Pumpkin Apple Streusel Cake

 Since I started baking six years ago, I have learned so much. I've learned that no, the bakers at Costco who pipe perfect buttercream flowers onto the big sheet cakes are not magical fairies, but yes, they have had hours of practice. I've learned that some supermarket staples are a hundred times better when made at home, like chocolate pudding, but that sometimes, like for a late night at home with friends, nothing beats the ease and classic taste of bake-n-break cookie dough. I've also learned that fall is simply the greatest season for sweet treats.

 The warm, spicy flavors of pumpkin, cranberries, apples, nuts, and cinnamon make me think of long afternoons sipping cider and morning walks in the crisp country air. Yesterday, I wanted a perfect fall recipe, but didn't even know where to start. I had a can of pumpkin and three big apples, so I figured a spicy cake was in the works.

 This recipe combines the best of all these fall flavors. A moist, spice-filled pumpkin cake, topped with a layer of apples sauteed in butter, sugar, and cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice for this step too, not just for the cake batter) which tastes exactly like apple pie filling and is oh-so-addicting, and finally a sweet, crunchy crumb topping. It is perfectly sweet and hearty, making it wonderful for an October Saturday night filled with  preparations for this so-called "Frankenstorm" (officially no school tomorrow!) - good luck to anybody on East coast, and enjoy what will hopefully be nothing more than a relaxing day off tomorrow.
   Enjoy!

 Pumpkin Apple Streusel Cake

(from Bon Appétit)

Apples:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cups diced peeled cored Granny Smith apples (about 4 large)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake:
11/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; sauté until apples begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and cinnamon and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes longer. Cool.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. 

Combine flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt in large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside 2/3 cup of mixture for topping. 

Beat pumpkin, sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, spice, and baking soda into remaining flour mixture, beating just until smooth. Beat in eggs. 

Transfer batter to pan. Scatter apples evenly over top. Sprinkle reserved topping over apples.
Bake cake until topping is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Run a thin knife around the sides of the pan to loosen cake. Release pan sides from cake. Transfer cake to a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

TWD: Bagels! (and Veggie Cream Cheese)

 I'm sorry. I'm sorry I've been gone for a week and a half. I'm sorry I haven't posted a new recipe in nearly three weeks. The kitchen being painted, our house's lack of heat due to a boiler switch, schoolwork, pottery classes, and various other shenanigans got in the way of baking these past couple of weeks. I actually made an okay gluten-free carrot cake last week, but it was kind of crumbly, and let's just say that the chocolate "glaze" resulted in a cracked, hard-as-rock layer of yuck. Overall, not a great culinary period of time...

 ...but. Last weekend, these bagels. Bagels have been on my to-bake list for years, and I never got around to making them. I was so excited when I saw that they had been chosen as last week's Tuesdays with Dorie! This week was actually a fifth Tuesday of the month, so we had a make-up week in case we wanted to go back and make something we missed. Perfect!

um, YUM!

 The dough was kneaded, left to rise, deflated, left to rise, shaped into doughnut shapes, boiled, baked, and left to cool. I made the quick Vegetable Cream Cheese from the book, using red bell peppers instead of radishes. The cream cheese was light and refreshing, as opposed to the heavy, buttery spreads that can sometimes be piled onto deli bagels.

Listen, dears. (I feel that as I'm writing about a recipe made on Julia Child's show, calling you dears is appropriate. 'Kay?) The thing is, I live in New York City. My hometown basically is the bagel capital of the world (Montreal, I don't even want to talk about this with you). I was skeptical that these could live up to the chewy perfection two dollars can get you on my corner.
I was wrong to doubt this recipe. These bagels are tender, golden-brown bites of delicious. They are like a very, very good New York deli bagel (although not quite so huge, which is a good thing). I am so glad I got to try out making this usually-store-bought staple at home, and I know I will be making bagels again in the future; that said, I'm not promising to never buy one again.
If you live near a great bagel place, give this recipe a try and compare the two results. Let me know what you find? If you don't live near a great bagel place, you must give this recipe a try, if only to understand what all the fuss is about. ;) The recipe, as always, can be found in Baking with Julia or on the host's blog, Heather's Bytes. Thanks for hosting, Heather!
    Enjoy!

4

As of last week, this little blog of mine is four. I've never done this sort of "blog birthday" thing before, but my house is being painted this week, giving me limited access to the kitchen, so I thought, why not?
Over the past four years, this blog has had its moments of being neglected by me, but I'm happy to say that for over the past year, I've been able to carve out baking and blogging time every week. I find baking to be so relaxing and enjoyable - I love the feeling of pulling a sweet treat out of the oven and knowing I made it myself - and it brings smiles to people around me. This blog gives me a place to share my experiences in the kitchen: the ups and downs of becoming a better baker, and the yummy recipe at the end of each culinary story. Here are a few memorable moments:

My first post:
I made this Tropical Dulce de Leche Cake in October of 2008, based on an idea my mom had. You can see from both the photo and the writing how much this blog has evolved; no matter how much more "sophisticated" my treats have become, those first few posts are some of my favorites to look back on.

My favorite post:
Wow, this one's really hard. I think I would have to say my favorite would be this August, when I made Jacques Torres's Chocolate Chip Cookies. It isn't because they were the greatest baked goods I ever made; it's because of the whole process. They were made in my New York kitchen with chocolate my best friend brought me from France, the dough had to chill overnight before being baked (which, believe me, is not easy to let happen when there is a big bowl of cookie dough calling you from the fridge), and they were packed up and shared with my family in Brazil. I like to call them my triple-continent cookies ;)

My mom's favorite post:
I'm not totally sure. My guess would be that her favorite is these Brazilian Cheese Rolls. I like this post too, because it's the only tutorial I've ever done on here. These rolls, or "pão de queijo" in Portuguese, are the classic food of her hometown, and naturally gluten-free. Oh, and did I mention how delicious they are? Cheesy, chewy, perfection.

My dad's favorite post:
Without a doubt, this cherry pie. It's a classic recipe, made with tart cherries to contrast the sweet filling. This gets made all the time in our house- for Christmas, I gave him a "gift certificate" for unlimited cherry pie for a year!

My most popular post:
This one's funny. I would have expected it to be when I hosted Tuesdays with Dorie (I love being in Tuesdays with Dorie, by the way, and also enjoy baking along with the Daring Bakers when I can), but according to my page view counter, it is this Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse Filling. Apparently you all are always searching for a raspberry mousse filling recipe? Well, it was a good cake...

Having a baking blog is a wonderful experience, and I've met some great fellow teenage bakers through the process. As always, I'm so very grateful to each and every person who takes time out of their day to read about my baking endeavors. Please take a minute to stop by and say hi, or ask a question!

TWD: Pumpkin Raisin Loaves

 You might be thinking that the slabs of bread above don't look like the picture-perfect loaves so many bakers are turning out this week. What can I say- some recipes just get mixed up. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was one time-consuming recipe, and it left me thoroughly confused by the time I finished my first slice, over 24 hours after starting the dough. This was due to two things:
1. I made a couple of changes. I'm not a huge fan of fresh cranberries, plus I couldn't find them, so I figured I would use dried instead. When I was making the bread, I wasn't feeling the whole walnuts thing (ugh, chopping was involved, plus I'd rather not have crunchy bits in my bread), but I wanted to keep it very fall-spirited, so I decided to leave out the walnuts and raisins and go with just the cranberries. Oh, and then I dumped in a bag of what I thought was dried cranberries but turned out to be raisins. And they were hard to mix in. Whoops... and with that, Pumpkin Raisin Bread was born.

 2. I kind of misread the recipe. I didn't realize just how small the three loaves were supposed to be- I thought they were just slightly smaller than the 9x5" loaf pans I have- so I decided to bake the dough in two big loaf pans. I thought they would come out big and perfect for sandwiches, like last month's whole wheat bread, so imagine my surprise when my bread didn't rise to fill the large pans. The loaves baked up nicely, though, despite the shape.

This bread isn't light and fluffy, nor is it savory enough to be paired with meat and cheeses. It is sweet and ever-so-slightly dense, which makes it perfect for a cool fall morning. My dad ate lots of it plain, but I enjoyed it slightly toasted with jam or butter and cinnamon sugar. So maybe it's not exactly the way it was meant to be, but hey, it's a winner in my book.
The recipe can be found in Baking with Julia or on the host's blog, Rebecca of This Bountiful Backyard.
   Enjoy!

Simple Chocolate Fondue

Late-night treat sessions with best friends are one of the greatest ways to spend a weekend night. Last night, I had two friends over for a night of takeout and romantic comedies (I know, crazy partying right there). At around 11, we decided to pause our movie and make this simple but delicious dessert.

 This chocolate fondue is one of the easiest yet most indulgent treats to make on whim. Cream, vanilla, and the chocolate of your choice are melted together to create this perfect dip for any sweet bite-sized snack. We used strawberries and mini marshmallows, and once we were out of those (although this doesn't look like all that much fondue, it is so rich that we only ended up eating about half of it, and trust me, we ate a lot of fondue), we tried dipping some frozen fruit, too.

 I actually have a fondue pan, but wasn't able to find it and didn't feel like searching the house at 11 o'clock, so I just made this in a saucepan. We ate it pretty quickly, so there was no need to keep it warm for a long time, but if you are serving this at a party where people will be eating it gradually, you may need to reheat it.
Chocolate fondue is the perfect late-night, date-night, family get-together, or hey, breakfast, indulgence, and this one is so simple, you can have it ready in five minutes. Enjoy!

 Simple Chocolate Fondue

(slightly adapted from Simply Recipes)

1 cup heavy cream

12 oz. chocolate of your choice, chopped, or chocolate chips (use good quality, as you will really be able to taste it)

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

bite-sized snacks for dipping, such as marshmallows or fresh fruit (frozen strawberries are good too!)

Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat.

Stir in the chocolate, salt, and vanilla. Stir over high heat until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is creamy. 

Pour into a bowl and serve with bite-sized snacks on wooden or metal skewers for dipping.

Fluffy Double Chocolate Buttercream

 Although I don't think I've ever talked about it here, I kind of have my own "business." It's not huge or fancy, but I love making cakes for other people. My customers are mostly my parents friends, with a few of my own here and there. The reason I haven't mentioned it before is just that when I'm being payed to make a dessert for somebody's party, that's not exactly the best time to try out new recipes. Better to stick to the tested, old favorites.

swirly little swirls

 This weekend, I was hired to make a cake for a little boy's first birthday. Happy birthday Sam! I made my favorite moist yellow cake recipe, but the only request for frosting was to make it chocolatey. The recipe I usually use is this one, but I wanted something creamier and fluffier. And this little creation was born.

 This recipe is actually quite similar to the one I used to use- I basically just added some more chocolate and beat it for longer to make it so fluffy, I wanted to eat it straight out of the bowl. Somehow, those two little changes made quite the big difference. And by the way, that's not to say that I didn't eat a few spoonfuls out of the piping bag once I was done making those little swirls...

a cake for the family, and a cupcake for the birthday boy to smash :)

 The chocolate flavor really comes through, and this frosting is perfect for any flavor of cake you can think up. A spicy ginger cake for the holidays, tall, dark, chocolatey layers, or my favorite (and the birthday boy's parents'), classic yellow vanilla. This is so easy to spread, but still firm enough to pipe without a problem. I used a star tip for the swirls on the cake above, but feel free to decorate as you wish. Enjoy!

happy 1st birthday!

Fluffy Double Chocolate Buttercream

(adapted from Savory Sweet Life)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Beat the butter with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 

Beat in the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and salt. (At this point, I removed about 1/4 cup of frosting to use for the white letters.)

Add in the cocoa powder, and beat for about 3 minutes, until smooth and airy. Beat in the melted dark chocolate. Decorate as desired.

     -makes enough to generously frost and fill one 9" 2-layer cake

Fall Spice Pumpkin Bread

 I'm back to new baking, and I'm loving it. I was so sick of endless breads and repeating the same recipes over and over, but yesterday I decided to get into all the fall baking. I recently realized that although I love it and tend to pay far too much for it at coffee shops, I've never made my own pumpkin bread. This had to be fixed!
Pumpkin bread is one of those "breads" that are really quickbreads, like banana bread- basically an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. Hey, I'm not complaining.
I went straight to this recipe on Allrecipes, which is basically the food blogger's go-to pumpkin bread- it has thousands of great reviews. Be warned, this makes a LOT of pumpkin bread. It's supposed to make three small-ish loaves, but I baked it all in one big tube pan, and ended up cutting slices in half. No matter how big the slices were, I was so glad I made this bread. It is delicious- so moist but fluffy at the same time, which is hard to do. Warm out of the oven, I thought it was a little bland, but after resting overnight, it was a whole different cake. It is full of fall spices and bursting with pumpkin flavor. The perfect way to get back into baking, and get into all my favorite delicious fall flavors. Enjoy!

Fall Spice Pumpkin Bread

(slightly adapted from Allrecipes)

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil 

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a large bundt pan, or two 9x5" loaf pans. 

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. 

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.