Vanilla Sugar Blog Tribute to Dawn with Blueberry Muffins and Lemon Crumb Cake!

This is not the way I'd like to be out of "retirement" in the blog world.  I haven't blogged since November of 2020.  It's a bummer to me and I can't tell you how much I miss the old days of blogging about the fantastic things I would bake and share.  Besides not baking like I used to, I'm reminded that typing up posts is my least favorite thing about blogging (as is probably true for most bloggers).  Over the years since starting my blog in 2008, I have made some wonderful friends.  I've been blessed to have met many in person and also have some great friendships with some I've never met--one of the things I love about social media!  There are so many wonderful people out there!

Dawn at Vanilla Sugar Blog was someone whose blog I started reading about 15 years ago.  We both started our blogs early in 2008.  I've always enjoyed her posts.  Besides her great treats and savory food and lots of recipes, I loved that she would do a "Friday Links" post every week with things she'd seen on the world wide web that she wanted to share.  She'd post thing like that on Facebook, too.

On June 8 of this year, I saw Dawn's husband Bob post that she passed away June 1.  What?!?  I never met Dawn and I'm not sure I would have ever made it to her hometown, but I did talk to her quite a bit on Facebook over the years.  She was always commenting on my posts, even just to take the time to say I looked great, my skin look great, etc.  We had some great DM conversations and enjoyed talking about our favorite tv shows from time to time.  Dawn lived on Cape Cod.  She loved seeing all the new candies and flavors of treats that would come out.  But being on Cape Cod she was always a bit dismayed that the new things we never ended up on Cape Cod.  They were never available there.  So I saved up the latest finds, new M&M flavors or others candies and cookies and I sent her packages a couple times.  She was thrilled!

She posted on Facebook often, sometimes quotes she liked, or photos, usually of the Cape, water or animals, birds, sharks, etc. or facts about one of her greatest loves--blueberries!  In January, I noticed I hadn't seen her post for a bit, so I messaged her to see if everything was okay.  She responded that she was just taking a social media break.  I replied, "Okay, that's allowed.  Glad that's all it is. Take care."  She then posted a couple times not long after that, but not as frequently as she had been before.  I didn't think anything of it.

Then her husband posted on her page about her sudden diagnosis with cancer in December of last year and that it took a turn for the worst and she spent the last month or so of her life in the hospital before passing.  My heart is so sad.  I didn't know him at all.  He seems pretty devastated, as expected.  He's posted a few times since then and my heart goes out to him and her family and loved ones.  I'm sad that I won't get to talk to her anymore.  

I haven't been able to get Dawn out of my mind.  Not really sure why.  What could I do?  There isn't anything, really.  I've known a couple food blogger friends who have passed away over the years and it's surreal and heartbreaking.  I guess it has made me realize how much we all need to make sure we are keeping in touch with our loved ones, telling our families and friends how much we love them and even talking to friends and acquaintances more often just to let people know we care and are thinking of them.  I'm glad I took those few minutes in January to message Dawn.  I told her someone said the word blueberry and it made me think of her.  I think of it this way--even when just a simple word makes you think of someone and you haven't talked to them for a while--take the time to do so!

I decided to make a couple things from her blog and share them here.  Since Dawn loved blueberries and knew all the facts about reasons why they are so good for you, I decided to make her blueberry muffins,  I followed her recipe and you can find her recipe on the link.  Okay, I lied, the only difference I made to her recipe was I used buttermilk instead of whole milk.  Dawn loved crumb topping!  So these muffins have a crumb topping.  She even suggested doubling the topping if you like it as much as she did.

Speaking of crumb topping--the other thing I decided to make from her blog was a crumb cake.  She LOVED crumb cake and would make every flavor imaginable.  It was never about the cake.  It was all about the crumb topping!

I decided to make Dawn's Lemon Crumb Cake.  As much as I'm a chocolate lover, I'm really liking lemon things lately.  I was easily sold on how much lemon was in this cake.  Lemon zest and juice in the cake.  Zest in the crumb topping.  And more lemon zest and juice in the icing drizzle.  I could get behind this cake.  I did only make a half recipe of it and used an 8x8 pan instead of a bundt pan (I think she made a bundt cake since my birthday is on National Bundt Day, November 15.  Yes, I'm sure that's it.) 😉 She also mentioned using a 9x13 pan, so since I was halving the recipe, I used an 8x8 pan.

Besides quite a bit of zesting and juicing, the cake is pretty simple to make.  I followed Dawn's recipe exactly!  That's saying a lot for me since I'm known for never sticking to a recipe.  Making just half the recipe, I used five large lemons to get the right amount of zest, so plan accordingly if you're going to make the full recipe or half.  It's worth it to make this cake sometime!  I did taste the cake and it's fabulous.  With me trying not to eat much gluten and sugar, my new goal is to make my own version of this gluten free and with different sugars.  I'll do it for Dawn.  She'd like it if I did that.  Facebook life won't be the same without Dawn commenting on all my posts and I'll miss her posts and our chats now and then.  

I will forever think of Dawn when I'm doing anything with blueberries or even see them somewhere.  I will and always have for years thought of her when I see any crumb cake and I'm sure I'll make a number of her other crumb cakes--she's made at least a dozen different flavors over the years!  Dawn is to crumb cakes 🎂 and blueberries 🔵 as Katrina is to chocolate chip cookies 🍪and chocolate 🍫.  Sending love and prayers to her husband and her family and friends.  I know everyone thought the world of her.  I did.

Hug your loved ones.  Check on family and friends.  Let them know you're thinking about them.

I'm doing well, by the way.  It's been two and a half years since I've blogged.  Life is crazy and busy and somewhat day-to-day life as usual, but I am super blessed with pretty good health since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2013.  Family is growing way too fast.  Kevin spoils me rotten.  Maybe I'll try to blog more often.  I hope to.  I want to.  We shall see.  

 

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Browned Butter Pecan Streusel

This was the birthday cake I made for my birthday which I've mentioned before is also National Bundt Day (November 15).  I NEED to share it with you all here!  I turned this fantastic Pumpkin Cake recipe I've made before from my friend Paige at For Love of the Table, whose cooking classes I used to take and love and endulge in all the deliciousness when we lived in Kansas, into a gluten free, refined sugar free divine bundt cake!  It was so moist and flavorful and exactly how I wanted it.  I'm planning to make it again next week for Thanksgiving.  There are always so many pies at our huge family gathering and I've tried making decent gluten free ones in the past, but haven't been as in love as I want to be with gluten free crust.  CAKE--this is just what I was hoping it would be like with it's spot on pumpkin and spice flavors.

If you want, you can see my post for the original pumpkin cake (linked above) and Paige's, too.  It's a must-make sometime.  Most know I am a chocolate lover and my favorite desserts usually have chocolate, but this cake is right there at the top of my list, especially now that I've made it gluten free.

Paige's original cake has a most delicious browned butter pecan streusel on top that bakes with the cake.  While making this into a bundt cake, I realized I wasn't sure how I was going to make the best part of the cake work for it since a bundt is baked upside down, then turned out of the pan.  I didn't want to have the streusel making a caramel-like topping while it baked, so I baked it separately and decided to make it stick to the top of the cake some other way.  I made a simple cinnamon glaze using organic powdered sugar and I drizzled that over the cooled cake.  The streusel then adhered to the cake just as I'd hoped.

The cake is so moist like a great pumpkin bread and the streusel adds a perfect cinnamon, nutty crunch.  Nothing else is needed to enjoy this but some whipped cream on the side would be great.  I've known Paige for over ten years and she's always had no problem admitting she had cake for breakfast.  She is a fantastic chef and I've always loved her cakes and cookies and pies and all desserts, I'm just a sweets kind of gal. (Check out her blog, linked above!  Best photos, descriptions and instructions ever!) Cake for breakfast?  I've never really endulged that way, but after making this cake and having some for my birthday, there it sat on the counter the next morning and it was calling my name.  So I had cake for breakfast.  It was delicious every time I had a piece of it over the next couple days.  This cake needs to be posted here and made again and again!

GLUTEN FREE PUMPKIN BUNDT CAKE WITH BROWNED BUTTER PECAN STREUSEL, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

Streusel Topping:

¼ cup gluten free flour blend (I like Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 baking mix)

3 tablespoons coconut sugar

½ tablespoon raw honey

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon unsalted butter, browned in a small saucepan*

¼ cup pecans, chopped

Cake:

2 cups gluten free flour blend (I like Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 baking mix)

½ teaspoon xanthan gum (add this even though the flour blend has some)

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ teasoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup coconut sugar

½ cup raw honey

2 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

½ cup almond milk (or any milk you choose)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze:

1 cup organic powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon milk (your choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. *Brown the butter for the streusel in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk together while it melts and foams a little.  When almost no more bubbles form, let it heat until the butter gets a nice brown color and has a nice nutty aroma.  Pour it until another container to stop the browning/cooking process.  In another bowl, mix together the streusel ingredients, pour the brown butter in last, mix to combine.  Pour the mixture onto a foil lined small baking sheet and spread evenly, some clumps are good. Bake for 8-10 minutes.  You just don’t want it to brown too much.  Remove from oven and leave on sheet to cool.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for a minute, add the coconut sugar and honey beat and until light and fluffy for about 3 minutes, scrape down the sides. Beat in the eggs for a couple minutes. Whisk together in a bowl the pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla.  Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl.  Whisk together.  Add a little of the dry ingredients to the mixer and beat together.  Then add half the wet ingredients and beat well.  Scrapes sides of bowl.  Add more of the dry ingredients, beat well, then the rest of the wet ingredients and the rest of the dry, beating well after each addition.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Spray a bundt pan with non-aerosol cooking spray (some instead butter and flour the pan, I’ve never had one stick just using spray).  Pour the cake batter into the pan and spread evenly.  Bake in preheated oven on middle rack for 35-40 minutes.  Test at 35 minutes with a toothpick to see it comes out mostly clean with just a few moist crumbs.  When fully baked, remove from oven and let it sit in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes.  Turn cake over onto a wire rack to remove from pan and let it cool completely. 

Make the quick glaze, whisking the ingredients together.  Drizzle over the cooled bundt.   Immediately after, sprinkle/spread evenly the streusel around the top of the cake.  Store in an airtight cake server.  Serve cake with some fresh whipped cream, if desired.

Sweet Potato Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake (Gluten Free, Grain Free)

This was my birthday cake I made a couple weeks ago, but it would be perfect for your Thanksgiving desserts or Christmas, or any holiday or any occasion or just because you want cake—it’s practically healthy!  Get this—the cake is not only gluten free, but it’s grain free and it’s made with much healthier coconut sugar and raw honey for the sweetener.  Hello, it also has a vegetable in it.  The sweet potato acts like pumpkin.  I love the flavor.  With sweet spices added, sweet potato and and chocolate go together perfectly!  If you’re trying to find healthier desserts or have diet restrictions, this pretty bundt cake would be just right for you. 
It was certainly just right for my birthday, which just happens to fall on National Bundt Day, November 15.  I’ve enjoyed making a bundt cake for my birthday for a number of years now, ever since Mary at The Food Librarian started in with her love of bundts.  She has hundreds of bundt cakes posted on her blog.  She would even do 30 days of bundts leading up to my birthday National Bundt Day, and post a bundt a day before that.  She did that for a couple years.  She has some great round ups of all the cakes she’s made as well as some round ups of the bundts everyone makes to join in the fun and send her their links. 

I can’t wait to make this cake again.  I recently bought two sweet potatoes that were huge—one was over three pounds!  I baked it and used it to make a puree.  It was well enough for this cake and a lot more.  Some of it even went in the freezer since I went out of town and couldn’t eat it all up before it would have spoiled.  I still have the second big one and some smaller ones to use up.  I thought the big one wouldn’t be good (over grown) or as sweet or something, but it was great and perfect for this cake!
Sweet Potato Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
4 ounces good chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips)
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup almond meal/flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup (168 grams) raw honey
1/2 cup (224 grams) coconut oil
1 cup (250 grams) sweet potato puree (Make sure it’s cool if you’re baking it right before using it. I baked mine the night before I made the cake, then cooled it and stored it in the refrigerator, then pureed it right before using.)
4 large eggs (I actually used 5 sm-med. farm fresh eggs, for a total of 202 grams out of shell)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips
Ganache Drizzle:
2 1/2 ounces chocolate (I used mini chocolate chips)
4 tablespoons heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spread coconut oil evenly over the surface of the bundt pan.  (You’ll want at least a 6 cup bundt pan, but bigger will work, too, it’s not a super high cake that totally fills the pan.)  You can also dust it with cocoa powder or almond flour or coconut flour, but I didn’t, just oil.  (The cake stuck in one little place and usually doesn’t at all when I add some kind of flour after oiling the pan.)  Set aside.  Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate in a medium sized microwave-safe bowl.  Stir after 20-30 second intervals until all melted and smooth and let cool while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the arrowroot, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, salt and all the spices.  Whisk together, set aside.  In a large bowl, combine the coconut sugar, honey and coconut oil.  Whisk (or use mixer) until well combined.  Add the sweet potato puree and beat until combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix together until well combined.  Remove about 1/3 of the cake batter from the bowl into another pan and add the 4 ounces of melted chocolate to it, then combine well. 
Working in spoonsful or scoops at a time, put the batter in the pan, first the sweet potato cake batter, then in opposite places around the bundt the chocolate batter in spoonsful.  Continue in layers of both cake batters until you’ve used it all.  Take a butter knife and swirl the batter to make the marble effect (not too much swirling or it will not look marbled).  Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.  Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes.  Turn the cake over and let it sit for a couple minutes, then tap the sides and bottom of the pan to release the cake.  It should come out nicely!  Heat the cream in a microwave safe bowl until slightly bubbly (careful it doesn’t boil over, it can come to that stage pretty quickly, especially since it’s such a small amount.)  Pour the heated cream over the 2 1/2 ounces of chocolate, let sit for a minute.  Then slowly stir it together until the chocolate is all melted and you have a nice smooth ganache.  You can do this while the cake is cooling as it sets up a bit after it’s all melted.  Drizzle the ganache over the cake (I put it in a plastic zip top bag and snipped the corner off to drizzle it over the cake, you can also do it by the spoonsful.) 

As I wrote down the recipe, it seemed a little involved, but I have found if you get everything out and in place (Mise en place, I’m all for it!), it’s not bad at all.  Prep everything ahead of time, bake your potato, melt the chocolate, etc.—it’s really not too bad.  And fun.  And worth it for this cake!  Not only does it taste great—it looks great, too.  I think it’s a real show stopper.  If you had this on your dessert table and didn’t tell anyone it was grain free, I don’t think anyone would even know.  Only Kevin and my son, Scott, even tasted the cake.  But after that I hid the rest for the next couple days so they didn’t eat more, because it was all for me on National Bundt Day—MY BIRTHDAY!  I thought it tasted better the next day and the next.  Maybe because I’m kind of cake-deprived, but try it and tell me what you think!
I’m home for Thanksgiving in Idaho with my parents while my awesome husband is home with the four boys.  He’s amazing and I am so blessed and grateful for all the wonderful blessings I have been given.  He even spent the last two days repainting our bedroom—5 1/2 years in our home and we’ve never really liked the paint in our room.  Love it now!  Happy Holidays to all!

Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake (Gluten Free)—Secret Recipe Club

I really like this Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake that I made from my Secret Recipe Club assignment for this month!  Even better, I love that I made it gluten free and with some other substitutions all on my own.  This may not seem like that big of a deal, but for me in my new adventures in to a gluten free life as well as refined sugar free, I was really happy with how this turned out (and scared it wouldn’t).  Win!

My assigned blog this month was Ilona's Kitchen.  Ilona’s blog is full of all kinds of yummy desserts (and some other things, too)!  It was, as usual with Secret Recipe Club, hard to pick what to make.  It seems that Ilona and her family really enjoy cakes of all kinds as there were many to choose from, but I wanted to pay tribute to that by making one of the cakes.  Lo and behold, since it is blueberry season, as soon as I saw her Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake, I decided that was the cake I needed to make.  Besides, I’ve been buying blueberries by the ton and lately always have some in my fridge.  I’ve decided, while I’m not sure I’ve ever met a fruit I don’t really like, berry season is my favorite—especially raspberries and blueberries!

My next task after deciding to make this cake, was to make it gluten free and use unrefined sugars, so that I could have some of it, too.  Though I don’t go without butter all the time, I also decided to swap the butter in this cake for coconut oil and at the last minute realized I didn’t have any more sour cream, so I used some plain whole fat yogurt in its place.  Lots of changes, but basically, Ilona’s bundt cake and mine could be twins, at least fraternal twins. ;  )

Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake (Gluten Free), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2  1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I used Namaste GF Organic Perfect Flour Blend from Costco)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup unpacked (150 grams) organic light brown cane sugar

2/3 cup (227 grams) raw honey

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plain yogurt (whole fat)

zest of one large lemon

1 tablespoon lemon juice (save the rest of the juice for a glaze)

2 cups blueberries, washed and set on a towel  in single layer to dry

1/4-1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar

Glaze--

2 tablespoons raw honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Brush the insides of a bundt pan with coconut oil, making sure to get all the crevices.  Set aside.  Whisk together in a medium sized bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In an electric mixer, combine the coconut oil, brown sugar and honey.  Beat until combined.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add the yogurt, lemon zest and juice and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well just until combined.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Pour the batter into the bundt pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for about 20 minutes.  Invert cake onto a wire rack (set the rack on top of the cake, then carefully turn it upside down until setting the rack on the counter, the cake should drop right out).  Cool completely.  Dust with powdered sugar.  Make the simple glaze.  Put the honey and lemon juice into a small microwave safe dish.  Microwave for 20 minutes, whisk until well combined.  Let cool.   Drizzle a little bit on servings of cake (I did this instead of drizzling the whole cake at once).

I really like the hit of lemon in this cake from the zest and juice in the cake and the simple honey lemon glaze.  You could glaze the whole cake before serving, and I splurged on 1/4 teaspoon of powdered sugar and dusted the cake, then just put glaze on individual pieces of the cake.  Kevin thinks it would be good with a sugar-laden glaze or whipped cream and I’m sure it probably would, but my way is yummy and better for you.  Even though the cake is gluten free and “different”, usually my family steers clear when I tell them that, but they have been eating the cake.  I love the almost crust-like edges of the cake. 

Check out Ilona’s blog, Ilona's Kitchen for more great recipes!  I actually made another recipe from her blog, it was a last minute salad I needed to take to a ladies church activity.  I loved it.  Again, I made a few changes, but you can find her Spinach and Edamame Salad here.  Ilona’s salad didn’t have blueberries and had pine nuts instead of pecans. 

Spinach Edamame Blueberry Pecan Salad, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 (10 ounce) bag of frozen edamame

1 (14 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed

1/3 cup dried cranberries (I used apple juice sweetened)

1 cup blueberries, washed and dried

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped

1 (5 ounce) bag of baby spinach

juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 cup)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Cook edamame according to package directions.  Rinse under cold water until cool.  In a large bowl, combine the edamame, chickpeas, dried cranberries, pecans, blueberries and spinach.  In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper.  Whisk until well combined.  Dress the salad just before serving with the lemon dressing a little at a time, tossing between each tablespoonful.  Don’t overdress it.  You could also dress individual servings as well.  (You won’t use all of the dressing, you could probably even halve the dressing recipe but it will be great on other salads.  Store leftover dressing in the refrigerator in a jar.)

Lots of delicious recipes to choose from  on Ilona’s blog!

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Grain Free Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache—National Bundt Day and It’s My Birthday!

It’s my birthday!  It’s my birthday!  And if some will recall, my birthday is also National Bundt Day, so for the last few years, I’ve been making a bundt cake for my birthday.  Today is no exception.  However, in the last few months, I have started eating gluten free and refined sugar free—which posed as more of a problem finding just the right kind of treats.  Never fear—this bundt cake I made is just as delicious as any other chocolate bundt cake you’ve had and is not only gluten free, it’s grain free!  And has no refined sugar, it’s made with maple syrup. 

You cannot tell.  I love it.  I’m so happy with how it turned out.  Especially since I took a few other recipes I’ve seen and made it up.  Make this cake for your gluten free/grain free friends.  It’s practically health food.

It isn’t quite Paleo, if some are hoping for that, but could be if you leave the ganache off or using something else for the ganache.  I used a combination of 70% dark chocolate and 85% dark chocolate with a little heavy cream—that’s the only thing not Paleo about it.  I wish I’d baked it just a few minutes less, but it’s still super good and moist enough.

Grain Free, Refined Sugar Free Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/2 cup arrowroot powder

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 cup almond flour/meal

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup natural cocoa powder

1 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup organic coconut oil, melted

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup Enjoy life mini chocolate chips (optional)

For the ganache--

1 oz. 85% dark chocolate, chopped

1  1/2 oz. 70% dark chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread coconut oil evenly (with your fingers) throughout the bundt pan, making sure to get in all the crevices, then sprinkle with cocoa powder and tap out the extra.  Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the arrowroot powder, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.  Whisk together.  In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, then add the maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla extract.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk to combine well.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  (I did 25 and wish I’d checked it at 20.)  Remove from oven and let sit on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.  Turn cake in pan upside down and carefully tap around the pan to release the cake.  It should pop right out.  Let cool completely.

Make ganache.   Put chocolate in a heat proof bowl.  Heat cream in microwave safe glass measuring cup just until starting to bubble.  Watch it in 20-25 second intervals.  It can boil over if you’re not watching, but it only took mine less than 45 seconds.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for a minute.  Slowly stir the melted chocolate and cream together until a smooth, glossy chocolate appears.  Let sit until cool.  Drizzle over cake.  I like to put it in a plastic zip top bag and cut the corner off and squeeze it over the cake.   

Hello, Delicious Chocolate Bundt Cake!  Try it.  I think if you didn’t tell people, they’d never know it wasn’t just a regular cake.   Happy Bundting!

Check out all of Mary’s bundt cakes at Food Librarian.  She rocks bundt cakes!

HAPPY NATIONAL BUNDT CAKE DAY!

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cookie, Ice Cream Sundae!

Today is a big day—definitely a day to celebrate—it’s National Bundt Cake Day!  Do you like big bundts?  Check out Mary’s amazing 30 Days of Bundts leading up to this special day on her blog, Food Librarian.  This gal has some serious bundt lovin’.  This is the third year in a row she has posted 30 bundts in 30 days leading up to this big day—THAT is some major bundt love!  She says this will be her last year doing that but we now have at our fingertips at least 90 bundts to try out!  I love her breaks from the usual when she posts things like The Rice Krispie Bundt or The Broken Glass Jello Bundt.  Fun yum!

Over the last couple weeks, I made a couple bundts.  I shared one with you recently for a recipe I made up for Banana Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake.

We liked this bundt so much that I made a couple weeks ago, so I made it again on Sunday!  We seem to always have overripe bananas (I do that on purpose), so it needed to be made again.  I especially love the dark chocolate ganache glaze that is on half the bundt, but a couple of the boys prefer the vanilla glaze, which is why I will now always make the cake this way. 

I made another bundt cake a couple weeks ago that was also well liked, but I hadn’t gotten a post up for it yet.

I made this Spiced Apple Cider Bundt Cake found at Feast On The Cheap blog.  This cake was dense and quite flavorful.  Especially with the extra spice from my using some spiced cider I’d made to drink as well as more spices in the cake like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves.  This cake was really good!  We had some family over for dessert which included this bundt and the banana chocolate one.  One of our nephews (age 15) who cringed at both cakes decided he go ahead and try the apple cider one, after which he ended up having three pieces of it!

For the glaze, I made it a little different than the recipe linked over at Feast On The Cheap, I added some powdered sugar to it.  It was good!

Are you all bundt-ed out?  Well wait—I’ve saved the best for last (although the photo is at the very top)!  Here at our house, cake is not a favorite dessert, though I love making them—which is why when I do we have company over to help eat it.  But today, it hit me—we love chocolate chip cookies—why not make Chocolate Chip Bundt Cookies.  So I did—I happened to have some of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer.  I thawed it out and made the cutest little mini cookie bundts!  I was happy that they came right out of the pan (with just some slight prying around the edges with a knife) and that they really look liked bundts.

These became a little pre-birthday treat Monday night.  Oh yeah, did I mention today is my birthday?  Celebratin’ the bundt cake way!

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cookie

While the cookies are delicious as is in bundt form, they were just screaming for some ice cream—with the works, of course.

     

Have you had enough yet?  Okay, one more--

Okay, okay, I’m done.  Make a bundt today!  Heck, you could even make a meatloaf bundt :(, whatever you choose.  For my birthday—I’m choosing the cookie bundt!  I’m making lasagna for dinner, hmm, I wonder how that would turn out in a bundt? ;)

You won’t regret checking out all of Mary’s bundts over at The Food Librarian!

Banana Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake

Please pass another slice of this bundt cake!  Finally writing this post after making this cake a couple weeks ago and seeing these photos makes me really want to make the cake again.  What?  You say my birthday next week just happens to be on National Bundt Cake Day, November 15.  Well, then making another bundt must be in order!  Check out the link for Mary, at The Food Librarian and her 30 days of bundt cakes leading up to her favorite “holiday”, National Bundt Cake Day.  This is her 3rd year in a row (and she says her last)—it’s amazing the amount of bundts you can turn to for ideas there.  Yet despite that, I made one up!  This is a task I have not always been able to do, so it’s kind of fun to actually create my own recipe, especially when it turns out well!

Why the half chocolate and half vanilla glaze over the cake?  I did that just for my one son who doesn’t care for chocolate.  No, he didn’t eat half the cake.  ;)  Besides, I think it looks pretty cool!  I’ll be making it that way again.  And that chocolate glaze—best chocolate ganache glaze icing frosting I’ve ever had.  It wasn’t quite what would be ganache (just chocolate and cream), but I’ll be making it this way for many things from now on.

I found this chocolate glaze recipe on the Food & Wine website.  I only made half a recipe, since I would only be glazing have the bundt cake with it—and it’s a good thing I did that because I would have eaten way too much of the leftovers with a shovel spoon.  Here’s the half recipe as I made it.

Dark Chocolate Glaze, adapted from Food & Wine

1 ounce dark, bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1  1/4 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped

6 tablespoons heavy cream

7 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Place the chopped chocolates in a medium bowl.  In a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream with the sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.  Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 2-3 minutes; whisk until smooth. Whisk in the butter, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Let the dark chocolate glaze cool until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.  (Double this recipe to glaze a whole bundt cake.)

Which would you prefer—the chocolate side or vanilla?  I have to admit, I don’t believe I even tasted the half with the vanilla glaze.  The boys helped me gobble this whole cake up, which is always nice.

Banana Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour (180 grams)

1  1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (180 grams) (You could use all 3 cups all purpose flour)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Bestlife buttery baking sticks (or any butter substitute or regular butter would be fine)

1  1/2 cups granulated sugar (300 grams)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups pureed banana (about 5 small or 495 grams)

1 cup plain fat free Greek yogurt (227 grams)

4 ounces dark chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Be ready to spray a preferably non-stick bundt pan with cooking spray (but don’t spray it until just before putting the cake batter in the pan).  Set aside until that time.

Begin by melting the 4 ounces of chocolate in a microwave safe glass bowl in 20 second intervals until smooth.  Set aside to cool while making the batter.

Combine the flours, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter for a minute or two.  Add the sugar and continue to beat for another 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a  time and then the vanilla.  Mix in the pureed banana and beat until combined.   Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix until combined, then add half of the yogurt and beat until combined.  Continue alternating with another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the rest of the yogurt, and ending with the dry ingredients, just until combined.

Take half the batter (about 600 grams or 3 cups) and put it in a separate medium sized bowl.  Fold in the melted chocolate.   Spray the bundt pan well with the cooking spray.  Add the two batters by heaping spoonfuls alternately around the pan in layers until both batters are used.  Swirl all the way to the bottom of the pan carefully with a knife to marble the cake.  Don’t swirl too much!  Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes or until a sharp knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs on it.  Set the cake on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.  Then turn the cake out of the pan onto the rack to cool completely.

You could serve it as is, or with just a dusting of powdered sugar—but both the dark chocolate and vanilla glaze and fantastic!

 Vanilla Powdered Sugar Glaze, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

3/4 cup powdered sugar (82.5 grams)

8 teaspoons heavy cream

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted

Combine the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla and begin adding the cream a couple teaspoons at a time, whisking to combine.  When you get a consistency you like, whisk in the melted butter.  Drizzle the glaze over half the bundt cake.  (Double the recipe if you want to glaze the whole cake.)

Seriously—a great bundt cake!

TWD—Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Heeerrrree we are again.  I swear Tuesdays come around faster than any day of the week! ;)  It’s Tuesdays With Dorie time.  Our recipe this week for Brown Sugar Bundt Cake was chosen by Peggy from Pantry Revisited.  She’ll have the recipe!

I decided to make half a recipe and bake it in an 8x4 inch bread pan.  Small problem, my fault.  I added too many extra mix-ins to it and I think it caused a big sink hole in the middle of the loaf.  I made the nut version of the cake and used almond meal and slivered almonds.  Then I decided to add some chopped chocolate and toffee bits (1/2 cup each).  So while the taste of the cake is great, it wasn’t pretty.  Should I show you?  You know, sometimes we all have kitchen failures. 

Well, you might be thinking how that sinking thing happens to all of us at one time or another.   I’m pretty sure this really just happened because the batter/cake was too weighed down with extras.  Then this happened, too---

Half the cake stuck to the bottom of the loaf pan—pretty much because the toffee made it extra sticky.  Sigh.

Oh well, you can’t win them all, right.  As I mentioned, the flavors were great with the hint of almond extra playing well with the crunchy almonds and the added chocolate.  While I love toffee, I wish I would have just left it out of this one.  I’m going to have to freeze “slices” of this because I don’t want to keep eating it.  We’ll see how the next day goes and if anyone else has enough to just let them eat it to get rid of it.

Cutest photos ever here for ya---

We had company over on Saturday and just out of the blue, Sam came zooming in the room on his bike.  LOVE the glasses!

  He loves zooming around the big kitchen island  round and round!  With a smile like that, he can zoom all he wants.

Sigh.  He sure makes up for his stinker-ness being so darned cute. ;)

That and he’s such a good little slave helper, too! ;)

Then there’s this hottie---

That’s right—he can be taught.  Kevin’s first time driving a tractor.  He was really enjoying digging up posts!  What a man!  He worked all day Saturday outside, mostly on trying to fix our sprinklers that aren’t working.  Thanks to Cindy and Warren for all their help, too!  We almost have a complete working sprinkler system! 

See ya next time!

TWD—Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Sure seems like Tuesdays just come flying by.  I decided to make half a recipe for this week’s chosen recipe and got four mini bundt cakes made on Monday.  I knew I’d like the cake with its nutty, chocolaty, cinnamony ribbon so I purposely didn’t the full bundt cake.  I also knew the boys wouldn’t really care for it and I just can’t be eating that much cake. 

Half the recipe made 4 mini bundt cakes.

I love the mini bundt cake pan Kevin gave me—the cakes always pop right out.

 

I did decide to make the cake just a little bit more healthy.  So I used whole wheat pastry flour.  I used coconut oil in place of the butter and I used lite sour cream.  The cake still tastes great.  Almost a little too oily from the coconut oil.  Not a problem though.  I left out the dried fruit from the swirly filling.

Then I had to counteract some of the healthier-ness by adding a chocolate ganache to the top.  What?  It was 70% dark chocolate-so it’s healthy, too. ;)  The ganache didn’t look super glossy, but it tasted just fine.

 

Thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for choosing this week’s recipe.  She’ll have the recipe for the bundt cake on her blog. 

Check out other TWD baker's blogs.  I’m sure this would be just as good as a full bundt cake. 

National Bundt Cake Day—Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt Cake, Red Velvet Bundt Cake and Banana Bundt Cake

It’s all been building up and building up to this—the actual day.  My birthday National Bundt Cake Day is finally here.  Mary, The Food Librarian has been rockin’ out bundt cakes for 30 days leading up to today.  She loves bundts, big bundts.  It has been such a yummy experience to see what bundt she’ll post next.  I’m not as cool as Mary, so I have only made four bundt cakes during the last month, but does it count for more that I made three of those in the last 24 hours?

I’m not sure if you got that today is also my birthday. (Ha, that’s just for you Megan---it’s. my. birthday.  Should I spell it out?  hehe kidding, I’m kidding.)  Anyway, just for fun, I made two bundt cakes yesterday as we had people over to eat cake and sort of celebrate then since Kevin had to work until late tonight.

I often have the Food Network on in the background of whatever I’m doing in the kitchen.  On Saturday, Paula Deen’s show was on and she was making a Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Cake.  It looks great.  I decided that I wanted to make that bundt.

  

There are supposed to be pecans in the cinnamon ripple of the cake.  I toasted them.  Finished the cake, put the batter in the pan, added the ripple, then more batter, stuck the bundt in the oven, turned around and saw the pecans still sitting on the sheet pan I roasted them on.  Ugh.  The only other change I made to the cake was Paula’s cake had a white rum glaze on it and I decided to do a chocolate glaze.  Since I forgot the pecans inside, I sprinkled a bunch on the top.  Also just for kicks, I did add some mini chocolate chips to the ripple and the top of the cake.  The only other change I made was Paula’s recipe called for sour cream and I used Greek yogurt instead.

We liked the cake okay, but it didn’t have enough sweet potato flavor.  There were also some spices in it, but not enough.  It almost just tasted like a yellow cake with the cinnamon ripple and chocolate glaze.

I very much preferred this Marbled Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake I made a few weeks ago.

Then I also decided to finally make a Red Velvet Bundt Cake.  I have never made any kind of red velvet cake before.  This recipe I used is from the LA Times, which was a recipe they posted from Kiss My Bundt Bakery.

The cake is sure pretty and love the red color.  All of us that ate some of the cake weren’t super thrilled with it.  It tasted like the main flavor was oil.  (The recipes uses oil instead of butter.)  It didn’t really taste like the red velvet cake I’ve had before.  It does make me want to try some other recipes sometime.

 

The best part of the red velvet cake was the cream cheese frosting, which I changed a bit from the Kiss My Bundt recipe.  I added more powdered sugar than the recipe called for.

The cake was really oily.  Bummer.  But I’m glad I tried a red velvet cake finally and I’m sure I’ll try some other recipes.

After feeling a little disappointed about the two bundt cakes I made for my birthday National Bundt Cake Day, I decided to make another one today.  I also wanted to use the new bundt cake pan Kevin got me. 

So I whipped up half a recipe of one of my favorite cakes---Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours.  The half recipe made six perfect individual bundts.  This pan is great—the cake just slid right out and all I did was spray it with cooking spray.

That’s my kind of bundt!

I love banana cake.  I just put a nice dollop of some of the cream cheese frosting left over from the red velvet cake in the center of each one and sprinkled on some pecans. 

That’s my bundt story.  Check out all the big bundt love on Mary’s blog!  (Thanks for the birthday shout out, Mary.   So sweet of you.)

Thanks also to everyone who came and left a nice birthday greeting on my surprise post from Kevin today!  I feel super blessed.  That really made my day!