Vanilla Bean Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake (Dairy Free)

With all this weather we’ve been having, I can understand if it’s hard for you to imagine eating an ice cream cake. I’ve spent most of my life in some Midwestern state and I’ve seen my fair share of cold snaps and blustery streaks, but this is too much. That and Seattle spoiled me rotten with it's perpetually 45 degree winter days. While I'm naturally inclined to exaggerate, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to claim that it didn’t get above 10 degrees for a month straight. Or when it got right up to 10 degrees, it felt like a heat wave and I was itching to get off the treadmill and into the slush.

I don’t know how much more of this I can take! Yet oddly enough, an ice cream cake in the middle of the worst of it was just the thing I needed. And exactly what one Marybeth Falish wanted.

The girl I mention above? It’s my pleasure to call her both a good friend and co-worker. When the personal life gets messy or the work gets tough, she’s there for me on both fronts. Days where I think I just can’t make it through another excel document, she’s there to help me and then engage in a little bit of girl talk. Moral of the story: I am so incredibly grateful to work with such a wonderful woman and call her my friend.

Naturally, I made a cake for her birthday. In early January. When the temperatures refused to crack zero degrees. And what did she request? An ice cream cake. An unexpected bonus to making an ice cream cake in January is that my little ice cream machine performed much better in a chilly kitchen than its usual setting - a torturous 95 degree day. 

Armed only with the direction to include ice cream and those “little black flecks” (vanilla beans), I went to work crafting a cake for MBF’s 24th birthday bash. Goat butter is still in nonexistent supply, so I knew I had to go vegan for my cake base (plus eggs). Earth Balance buttercream is not too pleasant, leading me to try making coconut whipped cream for the first time. Topping the experiment off, I had never made an ice cream cake before!

With the photos as evidence, the cake turned out surprisingly well and was the delicious hit of the night! 

Vanilla Bean Cake

Adapted from: More from Magnolia

Ingredients:

• 2 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 vanilla beans, cut in half and seeds scraped out

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/flour cake tins.
2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream (preferably with an electric mixer) the Earth Balance until smooth and light yellow in color.  Gradually beat in the sugar until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  This is key: after each addition, make sure to beat enough to incorporate the ingredients, but do not overbeat.  (This will create gluten and you will have a rough and dry cake)
5. Fill the prepared cake tins.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester is inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean.

Vanilla Bean Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Adapted from Healthy Food for Living 

Ingredients:

• 2 (14 oz) cans full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup unrefined granulated sugar, such as evaporated cane juice
• 1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 20 all-natural cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (I used Newman’s Own)

Directions:

1. Refrigerate the cans of coconut milk for 1 hour (no longer). Chilling the coconut milk will cause the coconut cream to rise to the top of the can and slightly solidify. Carefully scrape out the coconut cream and milk from both cans into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and vanilla bean paste. Hand-whisk lightly to break up the solidified cream, and then whip with an electric mixer for about 10-20 seconds, or until smooth and thick - don’t whip for any longer than a minute.
2. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions, gradually adding in the chopped/crushed cookies during the last 5 minutes.
3. Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe air-tight container and freeze until desired consistency is reached (at least a few hours).

Coconut Whipped Cream

1. Buy a can of full fat coconut milk. Thai coconut milk is fattier and works the best.
2. Place it in the fridge overnight.
3. Open the can without shaking it or turning upside down.
4. Carefully spoon out the top layer of opaque white stuff that has gathered at the top of the can. Spoon into a mixing bowl. You will be left with about 1/2 cup of white syrup-y looking translucent liquid. Leave this in the can.
5. Add 2-3 Tbsp of powdered confectioners sugar to the coconut cream.
6. Using an electric mixer, whip the coconut milk froth until creamy. Start on low and move to a higher speed, move the beater in an up and down motion to infuse the mixture with as much air as possible.
7. Use to frost the cake!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

While we are solidly in the Christmas creep season, I might as well throw in a Halloween treat to balance things out. I will never be one of those food bloggers who post their themed food in a timely fashion. Laziness takes over and I make every excuse to not edit photos or write a post. Motivation seems to hit me a few weeks down the road and way outside of the timeframe of the holiday at hand. 

As I am officially on the office Fun Committee, I decided to turn our work Halloween party up to eleven with some homemade cake. While most people won’t consider bundts to be “fun,” I do live in the Midwest kids. Things are different here and I embrace it. The cake was attacked with gusto and I barely managed to save a sliver to take home to “A.” There were few leftovers to speak of, but this cake is so moist, you wouldn’t have any issue letting it sit around for a few days. 

So here I have a Halloween cake for you. Complete with chocolate spiderwebs and spooky stars. Maybe store it away for next year or forgo the black & orange coloring and call it a Thanksgiving cake. Keep this blog post a secret and no one will know the difference. 

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Adapted from Whipped The Blog

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) EarthBalance “Butter”, softened, plus additional for greasing the pan
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting the pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (or 1 15 oz can) solid pack pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. “Butter” and flour bundt pan.
2. Make your “buttermilk”: combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, pumpkin spice and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, “buttermilk” and vanilla in another bowl.
4. Beat EarthBalance, oil and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.
5. Spoon batter into pan. Shake a few times to be sure to remove any bumps then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and invert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Key Lime Bundt Cake

Every person I've talked to has bemoaned that this has been the most hectic summer in recent memory. Work, family, friends, life - it was all wanting equal parts of you without enough downtime to spare. "A" and I can group ourselves into that camp and complain. Yet what's the point? Now that we live in the Midwest, even though it takes some gas and time, we are able to drive to see both our families with a days notice and a weekend's time. While one family is a 4 hour drive to the west and another a 7 hour drive to the east, the fact that we can both see family more than one or two times a year is priceless.

Giving up the American tradition of barbecuing and relaxing with a day free of labor, "A" and I drove to Michigan for a Labor Day weekend filled with good food in Ann Arbor and an (age need not be mentioned) birthday for my beautiful Grandma, Betty! 

It's pretty much an unspoken rule that if I'm in attendance at a birthday party (family or not), I'll supply the cake. Even though I have a pretty good roster, my mother demanded that I make her mother a Key Lime cake. Not that new fancy chocolate cake recipe I've been waiting to try out. Not that caramel cake that most people would line up to try. Nope - a cake filled with Key Limes and not in pie form.

As I mentioned earlier, the weeks of summer have been filled to the brim and the temperature steadily rising, the thought of turning on an oven for even five minutes seemed to daunting. So instead I adapted a Key Lime cake recipe I have previously developed, threw it in a bundt pan and made it in my parents kitchen after my morning run. Oh yeah, did I mention I've been training for a running race? That's another story for another time.

Needless to say, the birthday girl was happy and I have yet another successful birthday cake in my storybook. 

Key Lime Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or bottled key lime juice
• 3/4 cup goat yougurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bundt pan with oil or melted butter and flour.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into mixing bowl. 
3. Add eggs, oil and lime juice mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. 
4. Add goat yougurt and zest; mix until smooth. Pour cake batter into bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until tester is inserted and comes out clean.
5. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then turn the cake out onto cooling racks. Cool for 1 hour.
6. To decorate, make a glaze with key lime juice and powdered sugar and top with toasted unsweetened coconut.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Cherries

Somehow July sneaked past me and decided not to stop by to say hello. If you asked me what I did last week, I would think I just watched the fireworks booming over Lake Michigan. Sitting on the Michigan-side shores and looking back on a town of my childhood. But apparently that happened just about a month ago, if you believe the calendars. Personally, I think a Time Lord visited Madison and erased my memory to hide our wild adventures.

Yep. That's my story. Time Lord. In July… in Madison, Wisconsin. Quite logical really.

So that means that I made this cake just a few days ago if we're thinking back to last week, "the beginning of July." Rumor has it there was a nasty heat wave that swept though the region and made me think of my stove as the catalyst to the apocalypse. Good thing that "hasn't happened" yet and I made this cake pre-heat wave for a wonderful lady named Kate.

Kate and "A" are grad school friends and soon after moving to Madison we bonded over being Michiganders and living approximately five doors down from each other. After many potlucks, late-night group beers, dog sitting and crazy landlady adventures, I can honestly call this gal a good friend.

And anyone who knows me knows friends get cake, especially on their birthday. And what's a Michigander girl to do for a Michigander's birthday? Make a Michigan "Kate Cake." Ok, maybe the term "Kate Cake" isn't hot yet but trust me! It will be as it is composed of (only what I assume is) Miss. Kate's favorite things: Michigan cherries, (Michigan) red wine and dark chocolate. It doesn't hurt that it's utterly delicious and one of my favorite cakes that I've made! 

Anything that has a tight but moist crumb, chocolate and is easy to decorate is a win in my book. I also can't discredit the fact that it's relatively low sugar and incorporates fresh fruit! So while the cherries are still blooming and the temperatures are mild, make someone you know a Kate Cake! They won't hate you for it.

Chocolate Red Wine Cake

Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted goat butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (I used a little bit less)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups dry red wine

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. Working in two batches, alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until just incorporated.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack; let cool completely. Top the cake with pitted and sliced cherries reduced in a small sauce pan with a little bit of water.

White Russian Cake

Once upon a time there was a very special food blogger with a very special dad whose birthday was separated from hers by only one day. As the years passed and it became 2013, he was now exactly twice her age.

Growing up, this meant that the young fiery-haired little food blogging girl and her fiery-haired dad were required by the Evil Queen of the Household to share a birthday cake. As luck would have it, the little girl was none too happy with this arrangement as the years passed. She would stomp down her foot, demand a cake and be sent away to the lonely tower to think about what she had done.

Seasons passed, suns went up & down and the little girl was not so little any more. She followed her dreams, moved across the land to a magical place called “Seattle” and had no more shared birthday cakes with her fiery-haired dad. To her surprise, this made the grown up food blogger incredibly sad!

But as luck would have it, the girl fell in love with her prince and his white steed name “UHaul” took them back to Midwestia. Not Michigania, but Wisconsonia. This made the girl squeal with glee as now she would be able to share her birthday cake again with her birthday partner in crime.

She baked and baked and baked (and drank a beer) and baked trying to make the best possible cake for their fateful reunion. Taking inspiration from The Dude himself, she made it a bit boozy to celebrate the reunion. Or because she just likes the White Russian cocktail.

Cake was eaten. Smiles were had. And the little food blogging girl and the fiery-haired dad were celebrating in style together.

-FIN-

Folks. That is a true story. The vegan White Russian (as I make it with almond milk, not cream) is hands down my favorite drink – it tastes like a milkshake! For our birthdays this year, my family, “A” and I all met up in Chicago to celebrate.

The recipe below is for a full-sized cake but I halved it to make my cake a bit more mini. If you’re more in the mood for cupcakes – full-sized or mini – this recipe works perfectly! The Evil Queen of the Household, erm, my wonderful, lovely & perfect mother can attest, she forced my evil Full-Blood Sister to bake a batch for her ladies night gathering. Need proof? See below!

White Russian Cake

Ingredients:

• 14.5 oz cake flour (To "make your own" cake flour, do this, it's what I did: http://joythebaker.com/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/)
• 8.75 oz confectioner’s sugar
• 0.5 oz baking powder
• 6.75 oz almond milk
• 6 oz canola oil
• 3.25 oz eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 13 oz egg whites
• 9.5 oz granulated sugar
• 1 cup coffee liqueur (Kahlua)
• 1/2 cup vodka

Directions:

1. Oven 375°F. Prep pan by butter bottom and sides. Place parchment in pan and butter the parchment.
2. Sift dry ingredients (except granulated sugar) into a large bowl. 
3. Mix all ingredients (except the 13 oz of egg whites and granulated sugar) in the large bowl until combined. Whip whites and granulated sugar to medium peaks. Fold into batter gently. 
4. Bake until set, about 20-25 minutes (do the toothpick test – no goop on toothpick… 30 minutes for me).
5. Remove from oven and remove from pan. Let cool on a rack. 
6. You can get 3 layers from one cake, or four layers from two cakes… it all depends on how tall you want your cake and how many layers of cake you want.
7. Mix the coffee liqueur and vodka together.

For the Dude-worthy buttercream frosting:

• 1 cup goat butter, room temperature
• 6-8 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• ⅓ cup coffee liqueur (Kahlua)

1. To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar until incorporated. Mix in coffee liqueur until smooth. Add more if necessary until frosting has reached a good consistency for piping or spreading. Frost the cupcakes as desired and enjoy!

Assembly:

1. Place a base layer, bottom-side-down on your serving plate. Pour a quarter of the booze evenly over the cake layer. 
2. Spread a layer of the frosting over the cake. Set a second layer of cake on the frosted layer. Repeat until the last layer (should be the other base). 
3. Soak the cut side of that layer with the remaining booze and carefully flip that onto the top of the cake. Frost the sides (crumb coat first, then frost) and the top of the cake. 
4. Decorate as desired. Serves 12. Consume immediately or refrigerate for a few days.

Lavender Wedding Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Honey Buttercream

It's kind of a slight problem when you're at a wedding three states over, and people you barely know (talking to you Mr. Cory D) give you a hard time about the last time you updated your blog. Calm down, people. Calm down left side of the table at the rehearsal dinner. I appease you. You beat me down, made me drink an extra beer to relax and gave me to gusto to write a blog post. Ironically, it's for a wedding cake.

About a month ago, some of A's friend asked him if, oh you know, they could ever so casually get married at his cabin up in Northern Wisconsin. Standard. Normal bar talk. Being who I am, I immediately slammed my palms onto the worn wood of the Weary Traveler and offered to make a cake. Later, I was somehow also roped into being their all official-like photographer.

At this point, I'm not sure if we were even in our apartment yet or if we were still homeless and sleeping on a friends' couch. They were blurry times, friends. Don't expect me to remember such silly details of where I slept at night. Who cares where I lay my head, most concerns lie in the status of my kitchen. And all I know is that at when I offered to make my first ever wedding cake, I had never turned on my new oven.

Fact: don't do what I did. You will soon find out that your oven is about, oh, exactly 100 degrees hotter than it should be. Your delicate lavender cake will be running behind schedule, and it's so hot outside that it is cosmically impossible to keep buttercream from melting. For fun, also add on a 7+ hour car ride. Break even and call it an adventure?

Sure.

The cake may have been a bit drier than I would have intended, but my (buttercream) meltdown lead to a damned tasty ganache and a creamy honey buttercream filling. So when you make your next wedding cake, a few pointers: get an over thermometer, budget for extra time and make sure vegan White Russian ingredients are within arms reach.

Lavender Cupcakes

Adapted from Yummy Mummy

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
• 1 cup goat butter, at room temperature
• 4 eggs
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons goat milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F; grease baking pans with goat butter and dust with flour.
2. Put the sugar and lavender flowers in a food processor. Process briefly to combine.
3. Tip the lavender sugar into a bowl with the butter and beat together until pale and fluffy.
4. Beat the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time, then sift in the flour and fold gently. Stir in the milk, then spoon the mixture into baking pans.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Honey Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup goat butter, softened at room temperature
• 1/3 cup honey
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar
• Dash of goat milk

Directions:

1. Beat butter in a stand, or hand, mixer until fluffy. Add honey and beat for 2 minutes.
2. Slowly beat in powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time until desired consistency is reached. Add goat milk to thin out buttercream if needed.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

• 9 oz whole goat milk
• 9 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
• A few squeezes of clover honey

Directions:

1. Heat the cream in a small saucepan.  Pour over chopped chocolate, let sit for one minute, add honey, then whisk until smooth.  Place in refrigerator to cool, stirring every 10 minutes to ensure even cooling.  When desired consistency, frost cake.

Triple Chocolate Strawberry Cake

This recipe is brought to you by the friendly skies, courtesy of Delta Airlines and the generosity of my dad's frequent flyer miles. I'm totally lying about Delta Airlines, they have no idea who I am. The fact that I am currently writing this post at, oh, about 36,965 feet in the air somewhere over South Dakota (thank you in-seat monitor!) is due to my ol' pops lending me a few thousand air miles so I could make it home for Christmas. This post is not brought to you by the man across the asile watching Twilight or the overly touchy-feely couple next to me. Nope. Not at all.

I'm slowly but surely getting into the Christmas spirit. I would like to think my journey down jolly lane began somewhere in West Seattle sitting in a second-run theater watching a slightly askew showing of "A Very Muppet Christmas". Not only was I good Seattelite and donated a massive bag of dog food to the Humane Society of Seattle (there are more dogs than kids in the city, it's obvious who we love more) but I also roped two of my closest friends into going with me. We left the theater feeling spirited, mainly due to the excitement of the hundreds of children surrounding us, and my skin is losing its green tint and I think my heart has grown at least 1.25 sizes. The last part may be because of holiday food but let us pretend it's from Christmas and going back to the Midwest for the first time in a year.

While I may still be working up to celebrating Christmas, I was surely in the celebratory spirit last weekend.  One of my best friends from not only high school, but also college, now lives in Seattle with her boyfriend (also an alum of BHS and Michigan) doing the whole AmeriCorps thing. I can't be the first one to say it's always nice to have a piece of your upbringing in your new home. As her birthday falls at the end of December, she rarely is able to have a birthday party, let alone in the company of twenty plus people. Her boyfriend came up with the idea to throw her an early surprise birthday party with me at the helm helping spread the word. While I guess actually having people at the party is pretty important, I personally think having the perfect cake is crucial.

Casually bringing up the topic of cake at our weekly girls Glee night earlier in the week, the birthday girl in question explained to here that there can be no such thing as too much chocolate. Ever. Triple chocolate diabetic-shock ice cream? Bring it. Girl hath no fear. So I made the most ridiculously over the top chocolate cake. Dark chocolate cake PLUS dark chocolate almond whipped ganache PLUS a dark chocolate cake collar.

OH YEAH.

Oh, and it was pretty cool that a lot of people showed up too the party too. And that 'A' turned 24. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Dark Chocolate Cake

Adapted fron Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar 
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup strong black coffee
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking power and salt. Mix together.
3. In a small glass, milk almond milk and vinegar together with a fork. Allow to sit for a few minutes until almond milk starts to "curdle." (Note: if this doesn't need your cake to be dairy-free, use 1 cup of buttermilk).
4. In a medium bowl, beat eggs until they begin to froth. Whisk in almond milk mixture, coffee, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
5. With mixer running, slowly add in liquid mixture until completely incorporated, taking care not to overbeat the batter.
6. Divide better evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until tester is inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean. When done, leave in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn the cakes out onto a wire rack until completely cool. Frost as desired.

Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

This recipe is incredibly flexible. I always do equal parts chocolate and almond milk but you can adjust the ratio to suit your ganache consistency tastes.

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 200g almond milk

Directions:

1. Chop dark chocolate and place in a medium heatproof bowl.
2. In a small sauce pan, heat almond milk until it starts to boil. Keep on eye on it - it tends to boil over when it's not being watched.
3. Pour heated almond milk over chopped chocolate and let it sit for one minute. Whisk together until uniform and smooth. Allow to cool completely (I sometimes use my fridge and freezer to speed to up).
4. When cooled, use a whisk or whisk attachment on a mixer and beat until light in color and the texture of mousse. 
5. Use as desired on cake.

As this was the first time I've ever made a cake collar (I think it turned out pretty decent!), I'll direct your attention to a site that does a much better job explaining the process than I ever could. Here you go.

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Goat Milk Buttercream

Do you ever have those times where you think "we'll, I'm just sitting here on my couch and the Netflix instant streaming queue is a little subpar right now… I should probably write a blog post." You keep thinking this over and over but alas, no blog post.  Story of my life right now.  I think in the time I thought I wanted to write a blog post I: watched some movies of questionable quality, ate a bowl of popcorn, did my laundry and cooked a whole bunch of things but failed to take photographs of them.  Though I have been catching up on emails and planning a camping trip like my life depends on it.  I mean, it kind of does but really I'm just procrastinating.

Remember above how I mentioned I've been cooking a lot but failing to take photos?  I would like to blame 4 of my best girlfriends, but in reality I continually forget to bring my camera to Tuesday night girl's dinner.  That's right, every Tuesday we gather at Katrina's house to drink wine and cook an (according to all her roommates) extravagantly gourmet meal.  So far we have made roasted butternut salad with fried sage/goat cheese crostini; whole wheat pizza with caramelized onions, figs & goat cheese; pumpkin cashew coconut curry and last night this delicious fall vegetable galette.  I can feel the disappointment and resentment from my parents from the other side of the country; they always urge me to post more "real food."

I'll just set a goal for myself of, no matter what, no excuses, I will bring my camera to dinner next week. Until then, as an act of mid-20's rebellion, I will blog about cake.  At least it's a small cake that I made for a boy on his birthday.  I think you get negative good karma points if you hate on a birthday cake, especially one for a boy that you think is cute.  Disregarding shame and karma points, this cake was perfect for two people and I imagine it would work even better for a small gathering. The boy and I each had a small slice and I sent him off with the rest wrapped up and ready to be frozen.  From what I understand, he ate a couple slices for breakfast the next day and polished it off not much later.

While is he a guy and this doesn't mean much because it is common knowledge that all guys are human garbage disposals, this cake was pretty good.  A simple spice cake with the addition of grated apples made the cake incredibly moist and light and the maple goat buttercream, as usual, provided an interesting and complex tang.  While you can obviously make this cake larger or divide the batter up into cupcake tins, the recipe below works perfectly for two layers of a 5 or 6 inch cake. I used the largest ramekins I had on hand, I'm not exactly sure how large they are.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Did you know, before today, I hadn't had a cup of coffee in almost a week?  I'm trying to make changes here people and my complete and total dependence on coffee was a good start.  That, and I really hate cleaning my French press.  Today is a different story.  As I type, I am waiting for my friends to show up so we can head into the Cascades to do some hiking.  Guess what time I woke up?  6:30 am.  Without an alarm.  Can someone please tell me why I naturally wake up so early on the weekends yet it is feat of strength for me to even pull the eye-shades off before 7:30 during the week?

Regardless, I had coffee this morning.  A whole French press of coffee.  I haven't done this since college and now I am remembering why I don't do this on a regular basis.  I feel like I'm on magical cocktail of all the mood enhancing drugs in the universe.  I sorted my laundry!  I'm writing a blog post!  I made my lunch!  WEEE!  Let's hope the inevitable crash comes AFTER I'm done hiking for the day. [fact: it didn't]

Now that I've forewarned you to how drugged I am, tally-ho!  Onto the food!

This is a cake I made for my friend Sasha's birthday.  We play kickball & bar trivia together, so she knows about my baked goods.  When her birthday rolled around, she asked for a birthday cake knowing that I willingly make extravagant cakes.  After questioning her about cake flavors (Chocolate?  White?  Yellow?  Neon Green?) and toppings of choice (Rainbow sprinkles? Fruit? Fluffy clouds?) she decided on her favorite flavor combination: chocolate and raspberry.

Easy for me as I've made cakes & cupcakes with this combo countless times! As far as the raspberry buttercream goes, you can use either fresh or frozen raspberries, just make sure you strain the puree before reducing it.  I made this mistake once… I almost lost a friend over a rogue raspberry seed.  Even after adding some preserves to the puree, if the color isn't to your liking, feel free to add a pin prick of rose food coloring.

Roasted Pear Rosemary Upside Down Cake

This cake impresses people.  When I went through the car wash and this cake was riding shotgun, the man taking my money said he'd take the cake in exchange.  Considering that shelling out $10 for just a car wash makes my stomach turn, I would have taken him up on his offer.  As luck would have it, I think he was kidding and I really wanted to savor some of the cake when I got home.

Cut to pre-Christmas.  My friend Ann & I got together to cook some dinner and wish each other a Merry Christmas before I left for Michigan.  That, and I honesty couldn't remember the last time we hung out so saying we were overdue is an understatement.  We made a chicken tajine, sautéed cauliflower and for dessert, you guessed it, this cake.  The rosemary contests nicely with the slightly more blunt flavor of cornmeal; I just couldn't stop thinking about it!  I was able to take a nice big wedge of it home with me and I knew I needed to make it as soon as I got back from Michigan.

If you'd be so kind to press fast-forward on your handy dandy remotes, we'll jump to the last night of 2010.  After working a long shift at work, I rushed home and immediately got to work on baking.  Julie was hosting the New Years Eve party and my sole job was to bring some bubbly and dessert.  Naturally I didn't plan well and left the baking to right before I needed to be at the party.  You really don't want to see me when I'm baking and simultaneously getting gussied up, it doesn't mix well.  My BCBG dress (that I got for $20 on ebay!!) made it out of that battle alive, but don't think that I didn't show up to the party without some rosemary in my hair or butter on my face.  I was in such a rush that I made my date take the bus to the party because I didn't have time to pick him up.  Erm… oops... At least I made one cake too many and was able to take the extra one home with me.  I didn't plan it like that or anything... I don't know what you're suggesting.

But this cake makes everything ok.  All was well when this cake enters the scene.  My only qualm with it, that is completely my fault, is that it doesn't work well with coarse ground cornmeal.  I found that out the hard way.  I realized I only had coarse ground on hand, semi-successfully tried to grind it finer in the blender and made it work as best I could.  I also didn't (but NOW I do!) have a cast-iron skillet so I used a 9-inch cake pan and it worked wonderfully.

This message is for my sister (but you can read it too if you want): Caroline, I wanted to let to know that my next three posts will be using the lightbox you got me for Christmas!  Keep an eye out for it!  Love, Sis

Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake

Yes, that IS snow on the table outside!

Did this recipe deserve the cover of Fine Cooking magazine?  Yeah, I'm pretty sure it did.  Once again, I am behind on posting and I even pushed this one up in the cue because I really liked the picture and I feel like I need to redeem myself from the previous two posts.  I know I've whined about this before, but really Seattle?  You really have to make the sun start setting at 3pm?  When I was sick this last weekend, I didn't even get UP until 3 pm (I was sick!)… let alone try and take pictures of food.

I made this cake for Thanksgiving this year, my first one away from Michigan.  I could tell you a sob story about it (there really wasn't one…), but instead I baked my feelings away during the Snowpocalypse that happened just a few days before T-Day.  To all my Michiganders out there, please feel free to be disgusted, but the whole city of Seattle shutdown for almost two days before of 3 (THREE!) inches of snow.  I couldn't get to work on Monday or Tuesday and to get ingredients for this cake, I had to walk over a mile, half of it up and down a huge ice covered hill, to the Interbay QFC.  I then found out that one of the Thanksgivings I was going to didn't have power (they eventually got it back on in time) over on the Olympic Peninsula.  Say it with me now, SERIOUSLY Seattle?

I brought this over to my first Thanksgiving of the evening, hosted by my neighbors Doug & Elspeth!  I know they read my blog, so I'll only say nice thing about them, but honestly, there are only nice things to say about them!  Soon after moving in they greeted me and invited Rachel and I over for some wine.  We regularly go over to their place and I feel comforted knowing they're my neighbor!  Thanks guys!

Anyways… this cake is delicious!  I mean, actually plate licking delicious.  The cake portion is so moist and soft, but still has a tight enough crumb that frosting it isn't difficult at all.  Topping wise, I couldn't have thought up of a more perfect combination.  The toasted nuts contrast perfectly with the heat of the ginger while the pepitas provide an unexpected but welcome crunch.  To finish it off, the frosting is wonderful but I think the recipe developers were a little skimpy with the ingredients - I barely had just enough frosting.  Next time I'll make a little more.  However, it was nice that there wasn't much sugar in the frosting.

I know the pumpkin season is ending as we move into the non-stop feast on holiday cookies, but I swear this will be worth your while.