In A Nutshell

  I needed an excuse to use my adorable new Bundtlet (even the word is cute!) pans and St. Patrick’s Day happened to be around the corner, so I combed the internet for something with an Irish twist that didn’t involve Bailey’s Irish Cream. Because I don’t like it. Yes, you read that right and I’m sorry for it....I want to like it but I find it sickeningly cloying and in desserts it gets lost.. However, I do love Irish whiskey so I adapted a Whiskey cake from NYT Cooking. Is it cocky to say that I made some significant improvements to the recipe? You can use any whiskey or bourbon you like (or even rum, for that matter); the recipe is designed for a large Bundt pan but if you use small cute ones like I did, shorten the baking time a bit. This cake is best made the day before you want to serve it. Cake: 1 cup vegetable or canola oil 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 5 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted 1/4 cup instant espresso powder 2 T cocoa powder 1/2 cup Irish Whiskey  1/2 t kosher s...

The recipe for these cakes comes from the NYT cooking section; I used  these precious little pans . The key to getting the cakes out perfectly is to generously spray them with Baker's Joy (and I am very specific about this particular product- trust me, I've tried different sprays). I made a few changes to the recipe (would it be cocky to say improvements?) namely swapping out butter for olive oil and reducing the amount of sugar. If you have leftover peach puree you can use it in cocktails or to make margaritas. Also, I always use weights when possible rather than dry measures as I find you typically get a much better result. Don't be tempted to peel the peaches- the skin adds beautiful colored flecks and texture. My love of alcohol may tempt me to add a bit of peach liqueur or bourbon the next time. 1 cup olive oil (not extra-virgin) 2 1/2 cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour 4 ripe, red-hued peaches (a little more than a pound), pitted 1 T fresh lemon juice 3 la...

This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour; it is absolutely the best rum cake I have ever had! I only changed it a bit by scattering one cup of chopped pecans on the bottom of the bundt pan. BTW, isn’t that shape awesome? I love my new Williams-Sonoma bundt pan!!! I don’t buy jewelry or purses; I buy bundt pans!  But back to the cake: strong, moist, delicious! I am going to try this with bourbon and walnuts next time. You will have the best success with this cake if you weigh the flour; if you don’t already have a kitchen scale with grams and ounces, I strongly urge you to get one. They are inexpensive and help a great deal with baked goods. Cake: 2 cups unbleached flour (I do use King Arthur) 8 1/2 ounces 1 1/2 cups sugar 3.4 oz box instant vanilla pudding 2 t baking powder  1 t salt 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup veg oil 1/2 cup milk, room temp 4 large eggs, room temp 1/2 cup rum 2 t vanilla 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans Syrup:...

I wanted to make a lower carb cake with less sugar as well; I thought it turned out pretty good! It is adapted from Smitten Kitchen. Cake: 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used 2%) 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup sugar substitute blend (I used Splenda baking blend-- this is mixed with real sugar) zest of one lemon 1/4 cup lemon juice 2 eggs 1 cup flour 2/3 cup almond meal 1 1/2 t baking powder 1/2 t baking soda 1/8 t salt Grease a 9"round pan; preheat oven to 350º. Whisk the yogurt, oil, sugar blend, lemon zest and juice; add the eggs one at a time and whisk well. Dump the dry ingredients right over the batter and stir with a wooden spoon until combined (you can whisk or sift the dry ingredients together first in a separate bowl if you want to). Bake for about 35 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces: 27 g carbs per piece (as opposed to 45 g per piece using the original recipe). Raspberry Sauce : 12 oz. raspberries 1/4 cup water 3 T granulated stevia 2 t sugar 1 T fresh lemo...

These are to die for.... the frosting is so light (as in fluffy, not as in low in calories....) and delicious I could just shovel that in by the spoonful by itself! The recipe for the moist cake is from Ina Garten (the superhero of decadent and delicious food!) and I did not change anything except to make the batter into cupcakes rather than layer cakes. The recipe made more than 30 cupcakes! For the Cake : 1 3/4 cup flour 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup good cocoa powder (I like Valrhona) 2 t baking soda 1 t baking powder 1 t kosher salt 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup canola oil 2 eggs, room temp. 1 t vanilla 1 cup hot coffee Preheat oven to 350º and line muffin tins with paper. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. You can sift the cocoa powder if it is especially lumpy. In another bowl combine all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the coffee. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix on low just until combined; add the coffee slowly and stir with a wooden spoon unt...

These are moist and delicious- my dog Milo LOVES these too; last year he ate 12 pumpkin cupcakes off the counter-- paper and all; he's looking like he wants a repeat of that action! The recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit. I like to add chopped walnuts on top of the frosting as well. This makes about 18 cupcakes. 2 cups flour 3 t baking powder 1 t salt 1 t pumpkin pie spice 2 eggs 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar 1 cup canned pumpkin 2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil 2/3 cup sour cream 1 t vanilla 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 4 oz. unsalted butter (1 stick) 1/4 t vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar Preheat oven to 350º and line muffin cups. With the paddle attachment or a whisk, mix the eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin, oil, sour cream, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and salt (you can mix these dry ingredients separately first if you choose) and mix just until combined. Bake for 23 minutes. Cream the butter and cream cheese; add the vanilla and p...

This delicious recipe comes from Fine Cooking Magazine; I didn't make any changes to their recipe but I think that next time I might make a little more streusel because you can never have enough streusel in my opinion. If it's possible, weigh the flour; I dumped two cups on my scale and it was about 2 oz. more than what the recipe calls for- it would have made for a dry cake if I hadn't weighed the flour. For the Streusel : 1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup flour 3/4 t cinnamon 1/4 t kosher salt 2 T unsalted butter, melted Stir together all the ingredients. For the Topping : 3 T unsalted butter 3/4 cup sugar 3 cups cranberries (1 bag) 3 T water Butter a 9"X 2" round cake pan and line with parchment- butter the parchment as well. Combine butter and sugar in a 2 quart saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, until the mixture looks a litt...

I've pilfered this cake from the Smitten Kitchen website and shamelessly re-named it, adding a slightly boozy glaze of my own creation. The cake recipe is absolutely delicious and can be found here ; I made only two small changes: I used the zest of 2 limes rather than 1 to give it a more intense lime flavor and swapped out the blackberries for strawberries. For the Glaze : 1 cup powdered sugar 1 T lime juice 1 T white tequila zest of 1 lime Top the cake after it has cooled and serve with the strawberry sauce.

I made the cupcakes in these cute little cups in honor of the Sochi Olympics but then forgot to actually post the recipe until now. Chocolate cupcakes 1 cup cherry preserves (I like Bon Maman for this recipe) 2 T bourbon pitted sour cherries from a jar, drained Use any chocolate cupcake recipe you like; the  Hershey chocolate cake recipe is a good one for this recipe but you can use your favorite. Using a paring knife or a cupcake corer (who knew such a thing existed???), cut a hole about an inch deep and round. Go ahead and eat these little morsels of cake- they don't really count because they're so small... fill the center with the cherry jam mixture and top with a sour cherry. Dust with powdered sugar.

Lemony, delicious goodness! Adapted from Food & Wine. Cake : 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups cake flour 1 T baking powder 1 t salt 2 3/4 cups sugar grated zest from 10 (yes 10!!!) lemons, about 1/3 cup of zest 1/2 cup canola oil 2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 3 eggs 3 egg yolks 3 T dark rum 2 T pure lemon extract 3/4 cup heavy cream Lemon Syrup : 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 T dark rum Glaze : 1 cup powdered sugar 2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 t lemon or almond extract (which ever you prefer) sliced almonds for decoration For the cake: 1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and lightly flour a bundt pan. Sift the flours into a bowl along with the baking powder and salt. 2. With the paddle attachment, mix sugar, zest, canola oil and butter until blended. Beat in eggs, yolks, rum and extract just until incorporated. On low speed, alternate mixing in heavy cream and flour mixture in three batches, star...

I will be the first to admit that our go-to birthday cake is lovingly known in our house as "puddin' cake" which consists of a box cake along with a box of vanilla instant pudding. It goes against everything I believe in to use a "box" anything but damn! that cake is good-- moist and unnaturally yellow in color. However, I draw the line at canned frosting... it's just wrong and not good and wrong. Please try this recipe- it is so easy and only uses one pan!  You'll never return to the canned stuff, I promise!! 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate 3 T cocoa powder (nothing fancy- just regular cocoa) 3 1/2 to 4 cups powdered sugar (depending on how sweet and soft you want the frosting) 3/4 cup sour cream In a large enough saucepan over low heat, melt the butter along with the chocolate and cocoa powder, stirring with a heatproof rubber scraper. When it is smooth, remove from heat and whisk in most of the powdered sugar; I onl...

 I'm always enthused about upside down cakes but inevitably wind up disappointed... too dry, not fruity enough, bland etc. This summer I was attracted to a recipe from the Good Housekeeping 2002 Annual Cookbook mainly because one of the ingredients was cornmeal. This cake turned out dreamy... moist, fruity, a bit crunchy from the cornmeal- a delightful change of pace from the usual upside down cake. For the topping : 1/2 cup toasted pecans 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 4 T unsalted butter 3 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch wedges For the cake : 1 1/3 cup flour 1/4 cup cornmeal 2 t baking powder 1/2 t salt 3/4 cup sugar 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), softened 2 eggs 1 t vanilla 1/2 cup milk 1 cup blueberries For the topping: In a 10" cast iron skilled, melt brown sugar with 4 T butter over low heat until sugar melts, about 2 or 3 minutes. Throw the pecans over this (breaking them up a little with your hand) and then arrange the peach sli...