Take a Megabite

Applesauce Cake

Consider these the hip cousin of the petit four.
Or just consider it tasty, and slice it into big pieces instead.

Laura over at Rather Be Baking knows what’s up. I believed her when she said to trust her on this cake. She’s totally right; it’s the best.

This is just the perfect weeknight cake. It comes together quickly, in one bowl and bakes up in only 30 minutes. Chances are you’ll want to keep eating slivers of this cake as you walk by. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Applesauce Cake
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker via Rather Be Baking

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 1/8 t cloves
• 1/8 t ginger
• cinnamon frosting (optional), recipe follows

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 inch pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Beat all of the ingredients together for 3 minutes.
3. Pour in prepared dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
4. Cool completely before slicing into bite size pieces.
5. Top with a smidgen of cinnamon frosting, if you’re feelin’ it.

Cinnamon Frosting

• 3 T butter, softened
• generous sprinkling of cinnamon
• 1 heaping cup powdered sugar
• 1 T milk

Directions:

1. Beat all of the ingredients together and pipe a teeny flour on each cake bite.

And here’s Elliot, looking like such a gentleman.

I bet you wouldn’t even believe that he stole some cake off the table like a jerk.
So there you go! Both Jake AND Elliot love this cake.

Strawberry Stack Cake

I like that this cake kinda looks like a super huge stack of pancakes. I like that there’s strawberry jam keeping it real between six layers of sugar cookie-esque goodness. I like that at the end I get to dust it with powdered sugar.

I really like the dusting with powdered sugar part.

It maybe doesn’t look like it here, but those guys are the same size. I weighed them all on my tiny scale to make sure none were getting more dough than their siblings.

This is a make-ahead kinda thing. After sitting in the fridge overnight or a couple days it slices like cake, and tastes like a cookie. Rumor has it that back in the day ladies would make this cake a day or two before wash-day, because on that day they didn’t have time to make a dessert. Dessert’s always been important.

Strawberry Stack Cake
Recipe adapted from Cook’s Country

Ingredients:

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 cup buttermilk*
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups strawberry jam, approximately
• 2 T confectioners’ sugar

* Substitute: pour 3/4 t of lemon juice in the bottom of a 1/4 cup measuring cup and top with milk. Set aside for a couple minutes, then use!

Directions:

1. Make dough. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl or measuring cup. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until combined, then buttermilk mixture. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture gradually until combined.
2. Shape rounds. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Pat each into a 5-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350º and cut six 9-inch parchment rounds. Line 8 inch cake pan or pot with parchment paper and press chilled dough disk into bottom of lined pan (like below), in an attempt to get uniform 8 inch circles. (Mine weren’t so perfect.) Transfer round to rimmed baking sheet. Repeat, placing second round 1/2 inch apart. Repeat with 2 additional disks on second rimmed baking sheet. Bake until just golden round edges, 16-20 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Cool 10 minutes on sheets, then transfer to counter to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
   
3. Assemble.* Place 1 cooled cake round on serving platter. Spread 3-4 tablespoons of strawberry jam over cake, leaving a 1/2 inch border uncovered, then top with another round. Repeat with remaining strawberry jam and cake rounds, finishing with cake. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until cake has softened, at least 8 hours or up to 3 days. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve. *(If your cakes aren’t perfect circles feel free to trim the edges, like I did. I even trimmed the cake after it sat in the fridge for a couple days.)
   

Cookie-ish cake scraps.

Strawberry Shortcake Sushi + Strawberry Coulis

Sometimes all I want to talk about is ice cream and puppies. Sometimes all I think about is dessert, and sometimes I fall in love with a blog (like sprinklebakes) and can’t stop thinking about techniques. Next thing you know, I’m making strawberry shortcake sushi.

It’s my brother’s birthday. And since my mom’s in town he wanted us to make brunch (I mean lunch) for him. My mom made sandwich-rolls aka rearranged cheeseburgers and potato salad and I made this for dessert, with her help, of course. She helped roll the sushi and helped me sample everything this morning. Oh, and she’s the hand model down there holding chopsticks.

Strawberry Shortcake Sushi
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light + technique from Sprinkle Bakes

Ingredients:

cake -

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs + 2 more egg whites
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 T powdered sugar, for the towel when wrapping the cake

filling* -

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 t vanilla or 1/2 a vanilla bean
• 1 cup diced strawberries + more for topping

* I had a little less than half left over, so feel free to cut the filling recipe in half and you should be fine.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400º. Coat a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll cookie sheet with cooking spray; line the bottom with parchment paper, and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl using an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer beat together the eggs and sugar at high speed until pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Stir in vanilla.
3. Add the flour mixture half at a time mixing on low until each portion is mixed in completely.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.
5. While the cake is baking sprinkle a clean dish towel with powdered sugar.
6. Remove the cake from the oven. Cut the cake in half long ways so that you have 2 long rectangles. Invert onto the powdered sugared towel. Peel off the parchment and on each side of the towel roll the cakes from the long side toward the center. Flip the towel wrapped cakes over seem-side down on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour to cool.
7. Make filling. Beat together the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy and thick. Stir in the strawberries.
8. Unroll the cakes from the towel and either pipe or spread the filling into the center. Roll up so the ends touch and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a couple hours or over night.
9. Slice, using a serrated knife into sushi-sized pieces. I ended up with about 18 pieces. Top with a strawberry slice and serve with strawberry coulis (recipe below).

Strawberry Coulis! The soy sauce of this sushi.

Strawberry Coulis
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quartered and hulled strawberries, mashed
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 T granulated sugar
• 1 T lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine strawberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until very smooth. Press through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cool. Place in a small dish for sushi dipping!

Banana Snack Cake + Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

I had four bananas that were a way too freckled to function. They needed a home. So I figured why not put them in a cake and top them with the dreamiest frosting ever and call it a snack.

Do me a favor and try not to be as impatient as I was about frosting this cake, ok? On top of it being super hot out, and hotter in my kitchen, this cake wasn’t completely cooled when I frosted it. The frosting tried to melt. But now the cake is hangin’ out in fridge, which happens to be the only place in my flat with air conditioning. So this cake is livin’ it up.

Do you have some oldie bananas laying around causing trouble? Make this! It’s tasty.

Banana Snack Cake
Recipe adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 cups cake flour*
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t vanilla

* If you don’t have cake flour on hand, just use all-purpose. No problem.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and pale. Add eggs one at a time. Beating until thoroughly mixed. Add bananas and mix until evenly distributed.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt). Add dry mixture to the banana mixture. Add vanilla. When smooth pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out mostly clean and the top is golden. Cool and frost cake! Or if you don’t feel like frosting it, just sprinkle it with powered sugar and serve it up.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 T honey
• 1/8 t ground cinnamon

Direction:

1. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately!

Elliot’s favorite place to lounge.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake

I’m just so glad strawberries and rhubarb are bffs. I’d be sad if they had a falling out.

It was hot yesterday. Hot and gross and my hair was wavy against it’s will. My fridge let out a gusty wind of cold air every time I opened it, just to show off the fact that it was nice and chilly in there and I was roasting out here. I wore a hat to cover my head and I baked this cake anyway.

The best pie my mom has ever made involved both rhubarb and strawberries. They are a duo that can do no wrong. That tasty pie memory gave me great confidence in this cake, since until now I’d never made anything with rhubarb!

I find crumb-topped anything very comforting, and since I recently came into some rhubarb, I knew I needed to do something with it … something involving strawberries.

And my hot kitchen was worth it! Even my bad hair! This cake is a crumb topped sweet + tart dream.

Just a few more of my favorite crumb-topped recipes for you:
Blueberry Streusel Pancakes + Mini Dutch Apple Galettes + Peach Crumble.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake {serves 8}
Recipe from Sugar Plum

Ingredients:

cake -

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 6 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 2/3 cup chopped rhubarb

crumb topping -

• 5 T unsalted butter, chilled
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan, tart pan, or springform pan. (If using a cake pan cut out a circle of parchment paper for the bottom and grease that.)
2. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until mixed completely. Gradually beat in flour, alternating with milk until combined. Spread cake batter evenly in prepared pan.
3. Top batter with strawberries and rhubarb. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the crumb topping by combining brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 5 tablespoons of butter. Knead together using fingertips or a fork until mixture starts to clump together. Set in the freezer until ready to use.
5. When cake has baked 20 minutes, top evenly with crumb mixture. (I only used about 1/2 of the crumb mixture because I used a tart pan and the crumb would’ve fallen everywhere. I froze the left overs!) Continue baking for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with a couple moist crumbs attached. Cool for 30 minutes before running a knife around the edges and carefully invert. Invert again onto a platter. Be careful! This cake is very delicate. If using a springform pan simply remove the sides and cool until ready to remove the bottom.

Note: I made this cake in a tart pan because I knew it would be a shorty. It was a bit tricky to get out of the pan though AND I couldn’t use all of the crumb topping because I used such a short pan. So you might want to use a springform pan or maybe a cake pan or even a pie pan! If you use a pie pan you won’t even need to bother with inverting. Just sayin’!

Take a bite that pairs both tart and sweet.
It’s all about coordination, not being matchy.

Woodgrain Cake + Fudge Frosting + Meringue Mushrooms

I brought this cake two and a half hours away to be the post-bbq dessert on Memorial Day. All of the mushrooms survived the trip. I thought that was nice of them.

I’ve been wanting a reason to make meringue mushrooms ever since I knew they existed. This woodgrain cake gave me the motivation to finally do it!

Would you care to have this piece? I’d totally share if Jake and I hadn’t finished the last two pieces after our pizza last night. But you should know that this cake is dense and dreamy. And the frosting is dark chocolatey and fudgey and just the perfect accent to the cake, I’d say.

Woodgrain Cake
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 t vanilla or 1/2 a vanilla bean
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 3 T Dutch process cocoa

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9″ x 2″ round cake pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl (using a hand mixer) or in the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On a low speed, blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed for a couple minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl.
4. Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place in a 2 cup measuring cup. Sift the cocoa over the remaining batter and stir to combine.
5. Now to get your woodgrain on. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue alternating batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all the batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center (like below).
   
6. Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and a small sharp knife inserted into the center comes out clean. The top will probably crack, don’t worry about it. Test inside the cracks to be sure it’s done. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with fudge frosting!

Check out the woodgrain! I think if this was a real tree it’d be 10 years old.

Fudge Frosting
Recipe from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 T milk
• 1 t vanilla

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, beat powdered sugar and cocoa powder into the butter until smooth. Add the vanilla and slowly add the milk. Beat until it’s smooth and fabulous.
2. Frost that cake! Make meringue mushrooms!

These mushrooms are fun. Half of the ones I made turned out cute and were useable and the rest were practice and some were weirdos so I didn’t use them. Pictured are the ones that had potential to be toadstools. So there you go. It was the perfect amount!

Swiss Meringue Mushrooms
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

meringue -

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 t vanilla extract

equipment -

• a candy thermometer

mushroom assembly -

• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate
• 1 ounce white chocolate

sprinkling -

• cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Make meringue! Combine the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl of a standing electric mixer; set over a pan of simmering water. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the bowl. Cook, whisking constantly by hand, until the mixture registers 140ºF and the sugar is dissolved (it should feel slippery and smooth when rubbed between your fingertips), about 5 minutes. (I had trouble getting my candy thermometer to reach the mixture so I just kept taking the bowl off the water and tilting the bowl to see what temperature it read. It worked though!)
2. Transfer bowl to a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Starting on low and gradually increasing to high speed, mix until the meringue is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl), and forms stiff, glossy (but not dry) peaks, about 10 minutes. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Bake! Preheat the oven to 200ºF. Line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer swiss meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip (#6 for small mushrooms like I made).For caps, pipe dome shapes in various sizes onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten tips with a damp finger. Pipe stems onto baking sheets, releasing pressure halfway and pulling up to form a peak. Make one stem for each cap. (The stems take practice…)
4. Bake the meringue shapes for 1 hour, rotating halfway through. Reduce oven temperature to 175ºF. Continue baking until meringue is completely dry to the touch but not taking on any color, 30-45 minutes longer.
5. Assemble! Melt bittersweet chocolate carefully in the microwave. Using a small offset spatula, spread a thin layer of bittersweet chocolate on the bottom  cooled caps. Cool until set. Melt white chocolate carefully in the microwave. Spread over the bittersweet chocolate.
6. Using a paring knife, make a small hole in the center of the coated cap. Dip one end of the stem into the remaining white chocolate and insert into the hole; place on a plate and refrigerate until set. Top the frosted woodgrain cake. Sprinkle with cocoa powder.

So now you know how I spent my Sunday.

Lemon Drenched Lemon Cakes

I know that I’m not very good at washing dishes. I know that I always want crêpes for dinner. I know that I don’t like construction people making a racket at 7:00am. And I REALLY know that Mondays are better with cake.

This cake is zesty and bright. Basically this cake will punch you in the face with dreamy and fresh lemony flavors.

You might want to split a piece with your total BFF. You might want to keep the whole thing for yourself.

So, you should probably make this today, because your Monday will be way more tasty.

Lemon Drenched Lemon Cakes
Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan via Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

cakes -

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 plump, moist vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
• 2/3 cups heavy cream
• zest of two lemons, finely grated
• 1 stick + 7 T (15 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

syrup -

• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• juice of two lemons

Directions:

1. Make the cakes! Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350ºF. Butter two loaf pans, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Even if they are nonstick, it’s still good to grease them, just to be sure! Place the pans on a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl, working with your fingers, rub them together until the sugar is moist and smells fabulously lemony. It will be magical. Add the vanilla bean seeds and work them into the sugar. If you’re using vanilla extract, add it later after you’ve added the eggs.
4. Add the eggs and whisk them into the sugar, beating until they are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract (if using), then whisk in the cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions. Pour the batter into the pans, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
5. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. As soon as the cake goes into the oven, make the syrup. After about 30 minutes in the oven, check the cakes for color – if they are browning too quickly, tent them with foil.
6. Make the syrup! Stir the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts and it’s no longer grainy when stirred. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour syrup into a heatproof bowl and let cool.
7. When the cakes test done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding them and turning them right side up on the rack. Place the rack over a baking sheet lined with wax paper and using a thin skewer, cake tester or thin-bladed sharp knife poke holes all over the cakes. Brush the cakes all over with the syrup, working slowly so that the cakes sop it up. Leave the drenched cakes on the rack to cool to room temperature.

Just drenching the lemon cakes with lemon syrup.

Lemon Yogurt Cake + Blackberry Sauce

I have a new oven! So I have cake!

Have you ever been to a cake wedding? This may as well have been one. A lemon cake and some blackberry sauce eloped, and nobody judged them.

Have you ever eaten blackberries and felt like you were getting bullied by seeds? Well, don’t bother worrying about that with this delicious sauce topping this lemony cake. After blending the sauce ingredients, you simply strain it through a fine mesh strainer and next thing you know it’s a dream come true.

Lemon Yogurt Cake + Blackberry Sauce
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

cake -

• 1 cup whole milk plain yogurt or 2% Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• scant 1 T lemon zest, about half a lemon
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/8 t salt

sauce -

• 12-ish ounces fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Make the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan with oil or cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper if not using a springform pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, sugar, lemon 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. It may appear lumpy, but don’t bother over-mixing.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen. If using a springform pan, unclasp the sides. Otherwise, flip the cake onto a plate and flip back onto the rack.
4. Make sauce. Combine blackberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in a blender (or food processor). Blend until very smooth. Press through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cold.
5. Serve cake slightly warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, slice and top with about a tablespoon of blackberry sauce.

Yum. For real. I miss it already…

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

The other night I woke up mad from a post-work nap because the pizza dough I took out of the freezer was still frozen. After a hunger-induced breakdown, Jake made me the grilled cheese of my dreams and I was back to my normal wanting-to-make-a-cake self. So here you go! A pretty cake that you probably have all the ingredients for already!

So the middle got stuck to the pan a little bit… soley because I probably had teeny brown sugar clumps that wanted to stay together instead of disperse. You can’t blame them though, right? They’re friends who can’t get enough of each other.

And everyone knows that when you make a cake that has a few teeny imperfections, all it needs is powdered sugar and it’s back to it’s pretty self.

Do you guys see the little troop of vanilla beans in that slice of dreamy brown sugar cake? It’s all because Jake got me vanilla bean paste for christmas and I use it in place of vanilla extract now and then to make things a little bit more tasty.

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake
Recipe from Almost Bourdain + originally from Good Housekeeping

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 10 T butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 T vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a Bundt pan and dust with flour.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda). Set aside.
3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer at a low speed, beat butter and sugars together until blended. Increase speed to medium high and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed back to low; add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth.
4. Spoon batter evenly into pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.

How’re you doing, cake?

I have a silicon bundt pan, and I love it. After baking you can wiggle the middle and pull out the sides to see how the cake is doing.

Gateau Au Chocolat + French Silk Frosting + Freckled Whipped Cream

I’ve got my christmas tree on my mind. I’ve got it on my mind, because it’s currently still in my living room. I need to take it down before it becomes a Valentine’s day tree and then an Easter tree… Yeah, I need to take that tree down.

But mostly I have chocolate on my mind. AND I got a this pretty cake stand for my birthday and it was dying to be super helpful.

AND this cake is chocolaty and dreamy, and if you like scrumptious things, you’ll love this.

Gateau Au Chocolat (chocolate cake)
Recipe from I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot

Ingredients:

• Scant 1/3 cup butter
• 4 3/4 ounces chocolate, chopped
• 4 eggs, separated (room temperature, preferably)
• 3/4 cup flour
• Scant 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 t vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Grease a cake pan with butter or cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and then grease that as well. In a pan, melt the chocolate with the butter over very low heat, or melt using a double boiler. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks one at a time, followed by flour and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl using a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes. When the cake comes out of the oven, allow to cool completely, then frost! (If you frost too soon, the french silk frosting will get melty and weird and it’ll just be sad for such a delicious cake to have complexion problems.)

French Silk Frosting (If making a layer cake, double the recipe)
Recipe from www.cooks.com

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 T milk

Directions:

1. Beat sugar, butter, chocolate and vanilla in a medium bowl, scraping often on low speed. Slowly beat in the milk until smooth.

Freckled Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup whipped cream
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• Left-over frosting bits

Directions:

1. Add heaving whipping cream and powdered sugar to the bowl used to make the french silk frosting.Beat on high until thick, stiff peaks form. Thickly spread over the french silk frosted cake.
2. Slice and eat. Preferably with coffee…and maybe on a plate instead of over the sink, like I did.

Bon Appetit!