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Blueberry Birthday

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

 
Today was my sister-in-law Leigh’s birthday. (I hope you had fun, Leigh.)
 
Leigh and her family have returned home to Virginia from Massachusetts so the Weisblats weren’t able to celebrate the big day together tonight. We did make a cake for Leigh a couple of days ago, however.
 
Knowing that the tiny low-bush blueberries are currently in season in our area, the birthday girl requested a blueberry cake. Luckily, I had a fabulous rich one in my repertoire thanks to my friend Stu Cosby.
 
This cake needs absolutely no icing. It has plenty of butter inside, and the delicate flavor of the blueberries makes it pretty much irresistible. 

With a birthday in the offing, however, I felt the need to make the blueberry cake a little extra pretty so I gilded the lily for Leigh. She deserves a little extra gold in her life. She’s a great sister-in-law to me and daughter-in-law to Jan.

 
Blueberry Bundt Cake
 
Ingredients:
 
for the cake:
 
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pint blueberries (you may add a few extra if you’re in blueberry heaven)
 
for the optional coulis:
 
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
 
for the optional icing:
 
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter at room temperature
2 to 3 cups confectioner’s sugar (to taste)
2 teaspoons vanilla
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
 
In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar to the butter and cream the mixture again. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, followed by the vanilla. Blend the batter until smooth.
 
Add 2 cups of the flour mixture to the batter. Dredge the blueberries in the remaining flour mixture. Gently fold the coated blueberries and remaining flour into the batter, and pour it into the prepared baking pan.
 
Bake the cake until it tests done, about 1 hour to 1 and 1/2 hours (frozen blueberries obviously take longer than fresh ones!). Cool the cake for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. Allow it to finish cooling on a wire rack. 

The cake serves 10 to 12 with or without icing. 

If you really MUST make the icing and coulis, here are the instructions:
 
First, make the coulis (it has to cool). In a small saucepan combine the ingredients over low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture liquefies; then stir frequently.
 
Boil the coulis for 8 minutes. Strain it through a strainer and discard the solids. Let it cool in the refrigerator for an hour or so.
 
For the icing cream the butter. Add the sugar a little at a time until you achieve your ideal consistency and flavor. Beat in the vanilla. 

Ice the cake with the icing, and drizzle the coulis on top. Beautiful!

Blueberry Cake on Foodista

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Posted in Blueberries, Cakes, Pies, and Pastry | 11 Comments »

Liza’s Red, White, and Blue Pie

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

In her signature red, white, and blue pants, Liza cooks fennel over the campfire. (I'm working on getting THAT recipe!)

 
My friend and neighbor Liza Pyle made this festive pie for Independence Day. The recipe originally described a strawberry pie—although I don’t see why it couldn’t be used for just about ANY berry.
 
Liza’s notes appear at the bottom of the recipe pretty much as she typed them.
 
The recipe hailed long ago from Liz Simonds, a friend of Liza’s grandmother (and my honorary grandmother), Mary Parker, known to all local children as Gam. 

If you bake the crust early in the morning, you won’t have to bake anything later in the day—a definite advantage in July. 

The pie awaits the berries........

 
The Pie
 
Ingredients:
 
for the crust:
 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (I’d use salted since Liza doesn’t specify)
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
 
for the filling:
 
1 cup cream
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 quart berries—in this case, whole or thickly cut strawberries mixed with whole blueberries
2 tablespoons currant jelly
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Use a pastry blender or knives to combine the crust ingredients. Place them in a LARGE pie plate (see notes below). Bake for 15 minutes. Watch to make sure that the crust doesn’t get more than a bit brown. Allow it to cool.
 
For the filling whip the cream and blend in the cream cheese and sugar. Place this mixture at the bottom of your pie shell. Artistically arrange the berries on top. (Liza is MUCH better being artistic than I am!)
 
Melt the jelly. While it is still warm brush it lightly over the tops of the berries. Let your pie stand, gently covered, in the fridge for several hours. Liza reports that 4 hours are ideal; at 8, the jelly starts to bleed unattractively but deliciously into the whipped cream.
 
Serves 8 to 10.
 
Liza’s Notes:
 
1) Unless you use a large and deep pan (or use a tart pan), you will have too much filling and too many berries………so you could reduce the filling and berry measurements by 1/4, or move a small amount to a smaller pan, or just use a big pan (a big tart pan….even a 13 x9 will work)!
 
2) Just blueberries are great too………. 

3) My favorite variation is to use an easy chocolate crust, made by crushing to dust in blender/processer 2/3rds of a box of Nabisco chocolate wafers and mixing it with 1/4 cup melted butter.

Pat that into a buttered big pie plate on the bottom and halfway up the sides….or use a springform pan….and bake at 375 for 8 minutes.

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Posted in Cakes, Pies, and Pastry, Holiday Foods, Strawberries | 8 Comments »

Upside Down Once More

Friday, June 11th, 2010

 
I know, I know, I just posted a recipe for rhubarb upside-down cake!
 
Let me explain.
 
After various peregrinations I am finally home in Hawley, Massachusetts, contemplating the gorgeous greenery everywhere and the abundant rhubarb in my yard.
 
(It’s even more abundant in the yard of my generous next-door neighbor Dennis!)
 
Seeing its lush (if poisonous) green leaves and strong red stalks has inspired me to try yet another upside-down cake.
 
You may recall that the previous recipe from Sue Haas featured marshmallows. This ingredient surprised some of the commenters, particularly the eloquent Flaneur.
 
Here I dispense with the marshmallows and combine Sue’s recipe with my own for pineapple upside-down cake.
 
It’s amazing how different two rhubarb cakes can be! Of course, I like them both. (I seldom dislike cake, for my sins.)
 
Sue’s Michigan upside-down cake is not too sweet and not too goopy; the marshmallows hold it together and give it a slight vanilla flavor.
 
This version is definitely sweeter and richer. On the other hand, it’s also a little more rhubarby. The marshmallows tend to tame the rhubarb in the other recipe. 

Which should you make? BOTH, of course………

 
Hawley Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake
 
Ingredients:
 
for the topping:
 
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 cups rhubarb (1/2-inch chunks)
 
for the cake:
 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1-3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
 
First make the topping (which goes on the bottom!).
 
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, until it melts and bubbles—3 to 4 minutes.
 
Transfer the brown-sugar mixture into a 9-inch-square cake pan. Spread it through the bottom of the pan. Arrange the rhubarb pieces on top as artistically as you can. (Mine weren’t very artistic.)
 
For the cake cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Add the baking powder and salt. Stir in the flour alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the vanilla, and pour the batter over the rhubarb mixture.
 
Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center (but not too far down; don’t hit the rhubarb!) comes out clean, about 40 minutes. If the cake is brown but not done before this happens, decrease the oven temperature and continue baking.
 
Allow the cake to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife, and invert the cake onto a serving plate held over the skillet. Turn upside-down. Remove pan.
 
Serve alone or with whipped cream. Serves 9. 

I should think you could absolutely bake this pan in a 10-inch iron skillet (heating the butter and brown sugar in it first, and then piling on the other ingredients). I couldn’t find my skillet, however, so I used a square pan and can only report on those results.


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Posted in Cakes, Pies, and Pastry, Rhubarb | 7 Comments »

Hooray for Rhubarb!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

 
Sometimes I find it hard to recognize my childhood memories as being about the real me.
 
I have no trouble recalling the loquaciousness, the adorability, or (I admit it!) the mule-like stubbornness of the young Tinky.
 
Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that I spent my earliest years disliking some of the foods I now adore.
 
I thought spinach was bitter and ugly.
 
I disliked Chinese food so much that when my parents wanted to teach me to eat with chopsticks they fed me ravioli. (By the way, ravioli are A LOT harder to pick up with chopsticks than most Chinese food.)
 
And I was determined not to eat rhubarb in any form.
 
Today I’m thrilled to see fresh spinach at a farmstand. I long for Chinese food regularly.
 
And rhubarb is probably my favorite fruit. Don’t bother to write in and tell me that it’s really not a fruit. I know. We treat it as a fruit, however.
 
It’s beautiful. It’s resilient. And it’s versatile. (Gosh, I just realized that I may love rhubarb because IT’S LIKE ME!)
 
Today I am happy to post my first rhubarb recipe of this spring, courtesy of Sue Haas of Seattle, Washington, a regular reader of this blog. Sue received it in turn from her mother in Albion, Michigan, a bastion of rhubarb almost as strong as my own western Massachusetts.
 
Their cake is excellent for supper or even for breakfast. The marshmallows (yes, marshmallows!) tone down the tartness of the rhubarb, and the cake is substantial without being over heavy.
 

Before I get to the recipe, I’d like to remind readers that I have several other rhubarb recipes on this blog, including cole slaw, crumble, salsa, and soda. And then there’s the rhubarb baked Alaska….

 
Michigan Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake
 
Ingredients:
 
for the topping:
 
3 cups rhubarb (1/2-inch chunks)
3/4 cup sugar
10 large marshmallows, cut in half
 
for the cake:
 
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1-3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 10-inch iron skillet, and arrange the rhubarb pieces in the bottom. (If you don’t have a 10-inch skillet, use an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan.) Sprinkle the sugar on top, followed by the marshmallows.
 
For the cake cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Add the baking powder and salt. Stir in the flour alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the vanilla, and pour the batter over the rhubarb mixture.
 
Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center (but not too far down; don’t hit the rhubarb!) comes out clean, about 50 minutes. If the cake is brown but not done before this happens, decrease the oven temperature and continue baking.
 
Allow the cake to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife, and invert the cake onto a serving plate held over the skillet. Turn upside down. Remove skillet.
 

Serve alone or with whipped cream. Serves 12.


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Let Them Eat Birthday Cake (Part II)

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

My favorite young goalie makes a save at the Verizon Center.

 
My nephew Michael loves to play and watch hockey. During hockey season he follows the exploits of the Washington Capitals.
 
He has even been known to read the newspaper (which I certainly never did when I was ten) in order to keep up with the latest Caps news.
 
I shudder to think what family life will be like when he realizes that entire chat rooms on the internet are devoted to analyzing the team’s performance on the ice.
 
When Michael’s birthday rolled around last week, his mother Leigh asked me to design a birthday cake that would (a) taste yummy and (b) look like a hockey puck.
 
“A” was not a stretch. All my cakes taste wonderful (probably because I’m so modest).
 
“B” was more challenging. Luckily, I knew I would have Leigh to help. She is much better at presentation than I am.
 
Even with her help the cake was a learning experience! As I mentioned in my recent cupcake post we had a couple of tries to get it right since like royalty Michael enjoyed a public birthday as well as a real one.
 
My concept was a chocolate cake with fudge frosting that would include a moon-pie-like marshmallow filling. (I know this is a bit excessive, but I also know kids love marshmallow filling.)
 
We started out with a pan from Williams-Sonoma with ridged edges, designed to mimic a chocolate sandwich cookie. The cake was adorable, but the ridges made it difficult to frost.
 
Even when we used a straightforward round cake pan we had a little trouble with the filling, which tended to melt and ooze when confronted with warm frosting.
 

 
Our solution was to refrigerate the cake and filling—and to make sure that the filling didn’t go all the way to the edge of the cake.
 
For one version of the cake we added butter to the frosting (you’ll see I’ve marked it as optional in the recipe). The butter made it possible to frost the cake later in the life of the frosting—that is, when the frosting was almost cool. It made the frosting a little less fudgy, however. This didn’t bother me, but Leigh was disappointed.
 
You may ice your cake either way. Frankly, delicious as both versions were, I don’t want to see another chocolate cake for a long time. It’s all yours now, dear readers…… 
 
 
Washington Capitals Puck Cake
 
For the Cake:
 
Ingredients:
 
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 squares (1 ounce each) baking chocolate
3/4 cup hot water
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, followed by the baking powder and soda.
 
Melt the chocolate in the hot water. Add the flour to the mixture alternately with the milk. Stir in the chocolate and hot water. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans (you may use 8-inch pans, but 9-inch pans look more puck like), and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing them from the pans. Allow them to cool completely before frosting.
 
For the Filling:
 
Ingredients:
 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow cream
 
Instructions:
 
Beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Fold in the marshmallow cream.
 
For the Frosting:
 
Ingredients:
 
2 cups sugar
4 squares (1 ounce each) baking chocolate
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla
 
Instructions:
 
Place the sugar, chocolate, eggs, milk, and butter (if you are using it) in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
 
Cool the mixture for about 15 minutes. (If you use the butter, you may wait an hour before you use the frosting.)
 
For Assembly:
 
Ingredients:
 
2 layers of cake
filling
icing (you may have a little of this leftover, or you may skip the filling and use the icing between layers)
additional colored icing of your choice for decorating the puck
 
Instructions:
 
Bake the cake and allow it to cool completely. Assemble the filling, and spread it on the bottom layer of the cake. Do not go quite all the way to the edge of the cake. Refrigerate both layers, separately, lightly covered with foil to keep them from drying out.
 
Make the frosting. When it has cooled sufficiently to be usable assemble the cake layers and quickly but firmly spoon and spread the icing over the cake. Return the cake to the refrigerator until ready to decorate.
 
Decorate just before serving. Serves at least 10. 

Here are a couple of our experiments......

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