THE BEWITCHING KITCHEN TURNS FIVE!

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!
UPDATE: time’s up, comments shutdown for this post

It’s been five years and 688 posts. I enjoyed blogging from the beginning, and then it got better as the years passed. Now I’m more relaxed about it, I suppose. Looking back, I went through a few phases that are maybe not obvious to you. For instance, in the second year I became slightly obsessed with getting special serving dishes, plates and small bowls “for the blog.” I also flirted with the idea of a fancy camera and photography classes, until I realized that’s not what my blog should be about. I assembled all the extra stuff, donated it, and felt great. Our life has little to do with perfectly set tables and carefully placed food props. “…not that there’s anything wrong with that!” 😉

The Bewitching Kitchen revolves around our desire to eat well while working jobs that demand our full attention, even beyond the daily 9-to-5. So, most stuff I post reflects the need for simple dishes that are reasonably quick to prepare, but flavorful and fun to eat. I have neither goals nor expectations for the blog, except to keep it going as long as I enjoy it. If this site can motivate busy people to cook, eat well, and – I bet you knew this was coming – exercise often, so much the better!

Five years went by so quickly. This blogging milestone demanded that I face my own cooking demons. I baked a cake! What’s even more amazing is that it involved creaming TWO types of sugar with butter. Can you imagine that? It will take me a while to recover …

APPLE SPICE BUNDT CAKE WITH RUM GLAZE
(slightly modified from Alton Brown, Best Thing I Ever Made)

for the cake:
12 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for the pan
15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground grains of paradise
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground star anise
8 ounces granulated sugar
7 ounces light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Granny Smith apples, about 8 ounces each, 1/4-inch dice
3 ounces walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 ounces crystallized ginger, finely chopped

for the glaze:
6 ounces powdered sugar
4 teaspoons dark rum
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a Bundt pan and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and spices together in a large bowl.

Combine the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using the paddle attachment, beat on medium until the mixture is pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Whisk together the eggs and vanilla and slowly add, with the mixer on low-speed, to the butter and sugar. Add the flour one-third at a time and beat on low just until combined after each addition. Stir in the apples, pecans and ginger.

Transfer the batter to the prepared bundt pan; the batter is thick and will almost fill the pan. Bake for 75 minutes, rotating the pan after 30 minutes. The cake is done when it pulls away from the sides of the pan, springs back when pressed and the internal temperature reaches 205 degrees F.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Invert and remove the cake from the pan. Cool completely on the rack before glazing.

Combine the powdered sugar, rum and 1 tablespoon water in a small mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Pour the glaze onto the bundt cake and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Let the glaze set for at least 30 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This cake was part of the show “Best Thing I Ever Made” on FoodTV Network a few years ago. Ever since I watched that episode and listened to Alton Brown describe his rationale behind the recipe, I wanted to make it. First, I love a cake that goes in the direction of speculoos with all those delicious spices. And this cake had two things that appealed even more to me: the inclusion of grains of paradise, and the omission of cinnamon. Grains of paradise (shown on the top left of the composite photo) have a very unique flavor, so I was quite intrigued by their use in this cake. And cinnamon is so common when apple cakes are concerned, that NOT having it immediately called my attention. In fact, Alton made a specific point of not adding cinnamon to the batter, to avoid taking his masterpiece in the direction of apple pie. Brilliant move!

The whole thing works beautifully together, just as he promised: chunks of apple permeate the cake, a tender crunch of walnuts (he used pecans, by the way), and the assertive crunch of crystallized ginger. The delicate shell of the icing with rum (barely noticeable) is perked up by the sprinkle of turbinado sugar, not to be omitted… For my taste, this cake is close to perfection. I did not have that many issues to bake it, which is a bit unusual. Ok, later I had to wash some dried up cake batter from my right eyebrow, but that’s nothing compared to what cake baking has done to me in the past. Still, below you see a photo of the state of our kitchen midway through this labor of love. Trust me, I never make this mess, only when I’m working on a cake. It is absolutely pathetic. Please notice the place I chose for resting the bowl with all the flour. Why would I pick the most unstable place ever? Let’s not waste time trying to understand it. It is cake. And it is me. Capisci?

And now… GIVEAWAY TIME! I am so thrilled to celebrate my 5th year in the blogosphere that I am offering two gifts. First, a wooden board beautifully crafted by Michael (link to his site), who has been featured on IMK in the recent past. He was actually quite busy with some trips but managed to make time in his schedule to have this board ready for my giveaway. Thank you, Michael!

The second gift, is a copy of the latest cookbook by David Lebovitz, My Paris Kitchen…. If you are familiar with his style, you’ll know this book is a must-have. Paris is obviously a place very dear to my heart, it’s where Phil and I met, and where we spent a sabbatical year together later. Visiting often is not possible, but cooking French food is one way to keep the memories alive. This book is a virtual passport to the city we love. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post.

Everyone is welcome to enter, I will draw two names on July 1st, 2014 an announce the winners right then. Entries will close on June 30rd at midnight. Good luck, and a big thank you for all who make the interactions in comments, private emails, and Facebook so much fun! I invite you all to join me in the journey of my 6th Bewitching year! There will be bread, sous-vide, and pies. There will be macarons, dog tales, and when the mood strikes, pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups. Maybe this will be the year I get to finally conquer the crane pose that I’ve been working on for as long as I’ve been blogging….

It’s the road that matters, not the destination. I firmly believe that. 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns Four!

TWO YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen Turns Three!

THREE YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns Two!

FOUR YEARS AGO: Bewitching Birthday!

FIVE YEARS AGO: Welcome to my blog!

18Jun2011

BEWITCHING KITCHEN TURNS TWO!

Posted in Desserts by sallybr

Two years of blogging! Forgive the cliche’, but it does seem like yesterday. 😉 I’m a few days late for my own party, mainly because the move home wasn’t trouble free. Our internet and cable services needed some tweaking, and then a tree fell on our bedroom roof during a hail storm! We certainly can’t complain for lack of excitement!

And what’s more exciting than Sally baking a layered cake? My adrenaline level went sky-high, but, in the name of my blog anniversary, I grabbed my wooden spoons and marched with cautious optimism to the Kitchen Aid. Things quickly went downhill, but I managed to make the cake!

TUXEDO CAKE
(from The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather)

For the cake batter:
4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 cups water
4 large eggs

For the whipped cream filling and frosting:
4 cups chilled whipping (heavy) cream
1¼ cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar

For the chocolate glaze:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
½ cup whipping (heavy) cream
¼ cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350^o degrees F. Prepare three 9-inch cake pans: lightly grease the pans with butter, line with parchment paper and then lightly grease the top of the parchment paper and dust with flour.
In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt; whisk together to mix. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan combine butter, oil, and water. Heat over low heat until the butter is melted, stirring often. Pour the butter mixture into the sugar mixture. Using a Kitchen Aid type mixer on low speed, stir or whisk until combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula so the mixture blends evenly. Add the eggs, one a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Finally, add the buttermilk and the vanilla extract, stirring well until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place pans on a rack to cool for 10 to 15 minutes then remove cake from the pans and place the cake on the wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the whipping cream until soft mounds form; gradually add the powdered sugar, continue beating until thick and stiff.
Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Using an offset spatula thickly spread some of the whipped cream over the top. Top with the remaining cake layers, coating the top of each with the whipped cream, and then covering the sides of the cake. Spread the cream as smooth as possible over the top and sides. Refrigerate the cake at least one hour to stabilize the whipped cream before glazing.

Chocolate Glaze:
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a small heavy saucepan over medium low heat, heat the cream until it is hot and just beginning to steam. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted. Add Lyle’s Golden Syrup and vanilla, stirring until completely mixed. Pour the chocolate mixture into a measuring cup with a pouring spout and let the glaze cool for 10 minutes, no longer than that. Slowly pour the glaze over the cake. Cover the top of the cake entirely, letting some of the glaze drizzle down the sides, and allowing some of the whipped cream show through the drizzles around the side of the cake. Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least one hour.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: When I baked my first layer cake last year I had problems with small differences in the diameter of my 9-inch pans. Now that I am one year smarter, I took one of my pans to the store and bought siblings pans of the exact same size. After a deep breath I opened the book and got started preparing the pans and the batter.

Keep in mind that this is enough batter for three layers of cake. In other words, it’s A LOT of batter. The Kitchen Aid was almost full, and pretty heavy. I poured some batter in the first pan, the second pan, the third pan. I was filling each one a little more when the bowl slipped from my hands into the center of one of the half-full pans! Chocolate batter splashed everywhere, onto everything in its path, including my laptop’s charger (that had no business being on the countertop, what was I thinking?), the bag of flour, the carton of eggs… the list goes on. I confess to some pretty crass language that would extremely disappoint my mother.

The pans went in the oven, I cleaned up the kitchen chaos, and while washing my feet and flip-flops I told myself that only a good night’s sleep would purge my cake demons and prepare me for phase 2: the FROSTING.

What can possibly go wrong with whipped cream? In theory, not much, especially because I make it so often. But, because this was intended to frost a cake, I immediately spilled the whipping cream as I poured it in the bowl, making a big mess. My quick cleaning was apparently not thorough enough, requiring the additional help that you see here, from our puppy Oscar. Our other dog Chief, who’s been with us for 12 years, disappears from the kitchen whenever I bake, so Oscar went at it alone.

Apart from those “issues,” the frosting and the icing went smoothly. I decided to reduce the cake to two layers because it’s already so caloric. Three layers is just too much for us, in my humble opinion. However, it tasted incredibly good: rich, chocolatey and succulent, so if you have a special occasion to celebrate, make this baby and get ready for the compliments… 😉

Now let’s have some fun on this anniversary celebration:
help me pick a cake for next year! Just leave your suggestion in a comment (even if it involves that dreadful “cream sugar with butter step”) and I’ll conduct a random drawing to select my cake challenge for the the blog anniversary in June 2012. You can include a link to a recipe, or just the name of the cake.

Thank you for hanging out with me for these two years of culinary adventures!