Honey Cake

This month's What's Baking theme was Quickbreads.  Of course, as soon as I saw this I thought to myself "what the heck is a quickbread???" but then I found out it's just any type of bread (or cake or muffin, etc) that uses something other than yeast to make it rise (ie baking powder, baking soda, etc).  It just so happened that when this assignment went out, I had begun thinking of what to bake for Rosh Hashannah to bring to my grandparents'.  As soon as I saw what a quickbread was, I immediately told my grandma that I'd be bringing a honey cake.  Hey, if you can kill two birds with one stone....

I looked in my cookbooks and online until I found one that sounded just a bit unusual but not too tricky.  And came upon this one from Epicurious.  It has a chocolate glaze for the cake in the original recipe, but since my cousin was already making a chocolate challah (YUM!) I didn't want to overload my family with chocolate.  In the end, it was sweet enough that it didn't need the glaze.

I did run into a few snafus while making this.  Things I found out while making this:  1) even if you find online that you can use vegetable shorting instead of vegetable oil, the consistency is totally screwy so it's better to just run to the store for more oil.  2) you should read the ingredient list thoroughly first so you don't realize you need brewed coffee after you've started mixing everything.  3) while the coffee may not have been as strong, steeping coffee grinds into hot water using a tea ball then pouring the "coffee" through a filter to get rid of the stray grounds seems to do the trick.  4) when you don't have a bundt pan, you can use a tube pan and it'll still come out nice.  5) I have an amazing husband who will run to the store a 11:30 at night as I have a meltdown that I don't have enough oil and just used up all the honey in the botched mixture that I tried to use shortening as the oil substitute (ok, I knew he was amazing before, but this was a nice reminder).

As it turned out, the cake was so big that we barely finished half at my grandparents', so I brought the other have to my in-laws' the next night.  But it received good reviews at both dinners!  I think this recipe is a keeper!

Honey Cake (from Epicurious)


Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup pure honey
3/4 cup lukewarm coffee (brewed, or instant dissolved in water)
1 1/2 teaspoons packed grated orange zest


Directions

Heat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
Generously spray pan, including center tube, with baking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl.

Whisk eggs well in another large bowl and whisk in sugar, oil, honey, coffee, and zest until well combined.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the honey mixture, then stir with the whisk until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into pan (it’s liquid enough to level itself in the pan), and bake in oven until springy to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cake cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.

Loosen cake from the pan with a thin rubber spatula, then invert cake onto the rack and cool completely.

Salted Caramel Blondies

As I've said before, I love participating in recipe swaps.  It forces you to venture outside of your normal recipes and try something new.  When I saw a posting for a dessert swap, I jumped at the chance to participate.  I sent off a favorite family cookie recipe and anxiously awaited my assignment.  I got the e-mail with a link to Peace, Love and French Fries (a sentiment that I agree with) for Salted Caramel Blondies.  It sounded so delicious, but seemed like something that I wouldn't have picked out of a book to make on my own.  The best kind of assignment!

What was even better - I looked at the list of ingredients and the only things I needed to buy were butter (I had just used up the last of my supply) and caramel sauce.  It cost me less than $10 to make this, using almost everything straight from my pantry.  It probably would have cost me less, but I didn't want to drive across town to the bigger grocery store, so I went to my favorite local place which only seemed to carry organic caramel sauce.

The third great thing about the timing of this - we were invited to a Labor Day weekend barbeque.  So this was the perfect treat to bring!

The blondies were super easy to make.  The only things that I'd do differently next time, is that I'd make sure the caramel doesn't go all the way to the edges, and I'd use a shallower spoon to drop the top layer of batter on.  I used a deep tablespoon and then had to spread out the batter to cover the wholes.

These tasted delicious, and went over very well at the barbeque!

Salted Caramel Blondies (as posted on Peace, Love, and French Fries)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt, divided
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup caramel sauce (homemade or store bought)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a glass 9×13 dish with cooking spray.
Pour sugar into a large bowl.  Add melted butter and stir until smooth.  Cool to room temperature. 
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Set aside. 
Beat eggs and vanilla into the sugar/butter mixture.  Add the flour mixture a bit at a time and mix until a smooth, thick batter forms. 
Spread half the batter in the bottom of the baking dish.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until batter starts to firm.  Remove from oven.
Drizzle caramel sauce evenly over the top. Sprinkle other 1/2 tsp of salt over the top.  Carefully drop spoonfuls of remaining batter over the caramel, smoothing it out as best you can.  Top with an additional sprinkle of salt, if desired.  Return to oven, bake an additional 12-14 minutes.
Let cool before slicing and serving.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Oreo Frosting

This month, I had the chance to play host to What's Baking and I had to come up with a theme.  I chose "Bake Your Happy Place".  I chose this over a month ago thinking it would be easy to choose my own happy place.  Boy, was I wrong!  Did I want to make something coconut-y that reminds me of my honeymoon?  Do I want to make something that reminds me of childhood like s'mores or Kentucky Derby Pie (although I grew up in Jersey, there was a restaurant near me that had the BEST derby pie).  Something that reminded me of my summers in Cape Cod growing up?  In my entire 30 years, what makes me the happiest?

(photo credit Matt Rainey)

Here's where I get sappy (I'm a newlywed, I'm allowed!).  My happy place is with my husband.  Whether we're halfway across the world on vacation or in our living room watching TV, he's what makes me the happiest.  When we met we knew within weeks that we were it for each other and were married less than 2 years later.  Never any games, it was always clear that we were meant to be.  But how do I bake this??  Then it hit me - why not re-create our wedding cake?  It was from Palermo's Bakery.  We had two flavors; one was a vanilla cake with raspberry filling, but the other was devil's food cake with oreo cream.  Can we say YUM?!

So I set out to find a way to re-create the cake.  I first went through my cookbooks and found in Craft of Baking the recipe for devil's food cupcakes, but couldn't find anything for the icing.  But then I remembered seeing a post on Tide and Thyme for Oreo cupcakes and decided to use the frosting recipe from there (though the cupcakes themselves also look delish, so I plan to make those at some point, too!).

I had a few speedbumps in my cupcake making, but I turned to The Baking Answer Book by Lauren Chattman which I had picked up on a whim last year.  The first hiccup was when I realized that I forgot to buy cake flour.  I had bread, pastry and all-purpose, but those weren't right.  According to the book, you can use all-purpose flour and cornstarch to substitute for cake flour (1 cup of cake flour = 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour + 2 tbsp cornstarch) .  The other problem I had (which I always seem to run into) was that my packed dark sugar was rock hard.  I found out from the book that you should break some off (approximate how much you'll use), put it into a microwave safe bowl, cover it with a damp paper towel and then plastic wrap and cook for 30 sec - 1 min and fluff with a fork, it's good as new! (just use it immediately).  Worked perfectly!

The only snafu I ran into while making the frosting is that I originally made a half batch and the consistency was a bit stiffer than I expected.  After asking Laura from Tide and Thyme what she recommended doing, she said "beating the crap out of it with the mixer helps" and then added that if that didn't work, you could always add a splach of milk or cream to the mixture.  When I did a second try, I took her first suggestion and let the mixer run on medium-high speed (6 on my mixer) for a bit, it came out much fluffier than the first batch!

I think it came out pretty darn close to our wedding cake.  The cake wasn't as fluffy as the original, but all in all I'd say this was a success.  Maybe once we have the year-old frozen/stale top layer of our actual cake for our 1st anniversary this October, I'll start the yearly tradition of making these each year!

Devil's Food Cupcakes (from Craft of Baking)

(makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients

3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup cake flour

2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp packed dark brown sugar

5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temerature

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk

3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.   Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the cocoa powder and 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp warm water together to form a paste; set it aside.

In another bowl, sift together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the brown sugar and the butter on medium speed until they are well combined, with no pieces of butter visible.  Add the cocoa paste, making sure to use a spatula to get all of the cocoa paste into the mixer bowl.  Once this is well combined, add the egg and egg yolk.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  In three additions each, add the buttermilk and vanilla extract, alternating with the flour mixture.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them three-quarters full.  Bake, rotating the tin halfway through, until the cupcakes spring back to the touch and a tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.  Invert the cupcakes onto a wire rack, turn them top side up, and let them cool completely.

Oreo Buttercream Frosting (from Tide and Thyme)

(this makes enough for 20 cupcakes)

Ingredients 

8 tbsp butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

4 cups powdered sugar (1 lb)

6 tablespoons Oreo cookies, finely crushed

10 Oreo cookies, cut in half, for garnish

Directions

In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) cream the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, until thoroughly mixed. Add the butter flavoring, and Oreo crumbs; mix well. Frost cupcakes as desired. Top cupcakes with half of an Oreo cookie, for garnish

Banana-Fig Bread

For this month's What's Baking challenge we were charged with baking with summer fruits.  July kind of got away from me, and as I've been running around enjoying my summer I didn't realize that I was nearing our deadline.  A few weeks ago I was on a business trip and picked up People magazine (my usual guilty pleasure for travel).  On the last page they had a recipe from Ted Allen for banana-fig bread.  I ripped it out, figuring it was something to add to my pile of recipes I'd get around to making one day, although my husband saw it and started asking me almost daily when I was going to make it.  Then as I started doing research earlier this week into what fruits are in season I noticed that figs were on the list.  Much to my husband's delight, I realized that this recipe fit the bill perfectly!

This ended up being a way to spend today's rainy afternoon.  It takes almost an hour of baking time, so it's great for a day when you have to hang around the house anyway.  And, ironically, we ate it while watching tonight's Chopped.

I'm excited for next month's What's Baking when I get to play host!!

Ted Allen's Banana-Fig Bread (originally published in People magazine, July 23, 2012)

Ingredients

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole-what pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups dried figs, stemmed and diced
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla


Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350

- Bake walnuts 5 to 10 minutes or until golden, stirring after 4 minutes; set aside

- Whisk flours and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; set aside.  Combine bananas and next 5 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir in walnuts.

- Fold banana mixture into flour mixture.  Spoon batter into a buttered and floured 9x5 in loaf pan.  Bake 55 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean, shielding with foil if necessary.  Cool bread in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes.  Remove from pan, cool completely.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Almond Streusel

I love participating in recipe swaps or themed cooking/baking groups.  They make you think outside your norm and try out recipes you wouldn't have though to try.  This was my first time participating in the What's Baking group, which gives a theme and sends you off on your way to create whatever you want from there.  This month's theme was Spring Produce.  One thing that jumped out at me from the list I found online was rhubarb.  It was something that I had always heard about, but never tried.  Going with my trend of trying out new foods, I set out to find something appealing using rhubarb.  I turned to my fancy shmancy Craft of Baking and found a recipe for Pear & Concord Grape crisp with Marcona Almond Streusel, which had ways to vary it for each season.  The spring ingredients were strawberry and rhubarb.  Sounded good to me!

I had seen rhubarb at my local market, so I knew I could get that.  What I didn't realize until I was at ShopRite was that marcona almonds are different than regular almonds (apparently they're sweeter).  I couldn't find them, so I just bought the store-brand chopped almonds from the baking aisle.  Still tasted good to me!

Now, I usually am convinced at some point in my cooking/baking that I've screwed something up and it will all turn out terrible.  Well, I start getting everything ready, I wash and slice the strawberries, wash and dice the rhubarb, toss them in a bowl, grab my 1/3 cup measuring scoop, stick it in the flour and dump the flour on the fruit.  Then I stood there frozen as I realize the 1/3 cup measurement was for sugar, not the flour.  I was only supposed to use 1 tablespoon of flour!  So I quickly rinse off all the flour from the fruit (trying to not make paper mache in the meantime), wash the bowl and then slowly and carefully add  the sugar and the small amount of flour I was supposed to use in the first place.  This may have affected how much juice ran out of the fruit in the end, but thankfully I hadn't made this before, so I couldn't tell the difference.  I also didn't use the exact measurements of the fruit.  I had purchased 2 rhubarb stalks (is that what they're called??) which came out to about 3 1/2 cups diced, and the package of strawberries came to just over 2 cups, so the total amount was the same, but it was a slightly different proportion.

The crisp came out delicious, and turns out, I actually really like rhubarb!  I think this may go under my "quick and easy (as long as I don't mess it up again) desserts".  I'm planning on trying other seasonal variations as well!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Almond Streusel (slightly adapted from The Craft of Baking)

Ingredients

FRUIT
4 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups hulled and halved fresh strawberries
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour 

STREUSEL
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup (4oz) chopped almonds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted


Directions

FOR THE FRUIT:
In a large bowl, mix together the strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and flour.  Let the mixture stand at room temperature until juices begin to draw out from the fruit, about 30 minutes.

FOR THE STREUSEL:
Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Mix just to combine.
Add the butter and mix just until the streusel comes together.
Spread onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the fruit and juices into an 8-inch square baking dish.
Crumble the streusel with your fingers to top the fruit.
Place the baking dish on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and bake, rotating the sheet half-way through, until fruit is tender, the juices are bubbling and thickened, and the topping is browned, about 40 minutes.
Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack and let the crisp cook for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Serve warm or at room temperature.