Casual Tuesdays

My morning routine doesn't include a lot of primping.  At 4am, I'm lucky to put on a matching pair of shoes much less makeup.  Outfit selection is based on a) comfort as I will be wearing it for the next 12-16 hours and b) weather conditions.  If it's a hot summer day it will be a balmy 65 on the sound stage unless you're standing under the lights and who knows what being on location will bring- sun, wind, rain, rain towers?  My closet looks like a cross between 14 year old tomboy and outward bound counselor.  At this point if I decided to go corporate I'd be lost.  Heels and pantyhose?  I'd feel less constricted in a straight jacket.
My kitchen is the one place I do feel comfortable getting fancy and this week's TWD, Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake, provided the perfect opportunity.  Luckily, the only thing high maintenance about this cake is the name because it was so simple to put together.  I opted for downsized glamour by making half the recipe into cupcakes, then I classed them up with piped frosting and candy pearls.

Even us low maintenance gals need a little bling from time to time.
For the recipe, click here.

Australian Visiting Cake

I love the idea of a cake specifically made for when guests are coming by. Of course given the unpredictable nature of our daily lives, this might work better in theory than in practice but this week's TWD changes all of that. Swedish (Australian) Visiting Cake is the kind of one bowl, already on hand ingredient recipe that works beautifully whether you make it ahead of time or throw it together at the last minute. It's so versatile you can make it in just about any random skillet, cake pan or pie tin.


I made this cake this morning when I remembered my cousin's folks were flying in from Australia- hence the new name. I know this orange cardamom scented cake will be the perfect remedy for their jet lag!
Thanks Nancy for a great pick this week!

Feed A Cold

When I was in 5th grade, I wrote a poem about being sick while I was in the infirmary waiting for my mom to come pick me up. To this day every time I get a cold that poem pops into my head. While I will (in the interest of my saving myself from complete and utter embarrassment) refrain from sharing this iambic masterpiece with the blogsphere, I will say that next to matzoh ball soup, a slice of Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake made this patient feel a whole lot better.

Even with my compromised sense of smell this cake tasted great and made me forget for a few minutes how crummy I felt. I used cocoa powder and hot water instead of coffee- I'm already sneezy and dopey, no need to add jumpy to the list.
Thanks Erin for this pick, it was a bright spot in my congested haze.
Want more bundts? Check out the blogroll.

Coconut Tea Cake, Take 2

Some bakers have issues with pie dough, yeast, or pastry cream but my kitchen achilles heel has always been cake. After years of therapy, err I mean practice, my track record has improved but some days my mojo is still off. My first attempt at this week's TWD, Coconut Tea Cake...epic fail. Looked ok coming out of the oven but 20 minutes later devolved into a sunken, gummy mess. If I weren't such a coconut fan I might have thrown in the towel but today I gave it another go.
It did deflate a bit initially but held up well over all and smelled fantastic. I made half the recipe in a loaf pan (a kitchen full of stuff but still no bundt pan) and added lime zest, coriander and Malibu rum. I had plans for lime curd to spread on top but I just booked set work for the next 3 days so that will have to wait.
If you want to try your hand at this cake, go visit Carmen. And for even more coconut fun, check out the blogroll.

Commitment & Cake

What do you get a baking blog that has everything? The traditional 2nd anniversary gift is cotton but I opted for Cocoa Buttermilk Cake instead. Light fluffy chocolate cake and thick chocolate frosting with just a hint of malted flavor made me fall in love with Tuesdays With Dorie all over again.
Thanks to Dorie, Laurie, and to all the bloggers in this fabulous group for the recipes, photos, stories and inspiration you have shared with me these last two years. I would bake a mini cake for each and every one of you if I could. Happy Anniversary!

Improving With Age

Today is my 36th birthday but my blog is getting the presents- a Lowel Ego light kit. It comes with 2 Ego lights, a sweep with colored backdrops, and the promise of increased content right here on this blog.
No more will I toil away on a beautiful culinary masterpiece (ok maybe that's a stretch but one needs a goal) only to have it go undocumented due to lack of available light in my tiny house. Day or night, rain or shine, success or failure, you will read about it here.

But not right now because it's time for cake.

Kitchen Cousins

Meet Kaitlin. Budding chef, gymnast, all around great girl, and my cousin. At thirteen she has already mastered chocolate souffle- I don't think I even knew what a souffle was at her age. An avid food blog reader and food network watcher, Kaitlin is getting a great head start on knowing her way around the kitchen.

Today the student became the teacher when I packed up all my kitchen gadgets and headed over to her grandma's house for a day of baking. On the menu:
Red Velvet Mini Layer Cake and Cupcakes Lemon Tart Rugelach Croissant

Quite a line-up but after 16 weeks of baking class, infinitely doable. I got a head start on the croissant dough and did all four turns of the dough the day before. We made plain and chocolate and came out beautifully.


Kaitlin had checked out my blog and made special requests for the Red Velvet and Rugelach recipes.


I also wanted to teach her a great sweet tart dough and with fresh meyer lemons from the backyard, we tried our hand at Dorie's Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart. Here Kaitlin exhibits her natural knack for presentation.

After a full day of baking we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon light taking photos for Kaitlin's new blog, Starting From Scratch.


I 'm so proud of my cousin and can't wait to see what she does next. I'm pretty sure she'll be teaching me a thing our two real soon.

TWD- Cake Perfected

There was a time when I was willing to settle...for mediocre desserts. Boxed cookies, over-refrigerated restaurant cakes, and I'll admit to eating more than a few chocolate bars past there prime. That white stuff is safe right? Well friends, those days are over. Baking classes, awesome blogging groups like Tuesday's With Dorie, and a whole lot of Food Network have made me quite the dessert snob these days. Why settle for old grocery store cake when I have a Perfect Party Cake recipe in my arsenal?!
This is the second time I have successfully made this cake and despite many previous white cake disasters I thinks I am finally getting the hang of this thing! I'm not so over confident as to branch out just yet so I followed this recipe almost exactly, save for halving it to make a 4 inch mini cake and replacing the lemon extract with vanilla.

For the layers I used homemade raspberry pan jam and and I totally heart pressing coconut into the buttercream. Especially since it covers up my less than stellar icing job.
Finally being able to bust out darn good dessert from my kitchen is enough to make me want to celebrate. For more Party Cake perfection, head on over the blogroll.

Cinnamon Squares Go Round

Despite living in Sunny Southern California, May Gray/June Gloom sets in every year. Coastal communities, like the one I live in, become covered by a thick layer of clouds and fog which if you're lucky burns off in time for a late afternoon or perhaps sunset. I just got back from a few days in Seattle and came home with an actual sunburn, something I'd be hard pressed to get at home these days. One benefit of June Gloom is not having to feel guilty spending the day indoors, specifically in my kitchen, whipping up a batch of this week's TWD, Cinnamon Squares. After all the great food we consumed in the Pacific Northwest (the coconut cream pie at Etta's should not be missed) I halved the recipe, which yielded 6 cupcakes.

To achieve the same layered effect in the full square cake, fill each liner with one heaping spoonful of batter, sprinkle on the chocolate and cinnamon/sugar mixture, then add a second spoonful of batter evenly over the top. Be careful not to overfill to avoid excessive muffin top. That goes for the baker as well- so be sure to share these with your loved ones!
Thanks Tracey for a great pick this week. For more Cinnamon Square fun, check out the blogroll.

TWD- Vice Squad

Sugar, butter, chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol- what could go wrong? That's what I was thinking when I read this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Tiramisu Cake. Essentially, traditional tiramisu dessert adapted by layering mascarpone laced with espresso powder and brandy, topped with chopped chocolate and over sturdy yellow cake however, my cake was just a wee bit too sturdy. Like door-stopper sturdy. So frustrating.
I'm not sure what happened but even the espresso syrup couldn't moisten this rock, I mean cake. I did love the filling/frosting and you can't go wrong with TJ's espresso pillows for garnish. Maybe once the stench of failure has worn off I will give the recipe another go. In the mean time, for happier tales of success and deliciousness, check out the TWD blogroll.

Tuesdays On The Riviera

Its been a while since the stars have aligned where I've had both time off and disposable income. Unemployment checks don't cut it when it comes to international travel so for now all my adventures will have to be lived vicariously- my cousins 3 month trip to Europe, the Today Show in Ireland, and this week's TWD, Riviera Yogurt Cake.


I couldn't resist trying this exotic sounding variation although I frugally utilized what I had on hand- one lime, one meyer lemon and some thyme from my herb garden. The aroma was intoxicating. And as I savored my first bite of this cake which I topped with homemade lemon curd and fresh strawberries, I pictured myself not in my tiny kitchen but in a seaside cafe in Nice- sipping a glass of wine and looking oh so chic with my sunglasses and silk scarf and...a girl can dream can't she?

Daring Bakers A La Mode

Three little words... a la mode. This month's Daring Bakers Challenge brings us both cake and ice cream- and its practically recession proof. With a few pantry/refrigerator staples and a bar of emergency chocolate, (hey, you never know when a craving will strike) I was able to create 2 4inch mini cakes and a huge bowl of ice cream that gives Breyers Vanilla a run for its money.

For the cake I used Ghirardelli Semi Sweet Chocolate because I love the taste and it works really well for baking. The ice cream was Wendy's recipe, slightly tweaked by first infusing the half and half with vanilla bean. Since I do not have an ice cream maker I have never made ice cream before but David Lebovitz's low tech instructions worked so well now I know I don't need one!

The February 2009 challenge has been brought to you by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Cover Story

Wanna know a dirty little secret? It's not the recipes that make me buy cookbooks- it's the pictures. I'm a sucker for a little food porn. I must check foodgawker at least 5 times a day. But also, for a novice baker like me, it really helps to have photos of what you aspire to make. That is what one of the things makes Baking From My Home To Yours such a great book and there is no food photo I've seen (drooled over) more often than its' cover model,
Devils Food White Out Cake.

A tough act to follow for sure, but I'm relatively pleased with the look of my little 4inch mini cake- and I couldn't have asked for a better ending to Valentine's Day dinner. Forget flowers, nothing says I love you like layers of chocolate and marshmallow.

The Madness That Is... Caramel Cake

Seriously, this month's Daring Bakers challenge Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting should really come with a warning label. A decadent, crazy moist, dense cake infused with caramel syrup- one could easily stop there and have a lovely rich dessert. But no, those envelope pushing Daring Bakers had to take it one step further with not just any butter cream, but one made from copious amounts of browned butter, a pound of powdered sugar, and more caramel syrup! Oh the humanity!


This cake was so rich, even my husband could only handle one slice. It was definitely way sweeter than the desserts I normally make, but the cake itself was outstanding in texture and moistness and truly I could not stop eating it.

Many thanks to Dolores, Alex, Jenny and Natalie for hosting this month. Feeling daring yourself? Try Shuna Fish Lydon's signature caramel cake recipe for yourself. You can find it here. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Do You Banana, Take Chocolate...

This weeks' TWD was a match made in heaven. I mean chocolate and banana, in cake form? I can't think of a more delicious combination! I couldn't wait to try my hand at Dorie's Black and White Banana Loaf. I decided to make 2 mini loaves and a mini round so I could test out different marbling techniques.


I tried the original recipe's method with one of the loaves, and the layering method with the other. For the round, I tried the method my mom had always used to make marble cake-
filling the pan with the plain batter and then dropping in spoonfuls of the chocolate. All 3 were equally delicious however, the original recipe's method yielding the most marbling throughout. I love experiments when they involve cake!

What's A Filbert?

I admit I was a little concerned when I first decided to join the Daring Bakers. Opera cake, danish braids...wayyy over my head. Could I really hang with these crafty culinary ninjas? Throwing caution to the wind I gave myself a pep talk (you can bake, yes you can), signed up and held my breath in anticipation of my first challenge. And then knock, knock...who's there?...Filbert Gateau...who? What's a filbert? Better yet, what's a genoise? Help me wikipedia! Thanks in part to my fellow DB's, and google I pulled myself up by my apron strings and faced this cake head on. 2 days, and many dirty dishes later, my cake was finally done. All in all I was happy with the end result.





The flavors were great and look at how much I learned:
1) Don't try to substitute hazelnut flour for real hazelnuts if you stink at math. I was a wee bit off in my calculations resulting in a much drier cake than I had hoped for.
2) Swiss butter cream is possible, even for a novice like me. That being said, if you're going to make it ahead of time, you need to re-blend it before piping, otherwise it separates (duh).
3) I will never use store bought whipped cream again. There is great satisfaction in making it yourself.
4) Ganache, while delicious, is not lunch.
5) Daring Bakers Rock!!!