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!)