Cake Slice Bakers - November 2012: Shoo-Fly Cake

It so does not seem like a month has passed. To me it feels like an eternity has passed, but a really slow eternity. I—I guess I just don’t know what to feel. Autumn is my very, very, VERY close second favorite season with winter being my absolute love. When October 1^st hit, it seemed like I had an eternity to make, bake, and create all these lovely fall desserts and now fall is almost over and I haven’t even made a dent in the seasonal things I wanted to make. Why does fall only have to be 2 months? Why? It’s awful. But I guess there is always next year.

Anyways, lets talk cake. November is almost over and that means I get to share not only cake, but I also get to reveal this year's super secret book for the Cake Slice Bakers. Drum roll please… (this is where you beat your desk or lap with your hands and make a berrrrrr sound).

This year’s chosen book is Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson. The cover is absolutely adorable and elegant, but also sweet and simple. The book promises “timeless recipes for cupcakes, flips, rolls, layer, angle, bundt, chiffon, and icebox cakes for today’s sweet tooth”. I honestly can’t wait for this year. I’ve only read 40 pages of the book and I already have so many cakes I want to try out. The book is a little on the pricy side, but so far I think it’s completely worth it. Wanna know why? Because the first cake I made was a complete success!

For the month of November the bakers and I decided on the Shoo-Fly Cake; it’s listed under Hasty Cakes. The batter was thick, yet runny, probably because it uses the melted butter method instead of the creaming method. The end result was a beautifully tall and moist cake. This cake is so, so delicious. Eating this cake is basically like eating a gingerbread man only in cake form. To be honest, I don’t think the crumb topping does much for the cake. Sure it tastes wonderful and makes for a pretty topping, but I think some sort of cream sauce would go better with this cake. I’ll have to try some stuff out.

I did make a few modifications to the cake though, and I just thought I would mention them because some of the girls were talking about sunken crumbles and leaky cake pans.

The first change was the amount of crumble topping I used. I only made half the batch listed below and I only used about half of what I made. So basically I used ¼ of the recipe below. Oh and I totally forgot to mention something: I completely forgot about the crumble topping until after the cake had been in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes. So I just quick took it out, sprinkled some of the topping on and back into the oven the cake went.

Second, I used a little less than ¾ cup of molasses. I was getting impatient with the flow of molasses and I stopped about a tablespoon or two before the ¾ mark. The recipe also calls for unsulfured blackstrap molasses; I used mild molasses because, like pumpkin, I can’t stand the smell of it until it’s baked into delicious goodies.

Third, I ran out of unbleached all-purpose flour, so I made the cake with white whole-wheat flour and used 1 cup of white whole-wheat flour  and 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour in the cake.

The last change I made isn’t really so much of a change. I used warm decaf coffee. The book doesn’t specify what kind of coffee and since I don’t drink it, I borrowed a little bit of my roommate’s decaf stuff.

I’m not sure if these changes made the cake come out any different, but I thought it was worth mentioning it, just in case.      

Please go check out how the other girls did this month by clicking here.

Shoo-Fly Cake

From Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Makes one 9-inch round cake

Ingredients

Crumble Topping   

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

Cake

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup (192 g) sugar

1 ½ sticks (12 tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup unsulfured blackstrap molasses

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup warm coffee

Directions

Whisk together the brown sugar and flour in a small bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture until coarse. Place the bowl in the freezer to chill while you make the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9 inch springform pan with a parchment round and grease with cooking spray.

Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, butter, and molasses until smooth. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the warm coffee in two additions. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle chilled crumble over top of the cake (you may need to break the topping up a little bit). Place the pan in the oven and bake for 38-42 minutes or until a toothpick comes out relatively clean when inserted in the center.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and slice the cake to serve. 

Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake

Baking has been slow for the past couple weeks. I usually do all my baking on the weekends so I’ll have a post up by Monday and Thursday. But these past two weeks have been hectic. I’ve been writing 11 page lab reports, studying for tests, doing two hours worth of math homework, and goodness knows what else. It’s all starting to run together. So this past weekend I took it easy. I’m sort of regretting it now though. Since I decided to do minimal homework, it’s all piling up on itself and I feel like I’m drowning in stuff. But it’s ok. When I get going, the workload doesn’t seem as bad anymore. I guess it’s all about balance, right?

So while I was having a leisurely weekend, something delicious came out of the kitchen. It’s coffee cake. I haven’t had coffee cake in the longest time. And I certainly can’t remember the last time I baked coffee cake.

This coffee cake recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs: Baked Bree. She made this cake back in September and divided the batter between four of the cutest little tube pans I have ever seen. I don’t have cute tube pans so I just made mine in a regular 9 inch square pan, but that doesn’t alter the taste I swear.

This coffee cake is perfectly soft. Even when I was cutting it into squares I could tell how tender this cake was going to be. The top is sugary, kind of like the top of crème brule, only better because it’s crumbly. I found the texture of the cake to be at its best the day it was made, but when heated up the next day and topped with a little bit of vanilla bean ice cream, it’s pure heaven. Seriously. The melted ice cream gets into the little cracks of the cake and the sugary topping soaks up all the ice cream. Plus the warm/cold combo is just so nice.

This cake didn’t last more than 24 hours (I may or may not have been the reason for that). So when you feel like having a slack day, make this coffee cake, you wont be sorry.

Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake

Hardly adapted from Baked Bree

Makes one 9 inch square pan

Ingredients

1/3 cup (63 g) dark brown sugar

¼ cup (48 g) sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup (120 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 egg, room temperature

½ cup (96 g) sugar

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

4 oz. sour cream (I used light)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 9 inch square pan with tin foil. Grease tin foil with cooking spray; set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the dark brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla (this is the cinnamon-vanilla-sugar topping for the top of the cake). Set the bowl aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer filled with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fully. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. The mixture may look a little curdled, but that’s ok, it will smooth out eventually.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in the bowl. Beat on low speed until the flour is fully incorporated. The batter will look and feel very sticky, almost light a dough. Add the sour cream and beat until smooth.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. It will look like there is not enough batter for the pan, but just keep spreading and it will distribute itself out. Sprinkle the reserved cinnamon-vanilla-sugar topping on top of the cake. Place pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

When it comes to the world of chocolate, I like it rich and dark. I have come to like a little bit of milk chocolate, but give me a choice between the two, and I will greedily take the dark chocolate bar. Plus I can’t resist the crisp snap dark chocolate makes when you break it in two.

Oats have a special place in my heart too. I have Quaker instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal for breakfast at least three times a week. Yes I know it’s not as healthy as actually making oatmeal from scratch, but I don’t care. It’s sweet and chewy and delicious. I will admit that I make oatmeal from scratch on occasion. I can’t resist the mouth feel oatmeal provides.

I’m also a fan of crunchies. Ever since I was little I would love a good crunchy chicken finger or granola bar. Plus, crumble toppings are my weakness. They are so sweet and crunchy and just amazing on anything.

These bars have every single component I mentioned above. It has am oaty base, which browns and crisps up beautifully as it bakes. The middle layer consists of pure decadence. It’s rich, dark, and ever so smooth, yet fudgy too. The middle layer of this bar is basically a brownie, but sort of like a chocolate pie filling. It’s heavenly. Then the top layer is made of leftover base crumbled all over the smooth chocolate layer.

Warning: this treat is very rich and highly addicting. It’s absolutely perfect for small get-togethers.

This post is part of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, hosted this year by the wonderful Brenda of Meal Planning Magic.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Slightly adapted from Tracy’s Culinary Adventures

Makes one 9-icnh square pan

Ingredients

Base and Crumble

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 egg, room temperature

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil. Grease the foil with cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour in the melted butter and mix until the dough comes together. Set aside about ½ cup of the oat mixture. Pour the remaining dough into the prepared pan, pressing down to create an even layer.

Bake for 8 minutes or until just slightly golden on top. Set the pan aside to cool for 1 hour while you make the filling.

Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler. Stir until the chocolate and butter have completely melted into each other. Let the chocolate cool for about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg. Fold in the flour mixture. The filling will be thick. Pour the filling over the partially baked base. Smooth over the top with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the oat crumble has turned a golden brown. Place the pan on a cooling rack to cool completely (2 hours). Cut into squares. 

Cinnamon Muffins with a Crumble Topping

I know it’s been hot out, and I know many of you don’t want to turn on the oven. But these muffins are really worth it.

These have been on my list of stuff to bake for a really long time. It seems no matter how much I try and cross off that list more things just keep popping up. I wonder if I’ll ever have nothing on that list. Gosh I hope not. The funny thing about that list is that I like having it long. It gives me options and inspiration.

So, back to muffins. I found these on Brenda’s blog. I previously made her Chocolate Chip Scones with a Peanut Butter Glaze and because I loved those scones so much, I knew she wouldn’t let me down with this muffin recipe.

I did do a few alterations to the recipe, but only because I’m not sure I like blueberries. I know I’ve mentioned I don’t like fruit or vegetables, and the thing is… I think it’s their texture. I see gorgeous blueberries and strawberries in the produce section of my grocery store and I imagine how they taste and it’s wonderful, but then I think of how it would feel in my mouth and I just shudder and walk away. It’s a shame, I know. So instead of putting blueberries into the muffins, I upped the amount of cinnamon and added just a dash of ground nutmeg.

These were really some of the best muffins I have ever made. The interior was so soft, even on the second day! And the crumble was so crunch and perfectly sweet. You can’t ever go wrong with a crumble topping, not on anything!

So go on, turn on that oven, it won’t kill you because you’ll probably do this in the morning when the sun hasn’t had enough time to boil yet. And just think, these muffins only take about 15 minutes to cook so you really won’t have that oven on for too long anyways.

Cinnamon Muffins with a Crumble Topping
Recipe from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles
Makes 10 muffins

Ingredients
1 egg, room temperature
½ cup milk
¼ cup canola oil
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cubed

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and canola oil. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until the batter just comes together, try not to over mix. Use a medium cookie scoop or ¼ cup measuring cup to divide the batter between the muffin tins. Let the batter sit in the pan while you make the crumble.

In a small bowl combine the sugar and flour together. Add in the cubed butter and rub the mixture with the tips of your fingers. You will want pea-sized chunks. Sprinkle the crumble on top of the muffins. Place in the oven and bake until the tops are golden, about 15 minutes.

Chocolate Crumb Donuts

Senior ditch day: it’s pretty awesome. But I feel kind of guilty. I’m usually a really diligent person who never EVER wants to miss school, even when I’m sick. Even when I go on vacation and I miss a day or two of school I get all nervous and anxious because I know that everything important will happen on the day that I’m gone. It’s true. It’s like when your friend misses school and nothing happens, and then you miss school and you have a million things to do for homework and you’ve missed a bazillion tests. Yeah, that sucks. Anyways, at my school the Monday after prom is Senior Ditch Day. Of course it’s not regulated. I found it quite easy to ditch my first two classes, but I did eventually come for my math and physics class because those are my major classes that I can’t afford to miss. Now what did I do on my day off? Got up at 6 to take my sister to school, sat around the house, went to two classes, and did some grocery shopping with my mom. Yeah, I’m a rebel. But I also made donuts. Delicious chocolate donuts with an awesome chocolate streusel.
With finals coming up in just two weeks, graduation just around the corner, and my AP Lit test coming up, I know that my baking will be limited, so I wanted to make something simple, and Senior Ditch Day was the perfect occasion because these were in the oven in about ten minutes and only took about six to cook, so you can reach chocolaty donut heaven in less than twenty minutes.

I found these donuts on one of my favorite blogs. Darla is the genius behind Bakingdom. She creates all sorts of amazing cakes, cookies, pastries, and she’s a huge fan of Harry Potter, so she creates things like this, this, and this. Yeah. She’s amazing, and I love her blog (by the way, I hope to God that I don’t sound creepy because she most likely doesn’t know me at all).

So all creepiness aside when I read about these donuts and saw the pictures, I fell in love. For some reason I wasn’t totally expecting these donuts to have a chocolaty flavor (I tend to have a hard time deciphering chocolate notes in cake-like treats for some reason), but I was wrong. These donuts have an awesome chocolate flavor. I ate four in just one day. I couldn’t help myself, I just wanted more, more, more! They can also be glazed, but I got lazy and didn’t feel like making a glaze, but I bet it would be perfect on these. So next time you find yourself with twenty minutes to spare, preheat your oven and get to baking because these really won’t disappoint you.

Chocolate Crumb Donuts
Adapted from Bakingdom
Makes 6 donuts

Streusel Ingredients
¼ cup brown sugar
½ tbsp. sugar
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter

Donut Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup + 2 tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions
To make the streusel: combine the sugars, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Rub the cold butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Put the mixture into the freezer while you make the donut batter.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Grease a donut pan with cooking spray.

To make the donuts: combine the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, egg, and melted butter. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry. Whisk or fold the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. The batter will be kinda sticky and want to form together (basically it will look like a giant chocolaty blob).

When the batter has come together fill a piping bag (I used a zip lock bag with a hole cut out of the corner). Pipe the batter into the donut molds of the donut pan. Retreive the chocolate crumb mixture from the fridge and add as much crumb as you would like to the tops of the donuts.

Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for about 5 minutes. Let the donuts cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Cake Slice Bakers - April 2012: Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake

This month, the Cake Slice Bakers and I made a Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake. I love cinnamon, I love pound cake, and I love streusel, so this cake already seemed like a winner in my book.

Tish Boyle, the author, describes this cake as being a “sure-fire bake sale hit” and I think it definitely is. The cake has a really tender crumb and it stays moist for days! Only after about a week after baking did the corners of this cake start to get a little stale.

The cake was lovely and moist, and had a wonderful yellow color. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with how yellow desserts are. I don’t even really like yellow unless it’s on the pastelish side. But when it comes to desserts, I’m all on the yellow bandwagon. So yes, this cake is lovely and yellow and super moist. Then there’s the brown sugar-cinnamon streusel that goes into this cake. The streusel inside the cake melted perfectly into the middle of the pound, but the top didn’t really stick or melt. But it did add a lovely crunch to the top.  

I made a few changes, but nothing drastic. Instead of making it in a regular Bundt pan (I have one, but it’s Christmas themed), I halved the recipe and used a 9x5 inch loaf pan. I also omitted the orange zest, but after reading some of my fellow baker’s comments about the sweet orange note in the background, I wish I hadn’t. Next time I make this cake I will make sure to add the orange zest.

To check out how the other bakers did, click here.

Cinnamon Streusel Buttermilk Pound Cake

Adapted from The Cake Book
Makes one 9x5 inch loaf

Cinnamon Streusel Ingredients
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ tbsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Pound Cake Ingredients
1 ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
Pinch of cardamom
7 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the streusel. Stir until blended and crumbly. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Slowly add in the sugar and beat on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Reduced the speed to medium and beat in the egg and egg yolk. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl now. Beat in the vanilla extract. Turn the speed down to low and gradually add in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Pour in half of the buttermilk. Add in another 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by the rest of the buttermilk. Beat in the last of the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the batter on medium for about 30 seconds.

Scrape half of the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle on half of the streusel mixture (or you can sprinkle it all on and leave none for the top). Cover the streusel with the remaining batter. If you chose to have the streusel on top, sprinkle the rest on right now. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean. Cook the cake in the pan on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Invert the cake onto a wire rack and then revert it onto its final resting plate.