Almond Bergamot Bundt Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I set out to make a pound cake. You see, we’ve been getting an awesome egg share this year from Southtown Farms, and my family and I figured we’d be able to go through the full share at a dozen a week. Well, we were doing just fine with it, actually, until one day someone accidentally bought an extra dozen eggs or two to make quiche, and then we just had a million damn eggs. I’d seen some pound cake recipes online that used a whole lot of eggs, so I looked at a few (here’s one I used for reference) and made up the rest based on what ingredients I had around.

We ended up bringing this cake to my aunt & uncle’s house one evening when we had a BBQ. My other uncle was there, too, as was part of my immediate family and my cousin. Since my Heritage Bundt Pan produces a pretty huge cake, I figured I’d only need to bring half of it with me, but I never got around to cutting it and brought the whole thing. As it turned out, nearly 7/8ths of the whole cake was gone – despite the fact that a few members of the family are trying to avoid sugar! Too tempting, I guess. :)

The flavors here came out really nicely. They layered together well with just an undertone of vanilla, a hint of caramel at the edges from using the natural sugar, and then the headiness of almond and bergamot (which you’ll recognize as what makes Earl Grey tea taste as it does). I finished this moist cake with a drizzle of a nice quality melted dark chocolate – I used a bar of Dagoba I’d gotten as a gift.

*Note: If you do not have the required bergamot extract, you can infuse the milk with Earl Grey tea for a similar result.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter
6 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flour (this is what I had on hand – you can use white whole wheat or split between whole wheat and all purpose)
2 cups natural sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon bergamot extract
2/3 cup yogurt (I used one 5.3 oz cup)
1/3 cup milk
1/2-3/4 bar of good dark chocolate, about 1-1.5 oz (optional)
handful of slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

Directions

Grease and flour a 10-cup bundt or tube pan. Do not preheat the oven.

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

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add vanilla, almond, and bergamot extracts.

Add flour mixture to the cream mixture, alternately with yogurt. Add milk. Beat until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared tube or Bundt pan. Place pan on a tray to prevent overflow in the oven.

Place cake into cold oven, set the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for 60 to 90 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. (This took me about 60 minutes, but your mileage may vary depending on how long your oven takes to heat up.) Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

In a double boiler or CAREFULLY in the microwave (don’t burn it!), melt the chocolate. Cut the tip off a small plastic sandwich bag. Spoon in the melted chocolate, and drizzle lines back and forth over the cake. Decorate with almond slivers if desired. Let the chocolate set before serving.

Martha Stewart’s Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have a cupcake order coming up next month for a baby shower, and they’ve requested red velvet cupcakes, so I am testing out red velvet cupcake recipes in the next few weeks to find the very best one. 

Today I used Martha Stewart’s Red Velvet Cupcake recipe pretty much exactly as it was. This is a great cupcake. The flavor is good, the cupcake is moist, and it pairs beautifully with a basic cream cheese frosting (I used Martha’s Cream Cheese Frosting, though I added an extra splash of vanilla). The cupcake did not turn out very red, so I would definitely bump that up if you want a very red cupcake. Also, despite their great flavor, these did not dome up well, which was disappointing. Lastly, if I made them again, I would try decreasing the oil a tiny bit to see if the wrappers might be a bit less greasy, though I wouldn’t want to lose any of the terrific moistness.

Overall, these cupcakes are great; no one will be disappointed to eat one.  

Do you have a perfect red velvet cupcake recipe? Share it with me and I may feature it on the blog! 

Ingedients (Red Velvet Cupcakes)

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions (Red Velvet Cupcakes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.

Cook’s Note

Gel-paste food color is much more concentrated than the supermarket liquid variety; if you substitute the liquid, you may need to add an entire bottle (1.5 ounces) to achieve the desired shade.

Ingredients (Cream Cheese Frosting)

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions (Cream Cheese Frosting)

Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla; mix until smooth.

Chocolate Orange Christmas Bundt

Image is of a chocolate bundt cake on top of a red and green quilt. My mom made that quilt, isn’t it lovely?

When my dad and brothers eat out at a restaurant, they always order the “Death by Chocolate” dessert, so when I bake a cake for the family at Christmas, I always try to make something very chocolatey. If I don’t, I’ll get comments like, “This cake is good… but there isn’t enough chocolate.” Last year I made this Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, which was a chocolate layer cake made with black cocoa filled with raspberry jam and topped with both a whipped and poured chocolate ganache.

Chocolate and orange together have always seemed rather Christmassy to me, probably in part due to the seasonal nature of citrus during the winter, and also because my family has sometimes bought those chocolates that are infused with orange that you smack on the table and come away with individual slices of chocolate. This year, I planned a chocolate orange bundt with a poured chocolate ganache on top. (I’m finally ready to face bundt pans again after doing Micah and Casey’s many-bundt wedding cake in September.)

I’ve seen this Cook’s Illustrated chocolate cake recipe talked about all over the internet for ages, and it always seemed like a pain to me. Really? Cocoa and bittersweet chocolate? Boiling water for a cake? But here’s the great thing about using the boiling water – it means that you don’t have to melt down the chocolate in a double boiler, so you don’t have to wash that extra pan, but you still get the lovely richness from the chopped chocolate.

I’ve adapted the recipe to add orange extract and orange zest to add flavor without disrupting the dry/liquid balance of this tried and true recipe. It really came out wonderfully, a cake that wasn’t too sweet and was perfectly complimented by the poured ganache. It looked beautiful on our holiday table and was wonderful with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, it would be wonderful for the new year!

Ingredients

3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (2 1/4 ounces)
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup water (boiling)
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar (I used a scant two cups rather than packed two cups to cut back on the sugar a bit)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 teaspoons orange extract
zest of 1 orange
5 large eggs, room temperature

1 batch of poured ganache

Directions

Grease and lightly dust a 12-cup Bundt pan with cocoa powder. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine cocoa, chocolate in medium heatproof bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then whisk in sour cream. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in second bowl to combine.

In stand mixer fitted with flat beater, beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and orange extract on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, mixing about 30 seconds after each addition and scraping down bowl with rubber spatula after first 2 additions.

Reduce to medium-low speed; add about one third of flour mixture and half of chocolate/sour cream mixture and mix until just incorporated, about 20 seconds. Scrape bowl and repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining chocolate mixture; add remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 10 seconds. Scrape bowl and mix on medium-low until batter is thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Add orange zest and stir. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan, being careful not to pour batter on sides of pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out with few crumbs attached, 50 minutes to an hour. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto parchment-lined wire rack.

Prepare the ganache (Recipe is in a separate post here) and pour it over the cake. Let the ganache set (this could take a few hours). Keep refrigerated until a few minutes before serving. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Cocoa Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Oatmeal in the morning on a cool day is an awesome thing, right? But sometimes you don’t make enough, and other times (especially when you set it up in your slow cooker and then people rush out the door without breakfast anyway) there is tooooo much oatmeal. You don’t want to throw it out, but if you save it, do people really eat the leftovers? They will if you turn them into muffins! Say, Cocoa Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins?

I’m not sure that I got a photo of these muffins, but they were really tasty and they’re pretty healthy – I substituted nonfat yogurt for some of the butter and reduced the sugar, used whole wheat flour, and of course, they’ve got the healthy power of oatmeal in there, too! I was surprised at how light and fluffy these came out. I’ll definitely make them again when we have oatmeal leftovers, and if you don’t have cranberries, throw in raisins or chocolate chips or nuts or anything else you can think of!

The basis of this recipe originates here, which was a great help since I wasn’t quite sure how my oatmeal leftovers were going to factor in.

Ingedients

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
4 medium eggs (or 3 large)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups leftover cooked oatmeal (our leftovers were steel cut oats)
1 cup cranberries, sliced

Directions

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda.

In another bowl, mix together melted butter, eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, cranberries, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. The batter will seem thick, but don’t worry. Adding more liquid may make the muffins too crumbly.

Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until the muffin centers are slightly firm.

Irksome Iced Sugar Cookies

There’s nothing irksome about this particular sugar cookie recipe. I just don’t like making rolled sugar cookies! But as I mentioned in a previous post, my mom asked me to mail my brother some cookies, and I decided that sugar cookies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies would be the best route.

Of course, it’s been very hot here lately. I’d guess it was 95 degrees the day I decided to make rolled sugar cookies, you know, the kind that have butter that melts all over the place in them. I selected a “no-fail” recipe, but when I halved it, it did not work out, and I had to add much more flour. This recipe is adapted from Amanda over at i am baker, and I also used her icing just about as-is. I just drizzled the icing because I was in a hurry, but there’s all sorts of fancy things you can do with it.

You know what, though? As much as I piss and moan about it, these cookies were really good, so I think that I’m going to put them on my to-do list for this Christmas. You know… when it’s a bit cooler and the dough isn’t just sliding off the kitchen table. *wink*

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted Butter
1 cup sugar
1 whole eggs
1 whole eggs yolk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (use a little more if you like – I find that it can be overpowering)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking Powder

For the icing:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon milk (give or take – less milk for thicker icing, more for thinner)
1 drop lemon juice (fresh or processed)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions

In your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes.

Add in eggs and egg yolk and mix until combined. Add in vanilla and almond extract; mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly (about a cup at a time) add flour to butter mixture and combine. Do not overmix the dough.

Put dough in some Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, more if possible. When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out, cut out cookies, and bake for 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

To make the frosting, simply combine powder sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice in a bowl. For some fancy tips and cool decorating photos, check out Amanda’s post.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Coffee Frosting

One of the symptoms of fibromyalgia is that a person has sleep disturbances, and boy, do I ever. Just last night I had trouble sleeping, and many, many nights of the last 10 years or so, I’ve had trouble sleeping. Some nights, I toss and turn in bed. Other nights, I do odd things, like climb out of bed and bake cookies.

This recipe has been sitting in queue to be posted since May, but I’m pretty sure that the morning that I made these, I’d been up most of the night, and I decided on a whim that it was time to bake. Charlie eventually woke up and found me frosting these beauties. Perhaps the next time I bake in the early morning, I should make something like muffins or cinnamon rolls!

I adapted this recipe from Bakingdom, who had the brilliant idea to ice oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with coffee frosting, but I made a few changes, like using half whole wheat flour, adding a bit of molasses, bumping up the cinnamon, and adding some other spices. Also, for the frosting, I don’t keep instant coffee in the house, so instead I invested in a coffee flavored extract recently, so I swapped that out.

Note: I divided the batch and made some without frosting and just with raisins, which is a great way to get the sophisticated, frosted coffee cookies and something simpler that kids will enjoy out of one batch.

Just two days left to win a gift certificate to my new Etsy shop!

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins

Frosting:
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coffee flavored extract (or 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee or finely ground espresso powder)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt; set aside

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the molasses, brown sugar, and white sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg until just combined, then stir in the vanilla. Scrape the bowl. Add the flour mixture in a few batches, mixing well between each one. Scrape the bowl, then stir in the oatmeal until well combined. Divide the batter if desired. Stir the chocolate chips into one bowl and the raisins into another.

Place level one tablespoon mounds of dough on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting… If using instant coffee, heat the milk until hot (microwave is easiest, but it can be done on the stovetop as well), add the coffee and steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Filter the coffee if there are any grounds left. Chill until at least room temperature (about 15 minutes). If using the coffee flavored extract, do not heat the milk – simply combine the coffee extract and the milk.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add half of the sugar and beat until well combined (the mixture may be a little dry). Stir in the vanilla and half of the coffee milk until combined. Add the remaining sugar, beating the mixture until light and fluffy. Stir in the remaining coffee milk, and beat until thoroughly combined. Add more extract or sugar as necessary.

Aunt Sassy Cake (Pistachio Cake with Honey Vanilla Frosting)

This week was my birthday, and so of course we had some lovely cake. I’ve been wanting to make Aunt Sassy Cake from the Baked Explorations book for ages, but since it’s a pistachio cake, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would be great to show up to a potluck with, ya know, nut allergies and all.

It’s been SUPER hot here this week, so my baking plans got modified several times. I ended up making an ice cream cake instead of one of the baked cakes I had planned, but that was also delicious and wonderful and well-received.

As for Aunt Sassy Cake? Fabulous. The texture of the cake was wonderful and fluffy. The pistachio was lovely. I added a bit of cardamom to the cake batter, and the frosting I made up as I went along since we ended up being in a time crunch, but I finished it with a bit of orange zest and it was just beautiful.

We had a great day filled with delicious food. Whole Wheat Macaroni Salad with veggies from the garden, a new batch of Refrigerator Half-Sour Pickles, homemade salsa with tomatillos from the garden, and of course, Charlie sweating over the grill for us. Wonderful birthday times, as usual.

While you’re here, don’t forget to enter to win a gift certificate to my new etsy shop!

Ingredients – Cake:

1 cup shelled pistachios
2 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Ingredients – Frosting:*

*Note: The recipe in the Baked Explorations book calls for a cooked frosting, which we did not have the time/inclination to do yesterday, so we made a standard buttercream, which I am including the recipe for here. If you’d like to make the Baked version, check out their book.

1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup shortening
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
3 cups confectioners sugar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons milk (or to desired consistency)
zest of one orange

handful of pistachios, reserved for decorating

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust the parchment with flour and knock out the excess flour.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the pistachios until they are coarsely chopped. Transfer about 2 tablespoons’ worth of the coarse pistachios to a large bowl. Continue to process the rest of the pistachios until they are almost powdery—but not a superfine dust. Stir the pistachio powder into the reserved coarse pistachios. Sift the flours, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together over the large bowl containing the pistachio mix. Stir to combine.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add the whole egg, and beat until just combined. Turn the mixer to low.

In a measuring cup, make 1 ½ cups ice water. Add the flour mixture to the mixer in three parts, alternating with the ice water, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. For each addition, turn the mixer to low to add ingredients, then up to medium speed for a few seconds until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form (You can do this by hand. Don’t be intimidated, it should only take 2 to 3 minutes). Do not overbeat. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the rack and let cool completely. Remove the parchment paper.

Next, make the icing. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter in a stand mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use.

Place one cake layer on a serving platter. Trim the top to create a flat surface, and evenly spread about 1 ¼ cups frosting on top. Add the next layer, trim and frost it, then add the third layer. Spread a very thin layer of frosting over the sides and top of the cake and put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up. (This is known as crumb coating and will help to keep loose cake crumbs under control when you frost the outside of the cake.) Spread the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish the cake with crushed pistachios and refrigerate it for 15 minutes to it firm up before serving.

Candles are in after the cake was cut so someone could have a to-go slice before heading to work!

Carrot Cake with Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting

Charlie’s birthday was last Sunday, but Sunday, we were at the tail end of a 30+ hour train ride from New Orleans back to New York. Our trip was delayed a bit because of the tornado in Alabama. We actually rode right through Tuscaloosa, AL, and the damage was just incredible. It was super sad and almost unbelievable to just see huge trees absolutely snapped in half. If you’d like to help the folks out in Alabama, one way you can do it is by texting FOOD to 27722 to donate $10 to the West Alabama Food Bank.

Now that we’re back in New York, and I’ve spend the week resting and doing laundry and other mundane stuff, it’s time to catch up on Charlie’s birthday. We had about four pounds of carrots from our last winter CSA delivery, so a carrot cake was certainly in order.

As usual, when making this recipe, I looked at a whole bunch of different carrot cake recipes and then mishmoshed them together, though I’d say the one that was the closest to what I was looking for was over at The Joy of Baking. I still made a bunch of changes, including reducing the amount of raisins and nuts and pineapple and making a spicier cake, since those are things that (if I recall correctly!) I’ve heard Charlie say he prefers in a carrot cake.

Charlie’s mom was around when I was baking this cake, and I let her taste the batter. She made a noise of exclamation. “What did you put in this?” she demanded. “It’s going to smell so good,” she said. She went to the kitchen window and started to open the window, then looked back at me. “That way the neighbors can smell it and be jealous,” she smiled.

Usually when I bake, it’s all about the flavor and nothing about the presentation. Friday night, though, I took a nap while the cake was cooling, then got a second wind and baked a whole second cake! I decided to really spend some time decorating the carrot cake while the chocolate chip cake was in the oven. The decorating didn’t come out perfectly, since it got to be two in the morning, I was getting sleepy, and the sequence that I did certain things in was not necessarily the most efficient, but it came out pretty darn nice.

I almost never write on cakes [the last time I did was probably last year's super silly birthday cake for myself, when I couldn't even find the tip for writing] so I was really, really happy with how the script came out. I took a half dozen semesters of typography in college, so I would have been gutted if my cake lettering was awful.

I think I’m getting the hang of this baking thing. *wink*

Photo of the cake topped with drunk raisins, drunk pineapple, and drunk ginger.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups oil
4 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound carrots, shredded (about 3 1/2 cups shredded, or about a dozen small carrots)
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
2 tablespoons finely chopped pineapple (optional)
a few tablespoons of flavorful bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon cardamom

Ingredients: Cream Cheese Frosting
(sorry, I just kind of flung things into the mixer on this one!)

2 bricks of cream cheese
3/4 stick of butter
2 cups (or more, according to taste) confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
toasted coconut (for garnish)

Directions

Carrot Cake: Several hours before beginning, make the “drunk raisins.” I learned this tip from a new friend when we were out in New Orleans – thanks, Darnell! Place the raisins and ginger (and pineapple, if desired) in a small bowl. Add a small amount of bourbon – enough so that the fruit is covered. Let it soak for at least an hour, preferably more. Reserve a few tablespoons of this mixture for the decorating step.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Spray two 9″ cake pans.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.

In bowl of a stand mixer mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 – 4 minutes). Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots, drunk raisins (don’t forget to reserve some!), and chopped nuts. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 5 -10 minutes invert the cakes onto the wire rack and then cool completely before frosting.

To assemble: place one cake layer onto your serving plate. Spread with about half the frosting. Sprinkle nuts, ginger and raisins if desired. Gently place the other cake onto the frosting and spread the rest of the frosting over the top of the cake. If desired, garnish with toasted coconut around the sides of the cake. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Note about decorating: If you’re like me, and you prefer a much less sweet frosting, your frosting won’t be as stiff. What I did was frost the cake with the thinner icing, then, for the remaining 1/3 or so of the frosting, I added an extra cup or two of confectioners’ sugar. That way, the frosting was stiff enough to pipe the letters and the edge, but the entire cake wasn’t sickeningly sweet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies for a Cause

This past weekend was our annual yard sale fundraiser for AIDS Walk NY. I’m extremely happy to report that it was a huge success (despite some finicky weather)! As has become tradition, we held a mini bake sale at the event. Chocolate chip cookies have always been the favorite, so my buddy Bo and I whipped up a big batch after we had to head in from the rain on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning, we got up early to package them and do a few other last minute preparations while we were setting up. We couldn’t get any little cello bags at the grocery store, and no place else was open at 7 a.m., so I settled for putting three of them in a row in a sandwich bag and folding the top over. I taped a red ribbon to the top of the bag (we give them out to everyone who donates to our sale), and they were just adorable. I wish I’d gotten a picture of the finished packaged product!

These cookies were great texturally, and the coarse salt gave a lovely contrast to the sweetness of the dough and the chocolate chips. These turned a gorgeous brown color on the outside, but stayed soft in the middle. Definitely a keeper!

Adapted from NY Times

If you’re into Chocolate Chip Cookies, don’t forget to enter my giveaway of some goodies from Tate’s Bake Shop, plus their wonderful cookbook!

Ingredients

3.5 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds semi-sweet chocolate chips
a few drops of orange extract

Directions

In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Stir in the vanilla and the orange extract.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, coarse salt, and vital wheat gluten. Run a whisk through it to combine the dry ingredients.

A little at a time, add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stirring it together until combined and no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill dough for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Drop tablespoons of dough onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for about 16 minutes at 350*F. Remove immediately from baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool.

Darling Clementines

Darling Clementines are a holiday cookie that I’ve been making for a few years now. They’re also one of the recipes I made for the cookie contest that we participated in over on Scrawl Zoom Stir. They combine seasonal clementines, sliced almonds, and dark chocolate for a beautiful treat. For a gorgeous, green holiday gift, package these in an upcycled clementines crate.

When I brought these to dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house a week or two before Christmas, my aunt actually cried out, “Oh my god,” when she tasted them. Definitely a lovely mix of flavors.

This is a vegan version of this cookie, but I’ve made it with butter and eggs before and it comes out perfectly either way.

While you’re here, don’t forget to check out the giveaway that I’m doing of a neat baking related art print!

Ingredients

1/2 cup of Earth Balance (or butter)
1/4 cup of vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 1/2 tsp of commercial egg replacer (or one large egg)
2 tbsp of water
1 whole (seedless) clementine, pulverized in food processor
1 zest of whole clementine
1/2 tsp of vanilla
3 cup of sifted all-purpose flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground cardamom seed
4 ounce of bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Directions

Cream Earth Balance, shortening, and sugar together in a stand mixer. In a separate small bowl, mix the egg replacer with the water until frothy. Add the egg replacer and vanilla to the mixing bowl and stir. Add the pulverized clementine and clementine zest, mixing well.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt. Mix well. Add to the clementine mixture and mix well.

Chill dough until firm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Form 1″ balls of dough. Press sliced almonds onto the tops of each ball. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12-14 minutes.

Cool on racks. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Set the cookies on wax paper, then drizzle the chocolate over the top. Let the chocolate completely set before serving.

Cranberry Sauce Almondies

After NaNoWriMo was over, my friend Anna and I decided we wanted to keep challenging ourselves to do more creative, wild, ridiculous challenges. Between the two of us, we wrote over 100,000 words in a month! We started making lists of what we thought would be good challenges, and some of them were food related, some of them were art related, and some of them were completely random. But the first one we decided to do was to participate in at least three out of four weeks of a bake-off (weeks of pies, dessert bars, cookies, and cakes) that was happening in December, so the next few recipes you’ll be seeing here will be from that. If you want to see more about our process, or join us for the next challenge (that we’re still deciding on!), go to our new blog, Scrawl Zoom Stir.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg replacers
1/3 cup almond paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup toasted almond flour* (Available here or toast almonds at 400*F for 10 minutes then grind up!)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 egg replacer

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

In a stand mixer, mix Earth Balance and brown sugar on low speed until creamy.

In a separate small bowl, mix the water and the 1 tbsp. commercial egg replacer until frothy.

Add the egg replacer/water mixture to the stand mixer bowl and stir. Add the vanilla extract and almond paste and mix until fully incorporated.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, the all-purpose flour, the salt, the baking powder, and the baking soda. Stir.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Spread the mixture into an 8×8 cake pan. Bake at 350*F for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the cranberry sauce (I like to use my homemade Clementine Cranberry Sauce, a little easy on the clementine for this one) with the remaining 1 1/2 tsp. of commercial egg replacer. Mix thoroughly.

When the initial 25 minute cook time is complete, remove the pan from the oven and carefully spread the cranberry sauce mixture in a thin layer evenly over the top. Return the blondies to the oven for about 15 more minutes, or until the surface of the cranberry sauce is tacky and the edges of the blondies are brown and crispy.

Cool completely before cutting. Garnish with almonds and pear slices.

Sugar Cookie Ice Cream

(There are no cookies in the ice cream… it tastes like a cookie!)

I bought some cream quite a while ago with the intentions of making ice cream.

I never quite got around to it, and today was the last day that the heavy cream was good. (Insert lecture here about using only the freshest ingredients, followed by a caveat about not wasting things whenever possible.)

So tonight, despite a long and tiring day of playing our new Rock Band 3 system, Charlie and I decided to make ice cream. Grocery day is tomorrow, so there’s not a ton in the house to work with in terms of ingredients. We squabbled back and forth about making something fancy (like lavender or somehow incorporating rosemary) or making something simple, like chocolate or vanilla or coffee, which we haven’t… actually tried yet with our ice cream maker, since we jumped straight to advanced flavors like Chai Ice Cream with Shortbread Cookies. We settled on making a really awesome vanilla, but since I can’t ever be simple, I played with the flavors a bit.

And what came out of it was so magical and amazing, Charlie and I both nearly had our tongues’ stuck to the freezer bowl like Flick’s to the telephone pole in A Christmas Story.

The wonderful vanilla, the rich creaminess, the hint of cinnamon, and the undertone of almond all came together… and reminded us of cookies. And thus the ice cream was named.

My only hope is that there’s some left to serve with pie later this week.

This would be incredible with pie.

Ingredients

1/2 pint heavy cream
1 pint light cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup natural sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon rum

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, mix the salt, sugar, cinnamon, and milk together. (They won’t fully blend together — it’s fine.)

Dump the mixture and the remaining ingredients (heavy cream, light cream, almond extract, vanilla bean paste, and rum) into your 2-quart ice cream maker. [The rum is less for flavor than for function - it will keep the ice cream from getting totally frozen and will give it a softer consistency in the freezer.]

Make according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Dressmaker’s Double Stout Cookies

I don’t even like chocolate cookies, and I like these.

The “double” in the name is for double chocolate – chocolate cookie, chocolate chips. I also made them twice in the last week, which is really unusual for me. Generally, I like to experiment with new and unusual varieties of recipes, so for a nearly identical version of a recipe to turn up in the house more than once in a short period of time is almost unheard of. (The only exception to this is my go-to brownie recipe since I can throw it together super quickly and everyone loves it.)

Charlie only got to taste a few of these cookies during the first round, since batch number one was a gift for an old employer of mine (a dressmaker, which is where the name comes from), and most of the leftovers went home with my brother, Jon, who was around when I was making them. Charlie and I had a few friends over for a non-poker card night (games like Spoons, Bullshit, Egyptian Ratscrew, Asshole, and Fluxx are on our agenda), and I decided to whip them up again (though I substituted a Shipyard Pumpkin Ale instead of the Lion’s Stout). Charlie said he was so glad I made them again right away because sometimes I make something he really loves and then he has to wait for ages for it to come back into circulation again! They were a huge hit with our friends that came over, and I spread the goodness around a bit further by sharing some with my sister and my art teacher.

I’m generally a fan of the “puffy” cookie when I’m baking, but when it comes to chocolate chocolate chip, I definitely think chewy is the way to go. I’d acquired some bulk vital wheat gluten when we were at our friend’s hippie co-op in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, so I added extra into the recipe to make them really chewy, and the texture was awesome.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway of that darling teapot! Details are here.

Jon helped me with the dishes and “helped” with this photo…

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten*
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz can of Lion’s Stout (or other dark stout)
1/2 a bag of dark chocolate chips, give or take

*If you don’t have vital wheat gluten, it’s not the end of the world. It just makes the cookies chewier (and even add a little protein!). Another option for making chewier cookies is to substitute bread flour for all-purpose flour. The cookies will still be delicious, chocolatey stout cookies without either of those changes.

Directions

First things first. Start your stout simmering in a small saucepan on the stove on low heat… that’s going to take a while. You want to reduce it until it’s a syrup-y consistancy. Make sure that you check on it occasionally and stir it. At the beginning, it may be inclined to form a “head” like when you pour beer into a glass, except way more extreme, so keep an eye on it or it will be all over your stove.

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar and the white sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing as you go. Add the vanilla extract after that and give it a good stir. Check on the stout.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, vital wheat gluten, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir them with a wisk (since I never bother to sift my flour) to get the big lumps out.

Check on the stout. If it’s not looking very much reduced, turn up the heat a little, but watch it even more closely. (While I was writing this, my laptop was directly next to the stove with my trusty wooden spoon in between to stir it up if needed.) You’ll notice that the stout starts to coat the bottom of the pan when it’s almost ready. The final amount of stout will be a little less than 1/4 cup. It will obviously be quite hot, so I pour it into a glass measuring cup and put that in an ice bath before putting it into the cookie dough mixture.

When the syrup is finally the proper consistency, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the dry ingredients and the syrup into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop tablespoons of the cookie dough. Bake for 10-14 minutes depending on your oven and your preference for softer or crispier cookies.

Autumn Bars (with Maple, Pumpkin, & Apple)

Edit: Hi, and welcome to all you folks who found me from the Earth Balance Facebook page or tweet! I try to explain in most of my recipes where substitutions can be made, and I’ve got a bunch of recipes that are simply vegan on their own… click the vegan tag on the right to see more. :) Thanks for stopping by!

I’m trying to go backwards and work forwards with the posts that I “owe,” but this one had to be shared, and as quickly as damn possible.

Last weekend, we were headed up to a potluck in Massachusetts. It was the second annual Friendsgiving – a way to kick off the holiday season with our chosen families. Part of me wanted to make something incredible and savory, and part of me knew that others would be disappointed if I didn’t bring something sweet.

I’ve been wanting for a while to adapt my Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting to be vegan. Yes, there is vegan “cream cheese” and yes, there is vegan “cream cheese frosting,” though I figured I’d take it one step at a time. I’ve made plenty of wonderful vegan pumpkin sweet breads before, since pumpkin is a wonderful component of vegan baking. I wanted to really get more of a cake going, though, something lighter. I knew there would be at least one vegan person at the potluck, if not several more, so this was my chance to develop the vegan pumpkin cake recipe.

But not as cupcakes. No, something far more brilliant. You see, recently, there was a really amazing looking Peaches & Cream Bars recipe from Sydney at The Crepes of Wrath. Sydney was wrapping up summer with a beautiful layered bar of cake, thinly sliced peaches, a bit more cake to hold it all together, but little enough so that the peaches showed through, and it was all topped off with a glaze.

I wanted to make this recipe. I still want to make this recipe. But, in our house, the seasonal food trend has long turned from peaches or nectarines on to apples, so I figured I’d try to make this lovely thing with apples or pears. Then, I had my own stroke of genius, and I decided to keep Sydney’s structure and switch it to a completely fall adaptation: pumpkin cake, sliced apples… and a maple sugar glaze. My friend Katrina helped me with the baking and assembly, and at the last minute, I decided to swirl some Overflow Apple Butter into the cake batter before putting the apple slices down. It was an awesome autumny spice addition.

To answer a few questions I had when I was first gazing at this recipe, mine came out kind of like a cakey brownie consistency… It could have been eaten with a fork, but most certainly was picked up and eaten with fingers, as well! Yum. My brother met us at the potluck, and he loves my pumpkin anything, so he dug in as soon as I opened the container.

Sydney, you wait for it… I may try this again with your cake (no pumpkin), cardamom, cinnamon, and pears.

Ingredients

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons natural sugar
3 tablespoons flax + 6 tbsp warm water
1 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
3 small apples, sliced thin
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup apple butter (optional)

Maple Glaze

1 tablespoon earth balance, melted
1/3 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
1/4 cup maple sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Float your sliced apples in some water & lemon juice while you wait. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with parchment paper (Sydney uses a jelly roll pan/cookie sheet, so hers are a bit thinner).

In your stand mixer (or a large bowl with your bad ass muscles), cream together the Earth Balance, brown sugar, and natural sugar until fluffy. In a separate small bowl, combine the milled flax seed and warm water. Stir together until it thickens, then mix into the sugar. Add the vanilla paste and the pumpkin. Stir well.

In a separate bowl, stir the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together. Add this to the pumpkin mixture, alternating with the soy milk, until both are fully mixed in.

Spread 3/4 of the batters into the prepared pan. Swirl the apple butter into batter.

Drain the apples. If desired, coat with an additional bit of maple sugar. Line up the apples in rows along the top of the batter.

Drop the remaining batter in globs over the apples and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the bars are firm.

Let the bars cool. Stir together the ingredients for the glaze (Earth Balance, confectioners sugar, maple sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon). Drizzle over the bars and let harden before cutting.

Lemon Blueberry Chiffon Cake with Lavender Glaze

Oh, my, I’m so behind on posting recipes. The good news is, I have been doing some good cooking, though, and my arthritis and fibromyalgia have been not tooo terrible, so I’ve been having a pretty active life, as well (leaving me less time to hang out in front of the computer!).

This post really deserves to get online, though, as it’s from all the way back in July, and I know that a lot of people really enjoyed it. This was the second cake that I made for my own birthday! I usually have a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (this year, it was a lightly flavored Cardamom Lime Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting) for my birthday, but I also love, love, love the combination of lemon and lavender together. In fact, my favorite cupcake in probably the entire world is a seasonal cupcake from Sweet Avenue Bake Shop that has lemon filling and lavender icing. Don’t tell, but I’ve got one hoarded away in my freezer now that the season for them has past.

Anyway, lemon and lavender go together in an absolutely gorgeous way. Many people at my party were kind of like, “Huh? Lavender? You can eat that?” and yes, friends, you most certainly can. Bo wanted to put the lavender glaze in his coffee, and Kira wanted to have it made into an ice cream (this is something I am definitely considering). So, the glaze was no problem for me to come up with, but a chiffon cake… that I’d never really worked on before.

I based my recipe for the chiffon cake mostly off of a Betty Crocker recipe, only I (who can guess?) reduced the sugar and bumped up the lemon flavor. Chiffon cake is very light and airy, though, so I didn’t want to reduce the sugar too much for fear of losing the texture, and luckily, it came out just fine. Oh… and feel free to throw some cream of tartar in those egg whites like Betty does – I didn’t have any in the house.

I used little umbrellas to decorate this cake… it seems to have been a day for ridiculous decorations. I bought these at the party store where I also bought an amazingly awesome shark piñata. Mmmhmmm.

Ingredients Cake

2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon zest
juice of 1 lemon
7 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1/3 cup blueberries

Lavender Glaze
1/4 cup dried lavender
3/4 cup milk
drop or two of red food coloring (if desired)
confectioners sugar to desired consistency

Directions

Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 325°F. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat in cold water, oil, vanilla, lemon zest and egg yolks until smooth.

In large bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. (I cannot believe how awesome this works out with my stand mixer!) Gradually pour egg yolk mixture over beaten egg whites, folding with rubber spatula just until blended. Pour into ungreased 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pan (I used a silicone bundt pan). Roll blueberries in flour and drop them into the batter.

Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Immediately turn pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let hang until completely cool, about 2 hours. Loosen side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

In a small saucepan, simmer milk and lavender until the lavender is infused in the milk. The milk should turn a purple or pink color and be very fragrant. Strain the lavender from the milk. In a small mixing bowl, add confectioners sugar a bit at a time until the glaze thickens to desired consistency. I left the glaze thin so that the lavender really came out and so that it could soak into the cake.