Oat Flour Pumpkin Cake

After Thanksgiving I ended up with about 1/4 cup of leftover pumpkin puree which meant I had to find something to bake with it! Lara and I browsed a few options and ended up picking this oat flour cake. The original was baked in a loaf pan, but we wanted a round cake so we baked it in an 8-inch round cake pan instead without any issues. It just didn’t need to bake quite as long.

The cake itself is incredible tender. It is light and fragrant. Not overly sweet but just enough sweetness and richness (from the almond flour and coconut oil) to turn this simple cake into a satisfying, yet somewhat wholesome dessert. Perfect for a late fall night with a cup of coffee and a candle!

Oat Flour Pumpkin Cake
From Beaming Baker
Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree [I only had about 1/2 cup, 4 oz, pumpkin, so used 4 oz pumpkin + 4 oz Greek yogurt]

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

• 6 tablespoons (120 grams) maple syrup

• 6 tablespoons coconut sugar [I used 4 Tbs brown sugar and it was just fine!]

• 1 flax egg [I used a real egg]

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 cup (180 grams) oat flour [I made my own in a blender, but you can also use store bought]

• 1/2 cup almond flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp salt

• cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch loaf pan with parchment paper or greased foil. Set aside. [I decided to turn this into a snacking cake so I used an 8x2 inch round cake pan instead]

Add the wet ingredients to a large bowl: pumpkin, coconut oil, maple syrup, sugar, flax egg, and vanilla. Whisk until well incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients to the same bowl: oat flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

Whisk as long as you can—the batter will be thick. Switch to folding with a rubber spatula until no flour patches remain. Do not add additional liquids—the batter is meant to be very thick.

Transfer batter into the prepared loaf pan. Using a clean rubber spatula, smooth batter into an even layer, with a gentle rise down the center—mimicking the shape of a perfect loaf. It is important to follow this step for the perfect loaf shape, as the batter will bake up very close to how it looks raw.

Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick into the center of the loaf comes out with a few moist crumbs. [Mine took about 35 minutes in an 8-inch round cake pan]

Glazed Lemon, Yogurt and Olive Oil Pound Cake

I made this cake last week on a whim. I’m almost positive I saw it on Bob’s Red Mill’s Instagram account, and know for a fact that’s where I got the recipe from, but now going back to find it on their website it appears to be gone! Thankfully I found it somewhere else online. And I plan to get my hands on the cookbook itself ASAP! If just came out a few weeks ago and sounds lovely!

The cake itself was lovely! It’s gluten free, and easily dairy free. I used homemade Greek yogurt, but the recipe also states you can use a home made coconut milk yogurt. It really was the easiest thing to make. It took 5 minutes to whisk everything together, then into the pan and into the oven. You can have the whole thing made before the oven is preheated!

I actually was looking for something a little less sweet so I reduced the sugar by 1/2 (dangerous I know…) and it turned out just fine! It didn’t seem to be lacking sugar at all, and the texture was lovely, didn’t seem any worse for the wear. I would definitely make it with less sugar again, and would have no problem serving it this way.

It baked up beautifully. Tender, soft, and not crumbly at all. It held together well without the gluten from traditional flour. I wouldn’t have even guessed it didn’t have wheat flour in it. A lovely cake all around.

Glazed Lemon, Yogurt and Olive Oil Pound Cake
From Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple by Aran Goyoaga
Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar [I used 1/2 cup, 100 g of sugar for a lower sugar option and felt that it turned out great! I would certainly do it with reduced sugar again!]

• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from 2 to 3 medium lemons)

• 1 cup (140g) superfine brown rice flour

• 1 cup (100g) almond flour

• 3 large eggs

• ½ cup (115g) whole-milk yogurt, or any dairy-free yogurt alternative you desire

• ½ cup (110g) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Glaze

• 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar

• 2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios, for topping

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the inside of an 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan with a bit of olive oil.

MAKE THE CAKE: In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. (This helps release the natural lemon oil.) Whisk in the remaining ingredients until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely if you want the glaze to stay thick on top of the cake. If the cake is warm, the glaze will melt and run off.

MAKE THE GLAZE: In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth and lump-free. As you begin to whisk, it might seem too thick, but as the sugar absorbs the juice, the glaze will thin out. The glaze should be pourable but not too runny.

Put a tray or baking sheet under the wire rack and pour the glaze all over the cake, letting it run over the edges. Wait a few minutes for the glaze to set. Sprinkle the top with the pistachios, then serve. The cake will keep at room temperature for 3 days. (If you refrigerate it, the glaze will soften.)

Cardamom Cake

I saw this recipe pop up on Instagram last week, and independently Lara heard the Food52 Genius Recipe podcast about it as well. We both thought it sounded perfect. Simple, elegant, easy. So on my day off (a cool, blustery, kind of wet spring day) I decided to give it a go, and I am very happy that I did! It is super easy, and uses just a few simple ingredients. The final product is gorgeous as well as delicious! The buttery spice from the cardamom (and cinnamon in my version, see changes below) was perfectly balanced. The crunchy topping is a game changer. Don’t skip it.

A nice recipe to keep in the repertoire when you want something elegant, but easy and fast!

I used a 9-inch springform pan as the recipe called for. The instant I put it in the oven the butter started dripping through onto the bottom of the oven. Ended up smelling nice and toasty, but a bit smoky and messy. So although I can’t say it would work well, next time I would probably just use a 9-inch cake pan lined with parchment (I would probably not skip the parchment if going this route. I wouldn’t skip it in the springform pan either to be honest) and see how it goes. The final cake did not stick to the sides of the pan too badly so I think a cake pan would work just fine.

My notes: I substituted 1/4 tsp ground cardamom + 1/8 tsp cinnamon for the cardamom seeds. Measured out the salt and used 1/4 tsp (wasn’t too salty). Added 1/4 tsp almond extract in with the butter because I love almond flavor. I use approximately 2.5 Tbs sugar for the pan. You could certainly do a little more or a little less. I would lean on the heavy side myself… I also used about 3-4 Tbs ground almonds in addition to the sugar to line the pan. I’m not sure how much of a difference this made, since I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Since the almond flour is so fine it may have just melted into the batter, but who knows. Without the almond flour it may have been a little less crunchy. I certainly would like to try sliced almonds next time (for texture, flavor, and for the look) but I didn’t have any. You certainly could just skip them altogether.

This cake has plenty of fat and sugar so it will last on the counter for several days without any issues! Enjoy!

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Cardamom Cake
From Food52
Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups (264 grams) granulated sugar, plus more for the pan

• 3/4 cup (65 grams) sliced unblanched almonds, for topping (optional)

• 4 large eggs

• 1 1/3 sticks (150 grams) unsalted butter

• 1 tablespoon (9 grams) cardamom seeds [I didn’t have any so I used 1/4 tsp ground cardamom + 1/8 tsp cinnamon instead]

• 1 1/3 cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour

• 2 pinches salt [I used 1/4 tsp and it definitely wasn’t too salty]

• [I also added in 1/4 tsp almond extract which wasn’t in the original recipe. I thought this was a lovely addition for those who really want some more almond flavor. So really nice, but not necessary.]

Directions
Heat the oven to 350°F. Prepare a 9-inch springform pan: Use parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan. Then butter the pan liberally and sprinkle in 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar, and shake and tap the pan until the bottom and sides are coated with sugar. Don’t worry about extra sugar on the bottom. Cover the bottom with sliced almonds if you want a particularly crunchy topping—or, as an alternative you can also use ground almonds or bread crumbs. [I didn’t have sliced almonds so I used some almond flour. The almond flour may have been too fine to add a lot to the crunchy topping. I’d love to try sliced almonds next time.]

Using a stand mixer, cream the eggs and sugar until thick and pale and tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter. Bruise the cardamom seeds in a mortar. With a rubber spatula, quickly fold the flour and salt into the egg and sugar mixture, followed by the butter and the cardamom. Give the batter a thorough stir before tipping it into the prepared pan. Thump the pan on the counter to settle the batter.

Bake the cake until the top feels dry to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed, and a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out dry, 30 to 35 minutes [Mine took exactly 35 minutes and was perfectly cooked.]. Remove from the oven and leave in the pan for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan before inverting the cake onto a rack to cool. Remove the bottom of the pan carefully while the cake is still very warm. Let cool before serving.

Vanilla Sheet Cake

A co-worker at work asked if I could make a farewell cake for another one of our co-workers. I was honored to be ale to do this. I can’t remember the last time I’ve made a sheet cake, and honestly don’t know if I’ve ever made one from scratch! I like making layer cakes, but for this occasion a sheet cake was the perfect choice!

I found a good looking recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction. I trust her recipes quite a lot so I figured it was a good choice. I liked that the recipe uses the reverse creaming method (I’ve had good success with this in the past) and included sour cream which is always nice in a cake. It was a pretty basic recipe I through together while the HVAC guys were at my house. Such a joy.

The frosting is a pretty standard buttercream. I always like adding a little cream to my American buttercream which is also what this recipe calls for so that was nice. It came together without issue and was easy to use to decorate.

I have never actually decorated a sheet cake so this was my first go at it. I was aiming for some pale spring colors with the frosting but apparently added way too much food coloring (it was only a few drops! That stuff is potent!) so it ended up being very bright. Not quite the look I was going for, but that is ok.

All I got!

For the piping, I really didn’t know where to start and so just went for it without a plan. I think it turned out okay. I would probably add more rosettes and stars next time, but I didn’t want to go overboard and guild the lily. I was afraid I would add too much and not be able to go back so I just stopped at the point you see in the pictures. The added dragees really helped finish off the decorating. It definitely did not look at all finished utnil I added those so I recommend the combo of frosting and sprinkles/dragess for decorating if you’re like me and don’t know how to finish off the decorating with frosting.

Final Verdict: I would for sure make this recipe again if looking for a simple vanilla/butter cake for a crowd. A good one to keep in the recipe box!

Baked up well. I started checking at 28 minutes and definitely wasn’t done yet. I believe it ended up going 34 minutes total, I kept checking every 2 minutes until done.

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Vanilla Sheet Cake with American Buttercream
From Sally’s Baking Addiction
Ingredients

• 3 cups (354g) cake flour (spoon & leveled)

  • You can “make” your own cake flour if you don’t have any on hand. I rarely do. For this recipe, whisk together 327 grams all purpose flour with 48 grams of corn starch and use that in place of the 354 grams cake flour that is listed above

• 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks; 230g) unsalted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature

• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup (240ml) whole milk, at room temperature and divided

• 1/3 cup (80g) sour cream, at room temperature

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

Whipped Vanilla Buttercream

• 1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 4 and 1/2 cups (540g) confectioners’ sugar

• 1/3 cup (80ml) heavy cream

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• salt, to taste

• optional: sprinkles for garnish

Instructions
Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Generously grease a 9×13 inch cake pan.

Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. (Or if using a handheld mixer, any large mixing bowl.) With the paddle attachment, beat the ingredients together on low speed for a few seconds to gently combine. Add the butter, vanilla, and 1/2 cup of milk. Mix on medium speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl. The mixture will resemble a thick dough.

Whisk the remaining milk, the sour cream, and eggs together in a medium bowl. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the egg mixture in 3 additions, mixing for about 15 seconds after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl, then mix for about 15 more seconds until batter is completely combined. Avoid over-mixing. Some small lumps are OK.

Pour and spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake for around 32-35 minutes or until the cake is baked through. Begin checking doneness at 28 minutes. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack. The cake must be completely cool before frosting.

Make the buttercream: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 4 full minutes. Add up to 1/4 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. (I add 1/8 teaspoon salt.) Frosting should be extra fluffy.

Spread frosting in a thick layer on cooled cake. I use and recommend an offset spatula. If desired, use a piping tip to pipe some frosting and/or garnish with sprinkles. Slice and serve.

Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

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My Notes: Baked up well. I started checking at 28 minutes and definitely wasn’t done yet. I believe it ended up going 34 minutes total, I kept checking every 2 minutes until done. End result was good. Baked through and moist. No raw parts or dry pieces.

Lemon Almond Flour Cake

BIG NEWS! After over 2 months I finally got my kitchen back! It’s not done yet, there are still a lot of things to get done (paint, tile, lighting, hardware, finish some trim) but I have appliances, and a sink which means I have a FUNCTIONING kitchen again!! I can cook and bake again after weeks and weeks of long, boring nights and weekends. It’s been wonderful!

Lara and I have slowly been moving pantry items, small appliances, dishes, and pans upstairs from the (very dusty) basement. It’s so much more fun to move stuff back upstairs than it was to move it all downstairs back in January.

To celebrate this weekend we made a cake for ourselves. Just because! This recipe had come across Lara’s Instagram feed earlier in the week and we both thought it looked simple and lovely. It’s a grain free, dairy free cake. I have fun experimenting with new types of recipes, different ingredients than the typical. This recipe uses all almond flour as the base, gets richness from coconut oil, and is sweetened with maple syrup. A couple of eggs hold it all together, and it is mildly flavored with lemon juice.

It’s a simple recipe, very easy to throw together without any special equipment. And although the recipe tells you to mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, I have no doubt you can do it all in one bowl.

As I was writing this post I realized that I accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda. Not sure how big of a difference this might have made in the final product (I would like to try it again soon and use soda instead, but we’ll see if I get to that).

Despite that little snafu, this cake turned out excellently. The almond flour has quite an assertive flavor, so the lemon was not overpowering, I would add a little more if I really wanted lemon flavor, along with a little zest. The texture was “mooshy” but not underbaked, dense but not heavy. These are all good things in my book! I like a “mooshy” cake! I find different (ie more interesting) textures a lot of fun to eat. So many people tell me they have a “texture” thing, and can’t eat anything “weird” in texture. I’m the complete opposite! I like these different textures! I would make this cake again for sure. Recommended!

Lemon Almond Flour Cake
From Sweet Laurel
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (260 grams) almond flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 cup (56 grams) coconut oil, melted, plus extra for greasing

• 1/2 cup (156 grams) maple syrup

• 1/4 cup (56 grams) freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare one 8 inch pan by greasing it with coconut oil, then lining it with a circular piece of parchment paper, cut to fit.

In a bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, lemon juice and zest. Slowly add the almond flour mixture and stir until batter is blended well.

Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

Using a sifter, sift powdered sugar over cooled cake.

Chocolate Stout Cake, and a Birthday!

Last week Lara and I celebrated our 33rd birthday! We took a few days off of work and had an extra long weekend! It was full of relaxation, good food, good company and our course, CAKE!!!

Lara and I couldn’t decide on a birthday cake flavor. We thought about it on and off for weeks, truly, weeks. There are so many good options that it’s hard to decide! The weekend before our birthday we went to Grand Haven for a nice walk, and to have a beer at Oddside Ales. We had been wanting to go there to get a beer and truffle fries and this weekend was the perfect time. At Oddside we tried a stout called Haze'l’s Nuts Stout. This is a BBA imperial stout with coffee and hazelnut. It was delicious and I immediately thought it would make a super fun cake.

Lara had made a chocolate stout cake back in June. Just because! Well, really to kind of celebrate the “end” of COVID. We both finally got back to work and things started to settle down a little so we celebrated with cake! It was the best chocolate cake we had made, so we had both been looking for a reason to make it again. A birthday seemed like the perfect reason!

So combining the hazelnut stout, and this amazing chocolate stout cake was a no brainer! We decided to make the cake with the hazelnut stout, and then frost the cake with an Italian buttercream flavored with reduced hazelnut stout (the original cake recipe called for a ganache frosting which we did the first time and was amazing). To finish, we covered the side in crushed hazelnuts.

It was amazing. Again. This cake is the best chocolate cake. I will make it again and again. I would love to try it with coffee in place of the stout for another fun twist. The original cake calls for you to make a 3 layer cake. Both times we made it we cut the recipe down to 2/3 the original side and made a double layer 8-inch cake. This time around the center of the cake layers sunk a little. Not sure what happened, but it didn’t affect the final outcome in any way.

I loved both the Italian meringue, and the ganache frosting (which we did the first time as I stated above). You can’t go wrong with either!

I got a beautiful blanket from Lara for a present! She thought it was time for an upgrade from the sweatshirt Calvin College blanket I’ve had since the end of high school! I can’t imagine why! ;)

THE INSPIRATION!

When your cake layers sink a little, that just means you get more frosting in between layers! :)

Fun birthday dinner at Donkey Taqueria. It was great! Tacos for Lara, mom and I. An amazing Torta for dad. It had smoked ham, pork carnitas, queso chihuahua, refried pinto beans, and guac. I’d never tried the torta before and thankfully my dad let me have a bite. It was amazing. And huge! The tacos were great too, as always. I also got a Mezcal Margarita with a spicy chile salt rim. So good! Chips and salsa, and house pickled vegetable were the apps of choice.

Our Aunt and Cousin wanted to celebrate our birthday too! They took us out to Wax Poetic Candle Bar where we made our own candles. It was a lot of fun! After candle making we ate a lovely lunch on the river at Ramona’s Table in Rockford. A little window shopping afterwards was the perfect way to celebrate!

More birthday weekend. A walk around Reed’s Lake, followed by a picnic in the park.

Another fun celebration with our great friend Lindsay at our favorite wine bar. Aperitivo.

Another walk/hike at Seidman park.

We finished up the weekend with chores! I may be weird, but it was GREAT! We had a whole list of projects for our COVID quarantine, and we finished the last one off! Cleaned up all the weeds growing in the alley around the garage. It feels so good to have that cleaned up!

Chocolate Stout Cake
From King Arthur Baking Company
Cake

• 2 cups (454g) stout or dark beer, such as Guinness

• 32 tablespoons (454g) unsalted butter, cold

• 1 1/2 cups (128g) Dutch-process cocoa

• 4 cups (482g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

• 4 cups (794 g) sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt*

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 3/4 cup (170g) sour cream, at room temperature

  *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt to 1 teaspoon. Frosting 1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 2 cups (454g) heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

• 2 cups (454g) heavy cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 8" or two 9" cake pans, and line them with parchment paper circles. Be sure your 9" pans are at least 2" deep.

For the cake: Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cocoa powder. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream. Add the stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix together at slow speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix again for 1 minute.

Divide the batter equally among the prepared pans. Bake the layers for 35 minutes for 8" pans, or 45 to 50 minutes for 9" pans, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning the cakes out of their pans and returning to the rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.

For the frosting: Place the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until the mixture is completely smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Refrigerate until the icing is spreadable, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.

To assemble: Trim the top of the cake layers to be level, if necessary (otherwise the layers will crack when they are stacked). Line the edges of a serving plate with parchment or waxed paper to keep it clean, and then place the layer upside down on top. Spread 2/3 cup of the icing over just the top of the layer. Top with another cake layer, top side down, and repeat the process. If you baked three layers, add that one also. Use the remaining frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake. Remove the parchment or waxed paper. Sprinkle with shamrock sugar decorations, if you have them.

Blubarb Snack Cake

I seem to have a theme going. Loaf cakes with lemon. Probably because I love them so much, and they seem perfect in the spring. I’d eyed this particular recipe before and decided to make it yesterday, a dreary and rainy Sunday. It literally rained all day with hardly any breaks. That rarely happens. I think my newly planted garden loved it, but I hope it doesn’t just keep going and flood out the plants!

I got the recipe off of Food52, but it’s originally from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi. My neighbor had dropped off a few stalks of rhubarb that I wanted to do something with so I cooked it down into a quick tart rhubarb and. blueberry (aka “blubarb”) jam and swirled it into the cake. (my “jam” was 4-5 stalks of rhubarb, 4 handfuls of frozen blueberries, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Not super sweet at all. I wanted it just sweet enough to be tasty but still nice and tart and not overwhelmingly sweet. This worked out well,) This jam replaced the poppyseeds and a lot of the lemon zest, although I still used zest from probably 1/2 a lemon or so.

Other little tweaks: It called for sour cream which I don’t usually have so I substituted with my homemade Greek yogurt which is nice and thick and rich. I cut back slightly on the sugar and used 200 grams (1 cup) instead of the 225 called for. Also, my lemon wasn’t super juicy so I made 3/4 of the glaze which worked out fine.

As I transferred the cake to the pan I dropped in spoonfuls of the blubarb jam and swirled it in with a toothpick. Into the oven it went. The recipe specifically states to not open the door of the oven for the first 45 minutes which is killer for me but I did it! Mine ended up baking for exactly 55 minutes which seemed just right.

Overall I think it’s a pretty cake, but I was hoping it would baked up taller and more domed. The crumb of my cake also looked nothing like the picture on the website. It was much spongier and wet looking, not fluffy and cake-like. Now, I know sometimes cakes made with yogurt can look like this so that may be my problem since I basically replaced cream with milk (sour cream vs yogurt) which are very different things. I may have to attempt this recipe again the next time I happen to have some sour cream just to see how big of a different it makes. I do love the lemon glaze on top and will do that for other cakes too.

The flavor is very nice. A good amount of lemon, obvious but not overwhelming. I like the swirl of jam but would do more next time. I like to eat mine with a dollop of plain yogurt on top. The combination of sweet cake with tart and creamy yogurt is the best!

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Blubarb Jam Snack Cake
Adapted from Food52
Ingredients

• 3 large eggs

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) granulated sugar [I only used 1 cup/200 grams]

• 1/2 cup (120 grams) sour cream [I substituted with Greek yogurt, same weight]

• 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing

• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (1 tablespoon) [I omitted the poppy seeds and used less lemon zest]

• 1 1/3 cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour

• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup (90 grams) confectioners' sugar, sifted

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
Heat the oven to 325° F. Grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper, then set aside.

In a small saucepan over low heat melt the butter. Stir in the poppy seeds and lemon zest and set aside to cool. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl, set aside.

Place the eggs and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place and whisk on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and frothy. Add the sour cream and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture has combined.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture until mostly combined. Then fold in the butter mixture until everything is just combined, don’t overmix. Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean [Mine took 55 minutes and seemed perfectly cooked]. Do not open the oven door to check the cake during the first 45 minutes of baking.

While the cake bakes make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners' sugar with the lemon juice in a bowl. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, spreading it over the top so that it sinks in and creates a nice coating. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan. Leave to come to room temperature before serving.

Lemon-Blueberry Drizzle Cake

I’ve gotten into the habit of having some kind of cake on hand at all times. While I try to eat very healthy the vast majority of the time, I like a little piece of cake at night before bed. It’s generally not huge, and I try to pick things that aren’t over-the-top decadent and rich (although from time to time this is okay!). This is one of my recent recipes. A fairly standard loaf cake. Some flour, a stick of butter, some sugar, eggs and milk, etc. The lemon blueberry combination is always a winner so this recipe sounded nice.

So, Lara actually made this twice within a week because the first round did not turn out well. It was under baked even though it went longer than the stated time and looked like it was done when it came out of the oven. It sunk shortly after coming out of the oven which is always sad. Also, she used an older loaf pan the first time and it just didn’t seem to bake up well in this pan. The resulting cake was somewhat disappointing visually, but don’t worry, it didn’t go to waste!

We decided to try it again because I hate failing at something, especially something that should be delicious! The second round went much better! A better pan, and more close monitoring of the “done-ness”. It ended up taking an additional 11 minutes or so, a total of 61 minutes which was perfect. This second successful loaf was perfectly cooked. The edges were beautifully browned and crispy. I typically like the softer interior of cakes, but for this one the crispy outside edges are probably the best part!

Interestingly when I was looking back at this recipe to document it below I noticed something that likely explained why the original bread didn’t turn out. Lara had been looking at this recipe on William Sonoma’s Blog (found here) where it was labeled as “cake”. I found it on the Williams Sonoma’s website (found here) where it was labeled as bread. They are the same exact ingredients, BUT, on the blog it states to bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, and on the website it says to bake at 375 degrees for 55 minutes. A HUGE discrepancy! Lara had baked them both and did 350 degrees, and she started checking around 50 minutes. So if it’s actually supposed to be baked at 375 for 55 minutes, no wonder it was under baked the first time! Kind of an interesting accidental experiment. But thankfully baking it for 61 minutes at 350 degrees turned out to be perfect the second time around!

We like this cake, and many like it, with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on the side. The combination of the cool tart yogurt pairs well with the creamy sweet cake.

Below are a few pictures of the original “failed cake”. As you can see, we didn’t end up getting to the final lemon glaze above, so at least you can see how it's supposed to look on this version, although without the sunken middle! :)

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Lemon Blueberry Drizzle Cake
From Williams Sonoma
Ingredients
For the cake:

• 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 oz./235 g) plus 1 tsp. all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

• 8 Tbs. (1 stick) (4 oz./125 g) unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup (6 oz./185 g) granulated sugar

• 1 Tbs. finely grated lemon zest

• 3 eggs

• 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./125 ml) whole milk

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup (4 oz./125 g) blueberries

For the syrup

• 3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

• 3 Tbs. granulated sugar

For the glaze:

• 1/2 cup (2 oz./60 g) confectioners’ sugar

• 3 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions
Preheat an oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Sift the flour, the baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high speed until lightened. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk and vanilla and stir until blended. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with the 1 tsp. flour. Gently fold into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes (mine took 61 minutes when baked at 350 degrees, see above). Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool while you make the syrup.

To make the syrup, in a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer the lemon juice and granulated sugar until syrupy, about 2 minutes. Using a long wooden skewer, pierce the sides and bottom of the warm cake at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep all over. Brush the cake generously with the syrup.

To make the glaze, in a small bowl, stir together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth. When the cake is completely cool, turn it right side up and drizzle the glaze over the top.