Prune & Lemon Baby Cakes

Part 2 of the desserts I brought for Janice's Labor Day bbq--this part, not so much vegan. I wanted to make something lemony because that seems appropriate for an outdoor event and I had bought some French prunes from the farmers market the other day. Prunes are fascinating. I've never seen them in their non-dried form. I just assumed that "prune" was the term given to a dried plum, but apparently I was wrong. According to wikipedia, they are a small plums with easily removable pits. Okay.

These mini prune and lemons cakes were very simple to make. I used cupcake tins to make a small grabbable sizes and just inverted the cakes so that they wouldn't be mistaken for muffins. Ah, the versatility of bakeware. Also I made a lemon glaze to go on top just to give it an stronger lemon kick but you go without out the icing if you'd like. Without the icing I'd imagine that they'd make a very nice breakfast tea cake. I love tea cakes.

Ingredients:

16 prune, split and pitted

The zest of two large lemons (about 3-4 teaspoons)

1 cup granulated sugar + 1/8 cup sugar for muddling with the zest+1/4 cup sugar for cupcake tins

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature + 8 tablespoons of butter for the cupcake tins

1 large egg at room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1. preheat oven to 375

2. muddle the lemon zest with 1/8 cup of granulated sugar and set aside

3. sift together flour, baking powder and salt

4. with an electric mixer beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy (approx. 3-4 minutes)

5. add the egg and beat for another minute

6. add the buttermilk and beat for another two minutes (at this point the batter will seem oddly curdled but do not fear, this is normal)

7. add the vanilla and lemon zest/sugar mixture

8. slowly add the flour/salt/baking soda mixture in three separate additions, folding very gently

9. grease 16-17 cupcake tins with vegetable oil or shortening

10. at the bottom of each mold put about 1/2 tablespoon of butter

11. over the 1/2 tablespoon of butter but about 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar

12. place the sliced prune on top of the sugar

13. divide the batter among the cupcake tins, about 3/4 full

14. bake for 20 minutes

15. let the cakes cool for about 20 minutes

16. while the cakes are still in the pans, take a serated knife and cut of the domes of each cake so that they will sit flatly when inverted (save the cake tops by wrapping and plastic wrap and freezing)

17. invert the cakes by taking a butter knife and gently running it along the edges of each cake and then place a large cookie sheet on top of the cupcake tins and then flip. The cakes should unmold easily.

Optional Icing:

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. whisk together

2. put the icing in a sandwich bag and push contents into one corner of the bag

3. snip and small corner off the bag and then ice the cakes.

Nancy, You Sure Are Neat! (Upside-Down Fig Upside Down Cake)

It's Nancy's Birthday!

Do you know Nancy Romero? You should, you really should. Her hair always smells like happy apples and she owns one of those backpacks with a water bottle connected to a giant hose/straw built in. She deserves a cake. She actually needs cake because she bikes a gazillion miles a day.

No seriously, Nancy is a very wonderful person.

For her birthday I thought about making Nancy Cake again but I think the occasion called for a bit of celebratory experimentation. You may have noticed that I am obsessed with figs. I wanted to make a hazelnut fig upside down cake but very stupidly placed the figs upside down, creating an upside down-upside down cake. This was a shame because it would have looked so pretty with the open fig flesh all caramelized. And because I placed the open flesh into the batter I am scared that the cake became too moist with fig juices. I'm going to blame my stupidity on lack of sleep. My body keeps waking me up at 7:30 in the morning for no reason, even though I haven't been able to fall asleep before 3 a.m. lately.

I hope it tasted okay. The problem with baking birthday cakes is that you can't swipe a bite and test if they turned out well. You just have to hope for the best.

Oh also, while I was making this cake this morning I must have been making too much noise trying to get rid of air bubbles in my batter and the people living below me came up to complain. They thought I was angry at them and was trying to send them a message with my loud noises. It was embarrassing.

Happy Birthday Nancy Romero.

Ingredients:

Topping:

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

25 figs, depending on size (halved)

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

3/4 cup of brown sugar (I used dark because that's what I had but I think golden would be better)

Cake:

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups and 2 tablespoons of all purpose or cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

2 eggs

1 cups of sugar

1. preheat oven to 350

2. melt the butter for the topping over low heat

3. add the brown sugar and whisk together until fully incorporated

4. pour the butter and brown sugar mixture into a greased 10 inch cake pan

5. sprinkle the hazelnuts over the brown sugar syrup

6. arrange the figs halves, open flesh side down

7. set aside pan

8. in a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy

9. add the eggs one at a time

10. add the vanilla extract

11. sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder

12. alternate 3 separate additions of the flour mixture and buttermilk into the egg/sugar/butter mixture

13. pour the batter into the pan and over the figs

14. tap the pan down on a hard surface to get rid of air bubbles

15. bake in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly and the top of the cake in golden brown (it looks almost like the color of cornbread)

16. let the cake cool for 10 minutes

17. place a flat pan or plate over the top of the cake pan and then flip

18. the juices will run down the side of the cake, this is a good thing

19. let cool before serving

Caramel Apple Cake

Jee Hyun, co-worker is moving to Korea tomorrow due to the evil nature of U.S. immigration. We had a small going away party for her today and I provided dessert.

Saeyoung and I had a caramel apple the other day and it tasted incredibly comforting and was just plainly fun to eat. Going off of that I thought I'd use the caramel apple as inspiration.

It's all in the trimmings here. The cake is a very reliable recipe for yellow cake. But the caramel is not overly sweet and the roasted apples give it a little tartness. And the peanuts bring everything together.

I like this one very much.

I am sad to see Jee Hyun go. Good luck in Korea.

Ingredients:

for cake:

1 cup buttermilk

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour (you can use all-purpose in a pinch)

2 large eggs

for caramel:

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup packed golden brown sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

for apples:

4 large granny smith apples

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

other:

chopped peanuts for topping

1. preheat oven to 350

2. beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes

3. add in eggs one at a time

4. add vanilla

5. sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder

6. alternate 3 separate additions of flour mixture with 3 additions of buttermilk

7. pour batter into a buttered and parchment lined 10 inch cake pan (you can use 8 inch as long as it's a high walled pan)

8. tap the pan a few times to get rid of air bubbles

9. bake in the oven for about 35 minutes

10. let cool for 10 minutes and then invert and let cool completely

11. in the meanwhile bring the oven up to 400 degrees

12. peel, core, and slice the apples into about 1/2 inch wedges

13. combine the apples with melted 3 tablespoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, and vanilla

14. lay out the slices in one layer

15. bake for 30 minutes or until slightly golden and fork soft

16. while the apples are in the oven make the caramel

17. bring the heavy cream, brown sugar, salt and corn syrup to a low boil over medium heat

18. use a candy thermometer to measure when the caramel reaches 220 fahrenheit (about 12-15 minutes)

19. take the caramel off the heat and mix in the vanilla extract

20. pour the hot glaze over the center top of the cake, the excess should drip over the sides

21. arrange the apple slices in a concentric circle around the top of the cake

22. top with peanuts

23. let cool completely-about 30-45 minutes

My First Catering Job

last minute "business cards"

Carly Yu hired me to bake a birthday cake + some cupcakes for her sister's birthday. It's exciting to get paid for something you enjoy doing. Unfortunately, I have a nagging suspicion that the red velvet cake was not as good as it could have been. Let me explain. I don't like the idea of baking cakes too far in advance. I like to bake things the morning of the day it will be served. In this case, this meant staying up all night baking. Seriously, I didn't touch my bed that night. I don't know if my mind was fuzzy from lack of sleep but when I unmolded the red velvet layers they felt a little stiffer than they usually do. And obviously I couldn't sample a bit to confirm my suspicions so now I feel all anxious about how the cake was. I'm scared that I didn't measure something correctly, that maybe in my sleepy delirium I put an extra 1/2 cup of flour or left out a few ounces of butter. What if it was horrible? What if it was stiff as a board? To be honest this is really bothering me. It felt really important that my first catering job went well, like it was supposed to be good omen of things to come. Oh (!!) I'm almost positive it wasn't my best red velvet. I'm sad and disappointed in myself.

I also made strawberry pink lady cupcakes, which were adorable. I bought these great tulip baking cups that were just perfect. I thought they tasted pretty good and I made a double batch so that I could take some to Felipe's 27th birthday party. But Thomas later told me that they weren't my best cupcakes, that they weren't as moist as they could have been.

....................

I am a failure!

Oh, I am very unhappy with this. Maybe I just wasn't meant to exchange my baking for money.