Hummingbird cake

Sometimes, life gets in the way of blogging, and sometimes, it just drives a big ol' truck full of bricks in front of you and says "uh-uh, nope, nice try, maybe later." That's certainly been true lately -- I did a bunch of baking in the second half of April, but I could barely fit in the baking, let alone the writing about it, around preparations for our big trip so my husband could run the Big Sur Marathon. But we got it all done, and we made it out there, and he did it, hurray!!! ...And then I brought back the West Coast Plague, so I've been in bed most of the week.

But anyway, enough about that, 'cause you're not here to read about me. You want to know about cake. I made this cake for Easter, having never ever eaten hummingbird cake before, let alone made one. It came out pretty good, though -- it's a lot like banana-nut bread, except in a lighter cake form, with cream-cheese frosting, and with occasional bites that are extra-sweet-and-yummy from the pineapple (it's subtle, but it's in there). I don't have a lot of reasons to make a layer cake, but I'd certainly keep this one in the rotation -- it was a nice chance of pace from the usual chocolate or vanilla.



Hummingbird Cake
From Cook's Country

16 oz canned crushed pineapple in juice
3 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 c vegetable oil
4 overripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 c chopped pecans
2 tsp vanilla

20 tbsp butter, softened
5 c confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
20 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks
1/2 c chopped pecans

1. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
2. Over a saucepan, drain the pineapple well in a mesh strainer. Cook the juice over medium heat until reduced to a third of a cup and set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs. Whisk in the oil. Stir in the bananas, pecans, vanilla, pineapple and pineapple juice. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, until toothpicks come out clean. Let cool in pans on racks for 20 minutes, then de-pan and cool completely.
6. Beat together the butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the cream cheese a bit at a time, then beat for a couple of minutes, until thoroughly combined.
7. Level off the cake layers with a large serrated knife if necessary, then frost. Top with remaining chopped pecans.

Figgy pudding

Now bring us some figgy pudding,
now bring us some figgy pudding,
now bring us some figgy pudding ...

There. I brought some. You can stop singing now. :)

For years, we've all been singing these lines at Christmastime, but has anyone ever actually had a figgy pudding? The answer is usually no. It's an obscure dish, an old British dessert, not a pudding at all, even, but a steamed cake (the British use the word "pudding" to mean "dessert," hence the confusion).

So when I saw this recipe in "The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook," I had to try it. I even bought a proper pudding mold to cook it in (I know, I don't usually buy uni-taskers, but I wanted to do it up properly, and besides, if the recipe was good, maybe I'd make it for years to come).

The verdict? Figgy pudding is quite good, definitely deserving of a place on our holiday table. It's sort of like a fruitcake, but without the booze and the fake fruits -- instead, it's filled with chopped figs. If you like figs, you'll probably like this a lot. I'm sure I'll be bringing the figgy pudding again in the future.

Figgy Pudding
From "The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook"

Softened butter for the pan
1 1/2 c water
3/4 pound dried figs, stems removed, cut into small bits
3 tbsp orange liqueur
1 1/2 c flour
1 tbsp cocoa
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
2/3 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
8 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 c plain bread crumbs

1. Place a roasting pan mostly full of water in a 350 degree oven. Generously butter your pudding mold (or a tube pan, if you don't have a pudding mold).
2. In a small saucepan, bring the water and figs to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the orange liqueur (don't drain the pan).
3. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
4. In a larger bowl, beat together the eggs and sugars. Beat in the butter and bread crumbs. Stir in the figs and their liquid, then the dry ingredients.
5. Scrape into the pudding mold and put on the lid. (If using a tube pan, cover the top with foil and place a pot lid on top, so it's well sealed.)
6. Place the pan into the roasting pan of water in the oven and bake for about 2 hours, until the pudding is firm and starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.
7. Cool the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then run a spatula around the inside and invert onto a serving platter. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or crème anglaise.

Champagne cupcakes

Since we started planning my friend's bridal shower, I'd been Googling around, stockpiling ideas, and one thing I came across was a recipe for a pink champagne cake. Pink wouldn't fit with our theme, but champagne, that might work nicely. So when I ended up being enlisted to make the cake, I revisited that idea, and after a bit of research and a bit of trial and error, I pulled together this recipe for champagne cupcakes. I'd say that they came out pretty good, if you like champagne -- I tasted the cake and frosting and the champagne I'd used, and the flavor did come across nicely. One small warning: While there's really not that much champagne in the frosting, once it's added, it's not cooked, so you might want to keep these away from the kids. (For them and for those who don't like champagne, I made some chocolate cupcakes for the occasion as well.)

The best thing about making these, I think, is that I'd been lacking a good recipe for vanilla buttercream, and now, I've found one -- I tasted this frosting before adding the champagne, and even then, without any vanilla extract, it tasted really good. (And yes, Swiss meringue buttercream is totally worth the extra effort, 'cause the taste and texture are so much better, so much smoother and lighter and fluffier, than that shortcut recipe a lot of people use.)

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Adapted from two different Sweetapolita recipes

Cake:
3/4 c butter, softened
2 c sugar
3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
6 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c champagne, room temperature, stirred until flat

Frosting:
5 egg whites
1 1/4 c sugar
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 c butter, softened, cut into pieces
1 to 4 tbsp champagne

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg whites and vanilla.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add this to the mixer, alternating with the champagne, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat just until combined.
3. Fill paper-lined or greased cupcake pan cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. De-pan and cool on a rack.
4. In the top of a double-boiler or a bowl that can sit on top of a saucepan filled with an inch or so of simmering water, beat together the egg whites, sugar and salt with a whisk. Continue to whisk gently and monitor the temperature of the mixture with a thermometer, cooking it until it reaches 150 degrees.
5. Pour the mixture into a mixer bowl (or use a hand mixer) and beat with the whisk attachment until it's thickened and glossy and forms a soft peak when you lift up the whisk.
6. Beat in the butter, one piece at a time, until it's all in there and combined. (It will probably start to look scary somewhere along the line, like it's curdling -- that's totally normal, just keep beating it and it will come together.)
7. Beat in the champagne, one tablespoon at a time, tasting after each addition, until the flavor is to your liking. Then, beat a bit more, until light and fluffy.
8. Frost cupcakes and serve.

Pound cake

Y'know, there's nothing like company to get you off your lazy butt and back on track with household tasks.

When I told my fiancé that my mother would be coming over to visit and see some of the things for the wedding, he actually started picking up the living room a bit — considering that the place has literally never been clean since he first moved into it, never, not once, not even in the first week he lived there, this is really saying something. (I even put a clean apartment on my Christmas list this year. No dice — he wanted to buy me something instead, no matter how much I tried to explain how much I'd love a clean apartment instead.) I have to add, too, that my mom's not one of those hyper-critical types, either; she really, honestly doesn't care if the place is a bit messy, but for some reason, it bothered him enough to pick up a bit, and hey, I'm not complaining.

Me, on the other hand, I picked up a neglected household task, too. I decided that if Mom was coming over, I should bake something, some sort of afternoon dessert to follow the lunch I was taking her out for that day. I looked through my Pinterest to-bake board, and I found one baking staple that I hadn't tried yet but kept meaning to, and it would pair perfectly with the strawberries in my freezer, which really need to be used up since this year's strawberry season is fast approaching. It was a recipe for a basic vanilla pound cake.

This cake came out pretty good; I'd definitely keep this recipe in my repertoire (maybe with some chocolate chips thrown in next time?). The flavor was pretty subtle on its own, but it was pleasant and went nicely with macerated strawberries and some homemade whipped cream. It would be a good base for any fruit topping, or maybe an ice cream sundae, but it's also not bad as just a basic snacking cake.

My only complaint is a rather small one: Why do recipes for loaf-shaped foods always call for different-sized pans? Why is there no standard loaf size? I bought 9-by-5 pans for bread, and then I had to buy 8-by-4 pans for fruitcake, and now this recipe? It calls for 8.5-by-4.5, as if to spite me. So my cake came out a little on the short side, though still delicious, 'cause I used a 9-by-5 pan (better a bigger pan than the possibility of the batter overflowing all over the oven, I figured).

Pound Cake
Slightly adapted from Diana's Desserts

1 1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Insides of 1 vanilla bean (split lengthwise and scrape out with a knife)
2 eggs
1/2 c sour cream

1. Grease and flour a 8.5-by-4.5 or 9-by-5 loaf pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3. Beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla and vanilla bean scrapings, then beat in the eggs.
4. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture, just until combined.
5. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth out with your spoon. Bake at 325 degrees for about 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cool in the pan 15 minutes, then run a butter knife around the sides of the cake, remove it from the pan and rest it on its side on a rack until cooled.

Pumpkin streusel Bundt cake

I've gained a bit of a reputation at work for my baking skills, since I can't possibly eat all of what I bake and therefore often bring plates of goodies to work. Usually, my coworkers treat what I bring in as a nice surprise and leave it at that. But last week, they went a step further; I was sitting at my desk, and all of a sudden, I overheard "I thought she was supposed to bring us cake. There isn't any, though, so I guess not."

I have to admit, one of the words that makes my ears perk up is "cake." "Hmm?" I said, looking up across the desks. "Oh, nothing," said the coworker who had been speaking. I pressed further, and eventually, what I got was a general sense of "we'd like you to bring in a cake." "Why?" I asked. "What kind, and what for, and when?" After all, I'm always game for making a cake. But they just sorta said "oh, never mind." They didn't have any particular reason or occasion in mind; they'd just decided that cake sounded good and I hadn't brought any in for a while.

Well, ask and ye shall receive. Mind you, it took me a week or so, 'cause I had to make a pie first -- I'd promised an apple pie to my boyfriend, since it's apple season and we have a house full of them. But once the pie was safely stowed in the fridge (and oh, who am I kidding, indulged in, too), I turned my attention to cake. It had to be something October-y, 'cause I like to cook seasonally when I can. And it had to be a casual sort of cake, 'cause there was no occasion for this, nothing that would justify a fancy layer cake. What I came up with was this: pumpkin is autumn-y, and Bundt cake, well, they're just naturally pretty, without being overly fancy.

But enough of my chatter, 'cause you need to make this, today if possible, or if not today, then as soon as you can possibly find the time and some people to help you eat it. It's moist, it's delicious, it's got the most sweet-spicy filling inside, and you'll have all you can do not to eat four pieces in one afternoon.



Pumpkin Streusel Bundt Cake
Adapted from a recipe from Libby's, via AllRecipes

1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
2 tsp butter (teaspoons, this is not a typo)

3 c flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 c pumpkin puree
8 oz sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c confectioners' sugar
2-3 tbsp milk

1. Butter and flour your Bundt pan. Set aside.
2. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set that aside, too.
4. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined. Beat in the pumpkin, then the sour cream, then the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture.
5. Spoon half of the batter into the pan, spreading it out evenly to the sides. Top with the brown sugar mixture, being careful to keep it in the center of the batter and not get it toward the edges. Top with the remaining batter, smoothing it out so it touches the edges of the pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Then, de-pan onto the rack and finish cooling.
8. Mix together the confectioners' sugar with as much of the milk as you need to make a glaze. Drizzle over the cake and let harden.

Carrot cake

Sometimes, you'll do crazy things for love and family -- like bake a carrot cake, from scratch, starting at 1:30 a.m., after you've just spent a half-hour shoveling the driveway to get your car unstuck and out of the road and you're really tired and sore and just want to go to bed.

But it's my mom's 65th birthday, so I wanted to do something special for her. And she loves carrot cake. And I hadn't made one yet. It came out pretty well, too, though I left carrot shreds all over the kitchen (this would definitely be a good recipe to use a food processor, if you have one, which I don't), lots of crumbs on the table (the cake, while moist, was prone to crumbling due to the shreds of carrot and chopped pecans inside, so leveling the tops of the layers was really, really messy) and a big heap of sticky bowls in the sink when I staggered to bed around 5 a.m.

Still, it was worth it. I managed to make a cake that almost looks professional, sort of, if you squint a bit. I even managed legible writing with frosting, which I've never been able to pull off before. And Mom was really happy and thought it was too pretty to cut, and then when she cut it, she said it was delicious.



Carrot Cake
From Cook's Illustrated's "The New Best Recipe"

2 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp table salt
1 pound carrots, peeled
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 c oil (vegetable or canola)
1 1/2 c chopped pecans (optional), plus more for the sides (also optional)
1 c raisins (optional -- I forgot to buy some, and I wasn't about to try to get back out of the snowed-in driveway to go get some, so I left them out)

16 oz cream cheese, softened
10 tbsp butter, softened,
2 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 c confectioners' sugar

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
2. Shred the carrots and stir them into the flour mixture.
3. Beat together the sugars and the eggs. Beat in the oil.
4. Stir in the carrot/flour mixture, then the nuts and/or raisins, if using.
5. Pour into two greased (or cooking-sprayed) round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until toothpicks inserted in the centers come out clean.
6. Cool in pans until just warm, then de-pan and cool completely on racks.
7. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla. Beat in the confectioners' sugar. (If you think the result is too runny, you can add a bit more sugar -- I did.)
8. Level the tops of the cakes with a large serrated knife, then frost and decorate.

Strawberry shortcake

We begin this blog with a bang, a recipe made 100 percent from scratch and for a holiday, too, bright red berries for the Fourth of July. I went the whole nine yards, and 12 eggs, for this one. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs, and you can't make an angel food cake without having 12 yolks left over.



Now, before someone jumps on this, yes, I know, technically, strawberry shortcake is made with shortcake biscuits. But I've already made biscuits, and I hadn't made angel food cake yet, and angel food's good with berries and cream, too, right?

So, onward. Onward through the typical sift-and-set-aside phase and on to merengue, aka "beat the crap out of it with the mixer, then keep beating it some more." But eventually, just keep going, and just when you arm starts to cramp a bit from holding the mixer, voila, stiff peaks.



Fold fold fold fold, do not stir, the dry stuff in, and into my new tube pan it went.



And almost an hour later, huzzah, cake!



I had farm-fresh strawberries in the freezer, and I had cream in the fridge, so the rest of this wasn't hard at all. And it was delicious. Oh, was it delicious. I even got the comment, "is this store-bought, or did you make this?" Considering the source, that was pretty high praise. And it disappeared mighty fast, too. :)

Angel Food Cake
This recipe is a composite of a bunch of recipes I found online, mix-and-matched according to my whims, so I can't quote a direct source.
1 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
12 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Sift together flour and 3/4 c of sugar (or just whisk them together in a bowl, if you don't feel like using the sifter).
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they're a bit frothy, then add the cream of tartar and salt. Beat on high speed for a while longer, until it starts to come together into a soft, fluffy mass, then add the other 3/4 c of sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Continue to beat on high until when you turn off the mixer and pull the beaters out, you get stiff peaks.
4. Sift (sorry, this time you have to) the dry ingredients over the top of the egg white mixture and gently fold together (don't mix!) until incorporated.
5. Spread batter in a tube pan (do NOT grease the pan), then pick up the pan and drop it straight down onto the counter a few times to knock some of the bigger air bubbles out of the batter.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the cake is golden and springs back when you poke it in the center.
7. Tip the pan upside-down onto a rack and let cool. When cooled, run a butter knife around the edges and de-pan.

Strawberries
1. Place a reasonable amount of strawberries for the amount of people you're feeding into a good-sized bowl. (I think I used about a bit more than a quart of berries, but I didn't measure it.) If you have a lot of big berries, you may want to slice them up -- or you could just use a potato masher on them before serving, that's alright, too.
2. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of sugar over the top of the berries and stir.
3. Put the bowl in the fridge and leave it for at least a few hours, so the sugar seeps in and the berries release some of their juices. Overnight would be even better.

Whipped cream
1 c heavy (whipping) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Beat together on high until it becomes whipped cream. :)