Pumpkin Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin and cream cheese frosting are such a great match, and the only pumpkin my husband will eat. This cake was quite delightful.

Pumpkin Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
from Leite

2 cups all-purpose flour OR cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 stick (4-ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup, preferably grade B amber

Preheat the oven to 350° (175°C). Butter two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, line them with parchment circles, butter the parchment, and coat the pan with flour. Tap out the excess.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, to the mixer, scraping down the sides after each addition. Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth.

Divide the batter equally between the pans. Rap the filled pans once on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool the pans on racks for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto racks and remove the parchment paper. Cool completely.

In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese butter, confectioners’ sugar, and maple syrup on medium until fluffy.
To assemble the cake, frost the top of one cake, place the other cake on top. Frost the sides and top. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to allow the frosting to set, if needed.

Green Tomato Cake

Why in the world would I make a green tomato cake? When you belong to a CSA, one challenge is using up all the produce provided. Though not always successful, I really do make an effort to use it all up. So when I received green tomatoes in the fall right before I was heading out of town, I pureed them and froze them. I knew I had seen baked goods with green tomatoes before, so I figured this would work. Fast forward several months, I am cleaning out the last of the fall harvest from my freezer. One of the last items was the bag of green tomatoes. I searched for recipes and found several for spice cake with green tomatoes and gave one a go. The outcome was very good! I never told my husband the secret ingredient, and he never knew why the cake was so moist. If you look closely, a few small chunks of green are visible.

As for the frosting, cream cheese frosting pairs excellently, but honestly I would love to find a substitute. Cream cheese has some weird ingredients, and powdered sugar seems to give me an instant headache. If you have any ideas for another cake topping, please let me know. But alas, I had some cream cheese already in my fridge one day past its expiration date, so I felt obligated to use it up.

**If you're wondering how I can confess my cooking secrets on this blog and not have my husband find out, it's because he doesn't read the blog.  But before you judge and think he should support me by reading my work, he once remarked, "I don't need to read your blog, I live it."  I found this so hilarious because it's a parallel to one of the best lines in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, the movie, which he's only seen once because I forced him.  I agree!

Green Tomato Cake
adapted from Serious Eats

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/4 cups olive oil
1 cup sugar
1/2 c. maple syrup
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups pureed or finely chopped green tomatoes

cream cheese frosting or other frosting of choice

For the cake, adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly coat two 9-inch cake pans with butter. Line bottoms of cake pans with parchment paper rounds and coat with butter once again.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and nutmeg in medium bowl or on large sheet of parchment paper.

In large bowl, beat oil, maple syrup and sugar on medium speed until fully incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add tomatoes and beat just until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Decrease mixer speed to low and gradually add flour mixture to green tomato mixture. Mix just until combined, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as necessary.

Divide batter equally between baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of cakes comes out clean, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer cakes to cooling racks and cool in pans for 15 minutes. Invert cakes directly onto racks. Peel off and discard parchment lining and cool completely, about 90 minutes.

Once cool, frost cake.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Speculoos Frosting

Remember this fabulous cake? For the frosting, I had to substitute peanut butter for Biscoff, because I didn't know where to find any. Turns out Whole Foods sells Biscoff (near the peanut butter), also known as Speculoos, but I know I looked there before and they didn't have any. My story is corroborated by the check-out lady, who, when she rang up the Speculoos, said that it must be new and she'd have to try it herself.

source

What is Biscoff/Speculoos? Have you ever flown Delta and been offered their cookies? The cookies are Biscoff brand, but are a cookie known as speculoos, a shortbread cookie with cinnamon. By some weird magic, they turn the cookies into a smooth spread, like nutella or peanut butter. The spread is what is used in the frosting recipe. I used a partial jar for the frosting and then ate the rest with a spoon. It's pretty yummy.

I had no need to make a fancy cake, so I made some chocolate cupcakes to top with the Speculoos frosting. This frosting was very good; the speculoos spread added a deep flavor to the chocolate that I almost couldn't identify as cinnamon spice. But if I closed my eyes and thought about it, I could detect the slight hint of cinnamon. All in all, this frosting is a sophisticated twist on just plain chocolate.

Another awesome discovery was this cupcake recipe. The recipe, by Mel's Kitchen Cafe, was mentioned by my cousin on her crazy baking blog. This may be my go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes from now on.

Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 ½ cups sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 ¼ cups warm water
1 ¼ cups buttermilk or sub coconut milk or almond milk plus 1 tsp. vinegar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with the rack in the middle of the oven. Prepare the cupcake pans by adding cupcake liners. Set the pans aside.

Sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed (with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Fill each cupcake liner about three-quarters full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool. Once cool, remove cupcakes from pan and frost. Makes about 2.5 dozen cupcakes.

Speculoos Frosting - see this post

Homemade Oreos with Candy Cane Frosting

Homemade oreos - chocolate sandwich cookies with frosting - are a little less crunchy but way more tasty than store-bought. I went for a holiday option and added crushed candy canes to the frosting. The mint flavor works really well here.

I went all out with these cookies and also dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled crushed candy canes on top. While visually this is a plus, the extra chocolate doesn't add too much to the taste and is probably not worth the extra effort. This is the type of cookie that everyone will gobble down, so who cares what they look like?

Homemade Oreos with Candy Cane Frosting
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
optional: about 6 candy canes, finely ground in food processor

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream filling, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy. Add ground candy canes, mix, and taste. Add more candy canes as necessary for desired mint taste.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Optional: Melt dark chocolate and dip sandwiched cookies halfway. Shake off excess chocolate and let set on wax paper. While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.

German Chocolate Cake

This is a classic recipe - exactly what you expect: moist, chocolate cake with sweet coconut-pecan frosting. This recipe is one my mom has made for a long time, so it's tried and true.

German Chocolate Cake
from my mother

½ c. boiling water
2 ½ c. cake flour or 2 c. flour
1 4-oz. bar sweet cooking chocolate
1 c. butter, softened
½ tsp. salt
2 c. sugar
1 c. buttermilk
4 egg yolks (reserve whites)
4 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda

Coconut-Pecan Frosting
1 c. evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
3 egg yolks
1 c. chopped pecans
½ c. butter

Heat oven to 350˚. Grease two round pans. In small bowl, pour boiling water over chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted; set aside to cool.

In large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. On low speed, blend in chocolate and vanilla. Mix in flour, soda, and salt alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in egg whites. Bake approximately 40 minutes. Frost with Coconut-Pecan Frosting.

For frosting: Combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla in small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick, about 12 minutes. Stir in coconut and pecans. Beat until thick enough to spread.

Carrot Cake/Cupcakes

I made this classic carrot cake recipe into cupcakes to say thank you to some co-workers. They loved 'em! Since this cake is super moist, making into them into cupcakes is ideal as well. I also put some of the batter into small ramekins, sliced baked cakes in half, and filled and topped with frosting for mini cakes.

Easiest Ever Carrot Cake
from my mother

¾ c. melted coconut oil or other oil
1 ½ c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
2 c. flour
2 tsp. soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
2 c. shredded raw carrots
1 c. crushed pineapple with juice
1 c. chopped nuts, optional

Stir all cake ingredients together in large bowl. Bake in well-greased and floured 9x13 pan for 1 hour at 300˚ or until deep golden brown OR in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans for 4-0-45 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cupcake version: line cupcake tins with 20 paper cups. Fill each cup 3/4 full and bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until deep golden brown. When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Note: Double this recipe if frosting a double layer round cake

1/2 pkg (4 oz) cream cheese
1/4 c. butter
1 1/2 to 2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter in bowl until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Strawberry Cupcakes II

I guess I'm obsessed with strawberries.  I've made a lot of strawberry recipes lately.  Here's another strawberry cupcake recipe.  This one was very light and airy, probably in part due to the cake flour.  The frosting is lovely, but not my favorite tasting frosting, though it's received rave reviews from others.  At least try it once for it's unconventional ingredients and method.