Cake Batter & Crumbs

Blueberry Streusel Cake

Has anyone ever ordered spices from the Penzeys company in Wisconsin? I discovered them about a year ago and quickly signed up for a catalog off of their website. I loved the catalog because it not only listed virtually every spice imaginable, but it also gave descriptions on what exactly the spice was like, where it's native to, and how to use it... an excellent reference for those of us who are still learning. In reading, I discovered that they actually import a lot of their spices from the areas of the world where they're native and most naturally flavorful.

So, the catalog got me hooked and actually over time I replaced nearly all of the spices I was currently using with different ones from Penzeys. At only a few dollars each, it didn't take too long to build up a really nice spice collection. Plus, they usually give you a free sample with each order.

Anyway, I don't own stock in Penzeys or anything, I'm just sharing information on some of great products that I've discovered and the Penzys catalog is where I found this recipe for Blueberry Streusel Cake.

Last night Shannon, my husband, volunteered to cook dinner, so I took the opportunity to make this cake that I had planned to earlier in the week, but didn't get to it. They suggested baking the cake in 9x9" square pan or 9" glass pie plate, but warned that the glass plate might be difficult to serve from. I had a casserole dish that was shaped like a glass pie plate and decided to use that. It worked really well and gave the cake room to expand without overflowing.


The cake only called for a 1/2 cup blueberries, which I thought was a little on the light side, but in the end it was a nice balance because you can taste the vanilla and cinnamon flavors in the cake instead having a complete blueberry flavor. The recipe alternates layers of cake batter and streusel and then finishes the top with a layer of streusel which turns crispy in the oven and reminds me of a giant blueberry muffin. YUM!



Blueberry Streusel Cake
serves 8-10

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbl milk
1 3/4 cup flour, divided
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup firm fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter with sugar at medium to high speed with a mixer until fluffy. Break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk briefly, then add to the butter/sugar; mix with vanilla and cinnamon; beat to combine. Rinse blueberries, toss with 1/4 cup flour, and set aside. Sift remaining flour with baking powder and salt. Blend sour cream and milk into the batter, alternating with the flour mixture. Beat on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often until the batter is nice and smooth.

Fold in the blueberries. Grease a 9x9" square glass pan or a 9" glass pie pan. The pie pan looks great, but it is a bit over-filled, making it slightly harder to cut and serve the pieces--if in doubt, go with the square pan.  Add half the batter, sprinkle with a layer of streusel, and then smooth the rest of the batter over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining streusel topping. Place the cake in the center of the middle rack, and bake until bubbly brown, 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool before serving. It will still be a bit warm after an hour and should be relatively easy to slice at that point.

Streusel Topping
2 tbl butter, room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbl flour
1 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a small bowl. Rub gently through your fingers until combined and crumbly.

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes

Saturday morning we headed out to the Amish farms around our area to do a little produce and goodie shopping. Pennsylvania is known for having a large population of Amish, and we have a fair amount in my area here. We first stopped at King's Country store, which has a lot of different spices, flours, and locally produced cheeses, milk, and meats. Then we headed to a little road side stand which had huge baskets of hot and sweet peppers, tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupes. Inside they had freshly baked bread, pies, homemade potato chips, woopie pies and a large selection of homemade jams. I wish I would have had my camera, but I believe I heard somewhere that it can be insulting to some Amish if you take pictures, so it was probably for the best!

Anyway, we bought some watermelons, peach jam, and grabbed a couple of woopie pies for the road. The woopie pies were gone before we even got back to the main road!

When we got home, I was in the mood to bake. I started flipping through my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook and decided on brown sugar pound cakes. It was one of the easier recipes in the book and the idea of spreading some of my newly procured peach jam on it sealed the deal.

The recipe was simple; we had most of the ingredients already in the pantry or fridge. I was curious how it would taste because the only sugar in the recipe is the brown sugar. I tasted the batter and it was so good that I almost got addicted to it. To me it tasted like a cake batter of chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the chocolate part -- if that makes any sense.


The recipe made 2 loaf size pound cakes. I ended up giving one to my parents and kept the other at our house. In the end, the pound cakes were really great with a completely different flavor than any other cake I've had. It wasn't quite like a spice cake, but the molasses in the brown sugar gave it a subtle flavor like one. The peach jam was a perfect accompaniment. I may have to head out there again to get more soon...

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes
               

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cups packed light-brown sugar
5 large eggs
¾ cup buttermilk

   

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter two 8 ½ -4 ½-inch loaf pans; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

   

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs one at a time, beating until combined.

   

Add the reserved flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and smooth with an offset spatula.

   

Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 1 hour. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool completely. Cakes can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic for up to 3 days.

Italian Meringue Buttercream - Birthday Cupcakes

Well, the office move is officially completed. We’re in our new building, and I’m happy to finally have my own office with a nice view. But—on to more important things… cake!

We threw a birthday party over the weekend for our friend Dave. The party planning detail that I of course, was most interested in, was what kinds of treats to serve. I wanted to do a twist on the usual cake and ice cream menu, so we had a make-your-own sundae bar along with vanilla cupcakes topped with Italian meringue buttercream icing.

I was under pressure to get everything ready, so I just used a box cake mix. The icing recipe came from The Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes. This is a really great “idea” book as every cupcake is pictured in full color. I’m a sucker for photographs, so that’s what sold me on the book!

This icing recipe was the first I’ve made from the book, and it was quite tasty. For me though, it’s just not style of icing I love though. I, unlike a lot of people out there, adore the really sweet and rich, heavy icings. They’re not very good for you, but hey, it’s all about moderation, right? Anyway, this was a very smooth, delicate and not-too sweet icing.

The recipe as listed in the book is a basic version and it’s suggested to add flavorings to create different icings. I split the batch in two and added a little vanilla to one and some cocoa powder to the other. I dusted the tops of the chocolate ones with some additional cocoa powder, just to make them look prettier. I kept these in the fridge and let them come to room temperature before serving.

   

Ingredients:

Scant 2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup water
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces   

Directions:

Place 2/3 cup sugar and water in small pot. Stir to wet sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, swirling pan occasionally. Dip pastry brush in cold water and wash down sugar crystals from the sides of the pot once or twice. [I didn’t have a pastry brush and just used the spoon] Turn down heat to simmer gently.   

Place egg whites in mixing bowl and whip until frothy on low speed using balloon whip attachment. Add cream of tartar and turn speed to medium-high. When soft peaks form, add remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar gradually. Continue whipping until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Bring the sugar-water mixture to a rapid boil and cook until it reaches 248°-250° F. As syrup cooks, look for visual clues to assess the temperature. It starts out thin with many small bubbles over the surface. The water will begin to evaporate, and the mixture will become thicker. The bubbles get larger and sticky and pop more slowly. At this point the syrup looks thickened, but it has not begun to color. If you drop a bit of the syrup into a glass of cold water, it will form a ball. This is the firm-ball stage and the syrup is ready. 

Pour a thin steady stream over meringue, without pouring any on the rotating whip or the sides of the bowl. Whip meringue on high speed until cool. When the bowl is no longer warm, stop the machine and touch the surface of the meringue with your finger to check that it is cooled. With mixer on medium speed, add the butter, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Keep beating until the buttercream is completely smooth. Any flavorings may be added at this point.

"Create Your Own Flavor" Chewy Granola Bars

At work we just finished up moving offices to a new building across campus. I've been so tired from the packing and unpacking that I've lost the energy to bake this week. Instead I have a recipe that I made a couple weeks ago and never got around to posting.

This recipe came from allrecipes.com for Easy Granola Bars. I chose this one not only because it received high reviews, but it also appeared to be a good base recipe that you could easily customize the "mix-ins".

For mine, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, coconut, and a handful of dried blueberries. Also, I only had about 1 1/2 cups of the quick cooking oats in the house, so I used that and also 1 1/2 cups of the old-fashioned oats-- and they turned out fine.


These were great and are an excellent portable snack or yummy breakfast. It'll be fun to experiment with flavor combinations. I'm thinking some with cinnamon, dried apples, pecans, and a touch of maple syrup might be really good in the Fall.

Here's the recipe as it was listed with my adjustments:

Easy Chewy Granola Bars

                                 INGREDIENTS

•                                                                                   3 cups quick-cooking oats [I used half each quick cooking and old fashioned]
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
•                                          2 tablespoons butter, melted
•                                          1 cup flaked coconut
•                                          1 cup sliced almonds [I used macadamia nuts]
•                                          1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
•                                          1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries [I used a little less than 1/2 cup dried blueberries]

                                                                                          

                                 DIRECTIONS

                                                                  

1.                                          Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.