Spring Sprang, and This Is What I Made

Monday was the first day of spring here in New York (in my very scientific definition, it's the first day that you could comfortably go outside without a coat). Don't worry, it's now back to 43 degrees and rainy, but for two and a half whole days, it was glorious. And how convenient - Monday was also the Oxford University Press bake sale to raise money for the wonderful organization New York Cares! I signed up to bring cake, and decided to make mini-bundts because a) they're adorable and b) they're easy to transport. Because they were going to be sold for money, I was very careful to grease and flour the mini-bundt pans so that the cakes would come out whole, which they so rarely do. But guess what? Every one of them did! I was inordinately proud.

Enough of the bragging, Rosenthal, tell us about the recipe! I miniaturized the excellent lemon lavender bundt recipe from Williams-Sonoma. And now I need to share the following exchange that my friend Joe Rim, who is a public school teacher in Philadelphia, had with one of his students:

Joe: I need to get a really good pot.
Student: WHAT?
Joe: Yeah maybe I'll go to Williams-Sonoma after school.
Student:...yo Rim, get me some, too.
Joe: No my dealer's name is not William Sonoma.

Anyway, this recipe tastes like spring. If I celebrated Easter, I would totally make it for Easter. The lavender flavor is so subtle and interesting, and the flowers are small enough that they don't interfere with the texture. Plus, I don't know if this was the glaze or the residual flour from the well-greased bundt pan, but the exterior had a nice l'il crunch to it. Plus, it smells great. So assuming spring ever comes back (fingers crossed!), I hope to be making it again soon. You can find the recipe here.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cake with Backyard Oranges

Living in Southern California, you get very in-tune with what fruit is in season.  You can walk into any one of the hundreds of farmer's markets and see the yummy fruits and veggies all lined up waiting for you.  However, good luck if you want something not in season, since you will be stuck with the grocery store.  After 2 years of fresh farmer's market quality, buying produce at the grocery store can feel like a real let down.

That's all a lead up to say that this is a delicious orange cake, which might have to wait for winter to be made again.  My son has a friend (probably lots of friends) with an orange tree in his backyard.  They came over a few times to play and brought a huge bag of oranges every time they came over.  I had to find something to do with them!

Luckily our ECC director had a birthday and asked for a chocolate orange cake. After the very scientific process of googling chocolate orange cake recipe, I came across this one from Smitten Kitchen.  I am not usually a fan of the chocolate/orange combination, but this cake was truly amazing.  It was super moist, even after a few days, and you could clearly taste both the chocolate and the orange without one overpowering the other.  I think using fresh oranges really helped, because they had amazing orange flavor.  A number of people said this was one of the best cakes they had ever had, so it is certainly a keeper.  If you find yourself wondering what to do with an abundance of oranges, you should try this.  Or, make this an excuse to go out and buy some delicious citrus next time winter rolls around.

Orange You Glad? A Hole in One

I love a good bundt cake, especially if it's glazed. MMMMM... So when I had people over for Shabbat lunch a while ago and decided to do some real cooking, I had bundts on my mind. As I have mentioned before, I had much less equipment than my sisters, so my baking is not always a high-tech, although I like to think it's just as delicious. So imagine my delight that, when I googled citrus bundt cake one day, the one I found with the best reviews was one made of a doctored cake mix. Hurrah! I really liked this recipe, although I ended up adjusting it slightly by using both lemon and orange extract in the batter. I especially liked the glaze, which was thick enough from the butter and the heat that it was not fully absorbed into the cake, but instead remained on the outside. It also freezes well. You can find the recipe here.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

…That’s what pain d’epices are made of. I can’t pronounce it but it translates to “spice bread” or gingerbread, even though ginger is one of the few spices not in it! This was another one of those instances where I saw a gorgeous, mouth-watering photo on Tartelette and vowed that I would make it happen. At least this time it only took two months instead of two years. I was a little worried about the dent that all of those spices were going to make in my bank account, and then one of my officemates told me about how the Indian supermarket down the street from our office sells super-inexpensive spices. And behold, they did! I got all the spices I needed for a little over twenty dollars (and almost half of that was the cardamom, which is guess is pretty pricey anywhere you go). I ground ‘em up in my food processor, although I have to say that at 50 grams each, it was WAAAAAY more than I needed. As in, there are two sandwich bags each three-quarters full of ground spices sitting in my freezer. There’s no way I’ll be able to use them all, even if I make pain d’epices every day for the rest of the year. But hey, it’s giving me good incentive to make them again! That, and the fact that they were soooo good. I was worried that they wouldn’t be sweet enough, and the spices are definitely prominent (especially the peppercorn), but I have to say that the balance was totally delightful. They were dense yet springy, and yeasty, almost like baked donuts. Plus, they smelled awesome and looked adorable. These are a really fun winter treat for anyone in possession of a mini-bundt pan.

Pain D'Epices:adapted from Saveurs France, December 2011.

Makes 12 mini cakes

Ingredients:
For the spice mix:
equal parts in ounces or grams (I usually go by 30 grams of each & refrigerate)
cinnamon
cardamom
clove
star anise
black peppercorns
dried lemon peel
dried orange peel

Place the cinnamon, cardamom seeds and the rest of the ingredients in a coffee grinder and process until finely ground.

For the cakes:
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup milk (Bloggers note: for whatever reason, I had cream but no milk in the fridge, so I used cream. Don't think it affected the cakes negatively)
1 cup Jeanne's gluten free all purpose flour mix or regular flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon spice mix for Pain d'epices
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, kept cold
1 large egg

Sugar coating:
equal parts sugar and equals spice mix stirred together well.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle. Butter 12 mini bundt cake pans or other of your choice.
In a small saucepan set over medium heat, stir together the honey, dark brown sugar and milk until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and reserve.
In a food processor or with a pastry blender, combine the flour, baking powder, spice mix, and unsalted butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Whisk the egg into the cooled milk mixture and add it to the flour mix. Pulse a couple of times until the mixture is smooth. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared molds and coo 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out free of crumbs. Let the cakes cool completely before rolling them in the sugar coating.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bundt Cake

This cake is so awesome because it tastes just like a chocolate chip cookie but in an elegant cake form.  And it is parve (no dairy) so you can serve it after a meat meal.  Of course, the orignal recipe calls for butter and milk, but I substituted margarine and soy milk and it was still delicious.

The base of this cake is actually Dorie Greenspan's Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, which has nuts and fruit mixed in.  However, the brown sugar base is a lot like a chocolate chip cookie batter in cake form, so it made sense just to replace the nuts and fruit with chocolate chips (although you could probably keep the nuts if you like that kind of thing).

Here is the recipe, with my changes:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bundt Cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
225 g / 8 oz unsalted margarine, at room temperature
2 cups lightly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup soy milk, at room temperature
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9- to 10-inch Bundt pan.

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

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately - add the flour in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix only until the ingredients are incorporated and scrape down the bowl as needed. Turn off the mixer, and with a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake in the center of the oven for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. If at any point the cake is browning too fast, cover the top loosely with a piece of foil. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding, then cool to room temperature on the rack. Finish the top of the cake with a dusting of powdered sugar. 

National Bundt Day: Chocolate Chip Marble Cake

Today is National Bundt Day!  Do you know how I know that?  Mary, of the blog The Food Librarian, is obsessed with bundts (in the best way, of course) and, for the third time, has decided to make 30 bundts in 30 days, leading up to today -- National Bundt Day.  Mary's blog is a really great read.  She is smart and funny and she always has lots of fantastic recipes (especially if you are a fan of jello, check this out).  I am always glad to see her pop up in my blog reader.


Mary has encouraged her blog readers to make a bundt to celebrate this momentous day and since all I have to do is make one cake, it seemed the least I could do.  This was the first cake that Mary made in her countdown this year, and it caught my eye right away.  I mean, what could be bad about chocolate and vanilla batter with chocolate chips, swirled together in a big, delicious bundt? 


This recipe is actually based on the marble cake from Buttercake Bakery here in LA.  I've never had their bundt cake (only their cupcakes) but now I am eager to try it.  You can find the recipe here, on Mary's blog.  The recipe calls for dusting with powdered sugar, but I added some ganache as a glaze, since I had some left over from making something else.  I figure, what isn't better with a big spoonful of chocolate over it?  Happy National Bundt Cake!

Baked Sunday Mornings: Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake

I know what your're thinking.  Olive Oil in a cake...for dessert...ewww!  Don't worry, I was thinking that too.  I had no idea what this cake would be like, and I was a little worried that it would be gross.  However, I read some good reviews of this cake on other blogs, so I decided to take a chance.

I'm really glad I made this cake for Baked Sunday Mornings.  The olive oil gave it a complex flavor, but you did not really know there was olive oil in it unless I told you about it.  We have a parve orange cake that we usually make, but I think this one might replace it.  It is not too sweet and the orange flavor really comes through.  I imagine you could make it with other citrus fruit as well.

The recipe gave you an option to glaze or not to glaze.  I made the glaze because I had delicious oranges from the farmer's market and because I enjoy glaze.  I just combined fresh squeezed orange juice and confectioners sugar until it looked right.  It was a really pretty pale orange color from the intense juice.  

You can see that I had a little trouble getting it out of the pan, but other than that it was super simple to throw together.  I substituted tofutti sour cream for the yogurt to make the cake parve, but otherwise made it as written.

You can view the recipe and the creations of the other bakers at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Cinnamon Sugar Goodness: The Snickerdoodle Bundt

A while back, you might remember that Mary, the Food Librarian, made 30 bundts in 30 days to celebrate National Bundt Day.  Actually, she has done this twice, so on her blog there are no fewer than 60 bundts (and probably a lot more since she is the queen of bundts).  That means that anytime I want a bundt cake, I just turn to her since she has so many choices.  

I needed something for Shabbat dinner for a good sized group of people, so a bundt cake is always a good choice.  It is fairly easy to make, it feeds a lot of people and it actually tastes better the second day.  I made this Snickerdoodle bundt on New Year's Eve and served it with sparkling apple cider sorbet.  The apple and the cinnamon sugar were a really nice combination.

This cake was so good, I could have just kept eating it and eating it.  The outside had a nice cinnamon sugar crunch, just like a Snickerdoodle cookie and the swirl was so yummy!  It brought a nice sweetness and great flavor to the cake, which was rich and light at the same time.  I made this cake parve (substituted margarine for butter and tofutti sour cream for the regular stuff) and it was still delicious.  I can't even imagine how good it would be made with all dairy ingredients.

There are two slightly tricky parts to this cake.  First, you really want to coat the whole pan well with cooking spray and then with the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Make sure that you get it into all the nooks and crannies so that you get that crust on the outside of the cake.  The second tricky part comes at the end.  When you bake the cake, you cover the top with a cinnamon sugar mixture.  Then, you have to turn the cake over, so the top with the mixture becomes the bottom.  You must, must, must do this over the sink so that you don't end up with cinnamon and sugar all over the kitchen.  Seriously, listen to me on this one.  If you can master both these parts (and neither is hard, so don't worry), you will be rewarded with a bundt of deliciousness.  Next time, I might put chocolate chips in the swirl.  Mmmmmm....

Although I found the recipe on Food Librarian, it actually comes from Dozen Flours.  You can find it here.

Happy National Bundt Day x2!

Double post day!  It is Martha Stewart Cupcake posting day for November and National Bundt Day!  The cupcake post will be up soon.

Mary, the woman behind The Food Librarian, one of the blogs I read regularly, is celebrating National Bundt Day by making 30 Bundts in 30 Days. Today is National Bundt Day and I want to help her celebrate! Mary has an exceptional dedication to the bundt. This is actually the second time she has made 30 bundts in 30 days and hers are always so beautiful. Her photography is wonderful too. We have never met, but she seems like such a sweet, kind person from the way she writes. You should check out her blog.

Instead of 30 bundts, I made 2. One is actually one that I got from Mary's blog -- The Blueberry Lemon Bundt. This cake was amazing. Other than adding a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice, I left it as written and it got rave reviews. I made it for my first education committee meeting this year and I think it helped the meeting run really smoothly. I always know I can turn to Mary, the queen of bundts, when I need something fantastic. The recipe can be found here.

The other bundt I made is from the always fabulous Dorie Greenspan. So glad that two fabulous women could provide me with recipes for two fantastic bundts. This cake doesn't look like much, but it is delicious! It is the Brown Sugar Bundt Cake from Baking from My Home to Yours. Inside the cake there are pears and raisins (which I skipped). I used farmer's market pears and their flavor really complimented the brown sugar and gave something special to the cake. Dorie says this cake is best the day after it is made, so I made it on Thursday night for Shabbat dinner on Friday. I also made it parve, and it was still delicious which, in my mind, is the sign of a great cake. You can find the recipe here.

Happy National Bundt Day and Congratulations to Mary!