Cherry Poppy Seed Cake

The second I saw this photo/recipe on foodgawker I knew I had to make it. I saw the post on Tuesday and then made the cake on Saturday. That's a very quick turn around for me.

It helped that I had an occasion to bake for: friends' engagement/album release/going away party. That's a lot going on at once, isn't it? All those things guaranteed a good party.

 

It was such a lovely night that I barely had time to snap an iPhone shot of the last piece of cake before handing it to my roomie.

This cake is so lovely, especially for summer seeing it's somewhat light in consistency and uses cherries. I added a nice whipped cream that helped bring out the flavors of the poppy seeds and the cherries.

 

I highly recommend making this cake. Or, if anything, if you see it at a party, make sure to get a slice!

Cherry Poppy Seed Cake (adapted from Eat Me!)

Ingredients:

150 g butter (room temperature) (around 11 Tablespoons)

150 g brown sugar

250 g flour

10 g baking powder

4 eggs

100 g poppy seeds

1 t vanilla extract

50 ml milk

pinch of salt

1 kg cherries (pitted) (Erika's Extras: I used cherries from the produce aisle, not from a jar. Also, I found that I would have preferred more than the 3 cups worth of cherries.)

To serve: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C/260 F. Lightly butter a spring form pan.  

2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Separately sift flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt and gradually add to the batter. Add vanilla, poppy seeds and milk. Combine until completely mixed. 

3. Pour the batter into the pan. Cover with cherries. Firmly press the cherries into the top of the batter. 

4. Transfer to the oven for 30-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick (etc) comes out clean. Serve a cake with a dollop of whipped cream.

Vanilla  Whipped Cream (from Black Forest Trifle)

8 ounces cream cheese

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups heavy cream

 

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and almond extract with an electric mixer. Beat until smooth. Add in heavy cream, incorporating a little at a time to prevent splattering. When all the cream has been added, turn the mixer to high, and beat until soft peaks form.

Bake well and prosper!

Watermelon & Blueberry Tequila Popsicles

Last week I was in Charleston, SC for the 5th time. I love it there (like I've said before) and love all the fun architecture.

This was the first time I planned to make a trip to Savannah, GA while in the south. I was excited to see a city that was like Charleston: a nice historic gem of a city in the south.

I got to walk around Savannah for about 3 hours in unrelenting humidity until the rain finally started to fall. While I was walking around I fell in love with all the Spanish moss hanging from trees.

I also liked taking photos of some of the iron work in the town.

And I went on a tour of the house where the murder in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil took place: The Mercer Williams House.

Right when my tour group walked into the back of the house, the thunderstorm hit. It made for a great soundtrack to the tour guide's stories.

 

After the rain let up I went to Bonaventure Cemetery to drive around for the last quarter of an hour that it was open for the day.

No wonder a Bonaventure Historical Society was created. This cemetery is lovely with a lot of history!

 

I headed back to Charleston where it rained all day. So, what does one do while on a rainy vacation? Make dessert of course!

 

I bought some cute popsicle molds and went to work.

And, of course, I made a mess in a kitchen that isn't mine. :) (Thanks, Ward!)

The flavor of the mixture was nice but when it froze the pulp moved up and the tequila moved down so the popsicles broke when removed from the mold.

Oh well! Easy to eat with a spoon!

Watermelon & Blueberry Tequila Popsicles (my own recipe!)

5 cups of chopped seedless watermelon

1 cup of washed blueberries

1/4 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of tequila

8 popsicle molds

 

Blend all ingredients together in a blender and then strain the blended mixture to make sure there aren't any seeds etc left over. Fill popsicle molds and after an hour in the freezer, insert popsicle sticks. Let freeze for at least 6 hours. Enjoy!

Bake well and prosper!

Oatmeal Whoopie Pies (again!)

This past weekend I was in AZ visiting my brother and his family. My brother mentioned that he had a craving for one of those Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies that were given out to him after he played soccer when he was younger.

 

I immediately said, "Oh, I can make those!" I remembered one of my favorite recipes from 3 years ago and decided to make it again (and to take better photos this time around!)

Also, for this time around, I had a helper! One of my nephews!

He actually was very helpful for a 3 (about to be 4) year old! He even posed with his messy hands!

While we made the first batch I kept thinking about how I didn't remember the dough being so liquid-y. So, while the first batch was in the oven I re-read the ingredients list.

 

Sure enough! I had forgotten 1/2 a cup of flour. Wonder how I could have possibly done that while also supervising a kid! Imagine! ;)

 

Thankfully, both batches came out well. (Oh, and they were just as good as 3 years ago!)

Oatmeal Whoopie Pies (from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Whoopie-Pies/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients
2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup shortening

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
2.Cream butter or margarine with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and mix well. Stir in the salt, cinnamon, baking powder, boiling water, baking soda and flour. Mix to combine. Stir in the oats.
3.Drop cookies onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies cool then make sandwiches from two cookies filled with Whoopie Pie Filling.
4.To Make Filling: Beat egg white. Mix in the milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Beat in the shortening and remaining 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Beat until light.

Bake well and prosper!

Monkey Bread from SCRATCH!

It's a Friday before a long weekend which means I make monkey bread for my coworkers. Yes. It's tradition. (See here and here and here.)

 

I've wanted to make monkey bread from scratch using the Overnight Coffee Loaf recipe for the dough. So last night I did just that. Except...gulp...I had put in complete eggs. I didn't realize it only called for the yolks until after I stirred it together. I was sort of upset at myself but only for one minute. As my room mate can tell you, I said, "Oh well. It'll be a learning experience for me. I'll see how it turns out with egg yolks and egg whites!"

It turned out incredibly yummy. I was so happy with the results. It was so worth the waking up at 5am to pull the dough out of the fridge, sleeping, and then waking up again to put it together and in the oven. My coworkers agree.

Monkey Bread from Scratch (adapted from Mom's Best Recipes Cook Book)

1 pkg dry active yeast (or scant 1 T)

1/4 C warm water

4 C flour

1/4 C sugar

1 t salt

1 C butter or margarine (softened)

3 egg (or try just using the yolks of 3 eggs)

1 C lukewarm milk, scalded and cooled

1 C sugar

2 t+ cinnamon

 

Topping:

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 C brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

Soften butter. Cut in flour, 1/4 C sugar, and salt until mixture looks like a pie crust mixture. Dissolve yeast in warm water and stir with a fork so no big lumps form. Once stirred, mix in yeast, egg yolks, and milk. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Take dough out and punch it and then knead it briefly. Leave dough in bowl and cover. Let rise for 2 hours. (Dough will not double in size.) After 2 hours, grease a bundt pan. Make cinnamon and sugar and place in a small bowl. Take small chunks of dough and roll around in cinnamon and sugar and then place in bundt pan. Boil together butter, brown sugar, and 1 t cinnamon. Pour mixture over top of dough. Bake 350⁰ for 1 hour or until the top of the dough is very hard. Remove from pan and let cool 10 minutes before inverting.

 

Erikas Extras: Frost with powdered sugar glaze (mix 1 C powdered sugar and a tiny bit of milk.)

Bake well and prosper!

Cinnamon Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made some cookies Sat morning for a weekend of fun.

 

This past weekend I went to the Jersey Shore to cheer on runners running the NJ 1/2 and Full Marathon. I got to stay at a couple's beach house and wanted to bring something for us to enjoy both in the evening and in the morning.

 

I found that these cookies were hearty and are probably a better fit for Autumn. However, they were perfect this weekend with red wine in the evening and perfect with coffee/chai in the morning. And they were good fuel for all the cheering I did.

 

The runners REALLY liked that last sign. I like making runners laugh. It's no small feat to make someone laugh who's running 26.2 miles!

 

These cookies were nice and next time I'll make it with dulce de leche (which is what the original recipe calls for) instead of adding chocolate chips.

Cinnamon Walnut Cookies (adapted from Laura's Mess)

1 and a half stick of unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (Erika's Extras: I used muscovado)

1/4 cup white caster sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/4 tsp extra, for sprinkling

2 cups (250g) plain white flour

2 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon baking soda

sea salt

1 cup raw walnuts, crushed + 2 tbsp extra, for sprinkling
1/2 cup chocolate chips (Erika's Extras: I used semi-sweet AND white chocolate chips)

Place the butter and sugars into a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla, then continue to mix at medium speed until well combined.

Sift in your flour, cornflour, baking soda, cinnamon and a large pinch of salt. Mix together, adding in the walnuts and chocolate chips when the mixture starts to come together. When well combined, refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. Take 1 Tablespoon of cookie dough and roll into a ball. Place on prepared cookie sheet and flatten each ball slightly with your hands. Press a few bits of crumbled walnut into the top of each cookie and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place the cookies into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Bake well and prosper!