I used her Double Apple Cake as the basis for my cake. It was moist and full of autumn flavor: apples and spice. Among the other changes I made I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins called for. I think for best flavor you should use an heirloom type baking apple or a granny smith. Something with a tart, apply flavor. Make sure to let the cake stand, well wrapped, overnight because the flavors really do change. I served it with a smear of dulce de leche, sliced granny smith apple, and a sprinkling of pecans and dried cranberries. Vanilla ice cream or a nutmeg spiced whipped cream would be nice as well.

Since this is an easy, make-ahead dessert it is perfect for making on the weekend and having during the week. It is very sweet so a few slices of a tart apple on the plate are a welcome garnish.

Moist Double Apple Bundt Cake

• 2 cups of flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp  cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (seriously, grate your own…it is easy and it makes a huge difference in flavor)
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 tbs butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp maple flavoring
• 1 cup apple butter
• 2 apples grated – don’t peel if they are organic
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Grease and flour a bundt cake  pan
3. Sift the flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together. Set aside
4. Beat the butters and sugar at medium speed about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time beating for a minute or two after each addition
6. Add the flavoring and switch mixer speed to low
7. Spoon in the apple butter slowly, mixing all the while
8. Add in the grated apple
9. Still on low mix in the sifted dry ingredients mixing only until blended
10. Fold in the pecans and cranberries carefully.
11. Spoon into bundt pan, smooth the top and back for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted between the metal tube and the outside edge comes away clean. Time will depend on moisture content of the apples. My cake took 70 minutes to bake
12. Allow to cool in pans for 5 minutes, turn out and finish cooling completely
13. Wrap tightly and hold overnight

Serves 10-12

Post from: Baking Delights

I rarely use a mix.  I am just not that happy with how they come out.  I also hate reading the labels and sounding out (phonetically) the ingredients.  Honestly have you read those labels? They look like they are written in Welsh!

No offense if you are Welsh, by the way, some of my favorite people are Welsh.  Anyway, I was sent a mix to try, Cinnamon Cranberry Tea Loaf.

Spoon is a cafe in New York that has begun to sell mixes on the Internet.  I loved the packaging in this.  It was just done with so much excellence right down to the mix and the dried cranberries in separate packaging, tied with baby blue ribbon.

All right, who told them that I was a total freak about those extra touches?

The directions were simple and straight forward.  Melt butter, add eggs, Pour the dry mix in the bowl, stir in the cranberries, bake.

The aroma of fresh cinnamon wafted out of the bag when I opened it.  The cranberries were fresh, soft and tart.

In fact I was very impressed with this mix.  It is an artisan item, you won’t find it at Wal-mart ( AS IF!) but the flavor is great and well worth the trouble to order it. If you are looking for a Guilty Pleasure I don’t think you will be unhappy with Spoon.

Spoon is also a cafe, located at 17 W. 20th Street in New York City. If you are in the area it would be worth stopping by just to smell the shop!

And keep your eyes open…there may be a Baking Delights giveaway involved.

Oh and by the way, if you notice that I am watermarking my images again and linking to myself?  My articles are being stolen again.  Gosh I hate that.  So far it hasn’t happened here for a long time but no use taking chances.  I hope the watermarks aren’t too distracting.

Image:SXC

Images:Marye Audet (c) 2009

Post from: Baking Delights

I like tea cakes.  They aren’t too sweet, they aren’t hard to make, and they aren’t impressive, they are just comfortable to have around.

Sort of like reading a book that does not challenge you in the least but satisfies you deep inside, you know?

Tea cakes.  A really good tea cake should look nice enough to put on a tea table but be plain enough that you can serve leftovers for breakfast next to some eggs and bacon.  Right?

This one will do it.

I made this with the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter baking sticks I was reviewing.  You can use those or you can certainly use real unsalted butter.

This cake is not too sweet, with a subtle lemon and Earl Grey flavor.  Really nice for tea or with breakfast, or a snack, or even dessert with maybe some fruit.  It goes together easily, keeps for a long time, and makes the house smell nice.

Can you really ask for more than that?

The original recipe is out of a very old cookbook that I have.  It is based on a recipe called Thrifty Poundcake, from the 1930s.  I changed ingredients and flavors but it is still thrifty, and still really good.

Earl Grey Tea Cake

• 3 cups cake flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter baking sticks  (1 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs beaten
• 1/2 cup Earl Grey tea
• Juice of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 lemon

1. Sift dry ingredients together, stir in lemon peel
2. Cream butter with sugar and vanilla until fluffy.  Add eggs and beat well.
3. Mix tea and lemon juice
4. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternatingly with tea mixture.  Beat well after each addition.
5. Grease a bundt pan and flour it.  Pour in batter
6. Bake at 350 for 1 hour
7. Cool for five minutes and then turn pan upside down
8. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar or glaze with lemon glaze

Lemon Glaze

• 1/4 cup butter melted
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• Enough confectioner’s to make a thick glaze

Mix together and drizzle over cake.  Grate lemon zest over top.

As you can see I tend to glaze mine and then sprinkle with a little confectioner’s from a shaker.  It just looks prettier that way!

Images:Marye Audet

Post from: Baking Delights

That is a mouthful…Saying it and eating it.

I was grocery shopping on Friday and at the small, organic grocery that I  like I found several bags of ripe bananas on sale for 1.25 a bag.

SCORE!

Our family eats enough bananas to really cause monkeys to sweat.  Seriously, one time someone gave us an entire produce box full of very ripe bananas and was concerned that we would not be able to eat them all before they spoiled.  I just laughed.

Sure enough two days later the box was empty and not one banana had spoiled.

So, when I see bananas on sale like that I snatch them up, or try to.  I bought two bags and hoped to set a few aside for banana bread or something.

Well, this is the or something I decided on.  You have to love bananas because this cake is intensely banana.  Very moist, very flavorful, and just enough maple to make it complex.  I finished this cake by dusting it with confectioners but you could certainly use a maple glaze.  Just add enough grade B maple syrup to confectioners’ sugar to make it the consistency you want.  Why grade B?  Because for baking and cooking it is far more flavorful!

This cake is huge, should serve at least 12 ( It lasted exactly one meal at our house). Serve it with coffee or tea for a brunch or tea time treat.Try it with an Ethiopia Sidamo coffee or Teavana’s Vermont Maple tea.

Banana Maple Bundt Cake with Walnut Praline Swirl

Cake

3 cups organic white flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted organic butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon maple flavoring (use a natural maple flavor like Frontier’s)

2 large eggs

4 very ripe bananas, mashed.  About 1 1/2- 1 3/4 cups

1 cup full fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a large bundt pan.

Blend dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer beat butter until creamy.  add the sugars and beat until fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time beating a minute or so between each.  Use a rubber spatula to pull the mixture from the sides and bottom of the bowl, ad the vanilla and maple,  and mix about 30 seconds more.

Reduce speed to lowest setting and beat in the bananas.

Add half of the dry ingredients.  Mix quickly, and then add all of the sour cream.  Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients.

Add about half the batter to the bundt pan, cover with the praline mixture, and then add the rest of the batter.  Smooth the top. Sort of swirl a knife through the batter to move the praline layer around.

Bake for 60 to 70  minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  Let cool  for ten minutes in the pan and then turn the pan upside down on a cake plate.  Let it finish cooling.

I have heard that the cake is best the second day but we have never tested this theory.

Walnut Praline

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, or macadamias, or hazelnuts)

Melt butter and brown sugar in a sauce  pan stirring until smooth and blended.  Allow to bubble for about 20 seconds and then add walnuts.  Stir the nuts to cover with the praline and then set aside to cool to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.

Sorry for the lack of close up shots.  By the time I realized that my close ups were blurry the cake was gone..You will have to trust me on this one!

Image:MaryeAudet

Post from: Baking Delights