Sofia cake, part two

~

After filling the particular pan we used for Sofia cake the other day, we had some batter leftover.  True it could have held the entire amount, but better safe than sorry when baking up a new recipe and a pan not used often.  I got out my mini angel food pan - I think I've used once - I certainly do not want to clean the darn thing...even though I was drawn to buy it when it showed up on a clearance sale rack.  It's a sweet pan, but I find the cakes are too large for one person.  We gave it go when Sofia wanted to add some coconut to the top of her pumpkin-almond cake.  Caramel sauce added at plating time and it was definitely a sweet dessert for the kidlets.  

Sofia cake ~

 ~ Sofia cake ~

Sofia cake for a spiritual sunny Sunday gathering.  It was Miss Little Bit and myself alone all weekend.  Truth be told, I was grumpy and testy a fair percentage of the weekend, I felt for her.   I did pull it together to ask her if she wanted to help me make a cake for Sunday's spiritual gathering, I was on snack duty.  I already had brownies made, more snacks were needed.  Please forgive the oil....I was low on butter, feeling financially pinced, I had lots of oil on hand, was too lazy to run to the store.  Pick an excuse, most of them are hardly valid save the second and last one.  Substitute 1 1/2 sticks melted butter or simple cream room temp butter with the sugar, the flavor will be softer, richer, more depth with butter.  On to...

Sofia cake ~

 

3 1/2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tsp. pumpkin spice

2 c. sugar

1 c. oil (or substitute 1 1/2 sticks butter)

15 oz. pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. almond extract

1 c. chopped whole almonds

• Why almonds?  Because when I asked Sofia is she wanted nuts, that I had plenty of almonds, she replied, "Yes!  When I think of almonds, I think of yummy!"  I don't feel the same about almonds.  This is not my cake. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a baking pan of choice.  Either a bundt or angel food size pan with a removable bottom.
• Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs, extracts.  Mix well.
• In thirds, add the flour mixtures and buttermilk, starting with the flour, ending with the buttermilk.
• Fold in the almonds.
• Bake for....oh....start checking on it at 55 minutes.  It might take 10-15 minutes longer than that.  I'll leave that to you and your oven.  It should spring back or leave no crumbs on a toothpick...or a pretty handy dandy Swedish cake tester like we have.  :)  

A little whole wheat sweet ~

For the four in the hood

I wanted something less sweet, a little less big, a little less fat, and completely whole wheat.  I wanted something this was not...boy how I do love that recipe, though.  *sugar love*   I also wanted to use the two leftover bananas I had sitting around, though I  prefer berries in my quickbreads.  Today I was merely practical, also working the whole grain momentum I have going and I had extra time to make the kidlets their after school snack.


The texture ~ this will be on the light spongy side as it's low in fat.  It has the hint of banana to it in taste and scent.  I truly like my baked goods less sweet and this first time experiment with ratios and ingredients hit the spot in satisfying that little sumthin'-sumthin'.   


Whole wheat banana cakelettes ~
(is that a word?)


1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated


4 T. butter, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 T. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. maple extract
2 overly ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c. buttermilk

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Line six 4" pans with parchment.
• Mix dry ingredients, set aside.
• Cream butter and sugars, add extract.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  This will be a loose egg/sugar mixture.
• Add the bananas at this point or wait to fold them in last.
• Add half the flour mixture, mix well.
• Add the buttermilk, mix well.
• Add the remaining flour.
• Fold in almonds.
• Divide the batter into the six pans, top with extra almonds.
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes...make sure they spring back to the touch.

Banana almond cakelette

Crumb peek

Christmas eve gratitude ~

...that I know and choose Love.

Chill December bring the sleet,

Blazing fire and Christmas treat.

-Mother Goose

 Backward, turn backward

O Time in your flight;

Make me a child again

Just for tonight

- Elizabeth Akers Allen

~ Two snuggled in a corner ~

Dads & Chocolate ~

Father's day.  A quiet day without one, while sitting in gratitude for half of what brought me here in the moment.  Whatever the day might mean to you ~ I hope it's a good one for you and those you love.


And now for something completely different......
(To steal a good line)

Chocolate ganache ~

So much cream, so many slight variations.

As a baker I take into consideration the weather and how much time I have for the ganache to set, how and what I am applying the ganache...poured, spread or piped.  This morning it was piped.   Quietly alone on a Sunday morning...soft dark none-too-sweet chocolate and cream falling from a star tip onto chocolate cupcakes.  Men love chocolate!  Don't they?  :)  Today I believe they do.

Do you require something precise?  This might not be the place.  Do you need a definition of what it means to have it set up for several hours and exactly how long is that?  This is not the place to be precise, as much as baking is a science.  Ganache is on it's own time when it's ready, interacting with the temperature of the air it rests in, along with the readiness of the baker that is going to use it.

I use a 40% cream.  You might find only a heavy cream that is 36%.  Leave the whipping cream of less than 35% on the shelf for other purposes. 


If you want to pipe, I suggest leaving it overnight - in a spot neither too warm or too cool.  There is that non-precise part again.  I can only suggest that you take a spoon to it after several hours or overnight to see if it it is firm enough to pipe.  You get one bag filled with ganache to pipe...no reusing it as once hands move the ganache through the bag it starts softening and losing it's sharper piping.  

Fear not perfection for it doesn't exist...just dollop it on with a spoon and forget the piping - the taste is what it ultimately important.


Ganache ~

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped.
1 1/2 to 1 2/3 c. heavy cream

• Place chocolate in a bowl, stainless or Pyrex.
• Put cream in heavy in a saucepan and heat to almost a boil.  
• Pull off just before the boil and pour over chocolate.  Let sit for about five minutes.  
• Gently stir with a whisk or spoon until blended.  Let sit for several hours.  
• If you cover it all the way with plastic wrap, condensation will form and drip down into the chocolate.  Leave it uncovered until it's not so warm to prevent condensation. 
• I'm not going to be a food snob.  If you use chocolate chips and don't want to chop them, be happy with that.  Picking one of the better brand of chocolate chips will give you a better end resu

Frost, pipe or schmear - heck...don't wanna wait?  Dip chocolate cupcake tops in it when it's warm.  Have at it.  Take a spoon, scoop it up and eat it.   Be indulgent.  Ganache makes it easy.

This cupcake in particular is going to my former husband today.  I will go meet him to pick the kids up from their weekend with him.  We made three beautiful children together that we both love dearly.  I have decided to stand under the umbrella of all that means and call it good.  He is their dad ~ there is a lot of love there. 





 

Truffle cake ~

Truffles.  Soft....melting....rich.  So many subtle variations, so little time.  This is an easy peasy recipe - as are most truffles.  Get out your favorite dark chocolate...find some yummy heavy whipping cream.  Got some favorite libation you feel like dripping in the mix?  Good for you!  Go!

This is a very soft truffle ~

10.5 oz. chopped chocolate
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 T. liqueur of your choice

• Place chocolate into a glass bowl.  
• Heat cream to almost a boil.
• Pour over chocolate, cover with a plate.
• Wait five minutes.
• Stir chocolate and cream until combined.  Add liqueur.
• Place in fridge for at least three hours, or up to over night.
• Use a little scoop or spoon, place on parchment.   
• Put back into the fridge for an hour. 
• Dredge in dutch-processed cocoa.

For the cake, I dipped the truffles in chocolate, letting them harden.  Then coated them with gorgeous cocoa.  What a lovely shade, a dreamy-dusty scent that lingered in my Eskimo nose.   


Truffles ~ a nice little decoration, don't you think?  :)

Toodles!
xoxo

Ladybug cake ~ for the sugar and spice crowd

I initiated it, I did.  "Come on, sit here.  Let's look at pictures of ladybug cakes together."  Oy.  Not a can of worms, but page after page after page...after *page* of ladybug cakes thanks to Google Image and a six year old that thinks a long period of looking is fun.  It was.  It didn't end with one session.  There were many requests for looking at cakes.  We saw pink ladybugs, flat ladybug cakes, a green ladybug cake, orange ones, even a large white wedding cake with dozens of itty bitty sugar ladybugs cascading down one side.  In the end, she picked the one she wanted, not the one I wanted.  Have you ever seen a 46 year old pout?  

 I used this cake opportunity to try out a new recipe from a new cookbook I received for Christmas.  If you collect baking books, this is a good one.  I varied the yellow cake recipe just slightly and lemon'd it up.  Sofia's request ~ lemon with cream cheese frosting.  

Later, after the party, as the night was winding down, she asked, "May I please eat an eyeball?"  Then it became a cake mutilation by two girls.  Is this the new Sugar & Spice and everything nice? 

She was absolutely tickled...with the cake, with her party...with her turning seven years old.  There is nothing like having children to know that the saying - How time flies - is so true.  Love of children is absorbed instantly, given quickly...lasting forever.   I love my babies like nothing else I've known ~ being their Mother makes me glow inside ~ as I know other mothers feel about their own...and can understand how vast the love.

How time flies.

xoxo

Simply a picture ~

Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. Simple, yet addicting.

I enjoyed eating the cuttings from this one!

Toodles!
xoxo

Hot chocolate crumb cake ~

Hot chocolate crumb cake ~

Oooooo…this was a hit with the Round Table Taste Testers. It’s a diverse group, I tell ya. A six year old is honest without awareness of manners and the twelve year has had an adult palette since he was a wee one. That ten year old, well, she’s silent in her opinion if she doesn’t love something, but there is no mistaking the results by the amount of food left on her plate. This was recipe got a score of Three Clean Plates. Hey. I like that. I’m going to use it again. Where can I find how to get make a rating gif/photo like that? Anyone?

The original recipe is attributed to a Woman’s Day holiday magazine edition. I cannot find the original online. I played with changes of pan size and leavening because I wanted a higher rise than the original, a white sugar instead of brown because I didn’t want the molasses to come through, a little more sugar, added instant espresso to kick up the chocolate flavor, my favorite streusel recipe and pecans, because I want ‘em.

Why did I name it Hot Chocolate Crumb Cake? Because we cut into it less than ten minutes out of the oven and it was melty-yummy. I knew it’s consistency would be soft, but not airy because of the warm temperature. It is dense and soft the next day, but served warm….definitely worth the timing to make this particular recipe to serve soon after it comes out of the oven.

Start with the streusel ~

4 T. butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ c. flour
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. finely chopped pecans

Mix and set aside.

Hot chocolate crumb cake ~

4 oz. butter
1 c. chocolate chips, dark or semi-sweet
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. instant espresso
1 ¼ unbleached flour
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

• Melt the butter and chocolate on low. Set aside to cool a bit.

• Prep an 8” springform pan with with a bottom round of parchment and sides greased.

• Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Set aside.

• Mix the sugar, eggs and instant espresso until espresso is dissolved and starting to lighten. Slowly add chocolate and butter mixture.

• Mix in the flour mixture until just combined without lumps.

• Add a ½ c. of chocolate chips and ½ c. of chopped pecans.

• Put batter into pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 40-55 minutes. Start checking at 40, remove when just barely any crumbs cling to the toothpick.

• Let sit about ten minutes, slide a knife around the edges and release from pan. Serve warm.

Toodles ~
xoxo

Simply pictures with Pumpkin pound cake recipe ~

Fall Art Hop dessert table at Thump, October 2nd. Always such a joy to be a participant.

• Pumpkin coconut layer cake dressed in caramel Swiss meringue buttercream - truly yummy.
• Pecan cake dressed in caramel Swiss meringue buttercream - again, truly yummy.
  
• Cocoa-spice cookies
• Nutmeg sugar cookies
• Banana bread
• White spice pound cake
• Pumpkin pound cake
  
• Pumpkin-chocolate tart
  

I don't remember where I picked up the pumpkin pound cake recipe or if it was one that I adjusted to it's current stage. Either way, there are variations galore on the web, give or take an egg, buttermilk or sour cream, butter or oil. It's a good keeper and very easy to put together. Drizzle it with some maple glaze or dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy.




Sour cream pumpkin pound cake

3 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached flour)
1 tablespoon pumpkin spice (or a combo of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and hints of clove and allspice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
4 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Combine flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.

• Cream granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

• Add pumpkin, sour cream, and vanilla extract; mix well.

• Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes if using a decorative pan before inverting.





















Toodles ~
xoxo

Lemon cherry cake ~

I grew up in a time when the only cherries my family had were the ones we picked ourselves from my Grandmother’s trees. She had two trees, one Bing and one Royal Anne. I loved those trees. I would stand underneath it in rapture at *ALL* those cherries of mine. Mine. Mine-mine-mine-mine. Megidtyfregity birds stealing my jewels at the top. Just because I was afraid of heights and couldn’t reach them didn’t mean they weren’t mine.

During cherry season I’d say to my Grandma, “I’m going for a walk.” She’d reply, “Janet….don’t eat a lot of cherries, you’ll be too full for dinner!” It’s okay - I knew she would love me anyway. I’d lie if I had to….because there were cherries in their prime out on the side of the farmhouse. I was a weak girl.

I picked up some Bings from a grocery store this week (gasp) due to their appealing price. As suspected they were not prime. The farmers market had some this past week, though the Royal Anne’s looked a little bruised from travel. I have such fond memories of how gorgeous they are right of my Grandmother’s tree, so I pass when I find them on the bruised side. What I had on hand mid-week were the Make Do Bings. They needed a little help. The color was there, but not the depth of flavor, so that meant help in the form of putting them in baked goods.

There is a lemon pound cake recipe from Lori Longbotham's book all over the food web as an adapted recipe. I’m not sure what has been adapted because it’s not been changed from what I can find. It is a lovely lemon cake. I have made her recipe in the past and it is a fine one as is. I wanted a different result in texture with fruit added to it. I wanted a finer crumb that would be able to take some fruit, and because of the fresh fruit, I didn’t want the soaking method at the end of the original recipe. I went with a more concentrated lemon flavor on the exterior, provided by a glaze.

I made three batches with changes, the end result is the one here. I have changed it slightly with the replacement cake flour for all-purpose, changed the measurement of the flour, switched out buttermilk for milk, bumped up the sugar a bit in the batter, added more zest and nixed the syrup basting phase after it comes out of the oven. I added cherries. I can’t quite bring myself to call it pound cake, as it has dairy. It has a dense, yet fine crumb. It has red, it has yellow, it is a pretty little cake to give away. And I did. Twice. *smiling*

Lemon-cherry cake

3 ¼ c. cake flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¾ lb. unsalted butter ( *whoa*)

1 ¾ c. sugar - feel free to bump this up to 2 c. (I will next time)
6 eggs
1 c. milk
1 tsp. lemon oil
Zest of three large lemons
Zest of one ruby red grapefruit (? Really ? Yep.)
1 - 1 ½ c. cherries, pitted. Either halved or quartered.

• Mix the dry ingredients, set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar. Whip it good, get ’er fluffy.
  
• Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl before adding the next.
• Alternate the milk and the flour mixture, in thirds, ending with the milk.
  
• Remove from the mixer, then add the zest. If you used the whip attachment and you have a KitchenAid, then you know that zest gets caught in that cross section at the bottom…bothersome, isn’t it?
• Add the cherries.
  
• Scoop batter into preferred pan of choice - any 12 c. bundt style pan.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours, start checking at 75 minutes.
• 
  

Glaze ~

2 c. powdered sugar
Lemon juice
Lemon zest

A consistency a little thicker than maple syrup or heavy whipping cream, will give you a coating that doesn’t run off. If you prefer a thinner glaze, that is lovely too. I posted the various pictures so you see the difference in glazes. The first picture is dusted with powdered sugar.

Notes ~

• If you quarter the cherries -- just before adding to the batter, sprinkle them with flour. This give the perception they will not settle towards the bottom, but they do anyway. Ha. It’s a soft batter - what can one expect?
  
• You could chop the cherries, but then miss impact of cherry flavor biting into a chunk.
• Using a baking spray such as Baker’s Joy will give a better outer crumb than butter and flour - for the most part.

Toodles ~
xoxo

Boysenberries remembered ~

Now that the height of succulent fruit is about to come into season, I am missing one fruit in particular. Can someone tell me where to find a watermelon with seeds? Huge, oval, green - full of anticipation - a fruit blimp, that if cracked open would rain pink-hued juice so sweet one would naturally turn their lips upward to quench their desire at the sight, while dodging delicate seeds that could do no harm. Where did those watermelons go? I don’t want seedless watermelon. I want lush. I’m tired of turning around and seeing bowling ball size watermelon in the stores. I’m holding out for the blimps, I tell ya. When I do, I’ll be typing with sticky fingers and serving my kidlets fresh watermelon juice over ice.

Boysenberries ~ I can still find! Thank goodness. Loganberries are another story, but I’ve not been to the valley to pick fruit since returning home five and a half years ago. Boysenberries, aside from fun to say out loud repeatedly (try it fast) are a delicate sweet yet tart berry. Man, they are juicy-fat. Just how I like ‘em, baby. I remember picking this variety on my Grandma’s farm - they were the ones that would burst in my fingers if touched with a heavy hand. They emit a warmth more so than other berry varieties on the vine, their ample juice inside heated by the sun. De-li-cate.

Fresh won’t be coming until a month of so from now, get ready. It’s a short season. If you want boysenberries at the ready, go here for IQF.

The following recipe could very well be one of my top two favorite coffeecake recipes for the following reason - - it’s the kind that tastes sweetly comforting when it’s warm and fresh. When I see “melted butter’ in a recipe for coffeecake, my mind zips to a full-figured woman in an apron, moving with common assurance in the kitchen. I feel young in the memory. Melting butter for baked goodies was for women that had a special treat to get ready for their families before they woke for the day. No time to let butter come to room temp, no KitchenAids that could beat cold butter into submission in the wee hours. Picture a soft starting weekend day, or a summer morning without obligations. Shhh, let me have my fantasies. I’m not naïve enough to think all women back in the day liked their domestic duties, truly their choices were so much less than we have today. I appreciate the effort, nuturing no matter the path to the end result of our mothers and grandmothers. Warm, sweet and soft on the table, warm, sweet and soft was the woman in the kitchen.

The recipe is adapted from this little book. I add a touch more sugar, use buttermilk instead of milk, add salt since I use unsalted butter, add vanilla and lemon zest.


Fresh Berry Coffeecake
(eat warm - it‘s not a keeper)

1 ½ c. flour
½ c. plus 2 T. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted - cooled slightly
½ c. buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla Zest of ½-1 lemon

A cup of frozen berries of choice, coarsely chopped if not raspberries. If using fresh, no need to chop.

Streusel topping ~
1/4 c. chopped nuts
1/2 c. brown or white sugar (I use white)
1/2 c. flour
2 T. melted butter

• Mix dry ingredients.
• Add milk to warm butter, mix together to bring milk to room temp.
• Add vanilla and zest.
• Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet, add the egg. Fold together until just combined. This is a loose batter.
• Spoon two-thirds of the batter into your pan, sprinkle berries over batter, top with remaining batter.
• Sprinkle with streusel.

Bake @ 350 degrees. See time notes below.

After it comes out of the oven, let sit about 15 minutes before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.















Notes ~

Here’s the vague part of my instructional personality again ~ baking time varies according to pan size, volume and flavors used.

• Using frozen berries and two 6” pans, it could be almost 40 minutes before they are done.
• If you use a 9” roundpan and fresh berries, it could be done in 30-35 minutes.
• If you use an 8” round pan and frozen berries, it could take 40 minutes.
• If you double this recipe, it fits nicely in a 12” round pan - a generous size to bake quickly before heading out the door to a morning gathering. Do not double the leavening, multiply by 1.5.
  
• If you multiply the recipe by 1.5, you get a nicely fat product in two 6” pans and….it could take beyond 40 minutes.
• If you use a 9" square as it says in the original recipe with fresh fruit, it takes 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees. I keep my oven to 350 on this recipe.
• Point being, start checking at 30 minutes and go from there. I assume you all know the press and bounce back touch, or use a toothpick to test for crumb.
• Variations ~ oh…so many. Sans berries and add spice of choice. Nutmeg in a warm fluffy coffeecake is soothing.
• I’ve used brown sugar in place of white, added apples, added spice ~ fall options.

Berries ~ coming soon!!! *clapping* my hands in glee. I love my Oregon.
Toodles ~ xoxo

Pink. Sweets. Pink sweets.

,
I was so happy with the simple way these treats turned out. It was a lesson in make, bake, love, accept and let go. It was Annie's 10th birthday this year, she had not had a party since she was three, but had been asking for several years. Well...I do admit to not being the fun one - this being a blog on my personal baking habits, I won't go into my unfunNESS or how life can be a full plate, blah, blah, blah....moving on to...(briefly)...

...my snobbery at making every little thing myself. There is still the lingering part of me that feels homemade pink marshmallows dusted with sparkly pink-tinted powdered sugar would have been...ummmm....what is a better anyway? One thing I've learned about baking for those that love sweets - it's subjective when it comes to taste preference. For this party, I put away my little drawstring pouch of snobbery that holds my love of all sweets with their name of origin in a language other than English. Back to.....

Marshmallow pops!!!! They were fun and enticing to ten year old girls. I call that a success, especially when they go back for a third helping.

Annabelle helped with the menu and picked the colors. Okay...so it amounted to "I want pink and green" and I ran with the rest. As long as it was pretty in her eyes and sugary, I got the thumbs up. Simple and easy. Marshmallow pops, cake pops, the cake, candy coated pretzels and cheddar bunnies. Yes, I put out some cheese - to assuage the guilt of so much....sugar.

The cake - her choice. Coconut cake with strawberry filling and classic buttercream with tinted white chocolate dots. We sat at the table together talking about placement of dots on her cake and was she okay with this or that dot placed here or there. I did pretty well - after all - I'm in practice to not be the bride's mother from h*ll when it comes to voicing opinions on how things "should" look on a cake.

In my cake world, I think the sun rises and falls on the author of this book. The strawberry filling I made came from her book, it's her strawberry conserve recipe and a darn fine one. Her blog is in my listing. I look forward to the day her new book is released.

When the party was done, I smiled at my auburn-haired baby...that hit double digits in age...and said yes to her question asking for another marshmallow pop.

*Blurt*

http://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-events/TDC/default.aspx


Photos of the evening ~
(Wishing I had the one on the site below)

http://photogallery.onthego-go.com/gallery/8093915_zuXoM



Fudge cake with praline espresso buttercream filling, draped in ganache, accessorized with tinted white chocolate tiles .