#BundtBakers: Spice

March 20, 2014March 20, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 22 Comments

I am happy to announce that I have joined another group of bloggers. #BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. This month’s host is Deepti from Baking Yummies.

Stuart was not thrilled that I signed up for a baking group. He has been complaining that there are too many sweets around the house. Normally that wouldn’t really be a true statement but it seems 2014 has brought with it the “need to bake” with the Olympics, Valentine’s Day, cookies for bowling that turned into rice krispie treats for us, Mardi Gras, and Pi Day there really have been a lot of goodies on our counter. Including sweets from his mom and aunt!

I even think he was trying to sabotage my participation efforts by hiding the bundt pan above the refrigerator. (Note: I’m 4’11”) And “knowing” that I do my baking when he is out training for a race or playing golf it could become impossible for me to make my cake!

Luckily I have a little step stool that I bought my freshman year of college to help me get up in my bed, which we raised to put the mini-fridge underneath. This little stool has been with me since and has even come in handing reserving a parking space during football weekends!

For my first bundt I am making one of my busia’s recipes. Apple Bundt Cake. But to follow the theme of spice I added 1 tbsp of cinnamon to the batter. The baking time of 1:20 was almost torturous – the aromas of baking apples and cinnamon – but that’s nothing compared to the hour you must allow it to cool before making the sauce which finishes off the cake with a glaze of heavenly brown sugar.

P.S. – Stuart, although telling me he was mad at me, greatly enjoyed this cake!

Fresh Apple Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C vegetable oil
1 3/4 C sugar
4 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 C four
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 C chopped peeled apples
1/2 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
2 tsp milk

Steps:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
In a large bowl sift flour and mix with baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Add flour to egg mixture in 3 batches, making sure each addition is combined. With a spatula, fold in the chopped apples.
Pour batter in prepared bundt pan and bake 1 hour 20 minutes. Let cool 1 hour.
In a small sauce pan bring butter, brown sugar, and milk to a boil. Let boil for two minutes. Spoon over bundt pan and spread until cake is covered.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, send an email to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com or ask to join our private Facebook group. This is a purely administrative group. All recipe and photographs can be found on our individual blogs or on our Pinterest board.

And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:

Orange Cardamom Mini Bundt Cakes by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom

Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake by Tara at Noshing With The Nolands

Sweet Potato Pound Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days

Rum & Ginger Grapefruit Cake by Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Apple Cinnamon Bundt Cake by Kathya at Basic N Delicious

Spiced Applesauce Bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Rum Glaze by Lauren at From Gate to Plate

Saffron and Tahitian Vanilla Infused Bundt Cake by Laura at The Spiced Life

Honey and Beer Spiced Bundt Cake by Felice at All That’s Left Are The Crumbs

Saffron Vanilla Bean and Orange Mini Bundt Cake by Deepti at Bakingyummies

Peach and Spiced Tea Bundt Cake by Stacy at Food Lust People Love

Olympic Ring Cupcake Display

February 7, 2014February 4, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

The Opening Ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympics is tonight at 7:30/6:30C. If you are having a watching party I have the perfect display for your dessert table. I know there are many wonderful Olympics-related food ideas on Pinterest – hopefully this post will add me to the party!

I used two different boxes of cake mix for this project – one chocolate and one white. I really did this because that’s what I happened to have in my cupboard, but I firmly recommend following suit. Not only does it offer your guests options, but it makes it much easier to place the cupcakes prior to frosting.

Make a double batch of butter cream (single recipe listed below) and divide evenly into four bowls. Color the frosting in red, blue, yellow, and green. Frost the respective rings appropriately. YOU WILL HAVE LEFT OVER FROSTING! Combine the left over red, blue, and green along with 3/8 C of cocoa powder. Now you have chocolate butter cream frosting for the black ring. I opted to not create black frosting because I find it to be unappetizing, additionally black frosting tends to stain mouths, hands, etc.

If you want to avoid dying frosting, you can easily use plain frosting and then use respective sprinkles – in which case I approve of using black! 😉

Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 C powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Steps:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat butter. Add in powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until combined. (If frosting doesn’t come together, add just a little bit of milk at a time until a smooth texture is reached.)

*This recipe comes from my friend Kate*

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

October 18, 2013July 16, 2016 ~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

Today would have been my grandmother’s 81st birthday. In honor of her I made a cake from her recipe box – Busy Day Chocolate Cake. My brother always requested this cake for his birthday.

Busy Day Chocolate Cake, as the name suggests, is a chocolate cake that can be made on a busy day. It only takes 5 minutes to make the batter and 30 minutes in the oven. The longest process is letting the cake cool before frosting it.

Busia must’ve been helping me recreate her recipe because for the first time ever my cake came out of the pan cleanly and easily.

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 1/3 C flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C vegetable shortening
1 C buttermilk
1 egg

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt chocolate: microwave 30 seconds, stir, microwave another 30 seconds or until melted.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Cut in vegetable shortening, and mix in buttermilk and egg. (I literally used a knife to mix in the shortening.) Add melted chocolate until combined.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 9″ round cake pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, until a knife/toothpick slides through cleanly.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

4 tbsp salted butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
3 C powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
milk, if needed

Steps:

In a stand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese.
Add 1 C powdered sugar. Mix until combined. Add in 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix until combined. Repeat until all ingredients are used.
If needed, add a little bit of milk and/or more sugar.
Frost cake and enjoy!

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

July 30, 2013January 26, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

July 30^th is National Cheesecake Day! I have been dying to try baking my own cheesecake, but have never been brave enough. And with a husband who claims not to like cream cheese, there hasn’t been much incentive. (He loved this dessert and simply gave me a “yeah, whatever” when I teased him about his cream cheese aversion.)

And then I started this blog. Stuart has been really supportive with this newest hobby of mine and I think he’s enjoying the side effects of more homemade dishes. It wasn’t until “late” in life that I was aware of my love for cooking. I discovered the Food Network late my senior year of college, and parked myself in front of the TV with a notebook before finally becoming employed. I love trying new recipes and exploring the world of food blogs.

After working for 2 years, cooking every night started to seem more like a chore – well really the piles of dishes were deterrent enough. Making a home cooked meal 6 nights a week turned into 3 nights. But writing this blog has brought me back up to about 5 nights a week. So I have to say thank you to my readers for rekindling my love of cooking.

Baking isn’t something I feel I’ve particularly mastered. Which, being an engineer I find a little amusing because baking is a science; it’s following a recipe and measuring out ingredients properly. There’s more flexibility in cooking, and maybe I need the break from exact, and I get to find that in savory dishes. Regardless, baking a cheesecake seemed to be above my comfort level.

Until I found this recipe! On an episode of Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Made, Anne Burrell said this cheesecake was the best thing she ever made with cheese. She walked through the steps and I thought to myself, “I could do that!” So, on National Cheesecake Day, I am enjoying a large slice of Goat Cheese Cheesecake.

I will apologize in advance for making your house smell like a gourmet bakery. And I don’t recommend tasting the filling before putting the eggs in because you might just give up on the final product and eat the entire bowl of cream cheesy goodness; taste at your own risk.

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Ingredients for crust:

6 tbsp butter, melted
2 1/2 C Nilla wafers
1/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch nutmeg

Ingredients for filling:

16 oz cream cheese
12 oz goat cheese
1 1/2 C sour cream
4 large eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put all ingredients for the crust in the food processor and pulse until you achieve the look and feel of wet sand. Press the crust into a buttered spring form pan, pressing it halfway up the sides.
In a stand mixer, beat the cheeses. Add in the sour cream and beat until combined. Add in sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time. Pour filling into the crust.
Bake 30 minutes. Rotate the cheesecake and bake another 30 minutes. Allow cheesecake to cool completely before serving or setting in the fridge overnight for best results.

Blueberry Bars

July 26, 2013February 5, 2018 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

It’s PCS (permanent change of station) season here in the military community and a lot of our friends are packing up and moving on to their next great adventure.

I recently made these Blueberry Bars for a going-away party. We were celebrating after an indoor soccer game, and in retrospect I probably should’ve chosen cherry pie filling instead of blueberry because they wear red as a team. But, it’s July and July is National Blueberry Month. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Blueberry Bars

Ingredients:

1 C room temperature butter
1 3/4 C sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 can blueberry pie filling, or whatever flavor you desire!

Steps

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Beat until combined. Mix in the dry ingredients until combined.
Spread all but 1 1/2 C of batter into greased 9×13″ cake pan. Spread the pie filling on top and then spoon on the remaining batter.
Bake 40 minutes.

*This recipe is adapted from Alicia at http://www.everydayhomecook.com/2011/08/fruit-squares/*

Update May 2017: While this electronic update is occurring end of January 2018, these updated photos are from May 2017! Wow. I made these bars for a church picnic and they were a huge hit. These blueberry bars are incredibly easy to assemble and perfect for bringing to any potluck. You can change the filling with your favorite pie flavor or a fruit that better fits the season.