Chocolate Prune Cake

This cake has lots of dried plums – better known as prunes – and it’s moist, tender and delicious.  Prunes are so tasty and, well, underrated. When you mention prunes, invariably someone laughs and/or makes a face and/or says, “Ewwwww.”  This was true last Friday when I gave my son and his good friend, Jamie, a loaf of the cake for their sleep over and Jamie made a face and couldn’t stop laughing about the prunes. *sigh …Gotta love boys!

I’m a fan of incorporating dried fruit wherever I can – cookies, cakes, granola. There are 5 Sweet & Simple oatmeal cookie flavors with dried fruit: Raisin, Cherry, Date, Cranberry White Chocolate and Apricot. Oatmeal Date is my favorite and the toughest to sell. Prunes are a tough sell as well, but I promise you will not regret making this cake.

And what to call this cake? Prune Spice Cake? Chocolate Prune Spice Cake? I decided on Chocolate Prune Cake figuring I would get a few more takers if I mentioned chocolate from the get go. Also, it’s not a super duper spice cake – just a teaspoon of cinnamon and a touch of ginger.

As far as the chocolate in this recipe, treat yourself to a great bar of semi-sweet chocolate and chop up the 4 ounces. If you choose to use chocolate morsels, make sure you chop ‘em, too! Basically, you don’t want big chocolate chunks/morsels, you want well chopped chocolate distributed evenly in the cakes.  The only chunks should be the chopped prunes.

This recipe is another from my grandma’s recipe box (with some minor adjustments) and really my kind of “thing”: simple ingredients and simple methods that result in a great cake. My kids like it, too! Jamie? Not so much. But he loves my cookies and that’s good enough for me!

Chocolate Prune Cake

Makes 2 cakes/loaves (about 1.9 lbs each)

Preheat oven to 350°

Butter and line with parchment, two 9” x 4” loaf pans.

(If you want to use a veg oil cooking spray, I won’t tell)

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

2 1/2 cups/313 grams/11 ounces cake flour (preferably King Arthur unbleached cake flour)

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup/225 grams/8 ounces (2 sticks) butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup/219 grams/8 ounces prunes coarsely chopped

1/2 cup/113 grams/4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped

1 cup/227 grams/8 ounces low fat plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla

Sugar for sprinkling on top of loaves (optional)

Combine with a whisk then sift together all dry ingredients and set aside.

In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and beat until light and fluffy again.

Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add prunes and chopped chocolate and beat well.

Scrape down sides of bowl.

Combine yogurt and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Add flour alternately with yogurt mixture, beginning and ending with flour.

Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans, sprinkle the top of each loaf lightly with sugar (optional), and bake at 350° for one hour or until a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs attached. 

Let cakes rest in pans for 10 minutes then remove them to finish cooling on a rack.

Remember to remove the parchment before slicing and serving!

Cocoa Angel Food Cake

Just in the knick of time, here I am slipping in my April #baketogether entry. I resisted, but just barely, the temptation to lemon up Abby’s gorgeous Tangerine Angel Food Cake. You may have figured by now out that lemon is my not-so-secret-weapon in the kitchen - lemon and Worcestershire sauce, but that’s a story for another day.

Love the touch of cocoa in my version and the bit of extra vanilla. It’s a pretty, pale color and looks lovely with the strawberries, doesn't it? 

But what’s not to love about angel food cake in any flavor? Or color? I'm thinking of a pale pink  angel food cake <swoon>. Just yesterday I learned that India Tree has a line of natural food dyes (they use only vegetable colorants) and I would like to try them out on angel food cakes, for sure.

Do you like angel food cake? Do you have a fav recipe? Please tell me in the comments section. 

And, if you are even thinking about joining #baketogether in May, please do! 

Traditional, simple and delicious. I'm a fan!

Cocoa Angel Food Cake 

Makes 1 10-inch cake or about 12 servings.

Preheat oven to 350º
One 10 x 4 angel food cake pan
(if your pan doesn’t have cute little feet to support it while cooling the cake, have ready a bottle or funnel to hold the pan in a level, upside-down position. Make sure to test this before your cake comes out of the oven.)

For the cake:


1 cup (4 ounces) cake flour

1 1/4 cup (5 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch baking soda
Pinch table salt

11 large (1 1/3 cups) egg whites, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup (7 ounces) superfine sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

To make the cake:

Sift (I use a sieve) together the flour, confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt three times onto a sheet of parchment, waxed paper or foil and set aside.

In the work bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, increasing speed to medium, and beat until whites are opaque and climbing about half way up the bowl (the tracks from the whisk will be beginning to hold their shape) forming very soft peaks. Continue beating while slowly and continuously adding the superfine sugar in a slow steady stream. Beat on medium high until the whites are thick, shiny and form medium-firm, fluffy peaks. (The peaks should droop over gently.) Do not over beat. You want to leave some room for those whites to expand in the oven. Add the vanilla. Beat just until blended, about 10 seconds.

Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the beaten whites. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the whites. Repeat with remaining flour mixture, one quarter at a time.

Using the spatula to gently coax the batter, pour evenly into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top. Bake until the cake is light golden brown and the cake is springy when touched, about 40 minutes. Immediately invert the pan onto the counter if the pan has feet or if it doesn’t, invert the pan sliding the center tube onto the neck of the bottle. Let cool completely.

To remove the cake, rotate the pan, gently tapping the bottom edge of the cake pan on the counter as you turn it until the cake loosens from the pan. If necessary, run a long, thin knife between the cake and the pan and around the inside of the tube to loosen the cake. Slip the cake from the pan and gently lift it up from the center of the pan and arrange on a flat serving plate.

Cut the cooled cake using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. (Or, if your mother-in-law gave you an angel food cake knife when you got engaged – Ahem! That would be me – by all means break it out.)

Serve slices of cake with fresh fruit, fruit sauce (or compote) and whipped cream.

Coconut Cake with Chocolate Espresso Sauce

The original recipe for this post is from Paci Restaurant in Southport, Connecticut. I love Paci's Coconut Cake so much that I wrote to Gourmet for it in July, 2000. I was pregnant, out of work, and apparently had a lot of time on my hands.  I'm pretty sure if I had called, and asked nicely, they would have shared the recipe. Bob Patchen and his wife, Donna, are two of the nicest people in the entire universe. But I was SO excited to be "published" in Gourmet magazine I can hardly tell you. I blame it on pregnancy hormones and, of course, REALLY loving their coconut cake. You should make it - their version or mine. Honestly, I love both!

 Just out of the oven - golden brown!

My own version has some minor adjustments, a little less sugar, a little more vanilla and sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened (available at most health food stores).


Coconut Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Serves 10-12

2 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) (225 grams) unsalted butter

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs 

1 cup (8.6 ounces) whole milk

1 1/2 cups (135 grams) sweetened, flaked coconut

Grease a 10- by 2-inch round cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment.  Grease paper and dust pan with flour, knocking out excess. Or, if you are in a hurry, use a cooking spray.

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In the work bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter with sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy.

Add vanilla, then beat in eggs, 1 at a time. (Mixture may look curdled.)

Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk in 3 batches on low speed. Begin and end with flour mixture.

Increase speed to medium and beat batter 1 1/2 minutes, or until smooth. Fold in coconut.

Spoon batter into cake pan and spread evenly with a butter knife or small offset spatula. Bang pan once or twice on counter to remove any air bubbles that may have formed.

Bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Cool cake in pan on a rack 1 hour, then invert onto rack. Remove paper and reinvert onto another rack to cool completely.

Serve with Chocolate Espresso Sauce (recipe follows and is a modified Paci recipe as well).

My version, with a little puddle of Chocolate Espresso Sauce.

Chocolate Espresso Sauce

Yield: 1 1/2+ cups

6 ounces espresso

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream

12 ounces best quality semi-sweet chocolate 

In a small sauce pan over medium heat add espresso and sugar and cook to reduce by half.

Bring mixture to room temperature. When cool, whisk in vanilla.

In a double boiler over simmering water (I don't own a double boiler and instead use a stainless bowl that fits in a  medium size soup pot), melt semi-sweet chocolate with heavy cream. When melted, remove from heat and gently whisk in espresso mixture. 

This sauce is best used immediately or gently rewarmed prior to serving.

Sweet & Simple Apple Cake

It's fall and time for apple recipes!  Thank you to my baker friend, Jennifer, for giving me the recipe I used as a starting point for this post: Teresa Apple Cake Supreme. Any recipe with “supreme” in the title has got to be a good place to start, right?

The original recipe has more sugar, more cinnamon and a generous dose of orange juice. I reduced the sugar and cinnamon, omitted the orange juice altogether, and added unsweetened applesauce and vanilla bean. The result is a not-too-sweet cake that lets the apples shine and highlights my favorite flavor – vanilla. Vanilla beans are expensive and it’s always a treat to bake with them for family and friends. And isn’t the smell of a vanilla bean out of this world?

If you haven’t split and scraped a vanilla bean, it’s simple: Make sure your paring knife is sharp. Working carefully, split the bean down the middle, scrape down the sides, getting all the little vanilla bits.  It’s worth it to watch a brief vanilla bean tutorial – click here for an excellent one. 

What I love about the recipe – the original and mine – is how easily it pulls together. The only time consuming part is peeling, coring and slicing the apples which I  find relaxing, especially with a cup of coffee or tea and the kids stealing apple slices as I work.

A note about pans for this Apple Cake. I tried a springform, a Bundt and a 13x9 Pyrex glass baking dish. The 13x9 pan gave me the best results – uniform color and crisp-but-not-hard edges. And, at home, I always rotate my pan(s) halfway thru baking for best results.

Sweet & Simple Apple Cake

Serves 10-12

Preheat oven to 350°.

Prepare a 13 x9 glass baking dish by lightly greasing it. Set aside.

Cake:

3 (405 grams) cups AP flour

2 (400 grams) cups sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 large eggs

1 cup (215 grams) vegetable oil

1/2 (123 grams) cup unsweetened applesauce

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Apples:

6 cups (1,020 grams) apples sliced thin (I use Granny Smith)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 vanilla bean, scraped*

  

Toss the apple slices with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla bean. Set aside.

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine dry and wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. If there are any dry crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, gently work them in with you hands.

Take half the cake batter and spread in the bottom the prepared 13-x9 glass baking dish, using a butter knife or small offset spatula to spread the batter evenly in the pan. Take half the apple mixture and spread evenly over the batter. Repeat.

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for approx. 1 hour.  When the cake is done, the apples on top will be wilted and lightly browned and the cake will be set in the middle. Let cake cool in the pan.

Serve warm from the oven, room temp or cool from the fridge. I prefer this cake after it has had a chance to sit – I like to bake one after dinner for breakfast the next day! Just before serving, if you wish, dust the cake with powdered sugar. Or, dust each piece individually with powdered sugar just before serving. For a homey dessert, try the Apple Cake with, a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mmmm. Enjoy!

*If you prefer not to use a vanilla bean, increase the vanilla in the cake to 2 1/2 tsp.

Apples in Vermont, September 2011

Sweet & Simple Spice Cake

I have a weakness for vintage cookbooks. They’re just fun.  SO fun.  For this blog post, I decided to give a recipe from a vintage cookbook a whirl.  The recipe, for an old-fashioned spice cake, was inspired by Green Mountain Kitchen Recipes (Elizabeth McWhorter, 1948).  I found this spiral bound collection of recipes in a community thrift shop in Vermont last winter. It has sweet illustrations and several wonderful recipes – and it cost a $1.

Some vintage recipes take a matter-of-fact-no-hand-holding approach with the reader. For example, Ms. McWhorter’s instructions for this cake: “Mixed and baked by the conventional method, the cake calls for the following ingredients…” The ingredients are then listed and the baker is expected – expected! – to know in what order to mix the ingredients and how to bake the cake. Yikes! 



Sure, sure, you and I both know to cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, add the molasses and then alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients. Of course we do! But a jumble of ingredients with no instructions may as well be a description of my pantry.  So, I’ve made sense of the original recipe, tweaked it here and there [Hello, touch of nutmeg! Hello, orange zest!], and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Sweet & Simple Spice Cake*

Makes one lovely bundt cake

Preheat oven to 350°

Prepare a 10” bundt or tube pan (butter and lightly flour the pan, shaking off the excess flour). Alternately, you may coat the pan with a no-stick vegetable oil cooking spray (I won’t tell).

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

1 cup (225 g) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (112 g) unsalted butter

5 large eggs

1/2 cup (170 g) molasses

1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk

2 tsp orange zest

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups (338g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated is best)

1/4 tsp salt

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.

Combine buttermilk, vanilla and orange zest and set aside.

In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, combine butter and sugar and beat well (the mixture will look like a grainy paste). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down bowl twice. With the mixer on low speed, add the molasses in a slow, steady stream.  Scrape down bowl again. Beat until well combined. The mixture will look a little soupy at this point.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk/vanilla/orange zest, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until cake bounces back when pressed lightly, and/or a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then unmold and finish cooling the cake on a wire rack.

To finish the cake, when cool dust lightly with powdered sugar. Serve slices with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Garnish with an edible flower or a pretty, slim slice of orange or both!

*Note: my Sweet & Simple Spice Cake recipe originally appeared as a guest post for The Fat Expat - a fun blog with interesting peeps and clever writing.