Wordless Wednesday: Princess Cake

Source: Lisa F - Bridal Shower, March 2012

More Wordless Wednesday can be found here!

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Coffee Cake!

Best coffee cake ever! I've made this one again and again and it's always a big hit. I got it from a teacher aide at my kids elementary school. The big kid is now graduating college soon, so that's how long I've had this recipe. The teacher aide brought it in to a class function and everyone begged for the recipe. I've been making it ever since. You won't even notice the coconut. But it adds to the moistness of the cake. My addition was the pecans. The original recipe didn't have them because there's no nuts allowed at school, except for the occasional parent. Myself included :)

Coffee Cake
Source: Mrs. Watson
Printable Recipe

TOPPING:
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons sweetened shredded coconut

CAKE:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (unsalted)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

FOR TOPPING: Combine all ingredients and set aside.

FOR CAKE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9 X 13" pan. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Cream butter with sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until just blended. Spoon into prepared pan. Sprinkle with topping. Swirl knife through topping and batter. Bake until tester comes out clean, 45-50
minutes.

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Joining the fun at

Suzy's Kitchen Bouquet for Flashback Fridays

and Sweet Tooth Friday hosted by Alli n Son!

And more fun and recipes at Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday!

Joining Beth at Beth Fish Reads for her fun Weekend Cooking Party. Every weekend. It's open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share! Go on over and see some fun posts.

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Here we go again...

Have to say this is a great recipe! Banana Crumb Muffins. Even easier, Banana Crumb Muffins made into a cake pan. Baked for a little bit longer. I did fine with the time adjustment and fine with the ingredients this time. However, if you use a Bundt pan, it's better if you put the streusel crumb topping on TOP! Which in a Bundt pan is the BOTTOM!

bottom's up?

 So it became a Banana Pecan Streusel Upside Down Upside Down Cake! and on the plate you couldn't tell a thing :)

The recipe for Banana Streusel Muffins is here!

Don't tell Kathleen of Cuisine Kathleen that I listened to her advice and used a Bundt pan. She'll tell me I told you so! But she never reminded me that bottom's up? Or not?

I was a little too wordy this week for a Wordless Wednesday, but I like playing anyway!

More Wordless Wednesday can be found here!
and here!

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A very happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!

Some Thanksgiving humor...

What are unhappy cranberries called?
Blueberries!

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Chocolate! Cakes and Strawberries

Spent the other day with Miss Picky in the kitchen. She was debating what we should bake. We don't usually agree. I was shooting for quick and easy. She wanted long and involved. It would definitely have to be something with chocolate. She found some strawberries, buried way back in the frig, barely surviving, those poor things. But they could be saved and be absolutely delicious dipped in chocolate. We weren't serving them to company, it was our treat! That worked for both of us, she got chocolate, and I got quick and easy, minimal clean up! She threw a wrench into the plans by looking in the pantry and digging out a quick bread mix from Williams-Sonoma that looked like something we had to have last time we were there. Chocolate-Peanut Butter Quick bread. It was the QUICK in the title that got me on that one!  OK, I'm a good sport. Most of the time anyway! and so began our time in the kitchen. Me and Miss Text Everyone while we bake, mix and melt!

  Although we had one vote for bittersweet and one for milk chocolate, milk chocolate won. Strawberries dipped in any kind of chocolate is a winning combination!

 Just add melted butter and eggs. It says QUICK right there. 

Instead of making a loaf we decided to put the mini bundt pans to good use. and a couple mini tart pans, too!  We dusted the pans with cocoa powder instead of flour. 

So with mini bundt's or bundt pans in general, the bottom of the pan is really the top of the cake, right? We followed directions, didn't over fill, not too much anyway and the bottom (or top?) or whatever kind of got rounded instead of flat. The mini tart pan cake definitely wasn't sitting pretty in the plate as you can see! The bundt was not too bad when you turned it over. See all the peanut butter chips? Delicious! Even topsy-turvy!

 

In the end, the bundt's came out nice! A little sprinkle of powdered sugar and all was well with the cakes!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries
 Printable Recipe
 
16 ounces milk or bittersweet chocolate chips (white chocolate or nay other kind of chips)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (optional, it gives it a smoother texture, but you don't need it)
pound fresh strawberries with leaves

Line a baking sheet or cookie pan with parchment or waxed paper.

Wash the strawberries and pat them dry with paper towels; set aside. NOTE: Make sure the strawberries are completely dry. Any drop of water in the melted chocolate can cause it to "seize" and turn the chocolate mixture into a grainy mess.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips (and vegetable oil, if using) in the microwave for one minute. Check and stir. If it needs more time, put it in for 30 second bursts, checking and stirring, it doesn't have to be completely melted, you don't want to scorch the chocolate.  Remove the container from the microwave and stir the chocolate until completely melted.

Grasp the stem or green leafy part of the strawberry and dip into the chocolate and swirl in chocolate to partially cover.

Give the strawberry a little shake as you take it out of the chocolate, let the excess drip off into the bowl, and then place the dipped berry on the cookie sheet lined with parchment. Repeat with the rest of the strawberries.

Set aside the berries to allow the chocolate to harden, about 30 minutes. Or you can place them in the refrigerator. Transfer fruit onto a serving platter to serve.

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Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

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Flashback Friday: Pound Cake

It's time for another flashback! Joining Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet for another visit to a really great recipe! Check out Suzy's Flashback Friday for more "new visits to old favorites!"

My friend Lisa and I don't always agree on everything, but I do have to agree that her pound cake recipe makes a really great pound cake! It's got a nice crunchy crust, although that could be my fault, the buzzer does seem to go off a little before I can get to take it out!  and the recipe says 40 minutes but not in my oven, more like 50 or 60 minutes. Good thing the recipe makes two because I usually manage to take out the "test" cake too early! I know the parts I jabbed the cake tester in were fine, but there was that undercooked middle section! and five cups of flour? My arm was aching just folding it in! But we love this cake. Even better a la mode!

Miss Picky tasted it and said it was good. The over-baked crust tasted like a sugar cookie and the inside was dense and delicious!

Friday is Teacher Appreciation Day at the High School. I do appreciate the teachers. A lot. I was one of those students where the Principal had an ongoing relationship with my mother because I was a talker, very sociable during class, not to mention a wiseass! Harmless, but a total distraction! So I can appreciate what these people go through on a daily basis! But of course not from my kid, she's an angel :)

Anyway, I was asked to bake something for them. Obviously they never got the memo that I am not a good baker. I would have appreciated them much, much more if I could have just gone to the bakery and placed an order. So instead I am baking. Lisa's Pound Cake. It's so good. Even better toasted with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. and even better when Lisa bakes it. So I did bake. It makes two loaves. and one of those two loaves had better be edible! One was underdone and had to go back in. The other looks good but I burnt the top a teeny bit! So do I send in underdone or overdone? The kid has another two years, if they ignore me next year, I'll know the cake stunk.

But we like it! Especially with a side of sorbet!

Pound Cake
Source: Lisa F
Printable Recipe

1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon Amaretto (or vanilla or almond extract)

Grease and flour two loaf pans.

Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. It's very important to beat until the sugar is no longer grainy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in the flour and the amaretto. Spoon into the two prepared loaf pans. Set in a COLD oven and then turn oven on to temperature of 350 degrees F. Bake for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Click HERE for original post!

There is one very special teacher that I really do appreciate, my friend, Kathleen, over at Cuisine Kathleen! Would have been fun to be a parent in her class! Just don't tell her I said something nice about her. She could fall over or something.

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Flashback Friday: Clafouti

Joining Suzy from Kitchen Bouquet for another Flashback Friday! Check out Kitchen Bouquet for more!

Haven't baked anything in ages and I was looking through my files and found this clafouti from a while back. My friend Jayne, from A Grain of Salt, had posted her Raspberry Clafouti, maybe on her blog? or maybe at one of the Cooking Forums and I remember hers looked and sounded so good. I made mine with blueberries and it was good. I think it's time to make it again. It was an easy recipe for me, a non-baker. You can see that I didn't even overbake it, it's not burnt, so I must have been paying attention that time! 

Yep, this was good and very easy! 

Clafouti
Source: Jayne from A Grain of Salt, recipe from Lanier Publishing
Printable Recipe

3 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups raspberries (I used blueberries!)

Beat the eggs in the small bowl of an electric mixer until foamy. Add the remaining ingredients except the raspberries. Beat on low speed until smooth. Pour the batter into a buttered 9-inch pie plate. Sprinkle the berries on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

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Topsy-Turvy Coffee Cake

So by now you already know I can't bake too well. but I keep trying. Makes the house smell good, if nothing else! Had a lot of banana's left over again, no one here eats them ripe, and how many banana breads can I make? For some reason that comes out well for me, even when I over bake it, or whatever surprise I throw in, like rum or coconut or chips, still good. Go figure. So I googled. Found a Banana Streusel Coffee Cake from epicurious. Looked easy enough. All's well!

I followed everything. Except sifting. I skipped that. Tell the baking police. I didn't notice a difference and I was happy enough not to forget an important ingredient! I had everything on hand to make this cake. With three briskets in the oven for the holidays coming up, I wasn't leaving the house. Flour. Check. Baking Soda. Check. Brown Sugar. Check. Expired Baking Powder. Check. EXPIRED????? ah, too late everything was in the mixer! It was only off by what, three months?

The recipe called for a square metal baking pan. So of course I used a bundt pan I had for years and never used! Dope I am, I didn't realize it would be baked upside down. It was an obvious thing, but I never pay attention to these things. So all the nice streusel would end up on the bottom of the cake. It did until I turned it over, upside-down. So it looked a little weird being wider on top, but it's not about the looks and it tasted great! Even with expired baking powder. A little sweet, I think less sugar in the cake and the streusel.

I used powdered buttermilk, worked fine. but what do I know? LOL! Baking not much. The family loved it though! and practice makes perfect! It will also make us fatter!

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel
source: Bon Appétit. January 2003
recipe by Jennifer Martin, Portland, OR
Printable Recipe

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside. Sift all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, room temperature butter, and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread half of batter (about 2 cups) in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.

This is TOPSY...













and this must be TURVY...








See the bottom is the top? or the top is the bottom?

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Flashback Friday! A flop. Sort of...

I got a late start but since it's still officially Friday here, I'm joining in on Flashback Friday with Suzy and friends at Suzy's Kitchen Bouquet! Check out Suzy's blog for other fun flashbacks! This week's flashback goes way back, to a Cooking Forum Virtual Dinner Party. I may be the only one who remembers it but when I was looking through my pictures, I remember how good this one was, and I only made it once. Guess why?




Baking is pretty much hit or miss with me and this one was no exception, almost a complete miss. Almost. I did manage to get a few that I was able to serve. The flops, they may have tasted good, but unless I called them pancakes, they were not headed for anyone's plate that night.











but I did manage to get a few nice cakes from the recipe, so it's definitely worth a flashback.












White and Black Lava Sponge Cakes
Source: "Chocolate" by Linda Collister
Printable Recipe

DARK CHOCOLATE FILLING:
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

WHITE CHOCOLATE SPONGE:
3 1/2 oz. white chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 extra large eggs, beaten
1 2/3 cups self-rising flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
about 1/4 cup milk

an ice cube tray, oiled
6 small dessert molds, 2 1/2 inches diameter, well buttered

The chocolate filling should be made at least 1 hour before making the sponge (though the filling can be kept in the freezer for up to 1 week). Put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of steaming but not boiling water and melt gently (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water) Remove the bowl from the heat and stir gently until just smooth. Stir in the cream, then pour into the prepared ice cube tray to make 6 "cubes." Freeze for at least 1 hour.

When ready to make the dessert, put the white chocolate into a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of steaming but not boiling water and melt gently (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Remove the bowl from the heat and stir gently until just smooth, then let cool.

Put the butter into a large mixing bowl and, using a wooden spoon or electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy, then gradually beat in the sugar. When the mixture is very light and fluffy, beat in the eggs 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Using a large metal spoon, carefully fold in the flour and salt, followed by the melted chocolate, vanilla extract, and just enough milk to give the mixture a firm dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the prepared molds to fill by about half. Turn out the dark chocolate cubes, put one into the center of each mold, then top up with more sponge mixture so each one is three-quarters full.

Stand the molds in a roasting pan, then cover loosely with well-buttered foil. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 25 minutes or until just firm to the touch. Run a round-bladed knife inside each mold to loosen the edges, then carefully invert onto individual plates. Serve immediately.

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Flashback Fridays! Coffee Cakes.

Fridays! Time for Flashback Friday with Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet! Check out Suzy's blog to see the other flashbacks from around the blog world. and don't forget on June 11th, Suzy will be hosting a good old fashioned Ice Cream Social! So get out your recipes for your frozen treats or grab a Ben & Jerry's from the freezer and join in. Details to follow in the next few days.

Today I'm flashing back to a really good Coffee cake recipe that I've been making for years. A teacher aide at my kids school when they were little brought it in one day and we raved about it. I'm pretty sure I posted this in my first long lost blog, the one that got deleted. Don't ever push that delete button just to see what happens. I found out it's pretty much permanent. I know I used one of the pictures in my banner. but it's a really great recipe and I thought I'd flash back to it because there is nothing like a really good piece of coffee cake!

It's my dad's birthday today! He loved nothing better than to come home after a bunch of errands and have an ice cold glass of milk and a slice of cake. His favorite was a Brooklyn Blackout Cake but he'd never say no to a piece of Coffee Cake, Pound Cake, Sponge Cake or just about any other kind of cake. He would have been 81 years old today.

Coffee Cake
from Mrs. Watson
Printable Recipe

TOPPING:
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons sweetened shredded coconut

CAKE:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (unsalted)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

FOR TOPPING: Combine all ingredients and set aside.

FOR CAKE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9 X 13" pan. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Cream butter with sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until just blended. Spoon into prepared pan. Sprinkle with topping. Swirl knife through topping and batter. Bake until tester comes out clean, 45-50 minutes.





The recipe makes a really good muffin, too! I used a square crumb cake pan like this one from Amazon. You can use it for brownies, muffins, cheesecakes, whatever.

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Flashback Friday! My Favorite Diner Dessert!

It's Friday already, and that means joining in on Suzy's Flashbacks at Kitchen Bouquet. Today I'm flashing back to Chocolate Sorbet. Soon it'll be time for ice cream and frozen treats! Hey, it can't stay cool and rainy forever, can it? The sorbet was posted by Debbie and Lee at the forums from a recipe by Claudia Fleming on scharffenberger.com, and a number of blogging buddies have made it and loved it, too!

For one of my most favorite desserts, I'm really flashing back now, before blogging, all the way back to High School. Friday nights in my school meant hanging with friends late night at the diner. After a movie, bowling, ice skating, or whatever you did, we'd go to the diner to meet up with everyone else. After any school function, you headed to the diner. Football, basketball games, whatever. Diner. I'd have toasted Pound Cake and Chocolate Ice Cream almost every Friday night back in the day. So when Lee and Debbie shared the sorbet recipe, what else to do but toast a slice of pound cake! Only this time it wasn't from Entenmann's or the diner, it was from scratch, from my old neighbor, Lisa! Lisa's not really old, and she's no longer my neighbor, but she stayed a friend and her pound cake recipe is still one of the best I've ever had! and even when I overbake it, it's still good. Nice and sweet and dense with a crispy crust on it!



It's Friday, I should go dust off that ice cream maker and make a loaf or two of pound cake!

They really should have called this "Chocolate Lover's Sorbet." It's intensely chocolately. Fabulously chocolately. If you love chocolate, it doesn't get any better than this.






Chocolate Sorbet
posted GB's by Debbie and Lee
recipe by Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern, NY
www.scharffenberger.com
Printable Recipe

2 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
9.75 ounces 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Bar
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of water

In a medium saucepan, combine 2 1/4 cups of water and the sugar, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Gradually add cocoa powder, whisking until smooth. Reduce heat to low, and cook mixture at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes, until syrupy.

Put chocolate in a large bowl, add half the cocoa syrup, whisking until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Add remaining syrup and whisk well. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, and let cool. Stir in 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of water.

Chill sorbet mixture covered until very cold, at least 4 hours. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

In a medium saucepan, combine 2 1/4 cups of water and the sugar, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Gradually add cocoa powder, whisking until smooth. Reduce heat to low, and cook mixture at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes, until syrupy.

Put chocolate in a large bowl, add half the cocoa syrup, whisking until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Add remaining syrup and whisk well. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, and let cool. Stir in 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of water.

Chill sorbet mixture covered until very cold, at least 4 hours. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. I use the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and it's perfect. if I had room in the freezer, I'd get an extra freezer bowl. It's definitely time to drag the ice maker out.

This is my absolute favorite pound cake. It's from my good friend, Lisa. I didn't tell her that, it might go to her head! but it's a really good dense pound cake. Toasted or not!

Lisa's Pound Cake
Printable Recipe

1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon Amaretto (or vanilla or almond extract)

Grease and flour two loaf pans.

Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. It's very important to beat until the sugar is no longer grainy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in the flour and the amaretto. Spoon into the two prepared loaf pans. Set in a COLD oven and then turn oven on to temperature of 350 degrees F. Bake for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

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