Sunday, July 10, 2011, Week #46

Yikes!!!! I've got to finish this!!

Blueberry Buckle...kind of a streusel coffee cake stuffed with blueberries!!! This is from Cook Illustrated, so they do all the heavy lifting for you in terms of finding the absolutely perfect recipe, not the heavy stirring but that's what my mixer is for ;) So without further ado!!

Best Blueberry Buckle
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Streusel

1/2 C flour
1/2 C light brown sugar
2 T sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1 pinch salt
2 oz (4 T) butter, cut into 8 pieces, softened but still cool

Cake

1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
5 oz (10 T) butter, softened but still cool
2/3 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t lemon zest
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
2 eggs @ room temperature
1 quart (4 C) fresh blueberries

For streusel, mix together flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Add butter and mix on low on low speed until you have a moist mixture with some small pieces of butter still in tact. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9” cake pan with 2” sides with parchment paper, butter, and a dusting of flour.

For cake, whisk flour and baking powder together and set aside.
Cream butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
Add vanilla and mix about 30 seconds.
Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. The mixture will appear broken. It will come together soon.
Add flour and mix until almost completely incorporated, about 20 seconds.
Remove bowl and finish mixing with a rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, until no flour pockets remain. The batter will be very heavy and thick.
Gently fold in blueberries until evenly distributed.
Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Distribute streusel evenly over batter.
Bake until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45-55 minutes.

Cool 15 to 20 minutes. Turn out the cake. Cool completely. Serve!

Sunday March 28, 2010 Week # 45

Dumb Bunny Cake

This was a recipe from the SECU people helping people cookbook lent to me by my good friend Linda Carmichael.

1 large can sliced peaches

1 package butter pecan cake mix

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 stick butter melted

whipped cream (optional)

vanilla ice cream (optional)

Spread peaches and juice in the bottom of a 13 X 9 inch pan. Cut peaches into small pieces. Sprinkle cake mix on top. Spread coconut and pecans on top of cake mix. Drizzle melted butter over the cake. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Sunday, March 21, 2010 Week #44

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one of my families favorites. I found this on the web as one of of the best.

4 eggs

1 1/4 vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 t vanilla extract

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 t ground cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1 cup raisins

Icing:

1/2 cup ( one stick) butter, softened

1 8 oz package cream cheese softened

3 cups confectioners sugar

1 t vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9X13 inch pan.

2. in a large bowl beat all the cake ingredients until smooth. Pour into prepared cake pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted int eh center comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

4. Combine all ingredients for icing beat til smooth. Ice cake.

Here is the web sitehttp://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/detail.aspx. ( I changed it a little!!!)

This cake lasted 4 days at my house before it was all gone! That means it was good!

Sunday March 14, 2010 Week 43

Pink Lemonade Cake

1 1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup pink lemonade drink mix

4 large eggs

1/2 tsp lemon extract

4 cups cake flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups milk

Lemonade buttercream ( follows)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 3 9 inch round cake pans with baking spray and then lightly flour.

2. in a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and lemonade drink mix at medium speed with an electric beater until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in Lemon extract.

3. In a medium bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternating with milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

4.Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake for 24 - 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Lt cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.

Lemonade Buttercream

1 1/2 cups butter

6 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate thawed

1 tsp lemon zest

6 cups confectioners sugar

1 in a large bowl beat butter, lemonade concentrate and lemon zest at medium speed with an electric mixer until combined. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating until smooth.

Sunday March 7, 2010 week 42

Zebra Cake

easy and the kids loved it. You have to remember to do this the day before you want to serve it!

2 small packages thin chocolate cookies. ( about 36)

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 t vanilla

Whip the cream and add sugar and vanilla. Spread about 1 tsp of whipped cream on the cookie. Repeat with about 5 cookies. Very carefully lay them down on their side. Repeat until you have about ten inches of cookie and cream. Repeat making a row next to the first. When you are done ice the entire "cake and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours to overnight. The cookies turn cakey as the whipped cream sinks in to them. This did not last long at our house!

Sunday February 28, 2010 week 41

With another nod to the French, this week's cake is from Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking

Gateau a l'Orange

Orange Spongecake

For a 9 inch cake serving 8 people

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

A round cake pan 9 by 1 1/2 inches butter and flour the cake pan

2/3 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

grated rind o f one orange

1/3 cup orange juice

pinch of salt

3/4 cup cake flour

With an electric mixer gradually add the sugar to the egg yolks beating until the mixture thickens to form the ribbon. Add the grated orange peel, orange juice and salt. Beat for a minute or two until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then beat in the flour. Set aside.

4 egg whites

pinch of salt

1 T sugar

In a separate bowl, beat the salt and egg whites together until soft peaks are formed. Sprinkle sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Stir in one fourth of the egg whites into the batter, delicately fold in the rest.

Immediately turn into the prepared cake pan and run the batter up to the rim all around. Bake in the middle of preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Cake is done when it has puffed and browned, and shows a faint line of shrinkage from the edge of the mold.

Let cool for 6-8 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and reverse cake on a rack. If not to be iced, immediately reverse again, with puffed side up. Allow to cool for an hour or two. When cake is cold, sprinkle with powdered sugar of fill and ice the cake as desired. We put whipped cream on it and it was light and delicious. (We ate the entire cake at one sitting!!!)

Sunday February 21, 2010 Week 40

Napoleon Cake In keeping with the French Puff Pastry Cakes: For the dough:
2	10’’x10’’ (25cm x 25cm) Puff pastry sheets
	For the Cream
1	cup Sugar
1	cup Flour
	4 cups milk
3	large Eggs

Preparation

Step 1	First prepare the dough. Depending on the manufacturer of the puff pastry, you might need to defrost the dough, and either roll out or cut the sheets to the desired size.
Step 2	preheat the oven to 400F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.Bake each puff pastry sheet for 20 minutes on the middle rack. After 10 minutes you might want to rotate the cookie sheet 180 degrees to ensure equal baking When the pastry is puffed and light golden brown it is ready.
Step 3	Let cool. Cut the two puff pastry sheets in half. Three are for the layers and one is to crumble for the topping you can easily make with your fingers.
Step 4	Now for the cream: beat the eggs with the sugar and flour. Boil the milk. While the milk is warming, pour about 1/2 cup into the egg mix and stir well to gradually increase its temperature. This way the eggs won’t curdle when you add them to boiling milk. Repeat this step 2-3 more times as the milk approaches boiling temperature.
Step 5	Once the milk boils, pour the warm egg mix into the boiling milk, constantly stirring, to prevent lumps from forming. Keep on the stove for several 3 more minutes, continue stirring. It’s best to use hand held mixer in this stage.
Step 6	Remove the cream from heat, let cool, and spread on the puff pastry sheets, creating alternating layers of puff pastry and cream (3 layers of each type, 6 total).
Step 7	Spread the pastry puff crumbs on top of the upper cream layer.
Step 8	Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.