I pray for good cake...

I know that all of you who know me think I'm a little bit crazy about the cake.  I know it, and I can embrace it--because even I know that I am a little obsessed about good cake.  I don't want it to look fancy.  I don't want it to have fondant flowers or blue icing.  I just want good cake.  Just Cake.

That's one of the reasons that "Delicious-by Food-ivore"  will be offering "just cake" as one of the specialties of the house.  I figure--if I can't find a good "just cake" to buy, then you can't either...so stay tuned, it won't be long until this new venture is up and running too!

This one will make it into the rotation of Just Cake--old fashioned Coffee Cake--so good!!

 

I have posted this one before, but it deserves a second showing!  It is from Food that Really Schmecks--my favourite dessert book of all!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter
1cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup sour cream
1tsp soda
1 3/4 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans work great!)

Blend butter and sugar well.  Add eggs and beat with hand mixer.  Combine sour cream with soda (the cream should double in volume--but it's okay if it doesn't...)  add alternately with flour and baking powder to creamed mixture.  Spread half the batter in a greased 9x9 pan. Sprinkle with half the topping mixture.  Cover with remaining batter and sprinkle the rest of the topping on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

How Often Do You Fake It?

 I have seen some of this info before, but this video does such a great job of exposing the FAKERS once and for all.  If for no other reason, this is why you should read your ingredient listings...know what to look for, and know what you don't want to feed yourself or your family...Just be aware...

FAKE Blueberries

Blueberries are a "superfood"--highly delicious and nutritious..so good for you!

Blueberry Coffee Cake (from Blueberry-recipe.com)
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries


ICING:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3-5 tsp. milk

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 375. Grease a 13x9 inch pan. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon peel. Using pastry blender or fork, cut in butter. Add milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir well. Pour 3/4 batter into greased pan.

Top with blueberries. Spoon remaining batter over blueberries. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool 30 minutes. In small bowl , blend icing ingredients. Drizzle over warm cake.

Cake Day

I am all for good, healthful eating...most of the time.  But sometimes, my soul craves a good cake.  It lightens my spirits, warms my heart and spreads the love around.  Baking  (and eating-ha!) old fashioned, simple ingredient cake and cookie recipes brings me closer to spirit and allows me to be more present than anything else I do...that makes it good for my soul,even if it isn't good for my body...

As all my great cake recipes, this one comes from Food that Really Schmecks--it is the perfect white cake base for birthday cake, upside down cake, you name it.  Flavourful, but simple enough to perfectly balance a super chocolatey butter cream frosting--it is perfection! Make this one in a 9x9 square or a 7x10 rectangle for a nice thick cake...

Perfection Cake (White Cake)

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla (optional--I only put it in if I am using white butter cream icing too)


Cream butter, add sugar and continue creaming until light..  Add eggs and continue to mix until well blended and fluffy.  Mix flour, salt baking soda together and mix alternately into the creamed mixture with the milk.  Beat until well combined.  Pour into well buttered pan and bake at 350 approx 45 minutes (depending on the weather, this one can cook up to 55 minutes).


Today we topped this with Chocolate Butter Cream Icing--yum, my soul is happy!

Scavenger Hunt

When I am looking for a new recipe I often feel like I am on a scavenger hunt.   I will first check my favourite cookbooks to see if what I am looking for (or something similar) is there.   If I don't find it, I will check online.  Google is my best friend for recipe searches!

Here's were things get a little bit off the beaten path...I will sometimes look up 10-20 different recipes for the same item...find what I like the best about each (or a few) and combine them into a new recipe. 
That's what happened this weekend while searching for a Lemon Cake recipe...Here is what we created--so yummy!

Lemon Pound Cake

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Glaze
1/3 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup (maybe more) icing sugar


Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and cream some more.  Add 2tbsp lemon juice and continue to cream.   In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, zest, baking powder.  Add alternately to creamed mixture with milk.  Mix well.
Pour into well buttered and floured loaf pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min.  


While loaf is cooling, mix lemon juice and icing sugar (you may need to add more icing sugar to make it thick enough, you want it to "ribbon" off the spoon)

When loaf is almost cook pour glaze over.  (If you like, you can "re-spoon" the glaze over the loaf a few times allowing it to create a thicker crust of glaze--that way it doesn't pool all at the bottom of the plate...)
Enjoy!

Oh, this is such a good one!

Surely you must know by now that CAKE is my favourite thing to eat!  But good cake, not store bought, not fluffy icing, not from a box.  A good solid homemade cake with butter cream icing is for me--for me, there are many "food rules" about cake (...so much for bending the rules, huh?).  I know that I am fussy about it. I can admit it, and I can be proud of it--it is one of the things that makes me such a good baker (See, you can always find a positive perspective if you change your outlook!

My favourite cake is Banana with Almond Butter cream Icing, Madeleine's is Chocolate with Chocolate Icing, and Bil's is Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Icing...here it is.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
2 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each nutmeg, baking soda and salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup canned pumpkin


Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and continue to cream.  In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and cloves.  Combine alternately into creamed  mixture with milk and pumpkin.  Mix until thoroughly combined.
Pour into 2 well greased round cake pans and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.


Cream Cheese Icing
1 block of regular cream cheese softened (do not use light or any variation thereof)
2 tbsp butter
2-3 cups icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

With a hand mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter.  Add the extract and slowly add the icing sugar until it is fluffy and fairly stiff. Whip the mixture to get a little volume and then spread it evenly on your cooled cake.


TIP:  I usually make my cakes in a 9x13 pan, but this one is really a lot better as a layer cake--don't know why, it just is.  Trust me :)

Thank-you!

I want to take a minute today  to say THANK-YOU to all of you who have become loyal readers! And to those of you who are joining me for the first time!
It has been such a pleasure to share my thoughts and recipes with you, and an even bigger privilege to hear that I have inspired so many of you!
Thanks so much for all the notes and comments you have shared with me--the encouragement is much appreciated!

Big love and happy taste buds to you!
xoxoxo

To celebrate I will give you one of our favourite cake combos--Cocoa Cake and

Peanut Butter Icing

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy. 

Enjoy!

 

What's the cookbook you couldn't live without?

Stumbling along the internet today, and I came across this page What's the cookbook you couldn't live without?.
I am so intrigued by the inspiration of others...the whole idea of a list of favourite cookbooks makes it so much easier to know what to look for amongst the thousands of titles out there--otherwise, how do you choose?

What makes a great cookbook for you?  What kind of book do you gravitate towards these days?

I know that many are drawn towards fancy photography, flashy names and unusual ingredients--not me.  If you have perused the list of my favourite books that I listed a few weeks ago (Food-ivore cookbook list), you will know already that none of those books has even one photograph in it--just recipes.  ...and most of those are basic, not flashy, have in the cupboard kind of ingredients.  Down home, everyday cooking.  Mmmm.

What is your "can't live without cookbook"?  I would love to be able to post a listing of everyone's favourite books here, as an easy "go to" list...send me the name, author and don't forget to list your favourite recipe from it!

Here is yet another cake recipe from my fav (...yeah, you know the one..FTRShmecks)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
1/2 cup butter
1cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup sour cream
1tsp soda
1 3/4 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder


Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans work great!)


Blend butter and sugar well.  Add eggs and beat with hand mixer.  Combine sour cream with soda (the cream should double in volume--but it's okay if it doesn't...)  add alternately with flour and baking powder to creamed mixture.  Spread half the batter in a greased 9x9 pan. Sprinkle with half the topping mixture.  Cover with remaining batter and sprinkle the rest of the topping on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

TGIF!

Sorry for the lack lustre title of today's blog...has been a busy week--and truly, I am thankful it is Friday :)

We are off tomorrow morning for a weekend visit with friends-sooo looking forward to spending time together, lots of laughs and lots of love!  I, of course can't go empty handed and will bring a gift or 2 of food with me.  Paul loves my homemade pickles (...and I know he hoards them through the year--I am on to you Paul!), so I will bring him a jar of them.  Sue loves homemade cookies, and I know that she doesn't always have the time to make as many as she would like, so I will bring her some too.  Corrina loves Rhubarb cake, but I won't have time to make it for her this time to bring with me...she'll just have to come for a sleepover soon at our house, so I can make one for her then!

This is a great spring recipe, when Rhubarb is the first fresh thing growing in the garden, but I also chop and freeze some--so that I can enjoy that goodness in the winter (...and so that I can treat Corrina :)

Rhubarb Cake
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
 2cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
1 cup sour cream 
1 3/4 cup rhubarb chopped (drained if thawed)


topping:
1/2 cup white sugar 
1tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp melted butter


Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg beat until light and fluffy.  Stir together flour, soda and salt.  Add to creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream.  Add rhubarb.  Spread evenly into a greased 9x13 pan.
Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly over cake.  Bake at 350degrees for 35-45 minutes.


Note:  this cake is sensitive to humidity--if you bake it on a hot and humid August afternoon it will be much denser and flatter than when you bake in in December--not to worry, it still tastes GREAT either way!
Enjoy!

Non-negotiables...

What's your non-negotiable? We all have them, what's on your list?  Dessert is one of mine, for sure.

I don't think that being healthy means being deprived. I think it means finding a happy medium, the middle ground, eating things in moderation.  That means eating a little of everything--not cutting any one thing out (like carbs or fat or protein), not eating too much of any one particular thing either (like dessert :).  If you balance your daily eating--with a little of everything , you have healthy eating  in your back pocket.

My favourite dessert, as I am sure you know by now, is cake.  Here is my favourite cake recipe--there are splatters all over pg 200 of Food that Really Schmecks--I am sure it will become one of yours too!

Banana Cake with Almond Icing
1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)

Cream butter, add sugar and continue creaming.  Beat in eggs until nice and fluffy.  Stir together dry ingredients and mix in alternately with milk and bananas.  Pour into  greased 9x13   pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes until cake tests done with a toothpick.

Tip: to sour milk, measure out quantity needed and squeeze in a little lemon juice.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes and there you have it.

Almond Butter Cream Icing 
3-4 tbsp soft butter 2 cups (or more depending on dryness and how much icing you want to make)  Icing sugar 3-4 tbsp milk 1/2 tsp almond extract
Cream butter and add some icing sugar.  Beat. Add almond extract. Continue to alternate sugar and milk  until the mixture is light and fluffy and will hold a "peak". Enjoy

Good Cake!

Those of you who know me well...you will know that I have lots of opinions on good cake! :)
What constitutes a good cake for me?  Fresh ingredients, a scratch recipe and real butter cream icing.  Don't give me the fluffy blue stuff from the grocery store--what is that made of anyway???

Just like everything else that goes into my grocery cart and comes out of my kitchen--if I don't know what it is, can't pronounce it, or don't think it should be listed as an ingredient-it doesn't get a chance!

Next time you are at the store thinking of buying a cake mix--look at the ingredient listing...some contain more than 20 ingredients! AND most often they are more expensive and take just as much time to prepare as a scratch cake.  I challenge you to try a scratch cake and see how easy they really are!

As mentioned previously, my favourite cookbook "Food that Really Schmecks" by Edna Staebler, is the book that all my scratch cakes have come from.  They are easy, moist and delicious--just like they should be :)  ...and of course I top them all with a butter cream icing of some sort!




Here is our favourite Birthday Cake:


The Best Cocoa Cake Ever
1/2 cup soft butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk
1 3/4 cup flour
1tsp salt
1tsp baking soda

Cream the butter.  Add the sugar and keep creaming.  Add the eggs and cream well, until light and fluffy.  Dissolve cocoa in boiling water, and add milk to mixture.  Combine with the first mixture.  Mix together flour, soda and salt-add to the other mixture and beat well.  Butter a square cake pan and pour in the batter.  Bake at 350degrees for about 45 minutes.  Cool completely

Chocolate Butter Cream Icing
3-4 tbsp soft butter
2 cups (or more depending on dryness and how much icing you want to make)  Icing sugar
3-4 tbsp cold coffee
3-4 tbsp cocoa
pinch salt

Cream butter and add some icing sugar.  Beat.  Continue to alternate sugar, coffee and cocoa until the mixture is light and fluffy and will hold a "peak".
Enjoy!