Making Cake from Scratch While the Sun Shines (or doesn't!)

I'm not normally much of a baker, generally I prefer to cook other things. I do make the occasional muffins, biscuits, cookies, cornbread and such, but other than for holidays or special occasions, baking is just not something I do often.

That being said, however, lately I've been in the mood to bake. No idea why, no clue why baking  has suddenly seemed so appealing. This has been a horrible winter here in Michigan, freezing cold and lasting for what seems like forever! I suddenly decided to make a carrot cake on one of the first days we had that was sunny AND over 20 degrees - it felt like Spring! Somehow, carrot cake seemed appropriate.Yes, I know that thinking anything over 20 degrees is Spring-like is sad. True, but sad.

Courtesy of Google Images.

 Baking, much less cakes, which I don't actually like much most of the time? Who knows, my version of Spring Fever, perhaps? Normally if we're talking dessert, give me pie, cookies, crisp, cobbler, whatever and I'll usually choose it over cake. I really dislike traditional frosting, too. In fact, I hate it. It's too sweet, goopy, makes my teeth hurt and I just don't like it.

No, there is no rhyme or reason to my recent forays into baking cakes. I just felt like baking, so I baked. I did, however, make the cakes a little lighter, a little less sweet and absolutely no traditional icky frosting. My family approves and both of these cakes disappeared very quickly! Hope you like them too!

Yes, I wore the 50's outfit, apron, hair, make-up & everything to bake cakes. Well, I did wear an apron.

 Courtesy of Google Images

Here they are, the recipes for my recent cake activities. Who knows, maybe I'll make another one sometime soon, then again, maybe not. At any rate, here are the recipes for the Mango Carrot Cake and the Chocolate Almond Torte with Raspberries I've made recently. Like everything I cook, my cakes were made from scratch and the recipes are mine.

Mango Carrot Cake – Oven to 350° (For Icing & Mango Sauce see below)

*Grease & flour two 8” pans (round or square).

 2 cups flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder

½ tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup mango juice/nectar + ½ ripe small to medium mango, thoroughly mashed & blended, combined with the juice.

3 cups shredded carrots

½ cup toasted chopped pecans

½ cup dried fruit (I used a blueberry-cherry mix, raisins are fine)

Preheat your oven & prepare your pans; grease them, put parchment paper in the bottom and grease that too, then flour them and set them aside.

In a medium size bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Stir well and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth then gradually add the sugar, beat until combined and smooth then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Alternately add the flour mixture and mango mixture. Beat gently after each until just combined.

Stir in the shredded carrot, nuts and dried fruit.

Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn over onto a dishcloth on wire rack until completely cool.

Place one of the cakes onto your cake plate and poke holes in the top with a fork. Drizzle about 1 or 2 Tbsp of the concentrated mango juice onto the cake and let it soak in. Once it’s soaked in, spread the top with some of the cream cheese icing, how much depends on personal preference.

Place the 2^nd cake onto the first and repeat, poke holes with a fork, drizzle with the mango concentrate and let it soak in. Once it’s no longer wet, ice the cake. Drizzle the cake with the remaining mango concentrate and decorate with carrot curls. Enjoy!

Mango Sauce

Take 1 cup of mango juice/nectar in small saucepan and heat to a boil, then simmer for another 10 - 15 minutes or so until reduced to about ½ a cup. If you like fruit chunks, add some more of the fresh mango, mashed or blended.

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz Cream Cheese, soft

¼ Cup Soft Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

3 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the Vanilla, Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat until all is combined and smooth.

Decorative Carrot Ribbons

2 Large carrots, peeled

Bowl or pan of ice water

Using a vegetable slicer, peel long slices from the carrots. Arrange the slices in the shapes you want and put them in the ice water until ready to decorate the cake. Make sure they are completely dry before putting them on the cake!

(I just like the way it sounds in French better!)

Chocolate Almond Torte - Chocolat et aux amandes Torte aux Framboises

For the cake:

4-5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chips)

2 Tbs. coffee (you could omit the coffee, but you will need to sub something, rum, amaretto?)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tbs. sugar (keep apart from the 2/3 cup)

3 large eggs, separated

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup almond flour

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup flour, sifted or stirred first (cake flour would probably be best, but I never have it!)

For the icing:

5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chips!)

4 tablespoons coffee (you could omit the coffee, but you will need to sub something, rum, amaretto?)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

For the Raspberry Sauce

8 – 10 oz of fresh or frozen raspberries

2 TBS Jam (Raspberry, Apricot or Plum are the best)

¼ Cup Sugar

Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Butter an 8-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper, then flour.

Doesn't look as good from the top, probably the photographer!

Combine the chocolate and coffee in a double boiler and heat on low – medium – Pay attention, it melts fast! Stir as the chocolate melts and remove from heat as soon as it's smooth. Set aside to cool (make sure it’s not too warm, you don’t want the eggs to cook – yuck!).

In a large bowl, beat the butter and 2/3 cup sugar until smooth and totally blended. Add the 3 egg yolks and beat until thick. Add the cooled melted chocolate. Stir in the almond extract and almond meal/flour and mix until just combined.

In a separate bowl with a whisk or whisk attachment, whip the 3 egg whites and salt on high speed until foamy. Slowly add the extra Tbsp. of sugar and whip to stiff peaks. Add 1/4 of the egg white mixture to the batter and fold in carefully until combined. Add (folding gently) in the remaining white mixture alternating with the sifted cake flour several times until both are gone. Fold carefully, only until the streaks of egg white and flour disappear, Do Not over-mix. 

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake until the edges are set but the center still jiggles when the pan is moved, about 25 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then run a knife around the edges, cover tightly with a dishtowel and turn over to remove cake from the pan. Place it on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Icing:  Combine the chocolate and coffee and heat in the double boiler. Stir as the chocolate melts and remove from heat as soon as it's smooth. Add the butter a tablespoon at a time and use a whisk to beat it into the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.

Let the icing cool to a spreadable consistency, stirring it every 5 minutes or so. It should take about 15-20 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. 

Raspberry Sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until boiling, turn down heat and simmer for about 5 - 8 minutes. Let it cool down and blend until smooth (I use a hand blender, you could also put it into a blender). 

Spoon the icing on top of the cooled cake and spread it to cover. Garnish with the raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve additional raspberry sauce along with vanilla ice cream or crème fresh.

 

Happy Cake Baking! It's that time, apparently. : )

 

Tomato Basil Soup - Homemade and Vegan Friendly!

In the spirit of complete disclosure, I am not Vegan. I'm not even Vegetarian. I don't really like meat much so I don't cook with it often; my daughter is lactose intolerant and I do have several friends who are Vegan, so a lot of the things I end up cooking are Vegan friendly and that is why I end up with quite a few Vegan or Can Easily Be Vegan recipes.

A few weeks ago it was still ridiculously cold here in Michigan and so I decided to make homemade Tomato Soup. It turned out to be REALLY, REALLY good AND pretty easy, so here is the recipe!

Homemade Tomato Basil Soup – Vegan Friendly

1 large yellow onion, chopped (rough or fine, depends on whether you like chunks or not – read on!)

3 Tbs. Olive Oil

4 Tbs. Coconut Oil

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

2 6 oz cans of tomato paste (plus 4 cans water for each can of tomato paste)

1 14.5 oz can of tomato puree (plus one can of water)

4 – 6 Tbsp. Sugar (to taste)

2 or 3 Tbsp. Vegetable Base or No Chicken Chicken Base (I like Better than Boullion and usually use half of each kind, I like the flavor combo that way)

Fresh Ground Pepper – lots

1 cup Sherry (optional but it makes the taste incredible!)

1 Can Coconut Cream

1/3 Cup fresh basil, chopped - much better with fresh but if you need to use dried, and I have - use 2 ½ TBSP. (I freeze fresh in the summer so I have it to use all year).

Either ¼ Cup Fresh Parsley, chopped or 1 ½ Tbsp. Dried Parsley

*Homemade Croutons (recipe below)

Melt the coconut oil in with the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven. When the oil is hot add your chopped onion and cook until translucent. If you are using dried parsley & dried basil, add them now. If using fresh (including frozen), wait.

I used dried parsley this time, and basil I had in the freezer from last summer, so the greens you can see here are dried Parsley.

Add your diced tomatoes. Mix your tomato past with one of the cans of water in another bowl or other container until smooth, add to the hot onion & tomato mixture. Stir slowly to mix and add the other cans of water, stirring so you don’t have tomato paste lumps. Add the tomato sauce & water mixture.

If you want a smooth tomato soup, you will need to blend it at this point.You can either put your mixture in the blender and then return it to the pan or, Much Easier, use a hand blender, as I do. You just stick it into your mixture, turn it on, and it blends everything. Simply lovely. 

I have a Braun Hand-blender my Father-in-law gave me for Christmas ages ago, I absolutely adore it!

Now add your Sugar. You might be tempted to skip the sugar, but tomatoes are so acid the soup will be much smoother and yummier if you add a little sugar. Start with 3 or 4 Tbsp, taste and add more as and if needed. I usually use about 5 or 6 TBSP, if that means anything, tomatoes and tastes differ. : )

 Add your vegetable or no chicken base to the pot.

Now add lots of freshly ground black pepper to taste. Stir to combine and let simmer for about 20 minutes – DO NOT BOIL!

 

Turn the heat off or to warm. Add the Sherry and then stir in the coconut cream. If using fresh herbs, add them now. 

 Serve Warm with homemade croutons! Yummy and like most homemade soups, even better the next day after the flavors have had more time to really get to know each other! 

If you are not Vegan, you can add shredded Parmesan cheese to your soup along with the croutons when serving, it's delicious.

*Homemade Croutons - Can be Vegan if Desired

About 3 cups of dried, cubed bread; older bread makes the best croutons, so if it’s been sitting a bit too long, cut it up and place it into a 13 x 9 pan, set it in the cool oven and just let it dry out. Then you can keep it in a Tupperware container or a plastic bag, whatever works.  I do this constantly so I always have a bag or two of dried bread cubes available. If you need bread crumbs they are easy to crush, for croutons, here you go, it's so easy and they are so much better you will never buy ready made croutons again!

When ready to make the croutons here’s the actual recipe I use (pretty close anyway, I never measure anything, sorry!).

Homemade Croutons – Set the oven to 250°

3 cups dried bread cubes.

4 TBSP of Butter (or coconut oil), 4 TBSP of Olive Oil ( you can use any combination of oil you desire, this is what I use, except lately I've been substituting Coconut oil for the butter since we found out my daughter is lactose intolerant. Using the coconut oil makes it Vegan and the croutons are still Really Good!)

2 tsp dried Thyme 

½ tsp dried Rosemary, crumbled

1 tsp dried Savory

1 tsp dried sage

1 ½  tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper ( more to taste if desired)

1 Cup Stock (Vegetable, No Chicken or Chicken Stock base - 1 generous tsp in one cup water - I use Better Than Bouillon)

*Alternatively instead of the individual herbs, you can use readymade Poultry Seasoning, about 1 TBSP. I’ve done it when I’m out of something, although I prefer to use the actual herbs, you can adjust them according to your taste and I think the flavor is better.

Melt your oils, add the herbs and cook for about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Add the Stock (careful, if your pan is hot it will spit!).

Add your bread cubes and stir quickly so the liquid & fat mixture distributes evenly.

Pour the damp bread cubes into a large rectangular cake pan and put in the oven. After about an hour or so, stir and put back into the oven.

Repeat this for about 4 hours or until all bread cubes are totally dried out, then they are done.

 

Once croutons are done, if they are not being used immediately they can be stored in the freezer in a freezer bag once they are cool. To thaw, just pull them out several hours ahead of time and open the bag to thaw.

Really yummy Tomato Soup, whether you go Vegan or not!

Brussells Sprouts

OOPS, I did it again (apologies to Brittany Spears!). I cooked Brussels Sprouts (recipe below). I keep trying to like them. I try hard and repetitively because I know they're good for me. Also, they are the only vegetable I can think of that I don't like. I love cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, squash and beans of every possible variation, leafy greens, you name it, if it grew on a plant I probably like it. Except for Brussels Sprouts.

Why is this an issue, you may very well (and very logically) ask? Honestly, I'm not sure except that it feels like some sort of weird personal failure that I can't like Brussels Sprouts. So I keep on keeping on, doing my best and trying to like them.Why is this so important to me? I have no idea, but someone, please make me stop!

The most recent Brussels Sprouts Episode was last night and it's over, thank goodness. The meatloaf and garlic mashed redskins were mouth-watering. The rolls were fantastic. Tonight I made asparagus, which I absolutely adore in almost any incarnation. I'll post about tonight tomorrow. : )

Friends and acquaintances (yes, even people I really don't know and those I have never even met before somehow feel obligated to convince me to eat Brussels sprouts and love them, if the subject arises. People  always say, "oh, you just haven't had them cooked right." I used to believe this.

I have had friends cook them for me. I have ordered them at restaurants where critics raved about them. Over the past 20 years I have been entrusted with more old family recipes for Brussels Sprouts than is decent and I have cooked them all. At first, I bought the explanation that I had just never experienced Brussels Sprouts cooked properly. After all, my parents don't like them, so they didn't show up much during my childhood.  When they did, generally at the homes of extended family, I hated them.

I was the one silently praying the Brussels Sprouts never made it to me or that my Aunt wouldn't notice if I didn't eat them. She always did.

Cue the music as many years pass on. . .  and I grew up. Sort of. (as a mid-40 person, I'm still working on that - it's kind of complicated, really!), I started liking many things I had previously claimed to hate before I actually tried them for myself. Amazing how that works. At any rate, once I got past about 23 I started trying Brussels Sprouts periodically, convinced I would like them at some point. 

Now, not to toot my own horn (OK, I am totally tooting my own horn) but I am a more than decent cook. I love cooking, I love the creativity and the chemistry. It's fun and I love good food, so it kind of just fits together. Nevertheless, I have yet to find a Brussels Sprouts recipe that makes them more than somewhat bearable, including the ones I've made up on my own (tonight was another one of those and it was bearable - eh. I just REALLY hate the way they taste.).

Obviously, this is an issue for me. Brussels Sprouts = Waterloo for me. Apparently, I just cannot get past it.

So, that's it, the saga of the Brussels Sprout. I'd like to say I'm just going to quit trying and accept that I don't like them, but I probably won't, I just don't think I'm there yet.

I'll wait a while and then, somewhere, somehow, feel obligated to try Brussels Sprouts again. We might be up near Traverse City at Red Ginger (one of our favorites) or in Grand Rapids at Grove or The Green Well and they will have some fabulous concoction involving Brussels Sprouts on special. Maybe we'll be in Chicago, DC or San Francisco.

Regardless of where it happens, I already know I won't be able to resist giving them a try. That is already a certainty. How sad that I know this will happen. I will miss trying some fabulous dish that sounds innovative and fabulous because I will feel obligated to try to like Brussels Sprouts.

Maybe, who knows, I'll actually like them! I it could happen! Really, it could!

That is why I keep trying them, on my own and at fabulous restaurants. Maybe, sometime, I will put them in my mouth and say, "OMG, these are incredible! I've been missing so much!"

Yeah, probably not.

The photo above are some of the iactual Brussels Sprouts I cooked last night. They looked beautiful and smelled fantastic. My son who hates vegetables on general principles thought they were pretty good. I was SO excited to try them. I did. They were edible.

I just REALLY don't like Brussels Sprouts.

For those who absolutely must know, this is what I did to the Brussels Sprouts last night.

Desperately Trying to Like Brussels Sprouts Recipe

 I started with about a pound of good, fresh Brussels sprouts.  I cut off the ends, pulled off dead leaves, washed & dried them, etc. The usual prep stuff for veggies.

After washing thoroughly, I dried them off and put them in a gallon plastic bag. I added about 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Kosher Salt (about 2 - 3 TBS and about 1 TSP Freshly Ground Pepper. Then they went onto an sheet of aluminum foil pressed into a cookie sheet (I put foil down for almost EVERYTHING. It is SO much easier to clean up!).

I roasted them in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes, then I stirred them around and put them back in for about another 15 minutes or so - until they were barely fork tender.

Then I pulled them out and covered them with a bunch of garlic butter*, Parmesan and probably about 2 Tsp of Thai Chili-Garlic Sauce and a dash of balsamic vinegar. I then sprinkled them liberally, again, with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt.

*I crushed 4 bulbs of garlic in 1/2 cup of butter. This is my normal garlic bread ratio. If you don't like garlic just go away. Seriously. If you don't like garlic we will not have anything in common, just go away.

Anyhow, after totally smothering the Brussels Sprouts in the garlic butter mixture, I sprinkled them yet again with more kosher salt and freshly grated pepper. Then, I sprinkled them with freshly grated Parmesan.

Then the pan went back into the 400 degree oven for another 5-7 minutes. When they smelled absolutely "to die for" delicious and the Parmesan was golden brown and bubbling, I pulled them out.

The Parmesan was fabulous. My views on Brussels Sprouts have not been independently verified, so, I can't really review them impartially. I thought they were edible, but my son who hates vegetables (but not, apparently, Brussels Sprouts, thought they were good. He not only ate them, he took seconds.So, draw your own conclusions.).

I still don't like Brussels Sprouts.

Why can't I just accept this and move on?

Seriously?!!
  

Half Mile of Highway, Greenville, South Carolina

6:45 AM, Sunday, walking along the road. The most astounding things are lying off in the grass and bushes, nestled in amongst all the plastic bags, cigarette butts, water and beer bottles, soda cans, straws and other assorted garbage.  Do some people believe items mysteriously cease to exist once they shove it out from their car windows into space, or are they really just narcissistic noxious imbeciles?  

Lovely, right? *

 1.       A pair of very large pliers, looked like fishing pliers. Fell out or were thrown out?

Looked like these.*

 

2.       Pieces of a large antique wood and plaster picture frame, gilded and ornate, also broken into pieces. 

 3.  A once beautiful antique chair made of what looked like teak or mahogany. Heavy wood elegantly shaped with beautiful scroll work on the chair back, broken into pieces.

 

It looked a lot like this, no seat cover though.*

4.       A large moving strap, blue, the kind used for furniture and large items. Never treat your movers badly. The chair, the frame and the moving strap probably came from the same place.

5.       One floral seat cushion from a lawn chair that looked new. Probably blew off when someone brought their new furniture home from the store. Finding it gone when it was time to unload was undoubtedly very annoying. 

6.       What looked like an entire CD collection, without cases, spread out along the entire half mile (possibly more but I only walked a half mile of them), in groups of two or three.  Someone scorned found the CD wallet of an ex still in his/her car. I wonder if driving along the highway periodically flinging groups of CD’s out the window made him/her feel better? I admit to being curious as to the musical taste they represented but they looked as if they’d been there a while and I wasn’t about to touch them to find out. 

7.       A 6 foot dog leash, completely intact, green. Maybe a frustrated doggie slyly grabbed the leash when sticking its head out the window as usual and “accidentally” let go.

It was this type of hubcap!*

8.       A brand new BMW hubcap. Self explanatory but I someone is not going to be happy at having to replace that!  I’m only surprised it’s still there but it probably won’t be for long. 

9.       What appeared to be a new floor mat from a Toyota Highlander. I’m having a hard time coming up with a plausible scenario where one reaches down, pulls up the floor mat (passenger side) from a relatively new vehicle and flings it out the window.  Maybe there was a spider on it? 

10.       A cobalt blue wine bottle. Self explanatory and should have been recycled, but it was such a pretty color!

 

11.   Several pieces of broken blue willow china. An angry teenager took her mom’s heirloom china and threw it out the window of a car in a fit of teenage spite. Mom is heartbroken because it belonged to her grandmother; teenager won’t feel bad about it for another ten years.

12.   A somewhat worse for wear Christmas card, but the colors are still bright. 

The phone I saw looked like this, but was far more broken! *

13.   Shattered iphone 4S, white. “Who was that, who was it?!” In my version a not natural blonde is screaming at her boyfriend in the front of a truck. “That was her, wasn’t it! You’re talking to her again! Give me that!” She grabs the phone away from her boyfriend. “I knew it!” Furiously, she throws the phone out the window. 

14.   A pair of men’s underwear, briefs, not boxers. I really, really do NOT want to know!

  15.   An entire box of donuts from Publix. These had to have been dumped shortly before I walked by as I can’t imagine the wildlife would leave them alone for long and the box was pristine, the donuts untouched. Or perhaps the critters are just smarter about what they eat?  I imagined a person who has been desperately trying to stick to a diet and bought the donuts at a weak moment. Driving home with the box sitting accusingly on the passenger seat, she/he threw the box out the window in a moment of resolve before they weakened again. While I applaud the intention and the willpower, I wish they had used a trash can. 

The box looked just like this, different donuts though. *

16.   An intact mouse pad; yellow, with black writing on it. Again, wasn’t going to touch it and having a hard time coming up with why it’s on the side of the road? Perhaps it goes with the. . . . 

17.   Computer motherboard. Someone knows you’re supposed to wipe your information off the hard drive but couldn’t figure out how or be bothered to have someone do it for them, maybe? In order to protect their information, they attempted to wrap the entire motherboard in the mouse pad and threw it out the window of the car, thinking it would then cease to exist. 

18.   A Christmas door mat. Maybe it goes with the Christmas card? 

19.   A love note, written on wide ruled notepaper, folded into quarters and with the name, “Brian” written on it in big, curly letters with hearts and curlicues around the name. Some twelve year old girl has a ten year old brother who found it in her backpack or pocket on the way to somewhere. In order to behave the way ten year old younger brothers normally do, he of course, immediately told her Dad she had a boyfriend, taunted her about Brian and threw it out the window. A screaming fight followed ended with Dad yelling, “y’all stop that right now or I’m going to turn this GD*MN car around and you can sit in your room for a week!”

The one I saw was folded again, said, "Brian" and had more hearts & curlicues.*

Walking around is a great way to explore and get to know new areas, meet interesting people and see weird stuff!

*I did not take any of the photos here, they are all courtesy of Google image searches - if I'd taken my phone I could have taken my own, but, oh well.