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.

Homemade Biscoff Cookies

First and foremost I dedicate this blog post to my sister, Caroline. When texting with her earlier tonight I (essentially) asked "should I blog about cookies or salad?" and she (essentially) said "you loon, if you don't blog about cookies I will hunt you down until you do." That may or may not have been how it went down but go with me here. It's kinda snowy and I've come down will a spell of cabin fever.

The snow tried to trap me in another day but too bad I had already planned to do some baking. One of my favorite things in the world is Biscoff cookies, also known as Delta airplane cookies. When Trader Joe's introduced their version of the traditional European coffee dunking cookie, I bought that up with such a fervor that you'd think it was the Seattle Witch Trials. Seriously. But sadly, as it goes anything I love at Trader Joe's, it seems to have been discontinued after the holidays ended. Nothing can keep me away from Biscoffs for long though. Ask any flight attendant, I am that obnoxious flyer who asks for two, sometimes three, cookies. Luckily for the flight attendants and grocery store workers of the world, I figured out how to make them on my own.

And you know what? They tasted eerily similar. I even ran out of cinnamon, first time this has ever happened, and the taste was still on par. If it hadn't been for the "storm of the decade," I would have been more apt to run over to the stores to pick up some more cinnamon. The best part of this recipe though is the texture. It has the same crisp as the original and dips in your morning coffee just the same. Even this morning when 'A' and I were drinking coffee, I forced myself to dip a few in and I felt like I was back in Paris. Or on a redeye back to Detroit. I'm not picky.

The snow is hopefully finally melting, the ice fading away and I will slowly lose the excuse to drink hot chocolate at all points of the day. I will also maybe be able to drive my car again, a girl can dream.

Biscoff Cookies 

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan from Around My French Table

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 7 tablespoons Earth Balance, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 (packed) cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together in a bowl.
2. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the Earth Balance at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and continue to beat until it, too, is blended into the butter and sugars. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until the flour disappears into the soft dough. If there is any flour left at the bottom of them bowl, work it in with your hands or a spatula.
3. Divide the dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper until you have a rough rectangle that’s about ¼ inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.
4. When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1"x3" rectangles. Collect the scraps and set them aside to combine with the scraps from the second piece of dough.
6. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and brown around the edges.  Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
7. Repeat with the second round of dough, making certain the baking sheet is cool before you put the cutouts on it. To use the scraps, press them together, roll them into a circle, and chill them before cutting and baking. 

DIY Iced Coffee

I'm pretty picky about my coffee, but I think that comes with the territory of living both in Seattle and a part of the country where, in the winter, the sun doesn't rise until 9am and it starts setting at 2:00.  Oh geeze, I didn't mean to get off to such a negative start there… oops. Hey! We have the most gorgeous summers in the whole United States! Positivity! As I type this I'm sitting on my couch staring out at clear blue skies, Mt Baker and float planes taking off & landing in Lake Union. How many of you can say you did THAT today? Well, minus the 3 million-ish inhabitants of the Seattle Metro area.

Right, back to the coffee. As you can probably tell, I may have had a bit too much of it this morning.  It's pretty easy to overdo. Not only is iced coffee much more concentrated, when it's mixed with some almond milk and a little bit of stevia extra… it's incredibly hard to stop myself.  It also doesn't help that I refuse to drink it in anything other than my treasured possibly-stolen-from-The-Cabin mason jar!

FOCUS. I had seen "recipes" (I use that term incredibly loosely) floating around the internet for a while now. As I usually order iced coffee from Cafe Ladro as much as possible in the summer, I figured making it at home would save me a small fortune. It's pretty simple: stir together some coffee grounds with water, let it steep while you sleep, strain, & BAM. MAGIC.  As the name suggests, iced coffee is served over ice so all that magic you just made lasts forever.  For me at least 1 billion dollars at the coffee shop worth.

Sadly, as summer and kinda coming to a close, I'll have to start making the switch back over to Americano's. Who wants to be my sugar daddy and either serve me Americano's in bed every morning or buy me an espresso machine? I'm really not too picky.

Standing on high counters + living alone = bad idea. Crisis = averted. Sorry, Mom.