Fresh Fruit Please!

A few weeks ago I went to Mississippi for a business trip. It seems that all anyone eats in Mississippi is fried seafood. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fried seafood, but when I got back to Seattle I was craving fresh produce like no other. This led to over purchasing of sexy looking produce aisle items, such as juicy ripe strawberries, which led to this cake. It's simple, it's delicious, it's light, it could be adapted in infinite ways with different fruit. Winner.

Strawberry Cake


6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C plus 2 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1/2 C milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved


Preheat oven to 350 and grease a pie plate. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Beat butter and 1 C sugar in a large bowl together until fluffy. Stir in the egg, milk, and vanilla until just combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Pour into the pie plate and arrange the strawberries cut side down around the plate, pushing into the batter a little bit. I couldn't quite fit the whole pounds worth, but certainly didn't mind eating the extras. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar. 

Ready to bake

Bake for 10 minutes, reduce the oven to 325, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes more. Cool in the pan. I served with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, but fresh whipped cream would be great too.

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Disclaimer: Otis did not aid in any baking activities

I'm house/dog sitting this weekend while my brother and sister-in-law are on a romantic weekend getaway. I've decided to spend a romantic weekend baking with this guy:

My brother had a bag of carrots in the fridge I know he's been trying to use up, so I obviously decided to make cake. This is a great basic carrot cake recipe, which can be amended to include walnuts or raisins or whatever you like.

Carrot Cake

2 C flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

2 C sugar

1 1/4 C vegetable oil

4 eggs

3 cups grated carrots (grated very fine)

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a medium bowl. In a larger bowl, whisk together sugar and oil. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir until combined. Stir in grated carrots (and any nuts or raisins if you're using). Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans and bake for about 40 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Very finely grated carrots makes for very moist cake!

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8 oz. packages cream cheese

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

2 C powdered sugar

1/4 C maple syrup

Blend all ingredients with a hand mixer until thick and creamy. Chill for a few minutes to achieve an easily spreadable consistency.

Kyle's Birthday and a BIG Cake

My baby brother turned 21. Holy shit. I came to Seattle to celebrate, and I made a really huge cake. Guinness chocolate cake with malted milk chocolate frosting (I thought this seemed 21st birthday appropriate). I also pulled out all the stops for this cake, no cut corners. The result was, in my opinion, a pretty beautiful cake.

Guinness Chocolate Cake

1 million servings (not really)

2 C Guinness (or any stout)

2 C butter

1 1/2 C cocoa powder

4 C flour

4 C sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 1/3 C sour cream

Preheat oven to 350. Grease three 8 or 9 inch round pans, line the bottom with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper (I usually skip the parchment paper step, but not surprisingly, it works really well). Melt the butter and Guinness in a pot on the stove over medium heat. When melted and simmering, and the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. In a big bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another big bowl beat together the eggs and sour cream with an electric mixer. Add the chocolate-beer mixture to the eggs and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture, and either beat or fold in with a spatula until combined (my bowl was way too full to use anything but a spatula). Pour the batter in to the three pans, bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Malted Milk Chocolate Frosting

1 lb milk chocolate

1 C heavy cream

1 C malted milk powder

1/4 C light corn syrup

8 tbsps butter at room temperature

Bring the cream to a simmer over medium heat. Add the malted milk powder and whisk until smooth (make sure there are no clumps on the bottom). Put the chocolate in a medium size bowl, and pour the milk over the chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Add the corn syrup and cover with a piece of plastic wrap touching the chocolate. When the chocolate has cooled to room temperature, beat in the butter one tbsp at a time with an electric mixer. (Disclaimer: this resulted in frosting too thin to spread for me, but I also didn't let the butter reach room temp. I added some powdered sugar as a thickener, and also cooled the frosting in the fridge)

October 15 - Seattle: Otis and Baking Edition

Otis Feet - Seattle, WA

Guinness Cakes, Ready - Seattle, WA

(Recipe to come)

Honey Cake

Mmm... the smell of spices coming out of my oven was EXACTLY what I needed on this rainy dreary day. This honey cake reminds me a lot of spice cake, but with a definite honey flavor. Very moist. It was delicious with a dollop (awesome word) of home made spiced whipped cream, but would also be great as a morning snack with a hot cup of coffee.

Honey Cake

(Original recipe from the always delicious, Smitten Kitchen)

3 1/2 C flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsps ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 C vegetable oil

1 C honey

1 1/2 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C warm coffee

1/2 C fresh orange juice

1/4 C whiskey (yep.)

Ok. This makes a LOT of cake. Smitten Kitchen recommends 3 loaf pans OR two 9-inch square pans OR a 9 or 10 inch tube or bundt pan OR a 9 x 13 inch sheet cake. Well. The only pan I had that could fit the whole thing was a bundt pan, but someone thinks bundt pans make for untasty cakes, so I made one 8 x 8 inch cake, one loaf, and 6 cupcakes. Coworkers, prepare your bellies because there will be honey cake in the office probably all week long.

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease your pan(s). Start to make your coffee. (Full disclosure, technically the recipe said coffee or strong tea, but... I can't really understand why anyone would chose tea when coffee is an option. I made strong coffee.)

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Make a well in the middle and fill with the rest of the ingredients. (Tip: measure the oil before the honey, and the honey will come out of the measuring cup easier.) 

Stir together with a whisk to make a thick, well blended batter, with no ingredients stuck to the bottom. Spoon the batter into prepared pans. This is easier to do while not on the phone, btw. Place the cake pans on two cookie sheets stacked on top of each other.

Bake until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the top springs back when you gently touch the center. For me, this took about 35 minutes for the cup cakes and about 65 for the bigger pans. Let cool for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Lesson learned: The cup cakes were a good way to use up the batter that wouldn't fit in the other pans, but they don't form that nice crusty edge which contrasts so well with the moist center, that you'll get from using a larger pan.

Jamie's Thoughts on Whipped Cream:

Don't ever buy whipped cream. Its gross. Ew.

So easy to make as long as you have either a stand mixer or a hand held electrical mixer. Use a ratio of 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to 1 tablespoon powdered sugar. Whip until... you know, it looks like whipped cream. You can flavor with extracts, liquors, spices, etc. For this cake, I flavored with vanilla and cinnamon.