Not your grandmother's bread pudding

warm gingerbread pudding with meyer lemon chantilly

It's not that I forgot to blog for the last two weeks. It's just that my stoopid computer caught one of those trojan virus thingys and was at the computer doctor for a week. Then I was lazy for a few days.
It's fixed and life/my blog may return to it's regularly scheduled programming.

Let's talk bread pudding, shall we? I first developed my geriatric-like obsession for this dessert (because, lets face it. The vast majority of those who ordered this dessert were of The Greatest Generation) while I was working at this little bakery in high school. It was a simple affair, made from the leftover cinnamon, orange, and pecan rolls. The combination of flavors from each roll was amazing. Caramel, cinnamon, and orange. All bound together with a very gently sweetened custard. The occasional pecan or golden raisin would pop up every other bite or so- but never obtrusively, for as a general rule, I am anti-raisin in bread pudding.

I have since eaten many other forms of this dessert made with brioche, cake, croissants, and plain old white sandwich bread. Some have been lovely (I once worked with a pastry chef that made a version using dried chocolate cake and a caramel custard. Holeee shit. That was a tasty 'un), and some have been downright despicable. There is a reputable restaurant in this city (who shall remain nameless) that prides itself on it's bread pudding. It is mushy, overly sweet and cloying. Nothing short of a travesty.

I think it comes down to the fact that there are two schools of thought on bread pudding. Those who allow the bread to completely soak up the custard before baking, creating a solid unit of indiscernible mush. And those who use a little restraint with that step, creating a pudding with more depth. I prefer the latter.

This gingerbread pudding is probably my second favorite incarnation of the dessert. The first being the one from my high school days. Sadly, I pretty much never have leftover cinnamon rolls, pecan sticky buns, and orange rolls sitting around. And unless we're visiting my in-laws, I avoid my hometown of Issaquah like the plague. That first taste of bread pudding will probably have to remain romanticized in my memory.

Okay- the recipe. I know it seems foolish to bake a perfectly good batch of gingerbread, only to cut it up and dry it out like croutons in the oven. Never will this seem more idiotic than with this recipe. It is that good. I took David Lebovitz's gingerbread recipe and tinkered with it. I replaced the oil with brown butter, and added the spices right in the pot with the butter as it browned to help their flavors bloom a little more. The result is a really tender, extra spicy (it almost tastes "hot") ginger cake. You may want to double the recipe so you have some fresh cake to snack on while the bread pudding bakes.



I garnish this dessert with meyer lemon chantilly, which is just a simple meyer lemon curd with a little whipped cream folded in....good enough to eat with a spoon, standing in front of the fridge with the door still open. But not that I've done that.

Gingerbread

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

4 oz butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda

2 T minced candied ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a sheet pan with baking release (like pam), line with parchment paper, and spray again. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside. Place a pot of water in the stove to boil. Combine the butter and the spices in a pot and melt over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown a little (this takes a minute or two, and will be difficult to tell when it has browned, as the spices are in there. Go by smell- it should begin to smell nutty.) Set aside to cool. In a large bowl, whisk the molasses, sugar, and egg together. Add the butter/spice mixture and whisk to combine.
Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.Measure out the 1/2 cup of boiling water and quickly stir the baking soda into it. Add to cake batter and stir gently until combined. Finally, add the minced ginger and stir. Pour the batter out onto the prepared sheet pan and bake for approximately 14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

Cut the cooled gingerbread into 1/2" cubes and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. After the gingerbread has cooled, it will be somewhat crisp, like croutons.


Gingerbread pudding

8 cups loosely packed cubed gingerbread

3 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream

9 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract
1 T calvados, or brandy

Whisk the eggs, sugars, and spices together in a large bowl. Bring the milk and cream to a boil, the gradually whisk into the eggs. Strain the custard, then stir in the calvados and vanilla.
Butter a large souffle dish. Place the dried gingerbread in the dish and slowly pour the custard over the gingerbread. Place in a large roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with hot water, until the souffle dish is about halfway submerged. Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes. The custard will be set, but slightly wobbly in the center.
Cool to room temperature and serve.

When life hands you a case of plums....

Make upside-down plum cake

So, yeah- I bought a case of black plums. A CASE. I'm beginning to wonder if I may have been high at the time, as I am feeling totally overwhelmed by them. I ordered a case for the plum pie I am making at work right now, and was surprised by how especially delicious they are this year. So why not order a WHOLE CASE for myself? Forget the fact that Trevor doesn't even like plums and will therefore be no help whatsoever in consuming them.

High I tell you. Tripping Balls.

In the past week I have made plum sorbet, plum scones, the upside-down cake you see, and will hopefully will be tackling the bulk of them today by making plum jelly.

I'm drowning

Thats okay, when fall rolls around I get a major home-baking bug up my ass. On top of all of the plum desserts being pumped out of my kitchen, I've been on a cookie frenzy as well. Trevor and I made Halloween cat shaped chocolate butter cookies on Sunday. The recipe came from Cooks Illustrated and they SUCKED ASS (they were, however adorable). It's one of the few times I've been let down by C.I., but not even the ganache glaze could save them. I ended up dumping them on my co-workers who, not unlike meth addicts, will eat anything containing sugar. Anything.
Future blog posts will most likely include pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies (which were both cute and had the good manners to be delicious), poppy seed shortbread (my all time favorite cookie), and chocolate sandwiches (read: oreos).

These little plum cakes are my favorite incarnation of the upside-down genre, and it usually makes an appearance on my dessert menu in the late summer. The cake is not overly sweet and has the texture of a cross between a muffin and a cake donut. The Armagnac scented caramel provides most of the sweetness and acts as a gooey counterpart to the tart plums and muffiny cake. They don't need much dressing up. Ice cream is a little too rich. I usually go for a dollop of creme fraiche. On my menu, I will add a plum caramel to accent the flavors of the cake.

The modest, unassuming dollop.

I'm going to send this dessert over to my girl Ley, of Cilantro and Lime. She's hosting her first blog event Baking for breast cancer awareness. I participated in the boobie bake off last year with my boob-shaped cupcakes. I had considered revisiting these, but opted not to be quite so 7th grade this time around. These plum cakes are pink(ish), which for some reason is the chosen color to represent breast cancer. While that is not a requirement for this particular event, I found them to be somewhat fitting. Ley also asked that we share how breast cancer has affected our lives personally....
Somehow, this form of cancer has not really affected me. I consider myself to be very lucky for this. Cancer in general has affected me greatly. My mother-in-law lost her battle with a rare form of lung cancer. My Grandfather (the coolest Grandfather EVER)is currently battling prostate cancer, and knock on wood, appears to be beating it. I could keep going, but as far as the boobies are concerned, those close to me have been fortunate. So I will keep participating in events like these, keep taking care of myself, and keep hoping the women I care about remain healthy.

Upside-down plum cake
Makes 7 4" individual cakes

Caramel:
4 oz. butter
6 oz. brown sugar
2 T Armagnac or brandy of your choice
sliced plums

Spray ramekins with pan spray. Line the bottoms with little circles of parchment paper and spray again. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and whisk until it melts. Remove from heat and whisk in brandy.
Ladle about 1 oz of caramel into the bottom of each ramekin.
Fan 4 slices of plums over the caramel (usually takes about 3 plums). Chill until caramel is firm- at least an hour.

Cake batter:
3 oz. butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I always use my vanilla sugar. If you have any on hand, it really makes a difference. If you don't- make some!)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup + 3 Tb all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup sour cream

In the bowl of a standing mixer, whip the butter with the sugar using the paddle attachment until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl as needed. Alternate adding the sour cream and sifted dry ingredients in 3 additions. Scoop the batter into the ramekins and spread with a small offset spatula (batter is quite thick). Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes- until a cake tester comes out with a few moist (but not raw) crumbs clinging to it and the surface of the cake springs back when gently pressed. Let cool about 10 minutes (until just cool enough to handle). Flip cakes out onto a cake rack. Serve warm.

Petis Fours- want some?

I have a refrigerator full of these things and a husband who hates cake...
Sigh.

Jenn, our anointed sovereign's monthly joust is here again. Do you guys realize that the winner now gets an apron with their blog name on it AND free Tupperware? Not to mention being able to brag to all their friends and a sweet logo for their blog.

At home in my kitchen, I wear a nappy, apron that I stole from a now defunct vegan hipster restaurant where I was once a cook. Complete with stains from curried tofu scrambles and textured vegetable protein sausage of yore.
Just sayin' is all.

Last month's winner and now proud owner of said apron and Tupperware was Elle who chose raspberries, lime, and almonds for our battling ingredients.
The Pacific Northwest is berry country. People in Michigan or wherever can argue this all they want (I have arguments about this all the time with our Michigan-born sous chef. Somehow when the first flat of local strawberries arrives, he sings a different tune.), but it's true. The berries up here are the shit..
....In July.
Needless to say, I was wary of planning a recipe around a sucky California berry. Luckily for me, I'm a genius. Last year, I was able to get my hands on a flat of local black raspberries. I turned them into a seedless compoty-freezer jam type concoction that I still have several jars of.
The Jousting wheels were turning.....

Garnished with the snubbed California raspberries that actually turned out to be really good. Not Washington good, but good.

I had announced on the forum that I would think outside the box and come up with a savory entry.
Lies.
The compote was wanting to be made into a dessert of some sort. So I entered Petis Fours country- not a zone for pastry pussies. After glazing your 112th teensy little cake, the urge to stab someone can come on pretty strong. I decided to scale down my recipe to a meager 24 petis fours. I ate one- they turned out delicious, and now I have 23 of them sitting in the fridge. Trevor wont touch them with a ten foot pole. They are a pastry- which he hates, and painfully girly. He wont admit to that being a factor in his disdain for dainty little tea cakes like this, but he's not kidding anyone but himself.

Heres how I made the little bastards:

Almond butter cake- sliced horizontally into 4 layers (makes 2 separate cakes)


Shmear with lime swiss buttercream and black raspberry compote


Sammich it together


Cut into quaint little squares, then glaze with lime fondant. Prepare to be doing this activity for a good hour. An episode of Deadwood makes for excellent company while performing this task. Hearing the word cocksucker coming out of my TV makes it so I don't have to shout the profanities myself

I am completely out of steam and cannot type this nonsense anymore. If you want the recipe for these ingredients, here is the link to my post on the forum.
I'm going to bed.

It would have been better with nuts....

It was still delicious, but my sister is anti-nut unless it's an almond or a hazelnut. Both of which were conveniently absent from her pantry shelf. We were going to the store for buttermilk, where nuts are easily obtained. But, no. She was determined to have this rhubarb bread come out nut free. Her kitchen, her rules....fascist.

Lonely lonely rhubarb
That's okay. Lucky for her, this is the most versatile and forgiving quick bread recipe of all time. Plus, she had just given me a really cool rug and a bunch of clothes (my sister Brooke is a clothes whore. Seriously. She was trying to give me stuff that still had the tags on it. Every time I see her, she has bags full of items to unload on me so that she can clear space in her closet for more f'ing clothes. I would suggest an intervention if her illness were not so beneficial to yours truly....is that bad? But honestly- In 8 years, the only articles I've had to buy for myself are chef pants and birkenstocks. Pretty much everything else comes from her. And she has good taste to boot.) so I wasn't going to throw down over something as petty as a nut. But walnut fans will be pleased to know that I did voice my opinion...several times.


You have no idea how good this smells. See the scented steam a-wafting out the top? Oh yeah.
Despite all that, I had such a delightful day with the sibling. She and her boyfriend, CK, just bought a house in the ridiculously quaint, historic downtown area of Everett. It's about 30 miles north of the less quaint, more crowded, and much snootier queen anne neighborhood of Seattle, where I live (I still love you Sea-town, you just piss me off sometimes). Everett is the type of town where everybody knows each other. We had brunch at an adorable cafe, where the owner is Brooke's new neighbor. Later, we had pints and salads at the Irish pub where she and CK attend(and sometimes win, cuz CK be all smart and stuff) trivia night once a week. The small town vibe has become foreign to me, so it almost felt like a mini vacation. I also fell in love with Brooke's new, enormous and light-filled kitchen. Complete with a dishwasher (also foreign to me) and a breakfast nook. Like her mother before her, Brooke's whole house is beautifully decorated, one of the umpteen reasons why I refer to her as the "talented one"- but the kitchen and I hit it right off. I refused to go home with out baking something in there for her boyfriend, who would be returning from teaching rock climbing lessons (or something environmental and hippi-ish like that) that night, tired and hungry. I would have found any excuse to play in there, but CK's weary return with a rumbling tummy immediately tugged at her heartstrings.

So, we made rhubarb bread. Here is the recipe. Please note that it is better with 3/4cup of toasted, chopped walnuts. If you are smart, and are adding the nuts, reduce the flour to 2 3/4 cups.

Rhubarb Bread adapted from Kate's mom (for inquiring minds, Kate is my old boss)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar (we have discovered that dark brown makes it noticeably superior. But use light if you must)
1 egg
6oz. melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour
2 cups sliced rhubarb


Topping:
2 T butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Sugary-buttery topping.This stuff is basically crack.
Pre heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, and butter. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk salt and baking soda, then add to brown sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Add the flour and mix until just combined, then fold in the rhubarb. Pour into a greased loaf pan and set aside while you make the topping. In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar with the 2 T butter. Mash with a fork until crumbly, then sprinkle over the batter. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 and continue baking for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely (overnight if possible- it's never possible...) before slicing and wolfing down.


Brookey Likey.

SHF# 41, sweet gifts for my sis

Almond Butter Cake with Lemon Thyme Cream

Heres your almond cake Brookie, now get off my ass about it, K?

It seems like forever since the last time I participated in Sugar High Friday (or any blog event for that matter), but I am starting to get my act together- dontchya think? I mean jeez, this is my second post in one week. Kudos to me.
Habeas Brulee is hosting SHF this month (follow that link. Now. Seriously, it's worth it to see the freakishly adorable little girl with marshmallow all over her face), and she picked "sweet gifts" as her theme, which gives me the chance to show some love for my sister Brooke. Which I have not yet had a chance to do on this blog.
In a nutshell, Brooke is the most hilarious person I know. I am so glad my parents decided to have another kid right after having me (she is barely a year younger than I, and I don't know that I should use the term "decided", as I'm pretty sure we were both accidents...happy accidents). Some of my most treasured childhood memories include Brooke and I lying on our tummies watching "Anne of Green Gables", making fun of the way they danced on "Kids Incorporated" (children of the 80's who had the disney channel will get the reference- it's where Fergie of the Black eyed Peas got her start in showbiz), or stuffing pillows under our clothers and running down the hallway and colliding into eachother (member that Brooke?). We were always entertained as long as we were together. We didn't require much in the way of toys, as we had our sence of humor to keep us busy. Good lord, could the two of us giggle.

"The Brookester"

Fast forward twenty some odd years, and not much has changed. We're still total dorks when we get together, cracking up at whatever gross or self-depricating joke the other has to tell. In my sister's presence, I somehow become twelve again- which is a pretty awesome state of mind.

Anywho (B- are you sobbing yet? You are. Just admit it.), now on to this cake. This is a cake that was on my menu when Betty first opened, and Brooke and my mom came in for dinner. At that time, it was served alongside a dollop of greek yogurt and a fragrant raspberry-rose geranium sauce. Brooke dubbed it a "mouth-gasm" and has been begging for the recipe ever since.
Being the neglectful beeotch that I am, I kept forgetting to give it to her.
I made this cake for her, but she is an accomplished baker in her own right, so even if she does not have a chance to zip down to Seattle (she live a few towns north of here), she now has the recipe- which is what she really wanted.




This cake is delicious with just about anything, or on it's own. Today, it's sandwiching a schmear of lemon-thyme pastry cream (lightened to a spreadable consistency with heavy cream). I'll be putting it back on my dessert menu in May with a tangy balsamic-sour cherry compote and toasted almond creme anglaise. Brooke is now drooling.
Almond Butter Cake
This recipe will produce enough batter for 1 half sheet pan, 2 10" round pans, or 1 terrine loaf pan (my personal favorite).

9 oz (1 1/3 cup) sugar
7 oz almond paste
8 oz butter, softened
6 eggs, at room temp.
1 tsp vanilla
5 oz (1 cup) flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray desired pan with baking release, line the bottom with parchment paper, and spray again.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attatchment, mix the sugar and almond paste together until fine textured (it will have a sandy look). Add the butter and mix until well combined. Stop mixer and scrape the bowl with a spatula. return to med-high.
Whisk the eggs and vanilla together and dribble into the bowl (do this slowly with the machine running). Scrape bowl again and mix until batter looks homogenous.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Spread batter into desired pan and bake until a cake tester comes out clean

Loaf pan: 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes
Round pans: 35-40 minutes
Sheet pan: 25-30 minutes

East Meets West: The Daring Bakers are at it again...

And this time, I'm playing too!


Bostini Cream Pie

It's official! One of the many reasons why I started this little food blog was to get in on the action with the Daring Bakers. This is a rapidly growing community of baking enthusiasts who meet up via the blogospere to partake in a monthly baking challenge. Created in November of 2006 by Ivonne of Cream Puffs In Venice, and Lis of La Mia Cucina, these guys and gals have tackled everything from Strawberry Mirror Cake (involving components such as Bavarian cream, sponge cake, and gelatin) to the doozy of them all: Gateau St. Honore. Also known as "The Patron Saint of Bakers", this dessert in his honor involves puff dough, pate a choux, pastry cream, and caramel sugar work to boot. All of which are some of the most difficult skills to master. Especially from the home kitchen. I've watched in awe from the sidelines, amazed that the majority these talented people don't do this for a living. Last month, after drooling over the milk chocolate caramel tart they conquered, I knew I wanted to play.

I waited all month in anticipation of what our October challenge would be. The ants can now leave my pants. This month's event, hosted by Mary at Alpineberry, is a Boston classic, updated by the San Fransisco Restaurant scene. "Bostini Cream Pie" is a similar idea to the Boston Cream Pie, but sexed up a little. Rather than the standard issue vanilla sponge cake, filled with standard issue vanilla pastry cream, and finished with ganache; the bostini version is an individual dessert of orange chiffon cake nesting atop a layer of vanilla bean custard. Each portion is glazed a la minute with warm bittersweet chocolate. I knew right off the bat that this dessert and I would get along famously. Chocolate and orange is such a heavenly combination, and I love a good eggy custard.



The actual recipe required that we first make the custard and pour it into ramekins. We were then supposed to bake the chiffon cake in ramekins that were the same size as our custard cups. This way we would have an individual cake to unmold and place inside the ramekin of custard, then pour chocolate over it. It was meant to be served inside the ramekin. Confused yet? This seemed like a very silly way to go about putting this dessert together. For one thing, I don't have the 16 ramekins required for this recipe sitting in my cupboard. I was convinced the procedure could be tweaked and I was right. The custard is basically a pastry cream, which will hold up on it's own if it's properly cooked. And why not just bake the chiffon cake in a sheet pan and use cookie cutters to punch out the desired size? This was a recipe from a very well reputed San Fransisco restaurant, but sometimes the way things are done in professional kitchens are not prudent for the home.

Armed with ring molds, parchment paper strips, and refrigerator space, I went about making the custard. The recipe for this is pretty straight forward. I ladled the cooked pastry cream into the parchment lined ring molds and refrigerated them overnight. The chiffon cake was also easy to put together, and delicious! Once the cake was cooled, I cut out adequately sized rounds and placed them over the chilled pastry cream. Once the glaze was cooked (no problems there either), it was time to unmold. I slipped off the ring, peeled away the parchment and poured the warm chocolate over the whole thing (side note: the sight of warm chocolate cascading down a piece of cake is the hottest thing ever. It kind of turns me on).

The verdict? Pretty darn good. The custard itself was just too rich for me. I'm used to pastry cream made with all milk. This was mostly cream. A few bites were all the hubby and I could get through with out feeling sick. The chiffon was my favorite. It has lots of orange juice and zest, adding tons of flavor to a normally somewhat dull cake. And the chocolate? You just can't go wrong with good bittersweet chocolate (I used Scharffenberger- a San Fransisco treat) and butter. It was as good as it sounds. I would make this again, but for the sake of my ever growing bum, I would make an all milk pastry cream. Other daring bakers have substituted the orange in the cake for things like coconut milk and raspberry puree, which also sound delicious. speaking of other daring bakers, check out their versions of the bostini, you will be impressed, I promise...these people have chops!


For the recipe for Bostini Cream Pie, head over to Mary's blog

Sugar High Friday #36- Drunken Apples

Nighthawk Applejack Cake

Oh what a perfect theme for my mood today. It's been a rough weekend- physically at least. It all started at work on Saturday morning when I was peeling apples for a pie and accidentally peeled off most of the nail on my middle finger. It's now hanging there by a thread. If you have done this before, you know that not only does it hurt, but it also kind of gives you the heeby jeeby shivers. Later that day, as I was adding the butter to a dry caramel, I foolishly just threw it in there. Hot caramel came splattering at me, resulting in about 9 huge burns on the inside of my palm and forearm in about half a second. I know, caramel is really hot and can cause the most painful burns. Why did absent mindedly toss that butter in? I Dunno.
And finally: My mom and I went to Crow last night for dinner and a bottle of wine....and a really stiff cocktail...or was it two? Working at Betty gives me an employee discount there and I live a block away. Perfect excuse to order lots of booze. It will be cheap an I can walk home. Well- on my drunken walk home, I tripped and fell, skinning the hell out of my knee. Why does this hurt so much more than I remember skinned knees hurting as a kid? I can barely friggin' walk today. My nice pants now have a big ugly blood stain on them. Good thing I live in a quiet neighborhood and nobody saw. That would have hurt more.
Oh yeah- my husband made me watch Transformers with him when I got home. I think that was more painful than all three injuries combined.

Apples, booze, and a naughty kitty

I woke up this morning having all sorts of laundry and chores to do, but all I felt like doing was hanging out in the kitchen and soothing my aching body with some sort of cake. I got on the computer, looking for something to do with these goregous local Newton Pippin Apples I had sitting on my counter. Then, I found myself visiting a blog that reminded me of Sugar High Friday and it's deadline, which is today.
Hosted this month by SpittoonExtra who chose apples and booze as this months theme, I knew I had found my project for the day. I've been wanting to make the Nighthawk Applejack Cake from The Northwest Best Places Cookbook and now I had the perfect excuse. This is an upside down style cake from The Breadline Cafe in Omak, Washington.

It's really simple to put together and it's ingredients are all pantry staples. The finished product is a really moist (due to the batter being mostly chopped apples), gooey, Yukon Jack laced treat. The best part is that this cake needs no embellishment whatsoever. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then flip it out, dowse it in Yukon Jack, and serve. Ice cream or whipped cream, in my opinion, would just tame the tangy apple and whiskey flavor. It's the dessert version of a beverage my parents used to drink while we were on ski trips: "Apple Jacks" or as they used to call it- "courage"- Yukon Jack and hot apple cider. I was of course a child and could not partake in the libations, but I remember the smell of the sweet cider hitting that whiskey and wishing I could just hurry and become a grown-up.

Nighthawk Applejack Cake adapted from The Northwest Best Places Cookbook

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark brown)
3 medium sized tart apples (I used Newton-Pippens and highly reccomend them)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts & I toasted 'em first)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbl. Yukon Jack whiskey, plus more for serving
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 or 9 inch cake pan (* put a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the greased pan to be safe). Combine 1/4 cup of the melted butter with the brown sugar. Stir to mix well. Pour into the cake pan. Peel, core, and thinly slice one of the apples arrange the slices on the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Peel, core, and coarsley chop the remaining 2 apples and put them in a large bowl with the remaining 1/4 cup of melted butter, egg, yukon jack, granulated sugar, nuts, and vanilla. Stir to mix.

Sift the dry ingredients together, then stir into apple mixture until combined. Pour batter into the cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes (* Mine only took 35 minutes and my oven is pretty accurate- keep an eye on it)

Allow the cake to rest for 10 minutes, then carefully turn it out onto a serving plate. Lace the top with a generous splash of Yukon Jack and serve.

Sugar High Friday was just what I needed today. I still hurt, but this cake sure made it better. And now to go dowse myself- in peroxide...and maybe a swig of the leftover Yukon Jack...

Double C-Cup-Cakes: The Boobie Bake-off

a nice pair...sorry, I couldn't resist.
Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

As you can see, I'm getting my blog events out of the way for October. The Boobie Bake-off is hosted by Marye at Apron Strings and Simmering Things and requires that we all bake something pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The super cool part is that readers can donate $1 to vote for their favorite on October 31st. All proceeds will be donated to breast cancer research in the winner's name.

I am so 7th grade. I really wanted my pink entry to look like boobs. I know there is nothing funny about breast cancer, but who says we can't have fun while promoting awareness? Another personal rule I gave myself was to leave food coloring out of the equation. With those guidelines, I came up with a deep chocolate cupcake, topped with a sour cherry-cream cheese icing. I used my "old stand-by" chocolate cake recipe, David Lebovitz's candied cherries, and a cream cheese icing from the top of my head. Turns out, they're really good too. I can't say I was crazy about the way they looked though. Pink, though they were, the texture of the icing is just a tad bit runny. Not so much that it hurt the outcome of the cupcake, but I was hoping for a stiffer consistency so I could pipe it into big rosettes. Sadly, the pretty picture in my head did not match the cupcake before me. Having said that, they were so tasty that I ultimately did not care. Plus, they totally look like boobs.

Fudgy Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts
Makes 24 small cupcakes or 12 Large

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 3 T cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup softened butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 packed brown sugar

2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper cups or grease with pan spray. Sift the dry ingredients together onto a sheet of was paper.
Cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on med-high speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Lower the speed down to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk in 3 additions. Divide batter amongst the prepped muffin tins and bake for 18-22 minutes.

Candied Cherries adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

1 # sour cherries, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 T lemon juice
1 drop almond extract (but I use 1 tsp amaretto)

Heat everything but the almond flavoring in a large sauce pan. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the juice is syrupy. Cool then stir in almond flavoring.

Sour-Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. soft butter
5 oz. room temperature cream cheese
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup candied sour cherries, strained and chopped, juices reserved

Cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add chopped cherries and mix. Slowly add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the sour cherry juice for pink frosting, or omit it for a sturdier frosting.
Smear on cooled cupcakes