Pumpkin Roll

 Fall has arrived. I know this because there are leaves on the ground and I watch children walk to school all bundled up in coats and hats. I know it's Fall because the stores are full of pumpkins and gourds and Halloween costumes and cinnamon scented candles. 

Grilled Cornmeal Pound Cake

When I worked in an office, once a month we'd get a bakery-made cake and celebrate everyone who had birthdays that month. You know the cakes... the ones with tons of too-sweet frosting and big gloppy roses on the corners. There was always somebody who wanted the corners so they could have more frosting. Then there were the people who wanted a middle piece without too much frosting, and even then, they'd end up scraping it off. 

Ooey Gooey Butter Layer Cake - Paula Deen

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My sister made this recipe around Christmastime and she said it was delicious and everyone who ate it raved about it. I invited friends over for dinner and cake for one of their birthdays and asked what kind of cake he wanted. He requested anything but chocolate, so I decided to make this.

Raspberry Buckle

This is week 7 for our garden this year. We got a late start because of too much rain. I don't think the garden is as lush as last year at this time, but it's doing okay. The herbs I put in pots are along the edge of the garden and they are thriving. We've harvested spinach and radishes and one or two small tomatoes so far. There are bell peppers, yellow peppers and jalapeno's on the plants and lots of tomatoes and of course, zucchini with several blossoms already. The new deck is coming along and the railing will be up shortly.

When I was a kid, we'd pick blueberries just down the road from where we lived. My dad punched two holes in big tin cans and strung a rope through it so we could hang the can around our neck. . 

I wish I had that setup yesterday when a friend let me pick these raspberries. I could only pick one-handed, but even that didn't stop me though from filling my bucket with these crimson beauties!

I came home and made Raspberry Buckle. How is a Buckle different from a Slump, a Grunt, a Cobbler, a Crumble, or a Betty? You can get the scoop right here.

The recipe I used is from Martha and it was very good. I didn't have any vanilla ice cream in the house, but I think a scoop along side a warm scoop of this would be great!

Best Cheesecake Ever!

Whenever I need a cheesecake, I rely on this one that I found  in 2001. It's rich, cheesy and creamy... perfect if you want a plain cheesecake that can be topped with fruit.  

Apparently, this recipe was served at the Old Original Bookbinder's Restaurant in Philadelphia, which was the oldest seafood restaurant in the city. The restaurant began as an oyster saloon in 1865 by Dutch immigrant, Samuel Bookbinder. The restaurant filed Chapter 11 in 2006 and has since closed, but another restaurant continues operation today in Richmond, VA.

I adapted this recipe slightly in the amount of graham cracker crumbs I use. The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons to be sprinkled over the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. That amount doesn't begin to cover the bottom of the pan, so I use the crumbs of five whole graham crackers.  

If you've never made a cheesecake, don't be intimidated. I think it's easier to make than a cake. Try this recipe and your family and friends will think you're amazing!

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Best Cheesecake Ever! 

5 whole graham crackers (processed to make crumbs)

4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp lemon zest

Sprinkle the bottom of a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan with the graham cracker crumbs. Combine the cream cheese and sugar. Mix at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon rind. Pour batter into the pan and bake in a preheated 325F oven for 50 minutes or until cake is set in the center. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill before serving. Top with fruit of your choice.

Orange Bundt Cake

Maybe it's this long, cold and snowy winter that has me craving something summery and bright. Maybe I'm Vitamin C deficient. I have no other explanation for what made me pick up an 8 pound bag of oranges the other day. We ate some oranges and squeezed some fresh juice for breakfast, but I had to find another way to use them up!

So, this orange, citrusy, summery, light and lovely cake was born. 

I used a citrus reamer (one of my favorite gadgets) to get the fresh juice that goes into this cake and a lot of the pulp ended up in the juice, which I included in the cake. Along with the zest, it left tiny bits of bright orange in the baked cake. Without using an electric juicer, I think a citrus reamer does the best job of juicing fruit. If you don't have one, you might consider getting one... it's inexpensive and it does a great job!

This is a really nice cake with lots of orange flavor and a nice light orange aroma. It'd be a good choice to take to a potluck, or to give as a gift. This cake stores well and stays moist wrapped in plastic.

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Orange Bundt Cake - Adapted from here

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

zest from 4 large oranges

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray bundt pan with cooking spray. 

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a small bowl.

Beat together butter, sugar, and zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Whisk in sour cream and orange juice. Add flour mixture a cup at a time and mix until combined.

Transfer batter to bundt pan and bake on middle rack until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes then turn out onto rack.

Tuscan Coffeecake

I 'liked' King Arthur Flour on Facebook and this lovely coffeecake showed up yesterday on their page. 

It begins with a starter (flour, water and yeast) that must rest at room temperature overnight. In the morning, you add other ingredients to make the dough, then knead in toasted walnuts, chopped dates, and golden raisins. I used golden raisins and dried cranberries and soaked them overnight in brandy. You can substitute with whatever fruit you like and make it your own! If you soak the fruit in brandy, be sure to drain it well before you knead it into the dough.

Kneading the fruit into the dough is a sticky situation at best. I put a small bowl of water close by and dipped my fingers in it occasionally which helped tame the dough! The fruit and nut studded dough is placed into a 9" cake pan and left to rise slightly for 30 minutes. Just before it goes into the oven, a light mixture of sugar, vanilla and water is drizzled over the top. Because this isn't a really sweet cake, this gives the top of the cake a really nice sweetness and crunch.

I impatiently waited for the cake to cool so I could cut a slice. It is perfect... a soft, yeasty bread with all that deliciousness kneaded in! I started eating it with a fork, but it didn't take long before I was tearing off pieces and eating it with my hands - it's just that kind of cake!

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Tuscan Coffeecake - From King Arthur Flour

STARTER
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup cool water
1/16 teaspoon instant yeast

Mix the starter ingredients in a small (about 1-quart) bowl, and let rest overnight at room temperature.

DOUGH
all of the starter
2/3 cup water
2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

FILLING
1 cup toasted walnuts, very coarsely chopped
3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup raisins, golden preferred

TOPPING
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water

Combine the dough ingredients, mixing and kneading to form a smooth, supple dough. It’ll be very slack; for this reason, I suggest kneading in a bread machine, or with a mixer, rather than by hand. Place the dough in a bowl, and let it rise about 1 hour. It may not double in bulk; that’s OK.

Gently deflate the dough, and knead the nuts and fruit into it. Shape the dough into a flat ball, and place it in a 9-inch round cake pan. Cover the pan with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaf to rise for 30 minutes, or till it barely crests over the top of the pan.

Combine the sugar, vanilla and water, and drizzle this mixture over the top of the risen coffeecake. Bake it in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 minutes, or until it’s golden brown and the internal temperature registers 190°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes, carefully turn it out of the pan. Allow it to cool on a rack. Yield: 1 cake, about 8 to 10 servings.

Karen

Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie was invented in 1856 by French Chef Sanzian, who was hired at the opening of the Parker House Hotel (now Omni Parker House) in Boston. 154 years ago, The Parker House was the first hotel in Boston to have hot and cold running water and an elevator! Today, they still serve this signature dish, as well as their  Parker House Rolls.


As you know, this isn't a pie as we know it, but a tender sponge cake split horizontally, filled with vanilla custard and topped with chocolate ganache.  


To me, this is comfort food. I was born near Boston and lived there until I was a young teen. My Mom made Boston Cream Pies often, using a yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding for the filling and chocolate frosting for the topping and it was still delicious!

I made this from scratch a few weeks back (my birthday cake!) It's just a little bit of work because you have to make the cake, the custard and the ganache, but it's so worth it!

Boston Cream Pie - from The Food Network

Ingredients for cake:

1 c plus 2 T sifted cake flour

2/3 c sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c milk
1/4 c cooking oil

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Ingredients for Pastry Cream

2 c whole milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out

6 egg yolks

2/3 c sugar

1/4 c cornstarch

1 T butter

Ingredients for Ganache

8 oz semisweet chocolate

1 c heavy cream, boiling

Preheat oven to 350. In medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add milk, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on low until combined. Beat an additional 3 minutes on high speed and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Pour the egg yolk mixture over the egg white mixture and fold in. Pour batter into a 9-inch greased cake pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Pastry cream filling: In medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside for 15 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Whisk in 1/4 c of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture, reserving the empty saucepan. 

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Let cool slightly. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least two hours.

Ganace: In a medium bowl, pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until melted.

To assemble: remove the cake from the pan. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Place bottom layer on a serving plate and spread the pastry cream. Top with second cake layer. Pour chocolate ganache over and down the sides of the cake. Store in refrigerator.

Ricotta Pound Cake

I came across this recipe at bleeding espresso which is a fun and interesting blog. Here's the "About" for you of bleeding espresso:

Michelle Fabio, an American writer and attorney leaves the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania for her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy, falls in love, adopts two dogs and two kids (baby goats), tends to chicken, rabbits, ducks, and a growing garden, writes to her heart's content, and begins bleeding espresso. No, really.

This pound cake took forever to bake. It rose up in the pan and somebody (I'm claiming the 5th) opened the oven door and the cake went pffffffft! I was able to cut two very nice slices from each end of the cake but the middle sunk and ended up being only a couple inches high, very dense and not pretty at all.

I hate it when that happens.

This cake tasted absolutely wonderful, but I wasn't pleased with the texture. I'm thinking I might take what is left and try making a bread pudding (pound cake pudding?) with it. When I make it again, I won't open the oven door until it's almost done and I'll use a ricotta that is a little more wet. This batch was rather dry, which might have had something to do with it.

Whether you make your own ricotta or use store-bought, I'd love to hear if you try this recipe and how it turned out!

FIND RECIPE HERE

How to Make a Chocolate Cake

When my daughter was six years old I asked her to write down the ingredients she would use to make a chocolate cake. You can see her simple recipe. All she needed were six strawberries and a pound of sugar. I'm sure I helped her with the spelling on this card...

... and not on this one. She was seven years old when she wrote this recipe card. The spelling was definitely her own. She still had the strobarereas in the recipe, but also had the addition of some jelli bins. Apparently this was going to be her birthday cake. I know that because she wanted sevin candols on the cake.

This card was written in 1993 when she was 11 years old. Ah, she was getting better at this! No strawberries this time, though and it seems like the most important instruction was to EAT!!! the cake.

Finally, in 1997 I asked her to do this again. She didn't want to. She was 15 years old and I suppose it seemed kind of a silly thing to do. But I told her she had to, because I am the mother after all.

Carrot Cake

All of the recipes for carrot cake that I've seen call for grated carrots. This recipe is a little different in that it calls for cooked and mashed carrots. Let's make it!

Sift the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, powder, salt, soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Eggs, mashed carrots, oil and crushed pineapple go into another bowl. No need for the Kitchen Aid for this recipe... everything mixes up easily by hand!
Add raisins and chopped walnuts. Pour into a 9-inch cake pan and bake for 45 minutes at 350F.
This made a very moist and delicious cake. Now I know that to some people carrot cake just isn't complete until you add cream cheese frosting, so I've included that in the recipe which you can find by clicking right here.

If you're up for making your favorite carrot cake, you might win this fabulous cookbook! Check out the details by clicking on the carrot cake button on my left sidebar!

Bolzano Apple Cake

I was out blog-walking one morning and stopped by Alexandra's Kitchen where I tasted this recipe with my eyes and just knew I had to try it!

It was a bit chilly here in HAVRE, MONTANA today, so I thought it'd be a good idea to bake something in my new oven. My gardener bought it for me, and he is gonna get double smooches tonight for that, let me tell you!

The stove has five burners... one for simmer, one for big time pans and three for regular cookin', doncha know. (Have you ever watched the movie, Fargo... it's hilarious!)

Alexandra also has an Orange and Olive Oil Cake that I'm freakin' dyin' to make, but first I have to place an order with Temecula Olive Oil Company for a bottle of their Citrus Reserve Olive Oil-Late Harvest (and a few other items... you'll know what I mean when you visit their site).

But for now... back to the Bolzano Apple Cake.

From what I gather, this recipe was published in the New York Times and when The Chefs of America (that's you and me, folks) tested this recipe they found that something was just a little bit off. So, The Times ran a correction , and presumably, (I like that word today, don't you?) that's the one to go with.

So, use it if you must...but I hafta tell you that my version turned out super-delicioso... but do what feels good... after all, the U.S. of A. is still a free country. Yay!

This cake, presumably, is named for the use of the olive oil in the recipe from Balzano, Italy? I'm guessing here, but it sounds right, eh?
Okay, let's get started. Spray a 9" cake pan with cooking spray. Cut a piece of parchment for the bottom, put it in the pan and then spray the parchment. I put a couplaeggs and 1/2 cup sugar into the mixer and set it on low. I slowly added the rest of the sugar and mixed until thick.

I took out a loan at my favorite bank and bought some vanilla beans. I scraped the seeds and put them into the butter/sugar mixture.

I melted a stick of butter (that's 4 ounces) and set it aside. The vanilla pod went into the melted butter.

I peeled four small Gala apples...

... then thinly sliced the apple pieces.

Remove the vanilla pod from the butter and toss it. Stir the butter into the sugar/egg mixture. Look at that batter... doncha just want to hop right in there?? You can see the vanilla seeds in the batter!

I combined the flour, salt, and baking powder, then mixed that into the batter, alternating with the heavy cream.

I added the apple slices and stirred them in by hand, making sure each apple slice was is coated with the yummy, gooey batter I just created.

The recipe said to "pour" the batter into the pan. This batter was so thick of everything good, I pretty much "placed" it in the pan. (This might have had something to do with using heavy cream instead of milk, which the recipe called for.)

The recipe says to bake for 25 minutes at 350 then rotate the pan (I didn't) and bake for another 30 minutes until the cake pulls away and is brown on top.

Cool for 30 minutes (if you can wait that long) then cut into wedges. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (if you can wait that long).

This cake is SO good. I offered my gardener a slice and he loved it. The eggs and cream make a light, but rich, custard that surrounds the apple slices and just melts in your mouth.

I knew I didn't want this cake hanging around because I'd eat the whole thing... so my gardener took half of it over to the Havre Relatives... there's no sense in them being the only skinny ones around.