lemon butter cake with sugared strawberries

Eat this cake on your porch with some pretty ladies in big hats and a French 75 (the cocktail, not the hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism).

Lemon Butter Cake
adapted from Sky High's marbled lemon-blueberry butter cake

for the cake
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
7 egg whites
3 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk

for the frosting
2 pints strawberries
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment.
2 Cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon extract until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites a couple at a time, beating well between additions.
3 Combine the dry ingredients and whisk to blend. Add to the batter, alternating with the milk, in 2-3 additions.
4 Beat on medium-high speed for about a minute to aerate the batter.
5 Divide among the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

1 Cut up all the strawberries and place in a bowl with some of the sugar (if they're very ripe, you won't need much). Set aside to get saucy and delicious.
2 In a small (nonreactive) saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil without stirring until it reaches the soft-ball stage (238 degrees). Remove from the heat.
3 In a mixer, beat the eggs briefly. As it's going, add the syrup in a thin stream. When it's all added, raise the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is fluffy and cooled to body temperature. (This can take a while.)
4 Reduce the speed to low and add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time. Beat in the lemon juice.

gougères

While gougères may technically be cheese puffs, calling them that doesn't really do them justice. Yes, they are just flour, butter, eggs and cheese—pâte à choux, the same basic dough used for profiteroles, eclairs, and beignets—but somewhere along the way they turn into amazing cheesy, eggy, melty things. French magic.

So don't be offended when I yell at you for calling them biscuits.

This recipe is one of those that you will end up bringing to every party you go to, because after you make them once, all your invitations will come with a "don't come without those cheese puffs" clause. Fortunately, they're really easy to make.

Basic Gougères

1 c water
3 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
3/4 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, chilled
1 cup grated cheese (gougères are traditionally made with gruyère, but I generally use whatever I have on hand)
freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2 Bring the water, butter and salt to a simmer in a saucepan, whisking while butter melts.
3 Add the flour, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.
4 Continue to stir. The dough will form a ball and change texture slightly. It will begin to leave a slight film on the bottom of the saucepan. Remove from the heat and let the dough cool a bit (so you don't accidentally scramble the eggs).
5 Add the eggs one at a time with an electric mixer.
6 Once the eggs are fully incorporated, stir in the cheese and pepper.
7 Drop by spoonfuls (or pipe with a pastry bag for prettier puffs) onto the baking sheets. Leave a few inches between each one so they have room to get all nice and puffy. Press down any large peaks with a wet finger.
8 Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking, until golden brown and delicious.

The dough, ready to have the eggs mixed in.


A batch ready to go in the oven.

and now gwen stefani is in my head

I never took banana for a particularly popular cake flavor. I love anything banana-- I'll even eat banana-flavored Laffy Taffy-- but somehow I figured that, you know, the people want Chocolate. Or maybe Vanilla, or once in a while Cherry or Coconut. But banana? Nah. So when I was actually asked for a banana cake, not once but three times, I was so excited. I made banana cake with vanilla pastry cream and chocolate ganache. I made banana cake with chocolate chips and vanilla frosting. But the best one, I think, was this cake: a simple banana cake with fresh whipped cream and a little swizzle of caramel.

The basic recipe comes from the book Cake Love, which to be honest, I don't refer to that often, but this recipe is one to save. I've included approximate measurements for those without a scale, but scaling is way more accurate if you have one.

Warren Brown's Banana Cake, aka Banana Snake Cake

For the cake
10 oz (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp nutmeg
6 oz (about 3) very ripe bananas, peeled
3/4 cup half and half
1 tbsp rum
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temp
21 oz (2 3/4 cups) superfine sugar
4 eggs
3 egg yolks

For the whipped cream layer
2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
sugar to taste

For the caramel sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of 2 9-inch cake pans with parchment.
2 Combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg) and whisk to blend.
3 Blend the liquid ingredients (bananas through vanilla extract) in a food processor.
4 Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes on low speed).
5 Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Alternate the dry ingredients with the wet in 3-5 additions.
7 Once incorporated, mix on medium speed for 15-20 seconds.
8 Fill the pans and bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Caramel sauce
1 While the cake cools, you can make the caramel. Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2 Once sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and bring to a boil. When the mixture turns a deep amber color, remove from the heat.
3 Add the cream (carefully, it will bubble up a lot). Stir until smooth.

Whipped cream
1 Combine the cream, vanilla and sugar and chill with the bowl and beaters for about 15 minutes.
2 Whip the mixture until stiff peaks form. Add more sugar, slowly, if needed.
note: whipped cream frosting will not keep very long, so frost this cake fairly soon before you plan to eat it.

coconut cake with vanilla pastry cream

Even coconut haters love this cake. It's just that good. I first made this cake for my Creative Director's birthday, and since then I've been asked to make it roughly 8 zajillion times. I have not had the heart to throw the scraps away even once. Seriously. Just try to dump a piece of this into the trash without weeping. Impossible.

Actually, pretty much all the recipes in this book are that good: Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. Buy it.

Coconut Cake (adapted from Sky High)
Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake (supposedly for 12-16 people)

For the cake
5 egg whites
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
2 1/3 cups sugar
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

For the pastry cream
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp vanilla extract

For frosting
fresh whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla, and sugar to taste, whipped in a chilled bowl)
sweetened shredded coconut

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment.
2 Whisk the egg whites slightly. Add the milk and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
3 With a mixer on low speed, beat together the dry ingredients to mix well and break up any lumps. Add the butter and coconut milk and beat until light and fluffy, on medium speed.
4 Add the egg white mixture in 2 or 3 additions, mixing just to incorporate. Divide the batter among the three pans.
5 Bake for 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in their pans, then turn onto a rack.

6 To prepare the pastry cream, bring the half and half to a simmer in a saucepan.
7 Whisk together the sugar, eggs, egg yolk and flour in a separate bowl.
8 Pour the hot half and half into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan.
9 Whisk over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to boil, about 5 minutes. Boil 1 minute. Pour into a bowl, mix in vanilla, and chill in the fridge (give it a few hours to set).
10 Once everything's cool, I like to assemble this cake with the pastry cream in-between the layers, frost with fresh whipped cream, and cover the whole thing with sweetened shredded coconut. YUM

farmer's market fruit crisp

The farmer's market is open!

Which means now, on SATURDAYS, I rise and dress BEFORE NOON and make my way over to the park to ogle all the goods. Farmer’s markets always play to my Alice Waters fantasies. The potatoes are purple, the tomatoes are striped, it’s all heirloom this and heirloom that, there are baskets of fancy squash I’ve never seen before, and the people are happy and everyone is socializing and talking with the farmers, and the dogs are smiling, and all I can think about is all the fabulous dinner parties I’m going to have! And all the delicious healthful sustaining dishes I will cook for my friends!

And then I return with enough food to feed four people for the week. And wonder what the hell I’m going to do with it all.

The answer: I cook big pans of stuff, and pawn it off on my coworkers. My favorite is this fruit crisp. It’s super, super easy to put together, incredibly versatile, and will make people fall in love with you. Forever. Don't say I didn't warn you.



I added very little sugar because the peaches were so ripe, but you can add as little or as much as you like, depending on how tart your fruit is and how sweet you want the end result to be. I like to eat mine for breakfast with some greek yogurt, so I keep it on the low-sugar side, but for dessert (warm, with vanilla ice cream of course) you might want it sweeter.

Farmer’s Market Fruit Crisp
(adapted from Cooking Light’s Cherry Crisp recipe)

Filling
1 pint blackberries
4-5 ripe peaches, cut into pieces
Sugar to taste (anywhere from 2 tbsp to 1/3 cup)
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Topping
1/2 c. whole wheat flour (about 2.25 oz)
1/2 c. rolled oats
1/4-1/2 c. brown sugar
pinch of salt
6 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

1 Preheat oven to 375.
2 Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and toss. Spoon mixture into a tart pan or baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3 Combine flour, oats, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry blender or a couple knives until the mixture is crumbly.
4 Spread topping over fruit and bake for 45-50 minutes, until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

the. best. frozen. yogurt. ever.

MAKE THIS IMMEDIATELY. You're welcome.

CHRISTMAS BAKING

Internet, this is what I've been up to for the past two months:



My "Christmas card" for this year... little boxes full of tasty stuff. It was tough to find a recipe that would taste good, look cute AND ship well, but I think I finally did. They're even vegan.

Vegan Peppermint Brownies
(adapted from Vivacious Vegan)

1/2 cup canola or grapeseed oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch square glass pan.
2 In a large bowl whisk together the oil, maple syrup, soy milk, vanilla and peppermint.
3 Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
4 Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix until just blended.
5 Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Vegan Ginger Bars

3/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg replacer or 2 tbsp mashed silken tofu
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
pinch of cardamom
pinch of nutmeg
zest of 1/4 orange
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup molasses
3 tbsp water

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch glass pan.
2 Cream margarine with sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer and citrus zest.
3 Combine flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a small bowl. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture and mix until just blended. Mix in molasses and water.
4 Spread in prepared pan. Bake 28-30 minutes or until batter begins to pull away from edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Decorating the Bars

I wanted these to look special, so before decorating I cut them into circles with a small biscuit cutter. This also means you get to eat the scraps. Now you know how unbelievably smart I am.

For the peppermint brownies, I spread a little melted chocolate on the top of each one and then covered it in crushed candy canes.

For the ginger bars, I first made candied orange peel (Giada de Laurentiis has a great recipe for it), and glued each piece on with a little dot of (store-bought! shh, don't tell) icing.

See? Easy. and FANCY.