.  I picked up some Meyer Lemons in Maine when I was there last week (yes, I’m sure MA has them too, but they were 4 times the price as those I found in Maine).  

This cake would make a lovely addition to an Easter celebration.  My only change in the future would to be to cut cold (not melted) butter into the streusel topping.

Doesn’t that picture just look like summer on a plate?  This plate includes my newest baking obsession the whipped cream “pound” cake and strawberries from our garden.  

Pound cakes are a great foil for fresh fruit in my opinion.  But often that whole “pound” part makes them seem a bit heavy to me.  This cake is a lighter tasting (probably not in calories) version that I very slightly adapted from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More by Carole Walter.   I currently have this book from the library, but it is on my wish-list as well.  I’m not a huge cake fan unless it is of the “breakfast cake” variety.  Seriously, who are we kidding with the whole “coffee cake” thing?  We just wanted to come up with a way to eat cake for breakfast.  I’m ashamed to say I had some a couple days ago with my usual breakfast yogurt in place of toast because I talked myself into the notion that it was faster to to cut off a slice than toast the bread.  My friends/colleagues that I was rushing to meet were rather amused…

This cake doesn’t weigh you down and you can taste the sweetness of the cream, but it isn’t overly sweet.  It is wonderful with berries or without.  It is important that the cream is very cold before you whip it (I put mine in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes before whipping).  I also put the bowl and beaters in the fridge for a bit to really keep everything cool.  

Whipped Cream Pound Cake with Strawberries

• 1 cup heavy cream (really cold)
• 1 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour (spoon and level)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup superfine sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or additional extract)
• Pam with flour for the Bundt pan 
• Strawberries, sliced

Place a rack in the lower third of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a Bundt pan with Pam with Flour spray and set aside.

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

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 5 minutes.  Add sugar 1 TBSP at a time, taking about 4 minutes to add the whole amount.  Then add vanilla extract and paste and mix until blended.  Stop and whip the cream as directed below.

In another chilled bowl, whip the cream on medium-low speed until firm speaks form.  (don’t overmix or it will become grainy). Set aside.

Turn electric mixer to low and add the dry ingredients in to additions, mixing until just blended (scrape down bowl as needed).

Remove the bowl from the mixer.  Using an oversized rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream, one third at a time. Be sure to thoroughly fold in the batter.  

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a large spoon.  Bake for 50-60 minutes.  (if your pan is dark turn heat down to 325).  The cake is done when the top is golden brown and firm to the touch, and a wooden skewer inserted deeply in the center comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and place on a cooking rack for 20 minutes.  Invert pan onto the rack and carefully lift it off.  Let cake cool completely.  Serve with strawberries.  

Store leftovers in either a covered cake pan, or covered with plastic wrap.  The cake can be frozen.

This cake is rustic and simple looking, but so wicked yummy!  There are a number of myths/folklore surrounding the name “buckle”.  My favorite is that the cake is so full of fruit that it “buckles”.  

The recipe comes from Rustic Fruit Desserts by way of Bon Appetit.  The recipe that appeared in the magazine was made with cranberries and orange.  The recipe calls for some vanilla crumb.  I made a triple batch of the vanilla crumb and put it in the freezer.  Now this recipe comes together in a couple of minutes.  

Vanilla Crumb

1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated vanilla sugar
1/4 cup packed (1⅞ ounces) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of a food processor, process the flour, sugars, salt, and butter until coarse crumbs form.  Drizzle the vanilla extract over the crumbs and pulse briefly to distribute.  Store leftovers in the freeze for future use.  

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature, for pan

1 cup Vanilla Crumb

1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter

3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated vanilla sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (or half extract half vanilla bean paste)

1/2 cup (5 ounces) sour cream

2 cups sliced strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick spray. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. 

Using a handheld mixer with beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and vanilla-sugar together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the sour cream in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. 

Fold in 1 cup of the strawberries. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan. 

Distribute the remaining 1 cup strawberries over the cake and sprinkle the crumb topping over the strawberries. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm on top.

Some thoughts on physical therapy…I have to go.  TWICE a week at 7 AM.  That is the time it starts not, the time I have to get out of bed to get there my friends.  I am so tired!  My alarm went off at 6 AM because I was going to be all ambitious and take a shower first so I could come right back, help Robert drop the car off at the shop (don’t even get me started on that) and then change and leave.  

But as I lay in bed, in the dark I mean it is really DARK at 6 AM(hate that time change) I figured that the whole “physical” part of physical therapy may mean that I would want to shower after.  So I hit the snooze on my phone for 20 minutes.  Boy did Robert love that!

I had almost escaped the house at 6:40 AM when Maya heard me get a drink in the kitchen.  Yes, my cell phone in the covers going off 4 times didn’t wake her, but taking a glass out of the cabinet to get water for my thyroid medicine did.  Really?  I swear she has bionic ears!  So I had to get her settled back in bed, with the pink lights on and books in her bed so she won’t wake up Robert and Micah (yeah, that didn’t work either).

So it turns out that physical therapy was “physical” but not necessarily sweat inducing other than the “oh my that really hurts kind of sweat”.  Walking the halls at the school was even more painful once I got to work because my leg was already tired.  And, joy of joys I get to go back this afternoon and present at the faculty meeting.  The data is not good…they will not be happy…so I made them cookies (more on that later) so hopefully the messenger won’t get shot.

This Meyer Lemon Glazed Butter Cake is also quite deceptive.  It is easy to make.  It is unassuming looking. Yes, I didn’t get a picture.  You all should know by now that this doesn’t always happen.  Particularly when there is no fun decoration…it looks like a yellow cake from a round cake pan.  Of course I could be one of those food bloggers who spend large amounts of money on props to set up these lovely photos and would never think of just putting a yellow cake on a Mickey Mouse plate and calling it a day.  But that is so what I did.  Consider this a quick cake that can be thrown together for a family meal or when friends pop by for a moment.  They will just be impressed with cake not what it looks like.

The texture of this cake is semi-custard like.  Robert was a BIG fan!

Meyer Lemon Glazed Butter Cake adapted slightly from Gourmet

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes

3-4 TBSP powdered sugar

1/4 cup Meyer Lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-by 2-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir together milk and vanilla.

Beat together butter, zest and granulated sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Pour batter into cake pan and smooth top, then rap gently on counter to release any air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

Whisk together confectioners sugar and lemon juice until smooth.

Turn out cake onto a rack set over a baking sheet, then reinvert. Brush top and side of cake with all of glaze. Cool completely.

Cooks’ note:
Cake can be glazed 1 day ahead and kept at room temperature.

This is the cake I should have made for Micah’s birthday (what I did make if you missed it).  I love a Bundt cakes and Meyer lemons are a real favorite of mine.  I made this cake last Thursday night so there would be some dessert in the house for my mother-in-law and Robert to eat as I recover from my knee surgery.  I had planned to send some home with my MIL, but Robert forgot to send some with her in the post surgery madness on Saturday.  Probably a good thing as I’m taking much longer to recover from this surgery than I “normally” do and according to my family there is a dearth of baked goods and general cooking going on this last week.  Oh poor them…

I found this recipe on Baking Bites (Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake).  I wasn’t sure if the 2 TBSP of zest was pack or unpacked so I’m guessing I added a bit more than originally called for (I packed).  I also used more juice and less sugar in the glaze as with this bundt pan the glaze mostly runs down the decorations.

If you have any Meyer Lemons around I would suggest this cake!

I debated on whether or not to share this baking disaster. Micah’s birthday really stuck up on me this year. We had a lot going on and then everyone got sick. I had been hoping that I could borrow a train cake pan from someone in the area. But no one had one. A friend sent me a link for this wicked cute train cake made out of a number of small loaf cakes. I figured that I could just pull out my favorite cake recipe and be good to go.

Then all of a sudden it was his birthday and I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed in the house. I had a cake mix so I figured not big deal I would just use that as I’ve never really done much in the carving/decorating end and I might need to spend more time on that. Mistake…So not as good. And then came the carving/decorating. Turns out I have no discernible talent in that. Need to take a class. As I posted on Facebook, I would say that Maya decorated it, but really that would be an insult to her as she is a much better decorator.

I share these pictures not to have people contradict me on how the cake looks.  I spent several hours working on it and I know that is isn’t pretty.  But when Micah saw it his little face lit up and he screamed “cho-cho cake”!  That made it all worthwhile.  Now he didn’t actually eat much of it.  More played with it.  Then he took a bite and looked at me like “really Mummy this isn’t so good”.  He was right…that’s my boy!

The yellow split pea soup (new recipe) I made for supper was a total bomb!  So I’m really glad that I had made this Apple Sharlotka from Smitten Kitchen to go along with supper.  I was really tempted to fiddle with the recipe as it seemed so plain.  However, I’m so glad that I didn’t.  Turns out simple is wicked good!  I used my apple peeler-corer on the apples which made really short work of putting this together.  Other than the baking pan I only needed one additional bowl.   I highly recommend making this!

I finally got around to making this cake.  It’s been in my “to make” pile for a quite a while.  As I had some grapefruits that really needed to be used up I decided to make it as a second dessert option for supper with friends.

Of course I fiddled a little bit…I added the zest of 2 (instead of 1) grapefruit.  I really mixed the zest with sugar before doing any of the other steps to really release the oils.  I also used less glaze.  But yummy!

After this last week of cooking/baking craziness I had threatened to cut off my family from baked goods and meals that involved more than pulling out a bowl and some cereal.  (Aside:  you will be getting an ear/blog full of all that craziness soon.  I just have to find a moment to blog about it).

You would think that after all that baking/cooking there would actually be a surplus in the house.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  What I wouldn’t do for some good leftovers right about now.

According to Maya the last couple cupcakes left over from her party on Sunday do not count as a real “happy birthday cake” as today is her actual birthday.  It’s really tough when your 3 year old’s (sniff) logic actually makes some sense.

So I decided to make a Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake.  Now I LOVE snickerdoodle cookies!  Love, love, LOVE them!  (okay homemade ones that aren’t cloyingly sweet but you get the idea).  I had considered making this cake for SVA’s teachers instead of the Brown Sugar with Chocolate Chips etc. Bundt that I made (and will have to make again so I can actually taste it).  But I got selfish and decided that because I love snickerdoodles and really all things cinnamon-sugar I would make it now when I could actually try it.

I found the inspiration for this recipe on the Food Librarian, who got it from My Baking Addiction, who got it from Dozen Flours.  Did you follow that?

I feel that the original recipe would be too sweet.  So I did some doodling with the amount of sugar.  I also increased the amount of cinnamon (as stated many times before I love CINNAMON-sugar).  All I have to say about the cake is it’s WICKED good!  There is a nice crispy crust on the outside with a fluffy, moist cake-y middle that made me go back for another (small) piece.

I was without my kitchen helper today as she was more interested in playing with her new Play Dough tools.  She wanted me to help her open new containers every couple minutes.  She thought it was quite funny to see me constantly wash my hands to get off food to help with play dough and then get of play dough to continue with the cake.  It really is a miracle it came out!

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake adapted from Dozen Flours

Pam with Flour Baking Spray (seriously, get some if you don’t have any)  3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I used 2 tsp regular and 1 Mexican or Ceylon cinnamon)
1 cup white sugar *you will have cinnamon-sugar left over (I had a little over 1/4 a cup but it is easily stored for other uses)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
 In a small bowl combine the sugar and 3 tsp cinnamon.  Mix really well with a fork and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Generously spray a 9-inch Bundt pan with Pam with Flour.  Be sure to cover all spaces including the tube.  Sprinkle 1/4-1/2 cup of cinnamon sugar mixture over the Bundt pan.  Try to evenly coat the pan, including the tube.  Set aside remaining cinnamon-sugar.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a medium bowl.  Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixture cream together butter and white and brown sugars for 5 minutes or until the mixture is light brown and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time beating for 1 minute after each addition.  Add the vanilla and beat for another minute.
Alternately add the flour and sour cream to the mixer (starting and ending with flour).  Mix until just incorporated.  
Spread half of the batter into the Bundt pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 a cup (or so) cinnamon-sugar onto the batter.  Cover with remaining batter and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.  
Bake in the center of the oven for 45-65 minutes (depending on pan and oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a rack.  
After 10 minutes, place another rack on top of pan.  Lift over a sink and invert cake onto rack (this will save you from having cinnamon-sugar all over your counter/floor etc.)  Cool completely on the rack.