Lemon Yogurt Loaf Cakes

The finished mini loaves

This quick bread is made with yogurt instead of butter. This is nice for three reasons: 1, it does reduce the fat and cholesterol in the cake (probably not a lot, but every little bit helps); 2, it make the recipe really easy to execute--no need to cream the butter or melt it and let it cool; and 3, it give the loaf a nice tang, which complemented the tart zing of the lemon. Happily, the yogurt did not make the cakes tough, which I find can happen. In fact the texture was quite nice, tender, springy, and light. They were quite lemony with a subtle tang from the yogurt (as I already mentioned). When the came out of the oven, I soaked them with a bit of lemon simple syrup, which added to the flavor and made the cakes moist and delicious.

What made these extra special was the glaze on top. It's just a simple lemon juice and powdered sugar icing/glaze and it was delicious! Tart but still sweet. It set up nicely but still melted in your mouth. Anyway, who doesn't like a good glaze?

Overall, I thought these were excellent. That said, I really love lemon loaf cakes, this is not the first recipe I've tried and it won't be the last. But I'm sure during the process of trying every recipe I can find, I'll circle around to this one a few times.

Before the glaze set

Coffee Sorbet with Walnut Sauce in a Chocolate Tuile Bowl

I made this years ago, well before I started a blog. I found the photo on my laptop today and thought I had to share it.

It was incredible! The coffee sorbet--which I had made in my new ice cream machine--was smooth (but a little icy, in a good way) and richly coffee-y. The sauce, which was from Dessert University, I think, was really good. It's surprising to have a sauce flavored with nuts, but it worked nicely. It was sweet and nutty and thick without being heavy. The tuile bowl was good, although, if I remember correctly, I made it a bit too thick. Also it wasn't quite chocolaty enough--but then again tuiles are never terribly flavorful. These flavors worked together so nicely, the walnut sauce and the coffee sorbet were delicious together; add in the mild chocolate flavor and wow that's good!

Banana Nut Bread

In case I haven't mentioned this before, I have a strong dislike for bananas. Seriously, I can't stand them--the taste, the smell, the texture, yuk! Generally I can't even eat bananas when the come in the lovely form of banana bread--and even if I can tolerate it, I don't really like it. This was an exception; I actually found it enjoyable. The rest of my family, who are normal and like bananas, were even more enthusiastic than I was--Pops ate two and a half mini loaves himself (impressive since we only kept 4)!

I think what makes this banana bread so good is that it is chock full of toasted walnuts and unsweetened coconut. This didn't mask the banana flavor, but it does make the whole flavor of the bread more complex. Usually banana bread is quite sweet and dense. This was a bit less sweet (which was nice) and a bit lighter while still being moist (which was also nice). Plus I used ripe but not over ripe bananas--not by design, just because I was making these for a specific purpose (I wanted to give two mini loaves to two people I was meeting with) and the bananas weren't over ripe yet. These really were good--so good that I may need to rethink my position on bananas.

Lemon Curd Cake

Remember the lemon chiffon cake with lemon curd filling? This was inspired by that cake. I made the same lemon curd filling (and I finally found sheet gelatin so it made life much easier). Instead of lemon chiffon cake, I made the same white cake I used for my wedding cake project. It's such a nice cake and I wanted to see how it came out when baked in cake pans rather than sheet pans (for a project I'm working in...I'll tell you about that soon). The frosting is left over cream cheese frosting from my party (it was on the cupcakes). I think the tang of the cream cheese complemented the lemon curd nicely while the sweetness of the cake balances it out nicely.

For the outside of the cake, I decided to try my hand at that lovely swirl that Baked Brooklyn does so nicely (if you don't know them, check them out). I ordered a cake turntable (finally) but it hasn't come yet so this wasn't easy. The way to get a smooth even swirl up the side and on the top is to hold the spatula nearly still, pulling it up slowly as you turn the cake smoothly on the turntable. At least I think that's how to do it...since I don't have a turntable it's really just an educated guess. As it was I did about the same thing, except I manually turned the cake stand, which is not conducive to anything being smooth and even. But that's okay, because I think it still looks really nice!

Happy Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

From left to right: traditional chocolate chip,
peanut butter chocolate chip,
chocolate-chocolate chip,
 oatmeal chocolate chip

Apparently today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Thank goodness I had some balls of frozen chocolate, chocolate chip cookie dough in freezer! So celebrate this wonderful holiday by eating a chocolate chip cookie and perhaps remember to freeze some scoops of cookie dough so that you can always have hot cookies.

Belated Birthday Desserts

In addition to the two cakes, I made quite a few desserts for my party:

Toasted coconut brownies

Mini Brooklyn blackout cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Chocolate, chocolate chip cookies

The brownies were delicious with desiccated coconut giving them a lovely texture. The Brooklyn blackout cupcakes were delicious as usual and the zing of the cream cheese frosting was complemented the deep, dark chocolate cake nicely.

The cookies were surprisingly good. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, the recipe was from Nigella Lawson and she really is a domestic goddess, but I love the chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Death by Chocolate. These might actually be better than the latter. The taste was a little sweeter (which I'm not sure is better or worse...it's just different). But the texture was perfect: a little crisp around the edges but still soft and nearly gooey on the inside (without being under baked).

Milk chocolate caramels with Maldon sea salt

Chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal candies

The caramels and the candies (which are technically no bake cookies, but I think they are more like candies) were both gluten free (as is typical for candies) and were delicious. In fact, the caramels were perfect, which made me really happy because the last time I tried making them they came out yummy but the texture was all wrong and they didn't hold their shape. The cookies/candies, which came out a little crumbly and difficult to shape, ended up richly peanutty and quite sweet with a hint of chocolate and a nice texture from the oats.

Because there were two excellent chocolate cakes, the cupcakes, cookies and brownies didn't get much attention but we sent them home with people as favors and heard good things about them after. Interestingly the candies were popular even with the cakes as everyone's focus. I suppose the small size and the complete lack of similarity to cake made everyone reach for them. Both were well received but the caramels were definitely the star (well the German chocolate cake was the star, but the caramels were the non-cake star). All in all, everything was yummy and there were plenty of leftovers to enjoy after we weren't so stuffed from the amazing food!

Belated Birthday Cakes

Look how beautiful and dark the inside
of the flourless chocolate cake is.

I made the desserts for my birthday party, including two cakes. Yes, two cakes. I was planning on making three cakes but I decided on two cakes and a bunch of small desserts (I'll tell about those later) instead. I made a German chocolate cake and flourless chocolate cake.

Three layers of German chocolate goodness!

In case you were wondering, German chocolate cake is not German. It's American and was created by Bakers Chocolate to promote German's Sweet Chocolate, which is named after the employee who developed the sweet dark chocolate. The recipe I used is from Baked's cookbook. The cake was less sweet and more chocolaty than traditional German chocolate cake and had a tender, moist crumb from the buttermilk. The filling was very close to the original sweet and sticky mixture of (Baker's brand) sweetened coconut and pecans held together by, among other things, evaporated mix. It was really the perfect update of a classic dessert.

The flourless chocolate cake was also from Baked's cookbook. A while ago I posted about a brilliant nut and gluten free chocolate cake I'd made; unfortunately I lost the recipe. Oh no! So this cake served two purposes: to test Baked's nut and gluten free cake and to be a gluten free cake for my relatives that needed it. It preformed wonderfully. My guests were thrilled by the rich, brownie like cake and I was thrilled to find a replacement for my lost recipe. I have to admit, I like the other recipe a bit more--this one is richer and denser, which isn't bad, it's just a bit less cake-like. That said, if the one other replacement recipe I have yet to test doesn't turn out more like my old recipe, I'll be perfectly happy using this one. FYI: the cookbook suggests glazing the cake with chocolate ganache. I'm all for that! However in this case I wanted something a bit easier and lighter (given the quantity of desserts I was making and planning on eating) so I topped it some barely sweetened, fresh whipped cream and a light dusting of cinnamon. Delicious!

My Belated Birthday Party~The Food

As I mentioned before, I had a belated birthday party with a handful of family and close family friends. It was delightful! As I'm sure I've said in the past, my mom in an excellent cook, so she made all the food. We had:

Tarragon chicken salad with grapes and celery

Heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad with fresh basil

Home style potato salad with fresh dill and red onions

We also had egg salad and smoked salmon tartines. Everything was fresh and delicious! I think my favorite thing was the potato salad--partly because I love anything starchy and partly because it really was the perfect potato salad with the fresh dill, not too much mayo, and a nice zing from the buttermilk and the grainy Dijon mustard. It's almost a shame the food was so good, no one left much room for dessert (and I made a lot of dessert!)

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Remember the raspberry sour cream coffee cake I made? This is a variation of that. Instead of sour cream, I used fat free Greek yogurt. It made the texture of the cake a little bit tough but it tasted pretty much the same and made the cake lower fat and cal. Next time I think I'll try regular fat free yogurt (instead of Greek yogurt) since it has more moisture and, hopefully, will make the crumb a bit more tender. I also substituted sliced strawberries for the raspberries because I happened to have strawberries in the fridge that needed to be used up but no raspberries at all. I think I liked the raspberries more, but generally I like raspberries more so I'm not convinced it's a reflection on the cake. Overall not the perfect cake, but yummy nonetheless and (as cake goes) nearly healthy!

Two Perfect Snack Foods

Popcorn and nuts. And these aren't just popcorn and nuts, these are incredible popcorn and nuts! The popcorn is air popped and then tossed with a buttery, cinnamon-sugar-ancho chili mixture. It's almost sweet but with a zing from the ancho--delicious! The nuts--based on Union Square Cafe's bar nuts--also had a slight zing from chili powder but were milder than the popcorn. The mixture of toasted almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and Brazil nuts (the last two of which are apparently seeds, not nuts) was tossed with fresh rosemary, salt, and the aforementioned chili powder. I bet you won't be able to eat just one handful!

Strawberry Pancakes~with recipe!

I had a pint of strawberries that got really smashed up on the walk home (oops). I salvaged about half the pint and macerated them with balsamic vinegar and sugar and served them on a toasted spelt croissant spread with some vanilla mascarpone. Yum! The other half the pint was good for nothing but purée. I am currently without an ice cream maker, so there was no point in saving it for sorbet. Berry sauce would have been nice, but no fun. So I figured something with the berry purée in the batter (kind of like the way you can use apple sauce instead of oil with boxed cake mixes). What to do? Pancakes!

They were perfect! They were fluffy and light. They tasted very much like normal pancakes with pieces of strawberry added in, but better, because every bite had strawberry in it and there were no pockets of uncooked batter (as there can be under chunks of fruit.) Best of all they are pale pink! Okay, that's probably not the best thing, but they really are pretty.

I'm so happy with how they came out I'm going to share my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups AP flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Scant 1/2 pint strawberries, puréed (it will make about 1/2 cup purée)

Directions:

• In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients
• In a second bowl, beat the eggs, milk, vanilla, and strawberry purée together.
• Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until it forms a thick batter.
• Let the batter sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat and butter a frying pan or griddle.
• Ladle out about a 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan, making 1 or 2 pancakes at a time.
• Cook for about 2 minutes, until the underside is golden brown and the bubbles break the surface of the pancakes.
• If you want to add more fruit or chocolate chips (I recommend chocolate chips!) drop them on the surface of the pancakes now, before you flip them.
• Flip and cook the flip side for about a minute, until golden.
• If you aren't serving right away, put the finished pancakes on a foil lined pan in a warm oven.
• Repeat, buttering the pan as needed.
• Serve with real maple syrup.
• Makes about 20 fluffy, pinkish, perfect pancakes!

Birthday Bunny Cake

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom has made me a bunny cake for my bridal. Some years this was my official cake for my party, but more often than not it was just for us with a separate party cake. This year was no different, although my party isn't for another few weeks so there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. Regardless of how many cakes I have, I love my birthday bunny cake.

This year it was a coconut cake with vanilla buttercream and shredded coconut "fur". How cute? And it was certainly delicious. The cake was moist and light with just the right amount of sweetness and only a hint of coconut. The buttercream was creamy and the coconut, while a bit on the thick side (the shredded coconut pieces are much thicker than sweetened coconut but it looks furrier and unsweetened, which was good with the sweet cake and buttercream), complemented the coconut in the cake nicely. Yum! (Stay tuned for my party cake...it's going to be chocolate!)

Quasi Birthday Cake

Well technically this isn't a birthday cake--it isn't even a cake. I decided to practice some cake decorating in advance of my birthday because I couldn't decide what to make for my birthday cake. It hasn't actually helped me make up my mind but it was fun!

This is a cake dummy covered with white fondant and decorated with fondant cutouts and silver dragées. It was really very easy to make. The decorations are just 3 sizes of flowers cut from two colors of fondant. I didn't use and shaping tool or anything fancy, just stuck them right on the cake (with a bit of water). Then just a drop of water to stick the dragées onto the flowers and voilà! I think it's pretty and quite fun!

Marble Loaf Cake

This marble loaf cake from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is just delicious. The chocolate is richly, deeply, almost bitterly chocolaty. The vanilla is warmly sweet. The cake generally is moist and dense but not too heavy. The glaze is rich with white chocolate and sets very nicely. Plus it's remarkably simple to make and I think swirling the cake batter is a ton of fun (I like the method that Martha suggest of spooning in the batter in 2 layers both with a sort of checker board pattern, it helps distribute the chocolate and vanilla without risking over swirling the batters and blending them.)

The cake before swirling and after I took it out of the oven

Almond Cake (and a quick discussion of gluten free food)

This delicious, gluten free, almond cake is technically a Passover cake  (and that's why I made it this time) however I make it all year round. It's absurdly moist and delicious. It's easy enough to make and there's no need to decorate it with anything more than a dusting of powdered sugar. Finally, it's gluten free by design (rather than by substituting gluten free flours for wheat flour) which makes it perfect for people with coeliac disease (like my cousin).

The thing about gluten free baking is that baked goods that are gluten free by design (typically recipes designed for Passover because of the restrictions on grains/leavening/etc., as well as many cream and fruit based desserts) are almost always better than ones that are forced into being gluten free. Think about it:

• flourless chocolate cake
• coconut macaroons
• French macarons
• meringues and dacquoise
• mousses
• ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt/granita/semifreddos/mendiants/parfaits/etc (as long as they don't have additives like cookie pieces or any glutenous cake bases, which some of mine did, but you get the point)
• many candies (such as caramels) and chocolates (such as bonbons), 
• soufflés
• fruit and sabayon gratins
• panna cotta/creme caramel/creme brûlée/pots de creme/etc
• fruit salads and soups

All of these are naturally gluten free and delicious! 

Coconut Macaroons

This is by far my best batch of coconut macaroons ever! And just in time for Passover! I used finely grated coconut rather than the long, thickish strands of sweetened coconut. I know this helps with shaping and you don't end up with stray strands sticking out of the bottom edges of the cookie that brown first. I think that helped. The other thing that helped (and this is the big thing) is my new method for shaping them. I packed the eggy coconut tightly into a small ice cream scoop--one of the springy ones, so that I could get the perfectly packed mounds out without messing up the lovely shape. I think the firmly packed heaps of coconut browned evenly because they were packed and shaped evenly. Of course they tasted delicious as always, the texture was perfect (lighter than the traditional Manischewitz ones but still nice and moist with that distinctive coconutty chewiness) and they just looked so lovely and golden.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

My favorite food for Passover is coconut macaroons. They also happen to be one of my pop's favorite cookies for any time of year. Since Passover is coming up I thought I'd perfect my technique and appease Pop's sweet tooth.

I usually used shredded sweetened coconut for macaroons, but this time I used unsweetened coconut (which is drier and has a finer shred.) It's actually much easier to shape the macaroons because it's much smaller pieces of coconut and they are slightly less sweet (I upped bthe sugar significantly, but it's still less sweet) in a good way. For a little change, I mixed some finely chopped bittersweet chocolate into the "batter" of egg white, coconut, and sugar. It was very nice!

I should point out that coconut macaroons (as well as traditional French macarons) are actually gluten free, so for those who can't or don't eat gluten, these are a lovely cookie to make and eat.

Happy Pi Day

I'm a nerd at heart. I'm also a pastry chef (in case you didn't know). So Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. It combines math (March 14th --> 3/14 --> 3.14, which, of course, is pi) and dessert (pie) into one great holiday.

I happen to be on vacation and am staying with a friend. I didn't want to go crazy in her kitchen (which is a lovely kitchen, but still) so I opted for an ice box pie. This particular recipe comes by way of the William's-Sonoma pie cookbook. It's a cream cheese pie with oranges and a graham cracker crust. I admit the crust is store bought, like I said I didn't want to make a mess in the kitchen. I used heirloom navel oranges on top. they were sweeter and more flavorful than usual navel oranges, perhaps because the were organic and heirloom or perhaps because it's citrus season right about now. The filling's a mixture of cream cheese, lemon juice and condensed milk. It's a delicious, sticky mixture, but it did not thicken or set at all, so it was very messy!

The pie really didn't hold together like a pie when you cut into it (because the filling was too liquid) but gosh was it good! You don't even have to take my word for it: everyone loved it (and ate large helpings). I believe one word bandied around was "refreshing." I think that's a very accurate description of this yummy, citrus-y pie.

I had a little left over filling so I made a few mini pies.

Peppermint White Chocolate Fudge

Based off Paula Deen's dummy fudge recipe, this peppermint white chocolate fudge is absurdly easy to make. It also happens to be the smoothest fudge you will ever try. As you may have noticed, I much prefer dark chocolate over white chocolate; but there is something about the sweetness of white chocolate with peppermint that I love. Yum!

White and Dark Chocolate Brownies

I'm sure you recall that I love the Fat Witch Bakery regular brownie (and for that matter most of their other brownies). Well my pops was demanding chocolate brownies so I made a batch of regular Fat Witch Brownies. I wanted to make something new so I decided to make a second batch of brownies and ended up making white chocolate "Snow Witches."

The chocolate brownies were good as usual. Actually I used better quality chocolate (I've started buying Belgian chocolate in bulk so it costs about the same as Ghirardelli from the store) so they were as good as usual but a bit better due to the richer chocolate flavor. The white chocolate brownies were delicious! They look like blondies but were not really like a blondie at all, which was a pleasant surprise. They were sweet with a surprisingly strong white chocolate taste and pungent vanilla flavor. And the texture was superb. They were chewy and soft and not caky but not fudgy--just perfect

Don't they look nice together?