Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake #FoodieExtravaganza

Eggnog is not just for drinking. Its sweet creaminess adds both flavor and richness to baked goods, like this cinnamon streusel eggnog coffeecake!

Food Lust People Love: Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.


For drinking hot, my favorite eggnog is my grandmother’s recipe which we make at least once during the holiday season. Spiked with bourbon, rum or Irish whisky, it warms body and lifts spirits, reminding me of cozy times in her bright yellow kitchen, family all round.

For drinking cold, also spiked – are you seeing a trend here? – it’s usually Borden’s eggnog, because that’s about the only brand that seems to be exported overseas.

I’ve baked with both and even made an eggnog mousse once upon a time. If you are a fan of eggnog cake, you might want to check out my eggnog pound cake and my eggnog muffins. Both are topped with a rich eggnog glaze.

This time, because I am a procrastinator, I went with the store bought. And I added an eggnog whiskey glaze just for my younger daughter, who insisted that eggnog cake needs whiskey, just like eggnog does. She is right.

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.

Ingredients
For the cinnamon streusel:
1/2 cup or 65g flour
1/2 cup or 100g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/3 cup or 70g unsalted cold butter, cut into small pieces

For the eggnog coffee cake:
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml eggnog
1/3 cup or 70g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the eggnog whiskey glaze:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar
2 tablespoons eggnog
1 tablespoon whiskey
Pinch cinnamon

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F and 180°C. Grease and flour a 6-cup baking pan. Set aside.

To make the streusel, in a small bowl, cut the cold butter into the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, until it looks like crumbles. Pop it in the refrigerator, if your kitchen is warm.

In a large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: the eggnog, butter, eggs and vanilla.



Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, until they are just combined.



 Pour the batter into your prepared pan and top with the cinnamon streusel.



Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.


Allow to cool completely before you turn the coffeecake out of the pan so that you don’t knock all of the streusel off.

While it’s cooling, make the glaze by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.



Once you’ve plated the eggnog coffeecake, drizzle on the eggnog whiskey glaze.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.



Check out all the other eggnoggy recipes that my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing today! If these don’t get you in the Christmas spirit, I don’t know what will. Many thanks to Nichole of Cookaholic Wife for hosting this month.




Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

Pin it!

Food Lust People Love: Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.
 .

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Cornish Saffron Cake #BundtBakers

Cornish Saffron Cake is a traditional bake from Cornwall, made with an enriched yeast dough, flavored with saffron and sweetened with sugar. It is generally served plain or with lashing of butter or even some clotted cream.



This month my Bundt Bakers group is being hosted by Felice of All That’s Left Are The Crumbs. Her theme and in this case, challenge, was to bake a Bundt cake that uses yeast for leavening. I must confess that when I started scouring the internet for ideas, Cornish Saffron Cake came up after a simple search for yeast cakes.

“Excellent!” I exclaimed, making my furry sous chef jump to alertness, and wrote it down in my notebook. Just from the title, it sounded like a winner. I have saffron, some really good quality saffron, and I’m sure the good people of Cornwall would not have kept making Cornish Saffron Cake for all these centuries if it wasn’t good.

But here’s the rub. When it came time to bake and I actually started reading the (many!) recipes, it turns out that Cornish Saffron Cake isn’t really cake at all, but more of a sweet bread, with mixed dried fruit. The dough is traditionally baked into buns or in a loaf pan.  So, would it qualify for the challenge?

I headed back to our Facebook group to ask and saw that someone else had just asked a question about the nature of our yeasty Bundts: Could the Bundt be savory? When Felice said “sure,” (and I saw that her own recipe title was Hot Cross Bun Bundt) I knew that my sweet bready “cake” would probably be fine as well.

I ended up slightly adapting the ingredients from this recipe on Baking for Britain.

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon saffron strands
1 1/4 cup or 295ml whole milk
4 cups or 500g unbleached white bread flour, plus extra for kneading
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2/3 cup or 150g unsalted butter, cubed, plus more for baking pan
1/2 cup or 115g light muscovado sugar
1/4 oz or 7g rapid rise yeast
3/4 cup or 115g mixed dried fruit and peel

Note: Back in the old days, when sterilization was an issue, every bread recipe included the instruction to scald the milk first. I won’t go into the reasons why or explain the method because my friend, Jenni, at Pastry Chef Online has done a remarkable job with both in this Fundamental Friday post, if you are interested. But since I was going to heat the milk to infuse the saffron, I thought, might as well scald it.

Method
Start by scalding your milk, which is to say, bringing it almost to a boil either on the stove or in the microwave. (See more precise instructions in the link above.)

Liberally butter a 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.

Put the saffron in the milk and leave to infuse for an hour or two, or even overnight, in which case, put the milk in the refrigerator after it has cooled off so it doesn't spoil.

When you are ready to bake, warm the saffron milk up again to about 110–115°F (115°F=46°C.) Put 1/4 cup or 60ml of it in a bowl and add the yeast and a tablespoon of the sugar.


When the yeast is activated and bubbling, you can add it back into the rest of the saffron milk.



Measure your flour into the mixing bowl of your stand mixer and add the butter cubes. Use a pastry blender or your hands to mix the butter into the flour until it resembles sandy crumbs.



Stir in the sugar and salt.

Make a well in the middle of the flour/butter mixture and pour in the yeasty saffron milk.



Use the bread hook on your mixer – or indeed, your hands, but this is a wet sticky dough so if you have a mixer, that’s a good thing – to combine the milk and flour until you have soft dough.



Knead the dough for about five minutes with the mixer or 10 minutes by hand. Sprinkle on a little more flour, if necessary.

Add in the mixed fruit and peel and keep kneading until it’s all incorporated.



Roll your dough into a fat log and fit it into your buttered Bundt pan, overlapping the ends. Cover lightly with cling film and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour.



After one hour, start preheating your oven to 350°F or 180°. Once the oven has reached temperature, put the Cornish Saffron Cake into the oven and bake for about 50-60 minutes, until the outside is golden and it sounds hollow when tapped. If it looks like it’s browning too quickly, you can cover the top with foil.


Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

Cool almost completely before slicing with a serrated knife to serve. It’s perfect just ever so slightly warm so butter will melt into it.



Enjoy!



Many thanks to Felice for this great challenge. My favorite part of these baking groups is the opportunity to explore unfamiliar cuisines and recipes to fit a theme. I’ll definitely be making Cornish Saffron Cake again. It's superb with a cup of hot coffee or tea!

Special thanks also to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for creating our updated link list!

Check out all the other yeasty Bundts we’ve baked for you today.
BundtBakers  

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

Pin it! 


.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Lemon and Prosecco Bundt #BundtBakers

This Lemon and Prosecco Bundt is perfect for any celebration where you want the guest of honor to feel special. After all, there is nothing like the pop of a cork to herald the beginning of a party.



The fact of the matter is that everyone has a birthday. That is part of the human condition. We are born. We have a birthday. So right here at the beginning of a new calendar year, our Bundt Bakers host Sue from Palatable Pastime proposed that we share birthday cakes to celebrate. Thanks, Sue! What an excellent idea!

I immediately put my thinking cap on. Birthday cake, birthday cake. I know I bake a lot but not being much of a sweet eater, it's never for me. (My birthday is four days from now. There will not be cake. If you wanna bake me something, make it something savory!)

I drew a blank. Then I thought, what makes a party more festive? Well, sparkling wine, of course. A quick Google search for Champagne cake recipes turned up 5,300,000 results! Clearly this was not a new idea.

To make it my own, I added a little lemon to the mix. And because a good Prosecco is usually cheaper than a good Champagne, I switched that up too. Despite the cheesy cut glass bottle, this one comes highly recommended and we usually buy a decent stock at an end of the year sale.

Today just happens to be the birthday of someone very special to me, my friend, Jane. She is sweet and kind and more generous than anyone I know. She also has a wickedly delightful sense of humor. But what I love most about her is her loyalty and faithfulness and courage. It's been a rough few years for her and her family and she has managed to keep the faith and make the rest of us still smile through her tears. If you happen to read this, Jane, I love you! I wish I could send you this cake, or better yet, be there to bake it for you for your special day. Happy Birthday!

Ingredients
For the cake batter:
1 cup or 200g granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup or 120ml Prosecco

For the soaking syrup:
1/2 cup or 120ml Prosecco
2 tablespoons or 25g sugar

For the glaze:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar
3-4 teaspoons Prosecco

To decorate - optional, but, hey, it's a birthday party!
Sparkling sugar
Tiny pearl sprinkles

Bundt pan: 10-cup or 2.4L Nordic Ware Blossom <affiliate link

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease the Bundt pan liberally with butter and shake in some flour to coat.

Zest your lemon into the sugar and mix it around thoroughly so the zest will flavor the sugar. Set the bowl aside.



Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. This aerates the flour and eliminates the need to sift.

Put the butter, lemon sugar and lemon juice into a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated, scraping the bowl down in between additions.


Add half of your flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Scrape the side of the bowl down, then add half of the Prosecco. Beat again until thoroughly mixed.



Repeat with the rest of the flour and the rest of the Prosecco.





Spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.



Bake on the middle rack of your preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until golden on top and a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While the cake bakes, make the soaking syrup by combining the sugar and the Prosecco. Stir till the sugar dissolves.



When you remove the cake from the oven, drizzle the bottom with a few teaspoons of the soaking syrup. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes then invert and remove the cake from the pan.


Gently brush or spoon the rest of the soaking syrup on the cake. Leave to cool completely before glazing.



To make the glaze, put your powdered sugar in a bowl and add Prosecco a teaspoon at a time, stirring with each addition, until you have a good drizzling consistency.

Use a piping bag or a Ziploc bag with a tiny corner cut off to make drizzling easier. If you are using sprinkles to decorate, have them at the ready because the surface of this glaze dries quickly. If you don’t sprinkle them on immediately, the sprinkles will just bounce off.



Pour everyone a glass of the Prosecco, cut the cake and enjoy!



What is your favorite birthday cake? Are you committed to the same one every year or do you mix it up? Perhaps you'll find a new favorite in the ones we are sharing today.

BundtBakers  

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

Pin it! 

.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Coconut Snowball Mini Bundts #BundtBakers

Coconut snowball mini Bundts are subtly coconutty inside and full-on coconutty outside. Best of all, they look like small snowballs, perfect little sweet gifts for your neighbors and friends. If you can bear to give them away.



This month our Bundt Bakers’ theme is Winter Wonderland so we’ve got lots of great cakes for you with holiday flavors. I wasn’t sure if coconut was necessarily a traditional choice but last weekend I was at a friend’s house and one of her current food magazines had a gorgeous photo of a three-layer coconut cake with the caption: The only Christmas cake you need to make. Or something like that.

We all agreed that it would never be the only Christmas cake one needs to make, because it’s clearly not actual Christmas cake as we know it. But it would be nice, if you like coconut. Which I most certainly do. With that in mind, I baked these little coconut Bundts, because they look like snowballs.

Ingredients
For the cake batter – fits one Nordic Ware Duet pan
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/2 cup or 120ml coconut oil, at room temperature
1/2 cup or 120ml coconut cream
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder

For the frosting:
1/3 cup or unsalted butter or vegetable shortening, or a combination
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups or 312g powdered sugar
1 to 3 tablespoons coconut cream

For decoration:
2 cups, not tightly packed, or 195g sweetened shredded coconut

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease and flour your Bundt pan. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all of the cake batter ingredients at low speed until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula.

Put it all in at once. Super easy.

Increase the beater speed to medium and beat for five minutes, stopping every couple of minutes to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.


Slowly pour the batter into your baking pan.  Smooth out the top with your rubber spatula. This is a Nordic Ware Duet pan.


Bake in your preheated oven for 32-38 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes. The tiny Bundts should begin pulling away from the sides of the pan.

To make the frosting: Beat the butter and/or shortening until fluffy. Beat in the salt and vanilla. Add a tablespoon of coconut cream.



Sift the powdered sugar into the mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the rest of coconut cream a little at a time till you get soft spreadable frosting.



Frost the mini Bundts liberally, then cover with coconut, gently pressing it into the frosting so it sticks. You can leave the hole empty so they still look like mini Bundts or fill the holes with coconut for more of a snowball effect.



Enjoy!


Many thanks to our host this month, Laura from Baking in Pyjamas. Check out all the other Winter Wonderland Bundts.

BundtBakers  

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

Pin it! 


.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Sticky Pecan Pie Bundt #BundtBakers

Pecan pie filling mixed in cake batter makes the best Sticky Pecan Pie Bundt, perfect for any family celebration.



This month’s Bundt Baker theme is Happy Fall, Ya’ll so I could have baked with apples or pumpkin or other fall produce but while I was in Houston recently, I was reminded that it’s pecan season as well. There’s a farmer’s market near our house where you can either buy fresh Texas pecans or bring the harvest from your own trees and pay 40 cents a pound to have them crack the pecans in their noisy electric machines.

Years ago, I remember my grandparents sitting at their kitchen table cracking and picking the shells off of Louisiana pecans and it was a long and challenging job. Forty cents seems a fair price to pay not to have to do the cracking part by hand!

My favorite thing to make with fresh pecans is my aunt’s pecan pie. It’s a must at Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you are feeding a crowd, make a party-sized version. But for any other occasion, do try this sticky pecan pie Bundt!

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
1 cup or 240ml light corn syrup, plus a little extra to drizzle on - optional
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g dark brown sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups or 175g chopped pecans


Method
Preheat oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by brushing it with butter and dusting it with flour. Scatter a good handful of the chopped pecans in the bottom of the pan. Set it aside.

Put all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Use your stand mixer or electric beaters to mix the ingredients until completely combined.



Turn the beaters to high and mix well for 1 minute.

Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in your preheat oven for 55-60 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.



Run a wooden skewer around the edges of the pan and the flute in the middle to loosen the Bundt, then invert it onto the wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

If desired, drizzle a little more corn syrup on the Bundt as glaze.



Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Bundt Bakers host this month, Teri from The Freshman Cook! Check out all the other fall bakes we have for you today!

BundtBakers

BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

Pin it! 

 .


Sunday, September 25, 2016

Cheesy Cauliflower Cake

As delicious as it is pretty, this cheesy cauliflower cake makes a beautiful addition to your Sunday Supper table. Vegetarians and omnivores alike are going to love it!

Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Cauliflower Cake has tender cauliflower florets in a thick Parmesan-rich batter, baked to golden perfection. A deliciously pretty vegetarian main course the whole family will love.

For my birthday last year dear friends gave me a digital subscription to delicious. magazine, published in the UK. Every single issue had me making a shopping list and jumping in the car within minutes of reading through its gorgeous (virtual) pages. Many of the recipes are original to the magazine but sometimes they are tied to a cookbook review. This cheesy cauliflower cake is adapted from Ottolenghi’s Plenty More. <Amazon affiliate link

Why did Ottolenghi call something so obviously savory a cake? Who’s to know? But I love that he stretches my imagination with both the possibilities of cake and creative vegetarian recipes. All too often, vegetarians have to make do with just side dishes at a dinner party, which is a shame. I believe we can do better than that and today Sunday Supper is out to prove me right.

The first time I made this cheesy cauliflower cake, I didn’t have purple onion so, while it was pretty and ever so tasty, my photos didn’t match the shots in delicious. magazine. I baked it again when I was visiting my vegetarian daughters and their mostly vegetarian crowd of friends, making sure to use the right onions. The photos still aren’t spectacular, as you can see, because I was in a borrowed kitchen. But, never mind. The cake is fabulous. Perfect for World Vegetarian Day on October 1st or any Sunday Supper or dinner party, especially when you have vegetarian guests.

Ingredients
5 tablespoons or 75 ml olive oil, plus extra for oiling the baking pan
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
1 small cauliflower, outer leaves removed, cut into 1 1/4-inch/3-cm florets (Mine weighed 1 lb or 450g)
1 medium purple onion, peeled
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
6 eggs
1 tablespoon basil leaves, chopped
1 cup or 125g flour, sifted
5 oz or 150g coarsely grated Parmesan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Salt and black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a 9 1/2-inch/24-cm spring-form cake pan by greasing it lightly.

Cut a circle of baking parchment to fit the bottom of the pan and press it in there. Cut a strip of baking parchment the circumference of the interior of your pan and press it in against the oiled sides. If it doesn’t stick very well, use some clothes pegs to hold it in place.

Brush the parchment on the sides with the melted butter and, holding the pan sideways, sprinkle on the sesame seeds so they stick to the parchment. Set your pan aside.

Can you skip this step and still have a delightful cheesy cauliflower cake? Absolutely. But look at how pretty it makes the sides turn out. Also, the sesame seeds give each outside bite a lovely crunch.



Place the cauliflower florets in a steaming basket in a pot with a couple of inches of water.  Steam, covered, over a medium heat until the florets are tender and will break if pushed with a spoon, about 10-12 minutes. Uncover the pot and lift the steaming basket out. Set aside to cool and dry.



Cut four round slices, each about 1/4 inch or 5 mm thick, off one end of the onion and set aside. We’ll use these for decorating the top before baking.

Coarsely chop the rest of the onion and place in a small pan with the oil and rosemary. Sauté for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the onion is soft. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.



Transfer the cooled onion to a large bowl, add the eggs and basil and whisk well.



Then add the flour, Parmesan, baking powder, turmeric, 1 teaspoon salt, and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Whisk until smooth before adding the cauliflower.  Stir gently, trying not to break up the florets too much.



Spoon the cauliflower mixture into the pan, spreading it evenly, and arrange the reserved onion rings on top. Once the thick batter is holding the parchment in place, you can remove the clothes pegs.

As previously mentioned, do try to use the purple onions. So much prettier - see photo below. 

Place in the center of your preheated oven and bake for about 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and set; a knife inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Cauliflower Cake has tender cauliflower florets in a thick Parmesan-rich batter, baked to golden perfection. A deliciously pretty vegetarian main course the whole family will love.


Remove from the oven and leave for at least 20 minutes before serving. Your cheesy cauliflower cake is best served warm but not hot.

Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Cauliflower Cake has tender cauliflower florets in a thick Parmesan-rich batter, baked to golden perfection. A deliciously pretty vegetarian main course the whole family will love.


Enjoy!

Are you looking for some tasty vegetarian recipes to celebrate World Vegetarian Day and Vegetarian Awareness Month the whole of October? Sunday Supper's got you covered! Many thanks to our event manager, Renee of Renee's Kitchen Adventures and our host this week, Susan of The Wimpy Vegetarian for all of their hard work!

Appetizers

Entrees

Sides

Desserts

   

Pin this Cheesy Cauliflower Cake! 


Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Cauliflower Cake has tender cauliflower florets in a thick Parmesan-rich batter, baked to golden perfection. A deliciously pretty vegetarian main course the whole family will love.
.