My husband loves angel food cake and yet I have never made it for him. I think it’s because I have tasted only the Safeway version and the spongy texture creeped me out. How in the world can a cake be sooooo spongy? I found a recipe on Cook’s Illustrated’s website and a quick perusal of the ingredients answered my question: a dozen egg whites. Yowsers. That is a lot of egg whites! Fortunately, one batch of homemade vanilla ice cream uses a half dozen egg yolks, so all I need to do is time one angel food cake and two batches of ice cream and I am left with no waste at all!

This cake is heavenly. It is perfect topped with a mound of lightly sweetened whipped cream and some fresh berries. You can serve it at a formal occasion or for a weeknight dessert. Either way, it’s delicious! Now that I know how easy it is to prepare angel food cake, I will make this cake often throughout the summer to go with all those wonderful strawberries and blueberries at the local farmer’s market!

Continue reading: angel food cake

First off, I see a new trend. First, there were mufcakes. Now there’s muffin cake. I promise. I’ll make something that doesn’t include “muf” in it at some point.

Secondly, I don’t want you to make this. Nope. No sirree. Because then you’ll buy more blueberries, which will mean fewer for me. The last time I checked, my Costco had PLENTY of frozen organic blueberries in stock. If I go tomorrow, I will buy some before you catch onto this craze. At the worst, I did plant 9 blueberry plants a couple of years ago. Come June, there is no stopping the blueberry madness in my house!

Third, if you do make this, you’ll want to hide it from yourself. Probably in a high place behind a heavy box. It’s delicious, but with a stick of butter in the ingredients list, it really can’t be considered a health food (although, I think that with two cups of blueberries, I could be convinced otherwise).

Eat this warm out of the oven or reheat it a bit. Either way, slather some salted butter along the middle or the sides (not the top! don’t ruin the perfectly crunchy top!). And enjoy!

Continue reading: blueberry muffin cake

The idea to make this recipe stems from a bottle of sprinkles. I found fall-themed sprinkles at my local discount store and couldn’t resist the chance to make something beautiful to share with you. But what uses sprinkles? Cupcakes, of course. And with white frosting, obviously. Which would clearly be cream cheese frosting. Which undoubtedly belongs on carrot cakes. Which is where I was inspired to make these muffins. It feels a bit like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

These should be called “go through the cupboards and add everything you have to the batter” muffins, but that’s so tedious. Can you imagine writing that every time you shared the recipe? Neither could I.

Originally this recipe came from King Arthur’s online food blog and then my mother got a hold of it. If you know my mother, you know know she can’t just leave well enough alone. When i was in school, my mom always looked over my papers before submitting them to my teachers and they never looked anything like the original by the time she was done with them. In fact, they looked a lot like this recipe does now:

You see what I mean? Can you even call this the same recipe at this point? I doubt it.

I’m my mother’s daughter, so I also could not just stick with her changes. I had to “improve” the recipe to suit my own tastes and, truth be told, to fit with what I had in my cupboard at the time. The end result of all our tinkering is fabulous-ness all around. These muffins are incredibly moist with toasted pecans to provide crunch and a bit of coconut to provide some additional texture. They can (should!) be topped with your favorite cream cheese frosting. And fall-themed sprinkles, of course.

carrot cake muffins
(loosely adopted from KingArthurFlour.com)
Note: this makes a lot of muffins – halve the recipe if you aren’t feeding  a small army

4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
3 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut (optional for you coconut haters)
1 11-oz can mandarin orange slices, drained OR 1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, drained and squeezed dry

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease muffin pans or place muffin liners in a muffin pan.

Beat the eggs, sugars, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until smooth, about 2 minutes at medium-high speed (set a timer for this – 2 minutes is longer than you think!).

Mix the melted butter with the buttermilk. With the beater running, add the mixture in a stream, beating until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring to combine.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the carrots, pecans, coconut, and fruit.

Ladle into muffin cups and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in center of a muffin comes out with only a few crumbs attached.

Let cool and top with your favorite cream cheese frosting. Decorate with sprinkles.

lime yogurt cake with blackberry sauce
from www.smittenkitchen.com

cake:
1 cup whole milk plain yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
zest of one lime
1/4 cup lime juice
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

sauce:
12 ounces fresh blackberries (frozen should work as well, but you should start with half the water)
1/4 cup water
4-6 tablespoons sugar (this will depend on how tart your blackberries are)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan with oil (I used a butter and flour spray out of habit, which works as well) and line the bottom with parchment paper if the pan is not springform.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, sugar, lime zest and juice. Add the eggs one by one, whisking well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, right over your yogurt batter. Stir with a spoon until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen. If you’re using the springform pan, unclasp the sides. Otherwise, flip the cake onto a plate and flip it back on the rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Combine blackberries, water, sugar and lime juice in blender or food processor. Purée until very smooth, then press through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cold. Spoon over slices of cake and eat immediately.

If you don’t have multiple mini muffin pans, just bake these in batches.

mini chocolate lava cakes
from www.kingarthurflour.com

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup buttermilk, plain yogurt, or sour cream
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (make sure your chocolate does not contain lecithin as the lecithin keeps it from melting)

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a 20 or 24-cup mini muffin pan (or multiple mini-muffin pans, if you have them!).

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa powder, espresso powder, and hot water.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pour the cocoa mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring to mix well.

Beat in the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.

Pour the batter into each of the muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Place several chocolate chips into each muffin cup.

Bake the cakes for 10 minutes, and then remove from the oven and serve immediately. Reheat leftovers in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the middles before serving.

Decadent, rich, delicious, chocolate frosting. This is so far superior to the stuff in the can and it took less than 5 minutes to make and clean up. And a five year old could easily pronounce all the ingredients on this list. Take that, Betty Crocker!

foolproof chocolate frosting
(from Cook’s Illustrated – once again, they’ve perfected something delicious)

20 tbsp (2 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature (65 degrees)
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup Dutch Processed cocoa powder
pinch table salt
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 ounces chocolate, melted and cooled slightly (I used semi sweet, but Cook’s Illustrated recommends milk chocolate)

In a food processor, process butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, 10-15 seconds.

This frosting will store at room temperature for about three hours. If you need it to last longer than that, refrigerate it and let it come to room temperature about one hour before serving it.

I haven’t seen these before, but apparently they are “true” cake pans, and when you bake cakes in them, they come out flat instead of having that annoying lump that mine always get when I use my pans. The secret is the material they are made of and their perfectly straight sides. Perfect cakes every time!

You can buy them here.

Drawback? You can’t stack them.

3 layer candy bar cake

1 chocolate box cake mix, preferably something like devil’s food cake
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
10 (1.5 ounce) chocolate bars, or 15 ounces of bite-sized chocolates*
12 oz container Cool Whip, thawed

*I used a mixture of Hershey Almond Chocolates and Snickers

Preheat oven to 325.

First, mix the cake ingredients according to the instructions on the package.

Divide evenly into three 8″ cake pans.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, or until toothpick entered in middle comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes and then let cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, finely chop 12 ounches of the chocolate.

In the bowl of a mixer, mix together cream cheese and sugars until well creamed.

Add the chocolate pieces, and, using a rubber spatula, mix well.

Gently fold in cool whip. The idea is to keep the frosting light and fluffy.

Frost the cake. Be careful to divvy up the use of frosting over all three layers and the sides!

When the cake is completely frosted, chop up the remaining chocolate bars and press onto tops and sides of cake.

When it’s done, chill in the fridge until the icing hardens a bit.

Slice, and serve.

Last Saturday around midnight it hit me: we were going to a function in the morning and I was supposed to bring a breakfast item to share. Midnight is not really the time to start a baking project, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to get up early to make something delicious tasting. I racked my brain and went through all the usual breakfast choices: biscuits, muffins, scones, egg dishes… and coffee cake.

hubby’s coffee cake

cake:

1 cup butter or margarine, lightly softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp sweetened flaked coconut, optional

Preheat oven to 325. Grease an angel food cake pan.

Cream the butter well. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in eggs, sour cream, and extracts. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. with mixer on low, add one cup of flour mixture at at time and beat together just until mixed. Repeat with remaining flour mixture.

In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the topping.

Pour half of the batter into a well greased angel food cake pan. Add half the topping. Repeat with remaining batter and topping. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick entered in the thickest part of the cake comes out with only a few crumbs attached.

Let cool completely before removing from the pan. Slice and serve!