Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

Just happened upon this recipe and I had some peaches that I bought recently and figured why not? Peachy Cake (adapted from Food 52 ) 3 ripe peaches 3/4 t freshly ground nutmeg 1 t cinnamon 1 c sugar 6 T butter 1 egg 1/2 c buttermilk 1 t vanilla 1/4 t almond extract 1 c flour 1/2 c almond meal (ground almonds) 1 t baking powder 1/4 t baking soda 1/2 t salt 3T Turbinado Sugar (Raw sugar) Grease and flour a 9" round pan. Set aside.  Cut peaches into bite-sized pieces. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and 2 T of the sugar.  Set aside. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together in mixer.  Add the egg, buttermilk, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix until combined. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into pan.  Spoon peaches over the batter, lightly pressing them into the batter. Sprinkle Turbinado sugar over peaches. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes; then reduce oven to 325 and bake another 45 ...

HAPPY BASTILLE DAY! Remember way back to last week when I had that disaster flag cake and I had two extra layers of red cake that I stowed away in the freezer - well here's what I did with it: When the world gives you lemons, make... Not too shabby huh? Here the cake recipe (adapted from Art & Soul of Baking ) 1 1/2 sticks of butter 3/4 c sugar 3 eggs 1 T vanilla 2 c sifted cake flour 3/4 t baking soda 1/4 t salt 1/3 c buttermilk 30 drops red food coloring (optional) Grease and line 2 9" round baking pans with parchment paper rounds (or use silpat). Cream butter and sugar together. Meanwhile in a small bowl whisk together cake flour, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs to creamed butter one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Add vanilla.  Add 1/3 of the flour, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of flour, remainder of buttermilk and then remainder of flour.  Mixing well after each addition.  Add 30 drops of red food coloring. Pour batter into p...

Glaze pools in the center - yum! This cake made me realize a few things: 1.  I need a new bundt pan. 2. When a cake sticks to the pan (see item 1), chocolate sauce hides a multitude      of sins. 3. Patience is a virtue I don't possess - waiting for this cake to cool seemed an     eternity. 4.  If you gave me some cold milk, I could probably eat this entire cake by      myself. So what is this marvelous cake? It is the Tunnel of Fudge Cake from Cook's Country. I changed it up a little-slightly.  I saw this suggestion after I had the cake in the oven. Mixing 1T of butter with 1T of melted butter and coating the pan. This might have helped me with item 1, but I still think I need a new pan. It is a good brand pan (Nordic Ware) and a pretty fleur de lis design. I see they now offer it with a different coating. Chocolate cakes seem to stick worse than yellow cakes. My pan has a black coating and I'm wonder...

This cake sounded so good.  I love cinnamon, caramel, and chocolate so this sounded like it would be great. It's been on my to-make list since 2008. So was it worth the wait?  I think the caramel overpowered the cinnamon flavor and you couldn't taste the cinnamon at all. I think next time I wouldn't even bother with the cinnamon. The cake was very light and tasted good. I think I would  maybe use a different chocolate for the icing.  I used Trader Joe's Pound Plus 72% Belgium dark chocolate . It was a little too strong tasting. I generally use this for dark chocolate in baking but for some reason, it was a little too dark for this recipe. But the Sous Chef said he liked the contrast. A few hints: 1.  They didn't say to grease the pan. To grease or not to grease - GREASE.  I was so glad I did. I think the sides would have really stuck had I not. 2.  Seriously be careful when you pour the caramel into the cream mixture. You could totally end...

So I've decided to take the plunge. I've been told by a few people that I should blog about my cooking adventures but never really gave it a serious thought.  But since I seem to be in between gigs for a bit now and have a little free time on my hands - I decided to give it a go.  However, I'm not really starting off with a success story. I saw this cake a while ago and wanted to try it. I'm not real sure who Aunt Sassy is, but she makes a pretty good cake. There is a local bakery that does a really excellent Pistachio Cake and thought this might be comparable. Here is how it came out. Darn butter cream curdled! I've made butter cream before (and I'm not talking the confectioner's sugar super sweet stuff - the real deal stuff) and not had a problem.  I went on the webby web afterwards and discovered all I needed to do was grab a hot towel and place it around the bowl and beat the living daylights out of it with the mixer. Butter cream is really ...