A Break From Cake: Better Blueberry Muffins

I do love my go to blueberry muffin recipe, but I will admit it does have one serious flaw: Not every bite of muffin contains a blueberry. Adding enough blueberries to achieve a taste of berry goodness in every bite would probably seriously mess with the chemistry of the recipe. So, I looked to The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook for a recipe that maximized the blueberry to muffin ratio.

As usual, the Test Kitchen did not disappoint! Their trick to upping the blueberry quotient in the muffins is to make and add a blueberry jam. Genius! The swirl of blueberry jam provides a taste of berry in just about every bite.

My husband, John, loves blueberry muffins and I made this version to serve him this past Father's Day. He loved them! The leftovers also freeze well and John was quite disappointed that my daughter Cadence and I polished off the rest of the batch in the following weeks. We just couldn't resist, they are so yummy!

I made just a few tweaks to the recipe. First, I eliminated the Lemon-Sugar Topping. I find blueberry muffins to be sweet enough as is so I never add extra sugar although most recipes do suggest a topping. Lastly, I used frozen blueberries, instead of the suggested fresh ones, because that is what we had in the house at the time.

Making the blueberry jam does add another step to the muffin making process, but I promise, it is very worth it!

Blueberry Muffins
Slightly Adapted from America's Test

2 cups blueberries
1 tsp sugar plus 1 1/8 cups
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Adjust and oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a standard-sized muffin pan with vegetable spray. Bring 1 cup of the blueberries and 1 teaspoon of the sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing the berries with a spoon several times and stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. I used frozen berries to make the jam and they produced a substantial amount of water. I made a paste of flour and water and slowly added it and stirred it in at the end of the cooking process. Transfer to a smal bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and the eggs together in a medium bowl until thick and homogenous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg mixture and remaining 1 cup blueberries into the flour mixture until just moistened (the butter will be very lumpy with a few spots of dry flour, do not overmix.)

Using a 1/3-cup measure or an ice cream scoop (I prefer the ice-cream scoop), divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin cups (the batter should completely fill the cups and mound slightly). Spoon 1 teaspoon of the cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter. Using a chopstick (this is what I used and it worked great) or skewer, gently swirl the berry filling into the batter using a figure-eight motion.

Bake until the muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before serving.

A Break From Cake: Homemade Fudge Popsicles.

When I saw the recipe for these homemade fudgesicles on the Smitten Kitchen blog I knew I had to make them. It has been an absolutely scorching summer in Atlanta and I knew these would make a nice cool treat for my three-year-old daugther, Cadence, that incorporated her new favorite flavor: chocolate.

I had just purchased some 2oz BabySteps Frozen Treat Trays and they were the perfect size for a little after dinner treat for a pre-schooler. I followed the tip given by Smitten Kitchen blogger, Deb, and used wooden popsicle sticks instead of the plastic holders that come with the trays. These pops were so creamy and chocolately that the plastic stick surely would have been gnawed on to get every last yummy taste. Yes, I made these for my daughter, but I HAD to have one for the purposes of writing an accurate review of the recipe, you know!

I had only fat free milk in the house, so I substituted that for the whole milk called for by the recipe. Whole milk would make these even creamier, but I found the low-fat version to be delicious as well.

Very Slightly Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Fudge Popsicles

2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon  cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups skim milk
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon pure Mexican vanilla
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

In the bottom of a medium saucepan over very low heat, gently melt the chocolate chips, stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk and salt and raise heat to medium. Cook mixture, stirring frequently until it thickens, anywhere between 5 minutes and 10 (it took mine 7 minutes to thicken).

Remove from heat, add vanilla and butter and stir until combined.

Set aside to cool slightly then pour into popsicle molds. Freeze 30 minutes, then insert popsicle sticks. Freeze the rest of the way before serving.

A Break from Cake: Blueberry Oat Bars

In my house, we love berries! With strawberries and blueberries at their best this time of year, I have been easily tempted into trying several new recipes that incorporate them. I have already shared my strawberry cake. These Blueberry Oat Bars were another attempt to get some fresh berry lovliness into a baked good.

One morning as I was about to make some oatmeal with fresh blueberries mixed in, it occured to me that the blueberry oat combo would likely be delicious in bar form. I did a quick Google search to see if anyone out there thought the same thing, and wouldn't you know it, Starbucks makes Blueberry Oat Bars! I guess I am not that original.

I used this copycat recipe with just a few tweaks. I could not unearth my Quaker Instant Oats in my overcrowded pantry, so I had to settle for instant steel cut oats. I was worried that the change of ingredient would ruin the recipe, but the steel cut oats gave the bars more of a granola texture which I enjoyed. Just make sure yo use instant steel cut oats if you go this route. Also the recipe says to bake the bottom crust 10 minutes, but I let mine go 15 until it began to brown.

I did follow the recipe's instructions and put 3/4 of the oat mixture on the bottom. If I make this again I will divide the oat mixture evenly between the bottom and top crusts. I found the bottom layer to be quite a bit too thick.

Overall, these were a nice morning treat with some coffee and were a great way to get that fresh berry fix!

Classic Cakes: Strawberry Cake

Many of the cooking blogs I frequent talk about cooking "seasonal meals". There is less opportunity to be seasonal in baking. After all, chocolate, vanilla and even carrot cake are good pretty much all year round, right?

With berry season upon us, I thought this strawberry cake was the perfect way to use delicious, sweet, in-seasaon strawberries in a cake recipe. It was a bit difficult to find a strawberry cake recipe that read like it would turn out well. None of my tried and true sources (The Cake Bible , America's Test Kitchen) had one. So, I turned to an internet search, and this time it yielded a beauty!

A conversation on chowhound.com pointed me to this recipe on The Baking Pan website. This recipe incorporates a strawberry puree into a light and fluffy vanilla cake. The cake is accented by a light strawberry cream frosting. The combination creates a cake that just melts in your mouth. Just to reassure you that I am not exaggerating, I will tell you that I brought this cake into the office to share with my co-workers, and more than one person used an expletive to describe how good it was!

I followed the recipe pretty much as it is published here. The only change I made was to the frosting. I found it a bit sweet for my taste so I increased the amount of softened butter to about 1 1/2 cups to up the creaminess quotient a bit.

If you love cake, and you love strawberries, this cake is a must make while the berries are at peak season freshness!

Classic Cakes: Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

What I am about to post here today is an amazing discovery that I should most likely file away in my personal secret recipe box. However, because I am feeling generous, and because the search that finally brought me to this Mecca of chocolate cake took the better part of a decade, I would like to share.

There are a few die-hard chocolate cake lovers among my group of friends. I have often wanted to surprise them with a great chocolate cake on their birthdays but all the chocolate cake recipes I tried in the past have left me disappointed. Most scratch chocolate cakes come out dense and lack that moist choclately goodness that true chocolate lovers crave. So, to prevent the passing on of my disappointment to my chocolate afficiando friends, I have avoided making them chocolate cakes.

I tried this particular recipe for my brother and father-in-laws birthdays and was astounded at how great it turned out. The cake has a rich chocolate flavor, but is still light and moist. The frosting is a devine fluffy chocolate buttercream. Both recipes are adapted from America's Test Kitchen. The cake recipe called for unsweetened chocolate and I substituted bittersweet. I recommend using the Ghiradelli baking bars. Also, America's Test Kitchen published a different frosting recipe with this cake, but it was more complicated to make. To be honest, I like the melt-in-your-mouth quality of this chocolate buttercream a bit better anyway.

I was talking with my Grandma about this cake and she said her mother handed her down an excellent recipe for chocolate cake. She thought it was peculiar that the recipe called for soured milk. This makes me believe the buttermilk is the secret ingredient in this cake. Unfortunately, my Grandma can't find her mother's recipe, but this one turns out quite well too.

I liked this so well that I made a second cake as a late birthday surprise for my friend Rahul. He enjoyed it, and I hope you do too!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped coarse
1/4 cup cocoa powder (recipe calls for Dutch processed but it came out fine with regular Hershey's)
1/2 cup hot water
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft

Frosting

(I tripled the original recipe and it makes enough to generously frost the cake with a bit leftover)

3 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
Pinch of table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces of semisweet chocolate
4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate

For the Cake:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 9 inch cake pans by lining with a circle of wax or parchment paper and spraying with Baker's Joy spray.

Combine the chocolate, cocoa powder, and hot water in a medium heatproof bowl set over a saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir until thick and glossy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside to cool.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs and yolks on medium-low seed until combined, about 10 seconds. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, increase the speed to high, and whisk until fluffy and lightened in color, 2 to 3 minutes. Replace the whisk with the paddle attachment. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg-sugar mixture and mix on medium speed until thouroughly incorporated, 30 to 45 seconds, pausing to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the softened butter 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing about 10 seconds after each addition. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by half of the buttermilk mixture, mixing until incorporated after each addition. Repeat using half of the remaining flour mixture and all of the remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until the batter is thouroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly between prepared pans.

Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached 25 to 30 minutes.

For the Frosting:

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add the confectioners' sugar and salt and beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until the mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape down the bowl, add the vanilla extractm and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the melted and cooled chocolate. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice.

Valentine's Day Ice Cream Cake

For Valentine's Day I decided to make a sweet for my sweets. It pains me to say this, but my husband John and daughter Cadence don't really like traditional cake. So for Valentine's Day, instead of one of the usual treats I make, I went with something I knew they would love; ice cream cake!

To make this cake I used a combination of this Dairy Queen icecream cake recipe and this recipe.

Ingredients

1 half gallon of vanilla ice cream
1 half gallon of strawberry ice cream (you can use the flavors you like best)
1 package of Oreo cookies or similar with the cream centers removed (I used Publix brand)
1/2 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 8oz tub of cool whip
gel food coloring in the color of your choice

Line the bottom of two 8 inch cake pans with a circle of wax paper. Set the flavor of ice cream you will be working with first on the counter to soften a bit. When it is a workable consistency fill one of the pans completely with the flavor ice cream you want on the bottom of your cake. I chose strawberry. Smooth the ice cream with a cake spatula.

Place the full cake pan of icecream back in the freezer.

Next, scoop the cream centers out of the Oreo cookies and discard. Crush the cookies in a food processor and put the crumbs in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the 1/2 cup of Hershey syrup.

Meanwhile, set out the second flavor of ice cream to soften. This will be the flavor you want on the top of the cake. I used the vanilla. When the ice cream has softened, fill the pan half way with the ice cream and then top with the cookie crumb mixture. Place the cake pan back in the freezer.

Let the two layers set up in the freezer for several hours.

Working with the bottom layer first (I used strawberry), run warm water over your cake spatula and sweep it all around the edge of the pan. Then dip the entire cake pan in a bowl of warm water. Turn the layer over onto a ten inch cardboard cake round. Immediately set the cake round and first layer of ice cream in the freezer to firm up.

After a few hours remove the first layer and the cake pan containing the top layer from the freezer. Repeat the steps above to unmold the top layer from the pan and turn it over on top of the bottom layer.

Place the Cool Whip in a bowl and add a few drops of gel food coloring. Mix in the color.

When the cake has firmed up, remove it and decorate it with the Cool Whip icing.

Monkey Baby Shower Cake for Sarah and Randy

My husband John's little sister Sarah and her husband Randy are expecting a baby girl later this month and we couldn't be more thrilled for them. We were honored to host their baby shower over the weekend and I was very excited to create this cake in the same theme as their nursery bedding: monkies!