I recently went apple picking at this beautiful farm in VA. It actually looks like that little water color in the top left corner. I'm not kidding. It was so refreshing to get out into the country for a day and be a total apple nerd. I can't encourage this activity enough.
I used some of said apples to make this amazingly moist cake. Aaaaaand then I spent 20 minutes evening up the edges of section of the cake from where the last slice was taken. Oh it looks a little crooked here. Ok that's straight.. oh wait it's a little bit off here. You know.. important stuff. Obviously eating the remnants.
It's good. It's real good.
The cake is baked in a 13x9 pan. I actually ended up cutting mine in half, frosting with a simple cream cheese frosting (highly recommend, although something with coconut would be nice too!), and making a square layer cake. I added some leaf sprinkles for fall flair and awesome points.
Ok CLEARLY I'm no professional, but this is pretty adorbs.. amiright?
Soundtrack: These things...
Carrot & Apple Olive Oil Cake
1 1/4 sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup EVOO
2 c ap flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bakingsoda
2 c peeled, cored and shredded apple
2 c shredded carrot
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 X 13 inch pan by greasing and dusting with flour. Set aside.
In a large bowl, blend together the sugar and the eggs. Add the oil and mix until combined. Using a spatula, stir in flour, spices, salt, and baking soda. Don't worry - the batter should be pretty thick at this point. Stir in the carrots and the apples (watch how this step makes the dough-like mixture from the previous step become more like a cake batter and be totally amazed!). Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
Or better known as the half chocolate, half vanilla sheet cake that you remember from every childhood birthday party ever. Just add sundae cups and a couple screaming toddlers!
My roommate recently turned old. So we turned back the clocks and tried to have an old school 5 year old birthday party. There were hats.
There he is! How mature!
I probably would have had a lot more fun decorating this one if...iiiifff I was good at cake decorating... AT ALL. I should really probably take some classes. But I think I achieved my goal here! And used 6 sticks of butter in 1 baked good. I deserve at least a few high fives for that.
Step 1: Make butter and sugar become friends. Check to make sure you have eggs before this step, if you learn anything from me.
Besties!
I made the vanilla cake first, but you could pick either. Just bake in an 8x8 pan.
Poke some holes in it! Is it done? It smells done...
To dissolve cocoa powder in water, I usually boil the water, then pour it in to the pyrex and dissolve the cocoa there. You probably don't want to measure the water first, then boil... Evaporation or some shit...
Ok, just another batter...
And another finished 8x8 cake. Now... I know you're excited. But please let the both cool. Frosting is made from butter. Melted frosting... just ew.
Make some more butter and sugar be friends. Basically, just beat them until they get along.
Your tools...
Oh yea, and a bread knife. Measure out the exact middle of each cake. Yea, I said exact. You want the tops to match the bottoms. Curtains... drapes.. what?
Now.. if 1 cake rises more than the other, it means you fail. No, that's not true. We're all winners here. It means you're going to have to shave. This metaphor just needs to end here.
2 parts to a whole! Now you just match them up! On a cake stand if you can find 1 at Target on sale for $5.
When you hide the cakes insides, try not to forget which side is which. Yea. I did that.
Cheesy decoration is essential here.
The worse it actually looks the better!
Be careful with fire. Especially if you have been drinking. Especially if you have been drinking enough to sleep on the couch the whole next day.
Don't bother with cutting the cake. Or utensils. He's taking a big bite of life. Can't you see this picture OOZING with metaphor?
And there you have it! In a nutshell. How to waste more time than you ever thought possible. Yum!
I volunteered to host a dinner at my house. You know... not just any dinner. Christmas Eve dinner.
See, because here's the thing. It's exciting to me. I'm honestly, genuinely, really excited about it. I've planned about 6 desserts so far. I picked out 4 appetizers. And unfortunately due to the fact that I've only got 5 confirmed guests, I think I'm going to have to scale back a bit.
The part that I'm not fully sure I'm excited about is the actual dinner itself. I don't have a great relationship with things that roast in the oven. I want to work on this relationship. It's an important relationship. But it's still new and fragile and I just don't think I'm ready to out that relationship to the world yet. It's closeted behind my oven door. I love Italian food and a small part of me really wants to recreate my childhood with a Feast of Seven Fishes, but the more influential part of me, the part which understands my bank account, says no.
The thing is, I really want to put something in the oven. I want to set it and forget it, so to speak. I don't want to spend the whole night sauteing or boiling or grilling or whatever. So like.. gimme some ideas. Please?
And I'll share this cake! I found the original recipe at The Noshery and I instantly fell in love. It's yummy. It's nutty. It's crunchy and sweet. It's pumpkin and sugar and butter and delicious spices! And share some holiday secret recipes with me pleeeeaaseeee.
Pumpkin Cake with Walnut Crunch Topping Adapted from The Noshery
3/4 c of brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, divided 3/4 c chopped walnuts 1 2/3 c ap flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 c sugar 1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs 1 c pumpkin puree 1/2 c warm (110 degrees) milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place brown sugar in a 9 in round cake pan and spread around. In a small saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat. Pour butter over sugar into cake pan and stir with a fork to combine until sugar is dissolved. (Reserve pan to the side for later use.) Press the walnuts into the cake pan, spreading into an even layer. Spray exposed sides of pan with cooking spray and set aside.
Sift the ap flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a medium bowl and set aside.
Melt the remaining stick of butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Beat the remaining stick of butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, milk and pumpkin together in a large bowl until combine, about 2-3 minutes. Add flour mixture to wet mixture, stirring with a spatula and scraping down sides until just combined.
Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the pan before inverting the cake onto a cooling wrack and cooling completely.
This is true: I have been dreaming about making this cake since a trip to Capogiro 5 days ago brought the combination of avocado and dark chocolate gelato flavors into my life. I actually woke up this morning and starting making it instead of breakfast. I just frosted the cake about 15 minutes ago. Everyone in my apartment has already eaten a piece. We are all now obsessed with avocado frosting. Adam just saw the bowl from the frosting in the sink and yelled at me for not letting him lick it, oops. Then I ran immediately to my computer so I could share this with everyone (I get really excited about cake... well, food in general). This is a lie: I definitely couldn't eat another piece.
Ooo... Goo!
Remember slime? Ya know, that green goop that was dumped on contestants of every old-school Nickelodeon game show ever? It probably saw it's height of popularity with the game show Slime Time Live, but it was definitely a long running gag that was synonymous with the TV channel for most of my childhood. I'm sure I'm not alone in that I always wanted to be "slimed" watching this as a kid. I've still never actually met anyone who was slimed on Nickelodeon, which I think it weird considering how long this whole thing went on for. Seriously, if you've ever been slimed on Nick, hit me up. Let's be friends. I need to check that off my bucket list.
In any event, this frosting reminds me of slime. And I like it.
Avocado frosting? I know, it sounds weird. But here's the thing. It totally makes sense! Hear me out. Avocado has a very high fat content, but it's healthy (monounsaturated, but don't ask me what that means) fat that is good for your heart. Most frosting is made by combining a solid fat and powdered sugar. See? See? And you better believe this will be the healthiest frosting you have ever eaten! Relax, I'm not suggesting that this frosting is GOOD for you. Just pointing out that if you're gonna stuff yourself full of fatty, sugary goodness, it might as well be something other than Crisco.
I promise it doesn't taste like a guacamole covered chocolate cake. AT ALL. Not even a little bit. It tastes sweet and vanilla-like, with just enough of a hint of avocado taste to balance the chocolate cake fantastically!
Soundtrack: Primus (Prep for the Tower Theatre show.. in October)
In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over the cocoa power and whisk together until dissolved. Set aside; this will need to cool completely before use (I let it cool a little, then stuck it in the fridge).
Sift the flour into another medium bowl, then whisk in baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set this aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Beat in the vanilla.
Using a spoon, stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Then, 1/3 of the cocoa (completely cooled). Scrape down the sides and continue in this pattern until the cake batter is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter evenly into the three pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before frosting!
Avocado Buttercream(From Alton Brown, made with 1 small tweak) Makes 2 c. (You might want to double this or make 1 1/2 batches. I did wish for more!)
2 med avocados 2 tsp lemon juice 1 lb powdered sugar, may use more depending on consistency 1 tsp vanilla extract
Peel and pit the avocados. Place the meat of the avocado in a large bowl. Try to avoid the brown bits because the color will be important. Add lemon juice and beat with a mixer until the avocado lightens in color, about 2-3 minutes.
Begin to add the powdered sugar, a little at a time. Beat until each addition of sugar is combined. Based on the consistency and your tastes, you may need more (I needed a bite more). Once the sugar is blended, beat in the vanilla.
This frosting needs to be kept in the refrigerator, but thanks to the lemon, it will not turn brown!
I invited my mom and family over for dinner last night - for Mother's Day obvi. The dinner will be featured in this post and the next. She's very excited to be featured on the blog (there's your first plug Mom!!). As a mother it's her job to be proud of me and she does it well! =) Here's a picture of my mom:
SAY HI MOM!
Isn't she beautiful!?
I have good genes, wouldn't you say? My mom is important to this blog because I owe any motivation that I ever had to cook anything to her. She taught me the basics and sparked the interest (Note to self made: post some of her recipes soon!).
My mom is getting married in a month (Congrats Mom!) so I really thought she was going to kill me for making her a cake, but this cake was really just that good that she couldn't complain. The recipe that I used for the caramel-banana cake comes from The Kitchn. It is an incredibly moist and airy cake. I adjusted it slightly so that the banana flavor was subtle and the cake was not too sweet, and then just covered it in a glaze. The caramel swirl works well with the glaze and really makes a great bite. This was easy and extremely worthwhile.
Just look at that swirl!
Side note: I actually discovered lately the convenience of freezing bananas to be used in baking. I usually only get one over-ripe banana at a time and very rarely, since I live with 2 huge banana monsters (similar to cookie monster, who actually has NOT been renamed to the veggie monster contrary to popular belief). So, they can be frozen until needed. Peel them first and store them in a ziploc, or else it's hard to get those stringy pieces off. Whatever they're called.
The adjusted recipe (I also made a few notes in places that might be confusing in the original) is as follows (or try the original!):
Caramel Banana Cake 2 9-inch layers
3/4 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 large eggs
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. milk
2 med. mashed bananas(yea, that's what mashing bananas makes me think of. Thanks a lot, years of babysitting!!)
1 c. caramel sauce (can be homemade or you can buy one. I used a homemade one, made by someone else, which was the best of both worlds and perfect for this project)
First, heat oven to 325F. Grease two 9" cake pans.
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then, add the eggs and beat until silky and lightened (about a minute).
In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda and salt. In a third bowl, whisk together the milk and mashed bananas. Then, add to the eggs and butter, alternating between a bit of flour mixture and a bit of liquid mixture until combined. Beat just until smooth.
Pour batter into the prepared pans. Pour half the caramel sauce into each pan, and swirl with a knife. Put in the oven carefully and bake for about 60 minutes, or until the centers are set and a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely before icing.
The glaze that I used was a combination of powdered sugar and milk. Start with 1 c. powdered sugar and then add milk a little at a time until you get a glaze that doesn't run too much when you stick a utensil in it and then hold it up right. The ratio will really not use a lot of milk. Powdered sugar is deceivingly fluffy. Pour over the top of cake and allow to run over the sides.
Mashed BA NA NA
Fluffy sugar and butter (pre-eggs)
Silllkaaaaaay eggs, butter and sugar
Mixed batter
Straight out the oven!
Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of dinner! Roman-Style Chicken (a la Giada) and Oven Roasted Potatoes!
