Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake

Wow, it that a mouthful or what! This easy-to-do bundt cake is another from Flo Braker wonderful collection. I am a frangipane fan so when this came up on the ABC Bakers list I didn't want to miss it. Frangipane is usually made from ground almonds, egg, sugar, and butter. It can be used as a filling for tarts topped with fruit, cake, pies, and assorted pastries. This is however, the first time I paired a frangipane with chocolate. Almonds usually go very well with chocolate so why wouldn't this? Well, it does and very well indeed!

The base of this bundt style cake is a chocolate pound cake. Also one of my favorite types of cake. I particularly enjoy the small crumb and smooth texture of a good pound cake. For this recipe this ingredients are: cake flour (this is the reason for the fine crumb), cocoa powder (keeps the chocolate from going over the top), baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, and butter of course! My favorite pound cake recipe of choice contains cream cheese, this one uses milk. But alas fear not..... this will not disappoint!

As you can see I went with the mini-bundt pans which makes sharing with friends and neighbors easier. Plus who doesn't like a personal sized treat! I found this pound cake with the frangipane ribbon to be very tasty, moist, and not over the top chocolatey and as promised it did improve with age. I do hope you give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

Quintessential Cheese Blintzes

The newest of the  baking projects chosen for the ABC Baker's Challenges is the Quintessential Cheese Blintzes by Flo Braker. Whenever I hear "cheese blintzes" mentioned I am immediately flooded with fond memories. The oldest of them are from my childhood when my grandmother made these for my brothers and I. Light, slightly sweet pillows of delight! As my son was growing up I made them for him as a special breakfast, lunch, or brunch. It was something he also looked forward to equal enthusiasm. So for me doing the cheese blintzes with the ABC Baker's was sheer pleasure.

So last week with the coming storm, not knowing if we would have electricity or when it would return, I felt it best to make these early. As it turned out, just as I was serving them up to my husband the electric went out! Wow, that was spooky!

If you've never had these wonderful little rolls you really don't know what you are missing! And if you think they are difficult, think again. These are really simple to whip up and oh how they will make eyes pop!

The first thing you want to do is get the crepes made. This batter sits in the refrigerator 1-2 hours before you cook it up. All you need is butter, flour, eggs, salt, and water....oh and a nice heavy bottom, non-stick (if possible but not necessary) pan. The procedure is easy and goes quickly. Just pile them up on the side, keep them warm while you make the filling.

Flo suggests using farmer cheese, sugar, egg, salt, vanilla, and orange or lemon zest. Now over the years I've used ricotta and small curd creamy cottage cheese with equal success. They are all good so don't feel guilty substituting!

After the crepes are done and the filling is ready it is time to assemble. Spooning about 1 1/2 tbs of filling spread slightly across the center. Then flip the sides in onto the filling and roll from the top down until you have a neat, rectangular package (looks like an egg roll). Then saute them in butter until they are slightly brown. Flip them gently and brown the other side. Viola!

I served them with a yummy black cherry preserve over the top. You can use any jam or preserve, powdered sugar, or naked. They are all good. This was sooooo good I hope you will try them. Let me know what you topped them with! 

Congo Brownies

The August baking project with the ABC Bakers was Congo Brownies, found in Flo Braker's Baking for All Occassions. Now just to set the story straight I am not a brownie person. In fact I couldn't tell you when the last time I made brownies. Now come on, stay with me here. This will end well, I promise. As I was saying......brownies to me are gooey, soft, over the top chocolatey. I don't mind chocolate if it is in the form of Lindt Truffles but over the top brownies not so much. But, being a good sport and having hungry neighbors I went with the program. As it turns out these were definitely different and....wait a minute you're just going to have to read through to find out how this story turns out.

This is not your usual brownie recipe, it is a combination of a brownie and a nut studded blondie, that's right! First the Congo layer (blondie incognito) made with all the usual participants including yummy brown sugar and studded with walnuts. This wonderful layer is partially backed then removed from the oven for the addition of the brownie layer.

The brownie layer again has all the usual participants but includes not only cocoa but melted unsweetened chocolate, over the top? Or maybe its just a nice balance of chocolate that helps to tone the chocolately sweetness down a bit. Back in the oven to finish baking.

After cooling there is a drizzle of melted chocolate and I added another drizzle of white chocolate for a continuation of the black and white theme. I must say this was not gooey and not mushy. The texture was closer to cakey, much more to my liking. The over all reaction from my tasters was very positive and I must admit that if I was to eat a brownie...this would be the one. I might even suggest some vanilla ice cream on top to finish it off! See it ended well! Enjoy!

Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake

This has been the craziest, busiest, and hottest summer in quite some time. I've been baking, yes ....thank the air-conditioner gods. In addition I had the opportunity to do a fun, creative, eatible project for a family member that I will reveal soon.

For now on to this months late posting of the ABC Bakers project, Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake from Flo Brakers book "Baking for All Occassions". I'd never pass up an opportunity to bake a yeasted coffee cake so when this came up I was all over it! That is until the time came to post, well that was a few weeks ago...(head hanging with sad face). Enough of that you get my message.

This yeasted cake recipe called for the usual round up of flour, sugar, salt, yeast, some warm spices like: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Also in attendence was milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Flo warned us that the dough would be sticky and boy she wasn't kidding. I'm not sure if I did this right but, I had to add much more flour than I expected. This really toppled my confidence but kept going.

At this point a butterscotch glaze is prepared with brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup.  It is poured into the prepared pan. After the suggested rising time the dough is rolled out, spread with a cinnamon/butter filling then cut into strips. The strips are coiled around the pan. It is covered and left to rise again. Bake in a 350 degree oven. I took heed of our fearless leader, Haana's advise and was careful not to over bake. After a short cooling off period the pan is flipped and presto!

Now I'd like to say this was just wonderful but I cannot tell a lie. I didn't find the cake to be very tasty, or yeast-like flaky. However, in all fairness it could have easily been my fault with all that extra flour. The glaze was delicious as was the cinnamon-butter spread. I wouldn't mind trying this again but, I would probably make more changes to make it more interesting. If you try this recipe and get better results let me know.

Favorite Buttermilk Cake

Summer is quickly rolling in and I usually  lean towards lighter desserts that require less baking and preparing time. It's a good opportunity to combine a cool and creamy vanilla bean pastry cream, vanilla whipped cream, and fresh, sweet strawberries. All I needed to make this dessert something special was a really good cake. Then along came the ABC's Baker's challenge for this month: Flo Braker's "Favorite Buttermilk Cake". Perfect!

The ingredients for the cake are:
cake flour, baking powder and soda, salt, buttermilk, vanilla extract, butter, sugar, and eggs. The procedure was quick and easy, welcomed on a hot day. The resulting cake is light, soft and moist. The buttermilk gives this cake a slight tang which I think will go well with many cream or fruit fillings.

I used Flo's recipe for vanilla cream filling under the "Boston Cream Pie" recipe. Milk, sugar, vanilla bean, yolks, flour, and butter. All came together resulting in a wonderful silky smooth vanilla cream. Boy, I could just eat this with a spoon and be very content!

To finish I whipped up some vanilla flavored whipped cream, cleaned and sliced strawberries and all was ready to assemble.

This is a wonderful and versital cake. It cut easily into small circles, and held up in the pastry cream without getting soggy. Can't you just see that wonderful crumb. Can you taste it, isn't it light? Can't? Then maybe you should give it a try for yourself. What will you use for a filling, or topping, or maybe all on it's own? So, very good I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Thank you Hanaa for this challenge!   

Overnight Cinnamon Buns with the ABC Baker's

Has it really been that long?! Oh my! It's not that I haven't been baking that's for sure. It's that there really isn't enough time in a weekend. So I vote for extending the weekends to three days. I'm sure everyone would agree but, sorry it isn't happening so we better make due.

On May 3rd I missed posting the Avid Baker's Challenge of Overnight Cinnamon Buns found in Flo Braker's, Baking for All Occassions. As you can see from some of my recent posts the combination of cinnamon and with any driy fruit or nuts is a favorite. Then add in the overnight rising aspect I wasn't about to miss this challenge. And I am glad I didn't.

The dough for this recipe is a sweet yeast potatoe dough. It called for a Russet potatoe. Since I didn't have one I substituted a Yukon Gold potatoe giving it a slightly more yellow hue. The dough itself was easy to put together (I just love the addition of orange zest). Then into the refrigerator to rise for 8 hours up to 24 hours.

The filling that Flo suggested contained Macadamia nuts. They are one of my favorite nuts; tender and delicious in any application. But sadly, my honey cannot eat them. That's how the raisins found their way in again. Along with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg we had a warm and spicey filling.

The next morning I jumped out of bed to finish the assembly of these yummy breakfast treats. Rolling the filled dough into a log is easy for any baker, however it's all about the slicing. The suggestion from Flo is something I discovered many moons ago. Using a long piece of dental floss (unflavored, please!) criss-crossed around the dough, then pull, makes a clean cut.

After rising again, a trip to the oven, a drizzle of icing and.......wow!!! Warm, spicey, slightly sweet, tender, delicate orange flavor, and gone! Not a complaint in the house. What's your favorite filling consist of? Thank you Hannah for this wonderful challenge!