Pound Cake
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I had some time to kill and wanted to bake, but I didn’t have many ingredients in my house. Quite an embarrassing admission from someone who loves to bake, but I hope to remedy that problem sometime this week. Anyway, after sorting through recipe after recipe, I decided on a pound cake.
Well, I’m sad to say that once again, I’m disappointed by a Dorie recipe. The cake’s flavor is good, but it’s way too dry and crumbly. At first I thought I may have done something wrong, but after reading other people’s reviews, I’m not alone. Have no fear though, there are more Dorie recipes to be tried!
Photos of the process here.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour or 2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preparation
Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan or an 8 ½ x 4 ½ -inch loaf pan. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular baking sheets stacked on top of each other.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the mixer speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you’re working, scrape down the bowl and beaters often. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated – don’t overmix. In fact, you might want to fold in the last of the flour, even all of it, by hand with a rubber spatula. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top.
Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. If it’s browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. If you’re using a 9×5-inch pan, you’ll need to bake the cake for 70 to 75 minutes; the smaller pan needs about 90 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 30 minutes.
Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.
My notes: I used cake flour and the 9×5-inch pan.
Recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
Diet Coke Cupcakes With Vanilla Glaze
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Yes, seriously, Diet Coke. And no, you can’t taste it whatsoever.
I went back to Weight Watchers (about ten pounds from goal!) a few weeks ago and have since heard a zillion people gushing about these cupcakes and decided I had to give them a try. And well, they’re not too bad. Definitely a different texture than cupcakes with the regular ingredients, but nothing to complain about.
If I ever find myself with a major cupcake craving, I might make them again. Of course, they’re not as good as the real thing.
Cake Ingredients
1 box cake mix
1 egg white
1 can Diet Coke
Cake Preparation
Remember, you are substituting the Diet Coke and egg white for the ingredients the box mix calls for–do not add the eggs, oil, etc.
- Preheat oven as directed on box.
- Beat cake mix, egg white, and one can of Diet Coke.
- Fill lined cupcake trays.
- Bake as directed on box. (I set the timer for a couple minutes less and checked on them. They were done.)
- Remove cupcakes from tray and let cool.
- Drizzle glaze over cupcakes, allow glaze to set.
Glaze Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Glaze Preparation
Mix powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. If glaze is too thick, add more milk.
Note: If you’re using a white or yellow mix, use Diet 7-Up or another clear diet soda.
Toffee Cupcakes With Caramel Frosting
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There are good, but not great. The cupcakes are quite moist, but pretty bland. The frosting is super sweet, and sort of overpowers the simplicity of the cupcake. The cupcake recipe suggested making either caramel frosting, buttercream frosting, or chocolate fudge frosting. I think if I were to make these again, I’d use chocolate frosting.
[Edited to add: My coworkers give these a thumbs up. Apparently I’m in the minority.]
Also, the frosting recipe said to stir 10 to 15 minutes or until thickened. However, I couldn’t get it to thicken very much, and was afraid if I kept it on the heat the caramel would burn. Consequently, it ended up more of a caramel ice cream topping consistency than a frosting consistency. But it still tasted good, albeit really sweet.
Cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 egg whites
2/3 buttermilk
2/3 cup toffee bits
- In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together brown sugar and butter until well combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until smooth. Add toffee bits, beating until smooth.
- Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.
Yields one dozen.
Frosting
1 cup whipping (35% cream)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
- In a heavy saucepan, combine cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted.
- Reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir until smooth and pour into a bowl. Let cool in bowl, stirring occasionally. Caramel will thicken further as it sits and cools.
- Stir cooled caramel well and spread or spoon over cooled cupcakes.
My notes:
- Make the frosting before the cupcakes so it has time to cool.
- Don’t be lame like me and put the frosting in an aluminum bowl to cool. Duh.
Recipes from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes.
Toll House Crumbcake
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Flipping through my cookbooks, I decided to try this recipe based on the awesome looking picture and the crumb topping. Well, I’m sad to say that a) my finished cake looks ugly and absolutely nothing like the picture; b) I somehow messed up the crumb topping; and c) I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly and used regular sized chocolate chips instead of minis (all the while thinking, wow, mini chips would probably be better here).
Regarding the crumb topping–it well, didn’t, “crumb.” It sort of mushed instead. Then after it was baked, it sort of got soggy. Yeah I know, sounds delicious. And since that wasn’t enough of a disaster, my non-crumb crumb barely covered half the baking dish (perhaps because I omitted the nuts?) so I ended up making more topping with the same non-crumb result.
While the cake is really ugly, it’s also quite moist. I can’t really comment on the taste as I have some temporary taste bud loss due to the tonsillectomy and anything sweet tastes metallic-y to me at the moment. Would I make it again? That depends on how well it goes over at the office tomorrow.
Ingredients
Topping
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels
Cake
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 taspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 13 x 9 inch pan.
- For topping: combine brown sugar, flour and butter in small bowl with pastry blender or two knives until crumbly. Stir in nuts and 1/2 cup morsels.
- For cake: combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat granulated sugar, butter and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture alternately with sour cream. Fold in remaining morsels. Spread into prepared baking pan; sprinkle with topping.
- Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.
Recipe from The Baking Bible.
As Promised…
I finally used my cupcake courier over the weekend, and it is awesome! So much easier than filling up a bunch of Tupperware containers! See for yourselves…
If you’re interested in purchasing one, you can find them here.
