Saturday, December 20, 2014

Buttermilk-Glazed Mini Fig Cakes



The Cake Slice Bakers had another four recipes to choose from this month. I chose a recipe I wasn't familiar with. These mini fig cakes turned delicious! I went on the hunt for the key ingredient in this recipe, fig preserves.  



Luckily I didn't have to hunt very long. World Market had the preserves along with a long list of different varieties I didn't know were available. I love this place! 


I decided to make these cake on an evening I had to return to the hospital to see my grandmother. She was on her second week of being admitted and her appetite wasn't all that great. I figured these would spark an interest in her appetite. It worked she had half of one, only because she was on a strict diet regiment, otherwise she would had ate the whole cake. She loved them! She also mumbled while she ate the cake, a very good sign. 


I loved everything about this recipe! I was a little skeptical about the buttermilk glaze. I made, tasted, loved it, and brushed it on the cakes! I thought they were perfect just with the glaze, but my husband wanted the hard sauce on them. I honestly didn't want to include it, just because I thought the cake was sweet enough and it would just be overwhelming. It wasn't! It was a perfectly balance bite! The hard sauce turned out smooth, light, and creamy!
For the recipe click here!
Please visit the rest of our Cake Slice Bakers for their monthly baking choice! 





Thursday, November 20, 2014

Rum-Glazed Sweet Potato cakes


The Cake Slice Bakers have started a new baking season with "The Southern Cake Book" by Southern Living. This book looks very promising with its mouth watering photos with every recipe. 


This months choices were very hard to decide from. I decide on a recipe that I wasn't familiar with. I chose Rum-Glazed Sweet Potato Cakes. The recipe consisted of roasting sweet potatoes, mixing the strained potatoes into the batter. Golden raisins soaked in rum were also an addition to the recipe. A butter-rum glaze and chopped pecans finished off these tender moist mini cakes.


This recipe definitely was the right choice to kick off the fall baking season. These mini bundt cakes were super moist, and delivered the perfect balance of sweet potato, spices and rum, without over powering each other. 
For this recipe please visit Southern Living. Don't forget to stop by and visit my Cake Slice friends to see what they baked up this month.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake



 The Cake Slice Bakers have ended the season of baking from Great Cakes. Most of our bakers weren't very pleased with the baking book. I myself have no complaints. I may have had one or to bakes that weren't the best I've had, but pretty much overall I had great success with the book!




One of my favorite recipes from this book was the Black Forest Cherry Torte! I still daydream about this cake from time to time. And my son has made it clear he wants it again for his birthday  next year!
 The Coconut Layer Cake was also a family favorite! The buttercream frosting sandwiched the layers just lovely and had the perfect balance of coconut. This will be requested again for Easter next year, I can guarantee you.
I also discovered a simple and delicious Old Fashioned Pound Cake recipe. It was delicate and buttery and flavorful. This will be my to go to pound cake!


 Streusel Squares were also a favorite! I've made this recipe several times, and its become my favorite breakfast cake.
This book also pushed me out of my comfort zone and baked cakes I would have normally never baked. The Sesame Almond Swirl Cake was one of those recipes. The texture of the cake came from Amaretti biscuits, which I made from scratch since I could not locate them.


For my final bake this season I chose this lovely Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. I felt I needed to keep things simple and save my energy for next season.This cake has also won a spot in my favorites. Buttery, light, and just plain delicious!
The Cake Slice Bakers will start baking from a new book next month. I hope this book results as promising as it looks! Please visit the other Cake Slice Bakers for their baking adventures!


Saturday, September 20, 2014

Sesame Almond Swirl




This month I chose Sesame Almond Swirl to bake with the Cake Slice bakers. I have been looking forward to baking all month long, I grabbed my list of ingredients and darted off to the grocery store. Amaretti biscuits is one of the ingredients I could not locate. I quickly decided I would leave this out, quite honestly didn't have the energy or time to hunt all over town for them.


I planned on baking this cake the next morning, so I grabbed my book as I headed to bed to review the baking instructions, just to make things go a little faster the next morning. As I read through the steps, I could not let go of the thought of my missing ingredient. I decided to search online for a recipe. I actually found a video that was quite helpful and seemed simple enough to make. So what did I do? Jumped out of bed and headed to the kitchen!


The cookie batter didn't turn out as thick as the recipes, it was more on the runny side. I think this had to do with the fact that I didn't use a food processor to grind my almond flour, the result was not as fine, I think this is why a lot of the liquid in the recipe wasn't absorbed. The cookies didn't rise like they should have. But the flavor was incredible! The texture was crisp and chewy.


I'm glad I didn't leave this ingredient out! The cake turned out flavorful, and had a great texture to it! Waking up on Sunday morning to a house filled with the aroma of sweet nutty cake is heavenly! Loved everything about this cake!
Please visit the Cake slice members for their monthly cake reveal!



Saturday, August 23, 2014

Zach's Chocolate Marble Cake


 This month for the Cake Slice Bakers I chose this delicious marbled cake! We're still baking from Great Cakes, Iv'e been pretty happy with all my bakes from this book, and this recipe was no exception!


I haven't had much luck with marbled cakes, and honestly isn't one of my favorites. I loved everything about this cake! It filled me with such a warmth as I gobbled it down with a nice tall glass of iced milk! It was probably the combination of nutmeg and honey that went into the recipe!


Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the cake and it disappeared from the cake keeper the next day! I would also like to mention that we have two more bakes from this book before we move on to the next book adventure. If anyone is interested in joining our baking group, now is the time, for we are taking new members for our new book which we will start baking from in November. Please let me know if your interested and I can forward all the information on how to join.

Please visit my Cake Slice friends and see how there baking adventure went!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Black Forest Cherry Torte



Black Forest Cherry Torte is my selection for this months Cake Slice bakers. My sons birthday was approaching and thought I suggest this cake for his birthday, I figured I kill to birds with one stone. He went for it! I made sure I presented the recipe with website photos of what it looked like and what it would taste like, his mouth I think watered, he was petty easy to convince!


So off I went on my hunt for Dutch cocoa. Not a easy task let me tell you! I looked on line and was super confused. Plus it was pricy! One of my Cake Slice friends suggested Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. I had seen this in varies stores from time to time, so I knew it would be no problem to find. Wrong! I hit three supermarkets before I found it at a high end grocery store, but tis is what happens when you procrastinate and wait till the day before you need it!  


 This cake had many steps and I was quite nervous, I must have read the entire recipe five times! I was quite stressed when it came to making the clarified butter. Holly from "Love to whisk it" gave me the confidence I needed to proceed. Thank you Holly for rooting me on!
May I mention one other thing? Don't taste the foam you skim off the top of the butter during the clarification process. I was bitter, not sure what made me taste it, it looked creamy I guess.


 The aroma the butter made was heavenly! I didn't have a cheese cloth so I opted for a paper towel to use in the strainer, it worked fine.


I just wished I had some waffles right at that moment to pour this liquid gold on!



Happy and confident I moved on to my next step!


I sifted my dry ingredients and set them aside.


I warmed the eggs on a double broiler watching them carefully!


My beating time was way longer than mentioned in the book. About double the time.


I carefully incorporated the flour mixture.


I opted for three pans, I didn't want to take the chance of my cake crumbling when slicing and assembling the layers.


The filling was next.


I strained the cherries and used the reserved juice to start the filling.


The Kirschwasser made the filling delicious, it was totally worth the expense! Don't make this cake without it!


Believe it or not, the chocolate curls were the hardest part of the cake! My first attempt was a disaster! I scraped all the chocolate up and re melted it, then dropped the stupid bowl when I removed it from the microwave! I was pretty mad at this point, plus my bowl broke, and I'm still making payments on this dinnerware, so a broken bowl is upsetting!


My second attempt was way better! I could actually see some curls in the shavings!


I layered my cake the next morning after I made my simple syrup, also flavored with Kirschwasser. Heavenly!



First layer, syrup, filling...


Second layer, more syrup and only whip cream...


Third layer more syrup and cake completely frosted in whip cream. Chocolate shavings and maraschino cherries gave this cake a finishing touch!


We quickly sang Happy Birthday to my son after dinner and sliced the cake!


Ladies I cant even find the words to describe this cake. Can I say we finished it before we went to bed, there was only five of us! My son was very pleased, he thanked me again the next day for making this for him.


Loved, loved, loved, this cake! The Kirschwasser must not be left out, don't skimp and get the imitation stuff. My budget was limited and only got the mini bottle, but I plan on investing on the full sized bottle! This cake moves up to first place in this book! I urge you to take the time to make it, you won't be sorry.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Absolutely the Best Yellow Cake


For this months Cake Slice bake I chose the Yellow Cake recipe. Its a fool proof 1-2-3-4 cake! I've made Paula Dean's 1-2-3-4 cake recipe before, delicious and very buttery, a little greasy for my liking.




I'm glad I had the opportunity to try another recipe. I loved how the cake baked up light and golden. It smelled heavenly!  






I always wrap my cakes in Glad Press'n Seal immediately after removing from the oven. I always leave them in the cake pan, and seal them properly. I let them cool 30 minutes on a rack, then store them in the fridge. I love this technique, it keeps my cakes moist!




For this cake I chose the Quick Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe from this book.






And for the first time in history...my chocolate frosting came out perfect! Yay!!!! I've had trouble before making chocolate frosting. It always ended up seperating! So annoying! It looked curdled! I think it was the cocoa powder. 



I loved the silky texture! It was light, fluffy, and delicious!


It was enough to frost my 3 8" layered cake! I made sure no last drop went to waste....licking that bowl nicely!


With all this said, this turned out to be the best American Classic Cake! The perfect Birthday Cake Recipe! Really! The texture of the cake was light, and had the perfect balance of butter without being greasy. The crumb was perfect. And paired up with the chocolate buttercream was heavenly! You did it again Carole Walter!