Marbled Coconut Bread and adapting

There are still a whole bunch of delicious recipes I have to share with you from my pre-move days, but I wanted to tell you about this one first. A simple, homey and uncomplicated cake, this marbled coconut bread is the first thing I have baked in my newly adopted kitchen, a place that is, well...not without restrictions.

Tropical Loaf Cake

Do you like pina coladas? And getting caught in the rain? While I'm more likely to answer yes to the second question than the first, I can certainly get behind this tropical loaf cake made with fresh pineapple and fragrant toasted coconut. Sorry, I'm missing the rum. 

Butternut Squash Bread - Two Ways

I love cooking seasonally. Using what I find on the supermarket shelves, produce that is really at it's peak - nothing frozen or canned. Lately there has been a butternut squash on my dining room table almost constantly - I'll buy a new one as soon as I use the old one. And when I made this recipe for butternut squash bread, I only needed about half the puree. So I made another one - but I changed one key ingredient, to conduct a little experiment.

Chocolate Covered Marble Pound Cake

I love making marble cake. It's my go to when I'm baking for people whose preferences I don't know - who doesn't like marble? And this recipe really delivered. I've been taught to be skeptical of cake recipes that call for cocoa powder instead of chocolate, but this was moist and delicious.
One thing that was strange about this recipe was the baking directions - it baked for a while at 350, then more at 325, then even more covered. I don't think I've ever baked a cake covered before, but I figured I would follow the instructions as they were written, and I wasn't sorry. I guess because loaf pans are so deep, they take a while to cook through, and you don't want the top to burn.
Luckily the cake popped right out of the pan, and once it cooled I covered it with a thick chocolate glaze, that set up hard. There's something about a loaf cake that I like too - maybe it's the neat slices. I really hate cutting up my own cakes - not because I can't bear to slice in to them, but because I usually make a mess of it. Luckily I can usually find someone else to slice.
Time to go back to watching ice skating. And ski jumping. And snowboarding. And bobsled.

Tip of the Day: Most loaf pans are either 9x3 or 8x4, which can be used interchangeably. If you double a loaf pan recipe, you can use a standard bundt or tube pan, though baking times will likely be less.

Recipe:
Marble Pound Cake (from RecipeZaar)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Beat together the softened butter and sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating until well mixed. Stir in vanilla.
Add in flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Mix in milk until smooth.
[Alternatively, process in food processor.]
Stir together the melted butter and cocoa until smooth. Mix with 1 cup of the batter.
Pour half the remaining batter in to a greased loaf pan, top with half the cocoa batter and swirl, repeating with the remaining batter.
Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 325 F and bake for another 25 minutes. Loosely cover with foil, and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Heat together until melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly before applying to completely cooled cake.

Cookies and Cream Pound Cake

After discovering that both cookies, and brownies are improved with the addition of Oreo cookies, I turned to the final frontier. Cake!
And I knew this delicious loaf cake would be the perfect match.

It's a simple mix of butter, sugar, eggs milk and flour - but the right combination that makes a thick, fluffy cake - that's strong enough to keep the crushed up cookies suspended.
I did toss the pieces with a little flour before mixing them in - but even if you didn't, I don't think they'd sink much.
I don't even have much else to say about this (I know, me, at a loss for words??) except that it was really delicious.
And I wish I could tell you if it was any better or worse the second or third day, but, well, four of us managed to eat the whole loaf in one sitting.
Oops!

Tip of the Day: When removing a cake from a pan, often it's easier to use two wire racks, placing one upside down on the top of the cake, and flipping the whole thing over, eliminating any worry of dropping the cake, like I've done before.

Recipe:
1/2 cup (1/ stick) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup crushed sandwich cookies - approximately 12 cookies

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating between additions.
Mix in the milk and vanilla, beating well.
Gradually add in the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until combined.
Toss the crushed cookies with a little flour, and stir in to the batter.
Pour in to a greased 9x5" loaf pan.
Bake on 350F for about an hour, or until set.
Cool in pan for ten minutes, then invert on to wire rack to cool completely.

Honey Cake and a New Year

This weekend is the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah - which means the new year - and one of the traditional foods eaten is Honey Cake. Honey is used as an ingredient to ensure a "sweet new year."
Now, I confess, I don't really like honey cake. It just isn't my thing. But my brother loves it, and when I saw smitten kitchen's recipe for "Majestic and Moist Honey Cake," I figured I would give it a shot. With some substitutions.
Here's the thing though. The original recipe makes 3 loaf pans, or a 9x13" pan, or 2 8 inch pans...you get my drift. I really wanted to make a loaf for some inexplicable reason, and not only do I only have one loaf pan, but I am also bringing this on public transportation, and one loaf seemed like the right size for somebody who doesn't like honey cake.

So I did something bad. I cut the recipe by 2/3. It probably wasn't the best idea. It resulted in some 1/3 of a teaspoon of that and 6 tablespoons of this. And of course some fudging. But I was hoping it would be forgiving.
Another thing - the cake sank in the middle. It sank for Ms. smitten kitchen (OK, her name is Deb), and for many of her readers, and it sank for me too. After reading this I meant to decrease the leavening I used, but somewhere in the third-ing it never happened. But I don't really mind.
Anyway back to those substitutions. The recipe called for a few things I didn't have on hand. Like orange juice. However I did find some peach flavored grape juice in the back of my fridge. And in it went. And somehow, among the spices I've accumulated over the years - which include five containers of cinnamon, four onion powders and two paprikas - I have no allspice or ground cloves. I looked, I promise. So I upped the cinnamon a little and threw some nutmeg in instead. The recipe also called for some rye or whiskey, which I definitely don't have, so I just added more of the tea.

You'd think after all the questionable math and the eyebrow-raising substitutions this would be awful. I kind of thought it would be. But it really wasn't. Even me, professed honey cake hater, was impressed by the moistness and flavor of the cake. If you really hate honey cake, you're not going to love this, but it's certainly an improvement over any others I have. That's not to say that if faced with a piece of honey cake and a chocolate chip cookie, I wouldn't pick the cookie.

Tip of the Day: Small amounts of liquid in recipes can often be substituted with little problem (be a little more cautious with milk) - so try switching things out for new flavor combinations - orange and lemon juice, whiskey, brandy, tea - you never know what you can create.

Recipe: (from smitten kitchen)
Note: I am providing the original recipe, which fits in 3 loaf pans, 2 9-inch round pans, 2 8-inch square pans or 1 9x13" pan. In brackets are the quantities I used, for one loaf pan.

3 1/2 cups [1 cup plus 3 tbsp] flour
1 tbsp [1 tsp] baking powder
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] baking soda
1/2 tsp [dash] kosher salt
4 teaspoons [1 1/2 tsp] ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground allspice
1 cup [1/3 cup] vegetable oil
1 cup [1/3 cup] honey
1 1/2 cups [1/2 cup] granulated sugar
1/2 cup [ 3 tbsp] brown sugar
3 [1] eggs
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] vanilla extract
1 cup [1/3 cup] warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup [3 tbsp] orange juice
1/4 cup [1 1/2 tbsp] rye or whiskey

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice (or nutmeg).
Make a well in the center and add in sugars, oil, honey, eggs, vanilla and liquids.
Whisk together until all ingredients are moistened.
Pour into well-greased pan(s) and bake on 350F following these directions:
Loaf pan: 50-55 minutes
9x13, 8 or 9-inch: 40 to 45 minutes
Tube or bundt pan: 60 to 75 minutes.