Month: June 2012

Fig Pound Cake

Last week my mother took me to meet Cordelia, a second cousin twice-removed. Cordelia had been orphaned when she was young and at one point lived with Mollie Gates Oakes, my great-great-great aunt. Mollie had a fig bush and would make preserves with the fruit. Cordelia took cuttings from Aunt Mollie’s fig bush and for years and years had her own fig bush. Cordelia’s eyes lit up as she told us about Aunt Mollie’s fig preserves. She even shared the super secret recipe and how to know when the preserves were ready to be put into a jar.

I haven’t made fig preserves yet, but I will at some point in the near future. Until then I have to rely on other’s fig preserves.

Fig Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening (or an additional stick of butter)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
3 cups flour
1 cup fig preserves

Preheat oven to 325*F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

Cream together the butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Add vanilla. Sift together the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder and flour. Add half the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Beat well. Add milk (or buttermilk), beat, then add remaining flour mixture. Add the fig preserves and beat batter for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 70 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack for 10 minutes. Invert cake from pan onto cake plate and allow to finish cooling completely.

Note: I’ve made this with milk and buttermilk this week. I prefer the one with buttermilk. The cake seems a bit more tender and moist.

Gingerbread Pound Cake

I love gingerbread and firmly believe that it shouldn’t be saved for the winter holiday season. Gingerbread should be consumed year round. I should clarify by saying that while I believe this from an intellectual standpoint, psychologically speaking, I have to find a way to get past the whole “gingerbread is a winter dessert” thing.

So I am making a gingerbread pound cake and instead of serving it with a warm lemon sauce, it will be served with lemon sorbet. My mind will reset and thus will welcome gingerbread year round completely rather than merely intellectually.

Gingerbread Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup plus 4 T. dark molasses
6 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 325*F. Butter and flour a bundt pan or use a baking spray.

Mix butter, sugar and molasses. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add spices, salt and baking powder and vanilla. Mix well. Add the flour and milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 70 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto cake plate.

Dreamsicle Pound Cake

Several years ago, Brian Kane suggested I make a dreamsicle pound cake. And thus I did. Several different versions. This one is my favorite.

You absolutely do not need to use the food coloring in this. I did to get a color. You have to have that orange and vanilla swirl effect to have a dreamsicle, right?

Preheat oven to 325*F. Grease a tube or bundt pan.

Vanilla Pound Cake:

1 stick butter
1/4 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Add vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating thoroughly after each one (you can add all 3 together, but the texture just isn’t the same.) In a separate small bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the milk divided in half alternating with flour so that you end with milk.

Orange Pound Cake:

1/2 cup butter (one stick)
1/4 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange peel
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup orange juice
3 Tablespoons Grand Marnier
yellow and red food coloring

Cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Add vanilla extract and orange peel. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. In a separate small bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the orange juice, flour and Grand Marnier. Add just enough food coloring to achieve the shade of orange you want.

In the prepared pan, spoon in half the vanilla batter, top with half the orange batter. Repeat. With a knife or narrow spatula, swirl the layers together slightly to marbleize.

Bake for 70 to 80 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then invert onto cake plate.

yellow cake

4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 lb unsalted butter, softened

Oven 350. (Or preferably, 335 on quick bake.) Grease cake pans and coat with sugar.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat with a whisk until combined.

Using the paddle attachment, combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, and mix on low for 30 seconds. With the mixer running at the lowest speed, add the butter in 1-Tbsp chunks, one at a time. Mix until butter is in pea-size pieces. Add 1 cup egg mixture, speed up the mixer and beat till fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining egg mixture and beat on mid-high speed for about 15 seconds, or till thoroughly mixed.

Divide batter between 2 cake pans, spread & smooth out, and bake 20-25 mins or until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on racks 5-10 minutes, then invert and remove from cake pans. Cool thoroughly before frosting.

Frosting

1 stick butter, softened
3-4 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 lbs confectioners sugar
2-3 Tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Using the whisk attachment, combine the butter, milk and vanilla and beat. Add half the confectioners sugar and mix on high until incorporated. Gradually add more confectioners sugar until the frosting is the desired consistency. It should be soft enough to spread but not so soft that it will drip down the cake.

MAKE SURE YOU DON’T UNDERCOOK IT.
You’ll know when you’ve undercooked it because you’ll have to pick it up with 2 spatulas.Also make sure you make the frosting thick enough.
I made this as my mom’s cake and half the frosting is chocolate and the other half is vanilla with her favorite color
(Purple)food coloring.Do you think she’ll like it?

Sugar Cookies by KT

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I found it was best to cook them until the edges started to turn brown,which was about 11 minutes.If you like them chewy,cook them less than that.This recipe is really tasty,but make sure you soften the butter for 15 secs.

I made these for a school project.We would each be given a book(by chance my best friend was in my group)and
as we read the book we would do a bunch of stuff like vocabulary words that they assumed we didn’t know. At the end,we would do these packets all about our books and then we would pick a project to do. I picked to cook a food in the book. Sugar cookies were the only food in my book, but they called them shrewsbury cakes.