Tender Yellow Cake with Nectarine-Basil Syrup and Mascarpone

After making Nectarines Poached with Basil, I had quite a lot of nectarine-basil syrup left over. So I decided to make this cake, which seemed like a perfect way to use up the tasty (and quite sweet) syrup.

The cakes I tend to make are rarely multilayered, but this was an exception. I baked the two layers per the original recipe, and then I soaked each layer in syrup. I also took about ¾ cup mascarpone, added some syrup to it to give it some flavor (but not so much as to make it runny), and layered the mixture between the 2 cake layers and on the cake top. The result was a very moist (and heavy), delicious cake that required minimal effort, especially for a layer cake!

Tender Yellow Cake with Nectarine-Basil Syrup and Mascarpone
Adapted from Food52

3 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2¼ cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup whole milk (I used skim and it was fine)
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

2. Beat egg whites until frothy, then add ½ cup of the sugar (reserving the rest) a bit at a time until egg whiles are stiff and glossy. (I did this step in my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the whisk attachment.)

3. Mix the flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add all of the oil and all of the vanilla, and ½ cup of the milk. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed - the mixture will be quite thick. (I did this step with a handheld mixer because my stand mixer had the egg whites in it. If you reverse the mixer usage, user the paddle attachment of the stand mixer for this step.)

4. Add the egg yolks and remaining milk to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

5. Fold in the egg whites and distribute into the baking pans.

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool for 10-20 minutes in the pan then turn out onto cake rack (or plates in my case) to cool completely.

7. Spoon nectarine-basil syrup (or jam) over cake layers. You can stack the layers together or have 2 cakes!

Chocolate Bundt Cake

I made this a while back but forgot to post about it. Fortunately, there is no chocolate season (or off-season) in my book, so this is as appropriate now that we are entering summer as it was a couple of months ago. As usual, credit for another great recipe goes to Food52 - this recipe won the Best Chocolate Cake contest more than a year ago and has been featured in many Food52 round-ups (again, probably because chocolate has no season and the recipe is great). I suggest learning from my mistakes and waiting much less than a year to make this chocolatey goodness.

Chocolate Bundt Cake
Adapted from Food52

2 cups sugar
1¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cups Dutch process cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup sour milk
1 cup freshly brewed strong black coffee
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F with rack in the middle. Butter a bundt pan and dust the inside with cocoa powder. Set aside.

2. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a mixer on low, add the milk, coffee, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla one at a time. Mix until everything is incorporated. Then, with the mixer still on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once all of the flour mixture is added, mix the batter for a full four minutes on medium speed.

4. Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature. If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Walnut Jam Cake

I had a few friends over for dinner recently and wanted to serve a dessert that was homemade and yet would not stress me out. This Walnut Jam Cake seemed perfect - Deb classifies it as an "everyday" cake and the dough is made in a food processor. (Though, as someone who has only had a full-size food processor for less than a year, I completely understand that while this direction makes the dough-making very straightforward for those who have a food processor, the recipe immediately becomes more frustrating for those that don't. There is a reason I had only made this Cranberry Coffee Cake at my mom's house in the past.)

Still, I cannot recommend this "everyday" cake highly enough - easy to make, not too sweet (I used less jam than the recipe called for), nutty and delicious. Plus, the topping uses both heavy cream *and* sour cream! It was a hit with the guests and with us as leftovers.

Walnut Jam Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the dough:

1¼ cups walnuts, toasted (in a shallow baking pan at 350°F for 10 minutes) and cooled
⅔ cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

For the topping:

¼ cup jam (I used plum)
⅔ cup chilled heavy cream
¼ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 9-inch round cake pan.

2. Pulse cooled (or, in my case, somewhat cooled) walnuts and sugar in a food processor until finely chopped. Add butter and process until combined, then add eggs and vanilla, and process until combined. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and pulse just until incorporated. Spread batter in cake pan.

3. Bake until cake is just firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan, then turn out onto a rack (or, in my case, a plate) and cool completely.

4. Spoon jam over cake.

5. Beat heavy cream with sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until it forms soft peaks, then spoon over jam.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

I invited my high school friends to come over while I was at my mom's house for Christmas, since many of them also make the pilgrimage home - we couldn't get everyone, but 5 out of 7 of us got to see each other. When they came by, I had a fresh lemon pie ready for them, and also this cranberry coffee cake for something a little more conventional. While I baked the lemon pie under my mom's supervision, I just followed Deb's recipe for this one, with only minor modifications. The resulting cake is great - very nicely moist and tart, not at all dry. As my mom pointed out after the fact, an interesting experiment would be to make our family lemon pie with the cranberry filling instead (since both the lemon and the cranberries would do a good job striking the balance between sweet and tart). Perhaps this coffee cake can also be made with the lemon filling to complete the switcheroo.

Cranberry Coffee Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1¾ cups sugar
2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (6 ounces)
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter a 9-inch round springform pan. Line bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter parchment.

2. Pulse cranberries with ½ cup sugar in processor until finely chopped (do not purée).

3. Mix together 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat together 1 stick butter and 1 cup sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the vanilla last and beat until well mixed. Add in the flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour, mixing with a spatula until just combined.

4. Spread half of batter in pan, then spoon cranberries over it, leaving a ½-inch border around edge. Spoon small bits of the remaining batter over the top of the cranberries and smooth them out gently.

5. Blend remaining ¼ cup sugar with remaining tablespoon each of butter and flour using your fingertips. Crumble over top of cake.

6. Bake until a wooden pick inserted into cake (not into cranberry filling) comes out clean and side begins to pull away from pan, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 30 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely, crumb side up.

2007 Holiday Party: Pecan Wine Cake

I decided to start this blog to better keep track of my thoughts about the recipes I've tried cooking and baking. And what better time to start than after our 2007 Holiday party.

This being almost Christmas-time, it was a little bit more dessert-heavy than our usual parties. I made a Pecan Wine Cake from the Fall/Winter 2007 Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication "Italian" that I stole from my mom's house. This is a very convenient cake to make for a party, both because it is quite big and because you can make it several days in advance and it will remain moist and delicious until the day of the party, as long as you keep it wrapped in tinfoil in the fridge. Just make sure you have a pretty big bundt pan or tube pan available - I am not sure mine was big enough given how high the cake rose during the baking process. Next time I make this cake, I will definitely consider cutting the recipe by ¼ or ⅓ so it works better with the bundt pans I have.



Pecan Wine Cake
Adapted from Fall/Winter 2007 Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication "Italian"

1⅓ cups granulated sugar
1⅔ cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
4 eggs
3⅓ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground mace (I didn't have mace so I used nutmeg instead)
⅛ teaspoon salt
1⅓ cups fruity white wine
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Sifted powdered sugar (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9-inch (12-cup) fluted tube pan; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Add half of the sugar mixture to the creamed butter. Increase mixer speed; beat mixture until smooth. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk (I used an electric handheld mixer) until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Gradually whisk the remaining sugar mixture into the eggs. Continue whisking until consistency is smooth and creamy. Add this mixture to the butter mixture; whisk until smooth.

4. In another large bowl, combine flour, mace, and salt. Alternately add the flour mixture and the wine to the butter-and-egg mixture; mix well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Stir in pecans.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan; place on a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours or until the cake is golden and a knife comes out clean when inserted. Cool cake in pan for 30 minutes. Turn out on a wire rack and cool completely. If desired, sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake.

Makes 16 to 20 servings.