Mexican Chocolate Cake.

In honor of the Cinco de Mayo party I attended and the rare rise of the "super moon" , I baked a cake (well, actually two). I originally was going to use a recipe I cut from the Los Angeles Times, eons ago, but decided to do a quick search for Mexican chocolate cake recipes online.  This one popped up first from Baked Bree, who I met at Camp Blogaway, a year and a half ago.

Initially, what intrigued me about Bree's recipe was that she did not use the mexican chocolate tablets and she used balsamic vinegar in her cake batter. The cake is complex in flavor, but not over-powering.  The frosting is perfection, creamy, light and slightly sweet.  If you're looking for something special and unique, I'd definitely recommend giving this cake a try!

Back to Baking.

Hello blogsters! It's been WAY too long since my lil' fingers have danced on the keyboard and written you a foodie love letter. For that, please accept my sincerest apologies. I didn't stop eating or cooking, but I did take some time to shift gears and re-focus on some health stuff. I haven't baked in a really long time and sincerely have missed it.  I missed the sweet sounds of my stand-up mixer beating butter and sugar together in a harmonious song. I missed the whisking of dry ingredients and I missed the sound of my jazzy turquoise timer going off, "it's ready, it's really ready"!

During this time de-blogging status, I bookmarked several recipes to try and when I read Luisa Weiss' post about donut cake, I just knew it would be the first thing I would bake. I rarely bake the same thing twice in one week, but this donut cake recipe is without a shadow of a doubt, worth baking more than once a week. Your friends, family and co-workers will forever be grateful, I promise. It's such a simple recipe (eggs, butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, salt, buttermilk, cornmeal, baking powder and nutmeg) and it delivers grand results.  Yes, your kitchen will smell like a donut factory, but who is going to complain about that? I wish I could've bottled up that smell into a fragrant candle. 

P.S. - If you don't have a springform pan in your cupboards (mine sadly passed away when I made the cake for a second time), a 9" round cake pan will do just fine.

Cardamom Coffee Cake.

The end of summer is drawing near and I've been relying on trusted recipes to see me through these final long summer nights. The summer heat drives me away from the oven and toward simple, low or no heat cooking.  But what I miss most during the summer is baking and I won't allow the heat to deter me from my beloved stove, so I decided to bake you something.

I recently made one of my favorite treats, it's one I learned in cooking school.  It takes coffee cake to a whole new level.  Hold on to your horses, cowboys and cowgirls, this coffee cake honors the blessed spice, cardamom.  Other coffee cake recipes cry out, "We're not worthy!!! We're not worthy!!!!" and it's hard to argue with them.

Cardamom Coffee Cake

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. cardamom

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. white sugar

3/4 c. canola oil

1 c. chopped walnuts

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl or bowl of Kitchen Aid stand-up mixer, mic the flour, salt, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cardamom, ginger, brown sugar, white sugar, and canola oil.  Remove 3/4 c. of mixture, and add it to nuts and remaining cinnamon and cardamom.  Mix well and set aside.

To remaining batter, add baking soda, baking powder, egg and buttermilk. Mix to combine.

Spread the batter in a prepared 9" square baking pan.  Sprinkle with the topping and bake 40-45 minutes until done.

YOU'RE ALL WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello friends, well since 8 lovely individuals took the time post something on Madame Munchies, you all will get a copy of my zine!!! Thanks for continuing to support my blog, much love to all!

P.S. - E-mail me your address (pumpkingrl_1031@hotmail.com) and I will mail you a copy of the zine this week!

Blog Challenge No.5: Compassion and Cupcakes.

How do you pour out compassion? Does it ooze out of you naturally or do you find yourself scrounging for compassion crumbs to dole out? By now you've figured out I love food, cooking, and everything associated or affiliated with it. One of the ways I show compassion is through baking for others - on a somewhat regular basis, if I'm going over to someone's house or a gathering of friends, I'm the foodie nerd bringing some sort of treat.

This week I haphazardly stumbled upon Shauna Sever's blog, Piece of Cake. What drew me to her blog was a random link I found for a cupcake recipe entitle Nutella Cupcakes. How could I resist? I mean, hello, who doesn't L-O-V-E Nutella?!?!? Who wouldn't want to soak in a bathtub of the golden spread?!? Okay, I'm getting a lil' off topic, but this chocolate hazelnut spread could become the next butter in your household, don't say I didn't warn you!

So today these Nutella Cupcakes are my small contribution to the world, my small token of compassion. Enjoy.

Bundt for Joy!

So this past weekend I was blessed with a dresser (to be funk-tified and used for CD storage) and in exchange for this blessing, I promised to bake my friend a cake, Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cake to be exact. Apparently, this was a childhood favorite, so of course I obliged.

What I came to find out was that I no longer owned a bundt pan, so I made the trek to Sur La Table (not that anyone had to twist my arm, mind you) to pick up a quality bundt pan for this baking endeavor. It's so silly to be afraid of a cake pan, but I have to admit, I've always been a bit weary of bundt pans. What if the cake gets stuck? What if it falls apart when trying to remove it? What if? What if? What if? Well, being that I promised to make this cake, I had to face my bundt pan fears right in the face and I did quite a bit of research on various bundt pans. I read many reviews on Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma and more, and the Nordic Ware Anniversary Pan, got 5 stars out of 5 stars. I've never read so many positive and glowing reviews on a bundt pan. So I went with the Nordic Ware bundt pan (which by the way, has a lifetime warranty).

The cake batter was thick and gooey, took a little longer to bake then the recipe calls for (50 minutes), but the results are in and I HEART MY NEW BUNDT PAN! While the cake is meant as a gift (so a chef's tasting is not going to happen), the cake scents that filled my kitchen were warm, nutty, cinnamon, chocolate-y goodness rolled into one. Now if someone could make a candle that smelled like that, I'd be all over it!!!

A Lil' Cake.

How could I forget to wish Madame Munchies a Happy Birthday? February 27th marked my blog's 2nd birthday! And while I didn't sing a song or do a dance, this past weekend I did bake a cake, but it wasn't in honor of my blog's birth.

Over the weekend, I had an impromptu baking session - I was invited over to hang out with some friends and we had a last minute potluck. I offered to make a dessert and after perusing several cookbooks (of which I'm still organizing and finding a home for), I came across Molly Wizenberg's French Yogurt Cake featured in her memoir, A Homemade Life. I know what you're thinking, haven't I babbled enough on Molly, her fabulous blog and book??? Well, dear friends, no I have not!

Of course given time constraints as well as purse constraints, I was looking for a recipe for which I had the majority of ingredients listed and it just so happened I had 95% of the ingredients for this one. Plus the name of the recipe was intriguing. I've had alot of success with cakes that utilize the moistening power of yogurt or sour cream, so I was pretty confident that this would turn into sweet success!

The recipe called for whole yogurt and my fridge was fully stocked with greek yogurt and instead of using a silly old regular lemon I used a meyer lemon, which added a delicate sweetness to this otherwise mild cake. What I love about this recipe is its flexability. Molly suggested using other citrus fruits if you have them on hand, she even recommended using a fruity olive oil to replace the canola oil that the recipe calls for. You could add ground pistachios or almonds, or even dried fruit and I think it would compliment the flavor base for this cake.

Either way you slice it, your friends and family will thank you, I've been told it could be the key to meeting my future husband.

cake rituals.

One of the things I love about cooking and food is the relationship between certain foods and our memories. My stepdad fondly remembered his grandmother in Oklahoma baking him a certain chocolate caked called Gertrude Armstrong Cake. Now I'm not quite sure the evolution of its name, but having a fondness for baking, when I met my stepdad, I decided to do some research and find a recipe for his favorite childhood sweet treat.

Everytime I spend time with my mom and stepdad in Washington (and when they lived in Utah) I have to make this cake ( I feel guilty if I don't), and sometimes I've been known to make 2 cakes during my visit. When I visited them the first week of September, I made him one cake with its traditional uber sweet (thanks to powdered sugar) frosting. The second go round, I made it with a chocolate ganache frosting - which is pictured above (my personal favorite).

weekend baking.

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself in the mood to bake. I had tabbed a recipe in my recent issue of Gourmet magazine - a Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, and I was also in the mood for some homemade bread. So alas, I spend Saturday evening baking a rustic country bread (recipe from New School of Cooking) and on Sunday, I made this Raspberry Buttermilk Cake (which I brought to my small group on Monday night for devouring). The cake was moist and delicious, the raspberries enhanced this buttery cake with its sweet and tart qualities. A perfect afternoon dessert, goes especially well with coffee or tea. A light dessert, you could easily substitute the raspberries for a different berry or other fruit if you'd like. Nothing is like baking, especially bread. For me, it's always been a source of therapy. Using my hands, my energy to create a living organism (yeast that is). Yes it's timing consuming, but ever so worth it. The bread was dense, chewy and yielded a beautiful crumb. Just warm with butter, a sprinkly of kosher salt and jam made a fine late night snack. It's important to take time out and do something in life that brings you joy and pleasure, whether that takes place in the kitchen or elsewhere. Take time.

citrus equals goodness.

Tonight I'm going to "Salt Cafe", a hangout for 20-30s folks at a local church I've been attending, and since my chocolate chip cookies were a hit last week, I decided to bring another sweet treat for peeps to enjoy. Baked goods are one of the finest tricks to meeting new people and making friends. Plus it's just an excuse to exercise my baking arm. Earlier this week I got my April issue of Gourmet and while I perused it, I noticed an article on lemon-y desserts. The last recipe in the article, Lemon Glazed Butter Cake, caught my eye and I immediately folded over the end of the page. It sounded so simple and yet so delectable. Angels in heaven were singing "Make this recipe! Hark, the Lord, has spoken, bake this cake!". Okay, maybe that's not EXACTLY how it went down, but close enough. So, in case, this fine first day of spring harkens you into the kitchen, perhaps you should give this cake a go:

Lemon Glazed Butter Cake (April 2009 issue of Gourmet Magazine)

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Rounded 1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. + 1 tbps. whole milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. lemon zest

1 stick unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

3/4 c. white sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 c. confectioners sugar

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

Garnish: confectioners sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8" cake pan.

2. Whisk together in a bowl, the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Whisk together in a measuring cup, the milk, vanilla, and lemon zest.

4. In an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar til its nice and fluffy - approx. 2 minutes.

5. One at a time, add each egg until combined.

6. On low speed, add flour in 3 batches, alternating with the milk mixture. You should begin and end with flour.

7. Pour batter into pan and tap the pan gently to release any air bubbles.

8. Bake until golden and toothpick comes out clean (30-40 mins).

9. Let cool in pan for 10 mins, then invert and cool on rack.

10. Whisk together until smooth, confectioners sugar and lemon juice - brush as much as you like onto cake. Cool completely.